Paradox Interactive Games Thread

[Alben Barkley]

The UK is officially my favorite country in the game. The democratic, non-aligned, communist, AND fascist paths are all loads of fun!

And when you go fascist and still create the Imperial Federation, you literally become THE Empire lol:



At this point in the game, I've basically won. I have 360 divisions and over 1000 factories. I can easily take out my "ally" Italy, the only remaining "major" in the game (Japan is my nearly-annexed puppet). As well as Spain, which I have a war goal on. And China, the closest thing remaining to a "threat" beyond that. But honestly it's a foregone conclusion at this point. Once the US, Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union (in that order) were gone, the game was essentially over. World conquest is within my grasp.

For THE Empire!

[Alben Barkley]

Revenge of the Kaiser! (And the original Central Powers!)



Guide to do this:

1. Kill Hitler.

2. Put Wilhelm II back on the throne.

3. Start building up your navy for a showdown with the UK.

4. Pressure Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia to reform Austria-Hungary.

5. Assassinate Mussolini and empower the king so Italy joins you.

6. Go to war with France and the UK.

7. Schlieffen Plan to take out Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Take out anyone else in Europe foolish enough to join the Allies (in my case Poland, Lithuania, and the Netherlands).

8. Use your powerful navy to cross the channel and capitulate the UK.

9. Profit! I annexed everything except Ethiopia, which I let Italy keep. As is tradition.

[Alben Barkley]

Revenge for 1812! Canucks and Euros, close your eyes!

[Alben Barkley]

Let's not forget about the Aussies and Kiwis!

[Alben Barkley]

Got the achievement for defeating Germany as the USSR before the Allies could take a single tile from them. Also got the achievement for taking Rome as the USSR (Italy is my puppet, as usual). Ate practically all of Eastern and Central Europe for good measure. Would have eaten Finland too except they actually conceded to my demands for Karelia. Hopefully the new DLC makes Finland more interesting. As it is now, the Winter War is a joke and they don't even do the Continuation War.

[Alben Barkley]

OUR land, comrades!





I finally achieved a personal goal of mine: Take out all of Germany, the UK/France, and the US with just the Soviet starting army. Next up is Japan (they'll attack me anyway since I took land they want from the Allies). Then I guess I'll go through the standard process of going after Finland et al.

Anyone interested in a guide, here's how to do this:

1. Justify on Poland as soon as you hit 50 political power.

2. Save up your political power beyond that for when Stalin starts the purge; use it to shoot down any of the nastier purge options that pop up. Meanwhile continue going through the focuses that lead to the end of the purge, with boosts to the army and industry in between.

3. Start justifying on Germany once the justification with Poland is finished, and at the same time start your invasion of Poland. It should be pretty easy.

4. After you take out Poland, prepare to invade Germany and knock them out, almost as easily. (You'll simply overrun them in 1937.) Meanwhile start justifying on France.

5. Once Germany is finished, prepare naval invasions of Hull and the tile to its north in the UK through the North Sea from Wilhemshaven. Leave an army on the Maginot Line. The UK will defend France when you declare war on them. If you set up your naval invasion right, you should have a moment of naval supremacy which allows you to launch your invasion of the UK right after the war starts. Flood most of your army into the UK after you land and take the port, and capitulate them.

6. To take out France, naval invade them through the English Channel from a Southern England port like Dover. Beware they might be garrisoning Dunkirk hard, but find a port that you can take. (In this game I actually landed next to Dunkirk, then encircled and took the port.) Once you do have a port, repeat the process of flooding your army in, then quickly march to Paris and capitulate France.

7. I didn't start justifying on the US until after the war with the UK/France was over, but it likely could have been done earlier and easier if I had started the justification earlier. Anyway, at some point justify on the US. Now you should have Canada after the peace conference with the UK, so simply put most of your army on the border with the Northeastern US with a single army guarding the western Canadian/US border (and a few divisions on Alaska). Watch out for naval invasions; you should have a massive navy if you stole the UK and France's, so put it on the East Coast to thwart US attempts at taking back what you took and parts of Canada.

And it's done! The Soviet Union now reigns supreme by early 1940.

[Alben Barkley]

I think it's the Cold War child in me, but I have much harder time doing the above (i've never even tried, I think I've played as the USSR all of once), than I do doing the same with Germany.  When playing vanilla HOI4, I'm pretty sure I've played as Germany more than any other specific nation.

