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HOI4 Dev Diary - The Baltic States 1/2 and Poland 3/2

Hello and welcome to another dev diary for the Barbarossa patch! Today I’m back with you to talk about not one, not two, but three new focus trees coming with the upcoming expansion: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia!
Baltic States Map.png


The Baltic States were in a difficult position in the build-up to world war 2; only recently liberated from Russian and German rule and less than 20 years on from a bloody struggle against both imperialist powers. In the 30s, each of the states had established authoritarian rule in fear of German and Soviet invasions, and a player hoping to survive as a Baltic state must take some extreme measures to overcome these overwhelming odds...

The Baltic States, like the Chinese, will share some branches of their focus tree while other branches will be unique to each country. This week I am going to talk about the shared branches; the industrial branch and the communist political branch.
Baltic Total Focuses.png


Starting up with the industrial branch, each Baltic state was in something of a similar situation economically; relying heavily on foreign investment and equipment for their industry and armed forces. As such, each Baltic state may decide if they wish to put their faith in the democratic nations to supply their economy, or the Axis powers to fuel the war machine.
Baltic Industry Branch.png


The other common issue facing the Baltics was that they had previously been occupied by the Soviets and Germany, and their industry was sorely lacking. So, the Balts can attract workers to their capital and begin their rearmament and develop their research sector.
Attract Workers.png


Lastly, by modernising their industry, the Baltic states may become much more self-sufficient and end their reliance on foreign powers to fuel their war machine. They may expand raw resource production in their nation, which for Estonia and Latvia means the development of their on-map resources.

Lithuania however was uniquely very reliant on its agriculture, and thus starts the game with a variant of the “Agrarian Society” national spirit which can be slowly turned into a great benefit via their industrial tree.
Natural Resources.png


Next up, each of the Baltic States had recently endured bloody struggles against the USSR, so popular support for communism was vanishingly low. A Baltic state hoping to overthrow the government and establish an independent communist state must do so through war.
Estonia civil war.png


The Balts can either choose to rely on the Soviet intervention or attempt to reconcile relations with the Baltic lower classes and try to maintain their independence while establishing communism on their own.
Restore Workers Republic.png


Once the revolution is done and your nation is communist, the player will have the option to re-establish the Lithuania-Belarus SSR. In the case you sided with the Soviets, the USSR will grant you their half of Belarus with the rest coming either through war or the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Lithuania Belarus Soviets.png


If you are independent however, Belarus must be acquired through adversarial means. The Baltic state must propagandise support for unification in Belarus similar to the Spanish Civil War garrison control system. When time runs out, Belarus will be released and fight a civil war; the victor will be annexed into either the victorious Baltic nation or the USSR.
Latvia Belarus decisions.png


The Baltic nation will also be able to try to convert their neighbours to communism through a propaganda war. No matter which path the Baltic player takes to establish socialism across the Baltics; they will be able to form the United Baltic SSR.
Baltic Socialist Republic.png


From there, they may use their newfound strength against Scandinavia and Poland and achieve communism across the entire Baltic Sea.
Baltic Warpath.png

That’s all for the Baltic States this week, next week I will be talking about the entirely unique political trees for each Baltic state.



Something worth bringing up here is we did make some changes to the Polish tree since we last talked about it. Firstly, I do just want to show off some of the new focus icons we got since I wrote those dev diaries and I feel like our artists have done a really great job. There are more, but I don't want to spoil all of them just yet! ;)
Poland focus icons.png


We originally planned to have Poland get an off-map reactor to essentially get them control of 1 nuke during play as an exile nation. This to reflect their role in the nuclear project, but we were already a bit on the fence on if this was too immersion breaking for the gameplay purpose, and it seemed many of you thought so too so we removed the off-map reactor and moved the focus to the industry branch.
Poland atomic bomb.png


Next, I managed to find time to implement Karl Albrecht von Habsburg as an option for monarchist Poland. He has his own branch which involves pressing the Habsburg claim on Czechoslovakia.
Karl Albrecht I.png

Habsburg Path.png


Claiming Czechoslovakia uses the same decision system as claiming Lithuania for the Commonwealth branch, and once the two nations are united, the ambition of West-Slavic unification is realised and the new nation may declare itself protector of the western Slavic peoples living in Germany.
West Slavia.png


Karl Albrecht I was known for the service he provided to the Polish army, and it’s unlikely that willingness to serve would vanish upon becoming King. So, as Soldier-King, he will gain a plethora of unique personality traits as well as becoming a field marshal.
Soldier King.png


With Hungary aligning itself with Poland’s enemies, Karl Albrecht can demand that Horthy step down in favour of Otto von Habsburg and force Hungary down their Habsburg path, diplomatically aligning them with Habsburg Poland.
Demand Habsburg Rule.png


Galicia-Lodomeria represented Habsburg rule over Poland and as such, Karl Albrecht may restore the Diet of Galicia which as well as giving the Royal Sejm national spirit, moves the nation’s capital to Krakow. While this centralises the capital between Poland and Czechoslovakia and surrounds the capital in defensible hills, the old Polish capital is also very close to the German border and may prove an easy target…
Diet of Galicia.png


