Czech your Privilege - A 1.4.1 Czechoslovakia / Munich Disagreement Guide

Feel like playing an underdog? Want to change the course of history but not with some generic major power? Need those rare cheevos? Look no further! This guide will cover step-by-step the path to 'Munich Disagreement' as well as the setup to 'Czechmate' and WC.

Part 1: Background Details

Welcome to my guide to Czechoslovakia. Alright let’s get to it...

A fully-illustrated version of my guide can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ab70V9R-241p-AZmJ4Lhv_PK5VNqhUibc83jINLhCC4/edit?usp=sharing

*I will use abbreviations from now on so check the HOI4 wiki if you don’t know what they mean

(Do not feel compelled to read it all, just what you need. Extra detail is for those who are learning the game.)

I will be using a lot of pictures in this guide, so click on the picture to enlarge it as needed.

Czechoslovakian Advantages:

• One of the strongest defensive National Focus trees in the game, allowing you to repel the Fascist pigs WWI trench-style
  
• You can start your own faction and invite some regional powers to help out
  
• Your Production and Manpower are fairly powerful for a Regional Power
  
• You will have many allies fighting Germany once the ball gets rolling
  
• Very quick to get into the action, so less waiting compared to other countries

Czechoslovakian Disadvantages:

• Extremely early war declaration in 1938 means little time to prepare
  
• Completely reliant on Infantry only, so no creative usage of troop types
  
• Somewhat reliant on the enemy AI on diverting troops to engage other fronts, which may not always happen

DLC Info:

DLCs are obviously a controversy in the community right now, and certainly none are really necessary to do well with Czechoslovakia but will certainly help. My strategy makes use of the Czechoslovakia National Focus tech tree from the Death and Dishonour DLC, and if you wish to play without getting the DLC, note that the advantages from the tech tree will not be available (no forts, no faction advantage), but otherwise, everything else is the same. You may have to compensate for the forts by constructing them manually, for instance.

Part 2: Opening Decisions / Strategy Overview

Political Power Overview:

1) Skoda Industrial Concern
2) Early Mobilization (if World Tension is not 5% yet, wait until it is)
3) Military Theorist
4) Limited Conscription
5) Partial Mobilization (your +150 PP National Focus should trigger around now; if WT not 15% yet, wait until it is, typically after Japan declares on China)
6) Army Defense (your +150 PP National Focus should trigger around now, allowing you to take this before the war begins
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Germany declares war ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7) Extensive Conscription (wait with the PP until Germans declare war on you, then switch)
8) War Economy (do not pick Total Mobilization because you need the Manpower)
9) Service by requirement
10) All Adults Must Serve
11) Army Regrouping
12) Army Logistics
13) Prince of Terror
14) (up to you)




National Focus Overview:

1) Industrial Legacy
2) Balanced Industrial Investments
3) Joint Czech-Slovakian Planning Comission
4) Local Specialization
5) Arms Exports
6) Export Subsidies
7) Equal Access Guarantee
8) Fortification Studies
9) Sudetenland Early Fortifications
10) Sudetenland Advanced Fortifications
11) Sudetenland Final Fortifications
12) Strategic Decisions
13) An Entente of Our Own
14) Invite Yugoslavia (Skip Invite Romania, will be auto-invited later for free)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Germany declares war ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15) United Population
16) Hungarian Line (will finish about when Germany declares on Hungary)
17) Polish Line
18) Political Direction
19) Democratic Bastion
20) Security Council
21) Rapprochement with Hungary (if Hungary is still alive; should accept)
22) (up to you)




Research Overview (Rough Approximation):

Part 3: The Walkthrough

Phase I: Czech your Preparations

Stuff in a nutshell:

• Follow the order as noted in the Technology section
  
• This will allow you to research all relevant technologies at maximum efficiency
  
• Note that this research strategy relies 100% on infantry + support (explained later)
  
• Follow the order as noted in the Political Power section
  
• Follow the order as noted in the National Focus section
  
• This order will allow for maximum production benefit while barely able to get defenses/allies in time for war

Particular Notes:

• Move all your troops to the German border (you will need to readjust the deployment once Austria is annexed by Germany)
  
• Begin recruiting infantry, as manpower allows (all other types can be ignored)
  
• You may add Engineering Support Companies (your production should be able to handle it)
  
• Queue 15 Military Factories for Infantry Equipment I production, then 5 for Support Equipment (should be enough to get you to the war’s start)
  
