Ethiopia

[pdstanbridge]

What do you mean by spamming infantry equipment? Am I missing something fundamental here? Even with the industrial focus tree researched you only get what 4, or 5 mil factories. By the time your men take attritional and combat losses my equipment levels are seriously depleted. Even now, in a fresh run, I have managed to get all of my divisions into those two provinces by the capital without loss and they are fully dug-in. But I am over 2000 infantry equipment in the red right at the start. Italy have surrounded my men, and in the usual AI hit and run they are now taking turns in depleting my organisation until there is nothing left. It is impossible to replenish the equipment losses fast enough. I just can't see how it is done.

These are the standard divisions also - mostly 6 brigade infantry. I haven't got enouigh XP to create fresh templates obviously, so I have to use what I've got.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You keep org up by constantly retreating reserves with low org (they gain between provinces).

Over time you stockpile equipment. The screenshots I posted were over three years into the game (yes, this is a grind). Italy just doesn't inflict enough casualties to prevent gaining equipment. After that it's just a matter of training the divisions.

 

[Dsingis]

I haven't tried it ever since 1.1 which is a good while back. But at least back then it was easy peasy lemon squeezy to kick Italy out of Africa once you know what to do.

Heck, there was a guy, who managed to kick out Italy the day HoI4 was released. It's definitely possible, I suggest you look fo a video on youtube about someone doing this.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I haven't tried it ever since 1.1 which is a good while back. But at least back then it was easy peasy lemon squeezy to kick Italy out of Africa once you know what to do.

Heck, there was a guy, who managed to kick out Italy the day HoI4 was released. It's definitely possible, I suggest you look fo a video on youtube about someone doing this.

AI movement is different in newer patches so you can't immediately cut them off from supply. It's still winnable though.

 

[pdstanbridge]

Guys, I bow down to your HOI skillz. I'm not dissing your ability, I just can't see how it's possible. Show me .

 

[Lord of Beer]

Guys, I bow down to your HOI skillz. I'm not dissing your ability, I just can't see how it's possible. Show me .

Yeh guys, if its still possible in 1.5.0, a youtube explanation or at least a series of images is definitely required!

 

[Zwirbaum]

One of my obsessions in early HoI IV was Ethiopia ( https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-of-ethiopia-on-veteran-success-story.943047/ ).

I'll probably give Ethiopia a spin in 1.5

 

[Ffire]

Last time i did it, killed 1,6 million italians with 75k loss before WW2

Right now it's absolutely impossible to rush ports (this was the best tactic before).

Initially do not move to use as much as possible entrenchment bonus; just avoid being encircled of course. Slowly retreat to your capital. The AI is dumb it will not push very hard, this limitate the combat intensity (because AI shuffle a lot each time the frontline change, and only part of its army is fighting at a time), during the first months witch are the most critical because of your lack of equipment. You've got an 'elite' division, switch it to your regular template to dispatch it's equipment quickly to the frontline
Your very first research should be infantry equipment 1 so your new factory will start producing better equipment (but do not switch your initial factories from basic equipment), then production tech and infantry upgrades.
Your political focus should be getting some MIC, then CIC so you can at least trade some iron.
with PP, take infantry expert and defense expert for a juicy +25% defense asap. then free trade law because you don't have any ressources. Economics laws are useless initially (you don't build anything)

Like people said, when you're forced back to your capital

You can survive as Ethiopia in 1.4.2 trivially by micromanaging retreat between capital and adjacent city [...] constantly retreat reserves with low org).

I strongly recommmand to keep one border with France or England so you can trade. Personnaly I choose to hold 3 provinces
After a few months equipment situation should be better. You can begin to upgrade your infantry division, adding infantry batalions up to 20 width. Do not train new divisions, it's better to updgrades those already on the field
You can also switch your factories producing basic infantry equipment to artillery, and add support artillery, this will help a lot.
When you get veterans, a top general, better equipment and 20width template (about end 38) italian army should be exhausted and you'll be able to push them out of Ethiopia quite easily.
I recommend to go fascist, because you will need the manpower

edit - I did this one week ago

 

[Housies]

I did survive by holding by stalling the italians and slowly retreating towards the capital. aroun the capital I had around level 3 forts at that time and I micromanaged defence from then on. (retreting divisions with low org, they reagin org while retreating even if this province is under attack itself).

Italy just stormed untill they ran out of equipment. then I managed to encircle them and kick them out. Defending the ports against naval invasions is easy.

Then wait untill allies join WW 2 and you can invade italy. But I didn't go that far.

Nut sure which patch this was. was a while ago.

 

[Ffire]

I did survive by holding by stalling the italians and slowly retreating towards the capital. aroun the capital I had around level 3 forts at that time and I micromanaged defence from then on. (retreting divisions with low org, they reagin org while retreating even if this province is under attack itself).

Italy just stormed untill they ran out of equipment. then I managed to encircle them and kick them out. Defending the ports against naval invasions is easy.

Then wait untill allies join WW 2 and you can invade italy. But I didn't go that far.

Nut sure which patch this was. was a while ago.

