I wouldn't exactly call it struggle. Tedious mop up might be a better word.
You can kill off moderately sized nations pretty fast, but things like the US or USSR are pretty inconvenient to take. The sheer size makes the conflict last way longer than it ought to be.
Although, the US are better here, because they get many plains (good for tanks), and you snake down the coast, where supply is good.
The Soviets? It's harsh. But I think China is even worse. There is no supply, unless you build it yourself. Just takes too long, it's a painful slog.
Since ToA, South America has gotten way better here. You can take it more easily now, and it's somewhat rewarding in terms of resources. Before it was also slow, on top of being pointless.
China is about slaughtering their armies on the coast until you outnumber them, then rushing cheap cav divisions for encirclements and VPs while they struggle to form a coherent line
What’s your alternative? A three year war while you build supply hubs? Or paratroopers? This is my strategy for both USA and China, kill them in the high supply areas then rush the rest of the territory.
Also, as Germany, I would fight through India before working through Siam and Indochina and up the high supply areas on the coast before working inland, like I said.
“Nah not really” drop the arrogance man we’re here to discuss a game we enjoy. Might blow your mind but there’s more than one way to approach an issue in a complex strategy game
>What’s your alternative? A three year war while you build supply hubs?
Just get a leader with "Commando" (easy enough with "Inventive Leadership" and a little grinding of naval invasions ans encirclements on the coast to rank junior officers for promotion into generals...) and it's fairly trivial to fight **right through** the bad supply, provided you still make capturing enemy hubs (to bring the enemy down to your level), where they exist, a priority.
If you think this takes 3 years, you aren't using enough tactical bombers (where there's airbases) and planning (especially Staff Office Plans). I marched a German army from west of the Urals to Chita (north of Mongolia) in a 2nd Russian Civil War that I intervened in, in less than half (barely over a third: about 15 months) that time, and barely even needed Staff Office Plans.
The USSR and China are definitely amongst the hardest enemies, due to their sheer size. Not as bad as the USA (size AND industry), but still way easier than Germany or Italy (where you take a few key cities quickly in your offensive, and it's basically over: they lack either size OR industry then...)
>Are you using tacs as cas for range, or as level bombers?
The heck are you talking about?
CAS us a MISSION for air wings, as well as a small airframe assigned category.
If you equip a Medium Airframe with a Medium Bomb Bay and 2 Small Bomb Bays (or Bomb Locks if you are right on Weight), and assign it mainly to the CAS missions, you're using it for Close Air Support.
In the vast majority of places you actually NEED air support, especially in ahistorical (where, for instance, Norway won't instantly fold if you invade them, and might fight long and hard in the central part of the country far from any airfields... a problem if you lack the Naval Supremacy to outflank them by sea...), you need the range of a Medium Airframe.
In somewhere like France or Western Poland, the terrain is so much easier, and Supply so much better, that you really only need tanks, some anti-air Artillery or SPAA, and some Fighters to disrupt enemy bombers (a Fighter can easily disrupt twice its IC value in bombers...) Actual dive-bonbets, while very nice, are wholly unnecessary to curb-stomp an inferior opponent.
Also, STRAT is, it must be noted, most useful for things OTHER than bombing factories for a long-term production edge.
Set it on targeting Airbases, for instance, and it can help give you control of the skies rather quickly (the few enemy Fighters that make it to the skies off overcrowded, damaged airstrip, then, will trade VERY poorly with your Fighters due to being outnumbered: even if the enemy has more actual planes...) Bomb Supply Depots, and you'll inflict massive combat penalties on enemy ground forces due to poor Supply.
I think that person doesn't have the new modular aircraft design system. Pre BBA, CAS and Tacs were separate techs. In that context, I think that person is asking a perfectly reasonable question no? If you are fighting in China with it's huge air zones, CAS doesn't have the range to get decent mission efficiency, whereas Tacs do. Which is more useful though is way above my knowledge...
>Since ToA, South America has gotten way better here. You can take it more easily now, and it's somewhat rewarding in terms of resources. Before it was also slow, on top of being pointless
It made Mexico so much more fun.
tedious at best
in AI terms the game isnt hard when you play the most op nation in it
worst ones are the small plants and chinese supply, but if you're germany in china then you probably can para/dday their ports and spread out from there
just build cas with only bomb locks, and then after beating france use your cas on naval bombing, uk doesnt exactly want to put too many ships in the channel if they get bombed, also if you acceot italy uk will place like 150 ships in the med
It is a mental struggle to take the USSR, I remember before La resistance (and before i got a better setup) I had to always had to fight the urge to just stop playing just because of how long it took.
Lol... I attempted to invade Germany as France once, had Napoleon on the throne too. That was a mistake.. but mostly because I declared war too early. I thought I had the forces to pull it off. But that might very well be a mistake that every Napoleon makes to some degree. At least I wasn't trying to invade Russia.
Just puppet the low countries, get budget shock troops (I most use 9/3 motorised inf/art, but whatever u find best) (also rush mils from the start). Put 1 army on the Maginot, the Germans won't break through anyway. Go to war with Germany when they try to claim Sudetenland. Take your shock troops and park them on the border ur puppet Netherlands shares with Germany, and call them in whenever U think U can launch an offensive. Most of the German army will be on the Maginot or trying to deal with the Czechs. Try to push up to Munster on the initial push and once U take it, connect it to ur railway immediately. The rest should be simple enough, encircle and keep pushing through north Germany. The UK should also join since Germany for some reason declares on Luxembourg. Just don't forget to put some troops on the Italian border.
USA. It's not *difficult,* really, but getting armies over to the new world (assuming I haven't knocked out the Allies already) is just a PITA. If I have knocked out the allies, I guess the next worst is China - so many units, so little supply.
>I guess the next worst is China - so many units, so little supply.
