American States

[Anichent]

Granted, its been a long time since we got a close look at the HOI4 states in the US, but I was pretty disappointed when I saw such a large country with a large population reduced to over-sized states like "New England" when something like Slovakia has 3 states.

Spoiler: HOI4 States

Based on that I decided to come up with my own idea for how to mod in some US states. Most states get broken into two (probably excessive, some might get cut out like Chicago, Las Vegas, South Ohio, Franklin, Blue Ridge, and Morgantown). This would probably double, or more, the current number of HOI4 states in the US but I think it both reasonable and necessary to add a lot to what we've seen, even if it requires some re-balancing when modded.

Con: more states means more micro-managing
Pro: more similar to Soviet Union, makes more sense if being conquered/attacked, and makes each current (real) state releasable in a potential mod.

Problem is, I'm not American so some feedback, suggestion, and criticism would help:

 

[Grallak]

Who cares, 99% of all games will never even touch the american continent.

 

[Anichent]

Who cares, 99% of all games will never even touch the american continent.

So lets pretend for 1 second that I care, and go from there. How about that

Not everyone is just going to replay WW2 over and over as it happened. I for one will play several games that involve taking a war to the US, including once some timeline extension modding goes in.

 

[goliard20]

much too much i would say

 

[goliard20]

when alaska isnt as tiny as in hoi3 its all fine

 

[Damiani]

The map makes me cringe as an American, I think honestly the only solution is to have all of the states represented, with the exception of Rhode Island and Delaware being incorporated into Connecticut and Maryland respectively. I don't understand the decision to make Massachusetts a part of New England as MA has a very large population in its own right.

 

[ConjurerDragon]

Granted, its been a long time since we got a close look at the HOI4 states in the US, but I was pretty disappointed when I saw such a large country with a large population reduced to over-sized states like "New England" when something like Slovakia has 3 states.


Based on that I decided to come up with my own idea for how to mod in some US states. Most states get broken into two (probably excessive, some might get cut out). This would probably double, or more, the current number of HOI4 states in the US but I think it both reasonable and necessary to add a lot to what we've seen, even if it requires some re-balancing when modded.

Con: more states means more micro-managing
Pro: more similar to Soviet Union, makes more sense if being conquered/attacked, and makes each current (real) state releasable in a potential mod.

Problem is, I'm not American so some feedback, suggestion, and criticism would help:...

How about reducing the number of provinces?
1 province to everything from Florida to Texas to be able to release the CSA and the rest divided between New England, Midwest and Cornbelt...

Considering that no campaign took place in the continental US more would be a waste of game resources. The old C-64 game Gary Grigsby´s "War in the South Pacific" and later PC "Pacific War" had it right - there the US were represented only by the coast as any kind of invading the US would have been historically implausible anyway.

 

[Grallak]

Let's just say it would be too hard for air aspect and leave it at that. Not American, so I couldn't care less, really.

 

[Anichent]

The map may make your cringe, but the states were picked based on: border disputes, ethnic boundaries, actual historical state secession/independence movements, etc.
Wasn't arbitrary.

I my reason for having a lot of states in the US: compare the population and size of the US with Europe and the USSR. Both Europe and Russia have more than triple the US state number in game. Frankly oversized states make me cringe a lot more.

Carving up the US, which I'm sure sure people plan to do just as they'd carve up the British Empire or the USSR, should be easier than just annexing all of Texas, or all of New England. My guess is some people would prefer a scalpel. But if its that un-popular I guess I shouldn't include it in my main map mod....

 

[tommylotto]

Southern Texas should be Rio Grande, not Lincoln. Southern California should be Southern California, not another Colorado. Never heard of Little Egypt, but I'm not from Illinois. Other than that looks interesting.

