HOI4 Should you Annex or Puppet Countries? (Hearts of Iron 4 Tutorial)

Today we got a Hearts of Iron 4 Tutorial Regarding when should you annex and puppet in hoi, most people blindly annex but there is a strategy about when you should annex, or puppet, in this walkthrough we go over when you should puppet or annex in hoi4 for the best results

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[guleble]

I usually decide by looking at the map
“Hmm will it look good if I annex them, no, no it won’t, fine then, puppet!

[thelastcasualty]

The axis would have won if they watched this video before their attempt at world domination.

[JohnofPA]

I love that you used Austria as an example, a country where Germany can get cores lol.

[minecraftian]

The puppet template thing is Together For Victory only

[cruzdesangre]

If you need manpower -> Puppet if the country that you want to puppet has a good amount of population.

If you don't need manpower -> Annex it.

(Sorry for the bad english)

[darciel]

LOL
You need factory -annex
You need manpower - puppet if enemy contry have bigger population.

[sbam]

When playing Italy, I always puppet Ethiopia - since that war is already underway when you start the game, you can get a puppet within Feb'36 (no need to wait for PP or Justify timer). Before the war starts in '39, I'd have already pumped 30+ 20 width divisions out of them and used them to take out Yugoslavia and Turkey without ever needing to change Italy's conscription laws until half way into 1940. And Ethiopia only has 10 mill pop - but they will automatically keep changing laws to "scrapping the barrel" once they have enough PP if you keep recruiting colonial troops out of them. (If you want to conquer Africa, you can also start right away as troops in Somalia etc. will switch to draw supplies from the puppet's capital rather than Rome and not be cut off until you can take and open the Suez Canal for your supply ships.)

[mering]

I like to take the provinces with resources and puppet the rest

It makes a lot of bordergore but it's fixed once they're annexed

[LaGGSBD]

Things you missed:
1) The puppet goes down their own focus tree and get free factories/infrastructure depending on the focus tree.
2) You don't get resistance if u puppet ukraine and give ukranian cores back to ukraine while invading russia. Same for belarus and vichy france.
3) Your puppet trains its own units/gets its own exp which theyll use for templates u can copy
4) Your puppets will research and you will be able to do research sharing or licencing to get their techs.
5) Depending on the country, the puppet may have better advisors or national spirits.

[jinhunterslay]

What if I puppet for a very simple reason: Because I’m too lazy to micro-manage the country I just conquered...

[poggimonsipmmm]

Ive owned this game for a while and had never realy got a grip of it and it started getting boring buy your videos have helped me become so much better and Ive started to enjoy the game again! Keep up the good content! 👍

[rogerwilco]

You often need a Paradox game to tick a few days before everything updates properly. Every time you mess around, you should do that.

[sturmtruppler]

I only have death of dishonour and I can recruit divisions from my puppets.

[martijnwehrens]

If you are able to you should never puppet the industry is more valuable. If you are starting to get short on manpower just make 1 puppet with the highest possible manpower.

Don’t actually make them proper divisions just make a pure infantry divisions and add them to recruitment pool. Don’t deploy just recruit if they have a land border this is easier if not you need to do an extra step.

1. Land border? If yes go to step 3
2. Lend lease them as many convoys as possible.
3. Send them every possible piece of equipment, tanks and airplanes.
4. Build infrastructure or factories in their territories
5. Once they have 0 manpower annex them.
6. Cancel the recruiting
7. They join your glorious manpower pool
8. You now have their recourses, factories, manpower and your lend lease equipment back

[namedrik]

It actually depends on how you play the game and how powerful that puppet is gonna be.

[idonothaveanamneok]

if I remember correctly, it's 80 resources per Civ to Integrated Puppets, 20 per Civ to normal Puppets and then 13 per Civ to Dominions and not uh 40 30 and 20

[tomgjgj]

Here's an IRL example of how powerful a puppet can be.

In 1940, the british blasted the french navy out of the water just on the offchance that it might join Vichy France, and thus the Axis.

[radioactiverat]

You just basically solved my issue with having too much land to cover with troops. Currently in my Road to 56 modded germany game, Italy formed a faction with Hungry since both are pissed at me for not sharing land, and allowing the Greeks to join my faction. I'm going to annex Hungry while puppeting Italy now that I see Puppeting a nation is worth it.

[applepieofdeath]

To add on the buffer part, puppets count as allies regardless of whether their master is in a faction or not meaning that the ai will prepare troops on the puppets border when preparing to go to war regardless if they are called in or not. This can be useful as a distraction if you don't want to call in ANY allies for whatever reason (don't want to give up land, they will call in a vulnerable front, they ARE a vulnerable front, don't want them raising autonomy, etc). Plus if you still want their military help you can still take their troops and use them even if they haven't been formerly called in.

Example: As China you subjugated the warlords and choose to puppet Shanxi. Then you take your army and place them at the river starting from the shanxi's south to the coast (or directly at the border if you gave in to japan during Marco Polo Bridge Incident). When you/Japan declare war then not only do you have a smaller front to defend but the Japanese ai will waste divisions on the entire Shanxi border. Note: IIRC when I did this, Japan still eventually gained a wargoal against Shanxi but chose not to act on it and even if they did, I had my other puppet's troops ready to defend an already more prepared Shanxi. Regardless I hope this example illustrates the idea well enough.

[hiddentreasure]

I personally think that if your empire is bigger than Germany and Poland, I would start puppeting because it gives you a free faction and if there is a thin part in your territory your armies in that territory won't be out of supply but annexing terriory around you wil normally give you enough resources to carry on expanding.