Any tips for making it as Germany or Japan? The USSR seems to be too tough to take down, their IC and Manpower are vastly ahead of mine and whatever research speed they use is outstripping mine. The USA and USSR can just shove units into a meatgrinder near endlessly, going against the Allies on the naval front is hopeless, subs get into a fight and will usually be heavily damaged or sunk. Researching new doctrines tends to be on the back burner as I work on land combat, etc.
So, any decent tips?
German tips here. Japan, I imagine, would be extremely hard to play. One thing to remember is that peacetime industrial base is vastly superior to wartime. The dove and isolationist moves are very easily fixed as Germany, but that research boost is very nice throughout the game. Here's a trick: immediately guarantee the independence of Spain. It gives you interventionism boosts because it faces war all the time.
Ok, first of all, do NOT go for more advanced units unless there is no other method of improvement. That's a horrible strategy. For example, don't aim for better infantry unless you have all the land doctrine researched. Research all the intops (jamming, triangulation, etc) techs too using Siemens, they're fast ones that help all combat and give good bonuses. When you do get better infantry, take the time to research whatever new doctrine it unlocks, before going to the next step. Taking time to get all the benefits of a new model helps slow down your tech pace. If you go too far too fast, your long term speed will suffer. Generally, don't go for the arming planning tech until you have all the industrial research techs researched and you're currently in the secret weapons computer techs.
If you plan perfectly, you should have the most modern submarines possible by the war's start, and all the basic naval doctrine (pick sub fleet, trust me), and you should absolutely shred apart any obsolete piece of crap fleet the AI throws at you as long as you have a Sea Wolf commander. Even if they "win", their ships will take a lot of time and IC to repair, and subs are cheap. Convoy raiding will sap the UK's overseas strength in less than a year. Their troops will be chronically out of supply. In fact, I've seen Italy gobble up all of North Africa and end up conquering the whole Arabian peninsula, dragging the US into the war early. If anything, you should be taking it easy on the poor AI navy.
Africa isn't worth it. Trying to pull off Sealion, is.
If you build up the right way instead of doing too much industry spamming (speaking from experience
), you can beat both Poland and France before the winter of '39 hits. That leaves you about 18 months to finish off the UK (you should have the best transports by the time for Sealion) before turning to Russia. Well, and Yugoslavia and the Balkans too, but they're pushovers.
Don't ever take the option to fortify or garrison the ports. Just leave 3-4 generals leading 9 units around the coasts. They'll chew up anything that lands if they get there quickly enough. Passive defense is a horrible waste of manpower and resources.
Here's one of the cool (and scary) things about this mod. Even if you do take out Russia, you're STILL weaker than the USA by itself. They WILL drop a nuke on Berlin by '49 (or even earlier, if you fail by then to take out the UK, North Africa, and other such air bases) with one of those 6000+ range bombers, unless you stop them before then. You do not have time on your side. Conservatively gobbling up the map after beating Russia, trying to win by attrition, is not a viable strategy. This does present a good challenge, though.
You do need to spam some industry to face the Russians, though. Save up lots of rare materials, build factories, and research techs to get your transport capacity up. Be sure your army chief gives -15% supply consumption, and try to use logistical wizard leaders as coast guards. Just try to save supply in general, so you won't go over the limit.
You can beat Russia before the end of the year. Send infantry (over 100) and mountaineers up to take Leningrad and Moscow. This is your first priority, you need to take those cities before winter! Weather, luckily, is not as much of a problem in the Caucasus. If you can get Stalingrad before winter, swooping down to take Baku is simple.
From Baku, then you strike into the heart of Russia. A quick, decent substitute (or complement, actually) for motorized infantry is to just give armored car or engineer brigades to 2-3 generals. They'll be fast enough to reach Siberia.
Once Russia gives in, pick the manpower boost option. You'll have plenty of men to build garrisons with to control partisan activity. Eventually the Chinese will build a massive land army, and you'll want nukes to deal with them, but that's not your main concern. With Russia defeated you need to invade the US. In '42 they'll definitely be tougher, but a good sub fleet should still be able to at least open up an invasion force.