Who will you play as first, and what will your strategy be?

[Sleight of Hand]

Hey guys,

So, having seen today's World War Wednesday video and some of the older Dev Diary screenshots, it does seem that the major powers are going to get genuine variety in terms of what kind of overall strategy they can decide on.

For those who haven't seen the national focus trees, here are some examples:

United States
Great Britain (poor quality image)
France
Germany
Italy
Soviet Union

As you can see, the majors (only Japan has yet to be seen) have a lot of options to play with, and you can veer off the historical path either slightly or totally, which looks like it will be great fun.

My question is, which of these national focus' have piqued your interest? What ideas do you have for your first game? Personally, I am very keen to try swinging France further to the left, throwing everything behind the socialists in Spain and then focusing on joining Comintern. Hopefully that will allow for a major continental ally against Germany, whilst still (hopefully) maintaining good relations with Great Britain.

Though not a major power, I also think Turkey should be very interesting. Even with the generic national focus tree, I'm sure they will be able to build up, bide their time, and then throw their lot in with whichever side looks like it's winning -- hopefully restoring some old Ottoman territories along the way!

What do you guys have in mind?

 

[WSnova]

As a learning game, I guess I will go for Germany. My strategy will be to follow what they did, not get dragged into the Balkans by Italy and get owned by the USSR.

I may try something more exotic later on

 

[Oakfan]

Germany

Proabably Rhineland at first. For me, learning how the game works will best be done with a major that is not going to war right away imho.

 

[TheMoha]

i have very low experience in hoi series but i always like to rise the bar so am thinking minor nation and i prefer to join the comms with (saudi arabia ?)
maybe.
hmmmm

 

[Oakfan]

i have very low experience in hoi series but i always like to rise the bar so am thinking minor nation and i prefer to join the comms with (saudi arabia ?)
maybe.
hmmmm

Take advise from a long time HOI player. Start with a major nation before you get into a minor nation if you have little to no experience with the HOI series. You learn the inner working of the game. And in my opinion, minor factions are harder to play successfully.

 

[Mac Lazer]

I'm going to play a game as USA to really get to understand how game works, so that wouldn't really count.

My first REAL playthrough, I will probably do United Kingdom and play with the Air Force and Navy, and try to save France from certain defeat. After that, it's onto Germany!

 

[Wing_008]

its Japan for me, i like the Navy, and even though the UK has a mighty navy, its very different on how its used compared to the IJN.
my strategy wont be very different than in HOI 3, expand into china, join the axis, seize the east Indies for oil, and then when properly prepared, attack the U.S, i love how the game suddenly escalates when at war with the us, they can throw a serious amount of men and material, but still, i always bring honour and glory to the Emperor

 

[CV10]

I will play as the USA 1st, in order to learn the new game mechanics.As for my 1st "true" game, I will play as Australia and try to build a navy that help the British knock the stuffing out of the Italians, and then be withdrawn to the Pacific to fend off the Japanese. Australia has lots of potential to help out a lot, but not do anything too outlandish.

 

[Lither]

Australia
See if minors are any better, learn the ropes and do it in a way that won't hugely impact the war if I screw up.

 

[nuzor]

How i would love to pick my country (The Netherlands) but knowing how hard it probably will be ill skip it and not pick it as my first game. UK might be a tad to extensive at first but i as im really into Naval history and technology it will be a big option. Most likely ill as pretty much alot of people will pick Germany to learn the game.

 

[aceflamingo23]

USA and go hood on da axis and cominterm

 

[Aleks S. I]

Depending on if I jump straight into multiplayer or not, I'll either try to do a Eurasia conquest as the USSR in singleplayer, or an axis world conquest game as Italy if I'm going straight into MP.

 

[jamesd]

Germany - and my initial goal will be to get to 60 or 70 divisions ASAP so as to integrate Austria and gain the early use of its factories.

 

[Amur_Tiger]

Depends a fair bit on how well they've done with Naval construction/development, if they do well I'll probably do UK first, otherwise a USSR game.

 

[Caesar15]

I was thinking of going as Germany and not taking all of Czechoslovakia in the hopes that the allies will ignore me while I focus on the Soviet Union.

 

[Axe99]

'Straya for me, a good game to play a secondary role and see how the AI takes to the new mechanics, but with enough action that it's not dull .

 

[AlfredMV]

Obviously I'm playing Switzerland first, neutrality ftw! Gonna learn to play and freely trade with everyone, lend lease to all, and send volunteers wherever their hearts desire! Switzerland!

 

[dragoon9105]

Since I tend to like pain, and its become a tradition at this point. A Minor, probably Greece. Gonna try and remove the Turks and claim glorious constantinople for the Hellenic Empire. Then Beg Germany not to murder me, probably.

 

[MajorHeartfire]

If HOI 4 is anything like HOI 3 then Germany will be the perfect learning game. It will slowly introduce me to the concept of warfare as calculated by HOI 4, and different ways to gain resources.

Germany can also be very fun if you decide to take it down a more ahistorical path. What if I want to go invade Scandinavia and puppet those regimes to assist with an invasion of the Soviet Union later on? What if I immediately decide to move into the Balkans to fix my oil shortages? Of course, this is all predicated that I can successfully finish a basic game as Germany first. Just replicating what the Nazis did will be hard enough I imagine - even with the game engine bent to accommodate their crazy luck and success until the mid 40s.

 

[overthewall]

Definitely Yugoslavia, especially if internal politics & minor nation rework is done well.