Big Shaq House plays Hearts of Iron 4

In an effort to ease tensions in multiplayer matches among players when inevitably wars between players spark out, I have assembled some basic rules for wars between players and general guidelines for being respectful to everyone.

Minor Wars between Player nations:
Players are allowed to justify against other players obviously but in an effort to not end somebody else's game to early, players may not annex fully or puppet fully another player's nation. Instead when justifying on another player the justification is what determines what you may annex. For example if a player is France and Germany justifies on France with a war goal of the region of Alsace-Lorraine, then following a successful war Germany would still be only able to annex Alsace-Lorraine rather then all of Metropolitan France.

Obviously the goal with this is to prevent a quick war of ending a player's game. If a player wants to annex substantial parts of another country the will have to either wait for a long-term war goal or fight several small scale conflicts. When a defending nation wins they can not annex more then 20% of an attacking nation, however they can pick the 20% of the nation (hopefully avoiding border gore), meaning winning a defensive war is more beneficial but of course usually more difficult depending of the readiness of all nations taking part.

Colonial holdings are the exception however, Non-core, non essential, regions are up for grabs to the attacking player. So while attacking France as Germany may not be entirely beneficial, the colonial gains Germany could acquire from attacking France could be worth while, of course Attacking France could draw England and other allies to the aid of France leading to a great war.

Major Wars Between Multiple Players:
Once Two or more players are on each side of a war it becomes a great war (think World War Two or the great war system from Victoria Two). Great wars can also occur if more then 3 major nations are on one side (player or A.I.) or more then 8 minor nations are on one or both sides. When a great war is declared the rules of annexation change substantially.

If Germany leading an axis faction justifies on France, who then joins the allies and pulls the world into a world war then Germany, if victorious may annex up to 50% of the core land of player nations and fully annex any colonies or A.I. nations. If the defending faction wins then players can annex 60% of the attacker player nations and any colonies or A.I. nations. Meaning the payoff of successfully defending is still high but the payoff from being the aggressor is also higher.

The purpose of this is to not only prevent one lost war from ending a game for one faction but also to simulate the risks involved between starting a world war or attempting to keep wars localized. A world war poses immense benefits in terms of lands that can be obtained but risks if the war goes badly as the defending nations can essentially punish attacking nations heavily in peace conferences.

Exceptions and Miscellaneous Rules:
Obviously there are exceptions and other situations to keep in mind. The rules for small scale and world wars don't affect national-focus inspired wars or civil wars. If a player nation creates a war from a national focus against another player then the type of war in the focus is what determines the outcome of the war, if the war is a puppet war goal focus then the attacker if they win must puppet the player nation they attacked, colonies and non core lands not considered essential to the player nation defeated may still be annexed or puppeted. If an annex war goal is acquired through a national focus against a player nation then the attacking player MAY annex the attacked player, however the defender has the same ability, so wars must be carefully calculated. While getting an annex war goal may be great because there are essentially no limits to annexing other players, the defending players have the same ability in return. Meaning National focus annex war goals are the only way to fully annex a player in a single war but they pose an unprecedented risk factor as well.