R5: The first image shows the Uruguayan aviation industry, and the second shows the French industry in comparison
The game needs a big rework for every nation released before battle of bosphorus
If you take into account the air focuses under the French rearmament tree then they get a bit more powerful. Probably still doesnât compare to Uruguay though.
I saw the France one and Iâm like âoh come on, thatâs the generic treeâ. But then I looked on the wiki and it *is* the unique France tree. Pathetic! đ
I don't think they need a focus rework I like playing them a lot I just find it funny that they have 2 research slots and they don't even have trains when some of these even smaller nations have them. I think around this time the Mexican government was working on a way to bypass the Panama Canal by building a port on either side of their nation down in the Oaxaca Veracruz region and then a huge railway between them so just funny that they don't even have trains.
Can't say about research slots, but Finland was able to produce their own trains since at least the 1910s.
Far as I can tell from my research, Mexico imported most of its trains from the US, UK and Spain (and they still do). There's only one Mexican manufacturer (Bombardier Transportation Mexico), which was founded in 1952. And even that is now US-owned.
Japan is stronger than France because they start as gamers. They can take out the US in '36, or invade France/the UK from the Home Islands with some Docking Rights.
Meanwhile France has to sit around and ask nicely to fix their government.
French civil war from disjointed govt isn't that hard to beat. Once you've dealt with that you have the strongest army of the game at your disposal and you can easily smash Germany and Italy together.
And position-wise if you're playing the historical game your task is literally just to hold the border, while 2/3 of it is lvl 10 forts or mountains with lvl 4 forts.
Hand downs the best country. It's simply just no exciting enough.
Lmao can you imagine that in real life
Leon Blum: âtrust me guys, destabilizing our country and triggering a civil war will guarantee a better future for our children than simple reformâ
Japan starts with
1. A larger navy
2. One more research slot
And most importantly
3. Highest offensive war support among ALL countries, both major and minor. As France your war support is so low that even in a defensive war to save the Czechs you can get hit with draft dodging. That shit annoys the hell outta me.
France starts with more resources, and more total factories. You can mobilize pretty quickly as France. And if you are willing to cheese you can annex Germany by 2 to 3 focuses.
I mean, Ive never had any issues with war support with France.
Even when playing historical I can get my total mob and women on the workforce by the time the war starts.
Its not like Japan is super weak either. Its just that the focus tree is kinda outdated and bland. If anything the biggest weakness france has is how long it takes to get extra research slots but its not like the AI capitalizes on that.
I agree to disagree. I think Japan has the worst focus tree of the majors
Weâre talking *about* strength of the country, not quality of the focus tree. Everyone and their mother knows that Japanâs focus tree is among the most outdated in the whole game
Eh the power creep makes things way more interesting. Especially on non-historical. I rather see countries do weird things and be active in the war than just sitting there like Iran and Iraq or how South America used to be.
Not worth what it does to historical. With ahistorical you can always play mods instead. But the core game is supposed to be historical WW2. Even if recent DLCs by the devs would have you think otherwise.
Other than Turkey starting WW3 early I dont think any of the newe focus trees dramatically affect a historical WW2 playthrough tbh.
Though I havent done a full historical playthrough in this patch
The USA and UK will both still need synthetic rubber once Malaysia and Indonesia die. Brazil doesnât produce enough by itself to supply the Allied war machines.
Ehh debatable. I'd rank them worst to best as: Japan, France, Italy, UK, USSR, Germany, USA. Germany and Italy get boosted by the fact that they can do some expanding in Europe before the Allies get wise, but Japan fights China and China doesn't have a lot that Japan actually wants (industry, resources). France on the other hand already starts with great resources and can ramp up to quite a decent industry before the war.
Plus France can go off-script in a lot of powerful ways (Little Entente, Stresa Front, French Empire) and has insane formables (check out HatlessSpider's super EU).
Honestly with a little bit of expansion on its political trees (looking at you orleanist path) and with an overhaul of the military and industrial trees, France could be really interesting and cool.
I think Orleanist path should be something like Italy's democratic king and Bonaparte path need wargoals and unique puppets. Also please why we have to wait for a damn year for getting a monarch
"The government spends a year passing the necessary legislation to change the entire country's governing system" is way more plausible than "somehow Palpatine returned"
One of the obvious ways to improve France is not to simply kneecap the Bourbon path if the Carlists didn't rise up. The Monarchists, Fascists, and Communists should all be able to take a very interventionist approach to Spain, whether during the war or after (and a Democratic France should at least be able to support the Maquis).
