Hearts of Iron 4 guide: Invading Poland

In this episode I cover advanced battle tactics, paratroopers, tanks, and motorized divisions in the fields of Poland.

[@Nikos.]

Wow this vid is being loved by the algorithm lately. Good to see HOI4 is still relevant :D

[@crazydog8720]

it still is B)

[@jastnosj6390]

@@crazydog8720 mhm

[@Rolfan4Life]

@@crazydog8720 still is

[@stal111n]

Thanks, really was till I saw this. Nice.

[@plasmacannon1198]

In my current try had 72 divisions attacking Poland and got annihilated… did learn a lot watching this and will try some of it out!

[@Nikos.]

give it another try my dude you got this! My first hoi4 playthru ended the same way, and Poland had air superiority over me lmao. Germany's industrial capabilities should not be squandered.

[@vipervenom741]

I did the same exact thing, still learning the game big time. All I figured I had to do was just throw my whole combined army at them and they would crumble, had no intuition to try to divvy up my army to put tanks in the fields, troops through the woods, so on. I’m hyped to get back in tomorrow and retry this more tactically sound. Your video has helped 1000% to help me get so much deeper into this game

[@Nikos.]

@@vipervenom741 Awesome! Glad you liked it and good luck! Also glad to see the hoi4 community is still poppin :D

[@vector2-074]

Rokie numbers, I just ended my first playtrought and I lost against poland having above 100 divisions

[@nicolasrodriguez3552]

@@vector2-074i had 300 and i lost to 70 something😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

Because of you, as Germany, I conquered Poland on Civilian difficulty and I also repelled a British attack on Königsberg. Now, I will send troops to help Italy on Africa with Rommel. Now, my new step will be the Suez Canal, and obviously, France and his Maginot Line. Thank you! I'm very new at this game and I like it so much, and I keep learning and learning new stuff and new strategies.

[@Nikos.]

Awesome to hear that, keep it up! I'm gonna have to make more hoi videos in the future I'm sure

[@jirko91]

That video is legit the most helpful guide I found. Started playing this game for 3 days ago and always lost to Poland. Sliced right through them with your help. Especially the navy stuff is really well explained. A shame that your other videos don't have so many views. They surely have about the same quality.

[@Nikos.]

Glad it helped you out! Thanks for watching and letting me know it helped!

[@rowbot0637]

Thank you for posting this! It’s helped me dominate almost every game. Great work!

[@Nikos.]

Great to hear that! Thanks for watching!

[@bolletaf]

thx dude great vid , started my first game couldnt advance fast enough against poland. your guide helped me do better the 2nd time .

[@Nikos.]

Glad to hear it!

[@boinoi323]

Your videos deserve more attention

[@user-hdhdhhdhdhsnjdjdjdioowj]

thanks for the guide, really cleared stuff up for me

[@Nikos.]

Glad it helped! Let me know if you have trouble taking out france lol, I did on my first runs

[@Patrick-cs9mq]

Great vid man, didn't know about all the keybinds so thx for that XD

[@Nikos.]

Thanks man glad you got something out of it! If you got any questions as well feel free to reply 😀

[@Patrick-cs9mq]

@@Nikos. do you have a discord because I actually have a bunch of questions lol

[@Nikos.]

Yeah sure thing man ask away. My server's here you can find me there discord.gg/nQ55vK9

[@KingFloppa-he1kn]

TYY so much this helped alot for me a player who just started i gotta admit i only knew what to do and the basics but this helped me TY so much

[@Nikos.]

Glad I could help!

[@friedrichfermi6559]

its helpful, thank you.

[@Relaxed008]

this guys gonna blow up one day

[@aleemizcool3654]

Fantastic video dude, I just have one question, in my playthroughs the allies always get troops into Poland and I lose. Why does that happen? Is it because I did the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, or because I didnt take the ports fast enough?

[@jastnosj6390]

Ty for the guide :D

[@Nikos.]

Anytime! Glad you got something out of it 😀

[@jastnosj6390]

@@Nikos. it really helps me invading Poland :D

[@Jas_39_grippen]

i got this game abt 4 days ago, i lost to polan (even netherlands) and i demolished poland now. But i went around maginot line but it was still hard to invade france

[@hmmmmmmmmm7267]

To defeat france i declared on the netherlands first and when i was at the belgian border i declared on belgium and then you can just zoom right through belgium into france because it wont be reinforced well. Gl!

[@enderdragoncz9460]

Tanks

[@somedudethatripsplanetinha4221]

I tried rushing the south and taking warsaw It was succesful with some losses at the start

[@fallaciousfirm2524]

Dude I literally got more knowledge about the game from your video than the tutorials Like wtf this game is hard to learn.....

[@Nikos.]

idk man they need built in video tutorials

[@project_xvi_9336]

The problem i have is that uk always attacks from my coastline and idk how to protect it , and why didn’t the allies attack you when you finished on Poland because I finished on it well I got attacked but then I lost so I took another save, and every single time I tried to invade Poland the UK comes in from my coastline

[@nicolasrodriguez3552]

I will see if this strat works and if it does, I only have to dominate it!

