One King Two Crowns Is A Nightmare

[Shiny Dog]

Spain is, to put it bluntly, an absolute nightmare to play. The Civil War is interesting enough, and a great way to learn how to micromanage for success. It's what comes after that is a serious problem.
Twice I have tried One King Two Crowns, twice I have been absolutely destroyed by bad RNG (and partially the UI). I love Ahistorical AI to bits, because it's a lot less boring to watch the same world play out, but come on.
First time, I build up my forces and try to invade a Communist France that joined the Axis (UK declared war on Yugoslavia). Everything is going well, but they activate their civil war, so I actually lost everything I gained to their revolter tag when they capitulated.
Second time, I decide to try my luck with a random AI Portugal (I've heard if they're Monarchist they are actually likely to accept the Iberian Union). I'm happy to see Portugal pick the Monarchist path in my game and finish my Civil War. I'm ready to invade France when I notice Portugal lost their monarchist civil war (seriously?) and that they've taken a focus to intervene in the Civil War to get a war goal against the Falangists. The Civil War is already over and I'm the Carlists, so I ignored it. Cut to them declaring war on me anyway (this is where the UI comes in. It should have warned me, or at least displayed "War goal against the Carlists" but it didn't.). Though I had to scatter my troops, I eventually won and puppeted them. However, I then realized I could get the Iberian Union if I instead satellited the original Portugal tag, so I loaded the last save. From that point onward, they joined the Axis and prevented me from not only getting a peace deal with Portugal, but it would result in France joining the Axis as well. My greed (and Portugal inexplicably joining the Axis once the game was loaded) was ultimately my downfall, and it's depressing.
I'll try again, but it's just so frustrating to get blocked by the AI.
*Update*
So that's three times down... since France just joined the Allies in 1937. Historical might be the only way to tackle this... except... I've also learned that this achievement can also be completely bypassed if France picks a Bourbon Monarch. That's right, you don't even need to beat France if they go Bourbon Monarchist.
Winning the Civil War as the Carlists isn't even that hard (just extremely frustrating since you're hardly even rewarded for absolutely beating the Republicans beforehand).

 

[Shiny Dog]

So, as you can see in the "Update" I complained that France joined Britain in 1937. I didn't realize that was actually the historical date (even though my game was ahistorical). So, I decided to go with risky maneuvers to beat France and Britain. I actually got it this time, and I want to share with others on how to do it. I will attempt to do a step-by-step guide on how to beat France and Britain at the same time as Carlist Spain to get One King, Two Crowns.
First, the theory and assumptions:

• Historical France will not be able to fix their government before 1939, allowing them to be capitulated easily if Paris is taken.
• Britain's tactical AI is... extremely stupid.
• You're playing on Normal. Hard/VH could probably suplex you through a chair when trying to invade France through the north.
• Even in Ahistorical Mode, put Portugal on "Historical" when trying this. They will, in all likelihood, stab you in the back and then join the Allies/Axis/Comintern.

So now, the plan:

