Great video as always! I usually build subs all game and then start convoy raiding the Japanese the moment they declare war. Their convoys will die within a month basically, leaving them with no supply in China. You can also pretty much right away from the start of the war just naval invade mainland Japan from the Philippines. Since they have most of their army in China, capitulating them is super easy. Then move over to Germany and convoy raid around Africa, if the Italians still have a foothold in Africa. Then justify on the Soviets before the Axis falls to get in on some of that 'Operation Unthinkable' fun
U can actually removed great depression quicker if u go down to that one focus tree in communist path in SP. Not sure it legal to do in MP. Anyway good video, well-informed and detailed.
@@71Cloak does it actually pay off in the long run? after all it means paying extra early game pp, delaying research slot/giant wakes focuses, and i think a stability hit too
You can't go giant wakes and communist in the same game. Doing neutrality act or limited intervention prevents you from finishing the communist tree and recoring the states that ceded. Its a hard nerf for very little gain.
This is a fantastic guide, following the setup Japan was an absolute doddle. Only suggestion is to say what focuses/research you follow (either ahead of time or when required) as some people may need that.
Some tips for USA, specyally MP is that: First, you don't build civs, you have a massive debuff, just build infra until you have partial mob. Second, you should check where the focus military construction will add infra, so you don't waste time building on a state that will get improved anyway Third, to get partial mob quick you need to take the selective training act, if you have less than 10% War support the focus gives you 10%, so +10 from attache and events like anchluss and china you get yourself partial on early 38. Personally I don't think it's worth to go for the free financial expert guy. You spend 140 days to get him, which means 140 pp. With that you can get other focuses that are better and the normal financial expert. The efficiency cap advisor is great later but not essential early game since youre producing crap equipment anyway. Anyway great video, these were just somethings I noticed that could improve the build. Hope you keep the good work
"First, you don't build civs, you have a massive debuff, just build infra until you have partial mob." I am aware of the debuff. That's why I started out building infrastructure. However, you still benefit from building the civs and most MP games won't let you do the giant wakes very early anyways (usually jan 1 39 or Sudetenland if they put a limit on it, horst is WW2 starting) If you were to not build a single civ, on jan 1 1940 you will have 150-160 mils give or take and 128 owned civs. If you built civs like I did you you would have 149 owned and 150-160 mils. So no penalty for building civs from a mil perspective, plus you have more civs to import with or give to allied minors to boost them. "Second, you should check where the focus military construction will add infra, so you don't waste time building on a state that will get improved anyway" It doesn't matter if you build in a state that would have gotten infrastructure as long as you maxed out that state. If there is no infrastructure that can be built in that state you'll just get it in another state instead (assuming the game acts as it is supposed to). "Third, to get partial mob quick you need to take the selective training act, if you have less than 10% War support the focus gives you 10%, so +10 from attache and events like anchluss and china you get yourself partial on early 38." You are going to require the Panay incident to fire regardless of whether you have done that focus. That doesn't happen in singleplayer with any consistency because japan sucks. If you are playing against a smart Japan in MP the event will also not fire because they can just not take one of the provinces required for the event to fire (jiangsu to be specific). If you were really trying to cheese your war support you would get rid of your pride of the fleet then do selective service act then reassign your pride of the fleet getting you to 15 war support rather than 10.
I enjoyed the video. It gave me some interesting ideas on ways to do things a bit differently as the US. Regarding the cruisers though, I never mess with the old cruisers. I just stick them into shore bombardment fleets. I tried your idea of rushing the 1940 cruiser tech and that worked nicely. I simultaneously rushed the dual-purpose secondary tech as well. Then I just built the one-turret Heavy Cruiser with a full load of light guns and dual-purpose secondaries with the Raiding Fleet designer. My version of Halsey's Third fleet was Yorktown, Enterprise, 5 heavy cruisers, about 8 light cruisers, and a ton of destroyers. Absolutely mauled the IJN. They just couldn't hit all those 40-knot cruisers.
at 2:10 Small lobbying effort: 30 days of -0.3 pp daily for a total cost of 9 pp, and it grants up to 5 senators and 25 reps. Medium lobbying effort: 45 days of -0.75 pp daily for a total cost of 33.75 pp, and it grants up to 10 senators and 50 reps. I do not know how you can claim that medium lobbying efforts can be more cost effective than small lobbying efforts when for double the reward you pay more than triple the cost.
I responded to another comment that said the same thing. At the beginning of the game the US has 0 pp gain per day when a focus is running. -pp gain does not put you below 0. To start the game there is no cost to run medium or small lobbying efforts. It therefore theoretically infinitely more cost effective to run mediums over smalls.
@@71Cloakyou are 100% correct, I think he plays on a lower difficulty where there is much more pp gain, as in that case the small effort is also quite useful, but otherwise going just medium is better.
One thing about USA is that the support you gain or lose in the elections is determined by the focus path you take and what, if any lobbying efforts you take. Once you decide on a focus path you want you can do trial and error quick runs to the Nov '36 election to see what if any lobbying efforts you need to result in a huge support gain. Some focus paths it'll be doing nothing is best, some will be a single small lobbying effort, or whatever. The thing is the election results are completely repeatable for each given combination of focus path and lobbying efforts. This will save you a ton of PP once you know what minimum lobbying efforts you need to do for a given focus path. For example, my Democratic USA rush to Giant Wakes and ending the depression ASAP requires a single small lobbying effort to start (results in +79 seat gain every single time), then nothing for the '38 election (a 50+ seat gain), then 2 small lobbying efforts leading up to the '40 election (another nice gain). I don't know if mods affect this. I have zero mods installed. It is also possible game patches could reset the not-so-random seed they use for election results from a given focus path/lobbying effort combination since I'm still new to the game. Also, you can sneak around the Naval Treaty with cruisers by building light cruisers with a tiny light main gun and then after the Treaty falls apart you refit the main gun into a heavy battery and presto chango, your light cruiser is now a heavy cruiser.
