China , Spain maybe turkey and Sweden and some more are not minors they are half-minors . (Czechoslovakia and Romania are in the list as well)
EDIT : regional powers would fit better
Advice for not losing as Germany by 1941 in SP
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EDIT : regional powers would fit better
Spamming decent 20 or 40 width infantry divisions will probably win you the game pretty easily in SP. I usually defeat Russia in Barbarossa after 3 minutes or so on speed 5. Its ridiculously easy to destroy the AI.
Yeah they should've had majors, regional powers and then minors. So majors are the 6, then regional powers are: China, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Spain, Romania, Yugoslavia?, Greece, Turkey, etc. and then minors: Portugal, Tannu Tuva, etc.
Simple. Probably something to do with using defensive tactics for Germany
Where do you get the equipment and army experience for it and how is it ridiculously easy to destroy the AI. They encircle your armies. As nationalist Spain, I once lost after my entire army was encircled and destroyed
Its the AI. I'm usually able to crush USSR as Germany in a few minutes at speed 5. Also, you basically start with 20 width infantry divisions as Germany and get free army XP from focus goals. However if this isn't enough training is also an option. If you are not winning the Spanish Civil War vs an AI then you are most likely doing something wrong.
The reason the AI is so easy to defeat is because it plays with about as much skill as a my cat does. If you don't believe me then you can go watch video's on YouTube of Austria defeating Germany when Anschluss is denied or Luxembourg and Mongolian world conquest. Its ridiculous because Germany has 10X as many factories as Austria and Lux (one province) certainly shouldn't be able to defeat Belgium which is 20X as big. Honestly AI is so dumb that I only play Multiplayer, SP is a waste of time.
Seriously someone can beat the AI as Luxembourg and it's dumb. When was the last time you played? Because it's impossible to beat at all, I couldn't beat the AI even if it was outnumbered and yes, I can''t win the Spanish civil war as nationalist Spain. Well I did once, after I deleted all the republican factories, but otherwise you must be real good if you're better than the AI and can beat it
If you are playing on speed 5 that is your problem, play the scw on speed 2 as nationalist spain. You can encircle and starve every single republican division without ever attacking one if you have some patience
I just made my first Germany run. Train your armies and you gain experience. Take a couple army experience focuses and you gain more. Get the main infantry template upgraded by adding ONE artillery brigade, and then get those support divisions up to engineers and recon and hospital and signal and logistics... oh and put new factories on artillery and support equipment to fill your infantry. Theoretically you can rework your divisions more completely but just getting one set of infantry with artillery will let you use those units with one of the field marshals that can use 22 width divisions as 20 width (-10% combat width operations skill). You can do more with those divisions but since you are just trying to not lose. That should be good enough there.
At the same time, build more units to get to 650k in the field and you get to Anschluss for more factories then Sudetenland and Czech for even more factories. The requirement does not care if those units have guns. The units don't have to be fully equipped at this point so rushing them is an option if you are gunning for those focuses early. All those extra factories can help stock your equipment faster.
At the same time, get enough requirements to get the Molotov thing that lets you research super early medium tanks. Build medium tanks and add them to your armor division, or duplicate your existing armor division and add mediums to that, but after you get engineers and recon as support minimum, so both templates get those support battalions. It's good to be careful with template switching to optimize your path, but it's ok to experiment at this point.
Supposedly the Russians get those good tanks right along with you but we aren't worried about timing while we figure out the not losing part, and the Germans have more tank buffs available.
So last thing. Take those tank buffs.
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EDIT: Ignore all this. I thought this was the BlackICE forum.
I haven't had any issues defeating Soviets (historical, veteran, all sliders +3 except me).
My army is usually infantry (two 60x infantry armies, conservative stance). 2 AT guns + whatever mountain troops that make 30 width. Support companies are HQ, maintenance, logistics, field hospital, engineer, armored car, medium artillery, heavy artillery, mountain support unit, commando. I set one big offensive line for both armies and hit execute. Replace a mountain unit for a tank when you have enough production.
I usually only have 2-4 armored divisions for my personal enjoyment, but the infantry do most of the work.
I spam fighters and the only micro I do is rearranging them when the front moves forward.
You need to repair infrastructure as you move forward. I can't emphasize this enough. Usually all of my factories are spent repairing infrastructure.
I have a garrison unit in every port and VP along the coast. For flavor, I use SS garrison units, 19-20 width total. Support companies are HQ, logistics, engineer, motorcycle recon, medium artillery, coastal artillery, support AT, support AA, police. 1 for each port/VP. I keep the event-spawned motorized infantry/armor divisions as a reserve.
