How to Unlock Poland-Romania in Hearts Of Iron IV

Paradox‘s Hearts Of Iron IV has many formable nations to unlock for those players with the skill to pull them off. From turning Italy into the Papal States, and Greece into Byzantium, there are many interesting alternate history options to go down. However, some are a little more obscure. But as strange as they can be, they can give you a fantastic nation to face off against in a rapidly changing world. Nations like Poland-Romania, a state formed by the union of both nations under a monarchy in a path many people overlook. And in this guide, I’ll show you how to unlock Poland-Romania in Hearts Of Iron IV.

This guide is focused solely on unlocking Poland-Romania. How you tackle the threats posed by your rather large neighbours is for you to decide. However, I will give some advice towards the end of the article on how to get yourself into a good position to try and deal with them. Additionally, along the way, I’ll give some tips on Focuses to take whilst you are waiting for certain events to fire. If you are reading this guide you know how odd the timing of some events can be in Hearts Of Iron IV. So you may as well use the time wisely. With all that said let’s get to it.

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Becoming a Monarchy

To start you off on your mission you must first complete the Focus Assemble the Regency Council and then Fulfil the 5th November Act. This will allow you to get the ball rolling as well will help you build non-aligned support. As this is happening do your standard setup procedures; get army, navy, and air experience rolling in, and build up some defence lines and industry as per your end goals. This tree does allow you the possibility of territorial expansion as well as establishing a faction if you’re so inclined.

I honestly see no good reason to not end the strikes as soon as possible.

However, before you get too far into your future goals I would recommend pausing after the previously mentioned Focus to complete the Focuses The Four Year Plan, Fill The Railway Gaps, and Agrarian Reform. Otherwise, you are just going to be spending Political Power to delay the Strikes. Which will delay your goals of merging with Romania far more than just doing those Focuses ahead of time. Besides, you are going to have to wait for the right monarch, which itself can take some time. And you may as well try and boost your economy a little before you go too far.

Finding an Heir

Soon you will get a series of events asking you to select who you need to select as your choice of monarch. You need to keep declining offers until you reach the option for Prince Michael of Romania. It can take a while for the event to suggest Michael as a choice will pop up. So this is a perfect time to prepare for the next stages of the game. Whatever your end goal will be. Though to be blunt, as I will explain later, you are going to go to war with either Germany or Russia eventually. If not both. So you need to do your best to prepare for either eventuality.

Make sure you click the correct option!

Eventually, the event will fire and then you select him. Whatever you do, don’t select the wrong option by mistake, otherwise, the events will just move on to the next candidates and you will have missed your chance. I don’t know if they loop, but given how long you may need to wait it isn’t worth it. So watch where you are clicking. However, even with Michael in charge, there is still work that needs to be done. Your goal from there is to reach down the tree to the Focus Seek Internal Romanian Support. You can skip down there, but I would recommend grabbing the Establish Royal Guards Focus to get a couple extra units whilst you still can.

Influencing Romania

Once you complete the Focus Seek Internal Romanian Support you will unlock a series of decisions which will see you increasing monarchist influence in Romania. Your goal is to get the influence to at least eighty and complete the Focus King Michael’s Coup. Getting to eighty isn’t difficult; you just need to exchange political power and sometimes other resources. The difficulty comes from the fact that monarchist influence can go down. And if it goes down under eighty then you need to raise it back up and start the Focus from scratch.

When the Focus King Michael’s Coup is completed this will trigger a civil war in Romania. Once this happens you don’t need to do anything to ensure the revolt wins. Even at the highest difficulties, they always win. Depending on timing you may be able to snag some army experience from sending the rebels an attache. However, I’ve never managed to achieve that myself. Once they win they will become a puppet of yours. Then all you need to do is complete the Focus Merge The Internal Governments which will annex them and you will form Poland-Romania.

Into The Future

Like I said at the start of this how to unlock Poland-Romania in Hearts Of Iron IV guide, I won’t be giving you play-for-play tips on where to take this once you form the nation. I still feel it is wise to inform you of a few things. Firstly, with this tree, you are given the option of aligning with the allies or (seemingly) going independent so you can take control of Hungary and Slovakia. The truth is that even if you go down this independent branch you can still get guaranteed by (and later still join) the Allies when it gets close to Germany demanding Danzig. When it comes to taking Hungary and Slovakia I recommend parking your troops on their respective borders before doing the Focus. I’m not sure if this affects their decision making but there is little reason not to.

The maximum possible size of your nation if you just do the focus tree.

If you choose to give up Danzig you will shortly thereafter be given a choice on who to draw closer to. Either Germany or the Soviet Union. From my experience picking the Soviets is pointless as all you get is a minor diplomacy boost and they end up going to war with you anyway. Going with Germany however, will see fascist influence in the country rising with a national spirit it gives you. Which could undermine your plans if you are hoping to go pure monarchist. If you do give up Danzig then don’t expect to find yourself in the Allies any time soon; you can only join them if they are at war with the same nation(s) that you are. You can form a faction but that can take a while.

Danger Danzig

Providing you’re playing this with historical Focuses turned on you find yourself facing off against at least one of your two major neighbours. The Soviets will declare war on you once they decide they want Bessarabia which will now be a core of your Poland-Romania superstate. You can’t cede the land to them. There is a broken event that can fire to give you the option but it always fires well after the war(s) have started. You can release Moldova as a free nation which will buy you some extra time to get your defences in order. But doing this will lose you your cores on the land.

In the event you refused to hand Danzig over to the Germans, you can hold out by just defending core Romanian land And holding the mountains. Something that becomes easier with well-placed defences, and supplies, and be sure not to call Hungary into the war if you have them as a puppet. However, falling back like this means giving up pretty much all the factories and resources you spent most of your free time building up from Focuses. Remember, you will still face off against the Soviets sooner or later. So if you go down this path you are going to have to play it hyper defensively until such a time as the Germans fall and you can potentially pull the Allies in to push back the Soviets once and for all.

And so concludes this guide on how to unlock Poland-Romania in Hearts Of Iron IV. I hope you found it useful. Whilst the path itself to unlock it isn’t overly complex the challenge that it can offer you once you form it can be fantastic for skilled players. So even if you aren’t a big fan of the more a-historical paths this is well worth it for those who like a challenge.