Hearts Card Game Strategy and Tips The First Trick. There aren't many options here. If you have the Two of Clubs, you're leading it. Since no points can. Bleeding Spades. Generally speaking, after the first trick falls, any player who is not in danger of taking the queen of. A good way to make sure people can't shoot is: Pass a low heart. When possible dump a heart on someone else instead of another bad card. Keep a high card (especially an ace). Production in Hearts of Iron III can be left in the hands of the AI, but it is one of the more satisfying aspects of the game, short of the military strategy. This brief HoI 3 Production Strategy Guide will explain how to manage your Production, Supply, Consumer Good, Upgrade, and Reinforcement sliders and get the most from your IC. We explain how your Industrial Capacity and Production. You can write and submit your own guide for this game using either our full-featured online editor or our basic text editor. We also accept maps and charts as well. More than a year after the events of the original Shadow Hearts, Yuri embarks on a new expedition in a world full of. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4.

• Risk Game Strategy Tips
• Hearts Of Iron 4 Strategy Tips
• Hearts Strategy Tips

Hearts of Iron 4 can be unapologetically brutal to new wargamers, due to the sheer number of systems involved – especially with numerous DLC and patches adding extra layers of complexity to the already-sophisticated systems in the base game. Whether it’s figuring out how to structure your forces, or choosing which plan of action to take as an Allied state facing imminent doom in 1936, this beast of a game can be quite a challenge.

Luckily for you, that’s where we come in! Now you have a handy guide to aid you in navigating the choppy waters of the second war to end all wars. Make sure you’re up to speed with all the latest changes as of the most recent patch.

Before we talk about the grand strategies that will fuel your world-dominating/liberating campaign, it’s important to talk about the cogs in your war-machine. The level of control you have over the makeup of individual divisions and ships can be daunting, but as long as you follow the rules laid out to you, you will be conquering away in no time.

If you think you’re already totally au fait with every detail of land combat, feel free to click one of the links above to skip straight to the ships or the aeroplanes. Go on, we dare you. If not – read on!

We’ll cover each of your armed forces in turn, starting with the one which will likely take up most of your attention and play the starring role in most of your war plans: the good old-fashioned land army.

The Army

Arguably the most important part of an HOI4 military, most of the game’s combat mechanics revolve around divisions slugging it out with their evil counterparts on the opposing side.

COMBAT WIDTH

The main distinguishing feature between any two divisions is their makeup in the Division Designer. Here, you can add and subtract different types of battalions from a division, altering its combat stats and overall performance.

One of the most important considerations to take into account when designing a division is combat width.

Each division will take up an amount of space on the battlefield, and having more divisions on a side in a fight will lead to reduced effectiveness, or will block reinforcements from joining the fight altogether.

Most battlefields will have “combat width” of 80, meaning that optimal division sizes should be either 20 or 40, if you’re looking to min-max as much as possible (Note: if a province is attacked from multiple directions simultaneously, each new province will add 40 to the total allowed combat width, which means more units will be able to fight at once).

Generally, frontline battalions will have a width of 2, the most common exceptions being dedicated anti-air and anti-tank battalions. These both cost 1 width as they’re not considered ‘frontline’ fighters. Artillery is the other main outlier, costing a heavy 3 width.

SUPPORT COMPANIES

If you’re approaching your comfortable limit, consider adding a support artillery company rather than an artillery battalion. These ‘support’ companies don’t bring as much firepower as their larger counterparts, but they add nothing to the total combat width of a division.

On the subject of support companies, two that are almost necessary to include are the engineer company and the recon company.

The engineer company increases the amount a division can entrench itself, meaning that given enough time, a single division with an engineering team can become a major problem for an attacking force.

Want more company? Read our Hearts of Iron 4 DLC guide

Through research, the engineering team will also increase the general attack and defense of the division, particularly in rough terrain, i.e. urban environments, across rivers, forts, etc.

The recon company provides simpler benefits: speed and reconnaissance. A division with a recon team will move 10% faster across every terrain type, meaning they can reach the fight faster. This is incredibly important for any division that can expect to fight, but particularly so for divisions that use vehicles.

When your division does get into a fight, reconnaissance determines which tactic a side will pick in battle. The higher the reconnaissance value one side has in the fight, the higher the chance their general will pick a favorable or countering pick to the opposing force’s choice.

HOW TO BUILD DIVISIONS

There are other considerations to take into account when forming a division, such as what your enemies’ divisions look like, and where you will be fighting them.

