Difficulty levels - what countries are affected?

[tharmas]

In the difficulty levels spreadsheet, which countries belong to the axis and would be affected by changes in that column?
Specifically Italy and Japan. Is Italy "neutral" until it joins the war and then joins the Axis? Is Japan ever in the Axis? Is it a neutral country, even when at war?
I am trying to use the difficulty levels to give certain countries an advantage without giving all AI countries an advantage.
Sometimes I want to give Italy, Japan and Germany a bonus but not USSR, or give the Allies an advantage but not the USSR.

 

[thevaliant]

As I understand it, the Axis are defined by the {axis} list in the scenario/saved game file. So normally, assuming a 1936 game, Germany is the only AXIS at the start, to be joined normally by Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria etc. Japan will never normally join the Axis so it would never get that bonus/penalty you decide to define.

Likewise, Allies and Comintern operate similarly, so USA will only get a bonus AFTER it joins the Allies.

 

[unmerged(189717)]

All countries get a malus on "easy" difficulty setting, apart from the player country, which get a bonus.

All countries get a bonus on "hard" difficulty setting, apart from the player country, which get a malus.