Exploring the "Hidden" Italian Focus tree in By Blood Alone

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Download Warpath for free on IOS and Android. Use promo code WPIAGG. Build an army and strive for glory! ✔ clik.cc/d0BwT

[@jes3d]

poggies

[@Crusade._1]

There is still something wrong with mic

[@22LongRifle]

do what you gotta do for extra cash lmao

[@goldengriffin4715]

Man... It's been a couple of years since I played it, i think... especially when the first servers came to be... Yes, I was there at the near start of it....

[@justindagoose377]

@@22LongRifle thats every youtuber

[@ClemDiamond]

Imagine being an italian soldier you joined under Mussolini because it pays well enough and there was no other job, you get deployed in Ethiopia, come back to take all the Balkans and see the king take power, then the catholics are so based that the pope takes over. You might think well this is it we've unified Italy and our ambitions under catholicism but no the pope tells you to rush Moscow. That's a very loyal soldier.

[@rps215]

Actually good job not losing Balbo until the end without completing that focus

[@sarmin8008]

Like being a German soldier in the early 20th century. Enlist at 18, fight for the Kaiser, somehow survive Verdun. At 23, lose and go into the military of the liberal democratic Republic of Weimar, survive the intense ideological rivalries. At 37, lose, as votes turn the Republic into a fascist dictatorship, off to Stalingrad at 47, yet somehow survive. After the war, you are too old to fight, but the new government employs you for your expertise. Good luck, you landed in the DDR and in '61 at age 67 you witness the Berlin wall being built.

[@weaponisedautism07theSecond]

⁠@@sarmin8008Now in 6 months we’ll have a cold war one with them dying alone

[@spacebuilder4d]

The Pope's weakest soldier.

[@aboutwhat1930]

The Pope is just converting Russia to reunify with the Eastern Catholic Churches.

[@Moneysreal]

*WW2 kicks off* The pope: “we’ve come to save you!” Half of Europe: “ hooray it’s the Catholic Church!” The pope after getting a dozen free war goals: “FROM YOURSELVES!” Half of Europe: “oh no it’s the Catholic Church”

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Nobody expects the Italian inquisition

[@Moneysreal]

Step one: Reclaim Constantinople Step two: Rename it Constantipopel

[@Lancynical]

Me: "hooray it's the Catholic Church!"

[@noneed4sleep64]

“Well well well, I leave for a day and; the Catholics are crusading, while the nazis are invading!”

[@nikoclesceri2267]

Helsing abriged is one of the best things ever made

[@pyrogaming2500]

Petition for Bittersteel to play the new Swiss focus tree

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Done!

[@notcodywho]

@@Bitt3rSteel _that was quick_

[@nathancarter7020]

@@notcodywho what no that has to be a record for how long that took

[@godobibo]

@@Bitt3rSteel play it historical

[@waltuh2.3bviews3secondsago3]

@@godobibo pretty sure he always does i don't remember any non historical bittersteel runs

[@tjardon]

Finally, an answer to question: “The Pope, how many divisions does he have?”

[@flaggy185]

The swiss guard counts?

[@Sarahbryson321]

@@flaggy185that’s at most a platoon

[@Leo-uu2up]

@@Sarahbryson321 Well in total it has combat strength of a company or small battalion at least. If they procure some support weapons it can be easily brought up to a company tactical group

[@americankaiser2207]

Papal State to Roman Empire is pretty based tbh, I’m glad that’s an option in the game now!

[@someonethatlikesyou7713]

rly?

[@americankaiser2207]

@@someonethatlikesyou7713 Yeah! You can become the Papal State and still do Mare Nostrum, which let’s you form Rome. There’s even an achievement for it, I think it’s called “Holy, Roman, and an Empire”, something like that.

[@nitrrogen2628]

@@someonethatlikesyou7713 "kievan rus" >ukranian flag Somethings not adding up 🤔🤔

[@soliduszor]

@@nitrrogen2628 before Russia there was a proto ukraine / Russian state called Kieran rus with that flag

[@rps215]

Superheavy buff though, that is just crazy

[@hatless_spider]

You just know that some scribe in the Vatican has started to record all of these Pope installation strategies for future use

[@hast3110]

seems to be a slight audio glitch, a high pitched noise chirping int he background, seems to only happen at the spoken parts and stop when the mic audio is not used, so most likely something with either the mic or the recording software. but outside of that great video.

