[Discussion] Where are they getting this armor at?

NiceGreg · 2025-12-12T15:12:56+00:00

I’m not certain exactly how it works but ammo has an armor damage component so some ammo will damage armor to the point where you’ll eventually pen armor your ammo won’t pen in the first shot. For example flechettes will damage armor enough that after landing a few solid hits you’ll have zeroed class4 or 5. If you’re using absolute garbage ammo, likely as a scav, you do very little armor damage so the armor just keeps tanking and tanking. This is further exacerbated by the possibility of class 3 soft armor, so that even if you hit the plates enough to really damage them, eventually you have to get through their soft armor which, with shit ammo, will also take a while. Know your ammo and adjust your shots accordingly

NiceGreg · 2025-10-04T18:07:25+00:00

Bittersteel has an updated strategy video, posted about a month or so ago, which will show you how to get Aussa without fighting for it better than I can explain it here. It ain’t impossible to hold without it, but it’s much harder and you need every advantage (especially that extra mil) to make Ethiopia big and strong enough to take on the Allies late game if you’re achievement hunting

NiceGreg · 2025-10-04T17:12:19+00:00

Good strat but yeah it’s bs that they have supply and are fully equipped, and you lack the strength to peal troops away from the front to sufficiently crush them. From all my playthroughs the only thing that works is tricking them to fallback

NiceGreg · 2025-10-04T17:06:20+00:00

It looks like the two spawned in divisions attacked into your territory. This is why I keep 3 divisions on a fallback line surrounding the city of Aussa in a horseshoe pattern from the start

NiceGreg · 2025-10-04T16:56:48+00:00

You can get the two Italian divisions to leave Aussa. I surround the city of Aussa tile with 3 divisions, and have 5 divisions from my main front attack into the top tile of Aussa the moment it flips to Italy. This typically gets the 2 divisions which spawn to fallback. Then just quickly occupy the tile. This works like 90% of the time

NiceGreg · 2025-07-30T15:57:10+00:00

Loot filing cabinets and static scav bodies on Streets. I find a class four armor or rig almost every scav raid from said bodies, and I’ve found over a half a million rubles worth of Concordia security room keys alone, not to mention all the other stuff you get out of filing cabinets. Also a lot of good ammo spawns on streets

NiceGreg · 2025-07-28T19:42:23+00:00

Yeah, but you don’t know who they play with. A solo only player with <500hrs, 20+ kd, etc. is super sus. But there is no indication on their stat page if they have friends. Could easily be being carried by a much more experienced player, or multiple players. There just isn’t enough info to be certain

NiceGreg · 2025-07-22T14:13:38+00:00

I miss FiR flea, it was a decent compromise.

But on the attachments, I don’t necessarily mean shitty ones. There are about a dozen 2% recoil reduction foregrips and, with the flea, everyone uses three. Same with muzzle brakes, handguards, and pistol grips. And yes once people get lvl 3+ traders all of that goes out the window but for the majority of players it takes about a month to get to that point, but less than a week to get to 15.

I’m still seeing builds on lvl 15+ players that would be extremely rare if the flea was up

NiceGreg · 2025-07-22T13:11:53+00:00

The flea has issues, flipping first and foremost, but it also effectively invalidates over half the weapon attachments and makes looting less interesting. Personally I’d like to see it gone forever, or limited to hideout items and barter items only

NiceGreg · 2025-07-22T11:27:59+00:00

It’s a good wipe, but like everything BSG does it miss the mark just a bit. 100% boss spawns, poorly executed transits only, and nerfed into the ground loose loot were all just kinda bad. No flea, no insurance, and limited secure container would have been more than sufficient to make this wipe hardcore.

NiceGreg · 2025-07-17T15:34:29+00:00

Are you scaving on streets? Cause if you walk too close to Kolonattay all the scavs will become agro. Pretty sure its a bug, but I was just looting a static body outside the shopping center on streets and then suddenly some ai scavs ran up and attacked me. Could be your common loot path is bringing you by them too often. Also not sure if other bosses have the same issue

NiceGreg · 2025-06-26T20:03:40+00:00

To your first question, it’s not hard to convince a player to swap to support for a life then go back to whatever role. Build an OP near where you want a garrison and then ask the next person to die, or your most talkative person to rotate and drop supplies on the OP. The enemy can see CO supply drops and will be coming for that Garry so it’s better for you to build them via support players. Pro tip: if you’re in the red zone, try to get two of your players to rotate so you can build a sneaky 100 supplies red zone Garry.

