If you form the imperial federation as fascist UK and then conquer France, Italy, Germany, and the lowlands, you unlock the form EU decision. It won’t change any cosmetics but it will give you cores on said countries, making the imperial federation even stronger.
@Odin Gollannek I felt like a nugget after figuring it out, I've become chronically addicted to playing Germany because I didn't need to move around the map back then
great guide. helped a lot with some achievements. it’s great seeing guides directly focused at getting those achievements. been watching these since your carlist spain video
That is correct! In the 1.9.0 patch , the AI made some ahistorical choices when it comes to collaboration governments. It shouldn't happen anymore in the current patch.
This strategy is going quite well for me so far. India didn't release Burma and Pakistan and when I declared war on them, Pakistan was at war with Bangladesh which was annoying but easy to clean up. One thing I should mention is I found that hiring the Manoeuvre Genius instead of the Infantry Expert when trying to capitulate Canada worked very well for me. That 15% division speed is huge. Edit: My AI Germany decided he would rather take Alaska than mainland France. I thought I wouldn't be able to form North America as Canada but the decision was there and simply kicked Germany off the continent, giving me ALL of mainland France for free.
Yes it worked for me too, the only difference is I use imperial uprising instead, which requires PP and weapons at first but no need that many convoys. Just be careful with Bangladesh since sometime France guarantee them which make them join the Entente and Germany will puppet them afterwards. Also you will not lose the Backroom Backstabber (+5%PP), so at the beginning you might want to hire that guy instead.
Ok, I've kept this to myself far too long, if you Shift Click the red infantry popup that tells you that you have unassigned divisions... Merry Christmas x
Hey Bitt3rSteel, thanks a lot for this guide. Tried it yesterday and I can confirm it still works (ie. in the latest patch). I had the federation done in 1942, with the delay caused by some cock-ups along the way, like not securing the autonomy in advance or annexing South Africa instead of puppeting it. So thank you for your good job and have my well-deserved subscribe!
If all else fails and your dominions don’t agree to forming the imperial federation, you can still form it by manually reducing their autonomy and annexing them the old fashion way. (I figured this out from experience when I was trying to get the achievement for forming the imperial federation and I tried manual annexation as a last-ditch effort)
Small tip for anyone : You can request all the troops of your dominions at the start of the game and put them all on a small pacific island with no infrastructures. Then if you train them they will suffer massive attrition to the point where they won't be able to leave the island anymore. Then when the war with them break out you can just put one division on that island and you will destroy most of their army easilly.
Amazing video! I don't have the dlc to do this unfortunately but your explanation is clear and concise while also entertaining. Great job dude, you deserve so many more subs :)
If you use Mosley you can then conquer Italy, Germany, France and the Benelux to unlock the decision for the European Union and getting cores on all of them too. Your name will remain still as the Imperial Federation (which with Mosley is just called "The Empire")
I tried this exact method last night and the worst happened, I was so close to taking all the essential U.S territories when Italy puppeted the very last state (Tennessee) and essentially ruined the game save. It's okay though, because just now I've defeated France in a new game (So they can't be called into war with the U.S) before the Axis got the chance to take them and America was all mine. Thank you for the guides Bitt3rSteel, I wouldn't know how to play hoi4 without them!
really nice video ^^ a real overkill would be to form thr franco-british-union before the imperiel fedearation but i dont know if this would even be possible
Great video, only adjustment I'd make is with PP - I'd take Partial Mob over Mosley (should have enough war support after God save the king) and potentially free trade earlier, but no qualms otherwise - can rush US and Canada with motorized infantry, can use the Army +15% division speed genius for very quick capitulation
One small thing that needs to be added since No Step Back DLC: It's going to be much harder to take Canada if u dont encircle their troops right away. And with new supply system it's going to take more time
Hey bittersteel, I use this guide and oh boy is it good. I'm currently in 1947 and almost all the world is mine except south america and china. (I'm at very new hoi4 player btw, thank you btw)
Great guide 😁 But have to be prepared to fight Japan immediately after forming the Federation as they fight anybody holding the british malaya, even italy or germany.
I have played a lot of Monarchist Britain so I can give a few advises and tell my strategy Go Monarchist UK do 3 focuses before the king party focus, then you should be able to directly do the focus kings party Attack france and annex everything Do your focus against ireland If Canada guarantees Ireland declare war on ireland and puppet all dominions (dont use monarchist uprising!) If you do the focuses where you get wargoals on he dominions it now won’t claim any states of the Dominion, which means they will be more likely to accept the Imperial Federation Do unite the Anglossphere and annex the USA after the war Give canada via the decision the US (Pan North American State) If you supported China during the Japanese-Chinese war, and if there still alive, attack Japan (makes Japan A lot easier to kill) Do Imperial Conscription Give your dominion convoys so there Autonomy reduces Do the Indian Autonomy focus (not the free india focus) Do Imperial Conference focus Improve Relations, put spies on Diplomatic pressure If all of them accept, you can do the Imperial Federation on it’s max expansion
12:50 "Declare on one of the dominions that is NOT Canada" Well, shucks. I declare on Canada every time I do this playthrough lmao. Getting the US THAT early on is never a disadvantadge, plus I can defeat them in 9 months having only 40-something divisions, sometimes with only the original 18width infantry divisions. No light tanks, no cavalry, no motorized. There is a very specific strategy that I do. You have to land 4 naval invasions in VERY specific tiles in the East Coast with the second, uncomplete army (Ideal number of divisions is more than 20. You have to be pretty smart with your resources though and will rarely get more than 16.), and use the full army exclusively on Canada. Once you finally reach southern Québéc, you can encircle around 30 to 40 of the 50 combined divisions the US and Canada have in New England and the Canadian regions around it (Depends on the luck. Best result I ever got was leaving Canada with 2 divisions and the USA with 0). The US will probably either naval invade some dumb island in the Caribbean/Atlantic or try to 4D chess you and invade you behind your own naval invasion, though, so be careful. Also, DO NOT USE FRONTLINE ORDERS IN NEW ENGLAND, ONLY IN QUÉBÉC (And do micro-manage it a lot). Every single tile you get and every single push/retreat/defense/pin must be micro-managed for maximum eficiency, and to ensure you NEVER leave any gaps in the frontline (One thing that helps is making tile hops; moving an extra troop to a an adjacent tile and moving the division already there to the next one, in succession until you reach an empty one. Much faster than leaving it to the AI). You can make a gigantic pocket with a very thin line if you are good enough, but it is really challenging to keep it all in check, and before the Great Encirclement™, you won't be able to do any encirclements in the USA, and very few in Canada before you break Québéc. After you have full control of all important parts of the Canadian coast, have closed or are near closing the big pockets in New York and Southern Ontario, and are reaching the Carolinas (or, at minimum, Virginia) and Ohio at the very least, it's time to VP snipe like crazy. I can declare in Jan. or Feb. 1938 and finish the war before the year ends this way. (Personal record was declaring in mid-January and winning mid-September.) I personally focus on just Canada and the USA, but you can adapt this to your strategy in the video and get all the other dominions into the peace deal. You can also probably be at least 1 or 2 months faster than me if you use light tanks or motorized, and at least 15 days faster with cavalry. Doesn't matter much since you're fighting the US
I did pretty much the same thing. I finished in November with all Dominions, the US and all of India, tho you can be faster if you capitulate the US and Canda ASAP, which I didn't do. My basic strategy is to rush SA, AUS and NZ and then you use the troops from there to invade India and the Phillipines which opens up their territory in the peace deal. That way you really only have to wage one war and spare yourself to actually fight in India. The only 'problem' is that you won't get the cores on Ireland if you don't do "Unite the Anglosphere". So you either do it afterwards (tho still during the war since the USA needs to exist) or you simply don't bother with them since you'll have more than enough manpower and factories anyways.
