I'm Kedi, a HOI4 addict.

This guide will be using Nazi Germany to accomplish the Around Eurasia in 80 Days Achievement. Along the way, I will add notes about what problems or additional info I had encountered during my testing.

I believe that in any HOI4 achievement run, you must be able to dedicate at least a minimum amount of dedotated bwain cells and a considerable amount of time to finish certain achievements like this one. So if you failed a couple of times like me, don't give up ;)

This is my first guide, so bear with me. (Poland bear king achievement hint?)

Sadly there will also be not a lot of pictures as I did not plan to make a guide in the first place.

For the sake of time, I will not go into 100% detail of what I did, but I will add bits and pieces of setups I did to show new perspectives for players with different playstyles (e.g. building plans, tech progression, etc.).

Guide effective since 12/10/21.


The reasoning for rushing the annexation focuses is to strike the major countries (e.g. USSR, UK) before they get too powerful. If you fail to capitulate the UK by 1940, you increase the chances of the Royal Navy cutting you off, or, worse, the US joins the Allies. If you attack the USSR by 1942, they can still be capitulated, but you're increasing the risk of attrition warfare.

Basically our basic outline of the plan year by year.

• Phase 1: As 1936 (Historical Save) Germany, you will start WWII by mid-1938 and capitulate the Allies by 1939.
  
• Phase 2: You will invade the USSR by 1941 or earlier and start justifying on Siam and Iran during the war.
  
• Phase 3: Capitulate the Comintern around 1942 or earlier.
  
• Phase 4: Profit

The railroad line will span these countries:
Spain-France-Germany-Poland-USSR-Iran-India-Siam-Malaya

For more experienced players, I think the railroad route will be all you need and you may click off this guide. Good luck!

Bonus of this guide: I also attempted the "Not Much Fun in Stalingrad" Achievement at this time, so I will note what I did there as well.

Ini the beninging

Start as 1936 (Historical Save) Germany.
Do what you would usually do, except for these non-negotiable aspects:

• Cancel all the destroyer lines, and some of the heavy hulls. (Optional: Cancel everything naval except subs). This will be a submarine focused navy to maximize the Trade Interdiction doctrine bonuses if any.
  
• Spam submarines, but also make destroyers if you can to help screen and flood the English coasts later.
  
• Make Naval bombers. You must reach around 400-500 naval bombers when the war starts around 1938, so just gauge the military factories needed. This is to help bomb those pesky allied submarines by the Eastern North Sea.
  
• Rush Anschluss by 1936 by spamming infantry divisions as soon as they can be deployed.
  
• Spam around 6-8 synthetics after making sufficient military factories for oil (very important, this would usually be started around late 1937).

The plan is to flood the Eastern North Sea and the North Sea with submarines. This will provide the needed 50% naval supremacy for a naval invasion.

By 1938 or earlier, you must have 100 submarines and the point is to flood with numbers, rather than combating the English fleet. If you can do with less than that number, congratulations!

Do not worry about the small arms deficit caused by the infantry division spam. This will be fixed via National Focuses.

• Rhineland
  
• Four Year Plan (Use Hjalmar Schacht for bonuses)
  
• Anschluss
  
• Industrial Focuses (Autarky --> Civilian Factories) (Note: Don't go for research slot, I don't think it's necessary)
  
  <<Multiple Options, You may choose from these until mid-1937>>
  
• Army Innovations (for Maneuver Expert)
  
• Naval dockyard focuses (to help build more ships)
  
  <<Mid-1937 onward>>
  
• All Czechoslovakian focuses (3)
  - Note: Create Slovakia after "Fate of Czechoslovakia"
  
• Poland Focuses (2)

• Do your standard Poland and France blitzkrieg.
  - Point your naval bombers towards the Eastern North Sea to take care of any pesky submarines.
  - DO NOT send out your navy yet. This will conserve the naval numbers and oil.
  
  
• Make sure your national focuses are the following after Danzig or War:
  - Around Maginot
  - Operation Weserubung
  - Demand Slovenia (Yugoslavia)
  
  
• After capitulating France, create Vichy France, and invite Italy (very important). The loss of the French navy and the entry of Italy into the Axis will stretch the Royal Navy away from the North Sea.
  - Note: I prefer NOT to invite Italy so I can have the whole cake during the peace deal.
  
  
• The entire Luftwaffe should start naval bombing the North Sea and assign adequate planes on the Eastern North Sea (depends if there are still allied submarines there).
  