For example, a division meant to fight tanks in European plains is going to suffer heavily if fighting infantry in African jungles. As such, here are some general tips to keep in mind when building divisions:

• The more battalions a division has, the more supplies it will need, so “heavier” divisions will frequently suffer attrition in bad terrain. Try using smaller divisions, or adding logistics companies to reduce the negative effects of the environment.
• All divisions that use trucks, half-tracks, or tanks should invest in a maintenance company. These companies will increase the reliability of the vehicles, meaning less are lost to attrition, and they will also capture a percentage of enemy equipment for you to use.
• Anti-air companies/ battalions increase your air superiority in a province, but they will only target close air support aircraft, not aircraft with strategic bombing missions (presumably, they fly too high for the anti-air guns to shoot them down).
• Standard “leg infantry” divisions are the most reliable and cost effective divisions you could hope for. You can build an infantry division to 20 width, add the necessary support companies, and then copy the template so you can alter it to fit your specific needs. Most of your divisions should be infantry divisions.
• Motorized divisions are faster than mechanized divisions until the third halftrack becomes available, keep this in mind when looking for speed.
• A division only travels as fast as its slowest part, so it may be wise to pair up a single super heavy tank battalion with an infantry division, as they move at the same speed.
• A single anti-tank company with the most up-to-date guns can allow most divisions to pierce enemy armor.
• Infantry has naturally higher organization than tank battalions and support gun battalions. As such, for campaigns that see units being in repeated battles, divisions with a higher ratio of infantry will be able to stay in the front lines longer.

For more information on divisions, I recommend checking out the Hearts of Iron 4 wiki page on the Division Designer & land combat stats.

The Navy

The naval mechanics had a major overhaul thanks to the Man the Guns expansion, so don’t feel alone if you haven’t played in a while and are confused about what’s new.

Ships used to have a similar improvement structure to armored land vehicles and aircraft (which we’ll cover after this section) where a specific ship would be researched, then could be improved by spending experience points. Now hull types rather than whole ships can be researched, as well as the individual modules for ships.

There are 5 main types of ship hulls: destroyer, cruiser, heavy, carrier, and submarine

Every ship has an amount of slots that can be filled by these modules, but the catch is that ships will take longer to be built with advanced modules and higher amounts of modules overall.

There are also restrictions on what ship types can equip certain modules. It doesn’t make much sense to put an aircraft hangar on a submarine, even though you really want to!

There are 5 main types of ship hulls: destroyer, cruiser, heavy, carrier, and submarine. There is a 6^th hull type, the super heavy hull, but that only exists as an alteration of the 1936 heavy ship.

These ships can vary widely in their roles based on what modules are placed on them, so we’ll go into a breakdown of the general capabilities of specific hull types.

DESTROYERS

These are light and fast ships that are some of the quickest to produce. They can be outfitted with some modest main guns, but the 2 main uses of destroyers are as torpedo boats and submarine hunters.

Due to their speed, a large amount of destroyers can swarm enemy heavy ships and deal heavy damage with torpedoes. These fleets are relatively easy to build due to the short build time of destroyers, and everything but torpedoes can be stripped off the ship to make the build time even quicker, though this will render them ineffective in any other situation.

Destroyed it already? Try our list of the best Hearts of Iron 4 mods

Destroyers can also be outfitted with sonar and depth charges, which is the one way surface vessels can attack submarines. Curiously, due to naval battle AI, submarines will flee almost any battle with depth charge-equipped destroyers, being that the destroyers can actually hurt them.

This means that as of the current patch (1.6.2), destroyers may actually function better as convoy raiders than submarines, because destroyers will not automatically flee the second a small enemy force appears (Note: thanks to Rimmy for pointing this out in his HOI4 video!). This will hopefully not be true forever, but keep this in mind for the near future.

CRUISERS

This is the most versatile of the hull types, with the ability to fill almost any role needed. Cruisers can be outfitted with heavy guns and armor, classifying them as heavy cruisers that can perform reasonably well as capital ships.

Alternatively, they can have lighter guns mounted with a stronger engine, and they can pursue marauding destroyer packs, or they can have several anti-air batteries bolted to the deck as a means of creating a floating “no-fly zone.” But even though cruisers can cover many different bases, they don’t excel as much as the ship types that are meant to perform in those roles.

Cruisers take longer to build than destroyers and aren’t quite as fast, and the heaviest cruiser will most likely lose a prolonged engagement with an enemy battleship. Even so, they can be a multi-tool for any situation, and can be refitted to change their role in the seas.

