Alex the Rambler challenged me to save this...

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In this HoI4 Disaster Save as Germany, we attempt to do what Alex the Rambler could not: WIN!
Alex' video: • Possibly The Worst Sav...
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Try this yourself: drive.google.com/file/d/1hohw...
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Twitter: @Bitt3rSteel
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I do not own any of the games, all rights are reserved by their respective companies. Paradox games: Copyright © 2016-2021 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com

[@AlextheRambler]

GG SIR

[@jimmerkd_3398]

the collaboration we all needed in our lives once more

[@johnwilkins3737]

@@jimmerkd_3398 True

[@aceofspadesattorney]

This comment should be pinned! (Yes I did look for the inevitable Alex comment)

[@uploaded9787]

❤❤❤

[@bootmii98]

we went from all provinces being 80w to a range of combat and reinforce widths, none of which are 20, 40, or 80.

[@hatless_spider]

i like how the most offensive part of this setup was Rommel being an infantry leader rather than all the other awful things 😂

[@Bitt3rSteel]

It made me physically ill

[@RichRacc]

@@Bitt3rSteel me too, me too.

[@dinozocker_lp1465]

You only need one tank general, so if you use guderian, why not use rommel for infantry?

[@natem1579]

It was the German Ireland for me.

[@gabrieldossantos1116]

@@dinozocker_lp1465 Honor demands that Rommel has to be a tank commander and needs to have at least the 7th tank division with him. Besides, he already has a lot of tank commander traits so he gains much less xp as an infantry commander

[@tagus100]

POV: Steiner had enough men and guns to successfully counterattack.

[@diemausdietastatur8738]

This is what Hitler ment ohh i get it xD

[@whitezombie10]

Tanks*

[@JTKroll12]

it wouldn't be right for everyone to not be joking about Steiner in a situation like this

[@shonfrost8781]

steiner was so charismatic that even enemy troops are joining to his side hence why the manpower

[@r6clips108]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@Musket_Man]

Imagine being an allied/soviet soldier thinking the war is almost over and you hear about the second fall of Paris

[@cr90captain89]

then you hear how the germans turned it around, & you fear that the union is next.

[@superchicken3554]

Pain

[@Johnnylemoni]

Second fall of Paris

[@jaredjosephsongheng372]

Second Battle of Stalingrad. Second Battle of Britain Second Battle of Moscow Second Siege of Leningrad

[@sketchye5943]

Glad to see Bitt3rsteel helping small hoi4 content creators like Alex 👍

[@Bobbybigg]

Lmao

[@whitezombie10]

Loooool

[@2905liflaf]

huhu

[@Omar-pu7fd]

Lol

[@belgiumball2308]

Very small. He has 4.21k subscribers.

[@Matecasa04]

I love how throughout the whole video, the Allies didn't even try to liberate ungarrisonned Ireland, British moment

[@fatassthebig]

They forgor

[@hescoming4544]

💀💀💀

[@cityman2312]

In reality, Churchill actually considered invading Ireland to use it as a base (he was overruled) ... that would very likely have alienated the US. If the US had remained truly neutral throughout, Britain and the Soviet Union would have been in HUGE trouble resource-wise come January 1943, even if Britain successfully defended the Suez canal.

[@anachronisticon]

@@cityman2312 I think US lend lease would have still provided something like 50% of the explosives and most of the aviation fuel for the Soviet Union. Indeed, before they joined alot of equipment that eventually was used by the Americans personally was originally intended to sent to the British, including a lot of 50 cals. Obviously not as useful as direct involvement, but their supposed neutrality was anything but from the axis point of view.

[@cityman2312]

@@anachronisticon That's why I qualified my statement with "*truly* neutral." If the US had been truly neutral, they wouldn't have traded with any combatant or provided any kind of material assistance to any combatant whatsoever. In our timeline, the US was not truly neutral. Before December 1941 they were effectively already at war with Germany, they just hadn't declared it officially.

[@Anarnam]

"I inflicted 20 mil in casualties, I'm so proud of that" - taken out of context it sounds disturbing at the very least :D

[@Grokhnar]

Allies naval invading mainland like hell but since start of the game, Ireland is in german hand.

[@Casperdcvd]

I got Ireland and got naval invaded quite a while after that-this is my save btw

[@MaslAlek]

When you lose massive amounts of men in battles, such as in encirclements you should lose war support. To Allies should have halved their war support after those massive losses. Nice addition to the game imo

[@acsulag8002]

War support should also be proportional with how well you're doing in a war. For example, if as germany you take cities like Kiev, Stalingrad and Moscow, it should give huge war support buffs. But, if you lose a lot of land, it should decrease support.

