Ethiopia

[Housies]

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.

I Did my run a while ago, definitly before the latest expansion pack. So yes things might have change in a way that this approach became more difficult.
The moment I started building forts was not at the start of the game but after a few years. So by means of NF I had more civilian and military factories by that time.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

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.

I guess they're attacking you constantly and losing most of their equipment as part of the casualties consideration? Surviving as Ethiopia tends to imply inflicting casualties > 1 million eventually, but most of that would be from fighting rather than attrition.

 

[pdstanbridge]

I'm fairing slightly better for sure, by micro rotating my men. But I just tagged over to Italy to see what was going on. Sure enough they've only lost 2k men to my 8k or so. But this one attack failed as their org hit 0. So rather than taking casualties they are losing org first - sounds right? They are building dozens of infantry divisions but are at a surplus of 4000 infantry equipment already so that's a good thing for me. But this is going to be one sllooooow slog. Wish me luck. Still not convinced I'll survive

 

[STABBY5]

Its completely possibly. I couldn't manage to cheese the ai but rushing ports it didn't defend, I just held up in the mountains until WWII started and he left for more important things. Reinforce rate becomes your god, I kept losing provinces to my units not reinforcing in time so I started over and instantly converted everyone to Mountaineers and fell back in a circle. Honestly it wouldn't be that bad if Germany would give guns like it did historically. Forget the idea of forts, the ai will never stop attacking long enough for you to build them. What you need is guns. Do industrial focus and get one factory and trade France for steel. Superior fire power or grand battle plan if you can actually manage to get entrenched: I could not and should have gone superior fire power. Let your infrastructure die. That starting general becomes amazing and get all the good traits so never make him field a marshal.

 

[Magnificent Genius]

Is anyone else surprised there's no "Panzer John" cheevo, for controlling Rome as Ethiopia?

 

[noobermenschen]

Is it possible to kick Italy out of Ethiopia? I've tried several times but so far haven't been able to survive more than a few months

Definitely possible. Took me four tries though.

I did it a little different than @TheMeInTeam. I put all my units on strategic redeploy and retreated them to Addis Ababa and three provinces around it. I took the first three Political focuses and used the PP to hire my Infantry Expert, change my economy law so I could trade for steel, and hire my Org Recovery guy. The Infantry Expert was on the job 70 days in, before the Italians really started attacking my positions. I did lose a province but held on and kicked Italy out right before WWII started, whereupon I promptly joined the Allies.

Two things I learned:

1) Get your units up to strength ASAP and always keep them up to strength. This means DO NOT switch production from Basic Equipment to Infantry Equipment I until your starting divisions are at full strength. I did not form any new divisions until all my starting units were at least at 18 width (the Imperial Guard template, some with support ART and AA) but going with more smaller divisions should also work if that's your style.

2) Your army will be in combat constantly so you will have to watch closely. When a unit is about to break, retreat it towards another battle. If it looks like you are losing a battle and need reinforcements, retreat divisions from battles where the situation is better in hand. This will often be the only rest and recovery your divisions get, especially the first couple of years. On the plus side you will have some badass divisions, which is why I preferred to expand my existing units instead of building new green divisions.

Hope this helps! My campaign has been a lot of fun (haven't played in a while, I should go in and finish it) but it's gotten a little weird:

 

[pdstanbridge]

Love it!!!! Also, the obligatory white generic general lol....

 

[pdstanbridge]

Well I tried it again, and I lost again. I survived until 1937. I lost 59,000 men to Italy's 52,000. One point of interest, my men kept losing their seasoned status when I had to move them. Yet Italy, when I checked had largely veteran forces. Why would I be losing my status? Something to do with them being battered? I might put it to bed for a while. Whilst it is the ultimate challenge for me, it's also a hell of a lot of micro management and it's quite tedious. If I did it once more, I would convert all forces to mountain as soon as I could. Everything else went to plan to be honest. I had 5 factories producing infantry equip, but I was always running at a deficit.

