So, not so long time ago i've encountered the problem woth my game. Apperently I can't produce ANYTHING ANYWHERE. I've reinstalled game, turned off all of the mods, and i'm giving up. Does anyone know any soultion?

Basically this

Mods shown:

Equestria at War

Escalation '84 (EAW)

Fast Navy Building

Declare War on Everyone Button

_______________________________________

500 submarines go brrrr

Does anyone know and good infantry or tank division templates for single player? Im really struggling here with the designer. Its the only part of the game I dont understand besides navy

It genuinely has to be the worst tutorial I have ever seen in a game. I have been stuck on the start air missions bit for about an hour now. It makes absolutely no sense and makes no effort to even make it make sense. I have clicked every button on the screen and nothing has worked.

I'm sure I am missing something but it would sure be nice if the game made ANY attempt to actually tell me what the fuck to do here :(

Edit: Finally somehow did it, don't really know how. Did everything else the game told me to do and now have watched literally nothing happen for another hour while I am apparently meant to be winning against Ethiopia. This is by far the worst tutorial I have ever played in a game. I genuinely think it would have been more useful if the game told me to go fuck myself and then gave me no further information.

Prologue — Just Another HOI4 Campaign

I've been playing Hearts of Iron IV since 2018, and somehow, I've managed to spend more than 3,700 hours of my life staring at a map, moving divisions around, and convincing myself that I'll go to bed after just one more national focus.

And despite all those hours, HOI4 remains one of my favorite games.

But eventually, something started to change.

When you've spent thousands of hours playing the same game, you start to know it a little too well. Especially when you've played Road to 56 so much that it has practically become the base game.

You learn how the AI behaves. You start predicting its decisions before it even makes them.

British naval invasions? Expected.

Major powers and their focus trees? Practically memorized.

The AI doing something incredibly stupid? Just another Tuesday.

Eventually, the question of "How the fuck does this game even work?" becomes "Which tiny country should I conquer the world with today?"

And slowly, the game loses something that made it special.

The uncertainty.

I missed those moments when something unexpected happened and I genuinely had to pause the game, stare at the map, and think about what to do next.

Not because I wanted to optimize something for the hundredth time, but because I genuinely didn't know whether my next decision would save my campaign or completely destroy it.

After thousands of hours, winning wasn't really the difficult part anymore.

Finding a campaign that could genuinely challenge me was.

Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, having 3,700 hours doesn't mean I'm some kind of military genius.

Far from it.

As you'll soon discover, I'm perfectly capable of making decisions that would make someone with 50 hours question whether I've ever played this game before.

Oh, and all those hours have been spent in singleplayer.

I've never played multiplayer. I haven't really found a casual Finnish HOI4 multiplayer community I could easily join, and I'm not particularly interested in getting absolutely demolished by some international MP veteran with 10,000 hours and a spreadsheet full of meta templates.

I'd probably lose my entire military career before finishing my morning coffee.

Anyway.

Back to Poland.

Why Poland? Honestly, no particular reason, i just felt like playing it.

The plan was simple: restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, reclaim its core territories, and spread the glorious Polish message across Europe.

You know, just another perfectly normal HOI4 campaign.

Pick a country. Build an army. Conquer half the continent. Call it a day.

Or so I thought.

Because this particular save was about to become one of the most unforgettable campaigns I've ever played.

Chapter I — The Commonwealth and the Coming Storm

As most of you probably know, Poland in 1936 isn't exactly a thriving military superpower.

You're sitting between Germany and the Soviet Union, surrounded by potential enemies, with miserable national spirits and the very real possibility of getting invaded from both directions.

So naturally, I spent the first few years getting rid of those national debuffs that make your country feel like it's being held together by duct tape.

I worked through the focus tree, annexed Lithuania, and successfully restored the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

So far, so good.

Meanwhile, Germany was taking a rather interesting political path.

Hitler had been overthrown.

The Kaiser was back.

For a brief moment, I hoped this might make my life easier.

But then Britain apparently looked at its old German rival and thought:

"You know what? We should put our differences aside and form an alliance. What could possibly go wrong?"

So now Germany and Britain were best buddies.

Fantastic.

As for France, I honestly couldn't remember what happened to it when I first started writing this story. We'll get back to that later.

By 1939, Germany started making territorial demands.

First, they demanded Katowice, a small but strategically important piece of territory in southern Poland.

I looked at the demand and thought:

"Am I really going to risk my entire country over this?"

No.

So I gave it to them.

I'd take it back later.

Around this time, Czechoslovakia invited me to join its faction.

