HoI4 Guide: Bulgaria - Prussia of the Balkans - Balkan Problem Solved Achievement
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- A guide for HoI4 Battle for the Bosporus as Bulgaria, now with up to 69% more RNG!
Following the steps laid out in this guide will help you to get the achievement "Balkan Problem Solved" and ""Prussia of the Balkans.
Decisions and Focus order:
docs.google.co...
And a Big Thank you to our community member Zatwinki (Zatwinki#2839) over on our Discord server for providing these absolutely lovely Countryballs!
I upload new video's frequently, so subscribe for more regular content!
❤❤ ☑ Viewed? ☐ Liked? ☐ Subscribed?
Subscribe: shorturl.at/agnAQ
Discord: / discord
Twitter: @Bitt3rSteel
Intro Music: Wild Pogo
I do not own any of the games, all rights are reserved by their respective companies. Paradox games: Copyright © 2016-2020 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doing my Commie Bulgaria proud Bitt3r
1: Natural Orator is a great boon, it can make or break a run so get it if you can, even more important than a seducer
2: Build Civs until you get enough to do the industry Focus
3: Improving the Roads will give you the 8 civs you need for Psychological Warfare
4: You MUST do the integration before August 1940 because Italy will declare on Greece, a NAP or Attache will most likely not save you
5: Don't build your spy network with just the 1 spy available, I've lost my commando to this
6: Turkey has a VERY small chance of flipping, I got them once in my 40+ test games
7: If you need Manpower to destabilise then delete your airforce
8: The order of the first focuses are to maximise the PP early because you need a lot for the faction management decisions
9: Prioritise Industry, doctrine and research. You won't need guns for a while or even have the industry for it
10: Be careful about Bessarabia, if you get it then the Soviets might declare on you, this is good because you can kill them relatively easy with the balkan armies
11: Getting rid of the IMRO won't really be feasible early game because it will use the guns you need to destabilise
12: Avoid the SCW, it will eat the guns you need
13: If you want to gamble then do the bury grudges focus when Romania and greece go 60% communist
14: I prefer to have 2 spies in Romania and 2 in Greece
15: Train the Youth Wings is to get the Manpower to do the destabilisation decisions
16: After you expand the Sofia University you want to rush the Industry beacuse you will have higher Consumer goods until the final one is done
Stefan out here savin the day
@@zo1o281 Fookin Zolo
Agreed, I simply give up on Turkey and that could save some time to get Greece and Romania earlier.
Cheers Stepho, lots of love xoxoxoxo
Only way i've been able to flip turkey is you must have 60% Communist support before their 1939 elections. If you do that, they will flip. It's just hard to do so too but if you do it, it's almost guaranteed.
Only problem is you have to rush the united balkan federation because they left my faction once so it was pointless.
Bulgaria truly is the most versatile nation in this patch!
hope you enjoy this run, it was quite fun!
Bro you should do some playthroughs because you are a excellent hoi4 player
Tempted to become a hoi4 youtuber just to show you the secret decision paradox put in to integrate Bulgaria's stubborn neighbors, that only appears if you you take specific action. Haven't seen anyone figure it out yet, but its a HUGE reward if you experiment.
SPOILERS -ITS VERY FUN TO DISCOVER THIS YOURSELF
If you stage a coup with the help of "destabilize" decisions, a decision appears to join your communist allies. it will buypass any garuntees. Using this effectivly requires rebuilding your military BEFORE joining a faction, so it's not intuitive. But you easily make up that time saved, and can unite the balkans by 1939 if you time it correctly.
Bulgaria has the most op focus tree in bfb and in the balkans
Hungary always join the axis. I justified war goal with you at the same time. But it didnt work. They always join the axis when i declare war on them. So i released albania and hungary. I'll deal with all of them later.
My guess is the United Kingdom was able to kick you because you were in an offensive war against Italy while they were in a defensive one for Poland. Unless you specifically joined the same war, I believe they can kick you as technically it's two different wars being fought by two countries who just happen to be in the same faction against the same people. It's odd but that is my take on why I believe it happened.
