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They Shall Not Pass

They Shall Not Pass is a modification that overhauls and improves Spain and the Spanish Civil War. Paradox Interactive has done an okay job with this part of the world in HOI4, but I always felt like it was lacking in balance, historical accuracy and flavor. Seeing how important the Spanish Civil War was for the WWII era, I felt that this needed to be fixed.

Improved balance
States have been redrawn so as to create something akin to the actual battle lines at the start of the civil war. The Barcelona and Madrid areas are now less likely to get cut off from each other right at the start and Navarre has been shrunk so as to make it easier to hold out for an appropriate amount of time.

The amount of troops each side gets at the start of the war has also been adjusted to be more historical as well as more balanced. The SCW generally ends in 1938 with a human player and somewhere in 1938-39 when both sides are played by the AI.

Realistic starting OOBs and templates
The Republican Army, Navy and Air Force have all had small changes made, to make them more realistic. The divisional templates have undergone the most changes, as the vanilla ones were only a rough approximation of the reality.

With Waking the Tiger on the horizon, I thought I’d hold off on the bigger stuff, seeing as this expansion will bring many new features such as a decision system.
• New events/decisions to add flavor (ex. Sanjurjo’s fatal flight).
• More leaders (putting this off as Waking the Tiger is just around the corner and redoes how leaders are designed.
• The building up of forces in 1936 will happen more gradually, as each government negotiates with the factions in their coalition for more support.
• Custom national focus trees and national spirits for both sides.
• More flavorful division naming (the Fifth Regiment, Durutti Column, Viriatos, etc.)
• Custom AI strategies for countries involved in the conflict

The AI likes to place the air units in Republican territory before the SCW. With the addition of two CAS squadrons this means that the Republican AI will often have an edge in the air war. This will be fixed by Waking the Tiger, which will finally allow expeditionary air forces like the Condor Legion.

If you have comments, suggestions, etc. feel free to leave them in the comment selection below. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.