Bittersteel asking why he doesn't have any war support when the war has claimed one out of nine Russians alive in that time period- meanwhile, Germany and Spain have already hit zero stability and war support while the war has claimed one out of every fourteen people alive on Earth from military casualties *alone* by the end of this video- I'm glad that the game doesn't record civilian casualties, because I think the human race would probably be approaching an extincion event at this point.
@@penguin3540 For sure, how many civilian casualties do you figure the war would have caused at this point? Easily 250-300mil at least. I dont think humanity would ever recover from that heh
@@zombieguyproducionas a species we have bounced back from proportionally worse situations. Going to be one hell of a genetic bottleneck to add to the pile though
most of the sovjet points are between the river line and the ural, the east aldo important because of the resourches really hasn't that many citys so you can lose a lot of it
I had a game where I was forced to push westward from the farthest points east and I literally reached moscow, took it, and everything east of it, before they capitulated russia became so small almost hungary seemed larger...
there should be mechanics for 1 partial peace 2 government collapse, like how is it that there's no revolution or just how are these government still existing when they have lost like half their population in the war
@@AmraithNR there is a peace deal mod that as the winning country lets you end the war early by selecting just a selection of states of the enemy, instead of having to capitulate them. The AI refuses if it sees a way out of its situation or if the player asks for too much. I could imagine paradox doing something something but in reverse, where you could offer the AI your states in exchange for peace (or the AI would send an proposed peace proposal to the player, which would be up to the player to decide if they want to accept it). The AI would refuse if there isn't a stalemate/the war hasn't gone on for years.
BTW Bitter - For your insane pushes into low supply, I cannot stress how useful the extra fuel tanks module is. Forget the sloped armor, you're not fighting Anti-tanks head on anyway with your low armor, so why buff what you don't have. -signed some crazy tank guy, who plays
@@mountelbert4214 There's just something so satisfying about taking on the allies, axis, and commintern and doing basically a wc as bhutan or tannu tuva or cuba
@@walrusskeleton8896 well i eventually finished it and won, but yes it was a preset where i made every nation possible to be anti soviet, its pretty fun
By the end of this game there was 164.31 million casualties! in our world war II estimates put the death total at about 15 million soldiers and 38 million civilians if we assume that the ratio of civilians to soldiers is roughly the same we get a civilian death toll of 416 million for a combined total of about 581 million casualties. The estimates for the total number of people I've been able to find say that there's about 2 billion to 2.3 billion people alive at this time, meaning this war killed about 25% of the world's population in about 25 years. By the end of the war there would have been people who were born when the war really kicked off in 39 who were old enough to fight in the war. unbelievable.
I have found that mass assault, specifically mass mobilization (the right path) is exceptionally useful for the war in China. The extra defense and attack on core territory stacks extra with stuff like 100 regiments campaign etc.
Mass assault also increases resistance growth and decreases compliance gain in your states occupied by enemies. Gives that extra edge against Japan since they expend more manpowewr and equipment for garrisons. (also its funny having 20 million manpower in reserve)
Hear me out. This game was played by a Baltic Unitary State player (most likely Estonia-Finland) who later tagged over to the Soviets and tried to save their disaster before ultimately failing. They have control/ownership over all of Finland, something the AI wouldn't aim for. They have a MASSIVE industry which the AI just wouldn't have as such a small country. They've also taken relatively few casualties compared to their comrades. On top of that, Lithuania is mostly occupied by Germany, implying that they unified the Baltics with occupied land from the Soviets that later got taken control of by Germany (presumably after the tag switch to the Soviets). On top of that, the Soviets went down the Union of Soviet Republics path, which is quite weak and something a player wouldn't usually do unless they really wanted to larp as Trotsky. Plus, this player seems too good to get into this position on their own.
Here's a challenge idea: Play a game of Hoi4 but you use Mass Assault doctrine. It's a very underrated doctrine, Deep Battle path gives you -20% supply consumption, -25% Org loss when moving, 12% reinforce rate. The -0.4 combat width for infantry is really strong, you can fit more troops into a division for the same combat width which results in more firepower and more HP. And besides doesn't it get a bit boring and repetitive if you constantly use Superior Firepower?
The rare BitterSteel bad take. I think BitterSteel might be mistaken about what combat width *does* in HOI4 (given that he said he "especially hates" that Mass Assault lowers combat width)... this isn't EU4 or something -- you aren't punished for low combat width, it's just a number that limits how much you can bring to the field. Having the *same* division, only with lower combat width, is a massive buff. Bizarre that the expert who saves our butts is so wrong. Edit: And I agree 100% with Bitter that Superior Firepower is the best default choice against the AI unless: a) you have infinite manpower & bad industry (Mass Assault), b) you have no weaknesses and would win anyway even if you didn't have a doctrine at all (Grand Battleplan), or c) you want to go for Mechanized doomstacks (Mobile Warfare + mobile infantry buffs tree, guilty as charged)
@@assatgames9567 bit late but it's especially true now that combat widths change per battle because of terrain and other factors, being just under 20 or 21 with that reinforce rate means you can win battles more consistently across terrain
If you ever feel like your work means nothing, just know that there was a dev at paradox who was tasked with coding the "Sue for peace" button, right at the top of te diplomacy menu when at war.