That actually makes sense, sorta
My guess is that they kicked you because you didn't merge the wars so technically you were in different wars fighting the same people.
Yesterday I doubted quite a lot about your success for the achievement run, you really surprised me. Great job and continue doing these amazing videos, I really love your channel!
I was at the limit of my patience for a while there, but in the end Turkish zeal carried the day! Thank you for your support!
@@Bitt3rSteel when you were pushed back from Italian shores I understood your frustration, but I was so proud that, for the first time in Hoi4 history, my country managed to obliterate such a good player as you
Greetings from Italy😂
"Sitting on quite a bit pp" and "I will tell you what to do with that pp" 2020
2023
FYI: The strength calculation used to determine the odds of giving up territory is based solely on the number of divisions, adjusted by up to 10% for number of planes. You can dump out a bunch of 2 width poorly-equipped divisions right before you ask for land, then delete them.
The amount of RNG that Paradox shoved into this is spectacularly anti-fun. This is a really interesting run in theory, but in practice I just failed my 7th attempt because Romania refused the Unification. Since I'm already behind due to them taking forever to flip Communist, by the time I fight and annex them Russia will have eaten Bessarabia and the UK will have taken Albania.
It's a shame, because they added some really cool mechanics to the Balkans only to gate most of it behind layers of RNG. I'm so sick of just doing Fascist everything all the time, but every other method requires so much luck and a dozen restarted games.
EDIT: 14th time's the charm. UGH. Thanks for the video though, it's not like this is your fault. Subbed.
11 attempts to flip turkey as a priority before their 1939 election and it just ain't happening, despite ISP pulling it off just two weeks ago, fuck you paradox
Im coming back to this as its one of favorites to build. This used to be easier. I've done 8 runs so far. Romania and Greece have each flipped to the red shirts one time. Neither before August '40.
Love how the devs focused so much on bulgarian achievements. Love from bulgaria
9:48 I like how you inserted that so smoothly.
Giggity.
Everytime I did this run I had a really easy time flipping Turkey, Romania wasn't bad, and Greece was extremely stubborn.
I’ve tried it 3 times. The stars were aligning, everything was going great. Soviet Union took Bessarabia, which was fine I could invade them. I capitulated turkey, and the allies kicked me from their faction while I was also at war with the axis. That’s fine, I got what I needed from them. I invaded the Soviet Union and got Bessarabia. It looked like I had everything I needed. Huh, that’s weird why don’t I have the achievement. I was missing a state. I was missing the Aegean islands that were taken by turkey and reclaimed by Australia. I couldn’t request it back bc I wasn’t in their faction, and I couldn’t justify war on them by I had made a non aggression pact with the UK trying to smooth it over with them so they would let me back in their faction. The Soviets now had pushed me back and It would take a while for the non aggression pact with the UK to expire. While it is still possible to win, it’s easier to just start from the beginning. My heart is broken, the only thing holding me back from the achievement were 3 tiles, taken by a country on the other side of the world, and unobtainable for years. Good video though, I had no clue how to go about this achievement.
Lmao I used steam achievement manager and got it in 10 seconds
Thanks! This worked for both achievements for me. Only have 3 left now before 100%.
Finally, the video I have been waiting for! Thank you!!
I am currently at the point where i am hoping that the RNG Gods are with me, but that flipping guide is superb. Thanks mate!
for anyone wondering, if you have 1 extra division than in this guide, the Italians should hand over the territories.... or at least that's what happened with me.
Should update this guide for NSB, as you can now get a third achievement (I Captured the Bosporus and All I Got Was This Lousy Achievement), and taking Hungary without fighting the Allies or the Axis no longer seems possible. It also seems that through several test games while attempting, Turkey and Italy will likely give you the Balkan land back without a fight.
