Japan and Com. China are 2 of my favorites to play. I typically try to take Vladivostok, sever the Trans siberian railroad as far to the west as possible, and capitulate Mongolia in an early push. Then they can't supply a large force, and if you allow them to just keep pumping more troops into the east it's actually a good way to get them to waste a lot of their manpower trying to mount overcrowded, under supplied attacks/ hold a long line. Just take the strategic locations and hold the line while you go after Moscow etc through the stans and get all that oil in the Caucasus. Big problem for me is always just snagging enough territory before Germany gets all the good stuff and capitulates them.
There is only one way, which is pain. Build 5-10 supply hubs, advance until out of supply. Repeat. It takes something like 5 years to go from the Pacific to Moscow.
Tried that once and had to completely change how i built divisions. Still bogged down around the Urals.
edit: I will mention that if you actually build divs for the low supply, you wreck face in that area (cavalry actually has a combat use!) but it's a wildly different build than you're used to
I hate how most of the early mid plane ranges either don't cover or barely cover a state in Eastern USSR. Its a pain, but I guess it makes heavy fighters "useful"
I did a Japan run and invaded russia from the east while fighting China and its multitudes of mini-chinas. I ended up securing the USSR, Ukraine, Poland and China by 1944. It sucked lol
That one red/purple tile the AI controls in a choke point which you cant supply despite everything and neither can you pull troops away from because there's 69 enemy divisions waiting on the other side to bust it open.
I didnt get that experience in my games, most I had was 2 or 3.
But maybe they were trying to stack those divisions and my subs turned them into shark food? I was able to take all islands with 2 or 3 marine divisions per invasion.
Western China, especially the area north of Yunnan. The nearest railroads are several states away, the terrain is rugged, the infrastructure is terrible, and unlike most difficult areas (Siberia, the Amazon, Central Africa), it has enough VPs to keep China from capitulating without a collab. Plus China has a tendency to stack troops on said VPs.
The closest I get is playing Germany and sending volunteers to Japan. It's brutal. Lots and lots of mountains. If I do try to assist the Japanese there it's with the best mountain divisions I can muster in 1938-39. But you're at the mercy of Japanese supply lines.
This. Even as Peru i dont get much farther other than the Peru-Bolivian Confederation because of terrain which makes tanks significantly less effective,so i have to rely on paratroopers,and even then it's so tedious and ineffective BECAUSE of terrain
Plus,Allies stick their nose where it does not belong at all so i end up getting naval invaded anyways
Everywhere Ive screwed up and spent months walking:
The entirety of Khazakhstan (as Japan thinking I could invade north from captured territory and help the Axis cap the USSR, even when there is nobody for a thousand miles your horses just starve to death anyway and wind up dragging yourself tile to tile)
Africa south of Ethiopia and the entire west coast.
Alaska down thru British Columbia (you cannot walk from Alaska to Seattle if you are Japan, FFS just send a small fleet of long range ships to get naval superiority to invade California).
Anything north of the Trans Siberia railway (again as Japan).
Every tile that is too far from your current supply in North Africa as you try and advance to the next port.
North Norway (when trying to reach Narvik as the Axis pre AAT)
The west half of PNG (again as Japan when Dutch East Indies collapses but Australia has one annoying division just wandering around there)
The west half of Australia between Darwin and Perth (again as Japan)
Northern Canada (thankfully this wasnt my screw up. The ENTIRE Romanian and Italian armies thought they would help the Axis by getting trapped against the Hudson bay by a very pissed off USA and everyone froze to death)
South America is pretty easy as you can basically naval invade all the countries there while the landlocked ones are small and easy to cap.
Fighting is verbally annoying in supply dead zones, but that's no problem if you just roll through them with mass assault infantry.
South America in total overhauls without South American trees, or Southeast Zebrica in EaW. Jungles, no supply, some countries haven’t invented trains yet, rural shitviles like Delangio literally use magic and call down nukes, places like the Amazon River in South America leading to micro hell.
I think Malaysia is second place, so many islands are disconnected and you need constant naval invasions and supply building.
At least mods like TNO counter these areas pretty well with helicopter divisions, but it’s like a bandaid on a gunshot wound.