Why don’t you ever use motorized to follow the armor? Assign them to the frontline but not the attack order so they just fill the gaps behind the tanks as soon as they appear
@sadrafarhang2328 ...you literally don't micro manage it, and since he was switching to mech he had a giant stockpile of trucks and like 5 million manpower, he could have pumped out a couple armies to follow behind the spearhead
Lakes do allow supply to reach troops even if they can’t retreat to lake provinces. Same with impassable mountains and deserts, supply will cross them. Therefore, to cut off troops on a lake, you need to capture the lake by controlling the majority of tiles around the lake. This also means that supply hubs on the shores of large lakes have vastly more range than normal supply hubs, so for example the supply hubs on Baikal, Aral Sea, the lakes in the baltic region, the great lakes, lake Malawi, etc.
@@jakemarchbank Forgot to mention, default supply range is between 2-3 tiles, which includes lake tiles (most lakes are a single tile, which is why the large ones provide so much supply range, but some lakes are multiple tiles and are therefore less OP for supply range). Supply range can be boosted to 4, maybe even 5 tiles with infrastructure, level 5 railways, and supply trucks. Weather can also reduce supply range, particularly blizzards and snow, but since weather is a temporary effect, it doesn't really matter that much. But interesting to note that level 1 ports in 0% infrastructure areas during blizzards might actually get 1 tile of supply range. Incidentally, a lot of mods make really big impassable tiles for the Sahara and Siberia, in one case in the Great War Redux mod, I built a port on Kamchatka as China and got supply all the way to the Urals just because all of impassable Siberia was just two tiles, and the supply range was 4 tiles.
Tip on playing the Soviet Union, regarding the steel resources; the two states Kursk and Belgorod will, eventually, become your biggest steel suppliers, since there are repeatable decisions to increase the amount of steel in those states. It's not unlimited, but with lvl 5 infrastructure you can get over 400 steel from there (combined). Very handy in late-game situations like this; I always start maximizing their infrastructure, since that doesn't have a building penalty in '36 (unlike mills and civs)
44:29 did you notice? his manpower jumped from 8.5mln to 9.2mln because Leningrad has that big a population it insta mobilised 700k troops from that one city I had entire games of hoi4 where 700k troops is all I ever had and soviets got that from a single tile just instantly
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing what could be a loss caused disaster save only for the tides to be turned around and see the enemy fall over one by one.
Thank you so much for the resource, Bitt3rsteel. I earned 171 achievements starting from your guide. I tried this save, and tried another direction. I equipped my tanks with fuel drums and ran along the trans-siberian railway to Irkutsk. Then drive south to Ulaanbaatar and Zhangbei. Use mountaineers to break the line there and strike Beijing. Push to Vladivostok, then south to Bangkok. This should severely worsen the enemies manpower problem, and I got the Chinese manpower pool. I am now at 1959.4, just reached Konigsberg. Axis has 110M casualties, 1500 divisions, while I have 26.5M casualties, 1350 divisions. I should be able to knock out Axis very soon? BTW, I found Italy so powerful in this save. They can mobilize 36.5% core population... Insane...
I don't get the issue with the lower combat width. You can use the same divisions but have a slightly lower width (that in the worst case does nothing, but which might help in niche situations), or you try and add 1 or 2 things to get them close to the preffered width and now the same width division has higher stats. I get preferring other doctrines. But how is the width thing ever a negative? At worst it changes nothing. Or am I missing something?
when you go for the howitzers on tanks you can assign them to be SPGs which gives I think 25% extra soft attack, it also lowers some stats but it means you can use a lot fewer tanks for the same soft attack, although you lose some hardness and breakthrough, however you can fill up the rest of the division with regular tanks to balance that out. Idk I found it useful at times.
The main thing Mass Assault right side has going for it that gets overlooked is the Mass Charge tactic, being able to increase combat width by 50% can let you add a bunch of extra divisions into combat with flanking. China is really the only country that can make good use of that though, the Soviets would much rather make tanks and use breakthrough.
I think using a 30 width motorized rocket artillery would have been better with 1 or 2 tank destroyer ...as versus AI it's mostly infantry and the rocket artillery does a disgusting amount of soft attack and those divisions would have been much cheaper than 30 width modern tank divisions
One of my buddies emailed a disaster save we had while playing MP last week. I said there was no way to save that playthrough, however seeing this video gives me hope that if you ever do get around to playing our save, you may be able to salvage it
I had something like this but with Italy once - got stuck with a useless Gernany AI that decided to pull everything off the D-day front and the eastern front. Was in a stalemate with the UK snapping at my last holdouts for nearly a decade before finally constructing nukes to kick them off every individual tile. Lured them into naval invading so many times they had nothing left. Rolled through France and the USSR and left the Axis to give Germany no help. Managed to land in the US and nuke every single victory point i came across. I still have the "Duce Nuke em" achievement to prove it. Amazing to see the before and after - Italy half occupied to the UK fully annexed. Was very fun working through the peace deal. Great video
is there enough manpower for the radio stations to still work, though? Porbably the ones left are just listening to some repeat messages from the Big Brother.
