Can Ethiopia now DOMINATE Africa? - HoI4 By Blood Alone

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Can Emperor Haile Selassie hold on to his Ethiopian Empire and liberate Africa? Let's find out together!
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[@Bitt3rSteel]

Play Enlisted for FREE on PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS®5: enplay.link/bitt3rsteelenlisted Follow the link to download the game and get your exclusive bonus now. See you in battle!

[@whitezombie10]

Is it actually good?

[@bootybanditforrest2396]

Do the communist path

[@honeybadger6275]

@@whitezombie10 Enlisted? No, its ok at best and its had microtransactions since it first launched in alpha. Its extremely grindy like war thunder seeing as how its the same company.

[@whitezombie10]

@@honeybadger6275 well I downloaded it already so I will try. Still thank you for the answear

[@honeybadger6275]

@@whitezombie10 Go for it man, I'm just letting you know its the same game model as war thunder .

[@hatless_spider]

Ironically Italy losing in Africa so that Ethiopia can then dominate in Africa helps the Axis more than Italy fighting in Africa ever could

[@aliabdallah102]

Killing Italy would always help Germany unless italy allows allies

[@kieranwalsh2058]

Just today I lost a Germany game because Italy got naval invaded in 1943 in both Africa and mainland. Royal Navy really does kick ass if you don’t prepare for it.

[@ClemDiamond]

Not really, if Italy is good enough they can take Gibraltar and the Suez canal, turning Malta and Cyprus into desperate and isolated holdings for the Allies and making the Mediterranean be an Axis lake. When Africa falls Italy is wide open.

[@strke5972]

you gotta make an ethiopia video man

[@hatless_spider]

@@strke5972 me, or bitter? Or both? Haha

[@BigJOL77]

I feel like the focus tree especially on that side you went should be tweaked because the allies were more interested in having Hailie Selassie as an Ally rather than an opponent. So why not change it to where you get decisions to buy the land you need or they say theyll turn it over if you help them defeat Germany or something like that. Asking the player to fight the allies without any meaningful buildup is really hard for there to be enjoyment beyond the Italian invasion

[@matropgy]

so true man

[@thatnnoob6109]

I love how aussa has its own unique focus tree. We need a bittersteel aussa run.

[@telperinquarcurufinyelde1597]

Yes please that be really cool

[@skyninjaslayer337]

It does that’s pretty cool

[@4klog]

Every ethiopian landlord releseable has that focus tree. Just like the chinese warlords

[@shlizard390]

Imagine the humiliation of the Italians to lose to Ethiopia twice.

[@erikweltz8187]

See at first it would be humiliating, but then going down the focus tree the other Colonial powers would be hit with there own shame as Ethiopia emboldens and orchestrates rebellions across the rest of Africa. Italy: “see, not just some backwater nation are they?”

[@whitezombie10]

@@erikweltz8187 and the allies would invade and destroy Ethiopia

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

@@whitezombie10 Yeah or it would be African Vietnam/Finland.

[@shlizard390]

For context Italy, tried to invade Ethiopia during the scramble for Africa.. they failed

[@JohnDoe-bh2lp]

Italy lost twice. First was the Treaty of Wuchale/Expedition to Abyssinia which ended in Ethiopia repelling an invasion, second was the "First" Italian-Ethiopian war.

[@brunovin01s56]

New challenge: Defeat the Italians as Aussa.

[@waltuh2.3bviews3secondsago3]

Aussa world conquest when

[@TheLastYoloFighters]

They even have their own focus tree. Interestingly enough.

[@byeyaveanicetime6520]

@@TheLastYoloFighters they have their own focus tree yet ireland does not? that really annoys me

[@mannerheim6208]

@@byeyaveanicetime6520 Ireland was neutral during ww2

[@akseliliimatainen3592]

@@byeyaveanicetime6520 yet FINLAND HAS NOT. WTF PARADOX HOW MANY GREAT POWERS MUST WE HUMILIATE BEFORE YOU HAND US A GODDAMN FOCUS TREE.