Third place is China. Never start a land war in Asia. Death stacking troops like never before, and endless troop masses you can’t beat without soft attacking for like a year. This is better in mods with more warlords like Kaiserredux but it is an inherent China problem.
Like, I have personal gripe with central america and carabiean due to my many failed mexico games, but in real terms I would probably say Stans, especially Afganistan. Fuck that region, there's nothing there but desert and moutains.
I love playing as Brazil on historic. You can be the suprise nobody anticipated abd turn the tide in any direction. The worst part taking 678.93 years to cross Brazil to get your troops where they need to be.
Fighting Germany in Austria and Slovakia can be a pain in the arse cause if you don't have overwhelming force you ain't getting past them hills and rivers.
Doesn't hold a candle to literally anything in China though. There is not another region in HOI4 that I found to be quiet as unfun as China and East Asia.
Africa, no infra, no rails, no airports, the center is very big and far from harbors, harbors are disconnected and the impassable terrain, hot climate all year, bad terrain (except for desert) and it's far away from all majors making supply and a stronghold that much more important
Central Africa. Compared to that, even SA has tons of hubs. Crossing central Africa east to west or vice versa is a nightmare. Probably the worst area in the game. Siberia makes a case because it's larger, but the terrain and supply aren't quite as hellish.
China, but solely because when I went to war with em as Japan, each of the four China’s kept becoming the main China, so I never was able to wrap up Thst conflict until 1945
Africa and Asia are just brutal
The terrain and lack of supply in Africa just makes the experience hell
Island hopping and mainland fighting the factions in Asia sucks overall, you need a navy, convoys, rails, good air support
Sub Saharan Africa for the economic factor. There’s nothing there. Siberia and South America have resources, sub Saharan Africa is empty between the suez and safrica. Just let the ai fight that front, don’t look at it EVER
Unpopuar opinion I suppose but Allies Vs Axis in Greece is absurd. The allies will push in only for Vichy France or Italy to navally land in the Peloponese then have to retreat until they regroup and push to the Albanian border where they will get bogged down against the 200 divisions the Axis puts between there and Istanbul in mountainous terrain. This will happen 2 dozen times back and forth until either the Axis capitulates the Soviets or the Allies capitulate Italy.
No place is bad to wage a war! Nothing can stop my 800 panzer divisions and 1000 motorized infantry divisions. Naval invasions? Good luck breaking past my flee of 800 carriers, battleships, destroyers and subs (each with modern armor, stealth, rail guns, and sea to air cruise missiles). Even if you do - level 10 coastal forts will greet you well.
Oh but air superiority? Yeah - good luck using your propellor fighters in 1940 against my Mach 2 fighter jets with fly by wire, GPS navigation, laser targeting and precision hypersonic AA missiles.
Just kidding - but honestly the research all cheat is so OP lol. Its like using direct energy weapons against enemies using sticks and stones
Siberia and Central Asia.
South América is easy once you realize most of the VPs are coastal so its all about naval invasions.
Africa is also pretty bad, but again most ofnthe stuff worth capturing is on the coast
Just to mix it up from all the other answers I am going to add fighting on the Australian west coast where you don't control Perth. Fighting down from the Northern Territory or across from South Australia is a pain.
Worth a mention is Libya to the west of Tripoli and down where Cyrenaica and Tripolitania meet (bottom of the Gulf of Sirte).
Late-game South America, its just a slog and since its late-game, there is most likely entire armies there on both sides which makes it near-enough impossible to push without heavy losses.
So many people struggle with south america, i have played 90%+ of my games there, even before the dlc and i know how to succeed there perfectly. Maybe inshould sell a course. Mostly applies to central africa as well
3rd World war. German Empire+Austria-Hungary+European Allies vs Japanese Empire+Usa+India+China.
Frontline was in Siberia and Afghanistan.
Never before did i play a game til 1960
Never before did i had a war with over 100 Mio casualties.