You can find out your most played nations, number of playthroughs started and in-game time spent playing as them, etc. by clicking on Career Profile in the main menu (though I think it does only go back to when this feature was introduced a year or two ago). It even divides your playthroughs by vanilla and mods. For me the top 5 in vanilla by far are USSR, UK, Germany, France, and US. Then Italy, Poland, Finland (probably gonna go even higher with the new DLC focusing on it), Spain (played both sides of the Civil War), THEN Japan lol. They're the ones most distasteful to me. Also more frustrating to play. The war in China is a slog (it can be easier with spies/collaboration governments but still not the most fun part of the game to wait on the "escalation" decisions to get rid of debuffs), and then I'm never even sure what to do. Can't invade the US or the Allies easily as Japan anymore.

Anyway, I get why so many people play Germany the most even though I do think (Nazi) Germany was morally worse than the USSR. It's probably the most fun and action-packed and easiest. I myself just did a 1939 start Germany game for fun, because you get to skip straight to the action without doing cheesy ahistorical stuff like taking out France or Poland/USSR right at the start. It's quite satisfying to just beat up on the AI sometimes, moral implications aside. This was also the first time I did Berlin-Moscow Axis so I could avoid the slog of fighting the USSR (which can be fun the first few times but not as much the 100th). I just beat the Allies within a few months at the start of the game, then beat the US, then Japan, then finally Switzerland just for s--ts and giggles. All with only a slightly tweaked starting army. Germany was also the first country I did a (near) world conquest with. (Never gone all the way because of war justification times.)

On the other hand, Germany seems so OP in the game they get boring to me (although I like the alt history paths). I find the USSR more challenging. Like all the stuff I did in that last USSR playthrough can more easily be done as Germany. Plus I like the "defend until you can counterattack" gameplay of historical USSR. The first time I pulled it off, I was more of a novice at the game and I didn't know the optimal place to put defensive lines, so I really did feel the historical desperation and pressure of defending Leningrad/Moscow/Stalingrad, and it was super satisfying to finally push them back.

[Alben Barkley]

Kaiserin Victoria has just Barbarossa'd way more successfully and earlier than Hitler did!



Now all I have left to do before I can FINALLY restore the Holy Roman Empire is to take out France, Switzerland, and the Benelux (already defeated Italy, laughably easily, and took all the relevant land). The only problem is that if I go after them, I'll be dragged into war with the Allies, and by the time the justification is complete, Pearl Harbor will have happened and the US will be involved... It is a major pain in the ass to take out the US without capitulating the UK before they get involved so you can invade from Canada. The good news is I believe you can still restore the Holy Roman Empire just by occupying the land, without having to capitulate everybody and take it in the peace conference.

Also I DID last night restore the Holy Roman Empire in the "Great War Redux" WW1 mod:



The only problem is some weird funkiness happened as a result of me taking out France by invading directly from our shared border as well as through Switzerland (which is my puppet) instead of the Schlieffen Plan. For some bizarre reason Belgium was awarded Northern France despite them not being involved in the war at all...

Ultimately I think it's a good mod, and actually there's arguably even more of a need for a WW1 strategy game than a WW2 one (given how the combat and diplomacy and everything worked back then, as well as how sorely underrepresented WW1 is in games). But it definitely has its bugs and quirks, especially when you deviate at all from history. It also seems way too easy; as you can see, I totally wrecked the Entente by 1913, and the only reason it even took that long was waiting for focuses to complete. Howitzers just completely annihilate the enemy. It also seems like it takes forever to research anything. Which I get, given the technological limitations of the time, but I often found myself forced to choose between either researching useless stuff or going way far ahead of time on research. Also when I played the US, it was even more boring than WW2 US, as it took 6 whole years to prepare, then when I finally went "over there," I completely steamrolled the Germans in like 1 day and instantly ended the war with the click of a button. So yeah, I like that the mod exists but like most if not all HOI4 mods I've tried, I find it to be much less well-balanced and "finished" than the vanilla game.

[Alben Barkley]

Well, in my last run before the new HOI4 DLC focusing on Finland and Scandinavia -- "Arms Against Tyranny" -- dropped today, I managed to form the Holy Roman Empire:



In my first run with the new DLC (as Finland, naturally), I kicked the Soviets' ass in the Winter War despite low manpower and weak industry. I didn't capitulate them but I did take Leningrad and white peace them on favorable terms for the Finns. Next time I'll probably go fascist for "Greater Finland" and actually try to take out the Soviets entirely, but I wanted to do a historical run first.

