By Blood Alone, the upcoming Italy-focused Hearts of Iron 4 DLC, will be released on September 27, publisher Paradox Interactive announced on Tuesday. It’s gone up for pre-order now, at $19.99 / £15.49, and there’s a brand new pre-order trailer to celebrate the news, highlighting, above all, the improvements to Hoi4’s peace conference systems – you can watch it below.
By Blood Alone was announced on June 7, with the promise of a full rework for Italy (the country featured in the original HoI4 tutorial campaign); new focus trees and unit models for Switzerland and Ethiopia; and an upgrade for in-game Peace Conferences, allowing players to create demilitarised zones, bid on defeated countries’ capital ships, and take control of swathes of their industries as post-war reparations.
Paradox says the expansion will also add the ability to impose trade embargoes on enemies; a new system for tracking army divisions’ performance and assigning unit medals; and – for the propellerheads – 67 new in-game models for aeroplane units, plus an aircraft designer tool, to match the tank designer from the previous No Step Back DLC.
If you’re looking to refresh your great WW2 country-managing knowledge in preparation for By Blood Alone, try perusing our guides to the best Hearts of Iron 4 mods and Hearts of Iron 4 DLC.