  
• After capitulating France, invade Denmark. Setup a naval invasion at Hamburg and wait the whole 70 day prep time. Put your tank army on reserve near Hamburg.
  - Also setup a naval invasion to Norway. For some reason, even without any armies assigned, they will still "prep" the naval invasion.
  - Prepare 2 infantry armies at the Yugoslavian and Romanian borders for invasion.
  
  
• Once the naval invasion reaches 65/70 days prep time, send out the Kriegsmarine on convoy raiding. The submarines should focus on the North Sea.
  - Note: Put all naval groups on auto split off and high engagement risk (except for the non-submarine ships).
  
  
• It takes a bit of luck, but 7/10 times, this strategy works and you should be able to naval invade UK easily using the North Sea approach
  - Rush the ports. This whole guide is dead if you don't get any ports.
  - Send in the Tanks. Crush the rebellion.

• Once you land in Britain, start your naval invasion of Norway (Yes, declare war on them), and annex Yugoslavia (by force or national focuses).
  - In all my playthroughs, Yugoslavia always denies the demand for Slovenia, giving me a free war goal on Yugoslavia, and to an extent Romania, who is guaranteeing them.
  
  
• Now you have all your minor enemies in the Allies. Prolong the war until mid/late-1939 to maximize the number of Commonwealth dominions you can puppet in the peace deal.
  - I believe this is done by giving them a minimum amount of war score (i.e. killing their troops). I puppeted all the Commonwealth dominions after the peace deal, excluding Australia and New Zealand.
  
  - Most important of these is Canada, because they will be the faction leader of the "Ex-Allies" faction, and they take pretty long to invade unless somehow you land troops in Vancouver to end the war quickly. We don't want to risk a confrontation against the US later on without a proper land border to at least contest them with in North America.

• Build many civilian factories (around 4 big states maxed out) This will help you build up your military capacity later and in the long-term for repairs or emergency building. It's not like they will counterattack into those areas or bomb them heavily!
  
• Standard research focus on industry, only get up to radio for electronics, and focus every thing else on ground and or air forces.
  
• Send at least 4 Tank divisions into the Spanish Civil War with at least 200 medium bombers and or CAS. This will give much XP and or veterancy.
  
• By the start of WWII, I prefer to have 4 full infantry armies, and 1 armored army with 16 divisions.
  
• I usually use Kurt Student (commando trait) for Operation Sealion for the out of supply bonus.

You have just ended your mini-World War II. These are things to look out for during the peace deal.

• In case you really had to bring Italy into the war, here are the territories you need to annex/puppet first in order of priority:
  1. Satellite British Malaya
  2. Annex (Puppet) Dutch East Indies (ALL OF IT)
  3. Annex Gibraltar (Just in case.)
  4. Puppet the UK (and give them most of their territories so they can still be a powerful ally if needed)
  5. Annex Norway for Heavy Water production, just in case ;)
  6. Puppet Romania (kinda important) or annex the region bordering the USSR.
  7. Annex Suez Canal areas and or border near Iraq (for recruitable non-core population and as a contingency if the 2003 Invasion of Iraq will be necessary)
  8. Satellite British Raj (and give them the UK island territories in the Pacific; they will act as a buffer and never call them into wars)
  9. Annex France and Benelux regions for factory space (also to prevent Italy glitching Vichy France into becoming their puppet)
  10. Puppet Canada, South Africa, and other Commonwealth nations.
  - Note: You may annex some territories with resources as you see fit such as those in South Africa, Oil reserves in the Caribbean, and or aluminum in Suriname.
  11. Poland should be the last to be annexed as Italy barely attempts to take these lands, but if they do, annex the USSR border region.
  
• If you were chad enough to take on the Allies by yourself, pat yourself on the back as the first half of the suffering has ended. Annex and puppet the countries stated above.

In my opinion, you are ultimately prepared for war with the USSR if you have already done the ff:

• Edited your currently used infantry, motorized, and tank templates to optimal effectiveness.
  
• Have researched and incorporated Logistics companies in your tank and or motorized templates.
  
• Have at least 3-4 groups of 50 transport planes for supply runs.
  
