Best Country to play as in 1939 Historic World War

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    • Best Country to play as in 1939 Historic World War

      Clearly Germany starts off as the most powerful but I've found that a lot of people who play as France and UK want to role-play and try to get the soviet union and the US on their side... and i make a lot of enemies before the first day ends as Germany.

      So was wondering what you all thought was the best / easiest country to play as. Here's what I've learned by playing as each country so far

      Germany:
      As mentioned, could start with lots of enemies, encircled by potential hostiles from the start

      France:
      Starts with a decent army but also starts with -300 food and its colonies tend to rebel if you don't fix the food... you'll need to conquer territories or devote 100% resources to fixing food unless you lose units in a war... Also you have spain behind you but it takes them at least 2 weeks to build up to have any strength to even hit you in the back in a coordinated attack with germany.

      UK:
      has awful manpower and is therefore unable to produce a large army. Even though historically in the war the UK had a good amount of manpower because they can call upon it's territories such as India. the lack of army makes it tough to expand anywhere.

      Soviet Union:
      The key to winning as the soviets is the make friends with Japan. If you can make sure you don't get hit int he back near manchuria, where soviet industry and production capabilities are low, then you can focus on europe. If you can align with Germany also then its a winning coalition. otherwise be careful when either you or him invade poland and try to avoid sharing a border with germany as long as possible... espeically if your not friends / coordinating with France although in this case you probably will be.

      US:
      Starts with very few units. Historically this make sense as in 1939 the US only had an army of 100k people. It takes at least 2 weeks to build up to become a superpower and an early coordinated attack from canada and mexico could spell trouble for middle america. If you can convince them to be allies, then you can eventually take north and south america although by this time, the conflict in europe will likely be resolved. sending units to europe to help in the war doesn't benefit in the growth of your nation unless you're attacking spain or the UK in which case, other european powers can easily push you out of the continent if you don't have allies. Also make friends with japan in this case so you don't have to worry about the west coast. Or if you're eyeing the west coast, it takes like almost a week to travel to asia or australia making it difficult to reinforce. In short, America is very boring to play as.

      Japan:
      Starts with -39 oil, and low resources until you can build up for 3 days and move troops around to take China. But even then you only have the resources and army to fight in asia. Also pretty boring to play as although I've never attacked the soviet union as Japan as I find it beneficial to make them my ally. If one were to attack the soviet union, walking through siberia without mobile units sounds boring so maybe thats why i haven't tried it.

      Poland:
      Gets eaten up after (at most) a week. Don't try it lol

      Anyway, wondering what your thoughts are on which country is the best but I guess this can be addressed from an army, resources, diplomatic point of view... oh and taking into account which countries are the most boring to play with (cough US couch)

      Thoughts?
    • mongolian hoard wrote:

      So was wondering what you all thought was the best / easiest country to play as. Here's what I've learned by playing as each country so far

      From your list, I have only played the US and Japan in 39 historical map and won in both cases in coalition with others. Here is a brief account of both of those two games ...

      US:

      It does start with very few units, and historically this make sense as in 1939 the US only had a small army but a large fleet. It takes several days to build up to build up an army and air force. Canada and Mexico- I had good relations with them. Japan ran a parade of his fleet in northern Philippines, but had to pull back to fight Manchuria. Those two beat the heck out of each other, eventually going inactive.

      In Europe, I was lucky to become allies with a very strong player in Spain- who quickly took over France and its African colonies, Central and Eastern Europe, while I took over the British Isles and Scandinavia. Eventually we attacked Russia together. I also took over New Zealand and Australia, who courageously challenged me in New Zealand.

      Our third partner (Brazil) took over most of South America, while I took over most of Central America and the Caribbean. My friendly Mexican neighbor took over a few provinces in both places- also invading the Dutch New Guinea and Indonesia by the end of the game.

