tbh the neutral swiss tree is the most fun, thought the balance of power really makes Switzerland unfriendly to beginners. You really need to make very specific choices to rush down that path before anschluss.
Yeah honestly I really dislike the balance of power system. Especially because often it can just get you stuck on one side. For Ethiopia its basically completely unused (apart from the bonuses it can give you) but I think the way its done with Italy is pretty good. You still need to watch out for it a little bit but nowhere near as much as with Switzerland where almost every focus requires a specific balance
@@GamePilLP I feel like they did a pretty good job of keeping the balance very easy to manipulate for the most part. I've never felt like I should be moving it somewhere without being able to and it's adds a lot of flavour. One of the best additions imo.
I actually think that Switzerland presents the greatest challenges to established players, since it works so differently from every other country that 1000+ hours in the game will do little to prepare you for it (contrast Ethiopia, where although you start the game under existential threat from a more powerful invader, managing this is largely a question of employing the standard combat mechanics well). Stuff like the council mechanics and the balance of power are very different to the way the standard political system works but this is not so unfriendly to beginners (who will not have learned a different system yet) as it is to established players who attempt to approach Switzerland as they would any arbitrary country and overlook the specialised mechanics.
@@plebisMaximus well, for italy, you lose like 10% bop to the fascist council for every state occupied by an enemy in a war. Not just cores, mind you, literally any territory. It works fine if you try to stay as faithful as possible to history (except for the part where they lost the war obviously) but map painting becomes super punishing for no reason, because if you manage to take france or some other major early, and don’t want to have to puppet all of french africa due to lag/clicking all the buttons to set that up, you are screwed if you go to war the uk, because they will almost always have the army to be able to seriously contend africa, and Italy really does not, not in numbers, tech or ability, so it’s very possible that you have a civil war and lose before they even touch one of your cores. They absolutely need to change it around so that you only lose balance of power if you lose a core state of *mainland* italy, not just cores, because that’d then punish you for gaining cores.
I love how you explain the mechanics of the game to new players and beginners in your videos. It's absolutely lovely, and you're probably one of the few youtubers that do it, so thank you.
11:05 YES they should def start having collapsable trees. Maybe they could add a feature where there's and arrow bottom right of focus icon that you could click to hide too but if they do it like some mods do it that is great too. Would be lovely with spain focus tree
Secret or not so secret cooperation with the Allies gives you also one research slot down the line. It if it was possible to flip easily the balances of power one could research the secret path to to get access to that part of the focus tree as well. And if there is enough time.
Important: In the current version of the game, nearly everything in the Armed Neutrality and Buero Ha branches require the Balance of Power to be in favour of the cantons, so you cannot pick up these focuses after beelining Preempt Anschluss etc. unless you go through the entire business of flipping the Balance of Power back. Also, I haven't actually played with Furrer as president for life but my reading of the script is that his extra research slot is *not* a one-time thing, like all presidents for life you can take his presidential initiative about once a year and there's nothing preventing you from getting an extra research slot every time. Again, haven't tested this but you may want to check your save game since this is pretty big if it pans out.
there was once a tank which was only in use in Switzerland, the so called panzer 68. which was based on the panzer 61 and his older brother mittlerer panzer 58. Greetings from Switzerland
Dispersed is better if you keep switching equipment to newer equipment. If I remember correctly, It's about a 5-7year payback period that makes concentrated better
After 4,500+ hrs of playtime, I'd say dispersed industry is better in most cases. The biggest part is the production efficiency retention. Anytime you upgrade to a new tech, you loose efficiency. With concentrated it's way more noticeable. The only time I've found concentrated to be the better choice is when playing the Chinese nations. This is because they already have a massive debuff to retention anyways, so you shouldn't be switching production around. Pure numbers are what matters. Basically every other nation dispersed is the better option.
The odds of the target nations accepting any of the expansion stuff from Switzerland all are dependent on the same factors. Namely, if A) Switzerland is a player, B) if historical AI is off, C) if they have a good relation with Switzerland, and D) if Switzerland have a colossally larger military than the target. For the last one, it's two factors. First, if their division count is less than 80% of yours. And two, if their division count is less than 30% of yours. Also, the relation modifier is *massive* - like, it multiplies whatever total chance you have by a factor of 15 for the Austrians, and a factor of 10 for the other two. With all combined factors checked off, there's still a chance they'll say no because there's always at least 1% for the alternative outcome so long as nothing modifies the AI chance factor for that outcome to be outright zero (which in this case, it's always a flat 10 factor, compared against factors as large as 3,000 or 10,000). You can check this all in the event file BBA_Switzerland.txt - specifically, the events "BBA_swiss_expansion.9" and "BBA_swiss_expansion.12" (also "BBA_swiss_expansion.6" for the Vorarlberg focus, which interestingly also includes outcomes for if Hitler controls Austria). Also, I want to point out that in this campaign Italy essentially handed over 16 military factories (probably more due to the territory being uncored until the Alpine Protectorate focus) for no reason whatsoever, lmao.
Have a good look on that map at the beginning. They still didn't include Schaffhausen (up North) as a part of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (in the East) as a country!
Liechtenstein gets acknowledged in the Swiss focus tree After taking Vorarlberg you can create a VP for Liechtenstein in the area, meant to show that the principality is now annexed into your nation.
