My first AAR for my first major long-term achievement run.
I was inspired by Addaway's twitch streams to simultaneously try the Huge-oslavia achievement. After trying about 10 different runs, I finally got there. This will be a quick breakdown of the run and how I almost stuffed it up approximately 10 hours in. I don't have a lot of in-progress screenshots as I wasn't really expecting it to work out (or to write an AAR)
Lessons from previous runs
I'd tried multiple runs on non-Historical Focus's with the goal of attempting to get Austria before the Germans. In one game I'd almost managed it, but then the Austrians refused Anschluss and GER attacked with me almost having AUS capitulated. The resulting fighting and peace conference resulted in GER taking some territory, denying me my rightful land.
My biggest concern in all my runs was Germany and Italy ganging up on my and crushing through my defenses. With this in mind, in almost all games I rushed becoming communist and joining the Comintern.
In the beginning
Very early on, I needed to turn communist as soon as possible. I did this by rushing all the focuses that gave me + communist support. I didn't spend any political power either, saving up for the point where I could do the Form the Federal Republic focus, which removes the +25% cost to political appointments (Macedonian Opposition national spirit).
As soon as the Fed Republic was done, I had enough political power to hire a communist advisor, open up political discourse and hold a referendum to become Communist. Due to the 3 focus's with + communist support, you'll easy be at 50% to hold the referendum. I also immediately join the Comintern
On a construction and military front, I only constructed Military factories and roughly split the 22 divisions you start with on the Greek border and Romanian border. I prioritised only infantry equipment.
My initial goals were to start a war with Greece, which convenient is guaranteed by Romania, meaning I can knock off 2 of the countries I need to conquor for 1 war goal.
I justified on Greece immediately and waited. Political power was used to change to War Economy and up the manpower laws. Once I had a surplus of infantry equipment, I started training more divisions.
I built lvl 2 forts along the Romanian border as they have quite a lot of troops.
Havok and War
Attacking in Greece sucks. It's all mountainous terrain, but fortunately you have a numerical advantage and can eventually grind them down.
Starting the war immediately results in Romania being called in and it's on! The Soviet's want to join my war but that's not going to happen, all of Romania is mine!
Cutting a very grindy story short, I slowly grind my way to Athens and capitulate Greece. As the tide turns and I'm starting to win more battles, I divert existing troops to the Romanian front to help hold the line (which has been pushed back to the rivers near Belgrade).
My problem is that I can't seem to be able to break through Romania, they just have too many troops. They fortunately keep a decent amount on their border with the soviets, but I'm not going to call them in.
My solution is to divert my Greek army to Hungary and justify on them! Fortunately they've turned fascist (and haven't joined the Axis), so I can justify on them without fear of guarantees.
Justification done, I smash through Hungary and capitulate them in a matter of days. Now I have a massive new, undefended border with Romania, perfect for charging through! This immediately reduces the troops on the front and the 2 armies now crush through and capitulate Romania!
Biding my time
Yugoslavia is now at peace. Her territories have expanded with the annexation of Greece, Romania and Hungary. However, on her doorstep is an Axis faction who are just itching to expand.
I use the next few years, while GER conquers western Europe and prepares for Barbarossa, building a strong fort wall along the common border. I also vastly expand my forces, fielding 4-5 full armies of 20w infantry. I went with a 7-2 with Eng, recon, anti-tank, anti-air and field hospitals. Even with the expansion, I didn't have a massive manpower pool.
I probably could have built significantly more tank divisions (I had 2 light tank divs), but I was preparing for a defensive war of attrition.
And then it came, the surprise attack on my Ally and friend by the evil Germans. We held off joining for a week or so and then, when the Germans had fully committed to invasion, we joined our ally.
The Italian question
What a slog it was. Months and months of attacks repelled, but I was slowly able to take ground. With no fast moving units, I wasn't able to reliable exploit my advantages and encircle the enemy. As a result, coupled with the mountainous terrain, it was a slow and tedious slog.
There wasn't really a time where I was in danger of being overrun, my fortifications and the terrain really helped, however there was a few heart palpitations.
And then Bulgaria joined the Axis... those bastards. Frantically I stripped divisions from the front and rushed them to face the back-stabbing Bulgarians. Fortunately, they weren't prepared for my veterans and were quickly overwhelmed. Another neighbour subsumed into my empire!
It became clear, as in real-life, that Italy was the soft-underbelly and would be the first to crack. Concentrated and targeted attacks pushed the Italians back and I was finally able to separate them directly separate them from the Germans (thanks Switzerland).
Dedicating an entire army to the now massively un-defended Italian peninsula, I moved to quickly secure the border with Vichy France before the German reinforcements poured around. With that secure (after significant battles and struggles over Turin), I crushed down to the heel of Italy, taking Rome and pushing on to Palermo, forcing their capitulation!
And then the grind of the Germans took hold. I slowly began to push into Vichy France, and up into the south of Germany. After years upon years of combat, the German war machine was ground to a pulp with 4+ million casualties. Peace reigned.
