Grand Strategy Games

[meager lance]

Third run
This time we took out Shandong, but left the ROC to win against Fengtian...and then lose against Japan
Now we grind out Mongolia, this time with a nice encirclement after a while of fighting

[remote grotto]

Ok, so I won this mini civil war.

Do I have to complete all this for the AOG to take power?

[meager lance]

The AOG takes over when you "Defer to the AOG"

Then you deal with a small power struggle between Falkenhausen and Krupp as you go down
The winner consolidates power and when you "Pacify Our Domain" you can start looking outwards in furthest right tree

[remote grotto]

Will I get a new focus tree or keep this?

[meager lance]

You keep the focus tree, but keep on going

[remote grotto]

The Krupp means the company?

And which one is better in Your opinion?

[meager lance]

I've stayed with Falkenhausen both times
I assume both are similar
And yes, Krupp does mean the steel-making company
It's a family business, I don't know if that means Alfred Krupp becomes head of state though

[remote grotto]

AHHHH YES.:D

I will do both. xD

[remote grotto]

Qing just suprise attacked me...

And Hirohito just died...

I am tempted to do a Japanese playthrough too.

[tawny acorn]

1000 messages we’re on top 💯

[remote grotto]

And Weltkrieg.

And I lost, they will slowly gring me down to hell. xD

I will try again tomorrow... XD

[meager lance]

lol

Good run requires some good RNG

I got surprise attacked after they offered an alliance, but I managed to turn it around

[remote grotto]

Same happened.

Problem is they have tanks.

I don’t. XD

But will they always attack?

[meager lance]

They don't always offer the alliance
And they don't always attack

[remote grotto]

Oh come on.:D

And I only have 4 military factories vs 13. XD

Anyway, I like this German china.

[coral shadow]

What did you do

[meager lance]

The Entente was not supporting my government
And New England has a focus tree that prepares them for reclaiming America
So they followed through with that

[coral shadow]

@haughty mason

[haughty mason]

Hi there

But yeah there's a Swedish mod https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2604127559 with gold focuses like "Neo-Caroleans"

[coral shadow]

I want a Singapore focus tree lol
But interesting one

[coral shadow]

KAISER REDUXXXX

[haughty mason]

If I were able to convey shivering over text, I would at this point in time.

[coral shadow]

MILLENIUM DAWNNNN

[haughty mason]

Kaiserreich is a great mod but oh god the lore you need to have a basic grasp of the game

[coral shadow]

I have no idea what I'm doing when i play kaiser redux lol

[haughty mason]

I haven't really tried Millenium Dawn tbh, I made sub-mods for Swedish "division" (regiment) names and accurate locations, names, and division tempaltes for 2000 but it never really appealed to me in terms of gameplay

[coral shadow]

I did the historical path but after defeating the Russians i stalemated for like 2 years on the western front

[coral shadow]

Same lol
I heard ppl say it wasn't good

[haughty mason]

I mean definitely A for effort but the execution of the idea was kinda sub-par

I presume you have tried The Road to 56 at some point?

[coral shadow]

What's that?
I feel like I should know lol

[haughty mason]

It's like the top 1 mod for Hearts of Iron IV

[coral shadow]

How do I not know it exists lol

[haughty mason]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=820260968

It had an update today/yesterday (08 JAN -22) in fact

[coral shadow]

I'll give it a shot later

[haughty mason]

It overhauls a lot of stuff and adds a lot of content

Definitely recommend it.

[meager lance]

road to 56 is vanilla timeline, but more fleshed out

[haughty mason]

Yeah, pretty much.

[coral shadow]

Are there more focus trees?

[meager lance]

These days I pretty much play KX exclusively

(badly)

[haughty mason]

A LOT

[coral shadow]

I stalemated the western front for 2 years
And i gave up

[coral shadow]

Anyways have to go, byw

[haughty mason]

See ya around

[remote grotto]

The problem with millennium dawn is that it’s the modern world… nothing really happens in it unless you play a third world country. It basically consists of 5 years of economic management and then 2 extra years of building up , attack 2 nations then everybody joins nato and you have a war against half of the world.

[meager lance]

That's the problem I've heard as well
As tedious as the politics we know of today

[meager lance]

Who were you playing as

[coral shadow]

german eemipre

[languid canopy]

Anyone else here play CivVI or Stellaris?

[tawny acorn]

we used to have a place where we would play civ but idk if anyone plays much anymore

[languid canopy]

I play Civ quite a bit 🙂

Though I've been playing the game series so long... I um, don't use vanilla or non-cheats XD 😛

[tawny acorn]

I used to play a lot

i was pretty good too

[languid canopy]

Awesome! We'll have to play sometime.

[iron beacon]

I love civ!

[tawny acorn]

cool cool

[last tulip]

The naval invasion sounds give me anxiety

[remote grotto]

This feels so true. Especially for me, I am approaching 2000 hours. XD

[coral shadow]

after 3 hours of trying yesterday I finally broke through the western front
Suspiciously the breakthrough happened at the ardennes

[remote grotto]

So many people follow this channel btw.

[tawny acorn]

‼️

[meager lance]

I'm at 662 now
I got the game during the 2020 holiday season

To reach 1k by the end of the year, I'd have to be playing an average of 1 hour a day
I feel like doing so would be the sign of a miserable existence

[remote grotto]

I have been playing since it came out. 2017? Am I that old?

[remote grotto]

I did it at one point… I enjoyed it, never played a democratic nation I believe. XD

Always switched ideologies.

[meager lance]

Got La Resistance before the sale was up, I'll have to wait a few weeks to give it a spin (culminating assignments for all 3 subjects, exams for 2 of them, busier extracurriculars, and university applications)
I'll just get distracted by YouTube instead of HOI during this time

[remote grotto]

Good luck with application, I will have my final 2 exams next week.:D

[meager lance]

Thanks
Good luck with exams

[tawny acorn]

great czechoslovak empire 💪 💪

[tawny acorn]

There’s a small coalition against me

[coral shadow]

Too many units?

[meager lance]

is that from your run

[remote grotto]

Never too many.:D

[coral shadow]

I did dominate the Balkans Romanian route

[remote grotto]

Okay, trying to start my German China campaign.

It starts now.

Okay, no. xD

Japan game incoming.

[meager lance]

To get the civil war done fast, keep your troops around Nanjing and drive to Anqing first

[meager lance]

2 of the 3 culminatings are done
Along with 2 English assignments I had to do in class this week
Salvation will arrive Wednesday afternoon 🙏

[remote grotto]

I always try to beat the syndies first.

Anyways, situation is fine in Japan.:D

Japan will be the bulwark of Asia!:D

Look who decided to join in the fun. xD

Now this is civil war.

Now this is OP. xD

Norway and Russia surely looks interesting.

Surely this wont go wrong, I am already afraid of nukes. xD

Okay, Siam, Hawaii and the Philippines have agreed to join my faction. I guess I wont invade the Philippines. I am fine with just China. xD

[remote grotto]

By the summer of 38, I will attack the Qing, this will bring wartime decisions forward.

Further allowing me to consolidate my hold over Asia.

[meager lance]

I usually leave them until later since the NRA is actually fairly easy to beat and relatively far from the capital
I'd do Anqing first, KMT second, Yiguandao third

[remote grotto]

Good point, I will do it after my Japan run.

However, I am off to sleep, its fairly late and I still have 2 exams next week.

[meager lance]

Your mark to beat with Japan
#1000896003299348501 message
Did this with 72 divisions

[meager lance]

Good night

[remote grotto]

I will do something like that, although I am planning on making India my ally and occupy China.

But it all depends on how I get it.

[meager lance]

Yep
I don't remember if I was able to make an Indian puppet

[remote grotto]

I sent them advisors and plan on influencing them.:D

My "ally".;D

Also, did you occupy the Philippines?

[meager lance]

I think I puppeted them through economic dependence

[remote grotto]

Thats it.:D

That’s the spirit.;D

[meager lance]

Some day I need to do a successful China run

[remote grotto]

With AOG?

[meager lance]

any of them really
I got so close with Fengtian, but Russia took some of the treaty ports and I couldn't fight them

I'd love to make either the Chinesisches Kaiserreich, Great Yuan, United Provinces of China, or the KMT's Republic of China

[languid canopy]

So you folks are playing Europa Universalis IV, correct?

[vernal widget]

those pics are from hoi4

[languid canopy]

hoi4?

Oh Heart of Iron IV.

LOL derp, sorry.

[vernal widget]

I have EUIV

but I play it rarely

[remote grotto]

I also have it, but it requires lots of time which I don’t really have now.:/

[coral shadow]

Is that r56 Japan?

[coral shadow]

I never understood EU4

[languid canopy]

Sooo what makes HOIIV better than EUIV?

