HoI4 Disaster Save: A curious Austria-Hungary...with no guns researched??

[@Gabeslicor]

Future dev diary: We have tuned the allied AI to focus a lot more on naval invasions so expect a lot more of those! Bittersteel: Blows his brains out

[@ConnanTheCivilized]

Steel’s Ghost: Welcome back Ladies and Ghouls! Today we will see if this body is salvageable!

[@michaelhibbard654]

It never ceases to amaze me what a mess people get themselves into. Then I look at some of my own saves and realize, it really isn't that hard to fail spectacularly.

[@mjn5016]

it is quite hard to fail against this AI tbh. You would think Paradox would at least try to improve it after so many years..

[@panzalinopanzultimate4796]

@@mjn5016 they literally did

[@mjn5016]

@TheLapster who said my saves are bad? o.0 And how did you get your army encircled? that usually only happens when you tunnelvision HARD.

[@mjn5016]

@@panzalinopanzultimate4796 no, "improving" some ai logic doesnt count in my book. its still trash, it still doesnt garrison ports (especially GB), it doesn't build proper divisions and it cant handle the new supply system. You have to be a beginner with less than 50h ingame to lose against the AI in a normal scenario.

[@mckenziegoodridge3469]

@Why, hello there! u must have to be a slow learner, after about 80 hours when I understood the mechanics of the game, the sadness kicked in of how bad the ai usually is.

[@nickstoneham5629]

The Axis: "Austria, it is time to clean up another naval invasion!" Austria-Hungary: "Yes dear..."

[@sniperdude6286]

With regards to combat width meta in SP, it actually doesn't matter anymore. What to prioritise is that your division is somewhere between 20-45 combat width. Lower CW is for defending divisions and higher CW is for attacking. Dont go to low because youre divisions will be useless but not too high because of supply.

[@TheN0bleCause]

For SP, due to incompetency, definitely. But I always suggest picking strategies that lead to better MP success (or ones that make SP easier). In MP if you field 28-38 CW units you will get reinforced meme’d out of every tile because you’ve overstacked / not stacked easily multiplied CW units. Best to stick to 21, 24, 27 and 42. 10W/15W are situational and should only be used by certain nations.

[@ryori_vtuber]

@@TheN0bleCause is right go wat h feedbacks first vid on it(before he started clickbaiting views) on his second channel a guy made a huge chart for edger possible width and he shows what the best are

[@wahuwant4u]

Comments like these are so helpful for people, thank you. I play a lot of Japan and I tried the 15w thing and it just isn’t anywhere near as good as relying on 21/25w units.. get pushed out of ports so easy with the smaller divisions

[@ertrick3693]

@@TheN0bleCause Yeah, AI is easy to beat, but there's no reason not to use strategies that could help you beat them even more easily unless you're trying to challenge yourself. I like to go for 27 for infantry usually because I like to get a reasonably moderate, but still decent size and I always like to put in at least one line arty or AA for extra firepower. My bread and butter for infantry is typically 12 or 13 infantry battalions (13 is for pairing with AA, since AA is 1 width instead of 3), one arty or AA line battalion, and support AA and arty - you'll get plenty of firepower for not a whole lot of cost. The most costly thing would be the line arty/AA, so if one's on a budget 24 is good for pure infantry.

[@tsaleh2043]

Guys so ive realized for Europe: old 7/2 20w are now 6/3 20w and 14/4 40w are now 12 6 40w

[@meg_Lepi]

I bet Bittersteel's alarm sound is the hoi4 naval invasion sfx. No cap, I'd be immediately awake hearing that

[@Kaiimei]

Just wakes up sweating, panicking because Bitter was dreaming about the world's greatest HOI4 game, and then, all he hears is the naval invasion sfx, and even when he wakes up, it follows him!

[@ConnanTheCivilized]

@@Kaiimei”Welcome … to the real world!” 🕶️

[@malsypright]

The pain of playing Axis If you're Germany, you have to constantly keep one of your armies down in Italy and babysit them. If you're Italy, you have to constantly keep one or two of your armies on the D-Day coast and babysit them. Then quickly redeploy troops when they declare war on yet another country out of the blue.

[@thunderstorm6438]

pretty realistic

[@jimmygeeraets9039]

Just atack italy before you go to war with the allies annex parts of it release the rest as a puppet

[@fish5671]

What by the time i invade poland as germany my fleet is always big enough to sea lion

[@stoltasossen]

I like when you where like shocked and then like: thats right its a sponsorship

[@francisthepope8290]

Regarding not guarding against naval invasions, the best approach is to create a new theater group that is solely dedicated to port defense (I explicitly call it "Port Guard"). I have noticed that not a single well known HOI4 player channel likes to use more than one theater group to organize their armies, I have never understood this because this feature makes managing big wars so much easier.

