| 1 | In ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron'', you take control of one of a myriad of countries that existed during the timeframe of the games (typically 1936 to 1948, with ''Hearts of Iron II'' extending to 1964, and ''Darkest Hour'' gaining a World War I scenario from 1914-1920) In addition, you have the opportunity to bring political figures who may not have held power or failed in their attempt to, and change history with that leader in the helm. This page lists the historical figures that appear in ''Hearts of Iron'' and the tropes they are associated with. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ! Major powers |
| 6 | |
| 7 | [[folder:General]] |
| 8 | ---- |
| 9 | * DifficultButAwesome: Generally the democracies start with the "Great Depression" and cannot justify wars as easily or build up armies as fast, but if played correctly a democratic power will have a large industrial base combined with a powerful research branch by mid game. |
| 10 | * HistoricalBadassUpgrade: The Axis's relative industrial might is significantly inflated (or, you could argue, everyone else's is deflated) for the sake of gameplay - if the relative industrial might was portrayed more accurately, it would be unlikely that an AI-controlled Axis would get past France on its own, much less push deep into the Soviet Union. |
| 11 | ** In 4, This is largely due to the fact that all major fascist countries start with some degree of mobilization, which gives them access to not only more factories but also the ability to quickly make more of them. As if that isn't enough, all fascist countries can adopt a war economy as long as they have the war support and the point for it, while democracies can only do so if they're losing a war badly. The Allied may start with more factories as per history, but most of them are put toward producing consumer goods while the fascists are free to use them for industrialization from day one, allowing them to vastly outstrip the Allied by mid to late game. |
| 12 | * InSpiteOfANail: The United Kingdom and France can still wind up in the same faction if they both go communist or if France goes communist while the UK stays Democratic, since the UK can invite France and the Benelux countries to it's faction if it creates an alternative to the [=ComIntern=], provided that the 4 countries in question[[note]]France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands[[/note]] are also communist, and in the case of the latter, communist France has the option of allying with a Democratic UK if they go down the "Anti-Fascist Coalition" branch of their focus tree. And of course, there's nothing stopping a Communist United States from joining this faction, either[[note]]the US has a spirit that prevents them from joining a faction led by a country of a different ideology, meaning they can't join the Allies led by a Democratic United Kingdom[[/note]]. |
| 13 | ** If Edward VIII comes to power, but opts to go with a Morganic Marriage as opposed to a Royal marriage and finds itself at war with Germany, should Germany strategic bomb London, an event will fire off, resulting in Edward being killed and George VI becoming king. Similarly, George VI will still die and his daughter Elizabeth II will become queen. |
| 14 | * VillainsActHeroesReact: Generally the democracies cannot initiate wars of unchecked aggression and can only get involved in defensive wars until mid-to-late game |
| 15 | [[/folder]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | [[folder:United Kingdom]] |
| 18 | ! United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| 19 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/StanleyBaldwin |
| 20 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 21 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Union of Britain (Communist), The British Empire (Fascist), Great Britain (Neutral) |
| 22 | ->'''Can Form:''' European Union (Fascist), Franco-British Union, Imperial Federation |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ->''Although the United Kingdom emerged victorious from the Great War, the foundation of its great empire was shaken to its core. A generation of the country's finest were lost in the trenches of Flanders and Northern France, while unrest spread throughout the Commonwealth and massive debts accrued.'' |
| 25 | |
| 26 | ->''With the trauma of the last war still in fresh memory, the country now faces the prospect of another. It is becoming increasingly clear that there will be no Peace for Our Time.'' |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | * AbdicateTheThrone: As in RealLife, Edward VIII can abdicate in order to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. This can be prevented however. |
| 30 | * AdaptationalWimp: In-game, landing a successful naval invasion on the British Isles causes the UK to fold like a poorly-stacked house of cards in almost every circumstance. In real life, the British would have fought relentlessly to prevent a home invasion, which is why a lot of hypothetical estimates of the outcome of Germany's Operation Sealion[[note]]A planned invasion of the UK that was obviously never executed due to the ''entire British home defense navy'' stopping the Germans from ever even considering a land invasion[[/note]] almost always result in catastrophic German losses which [[PyrrhicVictory turn out to make having defeated the UK not worth it]]. |
| 31 | * BalkanizeMe: The Man the Guns DLC allows for the decolonization of the British Empire, and going communist allows you to force other countries to follow suit. |
| 32 | ** On top of there being a setting now to start the game liberating their colonies, or releasing Scotland, Ireland and Wales. |
| 33 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Starts with the "Fleet in Being" Naval Doctrine. |
| 34 | * FailureIsTheOnlyOption: If the player attempts to go communist, they ''must'' decolonize within 2 years of flipping ideologies - if the player opts not to, or instead attempts to form the Imperial Federation, they will get a civil war. [[TakeAThirdOption However, this civil war is not entirely unwinnable, especially in the hands of a skilled player.]] |
| 35 | * TheFederation: The player can choose to form the ahistorical but legitimately proposed Imperial Federation, which allows the UK to annex all their dominions and India (and the US if they own it) and gain cores on them, giving them a big boost in the fight against the Axis. |
| 36 | * TheEmpire: Going Fascist or Monarchist is designed to lead to the already sizable British Empire vastly increasing in size and attempting to TakeOverTheWorld. Not only can they form the aforementioned Imperial Federation, but they get focuses that give them war goals on the faction leader of every opposing major faction, allowing them to decimate any other contenders for world domination with a little preparation. |
| 37 | * TheLeader: At the start of the game, is leader of both the Allies Faction and of UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealthOfNations, with the various Dominions starting as puppets of the United Kingdom. With the ''Man the Guns'' DLC, a British player can form the Imperial Federation, essentially a centralized version of the Commonwealth. |
| 38 | * SecretCharacter: George VI and Elizabeth II can become leaders of a Monarchist United Kingdom, provided that during the abdication crisis, a Morganic Marriage is chosen as a compromise, the [=UK=] later finds itself at war with Germany, and the Germans bomb London. An event will fire off, where Edward VIII is killed, and George will be sworn in. George will later die of natural causes, and Elizabeth will take over. |
| 39 | * TheStrategist: Starts with the Grand Battleplan Doctrine. |
| 40 | * TakeOverTheWorld: While it's possible for ''any'' nation to do this if a player is skilled enough, the United Kingdom's Fascist path is arguably ''designed'' for this purpose. Not only does doing so give the player the shared conquest branch with the monarchist path, which grants them cores on Ireland and (after forming the Imperial Federation) the United States[[note]]provided the Dominion of North America is formed[[/note]] - and also cores on Polynesia and Mutapa should New Zealand and South Africa form both, respectively - but doing so also allows for the UK to form the ''European Union'' afterwards. If the UK does manage to pull this off, it becomes a question of "when", not "if", the player is able to take over the world. There's even an achievement for conquering the entire world as the UK, and while it doesn't specifically require the UK, there's also another achievement for making the entire world fascist, which a world conquest counts as. |
| 41 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: One perfectly viable option for the UK is to actually ''delete almost all their capital ships'' at the start of the game, as doing so will not only let them force the other signatories of the London Naval treaty[[note]]the US, Italy, France, and Japan[[/note]] to do the same or risk war with the UK, it also allows for them to force other nations that weren't signatories to sign the treaty. |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:France]] |
| 45 | ! French Third Republic |
| 46 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Pierre Laval |
| 47 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 48 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' French Commune (Communist), Nation Française (Fascist), Vichy France (Fascist, if formed by Germany), Orleanist France (Non-Aligned, Orléans monarchy), Bourbon France (Non-Aligned, Bourbon monarchy), French Empire (Non-Aligned, Bonaparte monarchy) |
| 49 | ->'''Can Form:''' European Union (Democratic), Franco-British Union, Kingdom of Franco-Spain |
| 50 | |
| 51 | ->''Despite the devastation of the Great War, France has been on the road to recovery thanks to a strong economy. However, the Depression has still affected the country and the new German regime has no interest in paying the war reparations stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles.'' |
| 52 | |
| 53 | ->''When the treaty was signed, a French marshal famously remarked that it was not peace, but an armistice of 20 years. Those 20 years are now rapidly running out.'' |
| 54 | |
| 55 | ---- |
| 56 | * BalkanizeMe: The Man the Guns DLC allows for the decolonization of the French Empire. The 1.9.1 Patch furthers this by allowing players to release Brittany, Occitania and Corsica. Conversely, in the La Resistance DLC, if France restores the Bonapartes, it can balkanize Germany with the focus "Disunite Germany". |
| 57 | * CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Historically was one of the major wars that gave them this stereotype. {{Enforced|Trope}} by giving France particularly low national unity before IV phased that out and a special low surrender threshold afterwards (most countries will not capitulate until 80% of their victory points are occupied, but France has a national spirit that causes them to surrender once they lose 30% of their victory points, such as by the occupation of Paris). Can be averted however if played correctly. In fact an in-game achievement requires you to make it to the very end of the game (1948) without ever surrendering or capitulating. |
| 58 | * DevelopersForesight: Because the focus branch that removes France's Full Employment Debuff[[note]]which gives them a whopping -25% recruitable population debuff[[/note]] requires France to give Algerians citizenship[[note]]if the player opts to do Strengthen the Little Entente instead of the historical path or changing ideologies, they can implement a guest worker program instead[[/note]], should the player have Algeria released as a puppet before finishing the focus, France will annex Algeria upon completion of the first focus, the Blum-Violette Proposal. |
| 59 | * EnemyCivilWar: In IV, should France choose to go to war with Germany over the remilitarization of the Rhineland, and still retain the Disjointed Government National Spirit. There would be a 20% chance that French Communists would rise up and begin a Civil War. And that's not even going into what happens when France capitulates to Germany as per RealLife. |
| 60 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Starts with the "Fleet in Being" Naval Doctrine. |
| 61 | * InSpiteOfANail: Even if France and the [=UK=] are allied and fighting against a restored German Empire, Vichy France (or an equivalent of it) can still be formed if the German Empire capitulates France before Britain. |
| 62 | * TheLeader: Can serve as the leader of the Little Entente, an alliance that historically fell apart in the early 30s due to the rise of Nazi Germany. Conquering all of Germany's lands with this alliance is required for an achievement. |
| 63 | ** La Resistance can also serve to make France the leader of their own faction regardless of their alignment. Although the Little Entente is a viable option, among other things, they can go from taking over leadership of the Allies from Great Britain, to crystalizing the Stresa Front with Italy, to forming their own blocs under Communist (Paris Accord), Fascist (Latin Entente), or Monarchist path. (Anti-Fascist Bloc, Legitimist Alliance & Confederation du Rhein for the Orleanists, Legitimists & Bonapartists respectively) |
| 64 | * LesCollaborateurs: Vichy France, should Germany decide to form it. You can also play as them, if you choose to do so. |
| 65 | * LuckBasedMission: France can declare the French Union and hold referendums in its colonies where they either stay and become full cores or demand independence and gain a huge increase to resistance target. The results of this are purely random (25% North Africa stays, 45% chance each that Central and Western Africa stay, 15% chance that Syria stays, and 5% chance that Indochina stays), but if all the dice rolls line up, France can have over 300 million core population, or if all the rolls fail, France can be left with only what is in Metropolitan France. |
| 66 | * MountainMan: In ''Their Finest Hour'', France can recruit the Alpins, a defensive-focused mountain/arctic infantry formed to counter the Italian Alpinis, which also function as their unique EliteMooks. |
| 67 | * OmnicidalNeutral: The Bonapartist branch of the focus tree in La Resistance expansion results in France fighting the leaders of all three main factions. |
| 68 | * PressXToDie: If Germany goes down it's historical path, France has the option of mobilizing in response to Germany remilitarizing the Rhineland[[note]]they also have the option of refusing to hand over the Sudetenland to Germany, and if Germany restores the Kaiserreich, mobilizing to stop the return of Kaiser Wilhelm II[[/note]]. As the remilitarization is literally the first focus Germany will take on historical, if France remilitarizes and Germany does not back down, France will immediately break out into a civil war[[note]]said civil war is caused by stability getting below 30% due to the Political Violence Spirit; if said spirit is removed - which can be done either through a focus or by getting Stability above 70% - the player won't have to worry about a civil war[[/note]], meaning the player will be fighting a 2 front war[[note]]if France does mobilize, the British have the option of mobilizing as well[[/note]]. On the flipside, if Germany backs down, not only does the Rhineland remain demilitarized, but the Germans get hit with a nasty debuff to stability and war support for a year, which also prevents them from advancing in their political tree[[note]]if Germany opts to compromise and put Wilhelm III on the throne, they'll also get this debuff, but it won't lock them out of their political focuses[[/note]]. |
| 69 | * RightfulKingReturns: The La Resistance DLC adds a monarchist path to France, which, due to the complex history of monarchism in France, plays this trope straight in all of its cases. |
| 70 | ** The Orléanist path installs Jean III [[note]] Historically Prince Jean, Duke of Guise, the great-grandson of Louis Philippe, the last King of France and descendant of Louis XIII upon his shared claim from the Legitimists.[[/note]] as King of France, and is a more democratically-aligned path among the non-aligned path, attempting to placate the people by granting constitutional freedoms, building infrastructure, and creating an Anti-Fascist Bloc aimed towards toppling Nazi Germany & Fascist Italy. |
| 71 | ** The Legitimist path installs Alphonse I, formerly King Alfonso XIII of Spain, as King of France. [[note]] He, along with all members of the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon, are all descendants of Louis XIV. Alphonse being, since the death of Alfonso Carlos or Charles XII upon Legitimist circles, the absolute head of the House of Capet, of whom all members of the House of Bourbon are descended from.[[/note]] His path calls upon using France to restore his claims to Spain, and upon achieving this, either establishing two separate kingdoms under personal union, or convert the two into a political union, the United Kingdom of France & Spain. |
| 72 | ** The Bonapartist path installs Napoleon VI as Emperor of the French. [[note]] He is the grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte, the former King of Westphalia, and also the cousin of the last reigning Emperor, Napoleon III, and great-grandnephew of the legendary Napoleon[[/note]] His path is the more expansionist of the three, as it revolves around reconquering the Low Countries, avenging their defeat at Waterloo by waging war with the British and the Dutch, reestablishing the Confederation of the Rhine by dismembering Germany, and ultimately achieve the one thing even Napoleon I failed to do, conquer Russia. Success in the latter objective serves as an achievement. |
| 73 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: Should the British accept it, you can opt to let your country's remnants be absorbed into Britain and become the Franco-British Union, instead of choosing to fight as Free France or Vichy France. [[note]] A case of TruthInTelevision, as such a union nearly did happen in the days leading up to France's capitulation. But the refusal of the French Cabinet, who wanted an armistice, led to Paul Reynaud's resignation, and the scuttling of the project. It should be noted that this wasn't the first attempt and wouldn't be the last of such an attempt taking place.[[/note]] |
| 74 | ** France is one of six potential countries that can form the UsefulNotes/EuropeanUnion. |
| 75 | * StoneWall: Generally, the limited manpower and factories (plus land fort construction buffs) forces the players to adopt this strategy. |
| 76 | * TheRemnant: Should France capitulate to Germany, France can choose to fight on from lands not awarded to Vichy France, should Germany choose to form it. |
| 77 | * TheStrategist: Starts with the Grand Battleplan Land Doctrine. |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:United States of America]] |
| 81 | ! United States of America |
| 82 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt |
| 83 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 84 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Constitutionalists (Democratic, civil war), Communist States of America (Communist), Free American Empire (Fascist), Loyalists (Non-Aligned, civil war) |
| 85 | |
| 86 | ->''The United States retreated back into isolation at the end of the last war and enjoyed a period of economic prosperity during the Roaring Twenties. This came to a dramatic end when the nation was gripped by the Great Depression.'' |
| 87 | |
| 88 | ->''America's policy of non-intervention in foreign wars has stood firm, but tensions are rising in both Europe and Asia. The 'Great Neutral' may find itself drawn into the maelstrom whether it wants to or not.'' |
| 89 | |
| 90 | ---- |
| 91 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: The majority of the US's focuses in ''IV'' which require a majority approval in Congress will continue and finish after they are started even if they no longer meet the requirements during completion, so that you don't get screwed over by a RandomEvent shifting Congress' political landscape just enough that you can't complete the focus without doing some lobbying. |
| 92 | * AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: {{Lampshaded}}. The US starts the game with "The Great Depression" that cripple its war effectiveness, but can activate "The Giant Wakes" to rev up its war economy if world tension rises. |
| 93 | ** The US starts off with a unique economic law on both start dates - ''Undisturbed Isolation'' on the 1936 start date, and ''Isolation'' on the 1939 start date - and both are worse than the basic Civilian Economy law. A perfectly viable option to remove it is to have a ''civil war'', as one of the requirements that allows the player to change it is to be at war - and as it just so happens, both the fascist and communist alternate history paths can trigger one. |
| 94 | * AmericaWonWorldWarII: Depending on player/AI actions this can occur. |
| 95 | * DiscOneNuke: On the 1939 start date, the Panay Incident serves as this - because of how the game works, all the major events that would normally happen before the 1939 start date will fire off at the start of a game if said start date is chosen. The Panay Incident is unique in that it lets the US immediately get a war goal on Japan, which immediately allows for the US to remove their harsh economic debuff [[note]]multiplayer games will outright require the US to demand compensation from the Japanese player because of how broken of an option this is[[/note]]. Given that the Japanese AI will usually be focused on invading China, it's very easy to capitulate Japan ''before'' the historical Day of Infamy. |
| 96 | * DoubleStandard: A player controlling one of the South American countries will quickly notice that turning Fascist will prompt little to no response from the American government, but going Communist will have them [[DirtyCommunists immediately embargo you and be much more partial toward enforcing the Monroe Doctrine to keep you from expanding]]. Obviously, this one is very much TruthInTelevision, as America considered Communism to be a greater threat in South America even long before the start of the Cold War. |
| 97 | * FaceHeelTurn: In the fascist focus route, America goes from the Arsenal of Democracy to an oppressive state that has turned back the clock on civil rights about a hundred years and is bent on world conquest. |
| 98 | * HistoricalVillainUpgrade: |
| 99 | ** While UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur is a polarizing figure, him being able to be the leader of a fascist United States is a step further than even his harshest critics would be likely to accuse him of being willing to do. |
| 100 | ** Weirdly enough, the UsefulNotes/AmeliaEarhart joining event tends to fire around the time of a 2nd American Civil War, making her extremely likely to fight for the CSA/Fascist America. |
| 101 | * MechanicallyUnusualFighter: In ''IV'', some decision, focuses, and events alter how much support congress gives to the government, and some focuses have a minimum support level as prerequisite. There's other playable democratic countries, but the US is the only one which gameplay attempts to simulate a parliamentary system. |
| 102 | * MoreDakka: The only Major country in the game to start off with the "Superior Firepower" Land Doctrine, which could be defined as this trope with Artillery in places, or choosing to increase the capabilities of support companies. |
| 103 | * OfferedTheCrown: If a Non-Aligned United Kingdom is able to defeat the United States, they have the option of restoring it as the ''United Kingdom of America'' to be ruled by Edward VIII's wife, Wallis Simpson, as Wallis I. |
| 104 | * PaperTiger: While the US has a massive industrial might and large potential to take over the world [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant once properly motivated]]... [[MagikarpPower early on it's rather weak]]. While two oceans and its large navy protect it from naval invasions (thus preventing Germany, Italy, and Japan from rushing it early on), should it find itself fighting a land war within the first few years in the game, that's a different story. This can be averted, however, if the player diverts from the historic path. |
| 105 | * {{Ranger}}: ''Their Finest Hour'' adds the US Army Rangers as America's special unit. |
| 106 | * SecondAmericanCivilWar: With the ''Man the Guns'' DLC for ''IV'', the USA must go through a second Civil War to complete an ideology change to fascism or communism. |
| 107 | * SemperFi: The United States can build Marine divisions just like everyone else, and there's a focus dedicated to expanding the USMC in ''IV.'' |
| 108 | * SecretCharacter: It's entirely possible for '''Adolf Hitler''' to lead the United States should they go fascist[[note]]specifically, Germany has to overthrow Hitler and restore the Kaiserreich; even if that does happen, the event that has Hitler flee to the US instead of Greece or Argentina has a very small chance of firing[[/note]], albeit wearing a PaperThinDisguise as "Adam Hilt". |
| 109 | * ScienceHero: The U.S. starts the game with 4 research slots... then gains 2 more via focus, and can form research agreements with the British, Soviets and Mexico. |
| 110 | * TakeOverTheWorld: |
| 111 | ** The foreign policy for a fascist America focuses pretty much entirely on picking fights with just about everyone and leveraging America's vast industrial might to conquer the world. |
| 112 | ** The way events & focuses fire as of the Hearts of Iron 4 La Resistance DLC, can result in the United States being capable of going to war in the late 30's, and quickly taking over so much of the planet that it makes a world takeover inevitable as it leaves just the Axis & China as the only major powers remaining, while remaining Democratic itself. If you combine all these events, the United States will own all of North America, Japan, the United Kingdom, possibly Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, various Pacific & Caribbean islands, all of the Soviet Union, with enough factories that it can easily outproduce and annihilate China and the Axis in rapid time. It's possible to get all this done by the early 1940s. |
| 113 | * WarForFunAndProfit: Defied by a historical US, as they will deliberately pass the Neutrality Act to prevent companies from selling weapons to the European powers like in World War 1. Of course, later on when the US itself joins the war, they can use it to jumpstart their meandering economy. |
| 114 | [[/folder]] |
| 115 | |
| 116 | [[folder:German Reich]] |
| 117 | ! German Reich |
| 118 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler |
| 119 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Fascist |
| 120 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' German Republic (Democratic), Socialist Republic of Germany (Communist), German Military Junta (Non-Aligned, if the Nazi Party is deposed in a civil war), German Empire (Non-Aligned, monarchist) |
| 121 | ->'''Can Form:''' Greater German Reich, Holy Roman Empire (Non-Aligned, monarchist under Victoria Louise), European Union (Democratic) |
| 122 | |