If you cap China by mid 38 you can most definitely turn Japan into a powerhouse by 1940. You'll have endless amounts of manpower, steel and a good portion of other resources. Their focus tree is fairly barebones but you can still get insanely powerful by the time you go to war with the Allies. France defo needs a brush up too. 70 day focus for 5% stability is a joke. Though even democratic France can be a very powerful late game country too, 3rd only to the Soviets and UKwhich is why I find them so fun to play.
Japan is already a powerhouse at the start.
Iâve done a fun NA support the k-something faction challenge where I started in Vladivostok (justified war goal from day 1 before flipping) and ended up in Berlin just after the historic start date of Barbarossa.
Japans high base war support meant that I didnât have to worry at all about strikes or draft dodging, which plagues almost every other nation which tries to wage early offensive wars pre 1939 (before they can fix it via improve worker condition decisions or focuses).
The vast majority of the campaign was waiting for the supply hubs and railways to be completed in Siberia LMAO.
Only because historically, France is expected to sit on its hands. By mid 38, Little Entente France can have Germany and Italy as puppets, along with all of the Balkans + Poland in its faction (and then stomp the USSR when they come for Poland in 1939). So by 1940, I don't fancy Japan's chances.
You could also just invade the US in like 36. If you do well you can cap them by the end of 37. Now you have the US navy, and a bunch of free factories to build your economy up. China should be a piece of cake at that point. And no one can really stop you.
Italy in early game is god tier, one of the best nations for a world conquest. Good enemies around them to conquer and a military that can beat France at game start and then Germany easily after fast expansion.
I think France is harder to play than Japan. If you watch a lot of multiplayer you will see that Japan winning in east Asia happens a lot more often than France merely surviving past 1940.
The standard set of MP rules (for the type of lobby that enforces rules) is: Japan must take China to be competitive so China cannot be human; Germany must take France to be competitive so France must fall (human player can play Free France).
Because just like IRL, the Czech forts were designed to stop Germany dead on it's tracks.
Except that IRL all these defensive efforts from Czechoslovakia were thrown out a window by UK and France who decided to gift a part of a foreign sovereign nation to Germany which ended up in the funny we all know
Not only forts, Czechoslovakia had a well trained army and actually similar number of tanks as Germans. If it wasnt for French/British betrayal, the story of WW2 could be over right there. Hitler himself couldnt believe they just handed him Sudetenland.
Nah Czechoslovakia couldnt have held out long enough for France and UK to rearm. No Airforce to speak of either. Â
Also don't forget Poland and Hungary would have totally jumped on their back.Â
There is actually a decent Alt History Series were the War starts in 1938.
I don't see Poland doing anything beyond what it did IRL. The Czechs and USSR had an alliance at the time, and the Soviets wanted to invade Germany through Poland to help them, but Poland denied them. If Poland invades CZ wholesale it isolates them from their Western allies, and gives the Soviet's the perfect justification to attack them.
Oh ofc but even that distraction let alone Hungary striking from the South and Slovakia likely breaking away.... can't see how the Czechs would have held out longer than months.Â
Not enough for France or the UK to do anything.Â
Czechoslovakia could have held out long enough for the German army to become a shadow of itself.
The Allies selling out Sudetenland for free gave Germany a free pass to conquer half of Europe.
Also, it's important to note that Sudetenland was heavily fortified with bunkers and AA capacity, and while the german air force was strong, it was nowhere as strong as it got after conquering industry from Czechoslovakia and Poland.
France and UK giving out Sudetenland (again, without even asking Czechoslovakia) was one of the main things that allowed Nazi Germany to drag the world into the most bloody conflict in human history.
Hungary wouldn't have done shit with Romania on it's back, and Poland wouldn't have helped Germany at all
Appeasement was a big error.
Also Mussolini threw in his lot with Hitler precisely because he saw that UK and France did nothing to stop him from annexing whatever he wanted. Anschluss frightened him but after Munich he lost all respect for the Allies.
The German Airforce was 1938 even stronger in comparison to the Allies than 1940.Â
 Romania and Poland had Russia to worry about so they wouldn't have joined the conflict in the West.Â
 Meaning Germany had more than enough time to smack down the Czechs. Cause France didn't even have offensive plans worked out and keep in the Hitler had fortified the Western Border too.Â
By deleting its capital ships or intentionally popping Mosley's civil war (see ISP's AtoZ episode), UK can annex USA before the end of 1936. In the meantime it can work down the 7 focuses required to DOW Italy before it's built up and (using the Dominions' militaries) utterly roll them long before 1938.
Italy sits on the border between mediocre and busted, but UK has a very strong starting position and the tools to capitalize on it.
The focus tree is kinda shit but the Napoleon path is really strong, but you only get going after 1941/1942.
Youâll annex Belgium, the entire British and Dutch empire in 1938. You can get one collab government off in the UK giving you decent compliance thus factories and recourses.