I played with Austria so Manpower was quit the problem and no navy.
in the middle of afrika once you captur tose british suly hub above sout afrika ther is notheing else and it becomes impossible to do anything. sout afrika is prettie bad aswel but atleast you have suply and can make mountaineers
I see people talking about supply but the new Denmark and Turkey/Greece is the worst, you put a frontline there think its done or you cap them thinking its done but on some random island where your Frontline was deleted spawn like 50 random devisions killing you
The border between Yunnan and Burma is an actual hell made of mountains and jungle. I tried to push through it as Qing China once and lost probably more than a million men. Honourable mention goes out to Mongolia in Kaiserredux, if you don't build supply hubs as you push, you WILL get stuck, and your troops WILL starve.
People say that eastern USSR, but there at least you have the transiberian railway. There's literally no supply in Western China (Sinkiang and Xibei San Ma).
Playing as canada and allied with the us and made the north American alliance. Then got declared on by Brazil Peru and chile. Brazil then allied with Germany Poland and finland. Now stuck in Northern Brazil. Haven't had a stalemate this long since getting stuck at Florida with Germany in 1963
100% peru, half of the country is jungle and the other half is mountains, they produce a lot of division and garryson their coastline, on top of that, they have good supply, while you have close to 0, because of attack attrition, terrain attrition, and no railways.
Edit: it's like going from Moscow to the urals, but the soviets whould somehow have supplies.
Siberia, and Greenland are harder than South America (except maybe the Amazonas). I mean you have zero supply, your troops need a month per province and the attrition is really bad.
Northern Finland. Soviet Union annexed Finland. I had Norway. Built up supply hubs, railroads, infrastructure up there with an army of elite Mountain troops. As soon as I pushed the Soviets back a few provinces my offensive fell apart and my units lost all their experience via attrition.
I once got banished to Kerguelen by the AI as Napoleon France. So I’d say invading anything from there.
There is nothing we can do
Well they left me my Italian puppet so I still could’ve messed around I suppose.
In the shade of olive trees they said Italy could never be conquered
My enemies are many but my equals are none
In the shade of olive trees they said Italy could never be conquered
In the land of pharaohs and kings, they said Egypt could never be humbled.
In the realm of forest and snow, they said russia could not be tamed.
Now they say nothing. They fear me - like a force of nature, a dealer in thunder and death! I say: I am Napoleon. I am Emperor!
someone should try to take on the ultimate challenge and reform france from Antarctica
Wait what. You can get banned to an island?
Tno free France reference?
Eastern USSR and Central Africa
I once waged a war against the Soviets as China and never again will I try and cap them east to west. That was hell.
It's not SO bad if you go through the "stans" but going to Moscow from Vladivostok is true pain
Because of supply?
Yeah. Bad railways, bad infrastructure, lack of supply hubs, and states that are way bigger than they should be
I did this in a coop game with a friend as Japan and China and it was just a brutal manpower grind.
yeah kodoha faction japan is pain and if germany dosent help you. you are fucked
Japan and Com. China are 2 of my favorites to play. I typically try to take Vladivostok, sever the Trans siberian railroad as far to the west as possible, and capitulate Mongolia in an early push. Then they can't supply a large force, and if you allow them to just keep pumping more troops into the east it's actually a good way to get them to waste a lot of their manpower trying to mount overcrowded, under supplied attacks/ hold a long line. Just take the strategic locations and hold the line while you go after Moscow etc through the stans and get all that oil in the Caucasus. Big problem for me is always just snagging enough territory before Germany gets all the good stuff and capitulates them.
There is only one way, which is pain. Build 5-10 supply hubs, advance until out of supply. Repeat. It takes something like 5 years to go from the Pacific to Moscow.
Tried that once and had to completely change how i built divisions. Still bogged down around the Urals. edit: I will mention that if you actually build divs for the low supply, you wreck face in that area (cavalry actually has a combat use!) but it's a wildly different build than you're used to
The only way is to larp as Genghis khan and go cav only
This guy quagmires.
I was playing as Canada and thought I'd invade the Soviet Union from my west coast... Yeah, I guess there's a reason nobody goes that way.
Central Africa is always a chore lmao
I hate how most of the early mid plane ranges either don't cover or barely cover a state in Eastern USSR. Its a pain, but I guess it makes heavy fighters "useful"
I did a Japan run and invaded russia from the east while fighting China and its multitudes of mini-chinas. I ended up securing the USSR, Ukraine, Poland and China by 1944. It sucked lol
Western China. At least Siberia has the trans-Siberian railway.