[remote grotto]

Nope, Kaiserredux Japan.:D

[remote grotto]

Nothing really, matter of taste. Whether you like the Second World War or the Cold War or First World War OR the world from 1444-1820 or something.

[remote grotto]

Not sure in the end date.

Of EU4…

[coral shadow]

I've only played kaiser redux Germany
Which i screwed up before

[remote grotto]

Yeah, it’s pretty easy to lose it there.

Lots of events and it all depends on the world around, when Russia attacks and what happens to Mitteleuropa.

[coral shadow]

I blundered the eastern front and the Russians were 1 tile away from Berlin
But then i somehow encircled liked 15 units and pushed them to minsk where the soviets peaced out

I feel western front is really hard though
I did managed to capture Paris but France didn't capitulate for some reason
Also i kinda did the Ardennes strategy so...

[remote grotto]

Steiner did well.:D

[coral shadow]

Actually the reason that they came that close was because I didn't know that Austria Hungary's Army was sh*t

[remote grotto]

Yeah, never trust the AI.

They usually make bad divisions and they tend to not delete the crownlands divisions which are a lot worse than Austria’s.

[coral shadow]

They broke through in 4 months
I actually didn't realize because I thought that the eastern front would hold

[remote grotto]

Usually happens. Russia can be a grind machine, weak nations against it + it has more troops.

[coral shadow]

I only found out because they capitulated

[coral shadow]

I think Britain is the most annoying though
Their troops are absolutely op

Only reason I can defeat them is howitzers

[remote grotto]

https://tenor.com/view/karl-gerät-ww2-artillery-cannon-shoot-gif-16228127

My favorites are skoda ones though.

[coral shadow]

Wait
I think Austria did the repress the Serbians focus path
But then how did WW1 even trigger? Lol idk tbh

[remote grotto]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoda_305_mm_Model_1911

Oh, wiki uses the same pic.:D

[remote grotto]

Is there a Japanese in this chat btw? I am interested if Kokutai really means this.

[meager lance]

lmfao

Good way to slide the meme in

[last tulip]

Doesnt any PDX GS?

[remote grotto]

Yeah.:/

[remote grotto]

Now this looks terribly ugly. xD

Also Zweite Weltkrieg.

Meanwhile I began my offensive against Indochina, along with India, then German Dominions and after that the Dutch Colonies.

Also Egypt decided to declare war on the Germans...

[remote grotto]

And the game crashed… loaded in the last save, it’s when I landed in India… ragequit. XD I will continue it on Thursday.

[remote grotto]

And Germany has OP focuses, but most of them are 56 days long, +Germany has 0 planes, literally. Looked at Germany, they don’t even have the post WW1 planes… Germany, the 1st power of the world… no planes.

And it usually does no focuses.

For military and navy. Along with Air Force.

[coral shadow]

Which country are you playing as?

[meager lance]

Japan
See second img

[coral shadow]

Then how did you get to Africa?

[meager lance]

He didn't
Wdym

[coral shadow]

Oh wait NVM
Saw it wrongly

[meager lance]

I assume you were looking at the last img wrong

[meager lance]

I dare you try Kaiserreich Germany
Harder than KX because the eastern and western fronts usually begin around the same time
Germany tends to lose in this scenario

[remote grotto]

Japan. Trying to unite Asia under a flag.

Also @meager lance , sorry for the ping first of all, but in your KR Japan play through which Japanese government and army route did you choose, along with doctrine.

If I may ask it.

[meager lance]

I think I also went military centralist
Can I see the list of army routes to remember which one I took?

[remote grotto]

One minute, have to start the game.:D

[remote grotto]

It’s the only real route.:D When I tried it I accidentally created a democracy. XD

[remote grotto]

And something is crashing the game...

[coral shadow]

Wait theres a kaiser reich mod?

i only know kaiser redux

[meager lance]

Kaiserreich + a bunch more stuff = Kaiserredux

The "redux" part of Kaiserredux just refers to how it's just a rework of Kaiserreich

Same premise after all, just different execution

[coral shadow]

oh lol

Kaiserreich’s only problem is that austria hungary is way too weak

is reich’s AH as weak as redux’s AH?

[meager lance]

austria hungary only rarely federalizes in KX

[coral shadow]

what does that mean?
Sorry i dont know much about AH’s focus tree

[meager lance]

austria has the choice to consolidate all of its constituent puppets into a single country
usually happens in KR, doesn't happen often in KX though

[coral shadow]

you mean the repress the serbians path?

[meager lance]

no

during the Ausgleich Renegotiations of 1937, Austria chooses between consolidating all its puppets into a federation, forcing a centralized reunification, or continuing the status quo
just find a pic of their focus tree and it will make sense

the stuff in the blue box is what I'm talking about, it's cut off but you should get the point

[remote grotto]

My problem with the focus tree is it’s just too dam long.

[remote grotto]

Also.

[meager lance]

I think I did either air-land or will for army path
And then set up a bureaucratic economy

[coral shadow]

Oh i see

Btw does the year clock ever come to a end?
I have never found the end, if it exists

[meager lance]

the vanilla game ends at the start of 1956 if you're at peace
if you're at war at that time, then the end screen should show up when you peace out iirc

[coral shadow]

That's really long
I made it to 1950 before peacing out
Also the problem with the vanilla game is that it devolves into every country joining alliance and fighting each other

[meager lance]

During my procrastination, I've been looking through a bunch of resources advising me on how to win as Chen Jiongming and Federalist China
One more day of classwork and I can finally try a run again

[remote grotto]

Okay, time to try a new Japan game, old one keeps crashing, I guess coz some focuses.

Time to min max. XD

[remote grotto]

Okay, NRPR has been elected in Russia. Now the fun begins.

Poland also became a military state.

[coral shadow]

Poland is really easy to play imo

I always do the commonwealth route

[meager lance]

Finally started the campaign
The first two big steps have been completed
Defeated Guangxi to cement democratic over military dominance
Now I've declared my new federal government

I now have a new friend in Xinjiang along with my pal Zhao Hengti in Hunan
A grave threat is looming though, for Wang Jingwei is mobilizing against me in the east
I must make do with 24 divisions for now

[meager lance]

They declared on me
Then the Qing declared on them
And then they declared on Fengtian
An incredibly dumb idea, because now Fengtian is in the Co-Prosperity Sphere due to the guarantee 🙄
Anyways Qing and I sliced it up well
I didn't get very far, I could have taken it all in PLPC but that seemed too dumb

[meager lance]

due tothe tomfoolery of Wang Jingwei, I've been backed into a corner this playthrough
I chose to attend the reunification conference and collaborate with Zhang Zuolin
more runs will come though, hopefully one with a full set of united provinces

[remote grotto]

Didn't really sound fun.:D

[languid canopy]

The wording is so awkward in these screenshots.

[meager lance]

Next run is probably going to be this afternoon or tomorrow
6 years in about 3 ½ hours seems really fast to me
I'm probably going to switch from KR to KX

[meager lance]

My English or theirs?

[languid canopy]

Theirs lol.

The game itself has such awkward wording.

[meager lance]

Not surprised
A multinational project like KR is bound to have language hiccups
I'm used to understanding considering my parents speak worse English

Anyways, take two as Guangdong starts today

If I finish this Chen path, I really want to try Pershing's New England path in KX

The update for that dropped this month

That previous game was also my first experience with intelligence
At least it's fairly easy to use

[meager lance]

RIP

KX is crashing after I select a country and try to load in

[remote grotto]

Idk, Kaiserreich sometimes lacks the depth.

[remote grotto]

Isn’t it normal to speak like that, I mean translated it makes perfect sense why they write stuff like that.

[languid canopy]

I don't know. It just feels awkward when I read a lot of these, but I suppose that's true.

[remote grotto]

May I ask your nationality?

I am Hungarian btw.

[languid canopy]

American.

[remote grotto]

https://tenor.com/view/queen-hungarian-drink-alcohol-freddie-mercury-gif-8125018

[remote grotto]

Oh, I see, well that’s a big country.:D

Color or colour? XD

These always come to my mind, when we were taught the differences of US and UK English.

[remote grotto]

Yeah, but in KS you can’t make collaboration governments. In vanilla those are huge help.

[languid canopy]

Oh I prefer Colour, but color is how we do it in the US lol.

[meager lance]

I did my first in KR, then tried KX for the second run and it failed
So I'm back to KR for this

[remote grotto]

I mean it’s understandable, I only managed to do national populist Russia in KR.

So I definitely feel the struggle.

