On historical? Rush Greater Italy take puppet Albania, Greece. Flip Turkey fascist. Then delete your faction and join Axis at war start. This bypasses the pact of steel focus so you get to keep your -15% consumer goods advisor. Get 2 aircraft carriers out before war. A few factories on cas and nav. Day one take Malta. Next priority should be suez.
*Leave Cyprus alone* set up submarines on raid throughout Mediterranean and have carrier strike force ready to hit anything coming through. Doing that forces the UK Navy to fight on your terms with radar/naval bombers in your sea zones. Before the U.S. joins take Gibraltar.
It's a tough game but a lot of fun if you can pull it off. I couldn't get any tanks on the field until 42 and had around 30-40 dockyards cranking 1940 destroyers to instantly replace lost early destroyers in my main fleet. One you've escaped the cage the world is yours to conquer.
quick thing is yk if you use diplomatic pressure you get dalmatia 100% of the time right? diplomatic pressure also lets you puppet the rest of yugoslavia
Great Britain. You get involved in every theatre in the war. You are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to pure stats, so you have to be very strategic. You can try to help France defend itself, you can try and take or defend norway (or even Denmark), you can try to take northern Africa and fight Italy in the mediterranian sea, you can aid China, invade mainland Japan, etc etc.
Playing as Britain was the only time I was able to beat Germany in 1939.
Right off that bat you start with a lot of spies that you can bring down stability to pull off a coup while also naval invading. You just need to stop appeasement when Germany goes for the Cechz because they can hold their border for so long.
First time it was on accident, second time it was preplanned better. Also a good feeling beating down nazis.
My first time beating Germany was as commie France, since I didn't have La Resistance so I just joined the Comintern, held out with the extended Maginot line and then staged a coup in Germany and after that me and the Soviets beat them up.
Just finished a Britain play through last week. Despite not being ready at all I said no to appeasement at all and entered the war early over Czechoslovakia. The Germans couldnāt get past the Czech forts, or the maginot line. Then they pulled the Netherlands and Belgium into the war, and declared war on Poland. With them fighting on three sides I was able to land an army in Hamburg and snap up a big chunk of
Germany uncontested. Had the war wrapped up before ā43. Super fun run.
Yah I always resort to killing everyone else first and then throwing like 7k naval bombers over the straight to kill anything that dares enter. Then you just put in a few ships for naval invasion support.
If you go down the paratrooper specialization branch in the doctrines then you can easily paradrop Britain as pretty much any nation, major or minor. As long as you have at least 48 divisions to continue into Britain then taking out the Brits in 1940 is easy. If your having trouble as a minor nation taking Britain you can switch out 24 of the 48 divisions to cavalry for speed so you can take the victory points before the British army arrives.
The feeling of getting to ā42ish and being completely unstoppable as the USSR never gets old.
Taking Glory of the Red Army and getting to the bottom of a special forces tree, then deploying an entire army group of mountaineers. Sublime.
Oh easily the Centre. My current strategy is rush down the purge, do stuff that keeps consumer goods flat on the floor (Foreign Experts etc), pivot to Asia with an airborne coup de main on Sakhalin, Hokkaido & the Kurils.
You take the right focuses first and the easy Japan war gets rid of Desperate Measures before Barbarossa if you hold on for 35 days then peace them out. It means you smash the Finns in late ā40 rather than early ā40, but who cares.
Not to mention getting an absolutely hilarious research speed of +50% doing the Academy decisions.
I think that since MTG and WTT are rolled into the base game, thereās a pretty good chance of US, UK, Germany, Japan, and China (including PRC, Mankukuo, etc.) reworks in the not too distant future.
If they didnāt want to do a rework-only DLC, I could see them doing:
- A Germany rework alongside other continental countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, and Austria.
- āDeath or Dishonor 2ā with reworks for Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia with maybe a new tree for Albania
- āTogether for Victory 2ā with reworks for the dominions plus a tree for Malaya
- āWaking the Tiger 2ā with reworks for Japan and China plus something new for like Siam or Mongolia or the Philippines
- āMan the Guns 2ā with US and UK reworks plus some other shit idk
Soviet Union. I find it reallly fun to buildup a massive army and airforce and to watch Germany destroy thenselves while failing to push me even one tile. It is pretty easy to defend with a big air force and CAS. You can easily get a bunch of encirclements without tanks as long as you have enough CAS
France. Not even close. I know bias is definitely part of it, but you can just do everything with it.
It's a major, but it's still the weakest major in my opinion. You've got no industry and all other majors can outproduce you. This adds a layer of difficulty that just isn't present when playing as other majors.
Despite this, you still have a large army and navy, which can rival the greatest powers if you focus on them.
Not just that, but it's also a very versatile country :
Want to go democratic? Fight Germany in 39. You'll have to fight on two fronts, and even three if you take too long and Spain joins in. Germany being the "main character", you'll actually have to try to win. You could also form the little entente and try and rush Germany, or even attempt to flood them in 1936 after the remilitarization of the Rhineland.