HEAVY SHIPS

These are the undisputed kings of the sea in the first several years of the game. They have access to the thickest armor and the largest guns out of all ship types, but they are generally slower than other ships, and take longer to build as well.

The big guns on battleships are excellent at killing cruisers and other capital ships, but they are less accurate against destroyers. Battleships can trade some of their extra module space for smaller guns specifically meant to target lesser ships, but this lessens the effectiveness of the battleship in its primary role, which is to fight the enemy’s capital ships.

Take the conn: Read our list of the very best naval games

Battleships also take a very long time to build compared to smaller ships, meaning that ships you begin construction on will likely be equipped with subpar tech by the time they launch. However, an old battleship is still a battleship, and can be very useful when working with a capable fleet.

CARRIERS

These are very straightforward as far as ships go: their sole purpose is to launch aircraft that will assist in combat. Aircraft are very effective against enemy fleets in large numbers, but a fleet with solid anti-air cover can severely inhibit a carrier’s ability to do its job.

Aircraft carriers are vitally important to fleets in HoI4

Outside of fighting specific anti-carrier fleets, carriers are arguably the strongest ship type in the game for the ability to project air power not only in battle, but in the sea region the carrier is operating in, or even the neighboring land province.

Much like battleships, carriers do take a long time to build, but battleships and some cruisers can make up for this time by performing carrier conversions that slap a flight deck onto these ships after removing the guns. They do not have the same aircraft capacity full carriers do, but they can be sufficient as support carriers.

Carriers are vitally important to fleets in HoI4: if you don’t want to build any of your own, you should still plan to specifically target and kill enemy carriers. As of the most recent patch, fleets with the Carrier Air advantage impose positioning penalties on the opposing fleet as well.

SUBMARINES

Speaking of killing enemy carriers, Submarines excel at hunting down enemy capital ships and shipping.

Deep impact: Submarine fans should try our Silent Victory review

They are also very, very cheap compared to other ships, so a fleet of submarines can quickly be assembled to threaten unprotected enemy ships.

NAVY BUILDING TIPS

• Submarines, destroyers, light cruisers, and eventually bombers can lay mines in naval regions if they have minelaying modules. It may be beneficial to build cheap ships that just have minelaying / minesweeping capabilities so you can quickly build up defenses or clear them out as the need arises.
• Don’t be afraid to launch a ship then immediately send it to be refit with newer technology, the benefit of the newer tech can be worth the wait.
• Air superiority will impact the effectiveness of naval missions, so provide air cover for your fleets when possible.
• Build your fleet to counter the enemy fleet. If the enemy is focusing on building mainly capital ships, invest in torpedo technology. If the enemy likes swarms of smaller ships, build ships with many light guns that are more effective against those ships.
• Research engines early, being faster than the enemy fleet will give your ships a huge advantage.
• The bigger the ship, the more fuel it consumes. Ships with more advanced engines will use more fuel, so keep that in mind when your fuel is running dry.

The Air Force

The air power part of the combat trifecta is undoubtedly the most abstract, and has less moving parts than either of the other two dimensions. However, it is airpower that can be the determining factor in land or sea battles, so it is important to detail. Aircraft are split into 2 main trees, which I’ll refer to as the “light” and “heavy” trees.

LIGHT AIRCRAFT

The “light” tree has close air supports (CAS), fighters, and naval bombers. These aircraft are generally more agile and faster than the aircraft in the other tree, but have less heavy armaments and have shorter ranges than the heavy aircraft.

Bird’s eye view: Read our Command: Modern Operations review

These aircraft also have carrier variants that are generally slightly slower than their land-based counterparts, along with further reduced range. Light aircraft are meant to be deployed at the tactical level, or attached to an army so they follow them along the front as support.

HEAVY AIRCRAFT

The “heavy” aircraft consist of the heavy fighter, the tactical bomber, and the strategic bomber. These aircrafts have longer range and stronger armaments than the “light” aircraft, but consume more manpower, and are not as good at targeting specific units. “Heavy” aircraft, due to their range and their intended targets are generally better at the strategic level.

Upgrade aircraft in their strongest areas to double down on those strengths

All aircraft can have variants that be upgraded in 4 categories: reliability, range, attack, and engine. Generally, when creating a variant of an aircraft, it is beneficial to upgrade the category that the aircraft already is dominant in, in order to double down those strengths.