Once you discover which ports the AI likes to naval invade, throw a couple more garrison units in those provinces.
I haven't had any issues defeating Soviets (historical, veteran, all sliders +3 except me).
My army is usually infantry (two 60x infantry armies, conservative stance). 2 AT guns + whatever mountain troops that make 30 width. Support companies are HQ, maintenance, logistics, field hospital, engineer, armored car, medium artillery, heavy artillery, mountain support unit, commando. I set one big offensive line for both armies and hit execute. Replace a mountain unit for a tank when you have enough production.
I usually only have 2-4 armored divisions for my personal enjoyment, but the infantry do most of the work.
I spam fighters and the only micro I do is rearranging them when the front moves forward.
You need to repair infrastructure as you move forward. I can't emphasize this enough. Usually all of my factories are spent repairing infrastructure.
I have a garrison unit in every port and VP along the coast. For flavor, I use SS garrison units, 19-20 width total. Support companies are HQ, logistics, engineer, motorcycle recon, medium artillery, coastal artillery, support AT, support AA, police. 1 for each port/VP. I keep the event-spawned motorized infantry/armor divisions as a reserve.
Once you discover which ports the AI likes to naval invade, throw a couple more garrison units in those provinces.
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I think the OP is having difficulty with vanilla, and you are clearly playing a modded version (DiDay's pack, maybe?), so it's probably not as applicable
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I tried rushing Soviet Union in a fresh game with Germany yesterday. Rushed Poland asap and declared as soon as russian AI triggered Great Purge event. I went for large infantry divisions only, Barbarossa was staged by 45 divisions of a 13 X INF + 2 X ART template (another art as support battalion). Starting industry configuration was 15 MIC in small arms, 15 MIC in arty and 10 in support equipment. New factories were invested in fighter production. Also, I got the +10% division attack advisor and the dude who gives +10% attack and +15% defence for infantry divisions.
Everything went down absolutely fine, Kriegsmarine managed to control baltic sea, hence no naval invasions against me were possible (watch out the AI tries to box your damaged fleet in a harbor for repairs, re-assign the fleet manually then and repair ships individually). Barbarossa started in july 37, by december red army massively lacked equipment, most divisions were below 50% equipped. Soviets surrended in april 38.
However, on the downside, I was not able to seize Yugoslavia via NF because due to 100% world tension so early, Australia decided to guarantee for basically all what was left of eastern europe.
If you try this see that you take the Treaty with the Soviets focus in time. You should see that you research medium tank 1 before you annex soviet union. otherwise you will be forced to invest all the fresh russian MIC in stuff which is related to infantry divisions (or build light tanks which I would never do)
Everything went down absolutely fine, Kriegsmarine managed to control baltic sea, hence no naval invasions against me were possible (watch out the AI tries to box your damaged fleet in a harbor for repairs, re-assign the fleet manually then and repair ships individually). Barbarossa started in july 37, by december red army massively lacked equipment, most divisions were below 50% equipped. Soviets surrended in april 38.
However, on the downside, I was not able to seize Yugoslavia via NF because due to 100% world tension so early, Australia decided to guarantee for basically all what was left of eastern europe.
If you try this see that you take the Treaty with the Soviets focus in time. You should see that you research medium tank 1 before you annex soviet union. otherwise you will be forced to invest all the fresh russian MIC in stuff which is related to infantry divisions (or build light tanks which I would never do)
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On a more positive note, remember that most of the people saying that the AI is a joke are people who have hundreds of hours of HOI4 played, and that's not even considering how many of them likely played HOI3. The people that most here are easily some of the most dedicated players (they care enough to come on the forums, which is more than most!), so it's not a very representative sample.
If you're having serious issues with the Soviet AI in vanilla on normal difficulty (playing as Germany), follow the NF focus order that someone listed earlier in the thread and remember that good templates with enough guns and tanks and planes is all you really need. If you make 120-150-ish 7 inf, 2 artillery divisions, make one big battleplan, you should be just fine. Throw in a ton of CAS and some tank divisions if you want, use the tanks to punch through and surround enemy divisions. I honestly don't think you even need armor against the regular AI, just CAS + infantry with artillery will be enough. This may change for DoD and the AI revamps, though.
I would add that many of these players play MP. MP games tend to make you improve much faster than games against the AI due to the competitive nature of it, suggestions from allies ertc.
I think the OP is having difficulty with vanilla, and you are clearly playing a modded version (DiDay's pack, maybe?), so it's probably not as applicable
Doh, sorry, yeah, you're right. I need to stop opening both forums at the same time.