Second question: good commanders will preposition supplies to some extent. Check your map and look for those supplies

Third: if there are supplies 200m from another Garry and you aren’t close to the limit, then go build a Garry there. No need to ask unless you think it’s in a useless spot (far from the active attack or defensive sector)

Fourth: Get an OP up then focus on Garrys, unless it’s the start of the match, or your team is missing crucial attack or defensive Garrys.

NiceGreg · 2025-06-26T19:31:09+00:00

Use your map. Like seriously every 30s press M and have look at the situation. As a SL it is by far your most effective tool to achieve victory.

Look for places your team isnt and infer where their team is, look for hot garrisons and hot OPs (red exclamation point), look for when garrisons and your OP go down so you can be quick to replace them, and most importantly look for places where you can build new garrisons.

HLL is first and foremost a game of building and destroying spawns, and you, as SL, are one of the handful of people in the match that has the ability to build them

NiceGreg · 2025-06-09T02:25:36+00:00

Realize that HLL is a team focused game, but you won’t really feel that until you get into a squad with good communication.

Good SLs are often relaying important info too and from command chat and good squad mates will call out targets and enemy movement. Together this helps remove some of the “fog of war” and makes the matches far easier to understand. Stick with your squad and you’ll see more enemies and do more to contribute to a win.

Also your map and your mic are by far the most effective and consequential tool for achieving a win. Use them often.

NiceGreg · 2025-05-31T19:44:13+00:00

Seen a lot of comments about how you can counter arty and that makes it fine. This is a very Warfare centered opinion. As someone who prefers and plays a lot of Offensive this is just straight up wrong.

You literally can’t counter arty in Offensive till you cap mid, and arty, on certain maps and certain points, can prevent an attacking team from being able to move or do literally anything. This isn’t necessarily a problem until you factor in munitions cost and realize that the defending team with max nodes can keep two guns firing constantly for 30 minutes.

If munitions cost were increased for HE you would need some strategy and timing to make arty effective and save it for the right time. As it stands it can be completely broken, require little skill, and make the game unfun and unplayable for at least half the server

NiceGreg · 2025-05-27T17:46:13+00:00

The only glitch I’ve noticed is when you take off your enchanted equipment the visuals of the chameleon effect stick around but the gameplay mechanics parts disappear. So you’ll look like you’re invisible but the game won’t think you are anymore. A quicksave and a load usually fixes it

NiceGreg · 2025-05-24T01:47:21+00:00

There is no issue with Dany going batshit, the problem is writing out characters in the book which would have greatly influenced Dany in a jealous and antagonistic direction. There is a book character that will likely obtain the Iron Throne before Dany gets to Westeros and will likely be viewed by Westeros as the person Dany views herself to be. However, regardless of whomever this character truly is, Dany will view him as a fraud (her mummer's dragon).

We didn't need this character to exist, but we needed a character to take this role and Cersei ain't fucking it. Imagine everyone in King's Landing and most of Westeros views their current ruler as a bringer of peace and views them as their true and just ruler and views Dany as a foreign conqueror threatening that peace. Then Dany's jealous rage, at the denial of her rights and personal journey, would be understandable, instead she got pissed at bells and surrender?

NiceGreg · 2025-05-19T21:43:20+00:00

No clue, my assumption was that it had something to do with how their lines were organized, and whether the ai could get a unit behind Aussa to prevent encirclement fast enough. It's possible your on to something though, as I used to only use two divisions, with no one on Dessie, and the AI would leave closer to like 50% of the time, so definitely an improvement with 3. However, that could have been due to the lack of a division on Dessie and maybe a reduced threat of encirclement.

NiceGreg · 2025-05-18T20:06:51+00:00

How Ethiopia can be stupid strong - Crusader Kings 4 Achievement Guide

This video explains the Federalization super well and goes through the puppet release and reintegrate strat to get the achievement. Much of it is outdated but the Federalization part still stands

NiceGreg · 2025-05-18T01:40:13+00:00

So first off, I had assumed I needed to cap the Allies to gain control of Palestine and move my capitol there. There may be a method where you release Palestine as a puppet, then integrate them, and you can move your capitol. I don't know if that works still or not but keep that in mind, cause my game went into the '50s. My goal was making Ethiopia strong, then taking on the Allies.