| 123 | ->''A new Germany has risen. Three years have passed since the Weimar Republic was dismantled and replaced by Hitler's Third Reich. Economic stability has returned after the trying years of the Great Depression, and mass unemployment has been dealt with.'' |
| 124 | |
| 125 | ->''The military restrictions imposed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty are long forgotten, and the Wehrmacht grows stronger by the day. Another Weltkrieg is on the horizon.'' |
| 126 | |
| 127 | ---- |
| 128 | * ArtisticLicenseHistory: In ''II'' and ''III'', Germany's head of government is Rudolf Hess (and later Martin Bormann). In reality, Germany's head of government was the ''Reichskanzler,'' meaning that Hitler was at once the head of state and the head of government. |
| 129 | * BalkanizeMe: Even aside from the historical post-war division of Germany, with the La Resistance DLC, Napoleonic France can dissolve Germany into its various pre-unification states. |
| 130 | * {{Cincinnatus}}: If the Military Junta wins the German Civil War, von Mackensen will always step down as soon as a new government is formed. |
| 131 | * DevelopersForesight: Because the Hindenburg disaster would essentially ruin the player's chances of reforming the Holy Roman Empire[[note]]the reason for this is that the event that puts Victoria III in charge requires the Hindenburg to exist[[/note]], should Germany take the focus "Oppose Hitler", they will have the option to tighten air regulations, which will always avert the Hindenburg disaster if it's taken before the disaster[[note]]the disaster can't fire off if Germany or the United States are at war, or if it's before or after the time range of May 5 1937 - May 5 1939[[/note]]. |
| 132 | ** The focus ''Around Maginot'' will normally grant Germany a war goal on the Benelux countries. However, if one of those countries is fascist, the country in question will instead get an event where Germany demands subjugation. |
| 133 | ** Should Poland have a civil war break out before Germany can do Danzig or War (and the war is ongoing when the focus finishes), they will instead assist the combatant who controls Danzig in return for the territory after finishing the war. If said combatant refuses to part ways with Danzig after the war, however, Germany will still attack them. |
| 134 | * EnemyCivilWar: Available with the ''Waking The Tiger'' expansion. Instead of opting to remilitarize the Rhineland, you can choose to oppose Hitler, bringing about various conservative groups under August von Mackensen to overthrow Hitler. |
| 135 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Should a restored German Empire choose to focus their efforts on defeating Britain and France, they can work on rebuilding the High Seas Fleet with modern battleships and battlecruisers.[[note]]Doing so is mutually exclusive with focusing on building up the [[SubmarinePirates U-Boat Fleet]].[[/note]] |
| 136 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: In-universe, the situation that the Oppose Hitler focus opts to go with is a concerted opposition by members of the Wehrmacht to Hitler's attempt to remilitarize the Rhineland. However, because of how demilitarization works in ''Hearts of Iron'', it's entirely possible for a player to remilitarize the Rhineland by going to war with another country before taking a political focus, and take Oppose Hitler after they've already done so. In fact, doing so is an entirely valid strategy, as remilitarizing the Rhineland through the focus lets the French and British attempt to keep it demilitarized by going to war[[note]]the AI will let you do the focus with only diplomatic objections unless you cause too much tension beforehand, in which case they can mobilize forces[[/note]]. |
| 137 | ** If the player sends the entire royal family to London as opposed to sending Victoria Louise before the rest of the family, when the family dies, Von Mackensen will take over. However, if the player plays until the event where he dies of old age, Wilhelm III (who should be dead) will still replace him. |
| 138 | * HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Historically, August von Mackensen supported the Nazi regime from the very beginning and received bribes from Hitler in exchange for his loyalty as early as 1935. While him leading an anti-Nazi revolt isn't ''completely'' unthinkable, [[note]]He objected to the murders of two generals during the Night of Long Knives and was critical of German war crimes in Poland[[/note]] he certainly wouldn't have helped create a parliamentary democracy in the same vein as the Weimar Republic, which he detested. |
| 139 | * HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Somewhat downplayed. Should Germany choose to overthrow Hitler, France and Britain will switch their trees to their ahistorical fascist, monarchist or communist paths[[note]]while it's hypothetically possible to wait for France and Britain to commit to an ideology if the player has historical AI turned on, France and Britain will take a relatively long time to commit to said historical path[[/note]]. This was intentionally done to prevent German players from making things too easy by keeping France and Britain hostile, if not wanting to go to war with you. |
| 140 | * InSpiteOfANail: Even if Germany overthrows Hitler, it's entirely possible for the country to wind up with the same territorial claims he made due to events and focuses - with the exceptions of Memel[[note]]can't be obtained by a democratic Germany[[/note]] and Luxembourg[[note]]not available if you go for the Central Powers[[/note]], all of the other claims Germany makes in it's historical focus tree can be obtained by both the Democratic and Monarchist paths. Specifically: |
| 141 | ** Austria, which is basically annexed at gunpoint through the Anschluss focus on the historical fascist path, can voluntarily hold a referendum with a very high chance of succeeding if it is in the same faction as Germany, provided Germany is Democratic or Non-Aligned, and Austria did not reform the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Interestingly, Austria can do this even if it's a puppet of Germany, or if Germany is also a puppet but in the same faction. |
| 142 | ** The Sudetenland (which Germany demands through a focus) can be also cored if Germany either re-establishes the Holy Roman Empire or if Czechoslovakia voluntarily surrenders it. |
| 143 | ** Memel can be demanded from Lithuania (or whoever holds Memel) if one goes monarchist. |
| 144 | ** Danzig (which Germany's demand for will normally be what kicks off [=WW2=] on historical) can be obtained on the monarchist path through a focus that gives Poland an un-revokable guarantee[[note]]unlike normal guarantees, Poland will call Germany in through an event that Germany can't refuse[[/note]] from Germany (but also gives Germany Poznan and Katowice), and the Democratic path can obtain it and the other 2 former German territories through an event if Poland and Germany are in the same faction, fighting the Soviet Union, and Poland comes close to capitulation. The Fascist path also has 3 alternate ways of obtaining the territory: |
| 145 | *** If they sign the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact and the Soviets are the ones to invade, they'll get the territory if the Soviets honor the deal (said deal will also grant them cores on the states). |
| 146 | *** If the player does a certain focus, they can also trade Poland Slovakia in return for the territory. |
| 147 | *** Lastly, if Poland goes fascist but opts to work with the Germans, the Polish will voluntarily part ways with not just Danzig, but also the other 2 states. |
| 148 | ** Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine (cored through the focus "Reintegrate Luxemburg and Alsace-Lorraine") can be cored by a Democratic Germany if it forms the European Union or a monarchist Germany if it forms the Holy Roman Empire; Luxembourg cannot be cored by a Central Powers Germany, but Alsace can through the focus "Reinstate Imperial Possessions". |
| 149 | * TheLeader: Leader of the Axis Faction at the start of the game. Alternatively, should they choose to restore the monarchy, they can either reform the Central Powers with Italy (after killing off Mussolini) and a revived Austria-Hungary under a Non-Aligned German Empire, or form the Central European Alliance with the nations of the Low Countries and all sovereign nations between Germany and the Soviet Union (under a Democratic German Empire). Should Germany put Victoria on the throne, it also has the option of forming it's own faction aimed at stopping the Soviet Union. |
| 150 | * NoSwastikas: Averted by some user-made modifications, though discussion of them is generally penalized on the official forums and After-Action Report writers often pixelate them if they're using such a mod. Played straight in "vanilla" II & III (which uses the Imperial tricolor) and Darkest Hour & IV (which uses a variant of the war flag with the Iron Cross in place of the swastika). |
| 151 | * PressXToDie: One of Germany's alternative history paths is the [[CommieNazis Berlin-Moscow Axis]], which will have Germany and the Soviet Union join the same faction. However, doing so will have the British get an event which will let them invite ''all'' democratic nations into the Allies, and also gives all other communist and fascist nations negative opinion multipliers towards the Germans and the Soviets, and makes it so that if either country gets into a war with another democracy, they practically fight at least half of the world. Predictably, this is either outright banned on multiplayer servers, or is allowed with significant caveats. |
| 152 | ** If Germany is denied the Sudetenland by the British, the Oster Conspiracy[[note]]a real life plot to overthrow Hitler, which did not succeed due to the Allies agreeing to give Germany the Sudetenland[[/note]] can fire off if Germany takes too long to win the war, which (at it's mildest) can result in an assassination attempt on Hitler's life, and at it's most drastic, can result in Hitler being assassinated and Germany having a ''civil war''. Similar to the Berlin Moscow Axis, multiplayer rules requiring the British to agree to the German demands exist because of this. |
| 153 | * RightfulKingReturns: Should Mackensen's Military Junta defeat the Nazis in the Civil War, they will choose to restore the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany monarchy]]. In what manner the monarchy can shape however differs. They could opt to establish a British-styled Constitutional Monarchy under the returning Wilhelm III, (who can create a defensive alliance in Central and Northern Europe to contain and eliminate communism in the Soviet Union and possibly France) or opt to restore the German Empire of old with either Wilhelm III or his father, the rather infamous Kaiser Wilhelm II as ruler (the latter being a more straighter example, this option allows for the restoration of the Central Powers, with the chance to restore German territories lost in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI in full, or opt to placate the British, going so far as to join the Allies, and direct their attention to defeating the Soviet Union, and possibly France.) |
| 154 | * LesCollaborateurs: If Germany remains fascist, it can take the “Form Reichskommissariats” focus to install semi-autonomous puppets in conquered territories [[note]] specifically Ukraine, Niederlande (Netherlands), Belgien-Nordfrankreich (northern France/Belgium), Ostland (the Baltic countries and Belarus) and Norwegen (Norway) [[/note]] |
| 155 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: Multiple Examples: |
| 156 | ** If Germany remains fascist and controls their core territories, while having control of Paris and France having capitulated or surrendered, then having conquered the states of Leningrad and Stalingrad, you can proclaim the Greater Germanic Reich, fulfilling Hitler's plans (in name at least) of forging a German nation spanning from the Low Countries to the Ural Mountains. |
| 157 | ** The UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire (which historically was disestablished in 1806 during UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars) can also be formed exclusively by Germany, but requires a lot of convoluted requirements to receive the decision, some of which would require a lot of luck to achieve. [[note]] Simply put, the German Military Junta must win the German Civil War, and the decision must be made to restore the Kaiserreich and Wilhelm II, however the Netherlands must refuse to extradite him, which would allow you to choose to bring back Wilhelm III as the new Kaiser instead. In addition, the Hindenburg disaster must be averted by sharpening air regulations. The focus "An Alliance in the Shade" and its prerequisites must be fulfilled. Doing so will give you three decisions that you must take, after which an event will launch where Great Britain proposes a royal ceremony to restore the titles. Victoria Louise must go ahead of the party to act as a liaison. The Kaiser would then die in an alternative Hindenburg crash, which would make Victoria the new Kaiserin. Afterwards it only requires the conquest of the Benelux countries, Bohemia, Austria, Switzerland, Alsace (in France) and Northern Italy to reform the HRE.[[/note]] |
| 158 | ** It is also one of six potential countries [[note]]Seven if you include West Germany[[/note]] that can form the UsefulNotes/EuropeanUnion should Germany choose to become Democratic. |
| 159 | * StateSec: In ''III'' and ''IV'', Nazi Germany can recruit Waffen-SS divisions which function as their unique EliteMooks. |
| 160 | * SubmarinePirates: Germany is the only country in the game to start out with the Trade Interdiction Naval Doctrine, which can be best described as this (with support also from a powerful surface fleet.) |
| 161 | * TankGoodness: The only country in the game to start out with the Mobile Warfare Land Doctrine, which prioritizes tanks for the purpose of Blitzkrieg. |
| 162 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: What's the best way to win the German Civil War in the "Oppose Hitler" branch of the focus tree? [[InSpiteOfANail Go to war with Poland first]]. Specifically, by manually justifying on them in 1936 rather than by the focus tree in 1939, as the Allies won't guarantee their independence that early in the game. When the civil war starts, all Polish territory will be in your hands rather than the fascists, and the AI will fracture its front line with you to focus on taking that territory. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder:Italy]] |
| 166 | ! Kingdom of Italy |
| 167 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini |
| 168 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Fascist |
| 169 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republican Italy (Democratic), Italian Union (Communist) |
| 170 | ->'''Can Form:''' European Union (Democratic), Roman Empire, Papal States |
| 171 | |
| 172 | ->''With the rise of Fascism, Italy has entered a new glorious era. Its forces are currently in the process of adding Ethiopia to the growing Italian colonial empire, but Mussolini's ambitions do not stop there.'' |
| 173 | |
| 174 | ->''Dominion over the Mediterranean has always been Italy's destiny, and a new order of things is taking shape in Europe. When the tidal wave of change arrives, Italy must find a place at its crest or risk being swept away.'' |
| 175 | |
| 176 | ---- |
| 177 | * ZeroPercentApprovalRating: The Balance of Power for Italy determines how much control Mussolini/any other single leader has versus the bureaucrats who actually run the country. If Mussolini does something that causes him to lose his subordinates' support (such as [[GeneralFailure massively cocking up in Ethiopia]] and causing Italy to lose a ''second'' war to [[EpicFail an agrarian African nation with next to no military industry]] or losing Italian core states), it can be the exact impetus for either the Grand Council of Fascism to oust the Duce and replace him with someone else, or for the disgruntled Italian people to rise up against the Fascist government. |
| 178 | * AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: Much like in real life, Italy has the ''potential'' to become a European superpower if it has a chance to build up its military industry, modernize its army and expand its territory without interruption. However, if they get pulled into a World War much earlier than they had reasonably accounted for [[TruthInTelevision as in real life]], all bets are off. |
| 179 | * ButtMonkey: Unfortunately, AI Italy tends to end up becoming this. They don't make very good divisions, completely forego tank production, their navy tends to get blown out of the water fairly quickly, any conquests they do make in France or Yugoslavia tends to be overwritten by Germany, and their shore defenses fall incredibly quickly if they're at war with the Soviet Union. The biggest thing they have going for them is their large starting army size, and their tendency to [[SummonBiggerFish join the Axis and invite Germany]] if you're at war with them before they do the Pact of Steel (or Japan if they've signed the Tripartite Pact). |
| 180 | * DifficultButAwesome: Reforming the Roman Empire. Not only is it tough as balls due to Italy's outdated and disorganized military, but it means you need to capitulate the UK, France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Greece ''and'' Turkey and be strategic enough in the peace deals/politically canny enough to take all of their Mediterranean states, but as a result you get cores on a ''massive'' amount of Europe and North Africa, allowing Italy to either go toe-to-toe with Germany or be a game-changer in the fight with Russia. |
| 181 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Starts with the "Fleet in Being" Naval Doctrine. |
| 182 | * TheEmpire: Mussolini has dreams of molding Italy into a powerful one of these, and it's up to the player to take on the task. You can either scale back his ambitions a little bit and control only the Adriatic coastline and parts of France as Greater Italy or attempt to dominate the whole of the Mediterranean and reform the Roman Empire as Mussolini frequently opined about. |
| 183 | * TheLeader: While Italy could join the Axis with Germany (as it did historically) you can also opt to form your own fascist faction, Novus Imperium Romanum, which can consist predominantly of fascist and non-aligned nations that were a part of the Roman Empire of old. |
| 184 | * MountainWarfare: In ''Their Finest Hour'', Italy can recruit the Alpini, an offensive-focused mountain/arctic infantry, which also function as their unique EliteMooks. |
| 185 | * NonstandardGameOver: Italy has a unique mechanic in ''IV'' where if it loses enough of its core states, then a Republican coalition junta (called "Regno del Sud" in-game) will rise up against Mussolini as what happened in real life. This means that Italy cannot afford to lose any of its home turf or it risks fracturing itself and essentially ensuring its demise. |
| 186 | * RightfulKingReturns: One of Italy's political paths is a restoration of an absolute monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel III, which can be done by overthrowing Mussolini. Also, he can become the leader of a democratic Italy this way. |
| 187 | * SequenceBreaking: The Italian civil war that is scripted to occur when Italy gets invaded is very finicky. Even if Germany is the one invading Mussolini, the resulting civil war would still see Mussolini ''on'' Germany's side fighting against the Italian Co-belligerent Army. |
| 188 | * TheStrategist: Starts with the Grand Battleplan Doctrine. |
| 189 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: Italy is one of the 6 countries capable of forming the European Union, and can also reform the Roman Empire. Interestingly, these are not mutually exclusive, meaning you can form both in the same game[[note]]specifically, the player has to go Democratic, but has to put the King in charge[[/note]]. |
| 190 | * TheTheocracy: Italy's hidden path is to re-establish the Papal States, which turns Italy into this. Interestingly, the player is still capable of reforming the Roman Empire, and there's even an achievement for doing so if you do so with the Pope in charge. |
| 191 | * TimedMission: |
| 192 | ** In a sense - the war with Ethiopia the player starts off in must be completed before Ethiopia can take the focus that allows Haile Selassie to seek exile in another country. If Ethiopia completes said focus but Italy capitulates them afterwards, Italy will be locked in what is essentially a ForeverWar until they capitulate the nation hosting Selassie - and the countries Ethiopia can seek exile in include Japan and the United States, neither of which Italy has any way of attacking or hope of defeating at that point. |
| 193 | ** Mussolini as a leader specifically has "Missions from the Duce" that he gives out sporadically, which are goals for improving the country (I.E. increasing the size of the army, pacifying occupied countries, improving the industrial base, etc.) that reward useful bonuses if the player manages to complete them before time runs out. |
| 194 | ** A player seeking to go down the communist route is on a tight timetable to bust out Antonio Gramsci if they want him as a leader or else he dies of various medical complications of his long imprisonment. |
| 195 | * [[UselessUsefulSpell Useless Useful Focus]]: The focus "Ethiopian War Logistics" is, in the long run, relatively worthless - as it only provides some additional logistics capacities to the starting Italian colonies that surround Ethiopia, more often than not, players will either let the Ethiopians take the victory points in those cities or just release them as puppets, allowing them to bypass the focus and gain access to the rest of the Italian industrial focus tree. |
| 196 | [[/folder]] |
| 197 | |
| 198 | [[folder:Japan]] |
| 199 | ! Empire of Japan |
| 200 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Emperor Hirohito |
| 201 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Fascist |
| 202 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' State of Japan (Democratic), Japanese People's Republic (Communist), Japanese Shogunate (Non-Aligned) |
| 203 | |
| 204 | ->''The Empire of Japan stands at a crossroads. Hokushin-ron, the Northern Expansion Doctrine, is favored by the Army and calls for an advance into Siberia. Nanshin-ron, the Southern Expansion Doctrine, is supported by the Navy and has the rich European colonies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific as its target.'' |
| 205 | |
| 206 | ->''And then, of course, there is always China. Japan possesses a formidable military, but its industries are starving for resources and time is running out. Which path to choose?'' |
| 207 | |
| 208 | ---- |
| 209 | * AdaptedOut: The Prime Ministers of Japan (ex: Fumimaro Konoe, Hideki Tojo) are notably absent from ruling[[note]]the obvious exception is if the player flips to Democracy, in which case, Tetsu Katayama - Japan's first postwar prime minister - will take over as leader[[/note]]. Likewise with the elections the country had in 1936 and 1937, given the country starts "Fascist No Elections" from the start. |
| 210 | * AlienSpaceBats: {{Downplayed|Trope}} - While it doesn't involve aliens or the supernatural, to call the Japanese communist path implausible is something of an understatement and it requires many people to act wildly out of character to happen, which is emphasized by the focus that starts it being called "The Unthinkable Option". Appropriately to its wild implausibility, actually making it happen is one of the most difficult things any major can do, on the level of trying to survive while going it alone as Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, or Poland, and the resulting Japanese People's Republic is in a ''much'' weaker position than Imperial Japan begins in due to the loss of about 2/3 of its army and navy and the loss of all territories outside of the Home Islands. Just getting back their starting territory and replacing their lost military is a difficult challenge. |
| 211 | * CivilWar: Going down the Communist or Democratic branches of the Political Tree will inevitably start a Civil War with the Fascist supporters in Japan. |
| 212 | * EliteMooks: The Imperial Guard in ''Their Finest Hour''. |
| 213 | * TheEmperor: Hirohito, naturally. |
| 214 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Japan starts with the Fleet in Being naval doctrine and further encourages ship-on-ship combat with the Supremacy of the Battlefleet and Ultimate Battleship focuses, which respectively give Japan a unique naval design company with even bigger boosts to capital ship armor and firepower than standard Atlantic Fleet Designers and the technology for superheavy battleships and puts two of them, one at 75% completion and the other at 50% completion, in their queue. |
| 215 | * HeelFaceTurn: |
| 216 | ** From the Allies' perspective, the Democratic route is this, as they put aside their visions of conquest and pursue global stability. |
| 217 | ** From Communist China's perspective, the Communist route is this, as Japan can go from their worst enemy to their greatest ally and ensure that the Chinese Communists successfully unify China into the People's Republic. |
| 218 | ** From the Axis' perspective, the fascist route is this, purging the Kodoha faction and doubling down on their imperialist ideals instead of uniting Asia under the guise of self determination |
| 219 | ** From Japan's own perspective, Following the Kodoha Faction is the extreme change from Chinese aggression to focusing on the Soviet Union |
| 220 | * TheLeader: Three of the four branches of the political tree can lead to Japan creating an alliance with it being the leader. Depending on the branch it can serve as the leader of the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (as it did historically), the Asian Communist Solidarity (as a Communist Japan) or the West Pacific Treaty Organization. (as a Democratic Japan) |
| 221 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Follow the Kodoha faction and you (as an Asian empire) can join the Berlin-Rome Axis. And should the Soviet Union opt to dismantle the communist system and become fascist, they can also be invited to the Berlin-Moscow Axis. |
| 222 | * PraetorianGuard: In ''Their Finest Hour'', Japan can recruit the Imperial Guard, which has jungle, mountain, amphibious and nighttime bonuses, who also function as their unique EliteMooks. |
| 223 | * TheStrategist: Start with the Grand Battleplan Land Doctrine. |
| 224 | * VestigialEmpire: In the Communist and Democratic routes, Tojo's military government finds itself exiled to Manchuria, which reorganizes as the Imperial Kwantung Territories and retains control of all the Japanese Pacific territories. However, in a bit of GameplayAndStorySegregation, the Imperial Kwantung Territories can't actually pursue the goals of the Japanese nationalists and instead simply functions as an independent Manchukuo pursuing the Assertiveness branch. |
| 225 | [[/folder]] |
| 226 | |
| 227 | [[folder:Soviet Union]] |
| 228 | ! Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
| 229 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/JosephStalin |
