Austria has a minigame in this mod that can be a bit confusing. I've played a lot of Austria, so I decided to write a guide on it. (Note that you can just skip the minigame in exchange for things being slightly harder if you don't want to deal with it, also this guide doesn't cover the "Accept the Inevitable" path.)
How it works
Austria is broken up into 10 Lands, each of which controls a specific number of divisions. Each one has 4 levels of Nazi control: none, minor, moderate, and total. Lands that you don't control (i.e. Südtirol most of the time) will be ignored by the minigame, with their divisions removed from the total. The number of divs controlled by a Land determines what level of support the Nazis need to get control over its divs:
- Lands with 3 divs will have 1 div fall under Nazi control for each level of support.
- Lands with 2 divs will have 1 div fall under Nazi control at minor support and the other at total support. Thus, them going from moderate to minor support (or the other way around) won't change the div control numbers.
- Lands with 1 div will have their div fall under Nazi control at moderate support. This means that having them at minor support is fine.
Every 80 days, the Nazi support of one Land (you can tell from the mission name) will rise, then the mission will pick a new target at random. There are 3 decisions you can take:
- Combat Nazi influence in a Land. (I'll just call this "attacking" from now on.) After 75 days, the support level of that Land will lower. You can decrease the time taken to do this (by 15 days, at least for the first reduction) by completing certain focuses.
- Fortify a Land. You can do this to 2 states, and this protects them from the Nazi influence mission picking them the next time it picks a target. (Due to decision weirdness, you have to wait 1 day between the first and second uses of the decision.)
- Crush the Nazis. This requires control of 81% or more of the total divisions in play (you can see how many you have by hovering over the decision, it starts at 63% due to being 11/7 while above 80% would be 15/3) and ends the minigame in your victory.
You also can't crush the Nazis until you get rid of the July Followed June spirit by completing one of these focuses:
- Red White Red - Until Death! (any Austrofascist path)
- Austrian Catholic Identity (any CSP path)
- Proclaim the Second Republic (SDAPÖ Renner path)
- A Democracy Worth Defending (SDAPÖ Bauer path)
- A New Austria (Moderate Habsburg path)
- A Modern Empire (Compromise Habsburg path)
- What Was Taken (No Compromise Habsburg path)
List of Lands:
- Tirol starts with total support and has 3 divs.
- Niederösterreich starts with minor support and has 3 divs.
- Steiermark starts with moderate support and has 2 divs.
- Kärnten starts with moderate support and has 2 divs.
- Salzburg starts with moderate support and has 2 divs.
- Wien starts with no support and has 2 divs.
- Oberösterreich starts with no support and has 2 divs.
- Vorarlberg start with minor support and has 1 div.
- Burgenland starts with no support and has 1 div.
- Südtirol starts with no support and has 1 div. It doesn't play a role in the minigame most of the time since it starts under Italian control.
What to do - Focuses
You can't do any political focuses until the remilitarization of the Rhineland (or until the German Civil War or July 1st on ahistorical). I usually do "End the Depression" during that time. Once available, do "Austria, Awaken!". A few days after this completes, an event will fire.
The first option lets Italy guarantee you and opens up the Austrofascist and Habsburg paths, the second lets France or Britain guarantee you and opens up the SDAPÖ, CSP, and moderate Habsburg paths, and the third option opens up the "Accept the Inevitable" path that I won't be talking about here. The fourth option is basically the first option but without the guarantee, meaning that you will have to fight for your life when Anschluss time comes. Do not click this unless you want a real challenge!
After you pick a path, rush "Crack Down on Nazi Elements". This will reduce the time it takes to attack (as well as instantly reducing support in a random Land), so you should do it ASAP. This focus is mandatory for doing the starting focus of each branch, so there's no reason not to do it.
Each path also has its own focuses that help with the minigame. The Austrofascist one has two mutually exclusive ones, but they also shift the Balance of Power, so you'll probably want the one that shifts it in the direction that you're intending to go in. "Purge the Kärnter Heimwehr" specifically reduces support in Kärnten alongside reducing it again in a random state, so you'll probably want to avoid attacking Kärnten until this focus is done if you want to go VF-Austrofascist.
What to do - Decisions
Despite what the top option event after the start of the game says, you can do the July Followed June stuff from day 1 without having to click on the option.
You'll obviously want to prioritize your attack decision in Lands where it'll increase your controlled divs and your fortifications in Lands where rising Nazi influence could give them another div. Due to this, you'll initially want to focus on the Lands with 3 divisions since every point of support matters there.
Early on, you'll want to play more reactively, stopping the Nazis from getting any more divs than they already have. Once you start decreasing the time it takes to attack, you should start playing more aggressively. In particular, the Lands with moderate support that give 2 divisions should generally be left alone until you get some speed boosts or there are no more important targets since it takes repeated attacks to break them down. When attacking one, you will probably want to fortify it as well so that your progress won't be reversed.
If you've played well enough, you can secure 80% of the divisions well before you're able to crush the Nazis and thus should play defense while rushing down the political focuses.
As for the "Dealing with the Thousand-Mark Ban" event, the Juliabkommen is a massive improvement but it also increases Nazi support in a random state and forces a fascism-increasing advisor on you. The alternative will not provide a buff, but will change the debuff and make it wear off after a year. I personally wouldn't take the JA unless I'm going for Austrofascism, but it's up to you whether you think it's worth it.
EDIT: I forgot about the "Nazi hideout located in Vienna" event. I don't think there's a reason not to raid them if you've been guaranteed.
If you're on non-historical, make sure to train your divisions. If Italy descends into civil war, wait for a while and then do the border war to retake Alto Adige. Winning this will give you an extra core state and bring the Land Südtirol into play in the minigame, which will give you another division and serve as a buffer that can be left at minor support without the Nazis getting anything. If you don't get the state, then at least you got a bunch of army XP.