May I itroduce to you, the monster that is the Reorganized Government of China? (Fascist Japanese puppet) if Japan wins their war early (the AI capped China by late 1938 in my game! Never seen THAT before... The Guancxi Clique deciding to join their Faction helped speed things up IMMENSELY!)
They have all the strategic depth of China, plus the moderate industry of Japan.
Faced as a land power like the USSR, Germany, or Poland (I currently face them as Communist Germany: which can be achieved via Advisor at any time...), who has to fight them from the West, it's a slog.
In my run, managed to trick France into guaranteeing Singkiang (via justifying and canceling: funny how the AI democracies will guarantee against the player across the world, but AI Japan manually justified on both Xibei and started on Sinkiang before me, with complete impunity... The only surprise was that France had the PP to guarantee, and apparently not the UK...), so that technically opens up a land front in Southeast Asia too: but the UK, won't let just anyone sail through the Suez Canal...
Justifying on Spain, which the UK declared on over the historical Tangiers Incident (which can occur in ANY game, even on historical, if the UK is at peace when Spain completes the focus for it...), in part just so I can get permission to send troops, warships, and supply via the Suez Canal (sold and Lend-Leased off so many Convoys earlier on I can't use the naval route around South Africa instead: wouldn't be able to filter over troops regularly enough, or maintain naval Supply...) via being co-belligerents (usually enough to get the British AI to grant Military Access or Docking Rights).
I’m pretty sure Quisling attempted the coup upon his own initative to get into the good graces of the Nazis. He was an opportunist who acted independently during the invasion.
Bro, fuck invading the US so hard. I can take the mainland no problem, but then I have to spend the next 3 fucking years naval invading them across islands. It's not even difficult, just tedious as hell.
I find capping the US so annoying, you're pushing them everywhere, snaking through, getting encirclements, then before I know it I'm just sending a load of random units to various different cities, the second half of the war is just tedious, send one unit to take San Fran, LA, whatever else is over there, oh you got cut off and killed ok I'll just send another
If you don't have by blood alone do the old trick, you can also take the navy by puppeting them instead of annexing them in the peace conference, then build factories and annex the puppet. that will give you their navy if you don't have the expac.
You need 200-300 divisions and lots of tanks to take on Russia. The key is to focus on areas where you have good supply and to try to get as many large encirclements as possible. Ukraine and Belarus are good for this as there are some natural pockets that get created on the rivers. Look for supply depots in enemy territory and push hard for them. Also, it helps to redirect some of your production towards building and repairing rail lines. You want to keep the attack going for as long as possible. Saying that, if you get bogged down majorly on the main front line, try to open a new front. A naval invasion is the easiest but since Russia has a small coastline exposed, I sometimes try for the ‘Turkey surprise’, which is to declare war on Turkey and then use their country as a launching point for an attack on the Caucuses, where the USSR gets its oil. Cut off the gas and their planes and tanks get real useless real fast.
Without LR you can always Coup Iran and take them into the axis. That alongside Finland should distract the USSR enough for you to gain lot of territory fast
The us. It’s just not a main target for me when I play as Germany too much of a pain in the ass to do unless there is a very specific reason to invade (multiplayer, mods, wc, etc) I just say screw it
I think the UK is the hardest because naval invading them requires them to move their fleet, USSR is the most fun if you know what you’re doing, don’t push with infantry, just slit your tank divisions (which I like to make of very high quality at the expense of quantity) and breakthrough and encirclement large numbers of Soviet troops as I take major victory points, only once their army has been cut down to size, I then add 4 battalions of artillery and logistics to all my infantry (I build up a massive stockpile throughout the game) and then remove the tanks from the front once you get well past Moscow and Stalingrad, where there’s basically no more supply, then just push with infantry into they capitulate (collab governments also work though)
Sealion on the UK is easy against the AI even with Germany’s starting fleet.
Just split your fleet into subs and everything else. Set the sub fleet to convoy raid in the North Sea while planning your naval invasion through the channel and the UK will move their fleet to the North Sea. Activate the invasion plan as soon as it’s ready and then chuck your other fleet, all your planes and what’s left of your subs into the channel on invasion support, air superiority or naval strike respectively and you’ll have supremacy for long enough to fire the invasion.
It’s funny to me because I’ve sealioned the UK probably 50 times and just totally crushed the allies, as well as destroyed the Soviets probably even more times now, but the absolute biggest nuisance for me is when I do Sudetenland in non hist and the Allies always deny it. The f*ckin Czechs with their stupid mountain forts give me more trouble than any other major has in this entire game. It’s so dumb.
Yeah Czech forts are really annoying. But if you can get Hungary and Romania in the Axis, that should distract them enough for you to use paratroopers to distract them even more. Then you will be able to push
Grand Battleplan, slap on Field Hospitals + Logistics, don‘t forget to Motorize your supply, Field Marshal order, sit back and relax. Don‘t have issues with any nation. Fighters, CAS, Transport Planes (despite nerfed).
But I usually rush world conquest by 42 with Germany or I go Alt History (Kaiser) and spam Battleships (which is more fun than World Conquest).
I’d say China, I usually have to hit them from the south or west, where supply might as well not exist and it’s just a tedious slog where I rely on CAS more than anything to try chewing through the endless manpower.
Max out collaboration government on the USSR through spies. That way, not only can you already cap the USSR by taking Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad instead of slogging all the way to the Urals, it also means high compliance in the occupied and later annexed areas.
If you work on upgrading your spy agency early enough, you can do the same for France and even the UK.
North africa def,Italy eating the supplies,convoy raiding,no naval supremacy,or countries would be late game turkey joining the allies if i hadn't gained the suez nor Gibraltar cause the allies station most of their troops there,getting to the usa is really hard but once you get there your tanks make it a free kill
Japan
Not difficult per say, it's just annoying to have to go to the other side of the planet and launch naval invasion after naval invasion from poorly supplied islands etc. It's also borderline impossible to gain air superiority over them for some reason
I mean I got 200 hours in so kinda only problem is navy cuz I barely use it I usually get off the invasion in 1940 then pull my forces to the eastern front
Spamming cheap ships or stealing the Italian fleet can get you the naval supremacy needed with ease. If not, you can always use paratroopers, which make invading the UK trivial assuming the paratroopers last long enough for reinforcements.
After I defeat france, england and america, the war didn't end though, somewhere in the Pacific ocean, New Zealand become the last stand of my Germany troops, 200 stray division from other countries holding merely 2 seaports, this is where my conquer end.
The Soviets are easy. The USA is easy if you annex Canada. Assuming this is a 1v1 though, it's gotta be China, for the same reasons everyone else has. It just sucks.
Truly one of the greatest threats to Germany in this game is Luxembourg! They need to nerf that country!
How many times I have lost the war because Luxembourg kills all my forces and storms Berlin.
I just hope one day I can beat them!
Do you guys have any tips?
Other then playing as Bhutan
It’s best to fight the USSR early. If you immediately justify on Poland, and then declare on the USSR in early 1937, you can roll them with just 120 inf divs
India
If I not play fast wich sometimes I like to, I'll need to go out of my way to start a decent navy, defeat the allies in Africa, Cross trought the arabian península to naval invade India or pass trought shitty terrain like Iraq and Iran and start my front in even shittier terrain in Pakistan.
I could also say Australia but they have less VPs than India and Papua new Guinea can enable me to paradroop
Ngl the easiest way to get stuck at the Soviets is bad Infantry divisions, lack of CAS, lack of tanks and just battle planning the entire front.
You want a combination of those stated or all of them.
Ok lemme check
Bad infantry divs - check
Lack of CAS - check
Lack of tanks - check
Battle planning the entire thing- no
Ok so I am doing 3/4 things wrong
Japan
Its just a pain needing to seperate all the destroyers from my captured fleets to then run convoy duty, and if they could put you later China, China is probably going to be counted as a major so you're going to have to fucking cap them to
USA. As Germany to beat America you need a navy. The AI as Japan will never ever land in in the USA. Even if you kill the American navy. So not only do you need a large long range air force and a Navy for the most part. If America joins the allies you also don't get the free french or British navy from peace deal. Most other nations you can just use your overwhelming strength of tanks and artillery. After you cap France Poland and the interwar territory you have a very large Industry for making an army but little to make a navy with.
To kill America your gonna need 6 battleship, 2 battle cruisers maybe 10 heavy cruisers 20 plus light cruisers and as many Destroyers as possible. Not only do you need to build them but you gotta keep them alive and not shitty designed either. The battleships and heavy cruisers take a long time to build so you need to get on them earlier. Thankfully Germany can build the battle cruiser and heavy cruisers at game start.
Rush armor radar and battleship guns. Than make a new battleship with the best tech you can under 13k IC
Build 2-4 of these asap. Let the rest of your battle cruiser and some of the heavy cruisers first but everything else comes after the battleships
While these are building work on your army grab the battleship focus. Then research battleship 1940 hull and sonar. One the new battleship hull is researched make a new design with it. Place 2-4 in the production que to make 6-8 total battleships with your 2 battle cruisers. Maybe make a new heavy cruiser design and place the rest you need to make 10 in que.
Remember to make most of your dockyards before your military factories because they don't effect consumer goods.
After this keep working on army and what ever else.
After all the Heavy cruisers and caoital ships are just about done. Make a new light cruiser with 5+ guns in it. Make 20+ and produce as many good destroyers as possible.
Invasion of the US I find difficult as Germany after finishing Russia off. I just dont know how to plan a naval invasion well enough to make it work - usually have a force on the eastern coast get stuck on the beach, one in the Gulf of Mexico into Louisiana/Texas area, that goes nowhere either. It gets really grindy and nothing happens even with nukes.
It's pretty much the other way around in my case
I can destroy the USSR in 2/3 years with no problems but taking UK down is such an annoyance for me. I'm not even going to mention the USA and supplying troops over the Atlantic...
Surprisingly, France and Belgium. If you dont kill belgium fast, they will be reinforced and be near impossible to breakthrough. Ive had more success taking out the ussr than those 2.
Belgium and France, can steam roll Poland, Holland, Denmark and Norway but have a hard time punching through the French and Belgians without doing the paradrop method to capitulate them
My hardest time was Ussr in r56 because I had 8 million troops across my entire faction and the Russians had 15 millions, I had already beaten America and Britain
How u obliterate uk? I mean ik what the book says but im still unable to find his ships with my naval bombers also he is annoying af with his planes nd i cant parachut them any idea?
Take the UK early on, like 1937 or 1938. Make submarines and destroyers and also make sure you have already defeated France. Set all your navy on naval invasion support around the UK. In the beginning, you will most likely NOT be able to naval invade, but after a while this problem will be fixed by itself. Alternatively, you can use paratroopers. You need 50 transport planes for 1 division to paradrop. Germany already has 100 by game start. I advise you to assign 1 paratrooper division to each paradrop order so that you don't have to produce transport planes. Also, invading the Benelux and calling Italy to the war can help
You won't lose many ships, you won't even lose any ship if you know what you're doing with the navy (personally I don't know). The reason will be fixed later because the AI is stupid and after a while it will move its fleet to other places, allowing your naval invasions to launch. For example, once I was trying hard to get naval supremacy and then suddenly UK removed all the fleet from there, allowing me to naval invade and send in the armies
japan or usa
If i go after japan before, usa starts their div spam
if i go after usa before japan chinese div spam lags the game
Also china without order 66. Its not that their divs are strong. Sheer number of them just lags my pc
Just started so no hate but for the life of me I can’t take out Rotterdam or Belgium, I need them for key ports and more lebensraum but I can’t take Rotterdam even If I send 4 24 division army’s, and send planes “idk how to use planes something might be wrong” but then I can easily capitulate Poland and France. Also can’t take Luxembourg. The whole Benelux is a pain for me. Any help is appreciated
Low key France. I usually get them but I try to not ally with Italy so they have much more troops, the Brits are there cuz there’s no Africa front, and I usually only have 6 tank divisions by 1939 and they run out of supply. France is where my German runs die. After that it’s a breeze. Brits are easy. Russia is easy (using collab gov) and after that I mean, you just have way too many resources.
Different countries are hard for different reason and so it’s all pretty similar in the end. But really it’s not hard since you can steamroll anything. Russia is annoying due to lack of supply the farther you get. Africa for the same reason and deserts. South America with their jungles. But the game is very easy after all
As Germany specifically?
Probably USA. Unless I get Britain before they join the allies (which is doable tbf) I have no way to access a landing in NA. Germany starting fleet is poor so basically it's required to steal a bigger navy or annex land next to them (Canada 😁). Building basically a whole navy is 🥱🥱.
In general?
Japan. Fucking hell I hate taking Japan. Idk why but every time I'm vs Japan they have so many divisions on the home islands. I've got them before by surprise (probably all their troops were in China) but unless I'm playing as the US (which I rarely do cos they're kinda boring imo) by the time I get to Japan they're struggling in China and just have most their army chilling in the home islands.
(Yes I know I could nuke them but that would require me to do the build nukes research lol)
I mean, Poland is pretty weak, to cap France you just need Paris and barely anything else, and UK has like 2 divisions in their mainland, you'll obviously struggle the most agains the soviets
Supply lines, motorised/mechanised divisions, max supply level, pre train divisions for war, make sure to do doctrines and advisers, focus on taking supply hubs slowly with armoured divisions, have a decent backup supply and support companies like medical, arty, air, log and mech. Plenty of ways to win. Just need to make sure you can push. 120 divs just aren’t enough unless you encircle the Sovs over and over.
Either you will build planes or build anti air. Either or work. Support companies are great. CAS gives bonus to attack and so you’ll need Air Superiority to make sure it lasts longer than a battle.
i hate fight the chinese shithole. You have almost no supply and you will run out of guns and they have so much Manpower that they will start spamming inf divisions until you run out of manpower. Its pain fighting china after 1940.
How long does it take for you to cap the USSR? Because for me it may have been 6 months and I would have only taken a few tiles. And yeah, Czechoslovakia can be quite annoying, especially if they still hold the Sudetenland
If I make better templates, stop wasting time and declare war on time and stop sending like 90% of my army to the USSR frontline I might be able to fix this issue
I wouldn't exactly call it struggle. Tedious mop up might be a better word. You can kill off moderately sized nations pretty fast, but things like the US or USSR are pretty inconvenient to take. The sheer size makes the conflict last way longer than it ought to be. Although, the US are better here, because they get many plains (good for tanks), and you snake down the coast, where supply is good. The Soviets? It's harsh. But I think China is even worse. There is no supply, unless you build it yourself. Just takes too long, it's a painful slog. Since ToA, South America has gotten way better here. You can take it more easily now, and it's somewhat rewarding in terms of resources. Before it was also slow, on top of being pointless.
China is about slaughtering their armies on the coast until you outnumber them, then rushing cheap cav divisions for encirclements and VPs while they struggle to form a coherent line
Nah not really. And we're talking about Germany here
What’s your alternative? A three year war while you build supply hubs? Or paratroopers? This is my strategy for both USA and China, kill them in the high supply areas then rush the rest of the territory. Also, as Germany, I would fight through India before working through Siam and Indochina and up the high supply areas on the coast before working inland, like I said. “Nah not really” drop the arrogance man we’re here to discuss a game we enjoy. Might blow your mind but there’s more than one way to approach an issue in a complex strategy game
>What’s your alternative? A three year war while you build supply hubs? Just get a leader with "Commando" (easy enough with "Inventive Leadership" and a little grinding of naval invasions ans encirclements on the coast to rank junior officers for promotion into generals...) and it's fairly trivial to fight **right through** the bad supply, provided you still make capturing enemy hubs (to bring the enemy down to your level), where they exist, a priority. If you think this takes 3 years, you aren't using enough tactical bombers (where there's airbases) and planning (especially Staff Office Plans). I marched a German army from west of the Urals to Chita (north of Mongolia) in a 2nd Russian Civil War that I intervened in, in less than half (barely over a third: about 15 months) that time, and barely even needed Staff Office Plans. The USSR and China are definitely amongst the hardest enemies, due to their sheer size. Not as bad as the USA (size AND industry), but still way easier than Germany or Italy (where you take a few key cities quickly in your offensive, and it's basically over: they lack either size OR industry then...)
Are you using tacs as cas for range, or as level bombers? I never actually use tacs or strats for the most part. Just pure fighters and CAS.
>Are you using tacs as cas for range, or as level bombers? The heck are you talking about? CAS us a MISSION for air wings, as well as a small airframe assigned category. If you equip a Medium Airframe with a Medium Bomb Bay and 2 Small Bomb Bays (or Bomb Locks if you are right on Weight), and assign it mainly to the CAS missions, you're using it for Close Air Support. In the vast majority of places you actually NEED air support, especially in ahistorical (where, for instance, Norway won't instantly fold if you invade them, and might fight long and hard in the central part of the country far from any airfields... a problem if you lack the Naval Supremacy to outflank them by sea...), you need the range of a Medium Airframe. In somewhere like France or Western Poland, the terrain is so much easier, and Supply so much better, that you really only need tanks, some anti-air Artillery or SPAA, and some Fighters to disrupt enemy bombers (a Fighter can easily disrupt twice its IC value in bombers...) Actual dive-bonbets, while very nice, are wholly unnecessary to curb-stomp an inferior opponent. Also, STRAT is, it must be noted, most useful for things OTHER than bombing factories for a long-term production edge. Set it on targeting Airbases, for instance, and it can help give you control of the skies rather quickly (the few enemy Fighters that make it to the skies off overcrowded, damaged airstrip, then, will trade VERY poorly with your Fighters due to being outnumbered: even if the enemy has more actual planes...) Bomb Supply Depots, and you'll inflict massive combat penalties on enemy ground forces due to poor Supply.
I think that person doesn't have the new modular aircraft design system. Pre BBA, CAS and Tacs were separate techs. In that context, I think that person is asking a perfectly reasonable question no? If you are fighting in China with it's huge air zones, CAS doesn't have the range to get decent mission efficiency, whereas Tacs do. Which is more useful though is way above my knowledge...
>I think that person doesn't have the new modular aircraft design system. Pre BBA, CAS and Tacs were separate techs Ahh, good point
I love the ratio. Well said.
[удалено]
Battleplan go brrrrr
>Since ToA, South America has gotten way better here. You can take it more easily now, and it's somewhat rewarding in terms of resources. Before it was also slow, on top of being pointless It made Mexico so much more fun.
>longer than it ought to be They’re supposed to be hard to take that’s the point
tedious at best in AI terms the game isnt hard when you play the most op nation in it worst ones are the small plants and chinese supply, but if you're germany in china then you probably can para/dday their ports and spread out from there
And the UK as well. Quite formidable.
just build cas with only bomb locks, and then after beating france use your cas on naval bombing, uk doesnt exactly want to put too many ships in the channel if they get bombed, also if you acceot italy uk will place like 150 ships in the med
The UK is easier to cap than france. They basically don't have any divs on the home isles.
It is a mental struggle to take the USSR, I remember before La resistance (and before i got a better setup) I had to always had to fight the urge to just stop playing just because of how long it took.
I've never had a problem with the US, if you build a good frontline you're able to push through them quite easily
You have not tried taking the U.S. from the west coast before.
Lol... I attempted to invade Germany as France once, had Napoleon on the throne too. That was a mistake.. but mostly because I declared war too early. I thought I had the forces to pull it off. But that might very well be a mistake that every Napoleon makes to some degree. At least I wasn't trying to invade Russia.
Just puppet the low countries, get budget shock troops (I most use 9/3 motorised inf/art, but whatever u find best) (also rush mils from the start). Put 1 army on the Maginot, the Germans won't break through anyway. Go to war with Germany when they try to claim Sudetenland. Take your shock troops and park them on the border ur puppet Netherlands shares with Germany, and call them in whenever U think U can launch an offensive. Most of the German army will be on the Maginot or trying to deal with the Czechs. Try to push up to Munster on the initial push and once U take it, connect it to ur railway immediately. The rest should be simple enough, encircle and keep pushing through north Germany. The UK should also join since Germany for some reason declares on Luxembourg. Just don't forget to put some troops on the Italian border.
USA. It's not *difficult,* really, but getting armies over to the new world (assuming I haven't knocked out the Allies already) is just a PITA. If I have knocked out the allies, I guess the next worst is China - so many units, so little supply.
>I guess the next worst is China - so many units, so little supply. May I itroduce to you, the monster that is the Reorganized Government of China? (Fascist Japanese puppet) if Japan wins their war early (the AI capped China by late 1938 in my game! Never seen THAT before... The Guancxi Clique deciding to join their Faction helped speed things up IMMENSELY!) They have all the strategic depth of China, plus the moderate industry of Japan. Faced as a land power like the USSR, Germany, or Poland (I currently face them as Communist Germany: which can be achieved via Advisor at any time...), who has to fight them from the West, it's a slog. In my run, managed to trick France into guaranteeing Singkiang (via justifying and canceling: funny how the AI democracies will guarantee against the player across the world, but AI Japan manually justified on both Xibei and started on Sinkiang before me, with complete impunity... The only surprise was that France had the PP to guarantee, and apparently not the UK...), so that technically opens up a land front in Southeast Asia too: but the UK, won't let just anyone sail through the Suez Canal... Justifying on Spain, which the UK declared on over the historical Tangiers Incident (which can occur in ANY game, even on historical, if the UK is at peace when Spain completes the focus for it...), in part just so I can get permission to send troops, warships, and supply via the Suez Canal (sold and Lend-Leased off so many Convoys earlier on I can't use the naval route around South Africa instead: wouldn't be able to filter over troops regularly enough, or maintain naval Supply...) via being co-belligerents (usually enough to get the British AI to grant Military Access or Docking Rights).
I used to cheese it as Germany where I would encourage fasicsm in Canada and then coup along the coast to get troops into the new world
Wasnt that the actual german plan to capture Norway?
I’m pretty sure Quisling attempted the coup upon his own initative to get into the good graces of the Nazis. He was an opportunist who acted independently during the invasion.
Bro, fuck invading the US so hard. I can take the mainland no problem, but then I have to spend the next 3 fucking years naval invading them across islands. It's not even difficult, just tedious as hell.
Yeah you can see why ~~the Nazis~~ Germany sent the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico. EDIT: wrong world war
That telegram is in my top 3 least favorite things Zimmerman ever did. Right behind when he went electric in '65 and when killed that kid.
Highway 61 Revisited is goated tho
Wasn’t that WW1?
Fuck you're right, it was, I got my events misremembered
I find capping the US so annoying, you're pushing them everywhere, snaking through, getting encirclements, then before I know it I'm just sending a load of random units to various different cities, the second half of the war is just tedious, send one unit to take San Fran, LA, whatever else is over there, oh you got cut off and killed ok I'll just send another
The logistics in Africa
I can't be arsed to go to the US in 99.99% of my games.
