World Conquest in December 1937 - Hoi4 Japan v1.12 Speedrun Explained

Hoi4 World Conquest Speedrun guide for a fast world conquest on Ironman! Version 1.12 is absolutely the best one for a one-tag world conquest in Hearts of Iron 4. I've played Japan this time, but might give it a go with other nations sometime as well. The run was recorded in v1.12.6, but I've tested the strat again prior to releasing the video in v.1.12.9 and it still works.
You don't need DLCs for this strategy, although they are pretty helpful. Only By Blood Alone is disadvantages, unless you play as Germany or Italy, because of Switzerland's neutrality national spirit. Germany and Italy get war goals on Switzerland through the focus tree, everyone else has to justify for at least 300 days, often way more. Doesn't really make sense, if you ask me, especially in scenarios where Switzerland is the only other nation left on the planet and neutrality is supposed to deter us from war. Weird.
Join my Discord: / discord
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Unedited run (4 hours and excruciatingly slow micro, be warned): • World Conquest in 1937...
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Reason for annexing France again quickly:
As soon as the French divisions engage in combat, France will gain lots of autonomy quickly. So much in fact that we cannot get them to zero autonomy through land-lease again, we just don't have enough equipment and convoys. If you now think: well, sooner or later we're going to have plenty more equipement, then you're right, but also very wrong. If we don't annex them before the end of the war with the Soviets, we're going to run into problems.
The new peace conference system is going to ruin your day, because in order to get a single conference with all participants, you'll need to call France into the war again every single time when a new hostile nation joins a faction. If you forget to call them even once or if France refuses to join, you're in deep trouble. You'll get messed up conferences with only a fraction of the participants due to multiple wars going on.
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If you're interested in speedrunning Hearts of Iron IV, make sure to read the general AND category rules before recording and submitting your run!
Leaderboards: www.speedrun.com/hoi4
Discord: / discord
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Music: All music used in this video is part of the official Hearts of Iron IV soundtrack.
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This speedrun has been in the making for roughly three years and has been adopted to various versions and changes of Hearts of Iron 4. It's currently working in all versions up until 1.12, but requires extra steps in version 1.11 and prior, because of the "Untouched Mechanic". Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the strategy over the years!

[@belfastplant1852]

Tojo's hitting himself repeatedly saying "WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT!?"

[@olivianatividad2201]

m3an: You were too focused on China and too scared of Russia, overestimating her (The Soviet Union) to do anything like what I did.

[@TovarishAlexey]

​@@olivianatividad2201А вы, американцы, по всей видимости нас сильно недооцениваете, тем более, что это просто компьютерная игра

[@IndependentRussian]

@@TovarishAlexeyАмериканцы нас переоценили на «Киев за 3 дня», когда у нас на тв говорили за «Украина за 2 дня» И что в итоге? Третий год с захватами средними по размерам н.п. раз в 200+ дней Недооценили, ничего не скажешь)

[@TovarishAlexey]

@@IndependentRussian Добровольцы НАТО и их техника значительно замедлили, а затем остановили наступление, при том что украинское тв пыталось утешить население ложью о сплошных победах на фронте, да они даже с натовскими войсками не могут пойти в контрнаступление!

[@vankristlabs]

​@TovarishAlexey Whoa, careful Ivan! That gun is pointed at your foot! Yesterday Chechnya, today Ukraine. How humiliating.

[@jialuocheng6576]

Bro knows the method

[@user-ee5oo7xx7o]

No cap

[@cooperestrade5278]

Ong

[@RF_N]

Fr

[@hhj858]

No way he knows the method

[@krisblack4260]

That's sick

[@soluuution8721]

Imagine being Germany in 1936 seeing Japan already at your borders

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

Mein Fuhrer Japanese high command sent us a message. Surrender or be obliterated!

[@hatless_spider]

Well done as always! So impressive how much work goes into these!

[@m3an]

Thank you =) I hope I didn't interrupt the flow of the video too often, but I just had to get all those explanations out instead of just presenting the result.

