Life of the Party
Arcane
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Hearts of Iron IV - The Ultimate WWII Strategy Game
- Thread starter GarfunkeL
- Start date
Mark.L.Joy
Prophet
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HoI4's gonna save the west
Space Satan
Arcane
DD Spain
Hola everyone, and welcome to a new dev diary on the upcoming DLC for HoI4, where we’ll be talking about the first entirely new focus tree: Nationalist Spain.
Design Intent
The Spanish Civil War is perhaps the single most important event occurring in the game’s build-up phase, but it is often over in the blink of an eye. In addition, aside from the likes of perhaps Turkey and Brazil, Spain is also strategically one of the most fun nations to play, as you have a decent powerbase from which to expand, after the aforementioned civil war.
In fact, the Spanish Civil War was such an important historical event that we have accorded Spain with special attention and, in what is our biggest Focus Tree project to date, made not one, but two full-sized Spanish Focus Trees; one for each side in the civil war - to fully encapsulate the sheer complexity and, dare I say, chaotic madness of the period. This allows us to much better take into account all the different possible political outlooks for a Spanish nation, depending on who wins the Civil War. While these trees are entirely new in the sense that Spain did not yet have a focus tree, they are also a rework in the sense that the civil war was previously already represented in the game. However, this representation suffered from various issues:
To delve a bit further into the first point, an experienced player might be able to finish the civil war within just a couple of months, and even the less-experienced players would almost never come even close to the historical duration of nearly 3 years. This caused problems with other focus trees, as various nations that have focuses to intervene in the civil war (such as France) could find themselves into a situation where they were unable to use these. If a nation had just selected a focus before the civil war started, it could take a total of 140 days to finish the focus that was started and then finish the Intervention focus as well. Add to this Volunteer travel time, and it was fully possible for the civil war to have already ended before volunteers even arrived. Adding cancellable focuses later reduced this, but still did not eliminate the problem.
The purpose of the design for the new Spanish trees was thus four-fold:
Still under development, much of the art is still under production, values and even systems may end up changing as a result of testing, yada yada. You guys should know the routine by now
That being said, let’s delve into it:
Nationalist Spain Starting Situation
Spain in 1936 is a nation at the precipice. In the century preceding the game’s start date the country only experienced brief periods of relative peace, interspersed with long periods of extreme political instability and violent upheaval. In 1830, in a surprising deviation from Salic law, the ageing king Ferdinand VII named as successor not his brother Infante Carlos, but instead his daughter Isabella II. For the next four decades, supporters of Infante Carlos, called Carlists, would start multiple civil wars in an attempt to reinstate the (in their view) rightful line of succession and annul this Pragmatic Sanction. Though victorious, Isabella II, herself, would be ousted in a Republican rebellion in 1868, after which the First Spanish Republic was declared. This, itself, only lasted 6 years before the return to monarchy, though Isabella had abdicated by this point. Next, almost at the turn of the century, 1898 saw the disastrous Spanish-American war in which Spain’s navy was crippled and much of its remaining colonial influence dismantled, leaving it with only its few African colonies. The national shock that this caused eventually resulted in the “Reformation”, culminating in a coup and the creation of a dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera. This, in turn, more or less dissolved peacefully in 1930, when it was replaced by the Second Republic. Another coup attempt by a disloyal military in 1932 and a violent revolutionary Miners’ Strike in 1934, in the beating down of which Franco played a key role, complete this abridged list of Spanish disasters.
In the game, the situation is represented by various national spirits, representing the various challenges the government is faced with:
In addition, various states (Galicia, Basque Country, and Catalonia) begin the game with a “Statute of Autonomy”, reducing maximum buildable factories, recruitable population, available resources, and construction speed in that state. Various focuses in the tree remove this.
Early on in the design phase it was decided that there should be no way to avoid the civil war. It would cause far too many edge-cases that would have to be solved, it makes no historical sense (Spain’s political landscape was already far too divided and polarized at the time of HoI4’s start date), and the civil war is quite frankly far too important for the early-game in HoI4. Accordingly, as you load up the focus tree in the game you are presented with only a single choice: do I go with the Nationalists or the Republicans?
Your choice has no impact on the results of the February 15 1936 elections (as even historically, despite vastly superior resources and a much greater election campaign compared to the Popular Front, the CEDA (alliance of right-wing parties) still lost the election) but it does decide who you will play as henceforth. This dev diary focuses specifically on the new focus tree for the Nationalists, and so we will look at things from their perspective.
Historically, in the period directly after the electoral victory of the Popular Front, political violence began to escalate while disloyal elements of the military, many of whom had been participants of the 1932 failed Sanjurjada uprising and had since lived in exile in Portugal, began to plot yet another coup attempt. The failure of this coup is what subsequently resulted in the civil war. In the new Nationalist tree this is represented by a number of decisions and missions that become available upon conclusion of the elections.
The first of these is a ticking counter, lasting a base of 250 days, and triggering the civil war when it times out. (1. In the picture)
A second is a series of missions that represent the ‘focuses’ the other side (in this case the Republicans) are taking in their own preparation for the civil war. This allows the player to keep track of what is happening. (2. In the picture)
Thirdly, a set of decisions become available tying into the whole atmosphere of political violence, allowing the player to speed up the start of the civil war (represented by reducing the number of days remaining on the civil war start timer mission), while, conversely, the ‘other side’ generates periodic missions that instead delay the start of the civil war, attempting to buy themselves more time before it begins. (3. In the picture)
And finally, repeatable on-map decisions appear on all Spanish core states, allowing you to expand influence in garrisons or even outright claim them to be added to your side upon the start of the civil war, if your influence is high enough. (4. In the picture)
As the above decision system currently functions (subject to change), the very earliest it is possible to start the civil war is in early August, and, assuming the player does nothing, the very latest is in early 1937, which gives the Republicans the time they need to complete every one of their possible preparations.
The Nationalist focus tree, after the initial choice, continues with a single path of 6 focuses (two of which are mutually-exclusive). Each of these lasts for only 35 days, resulting in full completion of this initial branch by July 29th, and giving bonuses such as large lump sums of political power, spawning extra Carlist and Army of Africa divisions at the start of the civil war, setting garrison support in 7 states in the north of the country to ‘full’ (those historically seized by the Nationalists at the civil war’s start), and, eventually, choosing whether to include “Miss Canary Islands 1936” Francisco Franco (so named by the other plotting officers due to his indecisiveness on joining the rebellion) in the plans of the coup. Soon after the July 29th date, an event fires informing the player that the planning for the coup is now complete, and resources (read: political power gain) have to be spent on remaining hidden until the political instability in the country is ripe to sufficiently support a coup and ensure another failure like in 1932 does not happen. In addition to the ever-increasing Republican counter-preparations, which take a lot longer to get into full swing, this means that the optimal time to kick off the civil war as the Nationalists would be as soon as possible, in early August, as this is when they are at their strongest relative to the Republicans. Once started, the Nationalist side will be led by a Military Junta, of which the leadership remains to be asserted by any of the major parties...
The civil war triggers when the timer runs out, and rather than being represented simply by two civil war factions, we now use two separate tags, for reasons that will become clear later on in this dev diary. All states that fell under Total garrison control for the Nationalists will join that side, while all others will remain with the Republicans. However, states that have some level of Nationalist garrison control in between Total and None will spawn Nationalist divisions within them, depending on the level of control they had (there are four levels of control in total). This serves to greatly increase the chaotic start of the civil war, and for 7 days (preliminary duration) after the civil war the Nationalists receive a spirit “Planned Uprising”, greatly increasing their maximum days without supplies, allowing them to make the most of this time to achieve a ‘land grab’. After this, just as historically, the ‘frontlines solidify’. A terrain modifier is placed all over Spain greatly increasing defense, reducing movement speed, and reducing planning (these effects may change depending on testing). The idea is that this will greatly slow down the civil war, while also illustrating the historical nature of the civil war as “a bunch of soldiers sitting on hilltops staring angrily at each other”, with only the occasional well-planned and -prepared offensive, owing largely to the difficulty of sending equipment to the frontlines both sides experienced. A set of on-map decisions allows for the planning of offensives, which remove the modifier from an entire state, allowing for much faster-paced action here. Both sides are able to use these decisions.
The tree then opens up into a trio of choices representing the nature of the Nationalist uprising at the time. Broadly speaking, there were three different groups that banded together against the government: the Falange, the Carlists, and the military officers who had been disloyal ever since before the 1932 coup attempt.
Falange (Fascist) Branch
The Falange was a relatively new political movement, founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of old dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who ruled Spain between 1923 and 1930. José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s intent was a political movement that would oppose ‘both the Left and the Right’, and would organize the nation into a national syndicalist state as a third alternative to Capitalism and Communism. Many of the plotting military leadership had loyalties or sympathies towards the movement, but its rise was also the direct cause for the creation of the anti-fascist Popular Front that would win the 1936 elections. Primo de Rivera himself, leader and founder of the party, was arrested after the election for inflammatory speeches he made in the aftermath of the election and during the build-up to the civil war.
The Falange tree gives some opportunities for early infrastructure and military industry construction (uniquely even during the civil war), as well as the ability to have Fifth Columnists rise up in hostile territory to attack the enemy in the rear. This term actually stems from the Spanish Civil War itself, and so it felt appropriate to represent it in the focus tree. In addition, the Falange can request support from the Italians and Germans (provided these are also Fascist). The more important early orders of business are, however, ensuring the safe return of Primo de Rivera by means of a prisoner exchange, lest the Falange’s leader is executed by the Republican government. Before he may assume leadership, however, a temporary military government called The Directorate will be established, as planned by Emilio Mola, the Grand Architect of the uprising.
