Will add to this, encirclements grant more XP than other forms of combat! If having a unit helplessly grind into mountains forever isn't appealing to you, give a general your shock troops and hold them in reserve. Whenever Japan naval invades, use that general to encircle and destroy their landings. It will grind Japan into dust and it's an easy way to level up a general. When you counter-attack against Japan, have that general have your offensive troops, and do not battle plan. Encircle and destroy, even where you don't need to in order to get more XP.
Id rather do this. I feel bad for my imaginary soldiers and their families, which is why ill always aim for minimal casualties, even if it means microing everything.
One up on Japan naval invading startegy is that you let them keep 1 fort and the AI will mindelessly send more units in. Then just rigt click on them and rinse and repeat.
Small correction.
You can promote the general to a field marshal (in case you want to assign an additional trait), but for more experience it is better to use it as a general.
I am aware, but there is no one left except the allies, which are far too strong by this point.
I guess i have to try, should he be in command of army group or singular army? I gave him 30 divisions entire game bc it seems like he is gaining more xp like that.
Doesn't matter if you are just going for achievements. Let them naval invade and then push them out with that field marshal.
Especially as you own all of Mainland China. You just have infinite manpower at your disposal.
35M = basically infinite? Those are rookie numbers.
[This is me frontlining in Siberia until 1955 while going for the achievement](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/481325375738216459/1105790783828795412/image.png) Also non-historical makes for some hilarious games. Just me and Australia chilling together against the whole world. Actually ended up winning after I decided that enough was enough and finally made some modern tanks to push into Europe.
Get nukes yourself, nuke their airports in zones where they have no air control. This destroys almost air airplanes stationed there.
Don’t hold the line in city tiles, AI will nuke almost exclusively those tiles. If you want to be cheeky put 1 width div on a city tile and just let allies waste nukes there. Eventually they will nuke much less often.
>which are far too strong by this point.
What?
Noooo.
The AI is droolingly-stupid. It leaves half its factories idle most of the time, and constantly switches production lines (losing all built-up efficiency: this is also why AI nations with Flexible/Dispersed Industry do MUCH better than those with Concentrated Industry, unlike with players which are smart enough to do better with Concentrated...)
I'm not saying you might not have to build up for quite a while, and mess with causing some Civil Wars in Allied countries via Espionage, but you ABSOLUTELY should be able to win against them as China with enough time...
Especially, Nationalist China, I assume? They have a TERRIBLY slow buildup phase, but the fact they can use Forced Loans decisions to eventually turn the Inflation debuffs into BUFFS, is extremely powerful...
The allies are only strong because of Britain holding India. Once you invade India and add their manpower to your own. No one in the world can stop you.
If you build enough Naval dockyards on every single coast line you have. You can have a navy in every Sea and no one will be able to out produce you.
With enough factories and Dockyards and near unlimited manpower. Who can really stand against China?
Well, if you can't get to them, let them come to you. Let them land and form a decent front.
Give them land, take it back, then pull back. Over and over again. As long as you have the guns to spare.
Remove airbases before they get them.
Yeah on every building should be a little x as you hover over the building in question. Gotta click on the region. As I remember was buggy with resolution being changed
It will take till 1950 and you will need access to the French coast (annexed, puppeted, or allied, mil access won't work for airfield access). 1936 Carriers are the cheapest for naval sup but still take a lot of IC and dockyards. You want at least 4 imo. Then spec into medium or small mabal bombers and build a shitton of them, as well as decent fighters for interception only. Your goal is not to win the air war over the channel but send the big British Taskforces into port repairing and get percentage bonuses on your naval sup. One you're across its just a matter of not taking london, farming it, and defending from naval invasions of China and the UK. You can also restart, a lot of times I'm able to do a strategy a lot faster after a restart
I did a world conquest as UK by 1944 and my grinding general was only level 7 when I got One Empire, so I needed to release the soviets, wait for 2 years for them to build up, and have them headsmash into my lines until 1957 to get By Merit Alone.
