Can Africa Be Made Interesting?

[SacremPyrobolum]

Can a regional expansion pack in the vein of Waking Dragon make Africa a more interesting region to play in? Such an expansion would focus mostly on South Africa and perhaps Ethiopia as well as create opportunities for other nations to support independence movements in the region to create more nations.

Perhaps the European parts of Africa could be split up into dominions like the Raj and such.

Maybe it makes more sense for an expansion pack that doesn't focus on Africa, but rather on all colonized countries and regions like Indonesia and India and their struggle for independence.

 

[JackAlNXT]

A region will only be as interesting as the developers allow it to be. Give it enough time and imagination and it will be.

 

[Fulmen]

Let's just get the WW2 stuff in first before we add Cold War content.

 

[Wasted Shampoo]

No, we want more real WW2 stuff.

 

[Enriador]

Can a regional expansion pack in the vein of Waking Dragon make Africa a more interesting region to play in? Such an expansion would focus mostly on South Africa and perhaps Ethiopia as well as create opportunities for other nations to support independence movements in the region to create more nations.

Perhaps the European parts of Africa could be split up into dominions like the Raj and such.

Maybe it makes more sense for an expansion pack that doesn't focus on Africa, but rather on all colonized countries and regions like Indonesia and India and their struggle for independence.

I think it's very feasible as a 'Africa + Southeast Asia' expansion. And since we already have playable colonies like India, Malaya, East Indies etc we could get French Algeria, Portuguese Mozambique, Belgian Congo, etc.

There could be a shared focus tree for African countries, plus another shared tree for Asians, plus unique trees for Ethiopia, Liberia (perhaps) and Egypt. These trees would be mostly in the realm of alt-history a la South Africa's.

 

[Olliganak]

I think it's very feasible as a 'Africa + Southeast Asia' expansion. And since we already have playable colonies like India, Malaya, East Indies etc we could get French Algeria, Portuguese Mozambique, Belgian Congo, etc.

I don't know about Belgian Congo, but I do know that having French Algeria and the Portuguese colonies in Africa exist as colonial tags would be a problem, in that those were considered integral parts of their respective nations, and had very little self rule. Compare to the Raj, which had an elected legislature. A legislature full of wealthy landowners and whose decisions could be overridden by an unelected viceroy, but a legislature irregardless.

The way I see it, the best options for independent countries in Africa are Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, which were nominally independent with their own native monarchs, but were considered protectorates of France and Britain. They could start out as integrated puppets.

 

[Secret Master]

While I don't think all of the proposed ideas are useful to HOI4, some adjustments in Egypt and the Middle East would be interesting.

It would be nice if there was an Egyptian government to meddle with as the Axis powers, and it would be nice if Britain had to keep an eye on Iran and Iraq.

 

[Broletariat90]

While I don't think all of the proposed ideas are useful to HOI4, some adjustments in Egypt and the Middle East would be interesting.

It would be nice if there was an Egyptian government to meddle with as the Axis powers, and it would be nice if Britain had to keep an eye on Iran and Iraq.

Mechanics around Iraq , its Golden Square clique and the 1941 coup would be pretty interesting.

 

[walt526]

Make some resources available via infrastructure investment. But otherwise, there isn't much historical basis for making sub-Saharan Africa relevant to a WWII game.

 

[BlueAndGrey]

Early uprisings in places like Algeria and Kenya could make post war more interesting. Only if the player handles the situation badly though.

 

[Enriador]

I don't know about Belgian Congo, but I do know that having French Algeria and the Portuguese colonies in Africa exist as colonial tags would be a problem, in that those were considered integral parts of their respective nations, and had very little self rule. Compare to the Raj, which had an elected legislature. A legislature full of wealthy landowners and whose decisions could be overridden by an unelected viceroy, but a legislature irregardless.

The way I see it, the best options for independent countries in Africa are Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt, which were nominally independent with their own native monarchs, but were considered protectorates of France and Britain. They could start out as integrated puppets.

Manchukuo too had "very little self rule"; besides a legislature is not needed to become a tag in HOI4, as the East Indies prove.

For me, the more playable tags the better (like your excellent suggestions of Tunisia and Morocco, forgot about those). The Autonomy system has four levels, more than enough to represent different types of colonies.

 

[Broletariat90]

Egypt also had some pro-Axis figures I believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Egypt_Party_(1933)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Let's just get the WW2 stuff in first before we add Cold War content.

Haha! Agreed, but we are in just as much need of functional core mechanics as even WW2 stuff. They should be related, but doing anything with NFs before fixing WC, territory change, peace deals, and wrong-caps is putting the cart before the horse. While going uphill.

 

[pvt.conners]

With the new Prospecting decisions controllers of certain states can increase resource production of certain states, and from the few screens we have Africa can increase output of Aluminum and Rubber at the very least, so it will make the continent somewhat more important.

I'd say that is good enough for now, a country pack for this region is way down on my priority list, similarly to South America.

 

[Red_warning]

Africa could become very interesting in a post-WWII expansion, if that were ever to happen

 

[Alex_brunius]

How interesting was Africa historically in WW2?

How many tanks, warships or combat airplanes were manufactured in Africa? A whole lot less than in HoI4 is the correct answer!

 

[Wasted Shampoo]

How interesting was Africa historically in WW2?

Africa And South America shouldn’t even be represented in this game, there is no need to allocate resources, build political relationships and potential interactions with those countries since they have done nothing in WW2.

 

[Secret Master]

How interesting was Africa historically in WW2?

How many tanks, warships or combat airplanes were manufactured in Africa? A whole lot less than in HoI4 is the correct answer!

Assuming the historical Axis somehow managed to seal the Med and then occupied Africa, could Italy or Germany have even moved rubber or other resources from the Belgian Congo via land to the Med? Or would they still have had to ship it by sea?

I'm asking, because in HOI4, I can link it up via South Africa/Sudan/Egypt. I don't think it would have been feasible historically, which further reduces the value in Africa.

 

[Alex_brunius]

Assuming the historical Axis somehow managed to seal the Med and then occupied Africa, could Italy or Germany have even moved rubber or other resources from the Belgian Congo via land to the Med? Or would they still have had to ship it by sea?

I'm asking, because in HOI4, I can link it up via South Africa/Sudan/Egypt. I don't think it would have been feasible historically, which further reduces the value in Africa.

I think that historically advancing south from Egypt to reach South Africa would have been many times harder then moving resources back, which would be comparably trivial to do using coastal convoys once you have secured ports and airbases along the way.

One big difference between HoI4 and reality is that there is a pretty big difference between coastal convoys and ocean going. Coastal convoys can be any small ship really and be split up into multiple small trips, and were also easier to defend, while ocean convoys require alot more planning and escort effort.

Inner Africa is probably off limits both talking about warfare, logistics or transport if we are speaking reality, so it's all about the coasts or rivers.

 

[Adam Wilson]

With that in mind, and given the Allies' perpetual mastery of the sea, an African expansion would probably have little value if the player was playing in Europe. There's already a 'ship all divisions to Egypt' bug for the UK and if Iran and Ethiopia become hostile that's not going to be fixed anytime soon. Besides, the Axis would find it very hard to engage in African warfare outside of Libya and Somalia, and they can do that anyway.

I'd personally prefer the devs to focus on 'replayability' and the difference in between games as opposed to more detail everywhere, but I can see why others would like more options for Africa.