The final major hurdle during the civil war comes in the form of the Carlists, whose views are not necessarily compatible with those of the Falange. Upon selecting the Falangist path, a timer mission kicks off, counting down until the inevitable Carlist uprising-within-the-uprising, as the Carlists become increasingly aware of being sidelined in the Nationalist decision-making process and will not accept this. This uprising may be sped up by taking the focus Eliminate the Carlists, which will instantly start the uprising but also provides a temporary combat bonus against them, aiding in hopefully rooting them out quickly. The “uprising-within-the-uprising” will spawn a third Spanish tag (as both the Nationalists and the Republicans are already handled by different tags in the new system), which will gain territory in the north, mostly centered around Navarra (if this is controlled), and load its own Carlist focus tree which it may continue if it happens to win the war.
Once the civil war is won, the time comes to replace the temporary Directorate with a new National-Syndicalist State under the leadership of Primo de Rivera. From this point on the tree takes inspiration from the Falange’s “27 Points” manifesto. Examples are the syndicalization of industry and labor, the elimination of regional autonomies, mandatory pre-military training and service, the recreation of a powerful navy to empower the Spanish “will to Empire”, a “Spanish Destiny”, and, ultimately, the re-taking of old Spanish colonies, returning the nation to a status of World Power.
A final branch deals with industrial build-up, which, uniquely for Spain, takes place after the first war it has taken part in. To take this into consideration and allow Spain to ‘catch up’ a little, despite the years of early warfare, this ‘rebuilding’ branch is a little more powerful than that of other minor powers. The old Recovering From Civil War spirit has been expanded into a multi-level spirit with different levels of ‘penalties’, which must be removed through various focuses in this branch. These are tied in with either receiving economic aid from the Axis or the Allies, or attempting Autarky. For the Falange, joining the Allies is out of the question, and so the choice boils down to Axis or Autarky. In addition, however, a new “National Recovery” spirit is added that can end up giving significant bonuses to help a Spanish player get their economy and army in shape for the Next Conflict.
Carlist (Unaligned) Branch
The Carlists provide a more unique approach to HoI. As mentioned previously, Carlist sentiment was still very strong in Spain - especially in the North. They played an integral part in securing the area in the opening phase of the coup, owing largely to their main combat unit, the Requetés, which though relatively few in number were also relatively well-trained. Historically participation of the Carlists was negotiated by Mola in the build-up towards the civil war, but the Carlists themselves had already preparing for an uprising of their own for quite some time, in which the military was assumed to only play an ancillary role. After the start of the civil war, their leader, Manuel Fal Conde, realized the Carlists were increasingly being isolated from the Nationalist decision-making process, causing disgruntlement and enmity directed at the Falange.
This branch is unique on the Nationalist side in that, as the Carlists did not really have any international allies, it does not allow the player to request aid from abroad. The initial stages instead focus on securing the country’s North, as this was the historical power-base for the Carlis movement. At the same time, preparations must be made for the inevitable uprising-within-the-uprising against the Falange. Upon embarking upon this path, just as with the Falangist path, a timer mission appears, which, when reaching 0, will represent the Falangists ‘cracking down’ on the Carlists (much like what the actual focus in the Falangist path allows you to do). Various focuses allow you to prepare for this, however, by obtaining support of additional states or generals, as well as allowing you (much again like the Falangist version) to initiate the uprising yourself, providing you some temporary combat bonuses (this would be the focus that the Carlist Uprising mission for the Falange represents). Just like in the other branch, the Falangists are represented by a third unique tag on the map, at war with both the Carlists and the Republicans, and they load their own version of the Nationalist (Falangist) focus tree, which they may continue should they win the civil war.
Beyond this, the branch focuses on increasing the fanaticism of the Requetés, which historically considered the civil war as a form of ‘crusade’ against liberalism, democracy, and republicanism, and in defense of Christian values. Their faith in God and devotion to their King were paramount, and they even had priests accompany them on the battlefield to administer Last Rites while under fire. This branch, starting from The Crusade Against Democracy until Cultivate Fanaticism, allows to ‘super-power’ your divisions, which you will need because of the lacking industrial focuses and international allies in this tree.
Next is the question of who should inherit the Carlist claim, as the actual Carlist heir of the time, Alfonso Carlos, died heirless in 1936. His appointed successor was Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, but as this was not technically the same dynasty it divided Carlist supporters. Some argued they should now support the claim of the old monarch, Alfonso XIII, instead, even if this was the line the Carlists had been fighting with for generations. The decision of who to support is left to the player. Finally, the tree deals with the re-establishment of the Monarchy, as well as the restoration of the old Spanish possessions: France (which may also be peacefully ‘united’ if the player selects Alfonso XIII or his son as Carlist monarch and the French player/AI has also selected the Legitimist monarchy branch, as the claimant for both of these paths is the same!), the Spanish Netherlands, the Iberian Union, Gibraltar, and, last but not least, a great War of Vengeance to avenge the disaster of ‘98 and reclaim the Spanish colonies.
Francoist/Military (Unaligned) Branch
The final branch of the Nationalist focus tree takes the perspective of the third and final major group within the faction: the Military - specifically a Military Junta that has elected to invite Franco’s participation. This is the historical branch for the Nationalists, though it has ample opportunities for ahistorical what-ifs. And as the more historically-literate among you might already have pondered; the Nationalists in fact did not experience an “uprising-within-the-uprising”, as has been represented in the other two branches. And so, this branch is the only one that allows a player to prevent the Falange-Carlist antagonism from escalating into full-blown violence, largely thanks to Franco’s quite frankly expert manipulations, ‘divide and rule’ politics, and appropriation of elements from both sides’ ideologies. To better illustrate this, Francoism is no longer a Fascist faction by default, but instead is Unaligned, with the option of becoming Fascist if the player should elect to side with the Axis.
Just as the other branches, upon embarking on this branch a timer mission appears, counting down for a Carlist uprising (assuming Franco would side along with the majority of the military leaders with the Falange). However, unlike the Falange path, focuses exist to delay this uprising. Historically this involved Franco playing various Carlist regional groups off against one another, subverting Carlist and Falangist authority, conveniently allowing the proposed prisoner exchange for Primo de Rivera to ‘fail’ so that one of Franco’s biggest rivals was executed and yet could be used as a martyr for the cause at the same time, and ultimately banishing the leaders from both parties. Eventually, the player can even outright prevent the uprising from happening altogether, which was done historically with the merger of the Falangist Falange Española de las JONS party and the Carlist Communion party into the… well… Falange Española de las JONS (post-1937), using elements from both sides to form an ideology both groups could (or well, were forced to…) compromise on. However, these focuses depend on being able to make quick gains in the civil war to secure critical areas (Toledo province, the entire North, etc. etc.) that in turn open up the focuses required. As a result, a civil war that goes poorly for Franco may rapidly spiral out of control, as they will be prevented from taking the critical focuses to stop the Carlist uprising.
Additional aid for this task may be obtained from abroad, as the Francoists share the Falangist branch for support from Italy and Germany, share the use of the Requetés with the Carlists, and also have a unique branch obtaining support from the Portuguese. After the civil war, this branch expands into the Iberian Pact, agreeing that both sides will always join the same side in any war or faction they join (enforced via on_action events), and eventually the ability to create their own faction with the addition of (Vichy) France and Italy; a “Latin Bloc”.
After the Alcazar has been saved (or if it never was sieged in the first place), Franco becomes de facto leader of the Nationalists. After this, branches are shared with both the Falangists and Carlists again, illustrating Franco’s appropriation of various parts of these factions’ ideologies to support his own position. The entire industrial rebuilding branch is available to Franco, but he is also able to join the Allies, something the Falangists themselves are not. Doing this allows for the most powerful recovery plan available to the nationalists, essentially speeding up the historical “Spanish Miracle” by implementing its policies up to 15 years earlier. Of course, this comes at the cost of selling your soul to the Allies.
Finally, the player may adopt Franco’s “26 Points” manifesto (identical to the Falangist’s “27 Points” manifesto, with simply the convenient exclusion of the singular point prohibiting the merger of political parties… No, you can’t make this stuff up… ), after which they may decide to re-establish the monarchy with Alfonso XIII (or, if he has died already, his heir) or maintain Franco as Dictator for Life (historical). After this, sending volunteers to Germany in their fight against the Soviet Union and ‘occupying’ the Tangiers enclave (not represented on the map) lead to focuses to demand North Africa from the weak French, retaking Gibraltar from the British, and finally seizing West Africa (which may not necessarily be owned by the same France as North Africa…)
Post-Civil War Recovery Mechanics
One element all branches will share is a tie-in with the Resistance system, as detailed in previous dev diaries. Historically, Franco struggled with guerilla warfare and resistance remaining spread throughout the Spanish countryside for decades after the civil war. This peaked with the Invasion of Valle de Aran by Republican exiles from the French border in 1944. This is presently still under development, but the idea is that both factions lose cores on the territory they did not start the civil war with, and have to “re-core” this land via decisions in the aftermath of the civil war, symbolizing the systematic rooting-out of Republican resistance.
As this is presently in development I have no pictures to show of this, however, I do have something else to treat you to (which the keen-eyed among you may have already noticed)...
Iberian Map Changes
To increase granularity and aid in the state-specific offensive system the map of Spain has been reworked. 7 new states have been added to Spain (Salamanca, Cordoba, Asturias, Valladolid, Basque Country, Guadalajara, Eastern Aragon), various others have been split and/or renamed, and a multitude of provinces have been added or reshaped. In addition, I have taken care of a few of my (or other team members’) pet peeves: the ludicrously-oversized Gibraltar province has been drastically reduced in size, the new state Santarem has been split off from the previously far-too-large Beja state in Portugal, the Iberia air zone has been divided into three, and a new air zone Western France has been split off from Northern and Southern France.
And to compare to the old:
Everything discussed in this dev diary (map changes excluded) is a part of the paid content of the as-yet-unnanounced DLC, and for those who do not buy it the Civil War will continue to work as it currently does. Map changes will naturally be available to everyone, even those who do not buy the DLC.