[@mehdithetallguy]

Thx bro, thats a better strategy for me but i have a question, i just sent volunteers to japan as germany and tryed to naval invade china but it didn’t work, why ?

[@Nikos.]

So if you send volunteers it probably wouldn't be advisable unless you have a good number of them, you'll probably get encircled in china and obliterated if the japanese AI doesn't come in and help, but the reason why is if you put your cursor over the execute order button for your general that you are trying to make commit the naval invasion, it will tell you the reason, typically it's due to a lack of naval supremacy. On the path of naval invasion, if patches of the sea don't have sufficient air/naval cover, your general will not launch the invasion as they could get intercepted by enemy navies and aircraft and be without cover

[@mehdithetallguy]

@@Nikos. yea but i turned fog of war off and there wasn’t any navies

[@masterfourteen]

Hey man, i tried to invade poland but the allies invaded me from the west and I got overrun. Any tips on how to avoid this?

[@Nikos.]

Yeah for sure: Naval Invasions are hard to pull off, a great advantage in numbers is often required to gain ground. Grab a descent sized army of infantry divisions and set them to garrison every coast accessible to allied warships. Make sure they are set to garrison ports, as you won't have enough divisions to garrison the whole coastline. If enemies manage to land, make sure you have that army ready to fight back. Don't allow the allies to land enough divisions or take enough ports to support an invasion, grab any lost ports back as soon as you can to starve out the enemy invasion. Make great use of aircraft over the invaded states to assist you as well. Hope this helps!

[@nicolasrodriguez3552]

The last time i ever saw the fall of Warsaw was on 1939 mode and i never got (with 140 hours) to invade france in 1936 mode

[@Palpatine248]

I can easily invade Poland the main problem comes with France I usually either get stalemated or outright lose due to attrition and the maginot line and when I try to go around by invading Belgium I get stalemated due to my troops running out of attrition tbh it’s a skill issue on my part

[@Nikos.]

How many divisions are going in? Because if you have enough armor and air power you should be able to steamroll with 2:1 numbers. As for attrition, if you have too many divisions they are likely sapping your logistics dry. Use less divisions, or increase the level of all railroads flowing from Berlin to the front line

[@Nikos.]

Moral of the story: railroads and ports help troops suffering from bad supply

[@Palpatine248]

@@Nikos. ah all right I thought it had something to do with supply hubs also by the time I get to France I usually have around 2 to 3 commanders all with 24 troops under there control

[@Nikos.]

@@Palpatine248 Okay so that's a descent amount, but you could use another 24. What year are you invading? Are you troops fully supplied with tanks, infantry equipment, etc?

[@Palpatine248]

@@Nikos. i usually invade Poland quickly 1937 then France at around 1938-1940 also I found out the reason why I’m having such a hard time and it’s due to my lack of equipment going to my men so now my main problem is producing enough but thanks for the help

[@invi.sk98]

I got rolled by poland lmao had to search up a video to help me out jesus xD

[@CreeperEditz1]

How do you get divisions in East Prussia?

[@Ernie400]

boat.

[@Vicenarius]

yo bro are u a pro at this game? how many hours u got? cause when i look at and play this game, its like building a nuclear bomb with a needle

[@Nikos.]

I had, at the time, probably 100 to 200 hours in the game. It's a confusing hell hole of a game but through repeated plays it becomes far easier :D

[@Vicenarius]

@@Nikos. do u know any helpful tutorials?

[@Nikos.]

@@Vicenarius not particularly *cough *cough

[@European_inhabitant]

Thank you for these tactics, but do you know why France always attacks me? It says that Poland Has joined the alliance and France starts attacking me, sometimes even Denmark and Switzerland are attacking me too

[@edonix0529]

Just put some people near France so they will just stand there

[@European_inhabitant]

Ok i will try this. Thx for replying.

[@Nikos.]

Yeah so france starts the game in the allies, so they will immediately be ready to attack you if you don't spare some forces for the french border. Also you don't need that many, if you check the line of forts along the border, they are high level forts and don't need as many infantry divisions to hold the provinces compared to what france can throw at you

[@European_inhabitant]

Ok, thx for help

[@European_inhabitant]

Hey do you know how can I defend myself from uk, they are attacking me next to Denmark after I invade Netherlands. And uk destroys me in few minutes.

[@zearzy9477]

I had 93 Divisions on the French border that kept it in a stalemate but I got steamrolled by the polish

[@Nikos.]

You might just have too many divisions on that border, if you see supply icons on them you have overcrowded the state with divisions making them far less effective due to a supply bottleneck, I usually just have like 10-20 infantry divisions max on the border as they use supply more efficiently and the forts and mountains give them massive defensive bonuses. The French won't even push in many cases as they refuse to attack because it's not smart for them. Send those divisions to France or garrison the north front with them as well. Do not try to push through the maginot line on the french border it will give you lots of trouble

[@roadto5sub267]

i followed all of this tutorial step by step just for them to cede me it

[@sebs5027]

How did you place troops in Czechoslovakia?