[@hatless_spider]

@m3an I always have the same problem. Have to keep it brief to stay engaging, but also it's a complicated strategy so it needs good explanation

[@ArchAngelOfficialCh]

Dang, 1937 is crazy. Best I got was 44 bc South America took way too long. I could get Allies and Europe by 40. Great video. The French paradrop made my jaw drop and the Italian 66 was fantastic. I though we were stuck with invading Britain through the Spanish civil war. The Russian war to get the justification time down is brilliant. Side note the Chinese Warlords can be grouped into the Allies war to get them out earlier. The key is not getting Co-prosperity sphere before you add them or they join the United front instead. And if it’s an issue you can leave the entire eastern German front open so they spend troops trying to take your Russian territory leaving a very stretched German line.

[@m3an]

Thank you! Messing with the warlords during the Allies is a lot of fun indeed. I didn't include the Chinese warlords in that war, since it requires additional manual justifications. Having the CUF formed means I can get them all with a single justification.

[@joegerhardusa9017]

What is heavy infantry?

[@m3an]

@@joegerhardusa9017 It's the 24w inf template that Japan starts with. "Heavy Infantry" is probably the wrong word for it, but I didn't want to say "the 24 width infantry template" all the time :D

[@Anolaana]

Interestingly the new Russian strat video m3an posted relies on the Warlords not forming Unified China, in order for them to capitulate with Britain! :D

[@Simon_the_penguin]

Y’all r taking over the world?

[@jure.]

When I clicked on this I expected a timelapse of some sweaty HOI4 gameplay. Hearing a whole story, explanations, notes and awesome and helpful graphics really made me enjoy this video. Thanks!

[@m3an]

Thank you! And you make a good point. I maybe should try to distinguish the thumbnails more. How about I add "Explained" to the thumbnail titles, what do you think?

[@jure.]

@@m3an I think that'd be great! The viewer will know exactly what to expect plus it can expanded to add potential mod names into the thumbnail!

[@savvyartifact8947]

I love the duality of hoi4 players. I play with the expanded tech tree mod and love the idea of a cold war type slow buildup so I usually play into the late 50's or even mid 60's (though I have had games last into the mid to late 70's because I hate my cpu) vs players like you my friend who manage to conquer ever nation on the planet before I usually even start building mil's. well done my friend

[@Invai62]

How long does this Cold War type campaign last?

[@savvyartifact8947]

@Opinionater usually atleast until 1960 but by then I've conquered most of the planet and cored most of what I have so it just goes until I get bored and then the final war usually looks like Mike Tyson squaring off against a middle schooler. My last playthrough was like 20 mil casualties to 1 mil on my part

[@chungus816]

Late game wars can be fun due to the insane casualties

[@danubeisreallypeculiarrive7944]

​@@chungus816I mean. Spamming nukes on insane allied stacks is fun I guess. To this I wonder why those 40 divisions from El Salvador were at the European front.

[@m3an]

Corrections: 4:30 the army spirit "State serves the Military" provides 10% political power gain, not Army XP gain. 7:50 the Soviets aren't included in the 25 nation bundle, but in the 115 days of build-up. 23:13 Japan starts with Grand Battle Plan, not Mass Assault Thanks guys for pointing these out, especially @sejozwak If you find more, please comment here!

[@sejozwak]

Damn im so fat im referred to in plural

[@emrecakar5732]

Hi, when I tried this, I saw that I can't have 8 paratroopers.I think you need more troops for this.Please tell me if i'm wrong.

[@m3an]

@@emrecakar5732 Swapping to SF templates is bugged at the moment. Switch them to smth else first, like Motorized, and than to paratroopers immediately after. That should fix it.

[@emrecakar5732]

@@m3an Thx I came to delete the comment after seeing it in another video of yours. xD

[@grunklestanlee2774]

this is absolutely insane ive known about taking all of europe in 1936 but i never considered taking it further also the order 66 trick will prove to be super useful in future games i think

[@johnkai3359]

basically invade Italy or Low Countries (oil and rubber) to start every game

[@hemlockwaterdropwortchanne3896]

The "faction ruleset" graphic at 10:51 is helpful, but the ideology associated colors are a little hard to see. I think a helpful improvement would be to have the flags flying outward, so that the color is more visible.