So in the latest version of the game, you can't get the Canton focuses all willy-nilly while being on the Council side of the Balance of Power bar like Bitt3r did here. The compromise I found was to switch to Free Trade, do 1 Council Diplomatic Effort, and by selecting the bottom of the three guiding principle options, this will be enough so that you can get Partial Mobilization by the war support increase from the balance of power shift shortly before Reaffirm Spiritual Defense nukes your war support. Then you do Fortify Border with Italy, 1 more Council Diplomatic effort, Armed Neutrality, and rush over to Allied Gold before you lose the required 70% democrat support. After this, just save up political power, MAYBE use 100 to get more military readiness (+50 Command Power). At this point you *should* have enough time to do Pro Helvetia (I do it first for the PP boost) and then get down the Frontier Defense Plan tree to Total Defense before the balance of power shifts over to the Council. As soon as you get when you have 60-ish of the 70 days of Fight until the Death (or Buero Ha if you left that path for last instead), do a Council Diplomatic Effort which will take 50 days to complete. The focus finishes, and you begin Total Defense (or Pro Helvetia, respectively) When you're 6-8 days into that focus, do Strengthen Military High Command. The effects of the two should go off after Total Defense is finished, and should put you at just enough or nearly enough Council support to do Gotthardbund. Finally, if you saved enough PP for it, do Council Diplomatic effort, Strengthen Military High Command, and Consolidate Council Power and viola, you should be at Full Council Power in time to do Anschluss with an extra 35 days to spare (On historical AI Focuses), firmly on the path of the Alpine Protectorate while having a few significant buffs from the Canton focus tree. You're free to do as you like from here. How strong this actually is, I have no idea. But it's the path I figured out to get the +20% division org and the political power gain + consumer good factory reduction. Edit: If you skip either Increase Defense Budget or National Defense Fund (Idk how recommendable this is, but I might suggest skipping National Defense Fund first as you'll need the mils for your guns in the early game.) you can also dive down into Patriotic Shooting clubs and possibly Train Swiss Women.
The bonuses for the military branch are really nice, but I manpower could end up being critical. As an alternative, you could instead do the Patriotic Shooting Clubs & Train Swiss Women to get +20k pop & +25% pop bonuses respectively. You also get one less -10 opinion modifier for what that's worth. You could even do Adopt the Rumantsch Language + Train Swiss Women + Frontier Defense Plan. A .40 daily army XP gain + 15% army XP gain for a 10 CP Chief of Army might be a worthwhile tradeoff for 20k pop. Downside to this option is a 10% move to the canton side, which I don't think is insurmountable. Both options should align within the same time frame and gives some extra options depending on priorities. Whether someone wants stat buffs, pop, or slightly less pop with some army XP gain. Ultimately, I think it's kind of dumb that you're bound by a balance of power with a power that effectively no longer exists once you change governments. If I have absolute power over my country, why can I no longer improve my military?
Maybe there wasn't in the version you're playing, but to answer one of your questions there is an additional research slot at the end of the democratic tree, under weapons of democracy, meaning Switzerland can get 5 total.
Bitt3rSteel talking about Ethiopia winning against Italy, it reminded me of a recent game I played where the Italian Ai just sucked and got pushed by Ethiopia out of the south and lost the war
When I did mine, I didn't have to worry about the size of my army. I just use spies and improve relations, which seems to work most of the time. Got all the Swiss Achievement in one playthrough lol.
I played as the Swiss on my first game of BBA. I managed to get all their achievements practically by luck as I didn't really understand the mechanics of the balance of power at that point. I managed to get both the French and Germans to guarantee me after the Italians started hating me. In the subsequent war it was very easy to hold the Italians in my southern states while the Germans moved in through Austria and the French moved across the French Alps. The Italian overthrow of Mussolini happened and what remained of Fascist Italy capitulated not long after. I took a couple of states in the peace conference but not enough to get Swiss Cheese but I did get You Shall Not Pass from the endeavour. Then when Germany kicked off WW2 They were bogged down in the low countries for years with neither country capitulating - as they had too many forces committed to fighting in the Austrian Alps against Italy. Also for some reason one of the many odd things that started happening was that they went to war with Lithuania even though they already had Memel. This caused Lithuania to join the Allies which will be important later. Eventually my militia troops were strong enough, and the Germans on my border weak enough that I felt comfortable chancing my arm against them. Once world tension had reached 100% (which took far longer than I expected) I justified and declared war on Germany and pushed through their exposed southern flank helping to capitulate the Germans by May 1942. I took some more stuff in the peace deal but somehow still not enough for Swiss Cheese (I can only assume the 5 states had to be annexed in the same conference as I'm sure I had more than 5 states outside of my country not contiguous at this point) but did get You Shall Not Pass. Now this is where the Lithuania joining the Allies becomes important. At some point during the mess of Germany's war the Soviets did their attempt to eat Lithuania causing the Comintern to go to war with the Allies. I joined that war and then waited. My military strength was negligible at this point so gave my army to the UK as expeditionaries and spent all my resources on keeping the territories I already had and providing lend lease to other allies. That war dragged on but eventually the Soviets collapsed in 1945. My war participation was just enough that I was able to annex some of their cheap east Russian states separate from each other and get Swiss Cheese but I was still just short of Everybody gets a canton. Thankfully the new peace deal mechanics meant that some of our old adversaries were still kicking around. Mr Hilter's Germany still existed in Moravia so I justified and took it for myself. Did the same against Nationalist Spain and called my allies in. The US turned most of it into a puppet but I did snag western Aragon which was just enough to get me to my final 24th state... though Franco somehow still ended up owning Catalonia when it was done. The border gore was disgusting, it was a total mess, but it was satisfying enough that I felt the need to share it all in a UA-cam comment.
Don't know if it has been mentioned, but if you struggle with the absolute neutrality mechanic, you can just do this: Improve relationship with the countries in question.
i have to say that they even changed some of the focuses because in my game it doesnt says "Cantons is the active side" so i cant take a lot of focuses
So for those who do not know the difference between dispersed and concentrated Factory Dispersed Factory is diverse, it allows you to change from civs to mils and mils to civs faster. Concentrated Factory has better production, however granting more "felt" drawback when changing production line. For example if you have all factoreis in use and making lots of different thing but you have a surplus of guns and think you dont need to make them for the time beign, if you change guns production line into tanks production line, you get slower adaptability of the workers working in those factories. And accordingt o paradox forum, Concentrated is better for Multiplayer games where is Dispersed for singleplayer
Every time you use mediums, I tell myself I need to start using them too, but then when I do play with tanks, I still just stick to lights. Maybe one day I'll learn.
