The Secret French Path to a United Europe NO ONE Uses!! HOI4

In this video we will explore a rarely completed path for france...the Kingdom of Franco-Spain where we will unite with the monarchy in Spain under the Bourbon dynasty.
but not only this, we will also create the European Union AND complete union with Algeria and whatever other colonies might like to join from the French Union.
A France that can stand the test of time and rival the Roman Empire of old!
Thanks to Tower Man for the inspiration for the thumbnail!
Discord: / discord
/ hatlessspider

[@OnlyGrafting]

I'd assume the reason the org doesn't matter much in Spain is because everything is beduffed to all hell anyways so you may as well deal the damage instead?

[@hatless_spider]

Exactly correct!! If you can only deal 10% of your soft attack, you need over 300 to have at least 30 soft attack in battles. The enemy isn't gonna hurt your org with their 1 or 2 soft attack 😆

[@lemonke4209]

@@hatless_spiderLOL

[@youtuberobbedmeofmyname]

@@hatless_spider I find it hillarious that you just brute forced your way through it, even if it is the obvious solution.

[@Pydgin]

Seeing the United Kingdom of Europe on historical is soooo cursed... I love it.

[@hatless_spider]

Gloriously blursed!

[@idontlikerome2744]

Never got Fascist or Non-Aligned EU in my life, but yeah blused indeed !

[@C.A._Old]

You just killed Europe Union :'D XD

[@C.A._Old]

@@idontlikerome2744 ah man. so many things.

[@C.A._Old]

@@hatless_spider You just killed Europe Union :'D XD

[@ChalleonPlays]

Before I even continue watching I just have to mention how much I HATE unplanned offensive

[@hatless_spider]

You gotta try out the template!

[@ChalleonPlays]

@@hatless_spider I will!

[@carbonado2432]

i used to disable the dlc...

[@Sinivaal]

@@carbonado2432wait what you mean you do it with the generic forcus tree

[@carbonado2432]

@@Sinivaal you could get rid of the unplaned offensive trait, if you disabled the DLC that added it

[@Dan-wt7jx]

These are amazing, the amount of work you do to build super states while on historical is incredible

[@hatless_spider]

I appreciate it! This one certainly took a lot of time and effort

[@notmonokito515]

(Sick ass encirclement happenes) "I think it was like 40divs" (Plays 1876 saloon music)

[@KelgorothTheFinalShape]

Imagine the German officer having to report that to Hitler, someone is definitely getting shot for that

[@metaparalysis3441]

@@KelgorothTheFinalShape operation bagration moment:

[@eduardog3000]

You gotta see if you can combine this with restoring the UK of Portugal and Brazil. Ultimate goal: France gets four crowns plus colonial cores, UK (England, not Portugal) gets all of that as cores through the Franco-British Union event, forms The Empire with its colonies + America from North American Federation (bonus if the US cored Alaska, Hawaii, and PR first), and unites the EU. Unfortunately you have to have a forever war or else you'll lose your cores on the 4 crowns. Probably just declare war on some tiny country but never invade. idk if that can even be pulled off in a single player game, but it would be amazing if it could. Would still be interesting to see as a coordinated multiplayer game.

[@Kandall05161]

It'd be fairly easy in 2 player co-op, you just have one person do the exact France strat shown in this video while the other person plays a fairly standard Imperial federation run. Then they get into a faction together, France declares war on, say, Switzerland and allows themselves to capitulate (forming the Franco British Union). Unfortunately it is likely impossible single player though, as last I knew choosing the Franco-British union option as France ends your game rather than tag switching you to the UK. Even if it didn't, you'd be relying on the British AI to let you into the faction, let you die, allow the union, and not lock you out of specific important focuses prior to your switch. Kind of a shame, I was hoping the Franco-British union would be made a more fleshed out and potentially permanent path in a DLC at some point, but that seems pretty unlikely now with both having gotten their updated focus trees already.

[@OnlyGrafting]

@@Kandall05161 I thought the option to go Franco British only happened if you were at were specifically with the Axis when France drops out

[@rhubarb2301]

If you release Morocco and Syria as France, they can for Al-Andalus and Arabia respectively. If France has them as puppets, then there's a chance both get annexed with French Union, giving cores on all of Arabia and the Middle East

[@Kandall05161]

@@OnlyGrafting Right, forgot about the weird restrictions on that, both have to be democratic as well so it'd be more annoying but still possible. After the end of this video, you'd have (still democratic) UK dec on France to change government them, get France in the Allies, have them re-release Germany, then dec on Germany (or guarantee Norway or whatever) and let Germany kill France. Franco-British Union forms, giving Brits cores on everything. Brits then start their political tree and go monarchist, Unite the Anglosphere focus to take US, core Ireland and retake the dominions, create North American Dominion, Imperial conference, done. As long as UK stays at war with somebody the union stays so just don't cap Germany until you have a forever war set up and it should be fine. Can pretty easily make an eternal union by just getting a landlocked nation surrounded by your own puppets (not called into the war), so for example puppet Russia and Mongolia but leave a free Tannu Tuva (still in charge of the Comintern) and declare on them before re-killing Germany.

