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Developer Diary | Historical Norway

The year is 1936. After 30 years since gaining their independence from Sweden, things in Norway finally seem to be looking up: Its enormous merchant marine continues to be a steady source of wealth, the meager industrial base is starting to recover from the ravages of the Hard Thirties, and there’s finally a majority government, led by Johan Nygaardsvold, who is in the process of enacting sweeping progressive reforms and will bring political stability to this young nation.

The wind may seem to be on Norway’s back, but it is merely the harbinger of the storm to come.
00. In-game Norway.jpg


Hey everyone! I’m Carlo, Content Designer for Hearts of Iron 4, and in charge of the Norwegian content. I’m really excited to present to you how we’re depicting Norway in this period; It’s a fascinating country that played a huge and exciting role during World War II, and I’m sure you’ll all have a lot of fun trying to defend it. Let’s get to it. Disclaimer: All of this is Work In Progress and subject to change.

As I was saying in the prologue, the political situation of Norway is getting better, but they have let their armed forces languish, and not only for budgetary reasons: You see, Norway had declared themselves neutral, and while Switzerland hoped to stay out of the war by making itself be as annoying to conquer as possible, Norway hoped to achieve the same result with the opposite method, trying to appear so harmless and accommodating that nobody would think of invading.

I don’t think I need to tell you, dear reader, this plan failed miserably.

They made themselves so damn harmless, that when the war started, BOTH sides were making plans to invade preemptively before the other one had a chance to do so, and when it finally happened, they were caught completely off guard.

And why did both sides want to keep Norway out of the hands of the other? Well, the main reason I presume you read in Sweden’s Dev Diary, Narvik was where iron from Sweden was shipped to Germany when the Baltic ports were frozen. The second one is simply that Norway is very well positioned to launch aerial and naval operations against Britain.

This is why, if you want to change the course of history and defend democratic Norway against the German threat, it will be a challenge. Here are the starting National Spirits:
01. National Spirits.jpg


Complacent Cabinet is meant to represent the unduly confidence the Nygaardsvold government had in a future smooth sailing, and how unprepared it was for a swift reaction to war. It basically makes it harder for you to switch laws and to change the terrible Theorist you start with. Why is he so bad? Well, to represent the infamous miscommunication that occurred when the cabinet found out about the invasion. TL;DR: The government asked for a Partial Mobilization, but unbeknownst to everyone except Birger Ljunberg, this meant sending the conscription orders by post, a terrible idea when you know the enemy is at the gates. Instead of, you know, telling this to the rest of the cabinet and asking if they were sure, he just went ahead and instructed to send the orders by post .
02. Complacent Cabinet Tooltip.jpg

03. Birger Ljunberg Tooltip.jpg


Obsolete Armed Forces to represent the sorry state of the Norwegian army at the time, ESPECIALLY the forts. That’s why we added two new modifiers so we can make a country’s forts worse than usual. Don’t worry, you can remove this National Spirit later.
04. Obsolete Armed Forces.jpg


The Hard Thirties: AKA country coming out of the great depression starter pack, it makes it slower for you to build and increases your consumer goods usage.
05. The Hard Thirties Tooltip.jpg


Anti-communist Sentiment increases fascism because there wasn’t a massive communist or fascist presence in the country, but the fear towards communism was one avenue fascists used to recruit.
06. Anti-Communist Sentiment Tooltip.jpg


These are just the starting National Spirits, through the Focus Tree you will be able to remove some of them, and add some new ones. Here’s the political branch for Historical Norway:
07. Political Branch.jpg


As you can see, most of the starting focuses will be geared towards building up civilian industry and improving the political situation, ignoring military buildup.
08. Closeup of the start of the political branch.jpg


In fact, if you want to develop Norway properly, you’ll have to complete the focus Broken Gun Policies, which will lock you out of most of the military focuses, but gives you access to the central decision system for Historical Norway:
09. Development System.jpg