1. Win as the Carlists, ideally around mid-late 1937 or early 1938. (I use the African Army, Base Troops, and the Assault Guard as Shock Troops. Even with Unplanned Offensive they can usually break Republican units in flat terrain. Remember that because everybody has no attack, you can pin units nearly indefinitely). Also, naval-invade Barcelona. They never see it coming.
2. I would recommend making a backup here, if you have done well, because the Spanish Civil War (especially as the Carlists since you lose some African Army) is just... tiring.
3. Focus at least 5 Factories on Artillery, I prefer 7. Rush down your focus tree to get the France claim... and go past it into the Benelux Claims. After that, focus on improving the "Crusade Against Democracy" National Spirit.
4. Prepare an invasion of Belgium with the roughly 6 African Army divisions you have, while training some 10-Inf (20 width pure infantry) divisions.
5. Declare war on Belgium, sending 3-4 divisions to Gent (the port) and 3-4 to the province next to it. After that, wage a bloody campaign to push through Beligum. Use Force Attack liberally. Annex it all. (Credit to YouTuber "War Master" for his video that gave me the idea). If you're on schedule, it should be late 1938 by now.
6. Now, send at least 24 units to Belgium, preferably in the Army of Africa template. Leave at least 3 (but preferably 6~) on the Gibraltar border. If need be, abandon the Pyrenees border to get enough divisions. Your goal is to take Paris and any VP north of the Seine before the French army reaches Madrid. If successful, congratulations, you have capitulated France. You will want to do this before Germany declares war, otherwise Vichy France will be vomited out.
7. Now, if England hasn't joined, congratulations on the achievement. If England has joined...
8. You'll have to invade England. Divert your conquered French factories to Naval Bombers and jam as many in the Channel as possible. Put your fleet on Convoy Raiding and/or Strike Force. Plan another invasion to take Dover, along with the province next to it. In my game the British didn't have anybody defending the island south of London. If this doesn't work, (too many British troops defending the island) try waiting until Germany/Italy declares war in order to divert British troops into Africa.
9. Now, if you beat them completely alone you can just annex everything. If not, puppet France in the peace deal and attempt to feed them all of their cores (IMPORTANT, THIS ALSO COUNTS CORSICA IN ADDITION TO CONSTANTINE, ALGIERS, AND TLEMCEN IN AFRICA.) I would also recommend joining the Axis in this case, in case Germany and/or Italy wants a piece of your French puppet. After that, all you have to do is lower their autonomy (if you don't have Together For Victory... welp...)

So, a victory for you, right? Well, if it's ahistorical you may be beset with a disaster or setback, resulting in the WILD AHISTORICAL RIDE.
For example, my game actually went:

1. Everything went well, even got to see (and puppet) the Anglo-French Union, except Japan stole French Africa in the peace deal because the Allies guaranteed Nationalist China.
2. As such, I had to invade Japan (with the Axis) through China... except French Africa was then stolen by the Soviets, so I actually joined the Eastern Front (Germany was seriously stalling) and had to defeat the Soviets with over 100 Army of Africa divisions.
3. Then I had to launch the Second Spanish Invasion of Japan because they were puppeted by the Soviets (and a major). Then I had to invade the Guangxi Clique because they held every province in India... except Delhi... which had the Soviet Raj as another major (they got it from Japan who got it from Britain).
4. As such, I was able to finally secure French Africa after waging 3 World Wars. Achievement well earned. At least I didn't have to invade the USA this time.

 

[Metz]

There should be some event for the Carlists where they take a strike at the Falangist leadership right before declaring war. It's not historical but it could be plausible since they were already entrenched with each other while fighting the Republicans.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

Thanks for sharing your advice on this achievement.

"One King, Two Crowns" didn't seem too bad when they first announced it, but my failures at it, and the fact that it has been achieved only slightly more often than "Macau My Day", confirms that this is a pretty tricky one to get.

 

[winter_limelight]

Had six tries mixing historical and not and always failed. Civil war part is fine - I tended to finish mid-37 to early 38. I don't know how you managed to invade Belgium though - the ports were too well defended for me when I tried that (2x) in 1938. At this point I'm not convinced this is still do-able in 1.9.3 - all the other guides for this I've seen were 1.9.0 - Carlist Spain is just too weak because of the lack of cores and by the time it's not (on historical at least) Germany will be into France. I also tried a late game take-over, but Germany remains ridiculously OP (one inf unit can defend against 6 attackers including modern tanks - get real paradox) so that was a disaster. Best scenario I can imagine is France having a Civil War, but in 4 non-historical tries that hasn't happened. Hopefully FeedbackGaming will do a youtube on it at some stage.

 

[Shiny Dog]

Had six tries mixing historical and not and always failed. Civil war part is fine - I tended to finish mid-37 to early 38. I don't know how you managed to invade Belgium though - the ports were too well defended for me when I tried that (2x) in 1938. At this point I'm not convinced this is still do-able in 1.9.3 - all the other guides for this I've seen were 1.9.0 - Carlist Spain is just too weak because of the lack of cores and by the time it's not (on historical at least) Germany will be into France. I also tried a late game take-over, but Germany remains ridiculously OP (one inf unit can defend against 6 attackers including modern tanks - get real paradox) so that was a disaster. Best scenario I can imagine is France having a Civil War, but in 4 non-historical tries that hasn't happened. Hopefully FeedbackGaming will do a youtube on it at some stage.