[@dsan8742]

@@acsulag8002 To be honest it isn’t that simple, depending on the propaganda fed to a nation, invasion on its territory actually improve war support. In example when the Germans encircled strasbourg during the Franco-Prussian war and had captured napoleon III after sedan, the French began to mass mobilise and actually fight harder with irregulars popping up everywhere.

[@Potatotenkopf]

True but certain countries should get modifiers to war support loss like Japan, Germany, ussr, China, and maybe UK.

[@equilintogo5378]

WW1: doubt

[@acsulag8002]

@@dsan8742 maybe have 2 types of propaganda? One where you get a ton of war support in the short term, but if you take large losses you lose even more than you initially gained, and one that slowly trickles up, but isn't as affected by taking loses. It should also depend on ideology. Fascist and communist countries should be less affected by taking heavy loses, while democracies are more affected. Some national spirits could change how taking losses affects national spirit too.

[@TheN0bleCause]

I like how the player originally sealion’d to Ireland, and then gave up after that. Meanwhile AI Allies didn’t bother liberating instead they kept invading mainland Europe.

[@settratheimperishable4093]

In my recent game as Britain Italy invaded the Isle of Man basically instantly and then just sat there until I took Rome

[@TactfulWaggle]

was gonna mention that but you beat me to it

[@Roketsune]

It's because Ireland doesn't matter very much.

[@Casperdcvd]

haha yeah I tried invading england trough Ireland, but was defending on the mainland so I gave up Ireland bc I needed the troops back in the Netherlands and stuff

[@jaredjosephsongheng372]

@@Casperdcvd is this your Save?

[@germanlad1609]

Ah yes, suffering bittersteel, my favorite

[@glauberglousger6643]

I remember there was also a British Europe save file too that was quite interesting

[@josephcola9662]

24:00 Theoretically, convoy raiding along your own coats would catch the naval landings and either severely weaken or entirely sink the invasions before they can reach the beaches.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Those shallow seas tho. And i can't get subs into the med at that point

[@jkbytheway4285]

better to just garrison ports and try to build up a decent amount of naval bombers if your in a situation like this

[@uteriel282]

@@Bitt3rSteel subs + planes or torpedo destroyers/cruisers work wonders to take down invasion fleets.

[@Robochuck]

Wow I really like how much you are describing your naval gameplan. It is not often that this aspect of the game is really featured.

[@kaptunkordan6656]

If you remember to put like 15 factories on anti air from the start of the game you can equip like 2 to 4 anti air in each division and really do a number on enemy air

[@nuur2825]

Or just 15 factories on fighters and have air superiority the entire game.

[@kaptunkordan6656]

@@nuur2825 well technically the meta would be to use both. That way your doing the most damage possible to enemy air as both anti air and fighters stack in combat plus it also damages the enemy Cas that will make it through your planes

[@raizors1331]

Well technically AA give some piercing so enemy tank won't have such easy time pushing into your infantry too, just a little bonus I guess

[@Tdelliex]

you don't have that many factories at the start of the game besides 2-5 is usually enough until ww2

[@kyrozephyr8628]

Waste of factories since anti air 1 becomes obsolete. Also putting anti air battalions is just a waste in general just use support AA for infantry and make anti air tanks instead for your tank anti air.

[@zorkman56]

Rommel as infantry general right into my feels. I love to see these vids. Thank you for making these.

[@justyes1234]

people in multiplayer: figuring out what tank they will build. Bittersteel in Singleplayer: what should I call my Operation? Operation Steiner?

[@GatewayPolitics]

I see Steiner’s counterattack worked well

[@TexasBOS]

Love your work Steel the best in the HOI4 scene.

[@bootdude7527]

Steiners counter offensive worked so well, he forgot to push west

[@niekhofman428]

You really deserve more subs. You’re such a good player and KZbinr and you really brighten up my day!

[@shorunqualtec2070]

He was trying to but they kept bombing the factories

[@Casperdcvd]

Bittersteel I can’t believe how you managed to save this, very well done!

[@Janoczik]

Rommel being an infantry general genuinely made my eyes burn.

[@lopiko21]

Erwin Rommel was brilliant infantry leader in WW1. He even wrote book which you can buy: "Infantry Attacks" So his assignment as Infantry General is very accurate ;)

[@evanwilliams1839]

At 19:43 when you question a lack of supply, you can see on the naval map the convoy lines are red, meaning they are endangered, if yiu forbid traffic in the zone your logistics will use trains instead of convoys and likely fix the issue.