      Japan:

      It does start with a large fleet and a moderate amount of army units, with oil been scarse. For a few days, I build up my economy, made a few extra troops and moved them around to take China with my Tibetan ally- moving well together later on to take just about all of mainland Asia.

      I had RoW with Russia (nice guy, but timid player) and sent armies to help my Swedish ally take over Europe. Eventually my allies insisted that we attack Russia, so we did from all directions. By the time the game ended, I had taken over Australia, New Zealand, Ecuador and most of Peru ... 8)
    • Gonna take a lot of flak for this, and that's OK.

      DEEP BREATH
      Mongolia is the best of all lower tier nations. Threats to your nation are existent, but your army is enough to hold its own for now. You begin with more rare materials than most world superpowers, an OK amount of food, a crap amount of steel and oil, sure, but that can be fixed. It's just really hard to invade Mongolia early game, because all the big armies are either far, far west of you, or far, Far East of you. Play your cards right, and you can win as Mongolia easy.

      As for anything with more than 6 industrial complexes, Yugoslavia is actually pretty good. You're not in the greatest position to start with, and Italy almost always invades you, you're essentially a less-sandwiched Poland. With Elite AI, however, your chances of survival actually go up substantially. If you can befriend Romania, which isn't hard, you can easily take on Italy. Germany likely won't waste time with you, you don't have really anything they need. Later, maybe, but still, Italy is threat number 1, and Italy is easy to roll.

      ...but hey, that's just my opinion.
    • Germany is the easiest to play as no matter how the round begins like 6 or 7 months ago i started a round and Italy Japan were my only allies and all the main powers plus Romania and Persia teamed up and tried to get rid of me because I attacked Poland and i mainly built artillery and infantry and upgraded my forts with at least 5 artillery in each fort on the french border and focus on the east when i went half way threw Poland fitghing the Russians making sure of his survival Italy went inactive and 3 days later when i was just entering Russia Italy invaded me didn't know he came back but finished him in a few days he was by far the easiest and then when i was so close to Moscow he went inactive and Persia did the same without being invaded and i focused on the west USA was pretty hard to beat then when i took France and USA went inactive and a day later UK begged for peace and went inactive a week later and there was so much trash talking threw out the game it was my best game and i tried to get games like that again but everyone seems to go inactive after a couple of days or bad stats

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Michael Myres ().

    • JesterTheSheep wrote:

      Mongolia is the best of all lower tier nations. Threats to your nation are existent, but your army is enough to hold its own for now. You begin with more rare materials than most world superpowers, an OK amount of food, a crap amount of steel and oil, sure, but that can be fixed. It's just really hard to invade Mongolia early game, because all the big armies are either far, far west of you, or far, Far East of you.
      Have not played Mongolia yet, but I agree with Jester's assessment above. Another country that seems to fit into Mongolia's profile described by Jester is Xingjiang. Threats to your nation are existent in the first day or two of the game, but your army is enough to hold its own- whether managed by a human or AI. You begin with a bit of all resources. It's just really hard to invade Xinjiang early in the game, because all the big armies are far from you, and the big fleets can't get to inland countries. I would definitely take Mongolia or Xingjiang over the low countries or Denmark ... 8)
    • JesterTheSheep wrote:

      Mongolia is the best of all lower tier nations. Threats to your nation are existent, but your army is enough to hold its own for now. You begin with more rare materials than most world superpowers, an OK amount of food, a crap amount of steel and oil, sure, but that can be fixed. It's just really hard to invade Mongolia early game, because all the big armies are either far, far west of you, or far, Far East of you. Play your cards right, and you can win as Mongolia easy.

      gusv wrote:

      JesterTheSheep wrote:

