Hearts Of Iron IV: By Blood Alone Expansion Announced; Finally Overhauls Italy & More

The state of abandonment of the Italian focus tree has pretty much become a meme within the Hearts of Iron IV community, but that will soon change.

The new expansion, titled “By Blood Alone” will overhaul the focus trees for Italy, Ethiopia, and Switzerland, providing players with the chance to explore several alternate history scenarios.

New Peace Conference options, the Aircraft Designer, and more will be included.

For the moment, the DLC doesn’t have a release date, but you can check out a trailer and screenshots below, alongside an official list of the contents.

• New Italian Focus Tree: Follow the historical path of Mussolini’s Italy or rewrite history by restoring power to the monarchy, leading a Communist revolution or promoting democracy.
• New Ethiopian Focus Tree: Defy the odds to defeat the Italian invader or resist the conqueror from abroad using unique Government in Exile abilities.
• New Swiss Focus Tree: Surrounded by France, Germany and Italy, the mountain nation of Switzerland finds strength in its neutrality, balancing competing factions and overtures from the great powers.
• New Peace Conference Options: Demilitarize zones of the map or entire nations, bid on the capital ships of defeated powers, or claim control of enemy resources or factories as reparations.
• Aircraft Designer: Design and build your own planes, from nimble interceptors that prioritize speed to durable bombers crafted to unload tons of destruction from high above.
• Unit Medals: A log of each division’s accomplishments lets you track their performance, and even allow you to award medals to those that have performed well.
• Embargo Interaction: Embargo your enemies with a new diplomatic interaction, preventing them from trading with you if they have generated enough world tension.
• New Unit Models: More than 20 new pieces of unit art for Italian, Ethiopian and Swiss armies.
• New Plane Models: 67 new plane models.
• 12 New Music Tracks

Hearts of Iron IV is currently available exclusively for PC.