Comprehensive Guide To Hearts Of Iron Iv Götterdämmerung - Overpowered Germany Strategy

[@j.e.anderson6013]

I really enjoyed your video. I’m relatively new to the game HOI4 purchasing it in late November. Since getting the game I’ve put in over 100 hours and have yet to get a game last until 1941. I started a vanilla German game, following your focus tree and trying to mimic as best I could all of the other things I didn’t have access to. I didn’t get that close to your results. Admittedly, I made a number of rookie mistakes (which I guess is ok since I am a rookie). Would you consider doing the same kind of meta guide playing in vanilla mode? I obviously have a lot still to learn and am missing some of the resources.

[@ESG1]

Happy to see that I could help out. Here is a no dlc gudie but it does not have the newest game update. You could adapt the play style of this guide to your needs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJ3Oqntjfatrmas

[@floperdorszowy8245]

^ This guy has no life

[@tijmenwillard2337]

8:30 groundpounder is a noob trap. It doesn't actually raise the cap on shore bombardment bonus. It just lowers the amount of guns needed to get there

[@ESG1]

Noob trap, u could play this game your whole life and never know that.

[@JDothan]

31:34 should have built the template of your main battle tank with the free flampanzer, then all you need to do is swap the main gun. Then you make a real flame tank from scratch which literally costs 2xp

[@ESG1]

Actually genius. Definitely missed that one.

[@TemplarbladeDK]

So your idea is to wait until the you get advanced Panzer research and then make it?

[@ESG1]

Yes, that is his idea. It should work and you can catch up on your flame tank production easily.

[@JDothan]

35:21 another mistake here - should have used the first 50 air xp to take the spirit that makes the advisors stupid cheap, then used that advisor which pays for himself in 150 days and save yourself 75pp in the process

[@ESG1]

Nice one, LET’s GO JD!

[@DavidBartlett-o7k]

Excellent job. Lot of work went into that production. Well done. Only one suggestion: I like to get armored signal corps (rather than wait years for even better tank) before invade France and UK. Look forward to Barbarossa now. Say hello to your mum, to make sure you’re well fed meantime in that basement….

[@ESG1]

Lol! I decided not to add it to the video but armored signal company mainly gives you planning bonus speed. I would use that for Grand Battle Plan doctrine.

[@RobinMeineke]

Im 99% sure "Air Superiority in Combat" does nothing. If you found what it does I'd like to know. There is the normal Air Superiority modifier which affects enemy defense and breakthrough and there is ground support which buffs your own attack. Could find any combat stat that was affected by "air superiority in combat"

[@ESG1]

I haven't tested this modifier out so you are probably right. No combined arms focus then?

[@RobinMeineke]

@ My favorite one is actually the Strat Bomber Focus because it gives 15% Range to all planes. And that modifier works and is especially useful to mitigate the low range of your armor plate fighter design. Have to trade off the 50% Research Bonus from Dive Bombers, but I think thats worth it.

[@ESG1]

Good info

[@southsig02]

Need it for paradrops

[@southsig02]

Also helps naval invasions and naval power on a tile.

[@southsig02]

Pretty solid overview for a scuffed game. That many civs prior to ‘38 is bananas. Karl Dönitz pioneered the wolf pack which convinced A*olph to prioritize u-boats instead of capital ships. Before enigma was broken, his plan was literally starving the British from supplies of all kinds including fuel and food to the brink. Other than U-Boat prowess, he was commander-in-chief of all German armed forces and offered the unconditional surrender to the Western Allies. His last name is pronounced ‘durnitz.’ Keep up the work. Come a long way.

[@alichallab2705]

Loved the intro haha great vid!

[@ESG1]

Thanks man!

[@sld1776]

Donitz is not the best sub admiral in the game; that's Conrad Helfrich of the Netherlands. Once you do all the necessary set up, with Helfrich as your admiral, you can get the (modified) torpedo attack of your starting subs to over 60. That is, with Helfrich and only Helfrich, you can one-shot convoys WITHOUT using 1940 subs.

[@ESG1]

I new u would know

[@marcustulliuscicero5559]

Made a couple changes to get 2 more tank divisions and 10 more factories by war start and start a month earlier. Capped Poland in 7 days with 1K casualties

[@ESG1]

That's what I like to hear! Be carefull though. I am only running 20 tank divs because any more and I run out of oil.

[@mistertwo6113]

Remarkably, one of the best "recipe" guides ever! Bravo Zulu young Jedi.

