Hearts of Iron 4

[physichull]

The spies thing is interesting. You get one for creating the agency, then you can get an illusive gent, which is 2. Then you need a certain number of factories to reach 3 and 4 I believe. Spy Master gives you one. So that's potentially 5, which can be achieved fairly quickly I'd imagine. As the game progresses your spies improve with traits, and part way through you reach level 2 spies. The ideology boost for smaller nations is then quite quick.

Its not factories i dont think, i think its the more nations you can add to your faction. So with Spain in the axis you will need to puppet a whole bunch of countries or at least hope Germany will....

Illusive agent and getting 5 agency upgrades gets you two more....spy master only gets you more spies if the faction you are joining or becoming soy master for has enough puppets in it....i think....

Still got a bunch of China and Communist China achievements to get....including grinding a level 9 field marshall as China.....sheesh! Thats gonna be a pain. Even in my world conquest games i dont think ive got anyvody that skilled. Youd have to literally use them for every fight and even then youd have to grind a war slowly rather than win it quickly.

I find China HARD. Beating the Japanese is a very precise operation and a lot has to go your way. Spain and China are my bogey teams! The other thing about China is that yes they have a huge amount of manpower, but their natural resources are terrible. I was almost always having to trade for huge amounts of steel, tungsten and aluminium. There are very few territories around to easily conquer that alleviates this.

 

[philstanbridge]

It certainly used to be factories, but maybe this was removed in a later patch? I need to find out.

If you set a front line with the battle planner and assign an army group to it, with a general, your traits increase rapidly. Much faster than if you do so micro managing. But I agree that China is difficult. It's a challenge though, which I like. I usually kick the Japanese out of Korea, but it takes a while. What I like to do is to wait for a Japanese naval invasion, and they nearly always send 10 units at once. If you pop a defensive garrison on the ports, they will land in provinces with no supply. So then all you need do is surround them and wait it out. It's a fairly easy 100,000 Japanese dead. If you've got maintenance support companies, when you obliterate them you also get an amount of their equipment. The problem as it stands apart from the obvious fact you start with bugger all equipment is the bonuses the Japanese get for kicking off the Marco Polo incident. It basically means every so often their infantry units are given a massive boost. It's quite clear to see when it happens as Japan because they suddenly start to break through your lines through no apparent reason.

Reference the resources, I trade with the Soviets. That way you don't need to use convoys, which always get sunk. You'll also find the lend lease convoys getting sunk too, with vital infantry weapons you need ending up at the bottom of the sea.

 

[physichull]

Well that was a disappointing waste of 4 hours. Did OK to start with as communist China, but then when I turned on China they got immediately guaranteed by the Allies which meant that ultimately it was just too hard to fight the Japanese and all of the allies aswell. But I thought I'd persist and see if I couldn't give it a bit of a go...what with my huge manpower.

Fended off constant Japanese invasions as well as trying to push the allies out of India. It was a step too far in the end. Germany capitulated, then the Soviets, who were my only ally, and that was the Alt-F4 curtains moment. *sigh*

China's biggest problem is steel and terrible infrastructure. They have literally none of it, so if the Soviets are doing really badly, as they often are, you are ultimately doomed. Will try again some other time. Also, for some reason that I can't figure out, my troops do REALLY badly against the Japanese. Japans org is just so high compared to mine, even when rocking fairly reliable 7/2s.

 

[philstanbridge]

Yes, as I said above, the Japanese are tenacious! They use a starting template of 24 width, (which eats the 7/2) and have full equipment. That coupled with the bonuses they get via the Marco Polo event and it's game over in some cases. The best way to play as China is defensively. Use GBP doctrine, and focus purely on strengthening your lines behind rivers. Mid game things balance a bit if you're still alive, as you can remove some of those painful reforms and national decisions. I always befriend the Soviets first, and get the extra troops via volunteers. Then the inf weapons on lend lease. The problem with that however is that eats the supply of the Soviets, which in turns means they are always running at a loss which is one reason why they fair so badly versus Germany.

