Saving Mussolini from game mechanics....

Mussolini will always be incompetent.
Try this yourself: drive.google.com/file/d/1xj8S...
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[@blazerayanami5979]

Fun fact: the 'lost cores' modifier doesn't go away even if you win the war. It never goes away... I had a game as Italy where I played until 1949, conquered every major nation formed Rome... and still had the modifier just because I lost Sardinia in 1940... Edit: Wow, I did not expect this many likes, thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!

[@DrFerk2]

9 years of pain all for nothing.

[@justmapping]

I also had a very "enjoyable" experience with it. I had a game as Mussolini's Rome until 1972 (yes, I'm a maniac) and conquered 100% of the map. And for 32 YEARS I was accompanied by this debuff because I lost South Tyrol in 1940 when Germany unexpectedly attacked my Yugoslavia.

[@Steven-ly9ei]

Well, that explains my last Italy game 😂

[@TSMmigit]

I had a german world conquest and Italy was a puppet and went into civil war around 4-5 times. The game ended in 1963

[@whitezombie10]

@@TSMmigitif Italians rebelled to every corrupt government they had:

[@carza1592]

Weren’t there three cores lost? Sardinia, Istria and Piedmont? Because isn’t Piedmont occupied along with Sardinia and majority of Istria? Wished you showed the balance of power after you liberated your cores to really show that the modifier was still there

[@ripow455]

no because piedmont has genoa as it’s victory point and he controls it which means they don’t occupy it

[@carza1592]

@@ripow455 ah that explains it! Thought Genoa belonged to another state and piedmont was fully occupied!

[@lucavonhabsburg270]

What About Zadar

[@ishgo1]

not a core@@lucavonhabsburg270

[@Vaipts]

​@@lucavonhabsburg270Thats not a core state

[@SarmaTheFood]

25:30 "They're already dead they just dont know it yet." 🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻✨

[@TheMortarWindmill]

“Would you do this for a million dollars?” 🎅🎅🎅🐡

[@buddy2668]

Bro I don't get this joke. Can someone explain?

[@SarmaTheFood]

@@buddy2668 when i heard him say this i remembered IDKsterling's "This horse is already dead, it just doesnt knows it" video.

[@pp_power2680]

"Mussolini is in trouble..." Yeah he's so bald he gets mistaken for a lighthouse

[@noispoi]

lmfao

[@jksilta9335]

I prefer calling my head a "local sun" but to be honest, it is more like the moon, just reflecting the sunlight... So I guess you are just jealous we bald people can do "mooning" in more than one way!

[@TheAlmightyToaster01]

He gets mistaken as a broken lamppost so some kind Italian partisans decide to "fix it"

[@Theover4000]

The more I watch these disaster, saves the more things I learned about division, design, tactics, and things that help prevent me from sending in a disaster save. Thank you, Bitt3rSteel. I should send in more saves sometime 🤔

[@quaker2636]

Unfortunately, Paradox seems to pretend that the ridiculous balance of power modifiers upon losing even non-core states are intended. It has been reported numerous times and no dev has ever adressed it. But now that a big youtuber has complained about it, theres a slight chance they might do something with it because that seems like the only case they bother to fix a bug that had been around for months.

[@OnlyGrafting]

The only logic i can think of is that the people wont change their opinion back for being liberated as you've allowed the war to hit their honeland and them be occupied.

[@charlesxii2660]

​@@OnlyGraftingmight be true (about 'why' it persists) but still a stupid reasoning both realistically and game-mechanics wise. It could even be said that the loss have been brought back gloriously much like controversial ascent of Germany pre-WW2.

[@Pulstar232]

​@@charlesxii2660perhaps instead of instantly fixing itself, it should decay over the course of a month or two?

[@charlesxii2660]

@@Pulstar232 You bought me with only idea of it being fixed xD But seriously yeah that could work; it smooth things out gradually and I really like that.

[@shyper17]

​@@OnlyGraftingYes, but the problem is this happens even when you do actually try to hold. And in that case it's just not realistic. My people praise the heroes who stood up to the Central Powers, even though we initially lost. We also hold our king at the time in high regard. Their success is less important to us than the fact that they fought bravely, all of them, to prevent an occupation. A totally different scenario is the one where you just leave a part od your nation to die. That I would never forgive.

[@Spielkind104]

1:00 the great council of gamers you mean

[@Alpatrixx]

I remember this one game i did i was just trying to bring back the pope, and i was doing a co-op. It was non historical and we forgot to put troops on the "alpine confederation border" after we denied them. They then invaded all of northern italy. after 2 years the allies joined them just as i almost gained all my land back. I held for like 5 years in total it was actually kinda fun

[@heylookthatboi]

Top tip for that encirclement cheese tactic. Instead of what you're doing right now you can press control + rightclick instead. This makes your units attack but not walk in to the tile. So you don't have to manually halt your divisions from entering the tile.