| 230 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Communist |
| 231 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Russian Federation (Democratic), Russian Empire (Fascist), Russia (Non-Aligned) |
| 232 | ->'''Can Form:''' Third Rome, Pan-Slavic Union |
| 233 | |
| 234 | ->''When the dust settled after the Russian Civil War, the U.S.S.R. had emerged as the undisputed ruler over most of what once constituted the Russian Empire. Rapid industrialization and collectivization followed, often at a great cost in human lives.'' |
| 235 | |
| 236 | ->''The Soviet Union is now faced with the threat of a resurgent Germany to the west, and a belligerent Japan in the east. Of course, there are also internal threats within the ranks of the Communist Party to contend with...'' |
| 237 | |
| 238 | ---- |
| 239 | * AIRoulette: Pray Stalin's paranoia mechanic does not get the option "Anti-Soviet thinking banned" debuff when you can't avert it. It's permanent, and debilitating. |
| 240 | * BalkanizeMe: Should the exiled Whites start a civil war in ''No Step Back'', the various ethnic groups within the Soviet Union will start breaking away from the union. The player can choose whether to [[EnemyMine ally with them]] against Stalin or [[MeleeATrois denounce their revolt]] and claim their territory as "rightful Russian land". The player can also voluntarily do this if they put Trotsky in charge, as one of his focuses allows for the player to release the countries that are a part of the Union (and there's even an achievement for only having puppets bordering you). The AI winning a war against the Soviets is also liable to split the Soviet Union into dozens of minor nations. |
| 241 | * BeingGoodSucks: Not performing the historical Great Purge will result in a civil war. You can also switch ideology to Democratic or Fascist to avert the civil war even if you don't purge or choosing all the bottom options during the purge which gives the least penalties (you lose no advisors and faster recovery) which usually still result in a civil war. However if you switch ideology without doing the purge, you will lose the fifth research slot and a few positive national spirits. |
| 242 | ** In ''No Step Back'', the random purges have two (sometimes three) choices: purge someone accused of being disloyal, or not purge them (alternatively, purge the general/admiral who accused them). If you refuse to purge them, you'll lose 60 political power and increase Stalin's Paranoia by 10 - which can be really painful if you're close to 90, or the general in question is someone you otherwise always use. |
| 243 | * DifficultButAwesome: Should the player opt to go down the "Right Opposition" path, they have the ability to remove Stalin from power ''without'' a civil war. However, this comes with several caveats - first of all, if Stalin's paranoia gets above 90, the civil war will trigger. Second, they have to convince the head of the NKVD to side with them, and if Lavrentiy Beria holds the position, that option is locked out. Third, even if Beria isn't head of the NKVD and the player has infiltrated the NKVD, there's still a 20% chance of Stalin surviving the assassination attempt - in which case, his paranoia will spike, and the civil war will kick off. Fourth, after Stalin is assassinated, the player will only be able to put the Right opposition in charge without a civil war if they do Coup d'Etat before the AI does Secure the Administration, which locks the Bloodless Coup. If you manage to pull this off, however, you'll keep all generals who Stalin made loyal to him. |
| 244 | * EliteMooks: The Red Guard in ''Their Finest Hour''. |
| 245 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: Starts with the "Fleet in Being" Naval Doctrine. |
| 246 | * MightyGlacier: If the Player chooses to focus on infantry instead of tanks, they can use massed infantry to slowly (but steadily) roll back invading armies |
| 247 | * NotTheIntendedUse: One of the cores the Soviet Union has that it doesn't control at the start of the game is Tannu Tuva - the intent is so that when the USSR does the focus that incorporates the small nation into the Union, they already have a core on it (as opposed to merely occupying the state, as is the case with the Baltic States, Bessarabia, and the states they claim from Finland), compared to other cases which grant the core if the nation accepts (such as the Anschluss with Austria)[[note]]this is likely due to the fact that, in real life, the Soviet Union and Mongolia were the only countries to formally recognize them; the rest of the world considered Tannu Tuva to be part of the Union[[/note]]. However, prior to the reworked focus tree, it was far more beneficial to kick Tannu Tuva from the [=ComIntern=] and justify a war goal on them to retake said core immediately after finishing the Great Purge, since doing will count as having fought a war - one of the ways to meet the requirements for "Lessons of War", which removes the purge[[note]]specifically, the war has to be fought ''after'' the purge is completed - even if the player doesn't actually engage in combat with Tannu Tuva, which, thanks to it's size, can easily be overrun without actually exchanging fire with the Soviets; the other way, in case you're curious, is to wait until January 1, 1941 - at which point, the USSR will usually be in the middle of being on the receiving end of Operation Barbarossa[[/note]], and due to Tannu Tuva being communist, they would not be guaranteed by the Allies. The updated focus tree removed this option by making "Desperate Measures" (the new pre-requisite of "Lessons of War") require the Soviets to specifically be at war with a ''major'' country...which can still be exploited if the player overthrows Stalin in a Civil War, since doing so will dismantle the [=ComIntern=], and Mongolia will usually form a faction with Tannu Tuva if the Union attacks either one of them. Or declares on Sinkiang and draws the quasi-major power of Nationalist China to an easy conquest with the caveat of crossing the Gobi Desert. |
| 248 | * PaperTiger: Despite the USSR's [[WeHaveReserves effectively bottomless manpower pool]], its army is woefully underequipped and disorganized in 1936, not helped by the Great Purge all but wiping out Soviet officers who could potentially enact reforms. This means that the Soviets are in quite a bit of damger if one of their immediate neighbors decides to kick the door in in the '30s rather than the '40s, as they'll be ill-prepared to deal with it. However, a key point of information about the Soviets is that [[TaughtByExperience they're great at learning on their feet]] and fixing problems on the go, so any would-be invader would do well to take them out as quickly as possible lest the Soviets get their act together and pull off a massive comeback like they did historically in 1943. |
| 249 | * PleaseSelectNewCityName: Should the Soviet Union remove Stalin (either by staying Communist, but having the Left or Right Opposition overthrow him - either through a civil war, or in the case of the Right, working with the head of the NKVD to assassinate Stalin - or by having the Whites win a civil war), Stalingrad will be renamed (as will Leningrad if the Whites win). Additionally, if the German Reich or Romania is able to capture the two cities, an event will play that will allow the player to rename them. And in the case of Stalin being overthrown, the player can also have Russia select a new capital[[note]]either keeping Moscow, moving to Leningrad or St Petersburg, moving to the capital they had in the civil war, or making Vladivostok the capital[[/note]]. |
| 250 | ** If Trotsky wins, Stalingrad will be renamed Trotskygrad. |
| 251 | ** If Bukharin wins, Stalingrad will be renamed Volgograd. However, if the Right Opposition won but Bukharin died before they won, it will be named Bukharino. |
| 252 | ** If the Whites win, Stalingrad can be renamed back to its old name of Tsaritsyn or named Volgograd (it's real-life name since 1961), and Leningrad will return to being St Petersburg. |
| 253 | ** Should Germany capture the city and still be fascist, Leningrad and Stalingrad can be renamed Ludendorff and Hindenburg, respectively, after two World War One German war heroes. |
| 254 | ** Lastly, should Romania win and King Carol still be in charge, Leningrad and Stalingrad will be renamed Magadagrad and Zizigrad, after two of his mistresses. |
| 255 | * ThePurge: Naturally. A 210-day focus is dedicated to the Great Purge, forcing the Soviet Union to either purge several officers (resulting in a hefty yet temporary debuff) or face a civil war against either the Trotskyites, the Right Opposition or the exiled Whites. No Step Back changed it from a single long focus to a huge series of shorter focuses and a mini-game involving having to manage Stalin's "Paranoia". |
| 256 | * RightfulKingReturns: If the player opts to completely dismantle the Soviet Union (which requires the player to fight a civil war), Vladimir III will be crowned Tsar of Russia. However, the player can instead opt to replace the Tsardom with a Fascist government, or can instead go for a "Third Rome" path. |
| 257 | * SchrodingersCanon: If the player goes historical, then the Great Purge is as it was in real life--a bloody result of Stalin' paranoia of Trotskyite rebel cells plotting against him and undermining his authority, killing millions of probably innocent people. If the player goes ahistorical, however, the Paranoia mechanic remains, but there actually ''are'' disloyal cells gearing up for a country-wide uprising against Stalin, making his paranoia justified. |
| 258 | * StateSec: The NKVD, especially if the Soviet Union goes down the NKVD Primary route. |
| 259 | * TakeAThirdOption: Bukharin's Right Opposition and the Third Rome paths act as this for the Reds and Whites, respectively - Bukharin, unlike Trotsky, has the option of removing Stalin without a civil war, and focuses more on state capitalism, and has better relations with the democratic powers. The Third Rome path, unlike Bukharin, is available to the player regardless of if they had the Tsardom restored or had Russia become Fascist, although unlike what would normally happen, Russia will switch to non-aligned if the player goes down this path. |
| 260 | * TheTheocracy: Ironically, the once state atheism of the USSR can be turned around, with the Tsardom stepping down and making the Patriarch an absolute ruler complete with battle priests replacing commissars. Amusingly, because of how ideology mechanics work, it's entirely possible to have a ''Democratic'' Third Rome if you play your cards right[[note]]specifically, you need to ban fascism before taking the focus "Consolidate Power", and then let the popularity of Democracy rise to the point where you get the event that forces a referendum; afterwards, go down the path for Third Rome, and use the referendum you can get via a decision to flip back to democracy[[/note]]. |
| 261 | * VictoryByEndurance: If required the Soviet Union can sit behind a defensive line and fight a war of attrition for decades. They can take at least ten million casualties without much impact on their war effort, and can take double that amount and still have more than enough soldiers to win the war against Germany. |
| 262 | ** Their huge manpower pool enables them to maintain a gigantic amount of infantry without going further than Extensive Conscription, while nations with a smaller manpower pool like Germany will rapidly be forced into conscription laws with major negatives. The last law, "Scraping The Barrel" serves up a massive 40% debuff to factory output & construction time, something which usually means the country has to end their wars or quickly become incapable of equipping their forces. |
| 263 | ** It also allows the Soviets to pick Total Mobilization as their economic law without it impacting too much on their ability to recruit units. Doing so gives them a 30% bonus to the construction of military factories, and reduces their civilian consumer goods usage down to the bare minimum of 10%. And you can always pick "Women In The Workplace" to counter-act the manpower drain if required. |
| 264 | * WeHaveReserves: The Soviet Union has massive amounts of manpower on Default Conscription combined with low research and production, which allows them to fight tooth and nail on the small scale even while taking heavy losses as in real life. In addition they are one of two nations (the other being Nationalist China) who start with the Mass Assault Land Doctrine, which gives bonuses for doing just this. [[note]]The Soviet's real life doctrine is shown via the Deep Battle sub-branch, compared to China following the Mass Mobilization sub-branch.[[/note]] Out of all the things the Soviets have to improve or keep track of, Manpower is not one of them. |
| 265 | |
| 266 | !![[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Iosif Stalin]] |
| 267 | [[quoteright:154:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stalin_8.png]] |
| 268 | ->'''Ideology''': Communist |
| 269 | ->'''Party''': Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevik)[[note]]All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)[[/note]] |
| 270 | The General Secretary of the Soviet Union and its undisputed dictator at the start of the game, Iosif Stalin is best described as a paranoid man with a heart of steel. Ruling his country with an iron fist, Stalin has kickstarted his Five Year Plans to collectivize the country. Despite having defeated Trotsky and his followers in old power struggles, Stalin is still distrustful of the other members of his party...and should he find any remaining Trotsky loyalists? He's going to purge them. ''All of them''. |
| 271 | ---- |
| 272 | * ArchEnemy: Trotsky, all the way. Though Bukharin can become this if he forms the Right Opposition. |
| 273 | * GloriousLeader: [[TruthInTelevision Naturally]]. Going historical allows the player to apply a truly tremendous number of buffs to him, more than any other leader, with impressive and grandiose titles like "Father Of Nations", "Inheritor of the Mantle of Lenin" and "Architect of Communism". |
| 274 | * MemeticBadass: [[invoked]] A unique mechanic added in ''No Step Back''. The more propaganda campaigns you run using the Agitprop, the more buffs you can apply to Stalin, reinforcing his carefully cultivated image of a strong, fatherly shield against the evils of Capitalism and Fascism. This propaganda campaign was very much TruthInTelevision, especially when war with Germany broke out. |
| 275 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: If you're playing as the exiled Whites, then Stalin [[ThePurge purging]] competent generals and government ministers will only help you win the incoming CivilWar. |
| 276 | * TheParanoiac: This is the man who initiated the ''Great Purge'' because he ''thought'' that there ''might'' be a Troskyite uprising waiting in the shadows to challenge him. A major portion of the Stalinist section of the focus tree is purging countless generals and officials in order to keep Stalin from killing generals and advisors the player finds valuable. The worst part is that lowering Stalin's paranoia by purging people only temporarily solves the problem--his paranoia increases weekly, and it can go up in big spikes due to certain events. on top of all this, doing all the Great Purge focuses and assassinating Trotsky still leaves the soviet Union with a minus five percent stability debuff, representing how Stalin is ''still'' paranoid even after slaughtering and detaining millions of his administration. |
| 277 | * ProperlyParanoid: If the Trostkyites or the Right Opposition are plotting against him. Otherwise, he's just being ImproperlyParanoid just as he was in real life. |
| 278 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Should he lose in the Soviet Civil War, he'll flee the country, possibly to South America according to the event. |
| 279 | |
| 280 | !![[UsefulNotes/LeonTrotsky Lev Trotsky]] |
| 281 | [[quoteright:154:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/trotsky_1.png]] |
| 282 | [[caption-width-right:154:]] |
| 283 | ->'''Ideology''': Communist |
| 284 | ->'''Party''': Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevik)[[note]]All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)[[/note]] |
| 285 | Stuck in Mexico with no way back home, Lev Trotsky's story is a sad one. Formerly Lenin's successor and his most trusted confidant, in the last few years Trotsky's fortunes have been massively overturned. Losing the power struggle with Stalin, Trotsky fled to Norway, then Mexico and now bides his time there. Many of his Trotsky's loyal followers and friends have been killed by Stalin, who now rules the Union with an iron fist. But still, there are some members of the party who still sympathize with Trotsky's plight and loathe the tyrant Stalin...but their numbers are dwindling by the day. |
| 286 | ---- |
| 287 | * ArchEnemy: Stalin obviously. One of the events even calls him "Stalin's main adversary". |
| 288 | * ConspicuouslyPublicAssassination: The "Raid Trotsky's Villa" option is basically this. A bunch of NKVD agents with Soviet military-grade weapons raid the villa of the Soviet Union's biggest dissident and solve the problem of Trotsky with MoreDakka. |
| 289 | * DevelopersForesight: It's actually possible for Trotsky to become the leader of ''Mexico'' in this game. If Mexico goes communist and Trotsky becomes the leader under certain circumstances[[note]]specifically, Mexico has to opt to offer Trotsky a government position as opposed to just offer him asylum, and then take the focus "Communist Revolution" to get him as a leader[[/note]], Trotsky will be replaced with Hernán Laborde rather than rule 2 separate countries. |
| 290 | * InconsistentSpelling: In Norway, Lev Trotsky's name is spelled as "Lev Trotskij" in accordance with Norwegian spelling, and it stays that way even if he comes to power. |
| 291 | * PromotedToPlayable: Similar to Stalin, if the player does the Left Opposition branch, one focus lets them make Trotsky a field marshal[[note]]despite the fact that the Right Opposition can work with the Left and get Trotsky as an advisor, they do not have the option to use him as a Field Marshal[[/note]]. Additionally, Trotsky can rise to power and command either a Communist Mexico or Norway in two of ''IV'''s [=DLC=]s. |
| 292 | * {{Warhawk}}: Unlike Stalin, who is pretty reluctant to spread Communism elsewhere and just wants "Socialism In One Country", Trotsky gets the bonuses to spreading Communism and has the "Topple Government" decisions which allows him to invade countries with a sizable portion of Communist support. |
| 293 | |
| 294 | |
| 295 | !!Nikolay Bukharin |
| 296 | ->'''Ideology''': Communist |
| 297 | ->'''Party''': Vsesoyuznaya Kommunisticheskaya Partiya (Bolshevik)[[note]]All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)[[/note]] |
| 298 | A former ally of Stalin's, Bukharin found himself having fallen out of favor with the Man of Steel. However, unlike Trotsky, Bukharin is still in the Union, and still has connections to the party's administrative side, more specifically the Right Opposition - perhaps, if he takes action now, he could lead a civil war, or even get rid of Stalin without having to tear the Union apart in a war...if he acts fast enough. |
| 299 | ---- |
| 300 | * ArchEnemy: Not to the extent of Trotsky, but should the player go down the Right Opposition branch, he'll take Trotsky's place as this to Stalin. |
| 301 | * BeingGoodSucks: Bukharin's historical "New Economic Plan" does miracles for your budget (lowest consumer goods tieup starting from 15% up to 0%, with further sub-buffs to mitigate other debuffs!) but slows down (all of) your construction speed capabilities, unlike "War economy" or "total mobilization" which have powerful wartime construction bonuses for weapons factories ( with only 10%-15% consumer goods tieup as well as builing other types of buildings normally instead of NEP's 20% penalty. And once you activate the NEP you can only remove it after near-defeat or communism collapsing. Worse, the powerful "5-Year-Plan" project focuses will be permanently locked out some of which reduce consumer goods *further* if you EVER start the NEP implementation. It is theoretically possible to enact NEP with all its upgrades after completing the Five Year Plans, but it requires a war with a major power to be won, *AND* being in peace afterwards.(the game being pretty much over at this point) In a historical run, it can be enjoyed along with Five Year Plans at the earliest if USSR declares on China or Japan after completing the "Industrial Modernization", ends the war, defeats the Axis and prepares for a final confrontation with the Allies. |
| 302 | * {{Cincinnatus}}: Bukharin and Trotsky can eventually step down and let the USSR be ruled by the "Supreme Soviet", basically a one-party "republic". It locks out the sixth research slot but gives a huge manpower and compliance bonus for eventual world conquest. |
| 303 | * OddFriendship: Of the 3 potential paths for the Soviet Union to remain communist while going down, Bukharin's is the only path that allows for them to befriend the ''anarchists'' in the Spanish Civil War - normally, they'll spawn as Non-Aligned, but should Bukharin do certain focuses, they'll instead spawn as the Spanish Commune (who Bukharin can give covert support to), and if they manage to survive long enough for Bukharin to overthrow Stalin, Bukharin will have the option of joining the Commune in the Spanish Civil War through another focus (conversely, if the player opts for a civil war, the Commune can send divisions to aid Bukharin). Appropriately, the Spanish Commune's focus that normally gives it a war goal against the Soviet Union[[note]]and, for that matter, Mexico if Trotsky is in charge[[/note]] won't give it one if Bukharin's path was pursued[[note]]Bukharin himself doesn't have to be in charge; as long as the player completed the focus "The Right Opposition", they'll be exempt[[/note]] instead of Trotsky's or Stalin's[[note]]while [=POUM=], the party that is in charge of the Commune, was, in theory, representative of both the Spanish Left and Spanish Right Opposition, having been formed from a merger of both, in practice, it only enjoyed the support of Bukharin, as the merger of the two factions was against Trotsky's wishes, he broke from the faction[[/note]]. |
| 304 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Bukharin's USSR can arguably be seen as one for a Democratic path for Russia, since not only does his leader trait grant him higher acceptance of diplomacy with Democratic nations and his path benefits from having the Free Trade export law - which a good number of Democracies start with[[note]]the New Economic Plan gives you an economy law that has a lower percentage of Consumer Goods factories required than War Economy (10% for [=NEP=] vs 15% for War Economy), but a flat debuff to construction...which is cancelled out if you have Free Trade; furthermore, he can upgrade the New Economic Plan to reduce the penalty from not having enough resources if he has enough puppets[[/note]] - but he also can get six research slots - something that is only available to New Zealand (who starts as a Democracy), the historical path for the United States (also starts as a Democracy), and the Democratic path for Germany. |
| 305 | * TechnicalPacifist: Unlike Trotsky or even Stalin, Bukharin prefers cooperation with the capitalist democracies, instead - gameplay wise, this translates to Bukharin having a higher acceptance of diplomacy from Democratic nations. Downplayed, however, in that there's nothing stopping Bukharin from going on the warpath and making the same territorial claims that Stalin did through the shared communist tree. Similarly, of the 3 main Faction leaders, he's the only one who cannot become a Field Marshall. |
| 306 | * TimedMission: The option to assassinate Stalin is available as long as a), Stalin hasn't completed the focus "Secure the Administration", and b), Lavrentiy Beria isn't the head of the [=NKVD=][[note]]the player starts with Genrikh Yagoda in charge of the [=NKVD=]; he can be purged and replaced with Nikolai Yezhov, as what happened historically, who in turn can be purged and replaced with Beria[[/note]]. The former will happen at a fixed time, due to Stalin doing his own focuses in a similar way to the Spanish Civil War, while the latter can happen randomly. Even after the player assassinates Stalin, Beria will merely take Stalin's place, and can still lock the player out of the bloodless coup if they don't do the focus "Coup d'Etat" before "Secure the Administration" is completed. |
| 307 | [[/folder]] |
| 308 | |
| 309 | ! Non-Generic Minor Nations |
| 310 | ->''The nations of the world, great and small, are not all content to hold their breath awaiting the outbreak of another global conflict. From major powers on the brink of civil war to the many nations formed and transformed by the Great War, all will have to make difficult decisions and balance ideals with pragmatism to have an impact on the future of the world.'' |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder:Poland]] |
| 313 | ! Polish Republic |
| 314 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Ignacy Mościcki |
| 315 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 316 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Polish People's Republic (Communist), Falangist Poland (Fascist), Lithuanian Poland (Fascist, if a Lithuanian puppet), Kingdom of Poland (Non-Aligned, if the Monarchy is restored) |
| 317 | ->'''Can Form:''' Commonwealth of Socialist Republics, Kingdom of Poland-Romania, Pan-Slavic Union, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| 318 | |
| 319 | ->''After centuries in which the Polish nation has been divided between three empires, Poland now stands independent once again. But its position is not an easy one.'' |
| 320 | |
| 321 | ->''In the east, the Soviet Union has not forgotten the humiliating defeat in the Polish-Soviet war.'' |
| 322 | |
| 323 | ->''In the west, German Führer Adolf Hitler makes no secret of his desire for more "living space" - and that the former German areas now under Polish control will be the first step to achieve it.'' |
| 324 | |
| 325 | ---- |
| 326 | * ButtMonkey: Being in eastern Central Europe, Poland is surrounded by major powers and most minor neighbors gain cores on them through focuses. |
| 327 | * DidAnastasiaSurvive: [[DeadPersonImpersonation Averted]]. It’s made very clear that the "Anastasia Romanov" who appears during a monarchist Poland is her Polish impostor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson Anna Anderson]]. The Polish only realize this when Moscow is captured, upon which a Polish intelligence operative finds solid evidence of the real Anastasia’s gruesome fate and the Player is given a chance to either keep her or depose her. |
| 328 | * TheDogBitesBack: The most popular way to play Poland (using the Romanov path) has Poland giving away Danzig, before they focus on the weaker Soviets. After forming the Slavic Union through this conquest however, [[FromNobodyToNightmare they become more than capable of steamrolling Germany and reclaiming their territory with the massive industry they have gained.]] |