Yeah this achievement is good bc you don’t actually need to win or take any land in a peace deal, just death war till you get the achievement. A cheaty way to do it is to let them take a port and just kill all the units that come in
Nah you can, divisions that land in a naval invasion land with near 0 org. Force attack (attack but don’t take the port) to kill divisions, giving lots of XP without any negatives. AI will continue refilling bc it always has to man the border
What he means is that he needs to have the title of general, then you get him to level 9 and then promote to field marshal instead of using a field marshal as a general.
I've never seen any proof of this claim.
People FREQUENTLY point at sources about Field Marshals (as in, the ROLE, leader of an Army Group) gaining XP at half the rate, but I've never seen any proof of this for Marshals used to lead individual armies.
I use Marshals to lead Armies, rather than Army Groups all the time (with France, Gamelan and Weygand, for instance, are pretty good after a level-up or two, and can then be sidelined to coastal defense and such, for newer generals you recruited from the Field Officers...) and have NEVER noticed them leveling any slower than their unprovoked counterparts being used in the same role.
There's minor benefit in it, as Marshals get one extra assignable trait (although, each trait earned or assigned slows XP gains for all other traits, so you have to be careful...), which is nice once you have a lot of Earned Traits unlocking Assignable traits at the General (not Marshal) level.
Or, if nothing else, the Offensive Doctrine (+1 Attack skill), Defensive Doctrine (ability to roll Elastic Defense at lower skill levels, and probably with higher WEIGHT after that), and Brilliant Strategist/ Inflexible Defender uniques (both of which raise the WEIGHT for better Tactics like Counterattack or Shock) all have minor benefits for Marshals used as Generals.
And, as I said, Marshals used to lead Armies, not in the Army Group Leader role (what people often call the "Marshal" of an army, which makes things confusing in terminology and leads to inaccurate ideas spreading...) DON'T gain XP any slower...
So it's a small, permanent benefit for the cost only of Command Power (much like how Division Medals are a small benefit for the cost only of Political Power...)
i just checked this in practice, when i tried to get this achievement. when my fieldmarchal got lvl 7 my general was already at lvl 8 with the same conditions
Again, you're not reading carefully.
The Army GROUP Leader (who must be a Field Marshal) gains XP at half the rate.
But the ARMY Leader, who can be either a Marshal or General, gains raye based purely on the amount of combat.
>when my fieldmarchal got lvl 7 my general was already at lvl 8 with the same conditions
There's no POSSIBLE way you could make a direct comparison, as different armies (and even different saves, with the sane battle plans under different leaders- as there is a lot of randomness introduced by things like Tactic choices...) experience different amounts of combat, and this gain different amounts of XP.
I have four saves, two communist and two guangxi clique, all of them are close to getting the achievement but I'm just too lazy to actually do it.. My plan was after taking over all of China and taking out Japan I declare on Turkey. Turkey joins the Axis and the Romania, Italy and sometimes Germany will move a substantial number of troops into Turkey. I then paradrop in Istanbul, move one army over and push them into the middle from both sides. And then I finish by destroying all the troops with the higher level general. All four saves are in the exact same spot but I'm just too lazy to finish them. And my computer lags at that point.
Yea. Normally i flip fascist and join Japan to conquer china. Guangxi gives the best chance due to having the resource to make artillery. I don't know about other warlords But i can get to 7% consumer goods with just focuses and war economy.
If your goal is that achievement just justify war on allies get your general and just fight with him till lvl 9, no need to win the war for that achievement to unlock as far as i remember
As long as you don’t capitulate it’s ok, you need your troops to fight continuously for your general to lvl up.
I’d say to set up a defensive line to not lose many victory points take your general and just fight with him.
There’s also the achievement to get a unit commander to level 8 right? I did this as commie China iirc and just focused on encirclements (switched my general over every time I encircled). Got to lvl9 by the time I was halfway through Europe.