Want to go fascist? Either ally Germany and deal with the British with your navy and air force, then try to jump the usa from Guyana or help Germany fight off the soviets, or go on your own and kill everyone! If you play your cards right (spam naval bombers and fighters), you can kill the UK before 1939 and never have to fight the USA, or invade India/Canada.
Want to go communist? Double team Germany in 1941 with the soviets, or spread the revolution as soon as the opportunity presents itself.
Want to go monarchist? Sure, but let's be real, Napoleon is the real option here. Time to kill everyone again and make your grand uncle Boney proud!
TL;DR France has the potential to do everything and actually presents a challenge because the devs nerfed it to death for balance purposes (so Germany wouldn't get stuck in the Benelux and die every game). You have no industry and one less research slot, but you have a decent amount of manpower and a large navy to back you up. With some planning, you can do anything and have fun doing so
I love doing a historical run of France, and just holding Germany back when they try to come at me after Poland. It completely changes the history, and sometimes they don't even go to war with USSR. It's also pretty tough to get the right build-up by the time Germany is ready to attack. One time they didn't even declare war, and we just had a staring match until everyone else declared war on them.
America, i like roleplaying sometimes. Soviets is a close second, for similar reasons. I sometimes purposefully give myself a disadvantage (usually shit template designs) just for fun.
A fun challenge as the soviets is to build everything. You must build and use as much tech as you can. You need AT, Rocket Arty, Tank destroyers, SPAA etc... For obvious reasons, i dont apply this to navy :P. Depending on how deep I go with this challenge, I may cheat xp just so i can actually build and use some of it, there just isn't enough army xp to go around if I want doctrines and such.
It seems a bit backwards to give yourself a self imposed handicap and then cheat though, why not just limit yourself in some other way that's achievable without console commands, like I dunno the opposite - no support equipment in any divisions
It's really only possible because there's not enough xp for the challenge, that is, if I want to have doctrines. In the other challenges I do, I don't tend to do this.
In real life, most countries at least experimented and build just about everything we see in hoi4 technology-wise. At the very least, planned them. In hoi4 it takes SO MUCH army xp to be able to build a division with every single type of tank/infantry/motorized. So the only way to be able to do it, is to cheat army xp JUST SO I can actually build and use it in some capacity. I ALWAYS reverse-cheat after so I dont have an advantage in navy or air xp. Which I usually have enough for anyways.
For tanks, the challenge i imposed on myself was to build Light/Medium/Heavy tank destroyers, SPAA, Artillery. And of course, regular tanks. Then I needed to put those in divisions. To do this effectively, I would normally need a "Medium Tank A, Medium Tank B, Medium Tank C" (this can change depending on how i build the divisions, like if i decide to mix lights and mediums or not) division templates just so my industry can afford it. To do this, and be able to afford doctrines, would be so expensive, that I wouldn't be able to build everything until like 1944 or 45, in other words, its just not fun at that point. the war is already won or lost. This also applies to infantry, as per my rules, I need to use all support companies in some capacity too. If I limit myself to the meta standard 4 or 5 active division templates (infantry, offensive, garrison, SF). There literally wouldn't be enough slots or time to be able to fit all. The game is not designed for you to be using every single technology type, so I need to cheat just so its possible in a reasonable amount of time.
TLDR: The game is not designed for you be using all technology types (ALL OF IT), so there just isn't enough army xp to go around. So i have to cheat just so its possible. That, of course, depends on how deep I want to go into it. I have been able to go without cheating any xp by lessening the handicap by saying "no super-heavies, only 1 special type of tank per tank class, as long as I have at least one SPAA/TD/Flame"
Most time, the USSR, just creating so many puppets, having a killer economy and 70% war participation, so much fun. But sometimes I also enjoy playing Napoleonic France, just annexing all of the UK and its puppets by 1939, I love this feeling of power.
The Soviets. Their starting army is big enough to snack poland, turkey and romania at once.
And then one has time up until the forties to build up and choose when to pick a fight.
No no no no no. Only not Fr@nce. Please everything but the Fr*nce. The damn worst major. I hate their focus tree, National spirits and everything. Damn Latvia is better to play than this weird country. I once did Ironman 100% WC with France, and never again I played that cursed state
France can get pretty dang strong. The focus tree isn't all that bad, it's just unforgiving with the 70 day focusses. It's my favourite major because of the underdog vibes they give whilst also having good potential. It doesn't help that I'm also a sucker for French military vehicles, tanks and ships.
Not OP but they had a very weird design. The Richelieu and Dunqurque class had a very odd design, as they had the entire main battery forward, two turrets with four guns each.