For example, a fighter’s strength comes from its high agility, which both helps them to attempt attacks on enemy aircraft and avoid attacks from the enemy. Upgrading the agility of fighters would give them even more of an advantage over the enemy.

However, the other categories do not need to be neglected for the “preferred” category, but every point sunk into an upgrade makes the next one more costly in experience points, so spend carefully!

AIR COMPOSITION TIPS

• Heavy fighters perform better in larger provinces due to their increased range, while regular fighters perform better in smaller regions.
• Upgrading reliability on aircraft is always a smart move as this will decrease the amount of aircraft lost to accidents.
• The strategic bomber is relatively expensive compared to the tactical bomber. It may be wise to build more of the less effective tactical bombers for strategic bombing in order to have enough aircraft bombing the enemy’s factories.
• Heavy fighters are more expensive than regular fighters, but heavy fighters count more towards air supremacy for your side. Consider investing in a more agile heavy fighter to make more use of this effect.
• If you have multiple air bases in an air region, investing in longer-ranged aircraft is less important, because you can simply re-base your shorter-ranged aircraft to where you need them.

Risk Game Strategy Tips

Hearts of Iron IV is available now from the Paradox store.

The following section addresses more advanced strategies that can beemployed.

Annoying Passes

Having mastered the basic passes which will help you stay low, build voidsuits, get out of trouble, or help you shoot the moon, you can move ontodeveloping passes which will irritate, annoy, and beshrew the poor recipientof your cards. Here are some nasty passes that come one-by-one, two-by-two, orthree-by-three.

Singles

The following singles are pretty annoying:

• The two of clubs - You can't take the lead off the first trick with it, and it makes any high clubs you hold look real ugly.
• A club - Passing a club, any club, prevents anyone from sloughing an ugly card on the first trick if they've decided to go void in clubs (a fairly common occurrence). Passing them the two of clubs therefore serves a double duty toward annoyance.
• A low heart - Makes it real hard to shoot the moon. Especially effective when passed to a renowned shooter.
• A high heart that you can beat - They have to either work at getting rid of it or suffer you stymieing their moon shoot should they try.

Pairs

The basic approach is to pair or couple a set of cards which amplify the annoying effects of each other. The following are examples of such troublesome twosomes:

• The two of clubs and the Ace of clubs - Can't take the lead on the first trick, and you've got that bloody Ace that you have to get rid of somehow.
• A club and the Ace or King of Spades - That high spade can be a fright, and they won't be able to slough it off if they've tried to void themselves in clubs.
• A low heart and a high heart - Hard to shoot, and the victim has to work at getting rid of that ugly high heart.
• A club and a diamond - These are the two most common suits to go void in, so passing one of each will fill either void. If you pass high ones, the result can be a suit with only a single, high card. Can be trouble.

Triples

The triples are just adding greater injury to the doubles described above

• The two of clubs and two really high clubs - Can't take the lead off the first trick, stuck with those ugly high clubs, and as an added bonus, if they've tried to go void in clubs, the only clubs they'll have after the first trick will be those two high ones you've passed, and they'll probably take anything. Be sure to lead clubs at your first chance to twist the dagger a bit.
• A club (especially the two) and the Ace and King of spades - The victim is stuck with those nasty spades, and they can't slough either one because of that pesky club. Note: Passing a player the Ace and King of spades can actually help them, and even hurt you, as described in the section 'Strategy Guidelines' under the sub-heading 'Never Pass Spades'. The best time to employ this meddlesome pass, therefore, is when you have a long run of lower spades which can withstand a siege.
• A pitifully low heart (say, the three) and a pair of high hearts, all of which you can beat (i.e. you keep hold of the Ace or similar topper) - Hard to shoot, because of that low guy, which anyone can beat, and the fact that you can stop any of them. Also, it's hard enough to try to get rid of one high heart, but getting rid of two is going to be a real chore,
• A club, a diamond, and a heart - These are the three most common suits to go void in, so passing one of each will fill any of those voids. Once again, passing high ones can make it more injurious.

Got Queen Trouble? Bleed out the Spades!

'Bleeding out spades' means that you are trying to draw all the spades outof the other players and take them out of play. You would most want to employthis tactic when you are holding the Queen and not many other spades besides.

Consider the following situation: It's the second trick in the round (i.e.only the first clubs trick has gone around -- spades haven't been led yet),you have the lead, and you hold only the 3, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace ofspades. Obviously, you won't be able to survive a spades siege for very long.Moreover, it won't take long before you have to start laying down your Kingand Ace, at which point it will be fairly obvious that you're holding theQueen. What, then, do you do?