[@bopsop2246]

or just use the base game icon for each ideology

[@kvlt1349]

Amazing run and well detailed explanations! This is true skill right here. Can't wait for the optimized Italy 18 month run ;p

[@synthelione3714]

Love the way the info is presented. Succinct and eye-catching, it must have taken alot of effort to make them.

[@m3an]

Glad you enjoyed it! And yes, it took more time than I care to admit, but that's mostly because I'm still new to editing.

[@grandly2214]

This was actually way more interesting than I expected, I loved the way you explained all the strats.

[@Arexsis]

Honestly, you could take another 20 minutes just explaining things to me and I would love it - your videos are never too long. Thanks for the great visuals and explanations

[@yac7571]

I've watched this like 10 times now, amazing work! Thanks for sharing this with us!

[@m3an]

Thank you! Happy to read that you enjoyed it!

[@carltonleboss]

Wow! This was really well explained. Good video, my dude.

[@Magier2010]

Congrats on the run! The Voiceover and gameplay is amazing as always.

[@pinkedduck49]

great video, i love the format of these. could watch them all day

[@normalermann1623]

To be ownest, i was a little bored when you first justifayed against Italy with abuse and then France, as this is the ultimate standard tactik. But then you showed the new systems with faction members etc and i was really impressed. Video well done, intelligent humour, love for details ❤

[@DirkusTurkess]

Nicely done. I really liked the pop up info-graphics and pointers.

[@fredericchopin4821]

Great content as always, thank you, m3an!

[@ListogreOfficial]

Amazing WC, and thanks for the detailed explanation for every step.

[@m3an]

Thank you! I hope it ended up comprehensible. I've got a heavy case of tunnel vision and don't know anymore :D

[@KingRastaj]

Dude conquered 75% of the world before Germany did Anschluss.

[@UM96lol]

Great work with the narration and editing, you've got me hooked on your content!

[@dudu8la162]

You deserve MUCH MORE subs man great quality content keep it up and you WILL get far

[@bavo981]

I was planning on having this run in the background as I did something else but MAN! The effort! I love this. Watching through it and actually paying attention! 😂 I haven't subbed to many people in the past but shit you are worth it if this is the kind of video one can expect of you.

[@m3an]

Glad that I was able to get your attention and keep you entertained =) Welcome aboard!

[@Watto69]

Dude your voice is awesome and you explain so well and thorough. Great vid

[@generatorzabawy9156]

idk why but your voice is weirdly calming. I enjoyed the video, keep up the good work

[@endzor]

that's a giant work, keep doing what you doing

[@Redcoat3]

I think Ethiopia automatically gets Italy’s equipment after it capitulates considering the recent updates centred on it.

[@kyonsou3621]

You deserve more subs for the work u put in

[@yuritiger99]

Holy shit. Amazing video, just found out about this channel. Loved all the information and explanations throughout the video.

[@Darik_ioi]

Incredibly well done Video!

[@playingcasually]

Great explanations and pacing, thank you

[@notlucas6859]

the visuals are indeed helpful and i love em

[@benji.3002]

Brilliant vid as always 👏

[@dahakaprod6519]

Incredible run, well done!

[@bubblebum7860]

great content as always!

[@likeset]

Well done as always!

[@toastingtoast161]

the visuals are very good and helpful 👍

[@jovan93bl]

Just wow dud, love this video!

[@davidgibson8647]

I didn’t even know that this was an option! Amazing video

[@jackedwards8183]

New to Hoi4 but this is my favourite channel by far

[@plebisMaximus]

The new changes removing tedium and increasing the skill ceiling is awesome, looking forward to seeing every other run you can push to new limits.

[@epiclighthd7655]

Paradox doesnt know their game so the skill ceiling is actually not increased at all, just a few designs you need to learn. Im more of a MP player and dont care about speedruns and SP tbf but ultimately, in the mp community people have the best designs for stats and there are usually no real alternatives to certain designs

[@plebisMaximus]

@@epiclighthd7655 I wasn't talking about MP, I was referring specifically to speedruns, where the skill ceiling is absolutely increased by making wars faster, since you get less time to juggle with all the shit you gotta do. The MP meta isn't the single and only thing that matters in this game, there's a lot of different ways to play it.

