There is no greater challenge than playing as one of the Benelux countries in HOI4, trying to survive the upcoming German invasion.
It can be incredibly hard to fight as the Netherlands or Belgium, but it might seem almost impossible to survive as Luxembourg.
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Well, there is a way to survive the upcoming onslaught of Germans, and there is also a way to push them back and win the Second World War for the Allies and the Comintern.
In this guide, we will go through all of the things you can do to survive as Luxembourg in HOI4 and also push back Germany all the way to Berlin.
Table of Contents
- General Strategy for Luxembourg in HOI4
- How To Survive and Defeat Germany as Luxembourg Without Conquering the Benelux
- How To Conquer the Benelux Before WW2 as Luxembourg
General Strategy for Luxembourg in HOI4
Luxembourg has the worst possible start in all of HOI4:
- 0 Divisions.
- 1 Military Factory.
- 3 Civilian Factories.
- 4k Manpower.
- 92% Democratic Popularity.
With absolutely no Manpower and Divisions, the biggest challenge for Luxembourg is making an army. Since you also have almost no Mil Factories, there is no way at the start to become a Superior Firepower country.
The best way to fix the Manpower problem is to turn Communist since you can get the Ideological Loyalty Spirit of the Army, which gives you 500 weekly Manpower. To put it in perspective, you normally get 6 Manpower monthly.
There are two strategies you can go for as Luxembourg:
- Fortify Luxemburg and Defend to the Last Man.
- Unite the Benelux.
The first strategy is simpler, but it can be very boring and drawn out. If you manage to build 2 or 3 incredibly powerful defensive divisions and a level 10 fort, you can actually just sit there and wait for the Germans to lose millions of troops trying to take Luxemburg.
If you also build troops during the war, you can get up to 10 fully-equipped 18k Manpower divisions that can expand into the weakened Germany.
The second strategy, which is much more entertaining but harder, is to annex both Belgium and the Netherlands before the war.
This will give you a lot of Manpower and factories, which you can use to build the same high-level divisions, level 3 forts all over the border, and Anti-Air in the provinces.
How To Survive and Defeat Germany as Luxembourg Without Conquering the Benelux
So, the first way you can go about winning WW2 as Luxembourg would be to only focus on defense. You don’t need to take the territories of your Benelux neighbors just yet since you will take them during the war.
The first thing you need to do is complete the Political Effort focus to get some quick Political Power, which you’ll need to employ Guillaume d’Omalius, the Communist Revolutionary Political Advisor.
There is no way to play Luxembourg as a Democratic country, as you will just lose the moment the war starts.
For research, start doing the classics in Engineering and Industry and prepare to research the Inter-War Tank, Recon and Maintenance Companies, and Anti-Air and Anti-Tank Artillery.
You will need all of these to build the most overpowered defensive division in HOI4.
For construction, just build a level 10 fort in Luxemburg to make sure you can never capitulate. Don’t worry, Germany will still attack you, even with this high-level fort.
Once you unlock Anti-Air you should build a level 5 one in the state. Also, make sure to get the Radar Station, once you research it.
Rosa Luxembourg
Your main priority now is building a level 10 fort in Luxemburg and creating a special 50-width division that has both infantry, artillery, and medium tanks.
The division should look something like this:
- 3 Columns of 4 Infantry Battalions with 1 Artillery, 1 Anti-Tank, and 1 Anti-Air at the end.
- 1 Column with 3 Artillery, 1 Anti-Tank, and 1 Anti-Air
- 1 Column with 1 Medium Tank with very high Armor.
- Support Companies: Engineers, Recon, Maintenance, Artillery
To build this monstrosity of a division, you will need to produce Infantry Equipment, Support Equipment, Artillery, Medium Tanks, Anti-Tank, and Anti-Air.
Since you are very likely to only have 4 Military Factories for most of the early game, concentrate on Inf Equipment, Support Equipment, Artillery, and Medium Tanks.
You might think that you will never have enough Manpower for this but once you manage to turn Communist, you will have access to the Ideological Loyalty Spirit of the Army, which gives you 500 weekly Manpower.
To survive the attack of Germany, you only need one extremely powerful division. However, if you do everything right, you should have 3 by the time the war starts.
You should also get the Chief of Army that gives you Defense, the Military High Command that gives you Armor and Infantry bonuses, and get the Grand Battleplan Doctrine for incredible entrenchment.
War with Germany
Once the war starts, you will just have to wait for the Germans to constantly attack you and lose millions of troops.
Don’t get scared if you see red attack bubbles with a 10% chance of victory, as even the game can’t comprehend the amount of Defense you have.
Once you manage to build at least 3 high-Defense divisions, you can start trying to conquer territories.
You will have to move 2 of the divisions in the newly conquered territory, leave one behind in Luxemburg, and build a level 3 fort in the new province.
With every new extra division that you deploy, you can conquer a new territory using the same strategy. A single powerful division can keep a province safe with a level 3 fort, even against multiple attacks from all directions.
Germany will also slowly lose a lot of Manpower, making their divisions very weak.
Your main goal will be conquering the territories of Belgium and the Netherlands, to use the Repudiate the Treaty of London decision to gain cores on all their territories and get a lot of Manpower.
Also, if you don’t want to lose these territories once Germany surrenders, make sure to declare war on the Allies before the end of the war. An alliance with the Comintern would be amazing.
The problem with this strategy is that you won’t really do a lot, and you will likely get to conquer territories only by 1943.
This means that you will just look at the screen at maximum speed as German troops keep dying at your border, getting thousands of points in casualties inflicted.
