HoI4 By Blood Alone made Switzerland an ABSOLUTE BEAST! 

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The Swiss: I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new empire

"It feels like I'm beating a harmless child." -Bitt3rSteel, 2022

Switzerland: *suddenly demobilizes their 400+ Divisions after getting territory* Italy and France: "Wait--no what just happened"

tbh the neutral swiss tree is the most fun, thought the balance of power really makes Switzerland unfriendly to beginners. You really need to make very specific choices to rush down that path before anschluss.

“Hyperrealistic Swissball isn’t real, they can’t hurt you” Hyperrealistic Swissball:

Important: In the current version of the game, nearly everything in the Armed Neutrality and Buero Ha branches require the Balance of Power to be in favour of the cantons, so you cannot pick up these focuses after beelining Preempt Anschluss etc. unless you go through the entire business of flipping the Balance of Power back. Also, I haven't actually played with Furrer as president for life but my reading of the script is that his extra research slot is *not* a one-time thing, like all presidents for life you can take his presidential initiative about once a year and there's nothing preventing you from getting an extra research slot every time. Again, haven't tested this but you may want to check your save game since this is pretty big if it pans out.

27:08 This would actually make for a really neat achievement The Sounds of Our Torpedoes - As Switzerland, have Georg Von Trapp as a Naval Commander.

I love how you explain the mechanics of the game to new players and beginners in your videos. It's absolutely lovely, and you're probably one of the few youtubers that do it, so thank you.

there was once a tank which was only in use in Switzerland, the so called panzer 68. which was based on the panzer 61 and his older brother mittlerer panzer 58. Greetings from Switzerland

Ever since bba came out I've been doing concentrated industry and i can feel the difference with the amount of units I get out.

Switzerland in our timeline: "Who cares what they did, they'll give us gold if they don't invade us!" Switzerland in this timeline: "A L P S"

Dispersed is better if you keep switching equipment to newer equipment. If I remember correctly, It's about a 5-7year payback period that makes concentrated better

The odds of the target nations accepting any of the expansion stuff from Switzerland all are dependent on the same factors. Namely, if A) Switzerland is a player, B) if historical AI is off, C) if they have a good relation with Switzerland, and D) if Switzerland have a colossally larger military than the target. For the last one, it's two factors. First, if their division count is less than 80% of yours. And two, if their division count is less than 30% of yours. Also, the relation modifier is *massive* - like, it multiplies whatever total chance you have by a factor of 15 for the Austrians, and a factor of 10 for the other two. With all combined factors checked off, there's still a chance they'll say no because there's always at least 1% for the alternative outcome so long as nothing modifies the AI chance factor for that outcome to be outright zero (which in this case, it's always a flat 10 factor, compared against factors as large as 3,000 or 10,000). You can check this all in the event file BBA_Switzerland.txt - specifically, the events "BBA_swiss_expansion.9" and "BBA_swiss_expansion.12" (also "BBA_swiss_expansion.6" for the Vorarlberg focus, which interestingly also includes outcomes for if Hitler controls Austria). Also, I want to point out that in this campaign Italy essentially handed over 16 military factories (probably more due to the territory being uncored until the Alpine Protectorate focus) for no reason whatsoever, lmao.

Maybe there wasn't in the version you're playing, but to answer one of your questions there is an additional research slot at the end of the democratic tree, under weapons of democracy, meaning Switzerland can get 5 total.