[meager lance]

Second try failed since I opted not to rush Guangxi for some reason
Idk what I was thinking there
My third is going ok, civil war still hasn't begun

[meager lance]

Dealt with the civil war at an ok pace
I declared my new federal government immediately after and got Hunan, Ma, and Xinjiang as allies
Qing declared on Nanjing, Fengtian declared on Qing shortly thereafter
Locked in a stalemate as it's now 1941
Sichuan got oofed by Tibet, now being conquered by the KMT in Yunnan
Ma looked a lot more certain to win against the Buddhists before, now they've lost the initiative (Sichuan deathblow is making it worse)
Xinjiang is nearly done consolidating power
Those two can only join my faction once they win

I can't declare on Nanjing without drawing Germany in, and I can't declare on Fengtian without calling Japan in
I'd rather deal with the Qing than either Germany or Japan

Bruh
Can't load my save

What a farce

Not sure how I was able to run KR for 1.12.7 on 1.12.8 when an error popped up this morning
But now I have roll back slightly, should fix the issue
Weird that it worked before though

Never mind

Maybe KX will work for once

Eyyyyy KX didn't crash

[meager lance]

So we might go to war with Sichuan first
Let's hope this works out

My first real war of the day was easy
Now we threaten Yunnan

[meager lance]

Macro and micro were combined well to get rid of Yunnan
Took a while, but it went alright
Once we secured Guiyang everything opened up from there
The Japanese just declared on China, not sure if a United Front will form

[meager lance]

We took Tibet, now we must take Mongolia (who guaranteed them)
I'm sure you can see the bad news on the map though, Fengtian just needs to capitulate Xinjiang to beat the Zhili
I'm going to have to fight them (and Japan)

ooo
once I peace out with Mongolia, I'll gear up to do this
I know Fengtian has a higher propensity to declare if you take this too early (hence I'm resisting the temptation now)

[meager lance]

I never thought the day would come
We finally defeated...Mongolia
Absolutely no supply in the Gobi Desert, so it took forever

Wait a second...
The Zhili are in there too!
WHAT

Of course the Fengtian do this
It's time for me to end this run for the afternoon

We only have 54 divisions, they're all in Mongolia right now, and we have a week to prepare

https://tenor.com/view/nice-gif-21458880

[meager lance]

It's probably from both the language barrier and the rigid, newspaper-like dramatic tone they're aiming for

[meager lance]

I love how my social democratic subideology is "Socialist Warlordism"
Somehow those two words didn't seem to go together well to me
And then I gave it more thought and realized that was basically what Mao was
Same can be said for the Left KMT in this timeline

[meager lance]

After 3 hours of deliberation, I still have no more of a clue how to defeat the Fengtian (and eventually Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand)

[meager lance]

https://tenor.com/view/sweating-wet-wipe-gif-15394859

Considering I saved right at that popup (literally right after the peace), I've got a few goes at righting this ship
I wouldn't be surprised if the situation is untenable though
My divisions are pretty bad and I've only got 54 of them (and they're not well supplied)

I just wish I didn't have to restart in such circumstances
When you stumble so close to the finish line, the agony is much greater
I must keep in mind that even the best players don't do runs like this in one try
The RNG may not have worked out in this run, so I'll probably give myself 3 chances

[meager lance]

The war has begun, and we do have an edge
Xinjiang joined my faction, I'm integrating everything, and I'm furiously spitting divisions out
Japan could be somewhat distracted by Germany, although that could become a problem if they take Vietnam
Then there are two angles of attack into me
They haven't declared yet, but we have taken Shenyang

[meager lance]

We're cooked
Japan declared
Of course I wasn't ready with 120 divisions

[meager lance]

Second go is also failing
Decided to focus on the possessions on the east coast and then cap them in the north
Didn't work all that well

[meager lance]

I'm going to start fresh tomorrow (which sucks since I've gotten to 1942 and we're close to the finish)
Fengtian taking the Nanjing Clique is like having 2-3 successful naval invasions bearing down on you immediately at the start of the war of unification
Absolutely impossible to recover from, even with my well-reformed Guofangjun

I could only ally with Hunan in the Third Shantou Conference
If I could get more cliques aligned I could siphon their armies when I puppet them through military nationalization, and then fight wars by myself with a smaller frontline but many units
Having Ma and Sichuan could make the greatest difference
Yunnan could be a good bonus to have as a buffer state to Thailand, although I'll still have a front down there after the Eastern Seas War begins (Deutsch-Ostasien nearly always gets rolled in Vietnam)
Xinjiang is a more common ally (and still helpful if they consolidate power)
The RNG wasn't great on this run (something Fed China tends to rely on), but I'm not going to set new game rules to amend that
We'll roll the dice as many times as necessary

[coral shadow]

Hmm....
Now this is awkward

[meager lance]

That img quality

[meager lance]

The Kivu Clique path in that mess is cool
Would recommend trying to create Nzere (a new pan-African state with cores across Mittelafrika) by defeating the colonizers and mercenaries in the Congo Crisis
Namibia (German last stand) and Tanzania (Goering) can also do that, as can the Chari Emirate now in the newest update

Kivu is quite difficult in the rainforest and with debuffs due to mercenary reliance and stuff, but quite rewarding as well

It's a shame I couldn't finish this run properly

[remote grotto]

Hm, Africa might be worth trying.

But now, time for another China run.

[meager lance]

Africa's painful to fight in sometimes
But the lore is intriguing
I also noticed that irregular cavalry exists now
I use it for garrisons (1 battalion has 3 suppression vs 2 for regular cavalry)
Might be able to form low-supply divisions with them for countryside warfare though

[remote grotto]

Okay, so I reverted(?) back to the good old HOI III days. No frontlines just micro.

[remote grotto]

Okay, so I won. xD

Also the 2 Italies collided.

[remote grotto]

Again.:D

Oh lol.

[remote grotto]

Qing just declared on me. They are dead.

[remote grotto]

We are at war again.

[meager lance]

I hope you're defending your ports
Are you putting the Germans in charge?

[remote grotto]

Of course, Falkenhausen just won.

[meager lance]

Nice

[meager lance]

I love having to wait 2 mins per image to see the context
I hate my data

[meager lance]

You're using player led peace conferences as well right?

Best of luck with Japan, they're probably going to declare when Fengtian has nearly capped
At least you'll be leading the United Front

[remote grotto]

Nope.

[remote grotto]

I declined joining in it. xD

[meager lance]

Lol
So it's just Western China that's made it?

[remote grotto]

SHIIIIITTTTT

[remote grotto]

If its the Qing led one, I declined it. xD

There it is. xD

[meager lance]

Ohhhhhhhh
I thought you were talking about one that would have been made right NOW

[remote grotto]

You have it.

[remote grotto]

Here. xD

[meager lance]

Oh that's sad
Yeah that's just Federalist China's faction after the Third Shantou Conference

[remote grotto]

Japan is at war with Germany though.

[meager lance]

Is Indochina in a faction?
Maybe with Bharatiya and Burma?

I see they're fighting Thailand (who's presumably in the Co-Prosperity Sphere)

[remote grotto]

Europe is not looking too hot.:D

[remote grotto]

No, Burma went with the Germans and declared on Siam which is with Japan, not long after Japan declared on Indochina.

So Indochina joined the Third Internacionalé.

[meager lance]

Wow

[remote grotto]

Bharatiya is fighting with the princes of India, not with the Raj.

[meager lance]

Of course the Austrians are the weakest link

[remote grotto]

But the Entente also declared war on the Third Internacionalé.

We only need the Russians for the full world party. xD

Along with one of the many USas.

[meager lance]

Yep
Did the Halifax Conference succeed?

[remote grotto]

What do you expect, small country, had no units on the border, garrisoned the entire Monarchy.

[remote grotto]

We didnt even have a conference like that stranger form the future.;D

[meager lance]

Lmfao
Did the Entente just declare?

[remote grotto]

Yep.

And Fengtian just capped.

[meager lance]

Nice
Any naval invasions from Japan?

[meager lance]

Hopefully you can rush Korea

[remote grotto]

And Transamur.:/

[meager lance]

And quickly take Dalian

[remote grotto]

And through Transamur I can go to Japan.

[meager lance]

You just need to rush Korea and Dalian
Then you get a timer till the Rising Sun fades

[remote grotto]

Oh.:D

Sounds good.

[meager lance]

Yep
Otherwise you'd be 💩 on by naval invasions all the time

[remote grotto]

There will be one, so I am training a quick response force.

[meager lance]

Nice

[remote grotto]

Also.

Transamur capped.

[meager lance]

Nice
One less front
Just need to garrison the ports
Just need Seoul and Pyongyang to start the timer

[meager lance]

The last 100 days 😲

[remote grotto]

Random Transamur guy got elected, it all went back to their control and I get encircled...

[meager lance]

Did you "lean on duty" or "pay them more" in regards to recruitment?

[remote grotto]

Lean on duty.

[meager lance]

Have you been able to integrate the Qing areas?
That moves your victory point distribution away from the coast
Juuuuust in case they go ham on naval invading xD

[remote grotto]

I rule supreme, they wont go, just killed 50 000 by a missed naval invasion.

