HoI4 Challenge: Can Stalin survive with ONLY HEAVY TANK??

#tank #hoi4 #USSR
In this HoI4 Challenge as Russia, we try to survive with only heavy tank divisions! AN IRON CURTAIN!
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[@matiasezequielgalvan1826]

"This generals will need breast extensions to hold the medals" True soviet quality

[@krasnamerah1926]

But they earned it. Especially Zhukov

[@friedrichwilhelmviktoralbe349]

quantity*

[@krasnamerah1926]

@@friedrichwilhelmviktoralbe349, no, he's right. If it's quantity, Bitt3rSteel would stayed with T-35

[@AbrilBoy]

North Korean generals: "those are rookie numbers".

[@neutron7015]

@@krasnamerah1926 no

[@silosneeded]

Cool, I'll try with Super Heavies.

[@tobinrose2330]

Supply goes brrrrr

[@danielgloyd4529]

You will have like 12 divisions by the time Germany attacks.

[@John.McMillan]

I did that once using the soviets. Have you ever seen your entire front line go into instant attrition and burn through 4 years of saved fuel in half a year? Its amazing.

[@nordman3817]

Now this would be some real entertainment

[@kh4lidcraft]

​@@tobinrose2330 lmao

[@hatless_spider]

Seeing all those green bubbles and incredibly low casualties is so satisfying

[@brendanmcgreevy595]

If I remember correctly, you don’t have to do the middle focus tree at all after Poland falls. As long as you sign the MR Treaty you get free claims on the Baltics, Bessarabia, and Finland.

[@Stiann86]

agreed. as long as poland falls its free real estate. Poland cant seem to get a break

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Soon,Poland update

[@pcgaming7680]

youre right

[@johnuthus]

@@Bitt3rSteel soon you will have to do polish heavy tanks only (with mot and mec of course)

[@sne4k750]

On USSR u r rushing Stalins Constitution, then Positive Heroism tree, after that civs and mils, next is infra and after this purge, after purge u r doing rehabilitated military and next military reorganization, when at war with Finland in 39/40 u r doing lessons of war to delete purge national idea and u r rushing Research slot, after this u don't need to do any focus so u r getting xp for military advisors etc

[@archmagos1436]

I love the happy swing/jazz in the background of this. I feel like the Soviet general staff is just spending this whole war getting drunk on vodka while the German Army fails to do literally anything to them.

[@NiDe500]

The alternate timeline where Stalin is so concerned with the lives of each and every Soviet soldier that he insists on putting them all inside unkillable monstrosities.

[@Bradyknauth1979]

I’d say Alex would be jealous of your superiority at the game considering his run at it😂😂

[@Argentum_Rex]

Protip: To get rid of the purge debuffs really quickly, kick Tannu Tuva out of the faction and then justify and declare war on them. Done.

[@whatthefrick1591]

proer tip: just attack turkey first

[@elijahr241]

I prefer Estonia

[@markusz4447]

Romania so you deny axis of oil. Or Poland so you can fuck up the germans early on

[@KelgorothTheFinalShape]

@@whatthefrick1591 no, I did that once it was not fun

[@alexanderderyagin9808]

Do the two justification Trick. And Take Out Turkey Romania and Bulgaria by 1938 at the latest. And U get rid of purge

[@Ukawaii]

19:43 you have 0 comb. arms divisions. You have motorized and mechanized batalions in the tank division so the panzer trait buffs all batalions in the division.

[@matiasguardaredes]

Is that how it works? I thought it applies to each battalion according to its type, eg: you get +15% to every motorized battalion in the division

[@satanhell_lord]

@@matiasguardaredes that's how they're gonna chance it with the new DLC, but until then, nope, as long as your division counts as a "Tank" division, then the armor genius and other tank bonuses apply to them.

[@lanleskovec8697]

That's enough heavys to make even Dankus blush

[@felipemoraes1598]

I absolutely love your videos Bitt3rsteel, looking forward to your content when no step back drops! Best regards from Brazil!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Can't wait,!

[@lascerdas]

@@Bitt3rSteel I wish you make some videos with latin america nations, there's the United States of Central America formable nation. Cheers from Brazil also. Keep up the excelent work.

[@LiterallyMe05]

Ah, The Dankus MP strategy i see.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

When in doubt, make t0nk

[@sne4k750]

Not really

[@sne4k750]

Tbh only things I saw from dankus tutorial is positive heroism and converting factories

[@warthundercanblunder850]

Yes but with A few changes

[@laerville9856]

I think you should use Maintenance companies instead. Pretty good for armoured divisions.

[@1kvolt1978]

Pretty good for any type of front divisions. All unmoddable equipment has 80% reliability, bad terrain reduces it even further. Maintenance companies are a huge boost to economy.

