How to get Freegypt achievement

Have you ever thought about getting the freegypt achievement, but are pissed that the U.K can't release puppets after Man the Guns? Well this is the guide for you!

Overview

Getting Started

In order to get the achievement, you need to remember that hoi4 is a b*tch to run 1941 onwards. So if you want this achievement you need to be a little patient.

To get the achievement, you first need to revert to an older version of the game. I did it on 1.5.4 Cornflakes, so If you want similar results I suggest you do so to. However in theory, anything before 1.6 Ironclad should do.

STEP 1: RETURN TO CORNFLAKE

You will want to right click Hoi4 on your steam menu and then select "Properties" from the drop down menu.


Next you want to select "Betas", after doing so you should see your menu as is


Finally you want to select "1.5.4 Cornflakes" from the drop down menu. Make sure it downloads. Keep in mind that any current saves from later patches will be unavailable for the duration of Cornflakes' installation. Any DLC released after 1.5.4 will be unavailable too (Together for Victory, Death or Dishonor, Waking the Tiger will be the only ones available).

Once selected it should say "1.5.4 Cornflakes", like so


You should notice that hoi4 says "1.5.4" next to it in brackets, that means it has reverted to that version of the game.


When you run the game, you will see an option to "launch game 1.7.1 and older", select that option and press play.


After that the game should launch, make sure to check your taskbar for the hoi4 program since it some times won't pop up. After that, take a minute to have a nostalgia trip over the old launcher (or if you're new to hoi4 then this is what it looked like before paradox ruined it).

STEP 2: SET UP BOOGALOO

Once the game has launched, take a moment to admire the old wallpaper and the simpler country select screen (I still remember the days were the only countries on the list were from TFV and DOD).



You will want to select the United Kingdom as your nation. This is due to the U.K. controlling the territory that is Egypt.



Once you load in, you must NOT unpause the game. Doing so will render the run invalid since the country tag will remain the U.K. instead of becoming Egypt.

You will want to click on the flag icon and then click "Manage Occupied Territories" from the sidemenu.

After that you will see a list of options of countries to release/return territory to. You will want to select the Kingdom of Egypt. Make sure the options of "Release as Puppet" and "Play as" are both selected, like so.



Once Egypt is released, the game might lag for a few seconds before your flag changes and the camera pans over to your new "independent country". This is where the easy part ends.

STEP 3: GAMEPLAY

The objective is to become independent from Britain using the autonomy system. There are several ways to do this.

• Autonomy focus that grants 0.5 Autonomy points per day

• Lend Lease of equipment (advanced weapons, convoys, support equipment, etc)

• Contribution to Master's War score and export of resources to Master

This page in the paradox wiki goes into more detail:
https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Puppet#Autonomy_system

You should be able to increase your autonomy levels with the above mentioned methods although the autonomy focus and the lend leasing of convoys will be your best bet.

Good luck, the rest of the game should be easy to follow. My suggestion is to take the first focus in the naval branch first as that will provide you with 3 naval dockyards for convoy building. Then rush down the Industry branch to get all the military factory focuses. You will need all the mil factories you can get. As for industry, make sure to go down the concentrated industry branch as you will have a small amount of factories, you cannot expect to have a large industry so the few factories you have need to be as efficient as possible. You will have to trade for almost all of your resources (Egypt is blessed with 2 oil) so you must also do all the civ focuses just for trade and for fort/infrastructure construction.

Also make sure to build up an army of at least 10-15 divisions to man the Italian borders of Libya and East Africa. I recommend your classic 20 width pure infantry (with artillery and/or support engineer) to hold the line. Since this is WAY before No Step Back, the old division template meta should still apply. If you need some speed, 10 width with cavalry (with recon and support arty) is the way to go. You will not have a large enough industry to mass produce trucks or tanks so cav will be your best bet.

A small airforce made up of some CAS is a decent boon, so not ignoring the Air branch of the tree is a good idea. A force of 50-100 CAS and 20-50 Fighters is not optimal, but it will be the most you can field. Nav, Tac, and Strat bombers are too much of a resource drain to produce so ignore them completely. Since commonwealth countries get access to the U.K.'s faction research boost, I suggest you stick with the Grand Battleplan doctrine for those Defense/Infantry planning bonuses. Remember that the generic focus tree also gives doctrine and weapon bonuses, so don't ignore those either.

Once the Italians are either contained or pushed out of Africa, don't be afraid of contributing to war score by sending units to the fronts or by sending them as an expeditionary force. Remember to keep lend leasing convoys to your British overlords. Don't be afraid to rush for advance equipment that they don't have since they will contribute for more autonomy points when lend-leased, outdated equipment provide little to no autonomy points. Support equipment also provides autonomy points.

Conclusion

And that is everything of the guide. Let me know if it helped. If it didn't, feel free to leave me some feedback so I can improve it. Please rate it if you think more people should see it.

See Y'all Later!

EDIT Feb 3 2022: Cleaned up the guide to fix some spelling and grammar errors. I also fleshed out the gameplay section. It should contain a more comprehensive guide for the gameplay such as industry, doctrine, and army composition tips.

Also thanks for making this one of the most popular guides on the workshop this week. Many thanks guys! This is my first guide. If you want to see more let me know. However, due to college, I won't be able to churn that many out.

[YeetMcSkeet]

Also 1.5.4 is before Man the Guns, which was before the British re-work so it would remove the chances of decolonization entirely.

[YeetMcSkeet]

No prob dude. I reverted to 1.5.4 to get the achievement and decided to make a guide out of it. So if it works for me then it should also work for you. Glad to have been of service.

[smintili]

Did a second attempt with your guide, worked A-okay! Thanks!

Was a bit skeptical if the downgrade possibly would prohibit the achievement from popping up but it worked =)

[YeetMcSkeet]

It was probably because of Decolonization, yeah. You have to use the autonomy system to become independent, so if you were released willy nilly then it won't count. I suggest using Historical AI focuses in order to minimize randomness.

[smintili]

To clarify I tried it with the most current version though.

[smintili]

I just tried it before reading this guide to get not only Freegypt but also Cut the Strings and my approach (which was similar to the guide's) didn't give me the achievement. Maybe because Britain went for Decolonisation anyways so every state got released? Not sure though.

[YeetMcSkeet]

༼ಢ_ಢ༽ Good to know...

[carlbrown75]

The UK can still release Egypt specifically because of this achievement tho...

[MisterMeeM]

Communist Denmark sounds good to me

[YeetMcSkeet]

will do