Yet another "what if": Japan

[Amur_Tiger]

Well there's going to be a lot of loose ends in this but one thing is for certain, if Germany fails to attack Poland in 1939 it's economy will collapse in 1940.

Put simply the German economy depended on a degree of imports to keep it going, grow the economy ( as Hitler did, mainly through military spending ) and it'll need more resources. This was balanced in part by an expansion of exports but frankly the export end of things never kept up and the German economy steadily ran down it's hard currency reserves. Sooner or later these things come to a head and German invasions weren't that far ahead of their own insolvency, cancel the Polish invasion and that insolvency will catch up and there goes the German economy.

 

[The_Meme_Man]

If Germany doesn't do anything, Japan would probably just eat what they wanted from China and end there. How many people besides the Americans cared (enough to do something) about what happened to China as long as Japan wasn't threatening western colonial rule?

Europe was still hurt from WWI. In Asia, it was 19th century "business as usual". I think the war completely depended on the actions of Germany and the USSR to really be the feared World War (unless America's decolonization appetite hit radical levels, which would never happen realistically)

 

[Mannstien]

It would be interesting to see and perhaps I shall try in my first game as Japan to just go after the Colony's of the Allies and leave the US out of it for as long as possible and possibly just leaving the Chinese Mainland alone.

 

[The_Meme_Man]

It would be interesting to see and perhaps I shall try in my first game as Japan to just go after the Colony's of the Allies and leave the US out of it for as long as possible and possibly just leaving the Chinese Mainland alone.

You might actually get help from America in that scenario, due to warplan red.

 

[CrasherZZ]

HoI games probably wouldn't exist without Germany starting WW2.

I imagine that the SU and Nazis would tangle somewhere in Eastern Europe eventually. With no powerful allies Japan would stick to dominating China. Japan's biggest threat was the SU, so it was the most interested in an anti-Comintern pact. Therefore Japan will not attack the US or Allies because there would have been no embargo against them.

Germany would ditch Nationalist China for the benefit of drawing Japan into an anti-Comintern pact. China might side with the SU as a result, but not actually join the Comintern. Germany could try to broker peace between Japan and China in order to get them both into an anti-Comintern stance. The US would stay neutral since it would have no dog in that fight.

The Allies would prefer neutrality in the case of a Germany/Japan versus SU conflict unless their colonies were directly threatened or the SU looks like they are going to defeat Germany/Japan. The Allies send lend lease to whichever side is losing the war. It's dangerous for the Allies for one side to conquer the other although they probably dislike the Comintern more than the Axis. Italy stays neutral like Natonalist Spain but aids Germany if they need help.

Most likely the major war ends in truce, armistice or conditional surrender. The end result of all the war and bloodshed is a non-communist China and non wartorn France, Japan, and Italy.

Just my 2 cents...