Kaiserreich Battle Pope

Post 1 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-05-26 21:29:15 UTC

#hoi4 #kaiserreich battlepope

• I start with North/Central Italy (17 divisions), facing commie South Italy (6 divisions) who's allied with commie France (65 divisions)
• I can get CB on South Italy with one immediately available focus. I tried to rush South Italy while holding France, but my navy ignored how France managed to transport 30 divisions there. OK, I don't get how navies work. Let's restart and try something else.
• Austria - Hungary got into civil war, so I attacked them for Trento/Veneto by event, and we peaced out with me taking that and land-locking them.
• ... and Hungary got into war with Romania. And Romania got into civil war. Because every Kaiserreich war turns into instant Syria Civil War. In the end Austria won.
• And yet, my navy got wrecked by Austria's. The barely having any ports Austria. Seriously?
• After that I waited for WW2 to happen, rushed South Italy, then very slowly pushed against France.
• Germans kept dying trying to get through Maginot line, so I got 90% of France.
• So once I defeated France, there was the usual event asking me to puppet them or suffer penalty - except this time it was not -100pp but -400pp. FFS!
• At least it had options to setup some puppets (Normandy, Britany, Occitaine), so I'd keep half of France at least...
• And due to stupid bug I got that event second time, so yeah, fuck you, you're losing -400pp anyway.
• Endless "fuck you and fuck your pp" events are really obnoxious.

On screenshot: Maginot Line is almost the last to surrender (France lost when I overran Brittany, rest of the borders still pretty much the same).

Post 2 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-05-28 23:33:26 UTC

So I actually released those 4 puppets in France region - mostly because otherwise other factions would take that by warscore nonsense.

Turns out I couldn't create faction. And after I enabled that option allowing me to create faction, I couldn't invite my puppets to faction.

I crushed army of the Third Internationale in Spain, but there was no way to end the way - Union of Britain is at war with pretty much whole world (German faction, my faction, Canada faction, Ireland etc.), but nobody can touch them.

Since that war shows no interest in ending I attacked Austria, then Albania, then Belgrade Pact, and now I'm about to attack Turkey for Constantinople.

Union of Britain has nearly 200 divisions, so I have no idea how they could possibly lose this. I hoped they'd try suicidal naval invasion, but Germany actually has naval superiority.

For now I have Eastern Roman Empire to reconquer, I'll deal with Britain later. I might need to conquer Germany for it, just to let Britain suicide its troops.
#hoi4 #kaiserreich

Post 3 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-05-29 21:18:37 UTC

#hoi4 #kaiserreich

• I just forced my way through Bosphorus strait on both ends with no problem.
• I forced my way through Egypt/Hashemite Axis up to Suez Canal destroying 80% of their armies, but couldn't get through. Instead I used paratroopers to get Alexandria, which made Egypt abandon Suez Canal to try to reform new front, and then I could push through with my main force.
• Paratroopers lost 6k in the drop. My army lost 3k in the rest of the war, so it's not exactly free. Somehow that 6k wasn't included in war summary. Probably worth testing how it works exactly, especially if I was playing a smaller power. Papal Italy is tier 2 country populationwise (still no cores on the South).
• I released a bunch of puppets just for testing
• France managed to make itself from puppet into autonomous puppet
• I have non-aggression pact with Germany, and they fixed the trick where I could fabricate on another country in their faction to ignore it

So my options now are:
• attack Entente - but it won't end up unless I get Canada
• get all the troops on German border, and break NAP early
• attack Russia (but border is awkwardly small)
• try to force my way into Britain
• I could pass time until things change - possibly taking some minors on the way, but not really sure what I'm waiting for

Russia is about to finish focus to form own faction, which they offer to random country from the list - but I don't see many countries without a faction. It could get messy if they pick like Mexico or whoever won USA civil war.

Post 4 - Originally published on Google+ on 2017-05-30 15:22:30 UTC

Devolution of Britain was a mistake. There were over 250 divisions protecting England, but Wales had only 3, and Scotland 8. The only Welsh port was just next to England so it wasn't the best target, but Scotland was ridiculously easy to invade and I captured level 8 port of Scapa Flow with my mountaineer divisions.

Of course then everybody rushed to meet me - leaving other ports undefended, so there were instant 10 other successful landings by everybody and their puppet - including two of my French puppets taking ports in South England, opening second front.

Russian took this opportunity to create alliance with Japan (who had own faction before) and attack Germany, but apparently factions can reform like that.

In the end I got pretty respectable Roman Empire - and I have focuses to demand Tunisia and Malta (which AI would probably accept), so I could expand a bit further.

Late game once again suffers from worldwide steel shortage.
#hoi4 #kaiserreich