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HoI4 Dev Diary - Poland Focus Tree Rework Part 1/2

Hello everybody and welcome to another dev diary for the upcoming Barbarossa patch and yet to be announced DLC. Today I’m going to be talking about the first focus tree which is a rework of Poland.

Poland was first added as a free DLC on release for everyone titled "United and Ready" so as such what you see in this diary will be free for everyone once Barbarossa drops. Next diary we will continue on to cover the DLC parts of the focus tree, because the tree is a bit too large to cover in one go. Enjoy!

Poland is interesting because it is a hugely popular minor (it's roughly as popular as Spain and more popular than Greece). Yet it has a very difficult position sandwiched between Soviet and Germany, which tend to scare people off. Perhaps it's the challenge, or its critical role in WW2, or just the large amount of Polish HOI4 fans, you tell me.

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So, if we load up the tree we can see not only Ignacy Mościcki’s beautiful new portrait, but an entirely new tree.

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Let’s start with the industrial branch. In the old tree, the player would have to dredge through a lot of low-value research bonuses to get just a few extra factories, so many of those old focuses have been expanded with extra factories and bonuses. But, this branch is not just about getting free factories, Poland is on a tight schedule and must use her time well if she has ambitions of outlasting the Reich.

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Many industry focuses for Poland grant powerful but temporary bonuses towards consumer goods and construction speed so time the funding of your armement well to maximize the bonuses you’ll get.

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Poland was a nation with many problems in 1936, and one such problem was that their rail networks were disparate and disconnected; largely due to the fact that Poland had only a few decades prior been part of three different nations. Among many problems this caused for Poland, it also disrupted their agricultural supply networks, which resulted in the Peasant’s Strike of 1937.

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Beginning as mere whispers among the peasantry, if Poland fails to join the supply networks and enact major agricultural reform, they will be faced with a nasty peasant’s strike, damaging their stability, industry, and populace. Though on a tight schedule, Poland may pacify the countryside to delay this uprising, but until reform is enacted, the peasants will remain restless.

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Failing to enact reform entirely will result in a massive populist uprising, and a civil war is the last thing Poland needs. If Poland is to survive the Reich and the USSR, she must be united and ready.

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Moving on to another issue Poland had in the 30s; we have the Free City of Danzig! Danzig/Gdansk was in a unique and complicated position in this period. The city was simultaneously free and owned by no-one, an official Polish protectorate, and an international city partially run by the League of Nations. So representing Danzig/Gdansk as an on-map tag in 36 felt not quite right, so instead the city is demilitarized and Poland is incapable of accessing any of their factories, resources, or manpower.

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When the Nazi party took power in the city, it strangled Polish trade, so Poland begins the game with the “Embargoed Economy” trade law, similar to Undisturbed Isolation in the US but not nearly as harsh. To remove the Embargoed Economy, Poland must either develop a new trade port in Gdynia, gain a new port through conquest, or clamp down on Danzig.

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Attempting to seize control of Danzig will cause the city to begin a resistance, and Poland can fight that resistance through decisions and the usual resistance/compliance mechanics. With enough compliance, Poland will be able to ban the Nazi party and take permanent control of the city; ending the resistance, gaining access to all of Danzig’s resources, manpower, and industry, and finally being able to remove the embargoed economy.

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Failing to bring Danzig under control will result in the city rising up against you and appearing as a tag on the map. Failing to stamp out this uprising in time will cause the city to defect to the Reich.

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When either Gdynia or Danzig has become Poland’s major port, they gain access to the rest of their naval branch, granting dockyards, factories, and research bonuses.

Next up we have the old Prepare for the Next War branch, which has been expanded quite considerably since its original implementation. Poland now has access to Plan East and Plan West, military plans to fight the USSR and the Reich.

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Historically, Poland believed the USSR to be the greater threat and didn’t begin preparing Plan West until just two years before invasion. But, with the power of hindsight, the player can start either plan immediately after completing the Prepare for the Next War focus, and accumulate forts and construction bonuses along the border.

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However, until Plan West has been completed, Plan East cannot be begun and vice versa, but when complete, no further focuses from the branch may be taken.

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Finally, probably the part of the tree that has received the most love; the historical Polish political focus branch. Poland was not the united stable regime we had previously seen on release. Along with impending threats outside their borders, Poland was (like most authoritarian regimes) plagued with infighting and factionalism.

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The dictatorship was divided between the Castle lead by Ignacy Mościcki, the Sanation Right lead by Edward Rydz-Śmigły, and the Sanation Left led by Walery Sławek.

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Each branch of the Sanation has a series of focuses that can be completed for various bonuses and the player does not have to commit to one faction or the other right away. Rather, you can form your government with a multitude of policies from each of the three factions, but the longer you spend forming your government, the less time you have for other things like industry and plans East and West.