Answer: Don't try to hide the fact that you're holding the Queen at all.Consider the numbers: You are holding 5 spades, meaning there are 8 more 'outthere' amongst the other players. Since players don't normally pass spades,they tend to be more evenly distributed than other suits after the pass. Onbalance then, you can count on each player having somewhere between two tofour spades. The strategy then, is to bleed spades out of the other playersbefore the others can play them to bleed the Queen out of you.

Therefore, lead out with the Ace. You might get a few stares and grins,but it'll be worth it. You should take three spades, leaving only 5 more 'outthere' amongst the other players. Lead next with the King. You'll probablytake three more spades leaving only 2 spades out there. Next, lead with theJack. Let's say that this time you only take one spade with the Jack, leavingonly one last spade 'out there'. Lead finally with the 3, and presto, thereare no more spades. At this point, you can simply hold onto the Queen, bideyour time, work on building another void, and take tricks as high as you want.(Because you know nobody can give you the Queen.)

As an added bonus, if you keep following and leading high, you'll be ableto get rid of your ugly high cards. You might even convince the other playersthat you're trying to shoot the moon, which could even discourage them fromplaying hearts on you, and maybe try to take the lead away. In the meantime,you can watch the other players squirm as they wonder: 'How much longer...'and 'Will I be the one?' When the time comes, be sure to drop the Queen on themost deserving player.

The situation described above could fail if one player is holding more thanfour spades. It is, however, not as likely that the spades suit would be sounevenly divided, especially considering that you are already holding five.Remember, the high degree of randomness means that we deal with probabilities,not absolutes. Building on the situation above, it would be easier still tobleed spades out of people if you were holding the 10 as well.

Furthermore, it is very important that you build at least one void suit asquickly as possible so that you have a place where you can dump the Queen. Itis likewise important in such a situation to get rid of any trouble cards asquickly as possible so that you don't end up taking the lead during the laststages of the round, because you wouldn't be able to easily lose the lead.Should that occur, you will eventually have to play the Queen end uptaking her yourself!

Three Against One

Hearts is dazzlingly fun when the three losers attempt to gang up on theguy in the lead. Hit-men coalitions of three players are not organized at thebeginning of a game; They don't share secret handshakes or decoder rings.Rather, such coalitions are formed an un-formed on an ad hoc basis as scoresrise and different players take turns being the winner. The formation of athree-man coalition is usually an unspoken agreement made by the three currentlosers, although it isn't unheard of for one of the losers (usually the guywho's trailing by the most points) to make an announcement in the form of'We've got to get Brian, guys.'

Sometimes you don't get the cooperation of all three players in ganging upon the guy in the lead. If the second-in-place guy is only behind the winnerby half a dozen points, he might be more content to just sit back and 'draft'behind the winner, letting him take all the heat from the other losers. Rightup until the last stages of the game, of course, at which point he'll pull adramatic move where he drops the Queen on the current winner and move intofirst place. Then when it's too late, he'll drop points on one of the otherlosers, cause them to bust, and win the game himself.

If three against one odds doesn't sound very fair to you, it's probablybecause you're the guy in the lead.

Contractual Passes

A well-crafted pass between two experienced players can communicate morethan a whole evening of table talk. The state of the scorecard is an enormousfactor here as it often is the skeleton key to the message in the pass.Typically, a contractual pass is exchanged between two losing players who wantto stick it to the player who is currently winning. This tactic comes underthe umbrella of 'the losers ganging up on the winner' as described in theprevious section. As a general rule, any contract with lasting terms becomesnull and void should you become the player in the lead. You canhowever, count on the losers at that point making contracts to gang up on you.

The following are examples of contractual passes and their meanings:

The Queen of Spades and Two other Spades

The state of the scorecard is thus: Both you and the player you are passingto are losing, and somebody else is winning, probably by a lot. Basically whatyou are saying with this pass is:

'I really want to aim the Evil Wench at the guy in the lead, but I don'thave enough spades to hold out under any kind of serious siege. I thereforeagree to give you control of the Queen, as well as a generous spades buffer,which I hope that combined with any spades you posses, will keep you safeuntil you can stick the Queen to the player who most richly deserves it. Inreturn, I humbly request that you not stick it on me, especially if I getpassed an Ace or King which I am compelled to play in a spades trick becausethey are the only ones I've got, having passed you all my other spades.'

