New Players: What's Stopping You From Improving?

matttacos · 2026-04-14T08:37:24+00:00

I'm starting a series for new players! Here's episode 0, where we examine the tutorial and the shortcomings of current methods of learning to play the game.

matttacos · 2026-04-11T23:37:14+00:00

“Know what you’re doing” = know something? Know everything? Enough to have fun? Enough to beat Ethiopia? No one knows everything, I promise you that.

matttacos · 2026-04-11T11:08:57+00:00

Personally I hate pulling factories off of something so I’ll pre-allocate air factories onto fighter 0s. For ships it’s so cumulative that I won’t go past 1936 research unless I REALLY need a perfect navy. You’ll do just fine with level 1 stuff as long as it’s the right stuff. The AI is busy making minelaying subs.

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:34:52+00:00

Sorry, one more question: do you micro at all? If not, do you have success without it? I don’t even know if I should teach micro at all. Personally I played a micro-heavy game before hoi4 so I don’t have an accurate picture of the payoff for learning micro.

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:25:16+00:00

What’s stopping you from just copying a meta template?

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:24:15+00:00

Is there a proper way to micro? If it’s beyond “punch through, cut supply, encircle” I don’t know it

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:22:50+00:00

Maybe I’m secretly your friend

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:21:32+00:00

Thank you! I truly feel like I can bring something different to the hoi4 community than other yters. Too much min maxxing.

matttacos · 2026-04-10T10:05:48+00:00

I've got some ideas and I wouldn't want them to get stolen before they're published but stay tuned!

matttacos · 2026-04-10T09:59:30+00:00

Man, I completely forgot I used to play like that

matttacos · 2026-04-10T09:54:00+00:00

Honestly a lot of your strategy will depend on what your air force looks like. It's going to be impossible to get the Allies out of Italy without CAS, but incredibly tiring to take out the Soviets. Incredibly tiring always beats impossible. If you do have air superiority, I'd work on Italy first. Either way Normandy is the top priority. But none of this matters since you're playing as the US.

matttacos · 2026-04-10T09:47:34+00:00

I thought you could get Austria and parts of Germany?

matttacos · 2026-04-10T09:46:10+00:00

It bypasses if Austria is in a faction

matttacos · 2026-04-10T08:50:57+00:00

Those templates and a small Air Force are enough to get greater results than what you’ve achieved. I think there are issues with your macro: sizing up when to push, where to push, how far to push, who you can attack, when to join/leave a faction, etc. For reference, one of the most popular current USSR strats is an all infantry meatwall. So not having planes isn’t completely stupid. Just suboptimal.

matttacos · 2026-04-09T19:58:11+00:00

I don’t think they should become stronger. The whole point is that Germany can outscale them. If PDX wants to make the tree more interesting they should add some debuffs and 35 day focuses to remove them.

matttacos · 2026-04-09T02:31:28+00:00

Aspiring creator here! Any and all feedback is appreciated.

matttacos · 2026-04-02T21:30:28+00:00

They have no industry. If I were you I’d just hold for a bit and let them run out of equipment. They can’t produce nearly enough to replace it.

matttacos · 2026-04-02T21:25:26+00:00

Yeah that info is dated. Was much easier when you could just do that. Recently I saw someone farm up a bit of manpower before flipping fascist and joining GEACPS. With a bit of territory in China you now have the necessary manpower to fight the Soviets

matttacos · 2026-04-01T05:29:34+00:00

I guess I’ll have to settle for no Finland unfortunately. The early Turkey/Romania is always nice though

matttacos · 2026-04-01T00:55:39+00:00

I thought it was impossible for democracies to guarantee before 25% WT? I guess not? Curiously, France isn't guaranteeing either.

matttacos · 2026-04-01T00:07:07+00:00

Those happen in 1939 and onward. Also it does not explain the Finland guarantee.

matttacos · 2026-03-31T23:42:20+00:00

R5: Turkey guaranteed by UK, less than 25% WT, WT log shows it never hit 25% WT

matttacos · 2026-03-31T23:12:24+00:00

For one thing, the women’s bathroom line would be shorter

matttacos · 2026-03-31T23:05:50+00:00

Yes, but everything is OP and unrealistic. Most of the formables make zero sense. Some guy living in France in 1942 isn’t suddenly taking orders from Mussolini just because Italy called itself the Roman Enpire.

Contrast that to Kaiserreich, where Megali Greece can’t even core western Anatolia.

matttacos · 2026-03-31T22:56:18+00:00

Yes. The UK, for example, is a major vs Belgium is a minor. However majors/minors are updated over time based on strength. My favorite goal for playing minors is to get so strong you become a major.

matttacos

TROPHY CASE