Favourite Countries

[Zardnaar]

What are your favourite major, regional, minor and micro countries to play and why?
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/index.php/Assorted_Guides

Major
Germany, USA and the USSR are all powerful countries but my favourite is Italy no ifs or buts followed by Japan and the UK. At least you're not the French. From rebuilding the Roman empire, loyal Axis stooge or betraying Germany Italy is fun.

Regional.
In addition to lacking IC most all of the regional powers are gimped in some way. They either lack good tech teams or have manpower issues. Still several are budding superpowers, while others like Australia have great tech teams. Overall my favourites are Manchukio and Romania. Both offer reasonable manpower and tech teams (lvl 4-6 range), both have the USSR as a probem.

Minor Powers.
I don't really like any of the minor powers. Several have decent tech teams, but they are gimped on manpower. I don't really like any of them but Finland is the best of a bad list.

Micropowers.
The lamest of the lame. Low IC, probably low manpower and most have no events for them. Communist China offers the potential of a world conquest espicially with tech team take over enabled or with the China improvement pack. New Zealand has very low manpower but reasonably decent tech teams so you can at least build a decent navy with a bit of maraudering and Full IC takeover on. Even without cheating NZ and Com China are at least fun.

 

[midget_roxx]

Germany would be my favourite power followed by Japan because of their huge potential for awesome naval combat. Least favourite would be USA because you have to wait for 5 years and do nothing with pathetic IC at the start then micromanage your armies and navy on 2 fronts just gets a bit frustrating after a while. USSR can be a bit boring too since it's such a walk in the park after 1941.

Regional: I've had good fun with Australia and Spain, Australia because of the decent tech teams and you can take on Japan and get their IC. Spain you can ally yourself with Germany and forge out a African empire but need to be warey of US and their carrier fleets of doom. Argentina and Mexico can be good fun but you need to be lucky and get the alternate election in US which causes mass revolts within US so you can steamroll them later once you've eaten up the rest of South America.

Minors: ComChina can be excellent fun so long as you ally with Japan . Don't think I've tried any other minors besides maybe Hungary but I wouldn't classify them as a minor. Never tried NZ, but who would want too

 

[unmerged(105989)]

Major: For just having fun, Germany is my favorite. However, recently, I've become a fan of playing the SU as well.

Regional: Agentina, something about taking over S. America.

Minors: Guatamala or Honduras. Both allow you to create a small Latin American empire, and the fight for Mexico is challenging (if somewhat suicidal)

 

[Angelos]

Major: Soviet Union for sure...Talk about a red tide
Regional: Comm China is really challenging, but very rewarding if you can survive!
Minors: I had a great game as Greece once, though i had to go over to the Axis side to do it Can't say there is any other really interesting minor power... Maybe Switzerland, if you feel like using those cuckoo clocks for ballistic purposes

 

[JRHINDO]

My favorite is Japan, awesome land war in china, the pacific front and more asian/american invasion!
Second favorite would be the soviets, but only if you are at war with the axis, but also with the allies.
Also like to play as Italy sometimes, but only against a good british ai.

 

[Rocoulm]

I really like to play as Denmark. It's just so fun to take over Scandinavia, and eventually Europe

 

[Czarina Julie]

Argentina is great to play as a regional. Also after your S.A. conquest and Japan DOW on USA, join the Axis and start you conquests through Central America. You'll be a major threat to the USA and receive [high level] air support from Germany.

Another is to start a 1936 campaign and create an alliance with Argentina, Columbia, and Mexico (I call this my Latin Tri-Party). Attack Ecuador, Peru, & Venezuela. All of their provinces go to Columbia. Attack Chile, Paraguay, & Uruguay. All of their provinces go to Argentina. Attack Bolivia and split it between Argentina & Columbia. Attack Brazil and split it between Argentina & Columbia (divide it along the Amazon). Attack all the Central American countries, Cuba, Haiti, & Dominica Republic. Have all provinces go to Mexico. Now you should have a fairly decent alliance to take on anything that might come your way. Any power other than the US will need to transport troops to take you on and the USA will focus on Japan.

I've also done my Latin Tri-Party pact in an edited 1936 saved scenario.

• I select the 1936 scenario, open it, and then immediately save it.
• Edit the save game file.
• Give the provinces (according to my above Latin Tri-Party conquests) to their appropriate Tri-Party countries.
• Give all the techs for each 'conquered' country to their respective Tri-Party countries
• Give all the ministers for each 'conquered' country to their respective Tri-Party countries
• Give all the leaders for each 'conquered' country to their respective Tri-Party countries
• Create the alliance
• Now remove/delete all the the countries in South America, Central America, and Caribbean (except for Mexico, Columbia, & Argentina)

Now the Latin Tri-Party starts as an alliance in 1936. The only thing one needs to watch for is an enemy liberating one of your 'conquered' countries. This will give you errors (which can be ignored) when loading a saved game from that point further (since you're using the same ministers & leaders that the liberated countries has). Of course, the best thing is to take each minister and leader (from the 'conquered' countries that you have associated to one of your three Tri-Party countries) and give it new IDs.