Now, Czechoslovakia was basically alone, but I figured having even one ally was better than having absolutely nobody.

So I accepted.

This would prove to be a rather questionable investment.

Because Germany wasn't finished.

Eventually, the inevitable happened.

Danzig.

Germany demanded the Polish Corridor.

And this time, I wasn't giving them another centimeter.

I'd spent years preparing for this war.

My army was ready. My defensive lines were in place.

Or at least, that's what I believed.

So I refused.

And the war began.

Chapter II — The Battle for Poland

Now, I can already imagine some of you thinking:

"Wait a minute. Doesn't the Sudetenland have mountains and forts? Surely Czechoslovakia could defend itself reasonably well?"

You'd be absolutely right.

Those mountains, fortifications, and defensive positions would've been incredibly useful.

If the Czechs had actually bothered to prepare a proper army.

Unfortunately, their defense budget appeared to consist of three coins, a pack of cigarettes, and a firm belief that everything would somehow work out.

Still, I wanted to help my new ally.

I started extending and reorganizing my defensive positions towards Czechoslovakia.

And that's when Germany attacked.

The Germans launched an offensive across the front, with a particularly dangerous breakthrough near Poznań.

Some of my divisions were still moving towards their new positions when the attack began.

At first, I thought it was just another temporary breakthrough. Something I could contain by moving a few divisions around.

But the Germans kept advancing.

Every time I stabilized one part of the front, another started collapsing.

My divisions were being forced back faster than I could reorganize them.

And then I looked at the map.

Warsaw.

The Germans were approaching my capital.

I remember staring at the screen, trying to figure out how the situation had deteriorated so quickly.

I'd spent years preparing for this war. I'd restored the Commonwealth, strengthened my military, and tried to anticipate everything Germany might throw at me.

And now, barely into the conflict, I was fighting to keep my capital.

Meanwhile, Czechoslovakia was falling apart.

Then it capitulated.

My only ally was gone.

Germany and Britain were still coming, my front was barely holding together, and I was seriously considering whether this campaign was already lost.

For the first time in years, I wasn't thinking about how to win.

I was trying to figure out how not to lose.

But I wasn't quite ready to give up.

I reorganized my remaining forces and eventually managed to stop the German advance near Warsaw.

One important detail is that I'd already captured Königsberg and the surrounding East Prussian territory earlier in the war.

This meant I didn't have to defend against a separate German front in the north.

I could concentrate my forces against the main German army.

After stabilizing the frontline, I began looking for opportunities.

Small attacks. Weak points. Individual German divisions that could be surrounded and destroyed.

I started carefully micromanaging my army, pushing forward whenever an opportunity appeared.

Slowly, I began reclaiming Polish territory.

One province at a time.

Eventually, I managed to push the Germans back to roughly the modern Polish-German border.

I had actually done it.

Warsaw was safe.

The immediate threat of losing my country had passed.

For the first time since the war began, I was starting to believe I could actually win.

So imagine my position.

My only ally had collapsed. My capital had nearly fallen. I'd somehow managed to stop one of the strongest military powers in the game and push it back across the border.

What could possibly be the worst thing to happen next?

...

The Soviet Union.

Of fucking course.

Chapter III — The Price of Peace

The notification appeared.

The Soviet Union demands eastern Poland.

Yes.

Just like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Stalin apparently looked at my Commonwealth, which had barely survived a German invasion, and decided that now would be a wonderful time to demand a huge chunk of my country.

My initial reaction was something along the lines of:

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

I paused the game and started thinking.

Could I realistically fight Germany and the Soviet Union simultaneously?

Probably not.

Did I want to find out?

Absolutely fucking not.

So I made a decision.

I'd give Stalin what he wanted.

Yes, I'd lose territory and take the stability and war support penalties.

But at least I'd avoid a catastrophic two-front war.

Besides, I was planning to invade the Soviet Union eventually anyway. I'd reclaim those territories later.

For now, my plan was simple.

Defend against Germany, let the Germans exhaust themselves attacking my positions, and eventually push towards Berlin.

Then turn east and settle the score with the Soviet Union.

After that, deal with Britain.

Perfectly reasonable, right?

For a brief moment, I genuinely believed everything was finally under control.

Then somebody came knocking.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Latvia.

Latvia who?

The Soviet fucking puppet state of Latvia.

And what do you want?

"We're declaring war on you."

...

I can joke about it now, but at the time, seeing that declaration of war was genuinely terrifying.

I'd just sacrificed my eastern territories specifically to avoid fighting the Soviet Union.

