While watching the last World War Wednesday of 2015, there were a precious few seconds where the US's and Canada's diplomacy screens were shown. From these, I noticed a couple of interesting things that have yet to be covered in the developer diaries.
First up, the United States:
We already know that the Philippines is an American puppet (as shown by the neat little pawn icon), and we were further told in the developer diary that the US guarantees the independence of every nation in North and South America.
... But look again, closer this time.
With the US selected here, the US and its territories have a light green highlight, but notice that Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Handuras, and the other independent nations have a DARK green highlight. Closer inspection also shows that European colonial possessions (Belize, Bahamas, Jamaica, French and British Guyana, and Suriname) aren't highlighted at all. From this, we can infer that those dark green highlights are the nations that the US has guaranteed the independence of.
But now here's the interesting part: Canada isn't highlighted. You can see up there that Canada blends right in with the British possessions of Labrador and Newfoundland!
Why is this? Well, it looks like it's because the Commonwealth is represented somehow in the game, as shown below in this screenshot of Canada's diplomacy screen. I don't know the meaning of the icon that is tying all of the commonwealths together, since I haven't played previous HoI games and Great Britain hasn't had a developer diary yet; all I know is that it's neither the puppet state icon nor the guarantee independence icon, since both of those were shown in the US screenshot above.
What I DO know is that this is great news for me: I intend to play as the US and execute War Plan Red in virtually every playthrough of the game I perform. After the developer diary, I feared two things: 1) I would need to break a guarantee with Canada, which would cost political power and perhaps stability etc., before I could enact my plans. 2) Canada might not have ties with Great Britain if it's independent and not a part of the allies, which would mean that declaring war on Great Britain followed by an invasion of Canada might cost me some kind of penalty. With the revelation that the US doesn't guarantee Canada's independence and that Canada has some form of commonwealth ties, however, that means that I am free to use that political power on more important matters, like improving my relations with Japan so that they won't attack me while I fight the entire British Empire! (After all, I want War Plan Red, not War Plan Red-Orange!) Not only that, but if Canada has ties to Great Britain, then I can enact War Plan Red as it was historically planned without fears of excessive penalties!
First up, the United States:
We already know that the Philippines is an American puppet (as shown by the neat little pawn icon), and we were further told in the developer diary that the US guarantees the independence of every nation in North and South America.
... But look again, closer this time.
With the US selected here, the US and its territories have a light green highlight, but notice that Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, Handuras, and the other independent nations have a DARK green highlight. Closer inspection also shows that European colonial possessions (Belize, Bahamas, Jamaica, French and British Guyana, and Suriname) aren't highlighted at all. From this, we can infer that those dark green highlights are the nations that the US has guaranteed the independence of.
But now here's the interesting part: Canada isn't highlighted. You can see up there that Canada blends right in with the British possessions of Labrador and Newfoundland!
Why is this? Well, it looks like it's because the Commonwealth is represented somehow in the game, as shown below in this screenshot of Canada's diplomacy screen. I don't know the meaning of the icon that is tying all of the commonwealths together, since I haven't played previous HoI games and Great Britain hasn't had a developer diary yet; all I know is that it's neither the puppet state icon nor the guarantee independence icon, since both of those were shown in the US screenshot above.
What I DO know is that this is great news for me: I intend to play as the US and execute War Plan Red in virtually every playthrough of the game I perform. After the developer diary, I feared two things: 1) I would need to break a guarantee with Canada, which would cost political power and perhaps stability etc., before I could enact my plans. 2) Canada might not have ties with Great Britain if it's independent and not a part of the allies, which would mean that declaring war on Great Britain followed by an invasion of Canada might cost me some kind of penalty. With the revelation that the US doesn't guarantee Canada's independence and that Canada has some form of commonwealth ties, however, that means that I am free to use that political power on more important matters, like improving my relations with Japan so that they won't attack me while I fight the entire British Empire! (After all, I want War Plan Red, not War Plan Red-Orange!) Not only that, but if Canada has ties to Great Britain, then I can enact War Plan Red as it was historically planned without fears of excessive penalties!
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