@@karlleonis7882 You can still do the focus anyways, at least when I attempted it, I could, if my memory doesn't fail me. Precisely because of the cores in Ireland, they'll just let you still do it and you just don't get the war goal. Or just puppet the USA in some island in the Pacific and annex them later.
Hey man. In order to save you some pain, I think if you shift-click on the 'unassigned divisions' warning, it selects all your divisions at once so you don't have to hunt for them across the globe.
If you guarantee all of the puppets as well have a maxed improve relations with the “recently delivered equipment” modifier they should have a high enough opinion to guarantee a success, assuming that you have passed a couple of other resolutions first, that is.
Got it today(22 June 2020), it was so tedious but still i achieved it, now i have to defeat the Axis to claim the world under British empire, thanks for the guides Bitterst33l, keep em' coming (P.S. would be really nice if you didnt tend to speed up the recording during battle plans, as a newcomer i learned thid the hard-way, slowing video and catching the perfect frame to understand anything,) Cheers! :D
I'm glad it helped! I speed those parts up to keep video times reasonable. I cut most of the footage out where I'm not talking, but the combat parts in leave in at 300% speed so ppl can see what I do,without making a 4hr video
@@Bitt3rSteel Oh ok, it's alright tho, now that i learned the most of how to properly lead your troops and achieve dem sweet victory points, thanks again!
I was an idiot when doing this. I released south west africa when I did this therefor blocking my path for the Focus. And I did the pointless economic reforms before doing the actual Imperial Federation.
You can lend lease 100% of your convoy production and build countless airfields, infra, ports, etc... and then you can annex them very fast (I made the same mistake that's why I know it works).
Hey Bitt3rSt33l! Great video - forming the Imperial Federation as the King is one of my favourite things to do in this game! I was just wondering - if you plan to form the Pan North American State for the cores before/instead of declaring an American Monarchy, would it be a better early-game move to pick the Morganatic Marriage option, saving a little stability and political power from the get go? You never know, you may even end up with the immortal Queen herself ruling over the Empire Upon Which The Sun Never Sets!
Hey man, great videos. I dont know if this is something you are open to, but the one thing I hate about these guide videos is how much back and forth I have to do to make sure im doing generally the right research/focus trees. It would be nice if you added a small overlay to show what you are researching and focusing.
Actually, the hardest part for me is to get Canada’s opinion high, because Britain has claim on every province they hold and each will decrease their opinion by 10. I’ve checked the code and found that all countries will agree to federate if you choose to spend tremendous diplomatic effort and they have at least 80 opinion over you.
Bitt3rSteel I only gave Canada northern Ontario, which will only result in a -40 penalty (-10 for they claimed our states and -30 for they hold our cores).
Wow the imperialist uprisings make you lose your cores?! That’s a crazy oversight, whenever I make the federation I just figured there was no way to get cores. Never found the option that appealing anyways, it’s waaaay too much territory to have to manage lol
They can both be done, but the AI France needs to roll for an event: after they capitulate, there is about an 8% chance that they will offer you the union and there is no way to increase that. It's so uncommon and unreliable that i don't think it would make a good guide.
@@Bitt3rSteel I know...but the size of such EMPIRE. Can you imagine it?! Like, only a fully unleashed US with several years of preptime would be able to stomp you. It is bonkers really.
Sadly even when leaving the AI Imperial Federation in such an OP state with armies lined up and ready, the Axis always wins.... and playing as Monarchist USA upon release does not allow for enough time to build up and help save Moscow, also causes constant trade factory glitching resulting in CTD :(
When you do everything step by step exactly as you are told, everything went as planned and then despite that Australia refuses Imperial federation....
It's also possible to form a Democratic Imperial Federation by 1940. The only differences are; you are obviously more limited as to which countries you can declare war on (like all democratic countries) and the faction name is 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
I have been hoping to get the achievement where the UK owns the world. But have been struggling with how to do it. While I have already done the achievement for the imperial federation on my own, doing it by 1940 would give me the strength I need to hopefully take on the other majors
I have an idea, I call it the Irony Run, namely start as United Kingdom, turn Communist then do the Imperial Federation (I don't know if that's possible).
I annexed the US before doing anything else and then I couldn't do unite the anglo sphere so I released it (not as a puppet) and started the focus. (it had 4 divisions by the time the 60 days were up, I waited 10 to get the bonus before releasing) edit you can get an easy war goal by deleting all your capital ships then threatening a country in south america (cause the US protects them) its an easy way to take the US early game and works even as a democracy. (keep the hood but delete every other ship that is bigger then a light cruiser, battleships, battlecruisers, carriers, heavy cruisers, delete them all with the exception of the hood)
Excellent guide. I especially appreciated the clarity and level of detail provided about all aspects (political, economic, strategic, and tactical) of the invasion plans for the reconquest. Is it possible to use copied colonial templates in a strategy like this? What happens to colonial template troops when you lose control of their subject nation of origin?
