As Graveyard of Empires finally receives the polish it should have had from day one, how are anons finding it? And with the devs hinting and finally working towards on the Asia-Pacific Front of the Second World War as well as reworking the faction mechanics of the game, what do you hope to see?

Old Thread: >>1970026

Playing late game is such ass.

>>2071009
Bretty mcuh

I haven’t played in years, but I recently returned with Götterdämmerung and loving it! I’m especially looking forward to the Japan rework.

get so annoyed by the combat system that i cant play anymore
especially when you have multiple fresh divisions on the tile where the battle takes place being forced to withdraw because they didnt get invited to the actual battle
so annoying

>>2071932
>no Vladivostock
>no Sakhalin
4/10

Bump

>>2072112
>t. persians at battle of thermopylae

Maybe I'll reinstall when they revamp the navy yet again.

>>2075153
They're revamping the navy + adding some naval mechanic flavor like contesting sea lanes for the next DLC

what special projects are worth going for?
the interesting ones like for instance nuclear submarines come so fucking late i have literally never seen one
the land cruiser was very strong, but also pretty late
the cruiser submarine is the only one i can think of that comes early and is strong enough to be worthwhile

>>2070984 (OP)
>you have to have all DLC to enjoy the game
it pisses me off

>>2075766
You don't.
In fact the dlc half ruins it because it adds a lot of bloat. Waking the tiger was probably the pinnacle of the game.

>>2075309
Cruiser Subs aren't worth the investment considering that they're just tier IV Subs with more construction IC.

But from what I recall, It's worth investing into Helicopters and Engineering Vehicles because of the added entrenchment and armor bonus.

>>2075807
WtT may have been good but it's showing its age post NSB/BbA. It's in dire need of a rework.

It's kind of nuts how gotterdammerung is probably the best dlc paradox has ever released across all of their games.

>>2076830
Unironically. I still remember when anons were thinking that Uranium is going to be the new resource to drop because of the Congolese focus tree.

>>2075766
CreamAPI bro

>>2076829
>Cruiser Subs aren't worth the investment considering that they're just tier IV Subs with more construction IC.
they are, but you can get them far earlier

>>2077364
For most of my runs, they're not really worth the investment considering that you can get the same perks for tier IV Subs. The extra modules are cool but max torp + a strong radar does wonders for me.

Interesting, we getting coal as a limiter for endless industrial expansion.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-corner-thermodynamics.1803015/

>>2077863
i usually mix them in with the normal subs and give them all the float planes and spotting i can fit
then the normal subs have max damage
i honestly have no idea if this even does anything, its mostly just larp, but i like the idea
hard to understand what specifically has an effect and what kind of effect in the naval system

>>2077865
Unless they fix the awful resource distribution, this is just going to fuck over minor countries.

>>2077903
Indeed. The good news is that dams and civilian nuclear reactors help alleviate the need for coal.

>>2077910
This would’ve been a good solution if dams were actually constructible. Not even touching on the nuclear reactors lmao

>>2077929
The fact they locked dam building is such a waste.

>>2077865
>Make economy laws less one dimensional
good
>Do it in the most gamey way of making the previously better laws require arbitrarily more energy.
I hate this kind of shit. Instead of modelling the actual issues with mobilisation & war economies, they cope out and make them entirely abstract.

>>2077865
>industrial expansion
No, it's actually a Germany nerf, because you can't just get fuel and rubber yourself, anymore, because it's COAL liquification. Say good-bye to your Synthetic Oil refineries.

>>2077951
Cope, seethe, and go back to HoI3. This is still WW2 sim, not politics, espionage or economics sim. The "gamey way" is why it's popular in the first place.

Holy shit, I fucking LOVE marines
t. new player

I can't help but feel like they're trying to reinvent the wheel.

>>2077865
...Are they just taking the energy system from black ice?
>>2077974
>No, it's actually a Germany nerf
Coal is the one resource Germany had a metric fuckton of.

>>2070984 (OP)
How the fuck are you supposed to manage the navy in this game?
>inb4 in-depth explanation of parts
No, I know all that, 1 spotter plane on patrol with your main fleet to fuck them up when they find something, torpedo spam destroyers, main gun LC, 4 carriers...
I'm more wondering what the fuck you're supposed to do with your starting navy which is always dog shit combinations that are unusable.
So which do you do:
1. Disband the entire thing and solely build good ships with good templates.
2. Refit all the crap ships to use good components
3. Just use the crap ships whatever but solely build good ships from then on.

Mainly asking in terms of the UK, where they have the largest navy on the planet at start but it's all just terrible. It might be historical but I fucking hate it.