• Build all Military Factories until mid-1938
  
• Build 3-5 forts in these two positions, as depicted below (these positions don’t get the forts from National Focuses for some reason, so they are weakspots that the Germans will likely push):

• Once Yugoslavia accepts the faction invite, Romania is guaranteed to join once the war starts (at least from my few playthroughs)
  
• Hungary will be unlikely to join until later (discussed later)
  
• Sometime in late-1937 / early-1938, WT should rise high enough to allow the Limited Conscription, which will allow you to queue about 40 Infantry units. Order 1 set of 40 Infantry to be trained (or as much as allowed), on top of your existing Infantry production
  
• You will receive a 70-day warning before Germany declares war
  
• Germany typically declares from early-September to October 1938:
  
  
  
  
• You should be able to have Yugoslavia join just before that happens

Phase II: Czech your Privilege

The Great Staring Contest:

• 5 days before Germany declares war, deploy all 40 Infantry units (should be about 20-40% trained)
  
• Have them move to the German border
  
• Make sure you have the +30% Max Entrenchment Field Marshal leading the troops
  
• Set all planes to defend Czechoslovakia (they will lose to German planes but will buy time for your ground troops):

• Germany will proceed to declare war but not actually do anything (they will assess that attacking Level 7 forts is a bad idea
  
• Stop all fort construction (they should be busy repairing bomb damage from planes)
  
• DO NOT move from your defensive line no matter what you see
  
• Instead, proceed to instruct your soldiers to give the Krauts the bird behind their bunkers
  
• You should be able to queue up even more Infantry after upgrading your draft laws (don’t worry if all orders aren’t filled):
  
  
  
  


Entertaining Entente Endeavors:

• Romania will proceed to be brain damaged for some reason and not move its troops (happened in multiple games, not sure if bug or feature)
  
• Yugoslavia will proceed to fight Germany until Croatia (pink) joins the Axis, which will cause Yugoslavia to capitulate (there is nothing you can do for them):

• Romania will suddenly realize that it has troops and fight the Germans (this will divert troops far away from your borders, which is good)
  
• Romania should be able to stall or even push back against the Germans, but continue to check the situation to make sure your Southeastern border is not vulnerable:

The Action Begins:

• At some point late-1938 / early-1939, Germany will decide that they don’t like squatting around and declare on Hungary
  
• Hungary will still be angry at Czechoslovakia for various reasons and not join your Entente
  
• Hungary will proceed to lose land to Germany
  
• Your Hungarian border forts from the National Focus idea should be finished around when this happens
  
• You may have to deploy some of your Infantry from the queue to cover the extended border with Germany
  
• Germany will also begin attacking your forts around this time (they shouldn’t be a problem as long as you filled in the fort holes previously discussed about)
  
• Make sure your lines aren’t too thin, so deploy queued Infantry as needed, even if only minimally-trained

Poland Can into Entente:

• Around May 1939, Germany will realize that it cannot get to you through Hungary and may open an early front against Poland (earlier than IRL)
  
• Poland will decide that it does not want to end up like Hungary and join the Entente, while also triggering guarantees by the Allies, who will also join the war (not part of the Entente however):

• Germany will now have a 3-front war, and your combined forces should outnumber them 3:1
  
• Deploy all your remaining queued troops to strengthen your border and 10-20 Infantry to assist Poland’s western front (they should be able to take Ostprussen by themselves but help if necessary)
  
• Watch development on the Western Front

Part 3 (continued)

Phase III: Czechmate

Onwards to Munich:

• A few months into the Allies joining, France should break out of Alsace



• Depending on their progress, you will need to make sure to get to Munich before they do
  
• Recall all troops deployed on the Polish front and move them to the south-west border with Germany
  
• Proceed to push towards Munich, staying ahead of the Allies (achievement will not count if France gets Munich)
  
• You may need to occasionally manually order your troops to push to Munich, rather than rely on the AI
  
• You should be able to reach Munich easily before the Allies unless the AI decided to hate you today and shift all troops to Czech border and let France rampage in the west (has happened in one of my runs)
  
• Congrats of your cheevo!