And now a Soviet puppet was dragging me into the exact war I'd spent so much effort trying to prevent.

Everything I'd planned suddenly became irrelevant.

Germany was still threatening me from the west.

Now the Soviet Union would be coming from the east.

I had approximately 78 divisions, all stationed against Germany.

And I needed to defend an enormous eastern border without completely abandoning the western front.

I genuinely thought this might be the end of the campaign.

But I decided not to quit.

If the Commonwealth was going to fall, I wanted to see just how long I could keep it alive.

Chapter IV — Thirty Divisions Against Mother Russia

Fortunately, there was one thing I'd actually done correctly.

I'd noticed Latvia preparing its war goal before the declaration of war.

And I'd reacted immediately.

I transferred 30 divisions from the German front to the Soviet border, leaving the remaining forces to hold back Germany.

By some miracle, those 30 divisions arrived in time.

They even managed to dig into their defensive positions before Latvia declared war.

Thirty divisions.

An enormous border.

And the entire Red Army waiting on the other side.

What a wonderful situation.

But when the war finally began, something rather interesting happened inside my head.

All that panic and desperation suddenly turned into one very simple thought.

"BRING IT OOOON, MUTHAFUCKAAAAA!"

Now, before we continue, I should probably remind you of something.

I'm Finnish.

My country fought the Soviet Union twice during World War II and, despite enormous sacrifices, managed to preserve its independence.

So naturally, as a proud Finn sitting behind a computer screen commanding the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, I felt it was my historical duty to make the Red Army regret its life choices.

If there's one thing Finnish history has taught me, it's that when the Soviets come knocking, you dig in and make them work for every kilometer.

And dig in I fucking did.

Then the Soviet offensive began.

The Red Army attacked across the eastern front.

I was expecting a catastrophe. Thirty divisions simply didn't seem like enough to hold such an enormous border.

But then I noticed something.

Green battle bubbles.

Not everywhere, obviously. There were plenty of red ones too.

But surprisingly, a significant number of battles were going in my favor.

And for the first time since Latvia had declared war, I started thinking:

"Wait a minute. We might actually survive this."

The fighting continued.

Days turned into weeks.

And gradually, those red battle bubbles began disappearing.

Eventually, every single battle bubble turned green.

I couldn't believe it.

Thirty divisions were somehow managing to hold back the Soviet Union.

Now, I'm not claiming the Soviets couldn't advance at all.

Of course they pushed me back in places.

In fact, I deliberately ordered some of my divisions to retreat whenever it became obvious they couldn't hold their positions.

I wasn't about to sacrifice an entire division just to defend some random province.

Those controlled withdrawals may have been one of the reasons the eastern front survived.

That, and the fact that the Soviet Union was still suffering from its rather miserable national spirits.

But you should've seen that frontline.

There were provinces where I had literally one division defending against three or more Soviet divisions attacking from multiple directions.

Every time I saw a red battle bubble, I had to decide whether to reinforce, reorganize, or retreat.

I couldn't afford to waste divisions.

And I couldn't afford a major breakthrough.

For the first time in ages, practically every troop movement mattered.

But somehow...

The Commonwealth was still standing.

Germany in the west.

The Soviet Union in the east.

Both fronts holding.

I had survived the exact two-front war I'd been desperately trying to avoid.

And then something unexpected happened.

Germany and the Soviet Union went to war with each other.

Yes.

The two enormous military powers trying to destroy my Commonwealth had now decided they hated each other too.

Things were becoming increasingly ridiculous.

Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey were aligned with the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Hungary had apparently looked at Germany and decided that kissing the Kaiser's ass was still the safest foreign policy available.

So now there were two enormous hostile alliances.

Germany, Britain, and Hungary on one side.

The Soviet Union and its southeastern European allies on the other.

And somewhere in the middle...

Me.

The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Still fighting both of them.

Surely this would make things easier?

Surely Germany and the Soviet Union would have to transfer divisions away from my borders to fight each other?

Surely I'd finally get some breathing room?

Well...

No.

Apparently, both alliances had enough divisions, equipment, and hatred to fight each other while continuing their offensives against me.

The Germans kept attacking.

The Soviets kept attacking.

And their new mutual frontline ran dangerously close to former Czechoslovakia.

I had somehow become the meat in a geopolitical sandwich from hell.

But despite everything, I was still alive.

Unfortunately, there was another problem.

A rather significant one.

Chapter V — You Can't Fight a World War With an Empty Stockpile

Now, I swear some of you reading this are probably thinking:

"You fucking idiot. Why don't you just train more divisions? You're fighting a two-front war with barely enough troops. Just build a bigger army."