Here's what you're assuming when you make this pass:

1. The fellow you are passing to is rather experienced, and as such, has not passed any of his spades. (Especially if you're passing to the guy on your left and he knows that you know that it's really not bright to pass the Queen to the left.)
2. He wants to win just as bad as you do, and as such, would not be so foolish as to dump the Queen on another losing player.

All the Materials you Need to Shoot the Moon

Naturally, these materials can come in a variety of forms, but is typicallyindicated with something to the effect of: Three high hearts (typicallyincluding the Ace, King, and the like); Or, a couple of high hearts (onceagain, likely the Ace and King), and the Queen of Spades. The state of thescorecard is thus: The fellow you are passing to is losing by a lot (say, inthe mid to high eighties), the other two losers are somewhere in the middle(around say, 40's or 50's), and the guy in the lead is skunking everyone (ataround 20 or 30). Moreover, the guy in the lead has been consistently droppingpoints on the guy in last place, in the hopes of pushing him over a hundredand quickly finishing as the winner.

This is basically what you're saying:

'I willfully encourage you to shoot the moon and will assist you fully inthe endeavor, by not sheriffing you. I recognize that I will take 26 pointsmyself, but I do this hoping to level out the scores and breathe new life intothis game. In return, I request that you remember me in the future, and keepsticking it to the guy in the lead, and not to me.'

Here's what you're assuming with this pass:

1. The guy in the lead will continue to wantonly dump points onto the fellow you have passed to (the passee) thinking to push him over a hundred, but this will turn on the winner's own head as it will enable the passee to shoot successfully. Furthermore, we're hoping that the winner won't realize what's going on until it's too late.
2. The other guy that's got points in the 40's or 50's will also support the passee in shooting the moon, that the game be not over.
3. You really hope that the passee has figured out that you might be up to something like this, and is already preparing to shoot the moon, and furthermore that he knows a thing or two about shooting.

If all goes according to plan, you will have one, well-prepared shooter,two people supporting him, and only one guy (the player currently in the lead)trying to stop him. As you can see, you're hoping for a lot with this one,giving up a lot (you will take 26 points if it works), and because of thosereasons, coupled with the fact that the circumstances described are notaltogether common, this kind of contractual pass is not common.

Counting Cards

Counting the cards will help you more than any single other strategy. Notcoincidentally, counting cards is also one of the most difficult things tokeep track of. Typically, the player with the best memory will be the one thatwins the most.

The following are a few approaches to counting:

How Many Times a Suit Has Gone Around

This is one of the easiest ways to count, as you are not keeping track ofthe number of cards but just the number of tricks of a complete suit. Sincethe numbers are smaller, it can be a lot simpler. Furthermore, if you want tofind the number of actual cards in a suit that have been played, simplymultiply the number of tricks by four and there you have it.

On the Lookout for Stoppers

If you're trying to shoot the moon, you want to be on the lookout to see ifany cards come out that would put a halt to your moon shoot. Once you see thestoppers have been played, you know your toppers can't be beat, and you canproceed more confidently with your moon shoot.

How Many Cards in a Suit Have Been Played

This counting tactic is a little more involved, as you are keeping track oflarger numbers. Most people can only feasibly keep track of one suit.

The most common suits to keep track of are:

Hearts Of Iron 4 Strategy Tips

• Spades, to see how much longer it will take before the Queen comes out .
• Hearts, to see how many have been played, and often to see how many more you need to take --or in what sequence you should play your own hearts-- in order to shoot the moon.
• Any suit that you are having trouble with, i.e. you don't have (m)any low cards in that suit, and you want to know how many more are out there.
• Any suit that you are long in and you will use to try to shoot the moon

When you are keeping track of the number of cards in a suit that have beenplayed, it can sometimes be helpful to think of the game being betweenyourself and a nameless, faceless 'out there' consisting of the rest of theplayers. When the number left 'out there' starts getting low, however (i.e.when one or more players go void and begin sloughing off other cards), then itbecomes important to start paying attention to just who is void in thatparticular suit, and who is not. Your second priority then, will be to payattention to what cards are being sloughed off by those that are void.

Exactly Which Cards Have Been Played

Hearts Strategy Tips

This is Rainman stuff. Most people can't do this without a cheat sheet. Theheck of it is though, if you can count the number of cards that have beenplayed, and keep on the lookout for stoppers, you don't really need to keeptrack of every single other card that's been played. If you can pull it off,though, more power to you.