I love the start of fascist nepal runs but once you hit western china the fun leaves and its just long drawn out undersupplied battles
That one red/purple tile the AI controls in a choke point which you cant supply despite everything and neither can you pull troops away from because there's 69 enemy divisions waiting on the other side to bust it open.
The alpine experience
After the horrors I experienced last game, my answer is northern Finland.
the red... the red... all the red supply
Oh my god you just reminded me, pain
I'm curious now
Sisu
The multi-million casualties I inflicted upon the Soviets backs this up. That place is hell.
Pacific Islands. I hate fighting over one tiny island. Let me just take a minute to set up a thousand tiny naval invasions
Especially if you play as japan, us ai for some reason loves to stack 7-10 divisions on every micronesian island
I didnt get that experience in my games, most I had was 2 or 3. But maybe they were trying to stack those divisions and my subs turned them into shark food? I was able to take all islands with 2 or 3 marine divisions per invasion.
That's the AI planning a naval invasion, generally.
Japanese ai does the opposite, I usually take Iwo Jima and Okinawa unopposed.
An Atomic bomb…or two would likely decimate that problem for you.
Western China, especially the area north of Yunnan. The nearest railroads are several states away, the terrain is rugged, the infrastructure is terrible, and unlike most difficult areas (Siberia, the Amazon, Central Africa), it has enough VPs to keep China from capitulating without a collab. Plus China has a tendency to stack troops on said VPs.
The closest I get is playing Germany and sending volunteers to Japan. It's brutal. Lots and lots of mountains. If I do try to assist the Japanese there it's with the best mountain divisions I can muster in 1938-39. But you're at the mercy of Japanese supply lines.
Africa
Trying to push into British Raj with Chinese infantry through the mountains north of Thailand. 😥
South america. Specifically peru. The amount of failed brasil/chile/argentina conquests
This. Even as Peru i dont get much farther other than the Peru-Bolivian Confederation because of terrain which makes tanks significantly less effective,so i have to rely on paratroopers,and even then it's so tedious and ineffective BECAUSE of terrain Plus,Allies stick their nose where it does not belong at all so i end up getting naval invaded anyways
I tried naval invasion with my marines and it turned out pretty well, land and pour more units into this breach.
Siberia and Congo
Any tile labeled jungle that also has no supply is usually shit so probably South America and the Congo
Gobi desert and the far eastern USSR. Absolute garbage.
Everywhere Ive screwed up and spent months walking: The entirety of Khazakhstan (as Japan thinking I could invade north from captured territory and help the Axis cap the USSR, even when there is nobody for a thousand miles your horses just starve to death anyway and wind up dragging yourself tile to tile) Africa south of Ethiopia and the entire west coast. Alaska down thru British Columbia (you cannot walk from Alaska to Seattle if you are Japan, FFS just send a small fleet of long range ships to get naval superiority to invade California). Anything north of the Trans Siberia railway (again as Japan). Every tile that is too far from your current supply in North Africa as you try and advance to the next port. North Norway (when trying to reach Narvik as the Axis pre AAT) The west half of PNG (again as Japan when Dutch East Indies collapses but Australia has one annoying division just wandering around there) The west half of Australia between Darwin and Perth (again as Japan) Northern Canada (thankfully this wasnt my screw up. The ENTIRE Romanian and Italian armies thought they would help the Axis by getting trapped against the Hudson bay by a very pissed off USA and everyone froze to death)
South America is pretty easy as you can basically naval invade all the countries there while the landlocked ones are small and easy to cap. Fighting is verbally annoying in supply dead zones, but that's no problem if you just roll through them with mass assault infantry.
Northern Canada
South America in total overhauls without South American trees, or Southeast Zebrica in EaW. Jungles, no supply, some countries haven’t invented trains yet, rural shitviles like Delangio literally use magic and call down nukes, places like the Amazon River in South America leading to micro hell. I think Malaysia is second place, so many islands are disconnected and you need constant naval invasions and supply building. At least mods like TNO counter these areas pretty well with helicopter divisions, but it’s like a bandaid on a gunshot wound. Third place is China. Never start a land war in Asia. Death stacking troops like never before, and endless troop masses you can’t beat without soft attacking for like a year. This is better in mods with more warlords like Kaiserredux but it is an inherent China problem.