 

[Lord of Beer]

Well I tried it again, and I lost again. I survived until 1937. I lost 59,000 men to Italy's 52,000. One point of interest, my men kept losing their seasoned status when I had to move them. Yet Italy, when I checked had largely veteran forces. Why would I be losing my status? Something to do with them being battered? I might put it to bed for a while. Whilst it is the ultimate challenge for me, it's also a hell of a lot of micro management and it's quite tedious. If I did it once more, I would convert all forces to mountain as soon as I could. Everything else went to plan to be honest. I had 5 factories producing infantry equip, but I was always running at a deficit.

Keep the starting factories on your starting basic inf eq, but you need to put the new factories on inf eq 1. Research Inf Eq 1 immediately so you can put your first new factory on it from your focus. They need to gain efficiency on either anyway, so you might as well do it on Inf Eq 1, which still uses the two steel per factory (same as basic). You don't lose veterancy when you move, you lose entrenchment. Try to move the troops as little as possible.

 

[pdstanbridge]

Okay I'll try that next run Inf 1 as soon a i can. I researched reinforce rate and some industrial stuff primarily. So why were my troops losing their seasoned status? I had to move my men, latterly anyway, recycling divisions to gain org. I was down to three provinces at this point.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Yes, initial NFs go to industry, PP goes to advisers that make you fight better, and research goes to techs that immediately benefit your infantry/industry. "In the long run we're all dead", you need stuff that makes you more effective right away, or that "dead" part comes sooner.

 

[noobermenschen]

Okay I'll try that next run Inf 1 as soon a i can. I researched reinforce rate and some industrial stuff primarily. So why were my troops losing their seasoned status? I had to move my men, latterly anyway, recycling divisions to gain org. I was down to three provinces at this point.

Are you researching land doctrines? That is critical even though it won't help you for several months. The first three Superior Firepower techs give the biggest bonuses right off the bat. I had one tech slot dedicated to land doctrines until I had those three, the other one I switched between industry and weapons (INF I late 1936, Basic ART and AA late 1937 IIRC). Once I had all my free factories I had:

- 2 starting factories producing INF equipment (3 for a while until Support Equipment was researched)
- 1 building ART with no tungsten,
- 1 building Support Equipment with no aluminum and
- 1 building AA with no steel.

The resource penalties aren't much of a factor, especially as your greatest need by far is rifles. Once you get artillery in your divisions the Eye-talians should be pretty worn down, you will have the advantage in firepower and can safely start attacking. That Mountain division is especially useful in blazing a path through Eritrea.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

^ I'd recommend researching weapons 1 right away, probably something like superior firepower also. Researching weapons 1 first means that your first MIC from focuses can be put towards that rather than basic, and start building efficiency. Initial production is just left on basic until equipment stops being an issue later.

 

[Fast00000000000]

I have tried with no success and I think it would be really nice for the dev team to add a focus to the Italian focus tree that makes a white peace between Ethiopia and Italy in the event Ethiopia kicks the Italians out of East Africa like the one Japan would take if the Chinese kick the Japanese out of the main Asian continent.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I have tried with no success and I think it would be really nice for the dev team to add a focus to the Italian focus tree that makes a white peace between Ethiopia and Italy in the event Ethiopia kicks the Italians out of East Africa like the one Japan would take if the Chinese kick the Japanese out of the main Asian continent.

Assuming Ethiopia wants white peace, of course. I could get behind a mutually exclusive path with triumph in Africa that's less attractive but still possible to take for the AI if it chokes Ethiopia.

 

[noobermenschen]

Update for 1.5:



I started a new Ethiopia campaign for the 1.5 update and the biggest difference I am noticing is that defending in the mountains is not the lopsided win it used to be. I am definitely losing many more men and am likely losing quite a bit more equipment. Italy is losing even more, about 2.5X my casualties, but they have ALWAYS been attacking and I have always been defending.

