I preffer eu4 tbh, and if you are an steam user, dont buy dlcs, just pirate them. About hoi4, it is the simplest history strategy game of paradox, the runs are a lot shorter, there is no economy stuff, no money, and the games are aways based around the ww2, with is not bad, but it is a lot less diverse then other paradox games. The combat is the most fleshed out part of the game, but it is not that hard to understand after you learn about the op templates and how to encircle troops. The alt history is most frequent on dlc countries, and it depends mostly on how good or bad the focus trees are (some countries are better with the original generic tree then their dlc ones). About politics, it is more boring then bad really; blue are the “democratics” countries, browns is the "fascist countries, red is the “communists” countries, and grey are the “neutral” countries, the first three are self explanatory, but the neutral ones sucks because of how bland it is, neutral can go from the KMT, to monarchys, to anarchism, to dictatorships, to chinese cliques, and its so annoying how little thought its but into it. Even the three actual ideologies are bland, democratic countries sucks ass, fascists are the ones you play when you want to win fast, and communists are for when you want to be based. The mods makes politics a lot better because there is actual nuance, even if its from an liberal mind, instead of the blandness of the vanilla game.