The worst Germany tree is doing the Kaiserreich path, but then taking U-Boat effort or Plan Z. Because that then actually locks you out of both the “alliance with the British” and “reform the central powers” branches, and all you get are some research bonuses. As all 4 branches are mutually exclusive to one another for some reason
"-Mein Kaiser, our power in Germany is secured now, we can proceed to reclaim our past glory and finally claim our place in the sun or at least take revenge on the French... -How about we build submarines instead? -Mein Kaiser but... how is that going to help -BUILD. ME. THOSE. GOD. DAMN. BOATS."
I can see the logic behind taking either of the German naval expansion focus’ locking you out of alliance in the shade, as the UK would see A: Kaiser Wilhelm II returning and B: The Kriegsmarine expanding its size rapidly and have flashbacks to the Anglo-German naval arms race, or see an expansion to the German U-Boat fleet and think it’d be aimed at them, a big threat to the UK, and probably wouldn’t have the best diplo relations. It’s why alliance in the shade, if my memory serves, carries debuffs to naval production, sort of like Germany giving guarantees to not threaten UK naval domination in return for an alliance. Although I can’t see the logic in locking out our place in the sun.
fun fact if you're doing a kaiserreich run if you just don't pick a main alliance/naval doctrine, you can build up a decently sized navy I usually focus on carriers and a couple of BB's or BC's that are at least doing 30kmh & trade with Poland as well as anyone else you want in the alliance, creating one of the most cursed but effective reincarnation of the Central Powers to ever exist. honestly other than the focuses that give dockyards I rarely ever pick a naval path, because of how scared the AI are to maintain constant naval superiority you don't need much especially as Germany. doesn't always work with Poland though which sucks because they're a solid and aggressive buffer & they are quite happy to trade land back and forth throughout the war when you do get them in the faction.
@Prauwlet213 Neither side was eating good tbh. Yes, the soviets were eating a little better but not by a massive amount and were still suffering from the conditions of war and poor logistics
i just had a dream where you decided to play every releasable nation in africa A to Z and you started with albania for dream reasons , please make my dream real
Imagine being a Spanish Fascist or Communist in the civil war that turned into a world war where the Communists are allied to the Capitalists while Franco's Fascists are on the side of the Soviet Union and Communist Germany.
So the funny thing about this focus is that it adds a modifier that makes the Soviet Union accepting of fascist diplomacy which can only be removed if they deny the alliance initially... so even if they're kicked from the faction, they keep it, which is why they joined Japan, lmao
Same, except i lost hard cus USSR would rather garrison its core states, away from any threat, than give any sort of help. I also tried smashing straight through the Maginot with marginal air support...suffice to say it didnt go well...
I remember sending my entire 200~ division army trying to take out a single province in Sweden, because I didn't know how else to do it and I didn't know how supply worked.
I feel like alliance with the ussr was made as a sort of "Easy mode" as it allows you to focus solely on the democratic allies while also giving you a massive ally in the USSR.
I did the unholy alliance like 3 times, all 3 times while i was learning the game, the soviets kept me nice and safe while i figured stuff out and i did not need to stress about barbarosa
From alt-hist/lore perspective, the Berlin-Moscow axis could be soo much fun and even bigger from gameplay perspective: For players playing Russia/German it could be intresting take, maybe a little easier campaign, but for everybody else the biggest threat and challenging campinage. If only this tree was properly developed...
Right. Puts Germany in the most powerful position possible. If you don't flip Communist you still get all of the European Axis members you usually would (Italy, Hungary, Romania, etc) and the USSR more than makes up for the Allies gaining a bunch of minor democracies and US early join. Eurasia becomes your playground.
@@GeneralGrievousCIScompletely agree. Early france invasion is overpowered. early usa is weak as hell anyways. Before like 1941 they don't even have enough soldiers to hold their border
Oh man, this is the first focus with which I utterly won the war with Germany. Makes the game piss easy. Cancelling the friendship with Benito and Franco to be friends with Stalin is a pretty good trade off. I actually did it much later and never flipped to communism. 8:00 Also they tend to do that either way when world tension hits boiling points.
Jokes on you. The alliance with the soviets saved my game once. I was surrounded on all sites and hat no allies. So I did that and the red army killed like everything and freed me.
I knew it existed but I never knew it invited every democracy in Europe to the Allies. I think rushing for this first, ignoring the Czech's, and then going in on Poland make for a pretty fun game.
Oh, wow. I haven't laughed this hard in a while! The vassal puddle around Switzerland was one thing, but the Soviets joining the Co-prosperity Sphere really got me. While the Finnish guarantees of independence coming from Free Alaska? Finally broke me.