[Alben Barkley]

I played loads of CK2 to distract from world events. Screenshots and descriptions of what I played will be forthcoming.

I've been playing a LOT of CK3, specifically the Elder Kings 2 mod (based on the Elder Scrolls games)

also in the middle of a Jadd campaign in the EU4 Anbennar mod

Funny thing is the game that really finally got me into Paradox was CK3. I tried HOI4 first but was so confused by the tutorial and so overwhelmed by all the mechanics that I just gave up.

Then I tried CK3, and it had an excellent and user-friendly tutorial and interface. I was able to go from a petty king to Irish ruler of the British Isles in my first run as a result. That run started the addiction, really.

But now, CK3 has been left in the dust in favor of HOI4, at least in terms of hours played. Mainly because I prefer the HOI4 WW2 setting and overall prefer the wargame mechanics to the almost RPG/Sims-like mechanics of CK3, where war feels more like "siege your opponent's cities faster and have bigger armies/more allies" than it does anything truly strategic like HOI4. Not that CK3 doesn't have its place and appeal as well.

As for EU4... I've still never really gotten into that one. The dated UI and massive amounts of DLC and complex mechanics still intimidates me despite all my hours in HOI4 and CK3. I tried Vic3 and boy were that game's war mechanics such a huge letdown that I haven't picked it up again since; I hope they fix that eventually, because the bones of a great game are there. But the war gameplay as it is SUCKS. I have no idea what's going on or why, everything seems to be completely random. They cut out all micromanagement in favor of a system that basically gives you no control whatsoever; I hate it!

Also Stellaris I've played casually. It almost feels more like Civ than these other games to me though, and obviously doesn't have the history theme which is so appealing to me. Once in a while I'll get in a sci-fi mood and Stellaris might scratch that itch, but it's nowhere near as omnipresent as my infatuation with history, WW2 especially.

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

I rarely play as tiny minors like that because, while it's possible to meme your way to success or play a support role for one faction or another, it's BORING and takes a LONG time. Because you have no resources, no military, etc. You have to build everything from scratch and it's not even hard so much as it is time-consuming. Mid-sized minors like Poland and Turkey and (with the latest DLC) Nordic countries are more fun because:

A. They have focus trees and interesting things to do.

B. They are a better balance between challenge and potential, between build-up and action.

[Alben Barkley]

I think this might be the fastest I've ever KO'd the Allies. They're dead before Christmas 1937, and even that only took so long mostly just because of the justification time on Belgium/France. (I memed Belgium to death by letting them walk into Germany, then encircling pretty much their entire army and destroying it. France was actually even easier to beat LMFAO.) And all with a small number of default divisions. Sea Lion is laughably easy in this game. I don't know how they fix that though without it being impossible to win as Germany... unless that's the point?

So question what's the most irrelevant country you've played as and what happened then? I'm actually curious what you would do playing as like Panama or Nepal.

I rarely play as tiny minors like that because, while it's possible to meme your way to success or play a support role for one faction or another, it's BORING and takes a LONG time. Because you have no resources, no military, etc. You have to build everything from scratch and it's not even hard so much as it is time-consuming. Mid-sized minors like Poland and Turkey and (with the latest DLC) Nordic countries are more fun because:

A. They have focus trees and interesting things to do.

B. They are a better balance between challenge and potential, between build-up and action.

What about playing as a country that was minor in the war but still close to the action and active? Like Bulgaria or the Netherlands.

I should play the Netherlands some day, I know they have a focus to "lead the minor democracies" which sounds like it could be fun.

Anyway, I just beat the Allies as Germany by early 1938 using only default light tank divisions, so clearly I'm running out of ways to challenge myself and have fun playing majors. So maybe more minor playthroughs are in my future.

[Alben Barkley]

Well I just did a Netherlands playthrough, and I have to say, it was actually AWESOME! Most fun I've had in this game in a while.

You start out with basically nothing and horrible debuffs, but can become the leader of the European Union and wreck the Axis without even any help from Britain and France!



To do this, I:

1. Went down the focus tree to "Lead the Minor Democracies," "Form the Benelux" (merging Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg), and "Form the European Union." After all this is done every non-major democracy in Europe will be in your faction, even Sweden and Switzerland!

