Hearts of Iron 4 is a realistic World War 2 simulator that sees you get really into the details of infrastructure, diplomacy, economy, and warfare. One of the most important metrics in the game is your manpower. Every nation has a set manpower that represents that available fighting forces in the country. Under no circumstances should you have a low manpower. Big armies are important, but they are nothing without the backing of manpower. Here is how to increase manpower in Hearts of Iron 4.
What is manpower in Hearts of Iron 4?
Manpower is lifeblood of your army, be it land, sea or air.It is shown in the top right of the screen, and you’ll be wanting to keep a close eye on it. You cannot let it dwindle too low.
Manpower is not only what will be used when creating new divisions, but it will also be used when reinforcing divisions. So, if your manpower runs to 0, then you won’t have any recruitable population left to reinforce your troops or create new divisions to beat back the enemy. You’ll simply run out of soldiers.
It is important to keep a high manpower even when in the heat of war, as it will be their manpower against yours, so the aim in any combat is to weaken your enemy whilst taking as little losses as possible. Strategies and battle manoeuvers are significant in reducing your casualties, but having a high manpower on standby will allow you to take casualties and reinforce your armies.
How to increase manpower in Hearts of Iron 4
Manpower is difficult to get hold of, but here are all the ways in which to increase it:
- Population growth will slightly give a monthly contribution to manpower
- Taking over other countries will give you their manpower
- Adopting harsher conscription laws will allow you a higher percentage of recruitable population
- Some focuses give you a bonus of manpower
- Some events give you a bonus of manpower
- You can get back manpower from existing divisions by disbanding or reducing them
The bigger your army is, the larger reserve of manpower you will want to keep, to prepare for the worst. If you get caught short, at least your divisions won’t get swatted away easily.
Related: How to Perform a Naval Invasion in Hearts of Iron 4
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