>>2077974
Did you read I said limiter for industrial expansion? I didn't specified just for Germany. This is a global nerf overall.

>>2075309
Basically anything that gives a support battalion is good, flame tanks and assault engineers being particularly good for the bonuses they give and how early and cheap they are
Land cruisers are kind of the exception, they give fantastic bonuses, so much so that you can build your entire army around them, but are locked behind a now literally useless dead end 1943 tech and the project itself is pure cancer with 20 events that are "take 3 years of setbacks or suffer crippling debuffs"
Proxy fuses unlock a hefty attack bonus for land AA and artillery
Fleet subs with anechonic and AIP are the best subs, but take a while to research and you're still cucked out of torpedo 4s without 1944 sub research
Mothership aircraft and ice carriers are supposedly good but I've never used them

>>2078119
>Coal is the one resource Germany had a metric fuckton of.
Historically, yeah. But we're not playing by historical resource distribution, are we? Half the world's tungsten production isn't in China, is it? Sweden and France produce Steel, instead of Iron, do they?

>>2078133
>destroyers and light cruisers
Refit what can be refit into something usable. Relegate to reserves what can't
>everything else
Doomstack

>>2077865
>https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-corner-thermodynamics.1803015/
FUCKING BASED
NOW ADD IN MONEY, RESOURCE FACTORIES AND FOOD.

>>2078208
Zased. Thanks, king.
Destroyers are so cheap I may as well just shit out new, but LC can get refit.

Speaking of navy are heavy cruisers still OP?

>>2078480
Last I played they were primarily decent as a surface raiding option but everyone just doomstacked their strike fleets because everything else was too much effort for the payout.

I only am interested in playing this game for the navy but it just sucks. I love building up the ships and customizing them but all that work just boils down to the rare engagement that matters and the way the game delivers battle information to you is not interesting at all. You can't even see a record of all the ships and classes sunk in the game outside of looking at individual ships.

Also the game incentivizes you to escort carriers with capital ships which is not realistic. Heavy cruisers are realistic in a carrier group but not a battleship or battlecruiser. Also the game incentivizes you to have way too many escorts than was realistic in a single fleet.

>>2078348
NTA but from my experience I'd also suggest you to not merge your entire navy into a single doomstack. Speed is one of the most important stats for ships, so really old and slow ships (like engine 1 pre-1936 BBsl should go in their own secondary fleet.

>>2077897
Spotting ( or Surface Detection ) increases the chance of your fleet finding an enemy fleet/convoy to raid. What you'd want is to balance spotting and torpedo attack. There's also Sub Visibility which helps in ensuring your submarines survive from fleet escorts and iirc Radars offsets Sub Visibility so I always go with them.

>>2077865
Based. In relation to Japan's DLC rework, it would basically push players into investing into Coal Liquefication ( which the Japanese tried but failed to do due to how they were far behind technology-wise ).

>>2078133
>I'm more wondering what the fuck you're supposed to do with your starting navy which is always dog shit combinations that are unusable.

Submarinemaxxing + Investing on Minelayers + pivoting towards an Aviation Fleet and creating a Fleet Air Arm of land based torpedo bombers.

Does vanilla feel just boring and shallow to anyone else?
I'm trying to return to the base game after playing so many total overhaul mods but I'm having a hard time genuinely enjoying it.
It feels like there's barely anything to do. You prepare for the incoming war, 4 years slowly go by where nothing aside from Spain happens, and then the big war starts.

>>2079198
hoi 4 vanilla is pretty shallow as a ww2 sim. Theres no food. Theres no money. Theres no real political simulation. Theres not even resource factories.
Its barren.

>>2079251
>ww2
>political simulation

>>2079262
If not politics, then add in food, money and resource factory shit at least

>>2079269
Overrealism is killing the games and I'm tired of it.

>>2079280
I think there is very little realistic about HOI4. I don't consider it a good historical strategy game. The game is pure fantasy. It's a sandbox for people to roleplay as random insignificant third world countries

>>2079290
Nobody fucking asked for your shitty opinion. Go play Black Ice, if you want that kind bullshit.

>seething

>>2079314
I don't play mods for HOI4. It's a shitty wargame in general I stay away.

>>2079346
Did you, at least, pirate it, or are you being a typical /v/irgin right now?

Can't play this game.
My autism makes me want to build perfect 5 army stacks with 24 identical divisions in them, regardless of whether that's useful/sustainable or not. In my mind 120 divisions is the lowest unit size. I can't stand having generals not min-maxed.

>>2079394
Meds?

>>2079394
Unironically not the worst because of how general xp works.

