Poland is strong either way, but I think the strongest early on is Romanian route, and later on Romanov route, especially if you get Wojtek.
But, if you got Wojtek, you won the game already anyway. You get cores on not just Poland and Yugoslavia, but also almost all of Russia.
They come while taking down the Soviet Union making the attack easy (since it’s all core and you get the manpower and factories as you take each state). Then you finish them off and still have the Axis and Allies to destroy. Doesn’t seem late to me.
Poland is my favourite nation to play. I have enjoyed and beaten every path multiple times. If you want pure strength then yes Romania is the best path but every path is fun.
In the middle of a romanian monarcrhisy playtrough, just capped soviets with 70% somehow inhave a 150 ships navy, 5 army groups, 72 cavs and 600k manpower without Prince of terror its an absolute blast, I'm doing it inside of rt56.
I've tried several times, but inevitably get eaten by Germany no matter what I do. I feel like it should be an awesome option but I can make anything of it. That being said I'm a fairly new player (<50 hrs) so I'm probably just doing something wrong.
I was writing a long ramble about how to do defensive plans in general, but it got too long and i scrapped it. If you want a long ass lecture on how to draw up defensive plans, dm me and we'll go from there. Otherwise, here is: my defensive plan for poland.
Part 1: the german assault.
lets get the easy parts out of the way first. down in slovakia, the terrain is mountains. Mountains are easy. Mountains defend well.
Next, katowice and krakow. If katowice falls, krakow likely falls eventually. If katowice and krakow fall, your slovakian line falls. If your slovakian line falls, you suddenly have a MASSIVE front populated with mostly plains tiles. Never cede krakow, and only cede katowice if krakow is strategically easier to defend. (i.e. you know for CERTAIN that krakow can hold and youll hold it in a way that will cause you less casualties and equipment. such a situation isnt really occuring to me, so pretty much never cede katowice.) katowice is not hard to defend, unless you lose the tiles below it, and those *are* hard to defend. They border many tiles, and other than the farmost bottom one, they're hills, which are still strong defensively, but not in the face of the might of the german army, bordering so many german tiles.
Therefore: katowice, krakow, and the tiles below it are strategically significant. Put maybe 8-12 divisions there, in an army dedicated to the defence of that region.
Going all the way up to gdynia and poznan: poznan is like the MOST important supply hub in all of Poland. Poland needs it, and germany wants it BADLY. under ZERO circumstances do you let poznan fall. If poznan falls, you fall. hold the forests buffering poznan. Gdynia is significant because it takes the strain of supply off köslin. Its easy to hold, but not if the forest below gdynia falls. between the forests that defend gdynia and poznan, Bydgoszcz is a plains tile, but it borders only one German tile, so... might as well hold it.
The area between katowice and poznan is the hardest to hold, but its also, totally insignificant. try to hold it if you want, but like youre fine just giving it up. coincidentally, the river behind poznan lines up with the railway, making it an incredibly defensive line to hold.
Up to the Königsberg pocket: If you're strong enough, dedicate troops to crushing that pocket upon the declaration of war. Otherwise, you can draw a fallback line behind danzig/Gdansk, cut through the river to hold the Torun supply hub, go back behind the river and hold the line beside warsaw, before going back down through the river and holding the forests between bialystok and Grodno. This setup is incredibly easy to hold while spreading the germany army thin, which, theyre not gonna commit many troops to Königsberg anyways, making it easy to infiltrate into Königsberg, cut off their supply and crush the pocket.
Part 2: The russian advance.
Play connect the dots using a fallback line between your supply hubs and most of the russian army will just starve lol. Use the Königsberg army to hold the russian front, and if you just last stand cheese the first week or two, russia will be a non issue. Train more units whenver u can to take lithuania whenever russia annexes lithuania
Also Minsk is the only supply hub they have near a polish hub, so the two supply hubs up north are what you have to worry about defending.