This is the first video in a long time that I have actually watched the entire ad for, instead of normally skipping to the end, just because of that accent
After this war, a new religious cult appeared in the USSR, and their gods were the generals that won this war (seriously, I think of this happened IRL, those guys would get an immense cult of personnality around them, without them having to do anything)
September 25, 1978 San Diego, California Pacific Southwest Airlines, Flight 182 Boeing B-727-214 N533PS Midair collision. The PSA was descending and about to land at Lindbergh Field. The Cessna was climbing while engaged in practice approaches. The 727 overtook and struck the Cessna from the rear. The primary cause was the PSA crew lost sight of the Cessna and did not make that fact known to the ATC. The ATC failed to realize from the PSA transmissions that they lost sight of the Cessna. One hundred thirty-five killed on the PSA, two on the Cessna and seven on the ground. APP = San Diego Approach TWR = Lindbergh Tower PSA RT 1 = Radio transmission, Captain PSA RT 2 = Radio transmission, First Officer CAM = Cockpit area mike CAM 1 = Captain CAM 2 = First Officer Cam 3 = Flight Engineer Cam 4 = Deadheading Captain ?? = unknown. 08.59:30 APP PSA one eighty-two, traffic twelve o'clock, one mile northbound. 08.59:35 PSA RT 1 We're looking. 08.59:30 APP PSA one eighty-two, additional traffic's, ah, twelve o'clock, three miles just north of the field northwest bound, a Cessna one seventy-two climbing VFR out of one thousand four hundred. 08:59:50 PSA RT 2 Okay, we've got that other twelve. 08.59:57 APP Cessna seven seven one one golf, San Diego departure radar contact, maintain VFR conditions at or below three thousand five hundred, fly heading zero seven zero, vector final approach course. 09.00:16 APP PSA one eighty-two, traffic's at twelve o'clock, three miles out of one thousand seven hundred. 09.00:21 CAM 2 Got'em. 09.00:22 PSA RT 1 Traffic in sight. 09.00:23 APP Okay, sir, maintain visual separation, contact Lindbergh tower one three three point three, have a nice day now. 09.00:28 PSA RT 1 Okay. 09.00:34 PSA RT 1 Lindbergh PSA one eighty-two downwind. 09.00:38 TWR PSA one eighty-two, Lindbergh tower, ah, traffic twelve o'clock one mile a Cessna. 09.00:41 CAM-2 Flaps five. 09.00:43 CAM 1 Is that the one we're looking at. 09.00:43 CAM 2 Yeah, but I don't see him now. 09.00:44 PSA RT 1 Okay, we had it there a minute ago. 09.00:47 TWR One eighty-two, roger. 09.00:50 PSA RT 1 I think he's passed off to our right. 09.00:51 TWR Yeah. 09.00:52 CAM 1 He was right over here a minute ago. 09.00:53 TWR How far are you going to take your downwind one eighty-two, company traffic is waiting for departure. 09.00:57 PSA RT 1 Ah probably about three to four miles. 09.00:59 TWR Okay. 09.01:07 TWR PSA one eighty-two, cleared to land. 09.01:08 PSA RT 1 One eighty-two's cleared to land. 09.01:11 CAM 2 Are we clear of that Cessna? 09.01:13 CAM- Suppose to be. 09.01:14 CAM 1 I guess. 09.01:20 CAM 4 I hope. 09.01:21 CAM-1 Oh yeah, before we turned downwind, I saw him about one o'clock, probably behind us now. 09.01:38 CAM-2 There's one underneath. 09.01:39 CAM 2 I was looking at that inbound there. 09.01:45 CAM 1 Whoop! 09.01:46 CAM 2 Aghhh! 09.01:47 CAM Sound of impact 09.01:48 CAM 1 On shit! 09.01:49 CAM-1 Easy baby, easy baby. 09.01:51 CAM [sound of electrical system reactivation tone on CVR, system off less than one second] 09.01:51 CAM-1 What have we got here? 09.01:52 CAM-2 It's bad. 09.01:53 CAM-2 We're hit man, we are hit. 09.01:56 RDO-1 Tower, we're going down, this is PSA. 09.01:57 TWR Okay, we'll call the equipment for you. 09.01:58 CAM [sound of stall warning] CAM 1 This is it baby! CAM ? Bob [name of F/O] CAM 1 Brace yourself. CAM ? Hey baby.. CAM? Ma I love you.. 09.02:04 [End of recording] Back to Last Words
Im more surprised about AI Baltic States. I have never seen AI manage to do Baltic States without my blessings. Considering its on Germanys side its fairly certain there was no player blessings here.
Units actually don't attrition if there is a lake or river which connects them back to their own territory. It is one of the things that makes any invasion into Russia as Finland or the Baltics very tough
This and the last disasters you've covered really feel like someone played the other side and sent the save to you wanting to see you push their juggernaut back :D not a bad thing, just interesting people have resorted to doing that for you to give you a challenge :)
I have 2500 hours in hoi4. Never in my life have I played further than 1947 (besides the baguette achivement where u had to survive until 1950). I hate using air when I got like no airports and germany spams 65 000 fighter over my territories whilst attacking me with 300 heavy tank divisions and 900 infantry.
Something i’ve never thought about is that the holocaust still happens in hoi4, so that means that by the time bitt3r made real advances, multiple groups of ethnic minorities were probably already extinct.
I can't use superior firepower when I play as Silver Shirt United States. Once the civil war kicks off, any time I go into the air UI my game crashes, so I have to go hard into anti-air everything. Expecting red air in every combat zone, I have to dig my troops in as deep as possible, so grand battleplan with engineers and field hospitals is mandatory for every unit. Completely changes how I can go about winning a war.
ah yes. Bulgarian Grecce. Amazing. "I never make mistakes" -> "I made mistakes and 3 years of progress are lost because of my bad decisions". That was fast. Amazing content btw. I usually pick your saves and play them cause they are satisfying to do and i find enjoyment even in those long games. (I just cant get enough of those world conquests as any nation i play) Also the event with a coup in bulgaria is something that appears when russia is close to the bulgarian border. The event for me fired when germany started losing and soviets were recapturing besarabia after romania got it from soviet occupation.