[@phonzell4755]

I must say, I watched your guide on byzantium one year ago, and my god the quality of your videos has skyrocketed. I really enjoy watching these, bravo my good sir, bravo

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Thank you! I really appreciate it! I put in a lot of hours to try and improve these videos

[@phonzell4755]

@@Bitt3rSteel Then they're hours well spent, frankly it's amazing what you do.

[@0rdnajela664]

Pretty good run! I think the main mistake you made that I noticed was that you forgot to get the "stop playing paradox games and go outside" focus. Other than that though, great video!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Very true!

[@austria-hungary7680]

Very Very true!

[@angryface5557]

10:32 molotov pact bypass all of those focus be cause they become pretty much useless

[@apleknight411]

I never knew about how you gave out advice on the hoi4 subbreddit and found your channel on youtube way earlier, nice of you to help with people's questions and give pretty good advice that I wish i got 1300 hours in

[@blockytart]

hey bitt3rsteel! nice playtrough, i was thinking before this vid got uploaded to do tanks only USSR but this looks so much harder. anyways, keep it going!

[@jasonli2474]

you can use your large stockpile of starting light tanks in armored recon companies to save IC on armored cars. Light tanks also have marginally better combat stats.

[@eluc_s2510]

You don’t need to purge so early. At least finish the five year plan and go down to the research slot under positive heroism.

[@hendrikmons4231]

Really cool! I wish making tanks would be easier or cost less time. I know that making a tank is prob a very complicated proces irl, but would be nice to make tanks with smaller countries aswell.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

It's only going to get harder soon

[@hendrikmons4231]

@@Bitt3rSteel :( i have been trying to do austria hungary, as hungary (with the goal to take italy and axis on later too) but with tanks only but its rather difficult. Im gonna keep trying till it succeeds.

[@simon2493]

In total war mode you have much more factories and medium tanks starts in 36. As Germany I had 60 factories committed to medium tanks since 37 and I ended up with almost 40 divisions of thanks with 200 infantry.

[@billvilmezis5968]

The best part is that greece wich normally doesnt stand a chance and causes 20-50k casualties causes more than 500k

[@RunRiot_]

Bravo, always enjoyable to watch ur content man, 👏 cant wait for the next one

[@burkanov]

The easiest way to win this challenge is not to fight Germany at all. By the start the WW2 you could easily defend France with volunteers. Just need to ask both Britain, France and Benelux for access. With 20 divisions of this kind it would be totally enough to keep both Benelux and Southern France for years.

[@duyduc6293]

You could still do air, I have done this before, albeit with all 3 types of tanks. From my playing, you can make heavy fighters and CAS if you choose the air production focus.

[@greergrapple2227]

When I played the old Russia I was able to make almost 100 40 width heavy tanks by 1942 in 41 when AI Germany does barb I usually have 50-60 tanks and with multiplayer I can have near 75 heavy tanks as long as the Ally’s build planes because that means I don’t have to put 20- 30 factories on it

[@savage5975]

that was an awesome video mate, loved it

[@125discipline2]

evil stalin be like "life is precious!"

[@Israel_aXNyYWVs]

If the soviets only got 70k casualties irl they would be the strongest country in the world after the war

[@KlaustheViking]

Made a 9/1 (Infantry/Heavy-Tank) division template as Britain and saved France from German invasion in the Benelux region and the Alps on the Italian border with 24 division each and the casualties were extremely low while the Germans threw away millions attacking me. Heavy tanks are the best.

[@highadmiralbittenfield9689]

I would like to see another Heavy-only game now that the tank designer has been out for a while. Hard mode: No supporting infantry.

[@Cerabelus]

Very nice, I did this the other day after a failed Infantry game where I made too many stupid discussions. My template for Heavy Russia was 10 infantry, 6 Heavy Tank, 2 Heavy SP AA, 2 Heavy SPG with Engineer's, Recon, Maintenance, Logistics & Signal. I got 48 divisions on the frontline and a 3rd army group getting equipped. No air and I converted my Heavy 1's into the Heavy SP variants before making my division's. I got rid of the Purge effects right away by justifying on Turkey and getting Romania too which denied Germany an ally and secured more Chromium for my thicc Bois. Also when I fought against Turkey and Romania I got 3 brilliant strategist generals Infantry expert and the entrenchment trait and used a defensive Marshall.

[@flux7109]

we‘re really appreciating your Videos! keep up the good work :) greetings from germoney

[@whatarenames1395]

I wouldn't recommend doing the combined arms trait in a tank division, even if the division has mechanized, or motorized in it. It goes off what the game considers a division as, since it has a tank symbol, it's a tank division, so it would have been better to pick the tank defense trait. It's actually a thing that they are changing with the next update, iirc, I do know that the same applies to general staff and stuff as well, such as an increase in artillery, etc, in reality, it only applies to divisions that are considered an artillery division.