Don't understand how you build fort. You've just got 2 CIC and need at least 1 more to be able to build anything. So you need to wait 140 days at least (2nd industrial focus) to start building fort. With only one factory it will take ages to build. You can't build if the province is under attack and need at least lvl 4 forts because italian units will attack you from multiples direction.
Maybe you did it ages ago but now AI press your troops (a bit) more and you'll need to defend your capital sooner.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I strongly recommmand to keep one border with France or England so you can trade. Personnaly I choose to hold 3 provinces

In my 2 province screenshot earlier, I clearly border allies and can trade .

Defense adviser isn't too important because your defense will consistently be > Italy's combined attack values in the mountains, what you need the most is to do more damage in return to inflict more casualties quickly and reduced sustained attack windows.

I agree on pushing to 20 width, but not too early. More small divisions = more org and defending in mountains gives you enough bonuses to prevent big losses initially. Ethiopia has 10M core pop so manpower isn't too pressing; any ideology should be workable (though Fascism is just the best anyway, if you're not in a faction).

I didn't make any forts, with the multi-directional attacks limiting their utility and mountains for defense anyway they don't make a lot of sense.

 

[pdstanbridge]

Last time i did it, killed 1,6 million italians with 75k loss before WW2

Right now it's absolutely impossible to rush ports (this was the best tactic before).

Initially do not move to use as much as possible entrenchment bonus; just avoid being encircled of course. Slowly retreat to your capital. The AI is dumb it will not push very hard, this limitate the combat intensity (because AI shuffle a lot each time the frontline change, and only part of its army is fighting at a time), during the first months witch are the most critical because of your lack of equipment. You've got an 'elite' division, switch it to your regular template to dispatch it's equipment quickly to the frontline
Your very first research should be infantry equipment 1 so your new factory will start producing better equipment (but do not switch your initial factories from basic equipment), then production tech and infantry upgrades.
Your political focus should be getting some MIC, then CIC so you can at least trade some iron.
with PP, take infantry expert and defense expert for a juicy +25% defense asap. then free trade law because you don't have any ressources. Economics laws are useless initially (you don't build anything)

Like people said, when you're forced back to your capital

I strongly recommmand to keep one border with France or England so you can trade. Personnaly I choose to hold 3 provinces
After a few months equipment situation should be better. You can begin to upgrade your infantry division, adding infantry batalions up to 20 width. Do not train new divisions, it's better to updgrades those already on the field
You can also switch your factories producing basic infantry equipment to artillery, and add support artillery, this will help a lot.
When you get veterans, a top general, better equipment and 20width template (about end 38) italian army should be exhausted and you'll be able to push them out of Ethiopia quite easily.
I recommend to go fascist, because you will need the manpower

edit - I did this one week ago

Okay I'm going to try again using your tactic. You say a slow retreat - do you keep a single division in the province and withdraw the others by province, or something else? I've tried a few different approaches here. I think by far the best was for me to rush my men behind the river and on the mountain terrain, utlising their entrenchment. But encirclement is also an issue and I'm not sure how to fight that. A single division doesnt last long to be honest, and as you only have 13 to begin with, it doesn't give you much room tactically.

 

[Lord of Beer]

Well holy mother trucker. It is possible! I followed the advice of the posters here, and got it on my second attempt.

Its impossible to get the ports, but you can bleed out Italy until they completely run out of manpower. You can also take advantage of some dumb things the AI battleplaner does, like not moving into tiles that are empty, instead attacking tiles that are defended. So you don't need men across your entire front.

I held the capital, and one tile south and east until 1940 when I joined the Allies and pushed Italy out entirely. I aimed for 10w Mountaineers for 24x divisions once I had enough inf eq.

We will know we have decent AI when it becomes actually impossible to defend as Ethiopia :-D

In particular right now the AI basically suicides itself into fights it can't win, and ignores tiles which are empty.

 

[Olliganak]

This is why we need special peace events for cases like this or the Indian independence war. The "Capitulate all the majors" approach works fine for the main show, but it leaves much to be desire for smaller wars like Ethiopia or colonial wars of independence.

 

[cem]

 

[Ffire]

After pushing italians out of east africa, I choose to not join the allies. This let me free to conquer middle east. Next targets are afghanistan and Turkey

 

[pdstanbridge]

I'm going to give this another shot. Out of interest are you using the battle planner to defend? Also, according to the casualties box, attrition is having no bearing on Italian forces...

 

[Lord of Beer]

I'm going to give this another shot. Out of interest are you using the battle planner to defend? Also, according to the casualties box, attrition is having no bearing on Italian forces...

You need to manually micro the troops at the start. I only used the battleplanner once the odds were clearly in my favour and I had more divisions.

Casualties have never had an impact on national unity, is that what you mean? In the field though, the troops start to suffer big losses to men and equipment and their divisions become understrength.

 

[Zwirbaum]

I'm going to give this another shot. Out of interest are you using the battle planner to defend? Also, according to the casualties box, attrition is having no bearing on Italian forces...

Attrition doesn't kill men. Attrition only affects equipment.

 

[pdstanbridge]

That's what I meant - in your casualties box you can see enemy combat losses by attrition in terms of equipment. I keep losing equipment as a matter of cause defending, but you would expect the attackers to suffer far more considering the circumstances, but this isn't being represented by the stats. For example, I have 700 equipment losses to their 80.. Also, combat losses of men seem completely skewed. I'm wondering if it isn't being represented due to my lack of tech or something? I would have expectd some of their attacks to have had significant losses.