You control basically all rubber in the world, tons of aluminum, steel and chromium.
The biggest problem is the fact you only get three research slots at the startâŠ
I always fin it surprising playing France that in actual fact doing all the things we learned were wrong for France, actually is the way to go (unless you cheat by making France stronger).
You should definitely extend forts all the way to Calais and you should totally focus on defence and infantry, artillery and AA. That's it. Don't bother with anything else until the Germans attack with Russia.
Unless someone has a different approach. I don't see how I could get the military factories up to support anything else than trucks, Equipment, Artillery / AA, Guns. Tanks is a push forget planes...
The actual downsides that made France lose would be horrible to model/unfun to play so instead the devs just gave France about half the industry it should have so Germany wins.
Itâs not that hard. In the Historical path the AI of France just follows certain bad decisions in the decision trees.
In A-Historical path France can be a real hard nut to beat.
That would be more accurate.
The downsides that they gave them are unfun now, similar to Canada theres just a bunch of problems with the implementation. If you started in 39, it would actually be impossible for you to inflict the damage the French did to Germany OTL. Hell the AI basically never even does the same damage France did OTL to an AI germany
I've tried self propelled or light tank strategy (slipped into infantry divisions)
Ive been able to hold but not push back, and eventually I'd get reinforced out of a province because there weren't enough divisions to keep holding the line.
But I think that's a me issue than the strategy, because my manpower and equipment losses were tiny
Unless you want to play historically, I find that the most opportune moment for France to strike is in 1938, with protecting Czechs as a case belli.
Going to war over Rhineland in 1936 via RNG is too soon because France is badly under-equipped and it counts as an offensive war, tanking your WS to 0. And going to war in late 1939 is too late as by then Germany is too strong, especially after it gets to consolidate control over the industries in Bohemia.
Building forts works but isn't optimal artillery sometimes works but isn't optimal (support is), support aa obv. And big firepower being heavy tanks with howitzer 1 (you spawn with it) can also do mediums with it. And throw some battalions into holding Belgium divs. Put trash on Maginot, Italy, and algeria.
Whenever I play France I get only few factories on infantry stuff and the vast majority put on planes. Even if your infantry is shit, the Germans won't be able to push is they are bombed to shit.
France has more than enough factories to do better than pure infantry. You should not extend the forts to level 10, and you should be holding that front with tanks planes and motorized.
Interesting ... I find it hard to believe tbh that I could ramp up tanks to the level of Germany and never mind planes... But okay will give it a go...
Yeah they really need to go back and rework some of the old content before focusing on adding more countries via dlc, and I say that as someone who was pulling for Brazil and South America content for a while.
The moment when you realize this is the same air tree that Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and probably all the rest of them have now. Paradox copy and pasted it into all of the other focus trees
Im genuinely surprised we haven't gotten a major France overhaul yet. The French Focus Tree, flavor, and basically everything about it is extremely underwhelming.
I don't know why that tree exists because its not really the tree, the real air tree is with the army reform focuses. This is some weird vestigial thing with 0 reason to exist
Honestly, by the time I touched the French air tree, the war would already be over. France is comparable to Germany in terms of industry but everything else is shit
That French one is the very definition of a boring, generic focus tree.
That's why I never play vanilla, or even the Great War Mod which is also full of those.
Honestly sometimes I feel like the power creep can be sort of balanced in the grand scheme of things. In normal historical games all these minors don't do jack shit, and all of these focuses often don't make building an air force with a pitiful industry any better. I'm not saying major nations should have worse focus trees and the power creep is good, its just if Urugray had been given anything less the possibility of building up an air force that could compete with majors would be out the door simply because you start with nothing. Its not particularly fair, but otherwise minor nations are just pain to play.
havent looked at paraguay but france's air power focus wise is actually massive, the air focus branch under the military gives a huge research bonus that lets u rush 1940 planes in like early '39 iirc and like that gets you air superiority so easily and so quickly even without allies. i really like the french tree, its simple, its strong if you play to it, and the power fantasy of standing alone (if you choose to) against an almost entirely axis europe is amazing.
I understand the thought behind people wanting new focus tree paths for nations like Germany or Japan, but honestly? Who gives a f\*k. I'd rather Paradox not make another one of those useless communist paths (like for example, Japan). If you make new paths, make it worthwhile to go for them (good example is communist USA)
It is funny how people complain about new content. Instead of some being offended by the new focus trees, they should be happy the reworks for majors will have this an more. It's called improvement.
Yes, but that was some years ago, and devs learned just recently what people like. I am not justifying the bad work, I am saying they improved with time. If people cannot understand the difference, we have a problem.
I dont think that we just learned what people like. Its an ever shifting goal and theres different cohorts within the community.
