Grand Strategy Games

[meager lance]

The possible cores and claims for this path 😍
If it plays its cards right, this could be a good contender for being one of the richest nations in the world 💸

[remote grotto]

Trucks would be a huge help built from day 1 no need to import rubber if you have none. 1-2 factories will be enough.

Also train counts are different in every mod.:D In total war you will need more than a 1000 for a 1939. Germany. XD

More than 2000 for a 1941 Germany and so on.

At least for me.

I tend to go ham with production.

[remote grotto]

And one of the most ethnically diverse...

[meager lance]

Yeah
It's debatable if a federal system will make the empire more or less likely to crumble...
But realpolitik is useless in the fantasyland of HOI

[meager lance]

I'll give that a try along with 6 marines + engineers
Make 10 of those divisions, land in the Nile Delta, and then switch them to a camel or infantry template

[remote grotto]

+Artillery and I would make anti air, nice soft attack and piercing.

[meager lance]

Speaking of camels
That was one of the big changes in that more successful run
I made a whole army of 9 battalion camels and they did pretty well moving through Arabia
I'll use them again this time
I also used irregular cavalry for garrisons (which have better suppression than normal cavalry)

[meager lance]

All depends on production
One of my great weaknesses was factory count
I started the war with only 40 factories total
I'll see if 10 on infantry equipment, 3 on support, 3 on anti-air, 3 on trucks, 1 on CAS, and 1 on trains can work out
And then I need to sort out imports for all that damn steel

[remote grotto]

Do the Egyptians have planes?

[meager lance]

Not many
But CAS is king
I had about 25 CAS up and they were doing around 3 damage to enemy divisions in battle

[remote grotto]

Didn’t they change it that you get the damage when you have air superiority?

Or if not you get huge debuffs for the damage?

Or was it a mod?

[meager lance]

I dunno
I think I start with 100 fighters so I can put those up and try to grab some off Kaiser Karl thru lend-lease

If that don't work I could do 2 factories on CAS and 1 on fighters

[remote grotto]

Oh, lend lease cheese: if you start training 40 or more divisions (the point is a lot more than your army) and get a huge deficit of weapons, you can ask for more lend lease.

I used to cheese the AI with it.

[meager lance]

Yeah

I'm aware, I've seen it countless times
Just build a huge deficit and beg someone
I assume it's best to beg with someone of the exact same ideology in KR?

[remote grotto]

Or anyone who is willing to give stuff.:D

[meager lance]

WE DID IT
This was absolutely terrifying
About as difficult as yesterday's war
But we did it!

[meager lance]

We've got an answer to this question @remote grotto

https://tenor.com/view/obi-wan-confusion-gif-10824788

[meager lance]

12 August 1944

[meager lance]

I signed the Russo-Ottoman Accords prior to the Desert War
Something very strange is afoot in Russia though...
They just disbanded their alliance in favour of joining the long-dead Co-Prosperity Sphere (which now only has an isolated Japan in it)
The AUS actually joined their alliance (which spooked me considering that unlocking the rest of my tree is pretty much dependent on taking out Russia due to the Accords)
They're also sending volunteers to the Germans 🤔

I'd like to retake Armenia, but I can't justify due to low World Tension
I can't believe I won on my IRONMAN run
Can't do anything about the situation

An unsolvable crisis has begun
Guess I will just let the game run its course for a bit

[meager lance]

Kinda sad we can't go down this part of the focus tree
I'll try this run yet again to get it right
The final result was soooooo close to done
We just needed to handle the Caucasus and Oman
The saddest part is that this is the weakest Russia I've ever seen last
They never faced the Reichspakt
They're SocDems surviving with virtually no public support somehow
And more importantly, they've always had fewer than 100 divisions 😭
I could have beaten them if I'd just been able to justify on them

Went back to KR, let the Weltkrieg happen early in game rules, and it started by the end of March 1936
I knew it would be early, just not THIS early

What a shocker! 🙄
The Commune gets curbstomped by the end of May 1936

At least the Russians could be less of a threat

Self-preservation? You've just joined the losers...

[meager lance]

Spoke far, far too soon on this count
I decided to reject the Accords this time and they were seething
They declared on Iran, then the Reichspakt, then me
The revolts have been even crazier
First Assyria
Then Cairo Pact one by one
Then the Russians declared
Then the Iranians declared
Then the Kurds declared
Then the Armenians declared
I am fighting all of my eastern and southern neighbours with less than 60 divisions

[meager lance]

https://tenor.com/view/seen-it-marty-back-to-the-future-ive-seen-this-one-gif-5960361

For those who are unfamiliar with the history:
Zhang Zuolin IRL was assassinated by the IJA in 1928 as part of their initial attempts to puppet Manchuria
He was much too anti-concessionist for Japan's liking (so they withdrew their support for his Fengtian clique)
He died, but the plan broadly failed and would necessitate the Mukden Incident in 1931 for Japan to seize Manchuria for themselves

Blessed 😍
Save China from Japanese corporatism!

OH MY GOD
WE DID IT AGAIN!
LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🥳

[meager lance]

Very tragic news
The Germans have not defeated the Russians yet
Huey Long won and joined the Entente
And now that the Union of Britain has capitulated, the 3WK has started
We're not in the Reichspakt, but we can't really defeat Russia without their help

[meager lance]

China got the bad ending
But they just declared war on Mongolia (who joined the Russians)
This could be an opening to finishing the war for good

Wrangel has made some gutwrenching recaptures, but we could recover and deal a killing blow

[meager lance]

Oh good lord it's finally over
It only took NINE YEARS 🙄

Italy wanted to try and take Libya from me
So I simply joined the Reichspakt with them

[remote grotto]

Dat stability. XD

[meager lance]

I choose both for the sake of chaos

I turned Market Liberal by accident earlier in the run
Still decided to roll with it since the content is the same 🤷
Soon I'll be genuinely stable
Because I'm going to expand the Meclis-i-Mebusan to 1500 deputies (up from 500 atm)
Which is monstrous considering the only country I can think of IRL that has a larger assembly is China (with 2980 deputies or so)

[meager lance]

There we go

Truly the most stable nation

This is peak power

[meager lance]

I genuinely thought I was tripping when I saw the added manpower and stability
But my eyes are absolutely not deceiving me
The thing with boosts per 20 deputies makes absolutely no sense, it should just be based on how much support you have in the assembly

[meager lance]

It's now August 1955
I'm trying to move up Central America with no success
We gobbled up Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan, and the Donau-Adriabund
I've sunk too much time into this to give up, we will take not a single step back
Our gravest weakness as an alliance is the navy
Japan has a gargantuan navy (thankfully they're not fighting us now)
The Entente probably has about 350 ships
We probably have around that amount, but we're getting shredded
I've lost half of my garbage navy at this point
Nukes are flying constantly, the world reeks of lethal doses of radiation
This is probably going to last into the 60s

[meager lance]

It's nearly April of 1959
23 years after the 2WK was officially declared
We are still going, the line hasn't moved in a good 5 years
The last time I kept a game going to cap America was an Argentina game in RT56
We finished them off (with the rest of the globe backing us) in 1961
Since the Co-Prosperity Sphere exists, this could go much longer
I'm now bored so I'm just making an entire army's worth of tank divisions
Not like I don't have 7.5M in remaining manpower

Huh
Using the dumb score mechanics, we're """""winning"""""

[meager lance]

Sandino sent troops to navally invade Ecuador
So we can push them out of their homeland perhaps...

Bottled a solid amount of them up

FINALLY

I think I'll keep directly controlling these parts for the hell of it
Just gotta reallocate some spies (for the first time, I've become the spy master)

The line is open
We can strike at the heart of Amer- I mean Mexico!

The great encirclements have begun

[meager lance]

Another few bottled up in NM

The Kingfish's old stomping grounds are ours as well

lmfao
they finally finished them off after a looooooong time

🇹🇷

Finally, we did it 🥲

This was a mess (and yes, Earl Long survived)

We just barely "won" the game
Since only the military score matters, the garbage planes did the heavy lifting

[remote grotto]

https://tenor.com/view/turkey-turkiye-türkiye-flag-turkish-gif-15863902

[meager lance]

The Qing Manchu Coup 😲

[meager lance]

This is terrifying
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[meager lance]

yep we lost in our first go

[meager lance]

Playing RKMT
Pretty cursed Indian Civil War

[meager lance]

What an infuriating way to lose
Yang couped Zhang, allied with Yan in Shanxi, and declared on me after Chongqing
The United Front has failed to stop them, they had just advanced too far already

That run was extremely discouraging
Considering the 2WK happened early, the Germans defeated the Communards and are winning against the Russians, but they lost to Japan
That was so close to being the best-case scenario
It's so difficult to dig out of the depression in Yunnan, that's basically half your work (instead of say 10-20% in other trees)
The buffs are good (along with the well-organized and content-rich tree), but it was a lot to manage

[remote grotto]

RNG is god in KR.

This is why I tend to go back to WW2 stuff.

[remote grotto]

Back to Total War mod.

Lots of events and interesting stuff.

One thing I like about is it that you need serious planning in order to win the Weltkrieg.

