Hearts of Iron

Hearts of Iron is a grand strategy computer game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Strategy First, set in the years 1936-1948. In the game players can control any one nation as World War II unfolds. It was released for Windows-compatible PCs in 2002. A Macintosh version was also released by Virtual Programming. The lead game programmer was Johan Andersson.

Gameplay

Hearts of Iron is based on Paradox's successful Europa Universalis game engine, but has many changes:

Hearts of Iron IV

Hearts of Iron IV is a computer game being developed by Paradox Development Studio. It is the sequel to Hearts of Iron III and part of the Hearts of Iron series of grand strategy games focusing on World War II.

The formal announcement of the game in January 2014 indicated an intended release date of the first quarter of 2015, later postponed to the second quarter of 2015. At E3 2015, Johan Andersson confirmed that the game will be pushed back from its original release window, most likely to the first quarter of 2016. This is an attempt to resolve several issues encountered with the game. However, Johan Andersson later confirmed that the game would not be released in the first quarter of 2016. The game used the code name Project Armstrong while in development. As of early February, 2016, the game has been approved for beta.

In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" event, Paradox manager Johan Andersson promised better AI and accessibility compared to Hearts of Iron III, and that the game would not have a rigid, forced game-progression but would feature sandbox-style gameplay. He also stated that Hearts of Iron IV would be available on the Linux operating system.

Hearts

Hearts is an "evasion-type" trick-taking playing card game for four players, although variations can accommodate 3–6 players. The game is also known as Black Lady,The Dirty, Dark Lady, Slippery Anne, Chase the Lady, Crubs, Black Queen and Black Maria, though any of these may refer to the similar but differently-scored game Black Lady. The game is a member of the Whist family of trick-taking games (which also includes Bridge and Spades), but the game is unique among Whist variants in that it is an evasion-type game; players avoid winning certain penalty cards in tricks, usually by avoiding winning tricks altogether.

History

The game of Hearts as currently known originated with a family of related games called Reversis, which became popular around 1750 in Spain. In this game, a penalty point was awarded for trick won, plus additional points for capturing the Jack of Hearts or the Queen of Hearts. A similar game called "Four Jacks" centered around avoiding any trick containing a Jack, which were worth one penalty point, and the Jack of Spades worth two.

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Its abundance in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-mass stars, where the production of nickel-56 (which decays to the most common isotope of iron) is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic. Consequently, radioactive nickel is the last element to be produced before the violent collapse of a supernova scatters precursor radionuclide of iron into space.

Like other group 8 elements, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen and water. Fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike many other metals which form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion.

German Reich

Deutsches Reich (German: [ˈdɔʏtʃəs ˈʀaɪç]) was the official name for the German nation state from 1871 to 1943 in German language. It translates literally to "German Empire", with a context approximating that of "German Realm". From 1943 to 1945, the official name was – but not formally proclaimed – Großdeutsches Reich ("Greater German Reich") on account of the new territories annexed into the state's administration during the Second World War.

To refer to the entire period, the partially translated "German Reich" /ˈdʒɜːrmən ˈraɪk/, which has no monarchical connotations, is often used, with "German Realm" being a more appropriate direct translation of the official title. Informally, this nation was also known simply as Germany.

There were three periods in the history of the Reich: