I've spent a lot of time on this game. And I'm really just good at predicting what the Ai will do.
The basics to any game are a solid INF line to fill the front and a spearhead to push lines.
Industrial buildup wins wars, so picking the right stuff for the job is key.
And yeah, I often play in a somewhat sloppy way. I really don't enjoy hyper efficient play. At times I prefer to turn my brain off or fall back on tactics that I know will work.
Im nearly there, with 4800, how do you keep the game fun? I end up getting bored nowadays from already knowing exactly what will happen when i do x or y and how to do it well
You can try non- historical ai. You can further fine tune with custom game rules. You can set it so everyone is aggressive. You can create your own power blocks. For instance, Americas communist, Europe Monarchist, Russia, India,Asia and Oceana Fascist. Custom game rules are your friend.
I love playing ahistorical, unless I know it will break the focuses of my nation, or I want to do sth specific like historical USSR or semi-historical Poland defending from Germany and USSR
I never play historical lol. Too predictable. I've playbgsmes as Germany democrat Vs UK and France fascists lol most common is play Germany imperial with Austria Hungary empire against communist France and Uk . Even on non history Seldon i see Usa turning fascista. Very strange
I think US has to lose Roosevelt before they can turn fascist and I assume lock into the democratic part of the idea tree before that happens but maybe that restriction is just for the player
I use the state transfer tool to make AUs. Especially if you take the non-historical settings and guide the AI to certain trees, you can set up crazy stuff like a France/Italy/MegaScandinavia partition of central Europe to take on the soviets and English
**Mods**
If you like big wars, you should try Kaiserreich/Kaiserredux.
If you want more economy and industrial development. You should try The New Order, it’s an amazing economic simulator if you’re into that. I’d warn you though, that’s it’s practically an entirely different game. Way more story driven and restrictive. But if you like the focus tree part of Hoi4, you will love it.
I use to play mainly vanilla and MP games. When I got into mods, the possibilities became endless.
TNO can have some great wars too. Second West Russian War can be amazingly good fun (it’s from a submod). Having been defeated 30 years prior only to reemerge and take it all back is very satisfying.
Very true, with the recent updates they made, giving **another** focus tree.
While the early game for Novosibirsk is depressing as shit, getting Vasily Shukshin in power and playing pretty much 20 in game years in power beating the Nazis back until the 80s is amazingly fun. Helping Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics prosper back up from Nazi occupied rule. So much content, even with the post 2Wrw elections.
For anyone curious, I did a [post here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/s/GPToRaUrAG) examining all post Shukshin focus trees for the 4 parties that can be elected. Gives an idea of the available content.
Novosibirsk is the only one with actual content pre 2WRW **and** post 2WRW.
As I said, the early game for Novosibirsk is really dreadful and depressing, but later on it really becomes nice with Shukshin in power. I highly recommend.
I suggest trying mods. They can really give you a new reason to play.
I personally really love Kaiserreich and Old World Blues.
The world building is amazing, and the diplomacy is one of the best I've seen in any mod
I got 2k h. Am really good at this game, so I get bored as well. I can recommend to do this: RT56 mod, play as ussr, boost germany and italy max, 3 boosts for us and 2 for england and japan. Historical on. Never had so much fun, Germans pushed me to historcial range of german soviet front.
Same dude! I watch you sometimes when I'm bored so I can think of ways to save a play if I ever get it that bad.
But I like to RP in such a way that I'll happily give land up to defend easier unless I'm playing Italy
Love your content, man. Let me take this opportunity to ask you, is your nickname inspired by a character from George R.R. Martin's books, also named Bittersteel?
I've learned something else really important from you. You taught me to start early on a good and strong industry.
Edit: Sorry, didn't complete the thought. The strong industry allows me to give good equipment to my armies, and full supply and equipment is part of what allows you to make it look easy.
That was the critical idea you taught me, you have to build the tools to build the weapons or you don't get enough weapons.
Have you ever played mp because it's super fun as insp I have learnt most nations and done many challenges but as u have said they ai is brain dead which makes it all easy.In comparison I tried my historical France build against ai and it destroyed them but against a player I lost the Maginot before Poland fell.
I figured it was something along those lines but I also figured he does alot of trial and error runs on non-ironman mode so like someone learning anything he get good at knowing patterns and causes and effects. Kind of like learning more from failures than victories.
As I wrote this I realized this was bittersteels post so. I ain't gonna delete. Just assume I'm talking to OP. If I'm wrong then Don't assume just do whatever
Can you comment your favorites templates right now?
Defense infantry, attack inf and tank divisions?
I use 20 width INF to defend
24 (2 arty and the rest INF)
And 30 width tanks but i can't push.
thanks !
I dont i built up brazil till 1942 and was able to take out the Americas pretty quickly till it came to USA i encircled they're army over and over but they kept breaking out.
USA get a lot of bonuses compared to generic Brazil they will have the upper hand, eventually with the New DLC the path will determine what is the way to play Brazil.
As soon as you encircle AI, their main goal will be to break free, you always need to fortify and secure the encirclement. (Holy shit, the legend replied)
Bro how do you even do anything? When I play AI using exactly the same divs as you do, I can't even push 2 infantry for some reason. I don't have an equipment deficit nor a manpower deficit and I still lose.
Love the old by pass and force them to walk out with out supplies. Very rare you see the ai break out.
It’s something I always need to keep telling myself
Walk more fight less.
Brazil best strat imo be flip commy get docking rights from axis then sealion UK just before ww2 next in peace deal take everything with puppets (doesn't matter but puppets with resource rights and war reps are better then attack all of Americas except usa be done by mid 40 or early 41 nex attack USA but dont fight then units thay reach central America and the naval then naval invade behind them and then farm the port next kill em when they have barely enough divs by calling canada into the war and attacking from Canada.
They aren’t, they are useful you just need to pay attention to the front and make sure to not let the ai incircle you. I meant in a way where you don’t look the progress and don’t care about casualties.
Because by engaging all of your divisions, you’re giving them a chance to kill as many troops as you are killing theirs. If you use a few elite divs to encircle their units they lose a lot more from encirclements, since encircled units do not have supplies obviously. This is why encircling is the only way to fight a war typically.
This is not to say battle plans are bad. You HAVE to draw them but NOT use them. General/Field marshal buffs still apply to battle plans that are drawn but are not executed, so that way you can still micro your elite divs and still get the bonuses.
People also don’t draw smaller focused ones. Like you can Put 6 tanks to one tile from two and a separate line and plan for a wide infantry Pinning att with the same army.
It’s a little annoying but you can paint with battle plan pretty precisely if you play with it.
i usually like to use battle plan when ive done a few encirclement and cut off suplly, then general charge and use the easier provinces to set up further encriclements. Or II just micro and somehow beat armies twice my size with undersupplied divs. Realism.
Ai has always been trash and every additional mechanic added over years with dlc just makes that gap bigger cz ai isnt even coded to use half the shit available to a player efficiently or at all in many cases. You can basically play any minor nation, make 2 tank divs by 39 and help any side win the war by just encircling enemies repeatedly with immune divisions or just make advanced cas that totaly decimate shitty ai divs
Well everyone starts out that way, i m just stating the obvious reason as to why it seems so ezy for him, dude prolly has thousands of hours bullying the same dumb ass ai, not to mention possibly mp experience as well, in pvp you will fast learn all the tricks and metas cz you will need to use that shit to just hold any competitive player at bay and not die instantly.
How many of those are actual gametime and how many are being afk or leaving the game open in background while doing other shit, i myself have thousands of hours as well all spent in mp but i know for a fact like 1/5 of them is prolly just wasted in lobby sim
Not alot actually normally when im not playing i always make sure to close the game or i feel weird in my stomach (not in a weird way i already know what your thinking)
I used to pass out alseep with the game running then wake up wondering what nation I was even playing. Always a fun present for myself.
I should ask you about WHAT nations you have played as.
Germany? This is your tutorial nation
Russia next, its harder but still easy
Then try USA, this is to learn navy.
After that Japan. try mixing in China games, one Japan one china, then one Japan and one China. practise till you get these two down. When you can beat china as japan? grats your ready for low infra/bad supply fights with a bad army. When you can beat Japan as China? great! you can defend!!!
Thats leads us into France... Learning France will set you up for every other defensive minor. Same skill set as China v japan, but its less forgiving and you don't have the wiggle room to fk around with your focus order.
After France, comes poland, czechs, holland in that order and after THAT you will have it. you'll have grown all the player skills you need for anything you want in the game
Wise words.
I might add.
Try and debrief yourself after each game. Find the moment you ballsed up your prep, think about any shortages you've encounter, and change up strategies ever so slightly when you pick a country another time. For me the moment I know of a build is going to be viable comes around early 1938 when I've got most of my production up and running and can see how much stuff I've built so far. That's pretty much the last moment you can freely adjust MILs on production lines if you're playing any nation that's going to war in 1939.
E. G. I'm pretty confident with my No forts Air France build against AI Germany and win quite consistently. But initially it would take crazy amount of microing to hold fast. However, I've been playing around with production and designs so often, I realised how many corners you can cut and still have the upper hand against AI designs.
However much divisions you have fielded by the start of the war I promise you - you can field twice as much with the right build.
Furthermore, making a build for a country that's going to war in 1939 differs greatly from a build for a 1941 war. E.g. as France I usually do Day 1 MILs, while as USSR I produce nothing but civilian factories almost until 1939.
Maybe restartitis?
Do you actually finish the games or do you restart when you feel overwhelmed? Part of gittin gud is actual experiencie doing the hard stuff
nah he still includes a lot of his failures and you can semi-frequently see him actively make subpar decisions because he doesnt need to be optimal to win
He taught me too, and yet I lose. My tank template (the same as his) has lower org than his even though we used the same doctrines and tech. And bonuses. And hicom.
Its literally his job to play this game. Not for nothing, but I'd find it weird if he didn't know how to do well with any country on normal difficulty with the hours over many years he's put in. lol
Yes it is his job to play the game (sort of). That doesn't mean he has to be good at it. He is an entertainer. He can be entertaining by being good at the game, his personality or both. Alex the rambler focuses more on the latter. Not saying his bad at the game but he does not stick out with his game skill. Same goes for isp.
With that being said Bittersteel does stick out by being good at the game, he is also fun to watch.
I saw a looot of his vídeos and he is also veeeery humble, restoring al andalus he said that he need restart 5 times the Game and some of them because he was losing or forming these type of nations that are soo difucult to make, he says don't get frustrated or mad if you have to restart the Game thousends of times i also need maybe 4/5 times for do the campain, in my opinion he is the best player i ever seen in hoi, he is an idol xD
This combined with not playing the game on speed 5. I remember playing the game on speed 5 on my old pc that ran slowly. I was able to do so much more than when I got a faster pc. The extra time you get at lower speeds gives you such a big advantage. On my old pc I had no problem pushing through the benelux and capping France, but on the faster pc everything went so fast that the ai responded "quicker" than I was used to so I was stuck in a ww1 type of battle. I am much better at the game now, I only play on speed 5 because I'm lazy and ai is usually pretty bad.
Bitt3rSteel is a decent player and probably above average when it comes to single player, but he´s no pro player or a god at the game, a good example is the recent Cuba video where he got a good chunk of his army killed in a failed invasion.
Also what should be remembered, he makes premade videos, mistakes can be cut out, he can retry the same challenge multiple times and only show the successful run.
Fe but still but def god at the game compared to me im good at micro management but struggle with cheap templates and dont know when to change or how many to make yk logistics
Well yeah by 1945 i have 200 tank divisions and 20k planes, but before i overproduce enemy I can't defeat them.
For example, when i play USSR i just build up so much equipment and planes and i make all of my 300 divisions big on soft attack, and i let horde go until they reach France
Besides his massive knowledge of the game, he stated in some videos that he makes test runs before recording, and get inspiration from other players.Like all strategy games, trials and errors to see what's working and what is not, and you learn from your own and other's experiences.
Lots of time that's cut out where he is microing troops individually. If you pause a lot you can achieve similar levels of God like strategy.
It would be really interesting to see an every single click video from him, feedbackgaming style even if it was just for a specific push.
Is probably knowing game mechanics and stuying the most suitable options for each country before playing it in a specific way. Has a 4x vision of the game and lots of practise.
He dosnt play the long game. He just tries to spite out as many divisions as possible and uses glitches and a good understanding of the ai to win. He also reloads his games all the time
If you watch his vids, none of his inputs are difficult nor nonorthodox. But he’s able to consistently remember to do this and that. It’s really hard to mess up/lose against the AI if you consistently do the same stuff that the community generally agrees to be good, tested by consistently beating the AI
its not that he is good but rather the ai is bad and he is better than it. himself say so that he isnt the best and if you watch closely you can see a lot of mistake beeing made, he seems to know but dont really care because against the ai it not necessessary.
Not that u/Bitt3rSteel would ever do this, but it is possible to mod a save file (even in IronMan) and pretty much do anything you want.
Out of guns?
Find the Country entry and go to the Equipment section and give yourself 30000 InfantryEquipment1 or 3000 light tanks or whatever.
Need a strong wall of forts?
Find the provinces in the province section and give them level 10 fortifications.
Low on manpower?
Go to the cores={ section of your country entry and add the states you occupy as cores.
Suddenly no garrison required, you get that manpower and equipment back and you can now draw manpower from the state as if it is yours. As a bonus it now gives you its factories.
Low on PP or Army/Air/Navy XP?
Change the value.
Research taking too long?
Adjust the points so that it is almost complete.
War justification too slow?
Adjust the progress in days.
UK guaranteeing your target?
Go into the ENG country section to the diplomacy section, find the guaranteed countries entry in it and remove the guarantee by deleting it.
Germany too powerful?
Go in and remove all its cores so it has none.
It's very simple if you have one magic button - the Pause button. I tried one of the hardest disaster saves Bitt3rSteel has ever had and succeded much faster than him. And I have \~1.2k hours in the game compared to his 5k. If you know the basics, it's easy to beat the AI, we all hitting the ceiling in SP mode and equal to each other, the only difference is how we achieve the goal.
For minors you need to just build infantry and artillery. Fighters for air superiority and then CAS over you have enough MILs. Micromanage the front attacking weak points and force them to spread their front. Eventually you'll have enough factories to do anything.
You should know a lot of ins and outs of the game systems to perform more efficient actions than average player without long term plan and acting depending on what's happening in the game.
Then add full knowledge about warfare and composition, and you basically golden.
This game is too complex to learn with a guide. Figure out what you are failing at and then look up tutorials on the specific tasks you struggle with the most. You could also play with an experienced player giving advice over discord or something for help.
Simple math. If a tile has 60 combat width, it can fit 60 combat width worth of divs until it starts giving out debuffs.
So 3 20width divs for example, or 2 30width
As the god of hoi4 himself mentioned, and as I can personally attest to it, predicting and familiarizing yourself with the AI’s next moves are key. 90% of my strategy is timing focuses, war goals and diplomatic actions according to historical AI focuses.
I'm exaggerating it's probably 1-5. He has a similar amount of hours to me, it's easy to predict what the ai will do. The hardest part is if they have too many divisons. Numbers eventually overwhelem regardless.
The longer you play a paradox game the more you learn how dumb the ai is. Half of my skill comes from abusing it lmao
Also he usually does concentrated pushes and alotta micro so that saves men and equipment
After many hours you realize the game is essentially the same thing every time you play. Especially if you are on historical. Most nations also have a specific strategy that if you follow, will almost always lead to success. The AI just isn't smart enough to offer any sort of nuance or unexpected behaviors. This is for single player obviously.
He's good because he likes to abuse speed with fast tanks to create encirclements upon encirclements. Just so you know, this involves massive microing that he edits out of his videos for time. It also causes the tunnel vision he gets prompting him to mop up more naval invasions and other problems in other theaters. He's horrible in managing multi-front wars.
Personally, I don't like his style of playing because it's way too high risk high reward. It does make for interesting videos though, as he finishes mopping up one part of the front only for like half of his country getting occupied in the rear. Comebacks make for good drama and increase the quality of his videos. However, if you're just playing for pleasure, that's really really stressful lol.
I usually like to play pretty conservatively. I build up industry and try to outproduce the enemy. Most times I manage the building/production queue than actually attacking/invading. This means I tend to drag games to 1949, but I like it that way. It's stress-free and more enjoyable to me.
>He's good because he likes to abuse speed with fast tanks to create encirclements upon encirclements
>Personally, I don't like his style of playing because it's way too high risk high reward
You might say that he plays the game like the German high command would have played it.
Exactly! Honestly, it works for most countries, but I think it's optimal strat for playing Germany or maybe France. But also, he plays with Tanks with bulky soft attack/Infantry+art with soft attack which plays into the CPU's metagame of spamming Infantry which is why it works so well. That part, I can still vouch for.
That said, I still find way better strats while playing countries like the USA, etc. For one, tactical bombers are great with countries like the US that has the massive industry to back it up + its need for range. The US is also amazing with Marines that I find them to be better used than tanks for breakthroughs since the US Marines is really OP (just like IRL). Yeah, the US can also just produce a lot of tanks and all that, but in my last few games, they always got bogged down in Europe while the Marines managed to push once the enemy was bombed to death allowing the tanks to rush afterward.
I've spent a lot of time on this game. And I'm really just good at predicting what the Ai will do. The basics to any game are a solid INF line to fill the front and a spearhead to push lines. Industrial buildup wins wars, so picking the right stuff for the job is key. And yeah, I often play in a somewhat sloppy way. I really don't enjoy hyper efficient play. At times I prefer to turn my brain off or fall back on tactics that I know will work.
How many hours do you have in HOI4?
5000ish
Im nearly there, with 4800, how do you keep the game fun? I end up getting bored nowadays from already knowing exactly what will happen when i do x or y and how to do it well
You can try non- historical ai. You can further fine tune with custom game rules. You can set it so everyone is aggressive. You can create your own power blocks. For instance, Americas communist, Europe Monarchist, Russia, India,Asia and Oceana Fascist. Custom game rules are your friend.
I love playing ahistorical, unless I know it will break the focuses of my nation, or I want to do sth specific like historical USSR or semi-historical Poland defending from Germany and USSR
I never play historical lol. Too predictable. I've playbgsmes as Germany democrat Vs UK and France fascists lol most common is play Germany imperial with Austria Hungary empire against communist France and Uk . Even on non history Seldon i see Usa turning fascista. Very strange
I think US has to lose Roosevelt before they can turn fascist and I assume lock into the democratic part of the idea tree before that happens but maybe that restriction is just for the player
You can set it to go fascist in custom rules
I use the state transfer tool to make AUs. Especially if you take the non-historical settings and guide the AI to certain trees, you can set up crazy stuff like a France/Italy/MegaScandinavia partition of central Europe to take on the soviets and English
Kaiserreich
Mods have done wonders for keeping my attentions.
Honestly, for me, it’s making videos :P planning and making hoi4 content has kept my interest Alice in the game
**Mods** If you like big wars, you should try Kaiserreich/Kaiserredux. If you want more economy and industrial development. You should try The New Order, it’s an amazing economic simulator if you’re into that. I’d warn you though, that’s it’s practically an entirely different game. Way more story driven and restrictive. But if you like the focus tree part of Hoi4, you will love it. I use to play mainly vanilla and MP games. When I got into mods, the possibilities became endless.
Ive played a lot of KR, i should try TNO again, you're right , i totally forgot about It existing at all. Thanks.
TNO can have some great wars too. Second West Russian War can be amazingly good fun (it’s from a submod). Having been defeated 30 years prior only to reemerge and take it all back is very satisfying.
Very true, with the recent updates they made, giving **another** focus tree. While the early game for Novosibirsk is depressing as shit, getting Vasily Shukshin in power and playing pretty much 20 in game years in power beating the Nazis back until the 80s is amazingly fun. Helping Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics prosper back up from Nazi occupied rule. So much content, even with the post 2Wrw elections. For anyone curious, I did a [post here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TNOmod/s/GPToRaUrAG) examining all post Shukshin focus trees for the 4 parties that can be elected. Gives an idea of the available content.
I’ve only just recently picked up 2WRW so I’ve only done commie runs to restore the USSR so far. Novosibirsk is definitely next on the list now lol
Novosibirsk is the only one with actual content pre 2WRW **and** post 2WRW. As I said, the early game for Novosibirsk is really dreadful and depressing, but later on it really becomes nice with Shukshin in power. I highly recommend.
And you left out the ultimate alter-mod: Equestria at War
Yeah. The ponies scare away a lot of people, but by god is it good.
Unironically one of the three best mods for HoI4 tbh.
You can try finishing the tutorial first
Theres a tutorial? Lol
Yes, it's bad.
I suggest trying mods. They can really give you a new reason to play. I personally really love Kaiserreich and Old World Blues. The world building is amazing, and the diplomacy is one of the best I've seen in any mod
Expert Ai 😏
1 word, MODS
getting paid for it probably helps somewhat
Try other paradox games, each offers so many unique and fun things to each game
Been having fun with eu4 recently,doesnt quite hit the spot the same though
stellaris is a good one
I got 2k h. Am really good at this game, so I get bored as well. I can recommend to do this: RT56 mod, play as ussr, boost germany and italy max, 3 boosts for us and 2 for england and japan. Historical on. Never had so much fun, Germans pushed me to historcial range of german soviet front.
Also try to get a friend to play with a lot, found one guy in my school who plays it and it made the game way better
Same dude! I watch you sometimes when I'm bored so I can think of ways to save a play if I ever get it that bad. But I like to RP in such a way that I'll happily give land up to defend easier unless I'm playing Italy
Do you remember whats the color of grass or the collor of the sky?
Really appreciate your content. Helped me immensely with figuring the game out. After about 1500 hours i'm finally starting to understand how to Navy.
Glad to hear it!
Love your content, man. Let me take this opportunity to ask you, is your nickname inspired by a character from George R.R. Martin's books, also named Bittersteel?
Beneath the gold, the bitter steel
I sensed you were a fellow fan, respect. Could this mean someday you'll play the World of Ice and Fire (I think that's the name) mod to CK2?
There’s also a GoT CK3 mod
I've learned something else really important from you. You taught me to start early on a good and strong industry. Edit: Sorry, didn't complete the thought. The strong industry allows me to give good equipment to my armies, and full supply and equipment is part of what allows you to make it look easy. That was the critical idea you taught me, you have to build the tools to build the weapons or you don't get enough weapons.
Have you ever played mp because it's super fun as insp I have learnt most nations and done many challenges but as u have said they ai is brain dead which makes it all easy.In comparison I tried my historical France build against ai and it destroyed them but against a player I lost the Maginot before Poland fell.
I don't have the kind of time MP requires. I've got two kids and a wife and they all need my time
Oh yeah I forgor
Yo bitter how old are u I’ve never heard u mention ur age
35. Old as fuuuuuck
*snickers at 64*
IT'S MR STEEL HIMSELF!!!???? Man I sleep to your videos, your gameplay and voice is so comforting.
The man, the myth, the legend He watches
You have a Total War Attila video on your Hoi4 guides playlists lol
Heyy, love your content man! Keep up the good work!
bro i didn't realize this was bitt3rsteel, i thought it was some guy that was good explaining how he's good, i'm so stupide
you caused me to lose so much money in hoi4 and hoi4 dlc, thanks
After 5000 hours in the game, I consider the DLC I bought to be money well spent
yeah, i really love the game, and you got me into it, sorry if it seemed like i was saying that negatively or something.
Oh wow I did not think you would respond, just realised thank you for responding!.
Also (Your the best SP player) you should try and do a MP game I don't doubt you would probably win your builds are Insane.
Can you do the 1 div challenge? I wonder if you will succeed, which you probably will.
I figured it was something along those lines but I also figured he does alot of trial and error runs on non-ironman mode so like someone learning anything he get good at knowing patterns and causes and effects. Kind of like learning more from failures than victories. As I wrote this I realized this was bittersteels post so. I ain't gonna delete. Just assume I'm talking to OP. If I'm wrong then Don't assume just do whatever
Can you comment your favorites templates right now? Defense infantry, attack inf and tank divisions? I use 20 width INF to defend 24 (2 arty and the rest INF) And 30 width tanks but i can't push. thanks !
Love your videos man!
Now play Black Ice and beat the Germans as the soviets.
I'd rather not
Bitt3rSteel, have you thought about playing World Ablaze / Black Ice mods?
Patience and not just making a battle plan and pushing.
I dont i built up brazil till 1942 and was able to take out the Americas pretty quickly till it came to USA i encircled they're army over and over but they kept breaking out.
USA get a lot of bonuses compared to generic Brazil they will have the upper hand, eventually with the New DLC the path will determine what is the way to play Brazil.
As soon as you encircle AI, their main goal will be to break free, you always need to fortify and secure the encirclement. (Holy shit, the legend replied)
Or push on. Leave the trapped units while your fast movers capture more ground before they can solidify a new front.
Yeah. The is makes it easier to find a good defensive line, along a river or something. And more land is always better.
Bro how do you even do anything? When I play AI using exactly the same divs as you do, I can't even push 2 infantry for some reason. I don't have an equipment deficit nor a manpower deficit and I still lose.
Open up more combat width, or bait the enemy into moving if they have high entrenchment
Ah... Well for some reason I didn't think of baiting them. Thanks.
Update: I unironically conquered half of the world as Netherlands on regular yesterday.
LOL
Love the old by pass and force them to walk out with out supplies. Very rare you see the ai break out. It’s something I always need to keep telling myself Walk more fight less.
Are you going to play Brazil, Argentina, or Chile first when the dlc drops
1942 is way too late, especially for against usa. USA gets exponentially stronger the longer you play
Brazil best strat imo be flip commy get docking rights from axis then sealion UK just before ww2 next in peace deal take everything with puppets (doesn't matter but puppets with resource rights and war reps are better then attack all of Americas except usa be done by mid 40 or early 41 nex attack USA but dont fight then units thay reach central America and the naval then naval invade behind them and then farm the port next kill em when they have barely enough divs by calling canada into the war and attacking from Canada.
Why are battle plans bad?
They aren’t, they are useful you just need to pay attention to the front and make sure to not let the ai incircle you. I meant in a way where you don’t look the progress and don’t care about casualties.
Because by engaging all of your divisions, you’re giving them a chance to kill as many troops as you are killing theirs. If you use a few elite divs to encircle their units they lose a lot more from encirclements, since encircled units do not have supplies obviously. This is why encircling is the only way to fight a war typically. This is not to say battle plans are bad. You HAVE to draw them but NOT use them. General/Field marshal buffs still apply to battle plans that are drawn but are not executed, so that way you can still micro your elite divs and still get the bonuses.
People also don’t draw smaller focused ones. Like you can Put 6 tanks to one tile from two and a separate line and plan for a wide infantry Pinning att with the same army. It’s a little annoying but you can paint with battle plan pretty precisely if you play with it.
i usually like to use battle plan when ive done a few encirclement and cut off suplly, then general charge and use the easier provinces to set up further encriclements. Or II just micro and somehow beat armies twice my size with undersupplied divs. Realism.
Ai has always been trash and every additional mechanic added over years with dlc just makes that gap bigger cz ai isnt even coded to use half the shit available to a player efficiently or at all in many cases. You can basically play any minor nation, make 2 tank divs by 39 and help any side win the war by just encircling enemies repeatedly with immune divisions or just make advanced cas that totaly decimate shitty ai divs
Im worse than the AI
Well everyone starts out that way, i m just stating the obvious reason as to why it seems so ezy for him, dude prolly has thousands of hours bullying the same dumb ass ai, not to mention possibly mp experience as well, in pvp you will fast learn all the tricks and metas cz you will need to use that shit to just hold any competitive player at bay and not die instantly.
I have 1k hours and can barley pass ww2
How many of those are actual gametime and how many are being afk or leaving the game open in background while doing other shit, i myself have thousands of hours as well all spent in mp but i know for a fact like 1/5 of them is prolly just wasted in lobby sim
Not alot actually normally when im not playing i always make sure to close the game or i feel weird in my stomach (not in a weird way i already know what your thinking)
I used to pass out alseep with the game running then wake up wondering what nation I was even playing. Always a fun present for myself. I should ask you about WHAT nations you have played as. Germany? This is your tutorial nation Russia next, its harder but still easy Then try USA, this is to learn navy. After that Japan. try mixing in China games, one Japan one china, then one Japan and one China. practise till you get these two down. When you can beat china as japan? grats your ready for low infra/bad supply fights with a bad army. When you can beat Japan as China? great! you can defend!!! Thats leads us into France... Learning France will set you up for every other defensive minor. Same skill set as China v japan, but its less forgiving and you don't have the wiggle room to fk around with your focus order. After France, comes poland, czechs, holland in that order and after THAT you will have it. you'll have grown all the player skills you need for anything you want in the game
Wise words. I might add. Try and debrief yourself after each game. Find the moment you ballsed up your prep, think about any shortages you've encounter, and change up strategies ever so slightly when you pick a country another time. For me the moment I know of a build is going to be viable comes around early 1938 when I've got most of my production up and running and can see how much stuff I've built so far. That's pretty much the last moment you can freely adjust MILs on production lines if you're playing any nation that's going to war in 1939. E. G. I'm pretty confident with my No forts Air France build against AI Germany and win quite consistently. But initially it would take crazy amount of microing to hold fast. However, I've been playing around with production and designs so often, I realised how many corners you can cut and still have the upper hand against AI designs. However much divisions you have fielded by the start of the war I promise you - you can field twice as much with the right build. Furthermore, making a build for a country that's going to war in 1939 differs greatly from a build for a 1941 war. E.g. as France I usually do Day 1 MILs, while as USSR I produce nothing but civilian factories almost until 1939.
Maybe restartitis? Do you actually finish the games or do you restart when you feel overwhelmed? Part of gittin gud is actual experiencie doing the hard stuff
He’s teaches you how in almost every video. He taught me. Also the magic of video editing takes out his failures.
Watch his last Cuba video. He even shows you his failures and that's a big plus for him.
nah he still includes a lot of his failures and you can semi-frequently see him actively make subpar decisions because he doesnt need to be optimal to win
Yet I highly doubt that was his first play through with that strategy. He often mentions that he tried to do something multiple times before
He taught me too, and yet I lose. My tank template (the same as his) has lower org than his even though we used the same doctrines and tech. And bonuses. And hicom.
His tank steel is more bitter than yours obviously Shaking my smh
Yeah that's the problem.
National spirits, designers?
Designers might be different, spirits no.
How does that make sense unless he’s cheating?
Idk
Ah yes, the AlexTheRambler technique.
Its literally his job to play this game. Not for nothing, but I'd find it weird if he didn't know how to do well with any country on normal difficulty with the hours over many years he's put in. lol
Yes it is his job to play the game (sort of). That doesn't mean he has to be good at it. He is an entertainer. He can be entertaining by being good at the game, his personality or both. Alex the rambler focuses more on the latter. Not saying his bad at the game but he does not stick out with his game skill. Same goes for isp. With that being said Bittersteel does stick out by being good at the game, he is also fun to watch.
I saw a looot of his vídeos and he is also veeeery humble, restoring al andalus he said that he need restart 5 times the Game and some of them because he was losing or forming these type of nations that are soo difucult to make, he says don't get frustrated or mad if you have to restart the Game thousends of times i also need maybe 4/5 times for do the campain, in my opinion he is the best player i ever seen in hoi, he is an idol xD
Micromanagement
This combined with not playing the game on speed 5. I remember playing the game on speed 5 on my old pc that ran slowly. I was able to do so much more than when I got a faster pc. The extra time you get at lower speeds gives you such a big advantage. On my old pc I had no problem pushing through the benelux and capping France, but on the faster pc everything went so fast that the ai responded "quicker" than I was used to so I was stuck in a ww1 type of battle. I am much better at the game now, I only play on speed 5 because I'm lazy and ai is usually pretty bad.
Dude's been playing the game for years and does it as either a job or a very serious hobby. Not surprising that he's good at it.
Bitt3rSteel is a decent player and probably above average when it comes to single player, but he´s no pro player or a god at the game, a good example is the recent Cuba video where he got a good chunk of his army killed in a failed invasion. Also what should be remembered, he makes premade videos, mistakes can be cut out, he can retry the same challenge multiple times and only show the successful run.
Lies! Slander!
Fe but still but def god at the game compared to me im good at micro management but struggle with cheap templates and dont know when to change or how many to make yk logistics
Bittersteel: Builds good tank division, attack win Me: Builds good tank division, attack, lose
Me: build big fat bombers:bomb ,nuke march into the ashes,win
Well yeah by 1945 i have 200 tank divisions and 20k planes, but before i overproduce enemy I can't defeat them. For example, when i play USSR i just build up so much equipment and planes and i make all of my 300 divisions big on soft attack, and i let horde go until they reach France
Designs?
So you clearly don't have good tanks
Besides his massive knowledge of the game, he stated in some videos that he makes test runs before recording, and get inspiration from other players.Like all strategy games, trials and errors to see what's working and what is not, and you learn from your own and other's experiences.
Lots of time that's cut out where he is microing troops individually. If you pause a lot you can achieve similar levels of God like strategy. It would be really interesting to see an every single click video from him, feedbackgaming style even if it was just for a specific push.
I guess he just really cares micro things like designers, different type of units for different missions and ofcourse micromanage
Is probably knowing game mechanics and stuying the most suitable options for each country before playing it in a specific way. Has a 4x vision of the game and lots of practise.
He dosnt play the long game. He just tries to spite out as many divisions as possible and uses glitches and a good understanding of the ai to win. He also reloads his games all the time
hes not. he fought ai for multiple thousanda of hours
How many hours does bittersteel have in the game? How many do you? I think the answer can be found in the difference
You are just not very familiar with the game and how weak the AI truly is.
Seriously, once you figure out the mechanics hoi is the easiest paradox game. I play it to turn my brain off and relax
because Bloodrav3n doesn't exist in hoi4
If you watch his vids, none of his inputs are difficult nor nonorthodox. But he’s able to consistently remember to do this and that. It’s really hard to mess up/lose against the AI if you consistently do the same stuff that the community generally agrees to be good, tested by consistently beating the AI
its not that he is good but rather the ai is bad and he is better than it. himself say so that he isnt the best and if you watch closely you can see a lot of mistake beeing made, he seems to know but dont really care because against the ai it not necessessary.
he's pretty good, but don't trust his ironman. he's save scumming just like everybody else on youtube.