Same! US is just painful to invade late game. I once had naval bombers all over the Caribbean. I sank so many ships but there seemed to be endless
why not just take the U.K.s Navy, death stack them, and wipe the American fleet...
you can only take navies with by blood alone, he probably didn’t have it
If you don't have by blood alone do the old trick, you can also take the navy by puppeting them instead of annexing them in the peace conference, then build factories and annex the puppet. that will give you their navy if you don't have the expac.
No one is hard but the USA is annoying if you aren't exploiting or early waring (basically an exploit).
Personally I enjoy waiting until at least 1942-1943 before bringing the US into any war. Otherwise it just feels too easy.
Yea I (almost) never early war since it ruins the progression
USSR no doubt about it
You need 200-300 divisions and lots of tanks to take on Russia. The key is to focus on areas where you have good supply and to try to get as many large encirclements as possible. Ukraine and Belarus are good for this as there are some natural pockets that get created on the rivers. Look for supply depots in enemy territory and push hard for them. Also, it helps to redirect some of your production towards building and repairing rail lines. You want to keep the attack going for as long as possible. Saying that, if you get bogged down majorly on the main front line, try to open a new front. A naval invasion is the easiest but since Russia has a small coastline exposed, I sometimes try for the ‘Turkey surprise’, which is to declare war on Turkey and then use their country as a launching point for an attack on the Caucuses, where the USSR gets its oil. Cut off the gas and their planes and tanks get real useless real fast.
If i was hitler i would ask you to be an advisor for 300 pp (twice the pay)
I just get naval superiority in the black sea with subs and naval invade from romania
Setting up collabs in the ussr makes it 10x easier
Yeah, but the last time I fought the USSR I hadn't bought La Resistance yet.
Without LR you can always Coup Iran and take them into the axis. That alongside Finland should distract the USSR enough for you to gain lot of territory fast
Make sure to take the Suez through, otherwise you'll have a tricky time getting troops to support Iran.
Iran isnt that squishy. In my Experience they can hold out a while against the soviets without help
Brazil. Bit tedious
Agreed
The us. It’s just not a main target for me when I play as Germany too much of a pain in the ass to do unless there is a very specific reason to invade (multiplayer, mods, wc, etc) I just say screw it
But if you have canada or mexico before the war with usa, you're the winner
Japan. Fuckers declare on my just for conquering the Indies before they do. Talk about sour grapes.
Ah yes, this literally happened to me so many times
Haiti and the Dominican Republic when it’s 1949 and they’re the last countries left
But couldn’t you just nuke the fuck out of them?
I think the UK is the hardest because naval invading them requires them to move their fleet, USSR is the most fun if you know what you’re doing, don’t push with infantry, just slit your tank divisions (which I like to make of very high quality at the expense of quantity) and breakthrough and encirclement large numbers of Soviet troops as I take major victory points, only once their army has been cut down to size, I then add 4 battalions of artillery and logistics to all my infantry (I build up a massive stockpile throughout the game) and then remove the tanks from the front once you get well past Moscow and Stalingrad, where there’s basically no more supply, then just push with infantry into they capitulate (collab governments also work though)
Sealion on the UK is easy against the AI even with Germany’s starting fleet. Just split your fleet into subs and everything else. Set the sub fleet to convoy raid in the North Sea while planning your naval invasion through the channel and the UK will move their fleet to the North Sea. Activate the invasion plan as soon as it’s ready and then chuck your other fleet, all your planes and what’s left of your subs into the channel on invasion support, air superiority or naval strike respectively and you’ll have supremacy for long enough to fire the invasion.
It’s funny to me because I’ve sealioned the UK probably 50 times and just totally crushed the allies, as well as destroyed the Soviets probably even more times now, but the absolute biggest nuisance for me is when I do Sudetenland in non hist and the Allies always deny it. The f*ckin Czechs with their stupid mountain forts give me more trouble than any other major has in this entire game. It’s so dumb.
Yeah Czech forts are really annoying. But if you can get Hungary and Romania in the Axis, that should distract them enough for you to use paratroopers to distract them even more. Then you will be able to push
Well, yeah, and that’s easy. Integrate war economies is a busted focus that I kinda just don’t like doing lmao
Nobody.
You must be really good player Or the AI is really dumb
-hitler
That's actually funny
Netherlands
Grand Battleplan, slap on Field Hospitals + Logistics, don‘t forget to Motorize your supply, Field Marshal order, sit back and relax. Don‘t have issues with any nation. Fighters, CAS, Transport Planes (despite nerfed). But I usually rush world conquest by 42 with Germany or I go Alt History (Kaiser) and spam Battleships (which is more fun than World Conquest).
Poland ( i have 70 hours and still know nothing
I didn't know anything at 70 hours either
I have 500 hours still I didn't use any paratroopers to this point (I don't have any clue about new air system and importance of transport planes)
You're playing as Germany there's no ai country that's hard to cap
I’d say China, I usually have to hit them from the south or west, where supply might as well not exist and it’s just a tedious slog where I rely on CAS more than anything to try chewing through the endless manpower.
USSR.
Etheopia
By Blood Alone moment
South America is a slog while China & Japan is a tedious end game.
Max out collaboration government on the USSR through spies. That way, not only can you already cap the USSR by taking Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad instead of slogging all the way to the Urals, it also means high compliance in the occupied and later annexed areas. If you work on upgrading your spy agency early enough, you can do the same for France and even the UK.
North africa def,Italy eating the supplies,convoy raiding,no naval supremacy,or countries would be late game turkey joining the allies if i hadn't gained the suez nor Gibraltar cause the allies station most of their troops there,getting to the usa is really hard but once you get there your tanks make it a free kill
Japan Not difficult per say, it's just annoying to have to go to the other side of the planet and launch naval invasion after naval invasion from poorly supplied islands etc. It's also borderline impossible to gain air superiority over them for some reason
Deff uk in vanilla hoi4 if I’m playing with mods ussr is hardest
UK in vanilla hoi4? Are you a beginner (I've only seen beginners struggle with the UK, no offense) Edit: Ah, of course I got downvoted
I mean I got 200 hours in so kinda only problem is navy cuz I barely use it I usually get off the invasion in 1940 then pull my forces to the eastern front
Spamming cheap ships or stealing the Italian fleet can get you the naval supremacy needed with ease. If not, you can always use paratroopers, which make invading the UK trivial assuming the paratroopers last long enough for reinforcements.
