Clearly what is needed is a reworking of the events you get when a nation collapses.
Think of how the Iraqi occupation worked: First there was the invasion, then Iraqi resistance collapsed, and the US forces occupied the whole country. However rather than annex Iraq as the 51st state or installing a puppet government, GBW installed a government under Administrator Bremer - in HoI terms, he neither annexed nor puppeted, instead he simply delayed the decision and set an occupation law (collaboration government). Initially there was very little resistance so maybe he thought, I want the leadership and the manpower, so why not?
However eventually partisan activity got so bad that he released a puppet government (Al-Maliki & Company)
So instead of being forced to choose between "Annex" and "Puppet", there should be a third option "Delay decision". If you choose this, then you occupy the country and can set an occupation policy. Like what GBW did when Iraqi resistance collapsed in March 2003.
However if you "delay decision" then revolt risk should rise by one or one half level, and IC/manpower/leadership gain goes down by 20%. Simulating that even if you were coming as a benevolent conqueror, you are losing the trust of those who collaborated with you.
Four months later the decision comes up again. Again you can choose "Annex" or "puppet" or "delay decision". This time though if you delay revolt risk is bumped even higher so even if you were running a collaboration government you are seeing massive revolts now as your attempt to preserve the status quo fails horribly. Your occupation troops now get ambushed almost daily, the resistance is getting more and more support, and collaborators are becoming very isolated among the population,
Another four months later (i.e. eight months after the collapse of the enemy government and your full occupation of their country) revolt risk even on the most lenient setting is as high as if you had chosen "full occupation". you are faced with the final choice: Annex or Puppet. Annex means, deny the locals any self government whatsoever. Of course this gives you the usual heavy revolt risk and you will see very little support from the natives. Puppet means, you chose the exit strategy and now your Al-Malikis are in power.
This gives you some flexibility in choosing when you make your decision. You are not punished for quickly overrunning a country, instead you can delay your decision about their future a little bit and milk them for their precious manpower and leadership points. However because there is no such thing as a free lunch you eventually have to make a decision about their future because you can't draw out the process indefinitely.
