Who knew a grand strategy about WW2 could make me laugh as a madman? I'm pretty sure there are by now tons of these examples, but still wanted to share.
So, I tried to go for a 'Big Entente' achievement in non-DLC game. After a few tries I came to conclusion that I need to go communist in order to try and grab all needed land in a single peace deal, since if I don't - I have to go to war (and win) against the whole world, which is tedious and unfun. But you can't hire commie advisor if you went for little entente NF, so only way to go commie is through events and pray for a few semi-random events. All the while trying to build up stockpiles, troops and forts to withstand Axis assault.
I did all the said stuff, Sudeland crisis came, I came to the aid, all hell broke loose. Minors gone in seconds, but Italy stays out of the war - it's only me and (all capitulated) Czech, Yugoslavs and Romanians against Germany. Germany proceeds to eat Benelux, then bangs it's head on my extended Maginot line (lvl 7 forts are no joke). I patiently wait. Italy still not in the war. I wait to fill my stockpiles (mostly with AT and support equip).
After Benelux allies go for Germany, naturally. But Furer give no fks, he goes to war with Denmark. And then USSR. And still banging his head upon Maginot. USSR starts obliterating Germany. I still wait - now I feel like I have to wait for USSR-Germany war to end. Japan joins axis and declares on me. Oh, fun times. Germany falls like a sack of rotten fruits, with a nasty splash. I still wait, and here goes first fun bit - despite the fact that I am(faction leader) still here, USSR, having liberated Balkans, being true to history, decided - nah, they don't need their territory back, I need it more.
This goes on and finally Germany falls - Italy never even went to war. Peace conference starts, I even have some points - but way too little to grab all the cores, so I decide, AGAIN, I'll wait. I click done, without actually participation in peace deal. War ends - and now magic happens: every single country that USSR liberated from Germany - Poland (Molotov-Ribbentrop happened, so they gave this Poland their own land), all the Balkans (except Greece and Turkey), Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Italy, even Albania and Tripoli - become socialist and joins Comintern. So, Italy - which never went to war, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romaina - my, albeit capitulated, but nevertheless allies, even Luxembourg, which was never under USSR control - all where the part of the peace deal. How - I have no idea.
But that's not the end of the story. Now I'm sitting here, alone in the faction - still at war with Japan and Manchuria (fun times, bodycount is literally 0-0). Germany is now GDR, and a part of Comintern - but hey, I can take them. I mean, it's not like defeating UK, US or Japan, with it's exhausting naval stuff. I start preparing for this new war. But the second magic happens - GDR demands Poland's land (I forgot the exact event text) - and Poland said, yeah, sure. Poof - Poland is gone, all it's land went to GDR. Okay, say I to myself, that's amusing. And then the third magic happens - Cthulu awakens. USA decides that it's high time to intervene in this European kerfuffle. USA stands against fascism - and in doing so, USA declares war on GDR (in hindsight - maybe they where guaranteeing now communist Poland? Dunno). And on the USSR too, since, ops, it's the same faction. Then USA, naturally, joins Allies and they all declare on USSR. Yay.
I haven't finished this game yet - I decided that was enough waiting, so I fabricated on GDR and promptly declared. Made them capitulate, but allowed Allies on my soil (mistake), but even without it they made a bunch of naval landings in Italy, Germany and in Baltic. So now the bordergore is painful not only ecstatically, but practically too - frontlines goes wild and some of the states are under Allies control (and since wars are separate I can't even try to ask for control). Half of the Italy (the right one, hilariously) is under British control, USA controls all of Yugoslavia, Danzig is under Sweden - and so on.
This is not the first wacky game I had, but this was a first in terms of how 'nice' AI was in regards to capitulated countries in other wars and how weird multiple wars could be.
On the endnote - this achievement is bad. It's not that hard - it's convoluted. Taking ALL of the Germany in a single peace conference means going non-democratic (to reduce cost in the peace deal), and even then it may not be enough to deter Allies OR USSR from having their slice of Germany. So you actively trying to wage war alone and even preventing other wars to be declared on Germany - which is practically impossible thing to do as France (while still having to go for Little Entente NF). Maybe I have to defeat Germany in 1938, but I never managed to do that in current game state. Failure to have all cores in a single deal would mean a second war - since afaik you need to OWN, not just control these cores. This, in turn, means war with either Allies (hey USA, love to invade your 500 divisons, 10mil manpower and 300 factories) or Comintern (love to invade USSR and going ALL the way up to Vladivostok). And if Japan joins the initial war - fun times again. Maybe I'm just incompetent player and missing something obvious. Like 'don't do achievements in PDX games' perhaps..