[remote grotto]

These will be only events for a while, after the Spanish Civil War I will rearrange the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS.

Managed to blitz towards Madrid.

Enormous pocket.:D

[tawny acorn]

wow

[remote grotto]

It was about 50 000 Spanish Republican troops + 2 Soviet Light Tanks.

And you get a decision branch like this.

Both sides suffering huge casulties.

Same with the Japanese, but I am helping a bit.

I wonder why.

Causing massive damage to China.

So far, Anschluss done, the Army is organised like that, as you can see at the bottom.

Yellow is infantry, purple are mountaineers, orange are motorised/fast divisions, light green are light tanks, white are the ones I will convert once I have good division templates, black are the various SS.

We are in a good position. The Army will be reorganised with new divisions when we occupy Bohemia.

I am not even building any Panzers, I will pump out the Czech variant for light ones and Panzer 3s for 1940 along with assault guns, then 1941 Panzer 4s in larger numbers, and hopefully, if I survive till then, heavy tanks in 42.

Airforce still needs a tune up. It will be fully Operational in 1940.

I hope. xD

Biggest encirclement ever in China. xD

I havent built a single military industry so far. xD

But I am still good against the big boss.

I have a total of 115 divisions which is almost 1,5 million men in the field. I will attack probably in 1940 March.

Plan is to have the continent under control for 1940 October, then a short preparation for the Soviets and I will commence in a historical fashion with the correct date.

That will be the fun part...

The Polish have roughly the same division count as me. xD

[coral shadow]

I got the new DLC
how do I get struggle in Ethiopia

[remote grotto]

You dont take it.:D

Sorry, I went a bit overboard with the pictures.:D

Next time, there will be more about the war.

[remote grotto]

We shall start it.

After 30 something days Poland capitulated.

Now is time for the Northern countries, the Benelux and France.

[meager lance]

soooooooo apparently this can happen in kx now...
and I'm genuinely tempted to try it next week

this is the extra tree added onto the fengtian tree iirc

[remote grotto]

This will be so painful for you, I can already See IT. XD

I can already tell that some focuses will be amazaing. Like give the settlers amnesty.

Produktion buff with some stability minus or so.

[tawny acorn]

The coloured news is cool

[meager lance]

I think I have to be ready for wars with both Japan AND the rest of China at once for the path

[meager lance]

Did not know control of Bohemia is a technological advancement

[remote grotto]

It is for Total War mod, you unlock Panzer 35 and 38s + Take over Skoda focus.:D

Anyway, lets continue.

It begins.

The plan is simple.

First, Esebecka and Thoma's Panzer forces will break through Belgium and Southern Netherlands, followed by von Kluge's and Nehrings fast divisions along with Infantry support.

The SS Polizie will take Sedan, while the I. SS Motorized Corp will blitz toward Brussels and possibly Antwerpen.

Paris has fallen.

Looking good.

So far everything is going good.

Now it is time to prepare for Barbarossa.

And to guard the continent.

Although, I think Barbarossa will be tough...

Simple because of the number of Soviets.

[coral shadow]

DAY NIGHT CYCLE?????????????

[remote grotto]

Yeah, I use the stroboscope.

[coral shadow]

are you okay?

need eye care?

[remote grotto]

What do you mean?:D

I play on speed 4 or less. XD

[meager lance]

The new KX Fengtian focus tree

[meager lance]

got a super weird glitch
where I couldn't move my units around by right clicking
no offensive lines for battleplan, not even responding to micro

[remote grotto]

Did we get a new Japanese focus tree too?

[meager lance]

nope
just fengtian

I also finally got the Empire
We now need to defeat Japan and Russia (who compromised under Denikin to join the CPS)

Europe is a mess
Pretty sure all alliances are at war with each other except for 3I and CPS

interesting

[meager lance]

the army issue resolved itself

we're still preparing, we're gonna act as a diversion so the germans can seize the russian heartland

[meager lance]

the war has begun!
we took dalian and weihai without issue
we've dropped back in xinjiang and we're making progress in korea

encirclement

[meager lance]

welp that was an abject failure

I'm terrible at this

[remote grotto]

Believe, it sounds easy.

[remote grotto]

What happened?

[remote grotto]

I mean I can see that you have an equipment deficit.

Which is not that great.

[meager lance]

Coastal defence was a non issue
But we just kept on getting pushed back
We got that encirclement in Korea, but then got encircled back twice
We also held the Thai pocket well
I'm probably gonna need to rush Central Asia, RFE, Korea, and treaty ports, and hold the Thai pocket
Could use some more aircraft in the skies (I've got no shortage of garbage fighters and bombers which I can slowly replace)
Need to start making CAS (I've got about 30-40 spare mils), but I dunno if I can import any aluminium without convoys (which are bound to be sunk)
We also need to make more support equipment (my only shortage now)
Attrition is bound to be awful in the RFE and Central Asia though

[remote grotto]

At least no real supply issue with trains and trucks.

What companies did you use which require support equipment?

[meager lance]

I think I did logistics and engineer

I'm probably gonna shed support companies to gain org

At this point I'm really not sure if I should entrench or rush
I'm probably gonna need to motorize if I rush though
Maybe even make a couple of mechanized armies
If I hunker down, then it's forts I have to worry about
Either way I'm gonna need to make lots of air bases

[remote grotto]

Add anti air.

And add engineer to only some divisions, which will hold the frontline.

[meager lance]

I have anti air already

[remote grotto]

And make special assault divisions.

[remote grotto]

That and artillery will save the day.

https://tenor.com/view/artillery-gif-21374045

[meager lance]

I think I put anti-air battalion and support artillery onto the frontline divisions

[remote grotto]

One or more?;D

[meager lance]

Just one, I did a 13-1 to keep org high

[remote grotto]

Try rocket artillery. Maybe?

It's another great measure of destruction.

[meager lance]

My template atm

I've also changed my plan significantly
We must secure India (and Tawang in particular) while it is weak

[remote grotto]

Maintenance is not necessary in my opinion for infantry divisions.

Btw, World ablaze is a great mod. Planning on making a German play through in it once I have time.

[meager lance]

Yeah I took it out
I usually keep it for the equipment capture
But that's completely unnecessary in late game

[remote grotto]

Idk if its worth it.

I usually use it for tanks to boost reliability.

[remote grotto]

Even in the early game.

[meager lance]

I use it since it's a decent supplement to supply/production

[meager lance]

The war: take two is on!
What I didn't realize is that the sun can still fade!
I forgot my victory in China doesn't preclude this ending (since Fengtian can turn on Japan after/during its war of unification)

If I can dissolve the CPS this way, then the Russians, Japanese, and resurgent Thai are all probably screwed

We're doing decently
We captured the RFE pretty easily, now we're trying hard to push back in Xinjiang and Mongolia, and worrying about the looming Thai threat
I don't know how they survived, landlocked and encircled in Chiang Mai, Taunggyi, and Chiang Tung for so long (by so long I mean probably a DECADE )

precarious, but still thicccccc

It's about time!
We will peace out with them, regroup, and finish the job for good shortly

LOL
Russia declared on Finland again on 2 October
Well that didn't last long

[meager lance]

We resumed our war against the Russians
This is horrifying
We stranded 24 divisions in Almaty, now we have to rescue them
They peaced out with the Germans, so now we fight their 200 divisions alone 🥶
This is probably the largest war I've had to manage all by myself

WE MADE IT!
They all miraculously survived

[uncut tulip]

ah yes

huge

24 width lol

[remote grotto]

I can already see the equipment issues.:D

[meager lance]

They're mostly under control due to the fact that I'm building max infrastructure, connecting railways, and upgrading bottlenecks as I move
Still a painful slog though

The biggest problem is modern tanks (I can't make enough of them even though I've only got 24 divisions with them and about 30 factories on the task)
I probably need to make multiple tank armies and replace some of my frontline infantry with them

Air is good, we've got 21k interwar fighters and bombers up to face their 5k or so modern aircraft

[remote grotto]

Just mass assault them.

Your best chance.

I will try some World abalze today after completing my Jelek notes.:D

[meager lance]

LMFAO if I set the battle plans to go I'd probably gain 10 tiles a year and lose 10 million men in the process

They're actually out of manpower, even on scraping the barrel
They have massive industry though, and I've pretty much ran out of building slots, so I'll never catch them unless I capture pretty much all of Siberia
At this rate I'll probably need 100 factories on tanks alone 🥴

[meager lance]

A different run I started
Was curious what the Napoleonic path was for France

[meager lance]

We have few troops, but so do they

[meager lance]

First time I've ever seen this happen

Welp we went the humiliating route and actually accepted the terms of the Halifax Conference
But we can always mobilize and renege when we are ready to destroy the Germans
And thanks to one outpost in Dunkerque, we're mowing through Northern France

Finally took Paris

The easy part is done...

The Germans tried their hardest to steal the UK from us
But I secured at least southern England in the peace conference, and the UK was able to consolidate all its claims on Great Britain

yooooo didn't know Frederick Banting could lead Canada!
pretty sick

[meager lance]

First up: Italy

[meager lance]

Wow

[meager lance]

We expand into Spain

Ok this is actually getting serious now...