[@OstensiblyArchaic]

Exactly, I always have dedicated port defenders separated from the main theaters, just makes things easier to manage

[@SovietSquirrel]

Kinda feels like this one was originally a challenge of outfitting their entire army with as much foreign equipment as possible, but it went terribly wrong and wanted to see what BitterSteel could manage

[@dai-belizariusz3087]

you should try to use light tank recon. It seemed you had a lot of light tanks in the bank after deleting all the divisions. they give your army armor, breakthrough and hard attack. very solid, very meta.

[@Snakegg2]

nah, if you're gonna do light tank support companies, go with flame tanks. In this situation, sure he had a lot of light tanks in stockpile but they were worthless garbage and not worth the resources to produce, so he'd run out quickly and build an equipment deficit and also he needed the support equipment for other things like maintenance and engineers

[@AlneCraft]

@@Snakegg2 both is good, because of Armour penalties on tank support companies adding both Flame tanks and Recon Lights actually gives your division enough armour to not be pierced by like half of the enemy infantry, which can be even better if you optimize your armour

[@yolof]

I feel like all the saves recently are austria-hungary, wouldnt mind something else

[@Bitt3rSteel]

People seem to be sending me a lot of Austria-Hungary!

[@Hilter420]

@@Bitt3rSteel I have a Portugal "fail" save but it's not really a fail it's just a complete stalemate. Should I send it to you?

[@kza437]

@@Hilter420 send it

[@Hilter420]

@@kza437 Okay I sent it, it would be cool seeing it fixed

[@krasnamerah1926]

@@Hilter420, hopefully Bitt3rSteel would save it soon. I have a thing on non-major countries savegames, or just non-European/US saves in general. Variety

[@yoanawramow8809]

Irl Austria Hungary was a disaster itself Edit: I think the meta is smaller divs (like 26 width). I personally use 32 for superior firepower and 26 for mobile warfare (if I'm not germany or the USSR).

[@ertrick3693]

Meta depends on the division and purpose. For general purpose infantry, you want to go for a moderate size (I'd say between 20-27), but also a width that fits very well into most terrain types so that the division doesn't suffer really badly from over-stacking penalties. For most types 21, 24, and 27 tend to work pretty well. Larger sizes are better for the kinds of divisions you want to push enemies with. So 40, 42, and 44 are good widths for tanks, generally speaking, since you would only ever use tanks to push enemies.

[@eepyslvt]

@@ertrick3693 pushing with tanks in this update is not meta

[@OtterSpace975]

The best units right now for general purpose infantry are 15 width. 6 inf/ 1 art w/ as much support as you want. I prefer engi/art/recon (armored cars)/AA/and signal. These are very versatile, and only give up 2 infantry battalions, but this does mean you'll need to have 24 divisions where you would normally have 20. They work better in pushes, after many games I've played, then larger divisions. Armored units have to be bigger, and so should specialized infantry like mountaineers/marines. I haven't had a whole lot of success with para since NSB and haven't been building them. Mountaineers I usually split with marines to give them good river crossing and mountain bonuses, and throw in an arty for 23 width. Tanks/motor/mech I use around 24-27 width, and have found a lot of success there. 40 width tank divisions make my production chafe, and they lose equipment like it's going out of style. I usually micro my med/heavy tanks to fight other tanks, and keep light tanks and motorized to break infantry lines and exploit holes.

[@yoanawramow8809]

@@OtterSpace975 If you make an all armour cheap light tank model, you can have some armour and piercing on those infantry. Also small divisions are good for industrially weak nations like Hungary or Romania, but they have less HP than a bigger one, so that's why I use bigger templates. But overall you're correct

[@neymarjr_.]

@@eepyslvt yes, spacemarines infantry are the new META

[@viclorenzo5016]

0:58 Damn you sir, I did not expect an ad there 😂

[@Sorieat]

Of course it’s Austria Hungary that has no weapons as well 😅

[@JacksonMarczyk]

This disaster save is pretty much a good amount of my games in singleplayer, in that I'm the one who has to save my allies or divert units & resources to help them because they did something stupid. Anyone else relate?