[meager lance]

Niiiice
You must be so close
Less than 2 months till it's over?

[remote grotto]

I have lost 13 000 men and Japan lost 167 000. xD

[remote grotto]

14 days.:D

[meager lance]

Ayyyyy

[meager lance]

Not surprising
Did Reichspakt and Entente collaborate?

Don't look like it to me

[remote grotto]

They never did.

[meager lance]

🥳

[remote grotto]

Should I accept?

[meager lance]

Never

[remote grotto]

We have the same amount of divisions.

But I want to take the rest of China so peace in our time.

[meager lance]

You can always go in on them later to finish the job
Especially considering you join the Reichspakt after you declare the Chinesisches Kaiserreich

[remote grotto]

Because the Legation cities chose Japan, with their defeat, they went bankrupt and I got to absorb them.

[meager lance]

The East seems easier than the South in a couple of ways:

• Liangguang is so small, so you need to prep a lot before you go on your main northern expedition, whereas once you win the civil war in East China, you've got a decently large nation to start
• Japan will already have a land route from Indochina to attack Liangguang (whether it be the Thai border at Jinghong, or the Vietnamese border if they roll the controller of that area). Whereas East China mainly has to worry about a litany of naval invasions
  I should really do my East China runs before Liangguang

[meager lance]

Congratulations!
You're now more or less 90% of the way to uniting China under the Kaiser's name

[meager lance]

Do you know why anyone wouldn't want to take the Legations??????

[remote grotto]

NOPE.:D

[meager lance]

How many divisions do you have now?

And did you make CAS?

[remote grotto]

No planes.

[remote grotto]

This is the end for today.

[meager lance]

Was just thinking about that, I was wondering why you'd be still be playing at around 2 am

[remote grotto]

2:24 xD

[meager lance]

Bad estimation

Lmfao

Was it all infantry?

[remote grotto]

Yeah, now I built 4 mech divisions with motorized rocket artillery.

[meager lance]

Nice

[meager lance]

Time to act on this
I shall do the Soong Qingling LKMT first

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
These updates are really scratching an itch

[meager lance]

Back to KR
Since the League War is more fleshed out there
We got a pretty good peace with Nanjing
Now we rush Anqing

Easy win thanks to the 25 units I was able to pump out through the League War mechanics

New leader (Sun's widow)

[meager lance]

We're driving north first
Just got a +20% defence and offence buff against the Qing, so it's time to put it to good use along with our +15% irregular infantry offence/defence buffs

[meager lance]

Took Beijing finally
The Right KMT in Guangxi (the Liangguang Civil War isn't over still) and Yunnan joined me and Sichuan in destroying the Qing
Fengtian is noticeably absent

They finally joined
Only for table scraps though

A bit of a weird peace
We must prepare to fight Fengtian immediately

[meager lance]

For now I've been letting them run into this brick wall for a while
Dumb early pushes led to about 20k of my casualties
In the meanwhile, the coastal defence army is being prepared for when Japan will be called in

Our army is also nearly done reforming
And the NRA has some good buffs (hence building more irregulars)

[meager lance]

Tibet declared on the Right KMT
Which is making me tempted to try a risky gambit...
Can I pacify them without issue???
Will save now as a starting point to try this freaky experiment

Nah
Not really
We'll just focus on the Fengtian while being paranoid that they're going to kill me 👍

[meager lance]

My indecisiveness, as per usual, is letting the enemy consolidate
The R-KMT is now taking Shanxi,
The Fengtian is boosting its army
So I now want to pull off some kind of encirclement in Hebei to try and cut off most of their forces

[meager lance]

Still indecisive
At least I nabbed Shanxi
Still paranoid of Zhu Peide and Li Zongren

[coral shadow]

Spain in civil war again...
Why am I surprised

[meager lance]

Decided last night to slowly build a navy
We're going to try and naval invade behind their lines to quickly take Shenyang and trap their forces in Hebei
We have +15% offence/defence for special forces (including marines) just from the NRA, and I think I got extra marine corps bonuses in my focus tree

They have less than 10 ships
Should be possible

[meager lance]

Got bored of China
Had to scratch the Pershing itch
Noticed this during the game 😔

uh oh...

We are now New England
This is the newest part of the focus tree
Gonna choose Pershing
Must revolt against the Canadians first

Aaaaaaaaand nevermind
Did not launch right whatsoever

AHA
I have to play as Canada, not America
Of course, this is under Canada's path after all

[meager lance]

First revolt is going terribly
I'm going to try it again through a save I got just before the revolt, just gonna lay low in Boston

[meager lance]

Held out in Eastern Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island
We got the peace just as it was getting dicey

The sad defensive line that held out
I turned on division limits for everyone, so they had -25% org as well

[languid canopy]

Hmm, I might play some C:S, but you guys have me intrigued with HOI4.

Any suggestions for HOI4 or should I just watch Gameranx's Before You Buy?

[meager lance]

Wdym by suggestions?

[languid canopy]

Like any particular things I should know about it? Any suggestions for better gameplay? Nations you suggest?

[meager lance]

Ah I see

[languid canopy]

Also, anyone play Northgard or Ixion?

So I'm looking at HOI4, now I understand why they offer an Expansion Sub.

Nearly 200 bucks just for the DLC>

So its either I pay for the 200 bucks or I get the sub?

Should I just get the starter bundle?

[tawny acorn]

Friend and I Spain and portugal campaign

Im spain, he may have more land but my land is much better

[tawny acorn]

I dont have any of the DLCs and i still like the game a lot. The dlcs just add stuff like tank/boat/plane design and some new tech trees and espionage, nothing too great for how expensive they are

[meager lance]

It's a lot more useful to look at mods like Kaiserreich (what if the Central Powers won WWI), Old World Blues (Fallout grand strategy), or Road to 56 (expanded vanilla timeline) than splurging on DLCs
They increase the replayability of the game more than the added functionality of DLCs ever could

[tawny acorn]

Yes this is true

[coral shadow]

for vanilla i suggest playing germany and soviet union, they are the easiest to get the hang of

but i agree with d.atbruhskull, mods enhance the game a lot

[tawny acorn]

Soviet Union was actuallu pretty hard for me when i was starting

i think germany or Usa is the best

germany to learn fighting, US to learn economy

[remote grotto]

Never even heard of them.:D

[remote grotto]

Normal Paradox marketing, look at EU4 altogether.
Makes me want to throw up.
Especially with their older games which had 3-4 or even 5 dlcs and were hundred times more complex than these.

[remote grotto]

You guys should go India, indochina, china and Oceania, best provinces of the game are there. Then European ones.;D

[remote grotto]

We should do a mod showcase btw. There are some stuff I would throw in there.

[remote grotto]

Okay, time to join the Reichspakt to beat Russia.

[meager lance]

Nice
You can get cores on Outer Manchuria too right?

[remote grotto]

yEP.

Sorry.

Yep.

xD

[remote grotto]

Finally. xD

FInally finished my run

[tawny acorn]

yeah we should but one of the Indian nations is actually a world power and we probably wouldn’t win lol

[remote grotto]

Which one?

Because some are inland.

You don’t have to conquer them in one go, just get one port, make a fort and go form there. Then Indochina and Oceania are easy.

[tawny acorn]

Bengal if I remember correctly

[tawny acorn]

Ah okay

[remote grotto]

Although I don’t know nowadays, haven’t been a colonizer in ages.

[remote grotto]

They might only control the Bengal bay and others, they won’t attack you coz if you are both allied, they will be afraid of you guys.

[tawny acorn]

I’d more interested in the Malayan trade node not as powerful

[meager lance]

Gonna do Pershing again
I did it suboptimally last time
Especially because an independent New York led by Fred Trump (Donald's dad) declared on me as a Reichspakt member
I also didn't take the infiltration missions (instead hunkering down for bonuses immediately useful in the war of independence)

[meager lance]

We've fought off a couple of naval invasions on our stout lines
We should peace out soon

🦅

[meager lance]

I have not intervened yet
What a mess
Hopefully I can move in with about 60 good divisions

[meager lance]

Will be intervening in 1941 hopefully
China is cursed after the creation of the United Front and Fengtian capping
(What happened to Liangguang? They were fighting Yunnan AND Nanjing, then the war began and they lost states in the truce to both players in order to join the United Front. And then they took Tibet and Mongolia, who were beating up Ma Clique, and then now they get a cursed deal with the Qing)

[coral shadow]

Holy cow what happened to Guangzhou

[meager lance]

read

[coral shadow]

They don't even own Guangzhou anymore

[meager lance]

Not true

Guangzhou is firmly in their hands

[coral shadow]

Ohh wait at the south

[meager lance]

SocDems and Longists have started their war at the end of June 1941
Now is the time to strike
Will try my hand at it with 66 divisions on the 4th of July, 1941

An auspicious day to start the liberation

Peace in November 1941

Good circumstances
Because then they get debuffed and we can take over?