| 329 | * FailureIsTheOnlyOption: If a player decides to align with a major power, they still have to deal with the others, e.g align with Germany and deal with the Comintern and Allies, align with the Soviets then deal with the Axis, follow Britain (or form the Międzymorze) and deal with the Axis AND the Comintern. That being said, if the player does manage to stay independent, keep all of their cores, and have the Soviets and the Germans in their faction (either as equal members or puppets) or annex them, they get an achievement for doing so. |
| 330 | * TheLeader: Can form the Międzymorze (Polish for Intermarium) with the Baltic Nations. |
| 331 | * MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: A non-character related example with it's formable nations for the monarchist options - because it would be impossible to simultaneously claim that Poland was all of the identities, if you choose one, you lose out on the other territories you'd gain by going down one monarch's path[[note]]all monarchist paths have the option to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but only the Commonwealth Claimant, Friedrich Christian, can do so without invading Lithuania; additionally, the other 3 candidates also need a very high compliance - not impossible, but very difficult, especially with both Germany and the USSR looking to take territory from Poland[[/note]] - i.e., go Habsburg and you gain the ability to core all of Czechoslovakia[[note]]Michael I can annex Slovakia, but not the Czech part, and cannot core either; Friedrich Christian can core the region of Zaolzie through an event, but nothing else[[/note]], but lose the ability to core Hungary and Romania. |
| 332 | * OmnicidalNeutral: The Independent Communist Branch of the Polish Focus tree has the ability to grant Poland war goals on all democratic and fascist majors as well as the Soviet Union - on historical, this means that the only faction the player does not have to fight is the Chinese United Front. |
| 333 | * RefugeInAudacity: As below, getting Anastasia is ''not'' this, rather it is a last-ditch effort to get ''someone'' with at least a ''little'' legitimacy on the throne, and taking her initially has quite a few setbacks to stability implying she's not exactly popular. Choosing to put ''Wojtek the grizzly bear'' on the throne definitely ''is'', and he comes with stability and war support bonuses that imply that making a bear the king is a very popular decision-- even amongst Poland's far-left and far-right factions. |
| 334 | * RightfulKingReturns: Or Rather, Rightful King Appears - one option for Poland if the player has ''No Step Back'' is for them to create a monarchy, and the player will have the option of choosing between 5 candidates, each with their own path and different territorial claims: |
| 335 | ** Friedrich Christian, from the House of Saxony: The preferred candidate of the Central Powers, Friedrich represents the house of Saxony, which has close ties to Poland. His focus tree focuses on reclaiming the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and allows for him to peacefully annex Lithuania[[note]]all candidates can restore the commonwealth, but Christian can do so significantly faster - the other 3 revealed candidates require high compliance in Lithuania - and doesn't have to go to war with Lithuania to do so[[/note]]. |
| 336 | ** Michael I, from the House of Hohenzollern: The same King of Romania, Michael becomes a candidate due to the close ties Romania and Poland have. As one might expect, choosing him will allow for Romania to be cored if he becomes king of Romania[[note]]this can either be done by Romania doing King Michael's Coup, or by Poland getting involved directly[[/note]], and if the player chooses to do so, they can also add Slovakia and Hungary to their kingdom[[note]]they can only core Romania; Slovakia is merely occupied, and Hungary is a puppet in a Personal Union[[/note]]. |
| 337 | ** Karl Albrecht von Habsburg, from [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundOfMartialMusic the house of Habsburg]]: One of the living heirs of the House of Habsburg, his path involves pressing the Habsburg claim on Czechoslovakia. Additionally, he can also force Hungary to crown Otto von Habsburg as it's monarch, which can put them on the path to restoring Austria-Hungary (obviously not including Polish Galicia and Czechoslovakia). |
| 338 | ** Pavel Bermondt-Avalov, the Cossack King: A Georgian Prince, notable for being fascist instead of non-aligned. His path is about dominating the Baltic States as well as Slovakia. Unlike the other 3 candidates, his path also gives the player access to the fascist branch of Poland's political tree. |
| 339 | ** Anastasia Romanov, a last ditch effort to put someone on the throne[[note]]this is not a case of DidAnastasiaSurvive; rather, it's made very clear that the woman on the throne is not Anastasia, but rather, the woman who pretended to be her, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson Anna Anderson]], a woman who was either impersonating or deluded into thinking she was Anastasia[[/note]]. Unlike the other candidates, she's only available should you reject all other candidates twice, as a last ditch effort just to have ''someone'' on the throne[[note]]if you reject her, it starts all over again[[/note]]. She has access to both the Commonwealth Claimant path and the Cossack Path, as well as hidden focuses that allow her to form the Slavic Union - a Polish version of the Pan-Slavic Union. |
| 340 | ** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear) Wotjek the Bear]]. Unlike the other 5 candidates, this one is notable for being only available ''after'' one of them has been crowned (specifically, Anastasia), and is only available after having Moscow under the control of the player or an ally while having Wojtek as a commander (and the conditions for having Wojtek are listed below) - realizing that she's a fake Romanov, the player can opt to have Wotjek crowned king and replace her. |
| 341 | * ScyllaAndCharybdis: As in real life, Poland in 1936 is positioned directly between two gigantic countries that want to annex it, and essentially split it right down the middle historically. The player can choose to either side with Germany or the Soviets to remove one of them from the equation, or TakeAThirdOption and focus on bolstering their defenses and trying to hold out on both sides until the Allies can help, or [[RightfulKingReturns crown a king using the Royal Sejm]], reform the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and try to actually ''reclaim lost territory'' in both countries. |
| 342 | * SecretCharacter: Wotjek can become a commander for Poland if the player meets specific conditions[[note]]specifically, they must have completed the focus "Artillery Modernization", have troops in the one of 3 Italian regions (Latium, Abruzzo, or Tuscany) while at war with Italy, be non-aligned - either having gone down the historical path or restored the monarchy - not be in a faction with the Soviet Union, and either control or be in a faction with someone who controls the Iranian region of Hamadan[[/note]], which will cause an event to play out. There's even an achievement for getting said event. |
| 343 | * TheStrategist: Starts with the "Grand Battleplan" Land Doctrine. |
| 344 | * VoluntaryVassal: In ''No Step Back'', if Poland wishes to join the Axis or [=ComIntern=], it must submit to Germany or the Soviet Union (respectively) and part with the territories that Germany or the Soviets claims[[note]]the Danzig Corridor, Poznan, and Katowice for Germany, and the Eastern parts of Poland that are Ukrainian and Belarusian cores for the USSR[[/note]]. Unlike Czechoslovakia, however, Poland can break free if it makes the right choices, and in the case of the Soviets, the Polish focus tree actually lets Poland regain the territories they gave up. |
| 345 | [[/folder]] |
| 346 | |
| 347 | [[folder:The Commonwealth of Nations]] |
| 348 | UsefulNotes/TheCommonwealthOfNations is Britain's client states that are either self-governing Dominions or (in the case of the Raj and British Malaysia) semi-self governing colonies. |
| 349 | |
| 350 | * EpicShipOnShipAction: All members of the British Commonwealth have the "Fleet in Being" Naval Doctrine. |
| 351 | * HyperCompetentSidekick: You can choose to play as this to Britain, lending support to China and the U.S. in the Pacific or spearheading the invasion of Germany or Italy in Europe. |
| 352 | * TheStrategist: All members of the British Commonwealth have the "Grand Battleplan" Land Doctrine. |
| 353 | |
| 354 | ! Dominion of Australia |
| 355 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' John Curtin |
| 356 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 357 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Australian People's Republic (Communist), Centralist Australia (Fascist), Emu Empire (Non-Aligned) |
| 358 | |
| 359 | ->''Australians earned their place in the history books of the Great War in blood. The sacrifices made in the Gallipolli campaign have not been forgotten - and neither were those who ordered it.'' |
| 360 | |
| 361 | ->''Australia now stands at a crossroads: should she stay with her colonial master, about to be drawn into yet another conflict in distant Europe, or should the focus be on the threats that are appearing closer to home?'' |
| 362 | |
| 363 | ---- |
| 364 | * EleventhHourRanger: With the ''[=TfV=]'' expansion Australia can be this to the allies, with access to industrial focuses that grant INSANE resources and factory output and aviation focuses that give undeniably the best stats to planes in the game, Australia can be a true powerhouse in the South Pacific that can relieve some of the attrition that the British and Americans have sustained. |
| 365 | * ArtisticLicenseHistory: |
| 366 | ** John Curtin only became PM in 1941, but is Australia's leader in both the 1936 and 1939 start dates. Notably, this wasn't fixed even when Australia received a focus tree in ''Together for Victory.''. The correct leader for both should be Robert Gordon Menzies. |
| 367 | ** One potential leader of a Non-Aligned Australia is Rod Hull...who was ''less than a year old'' at the game's start. |
| 368 | * HistoricalInJoke: Non-Aligned Australia bears the honorable title of the Emu Empire. |
| 369 | * InterfaceSpoiler: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Despite the fact that Australia's fascist[=/=]communist tree has a focus that lets them demand control of New Zealand, Australia does not have the ability to form Australasia [[note]]the name of the region that Australia, New Zealand, Papua, Vanatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands inhabit[[/note]]. |
| 370 | * SummonBiggerFish: One ahistorical path has Australia remain Democratic but sever ties with Britain, create a Pacific Defense faction with the United States and then drag them into a pre-emptive war against Japan, potentially ending the Japanese threat in the Pacific before it even really starts. |
| 371 | |
| 372 | ! Dominion of Canada |
| 373 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Mackenzie King |
| 374 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 375 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Canada Popular State (Communist), Unitary Canada (Fascist), Canada (Non-Aligned) |
| 376 | |
| 377 | ->''Canada entered the Great War as a mere colony and left it as a nation. Born in the mud of Passchendaele, Canada now takes its first few uncertain steps onto the world stage.'' |
| 378 | |
| 379 | ->''Hobbled by the Great Depression and with internal divisions between Anglophones and Francophones, the future of this new nation looks anything but secure.'' |
| 380 | |
| 381 | ---- |
| 382 | * TheLeader: Should the UK change ideologies, the Dominions will break free and form a new faction - which Canada will become the leader of if it didn't go ahistorical as well. It can also become the leader of it's own faction with the United States if it chooses to pursue independence voluntarily. |
| 383 | |
| 384 | ! British Raj/India |
| 385 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Lord Linlithgow |
| 386 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 387 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' India (Non-Aligned or Democratic, if independent), Indian People's Republic (Communist), Free India (Fascist), Dominion of India (Non-Aligned or Democratic, if Dominion) |
| 388 | |
| 389 | ->''The crown jewel of the British Empire, the Raj of India is a strange combination of imperial power and imperial powerlessness. A tiny elite of British civil servants rule over a vast subcontinent filled with hundreds of millions of subjects. From their ranks recruits the Indian Army, which fought bravely in the Great War.'' |
| 390 | |
| 391 | ->''Indian leaders hoped that the sacrifices made in the last war would help India gain her independence from Britain, but so far, that hope has been disappointed. With a new war looming, many believe that the time has come to take that freedom - by whatever means necessary.'' |
| 392 | |
| 393 | ---- |
| 394 | * TheFamine: Increasing the economy or conscription laws without improving the country's infrastructure and removing the "risk of famine" spirit will cause the historical [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_famine_of_1943 Great Bengal Famine of 1943]], applying some disastrous permanent debuffs to the country. |
| 395 | * TheSpymaster: One achievement for ''IV'' is to become Spy Master of the Allies while playing as the Raj. |
| 396 | |
| 397 | ! Dominion of New Zealand |
| 398 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Michael Joseph Savage |
| 399 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 400 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' People's Republic of Aotearoa (Communist), Kiwi Empire (Fascist), Nova Zeelandia Republic (Non-Aligned) |
| 401 | ->'''Can Form:''' Polynesia |
| 402 | |
| 403 | ->''The tiny nation in the South Pacific fought bravely in the Great War, suffering high casualties in the bloody battles at Gallipoli and on the western front. Nearly half the men of fighting age had served in the fighting overseas, and many had not returned.'' |
| 404 | |
| 405 | ->''Some twenty years after end of the Great War, the people of New Zealand look anxiously at the world stage, for this time, the threat of war seems to draw ever closer to their own home...'' |
| 406 | |
| 407 | ---- |
| 408 | * LethalJokeCharacter: While the country itself isn't very strong on its own (with a rather meagre industry and manpower pool), this trope more so applies to its unique tank tech, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank Bob Semple "Tank"]]. The tank is met with ridicule by everyone else...but it's also ''incredibly'' fast, meaning you can easily create encirclements for much more power, something quite useful for a player seeking to be a HypercompetentSidekick to the Allies. |
| 409 | * ScienceHero: Is one of three nations that can get six research slots, and on historical, the Commonwealth start as part of a research treaty - said treaty grants every signatory bonuses to tech the others have researched, meaning it is perfectly viable for New Zealand to research a tech ahead of time so that others can benefit. A particularly noteworthy example is New Zealand rushing the third Submarine tech through a focus bonus - said sub is generally considered more than enough to guarantee naval superiority if you have enough of them, especially so in Deep Ocean sea zones - which New Zealand happens to be in close proximity to. |
| 410 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: Is one of eight countries that can form Polynesia. It is the strongest candidate to form it by virtue of having a much larger population, is playable from start and the only one who has a focus tree. In addition, upon completing the "Maori Volunteers" focus, has a decision where New Zealand can request the owners of the various small islands of the Pacific (United States, France, Australia and Japan) to transfer ownership to New Zealand. Unlike other formable nations, New Zealand can form Polynesia without gaining independence. |
| 411 | |
| 412 | ! Union of South Africa |
| 413 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' J. B. M. Hertzog |
| 414 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 415 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Cape Commune (Communist), Apartheid South Africa (Fascist), Unitary South Africa (Non-Aligned) |
| 416 | ->'''Can Form:''' Mutapa |
| 417 | |
| 418 | ->''When the Great War began, many in South Africa refused to take up arms for their British masters. The South African military spent most of the Great War chasing around German forces in their African colonies, with limited success.'' |
| 419 | |
| 420 | ->''Now a new war looms on the horizon. Then as now, there are some in South Africa that think the country shouldn't be fighting against the Germans at all. Some even believe that the time has come for the descendants of the Boers to make their bid for the liberty that was denied to their forefathers.'' |
| 421 | |
| 422 | ! British Malaya |
| 423 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Shenton Thomas |
| 424 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 425 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Malaysia (Non-Aligned or Democratic, if independent), Malay People's Republic (Communist), Malaysia (Fascist) |
| 426 | ->'''Can Form:''' Greater Indonesian Confederacy |
| 427 | |
| 428 | * DiskOneNuke: If the player goes communist or fascist through a civil war (which frees them from British control), Malaya's formable nation is only one quick war against the Netherlands away[[note]]provided the player takes a tile from the Dutch East Indies while at war with the Netherlands[[/note]]. Doing so will grant the player an ''insane'' amount of manpower, resources, and factories, thus making them capable of becoming a superpower ''very'' early on. |
| 429 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: British Malaya is the only British colonial possession that does not receive a focus tree in ''Together For Victory''. |
| 430 | * UndyingLoyalty: An odd example of this trope - if the UK goes ahistorical and changes ideologies, Malaya is the only Dominion that will not break ties with the UK (although on the flipside, if the UK does the Imperial Federation, they won't gain cores on Malaya). Although this can be subverted if the UK decolonizes, since Malaya has just as much of a chance of choosing to become independent as any of the UK's other territories. |
| 431 | [[/folder]] |
| 432 | |
| 433 | [[folder:Hungary]] |
| 434 | ! Kingdom of Hungary |
| 435 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Miklós Horthy |
| 436 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 437 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Hungary (Democratic), Hungarian People's Republic (Communist), Hungary (Fascist), |
| 438 | ->'''Can Form:''' Austria-Hungary, Greater Hungary |
| 439 | |
| 440 | ->''One half of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire, Hungary was treated as a defeated enemy by the victorious Entente after the Great War. In the Treaty of Trianon, the country lost almost two thirds of its territory. Millions of ethnic Hungarians found themselves living outside its borders, and its economy was left in ruins. Harsh restrictions on rearmament were supposed to ensure that Hungary could never again threaten the peace in Europe.'' |
| 441 | |
| 442 | ->''But with the political climate in Europe shifting, the time may have come to finally right the wrongs of the past, and regain the former glory of the nation.'' |
| 443 | |
| 444 | ---- |
| 445 | * NaziNobleman: Should Hungary elect a fascist king, the throne will given to Friedrich Franz, Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was also this in RealLife, seeing that he served in the Waffen-SS. |
| 446 | * OfferedTheCrown: There are a total of three candidates who can be offered the Crown of Saint Stephen. |
| 447 | * RegentForLife: Horthy, unless somebody is crowned as the King of Hungary, or if the communists take power. |
| 448 | * RightfulKingReturns: Hungary can invite, among other candidates, Otto von Habsburg to take the Hungarian throne. Otto is the son of Charles I & IV, the last Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. |
| 449 | [[/folder]] |
| 450 | |
| 451 | [[folder:The Little Entente]] |
| 452 | ! Czechoslovak Republic |
| 453 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Edvard Beneš |
| 454 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 455 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Czechoslovak Union (Communist), Bohemian Empire (Fascist), Kingdom of Bohemia (Non-Aligned) |
| 456 | ->'''Can Form:''' Austria-Hungary |
| 457 | |
| 458 | ->''During the Great War, Czech troops fought alongside the Entente forces all over Europe in an effort to secure recognition for their nation. Their efforts were successful and Czechoslovakia rose from the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.'' |
| 459 | |
| 460 | ->''Since their explosive entry into statehood Czechoslovakia formed the 'Little Entente' alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania with the aim of suppressing Hungary's efforts to restore the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although as resurgent German power grows the political landscape of Europe is rapidly changing.'' |
| 461 | |
| 462 | ---- |
| 463 | * BalkanizeMe: Appeasement splits off the fascist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_Republic_(1939%E2%80%931945) Slovak Republic]], led by Jozef Tiso, a real-life {{Sinister Minister}}. |
| 464 | * HoldTheLine: With focuses allowing you to upgrade the Sudeten Forts and make the country a highly defensible fortress, most of the gameplay on the democratic path is this. If you hold the line for long enough, Germany will explode into civil war as the Oster Conspiracy fires. |
| 465 | * ScrewYourUltimatum: There are two options when you get the Munich Conference event. One is the historical option, where you surrender the Sudetenland. The other, entitled "We shall never surrender!" is this trope, as you will instead find yourself at a (far from unwinnable) war with Germany instead. |
| 466 | * WhatTheHellHero: Czechoslovakia does not react kindly to the news when the Sudetenland get handed to the Germans by the allies if they follow appeasement. TruthInTelevision, as to this day it's often known locally as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement Munich Betrayal]]. |
| 467 | |
| 468 | ! Kingdom of Romania |
| 469 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Gheorghe Tatarescu |
| 470 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 471 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Kingdom of Romania (Monarchist), Romanian People's Republic (Communist), Legionary Romania (Fascist) |
| 472 | |
| 473 | ->''Romania found herself on the winning side of the Great War, and as a result gained new territories and people - not all of whom were Romanians. To guard against the revanchionist desires of the countries that were forced to cede land, Romania has created a web of alliances all across the Balkans. In recent years, however, the country has concerned itself mostly with domestic matters, and the government of King Carol II has allowed these alliances to lapse.'' |
| 474 | |
| 475 | ->''As the political situation in Europe changes, Romania may well find herself standing alone - and vulnerable.'' |
| 476 | |
| 477 | ---- |
| 478 | * AbdicateTheThrone: This is the historical way to stop King Carol II from sending the country's economy into the toilet due to his hedonism, and whichever ideology government you appointed will replace him as ruler of the country. |
| 479 | * DiscOneNuke: Romania's starting army is much larger than any of its neighbors' (except for those of Poland, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR), and it is capable of steamrolling Bulgaria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia with a bit of building up, and its focus tree allows it to push for those countries very early on without intervention. |
| 480 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: The primary focus for Romania in ''Battle for the Bosporus''. The player can choose to side with one faction before taking a decision to swap sides. Doing so, and capitulating a member of the faction you betrayed gains you an achievement. |
| 481 | * TheHedonist: A whole national spirit is dedicated to highlighting King Carol II's decadent lifestyle, and the scandals that it causes. It can be removed either by making him abdicate the throne, or by reigning in his ways - although if the player manages to keep said spirit and have at least one state from all of their neighbors, they get an achievement. |
| 482 | * ScrewTheWarWerePartying: As mentioned, if the player doesn't force King Carol to AbdicateTheThrone (or [[TookALevelInBadass get him to shape up for the good of the nation]]), then they'll have to contend with his endless partying, expensive vacations, spending way too much money on his mistress and even straight up embezzlement, which will tank your wartime industry construction pretty badly unless you cover for him, which takes a lot of political power. There's even an achievement for owning a part of each of Romania's starting neighbors while having King Carol as the country's leader but without stopping him from being TheHedonist. |
| 483 | * StartMyOwn: One of the options for Romania to pursue is to decide that aligning itself with the Allies, Axis or Comintern isn't worth it, and to instead use their large-relative-to-their-neighbors army to exert supremacy over the Balkans and create their own faction, culminating in a partition of Yugoslavia made in accordance with Italy, Germany and Hungary. |
| 484 | |
| 485 | ! Kingdom of Yugoslavia |
| 486 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Prince Paul |
| 487 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 488 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Yugoslavian Confederation (Democratic), SFR Yugoslavia (Communist), Radikalna Yugoslavia (Fascist) |
| 489 | |
| 490 | ->''Yugoslavia came into existence after the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes merged with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia in 1922. Initially Yugoslavia joined both the Little Entente and the Balkan Pact to secure their independence, but recently the assassination of King Alexander combined with growing internal pressure from nationalists and external pressure from Italy and Germany has caused drastic upheaval and reevaluation of their political and strategic position.'' |
| 491 | |
| 492 | ---- |
| 493 | * AChildShallLeadThem: Choosing to end the regency before 6 September 1941 will lead to a young King Peter II [[note]] 12 years old at the start of the game [[/note]] becoming king. Having an underaged King Peter II leading Yugoslavia to war against a Bulgaria under Simeon II's Regency Council will net an achievement. |
