Hoi4 South Africa Guide – Liberate Africa!

South Africa begins the game as a small, deeply segregated nation with a small industry, lacking infrastructure, and under British colonial rule. Despite this, South Africa can be a viable country to play, even in a more historical way. The country’s generous deposits of chromium make it a prime candidate for heavy tank production, and they can eventually assume control of a good chunk of the UK’s colonies in Africa. Looking historically – South Africa was embarking down a dangerous and divisive path of segregation and bigotry that would eventually lead to what’s known as the Apartheid.

We see the seeds being planted in game with focuses like the “Native Laws Amendment Act” – which in real life significantly restricted the ability of Black South Africans to purchase land from White residents in urban areas – and gave the Minister of Native Affairs the power to expel Africans from areas in which the Minister felt that “the number of Africans had increased above the needs of the labour market“.

But in this Hoi4 South Africa guide – we will show how to liberate Africa, using some interesting game mechanics, and a little bit of luck – we can create a truly powerful South Africa, end colonial rule and segregation in the continent, and get some achievements along the way!

To Begin – What Is The Overall Strategy?

(Together For Victory is required for this Hoi4 South Africa guide, and ‘By Blood Alone’ is highly advised)

In the guide developed by Bubbles Zest on YouTube, our priority is to break away from the British by starting a communist civil war, then acquiring a large amount of infantry equipment from lend leases, to then invade some of the colonial powers of Europe to take their manpower in order to build an army. This army will then be used to join WW2, defeat the UK, and take their colonies in Africa. This will allow us to form the Mutapa Socialist State, or unlock the “Crusader Kings II” achievement should we choose.

With That Out Of The Way – Here’s A Step By Step Hoi4 South Africa Guide!

To begin, we must sow the seeds for a communist civil war in the nation in order to gain our independence, and later be able to do the “Anti Colonialist Crusade” focus. Following our independence, we will begin making the required moves in order to exploit lend leases, and to gain a solid base of operations in order to attack European Nations later.

Communist South Africa Guide: Stage One

• To start, delete your army, do the “Seaward Defense Force” focus, build military factories in the Natal state, research trains and the first class of submarines you have available. Set 5 military factories on producing guns (we’ll shift these around as we gain more military factories)
• Once your first focus is done – place the naval dockyard on producing convoys, setting the max possible dockyards on this will save you having to keep reapplying these later. Again – we’ll be shifting around this production as we get submarines later.

• The, do the “Abandon Westminster” focus
• Watch your political power – once you have 150, hire a silent workhorse adviser, the extra political power they provide will be essential in order to improve relations later
• Once you have researched trains – use this slot for industry techs as you choose – for this very niche case – concentrated industry might actually be better as we won’t be upgrading our equipment very often – more info on Hoi4 industries can be found here!
• Your first submarine tech should have completed or be close to completing by now – simply research the next submarine in the tech tree.
• After the previous focus has completed, do the “Empower The Workers” focus
• Following the completion of that focus, don’t pick another one – instead, wait for another 150 political power in order to hire a communist revolutionary. Once you have the required political power – hire him and wait for communist support in South Africa to reach 10% – it shouldn’t take long.
• Once communist support surpasses 10% – take the “Repeal The Native Representation Act” focus, and use you political power to take the “prepare for civil war” decision
• Your second submarine should now have been researched. Replace your convoy production line with that of submarines in order to prepare a small navy. Use this open research slot to research artillery

• Take the “Expand Civil Support” and “commandeer civilian trains” decisions as much as required to get below 50% stability in order to launch a civil war.
• Once the “Repeal the Native Representation Act” has completed, launch the civil war – and train a few “District Brigade” divisions, and use them to walk into the west’s victory points, most importantly – Cape Town.
• Start the “Protect The Trade” focus
• Once the civil war has completed, begin a war justification on the Republican/Communist Spanish faction – this justification MUST be for the state of Murcia or another “safe state”.
• Next, justify a war goal on Oman.
• Following the completion of the “Protect The Trade” focus, begin the “Expand The Simon’s Town Base” – this will give us another two vital naval dockyards.
• After you have another 150 political power – hire the “Army Maneuver” Chief Of Army – this will give us ticking army XP – which is very useful, in addition to a small division movement speed buff.
• For your next focus – choose to “Support Spain” – this will give us a nice modifier assuming we make the correct choice in the focus’ corresponding event.
• In addition – it is probably worthwhile trading for some steel at this point – in order to more efficiently produce our guns.
• Once the “Support Spain” focus is complete – select the middle option in the event – you’ll lose some manpower – but gain a valuable modifier after the civil war in Spain has concluded.

Communist South Africa Guide: Stage Two

That is stage one of this guide completed, at this point – you’ve gained your independence, flipped to communism and are preparing to intervene in the Spanish civil war, and have begun starting to justify wars to exploit lend leases later. This stage will involve us moving to annex the Netherlands’ puppets for their manpower and resources/navies (with the By Blood Alone DLC). We will use this manpower to build a large army during stage three. 