>>2079381
I've owned HOI4 since 2016

>>2078133
Option 3.
I just reorganise and use. Anything with depth charges goes in its own ASW fleet. Anything without depth chargers get distributed to strike fleets. If you start off with any roach type destroyers I use them for patrol scouting and later refit with radar. I've dabbled in maritime patrol planes for scouting as well but not quite sure if 10 is enough each sea region or if I need more, I don't quite understand how they work.

Why is there a faggot getting triggered by politics in a fucking paradox game thread

>>2079700
Retards do be retarding

>>2071009
Yeah, I always picture some epic missile based cold War where I start using my intelligence agency to start coups and proxy wars but instead it's almost 99% a Forever War where half the world wants you dead and they just swakp the border with fodder forcing you to just focus on land production

Can anyone recommend me an optimal offensive infantry template? I've see multiple videos and read multiple reddit posts, and it seems that everyone has a different answer.

>>2082996
Because that really depends on your IC and pop.
I think 7/2's are the most basic offensive division that you just modify from there depending on how big your population is and how many factories you have.

>>2082996
9:1 for everything, always. Offense, defense, everything.

>>2083071
It doesn't matter, this game is bullshit. Optimal set ups are always gay and have no basis in history

>>2083266
>there is no optimal setup because what is best depends on a number of factors and changes from situation to situation
>Optimal setups are gay and have no basis
So we agree that there is no optimal setup, great.

I know Byzantium is better overall, but I still prefer doing Hellas most of the time as Greece.

>>2070984 (OP)
> play as USA
> go with no civil war fascist path
> randomly join war against Japan anyways
How do I avoid that? Literally picked every decision where I abandon China and do not support them against Japan, but still end up at war with them by August '40. No events or choice presented, just the "we are at war!" notification.
If I'm on Ironman, is there a way to force a white peace with Japanese and ditch the Chinese? I really don't want to re-do this for the third time and just want to continue my little comfy Monroe Doctrine campaign.

>>2083868
>White Peace
>Hoi4
Lol

>Set Italy and Soviets to maximum boost
>Go democratic Germany.
I'm going to die

>>2083900

>>2083868
Dump all you weapons to the Philippines and lower their autonomy so you can annex them. Then release them as a free nation since Japan declaring war against them would drag you to war with Japan as well.

>We may be getting Korea in the new rework
>GEACPS path will finally be interesting to play


https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/dev-corner-faction-dynamics-part-2.1820997/

>>2083868
>How do I avoid that?
Maybe don't have a puppet they get a focus war goal on

>>2083868
Wait you can skip the civil war?

>>2074807
Persians won at Thermopylae. I don't understand why so many people think they didn't.
HoI IV rules not only would Spartans win, they'd route the Persian army despite only ever fighting a fraction of it.

>>2084657
Because pyrrhic victories result in lost wars

>>2084657
Ignore that anon, it's more like Brits at Singapore.

>>2072112
>>2084657
Also, git fucking gud, shitter. Signal Companies raise Initiative specifically to counter this, and Last Stand button exists for a reason.

If you're playing some dogshit mod, that's a (you) problem.

I always forget how easy it is to save France by just trying a little.

>>2084877
That's historically accurate

>>2084878
Most of the British Army was in France Historically, though and they couldn't stop it.

>>2084882
The Germans were extremely lucky during the French campaign too, but I'm talking about France actually carrying out the planned offensive western Germany during the invasion of Poland

>>2084911
Half the rules in multiplayer matches are there to enable Germany to do it's thing.

Is putting tanks in infantry division templates worth it if I don't have the industry to support proper tank divisions?

>>2084990
No outside cheapo flame tanks (which you should already be putting in every division)

>>2084988
Maybe that's what happened in real life as well

>>2070984 (OP)
Honestly I'm not sure HoI4 was ever in a 'great' spot but they really fucking ruined the game after circa Waking the Tiger
>Focus tree bloat and stupid minigames (Italy, Germany, and USSR are anti-fun to play now)
>Designer bloat (As if this ever really added anything to the game)
>Ticky-tacky poorly tacked-on mechanics (Espionage, 'world market)
Every campaign is just drowning in friction and pointless clicky busywork instead of being a WW2 grand strategy game
Was it too much to ask for them to actually revisit some of the game's core combat mechanics so, idk, barbarossa (as Germany OR the USSR) would actually be a challenge, or that you cant just shit out infantry with a support AA and ART and CAS spam to utterly buttblast the AI?

>>2085218
Only Marburg Files know.

>>2085244
...building an AI that can put up with a human player doing everything in their power to WAAC is basically impossible though.