[@MrBlamed]

I need to try that.

[@vertexed5540]

If they have any battle plan they won't do supporting attacks. You can set a fall back line around the port and then delete it, and achieve the same thing

[@pannik_lucas]

@@vertexed5540That explains why despite doing Ctrl + right click and seeing the blue arrow, my divisions move regardless

[@whitezombie10]

Thank you!

[@progamingmvp9085]

I play Italy all the time and have no idea how he had that many generals with that many units with that much manpower in such a short amount of time with half the manpower focuses still locked

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Deleted the units that got stuck in the alps. Due to a bug with the impassable terrain, I got the manpower and equipment back despite the being encircled. I also downsized his port garrisons.

[@whitezombie10]

@@Bitt3rSteelI think he’s talking about the guy’s starting army. It’s too big for Italy

[@oliverlimb109]

​@@whitezombie10mem

[@whitezombie10]

@@oliverlimb109what?

[@vixxsz8238]

It's not, I was on Service by Requirement which is 10% of my 40m population; I had 2m men fielded.@@whitezombie10

[@cananakkoc9849]

"theyre already dead they just dont know yet" -Bitt3rsteel 2023

[@saltvault8943]

Its not a paradox game if the code doesn't break

[@playergasman37]

21:42 The Bittersteel Squeal 😂 I hope he sees this and trademarks that

[@captain_hammer]

Bittersqueal

[@philarchus233]

Wouldn’t be PDX if every “main” competitor of ww2 didn’t have either a small, boring focus tree, broken mechanics or some annoying “feature” that they implemented. Oh well at least you can play ww2 Vikings now.

[@user-sf5jq7tt8y]

6:45 isn't military police after arms against tyranny has some bonuses to regular infantry? I remember them giving like 20% more division org recovery rate which is really useful for defence

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Yes, but it's absolutely not worth it for combat units at all

[@DBPRODUCTIONS10]

​@Bitt3rSteel what about port guards?

[@Kroyer102]

Hey Bittersteel, here's a video idea: Try redoing this disaster save or some other of your choosing but try to "win" without changing industry, template, research, doctrines. It would be a good way to show much these things can affect the game or on the other hand it could show that pure micro skill can win the game with bad choices in other areas

[@PhilipposACosta]

New ideas for the next videos: 1. Rush Roman empire (or Imperial federation with US cores), core all states possible, tag switch to another country, and no war declaration for 1 year. Then, fight the Empire 2. Planes only (which we know usually doesn't work), but you are able to get all plane techs with console 3. 0 casualties. Choose any country, and build the way you want. Then declare war against a major and win with less than 1k casualties (no parachute exploit against France or letting allies win) 4. Italy Max Cores: Play with italy, do Roman Empire and core everything, then loose territy civil war and go democratic. Form the EU, and abadon colonies to get African cores.

[@simpli_histori]

this title is the most accurate thing ever said in human history

[@humphrey10-88]

That’s the biggest encirclement I’ve ever seen

[@TheIronKangaroo]

Bittersteel Although you won’t see this,Ever since I started watching you,you have made me love HOI4 and inspired me to start my own KZbin channel,You are very inspiring,thank you my friend.

[@joskarifinaukr6503]

Oh, there is one thing that Fleet in Being is great for, so don't knock it! The last doctrine in the tree gives you +20% naval AA effectiveness. It's actually really amazing for me when I play Silver Legion USA because I still have to deal with a bug where the game crashes if I try to access my air force during or after the civil war, but if I completely disband my air force at the start and scuttle my carriers, and if I don't touch the air force interface until after the civil war ends, then I can build a fresh one from scratch. At that point though, I don't want to spend the time and dockyards on new carriers, so between FiB, the high command AA guy (Spruance, I think,) and some dedicated AA cruisers plus copious use of DP secondaries on everything, I can still really shred Japanese or British carrier fleets depending on how RNGeezus blows up my game.

[@sgtburden8482]

6:44 Bittersteel! With the new DLC, the military police now increase recovery rate so it can be useful in line infantry

[@u.n.latias4612]

Kaiserreich got an update for Germany recently, and there's some really interesting paths like the secret NatPop one, maybe you should try playing it as Germany is way more complicated now

[@n_0477]

15 width is great, this recent update really favours smaller widths, the bigger width all feel really clunky to use well

[@coltonp3247]

that professor farnsworth meme was the worst thing ever lol, horrible quality and low volume. it was perfectly cursed, thank you

[@wunderpuma4453]

Bittersteel you should show how many losses the enemy took in pockets by using booklet you were using to see how much equipment you captured. Would be interesting.