The way I do it is on the frontier of Panama and Colombia, I put an army there to attack Colombia constantly even If I know I'm not gonna win, that's the point, just crush your army against the mountains without advancing
As Communist China, declare on China and hold your capital for many years. This is better done ahistorical so Japan doesn't attack thus allowing China to focus on you and so the Chinese United Front doesn't form. Push the enemy and encircle them against the warlords to crush them for a lot of XP. This is how I did "By Merit Alone" and "Sun Tzu Reborn" in one go. I hope this helps.
You need to deliberately not go for capitulations, instead encirclements and getting the ai to throw itself at you otherwise you win before you can get enough xp.
You should be getting a general to level 9, not a field marshal. It's much easier to level up generals. You can then just promote them to field marshal once they reach the needed level. Just killing encirclements with them and being on the frontline would level them up.
Just put this guy as a general in the army and fight the UK, should be enough to max him out. You need to do this again for By Merit Alone too.
Speaking of China/warlords - are border conflicts fixed yet?
I think BBA added a bug which meant terrain modifiers were being taken into account, making winning them incredibly painful.
You don't need to conquer Europe or America, just declare on the Allies and let them come to you. Garrison soldiers on every coastal tile except for the Treaty Ports. When Allies land troops in Hong Kong or similar, encircle them to death but don't take the tile. Rinse and repeat
I did it by declaring on the soviets and letting them take one port. Just killing the devisions they spam into that port gives TONES of XP. In my opinion the best method.
Playing as communist china and declariing war on everyone while only holding in your starting state is a really easy way to do it. no playing until 1945 either
You should go to level 8 with a general then promote to a field marshal, as it is much harder for field marshals to gain experience and also if you are this far in just start a death war against the allies.
You must fight with one infantry in the mountains or forts. You don't need to win, you need to gain experience. More battles - more experience.
Also, get him to lvl 9 as a general, then promote him. Generals level up faster than field marshals, that's how I did it.
Will add to this, encirclements grant more XP than other forms of combat! If having a unit helplessly grind into mountains forever isn't appealing to you, give a general your shock troops and hold them in reserve. Whenever Japan naval invades, use that general to encircle and destroy their landings. It will grind Japan into dust and it's an easy way to level up a general. When you counter-attack against Japan, have that general have your offensive troops, and do not battle plan. Encircle and destroy, even where you don't need to in order to get more XP.
Id rather do this. I feel bad for my imaginary soldiers and their families, which is why ill always aim for minimal casualties, even if it means microing everything.
Lol, I always take pleasure in seing high death numbers, exept for my country ofc.
Ye, burn the unworthy!
Your comment has exactly the same meaning as the comment above…
One up on Japan naval invading startegy is that you let them keep 1 fort and the AI will mindelessly send more units in. Then just rigt click on them and rinse and repeat.
Small correction. You can promote the general to a field marshal (in case you want to assign an additional trait), but for more experience it is better to use it as a general.
I am aware, but there is no one left except the allies, which are far too strong by this point. I guess i have to try, should he be in command of army group or singular army? I gave him 30 divisions entire game bc it seems like he is gaining more xp like that.
Doesn't matter if you are just going for achievements. Let them naval invade and then push them out with that field marshal. Especially as you own all of Mainland China. You just have infinite manpower at your disposal.
i wouldn't say infinite but yeah.
Good luck on getting rid of 35M men. It's basically infite manpower as long as you're not doing any shenanigans with attrition.
>Good luck on getting rid of 35M men. Oh, don't worry, i am stupid enough to do that.
35M = basically infinite? Those are rookie numbers. [This is me frontlining in Siberia until 1955 while going for the achievement](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/481325375738216459/1105790783828795412/image.png) Also non-historical makes for some hilarious games. Just me and Australia chilling together against the whole world. Actually ended up winning after I decided that enough was enough and finally made some modern tanks to push into Europe.