[@OstensiblyArchaic]

Yep. Usually ends up with me playing wack-a-mole for every Allied naval invasion, since my AI "allies" don't seem too motivated to defend their ports

[@Xle6yWek32]

Just forget about your allies, unless it affects your industry like if u got whole army of arts and ats and the only one who can send you tungsten is Portugal u should defend them or if u r minor and not a major in the war or if the cap of your allie may cause your enemy to attack your mainland

[@kaiserslavaniaashur1623]

“I hate the AI” that’s why i never call them into wars. Or make them for that matter.. just one mega germany

[@thefedezboy]

When you are so competent you don't need guns in a world war

[@thomasl2993]

I love how your allies were invading norway instead of liberating their country, HOI4 AI never suprise

[@MaskofPoesy]

>Battleplanning when you've got no equipment will only make things so much worse. Good thing Hitler didn't know this.

[@malcolmduncan]

We take naval invasions into consideration, it's just hilarious watching you stress. That's what i choose to believe anyway...

[@Pyth0n295]

The Austrians seeing German mp40s “WAS IST DAS?!!!” They probably think it’s black magic

[@rangerriggs5066]

Summary of Mid-Late war axis gameplay: “We‘ll swing our troops around to clean up this naval invasion, then pull them off and put them here to clean up that naval invasion, then swing them around…”

[@Bill.Andreolas]

Btw I gurded my ports,I just put the units to stop the British

[@JayTacitus]

That was a cute sponsor transition. I don't care about that sponsor but it WAS cute.

[@ertrick3693]

10:20 Man, the only non-ideology specific occupation laws that really seem useful are, like, civilian oversight, local police force, and either forced labor or harsh quotas depending on if you want more raw resources or more factories immediately. Even military governor seems better because at least you also get some extra non-core manpower for less cost than martial law. It just seems completely nonsensical to go for harsher occupation laws if the goal is to bring down resistance unless it's something like Germany occupying Poland where resistance gets absolutely insane to the point I've seen Poland rise up against AI Germany multiple times in one playthrough. I have to assume the player panicked at seeing the "Resistance is high" notification and kept picking higher occupation laws until it stopped, assuming this save wasn't just a troll save.

[@DFlameGaming]

"Hoi$", I'll remember that

[@ritabuba4831]

ParaSTONKS

[@puyi_Z]

u are literally my comfort character like every time im sad ur videos are there to cheer me up

[@Gungho73]

2 years ago, you weren't even a 1/3 of your current subscriber base! You've grown mightily lad, well done!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I know! I'm so humbled by the support!

[@Gungho73]

@@Bitt3rSteel I'm glad to support you good sir. I didn't know the glory of HoI4's content before the algorithm decided on day to bless me with your audio presence.

[@Enward834]

Sometimes in my daily life I think about the time bittersteel was playing Greece and he did the focus to devalue their currency and he said " okay we've devalued the *Greece currency name* , it's worth even less now.. And I just laugh Lol

[@ViktorVildras]

You cleaned up more tradh than house flipper

[@WiDoWeR2]

I love how he introduced the sponsor!

[@bilsy4512]

These videos really make me feel good about myself

[@joeambrose1730]

Challenge: Play as Mali and recreate Mansa Musa‘s empire.

[@Kackpuh]

20:34 "A bit of a Lightning - Blitz". Yes, that's what Blitz means.

[@jonahbaker7540]

Can you update the Austria-Hungary guide for NSB or BBA when it comes out?

[@Raisin98]

You know, I wish there was a website where you could upload your disaster saves. I would gladly try to save these games.

[@ConnanTheCivilized]

I would probably strategically wet my pants, then rage quit against some of these saves. But, some would be fun.

[@RetiredRhetoricalWarhorse]

Sponsor block seems offline today.... so I saw the sponsor placement... and I so don't feel any remorse anymore about using sponsor block :D Thanks man!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I try to make it not suck too much

[@spritemon98]

I'm impressed he got that far without any weapon research

[@_apsis]

cheats is how he did it

[@mariodamian9477]

@@_apsis any proof he cheated?

[@otten5666]

@@mariodamian9477 He owned states belonging to Italy.

[@tmadlegionsoul3255]

Wish they would fix the AI declaring excessive wars when they are losing the one they are currently fighting. Also stop pulling people into their faction that are not in their interest. IE, I had a game as US and Germany was at war with the allies, france had fallen, I was not in the Axis and attacked cuba. Cuba joined the Allies and UK declared war on me, why would the UK do that? It makes zero sense.