So in the latest version of the game, you can't get the Canton focuses all willy-nilly while being on the Council side of the Balance of Power bar like Bitt3r did here. The compromise I found was to switch to Free Trade, do 1 Council Diplomatic Effort, and by selecting the bottom of the three guiding principle options, this will be enough so that you can get Partial Mobilization by the war support increase from the balance of power shift shortly before Reaffirm Spiritual Defense nukes your war support. Then you do Fortify Border with Italy, 1 more Council Diplomatic effort, Armed Neutrality, and rush over to Allied Gold before you lose the required 70% democrat support. After this, just save up political power, MAYBE use 100 to get more military readiness (+50 Command Power). At this point you *should* have enough time to do Pro Helvetia (I do it first for the PP boost) and then get down the Frontier Defense Plan tree to Total Defense before the balance of power shifts over to the Council. As soon as you get when you have 60-ish of the 70 days of Fight until the Death (or Buero Ha if you left that path for last instead), do a Council Diplomatic Effort which will take 50 days to complete. The focus finishes, and you begin Total Defense (or Pro Helvetia, respectively) When you're 6-8 days into that focus, do Strengthen Military High Command. The effects of the two should go off after Total Defense is finished, and should put you at just enough or nearly enough Council support to do Gotthardbund. Finally, if you saved enough PP for it, do Council Diplomatic effort, Strengthen Military High Command, and Consolidate Council Power and viola, you should be at Full Council Power in time to do Anschluss with an extra 35 days to spare (On historical AI Focuses), firmly on the path of the Alpine Protectorate while having a few significant buffs from the Canton focus tree. You're free to do as you like from here. How strong this actually is, I have no idea. But it's the path I figured out to get the +20% division org and the political power gain + consumer good factory reduction. Edit: If you skip either Increase Defense Budget or National Defense Fund (Idk how recommendable this is, but I might suggest skipping National Defense Fund first as you'll need the mils for your guns in the early game.) you can also dive down into Patriotic Shooting clubs and possibly Train Swiss Women.

*The Hills Are Alive...* *With the Sound of Gunshots!*

i have to say that they even changed some of the focuses because in my game it doesnt says "Cantons is the active side" so i cant take a lot of focuses

I played as the Swiss on my first game of BBA. I managed to get all their achievements practically by luck as I didn't really understand the mechanics of the balance of power at that point. I managed to get both the French and Germans to guarantee me after the Italians started hating me. In the subsequent war it was very easy to hold the Italians in my southern states while the Germans moved in through Austria and the French moved across the French Alps. The Italian overthrow of Mussolini happened and what remained of Fascist Italy capitulated not long after. I took a couple of states in the peace conference but not enough to get Swiss Cheese but I did get You Shall Not Pass from the endeavour. Then when Germany kicked off WW2 They were bogged down in the low countries for years with neither country capitulating - as they had too many forces committed to fighting in the Austrian Alps against Italy. Also for some reason one of the many odd things that started happening was that they went to war with Lithuania even though they already had Memel. This caused Lithuania to join the Allies which will be important later. Eventually my militia troops were strong enough, and the Germans on my border weak enough that I felt comfortable chancing my arm against them. Once world tension had reached 100% (which took far longer than I expected) I justified and declared war on Germany and pushed through their exposed southern flank helping to capitulate the Germans by May 1942. I took some more stuff in the peace deal but somehow still not enough for Swiss Cheese (I can only assume the 5 states had to be annexed in the same conference as I'm sure I had more than 5 states outside of my country not contiguous at this point) but did get You Shall Not Pass. Now this is where the Lithuania joining the Allies becomes important. At some point during the mess of Germany's war the Soviets did their attempt to eat Lithuania causing the Comintern to go to war with the Allies. I joined that war and then waited. My military strength was negligible at this point so gave my army to the UK as expeditionaries and spent all my resources on keeping the territories I already had and providing lend lease to other allies. That war dragged on but eventually the Soviets collapsed in 1945. My war participation was just enough that I was able to annex some of their cheap east Russian states separate from each other and get Swiss Cheese but I was still just short of Everybody gets a canton. Thankfully the new peace deal mechanics meant that some of our old adversaries were still kicking around. Mr Hilter's Germany still existed in Moravia so I justified and took it for myself. Did the same against Nationalist Spain and called my allies in. The US turned most of it into a puppet but I did snag western Aragon which was just enough to get me to my final 24th state... though Franco somehow still ended up owning Catalonia when it was done. The border gore was disgusting, it was a total mess, but it was satisfying enough that I felt the need to share it all in a RU-vid comment.

I really dig the new focus trees for Switzerland and Ethopia. It really opens the game up considerately.

Every time you use mediums, I tell myself I need to start using them too, but then when I do play with tanks, I still just stick to lights. Maybe one day I'll learn.

You could have gotten both the Axis and Allied Gold, which gives ridiculous bonuses to Civilian Factories.