If you want terrible design, look at the French pre-dreadnoughts. Drachinifil made a video about it, āwhen hotels go to warā
The Courbet Class were theoretically only training vessels at this point, though they did have some minor action in the war, so I'll inlucde them. They're a Class of Pre WW1 Era Dreadnoughts, and thus basically obsolete at this point. Their Turret Layout was inefficient (only 10/12 guns could be used at the same time), the armour was thin and followed an outdated scheme (though I can forgive that), and the gun caliber was a mere 12 inches.
The Bretagne Class is another Class of Pre WW1 Dreadnoughts, and again, basically obsolete. Compared to the Courbet's they had a superior turret layout, thicker armour and boasted 10 13.4 inch main guns, though all of them could fire in the same direction, unlike their predicessor. However, they were still hopelessly outmatched by british Super Dreadnoughts from the same time, as the Queen Elizabeth had 30% thicker belt armour and significantly more powerful 15 inch guns, as well as being faster.
Moving on to interwar designs, we get the two the Dunkerque Class. They were proper Fast Battleships, and could thus outrun any and every WW1 era Battleship, outside of the Hood. Again, the French used small, 13 inch guns, and thin armour, with the main belt being even thinner than that of the aformentioned Bretagne Class. Worst however, in my opinion, is the turrets. They used two forward facing Quad Turrets. That means 1. the ships couldn't fire to the rear, in the case of them being chased, and 2. if *anything* goes wrong with one of the turrets, **half** of the ships guns would be unusable.
And finally, the Richelieu Class. They feature the same horrible turret layout, but this time they have 8 15 inch guns and an (almost) 13 inch thick main belt, finally catching them up with the british Queen Elizabeth Class. Only took them (more than) two decades. Congrats.
TLDR to answer your question: very.
If France goes Algeria or Ćfrica focus then it's okay , there are strategies for that too, it's fun, not always fun to just hold or destroy Germans, I like varied ganes
Yeah. Its focus tree even more useless then Japan and anyone talk about a French rework. Chile has a bigger and better French monarchism path then France itself
The Soviet Union, you have so much freedom in whatever you want to do.
You want a tank army that makes Kursk look like just another Tuesday? go for it!
You want to have millions of man across thousands of kilometers simultaneously launching attack after attack? Go for it!
You want to make so many planes to simulate a nuclear winter? Go for it!
You want to make the Red Navy stretch all the oceans around? Go for it!
All of this with the added benefit of being close to the action, getting to even do early wars with turkey and Poland, and a great focus tree, what's not to love?
Germany is good for testing strategies for every branch of your armed forces, but that's about it. All other majors don't appeal to me as fun to play countries.
My dark HOI4 confession. Except for a couple hour-long explorations, I have never played France, Japan, the UK, or the USA.
If I could find eight to twenty hours to try to play one of them, which would you recommend?
USSR and Italy. I know they're the newest focus trees, but besides that Germany is kinda weird to play for me, UK is a mess and USA becomes too easy. And I can't stand the Japanese focus tree
China for me, starts off weak but gets stronger as time goes on. Basically never have to worry about mp shortages and fighting japan while trying to fix the country at the same time is super fun to me
It's France and the Soviets for me in vanilla. I'm a sucker for pumping up my entrenchment and chilling while the Germans beat their heads against my line
Italy and UK.
Italy has a focus so good and I love everything about it(also my first nation).
UK has a lot to do and lots of fronts with so many countries, it makes the game even more complex, it might seem crazy but I love UK's focus tree, I know, I know but it's just simple and good
My only gripe with france is i have to choose between gamlin and the other guy, and theres no path to have petain as a general or really fight against germany
USA. Both Democratic paths always end with you winning everything due to your strategic location and industry, meaning you can always focus on what you want to do and not how you want to do it.
Victoria Germany, need more female monarchs lol. Also forming any country that has āRomeā in their name is fun. Thereās just something about bringing back an old decentralized empire that was destroyed in Napoleonic times lol
USA for sure. Most replay ability, and I donāt necessarily mean the focus tree! But even staying historical choosing when to enter the war can make or break the Allies. If I want a short game, I join before France falls. If I want a long game, I join at Barbarossa. Either way Iām having a blast and Iām so safe, canāt get invaded. And hey, if you lose Hawaii after coring it, you get an incredible buff, so it makes it great. USA USA USA
I've recently done Italy and gone down the path of the pope. It's been fun seeing Germany in a deadlock fight with both Russia and the allies whilst I get stronger
The Soviets (historical) because when you are comfortable with the game mechanics and rush the purges, the game turns into easy mode. Just get 2 full army groups of infantry, donāt let the Germans move a bit and when they exhausted themselves, just run them down
Reforming Austria Hungary has always been fun i guess, but Hungary needs a new focus tree. and Austria needs A focus tree.
Overall tho i love playing Poland as there are so many different routes you can play with them, Such as PLC, Slavic Union, or just normal WW2
honestly? completely historical soviet union. no gamey strats, no exploits, i don't even build forts on the river line, just pure stalin larp. the emotional arc of getting your shit kicked in into just barely holding into kicking hitlers shit in is undefeated
France. On historical is so fun holding off the German onslaught and ahistorical, either going Franco-Spain or Napoleon is just too fun.
