HOI2: Bad Ally + Minor Alliance + Anarchy

[Snoopy]

My HOI2 isn't working right now (sadly), but I have a couple ideas and some things I have tried previously. Anyone else try them?

-Bad Ally- (haven't tried this for a VERY long time)

Start up in '36 as a minor ally of a big power. For the purposes of the game, Tannu Tuva and Mongolia work great for the USSR, while Bhutan, New Zealand, and Nepal are superb for Britain. Using the "Freedom" and "Money" cheats are perfectly fine for your purposes, but don't use any other cheats.

Now, you have the mission of getting your large ally into unrealistic wars. You can do it in such a way as to destroy them (E.G as Tannu, getting the USSR into simultaneous wars with Poland, Germany, Finland, Turkey, Japan, Britain, and the USA), or slowly and steadily to see how big you can indirectly build them before the rest of the world comes after them (E.G as Bhutan, steadily leading your "puppet" UK to annexing Mexico, various parts of South America, Benelux, Persia, Afghanistan, Italy, and then seeing if your superpowered ally can defeat an enemy more easily, such as a surprise attack on the USA or attacking Germany early).

But there is one twist. You have to make sure your puppet-master nation is not conquered. In other words, if you play as Mongolia, you probably don't want the Soviets to be losing a war against Japan. Also, no taking control of your allies units.

RESULTS:

I think I managed to manipulate the Allies to conquer the USA once as Bhutan, though the details are sketchy (I think I needed to start some big wars throughout South America and Mexico to get it to work). Also, I once managed to "liberate" myself as Manchukuo by forcing Japan into a war it couldn't win with the USA.

-Minor Alliance-

This one takes a lot of time to organize. Also, unlike the previous trick, this one requires cheats (specifically, freedom, money, acceptall, and lots of switching nations) However, it is extremely rewarding and fun.

Pick a minor nation. From what I have managed so far, it should be beside either the Soviet Union or Germany, as they are the two best targets (there aren't enough powerful minors within striking distance of the Allies, sadly enough, though I think it might be possible for a South American Union to beat the USA). Now, abusing cheats, do what you need to ally all the minors you can. Try to stick to the GENERAL geographic area of your target, though you can stray a little ways away (Republican Spain did... interesting things in my anti-USSR game).

Now comes the fun part. Take control of your initial minor nation and attack your target. Before you ask, you can't build up entirely on your own and then abuse your allies by taking control of their forces (Say, taking Finland, building it up massively for war with the USSR, allying all the minors around the USSR not counting important ones like Nat.China, then invading with your strong force and using your allies as puppets to conquer the Soviets easily). Control your minor to the best of your ability and see if you can conquer the target. If you succeed, wait a year before taking on the rest of the world. Ideally, you will go after the major you missed the first time around (either the Nazis or the Soviets), then take on either the Allies or the rest of the minors. Fun!

RESULTS:

I tried this once against the Soviets, to mixed effect. Turkey managed a very powerful push through the Caucasus with Persian support, and Poland put up a valiant fight into Belarus. Republican Spain (for reasons beyond my understanding) repeatedly attempted to recreate the Crimean war, claiming the Crimea and losing it again repeatedly. Finland took over Karelia and began pushing south.

Then things went downhill, as it seemed I missed some minors. Persia was crushed. Turkey fought very well, but was defeated as well. With the southern front gone, the Soviets rampaged through Eastern Europe, cleaning up Poland, the Czechs, Austria, Hungary, Romania, etc etc. Finland fought better than most, but was conquered midway between the Poles and the Czechs. The Nordic nations fought on, but weren't able to hold back the Red Tide.

In short, it ended with the Soviets being the clear masters of Europe and all their enemies crushed before them (besides the Spaniards, who continued to launch little raids into the Crimea). I wonder if Germany could beat em

I haven't tried anything with Germany yet, but I heavily suspect that the Germans could be swamped far easier than the Russians could. Then, after a year or two of building up, the strengthened Minor Alliance would have a far better chance of beating the Soviets.