• Firstly, do the “Equal Opportunity Employment” focus.
• Once you have accumulated another 150 political power – move to “Limited Conscription”
• You now will need to create a larger division template – take the “District Force” template, and add 4 infantry battalions, meaning it’ll now be a 20 width division. Now, convert all of your existing units to this template, and train more – you need a minimum of 10 divisions.
• Once your justification on Spain has completed, declare war, and ask the nationalists for military access – once you have it, move all of your units to the civil war and fight the republicans to gain some war participation and army XP, but don’t defeat them fully – they need to stay alive for a little bit.
• Once your previous focus has completed, do the “South African Railways” focus – we’re moving down the industry tree to get “Infrastructure Effort”.
• Now, once you have enough political power – justify on the Dutch East Indies, they will give us all of the manpower we should need for our units. From here – just save your PP – you’ll need it for later.
• Once your justification on Oman has completed, declare war. We will use Oman in order to request lend leases from large countries for as long as possible. There is no risk from this, as Oman has a single division, no navy and no air force – there is no way that they can harm you. 
• At some point before the start of 1938, you need to improve relations with Germany and France – the reason for this will be explained later.
• Once you have pushed Republican Spain back to a sufficient degree, and gotten a good amount of war participation and army XP, take your units off the front line, and prepare a naval invasion – this MUST be done while you are still at war with Spain, otherwise it won’t work. This invasion will be against the Netherlands
• Plan the naval invasion from either the La Coruña or Oviedo naval bases, with the composition of your 10 units as follows:

1. The first four units will be sent to invade Rotterdam
2. Then, select four units, placing two on the provinces north and south of Rotterdam (two divisions each side)
3. The next unit will go to the next tile north of your existing invasion
4. And the final unit will invade the port at the north of the state of Holland with the port
5. Your invasion should look something like the picture below:

• Next, do the “South African Steel” focus, followed by “Armament Effort”. Additionally, move your navy to the northern Spanish ports in order to prepare for the Dutch invasion (hold CTRL while clicking the naval base if they won’t move otherwise)
• Germany should now be about to do Anschluss, once they do, you will be able to request lend leases from France and Germany, ask for guns and artillery if possible – remember to refresh every month!
• At this point – you should have enough military factories in order to move away from producing so many guns and towards producing artillery, as shown in the image below:

• Now – after the “Armament effort” focus has concluded, we will go further down with the industry tree, firstly doing: “Expand The Rand Mines” to reduce our consumer goods upkeep, then moving to “Fund The University of South Africa” for the vital research slot, and finally back towards “Pretoria Arms” for the military factories.
• The Spanish civil war should now be close to concluding, attempt to take the Spanish navy if the required DLC is owned, and try to take the state of “Sidi Ifni” if possible, as that will make invading north Africa easier if that’s something you’re interested in doing.
• After the civil war has finished, you’ll get the “Veterans of the Spanish civil war” national spirit, which gives additional division organisation – certainly a nice buff.
• Now comes the important bit, assign your navy to “Naval invasion support” in the ”Bay of Biscay” and “English channel” naval regions, and prepare for war.
• Once the war justification has concluded, declare war on the Netherlands, and set your naval invasions to move immediately.
• Hopefully your divisions have landed, and they should now look something like this:

• Our top priority here is holding the port, losing it essentially dooms us, every other unit can move around and attack the dutch units, taking Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda is typically enough for them to capitulate.
• It is at this point that owning By Blood Alone becomes really useful – as you will be able to take the Dutch/puppet navies. I will walk through the peace conference for those with and without By Blood Alone below:
  1. WITH:
  2. Puppet the Dutch East Indies, take their navy, resource rights and demand war reparations
  3. Do the Same for Suriname and Curaçao
  4. Do not take any land or puppet the Netherlands’ home territory – just exit the conference.
  5. WITHOUT:
  6. Puppet the Dutch East Indies, Suriname and Curaçao
  7. Leave the Netherlands in Europe as is – exit the conference

Communist South Africa Guide: Stage Three

That is stage two of this Hoi4 South Africa guide completed, at this point – you’ve finished the Spanish Civil war for the division organisation buffs, are making your way down your industry focus towards your research slots, and have stolen the Dutch colonies to help deal with your manpower shortages.

From this point – our priority begins preparing ourselves for WW2, where we’ll indirectly side with the Axis to attack the British, hopefully accumulating enough warscore to take what we need in Africa and Europe for getting some achievements and formable nations.

