Turkey, the best minor nation to play ?

[Jeremy971]

Because I couldn't wait no longer HOI4. I started a game as Turkey with Blak Ice Mod and I had a lot of fun.

Maybe more than with Germany or Japan.

Turkey is really weak in 1936. You have two Corps of 4 divisions each. Two mountain division and 3 cavalry division. These divisions are not completed.

Because of the bad neutrality system in HOI3, I cheated in order to get 0 neutrality in 1936.

Even with the new economic options, my production was only of 43 IC in 1936.

Despite these facts, I declared war to Bulgaria in March 1936. The Bulgarian army was even worse than mine so it was easy. The war ended in July.

But my original goal was to conquer Yougoslavia, Greece and Bulguria. I quickly realized my armies were weaks to invade Greece and Yougoslavia. So I went to East and declared war to Persia in May 1937. They had only 3 divisions so it was easy. After these two victories, I decided to align to Axis and build my economy.

I built new factories at Ankara, Istanbul and two other cities in Turkey. My production increased until 100 IC in 1939. I focused my research on industry, ressources, construction. And at the same time I had to improve my armies.

What is really challenging with Turkey it's you can't update air, land, navy at the same time. So I've decided to improve my infantry and my special forces (Mountain infantry). Since Royal Navy outmatch me in Mediterenean Sea, it would be useless to build more ships. And in Middle East, there are no airports. So I decided to focus on infantry.

My land doctrine is Blitzkrieg. I tried to improve the movement speed of my units and the power of their attack. It works pretty well against british divisions.

Indeed, I joined Axis in 1938 and Hitler attacked Poland in September 1939. So now, I have to fight against the froggies and brits. Thanks to the improvement of my economy, now I have three armies. Two armies with 5 infantry corps of 5 divisions each and one with my special forces : one marine corps of 4 divisions and one moutain corps of 5 divisions. The war goes well, I reached Jerusalem, Irak had fallen, it's only a matter of time, now.

The next step is to attack Greece, Yougoslavia and Romania. I build three airports in Bulgaria and I try to improve my fighter bombers.

Turkey is really, really fun. Really challenging. But, I'm really scared of Soviet Union and my manpower is low as 200.

Do you think Turkey would be great in HOI 4 as well ?

 

[Kazansky22]

Against SU what I do is Binary infantry divisions of 2 INF 1 ART 1 AT. Because SU has soo many tanks.

You might want to try that out.

 

[Dromido]

Yes I think Turkey will not only be great in HOI4 but beyond that, with the new options I think it will give minors more of a chance to fight.

 

[Jestem]

Playing with Turkey would be great in Hoi IV. Neither in Axis nor in Allies. Both sides want you. After boosting your economy and military, you can join war in 1941 or 1942 in either part. You could contribute many things to both factions.

 

[Denkt]

I will say that HOI4 will offer a more fun minor country experience. The technology system make it possible for minors to keep up with the majors in some but not all areas. The production system will be much more fair to minors as well as production efficiency is local unlike the global practicals.

 

[Krafty]

I started a lets play a few months ago of essentially the same thing, but without using the cheat. I ended up not continuing because of personal lack of interest. The AI Germany was boneheaded, and anticipation for HOI4 kinda kills me. Also Black ICE 8.0 came out. Enough stuff for me to give up. I got to basically where you did, fighting the Brits. I almost took Cairo and Alexandria then AI Germany inexplicably just left the region.

Ive played the same thing with an earlier Black Ice version, and my strategy worked well. I was able to Seize Baku during Barbarossa, sell fuel, get great relations with Germany, get their tech, practicals, ships, and lend lease IC, undermined the soviet line, Germans took Moscow, defended them against invasion, took Malta, Gibraltar, then helped the Germans take the British Isles. Ultimately the USA was uninvadable and AI germany was incapable of helping out.

 

[Sleight of Hand]

Yes, France and Turkey will be my first games I think.

 

[Lifthrasil]

I was never interested in Turkey before, but it is on my list for HOI4, because HOI4 seems to improve gampeplay for minors and turkey is in an extremely interesting position, since it borders the spheres of interest of all 3 factions (just like today :-D).
Gotta bring Attatürkian Secularism to all of the near and middle east! Osmanistan stronk ;-)

 

[Jeremy971]

I started a lets play a few months ago of essentially the same thing, but without using the cheat. I ended up not continuing because of personal lack of interest. The AI Germany was boneheaded, and anticipation for HOI4 kinda kills me. Also Black ICE 8.0 came out. Enough stuff for me to give up. I got to basically where you did, fighting the Brits. I almost took Cairo and Alexandria then AI Germany inexplicably just left the region.

Ive played the same thing with an earlier Black Ice version, and my strategy worked well. I was able to Seize Baku during Barbarossa, sell fuel, get great relations with Germany, get their tech, practicals, ships, and lend lease IC, undermined the soviet line, Germans took Moscow, defended them against invasion, took Malta, Gibraltar, then helped the Germans take the British Isles. Ultimately the USA was uninvadable and AI germany was incapable of helping out.

Seriously, you didn't cheat ? But the Turkey's neutrality is so high. I used spies and the annual event but it didn't work. In 1939 I had 50 in neutrality and I needed 15 to join Axis.