A little exploit I discovered for when you have full Canton control is that until you fill the vacant seat after electing a president, you can replace the other two guys for free as well. You're only locked in once the vacant seat is filled.
That must have been done on the different version of the game. At the current state going all the way for the left side blocks all military and militia related focuses. You can't get that recrutable population modifiers anymore if you rush for anshluss
The compromise I found was to switch to Free Trade, do 1 Council Diplomatic Effort, and by selecting the bottom of the three guiding principle options, this will be enough so that you can get Partial Mobilization by the war support increase from the balance of power shift shortly before Reaffirm Spiritual Defense nukes your war support. Then you do Armed Neutrality, 1 more Council Diplomatic effort, Fortify Border with Italy, and rush over to Allied Gold before you lose the required 70% democrat support. After this, just save up political power, MAYBE use 100 to get more military readiness (+50 Command Power). At this point you *should* have enough time to do Pro Helvetia (I do it first for the PP boost) and then get down the Frontier Defense Plan tree to Total Defense before the balance of power shifts over to the Council. As soon as you get when you have 60-ish of the 70 days of Fight until the Death (or Buero Ha if you left that path for last instead), do a Council Diplomatic Effort which will take 50 days to complete. The focus finishes, and you begin Total Defense (or Pro Helvetia, respectively) When you're 6-8 days into that focus, do Strengthen Military High Command. The effects of the two should go off after Total Defense is finished, and should put you at just enough or nearly enough Council support to do Gotthardbund. Finally, if you saved enough PP for it, do Council Diplomatic effort, Strengthen Military High Command, and Consolidate Council Power and viola, you should be at Full Council Power in time to do Anschluss with an extra 35 days to spare (On historical AI Focuses), firmly on the path of the Alpine Protectorate while having a few significant buffs from the Canton focus tree. You're free to do as you like from here.
I have also found the Austria does not need to be intimidated. I played multiple games without building my army up at all before going for the focus and they accepted every time.
as a tip if you wanna split 120 units into 5 armies press s twice then remove 6 more units with control-click and then you are left with 96units witch can be split into 48s and then 24s rly easily :) just wanted to say since i saw it at 22:45
the next dlc will probably be scandinavia but I really want one for south america, they got tons of stuff they can do with Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia and maybe Honduras as well (banana republic), they should also focus it on money and introduce currency into the game
In Germany we say: “For the Führer” In Britain we say: “For King and Country” In Russia we say: “For the Motherland” In Switzerland we say: “For Mountains and Toblerone”
I love the look of Swizterland after annexing all of Austria but for the opposite reason. It looks like it would be easier to cut in two than AI Italy. At least until you get your Italian claims.
I've seen one run where the war in Ethiopia dragged out so long they joined the Allies and France capitulated Italy before they even joined the Axis. LMAO
There is this weird mic static sound for me on your videos for some reason, and its only on yours and i hope it goes away soon it suddenly started for me from one of your videos. Though i love your videos, keep up the good work.
It is better for single player early game agression to take dispersed, majors on the other hand generally gain more if you are going for middle-late game from concentrated
@@Bitt3rSteel Well the production efficiency retention and base buff you get from dispersed is so big that it will take years for concentrated to start out producing dispersed. + the factory bombing vulnerability is nice.
It's important to mention that it seems that the country ideology once you do the protectorate focus seems to be the one of the presidnt, mine was unfortunately communist.
I can’t play a non-historical game without Germany and Hungary forming the central powers, Switzerland annexing Italy, and the U.S. becoming the CSA anymore
The huge alps united Switzerland, is just Switzerland plus vorarlberg. But giga and much more mountain Am I the only one who sees it because only some of my friends see it
9:30 If your Upgrading A lot and Changing your line then Dispersed. If Not Concentrated Usually as minor nation I use Concentrated , You have to make sure you have a stockpile of the older models before you change the line . If not You will have to rely on lend lease and that is always iffy. Concentrated has a higher cap in the end you will more of the same Product or weapon. Dispersed is generally better for Major nations that have a Land or building slots to build more Factories. So as a minor Nation I have plain. Max Research T3 guns asp . T3 Artillery ASP ALL (Anti-Air , Tank and Standard ART ) Your not going to change the line until you have the t3 Researched . So you will end up with huge stockpile of T1 guns . T2 Fighters A Must since you Can't Out CAS a Major Nation. and Interwar bomber is fine for CAS. It's hard to make Dedicated CAS as a Minor Nation. Generally you won't have the production For Tanks . So I consecrate on Special Forces . Which Requires infantry Equipment. Just my 2 cents
I didn't see the research slot unlock on Furrer's tooltip, but playing with 1.12.12 I did see one way down toward the bottom of the democratic focus branch attached to the nuclear research bonus. I have to double-check, either Paradox added a second possible slot to Switzerland or moved the one unlock to a different spot. Either way, it looks like Switzerland is the only country where a fascist run requires a trip down the democracy tree. I gotta say though, if you're not planning on conquering your neighbors then the left side of the armed defense tree is superpowered, with something like twelve bonus factories. Definitely worth taking that for a defensive nuclear Switzerland, so you can use more slots for reactors and a rocket launch site.
Is it possible that there is a bug with the tree in your video? You where able to do Frontier Defense Plan even though you had 0% Canton support but 38% Council support, should be Impossible to take that focus, correct me if im wrong please
I’m a bit confused here, for the “frontier defence plan” Focus you need to on the cantons side right, but right after you did that focus you where able to do Anschluss which you need to be left for, on the federal council side
so I'm trying to follow this guide and a lot of the focuses he is showing have different requirements to what is appearing in game. all the focuses regarding the military focuses in the centre of the tree require to be on the cantons side, whereas in the video, bittersteel is able to complete them when very far into the federal council. not sure of this is an older version he is playing on, but it makes the majority of the guide impossible as a lot of the focuses cannot be completed in the order of the video
If you look in the video, the focuses actually do have those requirements...they just don't seem to be enforcing them on him. Some of the other focuses are getting correctly locked out though, so I suspect it was just a bug in whatever version he recorded this on.