The idea is that you can develop each state individually so you can get civilian benefits out of them, at the cost of military readiness for that state. You can Develop a state up to 3 times, with increasing civilian benefits and harsher military penalties. As I said, Norway’s focus before the war was civilian development rather than military preparedness, if you started building up the military right away it wouldn’t be historical would it?
10. Develop State Tooltip.jpg


Don’t fret though, once the war starts, you’ll be able to leverage this development into military benefits to properly defend against the incoming Fascist bully. It won’t only cost you development and political power, you will also spend convoys; after all, Norway had one of the largest merchant marines in the world, so shedding it represents the economic cost of shifting towards military power.
11. Deploy Development Picture.jpg


When you convert the development of a state into military military effects, the state will go one level down in development and you will get a different benefit based on the development level:
  • At level 1 you will get a dynamic modifier in that state to defend it better.
  • At level 2 you will get a free military factory in that state
  • And in level 3 you get two militia divisions, plus a dynamic modifier for the resistance on that state when it is conquered.
12. Deploying Level 1 Development.jpg

13. DeployingLevel 2 Development.jpg

14. Deploying Level 3 Development.jpg


This means that which states you develop, and up to what level, matter a lot if you hope to have a chance against Germany.

Now back to the Focus Tree!
15. Political Focus Branch zoomed in towards the Fascist Invasion of Norway focus.jpg


Now you might be asking yourself “What’s the deal with this “Fascist Invasion of Norway focus to the side?”, and I say, don’t worry about it… Nothing to see here.
16. Picture of Political Focus Branch zoomed in towards the Fascist Invasion of Norway focus e...jpg


17. Fascist Invasion of Norway icon.jpg


I told you already, nothing important is happening over there. Here, have this focus with a doggo.
18. Preparing the return to Norway tooltip.jpg


This is the focus Preparing the Return to Norway, and it features Bamse, the San Bernard mascot of the Norwegian Free Forces. He was a crew member of the NoHMS Thorodd, he broke up fights, saved people from drowning and even a stabbing. A true, certified good boy. The focus is meant to…

Alright, alright. You win….
19. Fascist Invasion of Norway Tooltip.jpg


When the… inevitable happens, and Germany decides to invade Norway, two things will happen(Besides getting invaded). First, that focus completes and then you get an event about Quisling’s historical coup, which gives you three choices:
  • Try your luck. If you trust your preparations then you shouldn’t have much trouble fighting against Germany and Norway’s evil twin.
  • Delay the coup, at a cost that you can reduce depending on Oslo’s Development level. You’ll get the coup without the possibility of delaying it further once you hit more than 50% Surrender Progress, but if you do well enough you won’t see it ever again. Or…
  • You can take the coward’s way out, and betray everything you’ve been doing so far to fight on the side of the fascists. Congrats! You’re a Quisling!

20. Quisling Coup Event.jpg


Look… Listen, jokes aside, it happens to the best of us; you’re on your ironman campaign, distracted building toaster factories and reorganizing your navy and suddenly you realize you’re totally not ready for what’s about to come. If it happened to the Norwegian Government in 1940, it can happen to you. With this, you have the option of salvaging your campaign without having to go into exile, and if you prefer to go into exile there’s a small sub branch for that too; Norway has both a Historical Democratic and a Historical Fascist focus branches.
21. Zoomed out view of both political branches. Fascist Historical and Democratic Historical.jpg


Now that the Oslo shuffle is done, let’s take a look at the Historical Fascist Branch:
22. Just the Fascist Historical Branch.jpg


I’m saving it for the alt-history dev diary but there are fascist focuses before this one, and they allow you to lay the groundwork for a fascist civil war, where you’ll be better prepared and potentially have control of more states than just Oslofjord.