I feel I should also clarify the mechanics behind electing a monarch. When the Fulfil the 5th of November Act focus is complete, candidates come forward and present themselves to be King. So while it would make little sense for the regency council to reach out and invite candidates like Pavel Bermondt-Avalov to be King, Pavel is certainly the type to try and present himself for King.
Cossack King Event.png


The final thing I'd like to mention is that during testing we noticed that it was quite a chore to scroll back and forth between the Polish tree with it being so wide, so I implemented a system where the Polish tree automatically compacts itself when you've chosen a political path.
Tree compacting.png


That’s all for this week, next week we will be covering the paths unique to each Baltic state and for now I’ll leave you with this teaser.
funny_hat_dot_png.png
 
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If that was the intention, then wouldn't it possible to gain a single nuke from a mission instead? Like if the mission is "triggered" and you manage to accomplish its objectives, then you get a single nuke in your stockpile (I'm not even sure if an effect for adding a nuke exists already). That should be a good compromise, shouldn't it?

While I do understand the concerns of breaking the immersion of some people, I thought an off-map reactor was a very novel idea of doing something different from the usual research bonus.
Only 1 country had a nuke in the timeframe of the game. Giving an exiled minor free nukes is immersion breaking and silly.
 
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If you are independent however, Belarus must be acquired through adversarial means. The Baltic state must propagandise support for unification in Belarus similar to the Spanish Civil War garrison control system. When time runs out, Belarus will be released and fight a civil war; the victor will be annexed into either the victorious Baltic nation or the USSR.
Wait, so if you are an independent communist state, you can invade one of the Soviet Republics without USSR being concerned at all? And the Soviets will just be OK if you win and annex a chunk of their territory?
 
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I sincerely hope you don't neglect Finland to put them in some hypothetical Scandinavian pack. They are intricately connected to the soviet union in ww2, not the western front
 
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"Why are you doing X when you could be reworking Italy?" is a question that haunts my nightmares.

Yet the point keeps getting missed.
There IS a reason people meme about HoI69 coming before an Italy rework, but alas there is none so deaf as those who will not hear, none so blind as those who will not see (or don't want to)
 
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Im so sorry, I don't want to be mean but Italy is not fitted for Eastern Front, but the Baltics, that didn't even exist in 1941, are?
I'm 100% sure Italy will be in a DLC that focuses on the Mediterranean. Which makes a lot more sense than lumping them in with nations in an eastern front DLC.

Edit: how should I interpret Podcat liking this post ;) ?
Podkatt.JPG
 
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So, If we are back to Poland, it's a good decision with reactor, but it's a shame that we would have special focus tree for polish underground state but the most important and the biggest action of polish resistance, which is Warsaw uprising won't be done by AI during historical gameplay. It was important historical event and it should be done automatically by AI.
 
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That’s all for this week, next week we will be covering the paths unique to each Baltic state and for now I’ll leave you with this teaser.
funny_hat_dot_png.png
oh no
1620826209399.png

(for those that don't know whose hat that is, it's of Wilhelm of Urach/Mindaugas II, the proposed German monarch of Lithuania)
 
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Thank you for fixing Poland!
Game literally playable again.
I Think that an Polish-Lithuanian-Czech-Romanian-Hungarian Commonwealth is a bit gameplay breaking too but anyways good post
The monarchy branches are all separate. One can either do Commonwealth, Romania, OR Czechoslovakia, not all three.
Name me ten people who play the Baltics.
Me. I play the Baltics.
I guess it's the same person, but he died in the 1920s... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Karl,_Duke_of_Urach
Good thing it's not him then! ;)
I am really impressed! I wasn't expecting something for the baltics and it's really nice you guys decided to add to this option. I just hope it doesn't remove dev time from other trees that really need development >_> (you know who) I like the improvements to the Polish tree with the monarchy options, so that is neat. I don't mind having a Hasburg option and it will be really fun to play as them. Keep up with the development, I don't get impressed by developers in many of my games, but so far you guys have done great, and implemented feedback and etc. Don't let the haters get to you guys, also this really adds to my week, when a dev diary comes on Weds.
Thank you for your kind words, and nah this doesn't take dev time away from other things. Usually we assign content time separately for each developer, so me creating the Baltic stuff is deeply unlikely to affect other content features like REDACTED, for example.
I like the idea of the communist branch for the Baltics, but I do have one complaint/question. Are there actually any negatives going down the independent route?
Yes there is. Firstly the Soviet bonuses are quite powerful and near-guarantee success in the civil war, and secondly the USSR will despise you for appointing leaders that Stalin intended to purge like Jaan Anvelt in the screenshots.
Never expected the Baltics to get focus trees. Can't say I'm disappointed though. Also happy that they will be at least semi-individualized, rather than just being clones of each other.
Yeah the original plan was to give them the warlord treatment and just have one mega tree for all of them to share, but when it came time to research them, they were politically distinct enough that making an entirely shared tree didn't make much sense. So we did this sort of hybrid of shared and unique that should be fun to play around with!
 
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Waking the Tiger Germany
Man the Guns Netherlands and HISTORICALLY NEUTRAL Mexico.

Name me ten people who play the Baltics.
I've never played the Baltics before, but with this awesome focus tree I definitely will! This looks really awesome and I'm excited for it. The only thing I don't like is that I can't play it yet!
 
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