I played Germany in Black Ice, and hated every minute of it 

"They are attacking my divisions in the winter, and it just doesnt phase them! They are suffering from the same debuffs as mine, I dont understand it! What bonuses do they get?" -Hitler irl in winter of 1941

BICE is the most historically accurate mod in HOI4. Not because of its economy and design modules, but because just like in a real war, nobody knows what's going on, how anything works, and there is a perpetual shortage of everything regardless of how many factories you have. But if you're looking for a real challenge, I'd highly recommend BICE USSR. You start off with a phenomenal army and industry, but your doctrine is hopelessly outdated, and you can do nothing but watch in horror as the debuffs make your army and air force virtually incapable of any combat. You desperately try to get all the focuses, catch up on your doctrine, and get your tanks and guns researched, but that summer 1941 is rapidly approaching and your army is nowhere near ready.

Black ice is basically if the board game "The Campaigne for North Africa" was a video game.

"We've won the air war, the British are almost out of planes" - Luftwaffe, shortly before losing the Battle of Britain

BICE, still trying to turn HOI4 into a MILSIM

They recommend a easy country like Italy or Usa. SO WE WILL OFCOURSE PLAY GERMANY

Funny thing for you viewers, I got to hear second-hand Bitt3rSteel's experience in a Discord chat as he tried again and again to beat this. The man was absolutely destroyed making this video.

"We will probably be able to seize Leningrad, it is completely cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union" -Bittersteel, 2024 -Hitler, 1941

"They get a positive modifier from the terrain? I don't know how this is working!" - average german commander on the eastern front in 1941

How do you produce more Horse transports? "Queue in oversimplified napoleon horse manufacture explanation "

Bitt3rsteel being utterly overwhelmed and uncertain about everything in Black Ice is basically me when I play normal HOI4

Hoi4 players when they realize war in the real world is 90% logistics and economy: "NOOOOOOO"

Bitt3rSteel this is an intervention, at one point you had over 130 hours in hoi4 over a two week period. We’re worried about you, this black ice isn’t healthy for you.

"My Fuhrer. What is the plan?" "We shall execute Operation Double Wammie. General Bitter Steel shall oversee it."

-plays black ice -naturaly plays hard nation -hates every minute of it

Despite all the absurd and ridiculous changes to the game to make it more realistic, Germany still still sea lions the UK in 1941 and used naval invasions willy nilly. I think they just made the game more complicated, without making it more "realistic" at times.

I am so excited to finally watch this after hearing about your endless suffering. I only hope it helps calm my damaged soul after doing historical divisions for so many hours… Edit: oh hey, that’s my name!

Black Ice is the definition of Feature Bloat, also the sound effect for research is Sooooooo annoying. i cant stand hearing bubbles every time I click on core mechanic

37:22 lmfaoo Brazilian men garrisoning Europe but under a German flag and commander 😭🤣

Black Ice: Because fun is historically innacurate

It’s nice to see that someone looked at the godless amalgamation of UI and micromanagement that is HoI4 and went “Meh. Needs more shit I have to baby sit.”

Black ice is the most historically accurate, but if you want some accuracy but still enough Hoi4-ness for it to be enjoyable, i really recommend the Total War mod and World Ablaze mod.

One of the most important things in BICE is the research of radios and distribution of them to your soldiers, without them and specialized research in HQ and organization, your battalions will only walk around with like 10-20 org, not really capable of winning long term battles. Learned that the hard way in an playthrough agains Italy

I love how they do everything they can to make the game harder and more complicated, except for combat width, which they made simpler because combat width is just annoying lol.

This mod looks like an absolute nightmare to play but that tank designer is making me consider playing.

Hey bittersteel! I love this mod for the reason that it makes you take the same drugs that Hitler did to manage everything, but a quick tip is that if you put SS divisions into capitols/major cities in regions, they lower resistance (and also compliance gain), it's like 2x more effective than garrisons too.

The thought alone of downloading black ice keeps me up at night

Attritional containment as Germany is the best option. Manpower is a massive problem and the general solution costs stability and army fighting ability.

BlackICE, the realm of never having anywhere near enough research slots, focus trees so complex the AI can't handle non-historical, and artillery being so necessary and so expensive that minors physically cannot have a viable army. Or at least that was what it was like before the tank designer became mandatory and the past versions broke for some reason.