 

[Game]

how does this compare to crusader kings 3 and stellaris

tempted on the next steam sale

 

[philstanbridge]

It’s like comparing apples and oranges. If you're familiar with the way CKIII works then that helps in terms of UI and mechanics, but the game is more about the warfare, and strategies.

 

[physichull]

Couldn't really comment on the comparison, I absolutely love this game because I love the WW2 setting. Underneath the shiny GUI, its essentially a massive interactive Microsoft Excel file! But I absolutely love it. Its made even better with all the DLC, granted its a fair amount of £££ to get all of it but the game really comes alive if you are willing to spend the time learning it.

Just smashed out another THREE achievements! I capitalised that because getting multiple achievements all in one savefile is becoming more and more rare!!!!

I've basically had another crack as Mao.

I got a bit luckier this time in that I didn't have any random strikes that sapped my PP and so I could focus on building my army strength. It took AGES to displace Japan from mainland Asia, using 7/2s again, but once you get them off the mainland you can use the decisions to infiltrate China and then spark the civil war. With my 7/2s I just crushed China on the east coast as all they use is just straight up infantry divisions so the soft attack rips through them. The war against China was a bit of a drag, but tbh it was a foregone conclusion from the start and managed to win it and grab "The People Have Stood Up" win the Chinese Civil war as Mao. Then consolidated by taking over Tibet, Yunnan and the Guangxi Clique. The latter of which was invaluable because of their steel resources which I was badly lacking. I then helped the allies take out Japan, during which I got "Made in China" - have 100 mil factories and EVENTUALLY got "Sun Tzu Reborn" - get a level 9 field marshal. On this, its actually not worth trying to level up a field marshal, the only way to do this is to level up a general, use that general for all the little wars and then once they get to level 9 just promote them to field marshal. I've established the Peoples Republic of China and that's about it tbh. I could carry on, but there are no real achievement goals here.

I need to figure out a way of taking over a faction leader as a minor nation - maybe possible as communist china, but this play through was not aimed at that (the Soviets collapsed to the allies after defeating Germany).

Might have a dabble at forming Byzantium Empire as Greece now!

94/132

Proof:

 

[physichull]

I Swear I'm not a Byzantophile.....easy.....just turn fascist as Greece and fight a war against Turkey.

95/132

 

[physichull]

Well that was one of the dullest achievements ever....One Empire - as the British Empire have all nations either under your direct control or in your faction. After a fast start, the rest of it took forever. Managed to secure my dominions by putting them under martial law and then installing fascist governments. So once Canada was secured I took the USA easily, then Germany was a bit of a grind, the Soviets easy, then Japan were a bit of a grind. The final stages of the achievement took the longest - basically repeatedly justifying against south American nations until everybody was finally in the allies (the fascist allies!). A VERY dull achievement.

Did the old trick of puppeting USA and Germany (Germany had just one state, I gave rest to French) but in giving them one state it meant that I could reduce their independence and eventually annexe them to take both their navies. As a result I had an enormous fleet.

96/132

 

[physichull]

Not really had much time to play lately, but Czechmate achieved. Took a little bit of trying, but by far the easiest way was to turn fascist asap and then paradrop the Netherlands after declaring war on the Dutch East Indies. That way you can build air bases over there, paradrop north Australia and flood them with cavalry until they capitulate.

97/132

 

[physichull]

Draculas Revenge completed....as Yugoslavia establish the autonomous region of Transylvania and have it own all Romanian cores.

Yeah, tough one this. Beating Bulgaria is the first step, but then taking down Romania is tough too so had many many attempts at this. Once I got the achievement I joined the axis and tried to help defeat Russia. Was a really long war but have knocked them out and am concentrating on getting the rest of Europe and will probably call it at that point. Interesting game though.

 

[philstanbridge]

The Balkans are interesting with the latest dlc. Greece lasts a lot longer than normal, and Bulgaria can become a small major after the focus.

 

[physichull]

Romania are a bit weird. I almost completed this achievement at my second attempt as for some reason their army crumbled pretty easily, but then there are other times where I follow the exact same procedure but the Romanians are impossible to break down.

