HOI:Can Italy stay neutral?

[lord of the mark]

While taking breaks from other games, ive taken HOI out for a spin it. HOI 1, not 2. Its whatever version came with the 6 pack. Not CORE.

I played twice as Italy, attempting to implement my pet WW2 what if, a neutrual Italy. Taking ethiopia, albania, and then in summer '39 Yugo. In the first game, Germany asked for alliance in early '40, I said no, they DOWed me. I joined the allies, but the Germans overwhelmed me, using their airpower. Then I reload from mid 39, and this time the allies DOWed me. I tried staying neutral figuring if could hold out till France falls, I wouldnt need the Germans, but that didnt work either. In neither case had i managed to finish off yugo before the great power DOW.

[Main_Brain]

So you took Three Countries before WWII?
Thats bad
Italy has to balance between getting more Production and provoking their mightier Neighbours too much.
Try Spain 40 instead of Yugo 39 instead =)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
So you took Three Countries before WWII?
Thats bad
Italy has to balance between getting more Production and provoking their mightier Neighbours too much.
Try Spain 40 instead of Yugo 39 instead =)

actually I hadnt finished Yugo when WW2 broke out.

So its a BB thing? But why should Germany, which took Poland, and is rampaging across western europe, care about my petty imperialism in Yugo?

And attacking Francoist Spain is too un RP for me.

Maybe I should try a different country, or scenario?

[Main_Brain]

I am not sure wheter it was BB or Spheres of Interest in HoI 1

But I recall playing an MP GER/ITA where Italy stayed neutral till late 40 only inheriting (REP) SPA ,ETH and ALB. :

Germany begins to care when you take Countries they are supposed to conquer

[General Ludd]

Italy can stay neutral. It may help to wait untill the war has started before starting your own conquests. And try and keep good relations with germany, france, and england, if possible. For some reason I think it's easier to do this in doomsday.

[Ecthy]

Because there actually are relations in HOI2 and in HOI all there is is ideological alignment.

[General Ludd]

I actually assumed he was playing HoI2 vanilla.

I can't remember anything about the first one.

[Dinner]

You're mistake was taking out Yugoslavia before the German GoI on Yugoslavia expired. Just wait until 1940 and you can invade Yugoslavia without a problem.

Last night I was playing Italy in a game where WW2 never actually got started. I invaded Ethiopia and Albania, watched Germany annex Austria but not take the Sudtenland or disolve CZH. The result was Germany invaded Poland but the Allies didn't declare war so no WW2. I waited for the GoI to expire on Yugoslavia then invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece. Realeased a modestly improved Ethiopia as a puppet to get ride of BB (they had 12 IC instead of the normal 8) then invaded Bulgaria and Turkey. By summer 1943 there still wasn't a war so I allied with Germany, Hungary, and Rumania and declared war on the allies myself. Italy is really helped by the extra three years to get ready for war as my military just beat the crap out of the Allies in the mideast, Africa, and on the high seas. I later DOWed Saudi to get the rest of Arabia, then released the Ottomans as a puppet. The Ottomans make a very nice puppet btw.

Now comes the invasion of the USSR and hopefully Germany can get us a few more allies. I restarted as Germany released Scandinavia as an puppet (94 IC and plenty of resources if you include Finland so Scandinavia makes a very nice puppet) and got NatSpa into the Axis. With Luck Portugal and maybe Argentina or Guatamala can be brought in before Barbarossa.

It's shaping up to be a good game.

[Dinner]

Give up on HOI and just get Doomsday with the $5 expansion pack. It's worth it. HOI1 is basically just a beta for the lastest patch of HOI2: Armagedon.

[Ecthy]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Give up on HOI and just get Doomsday with the $5 expansion pack. It's worth it. HOI1 is basically just a beta for the lastest patch of HOI2: Armagedon.

[Dinner]

Lots of people joke that HOI2 is really just HOI1.5 because so little has changed. They total reworked the convoy system and they vastly improved the AI but most of the artwork and units are the same. The tech tree received some changes here and there plus the tech teams for each nation got rebalanced but most of it is the same. Armageddon adds further improvements of the AI, some of which were created and tested by the modding community and then expanded upon by Paradox, plus it added in things like espionage and upgradeable attachments for ships so that old ships can be upgraded instead of just being scraped. It also extended the end game to 1963 so the cold war can turn hot plus the tech tree was updated to fill the extra time period.

HOI2D with Armageddon is just the gold box version of HOI1 but it is very much worth the price ($29.95 plus $5 for the downloadable mini-expansion).

To answer the OP Italy can stay neutral by just not joining the Axis and by periodically improving relations with Germany to head off an German attack. Italy can even take over Yugoslavia if it just wants for the German GoI to expire before invading (which means 1941) and it invades before Germany can. Further expansion beyond Ethiopia, Albania, and Yugoslavia becomes difficult though without choosing a side in WW2. Join the Allies and invade Germany as the Soviets steamroll their way in or join the Axis and take out the Mideast and North Africa.

The Bitter Peace event is a bit screwy for Italy because if it invades the USSR, like through a conquered Turkey, then the event stupidly gives the USSR back all land Italy has taken including the extremely valuable Baku oil fields. I thus avoid joining in against the USSR as Italy and instead go after the nonAxis Balkans, Republican Spain (if it exists) and The Arab Countries before pushing east towards India. Africa can be ignored since there is almost no industry or resources there though I do take North Africa to close the Med and to stop those pesky allied bombers stationed in French or British controlled North Africa.