[@Kaiimei]

I love how this was all like "Hey, you can play as Ethiopia and do cool stuff!" but in actuality, you have no factories, no equipment, and cannot stand on your own really. Still, you said you were having fun doing the micro at the beginning so at least it had that going for it!

[@cyriell]

Jup Ethiopia is simply not a world conquering nation if you dont cheese (lets be honest cheeses will be found)

[@JTKroll12]

Ethiopia is the dumbest nation ever to do a rework on. Paradox decision making

[@murphyebony1799]

There is definitely potential to do amazing as Ethiopia imo, even what is shown in the video is super fun and rewarding but there are paths which lead to releasing all of your states as puppets (they have their own focus trees and will churn out factories like crazy really quickly) and then reintegrate them later to get a ton of power. It's still super hard to go against Britain but it's definitely some of the most fun I've had in this game

[@fluffycommander]

I feel like there should be more of a reward and payoff for winning against Italy, like at least a few more factories. It could be new development as the world recognises you as a potent nation. The further pain feels harsh.

[@monkas1833]

true. You spend the next 5 years on like 20 factories

[@joshuaspeer2503]

There is a path where you can release a bunch of puppets, let them work for a while on focus trees for factories and then reintegrate them. I saw another yt do this and got about 34 factories when you had 10. Should make taking on the UK much more possible.

[@soviet_doge1263]

Feedback gaming did that. The right path might not be as cool and give as many Buffs however the guns you can buy and other stuff is useful, as well as uniting africa and getting a lot of factories and an easier way to gain territory through uprisings.

[@MyPfandflasche]

The video introducing the sponsor was hilarious!

[@Edukong]

Steiner's counterattack... brutal

[@myunclepete4077]

I still can't get over the fact that this dlc has the new Italian focus tree and the devs even thought about Ethiopia, yet they forgot about Albanian focus tree! Like why? This was the perfect opportunity to implement it - Italy, Ethiopia and Albania - everything you need for a good "italian campaign". They added Switzerland instead? I could have never foreseen this, Switzerland, really? A little bit disappointed about this fact, but quite a nice dlc overall! Thanks Bitter for covering Ethiopia with another magnificent gameplay! 🇪🇹🇪🇹🇪🇹

[@Roketsune]

Game development should be strictly and mercilessly regulated and overseen by the government to prevent this sort of nonsense from happening. And also to prevent releases of incomplete games.

[@cosmosyn2514]

@@Roketsune most shortsighted take i’ve ever seen in my life

[@alejandrocontreras6362]

@@Roketsune average ussr no step back player

[@Nickel_Eye]

Switzerland is so incredibly boring to play aswell.

[@nickgurz7605]

who gives a shit about albania again? italy player or ai will just make them a minor puppet or keep it annexed rework majors with old trees like japan and usa to be as interesting as italy first, maybe add in a scandinavian focus tree pack after but the game DOES NOT NEED a unique expansive focus tree for every single nation on the map

[@solgerWhyIsThereAnAtItLooksBad]

Paradox forgot his king of drip title. Like sheesh, dude’s fits are sweet

[@hitomisalazar4073]

Yeah, that kind of made sense to me. I've noticed the Allied AI will dump a lot of its effort down in Africa if there's any sort of threat going on there (much less the player bias it has). Like even if their home islands are being invaded if there was an enemy to fight there they'd be there. Well if you can force the AI to actually Sealion. It's why I was dreading those achievements...

[@StormArmy96]

I kinda get the AI being railroaded into certain places, but at the same time it's annoying like the UK will not commit troops to france until after they capitulate, no matter how well theyre doing I had mega forts everywhere, air and sea helping and stupidly high stacked entrenchment everywhere, survived until 1942 when bigger german armour rolled in but i had no counter from some slightly poor planning beforehand but also no doctrines because of the stupidly bad debuff had the british lifted a finger to help, I'd have won was going for "reach 1948 as france without capitulating I could cheese it and join the axis, then just sit there for 3 hours but thats boring as hell

[@hitomisalazar4073]

