How the FUCK do you play this game? I've played Hearts 2 years ago in high school and it didn't feel as absolutely daunting as this one. I'm playing as Spain during the revolution (which just might be a hard campaign) and everything ends up as a stalemate with the fascists until I run out of supplies.
Setting up AI attacks seems goofy and difficult. Is there a better way to organize/run armies? Do I have to babysit certain battalions/armies to sit and wait until they're organized and the pincer enemy positions? Like I said, Hearts 2 seemed really straightforward and I never really had issues defeating like, the fucking Nazi's in Stalingrad or killing Argentina as Brazil.
The game starts in 1936, so no Russian civil war. When the Spanish Civil War breaks out, Spain becomes instantly divided between Franco's Spain and Republican Spain. In one of the DLC's, which I don't have so I don't know much about this, at some point during the war the anarchists spawn in Catalonia as a 3rd faction in the war and I believe they start at war with both sides. I'm not too sure but I think Franco can fuck up and spawn a 4th faction which is Monarchist. I'm not too sure about that one, that might be a mod. But yeah, the political system in paradox games is grossly simplistic at best and extremely politically illiterate at worst.
I will add that there may be mods that cover at least some of that stuff. The modding scene really saves this game, as the base game feels kinda barren at times.
Technically the francoist splits between the fascist junta and the catholic fundies with the monarchy taking a step back to support whoever wins the split.
It's honestly hilarious watching Spain turn into an honest-to-god cluster fuck 4-way war with all of the mapgore that happens as a result of one of the sides splitting from each other.
I've only ever seen playthroughs of the Kaiserreich mod so I forgot that the base game has little of the internal political fights featured prominently in the CSA campaign. I was under the impression that even Kaiserreich was overly simplistic and bare-bones w.r.t. the politics ("totalism" is a made-up ideology that folds together "authoritarian" Leninist tendencies and quasi-Strasserism, it's fucking bullshit).
Haha if that's where you're coming from then yeah vanilla HoI4, or even with all the DLC's, is an extremely incomplete game compared to the big mods like KR. The only mod you'll find in depth political simulation in would be The New Order: Last Days of Europe. A lot of countries in that have their own unique internal political mechanics and warring internal factions, stuff like that.
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Yeah I've got the expansion where the Spanish civil war is pretty fleshed out. You have to make concessions to the left while jailing political leaders/fascists generals to delay the civil war from happening. It's pretty great, but super hard. I like it but I suck at the game.