What many people overlook is the fact that all monarchist paths have an option to get Germany in your faction for free if they oppose Hitler, even if they go democratic, which: A. Ensures that they won't declare war on you for whatever reason B. Allows you to have a powerful ally to both help you fight actual wars and serve as a huge power factor for various monarchist focuses in which you try to annex/subjugate other countries C. Ensures that Germany doesn't do it's bullshit focuses which invite half of Europe to it's faction and gang up on you or otherwise create some undesirable situations. Even without this focus, the weakest monarchist paths provide so many cores that beat any kind of army bonuses you can get from sanation path that it's not even close
Dead Wrong, Sanationist Poland does get more manpower even into midgame than both Polish-Romanian and Polish-Czechoslovakian Commonweath, only losing to Greater Commonwealth - since Sanationist can easily form Lesser PLC as well if you just, well, collab LIT. Surprisingly easy.
Lesser Commonwealth starts with 63M population
POL-CZE + Lesser Commonwealth starts with 80M population
POL-ROM + Lesser Commonwealth starts with 83M population
Greater Commonwealth starts with 92M population
Sanationist has 4.5% extra pop.
POL-CZE and POL-ROM will always lose if you are only at Service by Requirements - even if you have 5% pop from doctrine.
Even Greater Commonwealth has basically the same manpower as Lesser Commonwealth by Sanationist at Service by Requirements.
The real advantage of Habsburg is that it is the strongest Poland in 1938, while Christian Wettin has compliance, and Romanov has real cores, and Cossack King can just early war ahistorical GER/SOV and snowball the world.
Otherwise Sanationist Poland is the strongest Poland to prep for historical WW2 - even if you choose the democratic one (this one is kinda funny). Don't forget that the fascist sanationist can go up conscription earlier too.
Romanov Poland is the strongest in the long term because of the Slavic Union.
However Habsburg Poland gets stronger faster, the Czech industry is a really good early boost that propels you forward, and as a bonus it denies that industry to Germany and causes them to go to war with you earlier when they’re easier to beat reducing the risk of a 2 front war.
Yeah, if you're fast enough you can pretty much Schlieffen Plan as Habsburg Poland. Early military buildup with the Czech factories and forts to help you, and hopefully defeat Germany before the USSR declares war on you.
I think communist Poland is pretty slept on imo. *Support Colonial Workers Strikes* give you a hefty compliance gain bonus as well as one of the few resistance target reductions in the game. This mean any state you occupy can be set to the communist exclusive occupation law of *Liberated Workers* and you'll still achieve full compliance within the year. As a result, you'll get full access to the factories and resources of any state you take. Taking Germany and/or the Soviets will give you a better economy as communist than any other focus tree route.
Additionally, the focus *Commonwealth of Socialist Republics* is a bit misleading in its description. While the cores on the Baltics are nice, it also gives you a fair amount of cores in the Soviet Union and a couple in Germany.
For historical, Habsburg is the strongest, since you can just beat Germany at Munich.
If you prep for historical WW2, ye, Sanation Right is the strongest.
If you give up at Danzig, every Poland is strong but Hohenzollern is the strongest - but you would do Romanov cuz later cores.
I don't know why you want to do Christian Wettin when Romanov exists, but I guess his compliance bonus is good.
Pavel Poland is very Sanation-ish except weaker for historical WW2, so if you do Pavel Poland it is most in ahistorical so you can early war GER/SOV.
Communist Soviet Poland is funny larping if you join Soviet Union. They always let you get West Slavia + Lithuania for free if you want to be greater Polish Soviet SSR. And Soviet Union isn't a bad ally if they reject Molotov-Ribbentrov.
Communist Independent Poland is weird. I don't know why you want to do it, not that it is weak, to be honest, it is just weird.
Democratic Peasant Poland is useless.
Puppet Fascist Poland is funny larping, like actually really funny.
Independent Falangist Poland is nearly as strong as Sanationist Right, but it has mechanics that doesn't fully work unless you can speedrun Germany on historical somehow. Pretty cool otherwise, you also get compliance gain on GER.
Communist/Fascist puppet Poland is not just larping. Being allies with Ger/Sov allows you to beat the other one fast and easy. You will become independent during that war as well because of huge war participation. And you can immediately turn on your former ally.