I'm bothered by some... weird but similar AI railroads myself. Like the Axis will NEVER Sealion on their own, no matter how badly the Allies got spanked. In my last run doing the "You're Locked in Here with Me" bit as the Swiss the Axis had completely dominated and almost pushed the USSR to the Urals with the Allies unable to do a thing, even locked out of the Med... and they never went to KO the UK even though it was an incredibly weak UK. Or how the Finns won't call for the Continuation War even when the USSR is crippled beyond belief. Or the US and Japan just kind of... ignoring the island campaign in the Pacific. Japan never pushing on to Midway and Hawaii (Or Alaska even) and the US just going straight from Hawaii to the Home Islands. There's so many weird, baffling, odd things like that the AI just won't do. Or how they'll super prioritize everything like there will never be a Normandy Invasion until all of Greece and most of Yugoslavia is recovered. And with supply hell down there it usually stalemates pretty hard.

[@onefastsled]

You don’t need to disband the irregulars to get the modernized army, it simply demands that the balance of power be at equilibrium, only thing that’ll change is your Constriction Law

[@Roketsune]

Is your one fast sled pulled by the kitty in your avatar?

[@n543576]

I'd like to see you give this another shot one day, after learning about Ethiopia being screwed over by the League of Nations in real life I kinda wanna see Ethiopia stick it to the Allies just for the memes.

[@kittykat1371]

Honestly can relate to the sentiment about the focus lengths, can't believe so many of them are 70 days. Unfortunately my play through of Ethiopia got hit with a "great" bug, where i went communist and Italy had a civil war where Mussolini won and it bypassed my focus that allowed me to make peace, forcing me into a forever war and also resetting Mussolini's focus tree completely to where he can't even do 'the Abyssian fiasco', 'solid progress' or 'struggle in Ehtiopia', meaning his entire political tree is now blocked 🙃 But hey, i technically won the war as Ethiopia on my first go, so yay i guess?

[@e.corellius4495]

stuff like that is why i always wait like a month for them to hotfix the bigger bug out lol. some will inevitably be there forever. but thats sort of a given, considering that the whole paradox dev team is less than half the size of the kaiserriech mod team so some you can expect all that much.

[@agamemnonofmycenae5258]

Oh a disaster campaign created by Bittersteel!Now let's do a disaster save!

[@predawn3722]

Bitter should send this too Alex the rambler 😂

[@154Kilroy]

Definitely looking forward to a video on Switzerland. I haven't seen any KZbinrs play it yet, and I just gave it a go. It's definitely the type of tree that is hard to get right the first playthrough. Definitely need to read all focuses before picking a path.

[@stoneramirez3031]

all you need to know about ethiopia 38:09. i just want to see paradox run there own tree just to prove its not garbage. because who wants to do any of that micro-ing for over 3 hours. thanks for the attempt tho

[@RetiredRhetoricalWarhorse]

I'm having a deja-vu here... but I think I actually saw this on Taureor's channel Seriously though, the replayability of HoI4 really lags behind EU4

[@toast2300]

The replayability thing is true. For one, there are far less countries you can play in hoi, even less that have content. EU4 has countless scenarios, they may not be as good or fun as 1444, but it's there. And of course, the countries that have content in hoi have specific routes you can take, while in eu, it's really up to you wether you will follow the mission tree or you will do something completely different...

[@sephikong8323]

Though I'll say this : HOI4 also sucks less ass than modern EU4 by a landslide Coming from someone who has 2500 hours on EU4 on Steam but hasn't been able to seriously pick up the game for 4 years now, I hate almost everything they did with this game since Rule Britannia, the fact that HOI4 (which I used to find lackluster and quite boring) and Stellaris (which I found barebone) are now to me absolutely superior to EU4 is just ..... sad. Sorry, rant about something I used to like turning to shit : over

[@Prodigi50]

@@sephikong8323 Why don’t you like EU4 anymore? What did Rule Britannia mess up?

[@AnglosArentHuman]

@@sephikong8323 I wish I had the copium in me to think HOI4 is anything but a laggy, buggy piece of shit a couple of mods happen to run on. EU4 has definitely seen its ups and downs (mostly downs) over the years, but at least I can boot up the game with no mods without wanting to tear my hair out.

