Tips for Republican Spain in Spanish Civil War (2024)

I've played the Spanish Civil War twice. Both on the National side because i lost the first one. I focused too many troops in the wrong front. In my opinion you should try to hold Bilbao but not reinforce it, so the Nationals have to spend more units there than you. Form a front and wait for the soviets to arrive. Once you have the soviets things should be paired with the dem nationals. Try to make small pics each time you advance and you should be fine.

I was deciding if i should continue my game but i'll play the Spanish Civil war again. So far the thing i've enjoyed the most in HoI IV by the time. I'll keep you up with the outcome

Your troops aren't any different to the Nationalists, the main difference is between your volunteers and theres, you get volunteers from the Soviets, they get them from Japan, Germany and Italy.

The best way to win, is to encircle the nationalist armies. Push out on the plains, make small encirclements (pincers) especially taking out volunteer forces.

In fact i've got more divisions as Republican Spain than Nationalists.

Edit: First tip. Get some divisions in production at min 1. I've managed to get 2 extra cavalry division just as the war pops up

Lonfield said:

In fact i've got more divisions as Republican Spain than Nationalists.

Edit: First tip. Get some divisions in production at min 1. I've managed to get 2 extra cavalry division just as the war pops up

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In reality Republicans were superior in both number and equipment but lacked experienced soldiers and officers

EPICCCP said:

The nationalists have a (historical) advantage, this is to make them win most of them time. You are really gonna need those Soviet volunteers, improving their opinion of you might help, but I'm note sure about that. The tactic that seems to work back is to immediately encircle the nationalist capital in Zaragoza and continuing your way from there.

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So far I've seen two Spanish civil wars without my interference the Nationalist got completely crushed within month both times

I'm winning right now. I've already encircled some Nationalists divisions and have right now 8 divisions in clearing pockets mission . The fronts are working well and i'm about to rescue Bilbao.

I recomend to keep all the units in Bilbao pocket in 2 or 3 different areas, no more, don't grab all the land the outbreak of the war gives you. And don't let the AI decide all. Keep your units in movement by using the gaps between nationalists forces. Another important thing is to make the line between Barcelona and Valencia larger, i mean, it's a narrow corridor at the outbreak. I've done it by defending in Andalusia and Madrid areas and pushing at North. It's October 1936.

I've just won the war.

Edit: Good luck man.

Anybody have any tips for helping the Nat's beat the Rep's? I'm playing Germany and could only send 2 divisions. I sent an SS and Light Panzer with default loadouts and the Soviets immediately sent 3 divisions (including 2 tanks).

Every time I make any progress, the Nat AI just runs away and I'm left fighting a battle for over a month and, when I finally do win, the Russian tanks and masses (I'm guessing about 10 or more Rep divisions than Nats) of Republican troops just pass my embroiled forces by. I try to micro, but with a BP drawn-up, the AI continually bounces around the 2 divisions I can send and they hardly accomplish anything.

Eventually, the numerical superiority of the Rep's wins through and I get overwhelmed (even after I got a Russian tank division, it was too late). I've reloaded the August 20 '36 save I have where things are still relatively even (no big losses for either side yet) but it keeps playing out the same way. Not enough Axis troops (Italy sent 1 volunteer) to be everywhere at once. I even watch as half the unprotected front is ignored by extra Rep divisions even while the Nat's and I are struggling just to win a battle. What gives? I feel like my forces are worthless. Why even bother? Just wait until the fall of France and create a Nationalist puppet Spain. Seems to make more sense to me.

I've tried rushing my tanks on VP's (but they even have extra divisions to cover all those, also!) I've tried spamming infantry at home to increase my army size to send 1-2 more volunteers, but it's always too late and the Rep's are victorious. What do I have to do? This is killing me!

Oh, and can I "remove" my exp forces if it becomes clear there is no way to get a win? Thanks!

I just finished up a late-firing Spanish Civil War game as the Republicans, War started in December 1936, and ended in January of '38.

I'm definitely loving the mechanics of the Spanish Civil War in Hoi4 moreso than the mechanics in the old one, which were not only super easy to game, but even if you tried to play it straight it was absurdly easy to win very quickly with either side.

The trick with the Republicans is, IMO, leveraging as much of your strength early in the war to sever the Nationalist line around Zaragosa, linking your Barcelona, Madrid, and Bilbao fronts up as early as possible while preferably pocketing 5-10 divisions. All other VP locations, with the exception of Madrid, need to be considered "expendable." The Civil War isn't about holding the land you have or even taking the Nationalist land, its much more about destroying the Nationalist Army in the field, preventing them from keeping a front of high strength against you. And make no mistake, you're going to be facing a pretty severe strength deficit division to division against the Nationalists. I probably should have focused more on military factories than I did, but I was entirely unable to keep up with the equipment demand from my infantry for the entirety of the war, meaning most divisions only had about 30-40% of the equipment they needed. Meanwhile, the Nationalists must have been getting lend-lease aid from Italy/Germany/Japan, because in addition to volunteers from all three, they also had their divisions basically fully equipped.