That’s all for today! I hope you’ll join me next week as we take a look at the all-new focus tree for the Spanish Republicans. I will leave you all with a small teaser…
Design Intent
The Spanish Civil War is perhaps the single most important event occurring in the game’s build-up phase, but it is often over in the blink of an eye. In addition, aside from the likes of perhaps Turkey and Brazil, Spain is also strategically one of the most fun nations to play, as you have a decent powerbase from which to expand, after the aforementioned civil war.
In fact, the Spanish Civil War was such an important historical event that we have accorded Spain with special attention and, in what is our biggest Focus Tree project to date, made not one, but two full-sized Spanish Focus Trees; one for each side in the civil war - to fully encapsulate the sheer complexity and, dare I say, chaotic madness of the period. This allows us to much better take into account all the different possible political outlooks for a Spanish nation, depending on who wins the Civil War. While these trees are entirely new in the sense that Spain did not yet have a focus tree, they are also a rework in the sense that the civil war was previously already represented in the game. However, this representation suffered from various issues:
- The civil war suffered from normal gameplay causing it to be over far too quickly.
- The civil war was overly simplified to deal with constraints placed upon it by core game mechanics.
- The start of the civil was fully random and the player had no way of knowing when it was likely to appear, nor did they have any way to control this.
To delve a bit further into the first point, an experienced player might be able to finish the civil war within just a couple of months, and even the less-experienced players would almost never come even close to the historical duration of nearly 3 years. This caused problems with other focus trees, as various nations that have focuses to intervene in the civil war (such as France) could find themselves into a situation where they were unable to use these. If a nation had just selected a focus before the civil war started, it could take a total of 140 days to finish the focus that was started and then finish the Intervention focus as well. Add to this Volunteer travel time, and it was fully possible for the civil war to have already ended before volunteers even arrived. Adding cancellable focuses later reduced this, but still did not eliminate the problem.
The purpose of the design for the new Spanish trees was thus four-fold:
- Lengthen the duration of the civil war using artificial means, to allow this period to be better represented in the focus tree, and allow other nations time to intervene.
- Use dedicated time to truly flesh out the rich flavor and history during this period and do some of the weirder stories from the civil war justice.
- Increase player control over and predictability of the start of the civil war.
- Give Spain new build-up and goals to achieve after the conclusion of the civil war, involving it into the larger world conflict in due time.
Still under development, much of the art is still under production, values and even systems may end up changing as a result of testing, yada yada. You guys should know the routine by now
That being said, let’s delve into it:
Nationalist Spain Starting Situation
Spain in 1936 is a nation at the precipice. In the century preceding the game’s start date the country only experienced brief periods of relative peace, interspersed with long periods of extreme political instability and violent upheaval. In 1830, in a surprising deviation from Salic law, the ageing king Ferdinand VII named as successor not his brother Infante Carlos, but instead his daughter Isabella II. For the next four decades, supporters of Infante Carlos, called Carlists, would start multiple civil wars in an attempt to reinstate the (in their view) rightful line of succession and annul this Pragmatic Sanction. Though victorious, Isabella II, herself, would be ousted in a Republican rebellion in 1868, after which the First Spanish Republic was declared. This, itself, only lasted 6 years before the return to monarchy, though Isabella had abdicated by this point. Next, almost at the turn of the century, 1898 saw the disastrous Spanish-American war in which Spain’s navy was crippled and much of its remaining colonial influence dismantled, leaving it with only its few African colonies. The national shock that this caused eventually resulted in the “Reformation”, culminating in a coup and the creation of a dictatorship under Miguel Primo de Rivera. This, in turn, more or less dissolved peacefully in 1930, when it was replaced by the Second Republic. Another coup attempt by a disloyal military in 1932 and a violent revolutionary Miners’ Strike in 1934, in the beating down of which Franco played a key role, complete this abridged list of Spanish disasters.
In the game, the situation is represented by various national spirits, representing the various challenges the government is faced with:
- Carlism; though their uprisings were repeatedly beaten down over the course of the 19th century, Carlist sentiment is still very much alive and kicking, and their Requetés continue to train in preparation for the inevitable uprising… This Spirit steadily ticks down stability, increases ticking Unaligned support slightly, and reduces attack and defense values for divisions, representing Carlist elements within the military not following orders.
- Military Disloyalty; ever since the failed 1932 Sanjurjada uprising, the military has been plotting… The government is aware of this to some degree, and interfering too directly with army matters may well spark another uprising. The trick is to prepare while avoiding kicking the proverbial hornets’ nest… This Spirit locks all division templates, preventing changes from being made to them, new units being produced from them, or existing units being deleted.
- Political Violence; Spanish society has been, and continues to be, marred by political violence. This is only increasing in severity as 1936 progresses. This Spirit reduces stability.
- National Strikes; the political Left is increasingly organizing national strikes to pressure the government into accepting communist or anarchist reforms, while also doing their best at opposing the rise of fascism domestically. This Spirit reduces stability, construction speed, and factory and dockyard outputs.
In addition, various states (Galicia, Basque Country, and Catalonia) begin the game with a “Statute of Autonomy”, reducing maximum buildable factories, recruitable population, available resources, and construction speed in that state. Various focuses in the tree remove this.
Early on in the design phase it was decided that there should be no way to avoid the civil war. It would cause far too many edge-cases that would have to be solved, it makes no historical sense (Spain’s political landscape was already far too divided and polarized at the time of HoI4’s start date), and the civil war is quite frankly far too important for the early-game in HoI4. Accordingly, as you load up the focus tree in the game you are presented with only a single choice: do I go with the Nationalists or the Republicans?
Your choice has no impact on the results of the February 15 1936 elections (as even historically, despite vastly superior resources and a much greater election campaign compared to the Popular Front, the CEDA (alliance of right-wing parties) still lost the election) but it does decide who you will play as henceforth. This dev diary focuses specifically on the new focus tree for the Nationalists, and so we will look at things from their perspective.
Historically, in the period directly after the electoral victory of the Popular Front, political violence began to escalate while disloyal elements of the military, many of whom had been participants of the 1932 failed Sanjurjada uprising and had since lived in exile in Portugal, began to plot yet another coup attempt. The failure of this coup is what subsequently resulted in the civil war. In the new Nationalist tree this is represented by a number of decisions and missions that become available upon conclusion of the elections.
The first of these is a ticking counter, lasting a base of 250 days, and triggering the civil war when it times out. (1. In the picture)
A second is a series of missions that represent the ‘focuses’ the other side (in this case the Republicans) are taking in their own preparation for the civil war. This allows the player to keep track of what is happening. (2. In the picture)
Thirdly, a set of decisions become available tying into the whole atmosphere of political violence, allowing the player to speed up the start of the civil war (represented by reducing the number of days remaining on the civil war start timer mission), while, conversely, the ‘other side’ generates periodic missions that instead delay the start of the civil war, attempting to buy themselves more time before it begins. (3. In the picture)
And finally, repeatable on-map decisions appear on all Spanish core states, allowing you to expand influence in garrisons or even outright claim them to be added to your side upon the start of the civil war, if your influence is high enough. (4. In the picture)
As the above decision system currently functions (subject to change), the very earliest it is possible to start the civil war is in early August, and, assuming the player does nothing, the very latest is in early 1937, which gives the Republicans the time they need to complete every one of their possible preparations.
The Nationalist focus tree, after the initial choice, continues with a single path of 6 focuses (two of which are mutually-exclusive). Each of these lasts for only 35 days, resulting in full completion of this initial branch by July 29th, and giving bonuses such as large lump sums of political power, spawning extra Carlist and Army of Africa divisions at the start of the civil war, setting garrison support in 7 states in the north of the country to ‘full’ (those historically seized by the Nationalists at the civil war’s start), and, eventually, choosing whether to include “Miss Canary Islands 1936” Francisco Franco (so named by the other plotting officers due to his indecisiveness on joining the rebellion) in the plans of the coup. Soon after the July 29th date, an event fires informing the player that the planning for the coup is now complete, and resources (read: political power gain) have to be spent on remaining hidden until the political instability in the country is ripe to sufficiently support a coup and ensure another failure like in 1932 does not happen. In addition to the ever-increasing Republican counter-preparations, which take a lot longer to get into full swing, this means that the optimal time to kick off the civil war as the Nationalists would be as soon as possible, in early August, as this is when they are at their strongest relative to the Republicans. Once started, the Nationalist side will be led by a Military Junta, of which the leadership remains to be asserted by any of the major parties...
The civil war triggers when the timer runs out, and rather than being represented simply by two civil war factions, we now use two separate tags, for reasons that will become clear later on in this dev diary. All states that fell under Total garrison control for the Nationalists will join that side, while all others will remain with the Republicans. However, states that have some level of Nationalist garrison control in between Total and None will spawn Nationalist divisions within them, depending on the level of control they had (there are four levels of control in total). This serves to greatly increase the chaotic start of the civil war, and for 7 days (preliminary duration) after the civil war the Nationalists receive a spirit “Planned Uprising”, greatly increasing their maximum days without supplies, allowing them to make the most of this time to achieve a ‘land grab’. After this, just as historically, the ‘frontlines solidify’. A terrain modifier is placed all over Spain greatly increasing defense, reducing movement speed, and reducing planning (these effects may change depending on testing). The idea is that this will greatly slow down the civil war, while also illustrating the historical nature of the civil war as “a bunch of soldiers sitting on hilltops staring angrily at each other”, with only the occasional well-planned and -prepared offensive, owing largely to the difficulty of sending equipment to the frontlines both sides experienced. A set of on-map decisions allows for the planning of offensives, which remove the modifier from an entire state, allowing for much faster-paced action here. Both sides are able to use these decisions.
The tree then opens up into a trio of choices representing the nature of the Nationalist uprising at the time. Broadly speaking, there were three different groups that banded together against the government: the Falange, the Carlists, and the military officers who had been disloyal ever since before the 1932 coup attempt.