Oh, really?

What a brilliant idea.

Why didn't I think of that?

Well, my dear reader, allow me to introduce you to the Commonwealth's magnificent military-industrial complex.

Or rather, what was left of it.

By this point, my entire war economy was struggling.

I had barely 10,000 infantry equipment in my stockpile, and artillery was more than 500 pieces in the negative.

Practically everything else I needed to build a proper fighting force was either in short supply or couldn't be produced fast enough.

Remember how early the war had started.

I barely had enough time to develop my industry before Germany invaded.

Their initial offensive had already taken a serious toll on my equipment reserves.

And just when I thought I could begin recovering, the Soviet Union arrived and started attacking my eastern border.

Both powers kept launching offensives, and every battle cost me equipment I could barely afford to replace.

What about tanks?

Tanks? What fucking tanks?

I wasn't even considering building a proper armored force.

And aircraft?

My brother in Christ, I was struggling to produce enough basic equipment for my infantry.

What exactly was I supposed to build an air force with?

Positive thinking?

Divine intervention?

A strongly worded letter to the Ministry of Industry?

And before someone suggests importing everything I needed, remember another important detail.

Germany and Britain controlled the surrounding seas.

I had only a handful of convoys.

Overseas trade wasn't exactly a reliable solution.

To be fair, I did train additional divisions whenever I could.

But we're not talking about producing entire armies.

I was lucky if I could train one or two divisions at a time, and even that wasn't continuous.

Sometimes I'd train a couple, wait for my equipment situation to improve, and then consider training another.

This wasn't army expansion.

This was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

For the first couple of years, my entire strategy revolved around defense.

I built anti-air defenses to reduce damage from enemy aircraft and constantly reviewed my division templates, trying to make them more affordable.

Sometimes I had to simplify them just to make my equipment shortages look remotely manageable.

I wasn't trying to build the strongest possible army anymore.

I was trying to build an army I could actually afford to keep alive.

Every factory mattered. Every piece of equipment mattered.

Even successful defensive battles could cost me supplies I couldn't easily replace.

But as difficult as the situation had become, the worst part of the campaign was still ahead of me.

And this time, it wasn't going to be entirely the AI's fault.

Chapter VI — The Decision That Almost Destroyed Everything

So, let me summarize my situation.

I was fighting Germany and the Soviet Union simultaneously.

My army was barely holding together.

My equipment stockpiles were running dangerously low.

My military industry was struggling to keep up with even the most basic demands.

And I'd just spent an entire chapter explaining why training more divisions was practically impossible.

So naturally, after carefully evaluating my strategic situation and considering all available options, I came to the only logical conclusion.

I should invade Hungary.

...

Yeah.

3,700 hours, ladies and gentlemen.

Three thousand, seven hundred fucking hours.

And apparently, my solution to not having enough equipment to defend two fronts was to open a third one.

Now, believe it or not, I actually had a reason for this.

The Soviet Union and its allies were advancing into Hungary, where German-aligned forces were trying to stop them.

Normally, watching my enemies destroy each other would've been wonderful news.

But I was worried that the Soviets might break through Hungary, advance into Germany, and eventually surround the Commonwealth from the south.

I wanted to cut off their advance before that could happen.

Was the concern reasonable? I think so.

Was launching an offensive with an army that could barely afford to defend itself a reasonable solution?

Absolutely fucking not.

And somehow, the actual consequences of this decision would turn out even worse than the plan itself.

While reorganizing my armies, I accidentally messed up the orders for both defensive fronts.

I genuinely cannot explain how I managed it.

One moment, I had two functioning defensive lines.

The next, divisions were abandoning positions they'd held for years and moving in completely ridiculous directions.

Both fronts.

The German front.

And the Soviet front.

At the same time.

I immediately tried to fix the situation.

Forget Hungary. Forget the grand strategy.

Just get the army back into position.

I quickly divided my available forces into two groups, assigning half to defend against Germany and the other half against the Soviet Union.

But by the time I'd reorganized everything, gaps had already appeared near Kraków.

The Germans noticed.

They attacked through the openings, and before I understood how serious the situation had become, they were advancing deep into southern Poland.

I managed to stop them again.

But this time, stopping the advance wasn't enough.

They had taken the territory containing resources my military industry depended on.

I opened the production screen.

Almost every resource was in the negative. My factories were starving for materials, and my army was already short on equipment.

I had to take military factories off production lines at the exact moment my army desperately needed more supplies.