Since I'm not ironmanning, I'm doing a test on the Reichspakt
Austria just joined the 8th Coalition though (which has not merged with the Reichspakt yet)

Nah, not gonna work out if I go straight in on the Reichspakt
Gotta deal with the Eighth Coalition first

[remote grotto]

Its only statistics.

[remote grotto]

And who might that be? I was never really interested in the Allied part of the world.

[remote grotto]

Where have I heard this before.:D

[meager lance]

Frederick Banting is famous in the field of medicine for isolating insulin successfully (along with his assistant Charles Best and under the direction of his prof, J.J.R Macleod, and an expert he brought in, James Collip)
He did his research here at the University of Toronto (which is still renowned for medicine to this day), and administered the first dose of insulin to a diabetes patient in 1922 at the Toronto General Hospital nearby (which is now part of the University Health Network in the city)
Macleod and Banting got most of the recognition as they shared a Nobel Prize for this in 1923
The 4 of them shared the prize money, although Banting and Best took the lion's share of the credit by downplaying Macleod and Collip's roles
Banting was an instant celebrity, but he struggled with the massive expectations, bad temper, and his poor research capabilities
He was actually an amateur painter as well, having close links with the Group of Seven (a famous group of Canadian painters of the era)
He was called on as a research liaison to the Brits, but died in 1941 after a plane crash shortly after takeoff in Newfoundland

[meager lance]

Honestly Banting looks like he's 15, not 50

[meager lance]

I think I really need to do this run again, but on more favourable circumstances
The Russians plunged into civil war and didn't weaken the Germans in WWII as a result

If I have them as a distraction, then I can move into Germany without issue

[meager lance]

Decided to start by dragging India through its war with the Princes

[meager lance]

WWII starting early, this time in December 1938

[meager lance]

Huh? Don't know what you're talkin about...

[meager lance]

We've finally got them on the ropes in 1941
Big Parisian encirclement

Germans and Russians are still fighting
We still need to reclaim GB from the legionarist counterrevolutionaries

🤨

They keep on throwing everything in the kitchen sink at me, and it keeps failing

[meager lance]

We triggered the Third Weltkrieg
And I CANNOT believe I practically did this by myself

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

So long, Germany

[meager lance]

We've got a lot of Reichspakt to clean up
And then only do we want to elect the Imperial Party

[remote grotto]

Interesting looking map, not gonna lie.

[meager lance]

Yeah it's a mess
Kaiser Karl tried to save the Reichspakt against Savinkov, but they never declared on me and I destroyed Reichspakt Europe no problem

There's a weird bug going on
Romania and Serbia are puppets of Illyria, but are not part of the Donau-Adriabund for some reason

[remote grotto]

Illyria is a bit buggy not gonna lie. Experienced it with my Austria run.

When integrating the empire you have to do it manually.

Not calling you into wars.

Etc.

[meager lance]

The whole not calling into wars is working as designed (Constituent of the Austrian Empire malus), but it's a very poor design
The faction thing is def broken though

[remote grotto]

I still dont get what is the logic of not joining in on the Empires business…

Like I can somewhat why Galicia doesnt join but not Austria.

Back to factions, yeah, something could be done, like a ceasefire or something.

[meager lance]

Neither do I
Which is why I said it's a bad design

Maybe the malus should stay, but if a constituent has a war declared on it/declares a war, only Austria should get a decision to join the war 🤷‍♂️
Or removing the malus can be a national focus for Austria if the status quo of constituent states remains

Or maybe I'm just overcomplicating things and everyone should be able to join at any time

[remote grotto]

Idk, it’s defined hard to model it.

[meager lance]

I'm also kinda surprised there isn't a WWIII superevent for KX
Somehow they have one for the Korean Rebellion but not the most important late-game event

Anyhow
I definitely did the run wrong again
Legionary Britain has an unstoppable navy, so I can't defeat them
Doesn't even matter that they have less than a whole army of divisions, not like I can naval invade through their 250 ships
And they can destroy my divisions at will during transport as a result
They weren't at war with the Reichspakt either, so it's not like the Germans could have stopped them
I should not have joined the Canadians in that war
Just a major distraction when I should have been focusing on the mainland first

If there's anything I should do at this point, it's:

• Touching grass during a long weekend
• Slowing the game down to do more micro (oh boy I'm so excited to get piles from playing this game for more hours each time I can play I'm extremely impatient but the more I focus, the more likely I can actually make the third time the charm)
• Ignoring the Entente and creating the Continental System ASAP (since America, like the Brits, barely mobilizes. The Americans usually have 150-200 divisions max, but a gargantuan navy and air force in turn)
• Sprinting down the recovery to blitz Germany (the fact that you declare via focus instead of by war goal means they usually don't cover their border, which is how I won the second go)
• Fighting in Africa (it takes too long to get back there if you can't hold it)

[remote grotto]

To be honest the german focuses are also messed up. For example it usually does Europarat or the Komission before doing the Army focuses. I have seen Germanies in 1943. which have done 1 military focus.

The focus selection orders are messed up…

[meager lance]

Making the Parti Imperial focuses a priority is something I also need to consider
Simply because they're the most OP parts of the Napoleonic path
I know one focus gives +7% recruitable pop (among other buffs) for example, which more or less means you can forget about manpower problems
Doing the New French claims is also a no-brainer, that's the path I've always intended to take
And once I get to the mainland, I immediately have to form Françafrique so I have a new buffer state

[remote grotto]

I will try it too sometime, but first, World Ablaze.
Maybe Naval bombers?

How big is the manpower problem?

[meager lance]

I think French cores have somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40-50 million people
So 7% is about 3-4 million extra people?
Good stuff
By the end of the focus tree, you can also get +42% attack and +22% defence (trust me folks, KX is definitely not a broken and unrealistic mod, I promise 👍)

[meager lance]

I also recognized a grave error in my ways
I cannot do the Great Peace of Montréal with le Parti Impérial
I can only do it if Napoleon is replaced
So I have to choose between:

• Napoleonic conquest of Africa and Europe (with throwback client states and all) along with Indochina and Mexico, or
• JP/AF pursuit of just "Une Grande France" (Belgium, Catalonia, western Italy, and southern Holland), but with claims on much of NA and the ability to do the New Great Peace of Montréal
  Honestly a tough choice; what would you all choose @remote grotto @tawny acorn @coral shadow and others reading?

[tawny acorn]

Napoleonic Conquest tbh

[coral shadow]

Conquest is pretty fun
But if US interferes it's very annoying

[meager lance]

The US is guaranteed to be involved
Either in restoring Mexico to its glory, or restoring Nouvelle-France and the Indigenous federations

Two votes for Napoleon?

[remote grotto]

Nah, it depicts reality in buffs and political views too. Lang lebe den Kaiser und König!

[remote grotto]

Hmmm. I will check out those focuses too.
For me, Napoleonic would seem more fun and more challenging.

[meager lance]

Both paths are going to need to defeat the Reichspakt, Entente, and 3I (and maybe the CPS as well?)
Napoleon will have to defeat the Donau-Adriabund, Moscow Accord, and Cairo Pact
AF/JP would probably have to defend against the Moscow Accord and maybe the Cairo Pact, but that's about it

[remote grotto]

https://tenor.com/view/napoleon-rbf-statue-art-gif-24771203

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3OXKSNKN0eE&feature=share

And some music while going for it.:D

[remote grotto]

2367 messages, this channel rocks. XD

[remote grotto]

Okay, mod showcase time: World Ablaze

Its a complex mod with several new features.

New focus trees.

Improved war cabinets.

New economy system, with economic system which actually wears down your economy, you can increase it by events, focuses, conscription, war economy and others or decrease it with events, focuses and war bonds.

Every % means a debuff. 0 has none and 100 has total economic collapse.

Mayor nations have internal factions which give debuffs or buffs based on their standing with you.

They expanded the resources, and now we have a chain of usage for them.

For civilian industry to build, they consume resources, and some resources can be converted to something else.

Some new research stuff.

Completely new tank research.

And electronincs.

And redesigned the naval tree, now you require certain stuff for it.

And completely new doctrines.

The AI has been cheezed a bit, now they are a bit more intelligent they say.

Now I am the point where I attack Poland, so we will see.

[remote grotto]

Probably my cleanest encirclement ever.

[remote grotto]

Britain and France started laying mines all along the British coast...

[remote grotto]

Keeping it semi historical.

We are pretty much good although it takes 168 days to plan a naval invasion. xD

It will be a late Weserebung.

So far casualties are okay too. I am more afraid of the Soviets...

And the game crashed. xD

[meager lance]

This image of a Great Peace of Montreal is now confusing me
Since Napoleonic Mexico and Nouvelle-France are mutually exclusive 🤔
What I hate about trying to look for clarity on what exactly I can do with the two paths is that people love using not just the console to access locked decisions and cut corners, but Toolpack to shift cores and claims, make new alliances, and fine tune generated puppets 🤬

[tawny acorn]

no idea how to play this game. playing as czechoslovakia, we have one of the best industries in the world but thats about it, Best friends with germany and pretty friendly with balkans and have been neutral in about 20 world wars

if anyone here knows a lot about this game i have a few questions lol

heres our factories not doing too bad

[coral shadow]

Can you imagine if all paradox war games had the main intro but with modified instruments to fit the setting?