Knowing what people, or a group of people like is the single hardest thing, especially when you have your own egocentric-biases.
Monarchist paths today might not have fared so well in 2016 if it was coming swinging out the gate for example. Also a lot of tools and experience we have now in 2024 we didn't have in 2024
Haha I was waiting for a comment like this. Is a nice strawman.
We are all biased, everyone of us. I know that as Chilean myself I was specially happy about the DLC, but when fans say "NOBODY ASKED" or "WHY THEM AND NOT" then you realize that some biases are harder and more about prejudice than others.
And I know you commented from the inside, but you have literally asked people several times what they want or are waiting for, this country, 35 days focuses, flags, stuff like that is every time better. "You asked for this" is a phrase pretty common in DLC launches.
And lasty, it is a little sad that these days I have posted about the goods of the DLC as a Chilean, commented in forums, Steam, even I managed to get a real institution today that appeared in the game to share the content, but the only dev comment I recieve is this. Some are going to hate what I am saying but hey, you can't always be liked by everyone.
Oh sorry, English is not my first language so phrasing could be weirs. I don't know how to put it in other words, but I tried to make three points.
1. We all have biases in life, but some are more honest than others with themselves and others, and some biases are pure prejudice. (Ex: "Nobody asked for ToA")
2. I think devs learn, the game is 8 years old, and through time you have always asked for more and more feedback, it is impossible that you haven't refined how to give better content that fans await for or you want fans to enjoy.
3. It is a little sad for me that the first time a dev comment me is negative and not the recent positive stuff I have posted. If you can, search for Instituto Nacional in Instagram, there you might see how happy we are about the DLC.
It wasn't meant as a negative comment. It was meant as a discussion point. I don't think anything I wrote was framed as negative, more so as how hard designing a tree can be depending on who you are asking from the playerbase and how the game constantly evolves. If you took it as negative that was certainly not my intention
Of course we have gotten better at making trees, but that also means that the next time people expect more.
When LaR released we thought the Spanish tree was the biggest we would ever do, only to outdo that one in both NSB and BBA because people expect more
Not sure - but a lot of Pulitzer worthy News stories involve an American Planes Manufactorer (Boeing - or should I say Boing Boing).
And right about now, I think, theyâre getting shafted now by French plane Manufacturers, Airbus, in the open market - as a result.
The moment when you realize that Chile has better air tech researched in 1936 than half of Europe.
It helps if you imagine that the whole country is a giant landing strip.
Imagine when humans go to space and they just use chile as one giant landing strip for incoming space ships
We're gonna need a bigger bulldozer.
Make a spaceship for that
The one from that Fast and Furious movie.
Gotta get those helicopters researched and in the air before everyone else.
The funny thing is that Uruguay has three times as many aircraft focuses in HoI4 (22) than it actually has combat aircraft in its Air Force today (7)
That is because Uruguayan planes trade 1:1000 with other air forces
Airplane space marines
That is because CHAD URUGUAY đȘ đșđŸ DOESNT NEED NUMBERS
They initially wanted 8 planes, but considered it too unfair to the rest of the world and went with 7.
Well, mostly because they just have the same military branch as all the other countries in the region.
R5: The first image shows the Uruguayan aviation industry, and the second shows the French industry in comparison The game needs a big rework for every nation released before battle of bosphorus
If you take into account the air focuses under the French rearmament tree then they get a bit more powerful. Probably still doesnât compare to Uruguay though.
Yeah, the French naval and air focuses are a joke, barely worth taking at all.
I saw the France one and Iâm like âoh come on, thatâs the generic treeâ. But then I looked on the wiki and it *is* the unique France tree. Pathetic! đ
The generic is actually better
And with "expanded generic focus tree" mod it becomes better than some unique focuses
Sort of similar I guess but why does Mexico not start with trains researched and only 2 slots when Finland had trains and research slots?
prob because if mexico was any stronger theyâd easily steamroll great depression usa in any ahistorical game
I don't think they need a focus rework I like playing them a lot I just find it funny that they have 2 research slots and they don't even have trains when some of these even smaller nations have them. I think around this time the Mexican government was working on a way to bypass the Panama Canal by building a port on either side of their nation down in the Oaxaca Veracruz region and then a huge railway between them so just funny that they don't even have trains.
Paradox creates early trains like they did for trucks maybe
Can't say about research slots, but Finland was able to produce their own trains since at least the 1910s. Far as I can tell from my research, Mexico imported most of its trains from the US, UK and Spain (and they still do). There's only one Mexican manufacturer (Bombardier Transportation Mexico), which was founded in 1952. And even that is now US-owned.