Really quite new to HOI4, only been playing a few weeks and was really struggling with USA for awhile despite really wanting to use them. As usual, Cloak, video/guide is awesome and really sorted it out for me haha! Not quite as efficient as your good self but I managed to capitulate Axis by some time in late 42/early 43 as I played around for a bit after winning the Pacific before heading over the Atlantic haha (Japan was literally months to cap as once their navy is gone they can't do an awful lot in the way of repositioning/naval attacking!) Thanks for the guide mate, awesome! Trying to follow your Soviet one next but the mechanics for them seem a little more complicated haha!
There's a guide on Steam that's slightly better/more consistent for early 'Giant Wakes' so you won't get screwed by RNG. Author is "All talk and no fight".
Awesome guide! Provides a good baseline for USA newbies, from which to build what interests you - i droped thanks and focused on heavy figthers and strat bombers wirh superb infranty and marines for the invasios The only thing I'm struggling is to get my 30% war support as soon as you, tried some runs and i usually hit that cap mid to late 1939. Not sure if I'm missing something or if a recent update "nerfed" it, cause you dont seem to cheese it in anyway. Anyway, the navy part was golden!
Small note regarding the initial states with infrastructure: prioritizing North Carolina > Utah > Washington > Oregon > Oklahoma is good practice too, as they are the most likely to have decisions f for the Congress mechanic (saves a fair bit of PP, good value for the USA early game). If you dont care about Congress or PP then carry on and ignore this list, factories and resources are more important than these states
You make it look so easy. My arrival in Europe was successful but only after a nearly endless slog. Not much fun sadly. Man I suck at this game but really want to be better. Lots of studying w this game.
14:15 one thing I like to do is build the agency since January 1st, 1936. It doesn't take extra time, just the upgrades do. Then I dispatch the best agent available to a country like Bhutan or Luxembourg. By the time war hits, I will already have a level 2 or almost level 2 agent, which is huge.
Can we get an update for By Blood alone? This guide was really good despite events in my game and me being slow leading me to have to improvise quickly, and I would really like one for By Blood Alone now that I have it please!
If you want a good challenge: Cap Japan with AUS with the nuclear option with +2 clicks on Japan by 1 Jan 1946; I play it a lot and its doable, the worst part is the USA naval invading once you kill their fleet.
Small lobbying effort is more cost effective than medium lobbying effort. 45 days x 0.75 pp cost = 33,75 pp, 30 days x 0.3 pp cost = 9 pp(9x2=18pp for equal amount of rep&sen). Medium lobbying effort is useless unless you need the chairs immediatly(for a focus) . Unless i am missing something.
You have 0 pp gain to start the game. You can't get -ve pp from pp gain so there is no cost to either. Therefore medium lobbying effort is undefined (infinitely) more cost effective. After you get some pp gain its less cost effective but more time efficient which can be useful when you need to swing the house in your favour quickly.
I understand, for some reason the election tends to sweep more representetives when you have more of them, for example when you have 300 rep, it sets to 140 rep but if you had say 240 rep it sets to 180 or 200. Idk if the election modifier is completely random but it differs every time i play and seems to be less atrocious when you have less rep&sen. So i try to time a MLE and pay farm subsidies right after election and after MLE ends one more MLE and SLE to cover it up for selective training focus. If thats the case then perhaps having rep&sen just enough to pass selective training is a better choice with backup plan i mentioned?
Great video, you could try rushing for Heavy Fighter 2 ( there is a focus that gives a 100% research or 300%, cant remember now ) instead of normal fighters because of their massive range. From Iwo Jima you have enough range to hit the japanese home islands.
wait designer gets added when you design your ships i thought it only counted for researched hulls. that actually makes way more sense now that i think about it.
How are medium lobbying efforts more cost effective than small ones? For a small you pay 0,3PP * 30d = 9PP for 5S, 25R. Medium is 0,75PP * 45d = 33,75PP for 10S, 50R. Two small lobbying efforts will get you up to 10S, 50R for 18PP in 60 days, compared to one medium getting you the same amount quicker, in 45 days, but for 33,75PP, almost double. Am I missing something? I don't know how the "up to" mechanic works exactly, perhaps I'm missing something essential.
Hilarious but despite your assurances, France declared war on me and put me at war with the allies on historical due to the naval treaty violation. Gotta love the AI.
You're either violating the treaty way earlier than me or you are really unlucky. You should probably be waiting until after Italy/Japan drop out of the treaty. I have done this multiple times and never once has anyone other than the UK cared and they never did anything if I promised to back down (even though I don't actually go back below).
@@71Cloak I'm guessing I drew the short straw on the RNG this run since in my previous democratic USA runs I have broke the treaty before and never had this happen either on historical. Gotta say though it's making for a very interesting game since purely democratic countries typically aren't able to conquer like this. I should also mention that I did wait until Italy/Japan dropped out so I'm at a loss.
Sounds dumb, but you can avoid treaty issues with France by releasing Puerto Rico as a puppet. (France gets mad because if you own PR, you have territory touching them, when they get the wargoal). Japan can and will also wardec you if you cause issues with the treaty. Can actually use that fact to really cheese the game in SP (would never be allowed in MP). Basically, release Hawaii, Mariana, and Puerto Rico as puppets (so you still have access to them). At game start, make sure to keep up production on CAs, wait a few days to start stating(coring) Alaska without doing a focus. Once you've clicked that button, start lobbying and doing new deal>WPA, When New Deal finishes, use the PP from that to drop out of the treaty. After a while you'll get an ultimatum from the UK, and then fail to disarm. Japan will declare on you in mid-late 36, france won't typically bother you, neither will the UK. Don't call any of your puppets in, and let Japan take Attu Island (the only land in range of them they can take). Once the grant-statehood is finished (can complete even if Japan holds attu island), you'll have a core on attu, which if Japan holds it will trigger you as able to do the homeland defense act. Whiich basically means the US in late 36 early 37, loses the great depression and jumps straight to war economy. Have fun from there. Can keep Puerto Rico, and use spies to influence France for a while so they won't dec on you (they'll always do it about a year later it seems), which gives you an in on a war in Europe as well. If you dawdle just right, you can eventually be a democratic US at war with literally every other major (but being on war economy in 37), and get to have a very interesting game of almost-world conquest.
