As Germany what to do with Minors?

[squid_hills]

Well, on the other side of the coin, if I play Italy, and don't join HItler (yes, it's a choice!), I invade/annex Yugoslavia and Greece, because even befriending either one usually runs afoul of a German focus. 2/3 of the time, about, that I have tried to befriend them, they end up as German puppets, instead of Italian friends. One time in particular, I started to invade Greece, and 1 day later, the German focus fired and stole Greece right out from under me. So, I take them over end up with collab puppets in the end to steal manpower from. (I said what is this, I don't even, and put it right back. Crazy AI focus...)

Believe me, I feel you on this. I tried playing as a semi-pacifist Italy once, and took all the "befriend" options. I ended up isolated and surrounded by Axis powers before I knew it. Nowadays, whenever I play Italy, the first thing I do is annex Austria to stick it to Adolf.

 

[FindFloppies]

Believe me, I feel you on this. I tried playing as a semi-pacifist Italy once, and took all the "befriend" options. I ended up isolated and surrounded by Axis powers before I knew it. Nowadays, whenever I play Italy, the first thing I do is annex Austria to stick it to Adolf.

I almost always get Hungary into my faction, too. He practically begs for it, soon as we hit 40% world tension, if I've started the faction.
Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria are a nice shield from the Soviets while I clear up this little Western European problem, prime of which is Germany.

But, you don't get to do this if you don't grab Yugoslavia and Greece before Hitler does.

 

[sekelsenmat]

I don't like playing HOI4 as Risk so invading someone just to get stronger. I usually invade someone if they are a threat to me or if there are strategic reasons to do it.

As hitlerist Germany nobody is really a threat to you so you can play either to fulfill historical national socialist goals of lebensraum in the East and autarky or you can set your own goals like playing Hitler's brinkmanship to it's fullest so as how far you can get without actually breaking WW2 or some really ahistorical twist like cooperating with Stalin against the Allies. You have limitless options.

Exactly, me too. I wouldn't even attack Poland if I wasn't trying to do the achievement. I usually do "Danzig for Slovakia". My challange is taking down France/UK/USSR/USA without any gamey tactics.

I actually think my current 300-something IC is plenty, so I keep a good strat-bombing pressure on UK to prevent it from growing it's IC. The only thing that I lack right now is fuel.

Now back to the minors, I found the following things:

1> In historical both Hungary and Romania will do focuses which will cause them to join the Axis regardless of what you do. I still think doing the Romania focus is good because they get Fascist support bonus, so they will be cemented more in my faction. Less likely to change.

2> In historical the Netherlands will join the allies and attack Ger in mid 1940, it is probably impossible to ally them as some posts in redit say that even if you waste PP in the mechanic they still won't do the focus to join you. A bit funny that a country would suicide like this. It takes like what? 3 days to overrun them?

3> Yugoslavia actually asked me to join the Axis and I accepted. No idea if this was luck or if it will always happen? So people saying that a war with them is inevitable are wrong.

4> Is getting Finland to join a random 1/4th chance? They started doing the "Liberty Focus" focus. I guess this is probably random, and if they had done the fascist focus by chance they would join me.

5> I am doing the Befriend Denmark/Norway focuses. Anyone know if they will eventually join the Axis or this is also impossible? I'd like to have either Norway or Finland to role-play the Artic battles.

 

[kettyo]

I am doing the Befriend Denmark/Norway focuses. Anyone know if they will eventually join the Axis or this is also impossible?

They will eventually switch by decision but you can't tell when it happens. It takes quite a time.

But you can get a military access right after the focus so you can refuel your subs and ships at Greenland which is nice. Doing the same with the Netherlands would be even better as you can refuel at any Dutch colonies so your fleet's range extends a lot.

 

[sekelsenmat]

But you can get a military access right after the focus so you can refuel your subs and ships at Greenland which is nice. Doing the same with the Netherlands would be even better as you can refuel at any Dutch colonies so your fleet's range extends a lot.

I was planning on doing that, but they joined the Allies and britain asked them to declare on me...

So you also use PP to prevent them from doing the "Crave to Britain" focus? Is that like an endless PP war (which I will lose since I'm on veteran), or after I reach 25 "pressure power" the race ends?

 

[kettyo]

So you also use PP to prevent them from doing the "Crave to Britain" focus? Is that like an endless PP war (which I will lose since I'm on veteran), or after I reach 25 "pressure power" the race ends?

I'm not sure as i haven't played with the Dutch focus tree in game yet. When i played they had the generic tree.