Yeah, right...

AAAAAAAAA
I'm so dumb
Signed a NAP with the Longists
Can't declare fast
They have less than 100 divisions
Gotta redo the last couple of months

Wow I got an even better outcome
Hopefully they have still "won"

[coral shadow]

Lol

[meager lance]

How the AUS gets hammered:

[coral shadow]

Oof

[meager lance]

Ok this is definitely broken
For one, Huey isn't even President
And also, they don't even own Washington

Welp we've failed again

[meager lance]

Decided to remain at peace as long as possible this time
This is quite bugged though
The AUS thinks the civil war is over, so they're rebuilding
New England DOESN'T think it's over, so I keep getting more manpower (yay), but no opportunity to core my states or continue down my reconstruction tree

Bruh
Don't tell me I've won the war when I can't continue 😭

[meager lance]

Probably gonna just do "decision.nochecks" to claim a free America
Kinda irritating that I'm at this stalemate
And all this time I keep playing games and never finishing

[meager lance]

What the other America is doing:

[coral shadow]

what is that

is that a theocratic america

[meager lance]

yep
a catholic america

[coral shadow]

cursed

[remote grotto]

The squad is back. xD

Belgium seperated.

[remote grotto]

@meager lance have you done a German Russia?

In Kaiserredux, or is it in an other mod?

[meager lance]

I did German Russia in KX, yes

You can either build the Russisches Kaiserreich, or become a Reichskommissariat that, if von Leeb coups, can revolt and create a NatPop Germany

[remote grotto]

New Japan strat involves medium tanks.

Also, China is maybe forming a republic? Also Nanjing stayed.

Also, long live the Vozhd I guess.

I also think Lichtenstein is bugged. xD

[remote grotto]

Also other problems loom on the Horizon.

Shame!

And Siam also dropped out...

Okay. I am fairly sad

Noone except the Philippines joined my alliance and China along with Indochina is in German control, Hawaii has strong American presence and still no Indonesian revolt...

I am pretty much alone.

And Germany went to war. xD

Americans gave in, I was so ready to island hop and fight them.:D

[coral shadow]

https://tenor.com/view/the-mummy-returns-cursed-this-is-cursed-that-is-cursed-gif-23891128

[remote grotto]

An interesting plan to invade Singapore. xD

[meager lance]

seen that a couple of times
nothing like austrian alaska

[coral shadow]

HEY

DON’T YOU DARE

[remote grotto]

XD

Nah, I quit the run.:D

Too many bs happened like i guaranteed transamur, yet i couldnt join the war which was declared on him.

[coral shadow]

Lol i was playing germany and i was being neutral in WW1
then i got invited to a pact by austria and ottomans
Then they declared war on the allies

So now I'm basically fighting everyone all at once

I took out Austria and Anschlussed Austria and made Hungary a puppet
Now to deal with the sh*tshow that is the Balkans front

[remote grotto]

XD

[coral shadow]

Alright
I've pushed the ottomans to Istanbul

My plan is to flank the Russians through the Caucasus
Then i will push through Ukraine until the dnipro river

Holy cow the western front is beginning to collapse
I will retreat to my fall back line at the danube

@remote grotto @meager lance
Visible confusion

[remote grotto]

Poland must have been left with no other choice.

XD

[coral shadow]

Idk what happened tbh

[remote grotto]

Something probably bugged out.

Like how my Chinese Kaiserreich was led by Wilhelm II although he died ago. XD

[remote grotto]

.

[coral shadow]

So Poland was ceded it's WW2 eastern territories?

Lol

[remote grotto]

Greater Poland.

[coral shadow]

[coral shadow]

Holy cow i just encircled 230 allied units

Western front has collapsed and i have entered paris

Now for the invasion of UK and Canada

Thankfully the US hasn't entered the war yet

[meager lance]

Lmfao
I think that happened to my Russisches Kaiserreich as well
And I remember seeing that bug in TommyKay's German Govt in Exile run

[meager lance]

Picture or it didn't happen

[coral shadow]

i didnt sc 😢

[meager lance]

Thus your claim is fraudulent!

[coral shadow]

Wait btw is there a focus tree in KX to avoid the soviets?

[meager lance]

Wdym

Russia isn't Soviet by default

[coral shadow]

As in like is there a focus tree to stop the revolution from happening

[meager lance]

Socialist revolution is also not a default option for Russia, in fact it doesn't happen often for me
Usually it's reactionaries like Trubetskoy or Savinkov who take over
So yeah, there's more non-socialist content

If you don't want socialists in Russia while you play another country, you can set that in the game rules

[remote grotto]

Huge addition to the game.

[coral shadow]

ahh i see
the weird thing was that the russians managed to defeat the soviets in the war

I've never seen that before tbh

[remote grotto]

Time to look back on Hoi4 Millenium Dawn mod.

[coral shadow]

https://tenor.com/view/laughing-lol-slam-table-anime-cute-gif-17848238

[remote grotto]

Trying out the Russisches Reich now.:D

[remote grotto]

We have succesfully established German control.

Russia is a mess luckily.

Savinkov and Kornilov are fighting Spirodova.

White Ruthenia and Ukraine biting into Russia.

Finland went in on Russia too.

xD

Oh lol.

[meager lance]

good job charles

[remote grotto]

Yeah, never seen this.

[coral shadow]

what happened to austria hungary

[meager lance]

czechoslovak revolt

and yugoslav (illyrian) revolt

[coral shadow]

Ahh i see

[tawny acorn]

did the czechs win

[coral shadow]

probably
AH’s army sucks

[tawny acorn]

hopefully

[remote grotto]

Everyone revolted basically.

[remote grotto]

…

[coral shadow]

Lol

[remote grotto]

I believe they are still fighting.

[remote grotto]

Look at the architect of the Uni.:D

[remote grotto]

Okay, nice run. xD

[tawny acorn]

Lol soryy

[remote grotto]

Np, just not a fan. But Austria won.

[remote grotto]

See.

[tawny acorn]

Yeah I was watching the screenshot like noo lol

[remote grotto]

I might wanna play france soon, never seen them win…

[coral shadow]

aquataine flashbacks

[remote grotto]

Germany run.

[remote grotto]

Malta joined Austria Hungary, and I got the most dangerous Russia.

[remote grotto]

Austrian dominance.

[meager lance]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaiserreich/comments/10i7796/progress_report_134_chinese_mechanical_overhaul/
Important changes coming to China
Taiwan will not be returned during "The Fading Sun" event
Reforms for the integration of warlords
Minor changes to the army reform
More research slots for a united China
and more

The "Integration" occupation law is especially interesting
I wonder if you can core non-Chinese states with it...😮
I'm sure they were wise to that and made it specific to Chinese states though

[remote grotto]

I want a better Hungary focus tree.:D

Lol

[meager lance]

Lmfao "Though a few units appear to meet Western standards, the vast majority do not, and better resemble gangs of bandits and other criminals."

[coral shadow]

Do Paris conference path
It's pretty fun watching all of Europe gang up on you

It is possible to beat them all though
Just need a fk ton of troops

Ok you know what
I'm gonna do third Rome

Just for fun

[remote grotto]

State of the world.

Also Egypt decided to declare on me for Suez...

[meager lance]

I dare you try Bokassa in KX
You can either become a Black Kaiser or Black Charlemagne based on who you choose to idolize

[tawny acorn]

iron man germany run regular difficulty

road to 56 on

[tawny acorn]

czechs accepted munich, good for them ... más štastie as we say

preparing for poland

🤝

[tawny acorn]

everything was going well but soviets decided to declare war

have to finish france as quick as possible

bad situation 😭

[tawny acorn]

Outgunned outnumbered on every front, naval invaded every 5 seconds

I maybe could have won if I waited for my 30 divisions I had in training

I would have to evenly spread out all my troops to guard all current front then clean it up one by one with the new 30 division

[remote grotto]

Okay, I think I will try it after Germnay world conquest. XD

[remote grotto]

Why did you not make a Slovakia?:D

[remote grotto]

You didnt give them Eastern Poland!

[remote grotto]

Not that bad. Just dont forget the d day wall.

[coral shadow]

What happened to east Poland?

[tawny acorn]

Naval invasion lol

[tawny acorn]

I wanted more land lol

[tawny acorn]

I don’t even think they asked for it

[remote grotto]

But it's just Slovakia. XD

The puppet looks better.:D

[remote grotto]

You have to do the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact for it.

[tawny acorn]

ohh okay lol

that probably would have saved us

[remote grotto]

Yep, Soviets won't declare on you.