Fun fact, actual generals would still use those symbols during World War I and World War II. Nito just customize them of the black dot for artillery.

damm, I just explained EU4 to one of my friends, then I hop on youtube to get some brainpower back and I get this

I’m never going to even touch this mod

I’ve found out that BICE AI doesn’t suffer any supply or fuel penalties which allows the AI to pump out tank divisions with no reprocussions, and if you’re fighting somewhere you don’t have supply the AI just wins because they’re constantly at %100 supply.

I would actually enjoy seeing more of this mod. Love your videos btw❤

Huh, you did a lot better than a lot of YTers in the recent BICE-posting trend. Good job 👍 I would've liked to see more about the focuses vs your argument that it's not a guide: I like just absorbing the info about stuff even if it's not optimal because in my little head I can simulate my own playthrough/different choices (I will not be playing HoI4 further due to lack of DLC LOL).

I cannot play BlackIce, everyone knows Germany spent 25% of their military factories building horse carts. stupid mod.

19:40 Adding the SS divisions to a theatre named "OKW" is the ultimate troll against Himmler

I am one of the guys on discord ranting about the pain of this mod. Glad to see you did well.

I remember asking you to play BICE a long time ago. BICE is actually my favorite mod, and you did pretty well for your first time, especially playing germany. Industry is key for winning, so finding the perfect balance of your industry (how much energy, engines and specific resources it need) is key. You can make the argument that and 'economy simulator' has no place in HoI4 (a war game), and that's ok, it' not for everyone. For me, I like how it makes 'meme strats' impossible. I get it, they're fun because they are absurd and I enjoy seeing some meme strats/alt history here and there. But for a more serious game, BICE is your pick. You seem to have enjoyed the mod, so may I suggest a challenge? Germany but you build Navy. (not exclusively, of course, or you'll lose, you focus on army and air force as usual but you try to build up a respectable Navy in parallell. for this I reccommend trading Danzig for Slovakia, it'll stave off the War and buy you some time. With luck you can even make the Allies fight the USSR while you help and/or build up in parallell) Other Majors are also pretty cool, Japan, Italy, USSR... I don't enjoy USA and UK much, USA is just too easy (basically sit back and build up) and UK I just don't like. I haven't played the mod in a while, but I heard they've been working on minor powers. Try Brasil, I heard its fun!

9:43 To be exact, the question is "9 small (28cm) guns or 6 big (38cm) guns".

16:36 i see me I am unit in training I see me yay

I like elements of this mod, but altogether, it feels like it is a bit much. I played it few years ago, and it was too much then. They've definitely added quite alot since then.

I remember I played about an hour of BICE and very quickly decided that I didn’t want to waste my week playing it

This is the RLcraft of HOI4

Thanks for the hard work, its appreciated!

Bitt3rSteel gotta try World Ablaze

0:10 Yayy. Aldrahill got mentioned. Raah, what is normal game.

I really enjoyed this mod a lot and would love to see you play different nations in this mod in the future

> bosite In English the ore of aluminum is pronounced BOX-ite. Yes, even though it’s named for French village Les Baux which is of course pronounced the way you said it.

im ngl, a "love hate relationship that makes you hate everything yet love it at the challenge and logistical nightmare it brings" is probably the kind of abusive relationship id get with that fucking mod and i both cant wait... and wont ever try to even attempt to tackle that monster cus fucking hell that seems depressingly stressful

Bro made a Bulgaria shaped pocket at 41:28 😂

34:56 "and they are looking very angryyy" had me in tears 😂

This was very enjoyable to watch. Wouldnt mind seeing more, provided your sanity can take it

love it hopefully to see you play it more time or the zombies mod was awseome

NATO icons can be changed in the icons and you click on the "default" button. Finally someone competetive and funny doing BICE!

What aldrahill couldn't pull off as historical, you did it, praise

Extreme cold counts under weather, not terrain, weather penalties are reduced by acclimatization, hence where you cope about it is reduced to -27%, soviets props get some buffs to that if i had to guess

This looks amazing. I'm not near good enough at basic HOI yet for this but I look forward to the day...

great play last days of europe as germany you will love this mod

I will be honest: On the one hand, i like these Black Ice vids. On the other hand ... man, pls think of your health ^^

I don't like how BIce went from HoI3 in HoI4 to an exercise in spite against its players. There are mods that add complexity in better ways for HoI4.