If you’re going fascist from the getgo, or delayed the coup, you can complete this 7 day focus at any time and start playing as fascist (It autocompletes if you switch sides). It also adds the National Spirit Contested Leadership, to represent that Quisling, despite being liked by Hitler and some other inner circle Nazis, was not meant to be the ruler of Norway, it was just a temporary stopgap, and an overeager fascist.
23. Tooltip of Quisling’s Coup.jpg


That’s no problem though, because soon enough you get to make this choice between going alt-history by keeping Quisling in power, or continuing the historical path by getting rid of him, replacing him with Josef Terboven, the German administrator of the Reichskommisariat.
24. Tooltip of Get Rid of Quisling.jpg

25. Tooltip of Quisling’s Regime.jpg


The difference between the two, is that Quisling’s path leans more independent, but lacks the industrial and military cooperation of the Terboven path. You’ll have another chance to bring him back later though, which is what happened historically. But you can choose to put Quisling’s rival, Jonas Lie in power, who will bring Norway closer to Germany, since Quisling wanted to emulate the German Reich but didn’t want to be a puppet of the Germans, while Jonas Lie was called at the time ‘Germany’s man’ and might’ve been content with being a puppet of the Reich.
26. Bring Back Quisling Tooltip.jpg

27. Jonas Lie Coup Tooltip.jpg


You might be wondering, though, why would anyone not take the independent Fascist Norway path, and the answer is that Quisling has terrible modifiers:
28. Quisling 1 Tooltip.jpg


And he gets worse:
29. Quisling 2 Tooltip.jpg


AND EVEN MORE WORSE:
30. Quisling 3 Tooltip.jpg


But hey, at least you get some troops and viking claims!
31. Zoomed in view of claims section of the branch.jpg


Besides those two branches, every ideology will have access to the common branches to build up industry and improve the armed forces. They have some light overlap, but in general they are divided between: Rearmament Branch, with general army and industrial focuses; the Independent Norway Branch, with civilian industry and tech; the Airforce branch, with bonuses to all things flying; and finally, the Navy branch, which will help your efforts trying to defend your comically long coastline.
32. Common Branches.jpg


It is important to note, that if you’re playing Historical Democratic, you will have the Broken Gun national spirit at some point, which will block you from all of those focuses except for the ones in the Independent Norway branch, so you might be a bit delayed in getting to them if that’s the case.
33. Drobak Coastal Fort Tooltip.jpg


Now, let me go on a tangent for a bit. This is the story of Norway’s first, and for our period, only tank.
34. Rikstanken focus tooltip.jpg


In 1937 the Norwegian government realized that they needed to start thinking about armored warfare, to prepare to fight with tanks, and against tanks, so after some thought, they approached the Swedish company Landsverk to buy a tank. The thing is, they realized tanks were expensive, and way outside their budget, so they just ordered an L-120 Light Tank Chassis, no armor, no turret. Kinda like ordering just the fries and soda, no burger. After it finally arrived, they fitted it with metal sheets as armor, and a “turret” that was basically a cylinder with a hole for a heavy machine gun. People nicknamed Norway’s only tank, ‘Rikstanken’ (The Realm’s Tank), and ‘Kongstanken’ (The King’s Tank). The whole thing is even funnier when you learn that ‘tank’ in Norwegian is the word for ‘thought’, so Rikstanken becomes a metaphor for the idea of Norway itself.

For comparison, this is what a Landsverk L-120 looks like:
35. Normal Landsverk Tank.jpg


And this is what the Rikstanken looked like:
36. Real Life Rikstanken.jpg


Granted, that’s a particularly bad picture, but I recommend researching a bit more for yourself. It really was a wonderfully bad tank, so bad that they didn’t even use it when the country was being invaded. It’s ok though, we still love you just the way you are, Rikstanken.

Of course I wouldn’t be talking about this if there wasn’t content for it. By completing the Rikstanken focus, you’ll start an event chain that will let you buy a single tank from Sweden. Or if you want to go wildly ahistorical, you can spend a little more and buy a bunch of tanks from them, or from the Soviet Union. Another option will be accepting some political influence from Germany or the Soviet Union in exchange for a bunch of tanks, or even starting a tech exchange for developing your own tanks from scratch.
37. Rikstanken Event 1.jpg

38. Rikstanken Event 2.jpg


And when you do get that tank, you’ll be able to enjoy it in all its 3D glory:
39. Ingame Rikstanken.png