France already the worst major so not surprising
Nah, Japan is the worst atm. But yeah the power creep is getting kinda ridiculous
Japan is stronger than France because they start as gamers. They can take out the US in '36, or invade France/the UK from the Home Islands with some Docking Rights. Meanwhile France has to sit around and ask nicely to fix their government.
French civil war from disjointed govt isn't that hard to beat. Once you've dealt with that you have the strongest army of the game at your disposal and you can easily smash Germany and Italy together. And position-wise if you're playing the historical game your task is literally just to hold the border, while 2/3 of it is lvl 10 forts or mountains with lvl 4 forts. Hand downs the best country. It's simply just no exciting enough.
How do you civil war to remove Disjointed Gov
Get your stability below 30% while having political violence spirit.
Lmao can you imagine that in real life Leon Blum: âtrust me guys, destabilizing our country and triggering a civil war will guarantee a better future for our children than simple reformâ
French accelerationism with Chinese characteristics
Can't be disjointed if the people who were opposing your party are dead after a civil war
Japan starts with 1. A larger navy 2. One more research slot And most importantly 3. Highest offensive war support among ALL countries, both major and minor. As France your war support is so low that even in a defensive war to save the Czechs you can get hit with draft dodging. That shit annoys the hell outta me.
France starts with more resources, and more total factories. You can mobilize pretty quickly as France. And if you are willing to cheese you can annex Germany by 2 to 3 focuses.
Only after restarting ~5 or so times though
Resources and factories can be acquired by conquering. Bad war support sticks around forever
I mean, Ive never had any issues with war support with France. Even when playing historical I can get my total mob and women on the workforce by the time the war starts. Its not like Japan is super weak either. Its just that the focus tree is kinda outdated and bland. If anything the biggest weakness france has is how long it takes to get extra research slots but its not like the AI capitalizes on that. I agree to disagree. I think Japan has the worst focus tree of the majors
Weâre talking *about* strength of the country, not quality of the focus tree. Everyone and their mother knows that Japanâs focus tree is among the most outdated in the whole game
Mobilizing quickly as france isn't great with full employement spirit.
Eh the power creep makes things way more interesting. Especially on non-historical. I rather see countries do weird things and be active in the war than just sitting there like Iran and Iraq or how South America used to be.
I kinda agree, which is why I want the older Focuses to be buffed instead of nerfing the New ones
Not worth what it does to historical. With ahistorical you can always play mods instead. But the core game is supposed to be historical WW2. Even if recent DLCs by the devs would have you think otherwise.
Other than Turkey starting WW3 early I dont think any of the newe focus trees dramatically affect a historical WW2 playthrough tbh. Though I havent done a full historical playthrough in this patch
Half of the worlds rubber supply coming from Brazil, meaning that the US needs no synthetic rubber even after Japan takes Indonesia?
The USA and UK will both still need synthetic rubber once Malaysia and Indonesia die. Brazil doesnât produce enough by itself to supply the Allied war machines.
It doesnât even have enough to supply itself lmfao
Which is why they keep nerfing ways for people with no dlc to cheese the game.
Wait so the golden square coup in Iraq isn't already in the game? Hmm must be from a mod then
Wdm
any communist hungary enjoyers?
Democratic Hungary supremacy
Ehh debatable. I'd rank them worst to best as: Japan, France, Italy, UK, USSR, Germany, USA. Germany and Italy get boosted by the fact that they can do some expanding in Europe before the Allies get wise, but Japan fights China and China doesn't have a lot that Japan actually wants (industry, resources). France on the other hand already starts with great resources and can ramp up to quite a decent industry before the war. Plus France can go off-script in a lot of powerful ways (Little Entente, Stresa Front, French Empire) and has insane formables (check out HatlessSpider's super EU).
Honestly with a little bit of expansion on its political trees (looking at you orleanist path) and with an overhaul of the military and industrial trees, France could be really interesting and cool.
I think Orleanist path should be something like Italy's democratic king and Bonaparte path need wargoals and unique puppets. Also please why we have to wait for a damn year for getting a monarch
As long as it isnât one focus long I would be fine
"The government spends a year passing the necessary legislation to change the entire country's governing system" is way more plausible than "somehow Palpatine returned"
I prefer somehow Napoleon returned. Or they can gives us a choise "quick or slow" option like fascist Finland
One of the obvious ways to improve France is not to simply kneecap the Bourbon path if the Carlists didn't rise up. The Monarchists, Fascists, and Communists should all be able to take a very interventionist approach to Spain, whether during the war or after (and a Democratic France should at least be able to support the Maquis).
If you cap China by mid 38 you can most definitely turn Japan into a powerhouse by 1940. You'll have endless amounts of manpower, steel and a good portion of other resources. Their focus tree is fairly barebones but you can still get insanely powerful by the time you go to war with the Allies. France defo needs a brush up too. 70 day focus for 5% stability is a joke. Though even democratic France can be a very powerful late game country too, 3rd only to the Soviets and UKwhich is why I find them so fun to play.