[@hoi4enjoyer284]

Very nice speedrun, hope you’ll gest more views!

[@m3an]

Thank you!

[@ClaudeSpeede]

Good edit!

[@derAlphabet]

It's quite interesting to follow your reasoning. Congratulations!

[@m3an]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it =)

[@EBAiguess]

Great Job!

[@danielmoran3578]

Ur criminally undersubbed bro! Good content! ❤

[@m3an]

Thank you =)

[@TaleNodati]

Just found you on YT. Wonderful explanation! Detailed enough en not boring for people in the know., but that aren't up to date with the speed running strats.

[@m3an]

Thank you! Glad you enjoy it and welcome aboard =)

[@Stouzough]

Amazing. Nice tips!

[@pedromendes5022]

I just started playing HoI4 (I have 3h of playtime) and I didn't understand much of the decisions/movements/clicks/etc, but this was highly entertaining, saw the whole thing!

[@inwector]

Congratulations for sub-1938 world conquest, great strategy with italy and france at the start, it's usually the trickiest part.

[@MariuszWojcik-rw7ub]

Great job done. It tooks me days with micromanagement to do world conquest and I did not know the tricks with Russia and did not make 66 with italy so I finished in 38. I'm impressed by the "exploits" and rational justification of your choices.

[@m3an]

Thank you! And '38 World Conquest is awesome! I really enjoyed all your comments. It's part of the reason why I make videos in the first place: I want to improve!

[@MariuszWojcik-rw7ub]

​@@m3an You showed many things that I had no idea about. I'm really impressed. It is hard to add anything that you did not mentioned. I do not know if you showed in other videos but if you find it usable you may consider: 1. Using 1 battalion truck units in order to run into soviets fast. When the oil ends up, you may convert them into 1 battalion cavallary. I did many times use it from Iran territory through Kazahstan or via naval invasion in Donbas area. 10 fighters are enough in Kazakhstan region to have aerial superiority and some transport to open soviet soft belly. Soviet AI will relocate and starve soviets units in Asia while making western border even thinner. 2. Attacking USA from Bahamas is great but the walk though USA to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego takes time. You may consider additional naval invasion in Texas with 2/3 1batatiln trucks. In order to capitulate USA faster you may consider naval invasion on Panama and then next hop from Panama to San Francisco and other ports on western coast with high VP. This was faster than going down from Vancouver along coast or going from Texas. 1 batalion truks in USA really do the Blizkrieg. 3. In the past there was an event that Mexico was joining allies but it was rare event as you had to have over 40 submarines in the Mexico gulf and unrestricted submarine war - saved 25 days 4. There was as well nasty trick to circle Moscow or other capital with paradrops and cut off supply. 5. As Japan I used Ethiopia to station some units which were then used to go to Madagascar and do naval invasion on South Africa faster. The same was with tiny island of Saint Piere and Miquelon (just under Newfundland). Naval invasion of 1 batalion on Summerside island guaranted Canada surrender. 6. As Japan you may plan some small 1 unit invasion from Rabaul on New Zeeland and Australia (e.g. port Moresby) or Singapore and India. The unit will be probably lost but it was required to have them into the conference faster. 7. While attacking Netherlands I waited until Indonesia joins and then did one naval invasion to have it as a puppet in order to have 1M manpower. 8. In order to save justification time as a Germany I invited all fascist countries in America to faction then make them join war (they will do so if you attack usa and cuba, panama, Brasil and some other in middle or south America) and then kick them out of the faction. As they were at war they usually quickly joined Japan and there was 4 countries less to justify against when you justify on Japan later. 9. I did parallel justification. 1st justification on neutral country -25 days and in the same time justification on major country at war with somebody else (Japan, china, Italy, Russia, usually 10 days but if a second county than it was 20 but it was a second parallel justification to the 25 days of neutral one). 10. I did grab some land from Sweden as a major but left some major provinces. Sweden was still fraction leader and guaranteed other countries while being easy picking. 11. Forcing allied nations (not participating in the war) to transfer you equipment via lend lease by creating artificial deficit of trucks, planes, tanks, guns, infantry equipment etc. You may create big deficit by creating new division with lowest priority then ask for lend lease while beeing at war and then erase them when lend lease is delivered. It is time consuming but as you may see storages of your allied nations or your subjects you may grab majority of their surplus equipment.