Of course, this beauty will be able to tour the whole kingdom, all 11 states:
40. State Map of Norway-full.jpg

  • Oslofjord
  • Telemark
  • Opplandene
  • Agder
  • Vestlandet
  • Trøndelag
  • Helgeland
  • Nordland
  • Troms
  • Finnmark
  • And, if you have the boats, Jan Mayen.
41. In-game Jan Mayen.jpg


With that, I conclude this Dev Diary, feel free to ask any questions. Now go and wishlist Arms Against Tyranny and stay tuned to learn all about Denmark’s historical content, it might take you longer to read it than what it took Germany to invade it, but it will surely be an interesting read!
 
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I heard it's not possible because the technology wasn't advanced enough at the time
I kinda envisioned it like a late game focus, for which you would need late game industrial tech.
A lot of technology wasn't advanced enough at the time, but they still managed to develop it. (Nukes, Missiles, Jet engines)
In a game where every nation can have it's own domestic nuclear weapons program (including Norway), I think that it's not a too far from the realm of possiblities to include a north sea oil rig. And if Denmark can have "NORTH SEA OIL DRILLING", i think Norway should have it too.

I am not saying that Norway, had the resources or the "know how" to develop any of this at the time.
And even if it's not super realistic, it would be (in my mind) a fun addition to the game.

remains hopeful
 
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North sea oil does bring up an odd question of where the resource will actually be assigned. I imagine it will be to a mainland state, but then you could end up in the strange situation of not controlling the oil because you lost the state, but still maintaining naval supremacy in the sea zones where the oil is (nominally) actually being produced.

Edit: not saying that it wouldn't be a useful abstraction to put it on land but it will be a bit strange is all.
 
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North sea oil does bring up an odd question of where the resource will actually be assigned. I imagine it will be to a mainland state, but then you could end up in the strange situation of not controlling the oil because you lost the state, but still maintaining naval supremacy in the sea zones where the oil is (nominally) actually being produced.

Edit: not saying that it wouldn't be a useful abstraction to put it on land but it will be a bit strange is all.
I think the best way would be to have the resource be assaigned to a mainland state (Vestlandet). Since thats where the pipelines would go.
That way it does not matter if you have the naval dominace or not, you would still not have any oil if you don't control the end points of the pipelines.
And it kinda simplifies things.
 
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I recently started playing "Road to 56", a mod for HOI4, and I am truly impressed by the focus tree for Norway. The Norwegian content in the mod approaches the problems of rearmament quite similarly to how a lot of us have suggested, where military construction and output from your factories are severely hampered by the policies and political situation, making rearming harder, as you struggle to produce equipment and mobilize your forces. This seems like a much better way of moddelling a Norwegian army lacking equipment and manpower than adding a number of modifiers to make a fully mobilized and equipped formation perform badly. This approach also scales quite well if you would want rearming to be even harder, and perhaps most importantly, it is (in my oppinion) much more fun to try to cope with the underlying problems rather than having a modifier force the consequences on you.

Also, the content seems to have been created with an intent to really create something cool and fun to play, which I think they have succeded in so far.

I am sure @CarloPDX have seen this content before, but if not, I would highly reccomend having a look, as that mod seems to be doing so much right.
 
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I heard it's not possible because the technology wasn't advanced enough at the time
I mean, this is a game where you can go fascist and get claims on Ireland because, oh, vikings raided Ireland a thousand years ago, so 1940 oil rigs doesn't even strike me as that unrealistic :p .
 
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idk why but I was kinda expecting some sorta Mountaineer and Ski Bois, Just like a small extra which you could upgrade or improve your mobility since Norway can be a quite a large country + there a lot of moutains can slow down units very effectively.