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Historical Poland will also have access to the April Constitution, the binding document of the Dictatorship. Though it begins weak, through collaboration with Sanations Left and Right, the Constitution will become a powerful bonus to Poland's politics. With all power consolidated in the President, you'll be able to change your laws and your cabinet with ease.

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Time isn’t your only opponent here though, each of the two factions will expect Mościcki to appease them by enacting their policies and giving them power. Every focus of the Left you complete will make the Right more irritated and vice versa. On top of that, both factions will passively gain irritation over time so spend too long without taking a side and you risk losing both to civil wars.

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Historically, Mościcki maintained control of the government until wartime, at which point it was agreed Śmigły would take control, but Poland failed to last long enough for this to take effect. However, if the player has appointed either Śmigły or Sławek as Chairman of Poland, the Sanation Right/Left can supercede the Castle and become the majority controller of the government. This enables some light alt-history within the historical branch, as well as unlocking new diplomatic options for Poland.

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Available to all three factions of the dictatorship is the Align With the West branch, which allows Poland to join the Allies as they were able to in their old tree.

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In the 30s, Lithuania was technically at war with Poland until the 1938 Polish ultimatum to Lithuania in which Poland demanded an end to the cold war over Vilnius. As well as being able to gain cooperation and eventually an alliance with Lithuania, Poland may also demand Lithuania’s annexation which can result in occupying Lithuania without the need for war, but take this focus with caution as it extends your frontline with the Axis.

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Lastly, the Romanian Bridgehead Strategy has now been moved to the diplomatic branch and allows Poland to bring Romania into the allies. Historically, Poland and Lithuania had an alliance prior to the war, and Poland can pursue this alliance closer, bringing Romanian guns to the Polish front.

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The Sanation Right exclusively has access to Polish Revanchism which has now been expanded into its own full branch. As well as being able to demand the annexation of Lithuania, the Right can pursue both a restored Commonwealth and fulfil the ambition of the Polish–Czechoslovak confederation.

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Lastly, the Sanation Left has access to an expanded Baltic Alliance path, allowing them to gain alliances with the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia, and Romania, and unlocking the newly expanded Between the Seas branch!

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(It's worth mentioning at this point that most focus icons are placeholder)

No matter which path Poland is pursuing, as long as Poland is not in a faction already, they will be able to realize the Intermarium ambition and create an alliance from sea-to-sea! All they need to do is be considered a major or be a faction leader already, and have a large army. At this point, Poland can be considered a real contender for a major alliance of their own.

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The old Between Seas focus was not really “between seas” so much as it was just a Baltic alliance, but now the first nation to be invited to the faction is Romania. After Romania has made their decision, the alliance can spread any direction; north into Scandinavia and the Baltics, and south into the Balkans. Though unlikely, an Italian alliance is not out of the question for Poland here, but some significant change in policy for either nation would be necessary to tempt the Italians away from the Axis.

That’s all for this one, next week we’ll be talking about Poland’s DLC-locked alternate history branches!
 
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I have a great idea to replace an Embargoed Economy spirit (which historically makes no sense as I already proved) with something already present in the game: The Great Depression! Poland suffered quite strong from it (still less than USA) and started to recover quickly thanks to four year plan (started in July 1936) and monetary reform.

It was crafted by Miniter of Finance, Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski. Four year plan included investments in the infrastructure, industry and defense. It is responsible for Old-Polish Industrial Region and development of Gdynia. Therefore debuffing The Great Depression may require focuses from 3 branches: industry, navy and fortifications. This would be a unique Polish feature.

Below is a chart of GDPPC in 2011$ as relative to year 1929. Netherlands, Australia and USA have that spirit already. Notice how bad situation was in Poland 1936, compared to the former countries. Poland deserves the Great Depression spirit!
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At the beginning I wanted to write, there was no risk for Civil war coming from Sanation three camps. The last government lasted 40 months, compared to the longest 23 from 29 formers.
Wikipedia source and numbers
Rząd Jędrzeja Moraczewskiego 2 months​
Rząd Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego 11 months​
Rząd Leopolda Skulskiego 6 months​
Rząd Władysława Grabskiego (1) 1 month​
Rząd Wincentego Witosa (1) 14 months​
Rząd Antoniego Ponikowskiego (1) 6 months​
Rząd Antoniego Ponikowskiego (2) 3 months​
Rząd Artura Śliwińskiego 9 days​
Rząd Juliana Nowaka 4 months​
Rząd Władysława Sikorskiego (1) 5 months​
Rząd Wincentego Witosa (2) 7 months​
Rząd Władysława Grabskiego (2) 23 months​
Rząd Aleksandra Skrzyńskiego 5 months​
Rząd Wincentego Witosa (3) 4 days​
Rząd Kazimierza Bartla (1) 1 month​
Rząd Kazimierza Bartla (2) 4 months​
Rząd Kazimierza Bartla (3) 3 days​
Rząd Józefa Piłsudskiego (1) 22 months​
Rząd Kazimierza Bartla (4) 10 months​
Rząd Kazimierza Świtalskiego 8 months​
Rząd Kazimierza Bartla (5) 3 months​
Rząd Walerego Sławka (1) 5 months​
Rząd Józefa Piłsudskiego (2) 3 months​
Rząd Walerego Sławka (2) 6 months​
Rząd Aleksandra Prystora 23 months​
Rząd Janusza Jędrzejewicza 12 months​
Rząd Leona Kozłowskiego 10 months​
Rząd Walerego Sławka (3) 7 months​
Rząd Mariana Zyndrama-Kościałkowskiego 8 months​
Rząd Felicjana Sławoja Składkowskiego 40 months​