[@DoctorAllanGrey]

It figures this would be another one of those games with a weird but necessary strategy like doing a Reverse Schlieffen plan, lol.

[@vixxsz8238]

I was going for the "Nothing Personal, Adolf" achievement😭

[@DoctorAllanGrey]

@@vixxsz8238 Does that one preclude defeating the allies? Although I imagine you were probably busy stopping Germany coming at you right before you got jumped, Lol

[@vixxsz8238]

Haha, nope 😂. When I first the game I almost immediately declared war on Austria so I could hold the land for the achievement, and I guess I was under the assumption that I needed to be at war with them or I got greedy so then I declared war, then mid-way through that the Allies declared on me for some reason. I capped Germany and released them a so there would still be a Facist Germany, but they decided to flip, declare war on me, then join the allies 😭@@DoctorAllanGrey

[@ClemDiamond]

"The game says we lost 3 cores, we only lost 2 : Sardinia and Istria !" Meanwhile the French holding Piedmont : Am i a joke to you ?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Fun fact, I still control Piedmont, because the VP is in Genoa, not Turin

[@lucavonhabsburg270]

​@@Bitt3rSteelIt's probably because of Zadar?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Nah, I checked. Zadar is colonial, not a core

[@ClemDiamond]

@@Bitt3rSteel Could it be spaghetti code about losing Torino then ? In the video we don't see if you ever lost the negative modifier after reconquering everything or if it stayed and was truly the bug you explained. I suppose that was cut ? Didn't say it in my comment but great video as always. I'm in awe at your patience to save such disasters each time. Loved the TW video too !

[@Bitt3rSteel]

@@ClemDiamond the debuffs never went away. As long as it's just one debuff, you can offset it with the 25pp decisions you get to boos Mussolini

[@lolloblue9646]

As someone who has seen the game code, Paradox forgot to add a code to remove the final Lost Cores modifier because the effect is different between first core lost and following cores lost.

[@matsutermini8077]

40 seconds ago. I'm already here. Bittersteel Is addictive 😂

[@ivayloyovchev7191]

27:00 sound of happiness

[@saadhussain9647]

love you videos keep uploading shortly

[@realaugustinlouiscauchy]

"This Belgium is already dead, it just doesn't know it yet. 🎅🎅🥕"

[@tiberiuswolf8259]

Good News! They fixed the Lost Cores modifier bug! like a few weeks ago

[@xr0ninx569]

I always like to make a port on rome so I can auto port-garrison it instead of manually defending it. Works 9/10. Wish the ai could build ports or at least rome starting with a port.

[@thefreakingc8557]

Hat looks awfully much Like a Situation I was in not so Long ago

[@SpencerFryBlunderingBandit]

Idk i like using MP support on assault divisions for the recovery rate boost

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content 😊😊😊

[@DBPRODUCTIONS10]

Finally, someone points this out! I refuse to play italy until it's fixed, you can form the Roman empire, get everything as cores, and then have a civil war because you forget to garrison some random beach in the middle of nowhere. If it's a bug fix it, if it's a mechanic it's a stupid fucking mechanic.

[@panospapadopoulos768]

a combination of all three

[@BRITAINhoi4]

0:20 all of them

[@hummussapien7.6billion68]

Military police do have a use, they are in of the few things that increases recovery rate for infantry divisions

[@joskarifinaukr6503]

Whoa whoa whoa, waitaminute ... Did you just say that a light tank can be designed specifically for garrison brigades? Damn, and here I've just been trying to optimize the best SPAA to augment my infantry brigades. What tank modules help with suppression, or is it that the hardness makes them almost impossible to be destroyed by insurgents?

[@martinmuller4596]

15:02 heavy cruisers

[@Syrath101]

Yeah I immediately guessed it was b/c the Italian power of balance system is broken

[@bgtgigachad7907]

hello people am i blind or he missing core territory one top left itally isnt that the 3rd core ?, pls help

[@japsu5279]

go to 11:15 you can see that piemonte is controlled by italy

[@simondesmond3574]

@@japsu5279 At the start of the video Piedmont is owned by France

[@Bitt3rSteel]

No, I control it. I'm just holding on the the VP that gives me 51% control

[@raiden5181]

@@Bitt3rSteel im pretty sure that sahara counts as a core for all nations including italy which is the third core that italy lost im guessing

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@raiden5181 Sahara is Colony state. No garrison, but otherwise similar to other non-cores.