A focus between Improved Weapons and Royal Guards.
Would be nice with mountaineer or a mountain bonus trait that was taught by the French Mountaineers or etc to display the learning and teaching of one's own terrian and how to utilize it. I know it's strench it a bit but it would be kinda nice to feel like you have sorta a ability to specialise into the homeland area you have since it's very broad and bland looking (which I understand since norway wasn't a war ready nation)


For instance, I do hope Norways "special" unit isnt limited to the prototype tank? While I do appreciate fun and whimsical historical references, rangers and ski troops seems like much more historical relevant special units, but those might not be exclusive to Sweden and Finland? I realise that not much information is given on the Norwegian military in the expansion, but compared to the two previous Developers Diaries what has been presented is a bit thin. Hopefully there is much more not yet revealed?

@Fulmen argued (here and here) in the Finnish thread that Finland should not have a special unit of ski troops, because historically they didn't. Since essentially all Finns can ski since childhood, all Finnish infantry could and did use skis when appropriate. So this should be represented in-game by giving skis to Finnish 3D models in their cold-weather gear and national-spirit bonuses. I suspect that the same would be true for Norway.

IMHO the real Norwegian national unit was its mercantile marine, which unfortunately isn't going to get an on-map representation.

There's going to be Jan Mayen Polar Bear easter egg path isn't there.

I really hope not. I don't mind adding something small like the Rikstanken for a laugh, but if a Jan Mayen NF tree with more than a single focus involves actual thought. Every dev hour spent on Jan Mayen is an hour wasted, because hardly anyone will play it: there are two Jan Mayen mods in Steam Workshop and neither of them has a single upvote. If you add a JM tag then Spiffing Brit or some other streamer will use it for a world conquest to prove it can be done, but Spiffing Brit is absolutely certain to make an AAT video eventually anyway, so they shouldn't let the tail wag the dog.

Map_US_Lend_Lease_shipments_to_USSR-WW2.jpg

It was roughly 25%, with other 25% through Iran and 50% via Vladivostok.

This chart only shows US aid. It omits aid from the United Kingdom, which I suspect largely went through Archangel. Though this would be partially offset by the fact that all Canadian aid went through Vladivostock.
 
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@Fulmen argued (here and here) in the Finnish thread that Finland should not have a special unit of ski troops, because historically they didn't. Since essentially all Finns can ski since childhood, all Finnish infantry could and did use skis when appropriate. So this should be represented in-game by giving skis to Finnish 3D models in their cold-weather gear and national-spirit bonuses. I suspect that the same would be true for Norway.

I argued for a national modifier, as opposed to dedicated ski units, as in a separate unit type, which makes no sense in the Finnish context. I'm not sure that's the case with Norway though. Most of the population lived then and lives now in the south of the country, which is quite a bit warmer than and different in terrain to Finland. Norway's conscription rates were tiny and what training was given was very short, meaning there was also very little brushing up on the use of skis in the Norwegian military for most people.

I don't particularly care for whether or not Finnish winter 3D infantry models feature skis or not, and actually I'd prefer they didn't.

I'll post the continuation of this post in the Finnish DD, where it's not off-topic.
 
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@Fulmen argued (here and here) in the Finnish thread that Finland should not have a special unit of ski troops, because historically they didn't. Since essentially all Finns can ski since childhood, all Finnish infantry could and did use skis when appropriate. So this should be represented in-game by giving skis to Finnish 3D models in their cold-weather gear and national-spirit bonuses. I suspect that the same would be true for Norway.

IMHO the real Norwegian national unit was its mercantile marine, which unfortunately isn't going to get an on-map representation.
Good point, and the same would certainly be the case for Norway, where basicly "everyone" were skiers.
 
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This chart only shows US aid. It omits aid from the United Kingdom, which I suspect largely went through Archangel. Though this would be partially offset by the fact that all Canadian aid went through Vladivostock.
In total 4 million tonnes of war material were delivered by the British, so I'm not sure what you disagree with. Of course Murmansk/Arkhangelsk route was important, but I don't see why call it primary. Even if it was (not by volume, as one can figure out), then probably not by a large margin. That's largely just semantics, though.
 
