Hearts of Iron
Name: Hearts of Iron
Genre: Grand Strategy (real time with pause)
From: Paradox Entertainment 2002
Background: Hearts of Iron simulates the world on the brink of WWII. The game plays from 1936-1948. The player controls a country's military build up, research, battles and diplomacy. Care is taken to model real world leaders, strategies and events. Strategy is needed to choose the right allies, right leaders and the right time to declare war.
Sides (3): While there are over 100 countries to play as, there are three ideological systems (7 major powers) that battle for supremacy during the game.
Democracy: Represented by Great Britain, France, and United States support free expression and election of their leaders.
Fascism: Represented by Germany, Italy and Japan have strong dictators as leaders, crush dissent and opposition and control most industry. They strongly encourage belligerent nationalism.
Communism: Represented by the Soviet Union. It has a strong authoritarian central government controlled by one party. All goods, production and services are owned by the government and distributed to the people.