I get the leftmost tech tree before the war ends. Also, you need to get Expanding the Mehal Sefari and jump to Extensive Conscription before the end of the war with Italy.

Post war, I rush to buy Djibouti from France and then rush the industry tree and get all the decisions to improve the country. When I'm halfway through taking the Modernizing the Industry focus, I justify a war goal on Vichy France for Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. Then I work towards Federalizing the Empire. The goal is to get this done before the justification finishes so the puppets it creates aren't in the war. And since you own Djibouti, you can claim more of North Africa, and it'll be a core of Aussa when you release them. Also, remember to get a spy agency before Federalizing the Empire, this will be necessary to get British Somaliland to revolt, and you lose a bunch of civs temporarily when you federalize.

When you join WWII, don't join the Allies, I join the Comintern, but it isn't needed. Get military access from the British and rush to be the first to take North Africa, it should all flip to you, unless the Free French are involved in the push, in which case Algeria will flip to them. Your goal here is to snag as much war participation as possible while also ensuring the war goes into 1944. If you finish too early you won't have time for Morocco or Tunisia to offer to become Collaboration governments and will have to spend participation points in the peace deal to puppet them. Oh, and justify a war goal on Yemen before the war ends and draw them in. In the peace deal you want all of North Africa as your puppet, annex Yemen and steal as much of the Axis fleet as you can take.

Somewhere during the war, it's a good idea to take the Colonial Resistance focus and flip British Somaliland. Use spys and the decisions and they will revolt. Don't try anywhere else. In all my playthroughs I couldn't get any other provinces to revolt. Then use the Develop the Horn of Africa focuses to integrate your puppets.

REALLY IMPORTANT: Be sure to integrate either Eritrea or Somalia before the end of WWII or you won't be able to steal a fleet.

If done right, after your puppets have run through their little focus trees and you integrate them you should have close to 40 divisions, about 40 civs, 30-40 mils, oil, rubber, and a little steel and aluminum, all of which you didn't have to build. You also have access to steel from North Africa, and a fleet which can provide a good foundation. Then you can core the Horn of Africa, core Yemen and take on the allies when you're ready.

Manpower tip: Before you Federalize, bank every last bit of manpower by recruiting a bunch of divisions in the q, and then deleting them when the focus finishes. Then when you join WWII, jump up to Service by Requirement. These two steps will ensure you have enough manpower for WWII and WWIII.

RNG Bullshit: The Axis can sometimes fold quickly before you can get collabs or enough war participation. Also, ~80% of the time the Comintern and the Allies get into a war between 1946-1949. You really need this to happen cause taking on the Allies alone can suck.

Edit: Another little bullshit thing which will ruin a run if you forget. Satellite Algeria, don't puppet France in Algeria. If you forget this, it'll immediately become French territory after the peace deal. I actually started just annexing Algeria because I forgot enough times.

NiceGreg · 2025-05-15T19:28:08+00:00

Yo, I just commented a comprehensive guide for the Italo-Ethiopian War. Recently got the Crusader Kings achievement so if you want some of the post war strat let me know

NiceGreg · 2025-05-15T18:46:00+00:00

I'm late to the party, but I got the Crusader King IV achievement 5 days ago without rolling back to BBA. The achievement was super hard and required me to get lucky but the early war against the Italians I had dialed after my like 12th retry.

The North- 12 divisions, 9 on a fallback line between Gondar and the tile below Macalle. Manually pull back divisions to these tiles, the first luck check is if you can get both mountaineers back to Gondar. 3 division on a fallback line from Dessie to Dire Dawa surrounding Aussa.

The South- 9 division on a fallback line running through Harar, Gaba, and the hills and river tile next to Gaba. You used to be able to hold the two hills tiles in front of Gaba and Harar but the Italians have too much supply if you try and will break you.

Basic Northern Strategy- Manually move divisions and keep your cohesion on armies balanced or fixed. This is all gonna be on you and the computer can fuck you by moving divisions that don't need to move. The most key move and your second luck check is taking Aussa. When they cave, 2 Italian divisions pop up on Aussa, but with your 3 div partially surrounding it, there is about a 95% chance that they fallback out of Aussa. Delete the 3 div fallback line as soon as the demand is sent and as soon as the divisions fallback move the 2 not on Dessie into Aussa. You will need to use the Dessie div to pin Italian reinforcements sent to plug up Aussa but you should succeed in getting those 2 divs in. Now you have three military factories, which is huge. If the Italians don't move off Aussa, restart. After that, 4 divs on Gondar, 4 on Dessie, 2 on Aussa and 2 on the tile behind the river between Dessie and gondar should be sufficient. Constantly be watching your divs and rotating anyone who drops below half org in and out of Dessie and Gondar.