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Good point, and the same would certainly be the case for Norway, where basicly "everyone" were skiers.
Agreed. Made some point a few years ago. Ski troops should be Mountaineers (Germany and US trained ski troops, both were in Mountain divisions. For Germany, the Skijägers were the same as Gebirgsjägers). Norway, Finland, Sweden, all knew how to ski, and didn't forget how to ski if they joined the cavalry or infantry - it should be a spirit and not a unit.
 
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Will there be anything related to the heavy water plant? to sabotage it or blow it up? :cool:
Will Orkney and Shetland become separate states? (so that i don't need to take all of north scotland in the peace deal?)
What is the point of the: "Drøbak Costal Fort" focus to add 3 costal forts in Oslofjord if the state flips to Quisling's Norway in the Civil War? Will there be an event about the sinking of the Blucher maybe? :D
How many focuses are 35 days vs 70 days? Are almost all the focuses 70 days? or is there a nice mix?
Will there be anything related to "Heimevernet" (Norwegian Home Guard)?
 
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Will there be anything related to the heavy water plant? to sabotage it or blow it up? :cool:
Will Orkney and Shetland become separate states? (so that i don't need to take all of north scotland in the peace deal?)
What is the point of the: "Drøbak Costal Fort" focus to add 3 costal forts in Oslofjord if the state flips to Quisling's Norway in the Civil War? Will there be an event about the sinking of the Blucher maybe? :D
How many focuses are 35 days vs 70 days? Are almost all the focuses 70 days? or is there a nice mix?
Will there be anything related to "Heimevernet" (Norwegian Home Guard)?
1: Introduced in La Resistance.

2: Hope so too! Especially if you go down revisionist paths, same goes for Bohuslen.

3: I would like coastal forts in Drøbak to somewhat stall the Axis. If they are developed the King can escape, if not he is captured.

4: HV wasn't a thing until post-WW2. But Denmark gets their Hjemmevernet, so not out of the question. Would also fit better (along with shooting clubs) with the militia system they created for Norway than the actual mobilization that happened.
 
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1: Introduced in La Resistance.

2: Hope so too! Especially if you go down revisionist paths, same goes for Bohuslen.

3: I would like coastal forts in Drøbak to somewhat stall the Axis. If they are developed the King can escape, if not he is captured.

4: HV wasn't a thing until post-WW2. But Denmark gets their Hjemmevernet, so not out of the question. Would also fit better (along with shooting clubs) with the militia system they created for Norway than the actual mobilization that happened.
4: is factual true, heimevernet was created in 1946.
The idea was created after the fall of Norway in 1940 Kommandørkaptein Gunnar got charge for valuation for it to be implemeted after the Forsvarter (Norwegian Defence) returning to Norway in 18 September, 1941

Later thou in 1944 april 15th. There was a plan from the preparation for "Rise of Norway's new defence" for the Norwegian goverment in London as they said
"under moderne krig må befolkningen på et hvilket som helst sted i landet og når som helst på korteste varsel kunne tre i aksjon til forsvar av sin egen by, bygd eller grend. Det skal først og fremst holde fienden stangen inntil ordinære stridskrefter kan komme til"
("during modern war, the population in any place in the country and at any time must be able to take action in defense of their own town, village or hamlet at the shortest notice. It must first and foremost hold the enemy at bay until ordinary combat forces can arrive.")

They basicly wished for the HV to well do this purpose after the war (I am guessing) and to prevent miltary orgs to exist outside of the gorvements it was said that the will to defend was high in the population, and there was a lot of both military training and personal networks which it was feared could provide fertile ground for paramilitary organizations outside the government's control.

but it was pratically not finalised/realised fully before 6. desember 1946.... so it kinda shouldn't exist for HOI4 but idk it would feel more proper that random milita units since the Germans captured a lot of the recruitment centers as such taking and seizing a lot of Norwegian arms quicky sorta preventing militas to form and exist (atleast in the south of the country) but going by history HV and Milita shouldn't exist for Norway Sorta but I am guessing the Militas are more created with the
thought of how Sovjet Partisans were created

EDIT: I just learnt the Danish "Hjemmeværnet" was created in 1949, 1 aprill unless I read wrongly
1688683009003.png
 
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Will we see operation stratford as England focus or better support of norway per event? I mean the allies have lost many soldier in norway. For Hoi IV the losses are not high but in real life...