Hey man! Great video! I just wanted to add something. I noticed that you said the imperial loyalists decisions aren't good for this purpose. I don't know what older patch you tested this on, but on the current patch, those imperial uprisings act as civil wars, and the winner side inherits the original country tag I think. Either way, I got the imperial federation with all it's cores with those, so it shouldn't be a problem. The worst part about the monarchies route I think is that you get claims on all of the dominion, so you suffer a massive opinion penalty with them.
Just a quick question. Why don't you request your colonies forces and put them far enough like in the middle of Africa to reduce their mainland forces?
Good question. It felt a bit cheesy at the time and it's something I think they'll patch out eventually if it becomes too mainstream. Much like they did with the German Civil war exploit. At least this way, the guide is a little more time-resistant.
I did this after following the guide the first time and it was great and worked fine, however I'm doing it again now and for some reason the tag for Canada is called 'British North America' instead of the Province of Canada so it won't let me create the Pan-North-American state
@@Bitt3rSteel Alright. Btw, the ports and Infrastructure you build in Labrador is for getting supply right? Because 2 months ago i tried the kings party, but when my troops arrived in Canada they were stuck with almost 0 organisation. So the ports and infrastructure are for that?
I seem to recall that if you simply occupy the Dominions you skip the Imperial Conference and can get cores through Imperial Federation anyway. Though that might be me misremembering.
@@Bitt3rSteel Understandable, not much point in making a guide based on a bug. Good guides I must say, helps us somewhat less skilled players have some additional fun in the game.
I've been trying this but i always have trouble holding western australia without using more troops, same with india area. I managed to do it now but the last bit where you reduce the autonamy by spending political power i cannot do. It seems some dlc may be required called Together for Victory. I hate paradox sometimes
I’ve formed imperial federation in the past multiple times, and today I think I’ve encountered a bug- each time I got to the point of pan-north america, I cannot click it in decisions. It’s been both greyed out, and even green checked, but it doesn’t tell me why I can’t click it. I’ve tried it before and after giving Labrador and New Foundland, I’ve tried a game where I reduce autonomy to integrated and then I try to give, I’ve tried puppetted mainland USA and GB annexation, did I do something wrong? (Am I not allowed to puppet the US on some pacific island so I can get the US fleet later?))?? That may be the problem, in every peace deal I annex mainland USA and Alaska /Hawaii, then puppet phillipines and put the US in Guam, Puerto Rico, Panama to annex later and get ships.
So... how do you get Canada to accept. With lend lease, trade deals and improve relations, I had gotten every dominion to have a +100 relations with me, before starting the conference. The first proposal, defence, had Canada and Australia back down, resulting in both getting negative opinions. They all agreed to the three next topics - and with some last-minute actions, I raised Canada's relations back up to some +30, but they still said no. TLDR: How to ensure that Canada says yes - when having them at +100 relations is clearly not enough.
@@Bitt3rSteel Thanks for the reply. I am on my fifth attempt now. I lost the third one after the US allied Canada, then France and my fourth after the uprisings immediately joined the Japanese faction.
Ok maybe someone can help. I am brand new to this game - followed this guide completely, all worked, Imperial Federation by Aug 1940. Decided to go to war against the axis to help the Soviets out - 7 Armys set up ready to go. All that 7/2 Inf Arty divs (so 168 Divs). Declared war and I got completed annihilated in 3 months by Ze Germans. I'm clearly missing something? This game is absolutely nails!
could be a lack of supply (too many units in poor infrastructure areas) or a lack of equipment (not enough guns for every soldier), those both turn your divisions to shit
invading usa is absolutely impossible, i can only get so far in the frontlines with canada, then they just start massing troops into UK and northern canada with naval invasion until i'm overrun. had roughly 140 20 width divisions and 30 40 width divisions
Speed is everything. Once they start ramping up due to world tension and hitting their focuses, the US is a beast. But following the guide, you *should* be able to be ready for war before they are grtting into full swing. When you attack, focus the tip of the spear on the great lakes region, threaten Detroit and breakout. This will cause the AI to panic and shuffle its lines, giving you a chance to push near new England. Good luck. If not, that's okay. The US is just gravy ontop. You don't need them for the achievement.
@@Bitt3rSteel first try today, attacked USA in 1938, their front line on the western side was empty of divisions, though I forgot to take france's small teritory in india and they took all of india almost when war broke out :D
I have a question. I can’t attack the USA because Canada is a neutral country so at this point I am stuck. Have I missed something? Great video really helps my understanding of the game.
So that’s how you do it! Thanks for the quick response, when I watched the video again I spotted you checked the box to bring the Allies in to the war. So I attacked the USA but was not able to get them to capitulate, that said I did not fill out the border with troops and they started to flank me.
@@deanmiller3473 get enough boys to fill the front and make your main thrust through the Michigan area, towards Detroit. This will make the AI panic and pulls troops off the line elsewhere. And that's when you press hard
Well that was challenging to say the least. America was a big problem and took me till late 1940 before they caved in. Because I had no dearth with France I could not do a land grab, so missed out on getting their territories. Pakistan and Bangladesh were still there and by the time I wanted to deal with them Japan were causing problems. I read further down the comments and noted a refs to version 1.9.1 which changed some AI aspects, that correct? Anyway that was quite a game - thank you.
Do you know why cant we justify war goal on iceland? i do it the tedious way and iceland is the final country left while it cant be justified. I need this final piece of land for the achievement of one empire
Me again. I managed to conquer the US before the general European war broke out. I returned Labrador and Newfoundland to Canada before the peace. Once I annexed all the US territory as the UK, though, I do not see the option for creating the Pan-North-American State. I only see the option for American Monarchy. Do I need to have done a particular focus in order to enable that? I didn't do the Commonwealth Ties or its children, yet.
Hmm, I've heard other people have that issue. Is the decision just not there? It could be changed since I made the video....I haven't gone back to look
If you went fascist instead of Monarchist you could take France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany and Italy and form the EU, the game allows the UK to form the EU if Mosley is in charge, because of his historic Europe-A-Nation policy.