-Anarchy-

This is very simple, but requires some (temporary) cheating with slider changes (otherwise, it doesn't work quite right). It also works best with the New Nations Mod.

First, you need to put the sliders for all the nations you are going after (which is to say, all the majors including Britain, France, the USA, Italy, and Japan) to closed society. You will see why soon. It doesn't have to be maximum closed, but it has to be very near to that. Also, change it back to Democratic when you are done for the Democratic powers.

Now just change ministers repeatedly. Each time you do this, dissent will rise a little. Do this for each individual power until they are at 100% dissent. Repeat until all the majors are at 100% dissent. Sit back and watch for a while in the position of a safe minor (I, personally, vacationed in Haiti). A couple countries need to be re-revolted for maximum effect a year or so later (generally Britain and France, though it is advisable to knock Germany with another dissent hit later). Also, I would advise you delete those Italian troops in Somalia. Finally, once the dust is somewhat settled, pick a nation and try to conquer the world (don't be cheap, though. If Ukraine forms and conquers most of the former USSR, don't take them as things will be far to easy with no sizable opponents).

OBSERVATIONS:

Assuming you followed my instructions of rising the closed society slider, the colonies of Britain and France will go nuts. The British, for some unknown reason, will ALWAYS defend their possessions in India before they rescue the rest of their lands. The Germans and Italians are usually pretty solid, though Italy will occasionally lose parts of northern Italy and Libya. If you didn't raise closed society, Britain and France will simply experience easy-to-defeat rebellions in their homelands, which will be an annoyance at best. Also, somewhat ironically, the two Superpowers of the world, the US and USSR, will generally blow up in grand fashion, splintering into about a million minors (the exception being if the US goes Communist during the revolution, in which case their dissent lowers just enough for them to possibly regain control, though if this happens you will want to raise dissent just enough for the Americans to be heavily weakened).

[Town Watch]

These type of weird games can end up being quite a lot of fun. I remember playing once the 1945 Cold War goes hot scenario as Finland. I don't remember if I cheated in the beginning (extra mp so that I could build a small army since the Finnish army is demobilized in this scenario. In any case I joined the allies, pretty much formed a Nordic/Allied coalition, attacked all the way to Moscow, but couldn't take the heavily fortified capital, then I was pushed back to around Estonia. UK did a sneaky invasion in Archangelsk and almost cut off the Soviet Union in a double pincer movement together with a land assault from the middle east. USA fought hard in Korea etc...

[Dr. Croccer]

I just tried that Anarchy one. Pretty awesome so far.

[Vanoi]

I did the anarchy one, most of France's and the Uk's colonies revolted and made their own countries, Italy had Libya revolt. Only downside to going into Closed society is that only the major country's occupied provinces revolt. If you want the major power's acual country's revolt you need to go to Open society.

[Snoopy]

Alright, my HOI2 is working again, so I did some tests. Things I noticed:

Bad Ally:

Did this with Tannu Tuva first. Had my Soviet buddies take over Persia, Afghanistan, and then go on a rampage through Poland + Romania + Baltics. For some incredibly weird reason, Germany ended up at war with the Western Allies early, and the Soviets ended up at war with the Allies and Germans for a cool 3 way WW2. The Germans and Soviets crushed Poland easily. Pretty much all of the Balkan nations joined the Axis. Germany and its allies somehow held the Soviets back in the middle of Poland. Even weirder, France pushed straight through the middle of Germany and basically destroyed Germany from the west (even as the Germans held back the full might of the Soviet Union in the east). The French then pulled a Napoleon and somehow managed to keep going, pushing the Soviets quite a ways east (meanwhile, the British made some sizable gains in Central Asia while the Soviets drove the Allies out of the Middle East entirely). I quit around here because the game was getting really slow, but the Soviets were being slowly pushed east in Europe, pushed north in Afghanistan, and pushing south in Africa (having managed to push into Egypt).