[@kevinboros7427]

You completely dunked on Rambler lmao

[@MermaidTyrone]

MR pact event gives you the claims on baltics, bessarabia etc, the focuses are there for if Germany doesn't do the pact. You don't need to do any of the focuses, that's why they bypassed.

[@batzing]

Meds work to. You can easily spam out 80-100 20 wide tank divisions before the war starts.

[@FyresGames]

You should send a save copy to Alex the rambler and tell him this is how you build a iron curtain!!! XD

[@hawkerben1158]

The Russian focus tree may be basic pre no step back but it is very good and fun. they’re one of my favourite nations even before the rework

[@sethyboy0]

Trotsky without la resistance is one of the dankest memes in the game. Coups city EZ

[@owencarroll9878]

this mad lad didnt even use engineer companys

[@NightRNRoblox]

Amazing content!

[@justcars2454]

I do the same, germany declared on me on month 1940, i was having arround 40 heavy divs, it was good in the biggenning, but they break on point of the front, and become a miss after that, cause it become easy to lose other tiles, so i lost

[@Sarius_]

Nice Gameplay

[@naoyanaraharjo4693]

Holding the post M-R border is possible. The first 3 months is the most important. If Axis handt able to break the center, youre set I used 48 40 width 13HT/7MOT with support as templates. Still hakf equipped, but it works but you have to micro it unfortunately

[@N3M093]

would be cool to see a follow-up video where you atempt it again with the DLC

[@Bitt3rSteel]

OH BOY

[@Toe.Sniffer]

New meta? Dankus you better be paying attention.

[@jjquinn295]

In future if you have a thin Stalin line, holding Kiev and the for next to it helps a lot, at least for now. It really messes up the supply for the enemy in Ukraine and you should be able to do it with the level 7 forts from focus.

[@teriblesoldiertv2108]

The thing i have to say about this is that a 6/4 would of actually been a heavy tank template ik it would of been harder but these are just moto/mechanized with tank support

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I dont think i could have equipped those divisions in time

[@sulc4092]

Mass assault still has pretty good bonuses for tanks

[@mahgajl1307]

Stalin's HEAVY TONKS are unbeatable! I also tried Soviet Meat. 4 doctrine, right side , 40 width only soldiers. I didn't use support equipment or air. There was 360 soviets divs and Germany just beat only 7-8 tiles. I held almost all starting front. AI historical focuses ON. That was madness. Allies was prety trash. They have lost all of Africa. At the end of war in 1945 they didn't even drop in Italy. 1 thing they did great was Grece cause they didn't lose it. They started D-Day in 1944-beginning 1945. One thing i've learned from this that when u don't have any air, germany doesn't use any CAS on u. There was around 200-700 German fighters but no more

[@stage31lumbago62]

0:22 Well, know him anyways lol

[@pavelvorontsov2946]

LOL you should do light tank only

[@Sour_pussy]

Heby tonk!

[@salvocastiglione748]

What's happening to my fuel, I need oil. Ah yes MERICA

[@CodieFilmz]

Videos are awesome

[@tech6985]

you bypass the claims with the molotov pact. Hell you dont even need the stalin line you just get the claims with the pact

[@Enward834]

Maybe the only mistake I saw was not going for extraction tech. Might have allowed you to stay on free trade for longer as well as not waste anytime building infrastructure until latter on in the game Edit: also I don't think construction engineering did anything for you

[@darthjarjarbinkstherealsit6832]

The focuses After "Improve the Stalin line" bypassed because you signed the molotov-ribentropp.

[@catninja4950]

never underestimate the power of HEAVY TONK

[@Nederlanderssss]

You get those claims from the molotov ribben pact. Thats why that part of the focus tree is kind of useless.

[@etr1ion]

oh is this a callout bittersteel vs alex the rambler

[@ruukinen]

The combined arms expert will do nothing for your divisions seeing as they are designated as heavy tank divisions. The bonuses only work on division level. Tanks have a higher weight than inf/mot/mech to the designation so that is why you can have less tanks than those and still have it be a "tank" division.

[@dengist8172]

This is easy. In NSB you can even do real tank only with no infantry battalions in templates and it’s actually good against AI

[@yanick0207]

Had the same bug happen after the Molotov pact

[@alehop333]

After No StepCan't wait for the DLC to come out so I can make land cruiser Bob Semple tanks

[@NeroPiroman]

next time super heavy tank only

[@QingChina1]

An idea: conquer the world as Poland, without puppets

[@fem530]

29:00 hey I've seen that saying before lol

[@homefront1999]

Now try Germany with only Super-Heavies.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

*furious sweating*

[@sciencer7005]

basically hoi4 vanilla mp

[@CMAzeriah]

Giddy aunt.