Czech Please:

• You can continue to play to unlock other achievements, such as ‘Czechmate’
  
• Push towards Berlin, and make sure you get there before Poland
  
• Take over as much of Germany and Italy as you can (I was able to take them over completely)
  
• When you have time, unlock the National Focus that invites Hungary (they should eventually realize that losing isn’t fun and join you at some point)

• You should be able to achieve more than 50% War Participation, your Entente about 20-30%, while limiting the Allies’ War Participation to less than 30%

• You will have to fight Japan as well if you cannot have both Germany and Italy capitulate before 1940

If you wish to proceed to try for Czechmate, note that your faction should now contain:

• Yugoslavia
  
• Romania
  
• Poland
  
• Hungary
  
• Captured lands of both Germany and Italy (assuming that you conquered land much faster than the Allies)

The Allies will only contain:

• UK and their puppets
  
• France

(The US, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Greece, etc will all not be part of the Allies, so your combined strength should be able to easily overpower the Allies)
I am not sure if your faction is guaranteed to join on your side (you may need to change ideologies and influence their ideologies, but I’m sure you can figure it out)

I’ll leave it up to you on how you want to proceed from here.

Part 4: Miscellaneous Details

Thanks for your time! I hope you found my guide useful to your achievement-hunting endeavors. If you enjoyed this, please give the Reddit post an upvote so others can see it.

If you would like another guide for another country, I will be taking requests.

This guide is part of a series of written guides I have been working on in multiple PDX games, since I oftentimes get many complaints that most walkthroughs are video-only.

Other works:

EU4: 1.21/1.22 Ming World Conquest Guide

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=950829741

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QFx9-IY0PHFOosZZcQn7d0ietPDX_I_UHIe9bLvOZa8/edit?usp=sharing

EU4: 1.22 Mongolia/Yuan World Conquest Guide (work in progress)

[Åland is Swedish]

An easier way is to fortify, go commie, join the Comintern, Romania will join the war (and the Comintern) cause guarantees. The Soviets will be able to get to the front line, defend till Germany declares on Poland and/or France, spearhead towards Munich. Easy.

[Mulle the Mecker]

i seem to be doing something wrong
https://gyazo.com/04d8e8b219abb502575102a73ed0dcc0

[MonkeyMajik]

Finally, I can get The Munich Disagreement Achievement.
Some adjustment need to be made.
1. At the first 150 PP, get Limited Conscription first, then continue as guide describe it.
2. Start National Focus with route to Join Comintern, take also the left focus (Add recruit population - Comintern Focus), after that go to Romania and Poland Focus war, then Sundetenland Fort Focus after that to Industrial Focus.
3. Start war with Romania first, then Poland. Give north and west Poland to Soviet.
4. Train at least 48 divs, and place them at border with Germany.
5. When war with Germany begins, just push to Munich, and don't forget to have Air superiority and Air close ground support, to make push faster.

[MonkeyMajik]

This guide is old. Can not be use on ver 1.5.4. I followed all the steps here until Germany declare war. In just 3 minutes, Germans pushed to Prague then quit game.

For ver 1.5.4, the close to get is to join comminterm and annex Romania and Poland (Soviet will join the wars). Give west and north states of Poland to Soviet, so when Germans declare war, soviets will confront it.
Soviets also will send their troops to your border with Germany. With the helps from Soviet you can hold Germans more then one year.
But I'm still struggling to push to Munich, suddenly Austria Declare War on me. (Historical Off).

[Earthshakerson]

I've been trying this method a lot recently but it would seem with the recent update Germany is too strong early game. Yugoslavia falls immediately (as predicted) but so does Romania, so I end up garrisoning my entire country. Also, Germany keeps defeating France by going across the Maginot (to my repeated horror) and the rest of the Allies are never able to beat the Germans and Italians on the West and South theaters. I end up as an island surrounded by axis members every single play through. Does anybody have any advice?

[Cat Brannigan]

I cant get anywhere once the war starts, I try and follow this guide and Germany/Croatia always steamroll Romania, then invade from Slovakia side and I cant hold them back. The Hungarian Forts focus is never completed in time.

[Elfi Wolfe]

I have been trying to survive now for 20 games. Nice guide.

[Cornishon]

I went full communist and never struggled

[Ioanni]

i just builded 1 paratropper and landed lol

[asparagustasty]

Cominterm doesn't help unless Germany also declares on Poland (which typically happens about 6 months after Czechoslovakia.

The benefit of the Entente is that Yugoslavia and Romania instantly divert manpower away from your front, which prevents the remaining troops from pushing your forts.

Cominterm means that until the Soviets get a border with Germany, they cannot help, so you're alone for the first few months, which is typically when a Czechoslovakia game makes or breaks.