1688992983179.png


1688994140954.png
 
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Will we see operation stratford as England focus or better support of norway per event? I mean the allies have lost many soldier in norway. For Hoi IV the losses are not high but in real life...

View attachment 1003912

View attachment 1003927

Thank you for raising this interesting point.

Regarding a UK/Allied invasion of Narvik: the UK already has a Norwegian Intervention focus (ENG_norwegian_intervention) in its Democratic (Home Defense) path but the AI isn't scripted to take it on either historical or alt-hist paths. So most players will never see it used. And (bizarrely) Norway isn't weighted any higher than Denmark or Sweden. This should be changed; it makes no sense for AI UK to attack Sweden until it holds at least one side of the Skaggerak.

I don't think anyone wants the UK to attack Norway on its historical path. But in ahistorical mode, it might happen. This DLC should (must!) update these UK focuses to take account of the political and geostrategic situations in northern Europe. And consider whether the UK's non-Democratic paths should have access to them.

Regarding Allied support for Norway after a German invasion: at the moment there is script to discourage the the UK, and the Allies in general§, from putting troops in Norway:

Code:
ENG_norway_is_not_THAT_important = {
    allowed = {
        original_tag = ENG
    }
    enable = {
        date < 1945.1.1
        OR = {
            is_in_faction_with = ENG # anyone in allies
            tag = FRA
        }
    }
    abort_when_not_enabled = yes

    ai_strategy = {
        type = area_priority
        id = scandinavia
        value = -80
    }
}

With AAT, it seems that AI Norway will be scripted to change sides in most games. So any Allied troops sent to support Norway in 1940 are likely to be cut off from supply and lost. Therefore, it seems that this ai_strategy is helpful and should be kept.

§ I do wonder whether this script actually works. Based on what I read in the wiki:

  1. The allowed script is checked only at game start. Since only ENG is specified there, surely this strategy will never be applied to the other Allies, only ENG, right?
  2. During the game, ENG will then apply the enable check. The date part is fine, but I wonder about the OR part. ENG is not FRA. Does it pass or fail a check for being in a faction with itself? I don't know.

But I am not a modder and haven't noticed what the AI actually does, so probably I have misunderstood something (corrections are welcome).
 
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I do wonder whether this script actually works. Based on what I read in the wiki:

  1. The allowed script is checked only at game start. Since only ENG is specified there, surely this strategy will never be applied to the other Allies, only ENG, right?
  2. During the game, ENG will then apply the enable check. The date part is fine, but I wonder about the OR part. ENG is not FRA. Does it pass or fail a check for being in a faction with itself? I don't know.
As someone that does modding I can answer a bit how it would behave.
Like you suspected, yes it'll only ever apply to UK (and any UK spawned from civil war) (the allowed part).
Then when it comes to the enable, the intended effect is that all allies of UK and France will not protect Norway...however since UK is only nation that can be targeted then yes it'd need to pass the check.

Now does it, yes actually. If you're a faction leader in a lone faction, you do count as being in a faction with yourself. It's an interesting thing that is both useful and useless while modding, since on one hand making faction wide effects is very easy. But on other you always have to keep in mind faction leader counts for it.
 
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I just remembered that Trotsky is still in Norway in 1936. It would be fun if there was an event and possibly an option to keep him in Norway much to Stalin’s resentment (and ignoring that Norway was more afraid of the Soviet Union than Germany up until the onset of the German invasion)
 
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I just remembered that Trotsky is still in Norway in 1936. It would be fun if there was an event and possibly an option to keep him in Norway much to Stalin’s resentment (and ignoring that Norway was more afraid of the Soviet Union than Germany up until the onset of the German invasion)

Yup, he's confirmed
 
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Yup, he's confirmed
Cool. I thought it was such a fun and weird piece of trivia the first time I came across it randomly in a video about a different topic.
Interestingly this could cancel out the existing Trotsky events in Mexico
 
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