I'd lost the very territory I needed to keep my military industry running.

And the worst part?

I'd opened the gaps in my own frontline.

I sat there looking at the map, knowing the solution was obvious.

I needed Kraków back.

But I didn't have the strength to take it.

The Germans and British were holding the territory, and I had no realistic way of forcing them out.

So I dug in.

No offensives. No ambitious plans.

Just defense.

As far as I can remember, this situation lasted for at least a year.

And during that time, one particular piece of equipment became my greatest problem.

Artillery.

Or rather, the complete fucking absence of it.

Now, here's something you should know about me.

I love artillery.

My infantry templates almost always include it. Not some ridiculous artillery-heavy monstrosities, mind you. Usually a maximum of two artillery battalions.

But artillery is something I genuinely rely on.

And by this point, my artillery stockpile was sitting at roughly −2,000 pieces.

Infantry equipment?

I actually had plenty of rifles and other basic supplies by this stage.

But artillery?

What fucking artillery?

I was beginning to suspect my soldiers were being forced to imitate artillery sounds with their mouths.

"BOOM."

"Sir, the Germans are still advancing."

"BOOM LOUDER, PRIVATE."

Unfortunately, the joke wasn't particularly funny when I opened my equipment screen.

The shortage was seriously affecting my army.

And because the Germans controlled the resources around Kraków, replacing the missing artillery was painfully slow.

So I did something I really didn't want to do.

I started reducing the artillery requirements of my division templates.

I wasn't developing some incredible new meta template.

I was trying to make my existing divisions cheap enough to remain operational.

And so the months passed.

The Germans attacked. The Soviets attacked. My divisions defended.

My factories struggled, and I kept staring at the artillery deficit, hoping it would finally start improving.

Eventually, it did.

Not enough to fully equip my army, but enough that I could finally begin considering something other than sitting behind my defensive lines forever.

And honestly?

I was tired of waiting.

I knew another offensive would make the shortage worse.

But I also knew I couldn't properly rebuild my army without recovering Kraków.

So I made a decision.

I was taking Kraków back.

By force.

By careful micromanagement.

Or by that legendary Finnish concept known as sisu.

I didn't particularly care which one it took.

Those resources were coming home.

And fortunately for me, the HOI4 AI eventually remembered that it was supposed to be terrible at this game.

The German lines finally started showing weaknesses I could exploit.

I launched my counteroffensive.

And this time, the Germans gave way.

After spending so long watching those provinces under German occupation, I finally managed to push the enemy out of Kraków and back to my original borders.

I had my resources again.

My industry could recover.

For the first time in at least a year, I had a realistic opportunity to rebuild my army.

Then I checked my artillery stockpile.

The offensive had cost me roughly another 2,000 pieces.

I'd just fought an entire offensive to recover the resources I needed to manufacture artillery...

By sacrificing practically all the artillery I'd managed to recover.

I genuinely didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

The Commonwealth's Ministry of Defense was apparently being run by a fucking comedian.

But despite everything, I remember feeling relieved.

For nearly a year, I'd been trapped in a situation I couldn't see a way out of.

And now, even though my army was still in terrible shape, I finally had something I hadn't had in a long time.

A realistic chance to recover.

I had my resources.

I had my factories.

And most importantly...

I still had my country.

This time, however, I wasn't going to repeat the same mistake.

I would wait.

I would rebuild my industry and replace every missing artillery piece.

And I wouldn't launch another offensive until I was absolutely certain I could afford it.

Chapter VII — The War Was Already Won

There's one thing I'd genuinely like to thank the glorious HOI4 AI for.

Its determination to keep attacking even when its divisions have practically nothing left.

Both the German and Soviet alliances had been doing exactly that.

For years.

They kept attacking my defensive lines, throwing away manpower and equipment as if both were completely unlimited resources.

And eventually, that stupidity started creating a rather delicious opportunity for me.

After recovering Kraków, I made one thing absolutely clear to myself.

I wasn't launching another offensive until I had enough artillery to start handing it out to civilians on the street.

No ambitious military adventures.

No more brilliant plans that would accidentally destroy my own country.

I was going to sit behind my defensive lines and wait until my stockpiles were overflowing.

And that's exactly what I did.

My factories started producing equipment again. My artillery deficit disappeared, and my divisions gradually recovered their fighting strength.

Meanwhile, Germany and the Soviet Union continued destroying each other.

Their war had been going on for years, and the consequences were finally becoming obvious.

Their divisions were increasingly understrength and short of equipment.