[@m3an]

@Mariusz Wojcik Wow! Many great points that you make. Thank you! I'll save those and see if I can use them in my Italy WC run. I'm busy with my kids today, but will reply again this evening to give some feedback on all the points you listed. Really great stuff!

[@MariuszWojcik-rw7ub]

I know that is micro management (i like it) and I do not know if it still working with new patches but in the past: 1. In order to speed up paradrops I splitted paradrops into separate airfields with 1 transport plane each. Then plan separate paradrops from each airfields in the same time. It helped me with paradrops on France or England as Germany or Japan when a air superiority time window is very short. 2. I trained air force in order to have better air superiority in early war period. In order not to lose many planes I split air division into multiple 2-3 planes divisions and then train them all. Barely no planes were lost. 3. In order to pump army in the field I trained 1 battalion infantry units then send them in various distant location while converting them into regular ones. 4. As Germany I sent lend lease to commies (or sending them as well expedition forces - it worked on at the tiny timeslot when Spanish civil work start) thus making nationalist suffers it push them to join Germany faction then joining the war on nationalist side but not support them at all. As doing so the commies were joining allies. With allies, commies overrun Spanish nationalist and finished civil war, then disbanding some units while being in war with Germany as being allied. Then finishing allies allowed to take whole Spain without justifying. 5. I did train navy in order to have more experienced ships and smaller population losses and gain naval XP. Some minmax which do not speed up word conquest but might be interesting. 6. In order to safe partially constructed ships for “future better times” and not delete them I trained navy in area where there was attrition or naval accidents. Giving them 1 shipyard each and making a large unfilled production line above you may transfer shipyards from these 1 shipyard’s ships queues into desired ones (submarine or transport) without deleting the queues that may be completed later (I like ships 😊 and do not like wasting ship hulls already constructed). You can do it by starting repairing and stopping and restarting repair of any damaged ship. 7. It was a real challenge to combat both German and Russian socialist terror states in the same time while keeping allied human losses as low as possible. Allied may beat both German and Soviet after fighting each other -As Allied it was good to do the early naval invasion in Libya at the back of the Italian forces and cut them out of the supply. It worked not as well as in real WWII British operation Compass where British captured 130k Italians POW with 30k own forces loosing only 500 men and was probably the best blitzkrieg in WWII but brilliant O’Connor is rather unknown general. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGiUnJeen5dqqM0 After securing Libya it is good to allow Italians keep ports on Indian ocean in Somalia while having long border in Ethiopia. Germany and Italy will send land units around the Spain and Africa by sea thus allowing allies to sunk hundreds of ships with transported units and equipment close to Spain and Morroco. Some recon planes in Gibraltar on at saint Helen as well Cape town are helpful. Allies may sunk hundreds of thousands of Germany and Italy infantry without combatting them on land and without suffering any losses (except some submarines). As in the reality soviets were ally of their German socialist brothers in 39-41 I treat them as enemies of the West and bleed before German attack. As allied I did guarantee Finland in order to grab Murmansk and allow commies to starve to death their own units trying to take it back while cutting their supply lines and making them to attack on icy low infrastructure areas.

[@MaslAlek]

This channel is awesome.

[@nightmaerae]

Incredible video as always, could you do a British world conquest next? Haven't many up-to-date guides for the 'One Empire' achievement

[@james2529]

Amazing. Well done.

[@kursuk00]

when i declare on albania all my division teleport to tokyo

[@TKnightcrawler]

Wow, that's really impressive. :)

[@sejozwak]

Good job

[@andromidius]

Speedruns like this prove a point so many people deny even now - the AI blatantly cheats by creating divisions out of thin air.

[@alonzoharris5040]

great video, well done!!! I've been trying to do the same thing as you for a few days now, but the air superiority in France means I have to do it again and again, it's a pain in the arse!