Falange (Fascist) Branch
The Falange was a relatively new political movement, founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of old dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, who ruled Spain between 1923 and 1930. José Antonio Primo de Rivera’s intent was a political movement that would oppose ‘both the Left and the Right’, and would organize the nation into a national syndicalist state as a third alternative to Capitalism and Communism. Many of the plotting military leadership had loyalties or sympathies towards the movement, but its rise was also the direct cause for the creation of the anti-fascist Popular Front that would win the 1936 elections. Primo de Rivera himself, leader and founder of the party, was arrested after the election for inflammatory speeches he made in the aftermath of the election and during the build-up to the civil war.
The Falange tree gives some opportunities for early infrastructure and military industry construction (uniquely even during the civil war), as well as the ability to have Fifth Columnists rise up in hostile territory to attack the enemy in the rear. This term actually stems from the Spanish Civil War itself, and so it felt appropriate to represent it in the focus tree. In addition, the Falange can request support from the Italians and Germans (provided these are also Fascist). The more important early orders of business are, however, ensuring the safe return of Primo de Rivera by means of a prisoner exchange, lest the Falange’s leader is executed by the Republican government. Before he may assume leadership, however, a temporary military government called The Directorate will be established, as planned by Emilio Mola, the Grand Architect of the uprising.
The final major hurdle during the civil war comes in the form of the Carlists, whose views are not necessarily compatible with those of the Falange. Upon selecting the Falangist path, a timer mission kicks off, counting down until the inevitable Carlist uprising-within-the-uprising, as the Carlists become increasingly aware of being sidelined in the Nationalist decision-making process and will not accept this. This uprising may be sped up by taking the focus Eliminate the Carlists, which will instantly start the uprising but also provides a temporary combat bonus against them, aiding in hopefully rooting them out quickly. The “uprising-within-the-uprising” will spawn a third Spanish tag (as both the Nationalists and the Republicans are already handled by different tags in the new system), which will gain territory in the north, mostly centered around Navarra (if this is controlled), and load its own Carlist focus tree which it may continue if it happens to win the war.
Once the civil war is won, the time comes to replace the temporary Directorate with a new National-Syndicalist State under the leadership of Primo de Rivera. From this point on the tree takes inspiration from the Falange’s “27 Points” manifesto. Examples are the syndicalization of industry and labor, the elimination of regional autonomies, mandatory pre-military training and service, the recreation of a powerful navy to empower the Spanish “will to Empire”, a “Spanish Destiny”, and, ultimately, the re-taking of old Spanish colonies, returning the nation to a status of World Power.
A final branch deals with industrial build-up, which, uniquely for Spain, takes place after the first war it has taken part in. To take this into consideration and allow Spain to ‘catch up’ a little, despite the years of early warfare, this ‘rebuilding’ branch is a little more powerful than that of other minor powers. The old Recovering From Civil War spirit has been expanded into a multi-level spirit with different levels of ‘penalties’, which must be removed through various focuses in this branch. These are tied in with either receiving economic aid from the Axis or the Allies, or attempting Autarky. For the Falange, joining the Allies is out of the question, and so the choice boils down to Axis or Autarky. In addition, however, a new “National Recovery” spirit is added that can end up giving significant bonuses to help a Spanish player get their economy and army in shape for the Next Conflict.
Carlist (Unaligned) Branch
The Carlists provide a more unique approach to HoI. As mentioned previously, Carlist sentiment was still very strong in Spain - especially in the North. They played an integral part in securing the area in the opening phase of the coup, owing largely to their main combat unit, the Requetés, which though relatively few in number were also relatively well-trained. Historically participation of the Carlists was negotiated by Mola in the build-up towards the civil war, but the Carlists themselves had already preparing for an uprising of their own for quite some time, in which the military was assumed to only play an ancillary role. After the start of the civil war, their leader, Manuel Fal Conde, realized the Carlists were increasingly being isolated from the Nationalist decision-making process, causing disgruntlement and enmity directed at the Falange.
This branch is unique on the Nationalist side in that, as the Carlists did not really have any international allies, it does not allow the player to request aid from abroad. The initial stages instead focus on securing the country’s North, as this was the historical power-base for the Carlis movement. At the same time, preparations must be made for the inevitable uprising-within-the-uprising against the Falange. Upon embarking upon this path, just as with the Falangist path, a timer mission appears, which, when reaching 0, will represent the Falangists ‘cracking down’ on the Carlists (much like what the actual focus in the Falangist path allows you to do). Various focuses allow you to prepare for this, however, by obtaining support of additional states or generals, as well as allowing you (much again like the Falangist version) to initiate the uprising yourself, providing you some temporary combat bonuses (this would be the focus that the Carlist Uprising mission for the Falange represents). Just like in the other branch, the Falangists are represented by a third unique tag on the map, at war with both the Carlists and the Republicans, and they load their own version of the Nationalist (Falangist) focus tree, which they may continue should they win the civil war.
Beyond this, the branch focuses on increasing the fanaticism of the Requetés, which historically considered the civil war as a form of ‘crusade’ against liberalism, democracy, and republicanism, and in defense of Christian values. Their faith in God and devotion to their King were paramount, and they even had priests accompany them on the battlefield to administer Last Rites while under fire. This branch, starting from The Crusade Against Democracy until Cultivate Fanaticism, allows to ‘super-power’ your divisions, which you will need because of the lacking industrial focuses and international allies in this tree.
Next is the question of who should inherit the Carlist claim, as the actual Carlist heir of the time, Alfonso Carlos, died heirless in 1936. His appointed successor was Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, but as this was not technically the same dynasty it divided Carlist supporters. Some argued they should now support the claim of the old monarch, Alfonso XIII, instead, even if this was the line the Carlists had been fighting with for generations. The decision of who to support is left to the player. Finally, the tree deals with the re-establishment of the Monarchy, as well as the restoration of the old Spanish possessions: France (which may also be peacefully ‘united’ if the player selects Alfonso XIII or his son as Carlist monarch and the French player/AI has also selected the Legitimist monarchy branch, as the claimant for both of these paths is the same!), the Spanish Netherlands, the Iberian Union, Gibraltar, and, last but not least, a great War of Vengeance to avenge the disaster of ‘98 and reclaim the Spanish colonies.
Francoist/Military (Unaligned) Branch
The final branch of the Nationalist focus tree takes the perspective of the third and final major group within the faction: the Military - specifically a Military Junta that has elected to invite Franco’s participation. This is the historical branch for the Nationalists, though it has ample opportunities for ahistorical what-ifs. And as the more historically-literate among you might already have pondered; the Nationalists in fact did not experience an “uprising-within-the-uprising”, as has been represented in the other two branches. And so, this branch is the only one that allows a player to prevent the Falange-Carlist antagonism from escalating into full-blown violence, largely thanks to Franco’s quite frankly expert manipulations, ‘divide and rule’ politics, and appropriation of elements from both sides’ ideologies. To better illustrate this, Francoism is no longer a Fascist faction by default, but instead is Unaligned, with the option of becoming Fascist if the player should elect to side with the Axis.
Just as the other branches, upon embarking on this branch a timer mission appears, counting down for a Carlist uprising (assuming Franco would side along with the majority of the military leaders with the Falange). However, unlike the Falange path, focuses exist to delay this uprising. Historically this involved Franco playing various Carlist regional groups off against one another, subverting Carlist and Falangist authority, conveniently allowing the proposed prisoner exchange for Primo de Rivera to ‘fail’ so that one of Franco’s biggest rivals was executed and yet could be used as a martyr for the cause at the same time, and ultimately banishing the leaders from both parties. Eventually, the player can even outright prevent the uprising from happening altogether, which was done historically with the merger of the Falangist Falange Española de las JONS party and the Carlist Communion party into the… well… Falange Española de las JONS (post-1937), using elements from both sides to form an ideology both groups could (or well, were forced to…) compromise on. However, these focuses depend on being able to make quick gains in the civil war to secure critical areas (Toledo province, the entire North, etc. etc.) that in turn open up the focuses required. As a result, a civil war that goes poorly for Franco may rapidly spiral out of control, as they will be prevented from taking the critical focuses to stop the Carlist uprising.
Additional aid for this task may be obtained from abroad, as the Francoists share the Falangist branch for support from Italy and Germany, share the use of the Requetés with the Carlists, and also have a unique branch obtaining support from the Portuguese. After the civil war, this branch expands into the Iberian Pact, agreeing that both sides will always join the same side in any war or faction they join (enforced via on_action events), and eventually the ability to create their own faction with the addition of (Vichy) France and Italy; a “Latin Bloc”.
After the Alcazar has been saved (or if it never was sieged in the first place), Franco becomes de facto leader of the Nationalists. After this, branches are shared with both the Falangists and Carlists again, illustrating Franco’s appropriation of various parts of these factions’ ideologies to support his own position. The entire industrial rebuilding branch is available to Franco, but he is also able to join the Allies, something the Falangists themselves are not. Doing this allows for the most powerful recovery plan available to the nationalists, essentially speeding up the historical “Spanish Miracle” by implementing its policies up to 15 years earlier. Of course, this comes at the cost of selling your soul to the Allies.
Finally, the player may adopt Franco’s “26 Points” manifesto (identical to the Falangist’s “27 Points” manifesto, with simply the convenient exclusion of the singular point prohibiting the merger of political parties… No, you can’t make this stuff up… ), after which they may decide to re-establish the monarchy with Alfonso XIII (or, if he has died already, his heir) or maintain Franco as Dictator for Life (historical). After this, sending volunteers to Germany in their fight against the Soviet Union and ‘occupying’ the Tangiers enclave (not represented on the map) lead to focuses to demand North Africa from the weak French, retaking Gibraltar from the British, and finally seizing West Africa (which may not necessarily be owned by the same France as North Africa…)
Post-Civil War Recovery Mechanics
One element all branches will share is a tie-in with the Resistance system, as detailed in previous dev diaries. Historically, Franco struggled with guerilla warfare and resistance remaining spread throughout the Spanish countryside for decades after the civil war. This peaked with the Invasion of Valle de Aran by Republican exiles from the French border in 1944. This is presently still under development, but the idea is that both factions lose cores on the territory they did not start the civil war with, and have to “re-core” this land via decisions in the aftermath of the civil war, symbolizing the systematic rooting-out of Republican resistance.
