First, it is possible for Germany to ally with Nationalist Spain. It is very easy to do so, you just improve relations then invite them.
I did this because I wanted Gibralter, but I ended up having a game experience that was not satisfying.
I am not competent to argue whether Axis Spain should be this easy to achieve, but if you don't want people doing this, possibly it could be handled the same way Italy is handled, by not allowing it to join an alliance until some trigger fires, if ever.
Once I got my alliance with Spain, here is what happened:
1) After Nationalist Spain won the civil war, it put every air and land unit it had in the province in the extreme northwest of Spain. In order to try to fix this, I took military control and moved these to Madrid, then relinquished control. They moved straight back to where they were before.
2) At the time I attacked Poland, there was (I believe) one (at most two) garrison units in Gibralter, which wouldn't have been enough to stop the Spanish. The French did not defend the Spanish border at all.
3) Once I attacked Poland, Spain SR'd these units back to the provinces around Gibralter, and to the border with France. By this time, the British had reinforced Gibralter. The French defended their border, but not very heavily. There were 1-2 divisions per province, and the Spanish blew through them and were in the process of conquering France shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, there were still about 15 French units per Maginot Line province.
4) The Spanish didn't garrison landing beaches along their East coast, so the British invaded via these beaches, and captured Madrid, and about six other provinces, at at once point had Spain bisected. Eventually they got cut off and would have eventually been eliminated had I not stopped the game.
Perhaps this behavior can be improved, either by disallowing an Axis alliance with Spain, or by making Spain, France, and to a lesser extent Britain, play better once Spain joins the Axis.
bruce
I did this because I wanted Gibralter, but I ended up having a game experience that was not satisfying.
I am not competent to argue whether Axis Spain should be this easy to achieve, but if you don't want people doing this, possibly it could be handled the same way Italy is handled, by not allowing it to join an alliance until some trigger fires, if ever.
Once I got my alliance with Spain, here is what happened:
1) After Nationalist Spain won the civil war, it put every air and land unit it had in the province in the extreme northwest of Spain. In order to try to fix this, I took military control and moved these to Madrid, then relinquished control. They moved straight back to where they were before.
2) At the time I attacked Poland, there was (I believe) one (at most two) garrison units in Gibralter, which wouldn't have been enough to stop the Spanish. The French did not defend the Spanish border at all.
3) Once I attacked Poland, Spain SR'd these units back to the provinces around Gibralter, and to the border with France. By this time, the British had reinforced Gibralter. The French defended their border, but not very heavily. There were 1-2 divisions per province, and the Spanish blew through them and were in the process of conquering France shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, there were still about 15 French units per Maginot Line province.
4) The Spanish didn't garrison landing beaches along their East coast, so the British invaded via these beaches, and captured Madrid, and about six other provinces, at at once point had Spain bisected. Eventually they got cut off and would have eventually been eliminated had I not stopped the game.
Perhaps this behavior can be improved, either by disallowing an Axis alliance with Spain, or by making Spain, France, and to a lesser extent Britain, play better once Spain joins the Axis.
bruce