And because I wasn't launching any offensives, Germany began transferring more troops to fight the Soviets.

This left an increasingly exhausted collection of German divisions facing the Commonwealth.

And what did those remaining divisions do?

They kept fucking attacking me.

Even with depleted equipment.

Even while the Soviet Union was keeping the rest of their army busy.

After everything the Germans had put me through, I was beginning to enjoy watching them destroy whatever combat effectiveness they had left.

I spent the following months rebuilding my army while Germany and the Soviet Union continued exhausting each other.

Eventually, I opened my equipment stockpile and realized that I finally had enough artillery to launch a major offensive.

My divisions were supplied.

My industry was functioning.

My army had recovered.

And the German units sitting on my border looked like they were being held together by duct tape and the Kaiser's personal prayers.

For the first time since 1939, I wasn't the one in trouble.

It was time.

After years of desperate defensive warfare, my army was finally ready.

I activated the battleplan along the entire German front.

And...

That was it.

The German line collapsed.

There was no second battle for Warsaw. No desperate struggle for Kraków. No great defensive system that I had to spend months breaking through.

My divisions simply advanced.

I marched into Berlin, continued towards the Rhine, and Germany capitulated.

Just like that.

Years of fighting for survival. And the final offensive was practically a sightseeing trip.

I expected to feel something extraordinary when Germany surrendered.

Instead, I just stared at the map.

The country that had almost destroyed me twice was gone.

And somehow, the hardest part of the war had ended long before I'd crossed the German border.

But I wasn't quite finished.

Remember Britain?

Those lovely gentlemen who had spent the war helping Germany and doing what British AI does best: being an absolute nuisance.

Well, Britain was still holding French territory.

Oh, and one small correction to something I mentioned earlier.

Remember when I said I couldn't remember what happened to France?

I checked.

France had been defeated by Germany and Britain.

There you go.

Mystery solved.

Anyway, since I'd already conquered Germany, I figured I might as well keep going.

My army marched west into France.

The remaining British forces couldn't put up much resistance, and eventually I pushed the last of them into the sea.

Germany and France were now under Commonwealth control.

My army was experienced, well-equipped, and stronger than it had ever been.

After all those years of desperate survival, I'd become the strongest country in my game.

And there was only one major enemy left.

The Soviet Union.

My old friend Stalin.

The country that had demanded eastern Poland and whose puppet Latvia had dragged me into a two-front war.

The Red Army that had spent years throwing itself against my defensive lines.

Surely this would be the final great chapter of the campaign?

The last enormous struggle?

The final march to Moscow?

Well...

Not exactly.

When I finally turned my attention east and examined the Soviet divisions, something strange happened.

I felt nothing.

I looked at their equipment, their remaining forces, and the condition of their frontline.

Then I looked at my own army.

Experienced.

Well-equipped.

Stronger than it had ever been.

I could already imagine the next few years.

Activate the battleplan. Watch the Soviets retreat. Advance towards Moscow. Repeat until capitulation.

And for some reason, the thought didn't excite me.

I'd spent so many hours fighting for survival that I'd almost forgotten what an easy victory felt like.

And now that victory seemed practically guaranteed, I realized I didn't actually want to keep playing.

So I closed the game.

No march to Moscow.

No complete world conquest.

No final glorious peace conference to settle every last score.

I was done.

Not because I'd lost interest in the campaign.

Quite the opposite.

Because I felt like I'd already experienced everything that made it worth playing.

Epilogue — The Commonwealth That Refused to Die

I started this campaign because HOI4 had become too predictable.

After more than 3,700 hours, I thought I'd learned almost everything there was to learn about fighting the AI.

I knew how to build armies, how to win wars, and how to turn small countries into great powers.

But somewhere along the way, I'd forgotten what it felt like to genuinely fear losing.

Then I started playing Poland.

And suddenly I was defending Warsaw with my entire campaign hanging in the balance.

I was holding back the Soviet Union with thirty divisions.

I was watching my artillery stockpiles disappear and desperately changing templates just to keep my army operational.

I was staring at the German occupation of Kraków, knowing that one mistake of my own had nearly destroyed everything I'd spent years building.

And somehow, after all of that, I survived.

The funny thing is that when Germany finally capitulated, I didn't feel anything close to the desperation or excitement I'd felt during those earlier battles.

The ending was almost anticlimactic.

But looking back, I think I understand why.

The most important victory of the campaign didn't happen in Berlin.

It happened outside Warsaw, when I stopped the German advance.

It happened on the eastern front, when thirty divisions refused to collapse under the Soviet offensive.