[@ESG1]

Lol, thanks man!

[@JDothan]

52:33 reliability scales with the number of units in a battalion, bc flame companies are so small it literally does not matter at all.

[@ESG1]

Thanks for the info JD. Good tip.

[@divinesausage1056]

I have over 2000 hours in HOI and play multiplayer on the regular. I still learned something new in this about the MIOs and raising funds for them lol. Great video man. Germany is buffed this patch so I would be more interested in seeing how you deal with them in the Soviet Union! Either way, liked and subbed.

[@ESG1]

Thank you, much appreciated.

[@BigUndertaker]

Isnt it better to choose von Neurath instead of reorganizing the Wehrmacht? Especially if you dont do the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?

[@ESG1]

Not sure, I’ll have to test that one.

[@Hoi4withRobin]

So what could be improved here. -If we start from the back, having more Civs than Mills by wars end surely isnt optimal. So starting to build Mills earlier is definitely something I would do. If you purely want to be the strongest possible in September 1939 it is actually best to build Mills right from the start. -If you decide to go Civ Greed, Dispersed is actually better due to its efficiency base. If you build a new factory it will start off with a higher efficiency and concentrated will only surpass it in the long run after ca 1.5years. If you build Mills from the start Concentrated makes more sense as you have a long time to build up efficiency for the majority of your factories. The difference either way is really small, just wanted to mention it because I did some testing. -One thing that i personally like but some people might consider an exploit is spamming out 96 5width Divisions after you gain 5xp from Rhineland. These Division allow you to instantly do Anschluss. But they also allow you to send 7 Volunteers to spain and even more to china. More Volunteers obviously means more Army XP, but you also get Veterans. These Veterans can then be turned into tank Divisions. They keep their Veterancy if you rebuild the template instead of switching it. So with this one simple trick, you boosted your economy, swim in Army XP allowing for full doctrine and have several Veteran Tank Divisions ready for war.

[@JDothan]

Is early Anschluss even advised? Think you’d want Austria to complete some focuses first

[@ESG1]

Good updates. I tested Anschluss early but u get less industry from Austria and it slows Germany’s industry down. IMO it is the same as before, Anschluss rush for a speed run.

[@Hoi4withRobin]

@@JDothan It should be 10C+3M when doing Anschluss early vs 10C+13M when doing Anschluss late. Yes you get more Mills from Anschluss when you wait, but you also miss out on 10 Civs over 1,5-2 years plus the production of the 3 mills. I am fairly certain that the 10 extra Mills later on can not recover the production you lost but I might be wrong. It’s something I’m now curious to test.

[@derbasierte4194]

Which industry path for neither civ nor mil greed but starting mils in, lets say, early 38 or late 37?

[@ESG1]

This is a very good question. In my opinion it is the same for either economic ramp. I rush Todt and organization of Todt to get the military factory construction bonus late 1937. So the inner circle determines my civ ramp not the economic focuses.

[@elcanaldelargan8575]

You do have special projects without the DLC, you do not have all of them (like helicopters or the more exotic things), but all the projects which come from older techs plus a few more (flame tanks, engineering vehicles, several kinds of subs, radar, jet engines, several kinds of missiles, nuclear research...) are esearchable with special projects. I'd say its almost an advantage to have less projects, as you are not tempted to use the scientist to research those, and can use them to boost the normal research.

[@ESG1]

Thanks for the answer!

[@Gaspardini]

Germany is the most fun nation to play (no navy), but i always struggle to do it well. Thanks for the guide!

[@ESG1]

NP, a lot of replay ability with this update.

[@SM23Goat]

Do you plan on continue your guide so that it includes sealion and Barbarossa?

[@ESG1]

Yes, the whole reason for this first guide was that multiple viewers have asked me for a Barbarossa guide. There is no way to do a Barb guide without explaining this first part. But it would be like a 4 hour video unless I split it into two. Thanks for the comment!

[@SM23Goat]

@@ESG1 Couldn’t you construct a separate guide on them both, and just put clips of the main guide in them?

[@ESG1]

I will reference this video in the next guide.

[@SM23Goat]

@@ESG1when do you plan on doing the next guide? They are all really good and I’m just curious.

[@ESG1]

As soon as I can get it out. Maybe by next Sunday.

[@VX-45]

You can have 100 % stability and war support with total mobilisation (economy law) in 1937 when play Germany with aliance with China plus defence war against Japan. And chose free market. My result was 280 factory, date 1 Jan 40, but no war in Europe. What do you think? Can better and have more factory?