Ports? Belgium only has Gent. Make sure to use Army of Africa for this, because they'll have the artillery you need. You should be able to take the province next to the Gent without issue. Once you take that, attack into Gent from there as well to take the port. Use Force Attack as much as possible because it also increases your attack overall.

 

[winter_limelight]

Ports? Belgium only has Gent. Make sure to use Army of Africa for this, because they'll have the artillery you need. You should be able to take the province next to the Gent without issue. Once you take that, attack into Gent from there as well to take the port. Use Force Attack as much as possible because it also increases your attack overall.

It has Antwerp as well. Never tried force attack - might see what that does.

 

[pheonicia]

Had six tries mixing historical and not and always failed. Civil war part is fine - I tended to finish mid-37 to early 38. I don't know how you managed to invade Belgium though - the ports were too well defended for me when I tried that (2x) in 1938. At this point I'm not convinced this is still do-able in 1.9.3 - all the other guides for this I've seen were 1.9.0 - Carlist Spain is just too weak because of the lack of cores and by the time it's not (on historical at least) Germany will be into France. I also tried a late game take-over, but Germany remains ridiculously OP (one inf unit can defend against 6 attackers including modern tanks - get real paradox) so that was a disaster. Best scenario I can imagine is France having a Civil War, but in 4 non-historical tries that hasn't happened. Hopefully FeedbackGaming will do a youtube on it at some stage.

If one infantry unit is defending against 6 of your own plus a tank, you're probably doing something wrong. Did you have air cover and enough combat width to fit all of those units? Were you attacking into mountain terrain?

 

[DukofDeth]

Force attack has you take strength losses rather than org losses, as well as giving a boost to attack. It costs command power and the cost increases for every battalion involved.

 

[brantodb01]

I got it just by being lucky and have them go bourbon : )

 

[MechaThumper]

If they go bourbon I think there's an event that fires that you can vassalize them but I don't know how it works if Germany invades.

What you can try is rather than end the civil war in Spain is to use spies to lower Frances stability below 30 (they sometimes get real close to this themselves and you might not need much) to trigger the communist civil war, once the communists are at war with France you can declare war on both and use the free units from the civil war to take both out, this should work in mainland france at least.

I haven't done it with Carlist spain but it did work as the anarchists, though I did it after the civil war ended. It should work as long as they dont join the allies.

 

[winter_limelight]

Eventually one gets lucky - in this case the luck was (on non-historical) having Japan bypass the Philippines and not bring the US into the war. So the strategy went something like this:
1. Non-Historic - but manually set historic for Portugal (so they don't turn Commie and cause all kinds of problems), Mexico (their wars cause issues), and the US.
2. Win Civil War as Carlists (obviously....) - my little tip on this one - consider using one army of the africa div on a naval invasion to Valencia - if you time it right you can pin down the Soviet volunteers there for a very long time which usually means the Republicans can't cover their lines.
3. Invade Belgium - but rather than use it as a launchpad for invading France, use it to defend France. Specifically I had a row of level five forts from Ghent to the end of the Maginot (5 tiles), although in the end they weren't used.
Here was a little more luck - Germany went after Lux and Belgium before the Netherlands. Because they couldn't break into Belgium (single border tile with Germany defended by 10 Army of Africa divs) it seemed to delay their attack on the Netherlands. So the net result was Germany continually weakened itself and I was able to push up to the Rhine. Over time the Allies and myself gradually wore down the Axis (Ger, Ita, Hun only - Poland/Rom had formed their faction and got obliterated - more luck as it took Romania out of Axis) and eventually took out Italy via naval invasions and finally Germany.
4. France was stuck on limited conscription (more luck) so all their units crumbled when I attacked them a few months post defeating Germany.
5. Thereafter it was about the usual grind of deal with Britain by letting them invade and wiping out troops, building subs, and finally invading. This was aided by the Allies being at war with Japan (again sans the USA).


I definitely agree with the people out there who've said this is a luck based achievement as mine included - while Germany's focus choices were pretty much historical and at historical times, Germany attacking Belgium before Netherlands made a big difference, Although it would have been interesting to see how my forts held up in Belgium had Germany gone NL first.