I was playing Berlin-Moscow Axis with a friend in MP (yes, yes, it's OP, but we're new and wanted an easy game to practice after a harder French-British game) and noticed that a third of the Soviet focuses basically become rendered irrelevent by the Axis. These are specifically the Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy focuses and Anti-Fascist Diplomacy focuses. I'm okay with the Anti-Fascist diplomacy focuses being locked out for obvious reasons, though the starter ("Anti-Fascist Diplomacy") should have a qualifier that it's locked if you accept the Berlin-Moscow Axis.
As for the Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy ones, because they require you not to be in an offensive war, joining the fight against Poland means that you can't do them. This doesn't really make much sense- I understand that the Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy focuses are supposed to be peacetime focuses, but they're very weirdly built, because players taking the anti-capitalist focus might as well take the Berlin-Moscow Axis if it's available. But by accepting that, you lock it all out, including the "reconcile Japan" option, or the entire line of decisions leading up to declaring war on Britain. Obviously if you've declared war on Britain the final one in this set is invalid, but that's never stopped the AI from researching them. It doesn't invalidate the previous ones, which give you casus bellis on Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, as well as Communist boosters on Britain and France.
I get why this is locked off, because it seems to represent a line of decisions of an independent Soviet Union neutral in the war but still going after all its southern neighbors. That makes sense, as does the anti-Fascist line, which seems more like OTL.
However. If a player wants to pursue Berlin-Moscow Axis, maybe because they want to break the game, or they want an easy world conquest, or what-have-you (personally this has been a very fun game for me), they should have options for that. As it is only the Germans have the Soviet-German alliance option, and it'd be interesting to flesh out the unholy alliance more, especially since it's quite possibly one of the most bizarre decisions you can make. Yes, in the long-run it doesn't make sense, but it'd be interesting to see it play out with its own line of focuses, including the eventual possibility to betray Germany to represent that this alliance is fundamentally flawed.
As for the Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy ones, because they require you not to be in an offensive war, joining the fight against Poland means that you can't do them. This doesn't really make much sense- I understand that the Anti-Capitalist Diplomacy focuses are supposed to be peacetime focuses, but they're very weirdly built, because players taking the anti-capitalist focus might as well take the Berlin-Moscow Axis if it's available. But by accepting that, you lock it all out, including the "reconcile Japan" option, or the entire line of decisions leading up to declaring war on Britain. Obviously if you've declared war on Britain the final one in this set is invalid, but that's never stopped the AI from researching them. It doesn't invalidate the previous ones, which give you casus bellis on Greece, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran, as well as Communist boosters on Britain and France.
I get why this is locked off, because it seems to represent a line of decisions of an independent Soviet Union neutral in the war but still going after all its southern neighbors. That makes sense, as does the anti-Fascist line, which seems more like OTL.
However. If a player wants to pursue Berlin-Moscow Axis, maybe because they want to break the game, or they want an easy world conquest, or what-have-you (personally this has been a very fun game for me), they should have options for that. As it is only the Germans have the Soviet-German alliance option, and it'd be interesting to flesh out the unholy alliance more, especially since it's quite possibly one of the most bizarre decisions you can make. Yes, in the long-run it doesn't make sense, but it'd be interesting to see it play out with its own line of focuses, including the eventual possibility to betray Germany to represent that this alliance is fundamentally flawed.