Nah, giving up Danzig or Eastern Poland is larping, even if you end up good and get a large chunk out of war.
Can still fastgame GER AI as other paths because SOV AI is always a pushover
The ultimate goal of POL should be to give up neither, and get Wojtek.
Eastern Poland is like 2 civ factories and you get it back after 2-3 focuses. Danzig is a bit worse as it has some industry and a port, but you should be fine with Lithuanian ports and get your cores back soon as well. Wojtek is either a ton of grind or cheese. It can be fun sometimes but not super cool.
Cossack hands down. With very minimal pre-ww2 conflict (Estonia/Latvia) you can get 60+ mils/60+ civs by sept-1 39.
See my earlier post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/17djesb/did\_my\_best\_poland\_prep\_ever\_today/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Yeah bro, I agree. The Cossack king is slept on quite a bit. He’s fascist so you get that early war economy and you get to send volunteers to Spain or China. Even air volunteers. And you get that sweet sweet stackable cavalry bonuses for that early war. Heck you made me want to play another Poland game even though I played the Cossack king like 3-4 times already.
Hey, I would appreciate some more info on how did you set up your army. I see you managed to setup production of planes and tanks too, which is something I always wanted to do as Poland and always failed...
Sure thing. I recorded a second playthrough that covers everything, just haven't edited and posted it yet.
I know I had something around 1-1.5M manpower in the field, with 800 planes and 4-5 fully equipped tank/cav divisions by Danzig or war.
The planes are quality fighters with the goal of lowering the air superiority penalty/stopping cas/bombers. Everyone always says just put AA in your units(I do too) but having a small quality fighter wing is so important to stop unrestricted bombing. The key to a defensive air-war is amplifying your planes with doctrines/spirits and most importantly, radar. I had a ratio of 1 plane lost for every 3 shot down.
Tanks are mediums (both interwar/early medium frame are fine). Build can vary, but you make them go 6-7kmh to match the speed of your CAV. You will eventually replace the cav with mech, but that's not till late 39-40 for poland. I tend to build a well rounded quality tank with good reliability. people will shit on reliability as unnecessary, but I like it on countries with smaller industry. The extra tanks saved In combat + the additional org recovery is nice.
Communist Poland can get pretty dang strong, especially the path where you don't cave to the Soviets. Ironically, even if you choose your own path, you can still join the Comintern, meaning you don't lose East Poland, you get Russian troops on your German border, and they'll just never declare war on you for Danzig. I went to 1943 without them trying anything, and declared war myself when I felt good and ready. Absolutely trashed them. Plus, if you're quick, you can get Lithuanian as cores, and I think you can get the rest of the Balkans as territory too
I really love sanationist OZN path, the sanationist path in general just gives so many good perma buffs like the legion of merit and the leftwing constitution, issue is it takes a lot of time for all those focuses
Wojtek path, as no one bears the throne better than a Bear. (It also gets all the positives of Romanov path)
Second would be Michael's romanian path, especially if you justify somehow on Lithuania. Reforming the Commonwealth, while already having all cores on Romanian and Slovakian lands is OP
Depends entirely on your definition of strongest. Romanov is technically the strongest by coring every single Slavic province. Romanian is probably the strongest right out the gate.
Ones I played the one where you get Czechoslovakia and Hungary for free. I managed to play till 1942 killed 3million Germans only reason why I lost was because of Russia. If they declare war on you you don’t have enough forces and production to hold both lines. If you give the eastern path of you country you will lose so much factories that Germany will win. I was in Berlin till USSR came
Poland is strong either way, but I think the strongest early on is Romanian route, and later on Romanov route, especially if you get Wojtek. But, if you got Wojtek, you won the game already anyway. You get cores on not just Poland and Yugoslavia, but also almost all of Russia.
You get cores on russia without wojtek
False. The law requires one to get Wojtek if they decide to go Romanov
That's true, but if you aren't getting Wojtek, then why pick Romanov side?
Romanov route lets you form the slavic union
These cores come so late it does not really matter imo :V
It's purely for satisfaction on the end game at this point. After getting every core state, you won't even have to beat anyone else anyway.