The higher casualties can of course be made up by changing draft laws, and that runs into the next curve paradox throws at you: EVENTS! I got a "Strikes!" event, and I had three choices, the best of which cost 125PP - I was just about to change to War Economy so I chose to ignore the problem. I then got the event "Widespread Strikes!" which undid all the benefits of my new economy law. Fortunately if you are in a crisis the game lets you go below zero Political Points to fix it:

You can see I got the ungrateful plebs back to work, but now I am dealing with a mutiny. In two years I have made only four changes in my Government (Infantry Expert, War Economy, Free trade and Limited Conscription) and am once again in the hole on PP. Furthermore the increased attrition on defense combined with my production being kicked in the nads by strikes means I am running short of rifles. i did not switch production to Infantry Equipment I until July 1937 and now wish I had waited longer. I am wondering if that might have triggered the mutiny.

Anyhoo it's January 1938, I'm hanging on to the same four provinces you see in the screenies and am slowly building up my army with two best divisions receiving support ART and two militia (4 INF) divisions upgraded to reserve (6 INF) though that will have to stop for a while. Just got AA into production but no Italian Light Armour has showed up yet. I should have no problem hanging on but kicking Mussolini out of East Africa before WWII kicks off will be difficult to repeat.

Anyone else fired up a new campaign? What differences are you noticing?

 

[noobermenschen]

Anyhoo it's January 1938, I'm hanging on to the same four provinces you see in the screenies and am slowly building up my army with two best divisions receiving support ART and two militia (4 INF) divisions upgraded to reserve (6 INF) though that will have to stop for a while. Just got AA into production but no Italian Light Armour has showed up yet. I should have no problem hanging on but kicking Mussolini out of East Africa before WWII kicks off will be difficult to repeat.

Anyone else fired up a new campaign? What differences are you noticing?

Well there's a prediction that didn't pan out...

I scum saved three times in January to get my impressive patriotic speech (For which I paid 125PP) to end the mutiny - 80% chance and it failed all three times. Okay, maybe the die is cast when the decision is made to prevent this kind of gamey save/reload. So I paid another 125PP and gave another speech with an 80% chance of success. No dice. It is either a bug or incredibly bad luck with the random number generator.

So the never ending mutiny - which hurts your ORG and cripples your ORG recovery - combined with my rifle production never catching up with the increased attrition and a big Italian reinforcement of 6 fresh divisions ended the heroic resistance of the Ethiopian Army. I may report the mutiny issue as a possible bug.

 

[Zwirbaum]

Well there's a prediction that didn't pan out...

I scum saved three times in January to get my impressive patriotic speech (For which I paid 125PP) to end the mutiny - 80% chance and it failed all three times. Okay, maybe the die is cast when the decision is made to prevent this kind of gamey save/reload. So I paid another 125PP and gave another speech with an 80% chance of success. No dice. It is either a bug or incredibly bad luck with the random number generator.

So the never ending mutiny - which hurts your ORG and cripples your ORG recovery - combined with my rifle production never catching up with the increased attrition and a big Italian reinforcement of 6 fresh divisions ended the heroic resistance of the Ethiopian Army. I may report the mutiny issue as a possible bug.

Why didn't you create Field Marshal to attach army too? You could get at least extra +2.5% attack/defense and if you own DLC get trait like extra entrenchment/org recovery/reinforce rate - for all divisions under general.

 

[noobermenschen]

Why didn't you create Field Marshal to attach army too? You could get at least extra +2.5% attack/defense and if you own DLC get trait like extra entrenchment/org recovery/reinforce rate - for all divisions under general.

Because this was my first campaign with 1.5 and am not familiar with how that works. My last Ethiopia campaign my Main Man was at skill 8 by late 1939 so even if I knew that would help I would likely keep him grinding (He was at skill 5 when this latest campaign ended) until he maxed out his potential.

In the end another 2.5% wouldn't have helped very much. I should have gone balls to the wall on rifle production once I figured out defensive attrition had been ramped up, as 11 of my 13 divisions were understrength from late '37 to March '38. Even that might not have been enough with that never ending Mutiny. That -20% ORG recovery penalty is a killer when your divisions are under almost constant attack. The end really was losing that province east of Addis Ababa (Harer) where I had my Mountain division and that was one of two units that were never understrength - it was an elite veteran unit with newer rifles and support ART that had easily slapped down every attack before the mutiny.

 

[pdstanbridge]

Wow, so the Ethiopian campaign is even harder now. I think I'll wait a while before pulling all my hair out. I need time to regrow.