[@Nikos.]

Do you have it annexed

[@sebs5027]

@@Nikos. Nope....is there a national focus which annexes it? Or gives me a war goal?

[@Nikos.]

national focus, you start with claims on the sudetenland (the furthest exterior provinces of czechoslovakia) then there should be a focus after that allows you to annex the whole thing. Make sure you have a large enough army so the AI is intimidated by you and folds without a fight, Czechoslovakia is not the weakest country in the game.@@sebs5027

[@sebs5027]

@@Nikos. Thanks man, it worked...

[@urthenoob4998]

how do i supply them, my men are in very low supply and i do not know how to give them a supply plz help

[@Nikos.]

How many divisions do you have? You cant have too many or you’ll stress your supply lines. Upgraded rails and more supply hubs can help

[@urthenoob4998]

@@Nikos. Thanks and also i do not have the button for spear head

[@Nikos.]

@@urthenoob4998 you need the first dlc for that sadly

[@johnpac111]

it's actually pronounced row mel as in Melvin

[@Softic_69]

How do you put all your troops on Poland's border easily

[@Nikos.]

Front line tool, it’s in the previous video in the series, you can auto assign a group of divisions to a line

[@fakename2229]

But you didn't start the war on the histrical date ?!

[@Nikos.]

Nah we too good to

[@funny_man8779]

I dont have the spearhead option?

[@Nikos.]

you need the together for victory dlc for that

[@funny_man8779]

@@Nikos. ohhh thanks for replying

[@jonas4378]

I took over poland and suddenly i got a treaty of warshaw and poland got their land back

[@insertrandomusernamhere4209]

Tried zerg rushing Poland with 1400 maxed 50 width Mauses and I cant push???, Very obviously cheated them in, kinda obvious

[@Nikos.]

hmm. I wonder if supply was an issue? XD

[@insertrandomusernamhere4209]

@@Nikos. had max Infrastructure

[@ivaka141]

@@insertrandomusernamhere4209 That doesn't really matter lets say your infrastructure is maxed out and can support 20 maus tanks, so having 21 maus tank divisions will be a problem. There's still a limit, and 1400, 50 width maus divisions are very supply drainy. Or you have only Maus tanks and they have no defence. Put some motorized ot mechanized

[@mrmemefrog6172]

WHY IS IT SO HARD TO INVADE I GET KILLED INSTANTLY!!

[@smortdude]

fr

[@mucimapo7798]

Ay bro gotta ask where should i put my military factories as germany?

[@Nikos.]

Put them where you like, I prefer to put them closer to berlin in case i start losing the war, that way the enemy can't get them, but inevitably you will need more room. Place them in high capacity states that can fit a lot of buildings but aren't on the front lines

[@topphatt1312]

Also prioritize putting them in provinces with high infrastructure because they'll get built faster.

[@natijenn2676]

I did everything correct but it didn’t work for some goddamn reason

[@Nikos.]

Did you start in 1936 or 39?

[@Ceppleeight]

Bro I got destroyed by France and Britain but I did take Poland

[@Nikos.]

you got halfway! Don't forget to deal with Norway and Denmark!

[@wcvenus]

my troops aren moving at all I made a path

[@Nikos.]

Did you click execute plans? Did you declare war already?

[@PatSmashYT]

I kept using strats I used when fighting warlords in China I can see why I got my ass kicked by the Polish

[@KBandKFB458]

Amazing video but could you try and shorten your talking?

[@Nikos.]

Nowadays I do, this was me like 5 years ago I went unscripted 😂😂😂

[@mdm4261]

My troops somehow don't do anything

[@Nikos.]

Did you declare war?

[@mdm4261]

@@Nikos. it's fine it's fixed now but I was at war with poland but when i activated the offensive i was at peace again (maybe bcs of the tree event)

[@KingdomOfBersia]

when i invade poland france attacks me

[@Rildar]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War?wprov=sfti1#

[@IceKnight678]

Just put some troops there to defend against it, they wont go too far

[@Monkeyowner69124]

Put troops on the French border they won’t attack unless you do

[@agfirs_o2579]

I just got here because i got invaded by poland

[@Nikos.]

Felt that, that was my first game lol

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

How you could declare war on Poland without a justification? I need a justification. Also, Im noob at Hoi4.

[@rafaelambrosini7562]

I discovered the "allowdiplo" command. This allow you to free declare war on countries instead of waiting months like if you were fool. USE ALLOWDIPLO GUYS!

[@Electricalplugger]

Do Danzig or War National focus and u can declare if they dont give u it

[@proxyjustclippedyou]

you can declare war to poland at the beginning of the game when you choose germany, idk why (sry for bad english)

[@aryanpatil9369]

.

[@bardiafn5966]

When i attack belgium france attacks italy lmao

[@Nikos.]

You can always send some infantry divisions down south to help them with that frontline lol