@@Bitt3rSteel I've followed your guide but tried going Fascist a few times now and the commonwealth nations aren't forming their faction when they break away which is bringing the USA straight in because of that guarantee on Canada. Could i be doing something wrong?
You had too many troops on the Canadian border. That's gonna scare them. Have to give them the sense that you aren't so threatening and keep only a few units there
Going to post my personal method because fuck it, You do everything you have to do to turn monarchist, as soon as you can justify on France, 5 divs to Cherbourg 5 to dieppe. Once you’ve landed, quickly obtain nearest ports, also send two divs to paris taking different routes, one to brest and one to calais, whilst your justifying take god save the king then just do the tree down to Regia Maria. Once france falls annex all, other wise you will end up at war with Germany. Build up radars on corsica and the areas closest to the Italian border. 10 Divisions to just below Rome and your other army on the border. Perform your invasion and seize Rome and a few other cities, your border army will sweep theirs. Once they have fallen you should have worked towards the dominion war goals, and have built ports and infa in Labrador. Annex most of Italy except for Sicily which you puppet, the will still take over Albania so its free land. Now one army in South Africa and one in canada. Beat South Africa quickly and have one division land on a non port province of new zealand and australia and then capitulate canada, puppet all. Take out Ireland, they’ll usually ally belgium so thats more free land. Once you can take America two armies on the east coast will do. As you do this begin the commonwealth focuses. Once you’ve annexed all of America guarantee Canada, then di the pan north america decision. Once all relations are at 100 and you have around 450 political power do imperial conference. Do all decisions but the main one, this will improve relations. Once all else is done do the last one, they should accept. And once you’ve lowered autonomy low enough do the focus and core all dominions and America. Congratulations you have capitulated Three majors and become the strongest nation.
When I capitulated Canada, Pakistan somehow truced with me, and once I did unite the Anglosphere, I somehow got a war goal on Canada, so their opinion of me was way too low. How do I fix that?
Definitely. You annex all of the land in the conference and after that, there is a decision to release the US as a puppet under Wallis. But only if you went for a full royal marriage
If you form the imperial federation as fascist UK and then conquer France, Italy, Germany, and the lowlands, you unlock the form EU decision. It won’t change any cosmetics but it will give you cores on said countries, making the imperial federation even stronger.
I know I'm a little late, but doesn't forming the EU change the flag and the color of unholy land mass
@@sliceymcdicey7974 I'm pretty sure there is weirdness if you try to do two different cosmetic changes to one country.
talk about overkill
you can also get the franco british union I believe.
@@sliceymcdicey7974 Not when you do it as fascist Britain.
This video saved my marriage.
I've always known you to hold the sacraments of marriage in high regard
Are you Edward VIII?
Best. Comment. Ever
Nick Stoneham He's king Grant I
Ikr my fellow edward
“Change all your units to infantry”
*only switches the Ceylon division
Mistakes were made.RIP
Yup. Only took me 1000 hours to figure that out....
@Odin Gollannek Just figured it out when you said it, thanks!
@Odin Gollannek I felt like a nugget after figuring it out, I've become chronically addicted to playing Germany because I didn't need to move around the map back then
great guide. helped a lot with some achievements. it’s great seeing guides directly focused at getting those achievements. been watching these since your carlist spain video
Much appreciated! Next one should be out next week, winning the war against Japan as China and getting the Awake and Angry achievement!
one of the most underrated hoi4 youtubers
u deserve a lot more subs bro
keep doing great !
I appreciate that!
9:47 those are collaboration governments though. These are essentially better integrated puppets.
That is correct! In the 1.9.0 patch , the AI made some ahistorical choices when it comes to collaboration governments. It shouldn't happen anymore in the current patch.
This strategy is going quite well for me so far. India didn't release Burma and Pakistan and when I declared war on them, Pakistan was at war with Bangladesh which was annoying but easy to clean up. One thing I should mention is I found that hiring the Manoeuvre Genius instead of the Infantry Expert when trying to capitulate Canada worked very well for me. That 15% division speed is huge.
Edit: My AI Germany decided he would rather take Alaska than mainland France. I thought I wouldn't be able to form North America as Canada but the decision was there and simply kicked Germany off the continent, giving me ALL of mainland France for free.
Now, on to the world conquest!
@@mypenisisunbelievablysmall5258 what about it?
Yes it worked for me too, the only difference is I use imperial uprising instead, which requires PP and weapons at first but no need that many convoys. Just be careful with Bangladesh since sometime France guarantee them which make them join the Entente and Germany will puppet them afterwards. Also you will not lose the Backroom Backstabber (+5%PP), so at the beginning you might want to hire that guy instead.
Ok, I've kept this to myself far too long, if you Shift Click the red infantry popup that tells you that you have unassigned divisions...
Merry Christmas x
i thought the exact same thing, really great guide though
I think that every time I see someone playing HOI4 😂
How do ppl not know that lmao
i had flashbacks of selecting everyone across fucking worldwide colonies
Why did I not think of that lmao
Hey Bitt3rSteel, thanks a lot for this guide. Tried it yesterday and I can confirm it still works (ie. in the latest patch). I had the federation done in 1942, with the delay caused by some cock-ups along the way, like not securing the autonomy in advance or annexing South Africa instead of puppeting it. So thank you for your good job and have my well-deserved subscribe!
I'm glad it still works!
If all else fails and your dominions don’t agree to forming the imperial federation, you can still form it by manually reducing their autonomy and annexing them the old fashion way.
(I figured this out from experience when I was trying to get the achievement for forming the imperial federation and I tried manual annexation as a last-ditch effort)
Small tip for anyone : You can request all the troops of your dominions at the start of the game and put them all on a small pacific island with no infrastructures. Then if you train them they will suffer massive attrition to the point where they won't be able to leave the island anymore. Then when the war with them break out you can just put one division on that island and you will destroy most of their army easilly.
You can't do it with Canada because they won't join the war if you DOW on one of its allies.