[tawny acorn]

Il be trying again later today doing that

[meager lance]

Next Kaiserreich update is tomorrow 😲

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaiserreich/comments/105blhu/progress_report_133_the_shanxi_rework/
Shanxi is now being fleshed out as well
I dunno if it's dropping this update

[meager lance]

I always believed Yan Xishan (who had his own quirky thread of centrism) and Feng Yuxiang (a christian socialist) would make interesting characters to flesh out
Which is exactly what this is

[tawny acorn]

new germany veteran iron man mode

[tawny acorn]

got the spanish civil war to end early in 37 with just 2 divisions 💪

[coral shadow]

Why are the names different?

Like i though it was "Republican Spain"

[tawny acorn]

wdym

spanish state i supported so they won

[coral shadow]

I thought the names of countries was just the name (eg France, Italy)

[tawny acorn]

ohh because of road to 56

[coral shadow]

Other than stuff like kingdom of poland

[tawny acorn]

its a mod

[coral shadow]

OHHH i see

[tawny acorn]

yeah it adds a lot

like a DLC

[coral shadow]

I should try a USA run
I've never done US before

Most of my runs are Germany and France

[tawny acorn]

we are bringing the fight to ethiopia

[tawny acorn]

Us is really fun imo

[coral shadow]

What focus do you recommend?

[tawny acorn]

il make a drawing one sec

Never mind can’t get a photo

Basically you need to get the giant wakes because either wise your economy will be super horrible. You need 30 war support to get it so you need get some division training thing which gives war support when world tensions go up

[coral shadow]

Giant wakes?

[tawny acorn]

then just get whatever seems right to you

[tawny acorn]

Yes

[coral shadow]

What is that

[tawny acorn]

It gives a MASSIVE boost to economy

Absolutely necessary to play USA

[coral shadow]

But i have to do democracy 🥺

[tawny acorn]

you should get it about 1938 or 39

[tawny acorn]

Yes

[coral shadow]

NOOOOOOOO

[tawny acorn]

USA is borderline unplayable without giant wakes lol

dont worry youll have the biggest industry in the world by 42

[coral shadow]

Wait is there fascist and communist paths?

Just wondering

[tawny acorn]

I think so

definatly with road to 56

[coral shadow]

I play vanilla

[tawny acorn]

i dont really remember ngl

[coral shadow]

Civilian?

[tawny acorn]

everything

oh yes build civs at first

switch back and forth between civs and infastructure

build infa in states with most resources like oil and stuff

then by 39 or 40 switch to mil

@remote grotto got slovakia this time lol

[remote grotto]

Much better. No border gore. XD

[remote grotto]

It's a beast country. And pretty boring early on. You sit and wait for world tension to rise.

[remote grotto]

Why supporting Ethiopia?:D

Mussolini will be your largest ally.

[remote grotto]

If you have the dlc yes.
Communist, idk, never played them. Fascist are the Silver Legion. Pretty much ally Germany. Then there is the non aligned Confederates with a second civil war. If I remember correctly.

[tawny acorn]

Lol I wanted the army XP mr Mussolini didn’t even mind

he hated us after Molotov pact tho

[remote grotto]

That doesnt matter. He will join you none the less.:D

[meager lance]

Mussolini needs you more than you need him

[tawny acorn]

europes soft underbelly

i saw an italian on tik tok bragging about how italy beat ehtiopia

[coral shadow]

laughs

[remote grotto]

Still, a useful weight in my opinion.

[remote grotto]

Pride of Italy.

[remote grotto]

You know, Italians always know something. Very innovative people too. XD

[meager lance]

After a whole day of Redditors and Discord members sobbing and soiling themselves, the update dropped at 23:30 EST xD
Shanxi was included along with the China mechanic changes

[tawny acorn]

Lol yeah

[tawny acorn]

biggest comeback in history ladies in gentlemen

we need to take out the british as soon as we possible can otherwise our trade is done for and they will continously naval invade to oblivon

to cross the english channel

these borders arent even that bad

[remote grotto]

What happened to Hungary? I just noticed it.

[tawny acorn]

The tip of Slovakia got independence, Hungary declared war on them but they were in our faction

[remote grotto]

Oh yeah, Kárpátalja, forgot they made the mod like that.

[tawny acorn]

Yeah more historically accurate I like it

[remote grotto]

Eh, Hungary occupied it, it was never a nation.

[tawny acorn]

Oh I didn’t know that

I thought they were

[remote grotto]

Nah, never.

Hungarian military moved it and was welcomed chearing.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uLv-VLJeFdY&feature=share

[tawny acorn]

Ah okay

[tawny acorn]

the run is dead😭

made the decision of invading spain but we couldnt make any advancments and lost all our navy and airforce in the process

really wouldnt have guessed it would be spain to defeat us after we took on half of europe at once

[meager lance]

The communists can annex the Soviet Union if they're doing badly

[remote grotto]

It sounds a bit boring. If they do that badly they are usually at Stalingrad and at Moskva, then you have to get there and the supply is also not good, along with the Japanese problem. They can cut you any time.

[meager lance]

They don't get cores, but it does at least keep American troops from getting stuck and completely dying in Siberia after capitulation
Otherwise, it's boring

[remote grotto]

Eh, second civil war is still your best bet.

[meager lance]

Back to making attempts to unite China
Especially after the new KR updates

[meager lance]

China lookin very grey
All because we are loyal to the Qing (for now...)

brother zhao, you're lookin a lil older these days...

old friend tang also aged a bit
good for the devs
the portraits look really good

ooo
my reunification tree looks a little different

good

a pivotal choice for Chen Mingshu (LKMT)
we shall stay unified to defeat the RKMT

took longer than I wanted, but we won the civil war

never seen this buff in an advisor before, looks interesting though

good encirclement in chongqing
we only have hunan with us
sad but we must make do

damn it
the encirclement broke

shanxi has an amazing focus tree now

[meager lance]

may 1939
we have a massive problem...
the guomindang has surrounded us

[meager lance]

army reforms nearly done!
shanxi declared on fengtian, this is my best chance to defeat the GMD

not a good idea
will try again after lunch
the most problematic part of this run was sichuan declaring on hunan (and me being dragged in as a result)

[meager lance]

Second go
Civil war was easier (we defeated the Old Guangxi Clique instead of the new one)
But we have no allies now that Hunan went Buddhist and joined the LKMT

[meager lance]

ok so the strangest thing happened
I turned on PLPC for this one
first LKMT declared on Chongqing
then Qing declared on Shanxi
then Qing declared on Fengtian
then I declared on Yunnan
then Qing declared on Chongqing
then Qing declared on ME
then LKMT declared on Qing
and finally LKMT declared on Fengtian
the problem? I didn't do a single thing to kill the Qing...
so when the peace conference came, I couldn't control it and neither could the AI
so here you go, a Qing that's been set free starting from scratch because I couldn't do anything to carve them up

[meager lance]

Qing declared on LKMT
So I decided to troll by declaring on the Qing
I'm just going to make their lives terrible with a nonsense peace conference
And then swoop in later

I think Soong Qingling saw through my BS
She just declared on me and I don't have any troops on the border
This run was absolute garbage anyways
Yunnan is practically impossible to beat
I don't know how they make modern infantry divisions with practically zero factories

[meager lance]

Ay this time we got Sichuan on board
Ery noice
Yunnan fell to the RKMT, as usual now LKMT took over East China

[meager lance]

Sichuan declared on Tibet
But then RKMT declared on me outta nowhere
Thankfully the situation is stabilizing

we bottled a few up!
I also love how this battleplan is called the "Himalayas Offensive Operation" even though we're in Guangxi

oh great
now the qing's declared on us
at least we have sichuan and hunan as buffers

ey we got yunnan this time!
now we can finish tibet and then call hunan and sichuan in to fight the qing

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The LKMT declared without warning now
And I just sent my army to Tibet
We're nearly capped, I am stabilizing again though
That's 2 near death experiences in this run though

LET'S GOOOOOO
MA JOINED ME
We are now on the side of the Prophet 🙏

Also the LKMT declared on the Qing now

WOOOOOOOOOO
WE GOT SHANXI AND XINJIANG AS WELL

now this really feels like a proper war
so stressful
I might be as bald as Chen Jiongming by the end of this

reason 42069 HOI4 ai is painful to deal with
while I'm suffering in liangguang, the western warlord are sitting pretty and not helping me

[meager lance]

now fengtian is preparing to declare on me
jesus

[meager lance]

fengtian declared on me, but they finally got around to declaring on the lkmt
it's now feb 1941

[coral shadow]

call the commies or japan

[meager lance]

I'm relieved that I integrated Yunnan
The reasons why I haven't capped are 21 decent divisions, complete army reforms, LKMT fighting on multiple fronts, and adding extra victory points in Yunnan