[tawny acorn]

wdym?

[remote grotto]

Victoria 2 is a great game.

One thing, if you struggle with money, try encouraging people to became capitalists. They build factories and infrastructure with their own money. Not great if you want certain industries to be somewhere coz AI usually chooses random stuff to build, but they sure are help to the economy.

[uncut tulip]

ps economy is more detailed

[remote grotto]

The last time I got into it, there was an hour and a half long tutorial video about how it all works, from pops to products. XD

[remote grotto]

Imagine Germany 1933-1945. XD

[tawny acorn]

can i become a world power as czechoslovakia without invading?

ive tried but the highest i got was 12th place

[remote grotto]

I am sure that the answer is no.

Or maybe.

If you have abnormally high prestige.

[tawny acorn]

ah okay

i think gonna try and unite germany instead

[coral shadow]

It's interesting that Germany is the only main power that doesn't have a communist path

[coral shadow]

Lol

[coral shadow]

HOI4 guides be like: YOU DIDNT START WITH GERMANY OR RUSSIA????

[tawny acorn]

Lol im gonna be playing more germany

[meager lance]

i think my first hoi4 nation was honduras or something

[tawny acorn]

my first was germany and its also my most played

US and czechoslvoakia are also up there

[remote grotto]

Idk what's mine but other than for achievements I have never played a democratic country. XD

[coral shadow]

It's...been 3 days...
Finally i broke through

[meager lance]

Indian rebalance in KR 👀

huh
the germans have pondicherry now

[meager lance]

I have seen the light...
I now realize why folks say Serbia has one of the best focus trees in Kaiserreich...

The opposite "Iron Curtain" now divides Europe
Democrats/reactionaries in the east, syndicalists/revolutionaries in the west

[coral shadow]

is that the vanilla EU

[remote grotto]

You mean Ceylon?

[remote grotto]

This looks a bit... Bad for the Dominion, only 1 port and that is also on the border.

[remote grotto]

Yep, it's detailed.

[remote grotto]

Germany lost? Did they get rebalanced?

[meager lance]

In my experience it's usually the commune that wins and this makes them even stronger
I'd assume the other two shrunk because they can join large factions (the Dominion's already in the Entente, and the Princes can join the CPS)
Whereas the Commune can make only it's own dinky little offshoot of the 3I

[remote grotto]

Well, we will see how it plays out.

[meager lance]

Afaik it's a running joke that the Entente sends all their troops to India while abandoning everything else and failing

Also I didn't realize that Transamur has such a small KR focus tree
They're supposedly going to disappear after the Russian rework in soon + 2 weeks (along with Kerensky)

[meager lance]

In my experience, the Reichspakt loses in WWII about 80% of the time in KR
In KX they win about 80% of the time since they usually don't have to fight a two-front war

[meager lance]

Nope, I meant Puducherry (which is an old French possession in our timeline that's surrounded by Tamil Nadu)
Puducherry is a territory of India now

Sri Lanka's been German in KR for as long as I can remember

[meager lance]

I love how Bregenz is the Berlin of this timeline

[remote grotto]

Interesting.

Well, I say we will miss them both.

[remote grotto]

Oh sorry, I am not familiar with India.

[remote grotto]

Can you create the Peoples Republic of China btw in Kaiserredux?

@meager lance

[meager lance]

Closest analogue in Kaiserreich lore in general is Left Kuomintang (which lots of players claim is the best faction in China)
I think the only extra option KX adds is more flavour and focuses for Totalist LKMT (Deng Xiaoping and a revived Chiang Kai-Shek are among the options)
It's not playable at start, it spawns from the League of Eight Provinces when it collapses a month into the game

[remote grotto]

Oh I see, I know where it comes from but I thought there will be a more communist nation…

So sad that they didnt fix the Cold War mod.

I guess I will look at Millenium dawn. XD

Or duck it, War Thunder it is.:D

Wasnt Deng Xiaoping the one after Mao? The guy who turned China into a functioning country?

[meager lance]

Afaik the LKMT is also under reworking in KR, and the first steps have already been taken
Your politics are more or less chosen for now by a policy debate after you win the League War, where either Soong Qing-ling (Dr. Sun's democrat widow) or Wang Jingwei (the more mainstream, Europeanized socialist) can take over
And then if you contradict the choices you take in the debate, then the ZhongTeJu (intelligence service) takes over and purges the KMT as totalists

[meager lance]

Yeah, it's that Deng, just way younger
When KR LKMT is reworked I think Zhou Enlai (Mao's beloved second-in-command) could also become one of your leaders
This will eventually be the roster of electable leaders

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaiserreich/comments/mx3son/progress_report_121_left_kuomintang_gameplay/
Looking forward to when this comes out, hopefully it will come some day (+2 weeks)

[meager lance]

Started playing an Ironman LKMT run again and I have to stop now
Finished the League War methodically, allied Hunan before Sichuan declared on me, then allied Yunnan who was also at war with them
I hope locking my computer doesn't mess with the game

[meager lance]

We've resumed and now utterly curbstomped the Qing

We helped a fledgling Feng in Shanxi and this is what we made

uh oh

Here we go...

[meager lance]

abject failure
they got one beachhead in hainan, then mongolia declared, and I just could not hold on for relentless naval invasions

[meager lance]

macarthur's murica
set a good trap for the syndies
they fell for it like moths to a flame
now we cut them off through new england

destroyed the CSA easily

[meager lance]

we've finally been pushing after some freaky retreats into ohio
really pushing along the mississippi (just like the first time)

they just did the deal with the devil
we'll crush em anyways 🤷‍♂️

one down

71 divisions was enough for the war
Done in mid-1940

ey
now we're crippled again and we need to drag the entente to victory

good question

[remote grotto]

I will also try this sometime. I believe my goal will be to go with Chang Kai-Shek.

[remote grotto]

Lets give Chang Kai-Shek a try.

Open Rebellion and 1 factory, this will be fun. xD

[remote grotto]

Trying as hard as I can.

A weak Russia?!

A New Poland.

[remote grotto]

So far Yegorov stabilised Russia.

He has a chance.

[remote grotto]

For some meme encirclements. xD

Well, I have won, a really bad part of China. xD No industry, no resources.

[remote grotto]

Lets see what we will get.

[remote grotto]

Okay, war on too many fronts killed me. XD

But it was fun.

Next time I will do it better, now at least I get the general idea.

[meager lance]

i really wish ironman mode was built for people who touch grass
i just want to save a goddamn game and return some time later to finish

[remote grotto]

One thing I hate for sure are the dicisions you cant edit or disband.

They are my nightmare.

[meager lance]

For armies?

I guess that's quite prescient since you're starting as the League of Eight Provinces XD

[meager lance]

Did you go with Wang Jingwei or Soong Qing-ling?

Oh right you tried to get Chiang

[remote grotto]

Yeah.

I get that they are militias and they are loyal to certain people. But still, after 1940 or something, you should be able to edit them.

I always confuse which are my normal troops with AA and Artillery in them with the little militia and that is why I am usually not able to hold certain positions.

[remote grotto]

The woman. Yeah. XD

It was all good until the southern parts deployed their own militias.

And my army problems came down to uneditable units.

[meager lance]

macarthur, but no ironman (i must touch grass) and kaiserredux style
we got the first kill, surprised it was the wobblies considering the racists have been on their last legs for a while

[meager lance]

huh
longmans was next
we have the pacific on the brink as well, and the racists will (shockingly) fall last

new event!
son passes quickly after father

the pacific is next, as planned

they nearly destroyed an entire army of mine
better be more careful

good riddance, racists!

hmm...

somehow the WCC still has this debuff, so the last war against them will be easy

it's nearly done...

oof
we won, but now we must rebuild the american dream from scratch pretty much
we'll be going down the "american caesar" path

[meager lance]

hm
maybe we can try and rescue the entente

[meager lance]

a most strange prerequisite conquest to save the entente
we removed threats from central america
now we took out the lonely saudis to have frontlines with the russians

a run I must continue at a later date
the AI is brainless enough to make this world conquest doable

my enemies have less than 600 divisions
our entente has around 300, but we can bridge the gap by capping countries along the way

[meager lance]

I know that in KR, any war militias you raise are deleted at the end of the League War
Is that not the case in KX?
(Also this is maybe why you don't use NATO symbols )

[remote grotto]

Idk, we will see when I try next.:D

[meager lance]

And lots of coastline for the Japanese to land on
But you should have the most population of any Chinese faction at this point
I think the League also has a half-decent rail system?
They wouldn't need it as much as the colonizers would for trade, but now you can use it for supply

[remote grotto]

And I brought my NATO symbols from the previous games.;D I like them better.:D

[remote grotto]

I didn't have supply issues.

At least for when I stopped I had literally none.

[meager lance]

Yep
For my LKMT runs, I prefer using the irregulars
I think you get something like +10% attack, defence, org, and speed
They also use less supply and have some terrain bonuses iirc

[remote grotto]

I think I will go for some elite marine divisions or mountaineers.