• Before doing anything else, begin improving relations with most of Europe, this will allow us to extract lend leases from them after Germany does Sudetenland – or world tension reaches 40% by other means.
• After doing that – our first priority will be designing an effective division for the war, and mass producing this division using our puppets manpower. To do this, go to your division designer, and go to your puppet division section, (the icon in the top right of the template screen with a crown on it) from here – select the East Indies’ templates, and copy “Infantry Template 2”
• From here, we need to actually edit this unit using our accumulated army XP. Edit it, and make it a 21 width unit with artillery and support artillery, like the screenshot below:

• Then, recruit 80 of these divisions – this will be enough to hold all of your fronts that need holding, and enough to defeat the UK, then – disband your existing units to help with your equipment issues.
• After world tension has reached 40% – request lend leases from all the countries you improved relations with earlier – doing the same thing we did with France and Germany, resetting the lease every month for the max possible equipment. This is very micro heavy, so bear that in mind!
• You may also have to stop recruiting a single division every so often to ensure that your submarines still deploy, so keep an eye on that.
• After finishing the “Pretoria Arms” focus, move back over to your political tree and “Burn The King’s Portraits”.
• Next, we’re finally going to invade Oman – who we have used for lend lease farming for a little while now, you’re probably not going to be able to fully stock your equipment reserves from lend leases alone in time for the war – meaning remaining at war with Oman is just costing you stability and war support.
• You should have about 13 divisions – with the first 10, prepare a naval invasion from your East Indian colony, to the province just East of Muscat, remember to move your navy over to naval invasion support in the area to be able to invade!
• The remaining 3 units should be split up into their own armies, placed in a field marshal order, and be sent to South Africa via a fallback line. At this point – you can also force your Indonesian divisions to recruit from South Africa, meaning you won’t have to move them around much once they’ve deployed.
• Once Germany annexes Czechoslovakia, make sure to request a lease lease from them again, to try to grab some Czech equipment.
• Your next focus should be the “War Measures Act”
• Begin improving relations with the Soviet Union.
• Now you should be able to invade Oman, simply launch the invasion, and use your 10 or so units to push Oman’s units out of Muscat – they should capitulate from there. Puppet them afterwards – taking resource rights and war reparations if you have the required DLC.
• We now need to organise our units for the war (assuming you have the full 80 divisions – just wait until you have the equipment for the full 80 before joining WW2). The list of things you need to do with your units is as follows:
  1. Select 8 units, use them to guard your South African ports
  2. Select 24 units, draw a fallback line along your border with them, ignoring the Caprivi Strip (the panhandle) protruding from Namibia, as there is no point defending it.
  3. The rest of your units (preferably 48) will be sent to Europe in order to invade the UK. We are sending them now so that they don’t get sunk while travelling. Specifically, send them to the Soviet Union using an area defence order. In addition, move your fleet to Stalingrad
• Your next focus should be the “Anti-Colonialist Crusade”. Your next available political power should be spent on moving to war economy as Germany invades Poland – if it’s not needed for improving relations that is.
• Following that, do the “Union of the African People” focus. From there – all focuses are up to you!
• Now, once Germany has declared war on the Benelux – we will justify a war goal on France – specifically, upon French Guiana. This will mark the end of the third stage of this Hoi4 South Africa guide.

Communist South Africa Guide: Stage Four

At this point in time – you’ve done all the necessary prep in order to join the second world war. In this stage, we will prepare a naval invasion against the British, invade, and lend lease to Germany in order to maximise our war participation. Your war justification upon France should be done – use it.

• Before doing anything else, justify a war goal upon Portugal, we need their colonies in Africa.
• With regards to that naval invasion, we will be sending 5 divisions to the east coast of England, around Newcastle and Hull. This area is usually lightly defended and gives us a decent chance of securing naval supremacy.
• Speaking of Naval supremacy – it’s here where a lot of is involved. We need to set our navy to convoy escort as our invasion is ready to commence, and eventually – the AI of the UK will grant us a ‘blip’ of naval supremacy, in which our units will be able to move. This will take some time and luck, if push comes to shove – you could research paratroopers and use those instead – assuming the Germans have managed to deal with the British Royal Air Force.
• Once you’ve landed – beating up the UK should be easy – they rarely have enough units on the mainland to beat back your invasion.
• Once your justification upon Portugal has finished, use it – you must still be at war with either the UK or France as you do this – otherwise they won’t be included in the peace negotiations.
• After you’ve nearly beaten the UK, send all of your fuel and convoys over to Germany via a lend lease. Give them 100% of your monthly production. This will increase your war participation – making it more likely that you get enough score to take what we need.
• Once the UK has fully capitulated – the war should end. Moving us onto the final stage.

Communist South Africa Guide: Stage Five

During this final stage – we will take the necessary states for our achievements and goals. For the Crusader Kings 2 achievement – we must own (annex): Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, The Congo and Kenya. But feel free to take more than this. In addition – puppet the UK in London as a priority – preferably puppet all of the UK. From there – the choice of what to take is yours!

Now – we have what we need for the Crusader Kings 2 achievement. All you need to do is release the aforementioned African states via the Anti-Colonialist Crusade decisions. Releasing these states will award you with the achievement – assuming your playing on Ironman.

We can also recreate the Zimbabwean empire – which will give you cores on your most southern territories in Africa. From there, whether you continue playing or not is up to you – if you decide to, focus on pushing the Axis out of Africa with help from the Soviets and potentially the Americans in order to fully liberate Africa!

Hoi4 South Africa Guide: Conclusion

With all that said – that was the Console Bandit Hoi4 South Africa Guide! We hope that this guide helped you to liberate Africa in the most responsible and non game-breaking way possible. If you enjoyed this guide, be sure to take a look at our other Hoi4 Console Bandit guides. Have a great day, see you next time!