After waiting for so long, I was able to try this out at last! This mod is excellent, thank you. I played the Philippines and annexed China, which felt good, especially in light of current events.
Just to bring up some of my observations - not that I think they'll receive any response, but I want them here for posterity.
1. Not sure why the Philippines doesn't have resource surpluses of any resource. It has enough to cover its IC needs, but little more than that. It's not a big issue, though, and just being self-sufficient is fine - although the Philippines stops being self-sufficient after a little industrial expansion.
2. A bigger issue is how absurdly skilled Chinese generals are. Is there any rational reason that not just one, but many Chinese generals would have four or five traits, such as Offensive Doctrine, Winter Specialist, Logistics Wizard, Panzer Leader, and Engineer, all at the same time? What in the world?? Even the best generals in WW2 don't have four or five traits in HoI. I honestly cannot think of any reason for this except pro-China bias on the part of the developers (not meant to be offensive, but just saying). Anyway, the ridiculously overpowered Chinese generals didn't stop me from annexing China.
3. Killerrabbit said, back in 2009, that China's economy had already surpassed the US in PPP terms. This is not true. It isn't true even now, in 2014, and it wasn't true back in 2009, and it
definitely wasn't true in 2003, when this mod begins. Your bias is showing.
But anyway, it's all good. I suppose it has to be done for balance.
Out of the issues I mentioned, the only one that really troubles me is the overly skilled Chinese generals, since there is no fathomable reason for that one. Unlike the US or Russia, China hasn't fought a real war for 35 years, and there is little evidence that the Chinese military leadership are at the forefront of modern military tactics and strategy in the way that, for example, German officers were in WW2. If anything, the US should have the best generals in the world, yet that is not the case.