Good countries for nonbeginners

[EmperorBatman999]

I suppose it's hard to find a good word but I consider myself now aquatinted with HoI and its mechanics (though maybe Italy gave me a false sense of confidence ) and once I am done with the Italy campaign I hope to start another game with a new faction. Any suggestions?

In particular I'm looking to go with something more challenging. Perhaps a country with a lot of potential to become great, or perhaps as a past empire restoring itself to greatness. Perhaps humble, but no less fierce. Or perhaps a regional player that is in a promising position to become top dog. I don't know!

I was somewhat interested in choosing Argentina, how does that usually turn out?

 

[markkur]

Depends on your play style. If you like going gamey than non-majors are often doable. I tried Argentina but could not reach anything, I would of had to buy LCs from somewhere to even have a chance. because; the U.S. guarantees every S.A. country.

 

[Adonnus]

The middle powers are great. Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Turkey. Austria and Communist China are 2 more challenging ones but with a lot of potential.

Argentina in the Axis can work, avoiding the US juggernaut is easier than you think since the AI isn't scripted to attack South America very much.

My most intense current game is as Nationalist Spain. Starting by winning the civil war (1938 start) It's 1945 and I've conquered all of South America, Iberia, India and bits of the Philippines. The old Spanish Empire is restored! Sadly there are a billion rebellions in South America and the first US invasion force finally landed, and my fleet is very very far away.

 

[EmperorBatman999]

I wanted to play ComChi somewhere along the road and do an AAR about them but from what I've heard, they're one of the harder nations to play because of their such meager position. It also requires the Nationalists to play the war against Japan just exactly right to give you an opening against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists. I could certainly give them a spin though.

 

[Afganitia]

No

I wanted to play ComChi somewhere along the road and do an AAR about them but from what I've heard, they're one of the harder nations to play because of their such meager position. It also requires the Nationalists to play the war against Japan just exactly right to give you an opening against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists. I could certainly give them a spin though.

They aren't a difficult country to play. I am a mediocre player and have no problem attacking the axis, the communists and the allies at the same time. Once you conquered China, which is time consuming but doable it a walk in the park. Having a fleet is a pain though.

PD. I recommend Sweden, UK, nat china

 

[Palmerdale]

Depends on your play style. If you like going gamey than non-majors are often doable. I tried Argentina but could not reach anything, I would of had to buy LCs from somewhere to even have a chance. because; the U.S. guarantees every S.A. country.

The only reliable link from South America to Europe is Brazil, UK (Ascension Island) and Portugal (Cape Verde Islands). Any country other than Brazil will have to conquer Brazil first, risking US involvement. Argentina can pester the UK in the Faulklands, then South Georgia, then a big leap to Inaccessible Island / Gough Island (no ports here), then St. Helena and Northwestern Ascension Island and Cape Verde Island. You will definitely need to purchase Landing Craft from a country that is likely to develop that tech for the South Georgia to Gough Island. I have never done this before, and cannot guarantee that the South Georgia to Gough is even possible with the absolute best Range.

To the OP, France is a good challenge, lots of important strategic questions. Can you deploy enough of the right kinds of units in the right places before Germany looks your way and what do you do with Italy? I also like Turkey or Persia. Both start with next to nothing. Keeping that tiny bit of nothing while the war rages around you can be a real trick. Italy is my favorite, though. It seems to give me the most flexibility. Do I join the Axis, or try to align myself with Britain or Russia or try to stay neutral? Do I jump France before Germany, leaving Yugoslavia and Greece to the Germans? Can I build an Italian Africa?

 

[markkur]

Italy is my favorite, though. It seems to give me the most flexibility. Do I join the Axis, or try to align myself with Britain or Russia or try to stay neutral? Do I jump France before Germany, leaving Yugoslavia and Greece to the Germans? Can I build an Italian Africa?

My fav too. While not the best Army, it's not bad either and you have more choices than most nations.

 

[marxianTJ]

Well, when playing COM CHI you have a lot of options on how you deal with the KMT and Japanese situations. Historically speaking even, you're not being totally gamey if you do things like:

- Attack Xibei San Ma before Japan invades anybody - this was actually attempted by the Communists from their base in Ya'an - the attack failed however and the Ma generals maintained control.

- Back stab the KMT - both the Chinese government and the Communists were *deeply* suspicious of each other and often held troops in position juxtaposed to each other rather than sending them to fight the Japanese for fear that the other party would attack them. Mao also attempted to persuade the ECCI (the executive of the Comintern) to allow him to engage in periodic offensive operations, or preparations for such operations, against the Chinese government, even before the civil war started again post-ww2. There was a lot of bad blood there.

Bulgaria or Hungary can be very rewarding, Norway can be interesting too. France and Poland can be pretty challenging (Poland especially). The UK is a HUGE task but fun if you like fiddling with lots of little things. There's also Belgium or the Netherlands with a lot of possibilities.

You could also try to take over the world as Albania.

 

[markkur]

Good stuff too. I am enjoying Japan a great deal but I think it likely, that it is mainly due to my X2 Garrison-rule for all occupied ports. It has made my efforts and co-ordination very challenging. However, it is micro and not to everyone's tastes.