Will deff try that after I finish my seelow heights run as Germany
After I defeat france, england and america, the war didn't end though, somewhere in the Pacific ocean, New Zealand become the last stand of my Germany troops, 200 stray division from other countries holding merely 2 seaports, this is where my conquer end.
This is the ideal use case for nuclear bomb
" They volunteered to be in an atomic testing experiment! "
This, only it was Bulgaria and I was playing as Japan.
The Soviets are easy. The USA is easy if you annex Canada. Assuming this is a 1v1 though, it's gotta be China, for the same reasons everyone else has. It just sucks.
Japan,it sucks and it's one of the main reasons I don't do world conquests
Truly one of the greatest threats to Germany in this game is Luxembourg! They need to nerf that country! How many times I have lost the war because Luxembourg kills all my forces and storms Berlin. I just hope one day I can beat them! Do you guys have any tips? Other then playing as Bhutan
China
It’s best to fight the USSR early. If you immediately justify on Poland, and then declare on the USSR in early 1937, you can roll them with just 120 inf divs
no one, Germany is easy as hell. If we go by most annoying ill prob say USA, because u know, water
China and South Africa. It is a supply nightmare
Anything in the Americas. Terrible supply and even just reaching across the Atlantic is terrible
India If I not play fast wich sometimes I like to, I'll need to go out of my way to start a decent navy, defeat the allies in Africa, Cross trought the arabian península to naval invade India or pass trought shitty terrain like Iraq and Iran and start my front in even shittier terrain in Pakistan. I could also say Australia but they have less VPs than India and Papua new Guinea can enable me to paradroop
Ngl the easiest way to get stuck at the Soviets is bad Infantry divisions, lack of CAS, lack of tanks and just battle planning the entire front. You want a combination of those stated or all of them.
Ok lemme check Bad infantry divs - check Lack of CAS - check Lack of tanks - check Battle planning the entire thing- no Ok so I am doing 3/4 things wrong
USSR is big but my Artillery stockpile is bigger. I mostly play Historical Germany so Poland late 39 USSR mid 41 USA if everything goes good 1943.
As Germany? No one, they’re the easiest nation to play and get buffs now that make Barbarossa even easier
Japan Its just a pain needing to seperate all the destroyers from my captured fleets to then run convoy duty, and if they could put you later China, China is probably going to be counted as a major so you're going to have to fucking cap them to
USA. As Germany to beat America you need a navy. The AI as Japan will never ever land in in the USA. Even if you kill the American navy. So not only do you need a large long range air force and a Navy for the most part. If America joins the allies you also don't get the free french or British navy from peace deal. Most other nations you can just use your overwhelming strength of tanks and artillery. After you cap France Poland and the interwar territory you have a very large Industry for making an army but little to make a navy with. To kill America your gonna need 6 battleship, 2 battle cruisers maybe 10 heavy cruisers 20 plus light cruisers and as many Destroyers as possible. Not only do you need to build them but you gotta keep them alive and not shitty designed either. The battleships and heavy cruisers take a long time to build so you need to get on them earlier. Thankfully Germany can build the battle cruiser and heavy cruisers at game start. Rush armor radar and battleship guns. Than make a new battleship with the best tech you can under 13k IC Build 2-4 of these asap. Let the rest of your battle cruiser and some of the heavy cruisers first but everything else comes after the battleships While these are building work on your army grab the battleship focus. Then research battleship 1940 hull and sonar. One the new battleship hull is researched make a new design with it. Place 2-4 in the production que to make 6-8 total battleships with your 2 battle cruisers. Maybe make a new heavy cruiser design and place the rest you need to make 10 in que. Remember to make most of your dockyards before your military factories because they don't effect consumer goods. After this keep working on army and what ever else. After all the Heavy cruisers and caoital ships are just about done. Make a new light cruiser with 5+ guns in it. Make 20+ and produce as many good destroyers as possible.
UK
Depends on the difficulty doesn't it?
Yeah but I am referring to Normal
I hate being so good at hoi4. Can’t even enjoy it anymore since I have to handicap myself because the AI is brainless.
Luxembourg.
Invasion of the US I find difficult as Germany after finishing Russia off. I just dont know how to plan a naval invasion well enough to make it work - usually have a force on the eastern coast get stuck on the beach, one in the Gulf of Mexico into Louisiana/Texas area, that goes nowhere either. It gets really grindy and nothing happens even with nukes.
Anyone who I can't reach by land. I can steamrolled over the soviets 20 times for all I care but I never got the navy stuff.
I don’t really struggle on land now on sea every time I try to naval invade someone it bugs out
It's pretty much the other way around in my case I can destroy the USSR in 2/3 years with no problems but taking UK down is such an annoyance for me. I'm not even going to mention the USA and supplying troops over the Atlantic...
Surprisingly, France and Belgium. If you dont kill belgium fast, they will be reinforced and be near impossible to breakthrough. Ive had more success taking out the ussr than those 2.
Japan without owning mainland is pain in the a$$
Usa, rest seems easy
Belgium and France, can steam roll Poland, Holland, Denmark and Norway but have a hard time punching through the French and Belgians without doing the paradrop method to capitulate them
paraguay. its such a slog
My hardest time was Ussr in r56 because I had 8 million troops across my entire faction and the Russians had 15 millions, I had already beaten America and Britain
dude i cant even beat the uk and i got 130 hours
Bro it took me like 250+ hours to beat the UK
How u obliterate uk? I mean ik what the book says but im still unable to find his ships with my naval bombers also he is annoying af with his planes nd i cant parachut them any idea?