Or maybe motorized rocket artillery divisions.

[meager lance]

Do you remember what Wang's faction gives for army?
I know Soong gives the irregular and special forces bonuses
Wang has more European ideas, but I don't remember what his army doctrine gives

[remote grotto]

Also, until you have conquered the southern territories, it makes sense to just produce AA because it doesn't need tungsten, only steel.:D

[meager lance]

I'd go south first and take Guangdong just so I can get the tungsten
Qing and Fengtian both tend to have some good decked out 7-2s

[remote grotto]

To be fair, no idea. I don't really know the names for them too. China is a wild region for me. I don't know a lot of people from there in history nor the factions and faces of them.

Let alone India, Indochina or Indonesia.

[remote grotto]

And after they start their battle it's easier to come by and stomp both of them.

[meager lance]

Yeah
In my last run, I was lucky to take Guangdong during their civil war
So both factions were completely distracted

[coral shadow]

Lol i was playing multiplayer and the Soviet player freaked out because i got 400 divisions on his border

[remote grotto]

First thing is to win mentally. XD

Or I should say mentally dominating. XD

[remote grotto]

Okay, Second try.

As far as I am concerned, Russia and Japan are the most dangerous enemies. For the latter, I have no idea what they are doing so far until the elections, but for Mother Russia, this looks interesting. I am not sure who can stabilise Russia, but I sure hope for a second civil war.

Russia might be interesting to play as. But I dont have that much time to get into the lore. Plus the ones I can see are mostly about the army and not politics. A bit disappointing for me.

Nonetheless, a Savinkov Russia I would like to try myself.

The national Revolution has begun.

Finally someone who might save England. xD

Well, this was a short war if you look at the date.

And we still have some trouble ahead of us.

We will see if they stabilize.

Okay, Anquing decided to declare war.

So they decided to suprise attack me and didnt put troops on the border. xD

May Malta and its people be blessed to stand with his Holy Majestät.

Now they have been backstabbed.

This is a backstab.

[remote grotto]

OH, no...

I am not sure I like where this is heading.

Clear victory.:D

The war has come to a bit of a stand still at the winter, but Anquing doesnt have any military factories, what guns they lose, will be eventually lost and no replacement inbound, the Revolution will succed.

A very interesting war.

Interesting.

Finally, I have run out of focuses. xD

Interesting choice.

This is a chaos I should definetely exploit after the conference.

What happened to Wass Albert?

Who the hell is this Romanian?

Fun fact: József Ágost remained in Hungary after the collapse of Austria Hungary and became an active politician of the country.

lol

Okay...

Interesting.

We are surrended by enemies.

Like vultures picking on a corpse.

The great offensive has begun, lets hope the Japanese dont get any ideas.

Eh, we are losing weapons too fast. I conclude it as a lost match...

Maybe better luck next time.

[meager lance]

trying indochine
i think I broke the game by doing superior firepower first, and then doing a national focus that forced me down mass assault

[remote grotto]

Now this is combined arms.:D

[coral shadow]

I usually do mobile warfare
But doing mass assault with Germany is pretty fun lol

[remote grotto]

Liebenfels's Austria.

[remote grotto]

So far so good.

[remote grotto]

Reconquering the empire.

Massive boy. xD

[remote grotto]

Weltkrieg almost over.:D

Now this looks cool.

[remote grotto]

Mega Ukraine.

[remote grotto]

The End

[remote grotto]

I might go back and kill the Cairo Axis.

[meager lance]

are those all the cores and claims you get?

[remote grotto]

Yep, all of Germany.:D
But for the others I get a 100% compliance in 2-3 months coz of a modifier I have.:D

[coral shadow]

@remote grotto
A wild Austria Hungary playthrough

[remote grotto]

Japanese Turkey. Love it. xD

[coral shadow]

Even capitulated the Soviets lol

[remote grotto]

München will always be Austrian.:D

[coral shadow]

The EU but better

[coral shadow]

They also have algeria

[remote grotto]

As things should be.:D

[meager lance]

Abdulhamid's nightmare

[coral shadow]

Gotta rev the chat

[coral shadow]

I'm doing a mexico run and i am very confused by this focus tree

Any tips?

Also WHY ARE THE FOCUS TREES ALL 70 DAYS EXCUSE ME?

I'm now doing antidisestablishmentarianism

Also geez that's a long name

[lusty mountain]

There are focus trees in Victoria 3?

[coral shadow]

I meant hoi4

[coral shadow]

@remote grotto @meager lance
here we go...

its time to step into the world of modded HOI4

[remote grotto]

Good luck!

[coral shadow]

german empire time

[coral shadow]

focus tree seems very shallow

[remote grotto]

You will see.;D

[coral shadow]

im doing imperial restructuring

also i tried R56 but it just crashes the game

does that happen to you

because whenever i right click my division it just crashes

WHY DO I HAVE NOTIFICATIONS APPEARING EVERY 5 SECONDS AHH

4th balkan war has begun

spain is...being spain
and the balkan war has stalemated

hungary has become independent and are immediately being crushed

Sweeden has joined the Reichspakt

exclent

also french africa is declaring independence

also US is destroying themselves

oof the ottomans are falling apart

@remote grotto
old tricks

[remote grotto]

It was an old bug. That's why I stopped playing with it.

[coral shadow]

ahh i see

[remote grotto]

Yep, it's too easy for a player Germany. Lots of negative things have the happen for you to be able to lose.

[coral shadow]

the austrians f**ked up

[remote grotto]

It's still winnable, Austria has a bigger industry. It can grind Serbia and Romania down quite a bit. You probably have to provide air support. But it works for you.

[coral shadow]

they got to vienna though

i had to bail them out

[remote grotto]

Maybe a few shock troops to encircle them.

[remote grotto]

Not the first time.;D

[coral shadow]

im focusing on the russians and italians

[remote grotto]

And they all had been defeated. Except the Soviets.

[coral shadow]

whoa the british decided to naval invade

@remote grotto is there a ww1 mod?

like 1914?

[remote grotto]

There are plenty (2). Which I know. Great War Mod and Great War Redux.

[coral shadow]

which is better?

[remote grotto]

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=1946557392

[coral shadow]

how about great war mod?

[remote grotto]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=699709023

[remote grotto]

Yeah.

[coral shadow]

oh wait

i have that one

[remote grotto]

Start with this. Play 1 and 2 rounds.

[remote grotto]

Then try this and you will see why this is better a bit. At least I liked it better.

There is another one which I will have to look at when I am at home.

[coral shadow]

@remote grotto why is there a ww2 focus tree in the ww1 mod?

[remote grotto]

To continue the game. XD + It's more work to take it out.

[coral shadow]

lol 1913

[meager lance]

Speaking of Shanxi, that's been my most recent playthrough
It's been extremely painful, since East China (Nanjing Clique) and Guangdong (Old Guangxi Clique) are Qing allies
The AI is dumb enough not to join the front until their land is on the line
Which made the Qing easier to beat, but is making Nanjing hard to tackle since they have about 40 more divisions than I do
At least Fengtian is helping, they allied with Sichuan (Industrial Corps) and Yunnan (Long Yun's Clique)
But even if I finish off the Qing cronies, I don't know how to deal with Fengtian with that new cluster of divisions to deal with
Might continue on Saturday evening, or I might restart
I stayed with Yan the fîrst time (but opted to try and form my own government instead of allying with the Qing), but I might switch to the Guominjun (KMT) next run

[coral shadow]

I see

Btw i have problems with R56 crashing, do you have the issue as well?

[coral shadow]

Also i might do an ottoman run

[coral shadow]

what?
i lost the italo turkish war but i kicked them out of libya?

[coral shadow]

really?
Qing Dynasty has 0 factories?

here we go

anddddd i lost the war

time to reload

[remote grotto]

Its buggy, wait until the update is your best bet.

[coral shadow]

uhhhhhhh

[coral shadow]

i have tanks in 1850

this is going to be fun

[tawny acorn]

What mod?

[coral shadow]

End of a new beginning

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2856963714

[coral shadow]

the US Civil War has begun

[tawny acorn]

Ah okay thanks

[coral shadow]

uhhhh what??

[meager lance]

https://www.reddit.com/r/kaiserredux/comments/119n7se/some_teasers_for_our_upcoming_canada/?user_id=615488803626&web_redirect=true
looking forward to whenever this comes out

[uncut tulip]

what

when i saw

people's state

facists vs communist im guessing monarch

[meager lance]

A German campaign in KX that looks normal...

...but this is no ordinary empire
We collapsed the country by refusing to act during Black Monday
Then we defeated the empire as the Socialists
We elected Karl Liebknecht (SPD-R) as the leader in our emergency congress
Then he retired and we elected Konrad Adenauer (CDU), reversed some of the socialism, and restored the monarchy under Victoria Louise I (the same one who leads the HRE path in vanilla)
We then joined the Entente and are now finishing off the Internationale with a restored UK (who returned as an auto-balance after I flipped socialist)
Mittelafrika still hosts an impostor government (sus) and we're buffered from Savinkovite Russia through the Mizhimoria (led by Ukraine)

yoink
we had about 40% participation, so we could take Mexico, Liberia, Luxembourg, Venezuela, and parts of France (Elsass-Lothringen and Nanzig)

[remote grotto]

This looks unnatural.