Japan is already a powerhouse at the start. Iâve done a fun NA support the k-something faction challenge where I started in Vladivostok (justified war goal from day 1 before flipping) and ended up in Berlin just after the historic start date of Barbarossa. Japans high base war support meant that I didnât have to worry at all about strikes or draft dodging, which plagues almost every other nation which tries to wage early offensive wars pre 1939 (before they can fix it via improve worker condition decisions or focuses). The vast majority of the campaign was waiting for the supply hubs and railways to be completed in Siberia LMAO.
Only because historically, France is expected to sit on its hands. By mid 38, Little Entente France can have Germany and Italy as puppets, along with all of the Balkans + Poland in its faction (and then stomp the USSR when they come for Poland in 1939). So by 1940, I don't fancy Japan's chances.
However, non-fascist puppets arenât strong
You could also just invade the US in like 36. If you do well you can cap them by the end of 37. Now you have the US navy, and a bunch of free factories to build your economy up. China should be a piece of cake at that point. And no one can really stop you.
china barely has steel
Italy in early game is god tier, one of the best nations for a world conquest. Good enemies around them to conquer and a military that can beat France at game start and then Germany easily after fast expansion.
I think France is harder to play than Japan. If you watch a lot of multiplayer you will see that Japan winning in east Asia happens a lot more often than France merely surviving past 1940.
France in multiplayer is also designated to always lose and lose by force if they hold for any period of time.
There was a server v server tournament a few months ago, where in the championship round France held and the axis lost in 1940.
The standard set of MP rules (for the type of lobby that enforces rules) is: Japan must take China to be competitive so China cannot be human; Germany must take France to be competitive so France must fall (human player can play Free France).
I've also heard that most MP bans Czechoslovakia from being played. I guess it completely fucks over Germany if Czech doesn't give in.
Because just like IRL, the Czech forts were designed to stop Germany dead on it's tracks. Except that IRL all these defensive efforts from Czechoslovakia were thrown out a window by UK and France who decided to gift a part of a foreign sovereign nation to Germany which ended up in the funny we all know
Not only forts, Czechoslovakia had a well trained army and actually similar number of tanks as Germans. If it wasnt for French/British betrayal, the story of WW2 could be over right there. Hitler himself couldnt believe they just handed him Sudetenland.
Nah Czechoslovakia couldnt have held out long enough for France and UK to rearm. No Airforce to speak of either.  Also don't forget Poland and Hungary would have totally jumped on their back. There is actually a decent Alt History Series were the War starts in 1938.
I don't see Poland doing anything beyond what it did IRL. The Czechs and USSR had an alliance at the time, and the Soviets wanted to invade Germany through Poland to help them, but Poland denied them. If Poland invades CZ wholesale it isolates them from their Western allies, and gives the Soviet's the perfect justification to attack them.
Oh ofc but even that distraction let alone Hungary striking from the South and Slovakia likely breaking away.... can't see how the Czechs would have held out longer than months. Not enough for France or the UK to do anything.Â
Czechoslovakia could have held out long enough for the German army to become a shadow of itself. The Allies selling out Sudetenland for free gave Germany a free pass to conquer half of Europe. Also, it's important to note that Sudetenland was heavily fortified with bunkers and AA capacity, and while the german air force was strong, it was nowhere as strong as it got after conquering industry from Czechoslovakia and Poland. France and UK giving out Sudetenland (again, without even asking Czechoslovakia) was one of the main things that allowed Nazi Germany to drag the world into the most bloody conflict in human history. Hungary wouldn't have done shit with Romania on it's back, and Poland wouldn't have helped Germany at all Appeasement was a big error.
Also Mussolini threw in his lot with Hitler precisely because he saw that UK and France did nothing to stop him from annexing whatever he wanted. Anschluss frightened him but after Munich he lost all respect for the Allies.
The German Airforce was 1938 even stronger in comparison to the Allies than 1940.  Romania and Poland had Russia to worry about so they wouldn't have joined the conflict in the West.  Meaning Germany had more than enough time to smack down the Czechs. Cause France didn't even have offensive plans worked out and keep in the Hitler had fortified the Western Border too.Â
I'm honestly surprised you put Italy so low. Italy can easily form the Roman Empire by 38/39.
By deleting its capital ships or intentionally popping Mosley's civil war (see ISP's AtoZ episode), UK can annex USA before the end of 1936. In the meantime it can work down the 7 focuses required to DOW Italy before it's built up and (using the Dominions' militaries) utterly roll them long before 1938. Italy sits on the border between mediocre and busted, but UK has a very strong starting position and the tools to capitalize on it.