As much as I appreciate Bittersteels great Achievement tutorials I have to say Spaniard did this one much better. I got both of them in one run of two hours. He analyzed the Focuses and Achievements and found some ways to make it really easy with no rng and almost no war 😅
I am going to have to agree. I even screwed up big time on a few things trying to go off Spaniard's guide from memory (it is a bit on the long side) and still managed to salvage it. Of course, I was at war with EVERYONE but Russia, but I got the achievement. That is all that matters.
Anyone who does it should remember some important things. First off, don't forget to revoke military access from Italy. I had to go to war with the Axis because I forgot to do this and handed Rhodes to Italy after taking it from Britain. Matter of fact, it probably isn't even needed. Use your spies to flip Yugoslavia so it finishes around the same time as Romania. In the scheme of things it probably doesn't matter, I still finished the confederation long before I had to worry about anyone messing with my stuff. Third, conserve your PP. Spaniard's guide means you can do the faction politics at your leisure instead of on a tight schedule. You will need that PP for the confederation.
Also, don't panic if you accidently capitulate Turkey before declaring war on allies. Just take all the territory except one little province, I suggest one that can be locked from getting reinforcement from allies and can be easily retaken. Then, when white peace is over re justify on Turkey. It will take about 30 days as long as you didn't leave something you have a core on. Which I wouldn't recommend leaving something you have a core on. Just leave a small out of the way Turkish province you can waltz into once they join the allies after declaring war on them again.
You make it seem so simple ;-)
My boi Bulgaria back at it again
Yes the gameplay is good but my man YOU GOT THE NAMES ON POINT! I have never hear someone say our names so good
Just a quick comment: "Hardly recommend" means you barely recommend it.
*heartily*
@@Bitt3rSteel Woops
@@Bitt3rSteel well, I understood it as "hardly" as well, but due to the context I understood what you actually meant. Some other people might not, though.
Now everything makes sense. I've heard hardly on other occasions as well, but it was heartily, then
Amazing content!
I found your chanell past week and i subscribed after watching the first video you are underrated man.
As a new subscriber i have a challenge for you play as Albania(my homeland) and conquer all the Mediteranian countries.
✌🏻
I don't know if it's a new feature or not, but I'm finding that Hungary often joins the axis when declared on, even in early 1939 when world tension is still fairly low. I guess its not free real estate any more
I'm also running into this. The only time this didn't happen was when I flubbed with PP and was forced to justify later (I think weeks or months after they flip fascy). I will experiment more, but I'm starting to think a long border with the Axis will be necessary.
@@Digitaaliklosetti I found a way to get around it. I did a civil war to flip to communist very early (and refuse army restrictions early too). Then I rushed the alliance with Yugoslavia while justifying on Hungary. The idea is to conquer Hungary before they flip to fascist so they can'tjoin the axis. Since tension is low enough the UK won't mind. Hungary is still small, but it shortens the border by quite a bit.
Although in my last playthrough where I actually got the achievements, Italy decided to give me Istria, Zara, Albania, and the Dodecanese, so I had no reason to fight the Axis. I did have to take down the Soviets though because of Bessarabia.
@@scott3017 Thanks for thr hint! I will still attempt hitting my head against the wall with this. I got it once and I want to get it again.
@@Digitaaliklosetti be careful. Wait to finish your civil war until after you finish the "depose the czar" focus. If you finish the focus with stability under 30% you'll get another civil war, unless you're already in one.
Imagine it was that easy for the balkans to unite irl
One problem that i encountered in my run is that Hungary, after becoming my puppet, puppeted Slovakia, presumably through the "claim overlordship over Slovakia" focus. This made it so that my faction didn't consist of just me and my puppet, so i couldn't disband it. I couldn't kick Slovakia either, since they were someone else's puppet.
That's an old bug... Hungary has no business getting puppets as a puppet...you can still integrate them and then you have Slovakia as a puppet
"Onwards and upwards ...or well... down... with the Tsar" *zooms into overthrow Tsar*
Got a good laugh out of that one
when you said "glorius bulgaria" , as a bulgarian you made me happy :)
Are you going to do a cut version of your hardly anything sevres achievement run. I would really like a manageable walk-through.