However, later I've read about Walery Sławek's suicidie in Polish Wikipedia. Józef Piłsudski wanted him to be president after Mościcki. But Mościcki denied and colaborated with Edward Rydz-Śmigły to remove him from political life. On 2 April 1939 at 20:45 (the same time as Piłsudski died) he shot himself in the head and died 10 hours later in the hospital. He burnt all his personal papers and left a short suicide letter "I am killing myself. Do not blame anyone" with date and signature. There are 3 theories why he did it
1. In despair after loosing all political influence and failing Józef Piłsudski's last will.
2. He seemed himself as reason dividing political scene, so he sacrificed himself to unite it.
3. Conspiration theory: he was preparing a coup and was deconspirated. He killed himself to avoid arrest and deconspiration of friends. Some interviews claim his apartment was investigated by prosecutors earlier the same day. Historians are unanble to neither bust it nor prove.

The last theory makes a civil war with him surprisingly possible! Great bravo for modders and developers for digging into it :)

What about his leftist alignment? In the ending of his political career he was often contacting members of Polish Socialist Party (PPS). There were even rumors he was plotting with them a coup! That left alignment, in terms of possible coup in HOI4 Poland, is very accurate! I vote to leave it as it is :)

Maybe a small deviation. For historic reason, it should be possible to avoid a coup from completely neglected group quite easily. Just like it "happened" in conspiration theory. Extreme political cost should justify it?
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Although I am not sure, civil war should be chosen as a way. Around 25 March president Mościcki got very sick and doctors were forseeing the worst. Rumors says, he was poisoned...

Article from polish gazette "Rzeczpospolita" about contacts with PPS and "poisoining".
 
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with the new supply system cant u just paradrop all the supply points behind the enemy lines to starve them of supply?
"Supply Depot Too Far"
 
with the new supply system cant u just paradrop all the supply points behind the enemy lines to starve them of supply?
To be able to paradrop you need 70% air superiority. You will not get that easily on a contested front.

If your paradrops land they are encircled. How many do you drop? You are likely to lose all of them.

If they drop on enemy units they have to fight them and will likely get wiped out.

I saw in streamed multiplayer games paradrops behind the soviet lines encircling Moscow. But that's just memes. The effect is low. The paras get killed soon and the game continues.
 
So will Historical AI Poland take the "light alt history" choices on its own?
 
Polish Peasant's Strike is a great event with very strong foothold in Polish history
I've checked how peasant's strikes of 1937 were located. Below map has marked cities with 5000 and more arrested. The ingame map of civil war is suprisingly accurate! Indeed, Ruthenians were also strongly participating in them, even if mass arrests ther ewere not so common (probably cities were smaller). I've also investigated how Orthodoxes look at Polish icon Black Madonna of Częstochowa. There is Orthodox church of the Black Madonna. That church is In Częstochowa, city where I live (so much shame on me!). Also, copy of that image was located in Levashovo, Sankt Petersburg. Even Russians endorse her, so it can be used as peasant's flag. I must therefore apologize developers for my ignorance and praise them for excelent research. Only small note: the strike was pacified by police. I believe ingame option should be also possible, for high political cost.
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Looming strikes reasoning is false
Among many problems this caused for Poland, it also disrupted their agricultural supply networks, which resulted in the Peasant’s Strike of 1937.
It had nothing to do with poor infrastructure. Proof: strikes started in 1936 and 1937, but not during previous 18 years of independence. They were caused by Great Depression, which caused price scissors. Even though farmers increased production during crisis, their incomes decreased. Source is "Historia Polski w Liczbach. Gospodarka tom II by Główny Urząd Statystyczny"
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Government was solving the problem with
1. Brutal repressions (including destroing inhouse possesions and crops of protesters). It may be an equivalent of political power and national unity loss.
2. Dealing with great crisis (industry growth since 1936 was 10%!)
3. Agrarian reform. It started in 1925 and by 1939 was finished only with 59%...