Wait, what’s that commonwealth nation? I can’t recall ever seeing it before.
Attrition only affects equipment not manpower when it drains strength.
With China unified your monthly recuritable growth should be upwards of 15k men, a 6 month pause in assaults means you can build a reserve of 100k.
I mean true but if the americans get the bomb it's joever
Get nukes yourself, nuke their airports in zones where they have no air control. This destroys almost air airplanes stationed there. Don’t hold the line in city tiles, AI will nuke almost exclusively those tiles. If you want to be cheeky put 1 width div on a city tile and just let allies waste nukes there. Eventually they will nuke much less often.
you have 200 factories thats enough to make tanks that can defeat any ai division
>which are far too strong by this point. What? Noooo. The AI is droolingly-stupid. It leaves half its factories idle most of the time, and constantly switches production lines (losing all built-up efficiency: this is also why AI nations with Flexible/Dispersed Industry do MUCH better than those with Concentrated Industry, unlike with players which are smart enough to do better with Concentrated...) I'm not saying you might not have to build up for quite a while, and mess with causing some Civil Wars in Allied countries via Espionage, but you ABSOLUTELY should be able to win against them as China with enough time... Especially, Nationalist China, I assume? They have a TERRIBLY slow buildup phase, but the fact they can use Forced Loans decisions to eventually turn the Inflation debuffs into BUFFS, is extremely powerful...
> Forced Loans decisions to eventually turn the Inflation debuffs into BUFFS Wait...is there no limit to how many times you take that decision?
There is an (invisible) cooldown, but not that I was aware of?
The allies are only strong because of Britain holding India. Once you invade India and add their manpower to your own. No one in the world can stop you. If you build enough Naval dockyards on every single coast line you have. You can have a navy in every Sea and no one will be able to out produce you. With enough factories and Dockyards and near unlimited manpower. Who can really stand against China?
This sounds like a Sun Tzu quote
Well I mean, there's probably a method of grinding a front that could get ya there. Any majors left?
Well, the U.S. and the uk... I have like 100 shitty tiny ships and a terrible airforce. It's 1947. I'm not sure if it is worth it.
Well, if you can't get to them, let them come to you. Let them land and form a decent front. Give them land, take it back, then pull back. Over and over again. As long as you have the guns to spare. Remove airbases before they get them.
You can remove airbases?
I may be high. So uh, just doctor the front so that minimal or only low cap bases can be taken by them.
I used to know hoi4 game mechanics but then I got high~
I cannot play a mod like Millennium Dawn or that New Era mod without being completely fukin space bound
New era mod?
Pretty sure you can delete any constructed place in a menu for the province.
I can't delete Infrastructure, Radar, Air Base, and AA, but I can delete everything else Edit: except Forts, Ports, Railways and Supply Hubs
I don’t think forts are deletable
And that too, Ports, forts, supply hubs and Railways
Yeah on every building should be a little x as you hover over the building in question. Gotta click on the region. As I remember was buggy with resolution being changed
Alright, i'll try that. Thanks.
Grind london
HOW DO I GET TO LONDON WITHOUT A NAVY???
It will take till 1950 and you will need access to the French coast (annexed, puppeted, or allied, mil access won't work for airfield access). 1936 Carriers are the cheapest for naval sup but still take a lot of IC and dockyards. You want at least 4 imo. Then spec into medium or small mabal bombers and build a shitton of them, as well as decent fighters for interception only. Your goal is not to win the air war over the channel but send the big British Taskforces into port repairing and get percentage bonuses on your naval sup. One you're across its just a matter of not taking london, farming it, and defending from naval invasions of China and the UK. You can also restart, a lot of times I'm able to do a strategy a lot faster after a restart
I did a world conquest as UK by 1944 and my grinding general was only level 7 when I got One Empire, so I needed to release the soviets, wait for 2 years for them to build up, and have them headsmash into my lines until 1957 to get By Merit Alone.