12:16 Well Soviets joining Japan was your fault. Unholy Alliance gives the soviets acceptance to fascism and Germany Acceptance of Communism. Those Modifiers remained.
I actually never played as Germany and went down Alliance with the USSR. But I did play a scenario as the USA and made Germany ally the Soviets and then liberated Europe from tyranny. Needed a lot of CAS and even used Strategic bombers and let's just say I turned Europe into a field of craters when I was done.
i remember doing this focus before i did fate of czechoslovakia, i got into war with literally ALL of the world except for a few monarchist and all fascict countries, after i managed situation in europe around year 1940 the rest of all countries that werent in factions joined my faction and it quite literally became world war and only peaceful place was australia
first time properly playing HoI 4 i did the alliance with ussr and tried to stay on their historical being inexperienced i learned real quick what the allies will try to do to stop you but it was mostly working
I sometimes get panic attacks, but they always disappear when I watch your videos. I have no idea why but it works very well so I will take the win😂. Thank you for making your amazing content.
I knew this was a path. But being allied with the Soviets seemed like it would make the game too easy. I had no idea all the democracies ally in response. That makes it much more intriguing, I think Ill have to go play a game.
I once played as communist Germany and joined the Commintern. Then the USSR had it's right opposition civil war which disbanded their faction I then made my own faction and named it Commingerm and then got Stalin to join it
I knew that ‘Alliance with the USSR’ was a thing. My mates would play HiO4 loads and do stupid routes like that one. They never liked it - don’t get why they continued it tbh
You did "Alliance with the USSR" but left "Danzig for Slovakia" and "Befriend Chechoslovakia" on the table. If you're going to do weird focuses then do them all~ :P
Oh lmao, that was my first hoi4 game way back in like 2018 with one of my friends, I wanted to play Germany and he wanted to play the Soviets so I just did the Berlin-Moscow Axis XD
I did di this path once but that was years ago and i didnt need to go to south america to capitulate the allies it was alot easier and quite broken 👍 but i was kinda new to the game still and having the soviets on your side as yahtzee germani its just strong
I had a guy do this focus on a no rules MP game. He rage quite an hour later. We refuse to ban him from Germany, because his strats are just so much fun to watch.
Bro forgot about that small french island near the USA to launch naval invasions from. Also seems Stalin had a secret friend of his, which he hadn't told you about.
i did this on one of my first playthroughs bc i thought it would just be an alliance buff or something, completely shocked when it was an alliance and i didn’t finish the game LOL
Well, I know absolutely nothing about this game, but I am vaguely interested in Stellaris, so I guess UA-cam thought I needed to see this as well. I appreciate the video. It was well made. And now I know if I ever happen to play Hearts of Iron 4, and am playing as Germany, I should not make an alliance with the USSR. (that said, if I ever did play this game, I would probably play as either Italy or China, assuming either of those are actually options, since I'm a moron who likes to watch the world burn).
Was the last time you did this path artillery only one? Where you had to play the lazytown mod again cos of a subscriber goal but it was like the day the robbie rotten actor died
I tried the unholy alliance when I first picked up the game, immediately got ganked by the entirety of the allies when I made a play for the Sudetenland
I use alliance with the USSR a lot. I actually enjoy it later you can form Berlin- Moscow pact which is cool because well you have the ussr on your team
"Alliance with the USSR" is pretty good I think if you wanna play multiplayer with your friend who's new to the game. Assuming you have one of those.
Friends? Is that a new DLC?
bold to assume i have friends.
It's more like a drop that you can gift to random people if you like them for some reason. @@Hydelix
Assuming i have one of those?
What?
Friends?
Yeah riiiight
@@Hydelixno. This was added before the newest germany update... The first german tree update. Might even be the og tree.
The worst Germany tree is doing the Kaiserreich path, but then taking U-Boat effort or Plan Z. Because that then actually locks you out of both the “alliance with the British” and “reform the central powers” branches, and all you get are some research bonuses. As all 4 branches are mutually exclusive to one another for some reason
"-Mein Kaiser, our power in Germany is secured now, we can proceed to reclaim our past glory and finally claim our place in the sun or at least take revenge on the French...
-How about we build submarines instead?
-Mein Kaiser but... how is that going to help
-BUILD. ME. THOSE. GOD. DAMN. BOATS."
"I changed my mind i dont like big ships now"
does Plan Z involve invading Ukraine?