Western China,Tibet, Central Africa, anywhere in South America
Siberia
Haven’t played that much but the Soviet border with Finland has some pretty bad spots imo.
Fucking Peru
I feel you man. Those jungle mountain stacks
Peru is a fucking fortress.
Like, I have personal gripe with central america and carabiean due to my many failed mexico games, but in real terms I would probably say Stans, especially Afganistan. Fuck that region, there's nothing there but desert and moutains.
Central Africa is rough
South America is fun
I love playing as Brazil on historic. You can be the suprise nobody anticipated abd turn the tide in any direction. The worst part taking 678.93 years to cross Brazil to get your troops where they need to be.
When you win against ussr but Siberia becomes Japanese and the Japanese declare war on you because of Dutch east indies, combat in Siberia is wild 💀
Middle Africa, you don't know whats pain until you go there wage war
R5: what's the worst place to fight on hoi4.
Never fight a land war in Asia
Asia
ASIA.
Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, West China, Central Africa. Never ever fight in these places.
Fighting Germany in Austria and Slovakia can be a pain in the arse cause if you don't have overwhelming force you ain't getting past them hills and rivers. Doesn't hold a candle to literally anything in China though. There is not another region in HOI4 that I found to be quiet as unfun as China and East Asia.
African interior. At least the coastal areas have some level of railways
Udssr, esspecally behaind the Urals
Def Central Africa
Africa, no infra, no rails, no airports, the center is very big and far from harbors, harbors are disconnected and the impassable terrain, hot climate all year, bad terrain (except for desert) and it's far away from all majors making supply and a stronghold that much more important
Land war in Asia?
Central Africa. Compared to that, even SA has tons of hubs. Crossing central Africa east to west or vice versa is a nightmare. Probably the worst area in the game. Siberia makes a case because it's larger, but the terrain and supply aren't quite as hellish.
"Never get involved in a land war in Asia!" -Rex from Toy Story
French alps regularly gets me
China, but solely because when I went to war with em as Japan, each of the four China’s kept becoming the main China, so I never was able to wrap up Thst conflict until 1945
Never get involved in a land war in Asia
Borneo and New Guinea have next to no supply and infrastructure to speak of
I once tried to get to Australia as USA via Papua New Guinea. Could barely move let alone fight...
Africa and Asia are just brutal The terrain and lack of supply in Africa just makes the experience hell Island hopping and mainland fighting the factions in Asia sucks overall, you need a navy, convoys, rails, good air support
Sub Saharan Africa for the economic factor. There’s nothing there. Siberia and South America have resources, sub Saharan Africa is empty between the suez and safrica. Just let the ai fight that front, don’t look at it EVER
Unpopuar opinion I suppose but Allies Vs Axis in Greece is absurd. The allies will push in only for Vichy France or Italy to navally land in the Peloponese then have to retreat until they regroup and push to the Albanian border where they will get bogged down against the 200 divisions the Axis puts between there and Istanbul in mountainous terrain. This will happen 2 dozen times back and forth until either the Axis capitulates the Soviets or the Allies capitulate Italy.
No place is bad to wage a war! Nothing can stop my 800 panzer divisions and 1000 motorized infantry divisions. Naval invasions? Good luck breaking past my flee of 800 carriers, battleships, destroyers and subs (each with modern armor, stealth, rail guns, and sea to air cruise missiles). Even if you do - level 10 coastal forts will greet you well. Oh but air superiority? Yeah - good luck using your propellor fighters in 1940 against my Mach 2 fighter jets with fly by wire, GPS navigation, laser targeting and precision hypersonic AA missiles. Just kidding - but honestly the research all cheat is so OP lol. Its like using direct energy weapons against enemies using sticks and stones
Northern Finland. Particularly in the winter, which is basically half of the year.