So for those who do not know the difference between dispersed and concentrated Factory Dispersed Factory is diverse, it allows you to change from civs to mils and mils to civs faster. Concentrated Factory has better production, however granting more "felt" drawback when changing production line. For example if you have all factoreis in use and making lots of different thing but you have a surplus of guns and think you dont need to make them for the time beign, if you change guns production line into tanks production line, you get slower adaptability of the workers working in those factories. And accordingt o paradox forum, Concentrated is better for Multiplayer games where is Dispersed for singleplayer

A little exploit I discovered for when you have full Canton control is that until you fill the vacant seat after electing a president, you can replace the other two guys for free as well. You're only locked in once the vacant seat is filled.

i have actual tinnitus so i didnt notice the beeping until i checked the comments

“I say the whole world must learn of our peaceful ways - BY FORCE”

Is it possible that there is a bug with the tree in your video? You where able to do Frontier Defense Plan even though you had 0% Canton support but 38% Council support, should be Impossible to take that focus, correct me if im wrong please

That must have been done on the different version of the game. At the current state going all the way for the left side blocks all military and militia related focuses. You can't get that recrutable population modifiers anymore if you rush for anshluss

10:20 I once had a run where Italy was in a stalemate in Ethiopia at the start of ww2 and had to white peace lmao

they patched this i believe, all of the focuses under armed neutrality requires canton side balance of powers. you cant pick focuses from left and right side of focus tree, if you do, then germany will gobble austria before you. what i do rushing full council power first right side of balance of power and picked the focus under neutrality.

Time traveller throws rock The timeline:

Anyone else hear a high pitch electric humming sound in this video?

THere is a high pitched noise coming through this video and it hurts my brain

I've seen one run where the war in Ethiopia dragged out so long they joined the Allies and France capitulated Italy before they even joined the Axis. LMAO

Switzerland challenge: own every mountain tile on the map

italy be like ight i'll sign over the most delvoped part of my country

Dispersed industry is way better in 99% of the time. 71cloak made a video showing how much better it is.

We don't sat on the Mountains we sat in the mountains

I can’t play a non-historical game without Germany and Hungary forming the central powers, Switzerland annexing Italy, and the U.S. becoming the CSA anymore

I love the look of Swizterland after annexing all of Austria but for the opposite reason. It looks like it would be easier to cut in two than AI Italy. At least until you get your Italian claims.

It's important to mention that it seems that the country ideology once you do the protectorate focus seems to be the one of the presidnt, mine was unfortunately communist.

it doesnt allow me to take most of the central focus since for me it locks them out as soon as im lower than 0% of canton power

Switzerland has a larger population than Finland! That’s crazy bruh

In Germany we say: “For the Führer” In Britain we say: “For King and Country” In Russia we say: “For the Motherland” In Switzerland we say: “For Mountains and Toblerone”

The buzzing in the video made me feel like I was outside at dark

26:03 tbh those borders would look waaaay cooler without lower and upper Austria, this would be a true *CHAD* Switzerland

Does any one else here that sound when they watch this

the next dlc will probably be scandinavia but I really want one for south america, they got tons of stuff they can do with Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia and maybe Honduras as well (banana republic), they should also focus it on money and introduce currency into the game

The huge alps united Switzerland, is just Switzerland plus vorarlberg. But giga and much more mountain Am I the only one who sees it because only some of my friends see it

There is this weird mic static sound for me on your videos for some reason, and its only on yours and i hope it goes away soon it suddenly started for me from one of your videos. Though i love your videos, keep up the good work.

0:27 “full of mountains and toblerone” is going in my vocabulary

29:50 YOU WILL WHAT NOW ON ITALY?!

as a tip if you wanna split 120 units into 5 armies press s twice then remove 6 more units with control-click and then you are left with 96units witch can be split into 48s and then 24s rly easily :) just wanted to say since i saw it at 22:45

It is better for single player early game agression to take dispersed, majors on the other hand generally gain more if you are going for middle-late game from concentrated

I think the game is fixed between you recording and now, because I can’t progress down the middle path since the balance power is in the council’s favour.

The swiss:thats it.the geneva convention will be violated no more

I tried this a few times (in today’s version obviously) but I can’t manoeuvre myself out of full council control. Current theory I have is that starting at the principals, it might be wiser to go for the democratic option so that the balance ticks you out of the full council control region. Still have to try this.

so I'm trying to follow this guide and a lot of the focuses he is showing have different requirements to what is appearing in game. all the focuses regarding the military focuses in the centre of the tree require to be on the cantons side, whereas in the video, bittersteel is able to complete them when very far into the federal council. not sure of this is an older version he is playing on, but it makes the majority of the guide impossible as a lot of the focuses cannot be completed in the order of the video

18:11 "its cheasy and its a little stupid but if it is stupid and it works its not stupid" -Bitt3rSteel, 2022

On the topic of industry, I always use concentrated cuz I mainly play small countries and I have to squeeze my factories for all they’re worth

Great manual! Good job! At 22:51 I didn't catch how you assigned the complete army to 2 different countries, did I miss a shortcut? Edit: or maybe you assigned the army to one border, and then (video edited) you manually selected 2 other divisions and assigned them to the 2nd border?