[@fredericcote1577]

D: you are playing the Soft underbelly of Europe 😂

[@werewolfman186]

143 divisions in the magino encirclement

[@heckinmemes6430]

CROSSES GROW ON ANZIO~

[@spookyboy101]

Challenge suggestion: using only general/field marshal orders; fallback lines, frontlines, etc. Moving a unit manually instantly fails the challenge.

[@viliussmproductions]

Probably unfair to call that a game mechanic, looks like a pretty obvious bug. Impressive content, by the way. Learned a lot watching these videos and they're quite entertaining to boot, though that's probably down to charisma and nice editing.

[@neoncatua5819]

0:19 D all above

[@RobinMeineke]

You claimed additional AA is not worth it. I was pretty sure thats not the case so I quickly tested the effect of AA. No AA = -35% modifier Support AA= -25% modifier Support + 2 Line AA = -10% modifier Conclusion: If anything, even 2 line AA isn't enough to completely get rid of the negativ air superiority modifier. And to claim more AA than 1 support is never worth it is definitely not true.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

The added cost is not worth the reduced penalty at all

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@Bitt3rSteel AA isn't that expensive.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

@@Gustav_Kuriga it's not, but a line regiment needs more equipment than a support company. So it costs more, does less (added bonus on top of the support company has diminishing returns). I rather spend the IC on something that had a bigger overall impact

[@Friendlyman_lol]

sad, btw all three of them

[@DrFerk2]

25:30 🎅🎅🥕

[@unimportant719]

I remember my first Game of BBA as Dino Grandi and ending up in Civil war because i lost some random pieces of lands in Russia Yeh Italian Power balance is Broken for any fascist path

[@fra9-clin507]

Did he just reverse the Schlieffenplan? Now i´ve seen it all.

[@qu3stionm4rk]

13:33 Is artillery guy finally working? I always thought that this adviser is bugged and didnt do shit for your army

[@MrThePsychologist]

they also must give a rate because 1 tank division can not hold an entire army of infantry

[@littlecoma320]

i wanna go with the secret third option and say d: all of the above

[@waylonbocephus]

Would you do a Habsburg Poland video?

[@edingaga831]

bittersteel with another banger

[@bulgar_balkan]

25:30 IdkSterling refrence?

[@janaejoaodosacramento9731]

My guess is A and C

[@Eso706]

You need to make more total war videos!

[@Player1776.]

What about France marching halfway through the north of your country. Just didn't notice?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I'm pretty sure they didn't take another tile after I took over the save tbh. And no, they don't control the state. I hold Genoa

[@Player1776.]

ah@@Bitt3rSteel

[@efjddu]

i have a challenge for you i want you to play elite difficultu then choose uk and release egypt as a puppet then gain freedom and declare on both the allies and axis and comintern and chinese and japenese faction and defeat them all if you can do that youy will be officialy crowned the best tryhard hoi4 player but since it will be too long make the video as a 200k subsucriber special were almost there

[@aydendejong451]

I’m quite damn sure that you are sometimes incompetent so it must be B. /j, you are great.

[@Cheesburger1009]

"Mussolini is an idiot" How is that an suprise. Every hoi4 player knows he is.

[@Onion__Duck]

D) All of the Above.

[@francescoboselli6033]

Speaking of building: for air superiority or at least try to contest down enemy bomber, I never seen you built AA and radar... Are those so uneffective, or you simply don't built then since they aren't in your play style?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I'm usually trying to mend bigger issues

[@yolkcolumb]

that views are tcking fast.

[@andrewwagner7363]

Don't you have a core in Zara too?

[@gerritlp3467]

isnt france occupiing the 3. core in the north of italy? (they are standing next to milano)

[@ilmansmajic7682]

Hello Bitt3rSteel.Can you tell me how to add divisons to an alredy existing army

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Select the unit and right click the army you want to add it to

[@ilmansmajic7682]

@@Bitt3rSteel Thank you so much

[@Zmora666]

All of the above

[@typical947]

Mr. Steel i have a question. Every time I play hoi4 my units always have no organization, what could be the problem?

[@wersab5960]

does your template have atleast 30 org ? If you do have it then you have poor supply,so that could have a lot of reasons (you might not have fuel,trains,truck etc.).

[@Zangar-ft2fc]

Mama mia!

[@Trotsky.-.83_years_ago_-_and]

I thought you were talking about the current politician 😂😂😂

[@hagymascsiposgyros5780]

sussolini

[@kjmaps]

Italy is always incompetent in my games, I once saw Britain naval invade Italy and they infinitely attacked and they lost every single battle. And they counterattacked and before civil war happened Italy divisions were all overrun and Italy surrendered.