I once decided to randomly play Poland on non-historical and ended up with 3 "Allied" factions, German Empire in Spain, 2 Russo-Polish Wars, Mexico Rolling through Latin America, USA attacking independent Canada (Fascist civilwar in the UK) and I somehow formed greater Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. I was on 15.09.1948 when the game crashed because Portugal somehow formed the Iberian Union (Communist Path) even though Spain was capitulated by France after the 2bd Russo-Polish War. (the game named the war the German-Sovier war/ which was one of the 3 wars that happened at the same time) Edit: The hoi4 version was 1.11.15 and at the time I had a bug with the focus trees so It was mostly vanilla non-historical or moded gameplay.
Him adding self sealing with such limited recourses pained me. The ai planes don’t have the air attack to warrant it and going for the air defense made him get a second engine. He could have easily had 2x the Air Force by just slimming down the planes :(
Play War Thunder now for FREE with my link, and get a massive bonus pack including vehicles, boosters and more: playwt.link/bitt3rsteel
👍
Best sponsor segment I've seen in a long while.
Nein.
@@Jasonlonge oh no 😭
YOU ARE A SELLOUT..
Bittersteel asking why he doesn't have any war support when the war has claimed one out of nine Russians alive in that time period- meanwhile, Germany and Spain have already hit zero stability and war support while the war has claimed one out of every fourteen people alive on Earth from military casualties *alone* by the end of this video- I'm glad that the game doesn't record civilian casualties, because I think the human race would probably be approaching an extincion event at this point.
Lol true
@@penguin3540 For sure, how many civilian casualties do you figure the war would have caused at this point? Easily 250-300mil at least. I dont think humanity would ever recover from that heh
@@zombieguyproducionas a species we have bounced back from proportionally worse situations. Going to be one hell of a genetic bottleneck to add to the pile though
not everyone in the USSR were russians. In fact, russians were only around 50% of the total population, no more.
@@zombieguyproducionyou underestimate asias power
I always imagined something like this happening, Never thought I would actually see a russia this small that hasn't capped
most of the sovjet points are between the river line and the ural, the east aldo important because of the resourches really hasn't that many citys so you can lose a lot of it
@@koenwaalde Not only that but the Trotsky route increases surrender limit, as does the Supreme Soviet.
@@Syrath101Yeah that makes sense
Rasiya never surrenders bro
I had a game where I was forced to push westward from the farthest points east and I literally reached moscow, took it, and everything east of it, before they capitulated
russia became so small almost hungary seemed larger...
Bitt3rsteel: Pronounces things with remarkable respect to the pronunciation in its original language.
Also Bitt3rsteel: Makachalalalawhatever.
Truely
18:52 out of context
@@jeiku5314 " I will need you boys to retake Minsk." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Lol I loved it!
Poor Hasbulla
If there ever was a petition to add offer peace to the enemy this is the video to show to the devs
there should be mechanics for 1 partial peace 2 government collapse, like how is it that there's no revolution or just how are these government still existing when they have lost like half their population in the war
FUCKING AGREE OR LIKE A TREATY SYSTEM
There is conditional surrender, but AI will always just refuse.
@@AmraithNR there is a peace deal mod that as the winning country lets you end the war early by selecting just a selection of states of the enemy, instead of having to capitulate them. The AI refuses if it sees a way out of its situation or if the player asks for too much. I could imagine paradox doing something something but in reverse, where you could offer the AI your states in exchange for peace (or the AI would send an proposed peace proposal to the player, which would be up to the player to decide if they want to accept it). The AI would refuse if there isn't a stalemate/the war hasn't gone on for years.
@@AmraithNR wrong, it depends on how close you are to capitulation, if you/the ai accept it at the beginning it will be a white peace.
I wonder what on earth happened on the road to the disaster save
i feel like the guy on ussr put everyone to go fascist so he'd fight against the whole world
fell asleep on the computer
Non-historical gameplay is all you need to know
My guess this is a customised ahistorical run. Probably player tried to a make whole world against me challenge and screwed up.
@@doctorwhat779yeah, that's what i said
BTW Bitter - For your insane pushes into low supply, I cannot stress how useful the extra fuel tanks module is. Forget the sloped armor, you're not fighting Anti-tanks head on anyway with your low armor, so why buff what you don't have.
-signed some crazy tank guy, who plays
You, my friend, are a madman, and I respect it
@@mountelbert4214 There's just something so satisfying about taking on the allies, axis, and commintern and doing basically a wc as bhutan or tannu tuva or cuba
@@Arexsis i can see that, I just don’t have the patience
How do you do it
@@Skyesaysno mostly with my hands and eyes
Think you can actually reinforce over that lake in winter, for sieges of Leningrad so you can historically reinforce over the lake
Yeah, it must be something like that. Very annoying
Respect brother! I wouldn’t have even tried this. Glad you’re still sane.