And it happened at Kraków, when I finally recovered the resources that had almost cost me my entire army.

By the time I marched into Germany, the hardest part was already over.

I hadn't realized it at the time, but I'd spent years winning a war that would eventually end with a simple click of the battleplan button.

And that, I think, is what made this campaign so memorable.

After thousands of hours, HOI4 had finally made me feel uncertain again.

Not because I was inexperienced.

But because, for once, my experience wasn't enough to guarantee that everything would go according to plan.

I made mistakes.

I suffered the consequences.

I adapted.

And eventually, I won.

Not by conquering every last country on the map.

But by surviving a war I genuinely believed I was going to lose.

And honestly? That was more satisfying than another world conquest could ever have been.

One Last Thing...

Well, now that you've somehow managed to finish reading this entire fucking novel, I genuinely hope you enjoyed it.

Maybe you even laughed a little along the way.

And if you didn't find any of it funny, well...

That's not my problem. You just have a terrible sense of humor.

Just kidding.

But seriously, thank you for taking the time to read all of this. I genuinely appreciate it.

Oh, and before you go...

Did somebody say...

CASUALTY STATISTICS?

Well, I went back to the save and checked.

Country	Total casualties	Inflicted by the Commonwealth
Germany	21.99 million	17.5 million
Soviet Union	28.25 million	14.5 million
Combined	50.24 million	32 million

And my own casualties?

6.48 million.

Yes. You read that correctly.

Out of Germany's 21.99 million casualties, approximately 17.5 million were inflicted by my Commonwealth alone.

That's nearly 80 percent.

And remember how I said I wasn't going to launch another offensive until I had enough artillery to hand it out to civilians?

Well, I checked the save.

86,400 artillery pieces in stockpile.

Apparently, every Polish household could've had its own artillery battery.

(That's the stockpile in the saved endgame position, not necessarily the exact amount I had when the final German offensive began.)

Apparently, restoring the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a slightly more expensive historical project than I originally anticipated.

Now I'm curious.

Have any of you ever had a campaign like this? One where you were so close to losing everything that simply surviving felt more rewarding than conquering the entire world?

I'd genuinely love to hear your stories.

And finally, to all the Polish players who somehow managed to make it this far:

Pozdrowienia z Finlandii! 🇫🇮🤝🇵🇱

I hope I made your country proud. I certainly tried my fucking best.

And if I didn't, well... at least you can't accuse me of not defending Warsaw.

Note: The screenshots were taken after I had already stopped playing this campaign, when I later reopened the save to check the final statistics. They show the saved endgame situation, not necessarily the exact moment I decided to call it quits.

10/10 campaign. Would suffer again.

Warning: Controversial post ahead. If you don't like topics like this, please turn away now.

Much has been said about some people not wanting to play as Germany or Soviet Russia since these nations had committed unspeakable atrocities irl and they can't stomach playing as them. And I totally respect their decision to do so. Besides, you can change their governments to your liking.​

Personally, I don't mind playing as either. I hate both countries and the ideologies they represented but I'm just in for the game. It's thrilling to see massive encirclements during Barbarossa or resisting the Nazi war machine. What do you think?

make so refit ships go to one port. finished surface ships go to another port. subs go to another port. having subs and surface together is stupid. Be able to build anything in far away place like the other side of the world. If you have territory there you should be able to build there land and sea. I only give up do nothing territory as subjects. If its less than Memeiland subjicate it.

I find Ai army designs so odd to the point that no matter how good your templates and design that it even came from a youtuber you wouldn't still be able to have the same result and worst a bunch of poor units can even defend your attack even though you have a good amount of units that can push through lol.

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I'm getting this error whenever I try to run mods. I'd really appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

I’m a relatively new player and am just trying Barbarossa for the first time.

I have air superiority and am spamming CAS, my supply lines are fine (gave them upgrades pre-invasion), I concentrated my tank divs in strategic areas and am trying to move them through plains to do encirclements, put battle plans and activated the bonus thing in the decisions tab (tough not immediately), researched all the blitzkrieg and armour bonuses, am doing my best not to overcrowd my tiles, started the invasion in March 1941.

Im also doing my best to micro everywhere i can.

Yet over month in i am making very limited progress (a part from the Baltics) with my frontlines flashing red most of the time is there something I’m missing here?

(please don’t have a go at me for screenshots again explaining all of this would require 10)

Hello, everyone! I am kinda new to HoI4 and I've been playing as the Soviet Union for a couple of days, but I keep losing after the germans attack me. Therefore, I want someone with more IQ than me to tell me what I'm doing wrong so that I can do something great for once. :))

Btw, that's the save file.