[@warzoneman6387]

same

[@tagus100]

He mentioned this in a community post. He has fixed it for future videos.

[@sol_in.victus]

weirdly some people hear it some dont. i only hear it in some videos so idk what might've caused it

[@oddiethefox5832]

I hear it too. Some people won't be able to hear it but damn it makes it hard to watch the video for me personally lol. The sound honestly makes me wince. I've left comments in his recent previous videos about it as well. He thought he solved it but I guess not.

[@dwightd.eisenhower2031]

@@oddiethefox5832 he said in his community post that the fix would take like 2 videos to be resolved, not sure how that works

[@avery0075]

Funny bald man go bye bye

[@waltergaming9802]

funny bald man

[@cannaer8164]

Funny Bald Men joking about Funny Bald Man

[@DieNutcracker1977]

Funny bald man now big sad

[@fuadlabib703]

But look who is gone what irony the serious bald man

[@mYnAME-ww9iv]

Does that mean that funny bald man better call someone? A lawyer, maybe?

[@Lowlandlord]

The Char B1 is the most majestic tank ever made! Also, early planes didn't have radios. Sometimes they had to land to relay information, sometimes they had carrier pigeons on board. In WW2 the Italian military was rather suspicious of this whole new radio thing and didn't put it on their ships or airplanes, at least not for a while. Which of course didn't help all the poor communications problems between the navy and army branches. I would call it broken telephone, but that would be an upgrade over semaphore flags :P For whatever reason I got the event that Balbo called off the AA, without doing any Aviation foci at all. Maybe because I had radar/communcation research up to date?

[@sfjuhispst8144]

I there is a chance that he might survive even without the focus done. Thre are atleast two ways for him to survive. In one event, he manages to convince ground crew of the planes identity and in the other only his pilot dies. I think that the second event is the one that can fire if the focus has not been done.

[@Chorutowo]

Man, too bad the pope path was spoiled in the achievements and PDX con, I cant imagine going down the pope path and realizing there was a new path for the first time!

[@sol_in.victus]

i miss being a kid and barely using the internet and actually discovering secrets and things in games by myself now i know everything there is to know before i even open the game

[@justindagoose377]

@@sol_in.victus man thats deep

[@rps215]

The dev diary already spoiled that, with them showing the Papal State balance of power (no more Fascist Council, what could go wrong?)

[@Chorutowo]

@@rps215 You cant get spoiled by the dev diary if you dont read the dev diary

[@gavrielcreeger7651]

for the 4th research slot at game start, you probably should grab synthetics cause it's needed for the economic tree

[@colef2222]

For the ships, refitting isn’t too bad if you do the med fleet designer! Also get the officer corp refit one. I managed to do about half the destroyers to be decent ASW, and the battleships into battery 3. Managed to beat some of the UK navy (about 3 carriers and battleships plus a boatload of light ships) with the help of bombers!

[@seannordeen5019]

Finally Stalin got the answer to his question we've been seeing for several years. Stalin - "The Pope, how many divisions does he have?" Italy - "Alot."

[@montymechanizedmarines]

Great guide - thanks. I found a bonus - Italy now has a focus which gives free bicycle units, so you can also get the Tour de France achievement when you take out France as Italy. MMM

[@brunozivkovic1304]

19:00 "im gonna puppet serbia" puppets croatia xd

[@frigjel3351]

I like how you said "we are gonna puppet serbia" and you puppet croatia at that moment . I hope that is not going to cause another balkan war .

[@m8956]

Its extremely important to make sure conscription law and economic laws are up before switching to Monarchy/Pope path. Otherwise you get locked until you go to war. Funny enough, you can go from Kingdom of Italy > Papal States > Italian Empire > Roman Empire also. When you proclaim the Italian Empire as the Pope it will name change to Italian Empire and go back to being green instead of the grey/white of the Papal States.