I can see the logic behind taking either of the German naval expansion focus’ locking you out of alliance in the shade, as the UK would see A: Kaiser Wilhelm II returning and B: The Kriegsmarine expanding its size rapidly and have flashbacks to the Anglo-German naval arms race, or see an expansion to the German U-Boat fleet and think it’d be aimed at them, a big threat to the UK, and probably wouldn’t have the best diplo relations. It’s why alliance in the shade, if my memory serves, carries debuffs to naval production, sort of like Germany giving guarantees to not threaten UK naval domination in return for an alliance.
Although I can’t see the logic in locking out our place in the sun.
fun fact if you're doing a kaiserreich run if you just don't pick a main alliance/naval doctrine, you can build up a decently sized navy I usually focus on carriers and a couple of BB's or BC's that are at least doing 30kmh & trade with Poland as well as anyone else you want in the alliance, creating one of the most cursed but effective reincarnation of the Central Powers to ever exist. honestly other than the focuses that give dockyards I rarely ever pick a naval path, because of how scared the AI are to maintain constant naval superiority you don't need much especially as Germany.
doesn't always work with Poland though which sucks because they're a solid and aggressive buffer & they are quite happy to trade land back and forth throughout the war when you do get them in the faction.
I love how Hitler just casually puts Ernst Thälmann as one of his Advisors
9:21 „Thankfully Stalin always has troops ready to go into hungary“ 💀
Oof
it was kruschev that sent them in though
@@Prauwlet213 They were making a joke about soviet troops being hungry/starving.
@@Skykid3307 I mean, compared to the Germans they were eating good. With it being the eastern front though, that ain't saying much.
@Prauwlet213 Neither side was eating good tbh. Yes, the soviets were eating a little better but not by a massive amount and were still suffering from the conditions of war and poor logistics
i just had a dream where you decided to play every releasable nation in africa A to Z and you started with albania for dream reasons , please make my dream real
Tbh Albania is kinda like African country in Europe
@@EmTee22absolutely wild comment
croatia is just africa in europe
wdym? albania is on all the continents, so it technically makes sense
@@eyeblech2001Albania Is The whole Planet
Besides New Jersey
Who said there wasn't a communist Germany path
Me
Me beef master flex
The SPD
🗿
@@cookingwithtool159Gerhard Schröder becoming the Bossengenosse
Imagine being a Spanish Fascist or Communist in the civil war that turned into a world war where the Communists are allied to the Capitalists while Franco's Fascists are on the side of the Soviet Union and Communist Germany.
So the funny thing about this focus is that it adds a modifier that makes the Soviet Union accepting of fascist diplomacy which can only be removed if they deny the alliance initially... so even if they're kicked from the faction, they keep it, which is why they joined Japan, lmao
Sounds like something they'd do.
When I was new to HOI4 this was my first campaign, I remember it being fun
Same, except i lost hard cus USSR would rather garrison its core states, away from any threat, than give any sort of help. I also tried smashing straight through the Maginot with marginal air support...suffice to say it didnt go well...
i remember i lost 1 million man to Poland 😂 had no clue what i was doing, was very funny
Completely the opposite for me. What's so fun in getting overwhelmed by ui?
I remember sending my entire 200~ division army trying to take out a single province in Sweden, because I didn't know how else to do it and I didn't know how supply worked.
Same I thought it was the historical path and I was confused when it was an actual alliance I couldn’t break since we were both working rich
I feel like alliance with the ussr was made as a sort of "Easy mode" as it allows you to focus solely on the democratic allies while also giving you a massive ally in the USSR.
All dems join the Allies to fight you though.
Kidney reveal when?
yea when?
🫘
i'd rather see his other offal
I’ll show mine if you want
It's "Sydney", not "Kidney"!
I did the unholy alliance like 3 times, all 3 times while i was learning the game, the soviets kept me nice and safe while i figured stuff out and i did not need to stress about barbarosa
I want ISP to whisper "gravy timmy" in my ear while i sleep
That's the true American dream
👍
He needs to make a 10-hour repeat video of him whispering "gravy timmy"
I really liked Focus Pokus as a series title.
Soviets and the US shared the same fate. US in Alaska and the Soviets left to them. At 13:34
Oh Gods, he forgot about the island didn't he?
Some day ISP will use the territory drop bar instead of state clicking....
From alt-hist/lore perspective, the Berlin-Moscow axis could be soo much fun and even bigger from gameplay perspective: For players playing Russia/German it could be intresting take, maybe a little easier campaign, but for everybody else the biggest threat and challenging campinage. If only this tree was properly developed...
this is unironically the smartest germany playthrough
Right. Puts Germany in the most powerful position possible. If you don't flip Communist you still get all of the European Axis members you usually would (Italy, Hungary, Romania, etc) and the USSR more than makes up for the Allies gaining a bunch of minor democracies and US early join. Eurasia becomes your playground.