Maybe I should post a saved 1936 game file that has this already done. Anyone interested?

 

[Zardnaar]

midget-rox Aussie would probably be my third favourite after Manchukuo and Romania. I normally invade Europe before Japan to get my IC high enough to build X6 carriers to go after Japan. A regoional land based power with Australian tech teams would be nice. With tech team capture on Australia becomes a high priority for me to annex espicially if I want to build a navy. NZ is like a mini version of Australia but with less IC, and manpower and worse tech teams with the exception of infanry doctrines. Austalian blitzkrieg doctrine Panzer army also works. NZ actually has the third best land doctrine tech team in the game after Manstein and Guderian-Freyburg lvl 7 with very relevent fields.

 

[Iwo Jima]

Majors

like
Germany - is obvious choice for studying and for experiments. Plenty of possible strategies.
France - Strong enough, but hard to play. Challenging.
Japanese - exotic. Good naval game. Challenging in late game.
UK - really bureaucratic nightmare. Colonies, convoys, fleets. Really head-ache.
Italy - quite challenging. a lot of space to expand.

not like
USSR - easy game and huge amounts of units. boring.
USA - playing USA is gamey )))


Regional

like
Rep. Spain - quite strong. very interesting political game. a lot of variants for domestic and foreign policy.
Czechoslovakia - tech.advanced, challenging. Several strategy variants, e.g. blitzkrieg against Germany.
Netherlands - very challenging! but very interesting! best submarines, a lot of resources. nor Alliance, nor Axis will not give easy game, and neutrality is impossible.
Argentina and Brazil - quite interesting, if you don't like large-scale game. But in this case you'd better to play "Platinum wars" scenario
Australia - not obvious strategy. defence or attack? Alliance or leave it? Easy to defend, but could you get something more?

Minor

Switzerland - challenging, unclear what to do?
South Africa - challenging. strong enough, but has no reasonable space to expand. What to do?

Micro

Venezuela - very strong for Micro. in fact, it's Minor.
Iraq - very challenging! one of the most interesting games I've ever played (I mean '36, not '38). being UK puppet, you could capture all Middle East, Central Asia and Siberia. But you should think and calculate a lot (and possibly save and load) because your main opponents are your allies. You always should conquer first.



Short list for skilled player: Netherlands, Iraq, South Africa
Non standard and very challenging games

 

[JRHINDO]

South Afrika would be a good choice for a minor play. Away from all enemies, surrounded by friends. Good TTs. Great IC and military potential. They provide some nice help when they are allied AI.

 

[noobermenschen]

Persia is a fun micro, and I believe can join any of the alliances (I like to take them into the Allies). I am getting addicted to playing NatChi, and in the future will try the ultimate challenge of playing them in the DoomsDay campaign where they are hopelessly crippled. USA is a fun major but a bit too easy, UK is fun and I need to play France. Germany is the only dictatorship I have played and that was pretty cool - INF/AC divisions RULE when you have Spearhead doctrine. I really need to play Japan as I love naval combat, and too many players are recommending Italy to ignore.

I've had this game 4 1/2 years and am still not even close to being bored with it.

 

[OsirisReborn]

I've had this game 4 1/2 years and am still not even close to being bored with it.

+1

I think my favorite is the Japanese, the night infiltration and marines are alot of fun.
I still play Germany alot especially when i have a new idea.

 

[TremblingBlue]

I pretty much only play as Japan, Nationalist China and Communist China...just fascinating countries (especially with the CCIP). I would play as Manchukuo and Mongolia more but the puppet status of the nations really hinder any plan of expansion I might have...

I've tried all the others, but I just don't feel comfortable with them, especially Germany. Just doesn't feel right.

 

[unmerged(142503)]

Well, of the majors the only country I haven't taken yet are Japan and Nat. China, I just hate their terrain and warfare in general.

Germany must be the funniest of them all, so much possiblities. The others are good too, but URSS gets boring against the AI, it's just too easy.

Between the regionals, Argentina is a must. Sure, the USA will attack you if you expand too much, but you have to find the perfect balance so they don't DoW you. Spain (Either of them) is interesting too, you're in Europe, so there's no way you won't have fun.

I'm not much into Minors and micros, but as everyone said, Comm. China can be quite fun. Some Latin American countries, such as Venezuela, can be fun too. I've never tried Finland, but sounds like a good challenge too.

 

[Zardnaar]

Trembling Blue Manchukuo can be released from puppetr status in a Japanese game, save and reload as Manchukuo. The China improvement pack seems to nerf them though.

 

[TremblingBlue]

Ah I don't really like switching over and everything, but I could try it someday.

 

[Zardnaar]

Just do it on Jan 1st ans switch over straight away. Takes 30 seconds or so.