They will,just don't overstackntheir borderm
Just came across this channel, love how you actually show your gameplay instead of skipping to the end of all the wars which I find very boring
Amazing video! I don't have the dlc to do this unfortunately but your explanation is clear and concise while also entertaining. Great job dude, you deserve so many more subs :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
If you use Mosley you can then conquer Italy, Germany, France and the Benelux to unlock the decision for the European Union and getting cores on all of them too. Your name will remain still as the Imperial Federation (which with Mosley is just called "The Empire")
Beneath the Gold; The Bittersteel!!! Nice guide dude!
Its amazing dude, well done. Please keep it up with it.
Thank you! New video comming soon!
A little tip: If u Shift+Click on training button, your divisions will automatically train until they’re level 3
I tried this exact method last night and the worst happened, I was so close to taking all the essential U.S territories when Italy puppeted the very last state (Tennessee) and essentially ruined the game save. It's okay though, because just now I've defeated France in a new game (So they can't be called into war with the U.S) before the Axis got the chance to take them and America was all mine. Thank you for the guides Bitt3rSteel, I wouldn't know how to play hoi4 without them!
I'm glad you like them! And next time, make Tennessee great again!
really nice video
^^
a real overkill would be to form thr franco-british-union before the imperiel fedearation
but i dont know if this would even be possible
You could, but there is so much RNG involved, you can't really count on it.
Great video, only adjustment I'd make is with PP - I'd take Partial Mob over Mosley (should have enough war support after God save the king) and potentially free trade earlier, but no qualms otherwise - can rush US and Canada with motorized infantry, can use the Army +15% division speed genius for very quick capitulation
32:02 DAT EMU DUDE.
One small thing that needs to be added since No Step Back DLC:
It's going to be much harder to take Canada if u dont encircle their troops right away. And with new supply system it's going to take more time
Hey bittersteel, I use this guide and oh boy is it good. I'm currently in 1947 and almost all the world is mine except south america and china. (I'm at very new hoi4 player btw, thank you btw)
You can shift click the red unassigned divisions alert to select all unassigned divisions
I'll never live that down, will I? :p Thank, i've since learned about that feature!
Great guide 😁 But have to be prepared to fight Japan immediately after forming the Federation as they fight anybody holding the british malaya, even italy or germany.
Unless you immediately relece them
Incase you weren't aware, you select all unassigned troops by holding shift and clicking. Other than that, nice vid.
I have played a lot of Monarchist Britain so I can give a few advises and tell my strategy
Go Monarchist UK
do 3 focuses before the king party focus, then you should be able to directly do the focus kings party
Attack france and annex everything
Do your focus against ireland
If Canada guarantees Ireland declare war on ireland and puppet all dominions (dont use monarchist uprising!)
If you do the focuses where you get wargoals on he dominions it now won’t claim any states of the Dominion, which means they will be more likely to accept the Imperial Federation
Do unite the Anglossphere and annex the USA after the war
Give canada via the decision the US (Pan North American State)
If you supported China during the Japanese-Chinese war, and if there still alive, attack Japan (makes Japan A lot easier to kill)
Do Imperial Conscription
Give your dominion convoys so there Autonomy reduces
Do the Indian Autonomy focus (not the free india focus)
Do Imperial Conference focus
Improve Relations, put spies on Diplomatic pressure
If all of them accept, you can do the Imperial Federation on it’s max expansion
I was actually about to make a video on how to core all of us as Britain but was failed 6 times. So yeah gr8 video!!
12:50 "Declare on one of the dominions that is NOT Canada"
Well, shucks. I declare on Canada every time I do this playthrough lmao. Getting the US THAT early on is never a disadvantadge, plus I can defeat them in 9 months having only 40-something divisions, sometimes with only the original 18width infantry divisions. No light tanks, no cavalry, no motorized.
There is a very specific strategy that I do. You have to land 4 naval invasions in VERY specific tiles in the East Coast with the second, uncomplete army (Ideal number of divisions is more than 20. You have to be pretty smart with your resources though and will rarely get more than 16.), and use the full army exclusively on Canada. Once you finally reach southern Québéc, you can encircle around 30 to 40 of the 50 combined divisions the US and Canada have in New England and the Canadian regions around it (Depends on the luck. Best result I ever got was leaving Canada with 2 divisions and the USA with 0).
The US will probably either naval invade some dumb island in the Caribbean/Atlantic or try to 4D chess you and invade you behind your own naval invasion, though, so be careful. Also, DO NOT USE FRONTLINE ORDERS IN NEW ENGLAND, ONLY IN QUÉBÉC (And do micro-manage it a lot). Every single tile you get and every single push/retreat/defense/pin must be micro-managed for maximum eficiency, and to ensure you NEVER leave any gaps in the frontline (One thing that helps is making tile hops; moving an extra troop to a an adjacent tile and moving the division already there to the next one, in succession until you reach an empty one. Much faster than leaving it to the AI). You can make a gigantic pocket with a very thin line if you are good enough, but it is really challenging to keep it all in check, and before the Great Encirclement™, you won't be able to do any encirclements in the USA, and very few in Canada before you break Québéc.
After you have full control of all important parts of the Canadian coast, have closed or are near closing the big pockets in New York and Southern Ontario, and are reaching the Carolinas (or, at minimum, Virginia) and Ohio at the very least, it's time to VP snipe like crazy. I can declare in Jan. or Feb. 1938 and finish the war before the year ends this way. (Personal record was declaring in mid-January and winning mid-September.)
I personally focus on just Canada and the USA, but you can adapt this to your strategy in the video and get all the other dominions into the peace deal. You can also probably be at least 1 or 2 months faster than me if you use light tanks or motorized, and at least 15 days faster with cavalry. Doesn't matter much since you're fighting the US
I did pretty much the same thing. I finished in November with all Dominions, the US and all of India, tho you can be faster if you capitulate the US and Canda ASAP, which I didn't do.
My basic strategy is to rush SA, AUS and NZ and then you use the troops from there to invade India and the Phillipines which opens up their territory in the peace deal. That way you really only have to wage one war and spare yourself to actually fight in India.
The only 'problem' is that you won't get the cores on Ireland if you don't do "Unite the Anglosphere". So you either do it afterwards (tho still during the war since the USA needs to exist) or you simply don't bother with them since you'll have more than enough manpower and factories anyways.