@@GeneralGrievousCIScompletely agree. Early france invasion is overpowered. early usa is weak as hell anyways. Before like 1941 they don't even have enough soldiers to hold their border
YOU NEEDED TO TAKE THAT FRENCH LAND AT LEAST SOME OF IT, AT LEAST THAT ONE MAGINOT STATE
Just be thankful he didn’t annex the whole thing like he normally does creating unbelievable border gore
actually got a small aneurysm from seeing him not even take alsace-lorraine
@@lohenriksson9698isp secret French nationalist?
Episode 15 of asking to play Poland, get Wojtek, conquer Jan Maney and play as Jan Mayen
Oh man, this is the first focus with which I utterly won the war with Germany. Makes the game piss easy.
Cancelling the friendship with Benito and Franco to be friends with Stalin is a pretty good trade off. I actually did it much later and never flipped to communism.
8:00 Also they tend to do that either way when world tension hits boiling points.
Literally laughed out loud at the Stalin has troops for Hungary joke, really clever
Josif and Adolf mustache docking
Brain bleach, *STAT!*
What the fuck
stalin just needs to shave the middle part
You should play some Vic 2 with Bo.
E
E
Jokes on you. The alliance with the soviets saved my game once. I was surrounded on all sites and hat no allies. So I did that and the red army killed like everything and freed me.
skill issue
14:05 Hardest laugh I ever had was when he realized China took catholic Mexico
I like how ISP blocked himself out of the one feature of political Focus Tree by inviting Turkey
14:10 “I gotta Mexican friend named Chinese Mike”
Man in the Why Castle
Paradox def teasing a germany rework
E
about damn time.
germany focus tree in vanilla is really boring and dogshit.
on the other hand, i only play modded anyway, so who cares :D
You were able to create the Berlin-Moscow Axis since release.
You did this in the Ragnarok mod for some reason..
..when germany gets declared war on by everybody
everypony
@@cookingwithtool159 NO.
@@cookingwithtool159 bronies have infected hoi4 smh 😔😔
@@ordinaryrat always has been
One day he will do an EAW video
I actually think that alliance with the URSS is pretty strong, at least is a better ally than italy
ISP really needs to start a "were going to brazil" counter at this point
who wants to see achievement A-Z again?
I knew it existed but I never knew it invited every democracy in Europe to the Allies. I think rushing for this first, ignoring the Czech's, and then going in on Poland make for a pretty fun game.
13:14 Introverted friends being dragged into an extrovert group.
Oh, wow. I haven't laughed this hard in a while! The vassal puddle around Switzerland was one thing, but the Soviets joining the Co-prosperity Sphere really got me. While the Finnish guarantees of independence coming from Free Alaska? Finally broke me.
i am noticing a pattern with all of these paths involving stalin in one way or another
what’s the pattern
@@Vespasiaan😐
If Germany does the Unholy Alliance and the US isn't democratic it gets some sort of special event.
"My best friends actually :)"
least broken germany path
Story says, to this day, he still hasn’t dealt with switzerland
The first time I played HOI4 I actually went down this path. Truly a bizarre world we are living in.
12:16 Well Soviets joining Japan was your fault. Unholy Alliance gives the soviets acceptance to fascism and Germany Acceptance of Communism. Those Modifiers remained.
I actually do it every now and then because its just fun to larp like that
The real Timmys know you’ve already shown this off
I actually never played as Germany and went down Alliance with the USSR. But I did play a scenario as the USA and made Germany ally the Soviets and then liberated Europe from tyranny. Needed a lot of CAS and even used Strategic bombers and let's just say I turned Europe into a field of craters when I was done.
And no civil war? This is probably the most broken way to play Germany
i remember doing this focus before i did fate of czechoslovakia, i got into war with literally ALL of the world except for a few monarchist and all fascict countries, after i managed situation in europe around year 1940 the rest of all countries that werent in factions joined my faction and it quite literally became world war and only peaceful place was australia
isp, please make an starting division template only as France or the Soviets or Poland
Im in love with "bad focuses" cuz it gives me the most unique expirence
first time properly playing HoI 4 i did the alliance with ussr and tried to stay on their historical being inexperienced i learned real quick what the allies will try to do to stop you but it was mostly working
I sometimes get panic attacks, but they always disappear when I watch your videos. I have no idea why but it works very well so I will take the win😂. Thank you for making your amazing content.
