Hoi4 Reichskommissariat – How Do You Form Germany’s War Subjects?

What are Hoi4 Reichskommissariats? These decisions can help you with conquering territories, especially as an aggressive country – you may have noticed that you simply don’t have the time and resources to focus in on your newly acquired land – especially right in the middle of a war, and there is no country that encapsulates this potential struggle than playing as a historical Germany in Hoi4.

Germany usually finds itself in an interesting position. On the surface – they are incredibly powerful – receiving easy expansion opportunities early on through their focuses – a sizable and robust economy from the get go that dwarfs its rivals in military might, and a myriad of buffs given to the nation throughout its playtime.

But, there’s a catch. These buffs and strong starting position are given to Germany as they will have to fight a long, two front war with two separate factions – usually with little help from their axis partner Italy. Part of this war experience involves Germany acquiring vast amounts of land – from the Benelux and France, all the way to the economic core of the Soviet Union. All of this additional land can be hard to handle, so – in this guide – we will show you how to use one of Germany’s in-built methods to control their new land during the war – and hopefully answer the question – should you use the Hoi4 Reichskommissariat Options?

First Off, How Do You Unlock The Hoi4 Reichskommissariat Options?

Unlocking the ability to use Reichskommissariats is actually pretty straightforward. The most important thing to do is to complete the “Form the Reichskommissariats” focus, which will give you the option to use the Reichskommissariat decisions (we’ll get into these later).

As you can see in the image above – to complete the required focus, you will first need to have completed the central section of Germany’s industry path in Hoi4. Towards the end of this path, you will get the option between integrating the war economies or focusing on your own war economy. It is probably better to integrate the war economies if possible – as if successful you will receive 8 military factories instead of 6 from the “German War Economy” focus, and you’ll also get a cheaper trade price for Romanian oil, which you will need.. The exception to this is if you just want to directly annex Hungary and Romania – which is certainly another option.

After completing these focuses – you will be able to begin the required focus for today’s guide.

So What Do Each Of The Decisions Do?

Below is a list of what each of the decisions do in order:

1. The first decision creates a Norwegian puppet called: “Reichskommissariat Norwegen” 
2. The second decision creates a Dutch puppet called: “Reichskommissariat Niederlande”
3. The third creates a Ukrainian puppet called “Reichskommissariat Ukraine”
4. The next decision creates a Belarusian puppet called: “Reichskommissariat Ostland”. This puppet also includes the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
5. The final decision create a Belgian puppet which also contains the French region of Calais – this puppet is called: “Reichskommissariat Belgien”

All Hoi4 Reichskommissariat states begin as integrated puppets and they join all wars that Germany is currently fighting – so this isn’t a way to be able to defend less territory!

Should You Use the Hoi4 Reichskommissariat Decisions? Are They Worth It?

Deciding whether to use the Hoi4 Reichskommissariat subjects is an important decision to make – as by using them you’ll completely lose the ability to build compliance in those regions unless you re-annex them later. Let’s go through each of the reasons why you should use the Hoi4 Reichskommissariat States in your conquest.

1. Reduced occupation cost – releasing these states as puppets means that you no-longer have to garrison these territories – which will typically have high resistance and slow compliance growth – resulting in a low return on your investment – at least while you’re still at war. Occupying these territories directly will sap manpower and equipment that you may need for the war effort moving forward – most notably against the British and Americans – who are not included within the Reichskommissariat Decisions.
2. Potentially increased industry and manpower extraction – due to the fact that the subjects created are integrated puppets – you receive 75% of their military factories, 25% of their civilian factories – a 90% discount on trading with them, and they must provide 100% of the manpower used in colonial division templates – which can be useful for filling lines.
3. Extra factories from trade – finally, there is the possibility that your subjects will trade with you for resources, further increasing your civilian factory count, benefits will be more noticeable here if you’re on Free Trade or Export focus which you can read about in our Hoi4 trade guide.

Now, let’s go over the reasons why you shouldn’t form the Hoi4 Reichskommissariat puppets:

1. The AI can be unpredictable – first off, the AI can make questionable choices – mostly in relation to where they stack their units. It is 100% possible for the AI to make units, only to then stick them on the front line where supply is already an issue, and steal supply from your (typically much stronger) units.
2. No compliance bonuses – Compliance bonuses can be substantial in Hoi4, giving you extra manpower, resources and factories – and releasing these states as puppets removes any compliance growth and buffs you may have received.
3. Less control over what is built – Another important thing to note is that while you can build in your subjects’ lands, you cannot easily control what they build in their own lands – meaning they could build things that you completely do not want – which is frustration when you like to know exactly what’s happening with your industry in Hearts of Iron 4.

Should You Create Reichskommissariats in Hoi4?

It depends…

If you’re planning on just puppeting most of Europe anyway, the Reichskommissariat options are certainly not hurting you. They’ll get a headstart on developing their industries and armies using the surprisingly powerful default focus tree, and a good chunk of that industry will eventually – filter back to you.

One the other hand – if you’re planning on annexing and holding onto most of Europe – which is probably the more powerful option late game – using the Hoi4 Germany Reichskommissariat decisions does nothing for you but slow down your industrial development and late game snowball – and as such in this case it is not advised to use these options.

Conclusion

There we have it, all of the Hoi4 Germany Reichskommissariat decisions broken down, we do hope that this guide has helped to shed light onto this often forgotten and disregarded mechanic – especially as Germany’s historical focus tree has been left largely unchanged since Hearts of Iron 4’s initial release back in 2016. With all that said – thank you for reading, if you would like to read more of our Hoi4 guides – feel free to do so! We have an expanding arsenal of guides to help you conquer the world in Hearts of Iron 4. Thank you for reading, see you next time!