[@christianthompson7915]

@@sephikong8323 i was the same way then i came back to it and started to have a blast. the newest dlc fixed a lot of issues

[@MohammadMehdi_1889]

I love your videos . I really enjoy these videos ❤️❤️

[@yeeterbeetus5719]

Nice to see uploads

[@512TheWolf512]

17:00 that's wrong. you just need the balance of power to be in equilibrium, and you can take and finish that focus before the war against Italy ends.

[@aemeromedia]

fantastic info! 💪

[@TheMelnTeam]

I think it's definitely possible to work in dockyards sooner. I wonder if you can't beg your way into infantry kits with maybe 1-2 factories of your own on that, then mostly put military factories on arty + naval bombing capability. Finally, you probably want to avoid joining axis for a while (maybe forever) and declare a non-focus war that the allies guarantee (but not actually in allies), so that its initial garrison in Africa is minimal. It's a completely different war if you're in Suez before anything other than allied port garrisons even have a chance to move to the front. You restore over-land trade, narrow the front, put allied shipping/trade for rubber on a predictable path around South Africa, and are on a path to holding resources directly (India, Australia, Maghreb). I don't know if UK's navy still takes some lunch breaks and allows a '40 sea lion like all previous patches, but even if it doesn't, you will be a major power with many times the factories of this attempt and a means to ruin the allies (NAV bomb traps).

[@montymechanizedmarines]

First time I can recall Bittr having to call it a day. I remember your "I hate fighting the allies" comment on the Ethiopia dev diary. Would love to see another attempt at this - the African Union achievement? Thanks MMM

[@christopherh2729]

I don't know how many of you can hear it but there's a high pitch ringy noise in this video. Listen at 0:24 right around when he says play, and then when he says let's go.

[@TheCredfield]

haile selassie after smoking a big blunt in jamaica: "i gonna declare war to this united kingdom of somaliland over here"

[@ethiominilik8824]

Ha!

[@foxdavion6865]

It also helps (If you have the DLC installed related to weather) that the attack occurs during the Rainy Season; Which severely impacts the effectiveness of the attacking air forces, which makes defending for the first 4 months of the war easier; By the time the Italians lose the debuff to their planes you should have gained enough bonuses through missions and hiring commanders/generals and upgrading them to counter the impact of the air attacks. Unlike what happened in reality, the AI is dumb and won't violate international laws against using illegal weapons of war, thankfully.

[@realmastersilver1849]

you know there is now a gas attack mod on steam right?

[@alatamore]

Loved the Steiner’s attack joke…

[@patricksimpson1157]

My first Ethiopia playthrough went as well as my first HOI playthrough. Hopefully this helps.

[@dobi2236]

Did this twice, both times Italy joined the allies moments before I kicked Italy out of Africa. They really need to give Italy a focus blocking them from joining factions if they are at war with Ethiopia to simulate the League refusing the interfere with the war

[@codyrex5049]

“Gaijin has offered to help pay my mortgage this month!” I laughed so hard my family is looking at me weird

[@_sherloks_]

I really want to see a second playthrough of this

[@jumpinnemo5044]

Damn this was a good ad transition

[@lavissebruh3144]

Going down the decentralized path gives you a shit ton of puppets And they have a pretty big focus tree for a nation of 1 state Let them develope with their focus and then annex them You will get so much more factories and just everything in general

[@Sabel12]

Please do an Aussa lets play!

[@phat2.092]

YOOO bitter steel can u make MORE hoi4 DISASTER saves the are so fun to watch!

[@Roketsune]

02:55 "Help out yourself and feed my family!". I thought all Belgians were given free Belgian Waffles every day for life as an entitlement!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Alas, the budget ran out

[@hellkillaz]

I managed to get some territory by Decisions. You make the resistance go up so they can break free and then you got new descisions to improve their country. Finally you get a last descision to annex them for free. It didnt work with the british colonies even at 100% resistance tho. I suspect they didnt revolt beacause it was somalia territories and i had some of their territories under control.

[@Calimeroo]

There is an Advisor that gives like -3consumer goods and factory output and that guy is enough to get your civ back btw

[@Nasko1230]

Great video!