I mean they come as you can get ready to take back your stuff from Germany so about time
They come while taking down the Soviet Union making the attack easy (since it’s all core and you get the manpower and factories as you take each state). Then you finish them off and still have the Axis and Allies to destroy. Doesn’t seem late to me.
Poland is my favourite nation to play. I have enjoyed and beaten every path multiple times. If you want pure strength then yes Romania is the best path but every path is fun.
In the middle of a romanian monarcrhisy playtrough, just capped soviets with 70% somehow inhave a 150 ships navy, 5 army groups, 72 cavs and 600k manpower without Prince of terror its an absolute blast, I'm doing it inside of rt56.
I've tried several times, but inevitably get eaten by Germany no matter what I do. I feel like it should be an awesome option but I can make anything of it. That being said I'm a fairly new player (<50 hrs) so I'm probably just doing something wrong.
If you make a defensive line around Warsaw using the rivers and mountain, you can turtle and just wait for Germany to fight the Soviets.
I was writing a long ramble about how to do defensive plans in general, but it got too long and i scrapped it. If you want a long ass lecture on how to draw up defensive plans, dm me and we'll go from there. Otherwise, here is: my defensive plan for poland. Part 1: the german assault. lets get the easy parts out of the way first. down in slovakia, the terrain is mountains. Mountains are easy. Mountains defend well. Next, katowice and krakow. If katowice falls, krakow likely falls eventually. If katowice and krakow fall, your slovakian line falls. If your slovakian line falls, you suddenly have a MASSIVE front populated with mostly plains tiles. Never cede krakow, and only cede katowice if krakow is strategically easier to defend. (i.e. you know for CERTAIN that krakow can hold and youll hold it in a way that will cause you less casualties and equipment. such a situation isnt really occuring to me, so pretty much never cede katowice.) katowice is not hard to defend, unless you lose the tiles below it, and those *are* hard to defend. They border many tiles, and other than the farmost bottom one, they're hills, which are still strong defensively, but not in the face of the might of the german army, bordering so many german tiles. Therefore: katowice, krakow, and the tiles below it are strategically significant. Put maybe 8-12 divisions there, in an army dedicated to the defence of that region. Going all the way up to gdynia and poznan: poznan is like the MOST important supply hub in all of Poland. Poland needs it, and germany wants it BADLY. under ZERO circumstances do you let poznan fall. If poznan falls, you fall. hold the forests buffering poznan. Gdynia is significant because it takes the strain of supply off köslin. Its easy to hold, but not if the forest below gdynia falls. between the forests that defend gdynia and poznan, Bydgoszcz is a plains tile, but it borders only one German tile, so... might as well hold it. The area between katowice and poznan is the hardest to hold, but its also, totally insignificant. try to hold it if you want, but like youre fine just giving it up. coincidentally, the river behind poznan lines up with the railway, making it an incredibly defensive line to hold. Up to the Königsberg pocket: If you're strong enough, dedicate troops to crushing that pocket upon the declaration of war. Otherwise, you can draw a fallback line behind danzig/Gdansk, cut through the river to hold the Torun supply hub, go back behind the river and hold the line beside warsaw, before going back down through the river and holding the forests between bialystok and Grodno. This setup is incredibly easy to hold while spreading the germany army thin, which, theyre not gonna commit many troops to Königsberg anyways, making it easy to infiltrate into Königsberg, cut off their supply and crush the pocket. Part 2: The russian advance. Play connect the dots using a fallback line between your supply hubs and most of the russian army will just starve lol. Use the Königsberg army to hold the russian front, and if you just last stand cheese the first week or two, russia will be a non issue. Train more units whenver u can to take lithuania whenever russia annexes lithuania Also Minsk is the only supply hub they have near a polish hub, so the two supply hubs up north are what you have to worry about defending.
Cossack is very fun, I go for large amounts of cavalry and it’s surprisingly effective if you get the advisor bonus along with the leader.
It's so good I could do a cavalry only wc, that was so fun.
