I want to play an ironman anarchist Spain game, but need advice

[Avatar2312]

I started the game, and it is going to be interesting with the UK revising its colonial policy and going fascist the same time.
I did manage to get all the foci to reduce Nationalist Spain powerful unit advantages and on January 20, 1937 the civil war started.
Now it is 1st of July, 1937 and the situation is as follows:

The Nationalists are reduced to two enclaves. The larger one in Galicia

The smaller one in the hills between Cadiz and Gibraltar (with just 2 small divisions)

I am still 83 days away from "Masters of our own Fate". Should I crush the Nationalists and go about my business until the event fires or is it better to keep the remnants of the Nationalists alive to provide some minor distraction for the republican troops? I actually didn't expect to run them over so quickly but instead a standard four-way-conflict.

 

[DukofDeth]

I haven't tried playing as Spain, but conventional thinking what it is, the more enemies your enemies have to distract them, the better. I would dig in and let them attack you for now. Anything the Nationalists can do to weaken the Republic for later, will also work in your favor. From what I've seen just spectating as other countries, the Anarchists need every edge they can get.

 

[GrounchoVilla]

if you go master of your own fate after defeating the nationalists, the republican forces will be much weaker than you. The battle lines will be a disgusting mess though. At least, that was my experience.

 

[Avatar2312]

So I did several plays as Republican Spain going Anarchist (and have gotten pretty good at it by doing so )

It is better to wipe the Nationalists off the map first. My best in doing so was within 4 months and 10 days (Jan 20 to May 30, 1937), by doing some crazy stuff with garrison loyality as well as putting guaranteed nationalist divisons into northern Africa, thus forcing them to transfer via ship into the fight (while the one of those divisions, which remains loyal is immediately transfered to my territory). Other units are placed to secure victory points and ports in contested provinces as well as cutting a corridor in Leon to separate the to be capital of La Coruna from the rest of all forces and leaving it the only port the Nationalists will have access to. Resulting in 8 pockets of undersupplied Nationalist forces and just a few troops and volunteers in Galicia being the main threat. Submarines raiding in the Bay of Biscay the convoys reduces supply there. Once the pockets are dealt with (offensive planning in Western Aragon and Navarra) all troops in Galicia will leave the port of La Coruna to strengthen the front line swarming with republican divisions and it falls to a naval invasion of one division from Oviedo. Also if one of those smaller pockets contain a victory point, let the division guarding it move away before taking it and forcing the enemy unit to deorg slowly. Also also don't go for any unnecessary CW-NF like foreign arms purchases, seize public transports and international brigades. Their modifiers won't have any lasting or required impact at all and just cost 105PP and days where you could focus on something else or accumulate more PP (as this is the one thing Anarchists tend to lack at 0 Stability).

Then you have over 3 months of undisturbed growth and approximate knowledge of which provinces will join the Anarchist uprising and can create a fallback line to put your troops in, leaving your units directly at the front, when "Masters of our own fate" is complete. The Anarchists will apparently always gain Murcia, Valencia, Cataluna, both Aragons, Navarra, Pais Vasco (so you might as well pick an industrial and supply manufacturer for early enhanced research even as the Republic), Asturias, Leon, Valladolid and Madrid. So immediately close the small gap which connects Guadalajara and Ciudad Real, prepare naval invasions beforehand, put the battleships (they will always stay with you) in front of the ports (seperate the fleet beforehand, as the Republic will controll access to the Mediterranian for surface ships) to see if they are empty and launch the invasions accordingly (Almeira, Malaga, Cadiz, La Coruna and Gibraltar if UK returned it), rush for the victory points with extreme prejudice and the job should be done in less than 2 months (except if the enemy gets to hold one port as last holdout, then it takes 2 to 3 months more, as it will be a pain in the ass to subdue the russian volunteers). This is the most cheese I can think of.

 

[GrounchoVilla]

So I did several plays as Republican Spain going Anarchist (and have gotten pretty good at it by doing so )

It is better to wipe the Nationalists off the map first. My best in doing so was within 4 months and 10 days (Jan 20 to May 30, 1937), by doing some crazy stuff with garrison loyality as well as putting guaranteed nationalist divisons into northern Africa, thus forcing them to transfer via ship into the fight (while the one of those divisions, which remains loyal is immediately transfered to my territory). Other units are placed to secure victory points and ports in contested provinces as well as cutting a corridor in Leon to separate the to be capital of La Coruna from the rest of all forces and leaving it the only port the Nationalists will have access to. Resulting in 8 pockets of undersupplied Nationalist forces and just a few troops and volunteers in Galicia being the main threat. Submarines raiding in the Bay of Biscay the convoys reduces supply there. Once the pockets are dealt with (offensive planning in Western Aragon and Navarra) all troops in Galicia will leave the port of La Coruna to strengthen the front line swarming with republican divisions and it falls to a naval invasion of one division from Oviedo. Also if one of those smaller pockets contain a victory point, let the division guarding it move away before taking it and forcing the enemy unit to deorg slowly. Also also don't go for any unnecessary CW-NF like foreign arms purchases, seize public transports and international brigades. Their modifiers won't have any lasting or required impact at all and just cost 105PP and days where you could focus on something else or accumulate more PP (as this is the one thing Anarchists tend to lack at 0 Stability).

correct me if I'm wrong but don't you need to seize public transport to continue down the tree? Anyway I found the speed bonus useful after Masters of our Own Fate since it made my divisions faster than the Republic's and therefore able to overwhelm them fast

 

[Avatar2312]

correct me if I'm wrong but don't you need to seize public transport to continue down the tree? Anyway I found the speed bonus useful after Masters of our Own Fate since it made my divisions faster than the Republic's and therefore able to overwhelm them fast

It gets bypassed if the civil war is over and you loose the movement bonus when the war is concluded. So I did not bother with it as the war was long over before it would have become the last option. It took me in my last attempt just 3 weeks from the anarchist uprising to victory - mainly because of unit speed, but still faster than researching this NF.

Anyways. If you run down all focus options to the start of the civil war and then just the required ones to initiate the 3rd party uprise and cheese the system like I did. You can conclude the war by mid-October 1937 (from its beginning in January).

Also having played it until 1947: the anarchist boni and abilities are INSANE! You get 11,5% recruitable population per default (1,5% from recruitment policy, which you can not change, 5% from anarchist society, 5% from focus trees) and could get additional 5% from mobile warfare land doctrine paths. You can core any territory with more than 50% compliance and 240PP in 90 days and then any adjacent territory with 140PP in 90 days. Using this on a population rich state like in south-east asia gives you almost a million manpower alone. You also get strong defensive boni on core territory, so if you core a bottleneck state and fortify it you can have your enemy deplete his stockpile or manpower before wiping him out.

One exception to this powerful focus tree is "instigate the seeds of the revolution" which just gives you a few 3INF-divisions with a non changeable template for the cost of 150PP and 20k Infantry equipment. Completely useless when you run with 10 million manpower reserve or more.

The only issue at first is the economy and you have to be picky with your targets as you can not join any faction or create a government or puppet.