[@scholzb100]

"Try this yourself:" *Nothing there* Can you please update the description I want to try this so bad

[@Bitt3rSteel]

It is done

[@filce1232]

@@Bitt3rSteel will you do the right path of ussr?

[@Xulgaron]

I really like the way you work your Videos. The short Zooms, the Spongebob "meanwhile" and the music when you fasten. Great work!

[@abodavidov4073]

Beautiful. Had a ton watching a master at work. Thank you.

[@CCCPRusRus]

I like how the allies never invaded Ireland even though for some reason you owned it

[@elduquecaradura1468]

I do have a theory: they aimed at the capitol, wich would be Berlin, wich is in mainland europe. If he Bitt3r moved the capitol to Dublin, that would make the attacks went all over Ireland

[@Robochuck]

oooh I'm excited for this one. I saw Alex's video and I can't wait to see if you can take it on

[@aghouser4159]

I watched his vid just 3 days ago. Dang this was a hard one. Bitter Steel I just found your content and I'm impressed man. Nice job man.

[@jasonpittman7183]

Great video, I didn't realise you posted the save game files as well with your disaster saves so I gave it a try and I managed to defeat the Allies, Russia and China by 1949. It did take me 3 attempts though.

[@ColonelPeppers]

Allies: How did we lose? Axis: Hitler wasn't in command. Allies: Oh, that makes sense.

[@guyincognito3199]

I have thousands of hours in this cursed game and yet it took until now to learn that shallow seas exist! Thank you!

[@matheusGMN]

Could you imagine this happened in the real war? germany just bounced back against all odds? man that would've been severely demoralizing to the allies

[@assortedlunatics4381]

I get pretty hyped when I see a new video of yours

[@thereclaimer2945]

I can describe this hoi4 situation in one sentence… Don’t bite off more then you can chew.

[@Giova21]

You can't deny tho that Italians are good at cuisine

[@user-wb9nz4qy1i]

I like how all the meta nowadays is "no tanks they are useless" and this whole video is carried by a couple of tank divs. Also meme Dear Panzar, it's time to clear out another allied invasion in the other side of the Europe, fifth in this month. -Yes, Hilter

[@faisalal-qassem3758]

I wouldn't say it's because they are useless. They just cost too much now. Couple that with playing multiplayer where people are theoretically trying to play as optimally as possible, tanks end up not being used by majors because of how bad the cost benefit analysis is compared to focusing on other things.

[@Tdelliex]

@@faisalal-qassem3758 they are cheaper though. no nsb panther costs 14 with nsb i made a panther with almost the same stats + 12 breakthrough and soft attack - 1.5 defence for just 13.3

[@faisalal-qassem3758]

@@Tdelliex Hey man, if you want to bring that to a competitive multiplayer game as Germany, feel free to try your luck. If you're talking about singleplayer, the AI is so braindead that you pretty much do whatever you want and still win as long as you know what you are doing.

[@pawtter_ink]

Nice bitter! If you could answer I would be thankful, what is a decent port/shoreline guard division you recommend? 4 inf+eng is a good one or overkill?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Usually like a 10w or 28w with engineers is enoigh

[@culannthehound94]

You sir are a legend among mortals! Truly a masterclass on HOI4.

[@_NoName_314]

the only vid i saw from Alex in the last year.... and it ends in a challenge for Bitt3rSteel.... i was REALLY REALLY REALLY waiting for this lol

[@mr_pika]

love the way explaining the aspect of the option and moves without boring it , I hope you do some CK3 content also so in can finally play that thing lol... GG

[@willcoyote5414]

Soo cool to share the saved game with us, Thx Bettersteal :)

[@NakedAndHerped]

MADLAD DID IT! So down for more collabs like this

[@Cybercolascorner]

Solid vid, enjoyable as always !

[@franklinclinton4539]

This is a perfect example of late game HOI4. You just punch and punch and punch until you've gone trough or broken your fists trying.

[@jameskahre8488]

I love this my favorite 2 ho4 KZbinr Doing same disaster save

[@ertrick3693]

How do you just wake up and say, "I'm gonna make the most famous tank commander in all of history into an infantry guy"? I would like to say it would explain a lot about the state of this save, but it just spawns more questions.

[@germanyballwork5301]

my guess is that the dude is not that interested in the good old history

[@boxcarz]

That's, uh, fairly normal. Heinz Guderian is the usual tank guy.

[@bubulolo207]

Wait, you only have 72.000 subs?!?!?!?!? Wow, you deserve a lot more.