[@m3an]

Good luck! Are you reloading or starting from scratch each time?

[@alonzoharris5040]

@@m3an Thank you very much, and thank you for your reply. I'm starting from scratch each time, and France beats me every time! I don't think I should put planes in Italy, just transport planes.

[@m3an]

@@alonzoharris5040 That is indeed correct. If you put any other planes on the region you aim to drop into, the AI will counter asap.

[@alonzoharris5040]

THANK YOU😇@@m3an

[@Toastedguyig]

I love how at the start of all these videos you can see s9me of his past attempts

[@user-my6vm9bb1x]

For God's sake, you are a mad man! I love it

[@NerfyF]

amazing think youd be up for doing a UK conquest speedrun? could be interesting with their focus tree!

[@m3an]

It's absolutely on my list, but I've set myself some additional goals for it. So you might need to wait a couple of weeks until it's ready.

[@user-gv9dg4ni5g]

Excellent

[@Stoikor]

Such a good and informative video at the same time, and the way you present info is superb m8

[@m3an]

Much appreciated!

[@joshuaosborne9203]

Impressive, most impressive.

[@pgnC100]

Re: the equipment seizure - I guess Cosa nostra made Hirohito an offer he couldn't refuse...

[@orrorsaness5942]

Lol 😆

[@hyperion3135]

This guy is madly underrated

[@shinyaltaria1388]

Ahh, yes HOI4, the historical WW2 war game where you can commit world conquest in just under 2 years with a month of leeway

[@runekul123]

well done

[@salzmann4207]

Most underrated hoi4 channel

[@felixperret4939]

Wow bravo!

[@charleslynch340]

POV: Tojo doesn't want to be slapped on the head

[@FxTR22]

amazing

[@yanshi4807]

I thank KZbin for showing this to me

[@lort_z]

Omg you are the best

[@johnkai3359]

Magnificent accomplishment. Making all the others look silly

[@NeonNion]

That's just crazy!

[@asmraxel9060]

Nice amazing

[@michaelf7093]

Magnificent

[@timbizi3519]

I can't think of anything else to say than... HOLY SHIT what a video

[@m3an]

Thank you!

[@abelmartos3554]

Brother I would love to see you playing as Spain! Especially the anarchists, they're my favorites but I always loose the war hahahah

[@ADULFGETULER]

Awesome

[@f.f.7013]

so cool

[@KeiorSoul]

the beast

[@dominikthemachine2560]

Very interesst video. I liked it. 😀😅😝

[@manjitahzan9577]

Wow, I'm speechless...

[@nandapratamanorrochim]

Gila, Super Crazy

[@markcostello5120]

16:38 Ah to be in the Fuhrer bunker when the Fuhrer receives news that Japan has annexed half the World.

[@xXxMonkeyBoomxXx]

My man, great job as ever, but please update you Holy Roman Empire speedrun, that doesnt work anymore with new system of justification of war.

[@kopazwashere]

Very Interesting. I am speedrunning in 1.6.2 because of mutual research exploit, but I might switch to 1.12 after paradox turned this mechanic off. I normally have to rely on RNG on canada sending division to generate warscore, or send troops to canada as germany (as japan, I would war-dec on philipines to invade US through alaska and west coast)

[@Mosesthegreatdude]

This is really cool. Are there any good resources to help learn to micro front lines that anyone would recommend?

[@Coecoo]

7 years after the games' release, Paradox still haven't fixed the AI's incapability to deal with naval landings or paratroopers but instead they spent god knows how many man hours and effort making the whole bureaucratic declare war system nonsense as convoluted as possible.

[@hodajucidjedtv]

Clicked on this as background noise , 36:59min later i forgot what I was doing lol

[@Perseagatuna]

10:46 the visuals were good and very helpful but you should make the colors bigger and more visible, it's hard to see on mobile

[@j.r.i.d.1805]

this video is way too good for just 8300 people to enjoy

[@erthicc3002]

Nice

[@betmole]

Llevo jugados más de 500 horas en modo principiante y nunca he ganado ni una partida, siempre me quedo estancado borró mi partida . Buen video