      Mongolia is the best of all lower tier nations. Threats to your nation are existent, but your army is enough to hold its own for now. You begin with more rare materials than most world superpowers, an OK amount of food, a crap amount of steel and oil, sure, but that can be fixed. It's just really hard to invade Mongolia early game, because all the big armies are either far, far west of you, or far, Far East of you.
      Have not played Mongolia yet, but I agree with Jester's assessment above. Another country that seems to fit into Mongolia's profile described by Jester is Xingjiang. Threats to your nation are existent in the first day or two of the game, but your army is enough to hold its own- whether managed by a human or AI. You begin with a bit of all resources. It's just really hard to invade Xinjiang early in the game, because all the big armies are far from you, and the big fleets can't get to inland countries. I would definitely take Mongolia or Xingjiang over the low countries or Denmark ... 8)
      I've actually been in games where Mongolia had succesfully taken over the USSR with help from Finland. It was a suicidal mission in the beginning, but with the right troop placement, it surprisingly worked

      Mongolia sort of reminds me of Pennsylvania in America Homefront. You're not in the best position when the game starts. Sure, you're on a Great Lake but those things are useless in CoW. You border New York who might invade you any second now. But look, it's Maryland (a.k.a. your typical Germany-Poland situation). You can easily invade Maryland and acquire yourself a decent looking coastline (even though your priority is to build ground and air units, not naval units). You can try and make an alliance with New York and hope they don't try and betray you. I'm in a match where Pennsylvania has taken over the entire North-East except for Maine
    • In the 39 map, it's quite a 'boring' challenge to take over a large country like Russia. If you attack Russia on its western borders, pretty much the country is yours after you take Ukraine and the major cities in Western Russia (e.g. Moscow, Leningrad, etc.). Then comes the boring task of taking over the rest of the country- a good reason to have an ally, so that you can divide the boredom between you! Sometimes I'll pair LT's with a SP artillery to finish conquests of vast stretches of land such as Russia, and a few other large territories (e.g. China, India, British or French Africa, North America, Australia, etc) ...
    • JesterTheSheep wrote:

      Gonna take a lot of flak for this, and that's OK.

      DEEP BREATH
      Mongolia is the best of all lower tier nations. Threats to your nation are existent, but your army is enough to hold its own for now. You begin with more rare materials than most world superpowers, an OK amount of food, a crap amount of steel and oil, sure, but that can be fixed. It's just really hard to invade Mongolia early game, because all the big armies are either far, far west of you, or far, Far East of you. Play your cards right, and you can win as Mongolia easy.
      I wouldn’t say it was easy but the only time I played as Mongolia I built up my economy and produced tactical bombers early on. Japan was able to sweep through China and decided to invade me with what troops they had left immediately after. They had no anti air or air bases in range of me so my bombers destroyed their groups of troops and they went inactive after I had pushed about a quarter of the way through China.
    • Cal04 wrote:

      They had no anti air or air bases in range of me so my bombers destroyed their groups of troops and they went inactive after I had pushed about a quarter of the way through China.
      Similarly, I lost count of how many opponents I vanquished thru the use of air power and a good network of air bases ... :thumbup:
    • I have only played US and Canada, so heres my opinions for those countries.