[@marcusmagni]

I tried to do this a few months ago, it works. You would get cores to Brazil, Angola and Mozambique if I recall correctly

[@nick_1212]

Nice video! You can also get core on Brazil, Angola & Mozambique if Portugal core them. :D

[@hatless_spider]

Yep! Unfortunately there's not really a good way to get portugal to do that as France. I did think about it though. I was considering attacking them as monarchist france and changing their government, but by the point we could complete that, they would already be far into the wrong path. There is always the unhistorical path though!

[@michaeltomasicchio6895]

If you are playing ahistorical, or with a buddy/the console, you can also get cores on Brazil by having Portugal go monarchist before Spain eats them.

[@stumpf_man8791]

I think your divisions in Spain are a pretty interesting way of dealing with the unplanned offensive debuff. Just due to how expensive they are and how they tend to perform after the debuff is gone though I’d personally use more inf. Mountaineers are my go to as well. Great video though!

[@Thonieler]

I conquered europe yesterday as Napoleon but since you get no cores, I think i will try this next! Great idea, even better executed and delivered and also what a fricking empire!! Thanks for the awesome videos - you deserve way more traffic :)

[@matthewlazaric3543]

good video, It's clear you're putting effort into these. Keep it up!

[@hammotimee]

Ah yes, the longer the empire name the greater the empire. Love it

[@hatless_spider]

All the best dictatorships understand this 😁

[@lucienmuller4951]

Thanks a lot for the guide, I don't like following guides closely as it just isn't fun for me that way but it helped a lot in coming up with my version for it and its a great video.

[@joshjolly6546]

excellent, i just love how things can be manipulated this much!

[@antasil5768]

Ohh, that wolfs jaw trap! *chefs kiss*! I know a LOT of work was put in here and it show. Congrats!

[@hatless_spider]

Thanks! I think I'm improving a bit on my editing and hopefully can improve how quickly I can upload new things as well!!

[@KelgorothTheFinalShape]

Imagine the German officer having to report that to Hitler

[@ChrMuslimThor]

I like that everything isn't perfect, like forgetting to release Algeria.

[@hatless_spider]

Mistakes were made! Luckily nothing too awful lol!

[@ShackleYT]

for your wolf jaws trap, if you would have attacked the 2 tiles north of the tile you took, you could have encircled 11 more german units while chomping down on that hand It's a hilarious strategy that i am so going to use next time. thank you for teaching it to me!

[@wulle8509]

Great video, I will have to try myself

[@vanillapaper]

Hatlessspider finding yet another way to cheese unplanned offensive.I guess thats why he plays this game.

[@hatless_spider]

It ain't easy, being cheesy!

[@dexasz]

I love how as soon as Italians join the war, classical music starts to play, and we see Italian death sped up with music.

[@cowsgobark]

Simply amazing

[@lackthereof]

These are always the best!

[@leafman6439]

I found out that the most reliableway to get franco-spain on ironman historical is to just intervene in the civil war on the side of the republicans (ban comunism before to not get civil war and lose all your army) capture one nationalist region then wait for carlists to spawn, finish the focuses that get you cores while also preventing nationalists from finishing the civil war by encircling the anarchists, then retreat to the french border to let the nationalists win the civil war and lose most of their divisions. After that you just steamroll through them with your giant army and while this isn't the most core efficient as you can't get portugal cored and you don't remove the "victors of the great war" debuff early because you dont get into your own civil war I find it good enough for a fun and chill game

[@hatless_spider]

Yep that does work too!

[@leafman6439]

​@@hatless_spiderwow that was fast. Genuinely curious do you keep watch all day to see if any new comments appear on your videos?

[@hatless_spider]

@@leafman6439 naw just happened to be on when I got the notification 😆

[@lazarparozanin]

I have never been this early. Amazing video! There is I think a button for recalling volunteers.

[@hatless_spider]

Unfortunately you can't except through war. It's probably something PDX should add in at some point TBH

[@metaparalysis3441]

@@hatless_spider I believe it would lead to cheese

[@aidenbooksmith2351]

Great video! Love the pp boost joke

[@soldieroffortune308]

This was awesome

[@aomsinzana]

Looking forward next stream !!!