@@Kandall05161 In his video the Requirement says "Cantons is the active side in Balance of Powers", in my game it says "The balance of powers is more than 0.0% on the cantons side." So there is some difference
I just got the new DLC, and Switzerland is the best! I broke neutrality immediately with Italy, which allowed me to puppet them and take their alps. Then easy alpine protectorate.
Hey man, I love your videos a lot! Just a slight thing though (this is not a criticism, just something I've noticed), there's a really high pitched buzz in your videos that gives me a headache when I'm listening through headphones so I can only really watch your videos through my phone/speakers. Just in case anyone else is having the same problem I thought I'd point it out!
they patched this i believe, all of the focuses under armed neutrality requires canton side balance of powers. you cant pick focuses from left and right side of focus tree, if you do, then germany will gobble austria before you. what i do rushing full council power first right side of balance of power and picked the focus under neutrality.
Yeah I just tried this guide and it's very outdated. Allied gold now requires 65% democracy support so you have to be careful with your advisors, and then they've made the balance of power much trickier to navigate with most focuses now requiring cantonal or council support making it harder to switch between focus trees.
I tried this a few times (in today’s version obviously) but I can’t manoeuvre myself out of full council control. Current theory I have is that starting at the principals, it might be wiser to go for the democratic option so that the balance ticks you out of the full council control region. Still have to try this.
Okay I think I figured it out at large, you need to keep 300-400 PP ready at hand, to move yourself out of 'full council control' trough the decision to oust the president.I'll need a few test runs to figure out when to do what for perfection, but it can be done, I think.
I think the game is fixed between you recording and now, because I can’t progress down the middle path since the balance power is in the council’s favour.
Honestly, your guides have saved me so many time from a mental breakdown. The only thing that makes me rage every time is the ai cucking me out of territory I need
As far as disbursed vs concentrated, concentrated is only good if you plan on keeping a line on something for a long term. So if you're playing as China and need to keep a line on cheap inf equipment just to keep your troops supplied it works, for most situations dispersed is still best
Get your Tankmania on and try out World of Tanks for FREE here: tanks.ly/3yi2NeP
How is this comment 1 day old and the video only 1 hour old?!
Panzer 58 Mutz is the only Swiss tank (IIRC) in World of Tanks.
Dankus Memecus he is good fight him HOI4
@@andrzejrybickiToOn it is 3 hours old
It's "like a hot knife through butter"... Not "like a knife through butter", because cold butter is very hard.
The Swiss: I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire
Your New Empire?
you forgot the chocolate. Never forget chocolate ;)
@@Athrun82 Maybe we replace freedom with chocolate?
The Switzerland shall be Reorganized Into Swiss Condeferate Empire
I see through the lies of neutrality, I don't fear belligerence as you do
"It feels like I'm beating a harmless child."
-Bitt3rSteel, 2022
Talking about the German Reick mind you.
wait a minute how does he know what beating a harmless child feels like
the funniest thing is that he knows how beating a harmless child feels like
@@genralgaming5317 lmao, that's what I just said, great minds think alike
@@pixelchrome2 yes they do
tbh the neutral swiss tree is the most fun, thought the balance of power really makes Switzerland unfriendly to beginners. You really need to make very specific choices to rush down that path before anschluss.
if you do it right you can get the empire and then get the neutral military. I did this in a game and it was a lot of fun
Yeah honestly I really dislike the balance of power system. Especially because often it can just get you stuck on one side. For Ethiopia its basically completely unused (apart from the bonuses it can give you) but I think the way its done with Italy is pretty good. You still need to watch out for it a little bit but nowhere near as much as with Switzerland where almost every focus requires a specific balance
@@GamePilLP I feel like they did a pretty good job of keeping the balance very easy to manipulate for the most part. I've never felt like I should be moving it somewhere without being able to and it's adds a lot of flavour. One of the best additions imo.
I actually think that Switzerland presents the greatest challenges to established players, since it works so differently from every other country that 1000+ hours in the game will do little to prepare you for it (contrast Ethiopia, where although you start the game under existential threat from a more powerful invader, managing this is largely a question of employing the standard combat mechanics well). Stuff like the council mechanics and the balance of power are very different to the way the standard political system works but this is not so unfriendly to beginners (who will not have learned a different system yet) as it is to established players who attempt to approach Switzerland as they would any arbitrary country and overlook the specialised mechanics.
@@plebisMaximus well, for italy, you lose like 10% bop to the fascist council for every state occupied by an enemy in a war. Not just cores, mind you, literally any territory. It works fine if you try to stay as faithful as possible to history (except for the part where they lost the war obviously) but map painting becomes super punishing for no reason, because if you manage to take france or some other major early, and don’t want to have to puppet all of french africa due to lag/clicking all the buttons to set that up, you are screwed if you go to war the uk, because they will almost always have the army to be able to seriously contend africa, and Italy really does not, not in numbers, tech or ability, so it’s very possible that you have a civil war and lose before they even touch one of your cores. They absolutely need to change it around so that you only lose balance of power if you lose a core state of *mainland* italy, not just cores, because that’d then punish you for gaining cores.
I love how you explain the mechanics of the game to new players and beginners in your videos. It's absolutely lovely, and you're probably one of the few youtubers that do it, so thank you.
Glad you enjoy it!
