Italian annexation/puppeting of Ethiopia

[Vityviktor]

I'm really confused. I always thought Italy sarts in 1936 with a Puppet war goal on Ethiopia (unfortunately, because i think a Conquest war goal would be more accurate, and it will give you the chance to puppet Ethiopia later if you want to). But in some of my last games, Italy actually annexed Ethiopia after the war. Why? Is there a way to change the war goal? Or maybe it depends of some kind of randomness at the beginning of the game?

 

[Palmerdale]

I've played Italy more than any other country. I have only experienced the 'conquest rather than puppet' 1 time. In that case, I was under the impression that I had captured all the Ethiopian units and provinces before I took Addis Ababa. In particular, I think I took out the top level Ethiopian command unit before their capital fell.

Conquering Ethiopia wasn't noticeably better than puppeting them. Whatever units they have left will defend the puppet country, meaning you don't have to. The manpower / IC / Leadership gain is nominal at best. Most importantly (for me), I don't have that country and am more likely to resist the urge to improve a lot of provincial infrastructure. It would be nice if the Ethiopia puppet government would bother to build an Edd to Addis Ababa to Mogadishu highway for me. A strip of green infrastructure really helps the supply situation when the fight does come back to Ethiopia.

 

[marxianTJ]

You do start with the puppet wargoal as far as I know - but if the war goes on long enough you can substitute it for the conquer war goal.

 

[EmperorBatman999]

Honestly making Ethiopia my puppet was more worthwhile than conquest because I could trust them to guard their own territory or even stay neutral to Britain. Supply is a problem but you could always build the supply highway through Djibouti and British Somalilamd and then around the Horn of Africa after you conquer them from their colonial masters...the French and British presence their is easy to beat if you slam them from Eritrea and Somalia...them you have a continuous territory to control no problem. Then you'll be good to go for kicking the Brits out of Sudan and East Africa.

 

[Wraith11B]

You do start with the puppet wargoal as far as I know - but if the war goes on long enough you can substitute it for the conquer war goal.

I think the default when no war goal is set is to Puppet; since most people can jack up Ethiopia in less than 30 days (when a new war goal could be added), they only get to puppet it.

 

[EmperorBatman999]

I thought that TFH also locked the war goal to puppet. I've tried dragging the war past when a new war goal is available but the war goal screen is blank with no options.