[@hatless_spider]

I'll try to do another soon. I want to win that last scenario with belgium and Netherlands!

[@enochinri]

Awesome stuff

[@sprites75]

interesting , i'll have to try some day

[@VinnyUnion]

i already like your attitude. anything that's not memecus' toxicity. I'll support! Like and subscribe! Just out of sheer spite!

[@baselzawahry9984]

Creative and beautiful

[@derAlphabet]

That was very nice to watch while cooking. Impressive realization of Louis XIV's dream

[@billyzm]

Glorious, gonna try that myself one day, when I am done achievement hunting (hopefully it wil finish soon!)

[@hatless_spider]

This is probably my favorite playthrough in hoi4 Definitely try it out!

[@billyzm]

@@hatless_spider I wonder now if it’s possible to also get Brazil if Portugal goes monarchist on Ahistorical. That’s probably too RNG based though, but it’ll be even better for sure

[@hatless_spider]

@billyzm you can yeah. Also potentially Mozambique and angola

[@C.A._Old]

*Jeez. i never knew that about this.*

[@LeifTunteri-lm6un]

There's so many technicalities that in theory France can core like half the world. It would be super fun to see you get some friends together and try and form the absolute maximal France

[@andreaskallstrom9031]

Thank you

[@eduardomonteiro6294]

Gonna try it out just now

[@hatless_spider]

Awesome! Let me know if you have any questions

[@ianloney3756]

Whatever feels right to you

[@hatless_spider]

Well played sir!

[@SimonJSlou]

What was that tune playing during the spanish civil war? That was a vibe and I want to learn how to play that on accordion.

[@thenecromorpher]

so it seems to be "Sardos-K & Belardi - Zuzenean"

[@TurnipDaBeet]

“whatever feels right to you”

[@kaizokugari2350]

Damn, this is amazing!

[@theDisto]

The Election contested event- Public Demands Rearmament or Communists in Government, depends on whether you have a neighbour at war, eg has Italy capitulated Ethiophia is

[@FilipBurovski]

Good lord just how long did you take to come up with this strategies I say impressed beyond imagination well done.

[@hatless_spider]

This particular strategy wasn't built in a day. Took a long time to figure out the strat for my original idea and then much longer to figure out the spanish civil war idea, and everything else for the European Union and french union

[@FilipBurovski]

@@hatless_spider You must have loved it when your plan comes together lol

[@hatless_spider]

@@FilipBurovski absolutely!

[@Stouzough]

Many good lessons from your strategy. Even staying Democrat, I'll copy 1) your space marine divisions (I used to put heavies, but couldn't get enough) 2) your pincher movement 3) your naval invasion of Sicily first, then on Roma's backyard since anyway you're also stuck in the North with German constant attacks on your human wall Some thoughts, would appreciate your opinion: I prefer Delattre De Tassigny as field marshal because he's brilliant strategist. Why did you pick Leclerq? Also I usually aim at 3 armies vs. Germany in the lowlands (=North) instead of 4: it's enough to contain the onslaught. But then I'd need another army later on to complete your pincher movement: I prefer armored to avoid losses and start with 2 div. For Spanish war: I train early 7 brigades coloniales, so that I can send 5 divisions to fight in Spain: that's even more XP gained. I see you chose the "invest in Algerian France" focus, was this after Blum-Viollette and reintegration of Algeria, because otherwise it's pointless as puppeted? Last question: how about your airforce? I beef up my fighters from 1938 to at least defend my northern armies.

[@C.A._Old]

You just killed Europe Union :'D XD

[@AntonioPereira-nj9sn]

Play as Portugal and do the achivemant go macau make my day

[@kilianbuckley5912]

What song is playing during the double speed part of the Spanish civil war micro

[@FxTR22]

Could you break down the video to the essential parts of what to get and not unit division templates? Almost everyone can do basic stuff like this.

[@stayfrosty1323]

I actually did this a few weeks ago, I used console Commands to see if it was even possible, and sure as shit, it is

[@NathanGamingNation]

Great video, could do with better video quality though, most of the time the texts are too blurry to even read. Maybe try recording in true 1080P or higher instead?

[@FaeridaeCrawford]

Mr. Spider, could you do a Vichy France run please?

[@ryanwagner4230]

He’s a genius

[@marcusaurelius5560]

I can't send lend lease to anyone as tension limit is too low. Did I miss something? Also, I can't seem to take Zaragoza either. No open tiles to move to on the front line, so the trick doesn't seem to have any application. Edit: Missed the clicking of the "allow sending weapons" thing. Still having trouble taking Zaragoza though.