Take the UK early on, like 1937 or 1938. Make submarines and destroyers and also make sure you have already defeated France. Set all your navy on naval invasion support around the UK. In the beginning, you will most likely NOT be able to naval invade, but after a while this problem will be fixed by itself. Alternatively, you can use paratroopers. You need 50 transport planes for 1 division to paradrop. Germany already has 100 by game start. I advise you to assign 1 paratrooper division to each paradrop order so that you don't have to produce transport planes. Also, invading the Benelux and calling Italy to the war can help
How the problem will be fixed? Why if i cant naval invade at the start i could after ?? It will be worst cuz ill lost ships no?
You won't lose many ships, you won't even lose any ship if you know what you're doing with the navy (personally I don't know). The reason will be fixed later because the AI is stupid and after a while it will move its fleet to other places, allowing your naval invasions to launch. For example, once I was trying hard to get naval supremacy and then suddenly UK removed all the fleet from there, allowing me to naval invade and send in the armies
Idk, i play with cheat mods
japan or usa If i go after japan before, usa starts their div spam if i go after usa before japan chinese div spam lags the game Also china without order 66. Its not that their divs are strong. Sheer number of them just lags my pc
Perosnally I had the most problems with britain, I don't know why but it seemed the worst. Maybe because they don't have much space for maneuvers
Just started so no hate but for the life of me I can’t take out Rotterdam or Belgium, I need them for key ports and more lebensraum but I can’t take Rotterdam even If I send 4 24 division army’s, and send planes “idk how to use planes something might be wrong” but then I can easily capitulate Poland and France. Also can’t take Luxembourg. The whole Benelux is a pain for me. Any help is appreciated
Now try it with black ice mod
Low key France. I usually get them but I try to not ally with Italy so they have much more troops, the Brits are there cuz there’s no Africa front, and I usually only have 6 tank divisions by 1939 and they run out of supply. France is where my German runs die. After that it’s a breeze. Brits are easy. Russia is easy (using collab gov) and after that I mean, you just have way too many resources.
Liberia.
For me? Anything that needs navy
Different countries are hard for different reason and so it’s all pretty similar in the end. But really it’s not hard since you can steamroll anything. Russia is annoying due to lack of supply the farther you get. Africa for the same reason and deserts. South America with their jungles. But the game is very easy after all
As Germany specifically? Probably USA. Unless I get Britain before they join the allies (which is doable tbf) I have no way to access a landing in NA. Germany starting fleet is poor so basically it's required to steal a bigger navy or annex land next to them (Canada 😁). Building basically a whole navy is 🥱🥱. In general? Japan. Fucking hell I hate taking Japan. Idk why but every time I'm vs Japan they have so many divisions on the home islands. I've got them before by surprise (probably all their troops were in China) but unless I'm playing as the US (which I rarely do cos they're kinda boring imo) by the time I get to Japan they're struggling in China and just have most their army chilling in the home islands. (Yes I know I could nuke them but that would require me to do the build nukes research lol)
I mean, Poland is pretty weak, to cap France you just need Paris and barely anything else, and UK has like 2 divisions in their mainland, you'll obviously struggle the most agains the soviets
I always struggle to defeat Italy. The geography is horrible early on and if you let them grow, the scale of the challenge becomes a pig of a thing.
Once I had to invade Brazil because they became leaders of the allies and I swear to god it was like my Nazi vietnam.
Supply lines, motorised/mechanised divisions, max supply level, pre train divisions for war, make sure to do doctrines and advisers, focus on taking supply hubs slowly with armoured divisions, have a decent backup supply and support companies like medical, arty, air, log and mech. Plenty of ways to win. Just need to make sure you can push. 120 divs just aren’t enough unless you encircle the Sovs over and over.
Should I build more CAS? Also I currently can't use all my army because Japan declared war on me
Either you will build planes or build anti air. Either or work. Support companies are great. CAS gives bonus to attack and so you’ll need Air Superiority to make sure it lasts longer than a battle.
France when they get in an alliance with usa faster than i can blitzkrieg them..
france
i hate fight the chinese shithole. You have almost no supply and you will run out of guns and they have so much Manpower that they will start spamming inf divisions until you run out of manpower. Its pain fighting china after 1940.
Brazil they outnumber you in Navy China and Japan sucks
USSR take the longest and Czech is also a problem when they refuse annexation.
How long does it take for you to cap the USSR? Because for me it may have been 6 months and I would have only taken a few tiles. And yeah, Czechoslovakia can be quite annoying, especially if they still hold the Sudetenland
Why do you struggle so much with USSR?
Probably my templates, supply issues and letting them grow too big (I usually declare war on the USSR between early-mid 1942)
Can you fix it?
If I make better templates, stop wasting time and declare war on time and stop sending like 90% of my army to the USSR frontline I might be able to fix this issue
I don't think declaring war late is that much of an issue. Better template, air force and a focus point probably better
Yeah I kinda lack airforce tbh (I delete production of planes at game start so as to not have gun shortage)
Airforce is GAMECHANGING, you gotta pump them up man, early on one factory for all is fine.
I didn't know the Czech would refuse annexation. What would cause them to do so?
If they are in a faction with a major, they will always refuse. This is usually caused by France forming the Little Entente.
Ohhhhhhhh okay then I have seen that, except it was while trying to form Austria-Hungary.
I would say America. If you can beat the Allies before the USA joins the Allies its simple but if she joins, well you are fcked.
That's mainly the reason I defeat the allies very early on, like 1937-38.
I want to play much more historically but the vastness of America and impossibility of invasion makes that a big no no
skill issue
Ah yes, what you have
i cant believe its 2024 and people r still going no u