[@averagerocenjoyer3152]

Steiner counter attack is successful

[@KlaustheViking]

Rommel in WW1 was actually an infantry Lieutenant. So it’s not entirely blasphemy to have Rommel as an infantry officer even though his role changed to leading tanks in WW2. Read the book “Attacks”

[@lolloblue9646]

I'd even argue he should start with the "Mountaineer" trait as he fought on the Alpine front against Italy in WW1 and was one of the officers responsible for the Central Powers victory at Caporetto

[@montecarlo1651]

Great work mate!

[@stormtrooper2466]

this video was the greatest comeback in the history of comebacks maybe ever

[@christhefirst]

11:14 and this is the moment when the Steiner counterattack universe begins

[@legecyofwordsandofwork746]

i think the best way to repell allied naval invasions is with 27 width infantry on garrison order, if you had around 70-50 divisions you could keep the entire upper area of germany under control (from estonia-the netherlands)

[@canomos8690]

Good work bitt3rsteel 👍👍

[@mertarican5456]

Great work mate i thought you would crumble lol!

[@popydev]

"Don't attack with your infantry, you'll take lots of casualties". 20 seconds later "Let's activate battleplan so my whole army group attacks"

[@Bitt3rSteel]

True. I opted to use my tanks to exploit a gap instead

[@RichRacc]

Quite a good video so far. Haven’t finished it yet, nice job tho.

[@MDMssHypNoTiZe]

I can tell you one big secret about naval invasion build 1k naval bombers put them on the English Channel or North see no fleet no naval invasion :D. I just put 3 factories on naval bombers in 1936 and never think about naval invasion. I leave coast undefended sometimes I leave 12 divisions if I don't kill Italy next :D.

[@Blanchboi]

As far as I'm aware, 10, 15, and 27-width infantry divisions are the most recommended templates. For Germany, I typically go 27 width with 12 infantry battalion, 1 arty, and logistics, engineers, arty support, AA support, and cavalry recon. You certainly have the industry to do this as Germany. Jusy be sure to produce trucks and build your own rubber. For tanks, you typically want to go 30-width with a roughly even ratio of tanks and motorized/mech. Sometimes I even put SPAA in there, but I wouldn't really recommend that unless it's for support companies. For heavier/special units, I typically do 40 or 42-width. This specifically applies to larger infantry, mountaineers, and marines. One of the best things you can go for is the research that essentially doubles your special forces limit. Essentially just spam out 27-widths to get your special forces limit high enough to get at least a full army group (24 divisions) of 40/42-width special forces divisions. Note: This all applies if you aren't trying to save a game like this lol

[@johnroach9026]

Wouldn't it be better to have 25 width mountaineers due to the terrain they're best on?

[@biggieboy2510]

Bittersteel x Alex Collab let's gooooo!

[@BrianHarkness]

This was an amazing save

[@topphatt1312]

Bro was playing historical historical Germany.

[@Theover4000]

16:45, I called the operation “Operation Weinhaus”. I don’t know why but that’s what came to mind.

[@the.german]

its just BEAUTIFUL AHH GOD

[@PfcDupuis]

go get this bread Bitt3r ! Beneath the gold...

[@SchopenhauerZee]

Steiner counter attacked lol. Also, operation vaterland would be a good name

[@spritemon98]

Now I'm waiting for the Italy revamp dlc

[@ithadtobeaname7327]

About Rommel being an Infantry leader Historically speaking, he was. Yes he is way more famous for his Panzer commanding in WW2 But he was actually a very VERY good Infantry commander in WW1 I bet he could have saved the Bismarck AND won the battle for Britain if he wasnt serving in the Heer xD

[@nickau55]

This dude Chose Porsche as his tank production company, what a chad

[@Localfatman299]

Steiners counter attack really did work.

[@Cyanide_Infused]

The non-DLC game is such a different....game. I'd say it's a lot harder and buggier than what i've seen on this channel as well(just a random thought)

[@Hilter420]

Mit dem Angriff Bitt3rSteels wird das alles in Ordung kommen

[@hagank1111]

Kick some ass steel I know you can do it!

[@Kandall05161]

While it's less than ideal and they'll suffer some losses doing it, CAS can make a pretty decent stand in for Naval bombers and will fairly quickly chew through the outdated ships that make up the royal and US navies at the start of the game. If you don't have the research/ production to field both it can definitely slow down and heavily damage the Allied navy and prevent their constant naval invasions.