As this is presently in development I have no pictures to show of this, however, I do have something else to treat you to (which the keen-eyed among you may have already noticed)...
Iberian Map Changes
To increase granularity and aid in the state-specific offensive system the map of Spain has been reworked. 7 new states have been added to Spain (Salamanca, Cordoba, Asturias, Valladolid, Basque Country, Guadalajara, Eastern Aragon), various others have been split and/or renamed, and a multitude of provinces have been added or reshaped. In addition, I have taken care of a few of my (or other team members’) pet peeves: the ludicrously-oversized Gibraltar province has been drastically reduced in size, the new state Santarem has been split off from the previously far-too-large Beja state in Portugal, the Iberia air zone has been divided into three, and a new air zone Western France has been split off from Northern and Southern France.
And to compare to the old:
Everything discussed in this dev diary (map changes excluded) is a part of the paid content of the as-yet-unnanounced DLC, and for those who do not buy it the Civil War will continue to work as it currently does. Map changes will naturally be available to everyone, even those who do not buy the DLC.
That’s all for today! I hope you’ll join me next week as we take a look at the all-new focus tree for the Spanish Republicans. I will leave you all with a small teaser…
Not sure if incline or decline.
Life of the Party
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Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Still a bit too unstable and buggy to really play right now (not to mention holes in basic polish like text for every focus), but Red Flood's definitely one of the more interesting scenarios to come out. Simply more work to be done, but the concept is promising.
Life of the Party
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Tried the Flintstones.
There should probably be a separate foreign policy tree for them because after destroying everything I was basically gifted Wallonia which provided me with its own factories and enabled me to rebuild my country. I hope that's not working as intended.
At the same time I wouldn't mind seeing them get extra supply consumption and attrition bonuses as well as massive bonuses for certain terrain types and maluses for others. Something like forest, jungle, marsh, hills, mountains VS urban, plains, deserts. The terrain type bonuses are severely underused in both the base game and all the mods I've played, and I don't even remember ever encountering a malus.
I also tried a bit of Germany and it felt like playing the Imperium of Man in the Unification Wars mod. They start with a few extra technologies and can get to six research slots almost instantly. And then they get plus infinity to everything with a huge manpower pool and the Luxemburg Doctrine giving them cores on all of Europe and a non-core manpower boost.
Finally, I hope they'll do something fun with the Order of the Star, Theosophical Society's Orissa led by Jiddu Krishnamurti. The Blavatsky Doctrine giving you cores on Atlantis and things of that nature.
There should probably be a separate foreign policy tree for them because after destroying everything I was basically gifted Wallonia which provided me with its own factories and enabled me to rebuild my country. I hope that's not working as intended.
At the same time I wouldn't mind seeing them get extra supply consumption and attrition bonuses as well as massive bonuses for certain terrain types and maluses for others. Something like forest, jungle, marsh, hills, mountains VS urban, plains, deserts. The terrain type bonuses are severely underused in both the base game and all the mods I've played, and I don't even remember ever encountering a malus.
I also tried a bit of Germany and it felt like playing the Imperium of Man in the Unification Wars mod. They start with a few extra technologies and can get to six research slots almost instantly. And then they get plus infinity to everything with a huge manpower pool and the Luxemburg Doctrine giving them cores on all of Europe and a non-core manpower boost.
Finally, I hope they'll do something fun with the Order of the Star, Theosophical Society's Orissa led by Jiddu Krishnamurti. The Blavatsky Doctrine giving you cores on Atlantis and things of that nature.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Yea there's a bit too many "+100%" sort of ideas in the trees right now, it's good that they aren't obsessed with being absolutely balanced in a specific way like KR is nowadays, but it's just completely wacky right now in Red Flood. Wacky in the wrong sense there, I do hope that the trees and events themselves stay as wacky as they are now because it's a really refreshing scenario and one that's surprisingly okay with world conquest paths instead of getting mad at you for doing too well like KR.
Also while 'techno-cuck' is a hilarious word, I do feel that the National Surrealist France focus tree gets a little too memey with its text at times.
Also while 'techno-cuck' is a hilarious word, I do feel that the National Surrealist France focus tree gets a little too memey with its text at times.
Life of the Party
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Wyatt_Derp
Arcane
National Surrealist France. The national policy that allows you to surrender before the war even starts.
Life of the Party
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Life of the Party
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Looks like we'll get Yuteslavia.
Tesla was pretty old by then so I presume he found a way to transcend mortality.
Tesla was pretty old by then so I presume he found a way to transcend mortality.
Life of the Party
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Make sure your armies ain't assigned to any line or battle plans, from the sounds of it either they are assigned to a line and thus ai keeps shifting units around and fighting your commands. But yeah 100% manual control is definitely possible with no mods.
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Only consideration is just picking a Land Doctrine that isn't Grand Battle Plan.
IHaveHugeNick
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You can control everything manually, but most people just micro the breakthroughs and encirclements. Microing the whole army is just not needed to beat AI. So you will just make the game excessively slow and tedious for no gain.
Space Satan
Arcane
DD Rep Spain
Hola everyone, and welcome to yet another dev diary on the upcoming DLC for HoI4, where we’ll be talking about the second entirely new focus tree: Republican Spain.
Last week we talked a little bit about the design intent for Spain as a whole - so today we will move straight on to the interesting stuff
Obligatory Disclaimer:
This is still a work-in-progress, and much of the art, systems and balancing is/are not yet finished! You guys know the drill
Republican Spain Starting Situation
The starting position for Republican Spain is, naturally, the same as that for the Nationalists. They begin with the same 4 spirits, signifying the influence of Carlism, the Military’s disloyalty, and the political violence and strikes that are escalating in the initial half of 1936 (see our previous dev diary for more information on these).
The same initial choice is present at the start of the game, but instead of selecting A Great Spain, we will now go with The Popular Front.
The Popular Front was a loose alliance of political parties that were only really united in their opposition of Fascism. The idea of a Popular Front was formulated by Stalin in the mid-1930s, suggesting that the rapid growth of Fascism required a more unified response than Communism alone could provide. Effectively, it gave permission to subordinate Communist parties to band together with less extreme socialist parties, and even outright bourgeois parties, solely to combat Fascism in national politics. In Spain, the Popular Front that opposed the Fascist/Traditionalist CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights - sometimes called the “Nationalist Front”) consisted of a variety of liberal, socialist, and communist parties, the most important of which (for the purposes of this diary) are the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), and the Republican Left (IR). This coalition was also supported by regional nationalists and the Anarchist Trade Unions CNT/FAI. This coalition paid off, and despite massive resources and an overwhelming election campaign by the CEDA, the Popular Front won the 1936 Spanish elections.
This victory was to be short-lived, however. Unbeknownst to the Republicans, in the aftermath of the failed elections the CEDA would hand over their sizeable campaign chest to the plotting military leaders to finance a rebellion, and political violence from both sides would escalate in the coming months. As with the Nationalist side, this is represented by various decisions and missions. The sole distinction is the change in perspective. As all state garrisons are initially fully controlled by the Republican side anyway (they all begin with a Nationalist control of None), the garrison control decisions are unavailable until the Nationalist side has begun contesting Republican control in any location. From that point on, it becomes possible to attempt to flip them back.
A second point that sets the Republicans apart from their Nationalist adversaries are the nature of their focuses. The full pre-Civil War path for the Nationalists has a total duration of 210 days to complete, which means that, as long as a player continuously takes focuses, they are guaranteed to finish the whole path before the civil can start, even at the soonest start date. Not so for the Republicans. Republican pre-Civil War focuses (after the initial choice) last twice as long as their adversaries’, resulting in a total duration of 385 days to fully complete this path (therefore requiring the civil war to be delayed until after January 20, 1937). This should immediately make it obvious why it is advantageous for the Nationalists to begin the civil war as soon as possible - this will ensure the Republicans will only have time to complete their first two focuses. And as the impact of the Republican focuses progressively increases, this vastly weakens the initial position for the Republicans, relative to the Nationalists.
As the Civil War starts, the Republican side begins with all states that do not have Total Nationalist garrison control. However, states where the Nationalists have more control than the Republicans will spawn more Nationalist troops, making it likely that these will be lost soon afterwards. In addition, the Carlism Spirit is no longer relevant for the Republicans from this point on, and is removed, while a new Spirit Disbanded Army is added (again, regardless of whether Disband the Army as a focus is taken or not), representing the (quite frankly) disastrous impact the disbanding of the army historically had on the first months of the Republican war effort. Various focuses in the different branches diminish and remove this Spirit. Beyond this, the same Offensives decisions are available to the Republicans, as are available to the Nationalists (see more information about this again in our previous dev diary).
The Republican faction begins the civil war as Democratic, but as a whole it is even more internally divided than the Nationalists. Not three, but four different Republican factions vie for control of post-Civil War Spain, and this fight for supremacy will likely result into internal fracturing and outright violence even during the Civil War.
Republican (Democratic) Branch
The Second Republic at the start of the Civil War struggled to defend itself against the rebellion, while also maintaining cohesion and singularity of purpose within the faction itself. On the one hand, the communist and anarchist militias that supported the Popular Front played a key role in preventing the outright success of the initial coup attempt in the first place, and they were invaluable to the Republican war effort in the opening months of the Civil War, when the government was in the process of recreating a new army after disbanding the old. On the other hand, these groups also had wildly differing viewpoints on how the post-Civil War society should be structured, and idealism and fanaticism on all sides could easily bloom into violence. Historically, major influence came from the Soviet Union, which provided the Republic with much-needed weapons and equipment, but also meddled extensively in internal affairs, attempting to root out any Communists who might be critical of Stalin’s leadership. Ultimately, this would serve to completely undermine the war effort, resulting in the virtual elimination of two of the Front’s four (broadly-speaking) distinct groups as active participants in the Civil War, not by Nationalist doing, but by their own hands.