I tried this as Democratic Bulgaria, I got everyone to flip ideology except Turkey so I decided to form the federation anyway, only for them to flip afterwards and the join the axis.
Thanks for the guide. It was useful.
Britain kicked me from their faction as well yesterday, must be some kind of bug
No vabbè, you are the hoi4 master!
For anyone who's trying this one: You can boost Communism in the countries around you and stage coups in them. Eliminates the RNG part but has you building mills almost inmediately. You can then join their civil wars and get the victor into your faction. Oh, and "Balkan Problem Solved" requires you to NOT dismantle your faction and join another; you need to be the faction leader
Hungary ALWAYS joins the axis and calls them in after like 5 days.
Found the problem, when you declare war, even if it sounds pretty convenient, don't invite Romania into the faction, they will tip the scale too much and the Hungarian IA will feel forced to join the axis, as soon as you invite Romania they will join the axis, then you will have approx 10-20 days to capitulate them before Germany joins.
Great, now greece just doesn't flip
Had a strange run, turkey fliped, was almost ready to annex everyone, romania flips fascist and joined the axis, on the other side italy decides to give me all my balkan cores so yeah, idk.
I don't know why I like it so much, it's very good xd
I'm almost done with my Bulgaria Playthrough, I went down the Regency council path and puppeted the Balkans and created the Glorious Greater Bulgarian Federation.
Have recently come back to this guide to try and do it in No Step Back and I declared on Hungry basically on the same date as in the video and they instantly joined the axis and sicked Germany on me. RIP was having a good run actually as well. I hope this doesnt happen every time and I just had bad luck or something.
Nah, they changed the Hungarian behavior, they now join the axis
@@Bitt3rSteel what to do then?
@@Bitt3rSteel Redo the Guide for No step back?
BBA update : For me Hungary never joins the Axis unless you take like several months for the War to continue and finish. I tried it.
However with the new war participation and peace conference system Yugoslavia ends up with atleast 50% war goal up to 75%. Its ridiculous. You'll end up with two puppets. After you integrate Yugoslavia their puppet gets released unfortunately. On the other hand they are now Communist.
You should do neither death or dishonor guide
I've noticed that the UK will kick people from the faction that generate world tension and not the same ideology.
I got ruined because Hungary got the amazing idea to join the axis
Me too man...
9:48 nice Quagmire reference there
I subscribed today, cause you make cool content. Congrats, bro. Bulgaria I think has a lot of potential in the new expansion, and I know it's a tall order but for some reason I'd love to see a World Conquest as fascist Bulgaria. Don't ask me why.
as a bulgarian, this is a good layout for the future of the balkans
Greece, romania and turkey were at 60% commie and none of them flipped until i gave up in 1941
I love YOU AND bulgaria thank YOU FOR making A video of bulgaria
You work so hard and have so little views good work
Great vid! Maybe try 30 min in hel achievement?
Bruh i cant
i want to overthorw the tsar but i cant i need 30% support FF but how can i support them? please help!!! and also theres writes that there is a requirement to employ communist ministers so please help
Hey Bitt3rSteel I am trying this guide on the new No Step Back and I managed to get romania and yougoslavia in my faction but when I attack hungary they Immediately join axis and call the in the war.There is no guarantee involved and I don't know how to stop them from joining axis.Any ideas?
@@commander90997 how’d you do it tho? what i’ve been trying to do is to put all 12 units on the tile next do pecs because there’s no river crossing there, get that, everyone on pecs and horses crossing and going to budapest before anyone gets there, still taking to long :/. Any tips? Im by no way good at this and could really use some help
@@franciscotadeia727 Did you manage to do it? Im at my 4th try and its still not working out
Complete rearming focus first
Rush the industrial focus (left side) at least until gain research slot or gain steel
Do political focus whatever you want (I prefer either go right-wing or eliminate Boris)
This may seem stupid and it's not an achievement but can you release Macedonia from Yugoslavia and try to gain as much territory as possible. Love your videos and keep up the great work!