2. Tried to remove the debuffs as best I could while slowly building as many 9/1 infantry divisions with support AA, ART, ENG, and recon as I could, using Dutch East Indies puppet troops for manpower.

3. Refused to betray Czechoslovakia at Munich, but Germany -- surrounded by me to the West, Switzerland to the South, and the Nordics to the North -- actually wussed out and refused to invade them! This gave me extra time to train more divisions.

4. Guaranteed Poland once world tension was over 25%; interestingly, Britain and France did NOT guarantee Poland, meaning my ragtag group of minor democracies would be on our own against the German Reich.

5. Germany attacked Poland on schedule, if not a little early. But using Grand Battleplan for planning bonuses and boosts to infantry, I was able to wreck them as they were still surrounded, even with only a fairly small army and essentially no air force.

6. Germany capitulated within months, at which time it was simply a matter of marching down Italy. Mussolini was deposed and they fractured into Civil War but Mussolini surrendered almost immediately anyway.

7. Puppeted/liberated everybody, while allowing Poland to take some German land to match their modern borders as well as their pre-1939 borders.

All this done, by the way, before the end of 1939! It was a blast to play in part because it was pretty quick; whole campaign was done in a couple hours.

Now it's just a matter of whether I want to take on the Soviets, who are now justifying on Poland themselves. With German/Italian industry and manpower as my puppets, it's probably feasible but I could also call it a day here. Fun run either way!

[Alben Barkley]

Well I just did a Netherlands playthrough, and I have to say, it was actually AWESOME! Most fun I've had in this game in a while.

You start out with basically nothing and horrible debuffs, but can become the leader of the European Union and wreck the Axis without even any help from Britain and France!



To do this, I:

1. Went down the focus tree to "Lead the Minor Democracies," "Form the Benelux" (merging Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg), and "Form the European Union." After all this is done every non-major democracy in Europe will be in your faction, even Sweden and Switzerland!

2. Tried to remove the debuffs as best I could while slowly building as many 9/1 infantry divisions with support AA, ART, ENG, and recon as I could, using Dutch East Indies puppet troops for manpower.

3. Refused to betray Czechoslovakia at Munich, but Germany -- surrounded by me to the West, Switzerland to the South, and the Nordics to the North -- actually wussed out and refused to invade them! This gave me extra time to train more divisions.

4. Guaranteed Poland once world tension was over 25%; interestingly, Britain and France did NOT guarantee Poland, meaning my ragtag group of minor democracies would be on our own against the German Reich.

5. Germany attacked Poland on schedule, if not a little early. But using Grand Battleplan for planning bonuses and boosts to infantry, I was able to wreck them as they were still surrounded, even with only a fairly small army and essentially no air force.

6. Germany capitulated within months, at which time it was simply a matter of marching down Italy. Mussolini was deposed and they fractured into Civil War but Mussolini surrendered almost immediately anyway.

7. Puppeted/liberated everybody, while allowing Poland to take some German land to match their modern borders as well as their pre-1939 borders.

All this done, by the way, before the end of 1939! It was a blast to play in part because it was pretty quick; whole campaign was done in a couple hours.

Now it's just a matter of whether I want to take on the Soviets, who are now justifying on Poland themselves. With German/Italian industry and manpower as my puppets, it's probably feasible but I could also call it a day here. Fun run either way!

You should see about deposits Franco in Spain too.

Problem is democracies can't justify war goals on countries that haven't generated world tension, and for some stupid reason the game doesn't consider Franco couping a democratic government in a devastating civil war to be generating world tension. Also world tension isn't even 100% yet, which is also required for democracies to justify war goals. And furthermore, I'd have no easy way of getting to Spain as France isn't in my faction. I'd have to naval invade. Plus with the Soviets knocking on Poland's door, they're clearly the bigger and more immediate threat.

However, there IS a focus which could give me a war goal on the UK, which COULD lead to me taking out both Britain and France, and then if I annex my German and Italian puppets, I'd have cores on the EU as a formable nation.

But I don't know if I'm gonna do all that... I'm pretty pleasantly surprised with how fun this Netherlands game was as is.

[Alben Barkley]

This game is absolutely ridiculous and I love it.