[meager lance]

We finished off the Mizhimoria
Mongolia gone, Japan gone
Savinkov's now joined us, Mac's nearly done with America and will probably join us as well
Next I'm going to tackle the impostor Reichspakt across Africa
Then we'll clean up Sweden, Switzerland, and Bulgaria
Somehow the Dominion of India has done absolutely nothing

[coral shadow]

Germany in the entente feels weird

But anyway fun fact after all this time i still don't know how to naval invade or paratrooper lol

When i want to invade UK i just coup them

[meager lance]

i don't paratroop
i just used a naval invasion for this germany campaign though
first go in normandy failed, luckily I just deleted all the marines I made to recover everything
second go in normandy was a success, did it with 13 8 battalion + engineer marines, then converted them to my 13-1 infantry and brought in another infantry army to push through northern france

[meager lance]

End (1950)

[meager lance]

Finished the first half of my Arab playthrough, won the Desert War as Egypt
Now, we must form the federation as Syria

[meager lance]

now you may think this is evil western-style imperialism
but since it's SocDems doing it, it's automatically a wholesome 100 liberation movement!

[meager lance]

Ukraine update just dropped for Kaiserreich

[coral shadow]

?

There's a new Kaiserreich update?

[meager lance]

Tried Ukraine yesterday
It's certainly complicated, but way more interesting than before
Decided to win as the Hetman in the SocDem uprising, then finish industrialization but fail land reform, and then the NatPops took over and we've been doing pretty well on the Eastern Front
After a year of solid defense, we started a nationwide offensive and started crushing Radek's Totalists easily (in fact, we've taken Moscow already)
We've now taken our maximum eastern claims (you can claim a couple of states like Voronezh, Belgorod, and Kursk to your northeast, and claim everything in the southeast bounded by Dagestan and Astrakhan)
You can only core the states right next to you though, which makes sense

[coral shadow]

WHAT HAVE I DONE

https://youtu.be/pkxXFLRmqvw
also i found the R56 National Anthem

[haughty mason]

Does anyone in this place play BlackICE mod for Hearts of Iron 4?

[coral shadow]

I've never played it, but i do have it downloaded

Might try it when I have time

[remote grotto]

Is it still a thing?

Last time I checked, they didn’t update it at all.

[haughty mason]

It seems to still be updated according to the Workshop

I was wondering if anyone would recommend it

[remote grotto]

Oh, nice.

[remote grotto]

Quick question, is the US green?

[haughty mason]

Not sure, haven't tried it for a long time

[remote grotto]

To be fair, it’s worth giving it a chance!

I played it a long time ago and it resembles HoI3 BI the most.

When it wasn’t updated, I found Total War mod.

Then World Ablaze.

[haughty mason]

Then Road to 56?

[remote grotto]

For me it was a bit more vanilla game-ish.

If you know what I mean. It definitely kept most of the normal HoI4 features.

[haughty mason]

Yeah I play primarily Road to 56 so I am far too familiar with it

[remote grotto]

Spice it up with BI, TW and WA.

It would help a lot if I wouldn’t mistype stuff…

[haughty mason]

Never heard of Total War mod before, mind giving me a link?

[remote grotto]

I am not in front of my computer, sorry.

[haughty mason]

Ah okay, no worries.

[remote grotto]

But I think I sent it in previously, let me search for it.

[haughty mason]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=806209426 Is it this one?

[remote grotto]

It is.

And if you want another experience, maybe more immerse experiences, World Ablaze.

[remote grotto]

Here, no link again sadly.

[tawny acorn]

@meager lance i tried kaissereich earlier this week as bohemia but was under austrian rule, is there any general way to get independence?

[meager lance]

nope
kaiserreich just has a default focus tree (central europe is one of the most requested targets for a rework)
use kaiserREDUX, and you'll have a chance to start a bohemian revolution

[remote grotto]

And also more political options to choose from.

[tawny acorn]

Ah okay thanks

[coral shadow]

I heard there was a mod to stop the ai going ballistic at 100% world tension, does anyone know what mod it is?

[coral shadow]

FINLAND FOCUS TREEEEEE

https://youtu.be/hDz7CwLvnIc

[remote grotto]

Only Finland dlc?

[meager lance]

pretty sure it's all nordics

[remote grotto]

Okay, so which countries are left without dlcs?

[coral shadow]

In Europe?

Belgium, Albania, Austria, Luxemburg

Czechoslovakia (underwhelming focus tree)

[remote grotto]

Could be said to lots of countries.

[remote grotto]

Nah, completely the world.:D

[uncut tulip]

country ready to fracture to pieces

[haughty mason]

Words can not express my happiness levels upon seeing the devblog about long range patrol companies attached to divisions under the support category

[remote grotto]

I still think Germany needs a new focus tree and new mechanics.

[meager lance]

Another Left Kuomintang progress report will be coming soon for Kaiserreich 👀

[meager lance]

This may very well be my biggest encirclement ever
West African Commonwealth (Liberia) surrounding Cairo Pact Hausaland (post-collapse Mittelafrika)
There was a grand total of 41 divisions in there (I killed one off before the screencap)

That was probably 400k casualties alone...

Another pocket in South Sudan

Another 20 divisions in Morocco being swept away

14 more in Tripolitania
We are absolutely RAKING against the Cairo Pact
They don't stand a chance against our 110 divisions
They were already struggling against KAMERUN.
Who had LESS THAN A FULL ARMY'S WORTH OF DIVISIONS.

Final battle in the Crown Jewel of the Pact

[meager lance]

It took us a while, but we've finally got the Anti-Goering Pact on the ropes
28 divisions in this pocket

[meager lance]

Haven't tried that mod in a while

[haughty mason]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/394360/view/3678924766331701807?l=english

I am unreasonably happy to see a mention of "Ranger" units.

[coral shadow]

Sadly my country doesn't exist in the game (at least as a releaseable nation)

[remote grotto]

My problem with the new focus trees is that older dlcs focus trees are generally getting more and more irrelevant, like look at the new Italian and Soviet focus trees with the Ethiopian and Propaganda buffs and then look at the Germany focus tree. 70 days to march into the Rhineland? Come on… to say the least.

Don’t get me wrong, i like the new content, but they should improve the other countries too.

Or look at Together for Victory countries. Those focus trees are just…

[meager lance]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Kaiserreich/comments/14bbltx/progress_report_136_the_left_kuomintang/
Here it is!
This may be of interest to you @remote grotto, you seemed interested when we last talked about it

[meager lance]

The early focus tree looks small, but the mid and late trees are absolutely mammoth

And this doesn't even include the factional stuff

[remote grotto]

Epic.

Honestly, epic!

[meager lance]

Yeah, it's very prevalent in not just games, but media in general that there's a term for this: "power creep"
Where incredibly powerful new content invariably dilutes the value and power of older content

[remote grotto]

New dlcs are part of the reason Germany gets behind countries.

Like nowadays Germany usually gets beaten, when its dlc came out, changed some of the focuses around, it was a beast.

[coral shadow]

wait, so according to r56 portugal owns galicia?

[coral shadow]

also did historical germany just lose the war?

[remote grotto]

What happened here? 💀😂

[coral shadow]

idk lol

poland took east germany and south italy

[remote grotto]

What did you do? XD

[coral shadow]

nothing

i was playing finland

[remote grotto]

Well, good luck in the winter war.:D

[coral shadow]

i demanded karelia and they just gave it to me

same thing with denmark, norway and sweeden

[meager lance]

p o l a n d.

[uncut tulip]

is that

socialist france

[remote grotto]

Yeah, the Commune.

[coral shadow]

its too west

[meager lance]

played Eurasia this afternoon
very OP

[meager lance]

the amount of states you can core is absolutely gobsmacking
hopefully I can finish germany off (signed the truce of gdansk with them earlier, but now the pope wants to finish the risorgimento)
and then I want to finish china

[meager lance]

took you long enough
we snatched their victory over the entente from them

[tawny acorn]

1518 brandenburg

Agrresive expansion makes so we cannot go much more any time sooner

[remote grotto]

https://tenor.com/view/hoi4-gif-19076350

[meager lance]

Played Schweiz in KX for some reason
And playing a smaller country has allowed me to refocus on using interesting strategies
Like making this goofy encirclement against Savinkov

The story's strange
During the Savoyard Crisis, I wanted to stay neutral and go militarist (bc Greater Switzerland paths), but I got a German alliance instead
Syndie Greece in the 3I decided to try and take the rest of Macedonia back from Serbia (who was guaranteed by Savinkov)
So the 3I and Eurasians went to war
And then the 3I turned around, did the same old Alsace ultimatum, and declared on the Reichspakt
And then multiple countries decided to join the Eurasians (like Papal Italy and Serbia) and then they too declared war on us
I first joined the 3I war, helped trounce the French easily, then turned around, joined the Eurasian war, and helped crush Italy as well
And then I decided to move my entire army of 30 divisions to Sumy and Kharkiv
Made some small pcokets easily, and then I had the wacky idea to just start a drive to connect with the Finns and encircle the Russians in their state of confusion
Worked perfectly and now we've got Boris on the ropes too
Then I'll join the Japanese war

The runway to the pocket was practically wide open, we faced practically no resistance in taking Moskva

[meager lance]

PSA as Norton II
2ACW is going very well
We've just bottled up a ton of Longists in Minneapolis
We've been trudging east successfully for about 2 years now

[remote grotto]

Could we edit the first image so that it shows a picture?

