Not a bad effort, but I'll stick to vanilla Arsenal of Democracy.

User Rating: 6 | Hearts of Iron II: Iron Cross PC
Iron Cross is another mod developed game using the Europa Engine. I defintely appreciate the modder support from Paradox, but this may be the first one I didn't really like.

There are quite a few features, so'll I'll only cover the ones that are advertised and what I think of them. So without further ado.

First Feature
-Play as one of 200 countries from 1933 to 1964, and interact with real ministers and leaders

Nothing new here. This is in practically every HoI game. It does mention the new timeline though encompassing the year 33,34,35. This fills a very small gap between Victoria Revolutions and HoI 2. The new years aren't particularly fun though. Most of this is due to the extraordinary slow pace. Most countries get a crippling peacetime IC modifier. You can research your way out of part of it, but it's basically 3 boring years of doing almost nothing. By 36 any non-democracies have a huge edge, larger than they did in base HoI 2. Good idea, poor execution.

Second Feature
-New map with over 4,000 new provinces

A mixed bag really. The large amount of provinces definitely lengthen conflict to more realistic levels, and add a lot depth, but the way there laid out is a pain. Rather than being equal in size like HoI3, some provinces are so small that a counter/sprite completely covers them. In a big war, it can be a real pain to see everything. It also adds a lot of worthless land, and some areas (such as Africa) don't need nearly as many provinces as they get. Good idea, poor execution (and too many new provinces).

Third Feature
-More than 6,000 new events

I haven't seen them all, but this is definitely welcome. Paradox has made a shift away from events which makes their games seem bland and empty. It's nice to see that Irshappa realizes the importance of events in a game like this. It seems that they need to iron out some bugs though.

Fourth Feature
-New tech tree featuring 800 technologies, with a realistic research system

The new tech tree is a welcome addition. It adds a nice amount of strategy as you can't research everything. Some of the new techs are a bit weird (like the economic policies), but it's a solid addition. It's needs some refinement though.

Fifth Feature
-New units and brigades, including special units, infantry regiment, heavy artillery, and more

They may have overdone it here, but it's a nice change. A bit unnecessary though.

Sixth Feature
-New AI offering more options and greater depth

The AI is improved, maybe too much so. At least they can carry out amphibious landings (though I have seen amphibious landings of multiple small divisions which is annoying and has no hope of succeeding. They still seem incapable of using paratrooper, or even preventing simple encirclements.

Seventh Feature
-New scenarios set in 1933 and 1934 as well as old scenarios adapted to Iron Cross

I touched on this in the first feature.

Eighth Feature
-Compatible with both HoI II: Armageddon and Arsenal of Democracy

This is a nice plus. I'm currently using it on AoD. There are some glitches though, like the game support 1920x1080, but all the interfaces have black area as they weren't resized correctly. Sloppy.

Iron Cross isn't a bad expansion. If you don't want to get AoD, at least get this. Otherwise get AoD. Whatever you do don't buy HoI 3 at least not until "For the Motherland" comes out. This is far superior to that game. The main turn off for me is the lack of polish. When they fix the widescreen interfaces, grammar errors, typos, polish up some of the features, and iron out the bugs I'll recommend it; Until then...