[@attilavajda2085]

Best of the best: Finland joined Chinese united front! :D :D

[@stoltasossen]

I will soon get my new pc so i will look at your videos even more than i already do

[@Kardia_of_Rhodes]

I'm pretty sure at this point that if Historical A.I. is on, the axis will send 9/10ths of it's combined army to the eastern front and leave the Atlantic and mediterranean coast completely bare once Barbarossa kicks off.

[@mr.niceguy3583]

It would be amazing if you made a video guide on Nationalist China taking the democratic route! I can’t find any guides anywhere and you’re my go to channel for this stuff!

[@mariushegli]

I have nothing to say really, but I appreciate your content, and wish to help with the yt-algorithms.

[@rogofos]

when your divisions are under threat of being intercepted, you can just disband them to get all the equipment and manpower without risk that's what I'd do in Spain

[@jasonpittman7183]

That was one of the most infuriating disaster saves I have attempted. Managed it on the 3rd attempt, it is just Naval invasion after Naval invasion,

[@The_Romanian_Terror]

1440p, FINALLY MY OVERKILL S20 SCREEN CAN BE USEFUL

[@spritemon98]

Ooo pretty clever sponsor segway

[@Zoped98]

I got a god awful leg cramp halfway through the video, that’s how bad this disaster save was

[@Zoped98]

My other leg cramped up 15 mins later after you were naval invaded for a 3rd time

[@afilenamedlance630]

Ah yes, Hoimoney

[@jaoschmidt3786]

Top 5 sponsorship introductions

[@northernleigonare]

What I don't understand is if this was WW1 they would just want to keep reinforcing the frontlines instead of doing endless naval invasions.

[@marche434]

"Did you cheat?" I mean, all my saves would end like this without cheats, the moment im losing its cheats on 🗿

[@mr.jeffjeffun1212]

I like the sponsor timer

[@somerandomdudeontheinterne6520]

he was trying to do an Austria Hungary with the competence at the first world war, thats why its so bad

[@charleynilsson5543]

I never protect my coastline because the ai basically never naval invades me.

[@zklebertw]

that's right, an art sponsor on a austrian game 💀

[@ironicbadger2]

My first few games were as Nationalist China. Even if I suck at everything else, I'll never forget the danger of naval invasions.

[@edoardobaia7927]

an advice, you could have given back to romania bukovina and bessarabia since those are romanian cores thus not needeing garrisons, also give luxembourg and alsace loraine to germany so they can do the focus ''reintregate luxembourg and alsace lorraine''

[@ЙованДобройевичь]

Yo I legit tought that cores are important But the I realized it generally doesn't matter Unless you want to look at uniting all germans

[@edoardobaia7927]

@@ЙованДобройевичь yeah but the fact is German AI is pretty strong and competent but without anchluss and sudeten they are weakened both industrially and manpower wise, so some extra core could power them up a little

[@fluffycommander]

are you ok Bitt3r do you need a lie down

[@Bitt3rSteel]

BiG ANGERY

[@bulutooth23]

Okay while we are on Austiria Hungary i cant seem to get the achivement on no step back. I mean paradrop option does not seem to work as good as before so cant knock uk out

[@maik_88elgamer]

21:03 can we appreciate how MANCHUKUO claimed indochina and not Japan?

[@hydranmenace]

I really enjoy these because I am terrible at this game as much as I want to like it. Some time when a disaster save comes up again would you be willing to go a little more into detail about what you're doing and why? I don't mean spending ten minutes explaining why guns = good but more, for example, in one of these you mentioned not sending subs into the English channel because they can't hide. I had no idea you could even find that info in the game, let alone that it was a thing. Paradox is really good at hiding info sometimes. I've seen you and others open various info panels that I didn't even know were there. And I do try to look.

[@kuangsiewyong8408]

The axis get naval invaded so much i had to put troops there myself

[@hendrikmons4231]

Sometimes, the AI is far more A then I

[@mick9813]

Disaster saves are the best

[@jimsylvia255]

You are the best

[@Mt.Everest]

@@jimsylvia255 indeed

[@yvnpetry]

ah yes, my favourite videogame, Hoi$

[@BrahimS03]

I didn't complete the video yet but how did he get tyrol from italy? Did he puppets it?

[@dannyjenkins4193]

I'm guessing he invaded it

[@otten5666]

@@dannyjenkins4193 He invaded his ally? It's cheats.

[@dannyjenkins4193]

@@otten5666 he made it his ally by invading it

[@otten5666]

@@dannyjenkins4193 That would have made Italy non aligned making it The Kingdom of Italy, so no that did not happen..