      Canada: Ally with USA so you don't have to border an enemy. You will find for the first few days you will only be fortifying your west and east coast. There really isn't much room to expand until you are capable of supporting an invasion to the soviet union. Wouldn't really recommend this country as it is boring to play.
      USA: Start by allying with Canada, but do not ally with Mexico. When I played as USA, I spent day 2 invading Mexico with a light tank/tac bomber rush. Eventually I betrayed Canada and teamed up with UK and USSR. From there, i had full access to go on the offensive through central America, however I found that the AI spammed anti-air/anti-tank/militia stacks, so it delayed my progress. If you are invading central America, I would recommend bringing motorized infantry, as they will be able to fight the anti-tank/anti-air stacks with little losses. After central America, you have to cross the panama canal to reach south America, which can be a pain when trying to bring in reinforcements (as they have to embark/disembark.) After taking South America and surrounding AI, you have to pick between going for Asia or going for Europe. Spain is a good pick if it is an AI, as it is kind of close and you will have time to support your units. If you go towards Asia, it will take a long time to island hop across the oceania provinces. Overall, USA is fun at first but in mid/end-game it can take a long time to mobilize.
    • My favorite to plays as is definetely Germany. You start out with a huge military, powerful economy and many weak nations around you. As long as you ally with France and you are active the whole game you will win. Never play as the USSR you army is weaker than Germany's and you have way, way, way to much territory to defend. If you want to play a long game where you build up an enormous economy and large amounts of infrastructure the go USA. Invade mexico and Canada early (mexico first) then ally with a European power. The best combo is France and Germany and give them finanial backing, if not than the UK but you probably want someone on the mainland so you can move troops through them. Focus on the Atlantic before the pacific because the Pacific is much bigger and Japan (who is. the only power there who can beat you) has better things to do plus you have the majority of you fleet there. Also if youre ally requests it than move some of you pacific fleet to the atlantic.
    • (1.0) Romania. Easy access to the VP centers, aka Europe, with a decent army size. Given that Germany and USSR are often played by inexperienced players, it is advisable to ally with one and attack the other. If you're lucky and both of them go inactive, slowly build up a powerful airforce to eventually wipe them out. Play your cards right and you can have all of Europe within a month of the game (first 14 days are slightly boring tho with the capturing of smaller nations).
      "As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable." Albert Einstein

      "Giving up is not an option in war, for it proves one's incapability and incompetence as a leader." - Me (Little Racoon)
    • I can share having played this multiple times, that the previous comments about the world powers are correct.


      I honestly enjoy playing some middle powers, and have tried at Mongolia. Problem with Mongolia is pendant on Japan's strategy - It's a good idea to make friends there.

      I've done very well playing Argentina, and will now seek it out when possible. It is a good idea to make friends with Brazil, but if that is not possible, you have some ability to protect yourself and push back (axis vs allied in 1.5). There are no other threats near you which allows for rapid expansion of South America (depending on Mexico's direction, but they are usually occupied with USA).

      Most recently I joined a game as Persia, and have experienced some serious challenges - like a mini Poland. The country is weak and has 5 cities. USSR has a couple cities at the border to produce and send more units, making it a threat. Turkey and British India on your flanks are also a problem. My strategy was to make friends with Turkey and build forts with defensive units on the borders of USSR and India. This proved to be a success as with Turkey's help, USSR and India fell quickly after burning through most units on me. Problem now is economic production is still poor and the military is weak, but due to strong diplomacy with all nearby nations I am finding myself on the upswing. I DO NOT recommend Persia unless you can play a strong diplomatic game and can build up your economy and military from nothing on this map.
    • Tch. I get that I'm late to the discussion, but allow me to say that there are no bad countries. I've said it before, I'll say it 100,000 more times if I need to. Everything comes down to skill and luck. A bad player makes for a bad country. I've won as Mongolia, China, Poland, Manchuria, and even Tibet once. It can be done, you just have to genuinely try.

      And on that note, Germany is definitely not the best country in historic world war. Yes, you have a huge army, but it's horribly unsustainable, even in 1.5. You're also surrounded by active players: namely Great Britain, USSR, Poland, Italy, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. If some of those countries decided to team up, you're toast.

      No, the best country in the game is Australia.

      Yes, there are active players somewhat close... overseas. And you have a decent amount of infrastructure already in place to mobilize a huge force to sweep through Asia.

      In war, and especially in warfare strategy, location is everything. Germany is nowhere near as good as people like to think it is.
    • JesterTheSheep wrote:

      And on that note, Germany is definitely not the best country in historic world war. Yes, you have a huge army, but it's horribly unsustainable, even in 1.5. You're also surrounded by active players: namely Great Britain, USSR, Poland, Italy, Sweden, and Yugoslavia. If some of those countries decided to team up, you're toast.
      That is actually what makes it good. Everyone wants to be your ally.