Germany starts with a stronger MIllitary. They have a lot of land to conquer and are very fun to play. If played correctly victory is easy. The USSR starts with a lot of cities, but their situation is dire. Their Military is very lowleveled, and they have a bad postions starting with that much land. In most of my games in HWW they are ususally conquered by several nations attacking at once. However victory is still possable. I personally think GErmany is better.

I’d disagree. A skilled Soviet player should be able to rectify that situation in a day or two. I’ve already reached level 4 infantry and 2 tanks on day 2. You are surrounded, but many of your neighbors are weak as well and won’t be able to attack you in the first week. Usually I’m at 150+ high level units by then at least!

The USSR has more resources than Germany, the most in the game. As time goes on they can become more powerful than Germany can, giving them a long term advantage. Combine that with commie doctrine and it gets even worse. Most of the players you mention go inactive, and the same happens with Germany. They rename themselves to Stalin/Hitler and then go inactive or just get killed by a better player.

That all being said, I’d say the US is strongest. Being so far from your enemies and starting with a good fleet, you can’t be conquered as long as you try. Canada and Mexico COMBINED. Are still weaker than you, and should be easily subjugated. After that the entire Americas is trivial. You not having any strong neighbors means you can build up with ease and won’t lost as much units as anyone else, and your huge amount of resources means you build up fast. You are basically guaranteed a win with the US against all but highly skilled players with majors in the old world.

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Oh this didn’t pop up at first, I see. Very nice!

I may be a bit biased...

Werhaboo.

On my first take of a 1939 HWW I took South Africa, it's a long ongoing game and a lot of provinces to capture, I get minimum resistance with a militia and an odd infantry here and there.I'm halfway up the continent and only fighting France and British Egypt AI's

I personally dislike Comintern…so Germany has to be better in my mind. Great military that can literally beat up every single neighbor on Day 1. The USSR has a super economy, but like irl, it takes a lot to awake the bear. Like Carking said though, the USA is OP if you know how to play, it just takes time to get moving and maybe isn’t as fun being so far from the action.

Thing is it is day 3 and I’ve already surpassed my German ally in unit count and have similar level forces… they aren’t the best player but still, it happened quickly, and I bet I could defeat them in the event of a war. While Germany can easily beat the Russians if they invade them at the start through Poland, but that leaves them open and a good Russian player can still survive… else-wise a good Soviet player should be able to at least defend against his German counter part by day 5, and the longer the game goes the on the bigger the gap gets. I also like commie doctrine so that adds to it.

Brazil and the United States are very good options. If you can conquer North or South America quickly then you can build up large amounts of resources and an army to take other parts of the world. Secondly, you're far away from most other players, sparing you from being conquered or invaded early on in the game. Lastly, if you've already taken your respective continent, be it North or South America then you won't have to worry about A.I randomly invading you from your most vulnerable spots.

I like Australia the best

I’ve never played Australia… I should try a game with them one day.

Australia is great for turtling... as well as Japan. Personally I think Australia is pretty boring to play as, but your opinion may vary.

I love doing that in games, though. Sit back, defend, build a very powerful army, and then invade with full force.

Germany is the best nation in HWW. It starts with the singular largest and most powerful army. Combined with its Axis doctrine, this makes it the best. I would say its only weakness early game is manpower, and it gets weaker relatively speaking lategame, especially if you don’t conquer enough early.

Having said that, it’s incredibly easy to win as Germany. Before the very first day change, you can basically conquer the entirety of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Danzig, and all the Balkans (plus more I probably forgot, Hungary etc?). Essentially any small/weak country near you will be subjugated in the first 24 hours. Therefore you can maximise your economy using morale in a few hours, and still pump out high levelled Axis units.

Then, conquer all of mainland France before day 3 or halfway through day 3, start moving towards Romania and Yugoslavia, and make friends with the UK. If you want to ally with the USSR, or invade them as long as it’s before day 6. People in this thread have been highlighting the USSR’s economy - sure, it’s got an OP economy. But its units are all over the place, low-levelled, and there aren’t actually very many of them compared to Germany.

