Overview
My method for winning the Italian War on Ethiopia in vanilla Hearts of Iron 4. This will cover not only how to survive, but how to actually defeat the Italians and end the war.
Surviving
Research: Right away, you’ll want to research the Support Weapons I and Basic Machine Tools technologies. It will be important to research the industrial technologies first (except Excavation and Synthetic Oil). Once industry is taken care of, research Infantry Equipment I. When the time comes, Grand Battleplan doctrine is recommended.
National Focus: The first focus selected should be Industrial Effort. From there, take Construction Effort I and II, then Armament Effort I-III. Once that’s done, go back for Construction Effort III and Extra Research Slot I.
Construction: Immediately begin construction of a level 1 fort in Addis Ababa. Once that is finished, build forts in the adjacent tiles to create a wall of forts that stretches from the west to the east. It is crucial to keep the Italian forces separated.
Political Power: Do not spend political power on absolutely anything until you accumulate 150 power. At this point, immediately get the infantry expert, Haile Abba Mersa.
Inital Army Setup: Put all divisions into the same army under Seyoum Mengesha, then put his army under a field marshal when possible. Do not draw any frontlines or even move the Infantry Divisions. Send the single Kebur Zabagna to the north front into the mountains.
Strategy: The Italians will not attack right away, so you may be tempted to try to take one of the ports in Somaliland. I reccommend against this, as it is rarely successful and a risk to the few resources you have. Instead merely wait for the Italians to attack. Inevitably, you will start to lose battles. As soon as the battle indicator turns red, order the engaged divisions to retreat. What this does is delay the Italians without losing too much equipment. Try to reinforce mountainous tiles more because your troops will be more able to defend them. Be careful not to get pocketed, as you will be manually moving divisions. Be sure not to allow the northern and southern Italian forces to join into a single front. Keep this up until you start accumulating supplies and winning battles. From there, it is a matter of waiting and building up. Continue research into infantry weapons, electronics, and industry, forgetting about navy, tanks, and aircraft for the time being. It will take around 2 years of throwing themselves at you for the Italians to start running low on manpower and equipment.
Pushing Back
Economy Law: Ethiopia doesn’t produce many resources, so it will be very advantagious at this point to switch your economy law to Free Trade.
Research: If you haven’t already, you will want to begin researching support equipment and artillery to add to your army. You will still lack the industry necessary for tanks and aircraft, but you shouldn’t need them yet.
Decisions: Ethiopia begins with low stability, and that will become a problem later if not rectified. Since your production should be more than enough to supply your army at this point, you should improve worker conditions to boost your stability.
Focuses: For the same reason as the above, you will want to go all the way down the Liberty Ethos tree to get Why We Fight for that much needed stability boost.
Strategy: If you’ve done everything right up to this point, then you will now be able to win offensive battles without getting massacred. First and foremost, you will want to find any opportunities to pocket that you can. After that, you should not attack in the north, as it is mountainous. Instead focus on the south; capture the Somaliland ports as soon as possible. Once the south is taken care of, put all your forces in the north and finally push the enemy out!
Ending the War
After your celebration of pushing the invaders out of your land, you will quickly realize that you’re now stuck in a war with no end in sight. With no navy, how are you supposed to get to Italy? Well, you aren’t, not exactly.
How you go about ending the war is entirely dependent not only on the world situation but also your own preferences:
Method 1: The Coup
This method will not work as well if Italy has joined the Axis. If, however, Italy has joined the Pact of Rome or not joined a faction, then this will be the quickest way to end the war. The entire right side of Italy’s focus tree cannot be completed until Ethiopia has been defeated. Without half their focus tree, Italy, which starts with low stability, will fall into political disarray. You will notice that either democracy or communism will be rising in popularity quickly. Take advantage of this by starting a coup for whichever is greater. The high popularity of the ideology combined with Italy’s low stability will throw the original Italy into a civil war with nearly all its troops and equipment belonging to the communist or democratic Italy. You may then either wait for the stronger Italy to stamp out the original or expediate the process by sending your own troops if you invite the new Italy into a faction. The waters will be safe to traverese, as the new Italy will own most of the navy.
Method 2: Waiting for Help
If Italy has joined the Axis, then they will be much tougher to fight in their home territory, as Germany will be able to help them. In such a case, you may simply sit and wait for the Allies/Comintern to vanquish your enemies. To possibly go faster, you may switch your ideology to join one of the larger alliances and have them fight for you.
Profit
With yourself freed from the oppression of your pasta-eating attackers, you are free to do whatever you want. Go nuts!