| 494 | * BalkanizeMe: As per RealLife, Yugoslavia can implode spectacularly. One option on their focus tree allows for them to do so voluntarily, turning Yugoslavia into the various Banovinas that it was composed of, eventually turning as Serbia with a bunch of puppets. You also have the option of reuniting the Banovinas into Yugoslavia again, which will not only grant you any new cores if one of your puppets managed to gain any of their cores, but if you managed to puppet them, you can also gain cores on Bulgaria and Hungary (and any additional cores they gained)[[note]]this can range from merely coring their historical territorial gains to also coring Czechoslovakia, Austria, Greece, and Albania if Hungary restored the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria formed the United Balkans Federation[[/note]]. |
| 495 | ** In the ''Battle for the Bosporus'' update, now you can conditionally break up Yugoslavia into even smaller states. Can be DoubleSubverted if the player chooses to reunite the states however. |
| 496 | ** One of the achievements for Yugoslavia requires you to invoke this trope and release Transylvania as a puppet through a focus, then give them all of Romania as territory in a peace deal. |
| 497 | [[/folder]] |
| 498 | |
| 499 | [[folder:Chinese United Front]] |
| 500 | ! Nationalist China |
| 501 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek |
| 502 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 503 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of China (Democratic), Chinese People's Republic (Communist), Reorganized Nationalist China (Fascist) |
| 504 | |
| 505 | ->''Following the revolution that deposed the last of the Qing Emperors, the young Chinese Republic has struggled to survive. Warlords rule much of the land on the periphery. In the heart of the country, the Communists have set up a base area in a remote mountain valley. Just beyond the borders, the Japanese have created a puppet government under the last Chinese Emperor and will try to reunite the country under his rule.'' |
| 506 | |
| 507 | ->''With many enemies threatening it, the government of Chiang Kai-Shek will have to make hard choices if it wants to survive and rule supreme in China.'' |
| 508 | |
| 509 | ---- |
| 510 | * EnemyMine: as per Real Life, the Nationalists and Communists can unite to fend off Japanese subjugation |
| 511 | * FaceHeelTurn: It's possible for China to join Japan's faction in the end of the war and beat its former allies. |
| 512 | * MagikarpPower: Starts off with a large (but poorly equipped and trained) military and vast territory, but has almost no navy or air force, little industry, and many negative modifiers. The Second Sino-Japanese War is often very difficult and the AI in particular often loses it. However, if you win the war and unite China, the country's vast manpower and natural resources allow you to become a great power in just a couple of years. |
| 513 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: It's actually more beneficial for China to focus on domestic affairs first rather than prepare for fighting Japan - despite what you might think, focusing on taking out the Warlords first will grant the player valuable army XP, which can be used to upgrade China's starting divisions, and also will grant the player access to any equipment that said warlords had produced if China defeats them, thus reducing the gap significantly. And in the event that the player is still dealing with the warlord states when this happens, they can just agree to part ways with territory temporarily, thus meaning that Japan can't attack them until they finish manually justifying on them. And the player will get more resources from the Guangxi Clique as a puppet than an independent faction member. |
| 514 | ** On a related note, it can actually be better to ''agree'' to Japan's demands for territorial compensation. The reason for this is that if the player refuses, the warlord state of Shanxi will be forced into the war, and widen the front. However, if the player agrees, Japan will have to manually justify on China, and can't attack Shanxi[[note]]a player can justify on Shanxi, but the AI never will[[/note]], thus giving the player a narrower front (and they can call in Shanxi later when they push the Japanese back). |
| 515 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: With Germany, should the Germans align with Japan as they did historically, and in doing so put an end to over a decade of Sino-German cooperation. |
| 516 | |
| 517 | ! Communist China |
| 518 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/MaoZedong |
| 519 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Communism |
| 520 | ->'''Can Form:''' People’s Republic of China |
| 521 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' China (Non-Aligned), Chinese Republic (Democratic), Chinese Empire (Fascist) |
| 522 | |
| 523 | ->''A mere two years ago, the Communist Party of China faced utter annihilation. To survive, it engaged on the epic journey that would become known as the Long March. With only a fraction of the army surviving the rigors of the march and little industry, the prospects of victory in the Chinese Civil War are slim indeed.'' |
| 524 | |
| 525 | ->''But in time, the population may be swayed to the Communist cause, new armies be raised, new base areas established, and, when the time is right, the revolutionary struggle will be renewed again, until final victory is achieved.'' |
| 526 | |
| 527 | ---- |
| 528 | * DiskOneNuke: As a communist country, Communist China can join the [=ComIntern=], which can essentially allow them to have the Soviets beat up the other warlords for them. Oddly enough, the Soviet AI will never take land in China, meaning that even if the Soviets do the majority of the work, they'll happily let Communist China take everything. |
| 529 | * EnemyMine: As per Real Life, the nationalists and communists can unite to fend off Japanese subjugation. This can either be done by the historical path (which will form the Front through an event around the time Japan starts the Marco Polo Bridge Incident if the nationalists haven't tried to subjugate the warlords), or it can be done through the "Social Democracy" path, which can not only form the Front pre-emptively, but it can also take over Nationalist China peacefully if they outmaneuver the nationalists. |
| 530 | |
| 531 | ! Warlord States (Yunnan, Sinkiang, Guangxi, Shanxi, Xibei San Ma) |
| 532 | ->''The weakness of the Central Government may yet provide the opportunity for a sufficiently ambitious man to rise to power. At the periphery of the country, local leaders have carved out their own little fiefdoms, caring little for the orders of the Central Government.'' |
| 533 | ->'''Can Form:''' Turkestan (only by Sinkiang) |
| 534 | |
| 535 | ->''War is on the horizon, and each of these Warlords faces a difficult choice: Collaboration with the Central Government or an alliance with the Communists? Either option promises a chance for a seat at the table, but there is a third possibility - to take China all for themselves.'' |
| 536 | |
| 537 | ---- |
| 538 | * MyFriendsAndZoidberg: They all start non-aligned, except Sinkiang (which starts communist). |
| 539 | * TheStarscream: |
| 540 | ** Siding with either the Nationalists or the Communists eventually ends in the warlord attempting to displace Chiang or Mao as the leader of the faction they picked. |
| 541 | ** When all the Warlords DO band together to fend of japan, every Warlord still has the chance to overthrow the nationals or communists if/when they gain enough internal support. |
| 542 | * WeAREStrugglingTogether: None of the Warlords want to subjugate to Japan, yet each one wants to control/unite China. |
| 543 | [[/folder]] |
| 544 | |
| 545 | [[folder:Manchukuo]] |
| 546 | ! Empire of Great Manchuria |
| 547 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Aisin Gioro Puyi |
| 548 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Fascist |
| 549 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Manchu Republic (Democratic), Free People's Republic of Manchukuo(Communist), Qing China (Non-Aligned, plus Fascist, if independent), Imperial Kwantung Territories (Independence through Japanese civil war) |
| 550 | ->'''Can Form:''' Chinese Empire |
| 551 | |
| 552 | ->''Evicted from the Dragon Throne at the age of six, Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor, has been biding his time. While his former realm tore itself apart in the Chinese Civil War, Puyi found new allies in Japan.'' |
| 553 | |
| 554 | ->''For Puyi, the establishment of the Empire of Manchukuo in 1932 was but the first step in the quest to reclaim his ancestral birthright. For the moment, he is dependent on the Japanese Army to keep his rule, but in time, an opportunity might arise to cast off the shackles of servitude and become what he was born to be...'' |
| 555 | |
| 556 | ---- |
| 557 | * ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Manchukuo starts the game off with the "Low Legitimacy" national spirit, which stamps a whopping minus ''fifty percent'' stability and war support debuff on the country, representing how ''nobody'' likes Emperor Puyi or respects him as a claimant for ruler of China, not even the people of his own country. |
| 558 | * DevelopersForesight: Normally, the focus "Independence War" grants Puyi the "Nationalist Symbol" trait as they start the titular independence war. Should Manchukuo already be independent through Japan's Democratic or Communist paths (therefore bypassing the need for fighting against Japan), the next focus, "Imperial Divinity", grants the trait instead. |
| 559 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: At the start of the game, Manchukuo is a rural, barely-developed glorified Japanese occupation zone backwater plagued by banditry with next to no stability, industry or anything of worth and a [[TheCaligula manchild of a nominal emperor]] as its leader. However, with some ''extremely'' hard work from the player, Manchuria can not only throw off its bonds of servitude and defeat Japan but restore the Qing Empire by retaking all of China, potentially giving Germany a mainland Eastern ally against the Soviets and basically removing Japan from the table as a Major Power while becoming a Major Power with a gigantic manpower and industrial base itself. |
| 560 | * PuppetKing: Puyi is this to the Kwantung Army, and by extension, Japan. This can be changed in the Assertiveness path, in which Japan can be thrown out of Manchuria by force. |
| 561 | * NoRespectGuy: Emperor Puyi is this at the game's start, having been utterly stripped of his legitimacy as a claimant for ruler of China by the Japanese and being little more than a figurehead for the Kwantung government in Manchuria[[note]]Worth noting is that in real life Puyi was a RoyalBrat and very much TheCaligula who had major delusions of grandeur which contributed heavily to his massive unpopularity among his own people, but this isn't applied to gameplay in the same way that, say, Carol II's hedonism in Romania is[[/note]]. |
| 562 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Manchukuo can be seen as an alternative to a Fascist branch of the Chinese and Warlord focus trees, since it involves either becoming a Japanese collaborationist or reforming an explicitly Fascist version of the Qing Empire, similar to how China, Communist China and the Warlords can reform China under their respective ideologies. |
| 563 | * TradingBarsForStripes: While preparing for the Independence War, the player can choose to form temporary cavalry divisions out of the hordes of bandits roaming the country by offering them concessions in exchange for loyalty. At any point afterward, you can choose to disband all the bandit divisions, with the now reformed and loyal bandits going into your main manpower pool for later. |
| 564 | [[/folder]] |
| 565 | |
| 566 | [[folder:Mexico]] |
| 567 | ! United Mexican States |
| 568 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Lázaro Cárdenas |
| 569 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 570 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Mexican Republic (Democratic, if a Catholic political party is formed), Mexican Soviet Republic (Communist), Mexican Social Republic (Communist, if reaching communism through economic and social reform), Mexican Junta (Fascist), Catholic Mexico (Fascist, under the Synarchists) |
| 571 | |
| 572 | ->''Mexico faced two decades of civil wars after the overthrow of the tyrant Porfirio Díaz. Centralizers fought regionalists, peasants and socialists rallied against hacienda landlords, and battles over the role of state versus religion came out of the annals of the Enlightenment to terrorize Mexico.'' |
| 573 | |
| 574 | ->''The secularist government insists that it won these battles, but it is seated on a throne of debris. After Mexico is rebuilt, perhaps a different victor will have emerged.'' |
| 575 | |
| 576 | ---- |
| 577 | * CivilWar: Can happen to Mexico should Mexico lean heavily towards Catholicism or Atheism, or should you annoy the warlord generals enough. |
| 578 | * ChurchMilitant: Going down either the Christian-Democratic or Synarchist political paths will allow Mexico to re-mobilize the Cristeros (Catholic guerrillas who fought against Mexican dictator Plutarco Calles in the 1920s), giving you several free infantry divisions. The Cristeros will also take up arms against a non-Democratic government that's too hardline against the Church. |
| 579 | * DavidVersusGoliath: Mexico can wage war on America in an attempt to reclaim territory lost in the Mexican Cession, with Mexico obviously being the David in the equation. It is pretty much only possible if the Mexican assault begins in the early years of the game, when America is still stuck with National Ideas keeping much of its impressive manpower and industry away from the military. |
| 580 | * GloriousLeader: Plutarco Calles, who starts as TheManBehindTheMan in Mexico, is also known as "Jefe Maximo" (Maximum Leader). He came to power through the musical chairs of the Revolution, and while he's officially retired as of the game start, he still wields significant influence, and can retake open power by allying with the Gold Shirt fascist paramilitaries. Alternatively, you can choose to exile Calles and institute real democracy in Mexico under Lázaro Cárdenas [[note]] Some TruthInTelevision there, as Cárdenas did force Calles to retire and, despite some critics labeling him as an "authoritarian populist," did show some support for democracy. [[/note]] |
| 581 | * HollywoodAtheist: If it becomes an atheist state, Mexico aggressively suppresses Christianity in favor of a cult of reason. |
| 582 | * MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack: One of Mexico's focuses gives them claims on the territories of the Mexican Cession, including of course, Texas. Conquering said territories nets you an achievement. |
| 583 | * ScyllaAndCharybdis: With the 'MTG' Expansion, Mexico has to tread the path between the Catholic Church, warlord generals, communist threats and other internal affairs on top of the narrow path between the major ideological alliances. |
| 584 | * TheStarscream: |
| 585 | ** Saturnino Cedillo, the Strongman of San Potosi, is gathering allies at the beginning of the game to rebel against Cardenas' central government. You can placate him by recognizing him as a FeudalOverlord over his territory, eliminate his allies and arrest him, or just defeat him in a civil war. |
| 586 | ** One possible leader for a Communist Mexico is ''Leon Trotsky'', provided the player opt to give him a government job instead of merely offering him exile[[note]]if Trotsky regains power in the USSR, he leaves behind someone else to take over[[/note]]. Despite what you might think, it's not only possible to join the [=ComIntern=], but there's even an achievement for puppeting the Soviet Union with Trotsky in charge of Mexico. |
| 587 | * TimedMission: To an extent, as a player wishing to take Mexico down an expansionist path has everything they do have the spectre of the United States looming in the north, whose nominal power is enough to squash Mexico like a gnat if antagonized, but is kept restrained by numerous National Ideas that get removed as the US moves down its Focus Tree, and so Mexico needs to move before the US colossus fully wakes. To whit: |
| 588 | ** Any and all of the countries Mexico can get War Goals on through Focuses are on countries the US is Guranteeing. However, the US will not enforce these Gurantees in the early years of the game, allowing Mexico to annex them as it pleases, so long as Mexico treads lightly around the Panama Canal. |
| 589 | ** If Mexico aims to reclaim territory lost in the Mexican Cession it needs to act ''fast'', as the United State's low mobilization, wide territory and isolationist policies make it the definition of a PaperTiger: Massive amounts of resources, inability to fully utilize it, and the army it ''does'' have is spread thinly across all of its territory, including those in the Pacific Islands, allowing a well equipped and smartly managed Mexican army to smash through the US border. |
| 590 | [[/folder]] |
| 591 | |
| 592 | [[folder:The Netherlands]] |
| 593 | ! Kingdom of the Netherlands |
| 594 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Hendrikus Colijn |
| 595 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 596 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' People's United Provinces (Communist), Dutch Rijk (Fascist) |
| 597 | ->'''Can Form:''' Benelux (Democratic), United Netherlands, European Union (Democratic) |
| 598 | |
| 599 | ->''The Dutch government eyes the mounting global tensions with concern. Between an ailing economy, a powerful pacifist movement, and a firm belief in neutrality to the point of driving potential allies away, they are unable to poperly prepare their defenses.'' |
| 600 | |
| 601 | ->''At the same time, the importance of the Netherlands as a gateway of trade into the continent means that both the British and the Germans desire Dutch 'cooperation' to thwart the other, and may take rejection as a reason for hostility. Perhaps withdrawal to the colonies is the only possible means to resist such an invasion...'' |
| 602 | |
| 603 | ---- |
| 604 | * ActualPacifist: The Netherlands always starts with the "Shell-shocked Spectator of the Great War" national spirit, representing the complete and total aversion the country has toward letting their own lands be utterly razed like their neighbor Belgium during World War 1. If the player wants to start building and mobilizing an army, they'll have to run anti-pacifism campaigns to change the country's mindset first. |
| 605 | * DefiantToTheEnd: The Dutch can select to continue the Zuiderzee Works and try hold on to the mainland at the very dangerous and present risk of having their defenses immediately overrun by Germany and having nowhere to escape to as a result. |
| 606 | * DiscOneNuke: Oddly enough, the Dutch can serve as this ''for other countries''. This is due to the fact that the Dutch directly control several territories that are rich in oil, and have the Dutch East Indies (which has a tremendous source of manpower and lots of resources) as a puppet. |
| 607 | * ExtremeDoormat: Has an entire goverment full of defeatist ministers at the game's start, lowering its surrender limit by a ''lot''. Taking the focus "Fire Defeatist Ministers" is the first step to getting the country's organization into shape. |
| 608 | * GovernmentInExile: The Netherlands can move their government to the Dutch East Indies and support the allies in the Pacific as they did in real life, though it means they can't hold on to their main territories. |
| 609 | * MagikarpPower: By putting Queen Wilhelmina in direct control of the government, The Dutch can use monarchist sentiments to cajole ''Reich'' divisions to defect, and create a puppet monarchy of Germany, then annex it and [[FromNobodyToNightmare suddenly become a major power of Europe]]. |
| 610 | * MortonsFork: The Dutch must choose to align with London or Berlin, at the expense of antagonizing the other.[[note]][[TakeAThirdOption Unless they don't.]][[/note]] |
| 611 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: Can either form the European Union much like France, Germany, Italy and a Fascist Britain or can form the United Netherlands, either by conquest, or if leading the Minor Democracies, through diplomacy. It should be noted that simply controlling the territories required to form the United Netherlands is the only requirement for an achievement. |
| 612 | [[/folder]] |
| 613 | |
| 614 | [[folder:Spain]] |
| 615 | ---- |
| 616 | * BalkanizeMe: While not a spectacular case compared to others, Spain can see Catalonia, Galicia and Euskadi (the Basque Country) split away from Spain. [[note]] The latter of these was the only releasable from Spain in vanilla games prior to IV. [[/note]] Much like other balkanizeable countries, these can be immediately released at the start of the game, however there is a game rule option called "11th of November." Which makes the Iberian Peninsula look like how the Iberian Peninsula appeared in VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis IV. This also includes, amusingly enough, the Islands of Sardinia and Sicily, Italian core states in the base game, be core states of the Crown of Aragon. |
| 617 | * MagikarpPower: Spain has a deceptively large manpower pool and good resources, but is unique in that it has to re-core all of the states whatever faction wins the Civil War lost and gets a nasty "Recovering From Civil War" debuff until 1944 (which can be alleviated with focuses), meaning it will take quite a bit of work to whip the country and its army into fighting shape to face off against the Axis or Allies but managing to do so will add a powerful scale-tipping variable into the mix for either side. |
| 618 | * MeleeATrois: Starting ''La Resistance'' the civil war will inevitably turn 3 ways, in non-historical setting it can go as bad as 4 ways. |
| 619 | * ObviousRulePatch: [[invoked]] The only reason that Spain has the Garrison mechanic which raises temporary units at the start of the Spanish Civil War and removes them at the end is likely so the player cannot use [[CheeseStrategy a common strategy to bypass other countries' civil wars]] in which they will delete the country's entire army, begin training new units without deploying them and then deploy the units at the civil war's start, allowing the player to take over the country uncontested by any enemy divisions. This is done because the Spanish Civil War is the most historically impactful civil war in the game and large parts of the Spanish focus tree can only be completed upon winning it, meaning players could easily gain a DiskOneNuke of a country by 1937 if this mechanic wasn't in place. |
| 620 | |
| 621 | ! Republican Spain |
| 622 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Manuel Azaña |
| 623 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 624 | ->'''Can Form:''' Iberia, Global Defence Council |
| 625 | |
| 626 | ->''In the first five years of its existence, the fledgling Second Spanish Republic has already had to deal with strikes, a military coup attempt, and a major revolutionary uprising. Though it has survived these challenges, Spanish society continues to be marred by political polarization and violence between anarchists, communists, and falangists.'' |
| 627 | |
| 628 | ->''Both sides look towards the upcoming 1936 general election with hopeful eyes, but it is unlikely that the victory of either side will bring a return to stability. And as the violence continues, the military waits and plots...'' |
| 629 | |
| 630 | ---- |
| 631 | * DealWithTheDevil: The Republicans and Stalinists can agree to become a Soviet puppet in exchange for development aid from Stalin. The Stalinists consider this a plus and only seek to end the puppet status to join the Comintern as full and equal members; the Republicans might pursue a ''second'' deal with the devil, [[EnemyMine this time with the Axis, who had backed their enemies in the Spanish Civil War]], in an attempt to break free (or they might pursue Allied aid instead). |
| 632 | * EnemyMine: A specific set of foci allow a democratic Republican Spain to seek to join the Axis to get out from under Stalin's boot. |
| 633 | * ThePurge: This is the driving factor that will lead to a civil war within the Popular Front. Either the Republicans and Stalinists will enact this on the Independent Communists and Anarchists, or the Independent Communists and Anarchists will see the purge coming, seize the gold reserves, and rebel against the government before Republicans and Stalinists purge them. |
| 634 | * TheQuisling: The Stalinists want Spain to be a puppet of the Soviet Union, or at best a partner in the Comintern. |
| 635 | * TheStarscream: |
| 636 | ** If the government doesn't purge the Independent Communists and the Anarchists, they'll rebel against the central government in an attempt to bring the revolution, even if the war is still ongoing. If the player goes Stalinist, they have the option to delay the uprising, but it becomes more expensive with each time. |
| 637 | ** If the Republicans accept Soviet aid, they become a Soviet puppet, but they can plan to turn against Stalin. |
| 638 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: While nominally represented as either Democratic or Communist in-game, Republican Spain is in fact represented by at least four ideologically different factions, two of which representing two radically different schools of communism, with a Democratic and and Anarchist faction working very loosely with the others and in loose pairs of Stalinists and Democratic republicans, and Anarchists and anti-Stalinist Communists, all of whom have irreconcilable differences that will boil over within a year. This is actually [[EnforcedTrope enforced]] in-game via missions making nominally allied factions within the Republican side split off and declare war on both the Nationalists and the other Republican faction, and unlike the Nationalists who can potentially avoid their civil war, there is no way to avoid the Republican civil war. |
| 639 | |
| 640 | !! Anarchists |
| 641 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Unaligned or Communism |
| 642 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' none (CNT-FAI) or Julián Gorkin (Anarchist Commune) |
| 643 | ->'''Can Form:''' Regional Defense Council of Iberia, Global Defence Council |
| 644 | |
| 645 | A subfaction of Republican Spain, the Anarchists play completely differently from the other nations in the game once the national focus "All Must Bear the Torch" is taken. |
| 646 | |
| 647 | ---- |
| 648 | * AnarchyIsChaos: SubvertedTrope - the Anarchists trend inevitably towards zero stability, but it's more that stability in the sense of conventional states doesn't really concern them, and mechanically, they get a special economic law that is equivalent to war economy plus offsetting the penalties of low stability and baking in the industrial bonuses for 100% stability, save for the political power generation penalty, which they still get. Additionally, anarchist Spain does not get the negative events other countries may get at low stability. In effect, they are always at 100% stability and nothing can actually bring their stability down from there. |
