I had quite a game. I annexed/puppeted four majors, and only one of those (France) was an aggressive move by me. I was Italy. There were a couple of mods, but mostly QoL and graphic mods. I did have Naval Rework II loaded, as I like that one. What I didn't have were any major rework or decision mods, so I'm playing pretty much vanilla with better graphics, but not on historic. I like my sandbox. I've read about WWII since I was 10 or 11, and I'm 50 now. YMMV.
I did start aggressive, and took Yugoslavia and Greece. I gave Greece to my Italian Greece splinter at Rhodes. No waiting, as I had garrisoned Rhodes first thing, and they became Italian Greece before I invaded regular Greece, so I had a nice manpower pool to make divisions from pretty quick, and didn't have wait on resistance/compliance, since Italian Greece had cores on all of Greece. At this point, I was watching compliance tick up slowly in Yugoslavia, but that will be later. Same for Ethiopia. (I've seen people complain about Italian Greece at Rhodes, but I found a use for it!!)
By the way, the Brits went Communist, and started on decolonization, so no Allies faction. More on them later.
The Germans, after getting the finger from the Czechs when they demanded the Sudetenland, attacked Czechoslovakia , who had a guarantee from Romania, and Romania was in my faction. With no Allies faction, when Romania called, I came to help, and France and Czechoslovakia joined the faction, for that war, at least. We had taken half of Germany when Germany demanded Memel, got the middle finger from Lithuania, and Poland and their Baltics faction joined the party. First major annexed.
Both Democratic states left my faction not long after the peace conference, but that's not surprising.
A little later, Czechoslovakia, with no warning or buildup, used a war goal from a focus on Hungary. Again, attacking my faction. End of Czechoslovakia. I took the Prague/German end, Hungary got the Slovakia parts, and Romania got Ruthenia.
The French started making threatening noises in my direction, probably some focus, so I built up and attacked. Lined up my infantry on the German side of the Maginot, set my strat bombers to forts, and let the French attack me for a bit, while my motorized/light armor, and some Marines I landed at the next port west of Nice, broke open the Southern front, and a couple divisions took care of Corsica. About the time the motorized divisions were ready to break out, the forts were well-tenderized, and I got the infantry moving, so they could join up. They had a French sandwich to gobble up, and it was off to the races! I didn't realize till the peace conference that I would get all the possessions, too. Thankfully, most of those were already at 40% compliance. Yay! Second major annexed.
While I was fighting with France, the Soviets attacked Lithuania, which brought in Poland and the other two Baltics. The Soviets pushed in some, but stalled, losing 4.13M men while I was subduing France. I left that fight alone, as I wasn't quite ready for it, and Poland was surviving. There would be a resolution, but first...
I had 60ish infantry divisions sitting on the Polish border, facing Spain and the Soviets, as the Spanish had landed at Danzig, and had finally capitulated Poland. The British (Communist Brits, decolonized!) demanded that I decolonize. I told them no. Benelux was still intact, and the British declared on the Netherlands, and the Netherlands joined my faction. About that time, he declared on me, too. He got leveled by the 120ish divisions that were just sitting there on the Polish and the French/Spanish borders, but kept trying to land in the Netherlands anyway. (I've never seen 'Overrun' so many times in one session...) I got about 6K aircraft started sanitizing the channel and Southern England. Landed at Portsmouth, and immediately transported more across. I lost 60 of about 100 ships getting ashore, but they lost most of their ships once they were in the open exposed to airpower in the Channel, so the objective was accomplished. Third major annexed.
A little after that was over with, Spain declared on me, and called in the Soviets. We were ready that time, for both of them. I had plenty of firepower, as did my faction, and the Soviets were worn down, and, well, the Spaniards just weren't tough enough. 72 motorized/light armored (3:1 mix of 8:1:1 motorized and 5:5 mot/lt armor) made short work of Spain's home ground, and they were just a speed bump to my 96 infantry divisions with another 50 various from faction buddies, and it got even worse when the mobile forces joined them on the Eastern Front. Off to the races once again. Fourth major annexed.
I did release Poland and the Baltics after the peace conference. They helped with Germany earlier, and acted otherwise honorably, so I felt like it. I know, there's no 'in-game' reason to do that, but it seemed right to me. I could have garrisoned and puppeted them, too, but I didn't.
Got pretty quiet after that, with Japan and China fighting each other in a stalemate, and the US keeping to their side of the Atlantic. They did demand I give them French and British Western Hemisphere possessions, and I let those go, as there was nothing particularly noteworthy in the pile. I didn't feel like fighting a huge naval war after what I had just gotten through!
The only islands left in Europe that weren't Italian Green at the end were Switzerland, Benelux, Poland, the Baltics, and my faction buddies Hungary, Romania, and Turkey.
Was an opportunity to see the Collaboration puppets in action, including the majors. By halfway through the game, I wasn't using much of my own manpower. Lots of Ethiopian, Greek, Moroccan, and Vietnamese manpower. There were others, but that's the noteworthy ones. All the French possessions ended up in my hands, and were collaboration puppets, too, remember! I counteracted any war-score done by my puppet-powered (their manpower, my templates, my divisions) army, by building stuff in their countries. Kept their autonomy under control.