 

[The_Meme_Man]

I personally feel like each of the states should be divided more, though I do like your map a lot. The US is a vast country, however unlike Russia pretty much every part of the US is inhabited. Maybe add more divisions for Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, as they are more populated than both Dakotas (and I am from South Dakota ), Montana, and Idaho. Now that I think about it though, population shouldn't matter that much either because this is the region of the Rocky Mountains. They aren't like the Himalayas, you can march an army through it (albeit very difficultly), but they might warrant more states because it is slow to get across. I actually don't know how the Rockies would be in the 1940s, because I think a lot of roads were added post-war as more people started moving west and southwest.

 

[Damiani]

The map may make your cringe, but the states were picked based on: border disputes, ethnic boundaries, actual historical state secession/independence movements, etc.
Wasn't arbitrary.

I my reason for having a lot of states in the US: compare the population and size of the US with Europe and the USSR. Both Europe and Russia have more than triple the US state number in game. Frankly oversized states make me cringe a lot more.

Carving up the US, which I'm sure sure people plan to do just as they'd carve up the British Empire or the USSR, should be easier than just annexing all of Texas, or all of New England. My guess is some people would prefer a scalpel. But if its that un-popular I guess I shouldn't include it in my main map mod....

But... it's not natural...

 

[The_Meme_Man]

I kinda feel like, while maintaining the integrity of the US state borders, it should be divided up in a way similar to how China is. Like China, the US has a vast variety of different terrain, quite a bit of it treacherous for invading armies, while also like China there is population in much of the regions making them relevant for invasion, almost an all-or-nothing kind of invasion for an enemy as opposed to attacking Russia where you really effectively need to go to the Urals and stop.

 

[Alpha2518]

The map makes me cringe as an American, I think honestly the only solution is to have all of the states represented, with the exception of Rhode Island and Delaware being incorporated into Connecticut and Maryland respectively. I don't understand the decision to make Massachusetts a part of New England as MA has a very large population in its own right.

Probably because the rest of New England lacks a population. And for game reasons that it's so small that its pointless to have them in the game and so you instead merge them with Massachusetts and call it New England.

 

[Porkman]

There is a question of what is the objective of having states.

As geographic regions to represent terrain... we don't need states. The provinces already exist and represent terrain with a lot more granularity. For example, your West Montana seems to be there because of the Rocky Mountains, but that's not necessary. Even with Montana as a single state, the west provinces would still be mountain terrain.

If the goal is to represent industrial regions and administrative divisions... then things get dicey.

There really isn't a need to go beyond the actual number of states in the Great Plains (breaking up the Dakotas, for example). The areas here had no people.

Similarly, New England should get broken up, but not into 7 states you have... maybe 3 makes sense.

Eastern Washington shouldn't be called Lincoln. "Eastern Washington," "Hanford" (after the location of the plutonium production plant built during WW2) or "Spokane" after the largest city, would be better. (Though anyone from Seattle calls it "Spokanistan" while those from Spokane call it "Spokompton")

 

[ConjurerDragon]

The map makes me cringe as an American, I think honestly the only solution is to have all of the states represented, with the exception of Rhode Island and Delaware being incorporated into Connecticut and Maryland respectively. I don't understand the decision to make Massachusetts a part of New England as MA has a very large population in its own right.

Don´t Massachusetts and Maine as seperate states only exist because of the slave compromise before the american civil war?
There´s no reason to still have them as two states in the real life, much less on the map of a game where most of the action happens elsewhere.

 

[Damiani]

Probably because the rest of New England lacks a population. And for game reasons that it's so small that its pointless to have them in the game and so you instead merge them with Massachusetts and call it New England.

But following that logic Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming might as well be combined since they have such a small population.

 

[Grallak]

If any nation would reach the point where they could simply carve up the US, then I think it's about to call it a day.

 

[Karimas]

War is in Europe, so US is that way for Gameplay reasons. Maybe not total accurate but good to look at.
Its that way surely on many places anyway, but if the gameplay needs it, then it is that way.

 

[Alpha2518]

But following that logic Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming might as well be combined since they have such a small population.

Except that they are not because they passed whatever was the line Paradox said "We don't need to merge these regions." Even if it is just barely. Also it is worth noting that I do believe in some paradox games that North and South Dakota were merged.