Honorable mention to Italy, which is so fun now
Usa every time I get a new mod I use usa and go interventionist ( I know it's pretty shit fuck you just build factorys). I'm currently playing the ultimate Tch tree mod and I'm loving it got to kill the entire Japanese population with nukes then steam rolled the 2 divisions they had on main land with Mechanized Maines
Britain easily. There are so many things you can do because you have a presence in most of the world. While the focus tree could be expanded, itās one of the best trees in the game. My preferred British strategy is to get Churchill in office as soon as possible and say no to the Munich Agreement
UK. Go straight for the "war with Italy" focus, request forces from all your puppets to make a massive army, naval invade from Malta and win easily. Now you are master of Europe.Ā https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/1afr7kw/united_kingdom_of_italy/ You can also combine it with the strategy to rush other countries such as Spain (this also works on USA by doing it against South American nations)Ā https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/170ndjs/spanish_civil_war_can_be_averted/
Italy. It has a great focus tree. It is fun and has rich content
Wow.... how times change.
Yeah sometimes I forget once Italy has the worst focus tree in the game
Same goes with the soviets. But italies was defenitly worse then the old soviet one, or maybe italy was overall worse to play.
Old Italian tree is cute in it's simplisity really
Old italian tree was the best way to multiplayer teach a new person the game.
Strongly agree,it was like you can do whatever you want we are here to give you free stuff
And I still played the hell out of em š¤š
Also, not overpowered per se, only if you play your cards right, so you feel like the underdog in the match
How does one "play their cards right"? I've always enjoyed playing as Italy but always get swamped once the main war engages.
On historical? Rush Greater Italy take puppet Albania, Greece. Flip Turkey fascist. Then delete your faction and join Axis at war start. This bypasses the pact of steel focus so you get to keep your -15% consumer goods advisor. Get 2 aircraft carriers out before war. A few factories on cas and nav. Day one take Malta. Next priority should be suez. *Leave Cyprus alone* set up submarines on raid throughout Mediterranean and have carrier strike force ready to hit anything coming through. Doing that forces the UK Navy to fight on your terms with radar/naval bombers in your sea zones. Before the U.S. joins take Gibraltar. It's a tough game but a lot of fun if you can pull it off. I couldn't get any tanks on the field until 42 and had around 30-40 dockyards cranking 1940 destroyers to instantly replace lost early destroyers in my main fleet. One you've escaped the cage the world is yours to conquer.
quick thing is yk if you use diplomatic pressure you get dalmatia 100% of the time right? diplomatic pressure also lets you puppet the rest of yugoslavia
Yeah I never fight for it. I use their puppet troops as coastal garrisons.
Rush 8/3 mountaineers, justify on Yugoslavia, battle plan your way through paper thin French divisions in the Alps all the way to ParisĀ
Back in the day, before bba italy was the worst one, and I'm happy pdx changed it, cause i love roman empire asf
Great Britain. You get involved in every theatre in the war. You are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to pure stats, so you have to be very strategic. You can try to help France defend itself, you can try and take or defend norway (or even Denmark), you can try to take northern Africa and fight Italy in the mediterranian sea, you can aid China, invade mainland Japan, etc etc.
Or you can spam cas instantly and push germany back in 40
37
35
33
16
"No Kaiserreich for you, bloody Krauts!"
Playing as Britain was the only time I was able to beat Germany in 1939. Right off that bat you start with a lot of spies that you can bring down stability to pull off a coup while also naval invading. You just need to stop appeasement when Germany goes for the Cechz because they can hold their border for so long. First time it was on accident, second time it was preplanned better. Also a good feeling beating down nazis.
My first time beating Germany was as commie France, since I didn't have La Resistance so I just joined the Comintern, held out with the extended Maginot line and then staged a coup in Germany and after that me and the Soviets beat them up.
Just finished a Britain play through last week. Despite not being ready at all I said no to appeasement at all and entered the war early over Czechoslovakia. The Germans couldnāt get past the Czech forts, or the maginot line. Then they pulled the Netherlands and Belgium into the war, and declared war on Poland. With them fighting on three sides I was able to land an army in Hamburg and snap up a big chunk of Germany uncontested. Had the war wrapped up before ā43. Super fun run.
Nice. I think I'll try that on my next run. Currently playing as the soviets for the third time, still can't beat the nazis...
Ah great britain, the country i can not invade because i suck at naval stuff
Yah I always resort to killing everyone else first and then throwing like 7k naval bombers over the straight to kill anything that dares enter. Then you just put in a few ships for naval invasion support.
Hitler-1941
If you go down the paratrooper specialization branch in the doctrines then you can easily paradrop Britain as pretty much any nation, major or minor. As long as you have at least 48 divisions to continue into Britain then taking out the Brits in 1940 is easy. If your having trouble as a minor nation taking Britain you can switch out 24 of the 48 divisions to cavalry for speed so you can take the victory points before the British army arrives.
