tl;dr at the bottom.
So I'm doing alright (after an... *ahem*... healthy number of restarts) as Fascist Italy.
I've conquered Yugoslavia and Spain (take that Franco, the Balearics are my Sudetenland, it never stops there).
I've created the Italian faction, and Bulgaria has auto-joined it as per the focus. Fair enough.
Oh look, it's 1939. Hitler is invading Poland, which has drawn the ire of the Allies.
Oh look, Hitler attacked the Benelux.
Oh look, Hitler is moving on France.
Crap, I forgot to get the France focus. Gotta hurry and get some steel before he overruns the country.
...
Bulgaria, war with Greece? They're in the Allies! Why?! Fine. My focus is almost done anyway.
Merged the Italian-French War into the Bulgarian-Greek War (clearly the more major conflict).
...
1941. Italy controls a growing majority of Africa.
The French did not count on the Italian menace. My economy rivals that of Germany, and the Mediterranean has become a graveyard for thousands upon thousands of British and French sailors. The Rock of Gibraltar (now Italian) stands in lonely testimony to the dozens of ships that have passed it on their way to doom. My battleships and destroyers have seen to that.
Germany isn't doing so well. The French have held them off and the Commonwealth and Benelux have pushed the Krauts so far back that Belgium controls Frankfurt and the Netherlands controls Berlin. (being Dutch, this is hilarious. It was, what, 6 days IRL?)
We have a non-aggression pact and there is some mutual aid (*cough* Switzerland), but we are not in the same faction.
Wait, they're 85% to capitulating? That's almost as bad as France! I need that German muscle, even if we aren't allied.
My motorized army is mere days from Paris.
...
The French are really into defending Paris. What's the deal with all these commonwealth troops everywhere?
...
Months later, after being cut off and encircled several times but surviving, we have taken Paris. The French have capitulated and their troops have surrendered. I control all of Southern France and the bottom half of Northern France, from Orleans to Brittany. Germans control the rest. A fine Novus Imperium Romanum, indeed.
...
Nation Francaise has declared war on Free France? Quaint. Is it some colony civil wa- WHAT HAPPENED TO MY STEEL.
I see. Germany and France signed a peace deal in a train car to establish Vichy France did they?
Ah, and this peace treaty somehow surrendered half of my occupied territory to the Germans, and the other half to the Vichy government, did it?
AND NOBODY THOUGHT TO ASK THE COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT, NON-ALLIED, ITALIANS ABOUT THE LAND THAT 1 MILLION ITALIANS DIED FOR, DID THEY?
Paradox, please have the Germans at least ask for my consent? It's a good thing I've started the nuclear research, because once the UK is done, it's time for WW3: There Can Only Be One (Fascist Edition).
P.S. THEY TOOK TUNISIA TOO! NOT A SINGLE GERMAN HAS SET FOOT IN AFRICA, THAT WAS ALL ME!
I'LL FIGHT THEM. BASTARDS.
tl;dr I'm Italy, not in the Axis and in a separate war with the allies from that of Germany but Germany's Vichy France event took all of my occupied French territory anyway.
So I'm doing alright (after an... *ahem*... healthy number of restarts) as Fascist Italy.
I've conquered Yugoslavia and Spain (take that Franco, the Balearics are my Sudetenland, it never stops there).
I've created the Italian faction, and Bulgaria has auto-joined it as per the focus. Fair enough.
Oh look, it's 1939. Hitler is invading Poland, which has drawn the ire of the Allies.
Oh look, Hitler attacked the Benelux.
Oh look, Hitler is moving on France.
Crap, I forgot to get the France focus. Gotta hurry and get some steel before he overruns the country.
...
Bulgaria, war with Greece? They're in the Allies! Why?! Fine. My focus is almost done anyway.
Merged the Italian-French War into the Bulgarian-Greek War (clearly the more major conflict).
...
1941. Italy controls a growing majority of Africa.
The French did not count on the Italian menace. My economy rivals that of Germany, and the Mediterranean has become a graveyard for thousands upon thousands of British and French sailors. The Rock of Gibraltar (now Italian) stands in lonely testimony to the dozens of ships that have passed it on their way to doom. My battleships and destroyers have seen to that.
Germany isn't doing so well. The French have held them off and the Commonwealth and Benelux have pushed the Krauts so far back that Belgium controls Frankfurt and the Netherlands controls Berlin. (being Dutch, this is hilarious. It was, what, 6 days IRL?)
We have a non-aggression pact and there is some mutual aid (*cough* Switzerland), but we are not in the same faction.
Wait, they're 85% to capitulating? That's almost as bad as France! I need that German muscle, even if we aren't allied.
My motorized army is mere days from Paris.
...
The French are really into defending Paris. What's the deal with all these commonwealth troops everywhere?
...
Months later, after being cut off and encircled several times but surviving, we have taken Paris. The French have capitulated and their troops have surrendered. I control all of Southern France and the bottom half of Northern France, from Orleans to Brittany. Germans control the rest. A fine Novus Imperium Romanum, indeed.
...
Nation Francaise has declared war on Free France? Quaint. Is it some colony civil wa- WHAT HAPPENED TO MY STEEL.
I see. Germany and France signed a peace deal in a train car to establish Vichy France did they?
Ah, and this peace treaty somehow surrendered half of my occupied territory to the Germans, and the other half to the Vichy government, did it?
AND NOBODY THOUGHT TO ASK THE COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT, NON-ALLIED, ITALIANS ABOUT THE LAND THAT 1 MILLION ITALIANS DIED FOR, DID THEY?
Paradox, please have the Germans at least ask for my consent? It's a good thing I've started the nuclear research, because once the UK is done, it's time for WW3: There Can Only Be One (Fascist Edition).
P.S. THEY TOOK TUNISIA TOO! NOT A SINGLE GERMAN HAS SET FOOT IN AFRICA, THAT WAS ALL ME!
I'LL FIGHT THEM. BASTARDS.
tl;dr I'm Italy, not in the Axis and in a separate war with the allies from that of Germany but Germany's Vichy France event took all of my occupied French territory anyway.