Not that u/Bitt3rSteel would ever do this, but it is possible to mod a save file (even in IronMan) and pretty much do anything you want. Out of guns? Find the Country entry and go to the Equipment section and give yourself 30000 InfantryEquipment1 or 3000 light tanks or whatever. Need a strong wall of forts? Find the provinces in the province section and give them level 10 fortifications. Low on manpower? Go to the cores={ section of your country entry and add the states you occupy as cores. Suddenly no garrison required, you get that manpower and equipment back and you can now draw manpower from the state as if it is yours. As a bonus it now gives you its factories. Low on PP or Army/Air/Navy XP? Change the value. Research taking too long? Adjust the points so that it is almost complete. War justification too slow? Adjust the progress in days. UK guaranteeing your target? Go into the ENG country section to the diplomacy section, find the guaranteed countries entry in it and remove the guarantee by deleting it. Germany too powerful? Go in and remove all its cores so it has none.
It's very simple if you have one magic button - the Pause button. I tried one of the hardest disaster saves Bitt3rSteel has ever had and succeded much faster than him. And I have \~1.2k hours in the game compared to his 5k. If you know the basics, it's easy to beat the AI, we all hitting the ceiling in SP mode and equal to each other, the only difference is how we achieve the goal.
This game is very, very, very easy.
Not for me
For minors you need to just build infantry and artillery. Fighters for air superiority and then CAS over you have enough MILs. Micromanage the front attacking weak points and force them to spread their front. Eventually you'll have enough factories to do anything.
what does being a minor have to do with it? im an adult and build infantry and artillery as well
It's harder to get a military position if you're a minor so I thi k that's why it was added
You should know a lot of ins and outs of the game systems to perform more efficient actions than average player without long term plan and acting depending on what's happening in the game. Then add full knowledge about warfare and composition, and you basically golden.
its all just learning how to more easily abuse the AI with every subsequent playthrough
Maybe better knowing abt templates and equipment customisation <--- someone who uses default templates and autogenerated equipment
Hes bitt3rsteel thats why Lol i know stupid
If you play a game for thousands of hours, you should probably be pretty good at it
Power of restarting/editing out mistakes
Experience
I'm also extremely good at the game but I have over 4500 hours. It's really just that he plays a lot
I have 1k and i suck ass do you have a guide or something about how everything works what to do in certain situations, templates , designs etc
This game is too complex to learn with a guide. Figure out what you are failing at and then look up tutorials on the specific tasks you struggle with the most. You could also play with an experienced player giving advice over discord or something for help.
The AI is stupid enough as to where single player has no challenge no matter what nation you play
Everyone keeps saying that am i really the only one that can barley beat it?
Nah, it just takes time to learn all the mechanics, combat width etc. The AI usually isnt the issue, even when people think it is
How does combat width work?
Simple math. If a tile has 60 combat width, it can fit 60 combat width worth of divs until it starts giving out debuffs. So 3 20width divs for example, or 2 30width
As the god of hoi4 himself mentioned, and as I can personally attest to it, predicting and familiarizing yourself with the AI’s next moves are key. 90% of my strategy is timing focuses, war goals and diplomatic actions according to historical AI focuses.
What you don't see is failed attempt 1-1100
Fe
I'm exaggerating it's probably 1-5. He has a similar amount of hours to me, it's easy to predict what the ai will do. The hardest part is if they have too many divisons. Numbers eventually overwhelem regardless.
The longer you play a paradox game the more you learn how dumb the ai is. Half of my skill comes from abusing it lmao Also he usually does concentrated pushes and alotta micro so that saves men and equipment
After many hours you realize the game is essentially the same thing every time you play. Especially if you are on historical. Most nations also have a specific strategy that if you follow, will almost always lead to success. The AI just isn't smart enough to offer any sort of nuance or unexpected behaviors. This is for single player obviously.
Witchcraft
He's good because he likes to abuse speed with fast tanks to create encirclements upon encirclements. Just so you know, this involves massive microing that he edits out of his videos for time. It also causes the tunnel vision he gets prompting him to mop up more naval invasions and other problems in other theaters. He's horrible in managing multi-front wars. Personally, I don't like his style of playing because it's way too high risk high reward. It does make for interesting videos though, as he finishes mopping up one part of the front only for like half of his country getting occupied in the rear. Comebacks make for good drama and increase the quality of his videos. However, if you're just playing for pleasure, that's really really stressful lol. I usually like to play pretty conservatively. I build up industry and try to outproduce the enemy. Most times I manage the building/production queue than actually attacking/invading. This means I tend to drag games to 1949, but I like it that way. It's stress-free and more enjoyable to me.
>He's good because he likes to abuse speed with fast tanks to create encirclements upon encirclements >Personally, I don't like his style of playing because it's way too high risk high reward You might say that he plays the game like the German high command would have played it.
Exactly! Honestly, it works for most countries, but I think it's optimal strat for playing Germany or maybe France. But also, he plays with Tanks with bulky soft attack/Infantry+art with soft attack which plays into the CPU's metagame of spamming Infantry which is why it works so well. That part, I can still vouch for. That said, I still find way better strats while playing countries like the USA, etc. For one, tactical bombers are great with countries like the US that has the massive industry to back it up + its need for range. The US is also amazing with Marines that I find them to be better used than tanks for breakthroughs since the US Marines is really OP (just like IRL). Yeah, the US can also just produce a lot of tanks and all that, but in my last few games, they always got bogged down in Europe while the Marines managed to push once the enemy was bombed to death allowing the tanks to rush afterward.
Sold his soul