| 649 | * MagikarpPower: Going in line with the example below, the Anarchist focus tree will be EarlyGameHell, what with starting out rather weak after the war's end as well as foreign nations being inherently hostile to you from the start, but the fact that you can start anarchist revolutions in foreign countries to expand your borders as well as having the ability to core literally any province in the game (potentially making them the nation with the single highest manpower count in the game at their peak), they have the ability to snowball absolutely out of control if not taken out early. |
| 650 | * MechanicallyUnusualClass: Being the only nation with a national focus branch explicitly representing anarchy, Republican Spain has the possibility to play a lot differently from all normal ideologies. For starters, a constant drain on stability is not only expected, but also encouraged, since Anarchist Spain has to incur larger and larger weekly stability penalties to gain their larger bonuses in production and recruitable population. They can also spark anarchist uprising in foreign countries to grow their borders even more that way since the anarchist movement has moved away from the idea of Spain as a nation-state and more as a global movement, at the cost of [[HeroWithBadPublicity making literally everybody else on the planet hate your guts]]. |
| 651 | * HardCodedHostility: The Anarchists cannot negotiate with any other nation, set up puppet states, create or join factions, trade, and so on, since they will not stop until every single state falls and the whole world is anarchist. |
| 652 | * OmnicidalNeutral: Anarchist Spain will try to TakeOverTheWorld fighting all countries regardless of ideology or factions (notably, the anarchists cannot join any faction or form one). |
| 653 | |
| 654 | ! Nationalist Spain |
| 655 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' José Sanjurjo (1936), UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco (1939) |
| 656 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned (1936), Fascist (1939) |
| 657 | |
| 658 | ->''The civil war that has devastated the country for the past three years has finally concluded. Under the guidance of Franco, the victors must now see to Spain's recovery, the elimination of remaining pockets of resistance, and the mending of the divides created by the war.'' |
| 659 | |
| 660 | ->''Time is not unlimited, however, as the world at large continues its inexorable march towards what will undoubtedly be a far larger and still more bloody war. If Spain is to stand its ground, let alone reap the fruits of opportunity presented by this coming conflict, it must ready its industry and its military without delay.'' |
| 661 | -> - "From Spain's 1939 Scenario Description." |
| 662 | |
| 663 | ---- |
| 664 | * EnemyCivilWar: Like the republican side, they are represented by almost as many internal factions as the Republican side, ranging from the fascist Falangists, militaristic Francoists and the Carlist royalists furthering their own agendas. And, just like the Republican example above, it is very possible for one or all of said factions to split off and wage war against both sides in the conflict. Unlike the Republicans, it is, however, avoidable, even if avoiding it requires Franco to abandon the more ambitious foreign policy goals of both the Falange and the Carlists. |
| 665 | * MagikarpPower: The Carlist "Crusade Against Democracy" spirit can only be improved every 140 days, and that's because with all the buffs attached to it, it is an absolutely ''lethal'' boost to Spain's attack power, organization, recruitable population and training time. It'll take a while to fully develop, but it's super worth it. |
| 666 | * RightfulKingReturns: Both the Carlist and the Francoist sub-branches of the Nationalist Tree allows you to restore the monarchy, both have the option of restoring Alfonso XIII (or should he have died by that point, his son.) as king, which plays this trope straight. But only the Carlist branch allows you to [[OfferedTheCrown pass the crown]] to Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, the designated heir to the Carlist pretender Alfonso Carlos. [[note]] The aformentioned Alfonso Carlos dies nearly ten months into the game, thus preventing him from taking power himself.[[/note]]. The Carlists also believe in enforcing this across Europe and if victorious in the civil war, will seek to wage a "Crusade Against Democracy" that would restore the various monarchs of Europe to power, ushering in a new age of absolute monarchies and an end to democracy and republicanism in Europe. |
| 667 | * TakeOverTheWorld: DownplayedTrope: The Falangists "only" want to re-assert Spanish control over the entire Hispanic world and reassert Spain as the empire upon which the sun never sets and the preeminent international hegemon. |
| 668 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: The Nationalists are an uneasy coalition of Falangist pan-Hispanicists and Carlist monarchists, who are only really united by their shared loathing of the various Republican factions. Unless Franco is brought to their side and the relevant focuses taken fast enough, the Carlists and Falangists will go to war with each other, even if the Civil War with the Republicans is still going on. |
| 669 | [[/folder]] |
| 670 | |
| 671 | [[folder:Portugal]] |
| 672 | ! Portugal |
| 673 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/AntonioDeOliveiraSalazar |
| 674 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 675 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Portuguese Republic (Democratic), Maximalist Portugal (Communist), Greater Portugal (Fascist), Kingdom of Portugal (Non-Aligned, if the focus 'Restoration of the monarchy' is Completed) |
| 676 | ->'''Can Form:''' Iberia, United Kingdom of Portugal and Brazil |
| 677 | |
| 678 | ->''Since Salazar's rise to power in 1932, Portugal has been gradually distancing herself from the unstable period of the First Republic. Fiscal Autonomy and Political Independence from the major powers led to the creation of the Estado Novo, laying the foundations for the development of the Portuguese industry and the modernization of the army.'' |
| 679 | |
| 680 | ->''Now, Portugal must decide the way forward as political and social instability increases in neighboring Spain and international tensions are hopelessly worsening...'' |
| 681 | |
| 682 | ---- |
| 683 | * MeleeATrois: Portugal's communist path has two branches - a standard one that has them join the [=ComIntern=], and an independent one that has them have a civil war of their own, fighting alongside the Republicans against Salazar's regime, the Nationalists, the Anarchists, and possibly the Carlists, which can result in up to ''6'' nations occupying Iberia. The Monarchist path can also join the Carlists in the civil war if the Carlists spawned, but won't have to fight a civil war of their own. |
| 684 | * RightfulKingReturns: The monarchist path of Portugal allows the nation to restore Duarte Nuno de Braganza to power and enforce a dynastic union over Brazil. |
| 685 | [[/folder]] |
| 686 | |
| 687 | [[folder:Bulgaria]] |
| 688 | ! Bulgaria |
| 689 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Boris III |
| 690 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 691 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Bulgaria (Democratic), People's Republic of Bulgaria (Communist), Legionnaires Bulgaria (Fascist) |
| 692 | ->'''Can Form:''' Third Bulgarian Empire, United Balkan Federation |
| 693 | |
| 694 | ---- |
| 695 | * AChildShallLeadThem: Through focuses, it's possible to see Boris III be overthrown and a regency council formed for his young son Simeon II. It is possible to get an achievement if Bulgaria under the Regency Council goes to war with Peter II whilst the latter is still underaged. |
| 696 | * TheFederation: Is capable of forming the United Balkan Federation by going Communist and coring all of ''Albania, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Greece'', as well as part of Turkey suddenly making it a dominant Communist power in Europe and serious trouble for the Axis empires. |
| 697 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: In 1936, Bulgaria is an impoverished small Balkan nation with a bare-bones army crippled by the treaties of World War I due to it being the fourth member of the Central Powers, and historically was nothing more than a minor Axis partner on the Black Sea front. However, the player can revitalize the country and try to turn it into either a Communist pan-Balkan super-federation or reclaim Greater Bulgaria and turn all of its neighbors into puppets, forming an unmatched dominant regional power. |
| 698 | * RightfulKingReturns: As an alternative to the regency council, you can overthrow Boris III in favor of his father, Ferdinand I, who historically abdicated the throne following Bulgaria's defeat in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. |
| 699 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: Bulgaria is dominated by heavy factionalism within its internal politics, requiring you to integrate the parties you want into the government and crush the ones you don't want in order to consolidate power. |
| 700 | [[/folder]] |
| 701 | |
| 702 | [[folder:Greece]] |
| 703 | ! Kingdom of Greece |
| 704 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Ioannis Metaxas (vanilla), Konstantinos Demertzis (''Battle for the Bosphorus'' DLC) |
| 705 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 706 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Hellenic Republic (Democratic), Provisional Democratic Greece (Communist), National Union of Greece (Fascist) |
| 707 | ->'''Can Form:''' Byzantine Empire, Hellas, Macedonian Empire |
| 708 | |
| 709 | ---- |
| 710 | * AlternateHistoryWank: |
| 711 | ** The Byzantine path is easily one of the most guilty of this in the entire game, which is saying something. Most other countries can only core territories that they lost recently or share some cultural affinity with. Byzantine Greece? It can instantly core territories that haven't been part of it for ''1500'' years, and whose demographics have changed completely since it last ruled it. Although the Italians can do the same thing, many of the territories that can be cored by Rome are already dominated by Romance speakers who look back fondly on the Empire. Meanwhile, the Greeks can somehow convince Slavs, Turks, and Arabs to accept their rule despite everyone hating their guts and outnumbering them ten to one. |
| 712 | ** The Macedonian path takes this even a step further, coring historically Achaemenid Persian and Indian territories that Greece hasn't controlled for ''2 and a half millennia''. |
| 713 | * ArchNemesis: You're going to notice a recurring theme that basically all the ahistorical paths besides the Monarchist one involve reclaiming lost Greek territory in Turkey or otherwise antagonizing the Turks, due to longstanding anti-Turkish sentiment in the country which persists even to this day. |
| 714 | * BecameTheirOwnAntithesis: One of the focuses on the path that leads Greece to make a second attempt at the Megali Idea rejects the idea of Greece becoming a fascist state akin to Mussolini's Italy. This trope is averted should Greece reject working with the [=EEE=], but if Greece opts to work with said coalition, it gets played straight, as the [=EEE=] coup will not only have the player focus on reviving the Byzantine Empire, but it becomes a nation that's not just similar to Italy, but also the German Reich. |
| 715 | * DifficultButAwesome: |
| 716 | ** A very difficult but rewarding strategy as Greece if one attempts to restore Byzantium is to actually attack ''Italy'' before Turkey falls in order to swiftly take advantaged of Italy's disoganized military to ensure a swift capitulation, allowing Greece to dominate the Mediterranean uncontested[[note]]specifically, the player must take advantage of military access and then declare war on Albania, which will drag Italy - who guarantees Albania - into the war, and as long as the player can hold out for enough time, they'll be able to capitulate the Italians[[/note]]. |
| 717 | ** Similarly, proclaiming Greater Greece if you do so as a non-democratic country - unlike the Democratic Path (which only requires the Turkish held states), the communist and fascist paths require the player to also own the Dodecanese (held by Italy) and Cyprus (held by the UK), meaning that you'll have to fight both the Axis and the Allies to form the nation. However, proclaiming the nation is an easy way to get a bunch of manpower and industry without having to fully restore Byzantium. |
| 718 | * HistoricalBadassUpgrade: Eleftherios Venizelos historically died 3 months after the game's 1936 start, but his death date is actually randomized in-game, allowing him to possibly live several more years than his real-life counterpart. On the flip side, it's also entirely possible he could die within the first month of the game. |
| 719 | * MagikarpPower: Unlike its neighboring Balkan countries, Greece has ''extremely'' generous coring potential, allowing it to immediately become a regional powerhouse should it manage to defeat Turkey early on[[note]]Much harder than it sounds, as Turkey has a much larger and better-equipped military than Greece at the game's start and will often reinforce the Bosporus to hell and back, meaning the only real way to get into mainland Turkey is through naval invasions which can be easily rebuffed by the Turkish defenses, not to mention Turkey has a high chance of reaching out for help from a Major Power[[/note]]. |
| 720 | * PleaseSelectNewCityName: If Greece is to recapture Istanbul, they can rename it back to Constantinople. |
| 721 | * PretextForWar: The Stalinist Greek path involves Greece staging a border clash on the Bosporus, which escalates into full-on war between Greece and the Soviets on one side and Turkey and whoever is guaranteeing them on the other. |
| 722 | * SecretCharacter: Similar to the United States and Argentina, Greece is one of three countries that can have Adolf Hitler as leader. In this instance, the player needs to have had a civil war after failing the Megali Idea[[note]]if only Italy expresses interest in the Megali Idea, the [=EEE=] will launch a coup; if the player refuses to side with them, they'll attempt to overthrow the government in a civil war, which the player can choose between playing as them or the Republicans; in this instance, the player needs to side with the Fascists[[/note]] restored the Byzantine Empire[[note]]the player only needs to click the "Revive Byzantium" Decision[[/note]], and control Cyprus as well as Northern Epirus. Doing so will give the player an event where "Adolfos I" will be discovered, reportedly believed to be a member of the Komnenoi Dynasty. |
| 723 | * SummonBiggerFish: The ahistorical Democratic path for Greece has them attempt to revive the historical but failed [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megali_Idea Megali Idea]] of 1919, which was essentially a trade that Greece offered to Italy, France and Britain asking for their help in conquering Turkey in exchange for ceding parts of Anatolia to them. The player can either choose to use the generosity of said Great Powers to form Greater Greece, or deliberately fail the Idea a second time in order to turn Greece Fascist and give them the option of restoring Byzantium. |
| 724 | * TeethClenchedTeamwork: Greece can become this to Italy by either going historically Metaxist and joining the Axis or going Byzantinist Fascist and doing the same thing. Despite being totally incongruous neighbors that each want to take territory the other has claimed or owns, as long as Germany remains leader of the Axis they can't declare war on each other[[note]]since they won't be able to kick each other out of the faction[[/note]] and will have to work together for the time being. |
| 725 | * ViolationOfCommonSense: To restore the fascist Byzantine Empire, you have to oppose the neutral Monarchists and put the democratic Republicans back in power first. Then, you must intentionally screw everything up as the Republicans so that the Byzantine fascists can rise up and take control. |
| 726 | [[/folder]] |
| 727 | |
| 728 | [[folder:Turkey]] |
| 729 | ! Turkey |
| 730 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Mustafa Kemal Atatürk |
| 731 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 732 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Turkey (Democratic), Turkish Socialist Republic (Communist), Turkish Empire (Fascist) |
| 733 | ->'''Can Form:''' Balkan Confederation, Ottoman Sultanate & Empire, Turan |
| 734 | |
| 735 | ---- |
| 736 | * AlternateHistoryWank: The plausibility of a "[[TakeOverTheWorld Turkey reforms the Turanian/Ottoman Empire and takes over the world]]" scenario in the late '30s and early '40s is...far-fetched, to say the least. Not only was war of any kind generally unpopular with the average Turk (they had just fought a protracted war of independence against the Ottomans and Atatürk famously advocated for "Kemalist Neutrality", and Atatürk's word was gospel) but Turkey simply did not have the industry, manpower or developed military to go toe-to-toe with its own neighbors, let alone power players like the USSR and Germany during this period. The focus tree tries very hard to make it feel like an almost sisyphean uphill battle for the sake of realism, but even so it still feels a bit like a Turkish hyper-nationalistic PowerFantasy. |
| 737 | * DemocracyIsBad: Zig-zagged: Atatürk's ultimate objective for Turkey is to turn it into a truly multi-party secular democratic state, and the player can very well realize his ambitions, which is portrayed as a good thing that gives the country the best possible version of the "The Legacy of Atatürk" national spirit. However, the reason Turkey at present is having so much trouble doing exactly that is because Islamic extremists and traditionalists keep trying to get into power using the multi-party system and turn it into TheTheocracy, ''which the player can also do'' if they want to. Therefore, even though an ahistorical path exists where Atatürk's beliefs are vindicated, the historical path has Turkey follow a mild version of this and remain an authoritarian state to prevent the Traditionalists from even having a chance of winning an election, though they hope they'll be able to prove Atatürk right in the future. |
| 738 | * DifficultButAwesome: Between that and InfinityPlusOneSword lies the quest for Turan, which any non-Ottoman variation of Turkey can start. Declaring it will require territories of Syria (under the (soon Vichy) French heel), Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and USSR's southern belly, inevitably antagonizing the Axis ''and'' the Comintern. A well-timed push along with Axis to isolate Hitler's expansion behind the Zaporozhe region will complete the first step, but grabbing the North Syrian province ''will'' invoke the Axis' wrath (or the Allies', if unlucky). A quick decapitation of the USSR and a land grab with a well-timed push into French Syria will enable the option even as the owner of Syria didn't capitulate, suddenly coring a colossal chunk of Asia for an enormous boost in industry and manpower required to kill whomever Turan is facing. Bonus if Turan's world tension is tolerable to join the Allies, as the now desperate Axis is facing the entire world's cored territories, and Turan stands a good chance to take over the Allies as the faction leader in sheer manpower and industry, making Turkey TakeOverTheWorld as a FromNobodyToNightmare. |
| 739 | * DividedWeFall: Turkey at the game's start is still feeling the growing pains of trying to be a secular state transitioning to democracy, receiving harsh pushback from Traditionalist religious groups across the country which apply debuffs to regions they gain control over. and this is on ''top'' of [[UsefulNotes/{{Kurdistan}} the Kurdish rebels in the east of the country preventing those states from being integrated and destroying local infrastructure]]. Naturally, a lot of Turkey's early game involves figuring out ways to unite the country and get rid of all the regional debuffs it has. |
| 740 | * DoomedByCanon: No matter what actions the player takes, Kemal Atatürk is guaranteed to contract a fatal illness and die in mid-1938, and the nation will be devastated by his loss. It's up to the player to decide whether to retire him early to soften the blow, keep him as leader as long as possible or transition the country to a Democracy so he can see his dream of a democratic, secular Turkey achieved before his death. |
| 741 | * ForegoneConclusion: The historical Turkish path has the government remain authoritarian, but with hope to become a democracy in the future. As anyone in the modern day can tell you, modern Turkey is still a poorly-concealed one-party despotism which suffered multiple military coups and Atatürk's dream has still never been truly achieved in its entirety. |
| 742 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: The focus named "The National Oath" begins the optional branch at the end of the Turkish focus tree, where Turkey at first demands the re-establishment of its 1920 borders and then ultimately enters into antagonism with numerous Great Powers by trying to capture and assimilate territories of "Altaic" origin ethnicities from Hungary in the west to Chukotka in the east in order to form Turan - the most ambitious Turkish formable nation. Obviously, pursuing this goal is a bad idea unless you are ready to go up against the ''three'' major factions of the game - the Axis, the Comintern, and the Allies (though it is potentially avoidable with the third). However, winning despite all odds will mean, among other things, that Turkey has gone from a rather mediocre state with limited capabilities to a true Eurasian superpower in only ''approximately one decade''. |
| 743 | * HeelRealization: Sinking into autocracy, fascism, or communism and thus turning away from Atatürk's ideals of secular democracy will turn "Atatürk's Legacy" into a debuff, its description showing sadness and regret at not managing to follow his footsteps and hoping the path the country took will vindicate it. |
| 744 | * HordesFromTheEast: The "Turanist Ambition" focus and three others right below it will make the nation look like this. Except for Hungary in the northwest, Turkey neglects the usual within the scope of the trope westward direction and instead focuses on the east and north, intending to create out of a whole range of conquered countries and regions a gigantic SpaceFillingEmpire with lots of militarism and wolf imagery, essentially harkening back to the days of Khans and uniting every Altaic ethnicity into one big blob. The fascist variation of Turan is even explicitly called a khaganate. |
| 745 | * IstanbulNotConstantinople: Inverted - if the Ottoman route is taken, Istanbul will be renamed Konstantiniyye. |
| 746 | * LoopholeAbuse: |
| 747 | ** The spirit Atatürk's Legacy, if obtained after having committed to a path other than the historical one or the democratic one, will grant a somewhat nasty penalty. However, the focus that gives said spirit can be taken if you've either committed to a political path[[note]]as in taking one of the focuses that it requires[[/note]], or if Atatürk has retired, meaning that if you don't fully commit to a political direction until ''after'' Atatürk has retired and you've completed the focus, you can wind up with the more positive versions of the spirit. Amusingly, this can technically mean that the ''Ottoman Empire'' can have achieved Atatürk's legacy. |
| 748 | ** Likewise, letting the Kurds openly rebel once and quickly overrun/annex them yields free looted equipment, combat experience and destroys the Turkey-specific negative modifiers in the rebellious areas, making the areas far easier to control and later on core. |
| 749 | * MartialPacifist: "Atatürk's Dream" and "Peace in the World" focuses reflect this, [[TruthInTelevision in reality as well]]. In real life, Turkey stayed out of the war but prepared for eventual invasions. |
| 750 | * MultipleChoiceFuture: ''Hearts of Iron 4'' has extensive updates and foci regarding Turkey, moreso than any other nation except the USA. It has a democratic pro-Allied path focusing on securing the Middle East and getting enormous Western aid and debt erasure in return for helping Allies, a centrist, flexible Kemalist path reflecting OTL decisions focusing on secularism, a pro-German fascist path, an anti-German pro-Italian fascist path, an anti-Stalinist communist one (eventually falling out due to abuse of Turkic people and Marxist theory of Internationalism), a still Democratic, but deeply religious Adnan Menderes (quoting Jihad and all) presidency and finally, a hyper-aggressive return to the Ottoman Empire which eventually lays claim to the entire world. |
| 751 | * PuppetKing: Sultan Abdulmejid II is [[NonActionGuy mostly a mild-mannered scholar]], but as in real life his cabinet of warhawk irredentist viziers are the ones actually run the country for him[[note]]These same viziers and Pashas were the ones who carried out UsefulNotes/TheArmenianGenocide, by the way[[/note]], which is bad news for every country that borders the Ottoman Sultanate, as the Ottoman path allows Turkey to get war goals on all its neighbors. |
| 752 | * ProudWarriorRace: Even the most democratic and peace-loving focus combinations have options and mechanics to maximizing war-readiness and boosting your manpower pool. |
| 753 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Ottoman focus tree's logical conclusion is "Red Apples of Sevres", occupying the capitals of ''every'' Great Power that humiliated the Sultan and tore up Turkey. Japan included. This would require taking on ''every faction'' in a historical run, at least Turan can avoid attacking the Allies to form itself. |
| 754 | * SecretCharacter: While Sultan Abdulmejid II normally returns to power if the player goes down the Ottoman Restoration path, there is another way he can come to power: If the player waits until Ataturk leaves and doesn't take "Ratify the Six Arrows" until afterwards, he'll be one of the two possible replacements for Ataturk, under the name Halife Abdulmecid Efendi[[note]]in case you're curious, the other option is Kazim Orbay[[/note]]. Amusingly, this doesn't lock out the player from doing the Ottoman Restoration. |
| 755 | * ShoutOut: When Ottoman loyalists offer a DealWithTheDevil to Adnan Menderes to return the Sultan, the refusal choice is: "[[Franchise/StarWars Our allegiance is to the Republic, to Democracy!]]" |
| 756 | * SoProudOfYou: A pure democratic path for Turkey will form "Atatürk's Dream" focus which gives several technological and economic bonuses to offset the more pacifist democratic choices. The description is a monologue of the Turkish people feeling happy and proud about realizing Atatürk's legacy, a free, secular Turkey with no autocracy, fascism or religious fundamentalism joining the modern world. |
| 757 | * StartMyOwn: Instead of picking a faction to side with, Turkey has the option of proclaiming its intent to uphold Balkan security, forming a Balkan Entente to protect its smaller neighbors from outside threats like Italy and the Soviets while serving as TheLeader. |
