I can only play HOI4 with BICE. I've tried nearly every other major mod out there, but only BICE gives me the tools to create and fight the war machine I want to have, with the details and options I want, in every country I've played. I love the granularity of the new production system and tech trees.

My one issue with BICE, though, is that it tries so hard to recreate WWII as it happened that it starts feeling like it's tying me down and forcing it down my throat. In BICE even if you use cheats or console commands to edit the game, you're stuck with history. Change the Soviet Union or Germany into a liberal democracy? You're stuck with communist or fascist advisors. Or events like the Great Purge that happen regardless of your government type. There are generic focus trees, which are a nice band-aid, but woefully inadequate.

My suggestion, as a confirmed die-hard BICE player, is to please, please, please, stop cutting out things that allow alternate history. Someone went in there and deleted all the democratic ministers from Germany and USSR. Someone redid the Soviet purges to make them happen regardless of government type. It's like at one point someone went in the mod and said "♥♥♥♥ you, you have to fight as a Nazi or communist."

Where BICE is greatest and unmatched - the military system with interesting and realistic battalion and division customization, the tools and graphics to enable realistic organizations and micro and macro management - should be the focus of the mod in the future. I've fought WWII literally hundreds of times in HOI and other games, if I chose instead to try a game as a monarchist German or conservative democratic rump Russia without the Soviet SSRs, just let me do it. Spend less time on the events and foci that force me to either jump through the historic gates down the road that force me to invade Poland or purge my best generals (or cheat) in order to unlock those otherwise common sense decisions and advisors that I'd otherwise have access to with or without roleplaying as Hitler or Stalin.

If BICE doubled down as the best, most realistic military mod of HOI4 and either allowed or ignored alternate history or non-historic decisions, the mod would be much more enjoyable (IMHO). I know BICE exists because it was designed from the start as the most realistic WWII mod for the game, but years later... I think the mod has shown where its greatest strength really is.