HOW TO FIX IT?
Remove part about poor infrastructure from looming strike description. It was poor, no doubts, but the real reason was economic crisis, which strucked particulalry hard food exporters (also USA, which was exporting food to Europe). Agrarian reform should be enough to solve it, as the farmer crisis was stronger with farmers with small fields. Which was... South and East of Poland!

Remaining doubts about focuses
1. Is Polish School of Mathematics going to include both a research slot and bonus for decryption?
2. Be aware what Abolish Segregation Seatings focus may cause. Majority of Poles heard (and half believe) about following conspiration theory: foes abroad are plotting against Poland using history manipulation. If the Polish anti-Semitism will be ingame, but nothing about German attrocities, it may create a scandal. Once Lech Kaczyński was protesting against "Codename Panzers: Phase One".

Suggestions
1. Add decision after releasing Belarus and Ukraine to support their claims for cores inside Soviet Union. Just like Russia can help Poland to receive territory from German with Offer Poland Protection focus. It should increase unity, as all those Ruthenians are abroad and Polish are now bigger majority than before. Maybe manpower, due to Belarusian and Ukrainian volunteers?
2. Original cruise tank experiment is giving bonus only to one tank model! Very inconvenient. Cannot it be about all medium tanks instead?
3. "Prusya" makes no sense in Polish and English. Rename it to "Prussian". If you want to use Polish, use "Pruska", as both words "line" and "guard" are of female form in Polish (odmiana żeńska). The original adjective is "pruski". And you'll probably mispronounce it anyway, as Matihood1 said.
4. Poland starts with big production of semi-automated rifles, even though only 150 units of Kbsp wz. 1938M were built. Can you decrease technology level to kar wz 98a? To balance it, you can change the shortages of beginning infantry equipment. It adds another hard choise for players.

So will Historical AI Poland take the "light alt history" choices on its own?
Historical Poland completely abandoned "left" path and created a duumvirate of Edward Rydz-Śmigły (Marshall, army and foreing policy) and Ignacy Mościcki (President, all internal politics). There is a conspiration theory they prevented a coup, in which Walery Sławek was involved. The rework is surprisingly consistent with real history, what you can read in link from my signature Leave Sanation branch (almost) without change. It's great!
 
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I've already said it before, I'll say it again: Just use the English word. For the love of God, don't create weird anglo-polish phrases like "Pruska Guard". Anglophones would mispronounce "pruska" anyway. I can guarantee that. "Prussian Guard" is perfectly fine.
 
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For the love of God, don't create weird anglo-polish phrases like "Pruska Guard".
I agree! But you cannot be so strict while making suggestion, especially to people with power, like developer, boss or customer. If you do not give them a choice, they will start to modify your original idea. They like to have a choice.

To prevent such irresponsible behavior of people with power, you can propose your suggestion together with an alternative. You must describe consequences of an alternative. Even though people like to choose, it is still a tedious thing. It requires investigation and thinking about the suggestion. They can avoid it, because you already did it for them! And they usually follow your original suggestion.
 
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Polish Peasant's Strike is a great event with very strong foothold in Polish history
I've checked how peasant's strikes of 1937 were located. Below map has marked cities with 5000 and more arrested. The ingame map of civil war is suprisingly accurate! Indeed, Ruthenians were also strongly participating in them, even if mass arrests ther ewere not so common (probably cities were smaller). I've also investigated how Orthodoxes look at Polish icon Black Madonna of Częstochowa. There is Orthodox church of the Black Madonna. That church is In Częstochowa, city where I live (so much shame on me!). Also, copy of that image was located in Levashovo, Sankt Petersburg. Even Russians endorse her, so it can be used as peasant's flag. I must therefore apologize developers for my ignorance and praise them for excelent research. Only small note: the strike was pacified by police. I believe ingame option should be also possible, for high political cost.
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The real question is: would a civil war really start because of this? One thing I can say for sure is that this civil war is certainly more plausible than a lot of others, particularly the Oppose Hitler one (no German officer in their right mind would start a civil war over Rheinland). I think paradox missed an opportunity to have some of the more separatist elements try to break away if the civil war lasts too long or the peasants win.
You make really good suggestions, you should create a thread on the suggestions forum and compile them there. That way they will get more visibility.
 
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I have a feeling suggestion forum is for things already implemented. I want to affect proposed rework of Poland focus tree, so I am posting in this thread. I've made a signature about them to make them clear and readable. If those historic inaccuracies will be placed in vanilla hoi, I will post in suggestion subforum.

Regarding peasants' civil war, in our history it did not happen. Organizers of protests asked to avoid violence, they did not plan to take power, only to change policies affecting farmers. Also, gun ownership and paramilitarism was not popular among Poles, so they had no chances against regular military. Lastly, they were lacking a common ideology worth fighting for and dying for.

But if you change those criterias in alternative history, everything is possible!
 
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