What do I do in this situation? The enemy is incredibly well-defended, no matter what I try with paratroopers they die immediately.

>>2075766
Fake news. I stopped playing with DLC 200 hours ago. I just wish Parajew made all of the features paid so I could completely disable raids and special projects too.

>>2085552
Sit there 10 years and bleed them to death.

>>2082996
8 mountaineers 3 artillery with ranger support is the best offence you can get from infantry but you can only have so many of those. If you want something spammier then 9 infantry 2 artillery works just fine too. But at that point you might as well just get tanks or spam planes.

>>2085552
Put up 10 million fighters and CAS so that the enemy instantly evaporates into thin air.

>>2085568
Thanks, that's more or less exactly what I did. Getting a foothold was the difficult part, but it's done. I fucking hate islands.

>>2085552
>self-censorship
lame

>>2085621
Can't be breaking rules on 4channel, anon

>>2077951
>Manpower is just a number
>War economy is good
>Consumer goods is bad
>Food does not exist
>Factories don`t take up manpower
>Stability is just a number
>Entire population in the frontlines is good.
Apparently this happens cause paradox is scared of presenting war as bad.

>>2085722
>Factories don`t take up manpower
That does kind of exist in the form of conscripting a quarter of your population tanking factory output

>>2085722
Everything in a computer is just a number.

>>2085624
A really funny thing I noticed from the 4chan staff getting doxxed was the revelation that one of the jannies here in /vst/ also was a janny in /mlp/. I highly suspect he was the fag deleting EAW related posts with ponies appearing in screenshots.

>>2085479
It's not about the AI being supercomputer level brilliant and doing epic 999IQ strategic maneuvers, it's about the core design of the game being pretty bad.
Hearts of Iron 3 was not the hardest game in the world once you learned the systems but it at least posed a reasonable level of challenge, because the core combat mechanics were better designed.
For instance ... As USSR, you can simply spam a bunch of the most basic infantry division with just a support AA and support ART piece and Germany will never take a single tile. It's just that easy.
Meanwhile you can battleplan all the way to USSR capitulation using nothing but that exact same infantry division with a bunch of CAS.
I'm sure the AI is bad and does fall over when trying to do the stupid equipment designers and making 'good' division designs, particularly for tank divisions, but the bigger issue is that HoI4 just has extremely trivial combat that the AI can't fight and org and manpower regens so fast that you can just battleplan everything.
It's such a glaring issue that has been in the game for so long I really don't understand why it hasn't been fixed.
It's not even really 'cheese' either like abusing some obscure mechanic, it's just a ridiculously trivial game. And I'm not making fun of anyone either, I want to like the game, it's just silly at some point.

>>2085479
>WAAC
we're all just pretending we know what the fuck this means, yeah?

>>2085933
...but this is false. Mods that have OOBs that have the AI put AA in divisions, and build proper divisions can't just be pushed on mass.

>>2085938
Win at all costs. This is a definitionregardless if you have some other definition in your head.

Grand Battle Plan... I fucking kneel.
I thought Superior Firepower being trash was just an exaggeration.

>>2085942
Since when was this an acronym?

>>2085940
>Mods
Does not contradict what I was saying which is that the base game is trivially easy but OK, let's try it. Which specific mod should I install and we'll put it to the test.

>>2085949
It does though? Your point is that game is fundamentally flawed, when it is just that the nations have terrible OOBs? OOBs can be changed and aren't fundamental in any way.

>>2085948
...as far as I was aware always.

>>2085955
After some googling it's from Warhammer. Explains why I haven't heard it. Never got into that.

>>2085953
Nigga is so scared he won't actually recommend a mod (To reiterate: 3rd party intervention is still required to make this game apparently less than trivially easy, despite it having been released a decade ago with like 10 DLC's since) to test his hypothesis and is just spouting LARP words like "OOB"

What you're actually saying in human English is that in the base game the AI can't properly use the division designer and/or build equipment and/or deploy armies to actually do anything against the player, but that the core combat mechanics are good.

Well I for one would view that as a pretty fundamental flaw in the game's design, but leaving that aside let's try it then. What's a good mod? I'll shit out a bunch of meme infantry divisions and CAS like in vanilla and see what happens.

Got 100 hours into HoI4 and despite really wanting to like it I simply don't. Only really played the USSR, Communist China, and Japan.
The reason I don't like the game and the thing that spooked me out of playing the other majors (especially Germany) is the whole thing is based on implicitly understanding the meta.
There's a direct order you're supposed to take the focus trees in and your options are:
>research which exact focus you're supposed to take at which exact time
or
>eat fucking shit and die because you took "reinforce the barricade" as your 7th focus instead of "barricade the reinforcements"
Neither of which are fun.

