In short:

Every balance patch is centered around mainline hearts of iron streamers. Major dlcs and nation reworks are directly lifted from overhaul mods.

In the last year or so it's swapped from a ww2 simulator to a supply simulator. If you can bomb the other players railways and logistics then the war is won. If you get bombed then it doesn't matter how good your templates are as they'll start hemorrhaging supplies immediately.

So god help you if you get red air for a second. That second is all a player needs to absolutely destroy any and all logistics you have. You might as well GG out the moment it happens since your war supplies of rifles and tanks are about to disappear over the next few weeks.

You'd think the AI would be mentioned in that, but unsurprisingly the AI has no idea how to design templates. You could literally just slap a bunch of mgs on a plane and call it a day with the AI.

Tank designer:

The tank designer is pointless since everyone just uses the meta. It only changes when Paradox slightly buffs or nerfs unit org or piercing but before long everyone is immediately back to using the two or three templates depending on what nation they are playing.

Air Designer:
Same goes for air, except you're locked in with what the role of the plane is. Want to strap a ton of mgs onto a strat bomber? Oh well you're making a strat bomber so you cant. rinse repeat across all planes.

Naval designer:

It's weird that all these designers were brought in to remove template meta but they really just reinforced it. Anyway, nothing really to say about the naval designer, it's equally like the air/tank designer in that it may not as well exist since you're just going to follow a meta.

unironically if you're not the UK, US or Japan you can just ignore the navy outright.

focus trees:

they're a mess. Some are great, some are for people with undiscovered depression (Switzerland).

Multiplayer:

It's eh. Twitch has maintained it being ♥♥♥♥. You've either got twitch streamers hiding under fake names to get into noob lobbies(which defeats the point but they need that video title "watch me join this NOOB game and DO THIS as (insert country here)" or you've got wannabe twitch streamers throwing games by trying some random strategy they've come up with that obviously won't work and then two hours later you get to sit there and think "why do i play multiplayer we all just waited two hours of our lives knowing this half-baked idea wouldn't work".

I regret spending a thousand hours in this game.

In short: Every balance patch is centered around mainline hearts of iron streamers. Major dlcs and nation reworks are directly lifted from overhaul mods. In the last year or so it's swapped from a ww2 simulator to a supply simulator. If you can bomb the other players railways and logistics then the war is won. If you get bombed then it doesn't matter how good your templates are as they'll start hemorrhaging supplies immediately. So god help you if you get red air for a second. That second is all a player needs to absolutely destroy any and all logistics you have. You might as well GG out the moment it happens since your war supplies of rifles and tanks are about to disappear over the next few weeks. You'd think the AI would be mentioned in that, but unsurprisingly the AI has no idea how to design templates. You could literally just slap a bunch of mgs on a plane and call it a day with the AI. Tank designer: The tank designer is pointless since everyone just uses the meta. It only changes when Paradox slightly buffs or nerfs unit org or piercing but before long everyone is immediately back to using the two or three templates depending on what nation they are playing. Air Designer: Same goes for air, except you're locked in with what the role of the plane is. Want to strap a ton of mgs onto a strat bomber? Oh well you're making a strat bomber so you cant. rinse repeat across all planes. Naval designer: It's weird that all these designers were brought in to remove template meta but they really just reinforced it. Anyway, nothing really to say about the naval designer, it's equally like the air/tank designer in that it may not as well exist since you're just going to follow a meta. unironically if you're not the UK, US or Japan you can just ignore the navy outright. focus trees: they're a mess. Some are great, some are for people with undiscovered depression (Switzerland). Multiplayer: It's eh. Twitch has maintained it being shit. You've either got twitch streamers hiding under fake names to get into noob lobbies(which defeats the point but they need that video title "watch me join this NOOB game and DO THIS as (insert country here)" or you've got wannabe twitch streamers throwing games by trying some random strategy they've come up with that obviously won't work and then two hours later you get to sit there and think "why do i play multiplayer we all just waited two hours of our lives knowing this half-baked idea wouldn't work". I regret spending a thousand hours in this game.