Props to this guy for sticking with this campaign. I would have an emotional breakdown if this level of pressure came down on me 😂
thanks for the compliment, I eventually beat the axis aswell (yes this is my save)
@@walrusskeleton8896 well i eventually finished it and won, but yes it was a preset where i made every nation possible to be anti soviet, its pretty fun
the accent during the ad was legendary
You saw that too??? 😅😅😅 That American Cowboy accent was funny af.
@@carloschircopit is a Russian accent😂😂
@@ingmarmeester6797 probably means the second part at the end.
Avrg German and Russian accent
bro I fr just watched the ad for the accent
The explanation for how to get a unified field marshal order was really helpful, thank you for that!
Glad it was helpful!
Unfortnatly i wont need this cus hoi4 its only a dream for me😞@@Bitt3rSteel
U deserve so much more subs man, keep grinding!
Appreciate it
@@Bitt3rSteelDo you do modded disaster saves?
Yea i just realized he doesnt have much subscribers compared to larger hoi4 youtubers like isp
true
@@Teal182 isp, bitter, dankus and feedback are the best in ma opinion
By the end of this game there was 164.31 million casualties! in our world war II estimates put the death total at about 15 million soldiers and 38 million civilians if we assume that the ratio of civilians to soldiers is roughly the same we get a civilian death toll of 416 million for a combined total of about 581 million casualties. The estimates for the total number of people I've been able to find say that there's about 2 billion to 2.3 billion people alive at this time, meaning this war killed about 25% of the world's population in about 25 years. By the end of the war there would have been people who were born when the war really kicked off in 39 who were old enough to fight in the war. unbelievable.
I would argue civilian deaths would be a lot higher because of Germany's, uh, plans that they had.
70-85 million people died in ww2. Not 15. 20 million was about how many died in ww1.
I have found that mass assault, specifically mass mobilization (the right path) is exceptionally useful for the war in China. The extra defense and attack on core territory stacks extra with stuff like 100 regiments campaign etc.
@@redcrown5154it's called being based 🗿
i really like grand battleplan in China. The defensive buffs in it plus the supply bonusses are quite spicy.
how is cutting your penis off based?@@nonautemrexchristus5637
Mass assault also increases resistance growth and decreases compliance gain in your states occupied by enemies. Gives that extra edge against Japan since they expend more manpowewr and equipment for garrisons. (also its funny having 20 million manpower in reserve)
(still mentally ill)
What bittersteel taught me is that a. No single player savegame is truly lost b. I can win as any nation with soft attack tanks
Hear me out. This game was played by a Baltic Unitary State player (most likely Estonia-Finland) who later tagged over to the Soviets and tried to save their disaster before ultimately failing. They have control/ownership over all of Finland, something the AI wouldn't aim for. They have a MASSIVE industry which the AI just wouldn't have as such a small country. They've also taken relatively few casualties compared to their comrades. On top of that, Lithuania is mostly occupied by Germany, implying that they unified the Baltics with occupied land from the Soviets that later got taken control of by Germany (presumably after the tag switch to the Soviets). On top of that, the Soviets went down the Union of Soviet Republics path, which is quite weak and something a player wouldn't usually do unless they really wanted to larp as Trotsky.
Plus, this player seems too good to get into this position on their own.
Here's a challenge idea: Play a game of Hoi4 but you use Mass Assault doctrine. It's a very underrated doctrine, Deep Battle path gives you -20% supply consumption, -25% Org loss when moving, 12% reinforce rate. The -0.4 combat width for infantry is really strong, you can fit more troops into a division for the same combat width which results in more firepower and more HP. And besides doesn't it get a bit boring and repetitive if you constantly use Superior Firepower?
The rare BitterSteel bad take. I think BitterSteel might be mistaken about what combat width *does* in HOI4 (given that he said he "especially hates" that Mass Assault lowers combat width)... this isn't EU4 or something -- you aren't punished for low combat width, it's just a number that limits how much you can bring to the field. Having the *same* division, only with lower combat width, is a massive buff. Bizarre that the expert who saves our butts is so wrong.
Edit: And I agree 100% with Bitter that Superior Firepower is the best default choice against the AI unless: a) you have infinite manpower & bad industry (Mass Assault), b) you have no weaknesses and would win anyway even if you didn't have a doctrine at all (Grand Battleplan), or c) you want to go for Mechanized doomstacks (Mobile Warfare + mobile infantry buffs tree, guilty as charged)
@@assatgames9567 bit late but it's especially true now that combat widths change per battle because of terrain and other factors, being just under 20 or 21 with that reinforce rate means you can win battles more consistently across terrain
"...but who am I to judge?" *proceeds to judge :D
If you ever feel like your work means nothing, just know that there was a dev at paradox who was tasked with coding the "Sue for peace" button, right at the top of te diplomacy menu when at war.
Why don’t you ever use motorized to follow the armor? Assign them to the frontline but not the attack order so they just fill the gaps behind the tanks as soon as they appear
It's hard to micromanage and it's kinda expensive
@sadrafarhang2328 ...you literally don't micro manage it, and since he was switching to mech he had a giant stockpile of trucks and like 5 million manpower, he could have pumped out a couple armies to follow behind the spearhead
Oder so💪
@@sadrafarhang2328how?
motorised is insasely cheap to produce
Lakes do allow supply to reach troops even if they can’t retreat to lake provinces. Same with impassable mountains and deserts, supply will cross them. Therefore, to cut off troops on a lake, you need to capture the lake by controlling the majority of tiles around the lake.