@@karlleonis7882 You can still do the focus anyways, at least when I attempted it, I could, if my memory doesn't fail me. Precisely because of the cores in Ireland, they'll just let you still do it and you just don't get the war goal. Or just puppet the USA in some island in the Pacific and annex them later.
How does this guy not have more subs?
Hey man. In order to save you some pain, I think if you shift-click on the 'unassigned divisions' warning, it selects all your divisions at once so you don't have to hunt for them across the globe.
i love how Australia is called the emu empire for some reason
The birds have taken over
If you guarantee all of the puppets as well have a maxed improve relations with the “recently delivered equipment” modifier they should have a high enough opinion to guarantee a success, assuming that you have passed a couple of other resolutions first, that is.
Got it today(22 June 2020), it was so tedious but still i achieved it, now i have to defeat the Axis to claim the world under British empire, thanks for the guides Bitterst33l, keep em' coming
(P.S. would be really nice if you didnt tend to speed up the recording during battle plans, as a newcomer i learned thid the hard-way, slowing video and catching the perfect frame to understand anything,)
Cheers! :D
I'm glad it helped! I speed those parts up to keep video times reasonable. I cut most of the footage out where I'm not talking, but the combat parts in leave in at 300% speed so ppl can see what I do,without making a 4hr video
@@Bitt3rSteel
Oh ok, it's alright tho, now that i learned the most of how to properly lead your troops and achieve dem sweet victory points, thanks again!
If you go blackshirt, after you create the imperium you can also form the European union and get even more cores.
Core the world!
@@Bitt3rSteel Global Defence Council!
You can take all the unassigned troops by pressing shift and clicking on the unassigned symbol at the same time... just a little tip!!!
1000 hours in and it took YT comments to teach me this
@@Bitt3rSteel No Problem man. Just thought i'd share my knowledge and save you some pain haha ;)
Just used the guide with NSB and still works. Supply was a little tough in America because reasons but still did it by 1941.
i have done so many achievements in hoi that i took a brake from the video and after coming back realized that i was not watching feedbackgaming
Really nice video
Thanks!
Nice, made me happy.
made me smile. Nice
Glad you enjoyed it
Imagine not bypassing the imperial conference
I was an idiot when doing this.
I released south west africa when I did this therefor blocking my path for the Focus.
And I did the pointless economic reforms before doing the actual Imperial Federation.
Oh no! You cut them off from the strategic tea reserves!
You can lend lease 100% of your convoy production and build countless airfields, infra, ports, etc... and then you can annex them very fast (I made the same mistake that's why I know it works).
Hey Bitt3rSt33l! Great video - forming the Imperial Federation as the King is one of my favourite things to do in this game! I was just wondering - if you plan to form the Pan North American State for the cores before/instead of declaring an American Monarchy, would it be a better early-game move to pick the Morganatic Marriage option, saving a little stability and political power from the get go? You never know, you may even end up with the immortal Queen herself ruling over the Empire Upon Which The Sun Never Sets!
Hey man, great videos. I dont know if this is something you are open to, but the one thing I hate about these guide videos is how much back and forth I have to do to make sure im doing generally the right research/focus trees. It would be nice if you added a small overlay to show what you are researching and focusing.
If u shift click the red soldier icon it instantly selects all your divisions rather than going to every part of the world
Please make the UI larger. Makes viewing a lot easier, especially on mobile
Actually, the hardest part for me is to get Canada’s opinion high, because Britain has claim on every province they hold and each will decrease their opinion by 10. I’ve checked the code and found that all countries will agree to federate if you choose to spend tremendous diplomatic effort and they have at least 80 opinion over you.
Interesting, I didn't have that much of an issue, especially once i gave back Newfoundland and Labrador. i hope it worked out in the end for you!
Bitt3rSteel I only gave Canada northern Ontario, which will only result in a -40 penalty (-10 for they claimed our states and -30 for they hold our cores).
You can also guarantee their independence which boosts their opinion +35
@@Bigdeathy That's also what I usually do
Wow the imperialist uprisings make you lose your cores?! That’s a crazy oversight, whenever I make the federation I just figured there was no way to get cores. Never found the option that appealing anyways, it’s waaaay too much territory to have to manage lol
It has been fixed since 1.9.0 fortunately!
Can you do a guide for an Commonwealth + Franco-British Union event? I asked a Dev: Both things can be done at once and without console commands.
They can both be done, but the AI France needs to roll for an event: after they capitulate, there is about an 8% chance that they will offer you the union and there is no way to increase that.
It's so uncommon and unreliable that i don't think it would make a good guide.
@@Bitt3rSteel I know...but the size of such EMPIRE. Can you imagine it?! Like, only a fully unleashed US with several years of preptime would be able to stomp you. It is bonkers really.
Rule Brittania, Britania rule the waves!
Sadly even when leaving the AI Imperial Federation in such an OP state with armies lined up and ready, the Axis always wins.... and playing as Monarchist USA upon release does not allow for enough time to build up and help save Moscow, also causes constant trade factory glitching resulting in CTD :(
"there is nothing that can stop you" late game germany
Cntrl click the red men box to select all troops instead of finding them on the map... it’s a bit faster (for newbs)
Yeah, only took me about 1000 hours to figure out...
@Bitt3rSteel 😂😂 I still can’t navy properly after 1600 hours
When you do everything step by step exactly as you are told, everything went as planned and then despite that Australia refuses Imperial federation....
33:53
Why is there exiled divisions?
You should just send 1 division to each dominion to get them in the war then use the rest to capitulate Canada
It's also possible to form a Democratic Imperial Federation by 1940. The only differences are; you are obviously more limited as to which countries you can declare war on (like all democratic countries) and the faction name is 'Commonwealth of Nations'.
I have been hoping to get the achievement where the UK owns the world. But have been struggling with how to do it. While I have already done the achievement for the imperial federation on my own, doing it by 1940 would give me the strength I need to hopefully take on the other majors
Godspeed, Nick! It should definitely be possible!
I have an idea, I call it the Irony Run, namely start as United Kingdom, turn Communist then do the Imperial Federation (I don't know if that's possible).