One of the major issues facing the Democratic government of the Second Republic involves the recreation of a proper army, reducing reliance on idealistic and undisciplined militias that is represented in the Disbanded Army Spirit. Others deal with stemming the flow of the Nationalist advance, fortifying the various cities and towns in their path, and especially fortifying the Republican foothold in the Basque Country (if this is controlled at the Civil War’s start). But above all, the single biggest threat facing the government in the short term is the inevitable uprising of the Anarchist and Independent Communist militias (always represented as Anarchists if this uprising occurs from the Democratic/Stalinist perspective), as Stalinist meddling and manipulations will eventually break down all remnants of trust within these groups and the government. This uprising may be delayed through the Anti-Fascist Unity focus and the decisions it unlocks, but these can only delay it somewhat, and never prevent it. They are only intended as a desperate measure if you really cannot afford the uprising right then. Just as with the Falangist and Carlists paths we discussed last week, a focus Crush the Revolution exists that will immediately trigger the civil-war-within-the-civil-war and provide a temporary combat bonus against them.
Together with Relocate the Gold Reserves, crushing the Anarchists and Independent Communists is a requirement for opening up the possibility of much larger Soviet aid than initially offered. This aid consists of various combat modifiers, tech bonuses, increased Volunteer caps for the Soviet Union, construction bonuses, and even tech sharing. It also opens up for a powerful Soviet Aid post-Civil War recovery branch. While powerful, as all this aid comes at a price, however… Stalinist control over the government will increase, and while moving the Gold Reserves abroad may keep them out of the hands of the Nationalists, it will not keep them safe from foreign seizure… Going down this path will result in the Second Republic being puppeted by the Soviet Union upon the conclusion of the civil war, and they will be unlikely to release their control over the country willingly…
Regardless of whether the player decides to pursue this aid, they will need to manage the influence of the Stalinists on their own government. It is possible to maintain true to the Democratic principles on which the Second Republic was based, but this will come at the cost of combat penalties that may well prove to be problematic during the Civil War - the Communists were an integral part of the anti-Fascist fight, after all. However, staying true to your Democratic foundations will allow you to eventually subvert Soviet control even if you pursued Soviet aid previously and were puppeted as a result. This finally opens up into a branch where, now that the Fascists have been defeated, Spain may fight a final War of Independence against the Communists and the Soviet Union, to finally earn their deserved freedom. In this, they may either seek membership of the Allies, or strike a pragmatic Deal with the Devil and request military aid from those who have experience in fighting the Soviets - the very same people who opposed them during the Civil War: Germany and Italy.
It is also possible to give in to the Stalinist pressure, and focus on defeating Fascism, even at the cost of Democratic principles. If this option is selected, the government will switch to Communist, and a future War of Independence becomes unavailable. Instead, it will become possible to Appeal for Increased Autonomy (on the Stalinist side), becoming a full-fledged member of the Comintern rather than a puppet. Finally, remaining focuses for the Democratic branch focus on rebuilding their army and navy, and preparing for a global Anti-Fascist Crusade.
Stalinist (Communist) Branch
The Stalinist Communists were the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), and are referred to as such because of their loyalty to the Stalinist Communist doctrine. Their branch shares a start with that of the other Communist faction that we will deal with later, but splits up already within a handful of focuses. Historically, they shared the outlook of the Government, in that both it and the Stalinists were more concerned with defeating the Fascists and maintaining the cohesion of their coalition rather than pushing for a social revolution as the other groups did. In the Focus Tree this is represented by many points of contact between the two branches.
Main points of interest during the civil war for the Stalinists branch relate to Stalin’s Popular Front strategy. Rather than alienate other classes, these must be incorporated into the fight against Fascism first, and re-educated later, when the frontlines have stabilized. A notable exception to this is the clergy, as anti-clericalism is a core component of the Republic’s values. Church riches must instead be confiscated and used to finance the fight against the Nationalists, even if this will send the clergy into the arms of the Nationalists. Next, concessions must be obtained from the Republican government, at first with ministerial positions, but soon enough full control of the war effort must be demanded. And finally, just as with the Democratic branch, the recalcitrant independently-minded Anarchists and Communists must be eliminated for the good of the Republican cause as a whole.
For the Stalinists, Soviet Aid is much more of a no-brainer. Yes, you will get puppeted, but many of your strongest focuses tie in with this branch anyway, and there is always the Appeal for Increase Autonomy. Post-Civil War, the branch focuses heavily on fortifying the country, strengthening it as a bulwark from which to wage a two-front war with the Fascist nations lodged between Spain and the Soviet Union, should it come to that. Finally, focuses allow for the conquest of Portugal, the supporting of French Communists, and exacting vengeance on all nations who dared send Volunteers to the Nationalists during the Civil War.
Independent Communist (Communist) Branch
The Independent Communists represent the POUM, a second Communist party in Spain that broke with both the Trotskyist and Stalinist Communist doctrines, opposing the latter heavily, and was a member of the “International Revolutionary Marxist Centre”, also called the “London Bureau” (nicknamed the 3½ International); a grouping of similar independently-minded Communist parties from various countries. Notably, in the Civil War George Orwell would fight with POUM militias, and the way the Stalinists undermined, manipulated, and repressed the party would greatly impact his thinking and later writings. Historically, this repression culminated in the May Days, a period of 5 days in May 1937 where actual street fighting occurred between the Stalinist Communists and the Government on the one hand, and the POUM and Anarchists on the other. After this, the Anarchists would be increasingly divided internally and its influence on the Civil War would wane, and the POUM would soon be outlawed altogether.
As the POUM, the major antagonist, other than the Nationalists, are the Stalinists. Early on steps must be taken to curtail Stalinist influence and interference, maintaining the party’s independence and putting a stop to the indiscriminate political assassinations perpetrated by the NKVD. International Brigades provides a steadily ticking manpower pool for the duration of the Civil War, aiding their cause somewhat. Unlike the Stalinists, the purpose of the POUM is social revolution, and so the Class War must be pursued. The fact that the Government opposes this and increasingly attempts to crack down on them means that eventually the step must be taken to Seize the Gold Reserves and use these to finance a full-blown uprising along with the Anarchists, to enable the Revolution to flourish.
Post-Civil War parts of the tree focus on industrial and military improvements, as well as the formation of a People’s Fleet. Some industrial focuses are shared with the Anarchists, and some with the Stalinists. Unify the London Bureau will create a unique faction and invite all Communist nations that are not in a faction (or are Soviet Union or a Communist Mexico led by Trotsky). Further focuses generate wargoals against Fascist nations in Europe, nations led by Stalin or Trotsky, and finally the focuses to conquer Portugal and Avenge Foreign Interference are shared with the Stalinists.
Anarchist (Unaligned) Branch
The Anarchists are the final available branch for the Republican side. This branch represents the various autonomous communes that rose up in the area of Aragon and Catalonia during the civil war, and in which the fight against Fascism was most clearly accompanied by the Spanish Revolution. These communes organized themselves under a single Regional Defense Council of Aragon, and in the territory controlled by them collectivization of the workplace became a common theme. However, the independence with which they conducted themselves was a perpetual thorn in the eyes of the government and the Stalinists, and, as with the POUM, the May Days saw their influence severely curtailed. As Anarchist society is inherently incompatible with the way Nation-States are represented in HoI4, we’ve had to get creative with their representation. A key part of this ties in with the concept of the “Regional Defense Council”, as historically used by the Anarchists during the civil war.
The initial action points for the Anarchists involve the collectivization of all aspects of society - seizing the means of production, giving workers autonomy and self-management, seizing public transport, and increasing communal farming. Rather than recreate an army, like the other branches focus on, the Anarchist focus on arming the people themselves, preferring to rely on self-organized militias. Just like the Communists, they also gain access to the International Brigades Spirit. Eventually, though, the government will crack down on the Revolution, but, as with the Independent Communists, the player will be able to take a focus to launch the uprising from their side instead, gaining a temporary combat bonus.
Once complete gender equality has been achieved through Mujeres Libres and the uprising has been started, either through government crack-down or through taking the focus Masters of Our Own Fate, the pivotal focus All Must Bear the Torch becomes available. This has a number of effects that impact the playstyle of the Anarchists:
This all comes at a cost, however: every single other nation on the face of the planet will hate you. Initially, during the civil war itself, this is only noticed by the fact that no nation will want to aid you, and will instead support hostile Spanish factions against you. However, once the civil war ends, this will result in major powers taking steps to actively quell the Anarchist Revolution - with nations receiving AI modifiers to act in a hostile manner towards the Regional Defense Council. As the Anarchists, you stand alone against the world.
The next part of the tree focuses on defending against this coming threat. Focuses will revolutionize military thinking, give combat bonuses to defense on core territory, and greatly increase War Support. A side branch will allow the Anarchist revolution to ‘spill over’ the Portuguese border, when the Anarchists share a border with them. The Portuguese Anarchism focus creates a civil war in Portugal, puppeting the Anarchist tag it creates, and annexing them once the Portuguese civil war has ended. Once this is complete, and the Spanish Civil War itself is also won, a new Regional Defense Council may be called into being: the Regional Defense Council of Iberia. This will core all Portuguese states, as well.
Finally, the finisher focuses focus greatly on preparing the Communes militarily for the Inevitable Counterblow. The success of the Revolution is a threat to the very way of life of the rest of the world, and they cannot let this stand. When they are done fighting among one another, they will come after you (and possibly even before…). But the Defense Council does not need to sit on its hands and wait for this to happen. Anarchism Knows No Borders provides a spirit that increases War Support even further, but also drastically increases justification time for War Goals. Plant the Seeds of Revolution allows for creating uprisings of Anarchists troops behind enemy lines, under your control. And finally, Global Defense Council will rename the country once again, illustrating its nature as an entity that has spread far beyond the confines of the Iberian peninsula. In addition, it allows for dynamically coring controlled hostile land in which Compliance has been raised to a sufficiently high level, as they simply reorganize into their own autonomous communes and join under the umbrella of the Defense Council.