The mistake that costs me 3 extra hours
Peace deals are tricky things. I had done most of the work, I occupied the most territory, but I suppose you have to let your allies get their share.
I annexed the main states of Italy, I annexed most of Germany. However my comrades in arms knew not of my plans for Huge-oslavia, so the British set up a Republican Italy, claiming 1 state. I thought oh well, I'll just attack the Allies, overrun Republican Italy and control it (you only need to control the core states, not annex them, so I can be at war and complete the achievement)... Soviets did their normal thing and set up a bunch of puppet states in eastern Europe.
Except then I noticed that I hadn't claimed all the Greek cores. I was confused, I had all of Greece surely... Oh what's that, Rhodes, previously held by Italy... Oh that's a Greek core... Oh who annexed that in the peace deal... Oh SH*T, the bloody Soviet Union,
I am become mega
I thought I was stuffed. I genuinely thought I had borked up the playthough and I was going to have to restart. I knew if I started a war with the Allies that I might not win and I didn't have a good strategy for taking on the UK or USA.
So that left stabbing my able partner in the back. I left the Comintern and started justifying on the Soviet Union.
In an extremely convenient turn of events, they decided that Turkey was of strategic value to them and started justifying on them! the UK and France guaranteed Turkey and when the Soviets declared war, UK and France and the rest of the Allies responded in kind.
I prepared our men to invade the Soviets, repeating Germanies moves just a few years later. War had come again to the Yugoslavians. The Allies, recognising a common enemy, invited me to their faction, I accepted.
Fortunately for me, the Soviets just had too many fronts and not enough troops. I was able to crush my way through their defences, exacting huge casualties. My own casualties were < 300k
During this invasion, Nationalist Spain threw off the recovery from the civil war and joined Japan in a war against the Allies. Suddenly, France's entire south was exposed and the Spanish charged in.
I rushed an army from the eastern front and covered the passes into Yugoslavian territory.
After a year or so, The Soviet Union capitulated and I was able to claim Rhodes (the only bit I really wanted). I also annexed large swaths of the western soviet union and set up a supervised state in the east.
The Allies, affronted by my territorial claims kicked me from the faction. Perfect! Now I could justify on Republican Italy and claim my prize!
40 days later, 48 divisions of the Yugoslavian army swept into Naples and Republican Italy capiltulated.
I am become mega.
Huge-oslavia was realised.
Thanks for reading! This was one of my more satisfying experiences playing HoI4 as I really felt like I achieved something!
I was inspired by Addaway's twitch streams to simultaneously try the Huge-oslavia achievement. After trying about 10 different runs, I finally got there. This will be a quick breakdown of the run and how I almost stuffed it up approximately 10 hours in. I don't have a lot of in-progress screenshots as I wasn't really expecting it to work out (or to write an AAR)
Lessons from previous runs
I'd tried multiple runs on non-Historical Focus's with the goal of attempting to get Austria before the Germans. In one game I'd almost managed it, but then the Austrians refused Anschluss and GER attacked with me almost having AUS capitulated. The resulting fighting and peace conference resulted in GER taking some territory, denying me my rightful land.
My biggest concern in all my runs was Germany and Italy ganging up on my and crushing through my defenses. With this in mind, in almost all games I rushed becoming communist and joining the Comintern.
In the beginning
Very early on, I needed to turn communist as soon as possible. I did this by rushing all the focuses that gave me + communist support. I didn't spend any political power either, saving up for the point where I could do the Form the Federal Republic focus, which removes the +25% cost to political appointments (Macedonian Opposition national spirit).
As soon as the Fed Republic was done, I had enough political power to hire a communist advisor, open up political discourse and hold a referendum to become Communist. Due to the 3 focus's with + communist support, you'll easy be at 50% to hold the referendum. I also immediately join the Comintern
On a construction and military front, I only constructed Military factories and roughly split the 22 divisions you start with on the Greek border and Romanian border. I prioritised only infantry equipment.
My initial goals were to start a war with Greece, which convenient is guaranteed by Romania, meaning I can knock off 2 of the countries I need to conquor for 1 war goal.
I justified on Greece immediately and waited. Political power was used to change to War Economy and up the manpower laws. Once I had a surplus of infantry equipment, I started training more divisions.
I built lvl 2 forts along the Romanian border as they have quite a lot of troops.
Havok and War
Attacking in Greece sucks. It's all mountainous terrain, but fortunately you have a numerical advantage and can eventually grind them down.
Starting the war immediately results in Romania being called in and it's on! The Soviet's want to join my war but that's not going to happen, all of Romania is mine!
Cutting a very grindy story short, I slowly grind my way to Athens and capitulate Greece. As the tide turns and I'm starting to win more battles, I divert existing troops to the Romanian front to help hold the line (which has been pushed back to the rivers near Belgrade).
My problem is that I can't seem to be able to break through Romania, they just have too many troops. They fortunately keep a decent amount on their border with the soviets, but I'm not going to call them in.