An unrelated issue, and this might just be me not having used it enough, but the UI feels clunky as shit. Refitting ships is cancer. You have to go into each individual ship and see what it has and then mentally retain that information while you check every other ship because the UI is so cumbersome to reopen. Comparing ships is also cancer because they're not divided by type, you have to memorize what class is what type and vice versa. It would have been incredibly easy for them just to put a little "DD" or "LC" label in the corner so you didn't have to check.

>>2085969
It's not just you, focus tree bloat has really added a ton of friction to the game.
Even if you aren't a sweaty metagamer you are essentially forced to read through a gigantic, byzantine list of branching choices (1) even figure out what the fuck is going on and what focus does what; and (2) do a bunch of work to try to get the stuff you want, which of course inevitably results in even a middling casual player trying to figure out how to time certain focuses so they get the bonuses at the right time for research, etc.
This is made all the worse by a lot of nations now having convoluted, pointless mini-games like the Stalin purge which essentially force you to be constantly in the decision and focus tree menu to manage the Fuck You Meter, or constantly dealing with stupid bullshit like the Italian "Balance of Power" nonsense or the German "Hitler's Inner Circle" shit.
Not to mention all of the times you will not realize you needed to take a certain focus or a bad thing will happen, or that some focus has some weird unintended outcome, or that some mechanic is locked out unless you read through all of them and found some focus way off to the right that you need to unlock, it's ridiculous.
It is completely anti-fun and has gone way too far.

>>2085979
Coming from HoI3 I (playing as USSR) assumed stuff like the winter war, annexation of the Baltic states, etc happened via scripted event. Turns out you have to manually do them. In every other Paradox game it'd be a "tensions on the Finnish border" event that either started it or prompted you to take the focus. There is nothing that tells you you're supposed to do it yourself.
Your airforce is gimped by a modifier that you remove with focuses, your industrialization is tied to taking the exact right focus at the exact right time. Which leaves you watching videos on how to play it. "You're going to want to... Then you're gunna... After that it's..." That's not playing a game, that's building flatpack furniture.
I get that this is probably fun for someone who knows what to do either from trying and failing, reading the forums for hours on end, or watching a youtuber play the game for them but for everyone else it's bullshit.

All Paradox games suffer from this to some extent, if you don't buy the game at launch and follow it's development cycle to the letter you're in the wilderness and then if you try to jump on later it's 100 worth of DLC and having to learn which mechanics were worked and reworked and re-reworked. HoI being the worst for this.

>People ITT can't sight read focus trees
???

>>2086011
What does that even mean?

>>2085969
It goes deeper in that the focuses don't mesh with the game's other systems. In the communist china instance, you have a focus that allows you to initiate border conflicts with your neighboring warlords to escalate and go to war with them. Except the game still has the built in justification system and it's substantially faster to justify and go to war normally, ignoring these focuses.

>>2086030
I was about to start explaining what everything did, but you were going accuse me of having played Afghanistan enough to memorize the tree, or just have the wiki open in another tab.
Should have posted Germany, or Itally or USSR, where there trees are actually poorly designed and impossible to sight read.

>>2085948
Americans fucking love acronyms for some reason

>>2086040
No, I'm genuinely asking. I'm the 100 hours guy, I have no idea how you "sightread" this. I could understand if it was a beaker vial meaning a research slot but all this crap is impossible for me to parse.
How are you supposed to know what to take and when?

>>2085969
>An unrelated issue, and this might just be me not having used it enough, but the UI feels clunky as shit.
UI is generally pretty good
>Refitting ships is cancer.
...but anything naval is indeed barely functional turbocancer.

>>2086030
You have your economy tree and your political tree split into two parts, I'm assuming royalist and rebel, and one of the rebel branches looks to be expansionist like the greek republican branch. The army tree is going to be your standard professional army vs militia army fare.

>>2086040
>Germany
German tree is fairly straightforward and neatly separated, the only meta knowledge you need to know is to get rid of MEFO bills from the economy branch and to grab land/do civil war from the political branch as soon as you're able.