Tried Bhutan next. I got the French into a war with Italy for the sake of recreating Napoleon's empire. Germany assisted Italy. After a very long series of DoWs, Germany was allied with Poland and basically all of Central and Southern Europe against France and the Allies (to the west) and the Soviet Union (to the east). Italy was conquered pretty fast. Republican Spain joined the Allies while Portugal joined the Axis. I spiced things up by declaring war on Belgium and Austria. The Soviets slowly pushed east. The French pulled a reverse 1940 and basically smashed right through the Germans right around the time the Soviets knocked most of the German allies out of the war. The borders between France and the USSR were oddly like those between the Allies and the Soviets in 1945 in OTL. I then managed to get Mexico and Canada invading the US, but it was a very odd invasion (the normal Allies didn't contribute much barring some ANZAC forces in Vancouver, but the Americans had so few troops at first that the Canadians and Mexicans actually met forces in the middle of the USA as Mexico took over most of Texas + the Midwest and Canada took over the Northeast).

Minor Alliance:

Set one up with the Czechs as the leader, with the objective of defeating Germany. In the first playthrough, I declared war on Italy, which was apparently a bad move (as it resulted in a war vs Italy and Germany, leading to rather poor results). The second time, I took on Germany on its own. It was incredibly funny to watch all the little nations gang up on Germany and crush them. Hungary was lazy and didn't help, and Romania only contributed a little (as it had a fetish for keeping most of its army right on the Soviet border). Nonetheless, Poland did great after the main German attack was beaten, while Belgium took over a giant swathe of land that basically stretched straight down and covered the entire Alliance border with France (barring the two Italian provinces). Germany was crushed (but sadly, Switzerland was defeated).

A while later, I attacked Italy. I then discovered that, when not fighting majors that never surrender such as the USSR or Germany, the Czechs would make cheap peace treaties. I furthermore discovered that members liked to abandon the alliance for no apparent reason whenever there was no war. As such, I was forced to play as the Czechs and assist in the Yugoslav conquest of Italy. The Dutch and Swedes (???) conquered Libya while the main forces of the Alliance trekked south through Italy. For some odd reason, Italy was tougher to beat than Germany. They had this one pocket in Genoa, and I had incredible problems in defeating it (since the dumb AI refused to launch one giant attack with the 300+ divisions it had surrounding the province). I also had to get the UK to finish off Italy in Ethiopia (because the AI wasn't smart enough to send a lone cavalry division down in a transport ship to conquer that last VP).

I then rose the Soviet dissent dramatically (through the "Anarchy" trick) and invaded. Poland was INCREDIBLY efficient at this, pushing east almost as fast (and far more efficiently) as the Germans would in a regular game. It looked like the Soviets might recover at about the time when Poland was at the gates of Moscow, when all of the sudden Japan went with the "Avenge our Honour" option in the Nomonhan Incident event and attacked the Soviets. From that point on, it was clear they were doomed (so I rose dissent as much as possible so as to not have a giant Poland stretching far into Siberia).

Then I attacked the Allies (once the Soviets were either independent nations, Japanese controlled, or owned by Alliance nations). It was kind of interesting, since the Alliance was very inefficient at fighting the Allies and their forces were spread out across Polish Russia (apparently occupying the land on behalf of their ally). The Yugoslavs, with a MASSIVE horde just chilling in Italy + Yugoslavia, watched as the French slowly but steadily crushed the Belgians until Belgium was only surviving in Germany. Hungary did nothing with its 26+ divisions waiting in Budapest, and most of the other allies were still in Russia. Interesting war, though.

Anarchy:

First of all, it would seem the British will defend India to the death. I don't understand it. Most of the subcontinent will be occupied by rebels, new nations (generally Burma) will be popping up in India, and then all of the sudden Britain focuses all of its forces on reclaiming India at all costs. You don't see this problem in Africa (the Africans seem to be reasonably good at beating back British invasion), but this keeps happening in India. Go figure.

Also, Germany is immune to revolution. Even if I wipe out all but an infantry division or two at the start, they only lose (at worst) Prussia, which becomes little green Prussia, and they then reorganize.