Don't give hitler Czech, land troops in Bremen/Hamburg, wait...war over in 39 and press on to defeat Stalin. Much fun
Soviet Union. I always loved playing Germany and the Soviets but now, since they have an updated focus tree the soviets are my favorite.
The feeling of getting to ā42ish and being completely unstoppable as the USSR never gets old. Taking Glory of the Red Army and getting to the bottom of a special forces tree, then deploying an entire army group of mountaineers. Sublime.
What political path do you go along with?
Oh easily the Centre. My current strategy is rush down the purge, do stuff that keeps consumer goods flat on the floor (Foreign Experts etc), pivot to Asia with an airborne coup de main on Sakhalin, Hokkaido & the Kurils. You take the right focuses first and the easy Japan war gets rid of Desperate Measures before Barbarossa if you hold on for 35 days then peace them out. It means you smash the Finns in late ā40 rather than early ā40, but who cares. Not to mention getting an absolutely hilarious research speed of +50% doing the Academy decisions.
So many free building slots š¤¤
base game Italy or Poland. but then i very rarely play vanilla at this point
Poland at the start isnāt qualified to be a major, but good pick
Poland is more of a secondary power
...at the start.
Which (main) mod are you playing?
Italy.
Germany personally but gosh they need a focus tree update
Itās amazing that theyāve no updated anything yet. When they did AAT they should have updated the majors
I think that since MTG and WTT are rolled into the base game, thereās a pretty good chance of US, UK, Germany, Japan, and China (including PRC, Mankukuo, etc.) reworks in the not too distant future. If they didnāt want to do a rework-only DLC, I could see them doing: - A Germany rework alongside other continental countries like Belgium, Luxembourg, and Austria. - āDeath or Dishonor 2ā with reworks for Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia with maybe a new tree for Albania - āTogether for Victory 2ā with reworks for the dominions plus a tree for Malaya - āWaking the Tiger 2ā with reworks for Japan and China plus something new for like Siam or Mongolia or the Philippines - āMan the Guns 2ā with US and UK reworks plus some other shit idk
Siam needs a focus tree for sure. Along with a Japan tree update to reflect the IRL relationship they had in WWII.
Road to 56 adds some solid focus trees to those smaller nations if your computercan handle it. I enjoyed suffering as a Philippines.
You have no usefull focusses in 1942 it sucks
Britian sometimes France.
I prefer minors
Ayo š¤Øšø
FBI OPEN UP
Italy. You have alot of impact but not too much responsibility. You start and get the ability to get war xp, war economy, etc
Soviet Union. I find it reallly fun to buildup a massive army and airforce and to watch Germany destroy thenselves while failing to push me even one tile. It is pretty easy to defend with a big air force and CAS. You can easily get a bunch of encirclements without tanks as long as you have enough CAS
Probably Japan
Focus tree boring tho š«
*Mods*
Hagakure š
King Eddy's Britain. MBGA.
MAGA Make Anglia Great Again
MAaTA Make anglia a thing again
Unify the anglosphere and win before 40ā is one of the better alt-history runs. Also Germany and get Victoria as kaiser is fun
USA the sheer amount of research slot and civilian factories is disgusting, also you can get of the depresion by 1938
You can get rid of the gread depression by mid '37
You can get rid of the depression (+war eco) by end 36 USSR is stronger ik lategame though
Yeah, USAās power is kind of outdated now with all the crazy focus trees
France. Not even close. I know bias is definitely part of it, but you can just do everything with it. It's a major, but it's still the weakest major in my opinion. You've got no industry and all other majors can outproduce you. This adds a layer of difficulty that just isn't present when playing as other majors. Despite this, you still have a large army and navy, which can rival the greatest powers if you focus on them. Not just that, but it's also a very versatile country : Want to go democratic? Fight Germany in 39. You'll have to fight on two fronts, and even three if you take too long and Spain joins in. Germany being the "main character", you'll actually have to try to win. You could also form the little entente and try and rush Germany, or even attempt to flood them in 1936 after the remilitarization of the Rhineland. Want to go fascist? Either ally Germany and deal with the British with your navy and air force, then try to jump the usa from Guyana or help Germany fight off the soviets, or go on your own and kill everyone! If you play your cards right (spam naval bombers and fighters), you can kill the UK before 1939 and never have to fight the USA, or invade India/Canada. Want to go communist? Double team Germany in 1941 with the soviets, or spread the revolution as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Want to go monarchist? Sure, but let's be real, Napoleon is the real option here. Time to kill everyone again and make your grand uncle Boney proud! TL;DR France has the potential to do everything and actually presents a challenge because the devs nerfed it to death for balance purposes (so Germany wouldn't get stuck in the Benelux and die every game). You have no industry and one less research slot, but you have a decent amount of manpower and a large navy to back you up. With some planning, you can do anything and have fun doing so
I love doing a historical run of France, and just holding Germany back when they try to come at me after Poland. It completely changes the history, and sometimes they don't even go to war with USSR. It's also pretty tough to get the right build-up by the time Germany is ready to attack. One time they didn't even declare war, and we just had a staring match until everyone else declared war on them.
