game mechanic question

[Giuse]

Hi, I'm new to the game and have some perplexities. First of all let me summarise the context.
I'm playing as Italy and I'm in my own faction, with Bulgaria. There are currently 4 wars: Italy vs Greece, Germany vs Poland, Germany vs Soviet and Japan vs China. Tension is at 100% (shouldn't there be only WWII at this point?). It's 1941 and France, Greece and Iraq have capitulated. Many other countries have almost entirely been wiped out (100% towards capitulations, but not capitulated?!) eg: Switzerland, Poland, Belgium...

Now, here are my main questions/perplexities with the game mechanic:

1. When France capitulated I had almost all of south France, yet I lost most of it to Vichy and Germany without being able to take part in the pace conference. Now whenever I conquer Free France territory instead of becoming mine it becomes Vichy's. Sometimes after it becomes of Vichy's France it even goes to the German Reich and I get exhiled from the territory because I don't have military access. This is super annoying and makes taking Africa impossible. Is it intended?

2. Belgium only controlls Congo, has close to zero industry and yet can field some 20 divisions which match my army in central Africa... wtf?

3. I have 100% war participation in my conquest of Greece, yet Bulgaria occupies almost a third of it and they won't give up the land from the diplomacy screen... I don't see any way to force them to do it, possibly by kicking them from the faction and declaring war.

4. Torpedos from airplanes in naval and port strikes seem way underpowerd. I'm pretty sure a couple of hits should sink a ship. Maybe I'm mistaken and it takes 5 or 6, still the argument holds. I have air superiority in the whole Mediterranean and groups of 60 naval bombers can't sink a single ship, even convoys get through unarmed.

Please tell me there is a logical explaination to some of these things, they are ruining the game for me.

 

[Bernard95]

1. If France surrenders to Germany, they have the option create Vichy. Vichy is always given the same lands in Southern France whether they're occupied by you or the Germans. Since Vichy is in the Axis, whenever you capture a French core it goes to Vichy since it's also their core- this is intended behavior so you can recapture an ally's land. You would also see the same thing if you've ever tried to influence the war between the two Chinas- Vichy and Free France operate the same way as Nationalist China and the PRC with the overlapping cores.

2. The AI does a cheat a bit and gives itself free stuff, but some of it may also be remnants of their original army or it was possibly built with lend leased equipment. The AI does have a bad habit though of just pumping out as many divisions as their manpower will allow whether they're fully equipped or not- this is the downfall of many AI nations actually.

3. If Bulgaria managed to capture the territory, they're under no obligation to give it to you. If you hover over the "Ask for Control of State" option, the tooltip will probably say something like "-100 reasons because Player controls too much land". If anything, the AI might be smart enough to realize that in the eventual peace deal it'll be far more expensive for you to take as long as its under their control.

4. I am definitely no expert with the air or naval game, but I think that's somewhat of a known issue. I seem to recall others bringing up the same topic, but at the same token I feel like it's been mentioned in a dev diary fairly recently.

 

[Giuse]

Thank you for your answer!

The only remaining issue is with point 1. I have chosen Italy First focus, so I'm not allied with either Vichy or the Germans. It would make sense for me to free allied land and hand it over, but it doesn't make sense for me to give it to a third party neutral nation. They should rethink how multi-sided wars are handled.

Maybe for the time being I should try a more historical Allies vs Axis game.

 

[Bernard95]

Thank you for your answer!

The only remaining issue is with point 1. I have chosen Italy First focus, so I'm not allied with either Vichy or the Germans. It would make sense for me to free allied land and hand it over, but it doesn't make sense for me to give it to a third party neutral nation. They should rethink how multi-sided wars are handled.

Maybe for the time being I should try a more historical Allies vs Axis game.

Whoops, I totally missed the fact you made your own faction. In that case, that does seem more than a little off. Someone did make a thread asking about how states are awarded to different countries not too long ago, and I think it was on the front page yesterday or the day before that. I'll see if I can find that thread for you- it might shed some light on your problem.

Edit: Couldn't find the thread I was thinking of, but now that I think of it did you have military access with Vichy or Germany? I think if both you and whoever you gave you access are both at war with the same faction, then the country that gave you access gets control of the province.

 

[Telenil]

Countries that are in a faction are only beaten when all "major" countries have capitulated. You can see who is a major by mousing over the capitulation bar.

Japan vs China and Germany vs Soviet are separated because China and the USSR are in factionq of their own. The point is that the Axis can take their land "for good" (no resistance and access to 100% of the factories) if they beat them. Otherwise, they would have to defeat the UK and the USA first.

 

[GaribaldisFleet]

4. Torpedos from airplanes in naval and port strikes seem way underpowerd. I'm pretty sure a couple of hits should sink a ship. Maybe I'm mistaken and it takes 5 or 6, still the argument holds. I have air superiority in the whole Mediterranean and groups of 60 naval bombers can't sink a single ship, even convoys get through unarmed.

There are a couple factors about sinking ships by naval bombers.

detection: you must first detect the enemy ships to be able to bomb them. Sending a naval bomber wing to a sea zone doesn't mean you can bomb any fleet coming that sea zone. you can increase your detection chance by radar ( expensive to invest) or a bait fleet. arrange a small fleet with non-engage order and send those zones. whenever you find an enemy fleet, your naval bombers will bomb them.

Bad weather: bombers are very vulnerable to bad weather. better you want to chose an expert that decreases bad weather penalty by 20% (Italy has one)

Enemy air defence: ships can also hurt your planes. make sure you use at least 1940 type naval bombers. you start with 1936, so it's easy to invest. also you can upgrade more with your air experience.

In addition, 60 naval bombers is not that much, if you add mire wings, you can see the difference.