I really need to make an accurate naval combat mod. Depth charges are only useful if you have Strike Force/Patrol ASW squads. Subs get automatically revealed if defending so it’s the only way you will actually be able to do damage. Carriers should be buffed by making Port/Naval Strikes from them much stronger to represent the fact that carriers would be FUCKED if they ever found themselves in gun range of a battle fleet! I’d also add support for destroyer escorts and fix destroyers: historically they had a lot more range and I’d give them 50% module cost to represent the fact that navies produced dozens of destroyers w/depth charges, lots of guns and AA without costing prohibitively much as they do in vanilla!
There have been some naval overhaul mods. I recall 1 from right after MTG came out that made designing ships quite granular. Slot layout was built differently. EG there was 1 slot for the main battery, you'd pick for a battleship, anything from 6x10in guns, to 9x16, there was some flavor text about layouts. But basically, caliber dictated piercing, and caliber+number of guns dictated damage (and reduced speed, increased cost). There were techs for different hull forms/armor layouts (worked together to get you reliability, speed, and visibility stats) different deck loadouts for carriers (and corresponding costs). Could actually make useful CVL/CVEs due to decreased cost. Carriers had a proper armor slot. Twas pretty good, but I think the guy/guys working on it gave up a couple years ago. Course nothing can be done to fight the ingame "battle lines" system, nor the hardcoded 4 carrier limit.
Host is probably wrong about the medium lobbying effort being more cost effective. I'd need to check, but unless changed in a recent patch, you get more congress critters per political power with the small lobbying effort.
At the start of the game when you are running 1 per focus they don't technically have a cost because you are going to be sitting at 0 pp anyways. So they are more cost effective because there is no cost.
Hello 71Cloak at first I want to say that I'm a big fan of your videos! One thing I asked myself for a long time: How much impact has veterancy in this game? So how much better performs a seasoned or veteran unit compared to a regular or not trained unit. Maybe that is something for a future video of you! Keep up the good work mate!
Veterancy is a pretty big buff to units. Each level above 2 gives a 25% bonus which is pretty big. The problem is veterancy above lvl 3 (25% bonus) is nearly impossible to get and maintain. It would require field hospitals which not worth the cost.
@@71Cloak Yeah, everyone says so... But is it really tested? I mean like the thing with the Night Attack Buff. Everyone thought its shit until you made a good video about it :D Maybe its worth to get the 75% bonus. Of course that needs some testing because there is no real explanation of what exactly gets buffed, right?
@@CoachDukeSnap Its literally just -50% default and then each bonus is added to that. you get 10% land night attack, now the penalty is 40%, you get the 25% from gbp right, now its 15%. That's it, its really simple.
"We could kick them from the faction" and they would bloody deserve it. Stupid UK always kicking me for causing WT just because I capitulated the Soviets after they attacked me.
It still worked, you just can't start the game. If time has passed you're locked out of it, but as long as you haven't unpaused the game you can still do it.
i played a bunch of USA, medium lobbying effort is very PP inefficient, terrible. small, gives up to 5 Senators and 25 Representatives for daily -0.3 PP(takes 30 days) medium, gives up to 10 Senators and 50 Representatives for daily -0.75 PP(takes 45 day) do the math, but not only is medium lobbying much more expensive, it takes also longer. please dont do medium effort.
I tried following the steps today and have two questions: Do you need random events for war support, cause mine only reached 30% in early '39, so about half year behind schedule? And 2nd: how likely is it that the UK and France attack you, cause that also happened in early '39 and was pretty much the only reason I could even start giant wakes.
Why continue getting lobbying after you finished the agricultural adjustment act? the election in November resets any progress, just lobby after the election to save on pp/consumer goods.
Also doing the transport planes exploit is also very viable to do, so you don't have to worry about command power. (just continously right click on any airzone with transport planes while on air supply mission to get infinite command power)
Also, if i had timed it slightly better it would have finished just after the election like the farm subsidies did giving the boost to the next congress rather than the previous.
Great video for a newbie like me :P But there's just one thing i don't quite understand, why refitting old CAs with all medium batteries instead of light batteries like the one you designed later in the video? On your naval meta guide video you said the light attack CLs are good against the AI. Is it for tanking purpose or else?
I wanted to learn USA for mp purposes but this looks so darn complicated. Guess I am going to stay a Germany/France player, navy is so confusing in this game.
Question regarding building ships w/ the treaty, I haven't tried it, but couldn't you just put it in the queue and then not finish it? or does it still count against the naval treaty as soon as it is in the build/refit queue? Also, any chance you could do viability of Heavy Fighters vs Fighters in the larger air zones? I know you did a test in Europe and obviously fighters are going to work wonders there, but the larger zones in the pacific (and elsewhere in the world too) seem like the ideal situation for heavies due to the range.
Organizer gives supply reduction not reinforce rate. And i do tend to take it. The reinforment rate one just isn't that big of a deal in SP unless you have inferior units and are going to have tons kicked out of the battle all the time.
I actually did refit mine just to get the electric boat company boosts while I was refitting the cruisers, it was definitely nice and I probably lost a few less overall, but it was more for fun and because I had the dockyards/time before the fleet was needed. As Cloak said though, with the speed buffs, destroyer leader etc, you barely lose even screen ships against the Japanese navy even without refitting the destroyers.
I've watched a couple of your videos now and I notice you like 30 and 40 width divisions. I recently read a paper from reddit of someone doing a study on the most effective combat width, which were 15, 18 and 27 width divisions. Do you have any thoughts on that?
The paper doubled the over the combat width penalty to make it look way worse than it is. Also it assumes you are operating in all terrains, 27 for example is horrible in plains but that gets hidden.
That depends a lot on nation size. If I'm a small nation and just want enough to cover the line first 12 or 16 width infantry with support companies (also for very early wars). 20-24 works pretty well, especially 9/1art for a holding divisions. They inflict a lot of damage on the ai when they just bash there heads against your line. 28 or 30 width divisions for dedicated offensive divisions, either tanks or infantry, work really well in plains and forests. I don't ever do anything bigger than 30, at that point coordination starts to screw you far too much.
I also do not get it that tactical bombers can be so powerful in hitting ships, tactical bombers have very poor naval targeting status. Is it because of the radar that increases naval detection?
Need to make marines for MP, if you dont mention it new players wont make them = usa wont be able to land either japan/germany unless england/canada player made them.