How To Conquer the Benelux Before WW2 as Luxembourg
If you want to conquer the Benelux as Luxembourg in HOI4 before Germany attacks, you will need to be a bit versatile at the start of the game.
In general, the strategy is very similar, and you will have to do almost the same things, but we will need to concentrate on producing different things.
We still go for the Communist Revolutionary Political Advisor and the Political Effort focus as soon as possible to make sure we reform at the earliest possible date.
This time, the first things we need to research are Inter-War Small Airframe and Paratroopers.
These two will be the method we use to conquer both Belgium and the Netherlands. Otherwise, there is no way you can build a strong enough force to push through the border.
For construction, we still just build a level 10 fort in Luxemburg and start building anything that is available until we conquer the Benelux.
You will also need exactly 8 Paratrooper divisions to conquer Belgium and the Netherlands, so train 8 regular divisions and set them to train since we will need to change the regular Paratrooper division the game will give us.
Rush to Communism
To make sure that you also have time to prepare for the war with Germany, you will need to turn Communist as soon as possible and conquer the Benelux.
So, after getting the Communist Revolutionary Political Advisor, make sure to pick the Open Up Political Discourse decision as soon as possible.
It might be a good idea to first build up some PP to get the Silent Workhorse Political Advisor to increase your PP growth.
While you progress through the research tree and the transition to Communism, you will have to pick all of the Industry focus tree branches to fully max out how many Military and Civilian Factories you have.
The idea would be to also rush the extra research slot at the end of the tree but don’t forget to fully get all the possible Military Factories first.
Once you get the Silent Workhorse advisor, you should also learn about Paratroopers and small planes.
It’s time to start the production of Transport Planes since we will need them for the Paradrop. Don’t trade for any resources since you can’t build your forts if you waste the Civilian Factories.
After you get through the focus tree, you will have 4 Military Factories. Until you get Fighters, you should place 1 on Infantry Equipment and 3 on Transport Planes.
You should also research the Light MG weaponry for the planes since you can’t actually make fighters if you don’t.
Now, complete the Open Up Political Discourse decision for 75 PP, then pick the Discredit Gervement decision for 50 PP to speed up the process, and make sure to raid fascists since their influence will increase when you fight for power.
Preparing for War
Get the Chief of Army that gives you a Defense buff as soon as possible since you will need to get a lot of Army Experience before Germany comes.
Also, don’t forget about the Chief of Airforce that will give your Air Experience. You can’t make a Fighter template without it.
You should now have enough Army Experience to create a new division, which has one Paratrooper battalion.
You don’t have the Manpower to make the regular Paratrooper divisions since they have 3 battalions.
Change the 5 divisions out of the 8 you probably managed to deploy into this new template and set them to train, so they can get the 25% bonus to Attack.
At this point, you should also start building an Airport. It doesn’t have to be bigger than a level 1 since you need space for both the Fighters and the Transport Planes.
You can also just complete the Aviation Effort focus to instantly get 2 levels.
You can also move to Limited Conscription now, though the Manpower bonus will be so insignificant you might think you didn’t get anything.
In the Summer of 1937, you should have enough Communist popularity to Hold a Referendum for 100 PP and put them in power. The moment you get them in power, instantly get the Ideological Loyalty Spirit of the Army.
The 500 weekly Manpower will be a game changer, and you will really need it to form the two Air Wings for Transport and Fighters.
Make sure to not train more than 8 Paratrooper divisions since you will need to keep some Manpower for the planes.
You should also start researching more advanced Artillery and the Inter-War Tanks.
Conquering Belgium
By September of ‘37, you should have two Air Wings, one for Transport Planes and one of Fighters, 8 Paratroopers, and plans to Paradrop them.
At this moment, you should Justify War Goal against Belgium. You should have more than enough time to prepare for the invasion.
You should also prepare at least 2 divisions to protect Luxemburg, but that isn’t very important now.
You should also start justifying against the Netherlands since it will take almost 100 days more, time in which you should have already conquered Belgium.
The moment the war starts, all that can decide if you are going to win or not is luck.
There is no skill involved in the conquest of Belgium since all that matters is if Belgium placed more than one division in Brussels.
You only need three provinces to capitulate Belgium: Brussels, Antwerpen, and Liege. If you can’t get Liege, getting both Namur and Gent should be good enough as well.
Antwerpen and Liege will usually be free of garrisons, allowing you to easily conquer them. However, Brussels will always have at least one division.
This is probably the worst part about this strategy, as you will need at least one powerful Paratrooper division to conquer the capital.
If you manage to get these tiles, Belgium will instantly capitulate, giving you all of their territories.
Conquering the Netherlands
The Netherlands is actually an easier target than Belgium, but you will need to switch to real troops to fight at the border this time.
You can’t really take the Netherlands using the Paratrooper strat, but you can get some easy Victory Points using some of them.
To capitulate the Netherlands, you will need to take Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, and any other VP.
It would be useful if you managed to build a Spy Network to create a Collaboration Government to make them capitulate easier. The same goes for Belgium.
Once you manage to conquer the Benelux, you can complete the Repudiate the Treaty of London decision to core all the territories of Belgium and the Netherlands.
At this point, you should have a massive Manpower pool that you can use to build the high-quality defensive divisions from earlier to keep the border safe against Germany.
At this point, any decent HOI4 player should easily take care of Germany as Luxembourg.
That’s everything you need to know about how to survive and win as Luxembourg in Hearts of Iron 4!
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