For example this.:D

It just triggers me that its the largest channel and has no picture.:D

@tawny acorn

Please.:D

And sorry for the ping!

[haughty mason]

In case it is not immediately obvious; I really like paratroopers.

[uncut tulip]

Quicl snake into moscow leningrad and stalingrad

[meager lance]

meanwhile, I've never successfully paradropped

[haughty mason]

10/10 would recommend.

[uncut tulip]

the aa gun is a problem

[meager lance]

playing as sichuan
lots of work, but still plenty of fun
(and yes, this is my quest to finish the next federalist path)
amazingly, we started and still lead the united front! (meaning we could unite china by the pen if we win perhaps?)
we've defeated the cowardly thai, now we've shifted our focus back to beating the japanese naval invasions in shandong, jiangsu, zhejiang, and guangxi
the reichspakt is helping us greatly, and the start of the eastern seas war (japan v germany) has been the biggest momentum chaser
the german colonies in east asia managed to help us chase thailand back past bangkok (something GEA used to be terrible at doing)
chinese quantity is finally starting to catch up to japanese quality, because chinese quality is also rapidly improving
the qing, for example, have just pulled off an impressive 18-division encirclement in the mountains of jiangxi

[meager lance]

sure enough, the qing got all the land, then declared on me, and are now slowly grinding me to dust

[tawny acorn]

Oh sorry didnt see this 😿

Im not sure i understand what your asking

Oh okay change the photo of the channel

i dont know if yu can change the photo after the thread is created

[meager lance]

see if you can edit the first msg (yours)

[tawny acorn]

Done

[uncut tulip]

is that

independent india

[remote grotto]

Normal stuff.:D

[remote grotto]

Thank you!❤️

It looks good I think.:D

EPIC.

[tawny acorn]

For sure

[meager lance]

yep
the princes succeeded and went democratic along the way, remarkably

[remote grotto]

Not a whole lot of scenarios where I even saw them surviving. Its either the Entente or the Commune who wins.

[meager lance]

what am I even doing with my existence

[haughty mason]

Fret not.

[meager lance]

a couple of tries later and we're inching closer...

[meager lance]

We FINALLY beat the Japanese
It only took us about SEVEN YEARS
But by God, we did it

[meager lance]

WE HATH DONE IT 🥳
Took fewer tries than last time (less than 10) even though Sichuan is the harder path
It took about half a decade longer though...

Potential FIVE PP A DAY

[meager lance]

The split on America

yay

I think we'll just pay the Portuguese

I'll probably finish the focus tree before leaving this run
I succeeded at winning as Sichuan, but I left a few states on the table
I still have a claim on Tuva, and Outer Manchuria, while not even claimable, does have unique Chinese names
One crazy ride

[haughty mason]

Hello my fellow warlords

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/developer-diary-summer-open-beta.1592612/

[meager lance]

Overall, I would highly recommend Sichuan, easily one of the best nations to play in KR since it's so versatile
As much as you start with a terrible industrial base and multiple crises (civil war, famine, smuggling, addiction, and corruption), the buffs in the Federal tree are completely overpowered
I mentioned the nearly 5 PP a day you can max out at, but there's also the +50% monthly population (to grow that 50 million in base population), the insane number of building slots you get (by the time I declared unification, I think I'd maxed out the building slots on Chengdu AND Chongqing provinces. That's 50 factories), the well-sized army (30 divisions which can be vastly improved through simple yet effective army tree), and the strong natural defences (Sichuan is more or less a fertile basin surrounded by mountains)

[meager lance]

Dominion of India time
Got a massive encirclement with the princes against the socialists
The rebalance has made this way easier

[remote grotto]

Also the Japanese support the princes?

[meager lance]

Yeah
The princes have the most foreign policy flexibility, they can join the Co-Prosperity Sphere, Moscow Accord, or Reichspakt (or go isolationist)
If they do engage in diplomacy, they usually join the Japanese

Princely encirclement in Thiruvananthapuram
Ez dub

[meager lance]

we finish unification mostly by december 1939
now we must continue to take all corners of the former raj

[meager lance]

saving china atm
japan declared on me, I trudged through indochina and now we're in the process of resurrecting our boy chen from the brink
they moved west to cut off the massive front in eastern china, while we swooped south to try and bring yue and yun back into their control

somehow canada and mexico are squashing america together (totalists under foster)
not sure how america is so unmobilized, they've had a couple of years to recover from the civil war
I decided not to get involved

[meager lance]

The Indian invasion of Kyushu (Operation Olympic in this timeline): an astounding success!
The coastline was practically completely undefended

[meager lance]

My god, we did it
It was a bloody invasion, but we got the job done

Finally, the Federalist AI wins

[meager lance]

huh?

I thought they went down the loyalty side, but I guess they didn't?
Looks like they switched focuses and went for the referendum, but it didn't work

[meager lance]

Canada's ending

Oh wow they actually did it

Led by a rather infamous figure in Quebec politics, Maurice Duplessis

As good a time as any to wrap it up

[remote grotto]

Österreich über alles.;D

Suprised that Austria survived.

[meager lance]

OMG
IT HAPPENED!
LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

Time for Canada in Kaiserredux!

Now this is a MASSIVE focus tree

[meager lance]

BOOM
We did it
Pretty easy since Portugal was a good HQ to get to France via Iberia
Just needed to do an org rush with two full armies
(And we didn't pull the dumb AI tactic of intervening in America)

https://tenor.com/view/seen-it-marty-back-to-the-future-ive-seen-this-one-gif-5960361

[meager lance]

I will be entering the Third Weltkrieg shortly
Sadly the rest of the Entente wasn't ready for Reichspaly Northern Italy to declare on the Entente Sardinian South to start
Gotta pick up the slack

[remote grotto]

[meager lance]

gotta give france the middle finger for this dumb play
why the heck would you join sardinia without defending your borders?? 🤬
now I gotta claw a third of their country back for them

yeah I think I'll have to redo this entire run
jesus that's a pain

[coral shadow]

No matter what universe, France is destined to lose WW2

[remote grotto]

Its actually the third now.:D

[remote grotto]

A nice little first world war run.

It was honestly easy.:D

Funny thing, Greece never joined the Weltkrieg. xD

[coral shadow]

Wait so does the Italian republic always leave Austria Hungary no matter what?

[remote grotto]

Probably, idk honestly, but they get Austria Hungarys best Field Marshall. XD

[haughty mason]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1V584leGiY&t=465s

Special Forces getting a rework. (Timestamped video)

[meager lance]

@remote grotto LKMT update beta for Kaiserreich is set to come out in a few days apparently 😲

[uncut tulip]

7 1,891 hours

[uncut tulip]

huh

american

ukraine

okay

[meager lance]

ukraine didn't even get a puppet out of that
they had to give it all to germany for their canadian and american puppets

[remote grotto]

We are approaching a working Hoi3 game soon. All for how many Euros?:D

[coral shadow]

Stalingrad has been surounded

[vernal widget]

Black wins

[coral shadow]

White needs play Rxb3

[remote grotto]

A little Bulgaria playthrough, I played it a long time ago.:D

[remote grotto]

The Balkan war is aproaching, I dont have as many divisions as I wanted, there are serious gaps in my frontline.

Serbia gave the ultimatum.

The Balkans will burn once more.

Gave the Ottomans Thrace, I will take it back as soon as they are in the War against the Axis.

Okay, Serbia capped, now Romania.

Ah, beautiful.:D

And Greece capped.

Absolutely beautiful.:D

Hm, this looks neat.:D

New allies.

NANI?

[coral shadow]

Soviet union moment

[remote grotto]

World ablaze.

[remote grotto]

Yeah, but they didnt dare to attack me. xD

[meager lance]

Probably gonna try out either the new KX Ukraine or KR LKMT some time soon
Should be interesting

[remote grotto]

Mega Bulgaria.:D

[remote grotto]

Ukraine has a bunch of new things, I would suggest them.;D

Also, Carlist Spain, they can recreate the Spanish Empire.

[meager lance]

Yep
KR Spain also got some changes with the LKMT update

I don't know why the Austrians never unify the crownlands in Kaiserredux
They practically always do in Kaiserreich
Whether it be under the progressive Danubian Federation or conservative USGA

[remote grotto]

And The End. It was just as I remembered.xD

[remote grotto]

That region is not that worked out.

Even now.

Previously, it was worse.

But now it feels like I am playing with Bulgaria.

[meager lance]

KX has a path for the Bulgar Khanate
I think you have to lose the Balkan War to get the NatPops though

Can Austria core Germany in any paths other than NatPop?
I know that KX recently added Pan-European formables for Germany

[remote grotto]

Yeah you do, but I am not a huge fan of the Khanate...