Switzerland: *suddenly demobilizes their 400+ Divisions after getting territory*
Italy and France: "Wait--no what just happened"
switzerland: psych, got ya
Cabt is cok and ball torcher it allows easily accessible to the priv army
I had more. Than 400 divs and they BOTH said no
11:05 YES they should def start having collapsable trees. Maybe they could add a feature where there's and arrow bottom right of focus icon that you could click to hide too but if they do it like some mods do it that is great too. Would be lovely with spain focus tree
Agree
There is already the option in the game settings. I know it works for the Polish and Soviet FT.
They have that "hide inaccessible trees" setting but paradox and modders barely use it
Secret or not so secret cooperation with the Allies gives you also one research slot down the line. It if it was possible to flip easily the balances of power one could research the secret path to to get access to that part of the focus tree as well. And if there is enough time.
🤐
You need to demilitarise both Rhineland and Mosselland for that achievement.
Important: In the current version of the game, nearly everything in the Armed Neutrality and Buero Ha branches require the Balance of Power to be in favour of the cantons, so you cannot pick up these focuses after beelining Preempt Anschluss etc. unless you go through the entire business of flipping the Balance of Power back.
Also, I haven't actually played with Furrer as president for life but my reading of the script is that his extra research slot is *not* a one-time thing, like all presidents for life you can take his presidential initiative about once a year and there's nothing preventing you from getting an extra research slot every time. Again, haven't tested this but you may want to check your save game since this is pretty big if it pans out.
also u cant do fight until death after switzerland in the offense
Ever since bba came out I've been doing concentrated industry and i can feel the difference with the amount of units I get out.
there was once a tank which was only in use in Switzerland, the so called panzer 68. which was based on the panzer 61 and his older brother mittlerer panzer 58. Greetings from Switzerland
The tanks sounds more like german development 🤔(im german lul)
@@LeroxYT LOL XDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
@@LeroxYT nope, it was built in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, by a Swiss firm.
@@harjutapa ohh now i looked again, yeah i thought it would be a bit like the ru251 or the german m48 super
27:08 This would actually make for a really neat achievement
The Sounds of Our Torpedoes - As Switzerland, have Georg Von Trapp as a Naval Commander.
“Hyperrealistic Swissball isn’t real, they can’t hurt you”
Hyperrealistic Swissball:
Dispersed is better if you keep switching equipment to newer equipment. If I remember correctly, It's about a 5-7year payback period that makes concentrated better
After 4,500+ hrs of playtime, I'd say dispersed industry is better in most cases. The biggest part is the production efficiency retention. Anytime you upgrade to a new tech, you loose efficiency. With concentrated it's way more noticeable. The only time I've found concentrated to be the better choice is when playing the Chinese nations. This is because they already have a massive debuff to retention anyways, so you shouldn't be switching production around. Pure numbers are what matters. Basically every other nation dispersed is the better option.
The odds of the target nations accepting any of the expansion stuff from Switzerland all are dependent on the same factors. Namely, if A) Switzerland is a player, B) if historical AI is off, C) if they have a good relation with Switzerland, and D) if Switzerland have a colossally larger military than the target. For the last one, it's two factors. First, if their division count is less than 80% of yours. And two, if their division count is less than 30% of yours. Also, the relation modifier is *massive* - like, it multiplies whatever total chance you have by a factor of 15 for the Austrians, and a factor of 10 for the other two. With all combined factors checked off, there's still a chance they'll say no because there's always at least 1% for the alternative outcome so long as nothing modifies the AI chance factor for that outcome to be outright zero (which in this case, it's always a flat 10 factor, compared against factors as large as 3,000 or 10,000).
You can check this all in the event file BBA_Switzerland.txt - specifically, the events "BBA_swiss_expansion.9" and "BBA_swiss_expansion.12" (also "BBA_swiss_expansion.6" for the Vorarlberg focus, which interestingly also includes outcomes for if Hitler controls Austria).
Also, I want to point out that in this campaign Italy essentially handed over 16 military factories (probably more due to the territory being uncored until the Alpine Protectorate focus) for no reason whatsoever, lmao.
Have a good look on that map at the beginning. They still didn't include Schaffhausen (up North) as a part of Switzerland and Liechtenstein (in the East) as a country!
Liechtenstein gets acknowledged in the Swiss focus tree
After taking Vorarlberg you can create a VP for Liechtenstein in the area, meant to show that the principality is now annexed into your nation.
So in the latest version of the game, you can't get the Canton focuses all willy-nilly while being on the Council side of the Balance of Power bar like Bitt3r did here.
The compromise I found was to switch to Free Trade, do 1 Council Diplomatic Effort, and by selecting the bottom of the three guiding principle options, this will be enough so that you can get Partial Mobilization by the war support increase from the balance of power shift shortly before Reaffirm Spiritual Defense nukes your war support.
Then you do Fortify Border with Italy, 1 more Council Diplomatic effort, Armed Neutrality, and rush over to Allied Gold before you lose the required 70% democrat support. After this, just save up political power, MAYBE use 100 to get more military readiness (+50 Command Power).
At this point you *should* have enough time to do Pro Helvetia (I do it first for the PP boost) and then get down the Frontier Defense Plan tree to Total Defense before the balance of power shifts over to the Council. As soon as you get when you have 60-ish of the 70 days of Fight until the Death (or Buero Ha if you left that path for last instead), do a Council Diplomatic Effort which will take 50 days to complete. The focus finishes, and you begin Total Defense (or Pro Helvetia, respectively) When you're 6-8 days into that focus, do Strengthen Military High Command. The effects of the two should go off after Total Defense is finished, and should put you at just enough or nearly enough Council support to do Gotthardbund.
Finally, if you saved enough PP for it, do Council Diplomatic effort, Strengthen Military High Command, and Consolidate Council Power and viola, you should be at Full Council Power in time to do Anschluss with an extra 35 days to spare (On historical AI Focuses), firmly on the path of the Alpine Protectorate while having a few significant buffs from the Canton focus tree. You're free to do as you like from here.