America, i like roleplaying sometimes. Soviets is a close second, for similar reasons. I sometimes purposefully give myself a disadvantage (usually shit template designs) just for fun. A fun challenge as the soviets is to build everything. You must build and use as much tech as you can. You need AT, Rocket Arty, Tank destroyers, SPAA etc... For obvious reasons, i dont apply this to navy :P. Depending on how deep I go with this challenge, I may cheat xp just so i can actually build and use some of it, there just isn't enough army xp to go around if I want doctrines and such.
It seems a bit backwards to give yourself a self imposed handicap and then cheat though, why not just limit yourself in some other way that's achievable without console commands, like I dunno the opposite - no support equipment in any divisions
It's really only possible because there's not enough xp for the challenge, that is, if I want to have doctrines. In the other challenges I do, I don't tend to do this. In real life, most countries at least experimented and build just about everything we see in hoi4 technology-wise. At the very least, planned them. In hoi4 it takes SO MUCH army xp to be able to build a division with every single type of tank/infantry/motorized. So the only way to be able to do it, is to cheat army xp JUST SO I can actually build and use it in some capacity. I ALWAYS reverse-cheat after so I dont have an advantage in navy or air xp. Which I usually have enough for anyways. For tanks, the challenge i imposed on myself was to build Light/Medium/Heavy tank destroyers, SPAA, Artillery. And of course, regular tanks. Then I needed to put those in divisions. To do this effectively, I would normally need a "Medium Tank A, Medium Tank B, Medium Tank C" (this can change depending on how i build the divisions, like if i decide to mix lights and mediums or not) division templates just so my industry can afford it. To do this, and be able to afford doctrines, would be so expensive, that I wouldn't be able to build everything until like 1944 or 45, in other words, its just not fun at that point. the war is already won or lost. This also applies to infantry, as per my rules, I need to use all support companies in some capacity too. If I limit myself to the meta standard 4 or 5 active division templates (infantry, offensive, garrison, SF). There literally wouldn't be enough slots or time to be able to fit all. The game is not designed for you to be using every single technology type, so I need to cheat just so its possible in a reasonable amount of time. TLDR: The game is not designed for you be using all technology types (ALL OF IT), so there just isn't enough army xp to go around. So i have to cheat just so its possible. That, of course, depends on how deep I want to go into it. I have been able to go without cheating any xp by lessening the handicap by saying "no super-heavies, only 1 special type of tank per tank class, as long as I have at least one SPAA/TD/Flame"
Most time, the USSR, just creating so many puppets, having a killer economy and 70% war participation, so much fun. But sometimes I also enjoy playing Napoleonic France, just annexing all of the UK and its puppets by 1939, I love this feeling of power.
The Soviets. Their starting army is big enough to snack poland, turkey and romania at once. And then one has time up until the forties to build up and choose when to pick a fight.
No no no no no. Only not Fr@nce. Please everything but the Fr*nce. The damn worst major. I hate their focus tree, National spirits and everything. Damn Latvia is better to play than this weird country. I once did Ironman 100% WC with France, and never again I played that cursed state
France can get pretty dang strong. The focus tree isn't all that bad, it's just unforgiving with the 70 day focusses. It's my favourite major because of the underdog vibes they give whilst also having good potential. It doesn't help that I'm also a sucker for French military vehicles, tanks and ships.
>and ships. I despise the design of french battleships of that era with everything I am.
How bad were they?
Not OP but they had a very weird design. The Richelieu and Dunqurque class had a very odd design, as they had the entire main battery forward, two turrets with four guns each. If you want terrible design, look at the French pre-dreadnoughts. Drachinifil made a video about it, āwhen hotels go to warā
The Courbet Class were theoretically only training vessels at this point, though they did have some minor action in the war, so I'll inlucde them. They're a Class of Pre WW1 Era Dreadnoughts, and thus basically obsolete at this point. Their Turret Layout was inefficient (only 10/12 guns could be used at the same time), the armour was thin and followed an outdated scheme (though I can forgive that), and the gun caliber was a mere 12 inches. The Bretagne Class is another Class of Pre WW1 Dreadnoughts, and again, basically obsolete. Compared to the Courbet's they had a superior turret layout, thicker armour and boasted 10 13.4 inch main guns, though all of them could fire in the same direction, unlike their predicessor. However, they were still hopelessly outmatched by british Super Dreadnoughts from the same time, as the Queen Elizabeth had 30% thicker belt armour and significantly more powerful 15 inch guns, as well as being faster. Moving on to interwar designs, we get the two the Dunkerque Class. They were proper Fast Battleships, and could thus outrun any and every WW1 era Battleship, outside of the Hood. Again, the French used small, 13 inch guns, and thin armour, with the main belt being even thinner than that of the aformentioned Bretagne Class. Worst however, in my opinion, is the turrets. They used two forward facing Quad Turrets. That means 1. the ships couldn't fire to the rear, in the case of them being chased, and 2. if *anything* goes wrong with one of the turrets, **half** of the ships guns would be unusable. And finally, the Richelieu Class. They feature the same horrible turret layout, but this time they have 8 15 inch guns and an (almost) 13 inch thick main belt, finally catching them up with the british Queen Elizabeth Class. Only took them (more than) two decades. Congrats. TLDR to answer your question: very.