[@hatless_spider]

You may have to try again. Practice makes perfect. As for the lendlease, you have to click a decision to allow lendlease that is unique from having completed the volunteers in spain focus

[@Elincia64]

Love the guide, but I'm curious if there's a way to reliably get the civil war to trigger? I don't know what to do at that point D:

[@hatless_spider]

Basically you just need to click the decision to allow sending weapons in the spanish civil war, and this will hurt your stability enough to cause the civil war

[@The_Only_Pickle]

Commenting because you posted this under my Reddit post

[@hatless_spider]

Nice! Hello! 😄

[@The_Only_Pickle]

@@hatless_spider gotta admit, it was a pretty good video

[@hatless_spider]

@assuringgaming7870 thanks!

[@thk4936]

20:53 The dream of Gamelin

[@arthurg.calixto3338]

Please tell em the song at 14:00. It sounds really freaking cool

[@MSGT_Johnson]

I knew this was possible in theory.

[@messisoccer900]

Great guide! What's the song at 13:43? Edit: found it! Sardos-K & Belardi - Zuzenean

[@hanabus6631]

i'm also interested in the songs name

[@messisoccer900]

@@hanabus6631 found it

[@hanabus6631]

@@messisoccer900 thanks

[@elbeto191291]

I really liked this one! I have two questions about the end result: I saw you didn't join the Allies in the war, was that to get to annex the Benelux countries in the peace deal? And, can you form the European Union as Monarchist France?

[@hatless_spider]

Correct, we don't get the land if we join the allies

[@stevenwang2068]

Has to be democratic unless you are fascist Britain

[@rj4416]

genius

[@christoperwallace6197]

People cone up with all.kinds od strategies to get Caralist to spaw. Meanwhile, you can set evwryone but spain to go hist in menue and they will everytime.

[@sauronmordor7494]

Top

[@styloxcrypto]

Historical game btw

[@ibutter876]

epic

[@Vaipts]

1 king 7 crowns

[@royale7620]

For extra extra spice you coulda let Portugal unite with Brazil and get cores on that too and if the UK did Imperial Federation and you annexed them via the EU ☠️

[@turplexx233]

35:30 so whats up with unification of Iberia with Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil? Do we got the Brazil core as France or Spain?

[@hatless_spider]

No, not in this case. If portugal had done the kingdom of porto-brazil it does work to get cores on brazil as well though

[@omegawonton8749]

since portugal can get cores on their colonies, would it be theoretically possible for spain to core those colonies when iberia is completed, and then france gain the cores on them for uniting the crowns?

[@hatless_spider]

Yep! And I did this in one game, although it required some shenanigans with switching between nations. It's in my 1 king 4 crowns video 😃

[@juicebox6581]

Lend lease is nolonger available before civil war. Not enough world tension

[@Not_Evil_]

This would be an even more traumatic ww2 outcome than the Irl one for Germany xd

[@scott3017]

With France I always wonder if its better to go with French union or encourage immigration to get rid of the full employment modifier.

[@bartomiej3389]

Are you sure you can core portugal cores if you do Unite the Crowns after Iberia? Because I think this focus only gives you spanish cores.

[@pharell366]

sa marche

[@scott3017]

So much harder to make that template now with the recent rework

[@hatless_spider]

It is indeed! I have a new idea I'm working on for this, though!

[@adrienb2762]

Public demand rearmament will happen if italy is still at wr with Ethiopia

[@hatless_spider]

Correct. But explaining that would have ruined my 60% of the time joke 😁

[@TreeBeard2008]

If you do ban the communisim focus (or do it via decision), can you avoid civil war?

[@berserkwall5633]

Yes

[@hatless_spider]

You can, but for this particular strategy we need the civil war. You can also prevent it by increasing your stability

[@styloxcrypto]

34:40 LOL

[@tylermitchell185]

I never thought of cheesing the Spanish civil war with tons of artillery: even though it ruins unit org the crappy Spanish civil war units would barely even de-org them anyway. If you manage to get air superiority, even better.

[@hatless_spider]

Precisely! And it's the cheapest way to win there xp wise since line artillery are only 5 xp each to add

[@Jtmac17]

in my playthrough the anarchists hold Zaragoza and the Carlist revolt does fire. Is there something else i need to do? I am past May 31st too. They held it for all of June too.