• Have at least a total of 7-8 full infantry armies (5 armies will be your main thrust into the USSR near the Baltics; 1 army will strike the Caucuses and Iran; 1 army will strike Siam; and 1 in reserve to guard the Stalingrad Pocket for the "Not Much Fun in Stalingrad" achievement run)
  
• Have at least 2-3 full motorized-tank armies (for a strong starting blitz from Romania to Rostov)
  
• No more than 200 planes in reserve per air type (to maximize air supremacy and support)
  
• Improved supply lines to the starting offensive lines
  
• Satisfied most of your equipment deficits
  
• Completed the following National Focuses:
  - Reintegrate Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine
  - Integrate War Economies (for extra factories and puppets)
  - All Army innovations
  - War with the USSR

• Japan is justifying on you?
  - Fully annex Malaya and Dutch East Indies by sending them convoy lend lease. By now, Japan would've asked you to sign the Tripartite Pact (which you should), and it usually would stop them from declaring war on you until the United States does not exist anymore (or is puppeted) in my experiences.
  
  
• Stalin is justifying against Romania, your puppet?
  - I suggest declaring war on the Soviet Union. If the Soviets start an offensive war, it will trigger the Tripartite Pact.
  - This has some good sides and bad sides.
  1) It is good because the USSR will now have to commit forces to the Far East
  2) It is bad because if you are attempting the "No Much Fun in Stalingrad" achievement, you risk the AI rushing Stalingrad.
  3) It is bad because Japan and Italy may hoard random parts of the USSR/Siam/Iran in the peace deal, such as Iran, Siam, the Caucuses and the route from there to Gibraltar.
  - The most risk-free way is to fight the USSR alone.
  
  
• Manpower issues?
  - This is usually partially solved through "Reintegrate Luxemburg and Alsace-Lorraine" focus, and better compliance in occupied states. Overall, Germany has a severe manpower shortage for fielding numerous army groups.
  - Use "Local Police Force" for territories with high resistance; but use "Civilian Oversight" for territories with low resistance
  
  
• High resistance issues?
  - Make Mounties (Cavalry+MP template; use armored cars if you must)
  
  
• Hungary asks for Slovakia?
  - Sure!
  
• Bulgaria asks for Yugoslavian territories?
  - Sure!
  
• Hungary asks for Transylvania?
  - I'd say no. You don't want that unnecessary war goal against Romania because you're already puppeting them anyway. Plus, by now you should've done "Integrate War Economies" to make them puppets.

The year is 1941 (or 1940). Hitler declares war on the USSR.



Doing "War with the USSR" focus gives you Operation Barbarossa attack bonuses, and an offensive war does not trigger the Tripartite Pact.

Just do your regular attack on the USSR in any flavor you like.

Justify and Declare War on Siam.

Make sure to micro your transport planes to provide supplies to low supply regions, especially for your armored thrusts. General rule of thumb is to provide supply even in good supply regions.

For "Not Much Fun in Stalingrad" Achievement hunters

• Stop all forces by the parallel/diagonal of the Crimean peninsula (Sevastopol) and Rostov.
  
• Gently micro your troops to capture all surrounding cities near Stalingrad, but do not go beyond the parallels of these cities (i.e., once you captured them, stop immediately.
  
• Continue the encirclement and secure the Caucuses for oil.
  
• Once Stalingrad is completely encircled, leave 1 reserve infantry army to surround the encirclement you just made.
  
• It is very important to keep watch on this area from time to time, as the Soviets in the pocket may attempt a breakout and your troops in the Caucuses will be cut off. But also be mindful of your counterattacks in this area as you do not want to accidentally enter the Stalingrad state.

Once you have secured the Iranian border region, start justifying on Iran and push further southwards to Tehran. If they joined Comintern, that is part of the plan.

Capitulate the USSR by early-mid 1942 to prevent any more unfortunate instances like Japan declaring war on you, or the USSR magically spawning 100 divisions out of nowhere.

During the peace deal:

• You may puppet the USSR, but I would take half their land just in case, especially where the railroad would be.
  
• If you notice Siam and or Iran is not on the peace deal, that means you may still be at war (or truce) with them afterwards. Do not panic, they will be still in the Ex-Comintern, so you won't need to worry about them joining the Chinese United Front.

Build the railroad. Most of it is just connecting existing railroads anyway.

And that's it.

I find this Germany really strong, and I actually capitulated the US through Canada in 1942. A prospect for continuing this save is the "New World Order" achievement.

cuz I know you might ask these things.

• Yes, building the railways on allied territories counts towards the achievement.
  
• What templates did you use???
  - General rule of thumb for me is cost-effective and numerous units that won't die to supply issues, lack manpower, or lose to terrain. I.e., I don't use 40W divisions.
  - My usual templates are 20-25W and they have 190+ soft attack, and AA to help infantry pierce tanks. Since your fighting and "early war USSR," you won't need big breakthrough division with 400 soft attack or something.

Do rate this guide if it helped you, it helps spread the word out. Danke.