I annexed the US before doing anything else and then I couldn't do unite the anglo sphere so I released it (not as a puppet) and started the focus. (it had 4 divisions by the time the 60 days were up, I waited 10 to get the bonus before releasing)
edit you can get an easy war goal by deleting all your capital ships then threatening a country in south america (cause the US protects them) its an easy way to take the US early game and works even as a democracy. (keep the hood but delete every other ship that is bigger then a light cruiser, battleships, battlecruisers, carriers, heavy cruisers, delete them all with the exception of the hood)
Excellent guide. I especially appreciated the clarity and level of detail provided about all aspects (political, economic, strategic, and tactical) of the invasion plans for the reconquest.
Is it possible to use copied colonial templates in a strategy like this? What happens to colonial template troops when you lose control of their subject nation of origin?
I havent tested yet, actually. Good question!
Hey man! Great video! I just wanted to add something. I noticed that you said the imperial loyalists decisions aren't good for this purpose. I don't know what older patch you tested this on, but on the current patch, those imperial uprisings act as civil wars, and the winner side inherits the original country tag I think. Either way, I got the imperial federation with all it's cores with those, so it shouldn't be a problem. The worst part about the monarchies route I think is that you get claims on all of the dominion, so you suffer a massive opinion penalty with them.
Also you no longer get the USA's cores, they will remain a core of canada, but you no longer get cores there
Ah, they must have fixed this in 1.9 then. Sad times
What's the name of that Synthwave song at 00:26 ?
Wild Pogo
Just spent hours on this and Canada rejected it. Time to go again i guess 😭
Just a quick question. Why don't you request your colonies forces and put them far enough like in the middle of Africa to reduce their mainland forces?
Good question. It felt a bit cheesy at the time and it's something I think they'll patch out eventually if it becomes too mainstream. Much like they did with the German Civil war exploit. At least this way, the guide is a little more time-resistant.
I did this after following the guide the first time and it was great and worked fine, however I'm doing it again now and for some reason the tag for Canada is called 'British North America' instead of the Province of Canada so it won't let me create the Pan-North-American state
top guide
Thanks!
Cool, I will try doing this.
Let me know how it turns out!
@@Bitt3rSteel Alright. Btw, the ports and Infrastructure you build in Labrador is for getting supply right? Because 2 months ago i tried the kings party, but when my troops arrived in Canada they were stuck with almost 0 organisation. So the ports and infrastructure are for that?
@@GRM_lol yeah, you need the port and infrastructure to keep those units supplied. Without those, the army will just get stuck and die.
@@Bitt3rSteel thanks. Well that explains why my 2 full Armies in Canada were stuck with 0 org XD
@@Bitt3rSteel also, how much do you think i will be delayed if I take out France first.
I seem to recall that if you simply occupy the Dominions you skip the Imperial Conference and can get cores through Imperial Federation anyway. Though that might be me misremembering.
It could be, but I assumed that was bugged. I didn't want to take the risk of it being something they would fix, so I went this route!
@@Bitt3rSteel Understandable, not much point in making a guide based on a bug. Good guides I must say, helps us somewhat less skilled players have some additional fun in the game.
I've been trying this but i always have trouble holding western australia without using more troops, same with india area. I managed to do it now but the last bit where you reduce the autonamy by spending political power i cannot do. It seems some dlc may be required called Together for Victory. I hate paradox sometimes
The empire is really strong
I’ve formed imperial federation in the past multiple times, and today I think I’ve encountered a bug- each time I got to the point of pan-north america, I cannot click it in decisions.
It’s been both greyed out, and even green checked, but it doesn’t tell me why I can’t click it. I’ve tried it before and after giving Labrador and New Foundland, I’ve tried a game where I reduce autonomy to integrated and then I try to give, I’ve tried puppetted mainland USA and GB annexation, did I do something wrong? (Am I not allowed to puppet the US on some pacific island so I can get the US fleet later?))??
That may be the problem, in every peace deal I annex mainland USA and Alaska /Hawaii, then puppet phillipines and put the US in Guam, Puerto Rico, Panama to annex later and get ships.
The U.K. has so much potential, like you can knock italy and France out before 39
So... how do you get Canada to accept.
With lend lease, trade deals and improve relations, I had gotten every dominion to have a +100 relations with me, before starting the conference.
The first proposal, defence, had Canada and Australia back down, resulting in both getting negative opinions. They all agreed to the three next topics - and with some last-minute actions, I raised Canada's relations back up to some +30, but they still said no.
TLDR: How to ensure that Canada says yes - when having them at +100 relations is clearly not enough.
Even after all that, there is still an element of RNG, not much but some. And it sucks.
@@Bitt3rSteel Thanks for the reply. I am on my fifth attempt now.
I lost the third one after the US allied Canada, then France and my fourth after the uprisings immediately joined the Japanese faction.
@@Bitt3rSteel And in my fifth attempt, WW2 started in 1938, prompting France to ally the Commonwealth... This is an incredibly frustrating achievement
Ok maybe someone can help. I am brand new to this game - followed this guide completely, all worked, Imperial Federation by Aug 1940. Decided to go to war against the axis to help the Soviets out - 7 Armys set up ready to go. All that 7/2 Inf Arty divs (so 168 Divs). Declared war and I got completed annihilated in 3 months by Ze Germans. I'm clearly missing something? This game is absolutely nails!
could be a lack of supply (too many units in poor infrastructure areas) or a lack of equipment (not enough guns for every soldier), those both turn your divisions to shit
The UI is so small that my eyes are crying :(
the p-ain of 1440p resolution :
Wow cool video you must be very cool sir
pro tip change the speed of video to 1.5x
Good point. Perhaps these do run a bit long for some people. Thanks!
"2.89 million manpower"
Laughs in Chinese*
invading usa is absolutely impossible, i can only get so far in the frontlines with canada, then they just start massing troops into UK and northern canada with naval invasion until i'm overrun. had roughly 140 20 width divisions and 30 40 width divisions
Speed is everything. Once they start ramping up due to world tension and hitting their focuses, the US is a beast. But following the guide, you *should* be able to be ready for war before they are grtting into full swing.
When you attack, focus the tip of the spear on the great lakes region, threaten Detroit and breakout. This will cause the AI to panic and shuffle its lines, giving you a chance to push near new England.
Good luck.
If not, that's okay. The US is just gravy ontop. You don't need them for the achievement.