Once you’ve taken mainland France it’s day 4 and you can focus all your army on the Eastern front of the USSR - 5 solid stacks just moving through the USSR will obliterate everything in front of them. I have to note here that the USSR is Comintern! Its units do 30% LESS damage than yours, and you have primarily offensive units. You can completely crush the USSR in the West before day 6/7, and then they won’t be a threat after that - the East will be squabbled over by Japan, Turkey, and India.

Now, if you’re going for a solo win, probably the best thing to do is ally with the UK and have a joint invasion of the USA. Your biggest threat is the USA as once they’ve got their economy going they can be unstoppable - so go for their core with no warning, using fast units and the UK can help you with their navy. If the UK goes inactive, doesn’t want to help, or is allied with the USA, just invade them instead. The USA is really quite far over to invade without the UK’s help - this is why they’re the major threat.

I would argue Germany is better than the USA, simply because they get a better start. Similarly to the USSR, they need time to get going - if you expand well, you can keep up with their economy with your winnings from conquest, combined with your OP start and Axis doctrine.

I could write more but I’m not really doing a guide or anything, just expressing my opinion. Imo Germany is pretty much unstoppable played well - perhaps a coalition of experienced players leading the UK, USA, and Japan/USSR could beat it, but even two of those powers I believe Germany could beat before day 12.

I would argue Germany is better than the USA, simply because they get a better start. Similarly to the USSR, they need time to get going - if you expand well, you can keep up with their economy with your winnings from conquest, combined with your OP start and Axis doctrine.“

Very debatable. Assuming all players are active and competent, Germany becomes far less viable. A good France player will always lose, but can slow down a German one. The same could be done with a Polish one to a lesser extent. The Soviet Union has double the starting resource production as Germany, similar in the US.

Axis doctrine is horrible for long term mass production, and those 30% more powerful units will be 30% less numerous than the Russian’s, and most likely lower level than the US. A good British player will always keep a German one out of the British isles-you just can’t compete with the Royal navy. The real doozy is the USSR. I have to state that I manage to get my army to level 4 infantry and 120 units by day 3/4. It’s not the hardest thing to do… while you are spread thin, who will attack you? Persia, Xinjiang and Mongolia are very weak, they have to be ready for China Japan, Turkey etc. if they attack you they’ll have to through a lot of empty land, and fight a long war, this leaves their small country open for attack from neighbors. It’s just usually better for them to attack elsewhere. Same with Japan, who is better off in China and would be wasting time attacking the USSR. This makes the Soviet position far better, as in reality they can keep 90% of their army in Europe, especially if neighbors go inactive.

The cities the Germans capture won’t catch up in production. There’s just not enough, and axis doctrine makes every resource worth less. My assumption is that a German player can be ready to Barbarossa by day 3 at best. As someone who has played the Russian’s and Germany, I can say that while Germany has the advantage, if the USSR player is smart enough to make units that counter the Germans, use shoot and scoot, and more, they could balance things out. Every day that passes is an advantage to the USSR, and by day 5 or 6 they no longer really can have the advantage. Also, the USSR’s higher resource making cities are actually quite far east, with the most western being Moscow and Stalingrad, while the others are in Siberia, making it harder to deal a real knockout punch. The USSR may start week, and it may seem like it will take a while to catch up, but they can become a hassle and then a beast VERY fast.

Back to America, Germany is doing even worse. A good US player will NEVER allow the Germans to be able to invade the US, it should be impossible. The Germans pillaging will not yield enough resources to overwhelm the about 100k US resource advantage at the start. America is in a state where they shouldn’t be conquerable, and can do whatever they want in the Americas. While Germany may be able to grab more VP’s, the Us can consolidate two continents and then choose where it wants to go next. Combine this with allied doctrine being a better long term one that makes units faster and cheaper (along with more US resources) and Germany will fall behind.

Maybe Germany is better than the USSR, as you will need an experienced player to use them, but at max potential, the Soviets can have the edge in a week. As for the Americans, they are by far the stronger country, there is little comparison!