Germany betrayed me, kinda... (Netherlands advice for a noob)

[Swami]

So I thought let's try out Hearts of Iron, I left this one lying for a while since I had plenty of fun with Europa Universalis and Stellaris came out arround the same time and I already wanted that. Well of course I didn't understand anything, I've allready watched for 6 or 7 hours on tutorials and campaigns and started 4 campaigns before I finally have some sort of an idea what I'm doing, well probably I still know nothing, but at least I think I do now... You gotta love paradox games, allthough I must say stellaris had an incredibly smooth learning curve.

Anyways here are my complete and utter stupid noob questions:

1. Can I, in any way, get only certain provinces? I only want to take half of France's most north western state, until the river, not the entire thing. I know it must be possible as I saw Germany take only Memel, which is one province. I don't like border gore to much. Also the rivers seems strategically a good place to build some forts and dig in.

2. I assume that going facist is the only way to survive, as noobie, but why when I take Flanders and Wallonia for myself but make the Congo a puppet does it become Belgium in exile and why is there an event where Germany declares war on the Benelux, aka Belgium in exile in the Congo and thus I get into a war with my axis ally. Any way to make the Congo a puppet, without it being Belgium in exile so the event doesn't backstab me? It isn't fun standing with my 24 sized army on the French border with 45 German comrades, only to suddenly have all hell brake lose on the border with the French probably thinking, what the hell happened there?

3. I went heavy on the planes (strategic bombers, fighters and heavy fighters), ships (cruisers and submarines) and infantry with artillery. Felt I had to make a choice and well tanks I was allready so far behind on that I thought with a good fleet, air supperiority and a decent defence line with bunkers, infantry and artillery (the usual and the anti-tank one) I'll be fine. I had no desire to expand. Is this tactic solid, probably not, just tell me that all my choices were wrong then. Also from Indonesia and my homeland I got plenty of resources for this, the resource needed for tanks isn't available for me, so I thought fuck tanks, I want to dig in anyways

4. Kinda sad that the US protects the entire America's, so basically there's not much to grab there if you don't wanna fight them, or are there ways arround this?

5. I have absolutely no idea how Indonesia or Dutch East Indies works, what should I do with them? How do I move my planes and fleet towards there or from there? And how do I move troops there. What can I do with that theatre? I did figure out I could get a shitload of resources from them with spending only one civilian factory on it, while all other trade partners were much more expensive in civil factory cost. But how do you militairy do missions from there?


If somebody could help me out a bit, or point me to some guides fitting to those questions then I'm a happy man. I probably need to restart, but I thought let's educate myself first.

 

[foothill]

I guess I could take a stab at these questions.

1. Real answer: it depends. If the enemy your facing is not in a faction, on the peace conference screen you can take only certain states but it doesn't go down to province level. If your enemy is in a faction, you basically have to beat the entire faction to annex territory.

2. If playing historically, Benelux will always join the Allies when you DoW. When you conquer their territory, they go into exile but keep their puppets.

3. There are so many different ways to approach army design HOI4 that there really isn't a right or wrong way. You have what works and what doesn't work and you must use trial and error to figure that what works best to your particular play-style.

4. HOI has always tried to accurately model the world surrounding the events of WWII. The Monroe Doctrine was a real thing. About the only way to get around the great American shield is to pull something gamey and invade them in 36-37 long before they could defend themselves.

5. You could deploy wings and troops to any puppet/faction member. To transport troops, you must first move them to a port and then right click on the destination port. Holding shift to queue up moves works well here but you can only queue move up until they arrive at their destination. Big thing here is that you don't choose their path over the ocean.

 

[Swami]

So for the second point. I can't make the congo a colonial nation for myself? It will always be 'belgium' as a puppet state. It seems that that event were Germany declares war on Belgium also shouldnt be firing when 'Belgium' is located in Africa only and I as an axis member own the entire Benelux and give full militairy acces to Germany. The event 'Germany invades the Benelux' seems kind of silly when they are allready in my territory on the border with France.

 

[Orlunu]

You should be able to, as Congo has cores there.

Is there no "puppet Zaire" option in the peace treaty?

The war is likely just a result of Paradox not preparing properly for Axis Netherlands steamrolling the Benelux by that time. IIRC the NF hasn't changed since release.

 

[browd]

While Belgium is in a faction and that faction's war is still ongoing, the Belgian territory that you occupy is just that -- occupied -- not owned by you, or anyone else except Belgium. Any Belgian territory that Belgium's government in exile still controls remains Belgian territory (and its puppets remain its puppets, and its puppets' territories remain those puppets' territory). When the peace conference finally fires, pretty much everything is up for grabs, but you don't have "dibs" on territory you happened to occupy during the war. Another winning belligerent with more war score than you might swoop in and annex or liberate territory or puppet subjects that you have occupied, just as you might in turn do the same to them when it is your turn to pick over the spoils of war.

 

[Orlunu]

So, peace conference should look like this:

you click on "Satellite Zaire" before taking the rest of the states for yourself

hitting "end turn" should show that you now have a puppet as below

and when you hit "done" Africa ends up looking a little like this:

 

[Swami]

So, peace conference should look like this:

Spoiler

you click on "Satellite Zaire" before taking the rest of the states for yourself

hitting "end turn" should show that you now have a puppet as below

and when you hit "done" Africa ends up looking a little like this:

Thank you so much. I selected conquest first, annexed Belgium and then clicked on puppet. Not so smart xD

 

[Swami]

so to be clear, if I want this to be my Southern border that's impossible because the state can't be divided between me and France? Would be a shame, because taking the whole province makes my border so ugly and isn't even efficient to defend with my small army... Look how beautifull my border is now and how ugly it would be otherwise, I think I'm just never gonna sign peace then xD

edit:

Maybe this picture is better, it's zomed out a bit more.

I see no reason to take the whole state, it stretches my border and doesnt give me a river crossing, so besides making my country ugly, it also makes no strategical sense...

 

[Orlunu]

Ja, it's a problem I often face, particularly annoying when it's a natural border that you want to follow and can't.

 

[cuendillar]

You can't really do much about the borders getting ugly, but defensively it's possible to draw a fallback line along the river and defend against enemies from there. You have more than enough victory points on your side of that border to keep control of the province in any case. If their border guard advances into your territory, they'll lose their entrenchment bonus making it easier for you to break their line with a counterattack.

 

[Orlunu]

If their border guard advances into your territory, they'll lose their entrenchment bonus making it easier for you to break their line with a counterattack.

You don't get your planning bonus either, though, as you can't draw an attack plan off a fallback line, so that's a two-edged sword.