I like how for some reason many a lunatic parallels Turkey stays untouched somehow
I knew this was a path. But being allied with the Soviets seemed like it would make the game too easy.
I had no idea all the democracies ally in response. That makes it much more intriguing, I think Ill have to go play a game.
One of the funniest video you've released recently!
I once played as communist Germany and joined the Commintern. Then the USSR had it's right opposition civil war which disbanded their faction I then made my own faction and named it Commingerm and then got Stalin to join it
I don't do that focus anymore but I used to do it a few times but realised things just got super easy
I actually kinda like it. it's a bit of a beginner challenge, really.
I knew that ‘Alliance with the USSR’ was a thing. My mates would play HiO4 loads and do stupid routes like that one. They never liked it - don’t get why they continued it tbh
You did "Alliance with the USSR" but left "Danzig for Slovakia" and "Befriend Chechoslovakia" on the table. If you're going to do weird focuses then do them all~ :P
Danzig for Slovakia is actually meta
Probably one of the first campaigns I played because the funny mustache man was the only way I could win at that point
At Great Britain steady as she goes + decolonization I believe would fitting for this series.
Churchill doing decolonisation is by hundreds more cursed then communist doing federation
7:41 just realized paradox put Moncton as the port city where Saint John ought to be in Canada
Bro beat France and didn't take Alsace Lorraine
This is the first tree I played in Germany in HoI4. Waking the Tiger, what an era.
Democracy when
I like how you didnt even continue down the path and let Turkey be
Go down the monarchist path but then do plan Z
He’s out here ripping on my favorite side of the focus tree besides the Kaiser path lol
I spilled my cereal to the "run into a Swiss machine gun nestc
You can stay as Hitler even when doing alliance with soviet union
After this series is over you should do Mod A-Z where you pick a mod to play that correlates with the letter. Ex. K for Kaiserreich
Holy flip....that wojak is so spooky.....
glad this was on my home page for some reason got no notification
I remember doing this once and it was actually really fun.
Oh lmao, that was my first hoi4 game way back in like 2018 with one of my friends, I wanted to play Germany and he wanted to play the Soviets so I just did the Berlin-Moscow Axis XD
I've done it a couple times but mostly I do it in the console to the AI because it's kind of fun to fight against.
Probably the last time you did this was artillery only.
Speaking of which…
He hasnt taken Alsace-Lorraine from france back
Allying the British path also leads to hidden meme path of restoring HRE.
Was part way through a Germany campaign doing this path when this posted lmao
I did di this path once but that was years ago and i didnt need to go to south america to capitulate the allies it was alot easier and quite broken 👍 but i was kinda new to the game still and having the soviets on your side as yahtzee germani its just strong
I had a guy do this focus on a no rules MP game. He rage quite an hour later. We refuse to ban him from Germany, because his strats are just so much fun to watch.
Bro forgot about that small french island near the USA to launch naval invasions from.
Also seems Stalin had a secret friend of his, which he hadn't told you about.
I think the worst path of Germany is the befriend paths as well as give Poland Slovakia for Danzig
i did this on one of my first playthroughs bc i thought it would just be an alliance buff or something, completely shocked when it was an alliance and i didn’t finish the game LOL
Oh no not the up winger unite path.
Lmao everytime I get called in to help them fins awhile later they instantly peaced out 😂😢
Well, I know absolutely nothing about this game, but I am vaguely interested in Stellaris, so I guess UA-cam thought I needed to see this as well. I appreciate the video. It was well made. And now I know if I ever happen to play Hearts of Iron 4, and am playing as Germany, I should not make an alliance with the USSR. (that said, if I ever did play this game, I would probably play as either Italy or China, assuming either of those are actually options, since I'm a moron who likes to watch the world burn).
9:56 Italian Chilean war yea that’s how that war started
Every nation joining the Allies the second i ally with the USSR
Would like to see him try a playthrough as Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
i dont know if it was the latest date he did it, but he did do "alliance with the ussr" in his 300k special: artillery only
The Soviets were always East Asian, glory to the bear workers of Siberia!
This is cursed but I'm sad it isn't the Holy Roman Empire
Petition for ISP to play Syndicalist Italy/Roman Empire in Kaiserredux Day 60
Was the last time you did this path artillery only one? Where you had to play the lazytown mod again cos of a subscriber goal but it was like the day the robbie rotten actor died
He never finished the path, he never puppeted turkey.
I tried the unholy alliance when I first picked up the game, immediately got ganked by the entirety of the allies when I made a play for the Sudetenland
I use alliance with the USSR a lot. I actually enjoy it later you can form Berlin- Moscow pact which is cool because well you have the ussr on your team