[Alben Barkley]

Finally won a 1939 start HOI4 game as the USSR. It was annoying. For those who don’t know, the 1939 start is severely underdeveloped and basically every nation except Germany is not optimally set up. Usually the Axis will steamroll the Allies in a 1939 start game; not only Germany but also Japan will beat China. The USSR in particular is severely weakened compared to both real life and a remotely competent player starting from 1936.

And I took that personally.

So I did a 1939 start USSR game where I went as historical as possible. I even stuck with the “Mass Assault” land doctrine, my least favorite of the four. But the AI, which is wonky at the best of times and especially in a 1939 start, did not want to play along. Not only did Japan still beat China easily, the Western Allies didn’t even ATTEMPT to invade Sicily or Normandy or anything. Vichy France joined rhe Axis and became a major. Germany seemed more interested in holding Minsk and Kyiv than defending their own territory, so I was able to march to Berlin and beyond and have the victory music play while Germany was still deep in Belarus/Ukraine, the Western Allies were nowhere to be found, and I still had a ton of mopping up to do.

But in the end I won, and because I had to do pretty much everything by myself, I got most of the war score and was able to puppet/annex everything I wanted. I guess I can say I did it now but aside from maybe quick Germany games, I’ll probably stick to 1936 starts from now on. Despite starting later, felt like this actually took LONGER as the USSR.

[Alben Barkley]

First time really digging into alt-history mods in HOI4. In this case, Kaiserreich. Only played the US Civil War in that mod before (yes, I made the South rise again under Huey Long). This time I reclaimed France from the commies, starting with just French colonies like Algeria and ultimately taking back the mainland. As you can see, at great expense to my limited manpower however. Hopefully I can rebuild and reintegrate/core the rest of France now, before taking on the Germans to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine and avenge the first Weltkrieg.

[Alben Barkley]

When I briefly tried HOI4 and had trouble figuring it out I remember trying to see about Turkey. It seems like it would have interesting options as a powerful country but also neutral...ever done something like that?

I have done Kemalist Turkey aligned with the Allies as well as restored the Ottoman Empire. It's pretty fun, but the country has a pretty complex focus tree and lots of issues you have to take care of.

Anyway, here's Putin's wet dream. Tsarist empire restored. Baltics, Finland, and Sweden annexed along with other parts of Eastern Europe and Japan. Germany and Czechia puppeted.

[Alben Barkley]

It's beautiful!

[Alben Barkley]

One of my most satisfying games ever. US with Marines is now SUPER OP, thanks to the insane buffs they get with the new Special Forces branch in the Arms Against Tyranny DLC. You can max out the Marines branch easily before even going to war as the US by simply exercising your Navy (you have infinite oil and a large Navy as the US), and train dozens of stacked Marine divisions. These absolutely wreck Germany, not only useful in the initial invasion but also throughout due to the rivers. I landed effortlessly and they completely melted away. I had them on the ropes before Japan even attacked, and the entire European Axis completely defeated before 1941 was over. Also the Germans never attacked the Soviet Union, so I was able to completely annex Germany (and eventually release them as my puppet). No East/West Germany!

Japan themselves never took the Philippines, and Britain/France managed to take them out before I even got there. Probably because Germany was wrecked so quickly. Then I turned my attention to Comrade Stalin, and he ultimately melted away almost as easily as Germany did. (I just had to go past the Urals because you can't have collaboration governments as a democracy.)

Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, and Stalin all crushed in one game by 1943. The map was set right to the way it was at the start of the game, except Poland absorbed some of Germany, which was set to its modern borders.

[Alben Barkley]

My guide for Democratic Historical UK, my favorite path for my favorite country:

1. Build a supply hub and railway in North Africa near the Italian border.

2. Build Civilian Factories in England until late 1938-early 1939, then switch to Mils.

3. Hire the Army Offense Expert and your choice of Naval/Aviation Experts to gain experience.

4. Create a heavily armored light tank with high reliability.

5. Group up your Navy and exercise it on and off, research Marines, and max out the Marines Special Forces branch.

6. Make an infantry division of 8 inf, 1 art, and 1 light tank of 21 width. Make a marine division corresponding to it. Use support ART, AA, ENG, calvary recon, and if you want (but not necessary) field hospitals. Use the Superior Firepower doctrine with integrated support.

7. Request forces from all your puppets/colonies. Put them all in Africa along the Italian borders. Put your good troops (which should all be "Space Marines" by now) along a fallback line in Northern France between Dunkirk and Luxembourg.

8. Guarantee Poland. Go to war when Germany declares.

9.Drive the Italians out of Africa.