So, I tried to go for a 'Big Entente' achievement in non-DLC game. After a few tries I came to conclusion that I need to go communist in order to try and grab all needed land in a single peace deal, since if I don't - I have to go to war (and win) against the whole world, which is tedious and unfun. But you can't hire commie advisor if you went for little entente NF, so only way to go commie is through events and pray for a few semi-random events. All the while trying to build up stockpiles, troops and forts to withstand Axis assault.
I did all the said stuff, Sudeland crisis came, I came to the aid, all hell broke loose. Minors gone in seconds, but Italy stays out of the war - it's only me and (all capitulated) Czech, Yugoslavs and Romanians against Germany. Germany proceeds to eat Benelux, then bangs it's head on my extended Maginot line (lvl 7 forts are no joke). I patiently wait. Italy still not in the war. I wait to fill my stockpiles (mostly with AT and support equip).
After Benelux allies go for Germany, naturally. But Furer give no fks, he goes to war with Denmark. And then USSR. And still banging his head upon Maginot. USSR starts obliterating Germany. I still wait - now I feel like I have to wait for USSR-Germany war to end. Japan joins axis and declares on me. Oh, fun times. Germany falls like a sack of rotten fruits, with a nasty splash. I still wait, and here goes first fun bit - despite the fact that I am(faction leader) still here, USSR, having liberated Balkans, being true to history, decided - nah, they don't need their territory back, I need it more.
This goes on and finally Germany falls - Italy never even went to war. Peace conference starts, I even have some points - but way too little to grab all the cores, so I decide, AGAIN, I'll wait. I click done, without actually participation in peace deal. War ends - and now magic happens: every single country that USSR liberated from Germany - Poland (Molotov-Ribbentrop happened, so they gave this Poland their own land), all the Balkans (except Greece and Turkey), Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Italy, even Albania and Tripoli - become socialist and joins Comintern. So, Italy - which never went to war, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romaina - my, albeit capitulated, but nevertheless allies, even Luxembourg, which was never under USSR control - all where the part of the peace deal. How - I have no idea.
But that's not the end of the story. Now I'm sitting here, alone in the faction - still at war with Japan and Manchuria (fun times, bodycount is literally 0-0). Germany is now GDR, and a part of Comintern - but hey, I can take them. I mean, it's not like defeating UK, US or Japan, with it's exhausting naval stuff. I start preparing for this new war. But the second magic happens - GDR demands Poland's land (I forgot the exact event text) - and Poland said, yeah, sure. Poof - Poland is gone, all it's land went to GDR. Okay, say I to myself, that's amusing. And then the third magic happens - Cthulu awakens. USA decides that it's high time to intervene in this European kerfuffle. USA stands against fascism - and in doing so, USA declares war on GDR (in hindsight - maybe they where guaranteeing now communist Poland? Dunno). And on the USSR too, since, ops, it's the same faction. Then USA, naturally, joins Allies and they all declare on USSR. Yay.
I haven't finished this game yet - I decided that was enough waiting, so I fabricated on GDR and promptly declared. Made them capitulate, but allowed Allies on my soil (mistake), but even without it they made a bunch of naval landings in Italy, Germany and in Baltic. So now the bordergore is painful not only ecstatically, but practically too - frontlines goes wild and some of the states are under Allies control (and since wars are separate I can't even try to ask for control). Half of the Italy (the right one, hilariously) is under British control, USA controls all of Yugoslavia, Danzig is under Sweden - and so on.
This is not the first wacky game I had, but this was a first in terms of how 'nice' AI was in regards to capitulated countries in other wars and how weird multiple wars could be.
On the endnote - this achievement is bad. It's not that hard - it's convoluted. Taking ALL of the Germany in a single peace conference means going non-democratic (to reduce cost in the peace deal), and even then it may not be enough to deter Allies OR USSR from having their slice of Germany. So you actively trying to wage war alone and even preventing other wars to be declared on Germany - which is practically impossible thing to do as France (while still having to go for Little Entente NF). Maybe I have to defeat Germany in 1938, but I never managed to do that in current game state. Failure to have all cores in a single deal would mean a second war - since afaik you need to OWN, not just control these cores. This, in turn, means war with either Allies (hey USA, love to invade your 500 divisons, 10mil manpower and 300 factories) or Comintern (love to invade USSR and going ALL the way up to Vladivostok). And if Japan joins the initial war - fun times again. Maybe I'm just incompetent player and missing something obvious. Like 'don't do achievements in PDX games' perhaps..