How strong this actually is, I have no idea. But it's the path I figured out to get the +20% division org and the political power gain + consumer good factory reduction.
Edit: If you skip either Increase Defense Budget or National Defense Fund (Idk how recommendable this is, but I might suggest skipping National Defense Fund first as you'll need the mils for your guns in the early game.) you can also dive down into Patriotic Shooting clubs and possibly Train Swiss Women.
The bonuses for the military branch are really nice, but I manpower could end up being critical.
As an alternative, you could instead do the Patriotic Shooting Clubs & Train Swiss Women to get +20k pop & +25% pop bonuses respectively. You also get one less -10 opinion modifier for what that's worth.
You could even do Adopt the Rumantsch Language + Train Swiss Women + Frontier Defense Plan. A .40 daily army XP gain + 15% army XP gain for a 10 CP Chief of Army might be a worthwhile tradeoff for 20k pop. Downside to this option is a 10% move to the canton side, which I don't think is insurmountable.
Both options should align within the same time frame and gives some extra options depending on priorities. Whether someone wants stat buffs, pop, or slightly less pop with some army XP gain.
Ultimately, I think it's kind of dumb that you're bound by a balance of power with a power that effectively no longer exists once you change governments. If I have absolute power over my country, why can I no longer improve my military?
Thank you for this
Switzerland in our timeline: "Who cares what they did, they'll give us gold if they don't invade us!"
Switzerland in this timeline: "A L P S"
Maybe there wasn't in the version you're playing, but to answer one of your questions there is an additional research slot at the end of the democratic tree, under weapons of democracy, meaning Switzerland can get 5 total.
*The Hills Are Alive...*
*With the Sound of Gunshots!*
Bitt3rSteel talking about Ethiopia winning against Italy, it reminded me of a recent game I played where the Italian Ai just sucked and got pushed by Ethiopia out of the south and lost the war
When I did mine, I didn't have to worry about the size of my army. I just use spies and improve relations, which seems to work most of the time. Got all the Swiss Achievement in one playthrough lol.
I played as the Swiss on my first game of BBA. I managed to get all their achievements practically by luck as I didn't really understand the mechanics of the balance of power at that point.
I managed to get both the French and Germans to guarantee me after the Italians started hating me. In the subsequent war it was very easy to hold the Italians in my southern states while the Germans moved in through Austria and the French moved across the French Alps. The Italian overthrow of Mussolini happened and what remained of Fascist Italy capitulated not long after. I took a couple of states in the peace conference but not enough to get Swiss Cheese but I did get You Shall Not Pass from the endeavour.
Then when Germany kicked off WW2 They were bogged down in the low countries for years with neither country capitulating - as they had too many forces committed to fighting in the Austrian Alps against Italy. Also for some reason one of the many odd things that started happening was that they went to war with Lithuania even though they already had Memel. This caused Lithuania to join the Allies which will be important later. Eventually my militia troops were strong enough, and the Germans on my border weak enough that I felt comfortable chancing my arm against them. Once world tension had reached 100% (which took far longer than I expected) I justified and declared war on Germany and pushed through their exposed southern flank helping to capitulate the Germans by May 1942. I took some more stuff in the peace deal but somehow still not enough for Swiss Cheese (I can only assume the 5 states had to be annexed in the same conference as I'm sure I had more than 5 states outside of my country not contiguous at this point) but did get You Shall Not Pass.
Now this is where the Lithuania joining the Allies becomes important. At some point during the mess of Germany's war the Soviets did their attempt to eat Lithuania causing the Comintern to go to war with the Allies. I joined that war and then waited. My military strength was negligible at this point so gave my army to the UK as expeditionaries and spent all my resources on keeping the territories I already had and providing lend lease to other allies. That war dragged on but eventually the Soviets collapsed in 1945. My war participation was just enough that I was able to annex some of their cheap east Russian states separate from each other and get Swiss Cheese but I was still just short of Everybody gets a canton.
Thankfully the new peace deal mechanics meant that some of our old adversaries were still kicking around. Mr Hilter's Germany still existed in Moravia so I justified and took it for myself. Did the same against Nationalist Spain and called my allies in. The US turned most of it into a puppet but I did snag western Aragon which was just enough to get me to my final 24th state... though Franco somehow still ended up owning Catalonia when it was done.
The border gore was disgusting, it was a total mess, but it was satisfying enough that I felt the need to share it all in a UA-cam comment.
Don't know if it has been mentioned, but if you struggle with the absolute neutrality mechanic, you can just do this:
Improve relationship with the countries in question.
i have to say that they even changed some of the focuses because in my game it doesnt says "Cantons is the active side" so i cant take a lot of focuses
me too. I'm having trouble with the Frontier Defense Plan.
I really dig the new focus trees for Switzerland and Ethopia. It really opens the game up considerately.
That background screeching PAIN
I thought my new headphones were breaking down and I was about to cry
Bro I came here looking for that comment thinking I was the only one
Did no one else notice the high pitched rattling???? My ears feel like theyre gonna bleed
So for those who do not know the difference between dispersed and concentrated Factory
Dispersed Factory is diverse, it allows you to change from civs to mils and mils to civs faster.
Concentrated Factory has better production, however granting more "felt" drawback when changing production line.
For example if you have all factoreis in use and making lots of different thing but you have a surplus of guns and think you dont need to make them for the time beign, if you change guns production line into tanks production line, you get slower adaptability of the workers working in those factories.
And accordingt o paradox forum, Concentrated is better for Multiplayer games where is Dispersed for singleplayer
Every time you use mediums, I tell myself I need to start using them too, but then when I do play with tanks, I still just stick to lights. Maybe one day I'll learn.
You could have gotten both the Axis and Allied Gold, which gives ridiculous bonuses to Civilian Factories.
“I say the whole world must learn of our peaceful ways -
BY FORCE”
A little exploit I discovered for when you have full Canton control is that until you fill the vacant seat after electing a president, you can replace the other two guys for free as well. You're only locked in once the vacant seat is filled.