If I hadn't succeeded in my first offensive in pocketing a good 8 or so divisions north of Zaragosa on the French border, I probably wouldn't have been able to end the war in early '38, and maybe could have lost. And that was only achieved via relentless attack with a 3:1 ratio against the defenders, while giving ground heavily in the South.

I took the opposite approach. I made my first attack at Cadiz and swept up the north along the Portuguese coast. Once the Nats moved troops to stop that front, then I made my move and Zaragoza...it was some bloody fighting, but I managed several small encirclements and wiped out whole divisions piecemeal. War ended after about 15 months, with me making a run to the VPs in the Northwest to secure the victory.

I did lose Madrid to a Nationalist push as I was in the process of moving troops, but I cut off that attack from behind and quickly won Madrid back.

Only thing is.....the achievement didn't fire

Haven't checked to see....is it a known issue? Any other republican winners not get the achievement?

I just lost the war as the Republicans (my plan was to win as the Republicans, allow the Democrats to get back into power and join the Allies on D-Day by invading Vichy France). My question, reading all the advice above, is more about fronts and offensive lines - I've only been playing a couple of weeks and I'm curious, how do you guys recommend positioning forces to carry out quick encirclements and flanking manouevres the way you're all describing above?

Do you manually right-click your divisions onto provinces to get them to move, or do you divide your forces into dozens of tiny armies and give them small little offensive line orders to get them to do what you want? What's the most efficient way of giving orders in a war like this?

Thanks

Some tips for Republican Spain:

• Focus on Milittary Factories in Madrit and protect that.
  
• Form a armies around Barcelona, Madrit, Bilbao, Sevilla.
  
• Use fronts to channel reinforcments, Drop priority of Internationales priority.
  
• Try to take Sevilla and Zaragoz 1st.
  
• Turn some of Internationales into 4cav + rec and use for circle

Unfortunetly there is a big external factor. Who gets more land lease and how good troops soviets will send.

Experience for other nations: Sending whichever side 10k riffles can turn this war without even volounteers.

Are you playing in multiplayer or single player?

If multiplayer, then you might as well not even try if the Germans and Italians send their tank divisions.

If single player, focus on building up military factories only in states that will be under your control when the civil war fires. It may be better to also play really defensively until you have your riffle shortage mostly solved. It also takes a serving of good luck, as I found that typically earlier the civil war fires, the more likely the Nationalists will win since they start off much more well equipped than the Republicans, but if the Republicans are given a while to build up a nice rifle stockpile, then the playing field is so much more even.

Evan05 said:

Are you playing in multiplayer or single player?

If multiplayer, then you might as well not even try if the Germans and Italians send their tank divisions.

If single player, focus on building up military factories only in states that will be under your control when the civil war fires. It may be better to also play really defensively until you have your riffle shortage mostly solved. It also takes a serving of good luck, as I found that typically earlier the civil war fires, the more likely the Nationalists will win since they start off much more well equipped than the Republicans, but if the Republicans are given a while to build up a nice rifle stockpile, then the playing field is so much more even.

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single player historical.

I've tried this a couple of times. I share similar sentiments with the OP. In my tries, this is what happens:

The civil war event fires roughly summer of 1936. You got 6 months to prepare. With the start of 9 civ factories and armament effort, you're looking at 2-3 more military factories, tops. And they start you off with a base of 4 + whatever you earn extra, I believe at the start of the war. So you're splitting hairs with the military factories.

Armies. They start you off at the civ war with 35 divisions (not counting volunteers). 8 of them were previously yours, the rest are new green infantry divisions. So, the whole "build up quickly" isn't happening either, that will just give you a nice equipment and manpower deficit.

Research. You can get in weapons 1, interwar artillery (they got artillery company), and basic machine tools. Then I'll have const I, con industry I, and my first mil doctrine in the queue about half way done.

Political. I'll have the chief of army and a mil high commander in there. with pol effort you can do at least 2 moves.

With this scenario it ain't happening!

I finally got one to work. The war fired late (April 1937) so I got another year to prepare than usual. They only gave me 7 of my original divisions though, and the rest were sh*tty green infantry with poor width and no company. Anyway, the whole key, IMO, is just to play it slowly and micro manage the hell out of it. It tends to be volatile; the same methods work in some games, others it just doesn't. The AI battle commands are also clueless, they are only good for starting the front line and maybe gaining some plan prep. That's really it. The lines are too curvy. They are like children, you leave them alone for more than a min and they either don't do anything or get into trouble. I had units wanting to sail around Africa (strait closed).

Also made the mistake of hiring Francisco Bahamonde as chief of army while democratic, he will leave and you won't be credited the political points cause he doesn't support the commies.