World Conquest in December 1937 - Hoi4 Japan v1.12 Speedrun Explained

Hoi4 World Conquest Speedrun guide for a fast world conquest on Ironman! Version 1.12 is absolutely the best one for a one-tag world conquest in Hearts of Iron 4. I've played Japan this time, but might give it a go with other nations sometime as well. The run was recorded in v1.12.6, but I've tested the strat again prior to releasing the video in v.1.12.9 and it still works.

You don't need DLCs for this strategy, although they are pretty helpful. Only By Blood Alone is disadvantages, unless you play as Germany or Italy, because of Switzerland's neutrality national spirit. Germany and Italy get war goals on Switzerland through the focus tree, everyone else has to justify for at least 300 days, often way more. Doesn't really make sense, if you ask me, especially in scenarios where Switzerland is the only other nation left on the planet and neutrality is supposed to deter us from war. Weird.

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Reason for annexing France again quickly:

As soon as the French divisions engage in combat, France will gain lots of autonomy quickly. So much in fact that we cannot get them to zero autonomy through land-lease again, we just don't have enough equipment and convoys. If you now think: well, sooner or later we're going to have plenty more equipement, then you're right, but also very wrong. If we don't annex them before the end of the war with the Soviets, we're going to run into problems.

The new peace conference system is going to ruin your day, because in order to get a single conference with all participants, you'll need to call France into the war again every single time when a new hostile nation joins a faction. If you forget to call them even once or if France refuses to join, you're in deep trouble. You'll get messed up conferences with only a fraction of the participants due to multiple wars going on.

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If you're interested in speedrunning Hearts of Iron IV, make sure to read the general AND category rules before recording and submitting your run!

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Music: All music used in this video is part of the official Hearts of Iron IV soundtrack.

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This speedrun has been in the making for roughly three years and has been adopted to various versions and changes of Hearts of Iron 4. It's currently working in all versions up until 1.12, but requires extra steps in version 1.11 and prior, because of the "Untouched Mechanic". Thanks again to everyone who contributed to the strategy over the years!

[belfastplant]

Tojo's hitting himself repeatedly saying "WHY DIDN'T I DO THAT!?"

[soluuution]

Imagine being Germany in 1936 seeing Japan already at your borders

[hatless_spider]

Well done as always!
So impressive how much work goes into these!

[jure.]

When I clicked on this I expected a timelapse of some sweaty HOI4 gameplay. Hearing a whole story, explanations, notes and awesome and helpful graphics really made me enjoy this video.

Thanks!

[ArchAngelOfficialCh]

Dang, 1937 is crazy. Best I got was 44 bc South America took way too long. I could get Allies and Europe by 40. Great video. The French paradrop made my jaw drop and the Italian 66 was fantastic. I though we were stuck with invading Britain through the Spanish civil war. The Russian war to get the justification time down is brilliant.

Side note the Chinese Warlords can be grouped into the Allies war to get them out earlier. The key is not getting Co-prosperity sphere before you add them or they join the United front instead.

And if it’s an issue you can leave the entire eastern German front open so they spend troops trying to take your Russian territory leaving a very stretched German line.

[man]

Corrections:
4:30 the army spirit "State serves the Military" provides 10% political power gain, not Army XP gain.
7:50 the Soviets aren't included in the 25 nation bundle, but in the 115 days of build-up.
23:13 Japan starts with Grand Battle Plan, not Mass Assault
Thanks guys for pointing these out, especially @sejozwak If you find more, please comment here!

[grunklestanlee]

this is absolutely insane ive known about taking all of europe in 1936 but i never considered taking it further also the order 66 trick will prove to be super useful in future games i think

[KingRastaj]

Dude conquered 75% of the world before Germany did Anschluss.

[savvyartifact]

I love the duality of hoi4 players. I play with the expanded tech tree mod and love the idea of a cold war type slow buildup so I usually play into the late 50's or even mid 60's (though I have had games last into the mid to late 70's because I hate my cpu) vs players like you my friend who manage to conquer ever nation on the planet before I usually even start building mil's. well done my friend

[kursuk]

when i declare on albania all my division teleport to tokyo

[kvlt]

Amazing run and well detailed explanations! This is true skill right here.
Can't wait for the optimized Italy 18 month run ;p

[synthelione]

Love the way the info is presented. Succinct and eye-catching, it must have taken alot of effort to make them.

[grandly]

This was actually way more interesting than I expected, I loved the way you explained all the strats.

[hemlockwaterdropwortchanne]

The "faction ruleset" graphic at 10:51 is helpful, but the ideology associated colors are a little hard to see. I think a helpful improvement would be to have the flags flying outward, so that the color is more visible.

[yac]

I've watched this like 10 times now, amazing work! Thanks for sharing this with us!

[Arexsis]

Honestly, you could take another 20 minutes just explaining things to me and I would love it - your videos are never too long. Thanks for the great visuals and explanations

[ListogreOfficial]

Amazing WC, and thanks for the detailed explanation for every step.

[carltonleboss]

Wow! This was really well explained. Good video, my dude.

[normalermann]

To be ownest, i was a little bored when you first justifayed against Italy with abuse and then France, as this is the ultimate standard tactik. But then you showed the new systems with faction members etc and i was really impressed. Video well done, intelligent humour, love for details ❤

[hoienjoyer]

Very nice speedrun, hope you’ll gest more views!