Hearts of Iron 2 is a complex game just like all of Paradox's strategy titles. You can't, however, remove this complexity as it would destroy the atmosphere that the developers have so carefully built up. It takes a lot to become a successful leader; you have to keep track of your country's production, research, diplomacy and warfare.
Production
Your country's ability to produce different goods is controlled by the number of territories you control and their ability to produce the goods, coupled with the amount of factories you've got that gives your land a certain amount of production capacity. When you later select what you want to produce you can choose either serial or parallel production and thus recieve a bonus accordingly. But don't go wild and crazy in the production line just yet; your population must recieve their slice of the cake in the form of goods as well. Your existing troops must also recieve maintanence and upgrades. As opposed to the game's predecessor the distribution of this is handled more or less automatically. This is a very nice way of simplifying the process to say the least.
Research
Resarch is something that has an enorumous influence over the outcome of a war and as such it is also a central part in Hearts of Iron 2. Just like the production part of the game this is all done very smoothly and intuitive. All you have to do is to hire a research team and put them to work on researching the technology you want. Not every team can work as efficiently on every project, though; all teams have a certain level of skill, cost and a wealth of special attributes. All of the research options require certain skills and if you choose a team that specializes in those fields you will get results quicker. The teams with the most specialities cost more and this applies to their level of skill as well, so you always have to weight price against efficieny.
Diplomacy
It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword and in Hearts of Iron 2 this is true in most cases. With the right alliances and deals you can achieve things you couldn't dream of getting by brute force. Of course, this works both ways, so in order to survive you'll have to keep a watchful eye on not just your own
country's diplomatic interests but those of other countries as well. You can edit more than just your relations with other countries in the diplomacy window; you can also change things within your country. For example, you can switch members of your government, which can have both negative and positive effects on your country. It's a thin line to walk when doing these changes since it creates some unrest. Once every year you also have the ability to change your country's position in a number of categories; you can, for example, choose to move your country closer to a plan or market-controlled economy.
Warfare
What most people probably like the best is the actual warfare. Paradox has made sure that no one will be disappointed with this part of the game. The amount of different troops available is impressive to say the least and of course they all have their own strenghts and weaknesses. However, there's more to it than who wins combat; the generals that control your troops give different bonuses and their influence should not be overlooked. You also have the ability to give your troops orders about support during assault and defence, orders which can mean the differance between victory and defeat. There is also yet another new feature that has been requested since Hearts of Iron; in earlier games the battles started when your soldiers entered enemy territory. Now this has changed so that you fight over the borders of the territories, which makes the whole situation much easier to grasp and troops giving support don't have to move.