I’ve seen on a bunch of older videos people asking for this sweet boy to remake them because of the new DLC since no step back would be nice to have
That must have been done on the different version of the game. At the current state going all the way for the left side blocks all military and militia related focuses. You can't get that recrutable population modifiers anymore if you rush for anshluss
The compromise I found was to switch to Free Trade, do 1 Council Diplomatic Effort, and by selecting the bottom of the three guiding principle options, this will be enough so that you can get Partial Mobilization by the war support increase from the balance of power shift shortly before Reaffirm Spiritual Defense nukes your war support.
Then you do Armed Neutrality, 1 more Council Diplomatic effort, Fortify Border with Italy, and rush over to Allied Gold before you lose the required 70% democrat support. After this, just save up political power, MAYBE use 100 to get more military readiness (+50 Command Power).
At this point you *should* have enough time to do Pro Helvetia (I do it first for the PP boost) and then get down the Frontier Defense Plan tree to Total Defense before the balance of power shifts over to the Council. As soon as you get when you have 60-ish of the 70 days of Fight until the Death (or Buero Ha if you left that path for last instead), do a Council Diplomatic Effort which will take 50 days to complete. The focus finishes, and you begin Total Defense (or Pro Helvetia, respectively) When you're 6-8 days into that focus, do Strengthen Military High Command. The effects of the two should go off after Total Defense is finished, and should put you at just enough or nearly enough Council support to do Gotthardbund.
Finally, if you saved enough PP for it, do Council Diplomatic effort, Strengthen Military High Command, and Consolidate Council Power and viola, you should be at Full Council Power in time to do Anschluss with an extra 35 days to spare (On historical AI Focuses), firmly on the path of the Alpine Protectorate while having a few significant buffs from the Canton focus tree. You're free to do as you like from here.
i have actual tinnitus so i didnt notice the beeping until i checked the comments
10:20 I once had a run where Italy was in a stalemate in Ethiopia at the start of ww2 and had to white peace lmao
I have also found the Austria does not need to be intimidated. I played multiple games without building my army up at all before going for the focus and they accepted every time.
as a tip if you wanna split 120 units into 5 armies press s twice then remove 6 more units with control-click and then you are left with 96units witch can be split into 48s and then 24s rly easily :) just wanted to say since i saw it at 22:45
Switzerland challenge: own every mountain tile on the map
NO
swiss tibet
the next dlc will probably be scandinavia but I really want one for south america, they got tons of stuff they can do with Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia and maybe Honduras as well (banana republic), they should also focus it on money and introduce currency into the game
In Germany we say: “For the Führer”
In Britain we say: “For King and Country”
In Russia we say: “For the Motherland”
In Switzerland we say: “For Mountains and Toblerone”
I love the look of Swizterland after annexing all of Austria but for the opposite reason. It looks like it would be easier to cut in two than AI Italy. At least until you get your Italian claims.
0:27 “full of mountains and toblerone” is going in my vocabulary
I've seen one run where the war in Ethiopia dragged out so long they joined the Allies and France capitulated Italy before they even joined the Axis. LMAO
Oof
It took me like 2-3 years to beat etiopia for the tutorial 😭😭😭
There is this weird mic static sound for me on your videos for some reason, and its only on yours and i hope it goes away soon it suddenly started for me from one of your videos. Though i love your videos, keep up the good work.
"If it's stupid and it works, then it's not stupid."
-Bitt3rSteel
The buzzing in the video made me feel like I was outside at dark
It is better for single player early game agression to take dispersed, majors on the other hand generally gain more if you are going for middle-late game from concentrated
Time traveller throws rock
The timeline:
I’m moving to Switzerland, they stick to there guns, had the best battle plan for defending their country in ww2, and it’s a very rich country
Anyone else hear a high pitch electric humming sound in this video?
18:11 "its cheasy and its a little stupid but if it is stupid and it works its not stupid"
-Bitt3rSteel, 2022
Cool video, now I can finally play switzerland properly
Does any one else here that sound when they watch this
Dispersed industry is way better in 99% of the time. 71cloak made a video showing how much better it is.
My gut always tells me Dispersed, but I'm not good at maths
@@Bitt3rSteel Well the production efficiency retention and base buff you get from dispersed is so big that it will take years for concentrated to start out producing dispersed. + the factory bombing vulnerability is nice.
The fact that Vorarlberg has the most industry per capita today proves that Austria made a good decision back in the day
26:03 tbh those borders would look waaaay cooler without lower and upper Austria, this would be a true *CHAD* Switzerland
It's important to mention that it seems that the country ideology once you do the protectorate focus seems to be the one of the presidnt, mine was unfortunately communist.
I can’t play a non-historical game without Germany and Hungary forming the central powers, Switzerland annexing Italy, and the U.S. becoming the CSA anymore
BitterSteel, I yet struggle once more on the new update from the Austria Hungary achievement, after so many attempts
italy be like ight i'll sign over the most delvoped part of my country
The huge alps united Switzerland, is just Switzerland plus vorarlberg. But giga and much more mountain
Am I the only one who sees it because only some of my friends see it
according to 71cloak's testing, dispersed is effectively always better. you can look up his video on youtube.
On the topic of industry, I always use concentrated cuz I mainly play small countries and I have to squeeze my factories for all they’re worth
29:50 YOU WILL WHAT NOW ON ITALY?!
Italy, I am about to come at you. And come at you hard 😂😂
Great content :) def gonna play Switzerland after this
9:30 If your Upgrading A lot and Changing your line then Dispersed. If Not Concentrated Usually as minor nation I use Concentrated , You have to make sure you have a stockpile of the older models before you change the line . If not You will have to rely on lend lease and that is always iffy. Concentrated has a higher cap in the end you will more of the same Product or weapon. Dispersed is generally better for Major nations that have a Land or building slots to build more Factories.