Really love the extensive intro! Now I sort of slightly less don't understand the mod ;)

if you want to change the NATO symbols back to the oryginal ones, you click on the division icons and then select "default symbols". you can then pick any of the base HoI4 symbols for your division

Definitely interesting, might be cool to see more with Black Ice

More of this mod PLEASE

It’s a good day when BitterSteel uploads

I'd really like you to do a Japan video of this mod. For more attritioning in Asia ^^ and a more navally focused gameplay. Anyway thanks for the video. That was amazing.

You should check out the “World Ablaze” mod, it’s similar to black ice in difficulty, but a lot less painful to play imo

Now if only the AI could play the mod instead of ignoring most mechanics.

2:02 when clicking on a symbol in the symbol selection on the top left is a button to turn it into a vanilla symbol.

I'd like to see Bittersleal play World Ablaze. The extra resources and less units per general plus larger industries and economic fatigue making it so you can't just jump to total mobilization without consequences Edit: I think that also do stuff like change the combat width in battles

I would love to see a continuation or series of him taking over the whole world.

4:10 HE SAID THE THING

For "normal" division icons use option "use default" (or something like that). It works at least on older version, not sure about the latest one.

Industry tycoon game, thats what i thought Every diffrent part of this mod is its own game

5 days? Good gravy! We appreciate the video and your dedication!

You should keep playing Germany but in the mods World Ablaze and Ultra, too. Both go updates, and they are more easier than BICE but harder than vanilla. I love them.

By the way the reason the soviets seem to be unfazed by the winter is because they get alot of buffs I'm the focus tree for it

Woah Another Bitt3rSteel Upload??? Hell Yeah😁

Having played HOI2 and 3 for years and BI for the last 3 or so before HOI4 came out, your perspective on BI is interesting. My take is that BI took a fairly simplistic game and made it feel more like a complex strategy game with many more WWII realistic traits. I resisted playing HOI4 for years after it came out as I then felt like all of Paradox's other games and to me, lost a LOT of what I thought made HOI3 a good WWII strategy game. I like HOI4 well enough now, but I'm looking at BI as you play it and thinking it's time to dive back into BI. 🙂

You could’ve made a 40 minute episode of just setting up with this mod lmao

35:50 integer overflow strikes again

Black ice terrifies me like making eye contact with a woman

Tried to like this mod really nice graphics, units, focus trees and some mechanics. But you have to micro like half a dozen production lines for trucks (light, medium, heavy lorries, horses, Jeeps) four different support equipment and even uniforms (wehrmacht and s s separated lol). It isn't fun anymore, hope someday there will be a light version, also without nato symbols.

Now you can graduate to Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2

this mod actually looks incredibly sick and I cant wait to play it

Tu turn off NATO icons for the divisions you have to go like if you were to change de icon in regular HOI4 (change to a tank icon, etc.) and it will open a tab with all NATO icons and in the top left you can change it to use default icons.

On one word , suffering.

Maybe you will try world ablaze next time? this mod is also very historical while being also very hard

Black ice reminds me of that one key and peele skit

Just a heads up: Snow, Mud, Extremely Cold and things like that are Weather not Terrain, that's why they had a positive terrain bonus but their weather penalty was -27.20%

I would love to see you trying World Ablaze

Try World Ablaze too, its not a bad mod

I like black ice to play sometime, wish they have tanks, air, ship desinger like in vanilla so everyone can make something, just black ice production, and other things. Wish to see that some day (Never probably) xD

Try World Ablaze next 🙏

I'm really impressed you got the win. BiCE is hard as heck until you really get the economy under control, it's not hard to find you made a mistake 2 years ago that is going to wreck you as Germany.

Uniform research. If the ai went heavy into winter uniform research it can buff the cold weather effects

The HoI4 UI is just not built for those many production lines. Thank you for playing so we don't have to lol

im sorry but you must be broke if you're willing to torture you're self like this XD JK nice video and honestly nice game

so i guess the mod focuses on logistics (economy) aspect a lot. interesting.