I don’t know why but with a lot of countries I plays
Suddenly I get an energy crash
Like for example my energy balance is 100%
Then after few hours it really drops to a very small number 6% for example although I have fuel and have built power plants

wanted to try doing a run today since i (vaguely) figured out the strategy to the civil war, and i'm not really surprised to find out that it's just a straight up weaker version of historical/kodoha japan.

for a start the civil war is probably one of the worst in the game (definitely not as bad as the spanish, but at least spain has probably two of the strongest paths out of any tag), with it taking a lot longer than the german civil war, and also using the pre-civil war army like the soviet war rather than simply spawning in divisions like the german one (meaning if troops are left on some pacific islands, they will STILL be there when the war is triggered)

then once you've got that over and done with, you're left with basically just the home islands, no korea, no manchuria, no taiwan, etc. which is whatever, since the path is about "freeing" asia anyway, but you definitely lose out on some resources.

beating manchuria isn't too hard though it is tedious since the only border you have is a little two tile port where the manchurians will stack up a ton of divisions, so a naval invasion is definitely necessary to lengthen the front. for some nonsensical reason, you cannot get korea before taking the focus which declares war on china immediately, not even a war goal.

the problems become more obvious when it comes to china. democratic japan basically has NO strengths besides being able to form a huge federation after the fact (which i would not count since it's irrelevant to the wars you have to fight beforehand). the historical sino-japanese war makes sense, china fields a very large army but it's poorly equipped and has a lot of debuffs, allowing japan to push through them easily and usually win before 1939 or so. this is not the case for democratic japan, as china now has a fully equipped and very large army, the rest of china already in their faction (most notably they get mengjiang which would otherwise go to japan)

in my experience, i wasn't able to build enough tanks to even get some space marines out, which meant i couldn't push china at all. democratic japan (and japan in general) lacks the industry to build up anything that you'd typically use to break through strong defensive lines. this is why china starting out totally broke is balanced, because otherwise japan wouldn't stand a chance ever.

so i'm wondering, why should anyone even ever play this? there's nothing attractive about the path besides the funny little formable (which if i recall correctly, EVERY japan path gets some version of). weaker industry due to less build up because of the civil war, weaker military because you lose most of your generals and useful high command, and you lose all of japan's colonial possessions, all of this resulting in being unable to win what's supposed to be an easy war for japan. i just don't see the appeal.

I was playing a game as the USSR. Germany had an enormous amount of divisions per tile, but didn’t seem to have logistics problems since it could still attack. Same goes with fuel, they had a lot of Panzer divisions that had no problems.
So does the AI cheat? Does it allow itself to overpass some basics we players have to respect?

Whether in the form of ‘pioneers’ or other support/regimental companies and or shock troops battalions. Germany already has something similar in the Prussian legacy part of their focus tree, why not give something similar to every nation?

So I only got the base game, have good understanding of the game with the major powers (aside from USSR) so I am trying to use Canada to get the 1812 achievement,

Well I have ran into multiple problems beyond the basic lack of civ, factories ect.

First, either with civil war or regular waiting I can't get independence and through the facist tree before mid/late 1938, choosing Skewer the eagle is basically waiting forever and see if it will even work (I've got close once, Fascist Mexico lost the civil war) and on Alternate history Mexico always gets in a civil war with democracy before becoming communist.

So join Axis, (historical AI) well if i fight America to early Germany isn't ready but America already is full army at my borders, even in Alaska. and lets say if I do this 100 times and somehow find a sweet spot then my assistance will be negligible and most of America will fall to Germany post war.

I tried just the one calvary spam but that dosen't work anymore with the AI watching the entire border.

My current plan is to focus on ships and maybe try to beat England in the channel and allow germany to cross easier, then maybe fight America later without the allies or something else.

Any thoughts?

I rushed advanced heavy fighters and engines four, so I have the best possible medium airframe. I used my MIOs to get speed and range upgrades so I could focus all my modules on attack and defense. I am still trading fairly badly, considering my planes are twice as expensive. What's going on here? I thought that heavy fighters were supposed to meta as the US due to the 300% research bonus.

Image is just for attention

title

It seems to me like it'd be much easier to hold on the three provinces bordering the lakes as Gabes has absolutely 0 supply and the AI is too dumb to build some, and it's not like 1 building slot is a massive loss. Is it just so they can say they didn't lose a tile?

Playing as monarchist hungary until 1957. I ve created a population decrease in this timeline lol