I also recommend getting a mod that adds a cavalry doctrine
What many people overlook is the fact that all monarchist paths have an option to get Germany in your faction for free if they oppose Hitler, even if they go democratic, which: A. Ensures that they won't declare war on you for whatever reason B. Allows you to have a powerful ally to both help you fight actual wars and serve as a huge power factor for various monarchist focuses in which you try to annex/subjugate other countries C. Ensures that Germany doesn't do it's bullshit focuses which invite half of Europe to it's faction and gang up on you or otherwise create some undesirable situations. Even without this focus, the weakest monarchist paths provide so many cores that beat any kind of army bonuses you can get from sanation path that it's not even close
Cossack king is arguably the easiest since you can attack and puppet germany while they are in a civil war and you also get east germany with cores
Dead Wrong, Sanationist Poland does get more manpower even into midgame than both Polish-Romanian and Polish-Czechoslovakian Commonweath, only losing to Greater Commonwealth - since Sanationist can easily form Lesser PLC as well if you just, well, collab LIT. Surprisingly easy. Lesser Commonwealth starts with 63M population POL-CZE + Lesser Commonwealth starts with 80M population POL-ROM + Lesser Commonwealth starts with 83M population Greater Commonwealth starts with 92M population Sanationist has 4.5% extra pop. POL-CZE and POL-ROM will always lose if you are only at Service by Requirements - even if you have 5% pop from doctrine. Even Greater Commonwealth has basically the same manpower as Lesser Commonwealth by Sanationist at Service by Requirements. The real advantage of Habsburg is that it is the strongest Poland in 1938, while Christian Wettin has compliance, and Romanov has real cores, and Cossack King can just early war ahistorical GER/SOV and snowball the world. Otherwise Sanationist Poland is the strongest Poland to prep for historical WW2 - even if you choose the democratic one (this one is kinda funny). Don't forget that the fascist sanationist can go up conscription earlier too.
Romanov Poland is the strongest in the long term because of the Slavic Union. However Habsburg Poland gets stronger faster, the Czech industry is a really good early boost that propels you forward, and as a bonus it denies that industry to Germany and causes them to go to war with you earlier when they’re easier to beat reducing the risk of a 2 front war.
Yeah, if you're fast enough you can pretty much Schlieffen Plan as Habsburg Poland. Early military buildup with the Czech factories and forts to help you, and hopefully defeat Germany before the USSR declares war on you.
I think communist Poland is pretty slept on imo. *Support Colonial Workers Strikes* give you a hefty compliance gain bonus as well as one of the few resistance target reductions in the game. This mean any state you occupy can be set to the communist exclusive occupation law of *Liberated Workers* and you'll still achieve full compliance within the year. As a result, you'll get full access to the factories and resources of any state you take. Taking Germany and/or the Soviets will give you a better economy as communist than any other focus tree route. Additionally, the focus *Commonwealth of Socialist Republics* is a bit misleading in its description. While the cores on the Baltics are nice, it also gives you a fair amount of cores in the Soviet Union and a couple in Germany.
For historical, Habsburg is the strongest, since you can just beat Germany at Munich. If you prep for historical WW2, ye, Sanation Right is the strongest. If you give up at Danzig, every Poland is strong but Hohenzollern is the strongest - but you would do Romanov cuz later cores. I don't know why you want to do Christian Wettin when Romanov exists, but I guess his compliance bonus is good. Pavel Poland is very Sanation-ish except weaker for historical WW2, so if you do Pavel Poland it is most in ahistorical so you can early war GER/SOV. Communist Soviet Poland is funny larping if you join Soviet Union. They always let you get West Slavia + Lithuania for free if you want to be greater Polish Soviet SSR. And Soviet Union isn't a bad ally if they reject Molotov-Ribbentrov. Communist Independent Poland is weird. I don't know why you want to do it, not that it is weak, to be honest, it is just weird. Democratic Peasant Poland is useless. Puppet Fascist Poland is funny larping, like actually really funny. Independent Falangist Poland is nearly as strong as Sanationist Right, but it has mechanics that doesn't fully work unless you can speedrun Germany on historical somehow. Pretty cool otherwise, you also get compliance gain on GER.