10. After Africa is yours, put the colonial troops on the Italian/French border, and strike with your Space Marines against Germany in the North.

11. Germany will melt and capitulate, especially if you have fighters/CAS. Clean up the rest of the Axis and puppet/liberate/annex what you want.

12. Now it's time to take on Japan. Request military access from China and the warlords, put your armies in China, and drive them off the mainland.

13. Use your marines and large navy to easily naval inade and capitulate Japan.

14. Congratulations, you won. MacArthur's "The Guns Are Silent" speech should start playing.

Just did this myself and it's as satisfying as ever. I have it down to a science now. Let me know if you have any questions about playing UK, or USSR for that matter. I've put countless hours into both and can easily guide you to victory as either one.

[Alben Barkley]

So what do you say folks? Should I go for Moscow? Or is there nothing I can do?



For context, I defeated Britain as Napoleonic France, then built up for the Germans, planning to wait to attack when they attacked the Soviets. It didn't quite work out that way, because I puppeted Ethiopia when I took out Britain, so when Mussolini went for it again, I was suddenly at war with the Axis. But it wasn't too long after that when Germany launched Barbarossa, leading me -- a Napoleonic Empire -- to join the Comintern. Together we took out Germany, which I annexed along with all their conquered European possessions. But the Soviets puppeted Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and annexed Greece and Libya. Clearly my people are tired of war -- only 2% war support -- but I do have a war goal on the Soviets, who I could backstab. I've done it before, long ago, but this looks like a bigger challenge this time. Decisions decisions...

[Alben Barkley]

Bing Chilling! I think I just earned 1 billion social credit!

[Alben Barkley]

No but seriously I've been playing the Asian/Pacific theater more lately and Japan is pretty broken actually. I always thought they were hard and you had to rely a lot on navy and air with little oil, but not really. I beat the US before I even did the focus to get the Zero.

Here's what I did for this run, my first time really "winning" the game as historical Japan:

1. Immediately start a spy agency and preparing collaboration governments in China.

2. Prepare a naval invasion surrounding Shanghai with Cavalry.

3. Rush the "Marco Polo Bridge Incident" focus.

4. Start the war with China. Launch the invasion, quickly encircle and take Shanghai.

5. Funnel in the decent infantry and the motorized/tanks/rest of the cavalry (make sure you leave an army of the weaker infantry on the border near Beijing but do NOT call in your puppets). Use the "Escalate the War In China" decisions to get rid of the debuffs Marco Polo gives you.

5. After the last escalation decision and the "Ichi Go" decision, you should be able to overrun them with the good infantry and mobile units. Also start attacking in the North near Beijing. Eventually they will just kind of fall apart. You should win by early 1938 at the latest, especially with the collaboration governments.

6. Puppet China, stack war reparations and resource rights to get their factories/resources.

7. Now you've beaten China with just the starting army. Now convert them all to standard good infantry divisions and train enough more to fill out an army group.

8. Get military access from Italy and put your army there. Exercise them. Also get docking rights from Germany. Move your fleet there. Proceed down the focus tree to get war goals on the Philipines/Indies/Malaya/France.

9. When Germany invades Poland, declare war on all EXCEPT the US/Philippines. Also the Dutch East Indies, wait until Germany attacks the Netherlands. Also disband your faction and join the Axis, which with latest versions you can't do until you're fighting a war together with Germany.

10. Push your army into Southern France from the Italian border. Move your planes to support. The goal is to rack up as much war score as possible.

11. After France falls, set up an invasion across the Channel into Southern England. Funnel your army in and they should be overrun pretty easily.

12. Hopefully you should have about half the war score. Use it to puppet/annex everything in Asia/Oceania to create a sphere of influence. Also Canada for the next part. Also take the British navy if you want.

13. Move your army and planes to the border with the Northeastern US. Let German/Italian/etc. troops cover the Western border and Alaska. Once everything's in place, declare war on the US/Philippines. Start rushing down the East Coast and taking their victory points, then cut west. Call your allies in to defend Canada, you'll still get more than enough war score.

14. Do whatever you want in the peace conference. I gave Alaska to my Canadian puppet, annexed Hawaii and the Pacific islands, puppeted Philippines and Puerto Rico and the lower 48.

15. Now if you want you can prepare to tag team the Soviet Union with Germany, but I'll probably call it quits there for this game.