I quit that one after that point, since I didn't feel like taking over Japan and China just because I could, even though I had the manpower to do so, or fighting the naval war it would take to take the US. I had 800+ factories, and 300+ dockyards, and manpower out the wazoo. I just didn't want to take the time. I guess there was no mystery whether it could be done or not.
Thumbnail attached. Pasta pasta!
I did start aggressive, and took Yugoslavia and Greece. I gave Greece to my Italian Greece splinter at Rhodes. No waiting, as I had garrisoned Rhodes first thing, and they became Italian Greece before I invaded regular Greece, so I had a nice manpower pool to make divisions from pretty quick, and didn't have wait on resistance/compliance, since Italian Greece had cores on all of Greece. At this point, I was watching compliance tick up slowly in Yugoslavia, but that will be later. Same for Ethiopia. (I've seen people complain about Italian Greece at Rhodes, but I found a use for it!!)
By the way, the Brits went Communist, and started on decolonization, so no Allies faction. More on them later.
The Germans, after getting the finger from the Czechs when they demanded the Sudetenland, attacked Czechoslovakia , who had a guarantee from Romania, and Romania was in my faction. With no Allies faction, when Romania called, I came to help, and France and Czechoslovakia joined the faction, for that war, at least. We had taken half of Germany when Germany demanded Memel, got the middle finger from Lithuania, and Poland and their Baltics faction joined the party. First major annexed.
Both Democratic states left my faction not long after the peace conference, but that's not surprising.
A little later, Czechoslovakia, with no warning or buildup, used a war goal from a focus on Hungary. Again, attacking my faction. End of Czechoslovakia. I took the Prague/German end, Hungary got the Slovakia parts, and Romania got Ruthenia.
The French started making threatening noises in my direction, probably some focus, so I built up and attacked. Lined up my infantry on the German side of the Maginot, set my strat bombers to forts, and let the French attack me for a bit, while my motorized/light armor, and some Marines I landed at the next port west of Nice, broke open the Southern front, and a couple divisions took care of Corsica. About the time the motorized divisions were ready to break out, the forts were well-tenderized, and I got the infantry moving, so they could join up. They had a French sandwich to gobble up, and it was off to the races! I didn't realize till the peace conference that I would get all the possessions, too. Thankfully, most of those were already at 40% compliance. Yay! Second major annexed.
While I was fighting with France, the Soviets attacked Lithuania, which brought in Poland and the other two Baltics. The Soviets pushed in some, but stalled, losing 4.13M men while I was subduing France. I left that fight alone, as I wasn't quite ready for it, and Poland was surviving. There would be a resolution, but first...
I had 60ish infantry divisions sitting on the Polish border, facing Spain and the Soviets, as the Spanish had landed at Danzig, and had finally capitulated Poland. The British (Communist Brits, decolonized!) demanded that I decolonize. I told them no. Benelux was still intact, and the British declared on the Netherlands, and the Netherlands joined my faction. About that time, he declared on me, too. He got leveled by the 120ish divisions that were just sitting there on the Polish and the French/Spanish borders, but kept trying to land in the Netherlands anyway. (I've never seen 'Overrun' so many times in one session...) I got about 6K aircraft started sanitizing the channel and Southern England. Landed at Portsmouth, and immediately transported more across. I lost 60 of about 100 ships getting ashore, but they lost most of their ships once they were in the open exposed to airpower in the Channel, so the objective was accomplished. Third major annexed.
A little after that was over with, Spain declared on me, and called in the Soviets. We were ready that time, for both of them. I had plenty of firepower, as did my faction, and the Soviets were worn down, and, well, the Spaniards just weren't tough enough. 72 motorized/light armored (3:1 mix of 8:1:1 motorized and 5:5 mot/lt armor) made short work of Spain's home ground, and they were just a speed bump to my 96 infantry divisions with another 50 various from faction buddies, and it got even worse when the mobile forces joined them on the Eastern Front. Off to the races once again. Fourth major annexed.
I did release Poland and the Baltics after the peace conference. They helped with Germany earlier, and acted otherwise honorably, so I felt like it. I know, there's no 'in-game' reason to do that, but it seemed right to me. I could have garrisoned and puppeted them, too, but I didn't.
Got pretty quiet after that, with Japan and China fighting each other in a stalemate, and the US keeping to their side of the Atlantic. They did demand I give them French and British Western Hemisphere possessions, and I let those go, as there was nothing particularly noteworthy in the pile. I didn't feel like fighting a huge naval war after what I had just gotten through!
The only islands left in Europe that weren't Italian Green at the end were Switzerland, Benelux, Poland, the Baltics, and my faction buddies Hungary, Romania, and Turkey.
Was an opportunity to see the Collaboration puppets in action, including the majors. By halfway through the game, I wasn't using much of my own manpower. Lots of Ethiopian, Greek, Moroccan, and Vietnamese manpower. There were others, but that's the noteworthy ones. All the French possessions ended up in my hands, and were collaboration puppets, too, remember! I counteracted any war-score done by my puppet-powered (their manpower, my templates, my divisions) army, by building stuff in their countries. Kept their autonomy under control.
I quit that one after that point, since I didn't feel like taking over Japan and China just because I could, even though I had the manpower to do so, or fighting the naval war it would take to take the US. I had 800+ factories, and 300+ dockyards, and manpower out the wazoo. I just didn't want to take the time. I guess there was no mystery whether it could be done or not.
Thumbnail attached. Pasta pasta!
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