My solution is to divert my Greek army to Hungary and justify on them! Fortunately they've turned fascist (and haven't joined the Axis), so I can justify on them without fear of guarantees.
Justification done, I smash through Hungary and capitulate them in a matter of days. Now I have a massive new, undefended border with Romania, perfect for charging through! This immediately reduces the troops on the front and the 2 armies now crush through and capitulate Romania!
Biding my time
Yugoslavia is now at peace. Her territories have expanded with the annexation of Greece, Romania and Hungary. However, on her doorstep is an Axis faction who are just itching to expand.
I use the next few years, while GER conquers western Europe and prepares for Barbarossa, building a strong fort wall along the common border. I also vastly expand my forces, fielding 4-5 full armies of 20w infantry. I went with a 7-2 with Eng, recon, anti-tank, anti-air and field hospitals. Even with the expansion, I didn't have a massive manpower pool.
I probably could have built significantly more tank divisions (I had 2 light tank divs), but I was preparing for a defensive war of attrition.
And then it came, the surprise attack on my Ally and friend by the evil Germans. We held off joining for a week or so and then, when the Germans had fully committed to invasion, we joined our ally.
The Italian question
What a slog it was. Months and months of attacks repelled, but I was slowly able to take ground. With no fast moving units, I wasn't able to reliable exploit my advantages and encircle the enemy. As a result, coupled with the mountainous terrain, it was a slow and tedious slog.
There wasn't really a time where I was in danger of being overrun, my fortifications and the terrain really helped, however there was a few heart palpitations.
And then Bulgaria joined the Axis... those bastards. Frantically I stripped divisions from the front and rushed them to face the back-stabbing Bulgarians. Fortunately, they weren't prepared for my veterans and were quickly overwhelmed. Another neighbour subsumed into my empire!
It became clear, as in real-life, that Italy was the soft-underbelly and would be the first to crack. Concentrated and targeted attacks pushed the Italians back and I was finally able to separate them directly separate them from the Germans (thanks Switzerland).
Dedicating an entire army to the now massively un-defended Italian peninsula, I moved to quickly secure the border with Vichy France before the German reinforcements poured around. With that secure (after significant battles and struggles over Turin), I crushed down to the heel of Italy, taking Rome and pushing on to Palermo, forcing their capitulation!
And then the grind of the Germans took hold. I slowly began to push into Vichy France, and up into the south of Germany. After years upon years of combat, the German war machine was ground to a pulp with 4+ million casualties. Peace reigned.
The mistake that costs me 3 extra hours
Peace deals are tricky things. I had done most of the work, I occupied the most territory, but I suppose you have to let your allies get their share.
I annexed the main states of Italy, I annexed most of Germany. However my comrades in arms knew not of my plans for Huge-oslavia, so the British set up a Republican Italy, claiming 1 state. I thought oh well, I'll just attack the Allies, overrun Republican Italy and control it (you only need to control the core states, not annex them, so I can be at war and complete the achievement)... Soviets did their normal thing and set up a bunch of puppet states in eastern Europe.
Except then I noticed that I hadn't claimed all the Greek cores. I was confused, I had all of Greece surely... Oh what's that, Rhodes, previously held by Italy... Oh that's a Greek core... Oh who annexed that in the peace deal... Oh SH*T, the bloody Soviet Union,
I am become mega
I thought I was stuffed. I genuinely thought I had borked up the playthough and I was going to have to restart. I knew if I started a war with the Allies that I might not win and I didn't have a good strategy for taking on the UK or USA.
So that left stabbing my able partner in the back. I left the Comintern and started justifying on the Soviet Union.
In an extremely convenient turn of events, they decided that Turkey was of strategic value to them and started justifying on them! the UK and France guaranteed Turkey and when the Soviets declared war, UK and France and the rest of the Allies responded in kind.
I prepared our men to invade the Soviets, repeating Germanies moves just a few years later. War had come again to the Yugoslavians. The Allies, recognising a common enemy, invited me to their faction, I accepted.
Fortunately for me, the Soviets just had too many fronts and not enough troops. I was able to crush my way through their defences, exacting huge casualties. My own casualties were < 300k
During this invasion, Nationalist Spain threw off the recovery from the civil war and joined Japan in a war against the Allies. Suddenly, France's entire south was exposed and the Spanish charged in.
I rushed an army from the eastern front and covered the passes into Yugoslavian territory.
After a year or so, The Soviet Union capitulated and I was able to claim Rhodes (the only bit I really wanted). I also annexed large swaths of the western soviet union and set up a supervised state in the east.
The Allies, affronted by my territorial claims kicked me from the faction. Perfect! Now I could justify on Republican Italy and claim my prize!
40 days later, 48 divisions of the Yugoslavian army swept into Naples and Republican Italy capiltulated.
I am become mega.
Huge-oslavia was realised.
Thanks for reading! This was one of my more satisfying experiences playing HoI4 as I really felt like I achieved something!
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