[@joytimi5334]

bulgaria W

[@snipershadow71]

So i was loosely following this, Get scavanging tactics early. It helps tons it's a flat 40% capture rate and both your generals get scvanger for free

[@scubandym1941]

You fought with honor, treachery and no guns. You held the line by blood alone

[@cosmosyn2514]

HE SAID THE LINE

[@Majwanbajwan]

Best Video pls Keep up

[@aspielm759]

Quick question, when I tried doing this (not necessairly just like you did but by myself first) Eritrea and Somalia were relased as independent nations and joined the allies (which in 1939 ofc were at war with the Axis and hoi4 italy always joins early)

[@Gatunation]

trust me there is another way with the same focus tree as stay with the emperor to feel better with ethiopia, the dlc has just released we need to study the best equation. pls we need to conquer afrika with haile selassi and develop the industry . trust me

[@maximus13161]

There's more RNG involved so more runs but with the decolonization focuses of the UK it is possible to get the rest of africa it seems especially if timed right but obviously this is not a reliable method just the most feasible if you don't want t fight the uk and france.

[@eytankollin342]

Conquer Africa as Ethiopia would be interesting to see played out.

[@CronoTime]

" so you have chosen death ", seems fitting here

[@eleanorgreywolfe5142]

I really wish Paradox would do away with most 70 day focuses, most of them aren't even worth the 70 days. And they keep making longer focus trees but not reducing the time it takes to actually take a focus, just like how they keep adding more and more things to research but don't increase research speed to compensate, but at least you can research things to increase the speed so that's something i guess.

[@vulcanmemes9770]

They actually did reduce some of the focuses like for Yugoslavia this patch. But then you run into the big mess that is Turkey and Bulgaria where paradox tried to outsource/experiment doing flavor focus trees to mod makers and nearly all of them are 70 days which means even in like 1945 you're still doing your base focuses which makes it a drag to play them.

[@TIRFemcel]

Yeah especially for a minor nation.

[@franciscomendez8350]

I will tell you about my experience with Ethiopia. He was making good progress but it seems that the United Kingdom left the League of Nations and therefore could not ask them to close the Suez Canal to Italy to weaken their troops and then start the offensive to defeat them.

[@KingKrad]

I would definitely like to see you try again, although, couldn't you give yourself a little extra something, so you can survive the British? I mean, if you *can't* win, then what fun is it to begin with?

[@Jay-kf3od]

In my expierence. the computer AI always considers you the biggest threat and over committs its forces to whatever front your on. even it means them getting steam rolled by your AI ally.

[@Mythic366]

Very creative transition to ad

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Glad you think so!

[@BB-vh8cj]

From my experience,getting steel from congo is the easiest way to get steel and not far(the congo)

[@king_of_sin]

jeez and i thought i had played some precarious was situations but this looks worse then the time i had to hold out against Germany, Italy, Hungary Vichy France and Romania as Denmark. at least in that situation i had a few years to build up my defenses and army.

[@EoCx1]

The resistance in those African territories near Ethiopia should be way lower, near zero, if liberated by Ethiopia. When compared to rule by Italy.

[@Tom-2142]

Why would Somalis suddenly be ok with being ruled by Ethiopians given the historical ethnic and religious tensions between the two?

[@Ugnep-sw9ng]

Yeah past the war the buildup is painfully slow. At least some of the focuses should be 35 days or have better effects. Also the massive research debuff is painful and makes progress even slower. I'll be honest crushing the Italians is fun but that's basically all Ethiopia can do. If they had an option where you could white peace the Allies after kicking them out of Africa it would make it SO much easier.

[@spacebound2213]

I don't know how, but you can prevent Italy from annexing the Sultanate of Aussa depending on how you defend. I've consistently done it in my games. I think it's something to do with keeping Macalle?

[@sfogliatelle278]

Yes, the event fires when Italy conquers macalle. If they don’t conquer it the event won’t fire

[@roguelineageakkount3278]

In the beginning when bittersteel gets that third military factory and has to use 2 civs for consumer good, couldnt he have just demolished the military factory and freed up his civ?

[@Tommuli_Haudankaivaja]

Wish mass mobilization right gave buffs to irregulars, mainly because that'd make sense.

