GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURlittle more than a waste of fuel.● Muddy: This terraincondition is common incertain global regionsand is shown in the weathermapmode in brown, whileunaffected provinces areshown in beige. This will onlyaffect the performance of landunits, particularly any that relyon wheels or are extremelyheavy, and unlike most otherweather conditions will verystrongly favour the defendersin battle.● Snow: Snowfalltends to affect attackingground units slightlymore than defenders, and willhave a very negative impacton any air missions. Navalvessels will perform poorly aswell.● Blizzard: This isextremely heavysnowfall that will makeyour aerial units effectivelyuseless, and will also groundthem if there is a blizzard overtheir air base. It has asignificant impact on all landand naval battles, as well asmovement. Blizzards aredisplayed as very denseclouds with thick heavy snowfalling from them.● Frozen: Regions willbecome frozen atcertain times of year,reflecting extremely icy andhazardous conditions that willaffect movement but onlyslightly reduce combatcapabilities. Defenders haveonly a slight advantage onfrozen ground.Provincial Borders andCrossing PointsRegardless of the mapmodeview you use, provincialborders are shown as a blackdashedline on the Main Map,while national boundaries aretraced with red lines. Riversare depicted as blue linesalong provincial boundaries;there are some modestgeographic liberties taken withriver placement for gamedesign reasons, and onlyrivers of some significance aretaken into consideration. Eachprovincial boundary is alsolisted on the right side of theinformation panel when aprovince is selected, alongwith an indication of the typeof connection it has with itsneighbour, though the labelspace is limited to the first sixcharacters of the adjacentprovince’s name. A green dashindicates a border that is notimpeded. A blue river iconmeans that there is a river thatmust be crossed to moveacross this border and, ifcontested by an enemy force,an attacker will incur a rivercrossingpenalty (for moredetails, see the Combatsection). If there is a unitengaged in battle in anadjacent province, a small red“under fire” symbol will bedisplayed on the provincialboundary as well. If theboundary is consideredimpassable, a red line will bedisplayed. Clicking on one ofthe border names or icons willchange the display to showthe Province Details in theinformation panel for thatprovince instead.Some very narrow bodies ofwater may be traversedwithout the need for navalvessels and are shown usinga blue water icon in theboundary listing. Since thesecrossing points are notdisplayed on the Main Map,you should pay carefulattention to the provinceboundary listing whenever youare in a province that mighthave one. If a hostile fleetoccupies the sea area, it willprevent you from using orattacking across that narrowstrait. If the province you aremoving to contains enemyforces, then the combat will betreated as an invasion and issubject to the same penaltiesas a normal amphibiousinvasion (see the Combatsection for details).Provincial AssetsThe area immediately belowthe province’s picture providesdetailed information abouteach of its assets, such as itsnatural resources, industrialconditions (factories, infrastructureand partisan-ship),its defences, and any otherprovincial improvements thathave been built there.If the province you are viewingis currently controlled by yournation, then several of theareas will be shaded grey andact as Quick Build buttons to35