Playing as the Anarchists will pose significant challenges, as you are effectively expected to take on the entire world alone, with a (at least initially) limited economic powerbase. However, it also provides significant rewards for a player that manages to succeed and push their enemies back, dynamically growing their powerbase much more efficiently than other countries can.
Unfortunately, all Anarchist military commanders were on short-notice leave from the frontlines, and so were unavailable for screenshots…
Finally, we have a picture of both focus trees as they are presented to the player when they first load up the game as Spain, before they have taken any choices of who to support:
On today’s HoI4 stream I will be joining @Da9L to take a look at the new Spanish trees, and in particular the new Republican tree. This will be followed by a Q&A session, where we’ll take your questions about them The stream will be from 15:00-16:00 CET, and can be viewed here.
We hope you’ll join us next week for another HoI4 dev diary!
Last week we talked a little bit about the design intent for Spain as a whole - so today we will move straight on to the interesting stuff
Obligatory Disclaimer:
This is still a work-in-progress, and much of the art, systems and balancing is/are not yet finished! You guys know the drill
Republican Spain Starting Situation
The starting position for Republican Spain is, naturally, the same as that for the Nationalists. They begin with the same 4 spirits, signifying the influence of Carlism, the Military’s disloyalty, and the political violence and strikes that are escalating in the initial half of 1936 (see our previous dev diary for more information on these).
The same initial choice is present at the start of the game, but instead of selecting A Great Spain, we will now go with The Popular Front.
The Popular Front was a loose alliance of political parties that were only really united in their opposition of Fascism. The idea of a Popular Front was formulated by Stalin in the mid-1930s, suggesting that the rapid growth of Fascism required a more unified response than Communism alone could provide. Effectively, it gave permission to subordinate Communist parties to band together with less extreme socialist parties, and even outright bourgeois parties, solely to combat Fascism in national politics. In Spain, the Popular Front that opposed the Fascist/Traditionalist CEDA (Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights - sometimes called the “Nationalist Front”) consisted of a variety of liberal, socialist, and communist parties, the most important of which (for the purposes of this diary) are the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), and the Republican Left (IR). This coalition was also supported by regional nationalists and the Anarchist Trade Unions CNT/FAI. This coalition paid off, and despite massive resources and an overwhelming election campaign by the CEDA, the Popular Front won the 1936 Spanish elections.
This victory was to be short-lived, however. Unbeknownst to the Republicans, in the aftermath of the failed elections the CEDA would hand over their sizeable campaign chest to the plotting military leaders to finance a rebellion, and political violence from both sides would escalate in the coming months. As with the Nationalist side, this is represented by various decisions and missions. The sole distinction is the change in perspective. As all state garrisons are initially fully controlled by the Republican side anyway (they all begin with a Nationalist control of None), the garrison control decisions are unavailable until the Nationalist side has begun contesting Republican control in any location. From that point on, it becomes possible to attempt to flip them back.
A second point that sets the Republicans apart from their Nationalist adversaries are the nature of their focuses. The full pre-Civil War path for the Nationalists has a total duration of 210 days to complete, which means that, as long as a player continuously takes focuses, they are guaranteed to finish the whole path before the civil can start, even at the soonest start date. Not so for the Republicans. Republican pre-Civil War focuses (after the initial choice) last twice as long as their adversaries’, resulting in a total duration of 385 days to fully complete this path (therefore requiring the civil war to be delayed until after January 20, 1937). This should immediately make it obvious why it is advantageous for the Nationalists to begin the civil war as soon as possible - this will ensure the Republicans will only have time to complete their first two focuses. And as the impact of the Republican focuses progressively increases, this vastly weakens the initial position for the Republicans, relative to the Nationalists.
- Securing the Guardia de Asalto or Guardia Civil gives either a few trained units, or double the number of untrained units (respectively) at the start of the civil war. Whichever the player chooses, the Nationalists get the opposite reward.
- Train the Union Youth gives 5 trained units at the start of the civil war, as well as other bonuses.
- Enlarging the Weapon Caches refers to the weapon caches that were secreted away ever since the Asturias Miners’ Revolt, and lie ready for use to this day. It is the first focus that will not be available to the Republicans if the Nationalists manage to achieve their goal of starting the civil war near its historical start date. While normally the equipment is split 50-50 between the two sides at the start of the civil war, this focus sways this to (currently) 80-20 in favor of the Republicans.
- Distribute Arms to the People refers to various calls from prominent politicians and groups for the government to start issuing weapons to regular citizens, as it began to become obvious that the Military could not be trusted. This focus gives 10 untrained divisions at the start of the civil war, as well as other bonuses.
- Disband the Army is the finishing focus in the Republicans’ preparations for the civil war. It is the ‘nuclear option’, where the government outright disbands the entire army and attempts to purge it of disloyal elements. However, though it will hand the initiative to the government, the various plotting leaders will not go easily and, likely will elect to rise up rather than be imprisoned. Accordingly, this focus will immediately start the civil war when completed. While the civil war normally has a flat 50-50 distribution of the nation’s pre-Civil War armed forces between the two sides, this focus increases this to (currently) an 80-20 split in favor of the Republicans. It also provides a large chunk of Political Power. However, with the loyalty of the military so severely tainted, the government will immediately disband their portion of this pre-Civil War military. This is something that occurs regardless of whether you take the focus or not (if the focus is not taken, this step is taken in the Civil War start event - regardless of when it starts), and so the focus mainly serves to greatly weaken the Nationalist side’s starting position.
As the Civil War starts, the Republican side begins with all states that do not have Total Nationalist garrison control. However, states where the Nationalists have more control than the Republicans will spawn more Nationalist troops, making it likely that these will be lost soon afterwards. In addition, the Carlism Spirit is no longer relevant for the Republicans from this point on, and is removed, while a new Spirit Disbanded Army is added (again, regardless of whether Disband the Army as a focus is taken or not), representing the (quite frankly) disastrous impact the disbanding of the army historically had on the first months of the Republican war effort. Various focuses in the different branches diminish and remove this Spirit. Beyond this, the same Offensives decisions are available to the Republicans, as are available to the Nationalists (see more information about this again in our previous dev diary).
The Republican faction begins the civil war as Democratic, but as a whole it is even more internally divided than the Nationalists. Not three, but four different Republican factions vie for control of post-Civil War Spain, and this fight for supremacy will likely result into internal fracturing and outright violence even during the Civil War.
Republican (Democratic) Branch
The Second Republic at the start of the Civil War struggled to defend itself against the rebellion, while also maintaining cohesion and singularity of purpose within the faction itself. On the one hand, the communist and anarchist militias that supported the Popular Front played a key role in preventing the outright success of the initial coup attempt in the first place, and they were invaluable to the Republican war effort in the opening months of the Civil War, when the government was in the process of recreating a new army after disbanding the old. On the other hand, these groups also had wildly differing viewpoints on how the post-Civil War society should be structured, and idealism and fanaticism on all sides could easily bloom into violence. Historically, major influence came from the Soviet Union, which provided the Republic with much-needed weapons and equipment, but also meddled extensively in internal affairs, attempting to root out any Communists who might be critical of Stalin’s leadership. Ultimately, this would serve to completely undermine the war effort, resulting in the virtual elimination of two of the Front’s four (broadly-speaking) distinct groups as active participants in the Civil War, not by Nationalist doing, but by their own hands.
One of the major issues facing the Democratic government of the Second Republic involves the recreation of a proper army, reducing reliance on idealistic and undisciplined militias that is represented in the Disbanded Army Spirit. Others deal with stemming the flow of the Nationalist advance, fortifying the various cities and towns in their path, and especially fortifying the Republican foothold in the Basque Country (if this is controlled at the Civil War’s start). But above all, the single biggest threat facing the government in the short term is the inevitable uprising of the Anarchist and Independent Communist militias (always represented as Anarchists if this uprising occurs from the Democratic/Stalinist perspective), as Stalinist meddling and manipulations will eventually break down all remnants of trust within these groups and the government. This uprising may be delayed through the Anti-Fascist Unity focus and the decisions it unlocks, but these can only delay it somewhat, and never prevent it. They are only intended as a desperate measure if you really cannot afford the uprising right then. Just as with the Falangist and Carlists paths we discussed last week, a focus Crush the Revolution exists that will immediately trigger the civil-war-within-the-civil-war and provide a temporary combat bonus against them.
Together with Relocate the Gold Reserves, crushing the Anarchists and Independent Communists is a requirement for opening up the possibility of much larger Soviet aid than initially offered. This aid consists of various combat modifiers, tech bonuses, increased Volunteer caps for the Soviet Union, construction bonuses, and even tech sharing. It also opens up for a powerful Soviet Aid post-Civil War recovery branch. While powerful, as all this aid comes at a price, however… Stalinist control over the government will increase, and while moving the Gold Reserves abroad may keep them out of the hands of the Nationalists, it will not keep them safe from foreign seizure… Going down this path will result in the Second Republic being puppeted by the Soviet Union upon the conclusion of the civil war, and they will be unlikely to release their control over the country willingly…
Regardless of whether the player decides to pursue this aid, they will need to manage the influence of the Stalinists on their own government. It is possible to maintain true to the Democratic principles on which the Second Republic was based, but this will come at the cost of combat penalties that may well prove to be problematic during the Civil War - the Communists were an integral part of the anti-Fascist fight, after all. However, staying true to your Democratic foundations will allow you to eventually subvert Soviet control even if you pursued Soviet aid previously and were puppeted as a result. This finally opens up into a branch where, now that the Fascists have been defeated, Spain may fight a final War of Independence against the Communists and the Soviet Union, to finally earn their deserved freedom. In this, they may either seek membership of the Allies, or strike a pragmatic Deal with the Devil and request military aid from those who have experience in fighting the Soviets - the very same people who opposed them during the Civil War: Germany and Italy.
