As I can see it the current Spanish Civil War suffers from a large amount of errors in HoI3, of which I might tender the following.
The current events give a decisive edge towards the Nationalists. While this might be well and good from a historic view it completely overlooks the role which militia and volunteers played. I manage to get a total of nine infantry brigades through events at the start of the civil war and nothing else? Where are the tanks and bombers that the Soviets sent? Where are the volunteer brigades from the United States, Britain, and France? Moreover you’ve managed to give Spain so many more provinces and don’t give me near enough units to adequately use all of them?
There is absolutely no provision for Basque and other factions raising their own militia to combat the Nationalists. This just seems odd.
How come there aren’t any decisions to allow me to let the leftists to become a greater part of the government in exchange for more combat forces? Likewise why can’t I align myself with Moscow further to get more overt support?
Essentially right now the Spanish Civil War seems broken - sure the initial period seems fine and well made to promote the idea that this is a chaotic no-holds barred fight but there isn’t nearly enough on the board to get a real good fight that can last the amount of time that the real war went on for. As it seems it looks like the Republicans will always contract around Madrid and eventually be crushed in time by the larger Nationalist edge in regular forces.
The Spanish civil war event gives the nationalists 55% of Spain’s brigades. In addition, the intervention events which always fire gives three extra infantry brigades per country. That’s pretty much it. The event chain is incredibly sparse. I’ve seen the AI republicans win, and I suspect it has a lot to do with the specific type of brigades that defect since the split seems to be random.
Wow, you’re pretty much screwed. It’s a very historical campaign so far, however. The Nationalists did turn their military control and experience, combined with far better German aid, into a solid, constant offensive.
Disappointingly sparse events indeed, but from what I understand completely in line with Paradox’ new policy of keeping things “flexible” as in EU3.
Hopefully modders will once again step in to save the day.
Or maybe an official mini-addon for $15, “Franco’s Ambition”? :p
Yeah, I’ve seen the Republicans win in a few games, so it is possible, though that doesn’t discount the possibility that it is due to random luck.
My only complaint is that the war ends so quickly. Historically the war took almost three years, but in each of the games I’ve played it’s been over in a matter of months.
If you play any of the intervening powers, your intervention decision doesn’t appear to actually do anything at all except change relations. I was hoping to send an expeditionary force or otherwise loan Nationalist Spain some forces to increase my “practical” scores or gain unit experience, but no.
Paradox could have kept things more flexible but tied it together a bit better IMO.
Intervening gives the faction you’re supporting three infantry brigades. It doesn’t show up in the decision menu since it’s triggered by an event in the country you support, but it’s there. There’s really no reason not to do it, unless you deliberately want to weaken “your” side of the civil war.
As I see it both sides should get a somewhat considerable number of militia units on top of those that come from the majors intervening as well as the ability of the Soviets, Germans, and Italians to take additional action like sending in armoured units or better infantry. The key of it all should be to just allow both sides to have a much larger amount of units - sure we can say that what is going on now is historical but its playing out much too fast due to a considerable lack of units. The Republicans historically were able to man a front three times larger than what I am doing right now!
Sorry I should have been clearer. I realize the side gets the brigades but I only know that because I’ve played Spain. There should really be better feedback.* And in any case the intervention feels…weak. Outside of giving some additional, minor support to my side it does little for me as a nation. As I see it the whole problem with the decision is that it’s not really a decision. Like you say, there’s really no reason not to intervene. There should be a cost to do so, even for “sending” the 3 brigades every intervener sends.
I’m looking forward to CSL’s Spanish Civil War Improvement mod.
*Actually HOI3 is worse for event feedback than HOI2 where at least you’d get tooltips explaining what game effect the event has.
Certainly disappointed that the scenario is a clunker, but I appreciate you writing it up anyways CSL
My favorite anecdote about the SCW were the thousands of unemployed Italians who hopped on boats going to North Africa ostensibly to be extras in the film “Scipio in Africa”. Instead they landed in Spain, were handed rifles and thanked for volunteering to fight against Communism. Hey it may be apochryphal but I still think its pretty funny.
Technically, Moscow wasn’t really that committed to a victory in Spain. The Russians wanted a victory based on their ideology that they could make money off of, or barring that, just make money while holding onto their ideology. This meant, for example, the disastrous dispersion of tanks and lack of co-ordination of air power. Both ideas belonged to the Tukachevsky school of military thought, and given the fact that Stalin had by now solidified power, Tukachevsky was not long for this world; he wouldn’t see the outcome of the conflict. With the purges at their heights, Soviet liaisons in Spain wisely held back from endorsing such Trotskyite ideas, though most ended up in the gulags anyway.
While that might make sense if Paradox were making an overt attempt at modelling history - they aren’t. I should be able to, as the Republican government, move my nation towards a more Stalinist government in exchange for tanks and other weapons. Besides since we can now get light armor in brigade form which I’ll integrate into divisions this shouldn’t be a problem vis a vis the Tukachevsky model. Besides who ever models Tukachevsky in this games?
Apologies for potentially asking a dumb question. Decided to try and jump into HoI 3, skimmed the manual, read through the rather poor tutorials, and heard that the Spanish Civil War was a solid intro scenario to try (or am I thinking of Eurofront?). How do I set this up? Do I choose the 1936 start scenario and just control Spain or is this an actual scenario in the game? Just couldn’t find it.
Yes, that’s basically correct, or you can do what I did and start in 1939 when there is both a Nationalist and Republic faction created, although at that point, I think things are pretty hopeless for the Republic faction.
I personally think that choosing a mid-major country is more interesting then choosing Spain, though I suppose the idea is that you get a war to fight for sure right away with that one. The downside, though, is that it’s hard to win if the random assignment of assets doesn’t favor you when the civil war breaks out.