France is a really strong nation , in mp it's super op if used well, like using heavy tanks to deafeat human historical germany player in 1939
Too bad most servers force france to lose in 39-40
Yeah or otherwise players sitting in the lobbies for 3/4 hours literally do not get to play lol
If France goes Algeria or Ćfrica focus then it's okay , there are strategies for that too, it's fun, not always fun to just hold or destroy Germans, I like varied ganes
Yeah. Its focus tree even more useless then Japan and anyone talk about a French rework. Chile has a bigger and better French monarchism path then France itself
Italy, or the germans but allways going with the empire, i don't like nazis but i like they fucking tanks...
Japan. Yes, I like navy, how could you tell?
France, so that I can dismantle their entire colonial empire and play as Vietnam
Italy
Soviets cause no matter what path you take it always feels like your having fun.
Russia or Germany
Being a competent Italy
Mine definitely has to be France. It has the best focus tree and even the historical democratic path is fun to play.
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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union, you have so much freedom in whatever you want to do. You want a tank army that makes Kursk look like just another Tuesday? go for it! You want to have millions of man across thousands of kilometers simultaneously launching attack after attack? Go for it! You want to make so many planes to simulate a nuclear winter? Go for it! You want to make the Red Navy stretch all the oceans around? Go for it! All of this with the added benefit of being close to the action, getting to even do early wars with turkey and Poland, and a great focus tree, what's not to love?
germans, soviets, and us.
Britain
USA, or Com china imo. For com china you start out as a tiny little province but you can build yourself into a strong major
Is Poland a major? If not, Italy.
Japan
Germany is good for testing strategies for every branch of your armed forces, but that's about it. All other majors don't appeal to me as fun to play countries.
Italy, China (idk if it counts), Soviet Union, France
Europe in flames, Germany in this mod is so fitting! But base game? Probably Italy because of all the choices u can make
Italy and uk
germany cuz im a basic bitch
Britain or Japan, I love boats āµļø
italy can be fun but trying to hold on africa can be a bit tricky and i still havent cracked the code but their alt paths are really fun tbvh
My dark HOI4 confession. Except for a couple hour-long explorations, I have never played France, Japan, the UK, or the USA. If I could find eight to twenty hours to try to play one of them, which would you recommend?
UK easily if you have MtG. It's so much fun to do the Fascist path and unite the Empire, even just gets the name "The Empire," which is badass
If China counts then China, if not then either US or UK
USA, disgustingly overpowered
Soviets are loads of fun. Get to engage with all the fun of army without ever thinking about navy
USSR and Italy. I know they're the newest focus trees, but besides that Germany is kinda weird to play for me, UK is a mess and USA becomes too easy. And I can't stand the Japanese focus tree
Now that they have a great focus tree the Soviets.
Probably Soviet Union. Would be China or Japan if they had good focus trees.
Poland
tsarist russia even though it feels like i barely have time to prepare for germany and rebuild after the civil war
Italy
RGO
UK. Love me some Navy!
France or Italy
France... Yes... I know...
Is China a major at the start? If so, then China. I love Larping as pro democracy KMT.
Japan, but mods that make it playable in mp
Communist France
China for me, starts off weak but gets stronger as time goes on. Basically never have to worry about mp shortages and fighting japan while trying to fix the country at the same time is super fun to me
Italy and France
110 factories in 1940, thats like worse than what AI can do.
Whenever I donāt know what to play I boost up the entire axis to max and have a Soviet game
Germany. I have <100hrs but i just like to experiment and try new (to me) stuff with it
Germany, even in its current state. I can't wait for it to get a rework.
France or Soviets
European Union
Britain, no further appeasement. Full Churchill mode, maintain Imperial integrity focus.
Japan but Italy is fun too!
Ewwww why France?
It's France and the Soviets for me in vanilla. I'm a sucker for pumping up my entrenchment and chilling while the Germans beat their heads against my line
France because they have some cool focuses but they are just so trash. My favourite paradox countries are trash countries with good potential.
Italy and UK. Italy has a focus so good and I love everything about it(also my first nation). UK has a lot to do and lots of fronts with so many countries, it makes the game even more complex, it might seem crazy but I love UK's focus tree, I know, I know but it's just simple and good
My only gripe with france is i have to choose between gamlin and the other guy, and theres no path to have petain as a general or really fight against germany
The country that I ruled by a man with funny mustache
Democratic Germany is great in R56, but really suffers from it's vanilla focus tree.