It is also possible to give in to the Stalinist pressure, and focus on defeating Fascism, even at the cost of Democratic principles. If this option is selected, the government will switch to Communist, and a future War of Independence becomes unavailable. Instead, it will become possible to Appeal for Increased Autonomy (on the Stalinist side), becoming a full-fledged member of the Comintern rather than a puppet. Finally, remaining focuses for the Democratic branch focus on rebuilding their army and navy, and preparing for a global Anti-Fascist Crusade.
Stalinist (Communist) Branch
The Stalinist Communists were the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), and are referred to as such because of their loyalty to the Stalinist Communist doctrine. Their branch shares a start with that of the other Communist faction that we will deal with later, but splits up already within a handful of focuses. Historically, they shared the outlook of the Government, in that both it and the Stalinists were more concerned with defeating the Fascists and maintaining the cohesion of their coalition rather than pushing for a social revolution as the other groups did. In the Focus Tree this is represented by many points of contact between the two branches.
Main points of interest during the civil war for the Stalinists branch relate to Stalin’s Popular Front strategy. Rather than alienate other classes, these must be incorporated into the fight against Fascism first, and re-educated later, when the frontlines have stabilized. A notable exception to this is the clergy, as anti-clericalism is a core component of the Republic’s values. Church riches must instead be confiscated and used to finance the fight against the Nationalists, even if this will send the clergy into the arms of the Nationalists. Next, concessions must be obtained from the Republican government, at first with ministerial positions, but soon enough full control of the war effort must be demanded. And finally, just as with the Democratic branch, the recalcitrant independently-minded Anarchists and Communists must be eliminated for the good of the Republican cause as a whole.
For the Stalinists, Soviet Aid is much more of a no-brainer. Yes, you will get puppeted, but many of your strongest focuses tie in with this branch anyway, and there is always the Appeal for Increase Autonomy. Post-Civil War, the branch focuses heavily on fortifying the country, strengthening it as a bulwark from which to wage a two-front war with the Fascist nations lodged between Spain and the Soviet Union, should it come to that. Finally, focuses allow for the conquest of Portugal, the supporting of French Communists, and exacting vengeance on all nations who dared send Volunteers to the Nationalists during the Civil War.
Independent Communist (Communist) Branch
The Independent Communists represent the POUM, a second Communist party in Spain that broke with both the Trotskyist and Stalinist Communist doctrines, opposing the latter heavily, and was a member of the “International Revolutionary Marxist Centre”, also called the “London Bureau” (nicknamed the 3½ International); a grouping of similar independently-minded Communist parties from various countries. Notably, in the Civil War George Orwell would fight with POUM militias, and the way the Stalinists undermined, manipulated, and repressed the party would greatly impact his thinking and later writings. Historically, this repression culminated in the May Days, a period of 5 days in May 1937 where actual street fighting occurred between the Stalinist Communists and the Government on the one hand, and the POUM and Anarchists on the other. After this, the Anarchists would be increasingly divided internally and its influence on the Civil War would wane, and the POUM would soon be outlawed altogether.
As the POUM, the major antagonist, other than the Nationalists, are the Stalinists. Early on steps must be taken to curtail Stalinist influence and interference, maintaining the party’s independence and putting a stop to the indiscriminate political assassinations perpetrated by the NKVD. International Brigades provides a steadily ticking manpower pool for the duration of the Civil War, aiding their cause somewhat. Unlike the Stalinists, the purpose of the POUM is social revolution, and so the Class War must be pursued. The fact that the Government opposes this and increasingly attempts to crack down on them means that eventually the step must be taken to Seize the Gold Reserves and use these to finance a full-blown uprising along with the Anarchists, to enable the Revolution to flourish.
Post-Civil War parts of the tree focus on industrial and military improvements, as well as the formation of a People’s Fleet. Some industrial focuses are shared with the Anarchists, and some with the Stalinists. Unify the London Bureau will create a unique faction and invite all Communist nations that are not in a faction (or are Soviet Union or a Communist Mexico led by Trotsky). Further focuses generate wargoals against Fascist nations in Europe, nations led by Stalin or Trotsky, and finally the focuses to conquer Portugal and Avenge Foreign Interference are shared with the Stalinists.
Anarchist (Unaligned) Branch
The Anarchists are the final available branch for the Republican side. This branch represents the various autonomous communes that rose up in the area of Aragon and Catalonia during the civil war, and in which the fight against Fascism was most clearly accompanied by the Spanish Revolution. These communes organized themselves under a single Regional Defense Council of Aragon, and in the territory controlled by them collectivization of the workplace became a common theme. However, the independence with which they conducted themselves was a perpetual thorn in the eyes of the government and the Stalinists, and, as with the POUM, the May Days saw their influence severely curtailed. As Anarchist society is inherently incompatible with the way Nation-States are represented in HoI4, we’ve had to get creative with their representation. A key part of this ties in with the concept of the “Regional Defense Council”, as historically used by the Anarchists during the civil war.
The initial action points for the Anarchists involve the collectivization of all aspects of society - seizing the means of production, giving workers autonomy and self-management, seizing public transport, and increasing communal farming. Rather than recreate an army, like the other branches focus on, the Anarchist focus on arming the people themselves, preferring to rely on self-organized militias. Just like the Communists, they also gain access to the International Brigades Spirit. Eventually, though, the government will crack down on the Revolution, but, as with the Independent Communists, the player will be able to take a focus to launch the uprising from their side instead, gaining a temporary combat bonus.
Once complete gender equality has been achieved through Mujeres Libres and the uprising has been started, either through government crack-down or through taking the focus Masters of Our Own Fate, the pivotal focus All Must Bear the Torch becomes available. This has a number of effects that impact the playstyle of the Anarchists:
- The economic law is changed to a unique law Collectivized Society, which is slightly superior to War Economy, but also has (at first glance) significant bonuses to factory and dockyard output. It will not be possible to change away from this.
- Trade law is changed to Closed Economy, and it will not be possible to change away from this.
- The Anarchist Society Spirit that is first applied in the Regional Defense Council of Aragon focus, and which is continuously improved upon throughout the branch, gains a whopping (currently) 5% recruitable population. However, it also now gives a base -15% stability and -1% weekly stability.
- Autonomous State modifiers are removed from all states that have this.
This all comes at a cost, however: every single other nation on the face of the planet will hate you. Initially, during the civil war itself, this is only noticed by the fact that no nation will want to aid you, and will instead support hostile Spanish factions against you. However, once the civil war ends, this will result in major powers taking steps to actively quell the Anarchist Revolution - with nations receiving AI modifiers to act in a hostile manner towards the Regional Defense Council. As the Anarchists, you stand alone against the world.
The next part of the tree focuses on defending against this coming threat. Focuses will revolutionize military thinking, give combat bonuses to defense on core territory, and greatly increase War Support. A side branch will allow the Anarchist revolution to ‘spill over’ the Portuguese border, when the Anarchists share a border with them. The Portuguese Anarchism focus creates a civil war in Portugal, puppeting the Anarchist tag it creates, and annexing them once the Portuguese civil war has ended. Once this is complete, and the Spanish Civil War itself is also won, a new Regional Defense Council may be called into being: the Regional Defense Council of Iberia. This will core all Portuguese states, as well.
Finally, the finisher focuses focus greatly on preparing the Communes militarily for the Inevitable Counterblow. The success of the Revolution is a threat to the very way of life of the rest of the world, and they cannot let this stand. When they are done fighting among one another, they will come after you (and possibly even before…). But the Defense Council does not need to sit on its hands and wait for this to happen. Anarchism Knows No Borders provides a spirit that increases War Support even further, but also drastically increases justification time for War Goals. Plant the Seeds of Revolution allows for creating uprisings of Anarchists troops behind enemy lines, under your control. And finally, Global Defense Council will rename the country once again, illustrating its nature as an entity that has spread far beyond the confines of the Iberian peninsula. In addition, it allows for dynamically coring controlled hostile land in which Compliance has been raised to a sufficiently high level, as they simply reorganize into their own autonomous communes and join under the umbrella of the Defense Council.
Playing as the Anarchists will pose significant challenges, as you are effectively expected to take on the entire world alone, with a (at least initially) limited economic powerbase. However, it also provides significant rewards for a player that manages to succeed and push their enemies back, dynamically growing their powerbase much more efficiently than other countries can.
Unfortunately, all Anarchist military commanders were on short-notice leave from the frontlines, and so were unavailable for screenshots…
Finally, we have a picture of both focus trees as they are presented to the player when they first load up the game as Spain, before they have taken any choices of who to support:
On today’s HoI4 stream I will be joining @Da9L to take a look at the new Spanish trees, and in particular the new Republican tree. This will be followed by a Q&A session, where we’ll take your questions about them
The stream will be from 15:00-16:00 CET, and can be viewed here.We hope you’ll join us next week for another HoI4 dev diary!
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
Life of the Party
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2018
- Messages
- 3,535
Vaarna_Aarne
Notorious Internet Vandal
The flag's kinda meh tho.
Life of the Party
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2018
- Messages
- 3,535
The Brazilian Slaughter
Arcane
Nat. Spain: RECONQUER THE AMERICAN COLONIES
Rep. Spain:CONQUER LIBERATE THE WORLD FOR ANARCHISM
Rep. Spain:
Average Manatee
Arcane
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2012
- Messages
- 15,253
Hopefully when the Soviet tree receives an update there will be a conquest CB for the Moon to get there before the capitalists.
L'ennui
Magister
So is this game better than HoI2: Darkest Hour?
Life of the Party
Arcane
- Joined
- May 8, 2018
- Messages
- 3,535
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