[@averagerocenjoyer3152]

Mr.Bitt3rsteel you can get a Space marine Division a try. This is main meta in my community. 13 infantry 4 artillery 1 mid or heavy tank. And 10 width to fill the lane.

[@cosubo8509]

40 widths are not meta, too much supply usage

[@averagerocenjoyer3152]

@@cosubo8509 well it's in my community and they are combat effective in my opinion. Beside if you feel out of supply why not build some transport plane.

[@cosubo8509]

@@averagerocenjoyer3152 transport planes cost tons of ic and 40 widths are theorycrafted worse + they fit worse in nsb terrain

[@jasonpittman7183]

Can we get a copy of the save to try it ourselves

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Yes! It's up!

[@verwitterter]

@@Bitt3rSteel But Where? I can´t find it

[@Bitt3rSteel]

@@verwitterter it's in the description, as always

[@rubber924]

AI cheats with manpower, and have 100% vision of the map I swear. The game just decides "the axis cannot win" and the Allied AI just get to naval invade for free with the axis seemingly turning a blind eye to it every time

[@GameFanaticBR]

Question: why go for civilian industry over domestic arms industry? Is the air branch that requires DAI not worth it?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

No, I made a mistake. I skipped over the Air path. It's good. Both are good. I usually prefer to get free Civs over free mill. I just forgot that the path leads to big air bonuses

[@Dragonite43]

It would be interesting if you played Hearts of Iron 3! :D

[@ruffnexs4470]

i heard that the meta is 15 width, inf + 1 artillery. not sure if right, but feels okay, specially for weaker countries

[@Cassiopeia1223]

I really like HoI 4 but its difficult to play, if you dont spent a lot of Time mastering it. I have sometimes a tough Time cutting through Fronts. Im gonna really need a Mentor like you or do a LOT more Research.

[@axzs490]

I think this is no step-back thingy? I heard they buffed naval invasions

[@mitchells721]

How do we submit our own disasters because I’ve got a few bad ones

[@велимир-ю4я]

They always make the borders gross in these saves

[@powlman6841]

*insert megamind* No Guns?

[@talosisoursavior3061]

where did you get south tyrol from?

[@bm8985]

I've reached the point where the only thing thay turn my game into a disaster is the ai making weird alt history choices 😂

[@crazywarriorscatfan9061]

This'll be interesting

[@leandernolte9603]

how did he get south tirol? had to ahve been cheats

[@CreepAgeDE]

Where is the Google Drive Link? I want to try this

[@cekretone]

Man is love to send you my disaster save but I don’t have any I played for so long I’m too good in single player. Unless I play a mod, do you accept modded saves?

[@opalzard325]

how about letting them land as bait and destroy them?

[@DSYOOOO]

If I could show u some of my saves u would be dumbfounded at how I got to where it got.Got the game two months ago have like 100hrs on it (with no dlc btw) and I still don’t understand how my divisions get obliterated by ai.Idk why but I still enjoy the game a lot

[@liambenn1214]

fairly certain this guy went in to the allied nations, gave them all crazy amounts of manpower then gave the save to you

[@memazov6601]

18 width infantry is good

[@cyrusol]

Can you filter out the saves without the No Step Back DLC?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Pretty difficult, since most people don't mention what DLC they have

[@zolls1537]

Ur just too good

[@RandomGuy-ej5dr]

11:29 Playing Yugoslavia thought me that dose 5 division actualy can do something usefoul

[@sebastian3100]

Why you gotta roast them bruh xD

[@michaelarmia]

Guarding ports is as important and guarding your fronts both would lead to winning/losing only exceptions are Uk,Usa,Japan and france they have very atrong navy and almost impossible for the ai to naval invade you

[@endzor]

where to send the disaster save ? 8)

[@Alberto2]

He 100% cheeted since he has Trento, Istria and Zara from Italy and joined the Axis.

[@eksdi4605]

the guy who posted obviously cheted, dunno how else he would get istria from italy without fighting xD.

[@dannyjenkins4193]

He prob invaded it early

[@danimag3904]

the best cw for small divisions is 27 and for big divisions its 45

[@tmadlegionsoul3255]

LOL - another saved game from someone who just started playing HOI4 and has not learned how to play yet. It is ok, it took me 40+ hours to learn to play at a decent level.

[@danielzamora9491]

Can you try to survive as Turkey if the USSR refuses the remilitarization of the Bosphorus? 👉🥺👈 It's a good challenge.

[@Myjacob99]

Me at 4:19 when I stuck in 2 inches