The waves will be alive with the sound of our torpedoes

0:06 You're right -- more commonly they're assoziated with Nazi gold and blood diamonds... and since they try to make us forgot that -- chocolate.

The Golden Rule. Whoever has the most gold makes the rules

When I watch this video, I hear a high pitched buzzing, is this a audio problem? Also funny that it stops during the ads lol

Cool video, now I can finally play switzerland properly

Hey Bitt3r, you still have some weird high pitch ringing sounds in your vids! Great vid apart from that though

I just got the new DLC, and Switzerland is the best! I broke neutrality immediately with Italy, which allowed me to puppet them and take their alps. Then easy alpine protectorate.

him: swiss people only sat on the mountains. American bombers that got wrong coordinates:

according to 71cloak's testing, dispersed is effectively always better. you can look up his video on youtube.

why does this video have tinnitus

People have been talking about Ethiopia so much that I forgot Switzerland was even in BBA

Bitt3rSteel: "...otherwise, I'd be here for 20 minutes." Me: *looks at video length* "An hour long hoi4 video? Sounds amazing."

I’m a bit confused here, for the “frontier defence plan” Focus you need to on the cantons side right, but right after you did that focus you where able to do Anschluss which you need to be left for, on the federal council side

I wish I could've seen Mussolini's end... it's such a happy bedtime story.

As far as disbursed vs concentrated, concentrated is only good if you plan on keeping a line on something for a long term. So if you're playing as China and need to keep a line on cheap inf equipment just to keep your troops supplied it works, for most situations dispersed is still best

A Swiss NAVY?! You're kidding Paradox!

Switzerland did more than just sit around and count gold the were staunchly neutral to the point where they shot down both allied and axis airplanes alike to defend their airspace form being violated and if they allowed one side or the other to pass through they wouldn't be neutral. They almost got official invaded by both sides when they had their planes shot down by the Swiss

At 1:48 you go for frontier defnese plan.. but you are on the Council side? how did you enable that to unlock? Mine is locked out cus we went to council side...

Konrad Adenauer ruling over Bavaria is truly the most blessed timeline

did they make a change to the focus tree? because i can't get most of your focuses because it says "the balance of power hast to be more than 0.0% on the cantons side" and not "cantons is the active side in balance of power" like in your video (and you can click the focus although cantons is NOT the active side)

Alpine protectorate flag is the Swiss alps literally going super Saiyan

Italy signing over so much land including Milano and Genova is just silly

"Swis tanks pound down the brandenburg gate" gives a totally different meaning to the Red Army hahaha

Dispersed is better if u have more factories, Concentrated is better for less factories

You also get a boost when you form the actual confederation, which you can do twice (once through a decision and once a focus), so you don't lose out on any cores. Least, that's what it was like for my playthrough, but for all I know that was a bug.

Am I the only one who hears that high pitched buzz in the background of this video, and even a couple of the past videos?

what is that pain full sound

The guy who got citations looks uncanny like Josef Gangl

Switzerland: "One dollar...two dollars...three- aw dammit, there's still a finger attached to this one....three dollars..."

Bro when I heard "Adolf Furrer" I was thinking of another kind of Fuhrer

This honesty is one of my favorite dlcs

Is it only me or does the game cancel 'Pro Halvetia' due to the balance of the power system when I follow his move one by one? Edit ) Think Bittersteel 'Renounce Guiding Principal' with 100pp at one point, can somebody actually confirm this?

26:00 You just made something resembling the Czech flag in your party popularity chart

Is it me or is there a weird buzzing sound in the audio

that transition to the ad was smooth🌬

Great content :) def gonna play Switzerland after this

Honestly, your guides have saved me so many time from a mental breakdown. The only thing that makes me rage every time is the ai cucking me out of territory I need

Why is it ringing tf

Did they change the focus tree requirements for frontier defense plan? Following this video and i stumple upon the fact that when the time comes, the frontier defense plan is locked out...