[@samh.6788]

Hey, I like the video, but I have some comments on the strat. I don't think mechanized is worth the EQ... motorized might not even be either. By removing the cost of those, you likely could have eeked out 10 maybe more divisions before Barbarossa.

[@otewp]

But... Construction engineering does not speed up military factories construction, so that was a waste :D

[@willkie4140]

After the molotov ribbintrov (I don't know how to spell) you get claim on the whole of eastern Europe which bypass the focuses because they give you claim on those countries

[@tobinrose2330]

It's about drive it's about power

[@mr.deorax4097]

You should make a failed run series where you upload failed attempts

[@aravindhanil7235]

Do this again in No step back

[@firegod5457]

engineer company 3s give you a river bonus , theyre really good for tanks, just telling you if you didn't know :)

[@shutterstockwatermark3008]

Fall of Baku = immediate death

[@TheLeastEast]

Yes much boom boom

[@cc0767]

you made WW2 look easy

[@friedrichwilhelmviktoralbe349]

Idea - Try Late Game Russia

[@friedrichwilhelmviktoralbe349]

basically get rid of all of your mills and make civs, focus everything into civs

[@nanni-buyerofcopper]

You don't need to make forts when you can bring them with you

[@evanlittle6347]

Heavy Tonk only Soviet Union *Dankus Memecus has entered the chat*

[@mastrorick]

1:45 that's exactly how Russian highway system looks like

[@oneesama3421]

Nice Vid. Now repeat it by licensing "Big bob" from New Zealand 😉

[@hentaibohdan]

The armor is strong And our tanks are fast

[@Boleslav4]

So, whenever I play USSR one of two things happen when Germany attacks: 1) I did not build enough bunkers and they immediately breach me. 2) I built enough bunkers, Germany and their allies park 200-300 divisions on my border. Around 1944 or 1945 I can finally get decent enough tanks and planes to start attacking them. At that point Allies have all of western Europe and I have 0 % war score. So, any advice for not just winning the WW2, but actually getting to attack and perhaps even conquer stuff. I am able to beat Japanese in China and that helps a bit with the experience (USSR without Germany attacking can never breach Germany - my units have 30-ish organisation, their have 70-ish). I wonder if allying Japan is valid strategy. I dunno. Anybody?

[@plebisMaximus]

idk man, this looks like a meta to me...

[@zorkman56]

Alex vs Bitersteal make it happen

[@Cl-l13F]

russia i think the only and true titan of HOI4. in one of my campaigns, i needed to kill 16million of their manpower before capitulating. i lost 1.5m aswell and war ended in late 46. they managed to attack my lines non-stop for years without losing any combat strength so that means their industry kept pumping stuff until i was able to invade belarus,crimeria,caucauses and centrals. USA and china is good too but USSR is all another level. also thanks for video.

[@Sok0liar]

try Germany with heavy tanks :D

[@lascerdas]

I've been entertaining myself forming United States of Central America. I've managed to form it, join axis and capitulate the UK before the US joined. But I miscalculated the US joining Colombia, I'll try again. It's an idea for a video to make this formable Nation.

[@FairyRat]

lmao. Did you ever ease off of that Free Trade in this game? :D

[@jetfuel157]

Do bike divisions only

[@RobinMeineke]

Heavy Tonk Russia is the standard multiplayer strat so shouldn’t big much of a challenge against AI I would think.

[@cc0767]

heavy tank only though?

[@RobinMeineke]

@@cc0767 But given how many 40width heavy they field in MP Games I’m not surprised that you can hold the line if you have no inf at all and make the tanks 20width.

[@user-wx1iv1fw3d]

我以為，TANK ONLY 是指部隊中只有"坦克"，是連機動部隊都沒有才對......

[@cybersnake16]

HEBBY T0NK LADS! RUN YE GERMANS. THE HEBBY T0NK ARRIVES.

[@woafy4967]

If you look at the bonuses from construction engineering focus it doesn't actually increase factory construction speed

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Waitz what

[@krasnamerah1926]

@@Bitt3rSteel, it only increases construction on everything else except the factories and dockyards. Perfect for fort and infrastructure building

[@jeweledmagpie4493]

i was pleasently surpised by this it was sad tho

[@sofartsogood3932]

Now try the same against expert AI mod 😬😁

[@tow3842]

Signing Molotov Ribbentrop gives you claims on Baltic, Bessarabia, east. Poland.