This also means that supply hubs on the shores of large lakes have vastly more range than normal supply hubs, so for example the supply hubs on Baikal, Aral Sea, the lakes in the baltic region, the great lakes, lake Malawi, etc.
That is super interesting and useful to know, thank you
@@jakemarchbank Forgot to mention, default supply range is between 2-3 tiles, which includes lake tiles (most lakes are a single tile, which is why the large ones provide so much supply range, but some lakes are multiple tiles and are therefore less OP for supply range). Supply range can be boosted to 4, maybe even 5 tiles with infrastructure, level 5 railways, and supply trucks.
Weather can also reduce supply range, particularly blizzards and snow, but since weather is a temporary effect, it doesn't really matter that much. But interesting to note that level 1 ports in 0% infrastructure areas during blizzards might actually get 1 tile of supply range.
Incidentally, a lot of mods make really big impassable tiles for the Sahara and Siberia, in one case in the Great War Redux mod, I built a port on Kamchatka as China and got supply all the way to the Urals just because all of impassable Siberia was just two tiles, and the supply range was 4 tiles.
It's historic as well, during the siege of Leningrade this was the main way they relieved the siege. Terrible tragedy, 1-2M dead in that city.
i honestly like mass assault + deep battle a lot as soviets, the combat width changes let you do some extra funky stuff
Okay it's been a while since I'm following you and enjoy it but this run man ? It deserve that I join the crew and support you even more ^^
and done
I appreciate it!
This save has the vibs of, "I left the game running for 10yrs and only did research".....
yea this person knows how to build up but probably can't micro
@@Rusty_Justice Prob new player playing by guide, and then I see ahistorical path so idk...
@@raizors1331Prob a semi new player that wants something whacky
@@Rusty_Justice I mean the USSR can defeat AI Germany with only battleplans.
Always love your videos, thanks for taking one for the team with this one!!
Glad you like them!
"Mom! Can we get TNO?"
"We have TNO at home"
The TNO at home:
First West Russian War if it succeeded
Tip on playing the Soviet Union, regarding the steel resources; the two states Kursk and Belgorod will, eventually, become your biggest steel suppliers, since there are repeatable decisions to increase the amount of steel in those states. It's not unlimited, but with lvl 5 infrastructure you can get over 400 steel from there (combined). Very handy in late-game situations like this; I always start maximizing their infrastructure, since that doesn't have a building penalty in '36 (unlike mills and civs)
it is so entertaining to see a scenario I know for sure I would lose in but then bittersteel somehow manages to save it
Wow. I have 1000 hours in this game and I’m just learning about this unified field marshal frontline. That’s insane
44:29 did you notice? his manpower jumped from 8.5mln to 9.2mln
because Leningrad has that big a population it insta mobilised 700k troops from that one city
I had entire games of hoi4 where 700k troops is all I ever had and soviets got that from a single tile just instantly
Sovi 't manpower is wild
34:10 sometimes "No step back" is wrong and taking a step back means going forward
This is why I ALWAYS go for howitzers. In singleplayer, soft attack is basically the most important thing in a tank.
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing what could be a loss caused disaster save only for the tides to be turned around and see the enemy fall over one by one.
Thank you so much for the resource, Bitt3rsteel. I earned 171 achievements starting from your guide.
I tried this save, and tried another direction. I equipped my tanks with fuel drums and ran along the trans-siberian railway to Irkutsk. Then drive south to Ulaanbaatar and Zhangbei. Use mountaineers to break the line there and strike Beijing. Push to Vladivostok, then south to Bangkok. This should severely worsen the enemies manpower problem, and I got the Chinese manpower pool. I am now at 1959.4, just reached Konigsberg. Axis has 110M casualties, 1500 divisions, while I have 26.5M casualties, 1350 divisions. I should be able to knock out Axis very soon?
BTW, I found Italy so powerful in this save. They can mobilize 36.5% core population... Insane...
18 million and scraping the barrel… wtf lol I’ve never had that level available, ever.
I don't get the issue with the lower combat width. You can use the same divisions but have a slightly lower width (that in the worst case does nothing, but which might help in niche situations), or you try and add 1 or 2 things to get them close to the preffered width and now the same width division has higher stats.
I get preferring other doctrines. But how is the width thing ever a negative? At worst it changes nothing. Or am I missing something?
It's a personal annoyance, more than anything else
when you go for the howitzers on tanks you can assign them to be SPGs which gives I think 25% extra soft attack, it also lowers some stats but it means you can use a lot fewer tanks for the same soft attack, although you lose some hardness and breakthrough, however you can fill up the rest of the division with regular tanks to balance that out. Idk I found it useful at times.
The main thing Mass Assault right side has going for it that gets overlooked is the Mass Charge tactic, being able to increase combat width by 50% can let you add a bunch of extra divisions into combat with flanking. China is really the only country that can make good use of that though, the Soviets would much rather make tanks and use breakthrough.
I believe units don’t get the same supply penalties when they still have a lake connection to their territory but still stuff encirclement penalties
I like to think that in the universe where Bittersteel takes over, the moment he takes over is when the leaders start doing immense amounts of crack.
Every nation in that war was channeling the spirit of Paraguay to build up those casualties.
Is your PC a fusion reactor or why do you run the 50s so well
"This sucks and I just want it to end"
"Why don't I have war support?"
This war has devastated the world
Your videos are amazing man! Keep going!