| 758 | * TheTheocracy: Downplayed. Each time in the years since Turkey's founding that Atatürk and his government have tried to transition the country away from a one-party authoritarian state, the opposing political parties always get hijacked by Islamist traditionalists and nationalists who want to impose draconian policies on the country or even potentially ''bring back the Ottoman Empire'', which is Atatürk's worst nightmare. As such, while the historical path has Turkey remain a despotism with high hopes for a transition to democracy in the future, going Democratic will always have Adnan Menderes' traditionalist Demokrat Parti form and try to win the upcoming election. It's up to the player whether they want Menderes to win and basically give the Traditionalists everything they want, making Turkey into an all-but-in-name Islamic Theocracy and allowing for the Ottoman Sultanate to potentially resurrect, or to achieve Atatürk's dreams of a truly Democratic Turkey and have Celâl Bayar win. |
| 759 | * WeHaveReserves: Turkish Fascist (Redshirts) and Communist (Workers' Militia) paths generate manpower and boost recruitability in already warlike Turkey, but the Ottoman Empire alternate path takes it up a notch. When the Sultan gains "the Caliph" buff, the Ottoman Empire ''permanently'' generates tens of thousands of Muslim volunteers from all around the world, recruits enough to fill entire divisions per ''month'' as well as calling EVEN MORE Muslim volunteers using political power per month. When the entire Muslim world is cored, the empire's reserve manpower can number in ''millions'' even in "volunteer only". And the mild, pro-Western democratic path is no slouch in war readiness either, but focuses on quality research rather than quantity and keeps a watered-down volunteer calling program called "populism". |
| 760 | [[/folder]] |
| 761 | |
| 762 | [[folder:The Baltic States]] |
| 763 | |
| 764 | [[WMG:In General]] |
| 765 | * ScyllaAndCharybdis: The Baltics all have the unenviable position of being sandwiched directly in between two extremely aggressive Great Powers desperate for expansion, namely the German Reich and the Soviet Union. No matter what path the player takes or who they side with, they are invariably going to have one of their bordering nations invading them by 1939, making for some extremely stressful gameplay. |
| 766 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: All of the Baltics are capable of forming a unitary Baltic nation, either for the greater good and the defense of all three nations or as a first step toward Baltic domination. Do note that two out of three paths Germany can take involve it pressing claims on the Lithuanian city of Memel, so even if you're not playing Lithuania you'll still have to decide what to do about it if you unite the Baltics. Additionally, all 3 can form the Baltic-Belarus SR, which in addition to coring all 3 Baltic States, also cores Belarus. |
| 767 | * VoluntaryVassal: As part of the shared communist tree, all 3 Baltic states have access to Baltic-Belarus SR (which grants them cores on the other 2 Baltic States as well as the cores of Belarus), which can be formed in 1 of 2 ways (either by becoming a Soviet Puppet or by remaining independent). If the player opts to align themselves with the Soviets[[note]]in case you're wondering, it's "First come, first served" to determine which Baltic state forms the [=SR=][[/note]], the Soviets will hand over their half of Belarus, and after the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact is completed, the player will get the Belarusian states that Poland controlled[[note]]if the player opts to go independent, they'll compete with the Soviets in a minigame reminsicent of the Spanish Civil War's garrison system; after enough time has passed, the part of Belarus under Soviet control will be released and have a civil war, with the victorious side joining either the Baltic state or the Soviets; if the player's Belarus wins, they'll have to conquer the rest from Poland[[/note]]. |
| 768 | |
| 769 | [[WMG:Republic of Estonia]] |
| 770 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Konstantin Päts |
| 771 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 772 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Estonia (Democratic), Estonian People's Republic (Communist), Terra Mariana (Fascist) |
| 773 | ->'''Can Form:''' Baltic Federation, Estonia-Belarus SR, Estonia-Finland, Empire of Finno-Ugra, Nordic League |
| 774 | |
| 775 | ---- |
| 776 | * MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: A non-character related example in the case of two of the formable nations it can form: while both require them to annex Finland through decisions (similar to the Marches the UK uses for Fascism), Estonia can only form the Nordic Empire if opts to embrace the Nordic Identity (which will allow it to core Sweden, Norway, and Denmark); however, if it opts to lean into the Finnic identity instead, it can opt to form the Empire of Finno-Ungra, which will let it core the northern parts of Sweden and Norway, as well as a good chunk of the USSR. |
| 777 | |
| 778 | [[WMG:Republic of Latvia]] |
| 779 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Kārlis Ulmanis |
| 780 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 781 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Latvia (Democratic), Latvian People's Republic (Communist), The Empire of the Thunder Cross (Fascist), Ostland (Fascist, if a German puppet) |
| 782 | ->'''Can Form:''' Baltic Federation, Latvia-Belarus SR, Ostland |
| 783 | |
| 784 | ---- |
| 785 | * LoopholeAbuse: Latvia's fascist path has 2 branches - the standard branch where Latvia joins the Axis, and the branch where Latvia goes alone. If you ally with Germany, you're locked out of the latter branch, which gives insane upgrades to the unique Dievturība spirit. However, because the focus "The Thunder Roars Alone" can be taken regardless of if Latvia is part of a faction (it only makes Germany less likely to accept Latvian membership), it is perfectly viable to join the Axis ''before'' taking the focus, and still get the fully upgraded version of Dievturība. |
| 786 | |
| 787 | [[WMG:Republic of Lithuania]] |
| 788 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Antanas Smetona |
| 789 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 790 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Lithuania (Democratic), Lithuanian People's Republic (Communist), Lithuanian Independent SSR (Communist, if a Soviet puppet), Iron Wolf Lithuania (Fascist) |
| 791 | ->'''Can Form:''' Baltic Federation, Greater Lithuania, Kingdom of Livonia, Lithuania-Belarus SR, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth |
| 792 | |
| 793 | ---- |
| 794 | * BeingGoodSucks: Restoring the Worker's Republic means you can either become a voluntary Soviet vassal, which removes your independence and offers heavy debuffs, or you can [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight form an opposition state to the Soviets and develop a form of Christian Socialism in order to work with the Catholics in the country]] to get some stability and manpower bonuses, neither of which the heavily atheistic Soviet Union appreciate and will only increase their resolve to dominate you. |
| 795 | * PleaseSelectNewCityName: Reacquiring Wilno from Poland either through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact historically or by force will allow you to rename it to its Lithuanian name, Vilnius (which is Lithuania's capital to this day), and move the capital there. |
| 796 | * RightfulKingReturns: Unlike the other 2 Baltic States, Lithuania has the option of crowning a king - Karl Gero von Urach can be crowned as Mindaugas III. |
| 797 | * TakeAThirdOption: Due to both Poland and Lithuania having monarchist paths, both countries can wind up on the path that lets them reform the Commonwealth. If this happens, the two countries can either agree to merge, can go to war with one another, or can opt to co-exist and work together. |
| 798 | [[/folder]] |
| 799 | |
| 800 | [[folder:Ethiopia]] |
| 801 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Haile Selassie I |
| 802 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 803 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Democratic), People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Communist), Various (Fascist)[[note]]The name of Fascist Ethiopia depends entirely on which regional noble you support to take over as ruler, and there are many, many regional nobles[[/note]] |
| 804 | |
| 805 | ---- |
| 806 | * ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Ethiopia has a unique conscription law called the Chitet, which was essentially a group of organized militias made of people from all walks of life, contrasting the more professional Mehal Sefari (Central Army) and representing how Ethiopia's leaders needed the assistance of any local warlord who offered it in the defense of the country. The player can choose to disband it and form a regular army instead, or improve and professionalize the Chitet to make it more on par with its professional counterpart. |
| 807 | * AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Managing to fight off the Italians, keep Haile Selassie as the country's leader without him leaving and making him into the Emperor of the Kingdom of Solomon by taking the "The King of Kings" focus gives him a gigantic golden headpiece, signifing the massive reconquest of East Africa the player is about to go on. |
| 808 | * DevelopersForesight: In the semi-unlikely event Ethiopia ''is'' able to push Italy out of the Horn of Africa, they will get a decision that allows them to propose a peace treaty. If Italy accepts the deal, then Ethiopia will gain Italy's two colonial territories on the Horn of Africa, and Italy will bypass the focus "Triumph in Africa". |
| 809 | * DifficultButAwesome: With such limited resources, outdated technology and almost no industry, not only surviving as Ethiopia but ''pushing the Italians out of the Horn of Africa'' is a difficult and grueling process, but managing to do it gives you a big head start on taking back Ethiopia's old empire or forming the African Union, not to mention the industrial focuses you can take because of it. |
| 810 | * DoomedByCanon: Despite all the alternate history scenarios present in the game, Ethiopia always begins game at war with the much more powerful Italy (as the game begins on January 1st, 1936, but the Second Italo-Ethiopian War began in October of 1935). As such, even with historical focuses off, Ethiopia will lose within the first four months without player intervention, with Italy annexing the country. ''By Blood Alone'' zig-zags this: If Ethiopia is able to hold out until they can complete a specific focus, Haile Selassie can seek exile in another country, which will essentially lock Italy in a ForeverWar with Ethiopia - as the list of countries that can be approached include Japan and the United States (2 countries that Italy lacks the means to invade), doing so can actually turn the war into a PyrrhicVictory for Italy. |
| 811 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Ethiopia is (currently) the only African nation which can become a true African regional superpower, either by reforming the ancient Empire of Aksum and dominating the Red Sea region, forming the Horn of Africa through various means or creating the African Union by going Communist and liberating every single European colony from Imperialist rule to form a Pan-African super-state. It can do all this despite fighting a ''losing war'' against Italy at the game's start, [[DifficultButAwesome but no one said any of these paths were going to be easy to accomplish]]. |
| 812 | * GloriousLeader: Downplayed. As in real life, Haile Selassie has a carefully cultivated cult of personality around himself which portrays him as a MessianicArchetype, which he used to become a symbol of resistance during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (he even has a national spirit called "[[TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard By the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Elect of God]]"). However, there exists an ahistorical path the player can go down in which the Ethiopians win the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Haile Selassie is crowned as King of Kings and becomes something akin to a newly-crowned GodEmperor of Axum. |
| 813 | * HoldTheLine: Ethiopia has a unique mechanic in that the longer they manage to resist the Italian onslaught, the more the Italians will become demoralized and the more the League of Nations will send aid. Additionally, managing to avoid retreating from certain hard-to-defend areas gives two big bonuses to this mechanic, rewarding the player for exceptional defense. |
| 814 | * LuckBasedMission: Downplayed. Brute forcing an Italian surrender or peace is certainly possible, but it will certainly be a lot easier if [[ArtificialStupidity the Italian A.I. makes a lot of mistakes that you can capitalize on]], such as leaving gaps in their lines that you can quickly take and exploit. In particular, the A.I. barely stopping you from encircling and pushing the Italians out of the South Horn and out of Mogadishu allows you to gain a pretty substantial advantage by changing the fronts from two to one, but if they manage to stall you in the desert and get their armor to the frontline you'll have to fight viciously to hold it. |
| 815 | * PermanentlyMissableContent: If you don't progress down the Italo-Ethiopian War part of the focus tree before the war ends, you'll be locked out from taking the "The Lessons of War" focus which provides permanent buffs. |
| 816 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: In addition to the whole Italian crisis, Ethiopia is plagued by infighting between the Emperor and the local warlords he subjugates. Granting them concessions allows you to gain more divisions quickly, but it also increases the warlords' influence over the government. |
| 817 | [[/folder]] |
| 818 | |
| 819 | [[folder:Switzerland]] |
| 820 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Federal Council |
| 821 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 822 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' United Cantons (Communist), Swiss Imperial Confederation (Fascist) |
| 823 | |
| 824 | ---- |
| 825 | * EverythingTryingToKillYou: Playing Switzerland is signing up for this-- unless you stick rigidly to the Swiss historical path and deliberately avoid escalating the situation and maintain absolute neutrality, you are basically guaranteed to get declared war on by one, two or even ''all three'' of your neighboring countries, who also happen to be Major Powers. |
| 826 | * TheFederation: Switzerland is unique among the Democracies of Europe in that it is a confederation of united Cantons, which are kind of like states or provinces with more autonomy. At the game's start in 1936, the country will always be attempting to centralize the government and give more control to the Federal Council at the government's head, but keeping the power in the hands of the Cantons will allow you to take the best defensive focuses with the best bonuses. Of course, if you're interested in playing ahistorically, you can always consolidate the government into a centralized and aggressive defender of Democracy, especially by absorbing Austria before Germany can get its hands on it, or even turn the country Communist or Fascist to expand the Swiss Confederation and reclaim ethnically Swiss territories in France, Italy and Germany. |
| 827 | * HoldTheLine: Due to the country's low manpower and limited industrial base, if it actually gets into a war by breaching neutrality with one of the three Major Powers surrounding it, the fight will naturally become this. Luckily, Switzerland is geographically very well-equipped to do just this, with a bevy of Mountain tiles for extra defense and certain parts of the Alps which are outright impassable, allowing the player to develop defenses at key chokepoints. |
| 828 | * MechanicallyUnusualFighter: Switzerland is the only nation in ''IV'' where large portions of the focus tree can be locked off depending upon how centralized or decentralized the country's government is, the only country where electing Political Advisors can only be done at certain times and by taking certain decisions, and the only country whose army consists primarily of militia which can again only be improved through focuses and decisions rather than the Division Designer[[note]]It is possible through the focus tree to disband the militias and form a regular army instead, but said option is costly and greatly pisses off all the Major nations[[/note]]. On a lesser note, it's also the only country in ''IV'' whose focuses can ''pause'' rather than be cancelled if the requirements are suddenly not met, as [[AntiFrustrationFeatures otherwise focuses would be canceling every thirty seconds at certain point in the game due to political change and centralization/decentralization]]. |
| 829 | * MountainWarfare: Given that Switzerland is smack dab in the middle of the Alps, their fighting style and defense preparations revolve around using the mountains to optimize their strategy. Notably, their entire regular army at the start of the game consist of ''only'' Mountaineers, and later focuses can be taken to greatly expand the Special Forces to create and improve even more Mountain Infantry. |
| 830 | * TheSpymaster: While trying to maintain neutrality, a number of focuses allow Switzerland to covertly develop an espionage organization with which to keep tabs on the Major powers around it and what political directions they're taking, and if they join a faction can offer to take over as primary head of espionage for it. |
| 831 | * TeamSwitzerland: As the TropeNamer, Switzerland will attempt to stay neutral in world affairs, regardless of if the AI is on historical or not, since picking a major power to side with in any conflict allows all the ''other'' major powers to declare war on it. Germany has 2 focuses that allow them to invade Switzerland[[note]]the fascist path has Operation Tannenbaum, the planned invasion of Switzerland that never happened in real life; and if Germany restores the Kaiser but allies itself with the UK, they have Bypass Maginot in the South, which is based on the Rupprecht Plan, an alternative to the Schlieffen Plan during [=WW1=] that was also never executed[[/note]], but the AI will almost never take either[[note]]the former the AI can only take if the player turns off historical AI but the AI goes down the fascist path for Germany, and the latter path is a player-only option[[/note]]. |
| 832 | * UndefeatableLittleVillage: If Switzerland gets dragged into World War II, its playstyle revolves around this, forgoing any and all offensive techniques to instead focus on using the natural borders of the Alps and heavy fortifications to become an impregnable country-wide fortress, even if it's a rather small nation compared to its immediate neighbors. |
| 833 | [[/folder]] |
| 834 | |
| 835 | [[folder:The Nordic Countries]] |
| 836 | [[WMG:In General]] |
| 837 | * TheLeader: If any of the Nordics wind up being the leader of a faction with at least one other Nordic country in it, they can take a bunch of unlockable faction leader focuses which provide them with a ton of buffs, including bonuses to political power, army organization, etc. |
| 838 | * RightfulKingReturns: All of the Nordic countries save Iceland have a monarchist path where they can do this, either using the king as a beacon to rally the defense of the country around or reclaim the lost territories of their kingdom. |
| 839 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: All of the Nordics have the option of getting cores on all the other Nordic states and forming a Nordic super-nation, Norway and Denmark can core ''England'' due to their Norse ancestors and only Denmark can core the Baltics due to their historical ambitions of doing so. In any case, these formable nations wind up being the size of the Greater German Reich and easily becoming a Major Power in any war. |
| 840 | |
| 841 | [[WMG:Kingdom of Denmark]] |
| 842 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Thorvald Stauning |
| 843 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 844 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Danish Civil Union (Communist), North Sea Empire (Fascist), Kingdom of Denmark (Non-Aligned) |
| 845 | ---- |
| 846 | * {{Arcadia}}: In 1936, Denmark is a tiny, rural nation consisting mostly of farmers with a heavily downsized military that makes a ''shitload'' of money off of its produce and dairy exports. The player can choose whether to continue making money off exports or immediately remilitarize the nation and invigorate its industry, and can also decide to sell goods to either the Germans or the English depending one who they cast their lot in with. |
| 847 | * LesCollaborateurs: Much like Norway, Denmark can choose to have a pro-Axis government overthrow the Social Democrats and join the Axis to prevent themselves from getting invaded. However, unlike Norway, they still retain their autonomy, which allows them to expand their own empire into Scandinavia, potentially even robbing Germany of it and becoming a DragonAscendant at some point. |
| 848 | * TrainingThePeacefulVillagers: On a country-wide scale. At the start of the game, Denmark is an idyllic, agrarian nation in the middle of an economic crisis, and has a unique mechanic which determines how much the government is spending on welfare to improve the livelihood of its people and how much it's spending on defense. Most of the alt-history paths require the player to go all in on Warfare and mobilize most of the nation, but the player can also opt to fix the country's economy first and improve its vestigial military later if they feel like risking getting bowled over by Germany. |
| 849 | * UndefeatableLittleVillage: By utilizing every single aspect of Denmark's resources, the player can attempt to make the miniscule Scandinavian nation into this for the Axis, preventing them from invading by land, air or sea. [[DifficultButAwesome It's very tough, especially with such limited manpower, but it can be done]]. |
| 850 | * VoluntaryVassal: Historically, Denmark will request that whomever invades it first allow them to remain a semi-autonomous Democratic government in exchange for their immediate unconditional surrender. |
| 851 | |
| 852 | [[WMG:Republic of Finland]] |
| 853 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Pehr Evind Svinhufvud |
| 854 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned[[note]]Finland is a Democratic nation in 1936 with free elections. The National Coalition Party (or Kokoomus in the original Finnish, as it's called in-game) is a liberal-conservative broad coalition of minor parties, but since it was technically founded as a conservative Monarchist party it's considered Non-Aligned by the game.[[/note]] |
| 855 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Republic of Finland (Democratic), People's Republic of Finland (Communist), White Finland (Fascist), Kingdom of Finland(Monarchist), Greater Finland(various, Expansionist) |
| 856 | ---- |
| 857 | * CurbStompBattle: Combined with its national focuses and a bit of preparation the Winter War can consits of mostly these in favor for Finland. |
| 858 | * TheDogBitesBack: If Finland manages to beat the odds and actually ''push into'' the Soviet Union, they can try to form Greater Finland, which gives them cores on all of the Karelian Soviet core states, giving them a big advantage and probably turning the tide of the war. |
| 859 | * HeroicSpirit: The Finns don't have a lot in the way of tangible resources, but they make up for it by being able to give themselves a ''crap'' ton of buffs and bonuses, representing the willpower to survive that their country [[TruthInTelevision did truly demonstrate in real life when faced by oppressive odds]]. |
| 860 | * HoldTheLine: Naturally, Finland is all about this, based on the historical precedent of the Winter War. Finland may not have anything close to the industry and manpower of their immediate neighbors, the Soviets, but they make up for it by being able to give themselves a truly staggering amount of buffs and National Spirits which increase their ability to survive longer against an overwhelming foe. They also have a unique spirit, "Sisu", which gives ''massive'' defensive modifiers if the public trust in the government is high. Of course, if you want a real challenge, there's always the opportunity to try and ''defeat'' the Soviets rather than outlast them. |
| 861 | * IWorkAlone: Finland can get the most amount of bonuses to themselves by going it alone and not joining a faction, and most of their achievements require them to similarly go it alone. They can choose to either go the historical way and receive support form Germany without ever joining the Axis or even attempt to form Greater Finland. |
| 862 | * MemeticBadass: [[invoked]] As in real life, prolonged combat against an enemy as Finland will earn their lethally accurate snipers the moniker of "[[SnowMeansDeath The White Death]]", which the Finnish propaganda machine uses to stir the hearts of Finns everywhere. You can choose to either [[RedBaron brand a specific sniper]] with the title of "The White Death", or leave it as a universal symbol of the Finnish country-wide HeroicSpirit, which nets you a buff called "[[IAmTheNoun We Are The White Death]]" for 180 days. |
| 863 | * SnowMeansDeath: The Finnish are at their most lethal in the freezing snow and cold, due to the amazing cold acclimatization bonuses they can get. |
| 864 | * SecretCharacter: Like the other independent Nordic Countries, Finland can also go monarchist - if one keeps Kokoomus in power, and then completes the focus "A New Course for Kokoomus", a new focus "The Finnish Throne" will be unlocked, allowing Finland to become a monarchy and make Wolfgang von Hesse Crown Prince of Finland. |
| 865 | |
| 866 | [[WMG:Kingdom of Iceland]] |
| 867 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Hermann Jónasson |
| 868 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 869 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Worker's Republic of Iceland (Communist), Islandsveldi (Fascist), Island[[note]]Pronounced "Ees-land", not like the English word "Island"[[/note]] (Non-Aligned, Independent Democratic) |
| 870 | ---- |
| 871 | * AscendedExtra: In a sense - originally, Iceland was annexed by Denmark, and would only show up if Denmark capitulated under the historical circumstances (namely, Denmark having joined the Allies and Germany capitulating them), and would usually get invaded by the British[[note]]this is accurate, but in terms of execution, it ''should'' have been more akin to the Soviet Union annexing the Baltic states, instead of Iceland joining the Axis[[/note]]. Starting with ''Arms Against Tyranny'', however, Iceland instead starts off as a Dominion of Denmark. |
| 872 | * DifficultButAwesome: Iceland starts with no divisions, a crippled economy and almost no industry, but actually managing to build up a good army and navy with the country allows you to gain cores on a bunch of areas, allowing the player to form a mini-island empire in the North Atlantic. |
| 873 | * HornyVikings: Going Fascist and becoming Islandsveldi allows Iceland to gain the "Ásatrú" National Spirit, which they can improve using Political Power to give themselves some massive army bonuses by venerating their Norse ancestors and embracing Norse paganism. It also allows them to core Newfoundland if they manage to capture it due to it being the most likely candidate for where the Icelandic settlement of Vinland was located. |