@@71Cloak Ah you thinking about late game, sometimes the player on the soviet union is uncapable to even hold germany till 42 or 3, which makes the need of an early dday much more. Talking from experience, where this happend to me about 15 times. But yes, if its a massive mp, with capable player at all countries, then your way would be best.
I wish ussr's runs were something like this - development and fighting. It's enjoyable to fight on the huge eastern front but spending 3 years on paranoia makes it unplayable for me, the way they made it is so stupid and pointless
@@71Cloak ah that probably is it, I downloaded it from gamepass lol I don't see that listed in the DLC portion of the launcher.. I'm new to the game as a whole.
For the purpose of design companies and other bonuses that apply to screens they are screens. In the actual battle they will line up like capital ships and fight like capital ships, but the bonuses they receive are the ones for screens.
At the time you can go for the Giant Wakes, my war support is still at 25% and it doesn't seem to go up. Do you know why that's the case and how to solve that?
It only happened mid 1939 in my run. Also, what is the tank design you put in production to convert it later to the good tanks? Because I can't find a design with cost 4.16 that I can put into production. (The chassis had a cost of 4.16 but it doesn't have a main armament, so I have to add that and that increases the cost
@@sanderdas9401 panay incident is entirely dependent on japan taking states in china. Only way to guarantee that happens is to make sure is to buff game at the start of the game but that disabled achievements (i think) Tank costs got slightly rebalanced but it still works. Heavy machine gun, light 1 man turret riveted armour.
Reducing the chance of critical hits is pretty nice. They do critical hits also do more damage so you don't want to take them. However, I will admit i often don't do them in single-player.
Depends on what you are trying to do. Sure if you want to sit back and just bomb Germany into the stone age it will work but you're going to have to sacrifice something to do it. It can be coordinated in mp to the point where strategic bombers are often banned.
a bit late and as a new player,i always have allies horrifictly die to axis,which makes italy naval invade canada and make a puppet or occupy it. I suck so i legit lose all of eastern coast
I can't get this game to work worth a shit. Thanks for the video but my version of HOI4 is slightly different that yours. No spies, no decryption that I know of.
2:23 thats not true, medium costs .75x45 or 26.25 for 10/50, small costs .3x30 or 9 for 5/25, its more time efficient but less cost efficient. One question is there a reason you go for ware group before limited intervention? LI gives a lot.
Its both more cost effective and time effective at the start of the game because you have so little pp/day gain you actually aren't going to gain any when you are running either effort. So the real cost is .3 for 15 days which is basically negligible and you get way more support. So overall just way better before you get rid of the great depression. I couldn't at any point in time. I got really unlucky with house support this play through. Either way I prefer the neutrality acts 200 pp and the path below its a ton of stuff. If i had the support from the house i would have done neutrality act when I did army department but I didn't actually have the support.
@@71Cloak negative pp is a thing, if you spam small you can always get it (unless you min roll both like 5 times in a row which is so statistically unlikely its laughable)
@@janehrahan5116 negative pp gain is a thing. If you are at 0 pp and your gain is 0 you will stay at 0 pp. You will not go below 0 unless you get an event that reduces your pp.
Love these videos. It's difficult to find a quality guide for countries that deal with the minutiae of the game. Big ups.
Plus now that NSB changed so many things most of them are outdated
Well well well: Look what I found in my inbox for my favorite country. First?
Great video as always! I usually build subs all game and then start convoy raiding the Japanese the moment they declare war. Their convoys will die within a month basically, leaving them with no supply in China. You can also pretty much right away from the start of the war just naval invade mainland Japan from the Philippines. Since they have most of their army in China, capitulating them is super easy. Then move over to Germany and convoy raid around Africa, if the Italians still have a foothold in Africa. Then justify on the Soviets before the Axis falls to get in on some of that 'Operation Unthinkable' fun
Sure, you could do that, but in a MP game that likely wouldn't work. I think the point here in this video is to show a somewhat viable MP strategy.
Hey man thanks for this guide, my USA game has never been that strong and I really needed some pointers and tips so again thanks man!
Thanks for the hoi ASMR
from a newbie - this is a great guide and what I was looking for - thanks dude
U can actually removed great depression quicker if u go down to that one focus tree in communist path in SP. Not sure it legal to do in MP.
Anyway good video, well-informed and detailed.
I'm aware and mentioned in the description that I'm not going to do that. Any multiplayer game that is even trying to be balanced bans that.
@@71Cloak does it actually pay off in the long run? after all it means paying extra early game pp, delaying research slot/giant wakes focuses, and i think a stability hit too
Is it still possible to do this and still remain communist? Interested in doing it for the meme in SP, I’m not a MP player.
@@Crembaw yes of course, but beware that u might trigger a civil war.Also u can full annexed soviet if u go down unholy alliance
You can't go giant wakes and communist in the same game. Doing neutrality act or limited intervention prevents you from finishing the communist tree and recoring the states that ceded. Its a hard nerf for very little gain.
This is a fantastic guide, following the setup Japan was an absolute doddle. Only suggestion is to say what focuses/research you follow (either ahead of time or when required) as some people may need that.
Some tips for USA, specyally MP is that:
First, you don't build civs, you have a massive debuff, just build infra until you have partial mob.
Second, you should check where the focus military construction will add infra, so you don't waste time building on a state that will get improved anyway
Third, to get partial mob quick you need to take the selective training act, if you have less than 10% War support the focus gives you 10%, so +10 from attache and events like anchluss and china you get yourself partial on early 38.
Personally I don't think it's worth to go for the free financial expert guy. You spend 140 days to get him, which means 140 pp. With that you can get other focuses that are better and the normal financial expert. The efficiency cap advisor is great later but not essential early game since youre producing crap equipment anyway.
Anyway great video, these were just somethings I noticed that could improve the build. Hope you keep the good work
"First, you don't build civs, you have a massive debuff, just build infra until you have partial mob." I am aware of the debuff. That's why I started out building infrastructure. However, you still benefit from building the civs and most MP games won't let you do the giant wakes very early anyways (usually jan 1 39 or Sudetenland if they put a limit on it, horst is WW2 starting) If you were to not build a single civ, on jan 1 1940 you will have 150-160 mils give or take and 128 owned civs. If you built civs like I did you you would have 149 owned and 150-160 mils. So no penalty for building civs from a mil perspective, plus you have more civs to import with or give to allied minors to boost them.
