okay. so, super quick guide. here we go fundamentally, hoi4 is a game about simulating land combat operations. wars are won and lost on the ground. so, we'll work backwards from "how do you win a land war"

the simple version is: you need a lot of infantry to hold the front line, and a few tank divisions to attack, encircle, and destroy the enemy. infantry can range from 10 to 18 infantry battalions plus support companies. 10 defends better but takes higher casualties; 18 attacks/sustains better.

Regarding size of divisions, the calls are complex and change with every major patch to game There’s a reason they call it “Spreadsheets of Iron” www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/s/bGZ...

yeah there are a lot of complications i am skipping over here

tank divisions you want something like 8 tank battalions (i prefer medium tanks) and 6 motorized or preferably mechanized battalions, plus support companies. these will be faster, harder-hitting, better armored. they are for attacking.

winning the war on the ground though requires winning the war in the air. mostly you want single-engine CAS (max ground attack) and single-engine fighters (max HMGs). these give huge bonuses to your troops and maluses to enemy troops. [whispering] you can always have more CAS

for some nations, *delivering* any of this requires a navy. sadly, the easiest navy remains just spamming subs with as low visibility as you can manage (possibly also naval bombers). there's a lot more complications here but imma skip this part for now

okay. so that's the army you want to have. getting that requires manpower and industry. industry comes from military factories; military factories come from civilian factories. for most big countries you can skip building civs and just spam mils

getting mils and civs also comes from the focus tree / decisions and the politics stuff more generally. this part removes debuffs / gives you buffs to industry (and other stuff), gets more resources, etc etc. this can be very important for expanding your industrial base.

research is obviously also important. you need to research the army you want to have. but you should always always keep up with the industrial and engineering tech as your foundation, whatever else you're researching

questions?

Good run! Genuinely I think there needs to be more railroading to force the winner of equstria and griffonian to come to blows, its a fun clash of the titans situation. I do hope the zebra guys get a continental unifier that can oppose the major factions of the other continents.

shit realized i meant to say "5 to 18 battalions." hadn't had my coffee yet and got my combat widths crosswired with my battalion counts bsky.app/profile/sjsh...

Thank you!!! I might give it a go tonight, any particular nation/focus you recommend for learning the ropes?