[@DapperDonkey]

Btw I found a cheesy little exploit a little while ago to do with civil wars, where as a fascist or communist nation (who can immediatel send lend-leases) you can delete your army and then just send all of your supplies to a nation at war (usually spain or Italy) and then, when you start the civil war, your side (eg monarchist Germany) can get the lend lease back thus allowing you to have every supply your nation owns before the civil war during the war. Not the most useful exploit but it can be nice for crushing civil wars and I dont think Ive seen anyone else do it (I havent checked if it still works recently but it almost definitely will)

[@kimpatz2189]

Its a very old exploit. Very famously used on every german civil war run on any playthrough. Time it with the spanish civil war.

[@luckyman3573]

19:00 Says he'll puppet Serbia, proceeds to puppet Croatia.

[@TheToby121]

I decided to go with concentrated industry as Switzerland in an Axis run(learning the mechanic for the government), because they are limited by build space and I figured it would help to have the +5% factory output. And that'd I'd be mostly safe in the air if I join the Axis and didn't need the reduction to vulnerability, and I had limited research slots so didn't need the retention as bad. But it was more like -100% factory output in the end, when the enemies put 2000 uncontested bombers above the Alps and obliterated all of my industry and defenses despite stacking max anti-air. Italy lost Africa and Germany failed the invasion of USSR just barely because they spared too many troops preempting D-day; which they failed to oppose in the end. Japan ended up being successful but by 1946 the Alpine Supremacy had been all but annihilated. I recommend going dispersed industry as Switzerland to anyone who read this far lol.

[@kyrozephyr8628]

Even without the factory vulnerability mechanics Dispersed is better unless you just never ever change lines which is stupid.

[@Veliladon]

18:39 - Bitt3rSteel decides he no longer needs any Serbian viewers.

[@thomads3890]

Literally battleplanning with 100 divisions + on field marshal line Bitt3rSteel: I have a deficit in Guns you don't say?

[@whitezombie10]

Me every time:

[@frankunderbush]

Dedicated naval bombers are so incredibly strong this patch....have a trophy navy and just send them out once you've pacified the seas with bombers 🐟🐟🐟

[@davidbass5115]

am i on crack or is there a high pitched noise in the background? its so annoying

[@toast2401]

Recently downloaded the free Hoi4 from Steam(the 3 day offer one) and this was one of the things i really wanted to try but couldnt due to not having any dlcs, so thanks for doing a playthrough of it!!

[@katsu6934]

Yea hoi4 is god tier but the free version (no dlc) is basically an alpha

[@silverdeathgamer2907]

If you play an MP with a friend who has them as host you can use all the DLC in that lobby.

[@Arnie58]

Just what I needed, a bit of fun... Just got done with a germany campaign, wanted to restore the EU, got everything I needed but since I called italy into the war, they took a bunch of stuff from the UK, which I had to garrison, it was so much in fact that even on local police force, I had no manpower. So, after I started the civil war, I released a bunch of nations and returned some terretory includuing the Yugoslav stuff Italy starts with. Well, thats requiered too. I hate my life.

[@hundun5604]

Game looks awesome and quite challenging. I like it. What I don't like is the price. €180,- for the DLC , and €5,- for a monthly subscription. I know it's optional, but when I play it I would like to have the full version.

[@theholypeanut8193]

Welcome to a Paradox game.

[@gengarzilla1685]

Welcome to literally any game that craps out DLC.

[@johnsomerville4137]

It's okay bittersteel, you can admit you like dispersed better because the icon is better

[@MsTV.00]

Is it just me or is there like, a high pitched squeal inthe background throughout the video?

[@seanhossack2334]

Nice video. I've found it's easy enough to beat Ethiopia with just the extra tank and cavalry divisions in the south and the mountaineers in the north without quite as many losses to attrition.

[@rainbowappleslice]

I love the pope path it’s got to be one of the best paths in the game. The papal state national spirit is very strong

[@patricksimpson1157]

Screw the optimum path "I don't lose!" Thumbs up for that.

[@rossstewart74]

How do you get high enough balance of power to fire the event? When you complete “seek papal support” it resets balance of power to 0 and from there I can only get 60% bop toward “his holiness” which isn’t enough. What the hell am I missing?

[@ericwunsch5929]

I have the same issue.. i only get 55 percent

[@haikalmiftah2529]

Now I want Bittersteel to play "the most blessed Soviet" again with new patch so badly and see how glorious the peace deal will become.

