So far I've played:
--Demsoc Japan (Lots of fun!)
--Harry S. "The Buck Stops Here" Truman (also very fun, though there isn't much to do until you get the chance to invade Germany)
--Comrade Zhukov (hard at first but steamrolls fast--foreign policy tree will bug if you get into a war with Georgia and conquer it before the Comrade Vasily's War focus finishes!) and his B-team (I went with "The Cripple", who turned out to be a generally decent dude who made Mother Russia's healthcare system a focus after finishing the job of turning Germany into New Motherland Vacation Spot). I did this run before the first bug patch so I ended up fighting all of Nazi Germany which never had a civil war and was just sort of stagnating doing nothing for years.
--Independent Sarawak (possibly the most hopeful and optimistic path in the entire mod)
Problems I've noticed:
--Due to comical levels of AI incompetence, AI Zhukov tends to get conquered by random minor warlords.
Standouts:
--Post-fix, German civil war is appropriately brutal, stupid, and insane. Every faction but the eventual "this is insane, you Nazis are all insane, a plague on all your houses" People's Germany is appropriately evil, the splintering of the periphery is pretty good (though the Belgian and Swiss revolts are a little underpowered IMO), and the post-war trees are all appropriately black-comedy (in the case of Hermann "German Mobutu" Goering and his medals) or brutal fascist dystopia (SS and Wehrmacht but especially SS, where the least evil option is a genocidal asshole and the most evil option makes Oceania look like paradise).
--Even without a Vietnam focus tree, Asia in general rocks. Very creative, interesting, and well-written paths! I especially like Sarawak's option of going their own way under Anthony Brooke, who then successfully supports the organic generation of local democracy. The fragility of Korea and its possibilities of becoming various strands of democracy, or sliding into hellish authoritarianism, is a good set of stories as well. Japan's take on the same is also quite enjoyable, and I like its leftist path's critiques of anarchist ideology while still maintaining a healthy disdain of authoritarianism and allowing the construction of a democratic regime. It feels very thoughtful.
--Morocco, even without a proper focus tree, is another cool country sticking it to fascist bastards and winning. This deserves more love!
--Anarcho-pacifist India is also a very hopeful path, where good people do the best they can to fix a broken world.
--Demsoc Japan (Lots of fun!)
--Harry S. "The Buck Stops Here" Truman (also very fun, though there isn't much to do until you get the chance to invade Germany)
--Comrade Zhukov (hard at first but steamrolls fast--foreign policy tree will bug if you get into a war with Georgia and conquer it before the Comrade Vasily's War focus finishes!) and his B-team (I went with "The Cripple", who turned out to be a generally decent dude who made Mother Russia's healthcare system a focus after finishing the job of turning Germany into New Motherland Vacation Spot). I did this run before the first bug patch so I ended up fighting all of Nazi Germany which never had a civil war and was just sort of stagnating doing nothing for years.
--Independent Sarawak (possibly the most hopeful and optimistic path in the entire mod)
Problems I've noticed:
--Due to comical levels of AI incompetence, AI Zhukov tends to get conquered by random minor warlords.
Standouts:
--Post-fix, German civil war is appropriately brutal, stupid, and insane. Every faction but the eventual "this is insane, you Nazis are all insane, a plague on all your houses" People's Germany is appropriately evil, the splintering of the periphery is pretty good (though the Belgian and Swiss revolts are a little underpowered IMO), and the post-war trees are all appropriately black-comedy (in the case of Hermann "German Mobutu" Goering and his medals) or brutal fascist dystopia (SS and Wehrmacht but especially SS, where the least evil option is a genocidal asshole and the most evil option makes Oceania look like paradise).
--Even without a Vietnam focus tree, Asia in general rocks. Very creative, interesting, and well-written paths! I especially like Sarawak's option of going their own way under Anthony Brooke, who then successfully supports the organic generation of local democracy. The fragility of Korea and its possibilities of becoming various strands of democracy, or sliding into hellish authoritarianism, is a good set of stories as well. Japan's take on the same is also quite enjoyable, and I like its leftist path's critiques of anarchist ideology while still maintaining a healthy disdain of authoritarianism and allowing the construction of a democratic regime. It feels very thoughtful.
--Morocco, even without a proper focus tree, is another cool country sticking it to fascist bastards and winning. This deserves more love!
--Anarcho-pacifist India is also a very hopeful path, where good people do the best they can to fix a broken world.