[@hatless_spider]

As long as the carlists are around a while, you can then send them volunteers to help them win

[@Jtmac17]

@@hatless_spider sorry i meant its May 31th and the Carlists never spawned so i had no volunteers to send to them. Not sure i I did anything wrong but the Nationalists dont hold Zaragoza

[@hatless_spider]

@Jim McNally ohh ok that makes more sense. If they didn't spawn with those conditions, I'm not sure why. I'd recommend trying again.

[@Akkeo0o]

If Portugal forms united kingdom of portugal and brazil. And cores their african colonies. U will get cores on brazil also

[@willg3717]

This guy really took Italy with 0 manpower 💀

[@44Tuckster]

is there a version of this video with all the footage? I am new to the game and can't beat Germany and idk where I am going wrong.

[@hatless_spider]

I don't currently have that. Might be an idea for me in the future to include more full playthroughs somewhere though!

[@beroa.5148]

whatever i feel like

[@aaaa9489]

shazam isnt helping me out here, 10 tries and no money song from 13:42 to 15:56?

[@user-lp1qz7gj6w]

thought ai would not run into sack pockets anymore

[@hatless_spider]

From what I could tell, if you allow them to take a supply hub, that really seems to encourage them to move in

[@user-lp1qz7gj6w]

@@hatless_spider ty controversial trick xD

[@mrgreenbean5933]

@3:00 he’s sitting on the PP 😅

[@AMooseAteIt]

At 15:30 what song is that?

[@scott3017]

Ok, I tried the template, and it did didly squat before the communists rose up.

[@akvon3904]

I have a huge problem, germany is not going though maginot, he picked up war goales, but hes not declaring. its 1942, i capped italy

[@hatless_spider]

It's a bit hard to say why that's happening without knowing more. Historical on or off? What happened with poland,?

[@akvon3904]

@@hatless_spider i played with historical. Germany destroyed poland. But only in 1941, and he manually justified on them, because war goal expired after poland refused to give danzig. I think in 1943 or 1944 Belguim, Netherlands joined allies. They joined the war but germany wasnt attacking.And later Germany declared war on Soviets, so i had to kill Germany, otherwise i would have no war score. Then i justified on Yugoslavia (They were in allies) and managed to form eu.

[@hatless_spider]

@@akvon3904 oh I think because danzig was refused that messed up the focus progression of germany

[@bruh-th5ft]

My units can't take Zaragoza and carlist can never uprise

[@hatless_spider]

Keep trying my friend! With this strat I've found you can overwhelm Zaragoza more often than not!

[@bruh-th5ft]

@@hatless_spider well i finally did it, but all colonies denied the french union🌛

[@hatless_spider]

@bruh bummer, well it's always a possibility, but more often than not you will get at least one colony to say yes

[@bruh-th5ft]

@@hatless_spider i guess i was unlucky, i then went to a mod that improved the french union focus, which in og very pooryly designed

[@nickmullenofficial6330]

Does this still work in Arms Against Tyranny?

[@hatless_spider]

I was actually just thinking today that I may have to rework the beginning strategy because now the first artillery to add costs 25 xp which will be really difficult to get before the spanish CW

[@megamorsa5753]

how did you annex Luxembourg, Belgium and The Netherlands?

[@hatless_spider]

We took it after germany had taken it, ehich then allows us to take it in the peace deal from germany as long as we don't join the allies or get military access to those nations

[@shauncrome7100]

how come you can take belgium and netherlands after the war? Arent they in UK's faction and thus a winner of the war?

[@hatless_spider]

We can take them because we were not in the Allies and did not get military access with belgium, luxembourg, or Netherlands

[@ADULFGETULER]

thx fo da gayd

[@stevenwarne69]

i like trains....

[@Nasqirelion]

I dont know but the ai is so incompetent that they never keep any of the provinces and the carlists never start. I tried so often what can i do?

[@hatless_spider]

Keep trying. Practice makes perfect. After taking Zaragoza or another city that is required, push against the other territories around the city to create a buffer zone

[@PhilipposACosta]

how to assure carlist spain?

[@hatless_spider]

You have to take and hold one of the required territories for Consolidate the north with your volunteers to the republicans Controls of Western Aragón (166) Controls of Navarra (172) Controls of Burgos (176) Controls of País Vasco (792) Controls of Asturias (790)

[@thomastime8511]

Anyone else see the accidentally garrison order in Tibet while in the spannish Civil war?

[@mgrg2579]

It wasn’t a mistake 😅 If you have a garrison order in a province your army can’t reach it does something, I can’t remember what exactly, but you can also fit 72 divisions under one general if you do that

[@ws5273]

You messed up with the guarantee since you lost 20% stability for not honoring it

[@libaedunto4875]

Declare war? Get croissan'd