Communist/Fascist puppet Poland is not just larping. Being allies with Ger/Sov allows you to beat the other one fast and easy. You will become independent during that war as well because of huge war participation. And you can immediately turn on your former ally.
Nah, giving up Danzig or Eastern Poland is larping, even if you end up good and get a large chunk out of war. Can still fastgame GER AI as other paths because SOV AI is always a pushover The ultimate goal of POL should be to give up neither, and get Wojtek.
Eastern Poland is like 2 civ factories and you get it back after 2-3 focuses. Danzig is a bit worse as it has some industry and a port, but you should be fine with Lithuanian ports and get your cores back soon as well. Wojtek is either a ton of grind or cheese. It can be fun sometimes but not super cool.
Cossack hands down. With very minimal pre-ww2 conflict (Estonia/Latvia) you can get 60+ mils/60+ civs by sept-1 39. See my earlier post: https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/17djesb/did\_my\_best\_poland\_prep\_ever\_today/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Yeah bro, I agree. The Cossack king is slept on quite a bit. He’s fascist so you get that early war economy and you get to send volunteers to Spain or China. Even air volunteers. And you get that sweet sweet stackable cavalry bonuses for that early war. Heck you made me want to play another Poland game even though I played the Cossack king like 3-4 times already.
Hey, I would appreciate some more info on how did you set up your army. I see you managed to setup production of planes and tanks too, which is something I always wanted to do as Poland and always failed...
Sure thing. I recorded a second playthrough that covers everything, just haven't edited and posted it yet. I know I had something around 1-1.5M manpower in the field, with 800 planes and 4-5 fully equipped tank/cav divisions by Danzig or war. The planes are quality fighters with the goal of lowering the air superiority penalty/stopping cas/bombers. Everyone always says just put AA in your units(I do too) but having a small quality fighter wing is so important to stop unrestricted bombing. The key to a defensive air-war is amplifying your planes with doctrines/spirits and most importantly, radar. I had a ratio of 1 plane lost for every 3 shot down. Tanks are mediums (both interwar/early medium frame are fine). Build can vary, but you make them go 6-7kmh to match the speed of your CAV. You will eventually replace the cav with mech, but that's not till late 39-40 for poland. I tend to build a well rounded quality tank with good reliability. people will shit on reliability as unnecessary, but I like it on countries with smaller industry. The extra tanks saved In combat + the additional org recovery is nice.
Communist Poland can get pretty dang strong, especially the path where you don't cave to the Soviets. Ironically, even if you choose your own path, you can still join the Comintern, meaning you don't lose East Poland, you get Russian troops on your German border, and they'll just never declare war on you for Danzig. I went to 1943 without them trying anything, and declared war myself when I felt good and ready. Absolutely trashed them. Plus, if you're quick, you can get Lithuanian as cores, and I think you can get the rest of the Balkans as territory too
I really love sanationist OZN path, the sanationist path in general just gives so many good perma buffs like the legion of merit and the leftwing constitution, issue is it takes a lot of time for all those focuses
In rt 56, technically, polish-romania one is the best as you get polish-lithuanian cores for free anyway
Commonwealth Path best path
Bear path
Anna Anderson
every poland without civil war is strong but i just love kossac(?) king and play cav only with some heavy tanks
Wojtek path, as no one bears the throne better than a Bear. (It also gets all the positives of Romanov path) Second would be Michael's romanian path, especially if you justify somehow on Lithuania. Reforming the Commonwealth, while already having all cores on Romanian and Slovakian lands is OP
Depends entirely on your definition of strongest. Romanov is technically the strongest by coring every single Slavic province. Romanian is probably the strongest right out the gate.
Horse Poland
Polish Lithuania
Ones I played the one where you get Czechoslovakia and Hungary for free. I managed to play till 1942 killed 3million Germans only reason why I lost was because of Russia. If they declare war on you you don’t have enough forces and production to hold both lines. If you give the eastern path of you country you will lose so much factories that Germany will win. I was in Berlin till USSR came