@@Bitt3rSteel first try today, attacked USA in 1938, their front line on the western side was empty of divisions, though I forgot to take france's small teritory in india and they took all of india almost when war broke out :D
I have a question. I can’t attack the USA because Canada is a neutral country so at this point I am stuck. Have I missed something? Great video really helps my understanding of the game.
By that point, Canada is your puppet. A vassal state. Just call them in to the war via the diplomacy menu
So that’s how you do it! Thanks for the quick response, when I watched the video again I spotted you checked the box to bring the Allies in to the war.
So I attacked the USA but was not able to get them to capitulate, that said I did not fill out the border with troops and they started to flank me.
@@deanmiller3473 get enough boys to fill the front and make your main thrust through the Michigan area, towards Detroit. This will make the AI panic and pulls troops off the line elsewhere. And that's when you press hard
Thank you for that fella, I really appreciate you taking the time reply. You have been a great help. 😀
Well that was challenging to say the least. America was a big problem and took me till late 1940 before they caved in. Because I had no dearth with France I could not do a land grab, so missed out on getting their territories. Pakistan and Bangladesh were still there and by the time I wanted to deal with them Japan were causing problems. I read further down the comments and noted a refs to version 1.9.1 which changed some AI aspects, that correct?
Anyway that was quite a game - thank you.
That's a great guide, isn't it?))
That´s definitively much cooler than the fascist path (and it´s not fascist)
Monarchism best ism
Do you know why cant we justify war goal on iceland? i do it the tedious way and iceland is the final country left while it cant be justified. I need this final piece of land for the achievement of one empire
I’m a bit stuck already, it doesn’t give me an option to put ports in the province next to Canada, what do I do?
The -100 opinion on Wallis at the end... hahahahahaha
A slight marital spat...
The Battle of the Bosphurus DLC has no bearing on this guide, right?
Just got the Imperial Federation achievement today. I had BotB installed, and it had no effect on changing this guide.
At the start i never got over 5% world tention
I just tried this. I forgot to grab Alaska in the peace deal. Why is Alaska a core territory in 1936....
There is decision to give Alaska statehood and turn it into the core
currently doing this, trying to 100% HOI4
so far its going super well, its 1938, and i am getting ready to invade the usa and form imperial conference
For the Empire! Rule Britannia!
0:27
A British jack union flag in a British jack union flag.How British
I think I got more factories when uniting Rome.
It’s probably comparable. (Assuming you got USA in)
If you give more land to the dominions do you get cores once you integrate them?
I'm fairly sure you only get cores on their cores
Needs an update with all the logistics crap and micro managing they added, you just get stomped if you try to invade Australia.
When I do this I do not get cores on US
I don't understand the unit icons GAH I want to follow but it hard for me
Me again. I managed to conquer the US before the general European war broke out. I returned Labrador and Newfoundland to Canada before the peace. Once I annexed all the US territory as the UK, though, I do not see the option for creating the Pan-North-American State. I only see the option for American Monarchy. Do I need to have done a particular focus in order to enable that? I didn't do the Commonwealth Ties or its children, yet.
Hmm, I've heard other people have that issue. Is the decision just not there? It could be changed since I made the video....I haven't gone back to look
@@Bitt3rSteel Do you know where the Decisions are stored in the game files? I was trying to look last night, but couldn't find them.
@@Bitt3rSteel OK. So I was replaying this, and after I created my Faction, the option appeared.
That's so odd
If you went fascist instead of Monarchist you could take France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Germany and Italy and form the EU, the game allows the UK to form the EU if Mosley is in charge, because of his historic Europe-A-Nation policy.
Good to know. Personally, I'm partial to the monarchist paths in the game
@@Bitt3rSteel I've followed your guide but tried going Fascist a few times now and the commonwealth nations aren't forming their faction when they break away which is bringing the USA straight in because of that guarantee on Canada. Could i be doing something wrong?
@@Hu2594 how is WT looking?
@@Bitt3rSteel I think it sits around 18% when i've took the focuses to annex Canada ect
I tried this last night, but Canada wouldn't come into the war to support Australia and the other. :-/
You had too many troops on the Canadian border. That's gonna scare them. Have to give them the sense that you aren't so threatening and keep only a few units there
@@Bitt3rSteel Thanks!
Just like the roman empire
Going to post my personal method because fuck it,
You do everything you have to do to turn monarchist, as soon as you can justify on France, 5 divs to Cherbourg 5 to dieppe. Once you’ve landed, quickly obtain nearest ports, also send two divs to paris taking different routes, one to brest and one to calais, whilst your justifying take god save the king then just do the tree down to Regia Maria. Once france falls annex all, other wise you will end up at war with Germany. Build up radars on corsica and the areas closest to the Italian border. 10 Divisions to just below Rome and your other army on the border. Perform your invasion and seize Rome and a few other cities, your border army will sweep theirs. Once they have fallen you should have worked towards the dominion war goals, and have built ports and infa in Labrador. Annex most of Italy except for Sicily which you puppet, the will still take over Albania so its free land. Now one army in South Africa and one in canada. Beat South Africa quickly and have one division land on a non port province of new zealand and australia and then capitulate canada, puppet all. Take out Ireland, they’ll usually ally belgium so thats more free land. Once you can take America two armies on the east coast will do. As you do this begin the commonwealth focuses. Once you’ve annexed all of America guarantee Canada, then di the pan north america decision. Once all relations are at 100 and you have around 450 political power do imperial conference. Do all decisions but the main one, this will improve relations. Once all else is done do the last one, they should accept. And once you’ve lowered autonomy low enough do the focus and core all dominions and America. Congratulations you have capitulated Three majors and become the strongest nation.
When I capitulated Canada, Pakistan somehow truced with me, and once I did unite the Anglosphere, I somehow got a war goal on Canada, so their opinion of me was way too low. How do I fix that?
I can't help you there, I've never seen that behaviour
@@Bitt3rSteel Thanks for the quick reply; one more question. Can you still do American monarchy after creating the DNA or not?
Definitely. You annex all of the land in the conference and after that, there is a decision to release the US as a puppet under Wallis. But only if you went for a full royal marriage
@@Bitt3rSteel Also, do you need Pakistan and Bangladesh for Imperial conference?
I don't believe they matter, just India. But I'm not sure