>>2086066
I mean, I can't literally actually take one look at a screenshot and know exactly what to do.
...but I don't have to slowly read the entire rest of the tree either, there are small group of focuses that I can immediately recognize that by skimming I would understand how to navigate the tree (assuming the tree isn't shit). I shpuld also be able to guess the general purpose of each section.
>what
The group under "expand the telegraph network" appears to be research and economy buffs.
"Support King Zahir" and "Against Kabul" are obviously the political paths. Those tend to have a bit of everything and are hard to sight read. Everything under "against Kabul" looks pretty aggressively expansionist, while everything under "Support King Zahir" looks less expansionist, I can clearly see at least a communist path fused with the economic tree and I can see what is probably a democaratic path too, and probably a really short non-aligned path under "biding our time"
That's a pretty obvious set of military buffs under "maintain quami" and "adopt nufus" what exactly they mean, I would need to skim them.
The next group over, either gives you expansion or puts you in a faction, and the section probably gives group buffs to the nations whose flags are pictured, before shoving you into a faction or maybe combining you into one country.
>when
You start by either rushing down to a civil war, and/or building your economy and research base. Any expansion you want will have to be done before WWII starts, or will be done as part of WWII, barring special exceptions. Then, whatever your major war is, you want to stockpile military buffs before it happens. This is all trees always.

>>2071932
Gotter was probably the best DLC Paradox has ever released, bugs aside.

>>2086161
They know it too since they never discount it during big sales.
>omg guys we finally made a dlc that's worth the bix price.

>>2086050
I wonder why the USA is so enamoured with acronyms. Truly a mystery.

>>2086167
We don't use that acronym here, though. Everyone just calls it America.

>>2085953
>>2085940

Just popping back in this thread to note that I downloaded the EXPERT AI 5.0 VGH ROMMEL GOTTERDAMMERUNG GREATER EVROPA STRATEGIC OVERHAUL MOD FOR SERIOUS GENERALS ONLY and then I just made shitty infantry divisions with support art and aa and fighters and cas and then the AI just battle planned into me endlessly and I didn't lose a single tile until they took like ten million casualties then i battle planned to berlin and won

game still too easy sorry that your precious combat mechanics cant handle someone lazily and sloppily adding support companies to the default infantry template

>>2086246
Try this one
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3265939166

Which youtubers make the best advanced tutorials for this game? I'm somewhat of an advanced player myself, but I think I still can learn some tips and tricks I was not aware of. I already checked a bunch of them, but they all seem to have their own personal meta, it's kinda confusing.

>>2088554
None, they are all shit. Especially if you are an advanced player you should already know what playstyle works for you, and then you should just forcus on perfecting that. I have never listened to any HOI4 tutorial.

>>2088554
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMSLt3_dqfs&list=PLIY632rOtuKBW7-K9PDZZeaIfLWej_7Ji

This guy. You listen to him while playing and pick up on it. Some HOI 4 players really hate him.

I personally like Ludi's guides but I don't have all the DLC.

Ludi et Historia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UraAxWfT76k

I didn't about shift clicking to add orders to tank divisions until about 3k hours in. I was so good at templates and research to over come that I was winning historical 1936 Barbarossa's with ease. Anyone who considers the SS units Germany gets is trash and doesn't know what they are talking about. You can win Barbarossa in June 22 1941 with those and the 3 light tanks you start with as Germany. Lookup historical HOI 4 templates as well and make sure to set your garrison to Schnell units so as to not eat up supplies via garrison.

I'm at almost 5k hours mostly on historical German runs, but I do play OWB mod. The AI goes off a count of the players units on 1936 setting. So sometimes Russia can have 5-10 divisions a tile or have gaps at the start. Luxemburg can be empty or have two stacks. It depends on how the player built up. A 1939 run will have most countries empty of units and that's were the SS divisions the game gives you really shine because they cost no army exp to make and the AI isn't built up absurdly so. Just make to sure to micro your panzer divisions with shift click to get your first few encirclements instead of learning about it post 3k hours. And never go past 4 tiles on the first ones or you will be encircled yourself.

>>2088590
>Some HOI 4 players really hate him.
Why?

>>2088577
I see where this is coming from, but this game in particular has a ton of obscure mechanics even devs barely know how they work. It's guaranteed that you'll still manage to learn about some button or modifier you knew nothing about even after hundreds or thousands of hours.
In my case I spent several days watching videos and reading reddit posts to learn how the navy works and how you should manage it.
>>2088590
Much appreciated anon, I'll check them out.

>>2079394
This is just how I always play Equestria.

I'm playing fascist Belgium for the achievement and I've never seen such a wide power-gap between two mutually exclusive paths of the same ideology.

VNV Belgium gives you free war goals and cores on the Benelux and northern France, and extra compliance for the Dutch colonies, while Rexist Belgium gives you... a couple of factories? You get way more by coring just Holland. Rexists do get some combat bonuses but they're way too small IMO.

Is doing convoy raids in the same sea tiles where I'm using my main navy in strike force mission bad?
I've read in an old reddit thread that subs will get stuck in battle with the main fleet, unable to leave. I can't verify myself if this is true.