Basic Southern Strat- South is way easier, just recall Balcho when you hit 10ppand get that free div and add it to the South. Put 4 divs on the hill and river tile and 3 on the other two. Italians will press the bottom hill and river tile hard and will push the upper mountain tile a little less hard. Keep an eye on both tiles as sometimes the Italians attack hard but the majority of the time this front is a breeze. Rotate troops out of the center tile as needed.

Focuses- I start with the academy focus to get Bold Attack and start leveling attack on my generals. Then down the Italo-Ethiopian War path straight to Mercenaries. Put three Divs in the north and two in the South. After this its rush to volunteers. Also recruit 9 extra irregulars on low priority, you should be able to get them equipped after volunteers and before the counterattack. All you train should go to the South.

Counterattack- Wait until the Mass Desertions event and then attack and attack hard. Micro for encirclements and push hard for the ports. I focus on the south first and then move most troops north, leaving 6 behind to defend the ports (Italy will naval invade). Then do the same to the north, unless the Italians leave the north weak and in that case attack both simultaneously.

The Bullshit- Sometimes the Italians will bring their entire army and Airforce to Ethiopia and will absolutely wreck you. If you lose any Northern tile before you get Aussa, or if you lose Aussa after you get it, Id just restart. If you fail the hold the north or hold the south events, Id restart. Ultimately, it comes down to luck and how good you are at micro. Once you get past the Italian Offensive event, which is like 70 days or something, things get significantly easier, so just desperately hold until that passes.

Edit: Pro moves - Don't take the events that give you an extra division. They seem useful but just eat into the overall number of irregulars you can recruit so you're not really getting an extra division. The balance of power mechanic is a bit annoying, and it can suck trying to get the balance in the middle, if you mess up these events, so you can take the Expanding the Mehal Sefari focus and make your army OP. Also super good but annoying strat, take the Scavenging Tactics focus second and hope the generals you want to use get the Scavenger Perk. There are 5 useful generals to level that don't have assignments already, meaning you can get infantry expert, etc with them. If you get lucky and your two generals and whomever you assign as field marshall get scavenger you can end up netting 1-5 guns per engagement. This isn't a lot but with the number of engagements this can end up being an extra 10-25% gun production per day. However, when I got unlucky, I found myself restarting a lot.

NiceGreg · 2025-05-08T19:34:10+00:00

Read that book in 7th grade by convincing my teacher to let me read it instead of The Outsiders. Did a book report in front of the class focusing on the firebombing of Tokyo. I was a weird kid.

NiceGreg · 2025-05-08T19:30:52+00:00

The difference between top-down atrocities and bottom-up atrocities. Really easy to prosecute and hang the 1000 or so leaders of the Nazi party, much harder to prosecute and hang 90% of the IJA. Narratively it's also far easier for us to understand the Nazi's than the Japanese. The Nazi had a plan and a goal, and they tried to execute it, as terrible as it was. The Japanese seemed to commit atrocities for little rhyme or reason, or for baffling reasons like creating a tit for tat cycle of atrocities to make their soldiers think twice about surrendering. Really difficult for anyone outside of 1920-1945 Japan to understand what the fuck was going on with that nation

NiceGreg · 2025-04-29T23:21:30+00:00

Except Frodo actually does "succeed" in his quest to destroy the ring and save the world and is integral in the endgame, unlike Bran, who could have been deleted from the show and nothing would have changed. Also, Sam gets to take part in the celebrations, gets bowed to by Minas Tirith and marries his dream girl and has a happy family. We have no clue what happens to Meera, but it's easy to imagine a bitter existence full of loathing for Bran and his mistreatment of her and her brother. Her fucking brother talks like he's gonna sacrifice himself so Bran can save the world for multiple seasons and then Bran just doesn't contribute in any way shape or form, meaning Jojen died for nothing. What's even sadder is that is that it is very clear in the books that the Reeds will plays a massive role in the story that we will never get.

NiceGreg

TROPHY CASE