I think using a 30 width motorized rocket artillery would have been better with 1 or 2 tank destroyer ...as versus AI it's mostly infantry and the rocket artillery does a disgusting amount of soft attack and those divisions would have been much cheaper than 30 width modern tank divisions
the lore of this game musta been insane
The Great Trial awaits!
One of my buddies emailed a disaster save we had while playing MP last week. I said there was no way to save that playthrough, however seeing this video gives me hope that if you ever do get around to playing our save, you may be able to salvage it
That is why lenin hated trotsky lmao
Trotsky's Counterattack
"The West is falling" - BitterSteel, 2023
I had something like this but with Italy once - got stuck with a useless Gernany AI that decided to pull everything off the D-day front and the eastern front. Was in a stalemate with the UK snapping at my last holdouts for nearly a decade before finally constructing nukes to kick them off every individual tile. Lured them into naval invading so many times they had nothing left. Rolled through France and the USSR and left the Axis to give Germany no help. Managed to land in the US and nuke every single victory point i came across. I still have the "Duce Nuke em" achievement to prove it. Amazing to see the before and after - Italy half occupied to the UK fully annexed. Was very fun working through the peace deal.
Great video
Sorry you got frustrated but man I love your disaster save videos and I'll always watch them
Big problem is that you basically caught up in tech for free, when in reality technology doesn't just end.
The Thousand Week Offensive
great video my guy! you and ISP are the people who got me into this game and history in general!
Glad to hear it!
I suck so bad at HoI4 that even with cheats, I would be in such an awful position that even you wouldn't touch that disaster save.
post war propaganda is CRAAZY in this universe
is there enough manpower for the radio stations to still work, though? Porbably the ones left are just listening to some repeat messages from the Big Brother.
Wow, this took so much effort, I would've quit by the time I saw the starting situation. Loved the accent on the ad!
This is the first video in a long time that I have actually watched the entire ad for, instead of normally skipping to the end, just because of that accent
It looks like one of those MP campaigns.
An MP game that goes until 1953 sounds like actual hell
After this war, a new religious cult appeared in the USSR, and their gods were the generals that won this war (seriously, I think of this happened IRL, those guys would get an immense cult of personnality around them, without them having to do anything)
16:50 you have generals, you just have them all assigned
I know I'm in for a 51 minute long treat here, keep up the good work!
September 25, 1978
San Diego, California
Pacific Southwest Airlines, Flight 182
Boeing B-727-214
N533PS
Midair collision. The PSA was descending and about to land at Lindbergh Field. The Cessna
was climbing while engaged in practice approaches. The 727 overtook and struck the Cessna
from the rear. The primary cause was the PSA crew lost sight of the Cessna and did not make
that fact known to the ATC. The ATC failed to realize from the PSA transmissions that they
lost sight of the Cessna. One hundred thirty-five killed on the PSA, two on the Cessna and
seven on the ground.
APP = San Diego Approach
TWR = Lindbergh Tower
PSA RT 1 = Radio transmission, Captain
PSA RT 2 = Radio transmission, First Officer
CAM = Cockpit area mike
CAM 1 = Captain
CAM 2 = First Officer
Cam 3 = Flight Engineer
Cam 4 = Deadheading Captain
?? = unknown.
08.59:30 APP PSA one eighty-two, traffic twelve o'clock, one mile northbound.
08.59:35 PSA RT 1 We're looking.
08.59:30 APP PSA one eighty-two, additional traffic's, ah, twelve o'clock, three miles just north of the field northwest bound, a Cessna one seventy-two climbing VFR out of one thousand four hundred.
08:59:50 PSA RT 2 Okay, we've got that other twelve.
08.59:57 APP Cessna seven seven one one golf, San Diego departure radar contact, maintain VFR conditions at or below three thousand five hundred, fly heading zero seven zero, vector final approach course.
09.00:16 APP PSA one eighty-two, traffic's at twelve o'clock, three miles out of one thousand seven hundred.
09.00:21 CAM 2 Got'em.
09.00:22 PSA RT 1 Traffic in sight.
09.00:23 APP Okay, sir, maintain visual separation, contact Lindbergh tower one three three point three, have a nice day now.
09.00:28 PSA RT 1 Okay.
09.00:34 PSA RT 1 Lindbergh PSA one eighty-two downwind.
09.00:38 TWR PSA one eighty-two, Lindbergh tower, ah, traffic twelve o'clock one mile a Cessna.
09.00:41 CAM-2 Flaps five.
09.00:43 CAM 1 Is that the one we're looking at.
09.00:43 CAM 2 Yeah, but I don't see him now.
09.00:44 PSA RT 1 Okay, we had it there a minute ago.
09.00:47 TWR One eighty-two, roger.
09.00:50 PSA RT 1 I think he's passed off to our right.
09.00:51 TWR Yeah.
09.00:52 CAM 1 He was right over here a minute ago.
09.00:53 TWR How far are you going to take your downwind one eighty-two, company traffic is waiting for departure.
09.00:57 PSA RT 1 Ah probably about three to four miles.
09.00:59 TWR Okay.
09.01:07 TWR PSA one eighty-two, cleared to land.
09.01:08 PSA RT 1 One eighty-two's cleared to land.
09.01:11 CAM 2 Are we clear of that Cessna?
09.01:13 CAM- Suppose to be.
09.01:14 CAM 1 I guess.
09.01:20 CAM 4 I hope.
09.01:21 CAM-1 Oh yeah, before we turned downwind, I saw him about one o'clock, probably behind us now.