"Second, you should check where the focus military construction will add infra, so you don't waste time building on a state that will get improved anyway" It doesn't matter if you build in a state that would have gotten infrastructure as long as you maxed out that state. If there is no infrastructure that can be built in that state you'll just get it in another state instead (assuming the game acts as it is supposed to).
"Third, to get partial mob quick you need to take the selective training act, if you have less than 10% War support the focus gives you 10%, so +10 from attache and events like anchluss and china you get yourself partial on early 38." You are going to require the Panay incident to fire regardless of whether you have done that focus. That doesn't happen in singleplayer with any consistency because japan sucks. If you are playing against a smart Japan in MP the event will also not fire because they can just not take one of the provinces required for the event to fire (jiangsu to be specific). If you were really trying to cheese your war support you would get rid of your pride of the fleet then do selective service act then reassign your pride of the fleet getting you to 15 war support rather than 10.
I enjoyed the video. It gave me some interesting ideas on ways to do things a bit differently as the US. Regarding the cruisers though, I never mess with the old cruisers. I just stick them into shore bombardment fleets. I tried your idea of rushing the 1940 cruiser tech and that worked nicely. I simultaneously rushed the dual-purpose secondary tech as well. Then I just built the one-turret Heavy Cruiser with a full load of light guns and dual-purpose secondaries with the Raiding Fleet designer. My version of Halsey's Third fleet was Yorktown, Enterprise, 5 heavy cruisers, about 8 light cruisers, and a ton of destroyers. Absolutely mauled the IJN. They just couldn't hit all those 40-knot cruisers.
at 2:10
Small lobbying effort: 30 days of -0.3 pp daily for a total cost of 9 pp, and it grants up to 5 senators and 25 reps.
Medium lobbying effort: 45 days of -0.75 pp daily for a total cost of 33.75 pp, and it grants up to 10 senators and 50 reps.
I do not know how you can claim that medium lobbying efforts can be more cost effective than small lobbying efforts when for double the reward you pay more than triple the cost.
I responded to another comment that said the same thing. At the beginning of the game the US has 0 pp gain per day when a focus is running. -pp gain does not put you below 0. To start the game there is no cost to run medium or small lobbying efforts. It therefore theoretically infinitely more cost effective to run mediums over smalls.
@@71Cloakyou are 100% correct, I think he plays on a lower difficulty where there is much more pp gain, as in that case the small effort is also quite useful, but otherwise going just medium is better.
One thing about USA is that the support you gain or lose in the elections is determined by the focus path you take and what, if any lobbying efforts you take. Once you decide on a focus path you want you can do trial and error quick runs to the Nov '36 election to see what if any lobbying efforts you need to result in a huge support gain. Some focus paths it'll be doing nothing is best, some will be a single small lobbying effort, or whatever. The thing is the election results are completely repeatable for each given combination of focus path and lobbying efforts. This will save you a ton of PP once you know what minimum lobbying efforts you need to do for a given focus path. For example, my Democratic USA rush to Giant Wakes and ending the depression ASAP requires a single small lobbying effort to start (results in +79 seat gain every single time), then nothing for the '38 election (a 50+ seat gain), then 2 small lobbying efforts leading up to the '40 election (another nice gain). I don't know if mods affect this. I have zero mods installed. It is also possible game patches could reset the not-so-random seed they use for election results from a given focus path/lobbying effort combination since I'm still new to the game.
Also, you can sneak around the Naval Treaty with cruisers by building light cruisers with a tiny light main gun and then after the Treaty falls apart you refit the main gun into a heavy battery and presto chango, your light cruiser is now a heavy cruiser.
Ten minues in and i've already learned so many things! Good stuff!
Really quite new to HOI4, only been playing a few weeks and was really struggling with USA for awhile despite really wanting to use them. As usual, Cloak, video/guide is awesome and really sorted it out for me haha!
Not quite as efficient as your good self but I managed to capitulate Axis by some time in late 42/early 43 as I played around for a bit after winning the Pacific before heading over the Atlantic haha (Japan was literally months to cap as once their navy is gone they can't do an awful lot in the way of repositioning/naval attacking!)
Thanks for the guide mate, awesome!
Trying to follow your Soviet one next but the mechanics for them seem a little more complicated haha!
I love playing democratic USA. So many news things to try in this video. Thanks!
There's a guide on Steam that's slightly better/more consistent for early 'Giant Wakes' so you won't get screwed by RNG. Author is "All talk and no fight".
i dont really want to use exploits, but i find it really interesting what people with skill can do in these games, its super interesting to watch
Awesome guide! Provides a good baseline for USA newbies, from which to build what interests you - i droped thanks and focused on heavy figthers and strat bombers wirh superb infranty and marines for the invasios
The only thing I'm struggling is to get my 30% war support as soon as you, tried some runs and i usually hit that cap mid to late 1939. Not sure if I'm missing something or if a recent update "nerfed" it, cause you dont seem to cheese it in anyway.
Anyway, the navy part was golden!
30% war support either needs cheese or the panay incident to fire. Easiest way to get the panay incident to fire is to buff Japan in game settings.
Small note regarding the initial states with infrastructure: prioritizing North Carolina > Utah > Washington > Oregon > Oklahoma is good practice too, as they are the most likely to have decisions f for the Congress mechanic (saves a fair bit of PP, good value for the USA early game). If you dont care about Congress or PP then carry on and ignore this list, factories and resources are more important than these states
You make it look so easy. My arrival in Europe was successful but only after a nearly endless slog. Not much fun sadly. Man I suck at this game but really want to be better. Lots of studying w this game.
14:15 one thing I like to do is build the agency since January 1st, 1936. It doesn't take extra time, just the upgrades do. Then I dispatch the best agent available to a country like Bhutan or Luxembourg. By the time war hits, I will already have a level 2 or almost level 2 agent, which is huge.
Can't wait for the Austro-Hungary guide
This is way different than my USA playthroughs. For me, it's NAVs, CAS, and cheap Subs only.