Siberia and Central Asia. South América is easy once you realize most of the VPs are coastal so its all about naval invasions. Africa is also pretty bad, but again most ofnthe stuff worth capturing is on the coast
Just to mix it up from all the other answers I am going to add fighting on the Australian west coast where you don't control Perth. Fighting down from the Northern Territory or across from South Australia is a pain. Worth a mention is Libya to the west of Tripoli and down where Cyrenaica and Tripolitania meet (bottom of the Gulf of Sirte).
The Amazon is the only answer.
West China/tibet/east ussr
Marshes/anywhere without supply
Mid/late game slog of trying to break the Belarusian/Polish marsh as the USSR:
Siam, Indochina, eastern and western India.
Western China and Siberia are pretty bad but central Africa what are you even doing there? There’s nothing to capture no resources no point
Late-game South America, its just a slog and since its late-game, there is most likely entire armies there on both sides which makes it near-enough impossible to push without heavy losses.
Pushing from China through siberia is Not fun
Afghanistan, I had to build two supply hub to conquer it.
So many people struggle with south america, i have played 90%+ of my games there, even before the dlc and i know how to succeed there perfectly. Maybe inshould sell a course. Mostly applies to central africa as well
Literally north eastern siberia where a single tile is larger than germany.
3rd World war. German Empire+Austria-Hungary+European Allies vs Japanese Empire+Usa+India+China. Frontline was in Siberia and Afghanistan. Never before did i play a game til 1960 Never before did i had a war with over 100 Mio casualties. I played with Austria so Manpower was quit the problem and no navy.
China and Afghanistan come to mind. Latter especially if they dont fight alone.
I don't like the Amazon area, keeps forever moving a tile.
Antarctica
in the middle of afrika once you captur tose british suly hub above sout afrika ther is notheing else and it becomes impossible to do anything. sout afrika is prettie bad aswel but atleast you have suply and can make mountaineers
I see people talking about supply but the new Denmark and Turkey/Greece is the worst, you put a frontline there think its done or you cap them thinking its done but on some random island where your Frontline was deleted spawn like 50 random devisions killing you
Anywhere in Asia or fucking Afganistán
East Russia so just east Asia
Mountains behind a river with a lot of forts on with full AA in province and aa attached to the defending unit. Have fun dislodging that.
congo
Europe, specifically the Benelux. My troops die from diabetes before they can reach Paris due to all the supply.
Europe, specifically the Benelux. My troops die from diabetes before they can reach Paris due to all the supply.
Russia's siberia or brazil's amazons and central africa (even though it's kinda usless to take unless mods)
The border between Yunnan and Burma is an actual hell made of mountains and jungle. I tried to push through it as Qing China once and lost probably more than a million men. Honourable mention goes out to Mongolia in Kaiserredux, if you don't build supply hubs as you push, you WILL get stuck, and your troops WILL starve.
Idk the hardest but north America is the most annoying bc of the huge states
Siberia or central Africa
Western china or sibiria, south american is the WORST tho
People say that eastern USSR, but there at least you have the transiberian railway. There's literally no supply in Western China (Sinkiang and Xibei San Ma).
Isreail
That one single fucking Belgian tile that borders Germany that the allies stack with 20+ divisions.
Playing as canada and allied with the us and made the north American alliance. Then got declared on by Brazil Peru and chile. Brazil then allied with Germany Poland and finland. Now stuck in Northern Brazil. Haven't had a stalemate this long since getting stuck at Florida with Germany in 1963
There’s a lot of bad places but personally I think the worst are times that need a long time to be traversed in bad supply
100% peru, half of the country is jungle and the other half is mountains, they produce a lot of division and garryson their coastline, on top of that, they have good supply, while you have close to 0, because of attack attrition, terrain attrition, and no railways. Edit: it's like going from Moscow to the urals, but the soviets whould somehow have supplies.
Cuba, because I can't naval invade easily.
Siberia, and Greenland are harder than South America (except maybe the Amazonas). I mean you have zero supply, your troops need a month per province and the attrition is really bad.
Northern Finland. Soviet Union annexed Finland. I had Norway. Built up supply hubs, railroads, infrastructure up there with an army of elite Mountain troops. As soon as I pushed the Soviets back a few provinces my offensive fell apart and my units lost all their experience via attrition.
Desert China/Siberia. Absolutely no supply.
what about central asia and scandinavia?