09.01:38 CAM-2 There's one underneath.
09.01:39 CAM 2 I was looking at that inbound there.
09.01:45 CAM 1 Whoop!
09.01:46 CAM 2 Aghhh!
09.01:47 CAM Sound of impact
09.01:48 CAM 1 On shit!
09.01:49 CAM-1 Easy baby, easy baby.
09.01:51 CAM [sound of electrical system reactivation tone on CVR, system off less than one second]
09.01:51 CAM-1 What have we got here?
09.01:52 CAM-2 It's bad.
09.01:53 CAM-2 We're hit man, we are hit.
09.01:56 RDO-1 Tower, we're going down, this is PSA.
09.01:57 TWR Okay, we'll call the equipment for you.
09.01:58 CAM [sound of stall warning]
CAM 1 This is it baby!
CAM ? Bob [name of F/O]
CAM 1 Brace yourself.
CAM ? Hey baby..
CAM? Ma I love you..
09.02:04 [End of recording]
Back to Last Words
This video can only be described in one word: PAIN
Could you imagine playing with the bokoen team?
Would be funny to see you together.
BitterSteel on tank divisions: "I like 'em big, I like 'em chunky, I like 'em big, I like 'em plumpy."
I'm quite amazed you pulled that off, congrats are in deep order.
51 minutes of disaster save? Oohhh boy
6:48 It doesn’t matter what timeline it is, Tukachevsky will always be removed.
"I don't hate what you've done, but I don't love it either" haha I hear that in every video so far
Im more surprised about AI Baltic States. I have never seen AI manage to do Baltic States without my blessings. Considering its on Germanys side its fairly certain there was no player blessings here.
Christie suspension SHOULD limit how much stuff you can put in your tank.
It's just a HORRIFICALLY volume hungry system.
"Medium Tank, we go places."
Units actually don't attrition if there is a lake or river which connects them back to their own territory. It is one of the things that makes any invasion into Russia as Finland or the Baltics very tough
This and the last disasters you've covered really feel like someone played the other side and sent the save to you wanting to see you push their juggernaut back :D
not a bad thing, just interesting people have resorted to doing that for you to give you a challenge :)
This is way too organized and clean to be an ai controlled Russia. Tag over to Germany in 1940 and you’ll be traumatized
I have 2500 hours in hoi4. Never in my life have I played further than 1947 (besides the baguette achivement where u had to survive until 1950). I hate using air when I got like no airports and germany spams 65 000 fighter over my territories whilst attacking me with 300 heavy tank divisions and 900 infantry.
Ur vids are the best, keep going
Glad you like them!
Something i’ve never thought about is that the holocaust still happens in hoi4, so that means that by the time bitt3r made real advances, multiple groups of ethnic minorities were probably already extinct.
I can't use superior firepower when I play as Silver Shirt United States. Once the civil war kicks off, any time I go into the air UI my game crashes, so I have to go hard into anti-air everything. Expecting red air in every combat zone, I have to dig my troops in as deep as possible, so grand battleplan with engineers and field hospitals is mandatory for every unit. Completely changes how I can go about winning a war.
11:40 no maintenance companies for equipment capture ratio in encirclements, sad.
ah yes. Bulgarian Grecce. Amazing.
"I never make mistakes" -> "I made mistakes and 3 years of progress are lost because of my bad decisions". That was fast. Amazing content btw. I usually pick your saves and play them cause they are satisfying to do and i find enjoyment even in those long games. (I just cant get enough of those world conquests as any nation i play)
Also the event with a coup in bulgaria is something that appears when russia is close to the bulgarian border. The event for me fired when germany started losing and soviets were recapturing besarabia after romania got it from soviet occupation.
Looked like a Multi-player match saved just before the final minutes of the game especially if you look at Africa.
the guy who sent this save managed to get himself into ragnarok 💀💀
Your best video so far. Would love a part 2 of this
Fantastic video, would love a part 2 where you finish off the world
Should have done heavy tank support companies, you had the industry for it and they’re utterly broken
I love what you are doing.
You went through so much suffering but it was worth it! Satisfying and entertaining Video, keep it up!
Good job getting out of this pickle
10:25 millions might have a tummy ache
I bet you can just feel your mind fragmenting.
I once decided to randomly play Poland on non-historical and ended up with 3 "Allied" factions, German Empire in Spain, 2 Russo-Polish Wars, Mexico Rolling through Latin America, USA attacking independent Canada (Fascist civilwar in the UK) and I somehow formed greater Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
I was on 15.09.1948 when the game crashed because Portugal somehow formed the Iberian Union (Communist Path) even though Spain was capitulated by France after the 2bd Russo-Polish War. (the game named the war the German-Sovier war/ which was one of the 3 wars that happened at the same time)
Edit: The hoi4 version was 1.11.15 and at the time I had a bug with the focus trees so It was mostly vanilla non-historical or moded gameplay.
What a slog, kudos on taking it back
I just had a thought about the war support thing: you gain war support when you capture a capital
And lose war support when your capital is captured.
That would work
Albania accurately holding the line😂
130 million people loss Axis side, LOL. "Everybody is dead, Dave. " XD
casual 160 million military casualties war
Him adding self sealing with such limited recourses pained me. The ai planes don’t have the air attack to warrant it and going for the air defense made him get a second engine. He could have easily had 2x the Air Force by just slimming down the planes :(