I thought I'd take out Hearts of Iron for the first time in
months and see how I was at it anymore. Since I know I'm rusty I took
the easy path, playing the United States from the Grand Campaign,
starting in 1936. My basic itinerary was straightforward: build up my
industry and try to lay in a head start on science needs.
Then I got to thinking, what could I do to better position my
United States for the war I know full well is coming? Military access
with the United Kingdom, for example, didn't rile up the isolationists,
and replacing Henry Morgenthau with Henry Kaiser gave me a nice little
industrial boost without obvious other ill effects.
*Then* I got to thinking, is it possible to use my diplomatic
influence to break up the Axis before it really gets going? So I got
to casting my influence on Italy and Japan, and got them drawn closer
to the Democratic side of things, comfortably away from the Fascist
side. I imagined it likely there are enough preprogrammed events in
1939-1940 to pull them towards Germany, but the diplomatic points
were just going to sit around otherwise anyway.
So. March 1939 rolls around. Germany annexes Austria. In
short order it demands territory from Czechoslovakia, and indeed the
state dissolves into the Czech republic, annexed, and Slovakia, an
independent regime. Come the end of the month Germany demands more
territory from Lithuania, which caves to the pressure. Poland,
refusing a German demand for territory, aligns with the United Kingdom,
which guarantees Polish independence. France allies with the United
Kingdom as well.
April 4, 1939: unaligned nation Italy declares war on Albania
for some reason. Albania quickly signs a military access agreement with
Yugoslavia and has bombers ready for Venice in record time. The next
day, the United Kingdom declares Italy's war to be an infringement of
its sphere of influence, and goes to war on Albania's behalf. Albania
joins the Allies, and that's where the game got to tonight. Germany is,
so far, completely uninvolved in this.
--
Joseph Nebus
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