[@tobystephenson7649]

Ah yes! The pope! How many divisions he got? -Iosif Stalin (He really said that)

[@theexplodingDarkrai]

Bitt3rsteel has hands!! This was shocking news to me!!

[@seabornluke101]

One of the smoothest transitions into a sponsor I have ever seen.

[@roupiozclement3501]

I always use 1 r&d Slot to "rush" a tech (I also help this rush with advisor & choices +15%) Like an infantry weapon 2/3 years before help a lot (or a plane on multiplayer)

[@TheIronKnight12]

It’s so much easier to do the papal Italy if you get struggle so if y’all do the full papal tree on the right side get struggle so you can go into the papal tree with more non aligned support

[@m8956]

They need to rework the trees to bring them up to balance with the intent of other trees. The fact that you can puppet bulgaria and they can still as your puppet is annoying, or being Greece and not in a faction with Germany, Bulgaria can just take Thrace without you having a chance to say no.

[@512TheWolf512]

now with the new resource rights mechanic, there's no real reson to NOT puppet everything that's not your core territory

[@TheBepis]

Love your country guides dude, I learn SOOOOOO much from these vids!!!

[@kevinmyers8325]

the peace deal mchanic was just not ready to be released yet to many problems in my opinion. it's impossible to role play and set up realistic borders

[@keymanager252]

I don't think this works anymore, They slightly changed the Papal Support Focus so now the scale resets to 0 making it that you can not get enough papal support to actually change. I could be wrong but Idk.

[@berkdikmen95]

3:30 please for the love of God and everything that is holy use ctrl + click to add productions orders directly on top

[@mabster314]

This is a second recent video of yours in the last week or so that has quite a bit of high-pitched interference in the audio track. Would you mind looking into your audio capture process and seeing if you can get rid of the interference? It makes it very hard to watch the video

[@mabster314]

Never mind, I just saw the community post. Glad you were able to fix it!

[@ryanwallbiz]

I might be insane, but does anyone else hear that high pitched sound that is like encoded into the video? Great video as always Bittersteel.

[@slavichusk1153]

My ears hurt after the beginning cause of the high pitch grizzle sound in the beginning while using earbuds

[@eenstenenbreker7155]

I like your style. Liked and subscribed.

[@Evilweevil1986]

26:31 - "that would be an ecumenical matter"

[@Nowyuiiiseee]

Utilise the blackshirts can be much more useful when trying to get the pope than disband the blackshirts if you use the focuses to get the grand council members as advisers.

[@154Kilroy]

I think the new peace deal system is pretty cool, but it also seems to lead to way more border gore. I actively tried to avoid it, even giving up territory and it still happened. I thought that was supposed to be fixed?

[@starbuild8324]

I think that the new patches brought bugs instead of resolving them, I can't incline the balance towards the Pope more than 60% no matter what I do. The focuses don't bring as much support as they use to. Also Yugoslavia always caves so I can't attack Romania. All of these are really annoying because it ruins the run.

[@jimmyandbossshort]

I have the exact same problem 😔

[@starbuild8324]

@@jimmyandbossshort I managed to find a way to overcome this bug. After you have 60% support you must do "Undermine the Duce" and "Conspiracies in the Shadows" and they will grant you another 10%. So you must NOT do this focuses earlier, save them for this moment.

[@jimmyandbossshort]

@@starbuild8324 I see. Thank you 🤓👍

[@starbuild8324]

Also I find this guide completely inapplicable at this moment, you can become great as the Pope and conquer all but not like this. Attack Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey at the same time and annex them all. Join Germany, attack Vichy France and attack the USSR from Turkey and Romania. It will be a long war but in time you can win it. You can also do all the Achievements tided to the Pope by this method (Germany attacks really late and by then you control all the front with USSR).

[@jimmyandbossshort]

@@starbuild8324 ok thank you

[@Fake_Dozer]

Surprisingly that Russia peace deal looks better than what i saw in Reddit lol.

