You should never start the game as Afghanistan. I don't know what fool claimed that was a good nation, but I have had too many people complain to me (a 101% certified Hoi4 mastermind) that they were told to, and as such, did not enjoy their game.

This game will be started in the only appropriate start scenario, 1936. From there you have some options of nations, but we will get there soon, as the game rules are much more important! Now, this will depend on whether you aim to get achievements or not, but for the sake of time let's say you are not. First you will scroll all the way to the bottom and make sure every option for score distribution is set to yes. We don't want the pesky AI getting anymore score than we can help. Then you will scroll up to the foreign policy, where you can then change wargoal generation to free, and "Take Over Faction Leadership" to blocked. This also stops AI from taking the faction you've worked so hard to create away, as they can definitely, for sure, do that. Then you will scroll back nearly to the bottom to Game Setup where you can immediately fragment Italy. Now, you may ask "Why would i do this? It would surely cause a power vacuum, which the AI would surely take advantage of right?" And to this I say, no, silly, The AI is too dumb to do that, in fact they're so dumb you might as well do everything in your power to buff the AI before the game begins, just to give them a chance against our superior Strategy gamer minds! On top of this, if you just didn't want to fragment Italy because you liked them or something, well, then you're just in the wrong. No sane person likes Italy. What have they done for us? Make pasta? Anyone could've done that! They can't even keep a promise, those dirty cheating backstabbing- [Censored, for the sake of any Italians reading]. Anyways, where were we? Ah yes...

As stated previously, there are many choices:

(South) American Hegemony

• Not forced into WW2
  
• Clean Slate
  
• Weak Neighbours

• You are weak
  
• You will not be able to ally anyone (without waking the beast)
  
• Very long process to victory
  
• You are in South America

Economic Prosperity

• Isolated from most who would do you wrong
  
• Kunming province with many precious materials- Oh, wrong game? Damn.
  
• Uhm... Population?

• You are in China
  
• You are being watched
  
• Trapped (in China)

Bob Semple

• Bob Semple tank!

• You have to design it yourself... which just isn't the same, since that means anyone can.

Thank you for perusing this "guide" and if you have any suggestions, please let me know! I'd be happy to add some smaller, more obscure metas and share this enlightening knowledge with everyone.

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