There is one tile on the border that is important to capture first as it gets you across the river but they can be really stubborn. I failed the first time because I didn't realise you can give other countries the land in the peace deal - required for the achievement. So that was annoying. Found that cautious probing and letting them hurl themselves at your line did the trick, wears them down slowly to the point their troops are fresh inexperienced recruits then smash em. CAS helped too.

 

[physichull]

100 up! Just got Nobody Expects on my first try. As Nationalist Spain own Paris before the Germans...!

Was pretty easy once you bash out the civil war then plonked my lines on the Pyrenees, they were crushed by my vastly more experienced and doctrined army.

100/132!

 

[physichull]

Slightly confused about something.

I've been trying to do "House of Kurds" for a long time, but I started a game aimed purely at it today. Played as Germany, attacked eastwards from the get-go....expanded down through the Balkans, took Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq, therefore occupying the Kurdistan cores...

I then tried releasing them and then doing "play as" but all that happened was the game just ended abruptly. I'm not really sure what I did wrong or why it didn't allow me to play as them. Very confused.

The ONLY thing I can think of is because the war was still ongoing and maybe I had to get a peace deal against Britain and France (i.e. defeat them and therefore take the Kurdistan cores in a peace deal)??

 

[kingy10]

I have been trying really hard to learn this game but boy is there a lot to take in. How did you guys learn it?

 

[Spacedeck]

Still struggling myself. I really need to learn more about divisions and building an actual army with a goal to aim for. I'm about 30 hours in and I haven't managed to overrun a country yet. I keep trying as Germany to take over Poland, but I get destroyed once I declare war.

For learning the game, YouTube has some great tutorial series:

These should give you a general idea on what you need to be doing once the game starts.

I also reference the wiki guide when I am looking to learn about something specific.

HOI4 Wiki Page

I've found by just playing I have learnt more each time I start a new game, soon I expect to start conquering other countries! Just don't expect to watch one video and then be able to go off and win at the game, it will take time.

 

[philstanbridge]

Okay chaps, welcome to the fray. I've 6,400 hours now. So I can help. Fire away

 

[philstanbridge]

Don't rush the game. Don't speed it up too much initially. Learn to play slowly. It's more enjoyable. Experiment.

 

[physichull]

Welcome to the game, its REALLY rewarding and one helluva time sink!

With respect to division make ups, I've got every single one of my achievements with just either the classic 7/2 (90% of the time) and 14/4s if I am attacking one of the big boys - the rest I've kinda neglected. I would like to look into using more exotic things such as self propelled guns or amtracs for amphib landings, but I've never got round to it.

About navies though....I've got to say that no matter what country it is I've nearly always reverted to level 3 submarines or naval bombing to gain superiority over anyone, be it the UK, USA or Japan. So again, if I weren't achievement chasing I would spend a lot more time playing with different things. (I ought to really).

I think as both my and @philstanbridge have both said in the past, it looks quite daunting from the start but very quickly you begin to realise its not as bad as you thought and then really start to stretch the legs out of this game. I've played nowhere near as many hours as Phil, more around 750 hours and I still feel like there are great swathes of the game I just haven't got to grips with yet. Spain....Balkans....Turkey....Russia (especially with new incoming patch). I'd say countries I most understand are USA, UK, Germany and a little bit of Japan. I found USA great to practise with as there is no great threat throughout the game, you can sort of pick and choose your battles. Germany is good, Japan is good, USA is good, UK is OK.

Nations to avoid as a beginner I'd say would be Italy (OK to start with but you can end up fighting an absolute flood against the allies - not easy for a beginner), Soviets (see Hearts of Iron 4 for why!!! ) and anything in and around China (beating Japan is what I would say is for advanced players - I haven't even done this yet).

There is a youtuber called Bitt3rSteel who is really engaging and interesting with some superb guides and how-to's for achievements. I strongly recommend checking out his channel. I've also found following some of his achievement guides so enlightening, he does stuff that I don't think I'd ever have figured out on my own.