Return of the Kaiser

[ArmChairAttila]

I have been perfecting a return of the Kaiser playthrough. There are some pointers I wanted to share and hopefully get some new ideas.

First I save my political power to justify Poland. I then build infantry, fighters and combat air support as the dominant production lines. I will enact MEFO, I think you only need it once before it becomes unavailable. My first two ministers after the justification is Ludwig Beck (8% organization) and Ferdinand Schorner (infantry expert). I will then move my conscription to extensive conscription. After these selections I pick the economic advisors. My national focus will beline KDF Wagen and extra research slot with the only interruption being the Oppose Hitler focus as soon as Poland surrenders.

I save all my military XP for the inevitable German civil war. Once the civil war starts I will then edit my templates to at least 20 width. The primary goal for Law & Government is to enact Service by Requirement and Total Mobilization before the civil war ends. These two combinations, combined with the Polish conquest make the German Empire formidable by 1940. You will need the conscription set that high because your industry will be constructing divisions at breakneck speed. My first playthrough taught me this lesson.

After all my initial goals have been accomplished I focus on getting Hungary and Romania into a alliance. You have to act quickly and this goal will often fail because there are so many focus to research before you reach The Central Powers Focus. Often Romania will form a faction and Hungary will join one. I have never got this to work but really have been trying. I have not tried to ignore the economic focus and just get all the focus prerequisites for Ally Hungary, Ally Romania and Central Powers. So if any of you have tried this let me know how it worked for you.

By 1939 the world will start to divide into major powerblocks. I have been playing with historical turned off and noticed that Japan, France, Italy (especially) tend to be the wildcards on how powerful a certain block will become. Other smaller blocks will form and should be considered primary targets for your new budding empire.

Tips:
1. Choose the Westwall focus before the Return of the Kaiser focus and be prepared for war with France. I have had games where France backed down and also declared war.
2. Do not neglect influencing Austria and Czechoslovakia and try hard to get them into your alliance. The Rekindle Imperial Sentiment focus is seriously good and turns the German Empire into a super power.
3. Political power is tight on this path. You will have to be very selective in how you choose to spend it.
4. Free trade transition during the civil war makes for a rapid recovery and reconstruction, but as stated in tip 3 PP is at a premium and you will eventually have to drop back down to Limited Exports because steel becomes a valuable commodity for Germany on Free Trade post 1940.
5. Build all your pre German civil war industries in far Western Germany, you don't want to lose them to the Nazi faction.
6. Save the Assassinate Mussolini and Coup Italy focus for when you really need them.

 

[Reinner]

Annexing Poland before going for civil war is for me just a huge exploit and a dealbreaker. Germany gets split into West (Royalists) vs East (Nazis) while entire annexed Poland remains under control of the West (same goes if you attack any other neighbour state)

Honestly Kaiser path should get blocked if you do early war, you're telling me Royalists are fine with Hitler waging early war and occupying a state, but are willing to plunge Germany into civil war because they don't want to see Wehrmacht marching into Rhineland...

 

[ArmChairAttila]

That's one way to look at it. For me the early DOW on Poland is exactly why the Officer corp, backed by the industrialist demanding MEFO payments, challenge Hitler and change the government. Also, in my games Polish conquest go to the Nazi faction. Basically anything east of Berlin is auto folded into the Nazi camp. I really do not see the exploit here either. Germany is weak, even with Poland, until mid 1939. If you decide to reinstate the Kaiser before that time France has a chance to DOW a weak Germany. It's a gamble and acceptable one at that.

"you're telling me Royalists are fine with Hitler waging early war and occupying a state, but are willing to plunge Germany into civil war because they don't want to see Wehrmacht marching into Rhineland..."

No they are not fine with it, that is why there is a civil war....

 

[Deadseid]

I have been expanding on this strategy. I like to justify on poland the moment I have 50pp. I focus the same units, Fighters, CAS, and Infantry. I also add in a motorized or two. For nat focus, I start with 4 year plan, then i do GroBraumwirtshcaft. The reason for this, is once the civil war starts, Align Romania and Align Hungary are my next focuses, in that order. If you align too early, under hitler, they align to fascism. If you align too late, they don't build enough unaligned ideology to want to faction with you, or worse yet, could flip dem or soc. After GroBraumwirtshcaft, i start working toward the research slot. Once Hermann Goring Werke is complete, I'm still at war with poland, but it will end soon. So i start Oppose Hitler. Im saving pp until i have at least 300 when civil war starts.

The civil war kicks off just after the polish war ends, and you have spare moments to rush your entire army to the western side of the country. Once it starts and the front line is drawn, order your army to close the gap west of czech, then when your front line is shorter, push to berlin and beyond. You start with the same number of troops. Even your divisions in training get evenly divided between the sides. Changing your recruitment policy and division width at this point will give your side an edge that the nazis do not have. Furthermore, the fascists will split their army to occupy the eastern territory you left vulnerable. While they are doing this, you have your entire army to punch through their weak lines and chase them all the way to the soviet border.

The civil war done, I finish grabbing that research slot, after which, i beging the process of returning the kaiser. This takes the better part of a year, and all the while, unaligned support is growing in romania and hungary. In an IDEAL run, austria stays unaligned as well, and reforms austria-hungary. If that happens, its only a matter of time before austria-hungary absorbs czech as well. This rarely happens however. In any case, at this point I am watching World Tension. Romania needs 40% to accept a faction invite, as long as they stay unaligned. I always create the faction with Romania, and I do it the second I am able to. Hungary is a sure thing. They will join your faction even if they are already in a different one. But for some reason romania won't join an existing faction, no matter what i try. So I create with them, and invite hungary. Once they are both in a faction with me, my next nat focus is integrate war economies. They accept every time, making them integrated puppets.

From there you may go to war with france or netherlands depending on their respective choices when you return the kaiser, so expect a fight in the west. If it doesnt come, focus on assassinating moussolini, and securing the baltic states. That will give you a faction of Italy, hungary, romania, latvia, lithuania, estonia, possibly finland, and possibly bulgaria. If you went to war with france, you will have puppeted them, if you went to war with netherlands, you will have annexed them and puppeted the rich east indies. Be cautioned that securing the baltic states will invariably lead to war with the soviets. But if you wait too long to do it, the soviets will take them all.

The interesting thing about integrate war economies, is you do not need to be the faction leader in order for it to work. You need only be in A faction with romania and hungary. In my last playthrough, I waited too long, and they both joined the pact of rome, a growing faction. Pact of rome ended up going to war with france and czech, so i joined the faction. Even though italy formed the pact of rome, hungary was promoted to leader, so it was an easy way in. I went ahead and promoted myself to leader over hungary, blitzed an unsuspecting czech, and then steamrolled france the way the germans love to do. Integrate war economies was right behind, and an ironman run I thought ruined was pulled from the jaws of failure.

I have had various levels of success with this strategy, usually culminating in being defeated by whichever faction the us joins around 1950-1960. But the first 20 years are a pretty wild ride, and i'm certain that someone more skilled than me could make this strategy work.