Can we get an update for By Blood alone? This guide was really good despite events in my game and me being slow leading me to have to improvise quickly, and I would really like one for By Blood Alone now that I have it please!
If you want a good challenge: Cap Japan with AUS with the nuclear option with +2 clicks on Japan by 1 Jan 1946; I play it a lot and its doable, the worst part is the USA naval invading once you kill their fleet.
Small lobbying effort is more cost effective than medium lobbying effort. 45 days x 0.75 pp cost = 33,75 pp, 30 days x 0.3 pp cost = 9 pp(9x2=18pp for equal amount of rep&sen). Medium lobbying effort is useless unless you need the chairs immediatly(for a focus) . Unless i am missing something.
You have 0 pp gain to start the game. You can't get -ve pp from pp gain so there is no cost to either. Therefore medium lobbying effort is undefined (infinitely) more cost effective. After you get some pp gain its less cost effective but more time efficient which can be useful when you need to swing the house in your favour quickly.
I understand, for some reason the election tends to sweep more representetives when you have more of them, for example when you have 300 rep, it sets to 140 rep but if you had say 240 rep it sets to 180 or 200. Idk if the election modifier is completely random but it differs every time i play and seems to be less atrocious when you have less rep&sen. So i try to time a MLE and pay farm subsidies right after election and after MLE ends one more MLE and SLE to cover it up for selective training focus. If thats the case then perhaps having rep&sen just enough to pass selective training is a better choice with backup plan i mentioned?
I never knew Heavy Cruisers are counted as screens, this is good to know
They are not. Heavy cruisers, CA are capital ships
@@miguelangelo7201 Yeah obviously but the way I undrestood what 71Cloak said was that for some reason the bonuses of screens apply for them
Great video, you could try rushing for Heavy Fighter 2 ( there is a focus that gives a 100% research or 300%, cant remember now ) instead of normal fighters because of their massive range. From Iwo Jima you have enough range to hit the japanese home islands.
wait designer gets added when you design your ships i thought it only counted for researched hulls.
that actually makes way more sense now that i think about it.
It changed with no step back.
Every time the UK asks me to reduce ships, they declare war on me ☠️
-50% civ building with undisturbed iso btw, better to just build infastructure
I'm aware. Infrastructure only gets you so far. Doing it this way will net you 30 civs and 5-10 mils on jan 1 1940.
How are medium lobbying efforts more cost effective than small ones? For a small you pay 0,3PP * 30d = 9PP for 5S, 25R. Medium is 0,75PP * 45d = 33,75PP for 10S, 50R. Two small lobbying efforts will get you up to 10S, 50R for 18PP in 60 days, compared to one medium getting you the same amount quicker, in 45 days, but for 33,75PP, almost double. Am I missing something? I don't know how the "up to" mechanic works exactly, perhaps I'm missing something essential.
Hilarious but despite your assurances, France declared war on me and put me at war with the allies on historical due to the naval treaty violation. Gotta love the AI.
You're either violating the treaty way earlier than me or you are really unlucky. You should probably be waiting until after Italy/Japan drop out of the treaty. I have done this multiple times and never once has anyone other than the UK cared and they never did anything if I promised to back down (even though I don't actually go back below).
@@71Cloak I'm guessing I drew the short straw on the RNG this run since in my previous democratic USA runs I have broke the treaty before and never had this happen either on historical. Gotta say though it's making for a very interesting game since purely democratic countries typically aren't able to conquer like this. I should also mention that I did wait until Italy/Japan dropped out so I'm at a loss.
Sounds dumb, but you can avoid treaty issues with France by releasing Puerto Rico as a puppet. (France gets mad because if you own PR, you have territory touching them, when they get the wargoal).
Japan can and will also wardec you if you cause issues with the treaty. Can actually use that fact to really cheese the game in SP (would never be allowed in MP).
Basically, release Hawaii, Mariana, and Puerto Rico as puppets (so you still have access to them). At game start, make sure to keep up production on CAs, wait a few days to start stating(coring) Alaska without doing a focus. Once you've clicked that button, start lobbying and doing new deal>WPA, When New Deal finishes, use the PP from that to drop out of the treaty. After a while you'll get an ultimatum from the UK, and then fail to disarm. Japan will declare on you in mid-late 36, france won't typically bother you, neither will the UK. Don't call any of your puppets in, and let Japan take Attu Island (the only land in range of them they can take).
Once the grant-statehood is finished (can complete even if Japan holds attu island), you'll have a core on attu, which if Japan holds it will trigger you as able to do the homeland defense act. Whiich basically means the US in late 36 early 37, loses the great depression and jumps straight to war economy.
Have fun from there. Can keep Puerto Rico, and use spies to influence France for a while so they won't dec on you (they'll always do it about a year later it seems), which gives you an in on a war in Europe as well. If you dawdle just right, you can eventually be a democratic US at war with literally every other major (but being on war economy in 37), and get to have a very interesting game of almost-world conquest.
Thank you for the amazing guides so far, can you please release a guide for Nationalist or Communist China?
I really need to make an accurate naval combat mod. Depth charges are only useful if you have Strike Force/Patrol ASW squads. Subs get automatically revealed if defending so it’s the only way you will actually be able to do damage.
Carriers should be buffed by making Port/Naval Strikes from them much stronger to represent the fact that carriers would be FUCKED if they ever found themselves in gun range of a battle fleet!
I’d also add support for destroyer escorts and fix destroyers: historically they had a lot more range and I’d give them 50% module cost to represent the fact that navies produced dozens of destroyers w/depth charges, lots of guns and AA without costing prohibitively much as they do in vanilla!
There have been some naval overhaul mods. I recall 1 from right after MTG came out that made designing ships quite granular. Slot layout was built differently. EG there was 1 slot for the main battery, you'd pick for a battleship, anything from 6x10in guns, to 9x16, there was some flavor text about layouts. But basically, caliber dictated piercing, and caliber+number of guns dictated damage (and reduced speed, increased cost). There were techs for different hull forms/armor layouts (worked together to get you reliability, speed, and visibility stats) different deck loadouts for carriers (and corresponding costs). Could actually make useful CVL/CVEs due to decreased cost. Carriers had a proper armor slot.