| 874 | * SecretCharacter: Downplayed- as one of two countries that doesn't have the generic focus tree which isn't present on the "Interesting Countries" Tab[[note]]The other(s) being the Sultanate of Aussa and all other countries annexed by Ethiopia[[/note]], if you don't manually select it, you'd be inclined to think that the island is similar to British Malaya. |
| 875 | |
| 876 | [[WMG:Kingdom of Norway]] |
| 877 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Johan Nygaardsvold |
| 878 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 879 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Norgesveldet (Fascist), Soviet State of Norway (Communist), Kingdom of Norway (Non-Aligned) |
| 880 | ---- |
| 881 | * AdolfHitlarious: Vidkun Quisling's portraits show him trying very hard to ape the exact look of Hitler, and he even almost looks the part minus the toothbrush moustache. He's also the unequivocal ButtMonkey of the Fascists in Norway, with there being objectively better leaders than him for the player to choose from, and a lot of the FlavorText of various focus calls him out for what a HarmlessVillain he is (or would be if Nygaardsvold's government wasn't so complacent). |
| 882 | * TheChessmaster: Royal Chamberlain Peder Jarlsberg is one, should you go down the Monarchist path. It is he who instigates the change of course away from Democracy, and while King Haakon remains as the king it is Jarlsberg who is the de facto leader of the state. Emphasized by him being the non-aligned party's leader while Haakon remains a national spirit. |
| 883 | * DayOfTheJackboot: If [[ThoseWackyNazis Quisling and the Secret Army]] haven't been dealt with, any major country invading Norway will immediately cause Quisling to orchestrate a coup to overthrow the government and turn the nation into a VoluntaryVassal for Hitler. |
| 884 | * FascistButInefficient: To really sell home how incompetent of a buffoon Vidkun Quisling is (which is TruthInTelevision, by the way), he is the only leader in the entire game besides a literal ''anarchist council'' to have negative modifiers that can't be removed, and on top of that they actually get ''worse'' the further down you progress the focus tree, leaving you with a hefty stability buff and penalities to resistance decay that make it difficult to occupy anything. |
| 885 | * LesCollaborateurs: Naturally, given that Norway is home to the famously pro-Hitler Norwegian politician [[TheQuisling Vidkun Quisling]]. Either Germany will set up a Reichskommisariat with Quisling as its head or Quisling can willingly sell out his country to the Germans. |
| 886 | * LetsGetDangerous: Typically in a historical game, Norway will idly ignore the problem of increasing anti-Communist and pro-Hitler sentiment in the country, then have their government toppled by Germany and replaced with a Reichskommisariat as in real life. However, there exists an ahistorical Democratic path the player can take where Johan Nygaardsvold is given a Vote of No Confidence by the Storting, Quisling is arrested and Norway gets its shit together in general. This allows them to absorb Sweden and Denmark and then go on an anti-Hitler rampage across Northern Germany, giving the Allies a huge advantage in the conflict. |
| 887 | * PuppetKing: King Haakon is one when following the monarchist path, as it's his closest advisor [[HyperCompetentSidekick Peder Jarlsberg]] who's [[TheManBehindTheMan holding the strings]], in stark contrast to the other monarchist paths of the Scandinavian nations which involve [[RightfulKingReturns the king themselves assuming control of the government]]. |
| 888 | * TheQuisling: The TropeNamer himself is present as both an advisor and a leader for fascist Norway. In fact, a large portion of the tree involves the Norwegian cabinet essentially either [[TheDitherer twiddling its thumbs waiting for the problem of Quisling and pro-Hitler sentiment in the country to go away]], or taking direct action and dealing with it themselves. If Quisling becomes leader, being the rabid Hitlerite that he is, he can choose to start an uprising when Germany invades Norway which forces the country into German servitude if it succeeds. |
| 889 | * RidiculouslyFastConstruction: Severals advisors and national spirits grant Norway bonuses to construction speed for civilian factories, which are somewhat known for having a rather long building time. However, due to these combined bonuses a civilian factory is noticeably faster constructed compared to every other nation. |
| 890 | * WeHaveBecomeComplacent: Basically where Norway stands at the game's start. The Great Depression is hitting it hard and despite obvious signs that war is going to reignite in Europe within the decade, the predominantly center-Liberal government has remilitarization far from its mind. Even the [[GeneralFailure Chief of Army, Kristian Laake]], has allowed the government to heavily downsize the military and its funding, leaving Norway with a totally obsolete and almost useless military, mothballed, crumbling forts and a bad case of civil unrest waiting in the shadows in the form of the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Secret Army]]. |
| 891 | |
| 892 | [[WMG:Kingdom of Sweden]] |
| 893 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Per Albin Hansson |
| 894 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic |
| 895 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Folkhemmet (Communist), Svea Rike (Fascist), Kingdom of Sweden (Non-Aligned) |
| 896 | ---- |
| 897 | * AcceptableBreaksFromReality: A truly one hundred percent neutral path for Sweden would have them never getting directly involved with the war whatsoever and instead selling valuable industrial supplies to the Germans until public opinion turns against Germany enough that they start selling to the Allies instead. But since ''Hearts of Iron'' is purely a ''war game'' and not an economic stability and growth simulator like ''VideoGame/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'', that historical path would be incredibly boring to actually play. As such, even the most historical paths for Sweden have it getting involved in WWII somehow. |
| 898 | * AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: Sweden is the only Nordic country that can't be considered completely destitute at the start of the game, with decent manpower and good industrial capability. As a result, much of its focus trees involves getting the country rolling and then using its growing might to exert its influence over the Nordic region. The player can choose whether to play it as a benevolent protector, shielding the smaller Nordic countries from invasion[[note]]Which is ahistorical, as Sweden famously valued its neutrality even as its neighbors were being annexed by Germany. Interestingly, there is basically no option in the tree to remain wholly neutral.[[/note]]...or as a tyrannical warlord which [[TheEmpire turns all its surrounding nations into subjects, willing or otherwise]]. |
| 899 | * TheFamine: Sweden has a unique National spirit called "Hungersköld" (lit: "Hunger Shield"), which causes riots and strikes to break out if the country's stability is too low while they have less than 25 Civilian Factories ([[ObviousRulePatch or 45 from trade]]), representing opposition to this. This Spirit is designed to keep A.I. Sweden historically neutral, while also limiting the amount of early-game expansion the player can do with the country since wars carry a hefty stability debuff, preventing Sweden from being a full-on DiscOneNuke. |
| 900 | * TheFederation: Forming the Nordic Defense Council in an effort to protect Scandinavia from invasion allows Sweden to turn Scandinavia into one big federated state in order to unify it against outside threats, be it the Axis or the Soviets. |
| 901 | * LesCollaborateurs: Going down the Fascist path allows Sweden to potentially become a willing German supplicant, or alternatively establish spheres of influence with the Nazis that allow it to take over Scandinavia while remaining allied with them by signing the Anti-Comintern Pact. |
| 902 | * SecretCharacter: Downplayed, as said "secret" character is still King Gustaf V, who can be [[RightfulKingReturns brought to power through normal means]]. However, if the player chooses to lower stability and increase Communist support enough to the point that a Communist uprising happens in the country, then they will have the option to take the Gotland proposal, which relocates the capital to Gotland and puts the king in power. However, during the escape from the mainland Gustaf's left eye will be permanently injured in a scuffle with partisans, giving him a new portrait in which he has an eye patch and a random positive trait. Managing to take back Sweden as Gustaf grants the "[[Film/TheReturnOfTheKing Return Of The King]]" achievement, and the Swedish Monarchist/expansionist path can subsequently be progressed as normal. |
| 903 | * WarForFunAndProfit: As in real life, despite being a Democratic nation at the game's start, Sweden has no qualms about selling their resources to anyone who bids the highest--and Germany ''really'' needs Swedish ball bearings for its tank production[[note]]TruthInTelevision, by the way. Sweden was the largest exporter of ball bearings during the entire war--for both sides[[/note]]. Most of Sweden's early-game revolves around this, trading and selling war resources while bolstering their own capital so that they can remove the aforementioned "Hungersköld" spirit which hinders them from going to war. |
| 904 | * WithUsOrAgainstUs: Should Sweden form the Nordic Defense Council every other Nordic nation gets an events to be an Integrated Puppet of said council. Them refusing to do so grants a war goal on them. |
| 905 | [[/folder]] |
| 906 | |
| 907 | [[folder:South America]] |
| 908 | [[WMG:In General]] |
| 909 | The various nations of the South American continent, most of which are undergoing political strife. |
| 910 | ---- |
| 911 | * BananaRepublic: Very much TruthInTelevision for the time period. All of the South American countries with focuses are either [[PeoplesRepublicOfTyranny thinly-veiled authoritarian dictatorships which call themselves "democracies"]], genuine democracies plagued by pervasive corruption and election fraud which are one bad day away from slipping into dictatorship or even full-on monarchy, or Marxist dictatorships who [[DirtyCommunists attract the ire of all their neighbors]]. |
| 912 | * SpaceFillingEmpire: The endgame for most of the ahistorical South American paths is to take over all of South America and become a continental superpower on par with the USA or the Soviet Union. |
| 913 | |
| 914 | [[WMG:Brazilian Second Republic]] |
| 915 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' UsefulNotes/GetulioVargas |
| 916 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned |
| 917 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Brazil (Military Government) Brazilian Socialist Republic (Communist), Integralist Brazil (Fascist), Empire of Portugal and Brazil (Monarchist) |
| 918 | |
| 919 | ---- |
| 920 | * BreakoutCharacter: Despite lacking a focus tree, Brazil was the most played minor nation for a long period after the game's release. This would eventually lead to it getting a full-on unique focus tree in ''Trial of Allegiance''. |
| 921 | * TheCapitalOfBrazilIsBuenosAires: Averted, with some signs of ShownTheirWork. Brazil's early 20th-century capital is accurately shown as Rio de Janeiro, and you can take a focus to build the country's modern capital of Brasília as a means to centralize the government away from the coastline but not too deep in the jungle[[note]]though it should be noted that historically Brasília was constructed and founded in ''1960'', far outside the game's timespan, meaning taking the focus is still technically ahistorical[[/note]]. |
| 922 | * CripplingOverspecialization: At the start of the game, Brazil is heavily suffering from the "Coffee Crisis", a regional mutation of the Great Depression caused by Brazil's heavy overreliance on its coffee exports for revenue, which disappeared overnight due to the world financial crisis. As such, many of Brazil's early-game economic focuses involve diversifying and reinvigorating the economy to help relieve unemployment. |
| 923 | * TheEmpire: Brazil has the most clear-cut means of doing this out of any South American nation by gradually letting the Monarchists retake control and reestablishing the Empire of Portugal and Brazil, allowing them to firmly cement themselves as the dominant regional power in South America by swallowing up all their neighbors. They can then choose to either cooperate with the USA or the Axis depending on player choice. |
| 924 | * HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Downplayed. The Fascist branch of the focus tree portrays UsefulNotes/GetulioVargas as being complacent towards allowing an Integralist takeover of Brazil when he was a much more complex and politically centrist figure in real life (despite being an authoritarian himself), but it also demonstrates that the Integralists know he's not really loyal to their cause and gives them the option to [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness replace him with the Integralists' actual leader, Plínio Salgado, after he's helped them get into power]]. |
| 925 | * JustLikeRobinHood: UsefulNotes/{{Lampiao}}, the leader of a coalition of rebellious bandit groups called the Cangaço living in the undeveloped Amazon backwoods and causing trouble for the central government, is more or less portrayed as a rural bandit folk hero by the game. You can even have him choose to overthrow a hypothetical Marxist government and run the country as a communal socialist bandit leader. It's even lampshaded with the "Merrie Band" Achievement, which requires you to own the Nottingham province in England with Lampião as the country's leader |
| 926 | * MagikarpPower: Brazil can absolutely ''dominate'' its surrounding neighbors with its industry, manpower and resources, but it will take a good couple years of improving the country's infrastructure and investing in its backwaters if you don't want your army to be stuck in endless stalemates with no supply out in the dense and impenetrable Amazon Rainforest that makes up a great deal of the country and its bordering nations. |
| 927 | * PaperTiger: At the game's start, Brazil appears to be an absolute monster of a nation (especially compared to its immediate neighbors), with a decent-sized starting army, a massive border which make it difficult to invade and capitulate and great resource extraction potential. Then if you take a little bit of a closer look, you'll notice the extreme movement penalties numerous Brazilian land tiles have that make it extremely difficult to mobilize an army anywhere but the extremities of the eastern coastline, the horrific supply congestion that obviously stems from trying to push an army through mountainous rainforest and the nation's political and economic instability means that a South American nation looking to become a continental power could easily do so just by finding a way to rush Brazil as early as possible. |
| 928 | |
| 929 | [[WMG:Republic of Chile]] |
| 930 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Arturo Alessandri |
| 931 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic (Partido Liberal) |
| 932 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia (Monarchist), Mapuche State (Mapuche Uprising), Vanguard Chile (Fascist), Chilean Socialist Republic (Communist) |
| 933 | |
| 934 | ---- |
| 935 | * AlternateHistoryWank: The Mapuche-centric ahistorical focus path involves Chile's oppressed indigenous people rising up against the government, whipping the country into fighting shape and then [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge going on a liberatory crusade across the Americas, freeing First Nationers and other indigenous peoples everywhere]]. The plausibility of this scenario actually happening in real life is close to zero. |
| 936 | * AnarchyIsChaos: At the 1936 start date, Chile has the "Near-Anarchic Society" National Spirit which provide some hefty debuffs, representing just how politically unstable and tumultuous the state of the nation is. An option to resolve it (as you may notice from the very slight "daily Fascism support" modifier) is to [[LetNoCrisisGoToWaste have the Fascists denounce the instability and try to overthrow the government with a military coup]]. |
| 937 | * EqualOpportunityEvil: A key part of the Fascist path is uniting all Chileans under a single identity, whether they be Spanish, Chilean or Mapuche[[note]]This last one is especially important, as the focus where this happens removes the "Mapuche Conflict" debuff[[/note]]. You can go even further than that in a sub-path, embracing a pseudo-Falangist pan-Hispanism that embrances all Hispanic people and cultures across the world. |
| 938 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Out of all the possible starting South American countries, Chile is a contender for the worst starting situation. The nation is wracked with political instability and has suffered multiple coups within a decade's memory, and its economy has bottomed out due to an overreliance on exports similar to Brazil that the Great Depression clobbered. Despite all this, it's still very much possible to turn Chile into a Hispanic superpower of a nation which controls much of South and Central America. |
| 939 | [[WMG:Argentina]] |
| 940 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Agustín Pedro Justo |
| 941 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned (Concordancia Coalition) |
| 942 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Confederación Argentina (Fascist), Argentina Legionaria (Pro-Nazi Fascist), Argentine Republic (Democratic), República Popular Argentina (Communist) |
| 943 | |
| 944 | ---- |
| 945 | * AcceptableBreaksFromReality: The secret FourthReich path for Argentina is kickstarted by Hitler in a PaperThinDisguise walking into La Casa Rosa and demanding to become leader of the country after getting deposed in Germany. The plausibility of Hitler surviving and escaping to Argentina is laughably thin already, but the idea that he would then just be instantly reinstalled as the leader of a Fascist nation and ''literally none of the Allies (especially the US) would notice until it's too late'' catapults straight into the domain of absurdity. However, like Wojtek the Bear becoming King of Poland and a handful of other secret focuses, this focus path is clearly a hypothetical "cursed timeline" path which runs on RuleOfFunny and doesn't take itself seriously at all in regards to historical plausibility. |
| 946 | * ANaziByAnyOtherName: The "Guardia Nacional" sub-branch of the Fascist path has Argentina [[PuttingOnTheReich adopt almost Nazi-identical iconography and uniforms]], representing how that sub-path is more directly inspired by German Fascism than Italian or Francoist Fascism. |
| 947 | * ArgentinaIsNaziLand: As to be expected. Not only can Argentina choose to lean into a more explicitly Nazi brand of Fascism and collaborate closely with the Germans, but they can even have Hitler himself run the country as a SecretCharacter by rushing a specific focus. |
| 948 | * BilingualBonus: Two of the focuses in the secret path unlocked by putting "Señor Hilter" in power are called "Guerra Relámpago" and "Arma Maravillosa", which allow you to get war goals on all non-Fascist South American nations and gives you the Nuclear Reactor and Experimental Rocketry technologies for free, respectively. Not so coincidentally, they also happen to mean "Lightning War" and "Wonder Weapons", AKA ''Blitzkrieg'' and ''Wunderwaffe''. |
| 949 | * TheEmpire: Argentina has a the potential to become even more of a [[SpaceFillingEmpire nightmarish South American superpower]] than Brazil, since ''both'' its Communist and Fascist paths allow for the ability to core conquered South American states while most of Brazil's paths don't unless you take a specific foreign policy sub-branch. |
| 950 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: Two focuses in the historical path allow you to (ahistorically) make UsefulNotes/JuanDomingoPeron the country's leader and a Field Marshal, teasing (for lack of a better word) his rise to power as dictator of Argentina in 1945. |
| 951 | * {{Irony}}: As the "Crackdown on Corruption" focus' FlavorText notes, [[BananaRepublic despite how Roberto María Ortiz was elected by one of the most fraudulent elections in Argentinian history]], he has genuinely pledged to crack down on fraud and corruption within the government and the focus actually ''does'' remove the "Government Corruption" national spirit. |
| 952 | * ScienceHero: Democratic Argentina can get some pretty massive bonuses to research, with two different focuses each giving a ten percent bonus and an advisor who gives ''another'' ten percent. Add in bonuses from export focus or free trade and you can end up with an over fifty percent flat bonus to research. Because of this, despite only getting four research slots total, Argentina will breeze through the tech tree very quickly. |
| 953 | * SecretCharacter: By completing the focus "Guardia Nacional" in an ahistorical game where Nazi Germany capitulates before their enemy can take Berlin, you can have a "Señor Hilter" (obviously UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler in a PaperThinDisguise) arrive in the country and become leader of its Fascist party, unlocking secret paths in the Argentine focus tree that allow you to potentially form the FourthReich. |
| 954 | |
| 955 | [[WMG:Republic of Paraguay]] |
| 956 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Eusebio Ayala |
| 957 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Democratic (Partido Azul) |
| 958 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' Paraguay (Communist, Military Junta) |
| 959 | |
| 960 | ---- |
| 961 | * AmericaSavesTheDay: Going for the civil war will have the Democratic side get bailed out in large part by American weapons and marines training, which Paraguay can repay by cooperating closer with the USA economically. |
| 962 | * DifficultButAwesome: Paraguay can choose to either sit back and get cores on just the states it reclaimed via glorified border clashes with Brazil and Argentina...or it can try to ''conquer all of South America'' and form the South American Free State, the only true example of a Democratic South American SpaceFillingEmpire. Needless to say, the second one's not going to be easy with Paraguay's low core manpower and the fact that you need to somehow get the Guyanese colonies owned by several European powers, but it's a mighty achievement indeed once you get it. |
| 963 | * GreatOffscreenWar: A great toll has been taken on Paraguay in the aftermath of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_War Chaco War]] which ended just before the game's start in 1935, which sets up the country's desitution and misery in 1936 and its first big PointOfDivergence in the form of Rafael Franco's socialist military coup and what the player chooses to do about it. |
| 964 | * MagikarpPower: Paraguay is a completely hobbled nation in 1936, but with a bit of work from the player they can stimulate the country's economic growth to the point where Paraguay is ready to go for round 2 of the Chaco War with its neighbors after several years of buildup. |
| 965 | * PressXToDie: Appointing José Félix Estigarribia as dictator of the country after winning the civil war will prompt an uprising from the Democrats who just fought a civil war to uphold democracy, plunging Paraguay into a second much-harder-to-win civil war. |
| 966 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The ultimate goal of Paraguay's focus tree is to get revenge for its lost territories in the Chaco War by waging war against Brazil and Argentina once more in order to reclaim them. |
| 967 | |
| 968 | [[WMG:Uruguay]] |
| 969 | ->'''Initial Leader:''' Gabriel Terra |
| 970 | ->'''Initial Ideology:''' Non-Aligned (Authoritarian Regime) |
| 971 | ->'''Alternate Names:''' |
| 972 | |
| 973 | ---- |
| 974 | * AbdicateTheThrone: Non-royal example. Dictator and president Gabriel Terra will hold elections in 1938 and willfully step downs from his post. |
| 975 | * AppealToTradition: {{Downplayed}}. Should the Blanco party win the 1938 elections the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Traditionalism]] focus becomes available which gives buffs to infantry-based combat and equipment at the cost of research speed for tanks and planes. |
| 976 | * DifficultButAwesome: Like Paraguay, Uruguay can choose to either reclaim exclusively its recently lost territories or try to [[SpaceFillingEmpire conquer all of South America]] and core it as a formable nation. |
| 977 | * FromNobodyToNightmare: Historically, nothing of any importance happens to the tiny South American nation of Uruguay during the game's timetable, and ahistorically it basically exists as a stepping stone for Argentina or Brazil. Despite this, it's still capable of taking over all of South America with a lot of hard work. |
| 978 | * MagikarpPower: Starts pretty weak but can develop over time into a powerful nation (especially if one conquers [[PaperTiger Brazil in 1936]]) capable of uniting South America and possibly rivaling Germany or the USA in terms of industry and manpower. |
| 979 | * ShockingDefeatLegacy: Can inflict one to Argentina and Brazil, the much bigger neighbour nations. Declaring war on them and conquering their immediately neighbouring provinces to Uruguay in less than a year triggers an event where a white peace plus the conquered province is offered to Uruguay to avoid further humiliation. If Brazil and Argentina don't offer the province they receive heavy debuffs. Of course, Uruguay can decline the offer and keep the war going [[{{ExaggeratedTrope}} to completey annex their enemy]]. |
| 980 | * TakeAThirdOption: Uruguay's strongest parties, the Social Democratic Colorado and the centrist Blanco, have been rivals for quite some time. You can choose which of those parties wins the elections in 1938...or you could go with the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Acción Revisionesta del Uruguay]]. |
| 981 | * WildCard: A non-aligned/centrist Uruguay has many different opportunities regarding politics and conquest. Improving relations with the USA, the Allies, Francoist Spain and ThoseWackyNazis living in Uruguay don't contradict each other. Additionally, Uruguay can choose whether to conquer small parts in South America while being in a faction for safety or to conquer the whole continent while being on their own. In short, Uruguay's centrism allows some neat {{Realpolitik}} which many other nations don't get represented through their respective focus trees. |
| 982 | * ZergRush: Nothing stops Uruguay from doing the [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge "Rekindle Old Gripes"]] focus immediately after the game starts. With some preparation and skill, Uruguay can conquer all of Brazil in 1936 with superior numbers of divisions despite them being weak. |
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