[@GoldenMoonOfDeltaCommentaries]

fun tip u can supply thru impadible turain if u build a railway thru it

[@Rolo1507]

How much manpower was lost during the 140 division pocket

[@vixxsz8238]

~200k take it or leave it, I don't remember exactly remember the numbers when I left off.

[@mgrillo2863]

so i was curious what your national/ethnicity was and googled you, 1st thing that popped up was YOUR face reveal, so i clicked it. 1st three words of the video was " hi, im taureor." found it amusing thought you may as well.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Haha, brilliant

[@RoseGod0682]

When the UK wants a new dominion they made one out of the balkans.

[@outofideas9985]

When has mussolini not been in trouble?

[@SneakyRobin2008]

was he ever never in trouble?

[@ahhno4662]

greece: 👁 👄 👁

[@certifieddemon3386]

howcome your fighters are only 30 production cost with that engine, normally mine end up at like 45 even with near same template

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I have no idea

[@flukz.z]

big manki

[@JayTacitus]

Is Italian Dodecanese a core?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Oddly, no

[@architech02]

Considering your YT name you should play Game of thrones themed hoi4 mods more

[@robboss7176]

Hey good morning bitter

[@epicninja2378]

IIRC one of the north african states counts as a core despite it not being one which has messed me up many times when i ignore Africa and full commit to invading UK and France.

[@quaker2636]

Any state you own at the start of the war counts as a "core", so even if you form the roman empire and lose a couple states in the middle of nowhere you're getting the civil war because paradox devs don't know how to code

[@davidproud9009]

D) all of the above :P

[@owenbrown4170]

I’m going to guess all three 😂🎉🎉🎉🎉 0:25

[@154Kilroy]

FYI, building bad ships is a terrible idea. It's basically the same as building bad airplanes. Sure, you get more. But they also die much faster. The difference between a cruiser with no armor and armor is absolutely massive. It's worth the extra time. I love playing the Navy in this game, and I've experimented with basically every conceivable combination of ships. So I know building better ships is 100% worth it. Refitting ships is also worth it. The AI has gotten better over the years in what they design. Sometimes they actually build pretty decent ships. And those will trash your trash ships. Also, never ever have your strike fleet spilt off. That's how those heavy cruisers got sunk. Split off is for subs and destroyers on convoy escort only. Also, the one-time building lesser ships makes sense are destroyers intended for convoy escort. When they die, usually its the whole group and that sucks when they're spendy. A tier II destroyer with the best ASW stuff you have and max depth charges is great. You can make them really quick, but they are also really effective at wrecking subs. Which is their job. Once you have the tech, everything else should be tier III with whatever the best stuff you can put on it. Tier IV stuff doesn't seem to be enough of an upgrade to warrant the extra cost. Sometimes I want to make a video on the Navy, but I just don't record videos. I've got over 6,000 hours playing this frigging game, and most of that time past 200 hours has been spent figuring out how the Navy works. Idk why, but it's my favorite part of the game. If you read this far, and have questions about anything, please ask. I have tons of tips I can share.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

There's no such thing as a bad ship in SP. The single purpose of the navy is to provide superiority to deny invasion or to invade. That's it. There is no point to playing a navy game since it has 0 impact on wars, outside of convoy raiding with subs.

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@Bitt3rSteel You say this, and yet the number of times a better navy would have saved your ass from naval invasion never stops amusing me. Did you ever consider that destroying the enemy navy is the best way to deny invasion or invade?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

@@Gustav_Kuriga it's not a cost effective investment. If I'm getting invaded, it means I'm on the back foot and need that industry to bolster the army and air force, who actually do win wars.

[@Gustav_Kuriga]

@@Bitt3rSteel A decent navy would mean their entire navy goes down in one or two engagements followed by your naval bombers mopping up the remains of their fleet as they try to repair. Rather than hoping desperately for a brief instant of naval superiority for a naval invasion or dealing with constant naval invasions, you have complete control of the seas, your trade is uninterrupted, and you have complete strategic flexibility about where and when to navally invade. I think all these disaster saves are skewing your thinking based on what you need at the moment rather than what years of prep time can accomplish.

[@marv2985]

when can I send disasters?

[@LetMeBe3]

What are our favourite pizza toppings?

[@LetMeBe3]

Mines ham.

[@wiktormroczek9967]

Tuna and onion - Tonno e cipolla 🇮🇹

[@sven6319]

1.15: Bittersteel is wrong, he also lost Zara, wich makes 3 lost cores. but other than that, from own experience i know this bug and i should get removed !

[@Chaiserzose]

Actually, you also lostpiedmont, so they're 3 core territories