Global Anarchist Spain Tips?

[Shiny Dog]

I thought the Anarchist Global Defense Council would be a fun romp through the world, but it feels... absolutely awful.
You're stuck with a mediocre industrial start, locked out of Factions (so no spymaster either), and absolutely starved for Political Power (with a whole set of unique focuses that cost quite a bit of guns and Army Experience on top of that!) due to having eternal 0% Stability.
Since fixing your nation costs at least 60 Army Experience it's difficult to build decent tank divisions and Germany will just shred your 7/2...
So, how are you supposed to put the "Global" in "Global Defense Council"?

 

[Surimi]

I got pretty close to an anarchist world conquest a few patches back.

You need to win the war fairly fast and, ideally, take out Portugal using your big event spawned army before the war ends. Once you understand all the civil war mechanics it's not too difficult. The reason you want to finish the war early is so that you can rush Anarchism Knows No Borders. Anarchist Spain does not have scripted wargoals, and there's a good reason for that. You have to be opportunistic. If you see a country is already struggling in a war, attack them. If France is at war with the Germans, stab them in the back. If the Allies seem weak and have been driven off the continent, you could invade India, or get them to spam out some useless guaruntees then invade Persia. If China is losing to Japan, invade Hainan from East Timor. All that matters is grabbing more land and industry.

In my near world-conquest game, France went monarchist and Italy had its own faction, so I was able to backstab France relatively easily while they were at war with Germany, then I took out Italy, then finally fought Germany while they were also fighting the Soviets. It was a bit of a perfect situation, but I've had other games which didn't go so well and I was generally able to grab some land somewhere to get the ball rolling.

The initial expansion after the Spanish civil war is by far the hardest part of the campaign. If you manage to gain some ground and snag some more industry, things will keep getting progressively easier.

 

[Shiny Dog]

I got pretty close to an anarchist world conquest a few patches back.

You need to win the war fairly fast and, ideally, take out Portugal using your big event spawned army before the war ends.

How fast are we talking here? With my bumbling I've gotten it pretty consistently in early-mid 1938. Any faster would be really tricky since you can't effectively VP-snipe during the war.
Is there some sort of insane plan that'll do it faster? I suppose you could do a really fast Civil War if you don't delay the start, but the difficulty should offset any time saved.

In my near world-conquest game, France went monarchist and Italy had its own faction, so I was able to backstab France relatively easily while they were at war with Germany, then I took out Italy, then finally fought Germany while they were also fighting the Soviets. It was a bit of a perfect situation, but I've had other games which didn't go so well and I was generally able to grab some land somewhere to get the ball rolling.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit hesitant on using Ahistorical AI in Anarchist now. I've played two games and in those two I've had situations where things did not go... smoothly.
In one, Portugal flipped Communist, intervened in the Civil War, and joined the Comintern. I didn't think much of it until I realized my focus tree was then locked-out because I couldn't peace-out the Portuguese.
The second time, Luso-Tropicalism forced me to invade Angola to defeat them. After that I was able to take out France (it was in Poland's faction...), but I didn't know how coring worked so I thought I had to take out the rest of France from Germany, so I declared war. Germany's huge Air-Force cut my 7/2 divisions down to size and I retreated to the French-Spanish border. Unfortunately, that reset my compliance in the French land and makes me sad.

I'll definitely try to prioritize the "Anarchism Knows No Bounds" this time, while also forgetting some of the inferior Nationalist rebel strongholds like the Canary and Balearic Islands. With the 20 Army Experience from that alone, I should be able to make a halfway decent tank division.

 

[Surimi]

How fast are we talking here?

It sounds like you're fine.

As long as you're able to make continuous progress on unlocking national focuses without getting stuck, you're going fast enough. If you could magically finish the war really fast, you'd still have to wait for focuses. Also, you can get a bit of extra manpower from the international brigades while the war is going on.

I'll be honest, I'm a bit hesitant on using Ahistorical AI in Anarchist now. I've played two games and in those two I've had situations where things did not go... smoothly.

Bear in mind, you can go half-and half on historical focuses now. You can set Portugal to follow the historical path in the game rules without losing the ability to earn achievements. In general, I personally think the more random situation of ahistorical typically beneifts anarchist spain, because as mentioned you're kind of an opportunist.

Germany's huge Air-Force cut my 7/2 divisions down to size and I retreated to the French-Spanish border.

Yeah, Germany tends to be a struggle. Even in my really successful game where I'd conquered Italy and half of France and with Germany fighting the USSR, I realised after declaring war that I probably should have waited 6 months to build up equipment. Save Germany for when you're confident, or when Germany is stretched really thin.

 

[Shiny Dog]

Yeah, Germany tends to be a struggle. Even in my really successful game where I'd conquered Italy and half of France and with Germany fighting the USSR, I realised after declaring war that I probably should have waited 6 months to build up equipment. Save Germany for when you're confident, or when Germany is stretched really thin.

This Germany was a monster though. He was able to fight pretty much WW1 fronts without breaking a sweat.