[@dai-belizariusz3087]

Petition for Bittersteel to show his face

[@lieutenantjoltinator4370]

I'd sign. Is he wearing a panda head

[@giahungnguyen6334]

You have a decision to release East Italian Africa after “Minister of Africa” focus is completed, that will immediately complete “Pacify Ethi” mission for you

[@DapperDonkey]

is there any way you could a general non overpowered nation guide? I find it really hard to play nations other than Germany, Italy, US, China, Japan, UK... and even the Soviets and would be interested to see how you can thrive and maybe even stand up to the Germans for instance as smaller nations.

[@anna-flora999]

The basic strategy for that I've seen is "go communist and use the picture of Marx to summon manpower out of the void"

[@DapperDonkey]

@@anna-flora999 fair enough... But I always seem to build up a reasonable nation, or so I think. Then I get blitzkrieg'd by some major power and understand that after hundreds of hours I still don't know how to make reasonable divisions that can hold against the majors

[@Trawk101]

Claim the Montenegrin throne is done while Yugoslavia has control of it Also you can hide obsolete focus branches so you get less scrolling

[@nikolai877]

7:15 (ish), instead of losing, can't you just pick Struggle in Ethiopia as a normal focus? If you don't Micro-push it should take about 40 days to autocomplete the "success" one, so you could have manually completed one of the "loss" focuses through "spindoctoring" rather than actual loss?

[@rocksjoshua]

I've noticed Germany is really weak in By Blood Alone/ this patch. In my games, it takes Germany forever to defeat France, then they get ran over by the Soviets. I think im going to play as them to see if its an AI thing or if Germany is actually weak now.

[@umu-san4414]

Funny because No Step Back made it impossible to for the German A.I. to not loose to the Soviets

[@ADT1995]

@@umu-san4414 every patch who wins Barbarossa changes, used to be the same for the Spanish Civil War but they finally stopped messing with it after le resistance To the original comment I'm pretty sure it's an AI thing. Probably not putting enough factories on air forces or something or maybe they're putting too much and forgetting to make infantry equipment, who knows?

[@anthonyskela]

i cant tell if im doing something wrong or if this focus tree is bugged. Every time i complete seek Papal support my power struggle gets set back to 0 and i have to wait a full year to do liturgical reforms to get the Pope's ascendancy.

[@tommig007]

I'm having the exact same problem.

[@anthonyskela]

@@tommig007 something I figured out is that you shouldn’t take defy the Duce and the other 35day focus in the beginning because it works with the papacy power struggle for some reason. Disband the black shirts is another one you shouldn’t take until you flip monarchy and get the new power struggle chart. This will set you back a few months but it’s better than having to wait another year for liturgical reforms. Hope that helps.

[@Rand0motion]

For some reason declaring on yugo always drags france into the war, and also deposing Mussolini causes a civil war. I tried following everything you did but it still happens, any idea why?

[@someweirdo9129]

I wish i knew as well, i tried doing the same just to waste a bunch of time because france wouldnt stop the guarantee

[@Meatful]

I’m excited for your Switzerland video

[@Theradomcreeper]

Bitt3rSteel Aussa video when?

[@Kitsmoone]

It'd be amazing if there was some sort of event with Catholic Mexico

[@lordwhyte]

Yugoslavia didn't reject my offer...

[@starfox_vt]

I personally like going for Concentrated Industry when I play a lot of smaller countries such as almost any South or Central American country, but I take Dispersed on any large major such as France, Germany, or the Soviets

[@kyrozephyr8628]

Whenever I take concentrated as a minor power I always regret it once I actually have a decent industry and watch my production efficiency tank after even doing a small refit….

[@imanbozorgfar2272]

whenever I try to play, yugoslavia submits and becomes my puppet EVERY SINGLE TIME. My game is historical just like yours though, I just don‘t know what to do

[@neodenz]

Steel's the kind of guy who leads Luxembourg to victory against a Soviet Union that controls all of Europe.

[@martinlarsen7354]

Seeing you take Ethiopia to War Escalation X and then go for Crusader Kings IV as The One True Heir of Solomon would be cool.

[@PineberryLive]

Hey Bitter, for the last few videos there's been an absolutely horrid ringing sound in the background, making it basically unwatchable for me. Is there anything you could do about it? Thank you!

[@jamtoast4302]

I’ve been watching the videos and I turned up the volume all the way and I still didn’t hear a ringing I think that’s on your end

[@jasmadams]

I keep coming up short at 60% support exactly. Are Grand Council gains retained at all?