>>2095569
They do. But they also have the added advantage of your screen ships focusing on them iirc

>I can't believe I'm supposed to read things in my Hitler map simulator
Why are you people playing this game if you don't want to read? Go play mario

I'm playing a Guatamala campaign right now. I've just formed a fascist Central American Empire (I've annexed El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica).
I am uncertain as to next move. There's a communist Mexico to the north. I've been maintaining relations with them because I was worried they might attack. They are stronger than me I think.
Or I can invade Panama. I'm uncertain what happen regarding the canal, like will I suddenly have a USA problem?

>>2097811
Communist Mexico will attack you sooner or later the moment they finish their focus March Southwards, so better get a NAP quickly because they will roll over you with their superior forces. If you manage to beat them you can annex Yucatan to core it via decision.
Go get Panama, the US or the Allies will not bother you if you haven't increased the world tension too much, you'll get more industry and another core.

'stra'ya is still my favorite HOI country. I think what I'm doing to Thailand right now might count as genocide.

>>2098478
You were right. They came for me and I beat them back, now annexed Mexico. Did the Yucatan thing.
Problem is Panama joined the allies, America made their own faction with Cuba and Philippines. I mistakenly declared war on Colombia, thinking to take as much of South Merica as possible. I didn't realise Cuba was guaranteeing Colombia's independence. So, Cuba declared, followed by USA.
My only option, with the undefended north of Mexico being invaded by USA, was to join the allies (lead by fascist Britain).
With allied help, I am pushing back the Americans.
Unexpectedly, Panama was a member of the allies. So USA took Panama, allowing me to roll over it, free up Panama with their canal, and start a land invasion of Colombia.
Things are going well for the Central American Empire.
ATM I think manpower is my biggest problem. Not sure what I can do, if anything, about that.

>>2098506
I like to Annex New Zealand and put them under brutal oppression

>>2070984 (OP)
>how are anons finding it
Finding what?
If you are using any other DLC than WtT and NSB, you are a retard. And not just buying (lmao at people paying PDX money), but simply using at fucking all.
Maybe only TfV gets a pass, but only if you are playing MP and as a faction, rather than against each other (which is retarded anyway).
And any DLC after NSB in particular is just pure, unfiltered sewage.

>>2085244
WtT used to be the only DLC you ever needed.
NSB is a mixed bag, because on one hand, logistics at least are in the game with it. On the other, Soviets are pain to play (not hard, just fucking tedious) and the AI can't into logistics for shit (and most of people online can't either), so it's... eh.

>>2085479
>HoI2 managed with a .txt file containing less than 3k letters in it
>HoI3 managed with three such files, accounting for new mechanics
>HoI4 meanwhile has no AI at all, it's only railguarded by the focus trees, but no actual script for AI to fight
>uh, akshuelly, it's impossible to make good AI
The game has NO AI whatsoever. None. The computer-controlled nations have no idea how the most basic elements of the game work, waste resources on bullshit projects (like AI making bazillion different division templates, none of them useful in any fucking way), can't fight wars at fucking all in any way (I wish AI would just stop building tanks entirely, rather than watching it positioning HArm in fucking mountains and get gobbed down with ease) and the only thing AI can do is follow the focus tree, shit out as many units as it can and die horribly against a 10 yo that's pulling baby's first offensive (and using the same front-painting tool as the AI, but still winning on the virtue of not being so dogshit bad as the AI, despite making horrendous mistakes).
AI in HoI4 doesn't exist. What you have is bunch of very rudimentary weighted decision-making, that can be boiled down to "if MP > 0, build divisions" and "frontline on blind charge forward, unless insufficient divisions to stack the front, then fall back and try again"

>>2085933
>It's such a glaring issue that has been in the game for so long I really don't understand why it hasn't been fixed.
Because it would require to redesign (at this point) 2/3 of the game from a scratch. And even right after premiere, it would still require to redesign nearly half of the game. Which, ironically, they were doing all the way till about MtG, but then figured out they can make easy money on meme shit and stroking national ego of some ESLs, giving them bloated meme trees, rather than trying to unfuck the game. The game is on a perpetual decline since MtG, and it peaked with WtT.
That was 7 years ago. They did nothing, but dumb additions and no fixes of any kind for past 7 years.

>>2086115
Nta, but do me a favour:
Go check Chinese Warlord tree. Or the Czechoslovak one. That's what a flavour minor focus tree should look like.
Then compare it with Afghan tree. Or the Uruguay one. Or the Swiss.
Then tell me with a straight face this is fine.

