Warfare in Hearts of Iron 4 can be complicated as not all countries participated in the Second World War directly. The USA spent most of the war sending Volunteers over to help the Allies against the Axis until Pearl Harbor.
In the game, there is a limit on how many Volunteers you can send over based on many factors. This limit can be very annoying since you will likely have problems properly helping a future ally with just 2 divisions.
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What Is the Volunteer Limit in HOI4?
The Volunteer Limit in HOI4 is decided either by the number of divisions you have fielded or by the number of provinces the target country has.
When you select to send Volunteers to a country on the diplomatic screen, you will see that the maximum number of Volunteers you can send is either limited by your number of divisions or limited by their number of provinces.
The exact Volunteer Limit formula in HOI4 is that you can send 1 Volunteer division per 20 divisions in your country or 1 Volunteer division per 20 provinces in the target country.
The exact limit you will have will be the lower of the two.
So, even if you have a thousand divisions, you wouldn’t be able to send more than 7 divisions in Spain during the civil war due to their limited provinces.
Here is the exact Volunteer Limit from provinces you will get for most of the important countries you would want to help during HOI4:
- Ethiopia – 2 Volunteer Limit
- Italy – 11 Volunteer Limit
- Spanish Civil War – 6 Volunteer Limit
- China – 17 Volunteer Limit
- Japan – 11 Volunteer Limit
Again, don’t forget that this will be the limit if you have a relatively high amount of divisions.
If you want to play the system a bit, you can dish out 1 battalion divisions, which will allow you to artificially increase your number of divisions.
Once you send the maximum amount of Volunteers, you can bring your division numbers down, since the Volunteers won’t come back until the war is over.
What Is the Air Volunteer Limit?
To send Air Volunteers in this game, you just need to check a box and press a button. Though it might seem that it doesn’t work the same as Land Volunteers, the limit is very similar.
The Air Volunteer Limit in HOI4 is decided by the number of planes you have or the number of bases the target country has.
This time, you won’t actually get a hint from the game on why you can send only such a small amount of air wings.
The exact Air Volunteer Limit formula in HOI4 is that you can send 1 100-plane Air Wing per 500 planes in your country (in stockpile and deployed) or 1 100-plane Air Wing per level 5 Air Bases in the target country.
The exact limit you will have will be the lower of the two.
The level for the Air Bases is the sum of all the bases. So, if a country has 3 level 2 Air Bases and 4 level 1 Air Bases, you will have an Air Volunteer Limit of 2 Air Wings since the total comes up to level 10.
This time, there isn’t really a workaround; if you have a lot of planes set up for production, then the only problem will be the amount of Air Bases in the target country.
How to Increase Volunteer Limit
The best way to increase the land Volunteer Limit in HOI4 is to create a bunch of 1-battalion divisions, which will increase the number of total divisions in your country.
Every 20 divisions will increase the limit by 1, so make as many as you can fast, and then you can get rid of them after sending the Volunteers.
You will only be limited by the number of provinces, but there is nothing you can do about that.
When it comes to the Air Volunteer Limit, all you can do is make as many planes as possible, which should be the plan anyways if you want to win the Second World War.
That’s everything you need to know about the Volunteer Limit in Hearts of Iron 4!
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