At one point I had 7 factories
I think I'm back to 15 or so now
I had about 25 before the war began

[smoky wasp]

Fortress Luxembourg

You can definitely get bigger numbers though

[meager lance]

jesus christ
I'm so done with this AI
we have double the troop count of the LKMT and the AI is still refusing to bring troops to the front
probably gonna tag switch to them just so we can finally have some relief
because hunan and I are doing all the work at this point

[meager lance]

It used to be that the LKMT was weak and Anqing usually won the League War
It seems like there's been a massive overcorrection and LKMT is now on some cocktail of drugs to be so powerful
I need to check this out for myself right now

[meager lance]

First go has been an abject failure
Morale collapsed just as we were getting to Nanjing and defections started happening
Along with a really, really bad "collapsing morale" malus

even worse outcome the second time round

Third time's the charm

[meager lance]

Hunan joined us
Then we dealt with the RKMT (Li Zongren in Liangguang) and then Zhang Bojun (also a RadSoc, who aligned with the RKMT for some reason)

The Second Northern Expedition is upcoming

[meager lance]

still trying to take out sichuan and shanxi after taking out beijing
what a mess

[tawny acorn]

new USA game veteran iron man mode and road to 56

why are there always italian troops here and they cant leave because they dont have military access. idk how they got there to begin with

[meager lance]

How is Canada a republic already

[tawny acorn]

Idk lol

[meager lance]

OH MY GOD
I'M NEARLY DONE

Japan hasn't done anything to me yet
They did win against the Germans, so I have a longer Indochinese front
But my superstition of not talking about a run till I was actually succeeding may have worked

I'm going to finish the rest of my tree before I press the epic button
I just hope I can deal with the Japanese on my own terms
If I defeat them, then I am finally free to talk about a possible miracle

The war has begun

[meager lance]

Casualties as the war ends

THIS IS IT!

WANSUIIIIIIIIIIIIII

A humiliation avenged

We threw bodies at Thailand and got halfway through

And so the short-lived United Front is disbanded

Never in a million years did I think I would do this
Especially considering the EXTRAORDINARY circumstances compared to my other runs
I started with no one on my side (even brother Zhao betrayed me 😢)
Nanjing won without Qing support in the East
I declared on Yunnan as they were fighting Sichuan, then the Qing declared on me (Yunnan joined the Qing sphere), then SICHUAN declared on me
Thankfully by then I got Nanjing, Shanxi, and then Tibet and Mas on my side
Right Kuomintang ✅
Qing ✅
Sichuan ✅
Fengtian ✅
Japan ✅
It's mid-September 1941 and now I must declare a new China, integrate the warlords, and prepare to take the Legations and Taiwan to end the Century of Humiliation for once and for all

Wrangel leads Russia in crushing the Reichspakt with the 3I

[meager lance]

The Americans joined the Entente as the Reichspakt dissolved
So did the Legation Cities, which I consider one of my last targets (along with Portugal to take Macau)

[meager lance]

I've been playing this game for 698 hours and this is only the second time I've defeated Japan as China (first was as Fengtian)

[meager lance]

New capital in a place a lot of people have gotten to know of in the past three years...
The site of the most famous uprising of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911

[meager lance]

That division limit...

I have only 240 divisions

Nearly at the first election

Surprised I can't re-elect the SocDem Zhigongdang
But Zhang Junmai (aka Carsun Chang) works

There's one down

Another W

Siam took concessions when Japan peaced out with the Entente
They must suffer...

[meager lance]

Nearly done unifying China in 1946
Gonna just annex Tibet via the console (Ma puppeted them before I puppeted Ma)
And then we deal with the Thailand problem...

[meager lance]

Forgot to do this
Unequal Treaties officially voided on 21 July 1946

Siam gave them back
Whew
Still thinking about Taiwan though

[meager lance]

Declared on the 3I
Gave our tourists a nice friendly holiday spot in Spain

What a beautiful mess

Our division limit is ungodly now

[meager lance]

Next election: return of the Federalists

RIP Nigeria 💀

[meager lance]

How we're looking in 1949
Since I need to naval invade Japan, I need probably 3 times as many ships as the amount I have now

China is THICC, despite the notable absence of Taiwan
Europe is a hot mess (and yes, I do own a third of Spain)
Africa and the Americas aren't looking too special (as always)

Russia, India, America, Japan, and I are undisputedly the top dogs

[remote grotto]

Yeah, one of the strongest Russias. Suprised they didnt kill the International, but i see a Spain there too…

[remote grotto]

Don’t worry, it’s only in the middle like around 500-600. XD

[remote grotto]

Greece did what the Golden Dawn actually wants.:D

[meager lance]

I hope to start building naval bombers, nukes, and tanks next weekend
So I can defeat Japan first for Taiwan, and then maybe India for Arunachal Pradesh

[meager lance]

Paris vs Moscow happened shortly thereafter
That's why Europe is split between the Entente and Moscow Accord

The exiled Germans are fighting the Russians on their own

[remote grotto]

Oh, i meant the germans killing syndies.

[meager lance]

I also just learned I can claim Bhutan
The world-famous universal cores on Singapore and the Panama Canal were removed with this update 😭

There was apparently a whole cottage industry of people creating global claim maps that included Singapore and the Panama Canal
So much for that

[meager lance]

Yep
Afaik they can only get claims on Greater Greece though

[remote grotto]

Golden Dawn would be proud!:D

[meager lance]

TommyKay pretty much did a Eurasian conquest from bloody Sichuan (I've also seen another Sichuanese conquest timelapse of the Moscow Accord and Co-Prosperity Sphere)
So this China could be a pretty good springboard for that kind of mission

[remote grotto]

Hmmm.

[meager lance]

It's 1952
I declared on India
We're racing for the bomb

[meager lance]

Oh god
We have an ally in a potential war against Japan!

[meager lance]

We annex India on 29 August 1954

Natural borders of China

Our battle with Japan begins with a bang

Another massive encirclement

First nuke I've ever dropped in Kaiserreich

Finally walked in

[meager lance]

Forgot that the Siamese puppeted Australia
They peaced out separately and we got it

[meager lance]

Leaving it here for today
Hopefully I can finish the war with Japan next weekend in order to take Taiwan
Unfortunately I couldn't claim or core Tawang or Bhutan 😔
I must have been blind not to know those were removed claims

Where we're at now
3rd overall
3rd in army
1st in navy
3rd in air
3rd in industry
2nd in land

[remote grotto]

Empire of Brazil pog.:D

[coral shadow]

Lol

[meager lance]

WE DID IT!
Just before 1958 as well
22 years of HOI4

We got nearly all of the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia
Along with South Pacific island chains

Farewell, America!

[meager lance]

The end!
I've never looked at the ridiculous amount of end-game stats, but here they are
We end 3rd in army, 1st in navy, 3rd in planes (although I could just spam out the TENS OF THOUSANDS I have in reserves to top the leaderboards), 3rd in industry (we're partially mobilized), and 2nd in land
India, Myanmar, Kachin, Laos, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia, Bhutan, Catalonia, Korea, Australia, Basque, and Japan are our subjects

[meager lance]

Largest country in the world by population (by far)
829 division limit in August 1959
Usual late-game reserves of equipment
We didn't finish intel research, but we did do all the other stuff
Everything is ridiculous, as late-game is
I still think the most ludicrous thing is being the naval champion of the world (we probably have as many ships as the Americans and Russians combined)
And all as a run-of-the-mill liberal democracy that's now ready to hold its 5th national election

[remote grotto]

Is this modern day China?:D

[meager lance]

[meager lance]

Now it's time to do this again from Sichuan

[coral shadow]

What? Why did France and Japan randomly declare on me?

[meager lance]

A hilarious bug I found online from a while ago

Live images as Zhang Zuolin denounces himself as a "Japanese lapdog":

At least he's self-aware

https://tenor.com/view/obi-wan-kenobi-of-course-i-know-him-hes-me-gif-12774102

Speaking of Zhang Zuolin
I'd like to try Fengtian again some time in the future, but with a couple twists:

• Achieve the "Twin Dragons Taming the Water" ending (which takes good RNG to get Chen Jiongming and a losing Soong Qingling to the Unification Conference)
• Refuse the white peace with Japan (I need to learn how to paradrop so I can land on Taiwan and the Home Islands, as navally invading will be practically impossible)
• Drop 4 nukes on Japan (to trigger the four news events: Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki)
• Reverse the Amur Annexations (also needs good RNG so Transamur expands northward, but doesn't strengthen enough for me to be unable to take them out)
• Win (ie. take all cores and claims) before 1950

[uncut tulip]

revive the mongolian empire

[meager lance]

I should probably return to that in KX some day

[remote grotto]

Uh, with the Mad Baron it would be possible.

[remote grotto]

Sounds like something you would need 4-5 restarts.