So as a minor Nation I have plain. Max Research T3 guns asp . T3 Artillery ASP ALL (Anti-Air , Tank and Standard ART ) Your not going to change the line until you have the t3 Researched . So you will end up with huge stockpile of T1 guns . T2 Fighters A Must since you Can't Out CAS a Major Nation. and Interwar bomber is fine for CAS. It's hard to make Dedicated CAS as a Minor Nation. Generally you won't have the production For Tanks . So I consecrate on Special Forces . Which Requires infantry Equipment. Just my 2 cents
We don't sat on the Mountains we sat in the mountains
I didn't see the research slot unlock on Furrer's tooltip, but playing with 1.12.12 I did see one way down toward the bottom of the democratic focus branch attached to the nuclear research bonus. I have to double-check, either Paradox added a second possible slot to Switzerland or moved the one unlock to a different spot. Either way, it looks like Switzerland is the only country where a fascist run requires a trip down the democracy tree.
I gotta say though, if you're not planning on conquering your neighbors then the left side of the armed defense tree is superpowered, with something like twelve bonus factories. Definitely worth taking that for a defensive nuclear Switzerland, so you can use more slots for reactors and a rocket launch site.
27:09
Germany didn't annex austria in this game tho
YOU DID XD
26:00 You just made something resembling the Czech flag in your party popularity chart
I've totally watched it 5 times to route Switzerland properly 😂😂
Thank you
that transition to the ad was smooth🌬
Is it possible that there is a bug with the tree in your video? You where able to do Frontier Defense Plan even though you had 0% Canton support but 38% Council support, should be Impossible to take that focus, correct me if im wrong please
it doesnt allow me to take most of the central focus since for me it locks them out as soon as im lower than 0% of canton power
I’m a bit confused here, for the “frontier defence plan” Focus you need to on the cantons side right, but right after you did that focus you where able to do Anschluss which you need to be left for, on the federal council side
He played before a update that changed that BECAUSE it was OP.
so I'm trying to follow this guide and a lot of the focuses he is showing have different requirements to what is appearing in game. all the focuses regarding the military focuses in the centre of the tree require to be on the cantons side, whereas in the video, bittersteel is able to complete them when very far into the federal council. not sure of this is an older version he is playing on, but it makes the majority of the guide impossible as a lot of the focuses cannot be completed in the order of the video
If you look in the video, the focuses actually do have those requirements...they just don't seem to be enforcing them on him. Some of the other focuses are getting correctly locked out though, so I suspect it was just a bug in whatever version he recorded this on.
@@Kandall05161 In his video the Requirement says "Cantons is the active side in Balance of Powers", in my game it says "The balance of powers is more than 0.0% on the cantons side." So there is some difference
@@MultiMajoris Sure, they probably changed the wording between the media build this was recorded on and the public release.
weird sounds bad on my headphones but fine on my phone.
I just got the new DLC, and Switzerland is the best! I broke neutrality immediately with Italy, which allowed me to puppet them and take their alps. Then easy alpine protectorate.
Hey man, I love your videos a lot! Just a slight thing though (this is not a criticism, just something I've noticed), there's a really high pitched buzz in your videos that gives me a headache when I'm listening through headphones so I can only really watch your videos through my phone/speakers. Just in case anyone else is having the same problem I thought I'd point it out!
Yeah I hear it too. It's his microphone probably. (Not everyone can hear high pitched noises, so he probably doesn't notice it)
i just discovered your Channel and your Videos are GREAT,keep up the goodwork👍
Glad you like them!
they patched this i believe, all of the focuses under armed neutrality requires canton side balance of powers. you cant pick focuses from left and right side of focus tree, if you do, then germany will gobble austria before you. what i do rushing full council power first right side of balance of power and picked the focus under neutrality.
Yeah I just tried this guide and it's very outdated. Allied gold now requires 65% democracy support so you have to be careful with your advisors, and then they've made the balance of power much trickier to navigate with most focuses now requiring cantonal or council support making it harder to switch between focus trees.
"Nation is entirely ruled by a building" that made my day😂😂😂
I tried this a few times (in today’s version obviously) but I can’t manoeuvre myself out of full council control. Current theory I have is that starting at the principals, it might be wiser to go for the democratic option so that the balance ticks you out of the full council control region. Still have to try this.
Okay I think I figured it out at large, you need to keep 300-400 PP ready at hand, to move yourself out of 'full council control' trough the decision to oust the president.I'll need a few test runs to figure out when to do what for perfection, but it can be done, I think.
I think the game is fixed between you recording and now, because I can’t progress down the middle path since the balance power is in the council’s favour.
THere is a high pitched noise coming through this video and it hurts my brain
same
Honestly, your guides have saved me so many time from a mental breakdown. The only thing that makes me rage every time is the ai cucking me out of territory I need
Bitt3rSteel: "...otherwise, I'd be here for 20 minutes."
Me: *looks at video length* "An hour long hoi4 video? Sounds amazing."
As far as disbursed vs concentrated, concentrated is only good if you plan on keeping a line on something for a long term. So if you're playing as China and need to keep a line on cheap inf equipment just to keep your troops supplied it works, for most situations dispersed is still best
Concentrated is also useful in multiplayer when you're meant to handle planes like Hungary for the Axis or Canada for the Allies
Switzerland: "One dollar...two dollars...three- aw dammit, there's still a finger attached to this one....three dollars..."
To be fair, the swiss did show they could tenderize them... By, ya know, actually tenderizing them lately.
wanted to let you know theres a weird ringing audio in your video.
what is that pain full sound
for me any country thats easily bombed (all of Europe) then go dispersed to reduce the need to repair factories.
Switzerland has a larger population than Finland! That’s crazy bruh
Hey, is it just me or do other people hear a buzz when watching the video?
Fun Fact, Order Of the Sword is Swedish! Probably a little Easter Egg from Paradox