[@ESG1]

I wouldn’t delay the war in Europe because it may delay a world conquest. Could be faster, test it out and give me your results.

[@pattomcat3606]

great video picked up tips. But conquering UK is something else. With Goterdam UK has an insane ammount of troops and with poor tech each time they push me of the island. Thanks for the video.

[@ESG1]

I’ll have a follow up video showing how to invade UK. Thanks for watching!

[@JohnMeade-hd8es]

Really enjoyed this video and some of the tips you showed were great for a beginner like myself. I then tried to follow the start and found I did not have the Flammpanzer available to research don't know if I need a specific DLC for this I only have the base game with Man the Guns and Gotterdammerung expansions. That said top marks and look forward to seeing future videos from you.

[@ESG1]

Thanks for your support. I think flammpanzer was with No Step Back. Not 100% on that.

[@JohnMeade-hd8es]

@@ESG1 Guess i know the next DLC I need to buy haha

[@pinochetshelicoptertours1677]

Thanks for an amazing video mate, was struggling with Germany but this will help me out, cheers!

[@ESG1]

NP, thanks for watching

[@mistertwo6113]

A plastic Great Horned Owl mounted on your chimney / rooftop will move that dove into another, more deserving neighborhood. 😉

[@ESG1]

Great idea, can’t believe I didn’t think of that.

[@TemplarbladeDK]

Great video thanks. I got a question and maybe it is stupid but does Junkers MIO benefit medium bombers or are those upgrades for a CAS build later on ? Also if that is so what MIO would be best for Medium bombers if any ?

[@ESG1]

Thanks, much appreciated. Junkers is for CAS. I haven’t tested the medium bomber MIO yet but I would guess you would go for range.

[@TemplarbladeDK]

@@ESG1 Just a notice,you forgot Advanced Panzer Research on your focus list ;) no hard feelings hehehe Weird my spanish units lost their xp after they returned to Germany.

[@ESG1]

Thanks for the help, just updated the list.

[@xnosniper3874]

If your going for factories you can get 250-260 by war by going right side eco branch

[@ESG1]

Prove it

[@xnosniper3874]

@ESG1 what you want me to give up a step by step guide?

[@ESG1]

Just a brief description so that everyone can test it. I did not think this was possible. I haven’t fully optimized the right side but the consensus is that left is better. I recon left is better for eco too.

[@xnosniper3874]

@@ESG1 Focuses: Rush todt 4year plan and rush institute price controls then then click all of the price control decisions except import tariffs Then rush kdf Wagan followed by build rur dam By this time you should be able to choose your next inner circle member pick Gorbals and go war eco Then Finnish your three armament focus that you can do and get your extra research slot, after that you can do whatever you want until you can complete Anschluss sometime in 38 and then just rush Czechoslovakia

[@xnosniper3874]

@@ESG1 with the right side a since you can spam the price control decisions you can spend most of the early game on low consumer goods and so long as you continue to conquer countries you can keep them low while left side if preferable in multiplayer due to the rules and the longer wars

[@thebearjew5014]

Great build, ESG!!!

[@ESG1]

Thanks man! Good to hear from you!

[@dad378]

Love the guide, you have to try "better AI" by ThePeer, it is an absolute must have AI fix mod, you will actually fight Strong Air forces, You will fight strong medium tank divisions, for instance the German AI had 15-20 Medium Tank divisions with tank destroyers to boot in 42 for barb and shot down thousands of my planes, i was Russia. The US wont sit around and build 20,000 trains while not having a single medium tank divisions, the AI will use marines more often too.

[@ESG1]

Sounds good, I’ll check it out.

[@radekstanski4268]

I am not sure but you didn't trained your navy and airforce till 3rd level. It would give you some xp. In cost few accidents and a bit a fuel.

[@TheDaaaaaave]

Do I get this right? No infrastructure upgrades? Not selling the tactical bombers?

[@ESG1]

You need the tac bombers. The resource gain from the infra is not needed and you will end up with less military factories. I have tested this mechanic heavily, trust me bro. I'll try to find my video on it for you.

[@ESG1]

This video will show you what you get when you build infra first vs civs first. You can decide for yourself: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3yWfpWaZ7N_a9U

[@TheDaaaaaave]

@@ESG1 Cheers mate. Germany is pretty unhinged right now. Makes it kind of hard to see the trees in the forest of modifiers.