Three years old but still mostly accurate and valuable.
However when I did it just now... ooooh dear. Hungary did a naughty and decided to join the Axis moments before capitulating and called them in immediately. Queue a grindy war against Germany that lasted most of a year, delaying WW2 and causing half the people Germany finally declared on to join my faction and not call in the Allies. Ridiculous and brutal. Clinging to life right now, hoping the Allies actually make a push on the severely overstretched and worn down Germans rather then do whatever they are doing (which seems to be 'not much').
Hungary joins the axis as I declare on them bruh
Worth noting, having Turkey in your faction and having more than 1x strength ratio compared to them and having more than 90 Opinion will increase your chances of succesfully demanding their balkan territories by a good amount. Same for Italy (though it's unlikely you'll get them into your faction). Being at war with either or an ally of them before demanding the territories will make your chances 0.
Can't you wait until turkey flips, manually invite to faction, and THEN finish the unification focus?
Is it possible to flip both Romania and Turkey before Turkey's 1939 election and Romania's Pro Allied Government focus? I tried it a few times but I don't think Turks flip on its own unless there's an election
Great guide!! Subscribed for sure
It's possible, but not probable. Spies get caught and the AI can be really stubborn
the second i played after setting my spy to boost communism in romania, he was killed, luckily i believe spies dying is random because i closed the game via task manager and when i reloaded he didnt die.
great channel.
Hungary always joins the axis for me. Sometimes patches are bad
How do you invade Hungary without them joining Axis? I attacked the day you did and they joined the Axis...
same here
Here is how I did achievement :
1. Switch goverment into DP
2. Boosting Democraty in Romania, Yugoslavia.
3. Unification of Balkans.
4. Switch goverment into Communist party
5. Ocuppied Zara, Istria and Aegian ilands together with Edrine and Istanbul
It took me sometime but today I done it :D.
So I just bought this game maybe 2 months ago. I saw this playthrough and decided to try it. I was surprised that I was able to flip turkey since bittersteel says it was almost impossible to flip it. Maybe i'm lucky. And also when I completed the united balkan front focus while italy was justifying on yugoslavia, the justification suddenly disappeared. I haven't progress yet after unifying the balkans since I need time to organize the army and the industry.
P.s.: I wasn't able to get hungary and they got northern transylvania while russia was able to claim besserebia while I was almost finish with the unifying the balkans focus :(
Has something changed with Hungary? I've tried this run 6 times and 3 of those times I had to restart because Hungary joined the axis when I declared war after they renounced the treaty of trianon
Early pog
For everybody watching in 2024, the Hungary strat doesn‘t work anymore because Hungary will simply join the Axis and then it‘s goodnight for you. Had to find out the hard way…
Hey, I was wondering if you could do the "Bearer of Artillery" Hidden achievement? All the guides for this are from like 2016, and it's quite a challenge in my opinion.
When I tried for the first time, right when I got Romania communist they still joined the axis and declared war on me..
I got all of the nations to join on my first try but I was crushed by the axis powers shortly after because I declared on Hungary and they then joined the axis....
Would you be willing to do a guide on this again the... "right" way?
Tried this with NSB and when I declared on Hungary, they immediately joined the Axis and stomped me :(
Happens to me every time, Germany comes in and ends it. I'm giving up on this achievement.
What are the odds that Yougoslavia refuses the friendship offer even after having increased relations. I got mine up to +70 and yet had them say no.
I wonder if there are any changes to this balkan federation strategy now with the new DLCs
i think that paradox don't like me when i had 1 province to get with 96 green bubble hungary joined to axis i don't know why could someone explain that (If someone want to know i didn't have a la resistance dlc)
Do you need a peace conference? I have everything (some trough peace conference, some occupied because I’m fighting soviets), but it’s not triggering.