Twas pretty good, but I think the guy/guys working on it gave up a couple years ago. Course nothing can be done to fight the ingame "battle lines" system, nor the hardcoded 4 carrier limit.
Host is probably wrong about the medium lobbying effort being more cost effective. I'd need to check, but unless changed in a recent patch, you get more congress critters per political power with the small lobbying effort.
At the start of the game when you are running 1 per focus they don't technically have a cost because you are going to be sitting at 0 pp anyways. So they are more cost effective because there is no cost.
Hello 71Cloak at first I want to say that I'm a big fan of your videos! One thing I asked myself for a long time: How much impact has veterancy in this game? So how much better performs a seasoned or veteran unit compared to a regular or not trained unit. Maybe that is something for a future video of you! Keep up the good work mate!
Veterancy is a pretty big buff to units. Each level above 2 gives a 25% bonus which is pretty big. The problem is veterancy above lvl 3 (25% bonus) is nearly impossible to get and maintain. It would require field hospitals which not worth the cost.
@@71Cloak Yeah, everyone says so... But is it really tested? I mean like the thing with the Night Attack Buff. Everyone thought its shit until you made a good video about it :D Maybe its worth to get the 75% bonus. Of course that needs some testing because there is no real explanation of what exactly gets buffed, right?
@@CoachDukeSnap Its literally just -50% default and then each bonus is added to that. you get 10% land night attack, now the penalty is 40%, you get the 25% from gbp right, now its 15%. That's it, its really simple.
I think if you are carefull about the attrition and supply you can keep veterancy of armored units but i agree it is very difficult for infantry
@@alptekinhac3682 attrition should not cause a division to lose veterancy. You don't lose manpower to attrition.
Fun video, thanks! Any thoughts on doing a Republican Spain playthrough? Or perhaps a Monarchist one and taking over South America?
nice tanks bro
"We could kick them from the faction" and they would bloody deserve it. Stupid UK always kicking me for causing WT just because I capitulated the Soviets after they attacked me.
Why are u using normal fighters instead of heavy fighters wich have greater range and can keep up with your tactical bombers?
You forgot clicking "medium lobbying effort" before choosing a focus
It still worked, you just can't start the game. If time has passed you're locked out of it, but as long as you haven't unpaused the game you can still do it.
You can start the game. You just can't have a focused selected. Which I did sort of forget but then remembered before unpausing
i played a bunch of USA, medium lobbying effort is very PP inefficient, terrible.
small, gives up to 5 Senators and 25 Representatives for daily -0.3 PP(takes 30 days)
medium, gives up to 10 Senators and 50 Representatives for daily -0.75 PP(takes 45 day)
do the math, but not only is medium lobbying much more expensive, it takes also longer.
please dont do medium effort.
I tried following the steps today and have two questions:
Do you need random events for war support, cause mine only reached 30% in early '39, so about half year behind schedule?
And 2nd: how likely is it that the UK and France attack you, cause that also happened in early '39 and was pretty much the only reason I could even start giant wakes.
The brits always go to war with because of my navy. What am I doing wrong? I'm doing the same thing he is.
have you ever though of doing Usa as a fascit or Communist?
Why continue getting lobbying after you finished the agricultural adjustment act? the election in November resets any progress, just lobby after the election to save on pp/consumer goods.
Also doing the transport planes exploit is also very viable to do, so you don't have to worry about command power. (just continously right click on any airzone with transport planes while on air supply mission to get infinite command power)
@@Dankmaster532 i generally speaking don't use obvious exploits unless they have been known for a while and paradox still hasn't patched them.
Also, if i had timed it slightly better it would have finished just after the election like the farm subsidies did giving the boost to the next congress rather than the previous.
Great Britain cursed my run after 3 years of doing nothing declaring me the war for the naval treaty :(
Great video for a newbie like me :P
But there's just one thing i don't quite understand, why refitting old CAs with all medium batteries instead of light batteries like the one you designed later in the video? On your naval meta guide video you said the light attack CLs are good against the AI. Is it for tanking purpose or else?
I wanted to learn USA for mp purposes but this looks so darn complicated. Guess I am going to stay a Germany/France player, navy is so confusing in this game.
One particular thing about your destroyer design: If you do not have a depth charge, will it be able to deal with submarines?
All destroyers have 1 depth charge by default. They can deal with subs the ai designs.
Question regarding building ships w/ the treaty, I haven't tried it, but couldn't you just put it in the queue and then not finish it? or does it still count against the naval treaty as soon as it is in the build/refit queue?
Also, any chance you could do viability of Heavy Fighters vs Fighters in the larger air zones? I know you did a test in Europe and obviously fighters are going to work wonders there, but the larger zones in the pacific (and elsewhere in the world too) seem like the ideal situation for heavies due to the range.
The treaty only counts finished ships but I'm lazy and that sounds like micro.
i dont get how you have 181 factories in October, I'm following the guide step by step but have 20 factories less
The only thing i doubt with you is dispersed industry
Concentrated is indeed better
Why is most the focus tree and submarine stuff not in my game?
Why are u never picking organiser for the reinforcment rate?
Organizer gives supply reduction not reinforce rate. And i do tend to take it. The reinforment rate one just isn't that big of a deal in SP unless you have inferior units and are going to have tons kicked out of the battle all the time.
4:29 will you also convert them later or use them as they are?
The destroyers. As they are.
I actually did refit mine just to get the electric boat company boosts while I was refitting the cruisers, it was definitely nice and I probably lost a few less overall, but it was more for fun and because I had the dockyards/time before the fleet was needed.
As Cloak said though, with the speed buffs, destroyer leader etc, you barely lose even screen ships against the Japanese navy even without refitting the destroyers.
How to reach the panel to request expeditionary forces? Thanks!
I've watched a couple of your videos now and I notice you like 30 and 40 width divisions. I recently read a paper from reddit of someone doing a study on the most effective combat width, which were 15, 18 and 27 width divisions. Do you have any thoughts on that?
The paper doubled the over the combat width penalty to make it look way worse than it is. Also it assumes you are operating in all terrains, 27 for example is horrible in plains but that gets hidden.