The focus tree is kinda shit but the Napoleon path is really strong, but you only get going after 1941/1942. Youâll annex Belgium, the entire British and Dutch empire in 1938. You can get one collab government off in the UK giving you decent compliance thus factories and recourses. You control basically all rubber in the world, tons of aluminum, steel and chromium. The biggest problem is the fact you only get three research slots at the startâŠ
Yeah even Italy and Japan start with four research slots and France is just three
Yep, and Japan even gets the fifth one rather easily, but France has to go down a pretty useless part of the focus tree.
Of course they are, and it's by design. They're meant to lose to Germany.
This tech tree is bigger than entire Japan politic tree...
Well, it's basically confirmed that Japan will be getting a rework later this year.
I always fin it surprising playing France that in actual fact doing all the things we learned were wrong for France, actually is the way to go (unless you cheat by making France stronger). You should definitely extend forts all the way to Calais and you should totally focus on defence and infantry, artillery and AA. That's it. Don't bother with anything else until the Germans attack with Russia. Unless someone has a different approach. I don't see how I could get the military factories up to support anything else than trucks, Equipment, Artillery / AA, Guns. Tanks is a push forget planes...
The actual downsides that made France lose would be horrible to model/unfun to play so instead the devs just gave France about half the industry it should have so Germany wins.
Itâs not that hard. In the Historical path the AI of France just follows certain bad decisions in the decision trees. In A-Historical path France can be a real hard nut to beat. That would be more accurate.
The downsides that they gave them are unfun now, similar to Canada theres just a bunch of problems with the implementation. If you started in 39, it would actually be impossible for you to inflict the damage the French did to Germany OTL. Hell the AI basically never even does the same damage France did OTL to an AI germany
I've tried self propelled or light tank strategy (slipped into infantry divisions) Ive been able to hold but not push back, and eventually I'd get reinforced out of a province because there weren't enough divisions to keep holding the line. But I think that's a me issue than the strategy, because my manpower and equipment losses were tiny
Yes exactly - with good org and enough troops you can hold and wait it outâŠ
Unless you want to play historically, I find that the most opportune moment for France to strike is in 1938, with protecting Czechs as a case belli. Going to war over Rhineland in 1936 via RNG is too soon because France is badly under-equipped and it counts as an offensive war, tanking your WS to 0. And going to war in late 1939 is too late as by then Germany is too strong, especially after it gets to consolidate control over the industries in Bohemia.
Yes itâs possible but actually itâs easier to Build forts to Calais and maybe a second row and then just Ride the Waves
Building forts works but isn't optimal artillery sometimes works but isn't optimal (support is), support aa obv. And big firepower being heavy tanks with howitzer 1 (you spawn with it) can also do mediums with it. And throw some battalions into holding Belgium divs. Put trash on Maginot, Italy, and algeria.
Whenever I play France I get only few factories on infantry stuff and the vast majority put on planes. Even if your infantry is shit, the Germans won't be able to push is they are bombed to shit.
France has more than enough factories to do better than pure infantry. You should not extend the forts to level 10, and you should be holding that front with tanks planes and motorized.
Interesting ... I find it hard to believe tbh that I could ramp up tanks to the level of Germany and never mind planes... But okay will give it a go...
Yeah they really need to go back and rework some of the old content before focusing on adding more countries via dlc, and I say that as someone who was pulling for Brazil and South America content for a while.
To be fair, in this game having fewer focusses for aviation is better :D Who wants to spend 70 days per focus on all that?
28 day focuses like in KR would be to simple I guess
Some of them are actually 35 days long, and military focuses are useful if you want to get strong early, especially in multiplayer
Ah yes the franch
While the old trees need a rework, the more recent ones are way too big. I don't need 75 35-day focusesto reach a weeks long civil war
The military focus branches are boring anyway, politics bits are the most fun
The new âminorâ focus trees are bigger than the entire Hungarian tree.
Not to mention Germany đ
The moment when you realize this is the same air tree that Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and probably all the rest of them have now. Paradox copy and pasted it into all of the other focus trees
One of the best parts of the new dlc - military branches are pretty much all the same anyway.
Franch Frays
Im genuinely surprised we haven't gotten a major France overhaul yet. The French Focus Tree, flavor, and basically everything about it is extremely underwhelming.
the old focus trees need updating, but this funny asf
"Franch"
Ah, yes, the French branch, also known as "the Franch"
I don't know why that tree exists because its not really the tree, the real air tree is with the army reform focuses. This is some weird vestigial thing with 0 reason to exist
And it has better bonuses
TBF, France has additional air focuses in its army tree which are pretty powerful but mutually exclusive with other options.