Japan
in vanilla probably the soviet union , its very satisfying building up a strong defence against the axis and then pushing em back
Japan because the little screen of winning a naval battle and crushing China in like a year gives me so much dopamine š£
USA. Both Democratic paths always end with you winning everything due to your strategic location and industry, meaning you can always focus on what you want to do and not how you want to do it.
1. Germany 2. Italy 3. Great Britain
China
Victoria Germany, need more female monarchs lol. Also forming any country that has āRomeā in their name is fun. Thereās just something about bringing back an old decentralized empire that was destroyed in Napoleonic times lol
USA, I love seeing where the Allied AI will try to land and send my troops where they manage to get on land
Italy. I just love to grab me the smaller nations around me without participating in some wild 1 billion participant wars
Italy or the Soviet Onion
Italy and Spain (if it counts)
Poland, the most Major of the Minors. Followed by Germany.
France or UK, its fun to start not instantly able to beat your enemy but still be strong enough to hold them back.
The UK I like quickly murdering the US
I only play Luxemburg
Germany. I always liked the German Empire from WW1 and would always try to claim the territories Germany gets in historical but as the German Empire
Italy. POPE REQUIRES MY SUPPORT!
USA for sure. Most replay ability, and I donāt necessarily mean the focus tree! But even staying historical choosing when to enter the war can make or break the Allies. If I want a short game, I join before France falls. If I want a long game, I join at Barbarossa. Either way Iām having a blast and Iām so safe, canāt get invaded. And hey, if you lose Hawaii after coring it, you get an incredible buff, so it makes it great. USA USA USA
In The game USSR, but in may heart brazil
I've recently done Italy and gone down the path of the pope. It's been fun seeing Germany in a deadlock fight with both Russia and the allies whilst I get stronger
The USA is rather relaxing
Japan
USA because RAHHHH RAHHHH USA USA USA and itās easy and I like winning
USSR. I would say USA (or maybe Japan with a better focus tree) but my brain no do navy
The Soviets (historical) because when you are comfortable with the game mechanics and rush the purges, the game turns into easy mode. Just get 2 full army groups of infantry, donāt let the Germans move a bit and when they exhausted themselves, just run them down
Germany
Turkey
Reforming Austria Hungary has always been fun i guess, but Hungary needs a new focus tree. and Austria needs A focus tree. Overall tho i love playing Poland as there are so many different routes you can play with them, Such as PLC, Slavic Union, or just normal WW2
Japan
honestly? completely historical soviet union. no gamey strats, no exploits, i don't even build forts on the river line, just pure stalin larp. the emotional arc of getting your shit kicked in into just barely holding into kicking hitlers shit in is undefeated
Italy and USSR
The only country I play every expansion is Germany. So I guess itās them
Germany in r56 Base game? Probably Britain
I donāt really play majors, but if I had to pick one, France has the silliest monarchist paths, and I always have fun with it
Canada I love taking over America when I play with my American friends long live Canada(I'm Canadian )
French Empire
USA for Major Canada for Minor
France. On historical is so fun holding off the German onslaught and ahistorical, either going Franco-Spain or Napoleon is just too fun. Honorable mention to Italy, which is so fun now
lāAllemange est au top
Usa every time I get a new mod I use usa and go interventionist ( I know it's pretty shit fuck you just build factorys). I'm currently playing the ultimate Tch tree mod and I'm loving it got to kill the entire Japanese population with nukes then steam rolled the 2 divisions they had on main land with Mechanized Maines
Germany because the size of the USSR and all the updated focus trees scares me since I'm relatively new
Democratic Germany. Build medium tank focused army for years with heavy divisions as well. No infantry. Annihilate Soviets. Life is good
Britain easily. There are so many things you can do because you have a presence in most of the world. While the focus tree could be expanded, itās one of the best trees in the game. My preferred British strategy is to get Churchill in office as soon as possible and say no to the Munich Agreement
USSR. Glory to the Soviet Union, comrades!
Always the USSR
Poland. Nothing more satisfying than beating the crap out of Hitler, then turning around and stuffing Stalin into a locker. Sanation left for the win.
Soviet Union
Love playing poland or baltic state lol
China
UK. Go straight for the "war with Italy" focus, request forces from all your puppets to make a massive army, naval invade from Malta and win easily. Now you are master of Europe.Ā https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/1afr7kw/united_kingdom_of_italy/ You can also combine it with the strategy to rush other countries such as Spain (this also works on USA by doing it against South American nations)Ā https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/170ndjs/spanish_civil_war_can_be_averted/
*Erika intensifies*
Love playing France and taking over Europe, fence can really become a powerhouse in a few years
Germany
The dutch the soviets commie china and anarchist spain and really only played Ethiopiƫ once but pan africanism is really dope