Iraq is controlled by Vichy France and has no oil after being conquered by Italy

[Galahad2]

I'm new to HOI4 and I'm confused about some strangeness in my current game. I'm playing Italy with just the Man the Guns add-on with average difficulty, more or less historically as a German ally in the Axis faction but more focused on middle east. I declared a War Goal of Conquer Iraq (all three states of it), waited 30 days, and declared war without inviting my allies. Iraq joined the Allied faction, Germany joined the war anyway and send a couple of divisions, I occupied most of Iraq before the British could intervene, Iraq capitulated, and I occupied British Kuwait as well. But now somehow Iraq is controlled by Vichy France, not by me, and so is Kuwait. I have no access to the oil that I wanted and can no longer even trade for it, maybe since the infrastructure is damaged and I'm not allowed to repair infrastructure in a country that I don't control.

Did I do something wrong or is it a bug with France and Iraq? My War Goal cannot be achieved except as part of a general settlement of all World War II if Britain is defeated, and probably the US and USSR as well by that time -- is that right? So it is no use to declare war goals once World war breaks out? But I'm confused because I was allowed to keep control of Tunisia that was conquered before the fall of France, and also Egypt, Palestine, Malta, Cyprus, and Jordan conquered from the British -- even though there were no War Goals for any of them them. Would waiting a few months matter?


Would any other add-ons make the war goals and occupations more sensible?

 

[ArzhurG]

Iraq joining the Allies is normal. They were both fighting you, so they joined forces. This had the effect of merging your war against Iraq with the rest of WW2. This meant that all of the Axis nations that were at war against the Allies were now also at war against Iraq, including Germany and Vichy France (I'm assuming that Vichy France joined the war). Note that if Vichy France would not have been called in, you you would not have been able to invade from their territory.

What happened next is that you must have invaded from the border of Vichy France. Any land captured by an alliance will go to the nation whose land the troops moved from. There are several ways around this.
- invade from a different direction, starting from land that you control. In your case you could have first attacked Saudi Arabia from your border with it. Then you would have had a border with Iraq that you could have invaded from. You would still have to be fast (best to use light tanks/motorized), so that your allies invading from Vichy France did not beat you to the land (the ally with the highest % control of the state gets the whole state when it's full under control of your alliance, so victory points are the most important).
- take the first state using paratroopers, or a naval invasion. Regardless of where they start from, land taken by paratroopers, or a naval invasion will always go to the one who launched the invasion (unless that land is a core of an ally).
- if your ally controls land the you want, you can ask for control of it (it's one of the diplomatic actions, in the same list as declare war). The AI does need to accept though. The acceptance is linked to warscore contribution and amount of land controlled. They will never give control of their last occupied state. You might consider handing control of another less important though.

 

[Galahad2]

Iraq joining the Allies is normal. They were both fighting you, so they joined forces. This had the effect of merging your war against Iraq with the rest of WW2. This meant that all of the Axis nations that were at war against the Allies were now also at war against Iraq, including Germany and Vichy France (I'm assuming that Vichy France joined the war). Note that if Vichy France would not have been called in, you you would not have been able to invade from their territory.

What happened next is that you must have invaded from the border of Vichy France. Any land captured by an alliance will go to the nation whose land the troops moved from. There are several ways around this.
- invade from a different direction, starting from land that you control. In your case you could have first attacked Saudi Arabia from your border with it. Then you would have had a border with Iraq that you could have invaded from. You would still have to be fast (best to use light tanks/motorized), so that your allies invading from Vichy France did not beat you to the land (the ally with the highest % control of the state gets the whole state when it's full under control of your alliance, so victory points are the most important).
- take the first state using paratroopers, or a naval invasion. Regardless of where they start from, land taken by paratroopers, or a naval invasion will always go to the one who launched the invasion (unless that land is a core of an ally).
- if your ally controls land the you want, you can ask for control of it (it's one of the diplomatic actions, in the same list as declare war). The AI does need to accept though. The acceptance is linked to warscore contribution and amount of land controlled. They will never give control of their last occupied state. You might consider handing control of another less important though.

Thanks! Very helpful for learning this game!