I screwed my game by declaring on Hungary and them joining the Axis. Guess something changed with that in the past 1,5 years.
Great guide, been struggling for ages. The link doesn't work, can you post it as a normal document not on discord?
It should be fixed! Sorry!
@@Bitt3rSteel cheers mate, keep up the good work
I think that ,,now this is geting childish,, will be a good adition
I have a question, why does Italy always join axis with Hungary after I declare war on them????
I'm very surprised germans had like three divisions per province in Italy instead of the usual 20
Screw it - RNG messed with me and Italy attacked before I united everyone, but Hungary as a puppet gives a huge tactical advantage - I decide to proceed with 17 factories vs all Axis, since maybe that is insane, but at least no more RNG - my game my rules
How do you puppet the Hungarians? When I try this Yugo gets most of the war score and takes most of the country
I understand this is an old video, but why didn’t you just launch a coup in turkey tho?
do this guides still work with all the new dlc's and updates
Why does Hungary join Axis every time I try this?
The rng dependance is indeed quite frustrating. My first run I managed to turn all the nations to communism quite easily and puppeted Hungary before they could join the Axis. Unfortunately Romania turned fascist because they were influenced by Italy before I could absorb them and left my faction. They then joined Japan?!. On my second playthrough I couldn't puppet Hungary, because they were guaranteed by Britain, and I could only turn Romania and Turkey to communism. Greece did turn eventually, but too late as I was already finishing integration focus and not a moment too soon as Romania turned fascist after they finished abdication focus. They did accept integration though, before they could leave ny faction. At the same time Italy finished "War in Greece" focus and communist greece joines Allies, as they didn't want to join my faction before that.
Greece always gets attacked by Italy, and joins Allies, and then flip in my game :(
Idk what I am doing different but #1, Yugo never turns communist, and #2 every single time I want to annex Hungary Yugo wants to just annex all their territory and refuse to allow me to puppet them. This contesting causes me to lose all my warscore on fighting to puppet Hungary and it results in neither country annexing all of Hungary.
Thus there are two Hungary(s) and this causes one to join the axis and ruin the run...WHY?!
welp, declared on hungary, they joined the axis, not exactly sure what i did wrong since everything was the same as in the vid, probably not gonna retry this one because setting up bulgaria is too tedious
Yeah, the last major patch changed Hungarian behavior...no longer free real estate
@@Bitt3rSteel yeah i assumed something like that was the case because i tried your other guides before NSB and it all worked fine, the guide is still useful, its just a bad idea to invade Hungary now haha
"Hungary has joined the axis"
For Turkey give Constantinople only need improve relations up to like 50
everytime i declare war on hungary, hungary join axis and calls italy and germany ...
Everything was going fine, until I declared on Hungary... They joined the Axis and got Germany involved before I capitulated them. Long story short, R.I.P. that run
Anyone else hit a bug where when you do the IMRO decisions to finally remove it it bugs out and doesn't do the certain days you have to keep the troops on the border but instead instantly disappears?
Can someone explain why Germany always declares war on me after I start the war against Hungary?
I was attacked by the axis just after romania seeded Bessarabia in this...what did I do wrong? I had to delay the unification focus due to greece taking forever to become communist.
Is this outdated now? I did everything here but Romania never gets far enough communist fast even with 3 spies on boosting ideology and doing the decisions. Also Greece keeps doing the Tito focus
Of course it would take a Prussia to solve the Balkan Problem...
I played and when I fought Hungary germany was called in
Could starting a civil war in late 1936 early 1937 help in releasing the army restriction. Feedback Gaming did a video on this achievement. I never had his luck when playing Bulgaria. I gave up trying to do this achievement due to Albania submits to Italy in the spring of '39. In addition waiting on the other countries. Romania always give up their territory, no matter what's the relationship between Bulgaria and the USSR when playing for this achievement. I find playing Bulgaria as annoying with this DLC. Greece is not too bad. I have mix reaction playing as Turkey.
I just cant belive u can play with that song on...........