@@71Cloak so what widths do you recommend?
That depends a lot on nation size. If I'm a small nation and just want enough to cover the line first 12 or 16 width infantry with support companies (also for very early wars). 20-24 works pretty well, especially 9/1art for a holding divisions. They inflict a lot of damage on the ai when they just bash there heads against your line. 28 or 30 width divisions for dedicated offensive divisions, either tanks or infantry, work really well in plains and forests.
I don't ever do anything bigger than 30, at that point coordination starts to screw you far too much.
Wow thanks. It would be really cool if you made a video testing the different combat widths for both offense and defense.
i have 0 idea what r u doing with the navy ,the rest is great
I built a couple of destroyers then subs.
I also do not get it that tactical bombers can be so powerful in hitting ships, tactical bombers have very poor naval targeting status. Is it because of the radar that increases naval detection?
There are a lot of them and base strike give +40% naval targeting which helps a bit.
Meta ships pain me as s RP naval main
Need to make marines for MP, if you dont mention it new players wont make them = usa wont be able to land either japan/germany unless england/canada player made them.
A well built dday wall wont be taken out by marines anyways. You should have the us do amtanks.
@@71Cloak Ah you thinking about late game, sometimes the player on the soviet union is uncapable to even hold germany till 42 or 3, which makes the need of an early dday much more. Talking from experience, where this happend to me about 15 times.
But yes, if its a massive mp, with capable player at all countries, then your way would be best.
One army training hasn’t worked for over a year now.
Tell me you didn't watch the video without telling me you didn't watch the video.
Your game looks really different. Is it because I only have no step back and no other DLCs?
I use 2 small ui mods to make frontlines look better and air wing deployment better. Outside of that it would just be the dlc.
I wish ussr's runs were something like this - development and fighting. It's enjoyable to fight on the huge eastern front but spending 3 years on paranoia makes it unplayable for me, the way they made it is so stupid and pointless
How did you get to 30% war support so fast? Is it RNG events or did i miss you clicking on something?
You should get 30% as soon as the panay event fires.
Why did you go for Fleet in Being?
49:26 why paradox add these,but didn’t add Prussia lol
Why is it when I start my game, I don't have the carriers in production or the new orleans/wichita classes
No clue. Do you have man the guns?
@@71Cloak ah that probably is it, I downloaded it from gamepass lol I don't see that listed in the DLC portion of the launcher.. I'm new to the game as a whole.
When did heavy cruisers count as screens? They’ve always at least displayed as capital ships in naval menus?
For the purpose of design companies and other bonuses that apply to screens they are screens. In the actual battle they will line up like capital ships and fight like capital ships, but the bonuses they receive are the ones for screens.
@@71Cloak God I both love and hate this game haha! Appreciate it!
France guide next
At the time you can go for the Giant Wakes, my war support is still at 25% and it doesn't seem to go up. Do you know why that's the case and how to solve that?
Has the panay incident fired. That is usually required to go to do the giant wakes.
@@71Cloak no, that will be why
It only happened mid 1939 in my run.
Also, what is the tank design you put in production to convert it later to the good tanks? Because I can't find a design with cost 4.16 that I can put into production. (The chassis had a cost of 4.16 but it doesn't have a main armament, so I have to add that and that increases the cost
@@sanderdas9401 panay incident is entirely dependent on japan taking states in china. Only way to guarantee that happens is to make sure is to buff game at the start of the game but that disabled achievements (i think)
Tank costs got slightly rebalanced but it still works. Heavy machine gun, light 1 man turret riveted armour.
How do you set up that tank 'frontline'?
Why dispersed industry rather than concentrated?
Dispersed is way more flexible, allows you to swap lines more efficiently, and out produces concentrated for the first 15 ish months.
Hello, can you make an Japan guide?
Already did.
Why avoid special measures decision?
Its the most expensive decision of the 3 and something you don't want to use unless you absolutely have to.
Hey is it worth it doing the fire fighting drills
Reducing the chance of critical hits is pretty nice. They do critical hits also do more damage so you don't want to take them. However, I will admit i often don't do them in single-player.
Is going for Strategic Bombers viable?
Depends on what you are trying to do. Sure if you want to sit back and just bomb Germany into the stone age it will work but you're going to have to sacrifice something to do it.
It can be coordinated in mp to the point where strategic bombers are often banned.
@@71Cloak Should Strats always be escorted by Heavy Fighters?
Never encountered a ban of Strats and Sub3s :D
@@Luca-ys5dv Yeah heavy fighters have greater range and air superiority than a light fighter IIRC. Ideal for supporting strat bombers.
@@71Cloak What kind of coordination has to be done to achieve that?
a bit late and as a new player,i always have allies horrifictly die to axis,which makes italy naval invade canada and make a puppet or occupy it. I suck so i legit lose all of eastern coast
Make Confederate US guide.
I don't know mate, I pretty much like Kashubia maybe bc im kashubian XD
21:43
25:16
I can't get this game to work worth a shit. Thanks for the video but my version of HOI4 is slightly different that yours. No spies, no decryption that I know of.
you need la resostance dlc for that. but you can skip that part and still follow it.
Most boring major in the game
But its 2 focuses a 140 days!!!!!
2:23 thats not true, medium costs .75x45 or 26.25 for 10/50, small costs .3x30 or 9 for 5/25, its more time efficient but less cost efficient. One question is there a reason you go for ware group before limited intervention? LI gives a lot.
Its both more cost effective and time effective at the start of the game because you have so little pp/day gain you actually aren't going to gain any when you are running either effort. So the real cost is .3 for 15 days which is basically negligible and you get way more support. So overall just way better before you get rid of the great depression.
I couldn't at any point in time. I got really unlucky with house support this play through. Either way I prefer the neutrality acts 200 pp and the path below its a ton of stuff. If i had the support from the house i would have done neutrality act when I did army department but I didn't actually have the support.
@@71Cloak negative pp is a thing, if you spam small you can always get it (unless you min roll both like 5 times in a row which is so statistically unlikely its laughable)
@@janehrahan5116 negative pp gain is a thing. If you are at 0 pp and your gain is 0 you will stay at 0 pp. You will not go below 0 unless you get an event that reduces your pp.