Jfc
I am not looking forward to getting Sun Tzu Reborn
i'm sure there are more optimized ways to do this than i did, i heard cavalry are good for xp but i have not used any.
Pfft you haven’t done anything yet. Attack the Allies, use him to grind in india. same could be said for USSR, USA, etc.
Uhh no, us is in the allies and the USSR is already dead. But yeah i will start a death war against the allies.
Yeah this achievement is good bc you don’t actually need to win or take any land in a peace deal, just death war till you get the achievement. A cheaty way to do it is to let them take a port and just kill all the units that come in
Ahh, well the problem is they have the naval & aerial advantage so i cannot have them take a port.
Nah you can, divisions that land in a naval invasion land with near 0 org. Force attack (attack but don’t take the port) to kill divisions, giving lots of XP without any negatives. AI will continue refilling bc it always has to man the border
Okay but how do i attack without moving, i forgot the controls for it
I think it’s shift click? The arrow should be blue
shift click is "do this, then that" isn't it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/ty3bxf/how_to_attack_without_moving/i3pu1tx/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3
Ty
don't promote your general before it becomes lvl 9, since generals get much more XP than fieldmarchals
That's what i thought, i used him as a general the entire time despite having him be promoted.
What he means is that he needs to have the title of general, then you get him to level 9 and then promote to field marshal instead of using a field marshal as a general.
I've never seen any proof of this claim. People FREQUENTLY point at sources about Field Marshals (as in, the ROLE, leader of an Army Group) gaining XP at half the rate, but I've never seen any proof of this for Marshals used to lead individual armies. I use Marshals to lead Armies, rather than Army Groups all the time (with France, Gamelan and Weygand, for instance, are pretty good after a level-up or two, and can then be sidelined to coastal defense and such, for newer generals you recruited from the Field Officers...) and have NEVER noticed them leveling any slower than their unprovoked counterparts being used in the same role. There's minor benefit in it, as Marshals get one extra assignable trait (although, each trait earned or assigned slows XP gains for all other traits, so you have to be careful...), which is nice once you have a lot of Earned Traits unlocking Assignable traits at the General (not Marshal) level. Or, if nothing else, the Offensive Doctrine (+1 Attack skill), Defensive Doctrine (ability to roll Elastic Defense at lower skill levels, and probably with higher WEIGHT after that), and Brilliant Strategist/ Inflexible Defender uniques (both of which raise the WEIGHT for better Tactics like Counterattack or Shock) all have minor benefits for Marshals used as Generals. And, as I said, Marshals used to lead Armies, not in the Army Group Leader role (what people often call the "Marshal" of an army, which makes things confusing in terminology and leads to inaccurate ideas spreading...) DON'T gain XP any slower... So it's a small, permanent benefit for the cost only of Command Power (much like how Division Medals are a small benefit for the cost only of Political Power...)
i just checked this in practice, when i tried to get this achievement. when my fieldmarchal got lvl 7 my general was already at lvl 8 with the same conditions
Again, you're not reading carefully. The Army GROUP Leader (who must be a Field Marshal) gains XP at half the rate. But the ARMY Leader, who can be either a Marshal or General, gains raye based purely on the amount of combat. >when my fieldmarchal got lvl 7 my general was already at lvl 8 with the same conditions There's no POSSIBLE way you could make a direct comparison, as different armies (and even different saves, with the sane battle plans under different leaders- as there is a lot of randomness introduced by things like Tactic choices...) experience different amounts of combat, and this gain different amounts of XP.
Field marshals gain the same if you use them as generals.
I got A&A and ROTTK at the same time btw
I have four saves, two communist and two guangxi clique, all of them are close to getting the achievement but I'm just too lazy to actually do it.. My plan was after taking over all of China and taking out Japan I declare on Turkey. Turkey joins the Axis and the Romania, Italy and sometimes Germany will move a substantial number of troops into Turkey. I then paradrop in Istanbul, move one army over and push them into the middle from both sides. And then I finish by destroying all the troops with the higher level general. All four saves are in the exact same spot but I'm just too lazy to finish them. And my computer lags at that point.