[remote grotto]

I dont thinks so, Lebenfeld is the only one who can do that. Österreich über alles!

[meager lance]

Too bad Bulgaria doesn't really have much to do for their own benefit after the Balkan War

[remote grotto]

Yep.

[remote grotto]

Lets try these Carlists.:D

Good start.:D

I might have moved the Civil War forward.:D

This world...

The Dynamic duo.:D

Who would have thought.

Here is the choice.

I choose the Habsburg.:D

[remote grotto]

had to restart and I got the most interesting Austria.:D

Managed to avoid the Civil War.:D

Sadly, its not worked out so you lose everything you had...

Yep, I have no ship design, nothing, all my previous buffs arew gone...

I am thinking about adding a little bit of xp...

But I am not gonna bother.

[remote grotto]

Longest Switzerland ever.:D

[remote grotto]

Okay, so, tomorrow I will start over, now I know the general direction on where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do, I changed 3 things in the game though.

1. Brazilian National Populists will win, I can get them in my faction hopefully. Its either the Latin Union or the Entente, coz Entente is boring + I want to do the rerconquista, I will do the Latin Union.

2. • 3. Austrian Social Conservatives will win and they will successfully reform the Empire, hopefully I can bring them into the faction too.

The others are left undisturbed.

I want a good Spanish run.:D

And at the weekend I will play another Austria Hungary for fun. XD

[remote grotto]

Did anyone hear about Rule the Waves?

[remote grotto]

Crimea formed, they are the ones who can form the Soviet Union.

[meager lance]

About a week away from the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Coulda done better with more micro, but the power creep made this a simpler task
What made it even easier is that Thailand didn't join the CPS
Had to destroy Mongolia in the middle too
It's nearly April 1945 and I'm ready to unlock the final phase of the tree

We have reunified China!
More new flavour to see

[meager lance]

Finished off wars with Xinjiang, Tibet, and finally Russia
We also annexed the Legations, but we need to take the other concessions back

[meager lance]

Declared on the Raj after a while
And oh my goodness is this the largest encirclement I've ever pulled off...
NINETY-THREE INDIAN DIVISIONS.
And this is from an org rush and defensive order

Casualty count for India at 1.9M before the encirclement (719.5k from me)
By the end it's at 3.1M (1.9M from me)

[meager lance]

Oh my word
I have so many infantry divisions (486) that I can create more than an ARMY GROUP'S worth of 9 battalion special forces

I decided to do it and send the Japanese running in Vietnam
Without the new group, I entered a stalemate, then surprised them with an org rush to split occupied Vietnam in half, then entered another stalemate
Now the new army is completely destroying the Japanese in the south, so I can focus my attention back on the northern pocket
When all is said and done, these org rushes are gonna be a massacre for Japan
They're gonna lose EIGHTY divisions in the north, and another FORTY-FOUR in the south

Helped the Reichspakt out on their Iberian front
For some reason they just decided to leave half of Spain and most of Portugal untouched?
Anyways big encirclement in Lisbon

Not sure if a few divisions were vaporized before that screencap
If so, there must have been a little more than SIXTY-THREE divisions in that pocket

[meager lance]

It's January 1955
Took out Thailand
The 3WK is in a stalemate once more
We need to cap Japan and consider our future

[remote grotto]

Sounds like a Fallout scenario, doesnt it?:D

[meager lance]

pretty much
i'm still thinking about what to do after this

[meager lance]

After helping the Dutch out in Indonesia and the Italians out in Australia, we FINALLY landed in Canada
It's now October 1958 and the Entente's really on the ropes

We had to get a naval invasion done, and then, since we didn't take Vancouver, had to hold the line with 30 divisions for about a month so I could build a port to import the rest of the army group
Now they've all been converted to mountaineers to get over the Rockies

[meager lance]

We made it to Toronto in a year faster than the Reichspakt could do in what, a DECADE of being stuck on the East Coast?

30th August 1959, and Canada has finally given up

[meager lance]

Early March 1960
We've finally established a foothold on the Home Islands
After we softened them up, the Reichspakt has arrived from both the north and south

Bruh
It's 17 March 1960
The Mittelafrikaners arrived in Tokyo before me...

Oh no no no...
This game ain't over yet... 😈
I must go for America next

[meager lance]

22 January 1964, and America is finally down
It was a mess, but we're now a step closer to fulfilling all requirements to proclaim victory

[meager lance]

Arabian pocket
We're slowly moving towards Europe
We'll take out the Donau-Adriabund first, and then the Reichspakt

[meager lance]

Still at it
We finished off the Cairo Pact, which is good news
The next opponent is the Donau-Adriabund
The problem is that I don't know if they'll rejoin the Reichspakt again if they are under threat
This is the goal I'm trying to achieve, btw
Since the 3I lost (badly) in the 2WK, this is basically a world conquest

[meager lance]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/394360/view/5925098517647303884?l=english
Nifty new multiplayer focus tree feature coming in the Arms Against Tyranny DLC

[meager lance]

The invasion of the Donau-Adriabund starts off with a bang, quite literally
We are finishing Tunisia now, Italy and Greece will be next
I could also go through Iberia

[remote grotto]

It was a long time ago since I last played EU4.

Sadly enough, I dont have all the DLCs.

[meager lance]

Oh god
This has been a disaster
My navy is gone
Quantity absolutely did not trump quality this time, I've lost about EIGHT HUNDRED ships since the war began (while they've lost less than 100)
So we're just going on carpet nuking campaigns wherever we can
DId Italy, then two rounds on Austria-Hungary, a round on Iberia, and a round on Ukraine

[meager lance]

So we're at September 1971 right now
We've got about a 4:1 KD ratio at this point, and we still haven't gotten them done and dusted
There's no way I'm going to gain naval supremacy, so I had to make a difficult decision and just console annex and release Turkey 🤷‍♂️
Once an Entente member, I let Germany take them in the peace deal
So I did at least beat them once
We might just give them back to Germany after the war ends, with something like Iraq packaged with them

[remote grotto]

Is it skill issue I smell?:D

[meager lance]

Definitely

L+skill issue+lazy+bored

[meager lance]

I definitely know that I still have no idea how to build a navy
And no amount of "quantity > quality" thinking will change that

[meager lance]

Of course you would

[remote grotto]

Navy works really weird, dont worry about not understanding it, only a few do and it requires luck that you will not be immediately obliterated.

[meager lance]

After stalling out in Eastern Bulgaria, we've made 2 breakthroughs

1. A smaller western breakthrough to take Thessaloniki and move towards Albania and Greece
2. A MASSIVE breakthrough in the north to take over Moldova and then catch Ukraine by surprise

[meager lance]

It turns out that this is what the average naval battle is looking like for me in this war
That's over 170 ships sunk, but at the cost of over SIX THOUSAND bombers

We're also really stuck again
We moved a good 2-3 tiles in the past year or two
I don't really know how to deal with the deathstacks, even though I'm doing about 15 damage from CAS
Whenever I try to deal with 7 or 8 divisions with 24 tanks, they all just deorg before I can finish (and they have about 40 org, which is decent for a tank afaik)
Probably need to do a lot of tweaking for my army to break through
If we cap Ukraine, a domino effect should start

[remote grotto]

Some here, AI seems to create masses which you can’t break because he cycles fresh units in.

The only way you can break it is by accident when you manage to do a massive breakthrough or you grind down the equipment they have.

And sadly meta units doesn’t help.:D

[coral shadow]

When the ai troops in your team actually do something

[remote grotto]

They are mostly there to hold the line.:D

[coral shadow]

i removed troops from the russian front in ww1 and next thing i knew AH capitulated

[remote grotto]

XD

Okay, sometimes.:D

[meager lance]

left reformgruppe victory in afrika

[meager lance]

Decided to give Canada a go again
I finished the Liberation of the Home Isles easily in 1941, and I now smell blood in the waters in Germany...
The Reichspakt is stumbling in its invasion of Russia, and my American friend MacArthur is doing a solid job moving through the states
Perhaps we could win a Third Weltkrieg...

[remote grotto]

Good luck with it.:D

[meager lance]

The blitz has worked

[meager lance]

I'm very glad I cored New England and Puerto Rico instead of forming puppets
It basically completely resolved my manpower problems
Started at 12 million ppl, now at 33 million in cores
Also managed to core Greenland, Iceland, and Alaska
I might be able to pacify America if they resolve the civil war and completely absorb even more territory

[meager lance]

I know I sound like a humourless scold saying this, but I hate asking questions online sometimes
I've asked in the Kaiserredux server about how long the "British Exodus" debuff lasts for (where Canada bleeds population as Exiles return to GB) and how I can get rid of it
The only responses I get are just half-joking and don't answer my damn question
Like "wAit, WhY wOuLd YoU lIbErAtE hOmE iSlEs?" or some other unfunny "joke"
And then it just gets buried and ignored so people who know how to answer my question don't do so
Like I get why these kinds of responses are funny but I just wish people respected my polite request a bit more
I'd rather be politely and directly told some answer so I could stop wasting my time

[remote grotto]

That’s precisely why I dont write on forums.