[@jasonsweeney890]

btw so if you research gun 1s, you can still ask for guns from other countries by recommissioning your old rifles

[@winged_destro]

General kenobi.

[@dorerok]

making achievements in ethiopia is backbreaking work

[@spritemon98]

Aye!!!! I'm the 3k like!!! That's never happened before!!!!😁😁😁

[@MrBlackWolfX]

Please try it again. AND ACCOMPLISH. I need so much to see the God-King Jah succeeding.

[@kurtkremitzki1558]

Typo in new in-game text at 12:41, "Level 7 - League of Nations: Ethiopia may request international _n_ediation"

[@deek1081]

Play as the sultanate of ausa

[@spritemon98]

Part 2!!!!

[@zackd1eb0hne4]

do another great run :)

[@BlackSheepEntertainment9009]

I need my Switzerland world conquest run bitter please!

[@doctorwhat779]

I think I will never take king of the kings achievement or other etihopia achievement ever

[@raippakeisari2342]

Would it be possible to improve relations with someone like Japan or even join the japanese faction instead and then get convoys from them as lend-lease thus allowing you to trade better?

[@12gark]

You can't get or give convoys as lend lease as far as I can tell now. Don't know why, but it disappeared from the options in my game

[@JaiAcuneIdeeQuoiMettreIci]

How do you change which patch of hoi4 you have? Because when it updated I can’t play Kaiserreich anymore

[@zbenet8787]

I lose faster with this than i win faster with your italy strategy.... nice.

[@MrKelenius]

28:12 Germany DID send guns to Ethiopia in real life.

[@deadringer6759]

Should have taken the Dergpill

[@whitezombie10]

Did anyone play Enlisted(the game which sponsors him)? Is it actually good? Edit: well, I tried it and it's a really nice break from the usual ww2 games and the system to upgrade squads is nice. It looks really old and the pay to win is clear but for a free game which doesn't take much memory it's nice

[@pieup2170]

I played its game even before he sponsored it, its a really good game in my opinion

[@whitezombie10]

@@pieup2170 ok then I'll try it

[@hydronpowers9014]

When you turn your game into a disaster save lol

[@Timmenim]

Switzerland next?

[@ErwinRommelsBattles]

Seeing a countryball with a mouth is cursed after years of /r/polandball

[@KaydesX]

theres a buzzing sound in your mic its buzzing me real hard lol

[@kenoby2330]

Switzerandia next

[@Cloud9vegas1]

I feel like you could have done better logistic wise if you had Halle leave on the train. I believe it creates an option to get a stockpile of guns for some political power from the league of nations. From there you could start diversifying and professionalizing your army much sooner.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I know but it locks me out of the Aksum and Jah path

[@Cloud9vegas1]

Well its difficult to assert those claims against modern colonial powers if you dont have modern equipment. The african union route lets you indirectly fight them through colonial uprisings so you dont have to if you feel you are not ready just yet. You can also federalize your own country to have a bunch of puppets with the generic industry growing focus trees helping your economy greatly once they are reintegrated.

[@faythe03]

One more round! But you could go for Yemen?

[@lead_farmer69]

"Force them to die" gold

[@hydranmenace]

How does "pinning" work? Also, Jah mon. Do it again.

[@GundamGokuTV]

If you had wanted more factories you should of just released puppets and let them go through their generic trees and annexed them

[@buckempire1395]

By bittersteel alone

[@balawi3039]

14:34 Believe it or not Germany actually supported Ethiopia in their war against Italy with equipment and weapons.

[@markregev1651]

how do you even do the ethiopia conquest achievements? it seems impossible

[@ericfuchs123]

Save your own disaster save!

[@Riderofrohan11]

lets try agaaain

[@susibuki8546]

Les go

[@yousseffiguigui510]

Switzerland guide when?

[@AnelixisBlack]

The audio is a bit corrupt, making a weird sound when ur microphone is active

[@crazyman0999]

Huge

[@Brainreaver79]

is the italian focus tree (or most of it) still locked behind the "Win in Ethiopia" focus?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

or lose badly