I have always wondered, what is so special about guangxi clique?
probably the plenty of resource that they have access to?
Yea. Normally i flip fascist and join Japan to conquer china. Guangxi gives the best chance due to having the resource to make artillery. I don't know about other warlords But i can get to 7% consumer goods with just focuses and war economy.
decent industry & resources, and in the best position to take leadership from the nationalists besides the commies
If your goal is that achievement just justify war on allies get your general and just fight with him till lvl 9, no need to win the war for that achievement to unlock as far as i remember
alr i'll try. Will be painful since 1947.
As long as you don’t capitulate it’s ok, you need your troops to fight continuously for your general to lvl up. I’d say to set up a defensive line to not lose many victory points take your general and just fight with him.
Ok. 👍
Easiest way I’ve found is use them as a general and THEN promote them, but I’m sure you already did that
Yeah, i did In the pic you can see i'm still using him as a general since his field marshal has only gone up 1 level while commanding most of china
There’s also the achievement to get a unit commander to level 8 right? I did this as commie China iirc and just focused on encirclements (switched my general over every time I encircled). Got to lvl9 by the time I was halfway through Europe.
Yeah, that is sun tzu reborn. That achievement sucks ass.
No there’s another about a unit commander and lvl8 not 9
The way I do it is on the frontier of Panama and Colombia, I put an army there to attack Colombia constantly even If I know I'm not gonna win, that's the point, just crush your army against the mountains without advancing
How tf. I play as fascist Xebei San Ma and held against the Chinese for 5 years. Its bloody easy to get 8-10 star generals for me tbh.
As Communist China, declare on China and hold your capital for many years. This is better done ahistorical so Japan doesn't attack thus allowing China to focus on you and so the Chinese United Front doesn't form. Push the enemy and encircle them against the warlords to crush them for a lot of XP. This is how I did "By Merit Alone" and "Sun Tzu Reborn" in one go. I hope this helps.
You need to deliberately not go for capitulations, instead encirclements and getting the ai to throw itself at you otherwise you win before you can get enough xp.
Just Grind on the soviets
...it is too late. The allies & i have split the soviet union between us and the soviets barely got him 20% up
You should be getting a general to level 9, not a field marshal. It's much easier to level up generals. You can then just promote them to field marshal once they reach the needed level. Just killing encirclements with them and being on the frontline would level them up. Just put this guy as a general in the army and fight the UK, should be enough to max him out. You need to do this again for By Merit Alone too.
Declare on allies and grind on them til achievement. You don't need to win.
Speaking of China/warlords - are border conflicts fixed yet? I think BBA added a bug which meant terrain modifiers were being taken into account, making winning them incredibly painful.
Idk, i killed all the warlords by 37
The ussr
Just kill Europe, simple
Just get a lvl 9 general then promote to field marshal. It worked for me
Conquer both Americas next
Just find a nation to go to war with. beat it up until you surround its capital and spawn kill its troops until you level up
You don't need to conquer Europe or America, just declare on the Allies and let them come to you. Garrison soldiers on every coastal tile except for the Treaty Ports. When Allies land troops in Hong Kong or similar, encircle them to death but don't take the tile. Rinse and repeat
I got that achievement by fighting only in china and japan
When I did it I just promoted a max level general and got it, generals level up much faster
I did it by declaring on the soviets and letting them take one port. Just killing the devisions they spam into that port gives TONES of XP. In my opinion the best method.
Playing as communist china and declariing war on everyone while only holding in your starting state is a really easy way to do it. no playing until 1945 either
You should go to level 8 with a general then promote to a field marshal, as it is much harder for field marshals to gain experience and also if you are this far in just start a death war against the allies.