[meager lance]

Yeah
I'd need the Federalists to live and accept my offer
And Anqing winning in the League War with my support

[meager lance]

Since I did my Liangguang run ahead of schedule, I could potentially try a Fengtian run next week during March Break (when I actually wanted to form the UPC)
But before that, I'd like to finish an LKMT and maybe even an RKMT run

[meager lance]

I'm surprised it took you 12 hrs to play 10 years (I played 24 years in the same amount of time)
Is your computer extremely slow?
Did you pause the game a lot?

[remote grotto]

I play on speed 3. XD

And no, I have a beast of a computer. But I tend to maximise everything.:D

[meager lance]

Ah I see
I'm too lazy for a lot of micro (I'll just do it at 5x speed ) and pause a fair amount

[remote grotto]

The fun for me starts when I micro.:D

[meager lance]

I also just remembered I'd like to do Mexico in KX again
Prolly gonna go monarchist and aim to take the cession back

[remote grotto]

We get CS2 but no Hoi5 or Eu5… sad…

[coral shadow]

HOI5 dosent squish the whole map

[meager lance]

was watching the latest ISP vid and something very rare occurred...
the federalist chinese...winning???? 😲

[meager lance]

Started the Mexico game tonight in KX
We went Christian Democrat and we just stamped out the Pacific States after a 4 year long war
Built up slowly (I now have 48 infantry divisions) before calling in the rest of the Entente
Western Canada was an effective distraction while I finally destroyed their army in the south
Next: Longman

I might be able to win with 3 infantry armies and an Eastern distraction in New England

[meager lance]

I think my plan is to sacrifice the existing cession area and the PNW so I can concentrate my forces on the Rio Grande

[meager lance]

I think my colour is really nice actually
Very few teal nations in KX
I know Guangxi is one of them
I think there is a teal Brazil and a teal Portugal

[remote grotto]

Yeah. Isn't one version of Russia that too?

[meager lance]

I think so?
Might be Eurasian Union

I do know the Eurasian Union can have a slick navy blue colour

[meager lance]

I might not temporarily abandon the Cession
I should fortify it and keep the factories for my fairly weak industry
I got a 20 factory jump when I defeated the Californians

I'm at 80 factories or so

[remote grotto]

Thats already a good amount.

[meager lance]

An idea just dawned on me
Once the Civil War ends, the AUS is crippled through deleted militias and debuffs
Once the super event fires, I will declare my war
I can call the rest of the Entente in immediately to swarm the Longists
All we need to do is finish putting the Syndies down

[meager lance]

Biggest problems I anticipate:

• Barely any manpower (I'm at 7% recruitable pop, have an army of 550k, and have 0 manpower left)
• Only infantry (it takes me 2-3 days to move between tiles)
• Small window (America's gonna remobilize fairly fast)
• Unreliable allies (hopefully Canada holds the AUS off)

Possible solutions:

• Making my next 24 divisions out of cavalry could help me rush and save a bit of manpower initially (although it would be weaker than infantry)
• Extensive conscription (which sucks, but is a necessary evil)
• Lots of forts to hold the Rio Grande Valley

Let's see if I can make this work out

[meager lance]

Bruh
I didn't even notice the Entente is at war with the Reichspakt
Well at least I haven't joined that mess

[meager lance]

Shrunk my infantry from 12 battalions to 9
Raised cavalry from 6 battalions to 9 as well
Then started training up a full army of cavalry
Really hoping it will do its job in the Great Plains in particular

Still have practically no manpower
I need a miracle to beat the AUS

[meager lance]

It happened on 15 July 1942
Let's roll

Nah didn't work

RIP

[tawny acorn]

@meager lance happy birthday 🎂😁

[meager lance]

Thanks (it's actually tomorrow lol)

[tawny acorn]

Ah okay haha

[coral shadow]

What happened to new York?
Also that's one cursed mexico

Oh wait my bad I meant new jersey

[meager lance]

That was the last stand for the Wobblies
The Combined Syndicates died pretty slowly from there

[meager lance]

Tried my hand at a progressive Ottoman run yesterday and failed miserably
I accidentally lost the progressive coalition and then was too conservative in the Second Arab Revolt and lost immediately as a result

The Arabs declared (and lost) against the Germans to retake the Suez
So I couldn't reconquer the lost territories without being destroyed by Germany

[remote grotto]

Sounds fun. XD

Yeah, Ottomans is hard.

[meager lance]

So much micromanaging
Managing parliament does seem easier than managing the vilayets though

The biggest problem is an unstable coalition

[remote grotto]

Kinda like real life.

Thats why I enjoy it.

[meager lance]

Yeah
I know Sublime Federation content is in KR for sure, I just don't know if all is there
So I might just stick to KX

[meager lance]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sQ-3S6JBHo
Been using all the Chinese tracks as background music for a while now
A good listen

[remote grotto]

I usually download the ones I like.

I have my own playsets basically.:D

[meager lance]

FINALLY
This took 4 tries (and abandoning most attempts at reform to keep Islamists on my side)

[meager lance]

The siege begins!

[meager lance]

This could be the encirclement that ends the war for good
We got a load of Egyptians in Sinai, it's nearly October 1939 and the 2WK just started

[meager lance]

Well this isn't quite the way I wanted to win
But I kinda did it????? 🥴
I spoke too soon on the last screenshot and lost the war
Then I went into recovery mode using the Salvation Cabinet
We're a democracy again, but it's really bugged
We only have cores around Thrace and Konstantiniyye
The rest of Anatolia is colony states
And then I couldn't press claims on any of my outer conquests
First did Georgia, then Azerbaijan, then Syria, then Iraq, and finally joined the Entente to defeat the Cairo Pact (Hashemite Arabia, Egypt, Somalia, Hausaland, Ethiopia, and Libya) and now we'll finish off Yemen
Iran is Russia/America-aligned, meaning they will never be reconquered 😔

Very strange map
Blue is core, green is claim, red is neither

I see an opportunity to end Goering and the rest of Mittelafrika
So once I finish Yemen tomorrow I want to reach further
This was an...intriguing failure
At least I got to the 2nd Arab Revolt correctly

[remote grotto]

Seems legit. XD

[coral shadow]

Btw do you know how to do ottomans in vanilla?
I can't get the loyalists in power

[remote grotto]

First and foremost, do you have the dlc?

If yes.

Then:

[coral shadow]

Yes

I confused on what event gets the ottoman loyalists

[remote grotto]

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IxFmMt9vK5E&feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=aXuKI0-nZts&feature=share

https://youtube.com/watch?v=zJiY2xwXPqU&feature=share

[meager lance]

This is just about 3 million in core population btw
Can't believe I was able to adequately field a 35 division army
Brazil came in clutch by handling my garrison manpower though

[meager lance]

Finished Goering before the Russians finally declared on me to end the game
A very strange game with an unexpected result
Cores and claims map looking incredibly cursed as usual (and was a real handicap)
I'll get to work on doing it right again

[meager lance]

Sprinted even faster this time to get the reforms done

[meager lance]

We've survived the revolt long enough for this to pop up
God help us get this over with 🙏

[meager lance]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I WAS SO CLOSE TO WINNING
THEN RUSSIA DECLARED
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[meager lance]

What an awful way to spend the evening
That was the toughest war I've ever participated in

We had absolutely no manpower
Just was I was finishing the Arabs off, my divisions started crumbling because of that fact
We lost about THIRTY DIVISIONS just from low strength
As I recovered, the Russians delivered the absolute gut-punch
That really, really stung 😔
Probably going to use a more navally-based strategem tomorrow
Get some marines to invade the Nile Delta and quickly cap Egypt
Then pick the rest off one by one
Georgia declaring on us and lasting a while was another problem

This was the damn pocket that broke us
Each time I tried to finish it, they'd keep on cycling reinforcements between Jeddah and Makkah (just like the old Ethiopia strat)
So my strength kept on being eaten away until they could stage a breakout
Yemen was another headache, at one point they were fielding around 20 divisions on VOLUNTEER ONLY

I've won as the Ottomans staying Kemalist before (see #🎮-gaming-discussion message)
The federation can grow much larger than any other path (you can swallow some of Najd, along with Sudan and Oman)
The catch is that your federal system places quite a lot of limits on your power (especially manpower)
Still powerful nevertheless, which is why I've been trying this out in the same way that I tried the Chen run a dozen-odd times before I nailed it

[remote grotto]

I was wondering, isnt supply an issue?

Do you build trains and trucks?

And generally whats your production line like?

[meager lance]

I was short 20k guns at that moment, but I had about 15 factories on that, so it resolved relatively quickly with lend-lease help
So I could tell manpower was the real problem
I wasn't building trucks, but I had a single factory on trains (which, as you should know, is pretty much always enough)