 

[Adonnus]

I wanted to play ComChi somewhere along the road and do an AAR about them but from what I've heard, they're one of the harder nations to play because of their such meager position. It also requires the Nationalists to play the war against Japan just exactly right to give you an opening against the Japanese and then against the Nationalists. I could certainly give them a spin though.

Currently Japan instead of puppeting has chosen "Seize the Chinese coasts" which means that 1/2 of Nat China is still ripe for the taking. My plan is to upgrade my militia to infantry, if I can, and then take Xibei San Ma and maybe Tibet before building up to invade the Nats.

 

[EmperorBatman999]

Won't it be difficult to go to war with Xibei San Man early because of neutrality? Or do the Chinese states start out with low neutrality or a special mechanic that allows that them to fight among each other early? From what I understand, the feature to reduce neutrality with spies has been removed.

 

[marxianTJ]

Since COMCHI is Communist you can raise threat against *any* of your neighbors and have it pay off well to reduce your neutrality rapidly.

You've got a few options with threat.

1. Slow + steady: If you raise threat on Nat Chi consistently from day one, you'll be at 0 sometime in later 37 or mid 38 depending on how lucky you get with your spies not dying a bunch.

2. Faster, but harder. Raising threat on Japan will get you the most bang for your buck, but they'll also kill your spies *a lot* so if you're ok with investing more leadership into getting your neutrality lower faster, then it's worth it. The other benefit to this is that the USSR (a likely ally in the future) will lose neutrality rapidly as well

3. Hedging your bets. You can raise threat against *both* Xibei San Ma and Nat Chi. Raising threat on the Mas won't get you very far, and the actual leg work will be done by the threat you raise on Nat chi, however, because you'll be assigning threat points to the Ma's you'll be able to declare war on them before your neutrality hits 0.

The reason you wouldn't raise threat solely against the Ma's is because once you defeat the Mas your neutrality would go back up (because your highest local threat will have ceased to be) - and it would take a lot longer to hit the less than 10% neutrality sweet zone.

There's a lot of options to take from there.

 

[Adonnus]

It wasn't even a problem for me since my neutrality had gone down thanks to the war with Japan.

I can't take out Nat China though. I don't have the divisions. Somehow with an attack bonus of 58% against my defence bonus of 150%, 2 Nat China infantry can rout my 1 infantry. It makes no sense, I got the highest officer ratio, good doctrines, fully upgraded army. But they win every battle so I gave up on the campaign.

 

[Daniel Halachev]

I conquered the world as Bulgaria, but with the help of Germany. But after all, at the end I controlled more vp points than everyone else, so adtually Bulgaria was in world domination.

 

[Snow Wolf]

Argentina in the Axis can work, avoiding the US juggernaut is easier than you think since the AI isn't scripted to attack South America very much.

The US came along when I started conquering Brazil

 

[Adonnus]

The US came along when I started conquering Brazil

If it's a small force no biggie, just surround and contain, maybe let a few divisions poke through to weaken the beachhead and destroy. If it's a big force then you're probably screwed.

 

[EmperorBatman999]

This is why when I reading up on the guides, I saw that Argentina is good because it already has a relatively substantial (if outdated) fleet that is larger most other SA countries. If the AI doesn't guard its transports too hard, it perhaps has a good chance of deflecting invasions.

 

[Snow Wolf]

If it's a small force no biggie, just surround and contain, maybe let a few divisions poke through to weaken the beachhead and destroy. If it's a big force then you're probably screwed.

Nah. They landed in northern brazil with very little infrastructure. Needless to say my marines were all jungle rats while his Infantry.. were merely able to hold their position. It was mostly a stalemate..

 

[Kovax]

As pointed out, playing any of the South American countries is somewhat limited by the US guarantees on your neighbors. Brazil at least has a rather tenuous path to take the war across the Atlantic, but Argentina is much more limited in what they can accomplish without drawing the wrath of the US.

My favorites for a smaller and more challenging game would have to be the Balkan states: Hungary or Romania. In either case, you can fairly easily create enough Threat (or activate the "Prepare for War" official "semi-cheat" to lower your own Neutrality, if you can temporarily lower your effective IC output to under 30). Just about any country can take over the world by exploiting the wargoals mechanics, and letting Germany or other countries conquer everything for you, but Hungary and Romania have just enough economic muscle to pull off some serious conquests on their own without such blatant abuse of the game mechanics.

In one HUN game, I managed to invade Yugoslavia early, then used the ports to assist Italy in securing the Suez Canal (I got Palestine and the canal, Italy took Alexandria), and eventually drove a separate invasion corridor into the Soviet Union all the way to Stalingrad before Germany ran itself out of manpower and collapsed. Great game, despite the unavoidable conclusion. In another run, I managed to sneak a couple of transports to England (after Italy took Gibraltar) by using a sub as an early warning spotter, and took over the UK; Germany finally got in on the act at the last minute and occupied about 3 or 4 UK provinces including a port, but it was a foregone conclusion long before that. The key principles were: no lend-lease accepted, no expeditionary forces used, and no cheezy wargoals placed to claim anything that my troops didn't actually conquer or occupy.

Romania can rule the Balkans and much of the Middle East if played aggressively, although you'll probably have to give ground against the Soviets when they claim Bessarabia, unless you're already in the Axis by then, and you and Germany are both prepared for it.

 

[fredgiblet]

Cuba
1936
Conquer the world in 12 years.

Go.