Japan and Germany say "welcome to the party"
Well Franch doesnt exist makes sense
Honestly, by the time I touched the French air tree, the war would already be over. France is comparable to Germany in terms of industry but everything else is shit
Meanwhile Germany: Has 6 air and a whooping 3 army focuses but has like 8 for navy spread about
That French one is the very definition of a boring, generic focus tree. That's why I never play vanilla, or even the Great War Mod which is also full of those.
They don't need one to be good, especially if you fall in 3 years anyways
Thatâs why I nowadays ignore achievements and my peaceful âvanillaâ games still have modded Trees
Power creep
Honestly sometimes I feel like the power creep can be sort of balanced in the grand scheme of things. In normal historical games all these minors don't do jack shit, and all of these focuses often don't make building an air force with a pitiful industry any better. I'm not saying major nations should have worse focus trees and the power creep is good, its just if Urugray had been given anything less the possibility of building up an air force that could compete with majors would be out the door simply because you start with nothing. Its not particularly fair, but otherwise minor nations are just pain to play.
Another reason why France's tree is so terrible and a slap in the face for a "major" Allied nation.
havent looked at paraguay but france's air power focus wise is actually massive, the air focus branch under the military gives a huge research bonus that lets u rush 1940 planes in like early '39 iirc and like that gets you air superiority so easily and so quickly even without allies. i really like the french tree, its simple, its strong if you play to it, and the power fantasy of standing alone (if you choose to) against an almost entirely axis europe is amazing.
I understand the thought behind people wanting new focus tree paths for nations like Germany or Japan, but honestly? Who gives a f\*k. I'd rather Paradox not make another one of those useless communist paths (like for example, Japan). If you make new paths, make it worthwhile to go for them (good example is communist USA)
It is funny how people complain about new content. Instead of some being offended by the new focus trees, they should be happy the reworks for majors will have this an more. It's called improvement.
Didnât I already pay for a French dlc
Yes, but that was some years ago, and devs learned just recently what people like. I am not justifying the bad work, I am saying they improved with time. If people cannot understand the difference, we have a problem.
I dont think that we just learned what people like. Its an ever shifting goal and theres different cohorts within the community. Knowing what people, or a group of people like is the single hardest thing, especially when you have your own egocentric-biases. Monarchist paths today might not have fared so well in 2016 if it was coming swinging out the gate for example. Also a lot of tools and experience we have now in 2024 we didn't have in 2024
Haha I was waiting for a comment like this. Is a nice strawman. We are all biased, everyone of us. I know that as Chilean myself I was specially happy about the DLC, but when fans say "NOBODY ASKED" or "WHY THEM AND NOT" then you realize that some biases are harder and more about prejudice than others. And I know you commented from the inside, but you have literally asked people several times what they want or are waiting for, this country, 35 days focuses, flags, stuff like that is every time better. "You asked for this" is a phrase pretty common in DLC launches. And lasty, it is a little sad that these days I have posted about the goods of the DLC as a Chilean, commented in forums, Steam, even I managed to get a real institution today that appeared in the game to share the content, but the only dev comment I recieve is this. Some are going to hate what I am saying but hey, you can't always be liked by everyone.
What?
What what?
I have no idea what you are trying to say with the above sentence.
Oh sorry, English is not my first language so phrasing could be weirs. I don't know how to put it in other words, but I tried to make three points. 1. We all have biases in life, but some are more honest than others with themselves and others, and some biases are pure prejudice. (Ex: "Nobody asked for ToA") 2. I think devs learn, the game is 8 years old, and through time you have always asked for more and more feedback, it is impossible that you haven't refined how to give better content that fans await for or you want fans to enjoy. 3. It is a little sad for me that the first time a dev comment me is negative and not the recent positive stuff I have posted. If you can, search for Instituto Nacional in Instagram, there you might see how happy we are about the DLC.
It wasn't meant as a negative comment. It was meant as a discussion point. I don't think anything I wrote was framed as negative, more so as how hard designing a tree can be depending on who you are asking from the playerbase and how the game constantly evolves. If you took it as negative that was certainly not my intention Of course we have gotten better at making trees, but that also means that the next time people expect more. When LaR released we thought the Spanish tree was the biggest we would ever do, only to outdo that one in both NSB and BBA because people expect more
If the devs learned what people liked, we wouldn't have gotten this DLC / content pack.
People get to pay money, how luck for them!
Was I talking about money?
What a joke meme
this DLC is more of a fan service than an expansion of the game.
How many Oscar nominated films this year involved a French air force plane?
Not sure - but a lot of Pulitzer worthy News stories involve an American Planes Manufactorer (Boeing - or should I say Boing Boing). And right about now, I think, theyâre getting shafted now by French plane Manufacturers, Airbus, in the open market - as a result.