[@ESG1]

I think I have it down, but you can always do better.

[@JDothan]

No infra is crazy

[@TandaiAnxle]

Excited to watch this. you should look at maybe making a Guide for Communism Germany

[@alifurkantoraman6718]

bruh its not that deep but respect the hardwork

[@southsig02]

Agreed. Like to roll with it and be challenged

[@Spazzz123]

great video! this is gonna be one of those strats i always follow when playing Germany lol. curious thou, how much of this strategy carry's over to elite difficulty?

[@ESG1]

Thanks man, much appreciated! I wouldn't change the strat at all, unless you wanted to do a speed run.

[@Spazzz123]

@@ESG1 okay ill give it a shot. im booting up an elite game rn so ill let you know how it pans out in a few hours ahahah(if i remember) either way i love your content man. 4 years later your guides are still helping me out, even tho at this point i should know how to play good lol.

[@ESG1]

Good to hear.

[@Spazzz123]

@@ESG1 hey! i know im several days late ahaha but your strat more or less worked. because of the elite debuffs i couldn't do everything the same. Anschluss was delayed by a few months and my pp picks and research were out of wack. and i decided to change the way i funneled my mills into air and tanks, because i knew the allies would have more. at war i had 91 mils,105 civs, 1000 fighters 700tacs, and almost 6 medium tank divisions. i also had 51 rubber, 3 surplus after i went to limited export. even thou i only had 6 tanks i micro like crazy, so as long as i had green air i was able to turn the allies into mince meat with my 6 tanks. once again thank you for the top notch guide.

[@ESG1]

6 tank divs will do it

[@Daglizzh]

Do you put 4 year plan above economic growth, because I think that the alt hist path for industry is far better because it’s more stable and give you buffs to both civilian and military aspects

[@ESG1]

Yes, economic growth is better overall.

[@Daglizzh]

@ I mean for single player anything is viable but I play quite a lot of fairly competitive mp so you rlly have to look for the stats

[@mrdias1866]

nice video but not sure why you did not show how you beat the UK and USSR bc I´m pretty sure the average player can beat Poland and France easily but then struggle if not fail to naval invade the UK and conquer the soviets.

[@ESG1]

It’s coming in the next video

[@mrdias1866]

@@ESG1 Looking forward then. I am failing miserably to land in the UK and then gain territory, while in the USSR front I either ran out of artillery cuz I am consuming more than I produce or I ran out of manpower

[@ESG1]

I’ll get the Barb guide out next.

[@DavidFeder]

well played sir

[@ESG1]

Thank you!

[@TemplarbladeDK]

What are continues focuses in the lower left corner ?

[@ESG1]

Sorry what part of the video?

[@TemplarbladeDK]

@ESG1 Not part of the video, but a question about their function.

[@ESG1]

U can get extra construction, air production, resistance suppression ect. We would use that all the time mid game because there was nothing else to do with the old Germany focus tree.

[@TemplarbladeDK]

@@ESG1 ah ok

[@mistertwo6113]

@@ESG1 I see that question as another video opportunity!

[@JDothan]

22:37 that’s not why you go dispersed lmao… it’s for the production base and retention 🤦‍♂️

[@ESG1]

The reduced factory bomb vulnerability is a feature of that tech that is useful in an MP game. I can’t cover everything.

[@lorgius]

@@ESG1 Retention bonus from dispersed is superior in long run unless, due to some reasons, You plan to produce same model of item through whole game.

[@ESG1]

@@lorgius Yes

[@PT-rg2vo]

Great video with 3 major issues. 1st, don't get engaged in Ethiopia, you get 0 experience while the troops are stuck there until WWII as the war doesn't end. 2nd assign the 2 medium bomber squadrons to the Light Tanks send to Spain and then to Japan. You get huge amount of air XP let alone before the end of 1937 you have 5 x level 5 medium tank divisions. In addition going going down the 4Y Plan and Autarky outweighs completely everything else.

[@ESG1]

Going to Japan would be good. However the divs from ethiopia can be turned into medium tank divs after war. I have tested the economies extensively, economic recovery is supperior due to conquest. You also don't have to puppet and gain more eco and resource from conquest.

[@JDothan]

59:13 it’s bc painter man got a +5% resis target debuff Zero reason to waste civs on collab govts for these 2

[@ESG1]

U don’t want the compliance?

[@dankensoulsen4014]

competing in your moms basement is too real for these people.