>>2083868
>How do I avoid that?
You don't, the tree is broken.

>>2098646
>not being able to determine another nation's focus is broken
what level of retardation do you have? Why should the USA be able to determine what Japan does?

>>2099034
Based on what he wrote it sounds like Japan didn't do the pearl harbor event, he just got randomly sucked into the war, which makes me think It's an issue with the US tree rather than Japan taking the focus.

>>2099095
Then it wasn't "random", he actively did a focus which results in war.
>I don't want to read in my Hitler map painting simulator

>>2083868
Historical Japan declares war on you because a historical focus makes them go to war with your puppet, the Philippines. If you don't want that, you can set Japan to a different focus path in the pregame options. Ahistorical paths are all kind of designed assuming you have historical focuses off, otherwise it's just you being a retard while the rest of the world follows the script.

Historical Japan will sometimes choose to bypass the Philippines to target the British colonies in Asia instead. I don't know exactly what triggers the AI to do that but I assume it's based on how much you actually have set up to defend the Pacific, so they don't just end up suiciding into you in '41

Play Sheep's Mod, it's better than Expert AI.

>>2099164
Or, as the USA, you can release the Philippines to their own, unaligned, fate.

Does anyone bother changing priorities in air wings? Are prioritized/de-prioritized air wings actually useful?

>>2099256
I assumed/thought prioritisation impacted preferential allocation of newly built planes to offset losses. So a higher priority wing gets replacements over a low priority airwing.
With this assumption, if an army is fighting low-tech nations, I give any attached airwings a lower priority. Same with bomber interception in the heartland, they get low priority.

>>2099144
I've done the US fascist tree a bunch and encountered a bunch of bugs. It's believable that one of the focuses on that tree would cause a war with Japan as a glitch without mentioning it. Most of the alt-his trees are totally broken. USA, Spain, and Turkey being the worst ones.

>>2084543
Yes.
Essentially just don't do focuses that have the red warning about civil war on them.
Just do the one where you get the fascist advisor and he'll seed fascism to electoral victory, then the civil war-trigger focuses will bypass.

>>2099406
I've done it too and never encountered a "bug"
I suspect you don't understand the game mechanics or are too lazy to appreciate what happens. If you do a focus, it tells you the effects of the focus. If those effects, in turn, chain react into war, that's not a bug. It's the intended outcome of the system.

>>2099656
Huh, I didn't know that. Nice.

I just came back to the game after quitting for a year. I decided to play Spain with no dlc enabled and god dammit. It's so much nicer, the mid/late game runs at double the speed, you don't have to pause every 10 days to check or plan some cheap gimmick, you just pick a focus, do some tech and wait in speed 5 a little while. Once the war starts there is no bullshit like designers or MIO to slow you down, you can focus on moving your units. The focuses are less unbalanced too, the emphasis is more on the natural game mechanics instead. And the AI is a little bit harder since you can't rape them with howitzer tanks or meta fighters

The only thing i miss are QoL stuff that shouldn't be locked behind a dlc, like disallowing use of certain sea zones, the ability to promote generals to your cabinet (also vanilla Spain has 0 political advisors kek).
I feel pity for those who paid for all the bloat that made the game less fun.

>disable spy dlc
>game dramatically improves

I dont care how many MP players sperg about how line artillery isnt meta and flame tanks are, it's ahistorical nonsense. Im putting flame tanks in nothing and artillery in everything whether Paradox balances it properly or not.

>>2099197
>>2101906
this mod sure is something, i destroyed the entire british navy but i don't think this sealion will go anywhere.

>>2102064
4 months of non-stop combat, London is going to look worse than Berlin in 45

>>2102065
fuck forgot pic

I find it funny how meta light cruisers cost more in IC than meta heavy cruisers.

>>2099197
The AI is more effective, yes, but makign entire armies out of divisions that are half marines and half heavy tank destroyers is so fucking stupid I cant stand it. This is why I hate multiplayer.

Speaking of tank destroyers, I have never built any armor units besides flame tanks and regular light/medium tanks.
What's the use for tank destroyers, SP artillery and anti air? I'd guess they are more of a multi-player thing.

>>2102108
>tank destroyers
Pretty much useless in SP since AI armor designs suck dick, I use them to armor meme sometimes
>SP artillery
They suck in the early game compared to regular artillery but IMO they're worth using once you unlock heavy howitzers. Make sure to load them up with as many soft attack modules as possible.
>anti air
My endgame tank divisions generally use engineers, recon, flame tanks, SP super arty and either logistics or helicopters, so I like to use them to save a support slot that would otherwise go to AA.