 

[Krafty]

Nope didnt cheat, spies dont seem to make a difference, infact you dont want spies, since you want Germany or the Soviets to align fight over you for -.2 Neutrality a month.

Mix that, the focus event every year (army focus comes with neutrality lowering, and lower neutrality in the other event) and raising threat on Bulgaria, youre good by mid 38 early 39.

Once you declare your first war (Bulgaria) with 15-20 Neutrality, the rest of it disappears and you can take on Romania, or Greece or whoever you want to go after.

My issue was that my Softness was so high, that the British armored units that came up to stop my from taking Egypt knocked me back without the Germans there to absorb some damage with their good Hardness and Combined Arms. They were right there with me, but then just left because "reasons" and the Brits pushed me back over the Sinai. Without any sort of bridging equipment for literally years more and the impotent German AI sending units down then immediately sending them back, there was no way I was crossing with the -50% to combat stats for the brits without maximum Shore Bombardment, which also would never happen because the Italian AI was impotent and id never defeat their fleet in the Med. If I could have grabbed Italy's navy, my Seaplane Tenders, Frigates and BCs, id have been able to make mincemeat of the Royal Navy.

I was able to sink some Brits, and cut off their supplies, but since they can just barely supply through the middle of Africa (wut? lol) there was just no hope continuing.

Ill really looking forward to multiplayer maybe being possible with this game. The AI is just so, so very bad. And itll be as bad in HOI4.

 

[Jeremy971]

Aanw ok I see. I will restart my game.

And I made a mistake with difficulty setting for Italy and Japan. I've chosen hard and now they have 1000 divisions and rush France, Egypt, China. It's insane...

The good difficulty balance is normal in Black Ice. Otherwise the game becomes unrealistic.

And armor units are a nightmare. But since my units go fast, I surround them and destroy them easily.

 

[Jeremy971]

I started a new gane with black ice 8.4 and I noticed minors changes for Turkey.
The government is now democracy. I would like to change it for fascism since I want to align to Axis. How can i do it ?

 

[TheRomanRuler]

I don`t know. It could either go really well or really badly, as you are bordered by axis nation Bulgaria, Comintern leader Soviet Union and France, or later British. In HOI3 it was easy to exploit stupid AI, in HOI4 i hope it will be way harder and there won`t be conguering the world as Luxemburg.

 

[GhostKiller01]

Turkey is a good ally for Germany. It will win the Middle East for you, and it will take the Caucasus or at least put pressure in the area and tie down a few Russian divisions. They are quite important as an ally simply because they can push past the traditional defence lines of both the USSR and the French and British colonies. If you add Persia to the mix, they can also put a lot of pressure in India.

 

[FOARP]

I don`t know. It could either go really well or really badly, as you are bordered by axis nation Bulgaria, Comintern leader Soviet Union and France, or later British. In HOI3 it was easy to exploit stupid AI, in HOI4 i hope it will be way harder and there won`t be conguering the world as Luxemburg.

I couldn't agree more. I'm always annoyed when I read these articles bragging about basically blobbing out by conquering neighbouring countries one-by-one as a minor when historically even the first attempt at annexation would have brought the great powers down on your head (this is one of the reasons why Peru didn't bother trying to conquer Ecuador even though they might have been able to). The conquests are almost always achieved through exploits.

 

[hkrommel]

I prefer playing Finland as a minor. It's immensely challenging but if you manage to conquer part or all of Scandinavia you have a good chance of making a huge difference on the Eastern Front.

Independent Finland isn't as fun though, because after Scandinavia there's nowhere to go. You don't have the IC or manpower to take on either the Soviets or Germans alone.

If I'm going for becoming a major world power I usually play as Romania, but I might try Turkey, I haven't played as them before.

 

[Adige]

Biggist pro of Turkey, you can attack neighbor countries and get a lot resource easly. 1-2 year is enough to built army for that. After taking these lands you can focus on your economy and your army. If you join Axis, you can easly go to Egypt and meet with Italy. Also India is open for attack. You can stop SU if you put some good troops at borde with Germany. If you join Allies early it is little bit hard to stop Germany even UK's help. So it is wise to join Allies when Germant at retreat.

I think HOI 4 will be much more fun with new systems.

 

[Jeremy971]

I don't know why but I tried some stuffs as cover ops and lower neutrality on Sofia in Bulgaria. And I don't know why but my neutrality dropped down as well at 4% in less than one year. After 4 years in using the event...

I think I know what to do now...

 

[BBBD316]

Well for Turkey I will be attempting to remake the OE, I would hope to be able to grow large enough to be able to threaten the UK possession in the middle east so if the wargoes as planned I should be able to take Arabia and up to the Suez quite quickly.

 

[Krafty]

Aanw ok I see. I will restart my game.

And armor units are a nightmare. But since my units go fast, I surround them and destroy them easily.

Yeah the three big divisions you need to destroy are the 2nd Armored, the Canadian 1st armored and Australian 1st armored. I got two of them early on by surrounding them with cavalry units and following up with light infantry with tank destroyers. Hope you have better luck with the AI germans than I did.

I started a new gane with black ice 8.4 and I noticed minors changes for Turkey.
The government is now democracy. I would like to change it for fascism since I want to align to Axis. How can i do it ?

Pick government ministers that align to axis, dont support your own party, dont put in spies. Align to Germany. Youll switch in 4-5 years.