[@JoeMama-sy8ty]

if you pull out of Ethiopia you get to skip two focuses and immediately convene the grand council.

[@Midgeman]

Damn your thumbnail looking cleannnnnn

[@yatobg5952]

Bitteesteel says he is gonna puppet Serbia Also bittersteel puppeting Crotia

[@ultramax8987]

im somehow 5% short of papal dominance when i followed everything he did

[@ancaoraathasach]

There have been a few patches.

[@Roketsune]

1:35 Our Main Battle Tank is the Abrams, not Abrahams.

[@ruansteenkamp4289]

How the ever living hell does Bitt3rSteel manage starting with just 5 mils on guns?! I’ve been having MASSIVE gun deficits since the DLC dropped, meaning I need to have at LEAST 15 mils on guns to break even, like what the hell

[@ADT1995]

I always pick dispersed, I don't even care which is better (and they're close enough regardless where it doesn't matter much), I hate not producing anything for the first couple of weeks, when I get new equipment I want it now Also I switch up my production enough to justify it being basically always better for me... At least when I'm a major

[@christhefirst]

>plays as a Catholic empire >goes to war with Orthodox nations >doesn't liberate Poland or Lithuania

[@MohicanBob]

Nice LTT Desk Mat, I have the same one

[@tbone415]

Bittersteel this is kind of random, but next time you attack the Soviets, instead of going for localized training centers, try putting the spy in Vladivostok!

[@ismaelsaafan3848]

yessir bittersteel with that custom mechanical keyboard

[@blackpowderuser373]

Next Gameplay: Papal State vs. Ottoman Sultanate vs. Orthodox Russia (Third Rome)

[@mananlalwani]

I cant get the balance of power down to 0, all decisions have run out

[@hzcyd101]

Okay yeah you know what.... Yugo submitted. The only time ever from my 1000+ hours of HOI4.

[@billyzm]

Should do the Holy, Rome, and an Empire next!

[@PepperoniMilkshake]

Italy ❌ Catholicism ✅

[@lucatiulete9339]

bittersteel I beg you to do a world conquest as bukharin purely because I like his hat, other than that spectacular work as usual

[@comeinhendy8931]

There's a slight high pitched noice from your audio. Other than that, cool vid.

[@architech02]

Bittersteel really have a thing for the Papal states

[@Arbiter099]

Inb4 he does a Vicky 3 run with the Pope. Ironically the Pope isn't playable without mods in CK, the game where he's most politically relevant.

[@Gabeslicor]

I don't know if dumping the whole army in The Horn of Africa is a good idea, it seems like a supply nightmare. You can crush them with whats already there before the emperor flees you just gotta micro.

[@Mini1124]

What is going on with Bitter's mic? There's high pitched feedback in your audio and its only on your videos.

[@SamisAga1]

Ah hey. He said in his community post that he fixed that issue and it should only be present for the next 2-3 videos and none other than that.

[@rondaxen88]

Very odd that they would remove Graziani but keep Balbo when putting the Monarchists in power.

[@jimbokillzone4008]

The pacify Ethiopia thingy is bugged right now. It says it needs 60% compliance when it actually needs 70%. I believe this has been fixed in the beta patch.

[@AnonymousWeegee]

Did anyone hear the buzzing in the video?

[@BisexualPlagueDoctor]

No one expect the Spanish Inquisition of heavy tanks

[@starburstalpha7523]

Hey, I'm asking again. Hey Bitt3rSteel could you play as the Soviet Union and conquer the lands of a "Greater Soviet Union". It would comprise of: The Soviet Union, The Baltics, the Warsaw pact (East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania), Finland (All of it), Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iraq, British Levant (Modern day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, and Egypt), Cyprus, Malta, Italian Libya (If you want), Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mongolia, All of China (Including Menguko and Manchukuo), Japan, Taiwan, and French Indochina. So yeah, I know it is a lot, but I think it would be really cool. Thank you for reading. Have a good day.

[@clockwise1938]

bro fr gave dalmatia to the croatia then decided to spend 75 pp on getting it when he could’ve just annexed it in the peace deal with yugoslavia