How to add puppet wargoal

[Coolts]

This was fiddly in HOI 3, sometimes necessitating editing a save but i cant see how to do it at all now.

Playing as USSR and i beat Finland but wanted to puppet them so they keep their army, but, somehow they became my puppet but lost their entire army (some kind of Focus effect i reckon) meaning i now have an even bigger front to protect.

Is the "make defeated enemy a puppet who keeps their army to fight for me" option still there in HOI IV?

 

[Dalwin]

The war goal system in HOI4 is relatively meaningless. It is nothing more than a pretext for invasion and the details of what you justify matter not at all to the final peace settlement.

The sad part is that the devs seem to think it has meaning, that it makes a difference which province or provinces you target in the justification. Technically there is a discount for annexing those you specifically targeted but in reality you will more or less always have enough war score to annex the entire thing no matter what you chose when justifying. Puppeting is also an option but it is something you choose at the end rather than aim for in the beginning,

Never justify against more than one state since that only wastes political points. The system is in fact so broken that they should just remove it completely.

When you puppet in HOI4 they generally do lose their army. That is a change from earlier versions. They get to keep the old equipment I think, so it is relatively easy for them to recreate the divisions. They also get full use of the manpower in their country where you'd have only gotten 2% of it. Puppeting also creates less world tension which can be good or bad depending on which side you are playing.

 

[Coolts]

I was worried that it would be an oversight. As i cant really puppet meaningfully, Western Europe is now becoming a red desert as each state that falls loses 100% divisions so is useless as any kind of strategic buffer or traditional puppet. When Finland fell i thought it was a glitch. Whats the use of "Red Finland" if it has zero divisions. Its just an exposed flank.

 

[Dalwin]

I was worried that it would be an oversight. As i cant really puppet meaningfully, Western Europe is now becoming a red desert as each state that falls loses 100% divisions so is useless as any kind of strategic buffer or traditional puppet. When Finland fell i thought it was a glitch. Whats the use of "Red Finland" if it has zero divisions. Its just an exposed flank.

They will build divisions and do it relatively quickly, you can even speed that along by lend leasing them more equipment if you want. Prior to 1.3 annexing was almost always better than puppeting. That is less true now than it used to be since they made some changes to how expeditionary forces work. You can simply request units from the puppet if you want to control some of them and the expedition now uses their manpower instead of yours like it did in 1.2.

 

[Coolts]

The main issue is that when defeated they lose 100% units and have to start again, unlike HOI3 where puppeted states maintained their army, making them actually useful.

 

[Dalwin]

The main issue is that when defeated they lose 100% units and have to start again, unlike HOI3 where puppeted states maintained their army, making them actually useful.

They lose them and they don't at the same time. Consider them more on probation than lost.

If you annex you capture the remaining equipment in their army. If you puppet you don't capture it so they are keeping it. All they need to do is run some guys through the training cycle to create new units. This is pretty realistic if you think about it. The old men and officers were just fighting you and might be less than willing to now fight along side you. Train different guys to take their place.

 

[Coolts]

That sounds great 'IF' the AI did that. In 2 years of fighting the Axis, puppeted Red Finland created two units. Two. One per year. I may as well have puppeted the Shetland islands.

 

[Dalwin]

That sounds great 'IF' the AI did that. In 2 years of fighting the Axis, puppeted Red Finland created two units. Two. One per year. I may as well have puppeted the Shetland islands.

I have not had the same problem with puppets refusing to build stuff. As Japan when I puppet most of China they build hordes of units even though I tend to leave them only the resource poor parts. Likewise Vichy France will build a sizeable force. Finland I generally don't puppet so I have not had that problem. Assuming traditional sides, during the Winter War you usually are still wanting to increase world tension and you get more of it by annexing.