[@andreasottohansen7338]

That's what I usually due, cause I am lazy, and use that production efficiency to make up for being lazy

[@carlitoe2506]

Amazing work

[@eisbergsyndrom5010]

Surprise naval invasions can be a run killer but also an opportunity for beeg encirclements.

[@RandomGuy-ej5dr]

Been waiting for this

[@poyloos4834]

I really feel like peace deals are fun-ruiningly bad in a lot of cases. 90% of wars are not fought to the point where you’ve lost 80% of your land, and peace deals don’t usually end with a country no longer existing or being outright puppeted. They modeled how peaces go solely off of the peace deal of the end of ww2, which might sound stupid for me to complain about then, but it wasn’t exactly your average peace deal. For every other country that isn’t fanatical (you know, like, everyone besides the ussr, germany and japan) there should be options for conditional peace earlier into a conflict, wherein the “loser” retains sovereignty, loses some territory or adheres to a demand within reason, and the “winner” gains some benefit for a while. Unless of course it’s like a focus wargoal specifically meant to annex a country. And also the tension systems needs refining. When a war is over, it should go back down, especially if it is resolved without warmongering tendencies. And war score and wargoals should be more strict, like you can’t get more infinitely, and you can justify war for other reasons, and the defender has chances to adhere to the justification, ending the war goal.

[@BlackBanditXX]

NAV bombers are the key. If you can strike the landings before they ever hit the beaches, that gives your garrisons a fighting chance.

[@Nuclear90000]

I’ve been watching your channel for so long I forgot to subscribe!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Welcome!!

[@pedrojuan8050]

The allies could only watch in horror as their only chance to end the war was steamrolled by Major Steiner.

[@3seven5seven1nine9]

Oh man I never knew that thing about the shallow water, that explains what happened in my last game

[@behradmontazer758]

me: not knowing how to even play the game also me: yeah why did you do alex?

[@TheyCalledMeT]

omg that's so hilarious, when you where complaining about the too big infantry template .. i wanted to recommend adding aa .. for well aa and ofc .. piercing and a little hard attack. and at around minute 20 you admitt, air is your achilles heel and you add aa :D

[@torpy9212]

Hilter would like to Time Travel you back top 1939 lmao

[@paul4schmidt]

Pretty easy. First, I tried your method and failed, but with my strategy, it was easy. :)

[@viclorenzo5016]

Most epic save ever

[@whatpach8145]

16:20 - operation "Götterdämmerung" 24:00 - operation "Neue Hoffnung"

[@bobbacon1398]

22:20 I defo don’t agree, allies are still a ton of fun to play against. I mean nothings changed naval invasion wise so I call bs. Gg tho

[@Anakeish]

U are amazing. Never played HoI IV, I tried but failed, too much stuff for me to optimize and "click", but I got over 1.5k hours in EU IV, and I just simply love to watch your "save" videos. Idk why u don't have like 300k+ subs. Because I watched couple of HoI IV players, and u are at top.

[@uc5581]

I can teach it to you If you want.

[@bjjfan4873]

This is funny to me because I do well with HOI4 but suck terribly when i try to play EU4.

[@mhkmms]

@@bjjfan4873 Hahaha this happen to me when i first play EU4 i thought walking on a tile can capture a fort.

[@Desteroyah195]

18:32 German opinion on Allied landings in Southern Italy, 1943 (other than month and place of landing, it actually checks out)

[@FrankieJames7]

rommel was an infantry officer in ww1 and did not command tanks until after ww2 started btw

[@ethanplots1004]

this amazing

[@attika3145]

Wish you could save my Byzantium game. Lolol.

[@CMAzeriah]

When Bittersteel tells Alex what template's bad🤣

[@leMiG31]

Fun fact:felix steiner has been give the nicnname "bitter steel" So its felix "bitter steel"nsteiner

[@zandarz229]

Why do you prefer 30 combat width? It’s just a mistake since a attack has 80 width therefore if you attack with 3 divisions you will only attack with 2 simultaneously. But if you put the width to 20 you will be able to attack with 4 divisions. Basically you need the field width to be easily divided with divisions width so you get the maximum amount of manpower per attack. (You can go for 10, 20, 40 width (I would suggest going for 20 or 40 so you can make a nice infantry/artilery template)). Edit: Honestly I kinda got mad when he said he prefers a 30 width. I thought he was supposed to be a good player.

[@mattipeltola3285]

didn't the meta change lately with how combat width was calculated or something similar?

[@lolloblue9646]

Plains have a width of 90 with an additional support width of 45 per province. The only terrain with a width of 80 is hills now