Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia is a Central European regional power. It is the second target of Hitler's expansionism, and will be hard-pressed to survive unless it joins the Axis willingly.

Distribution of leadership

Starting with a pool of 8 leadership at the beginning, Czechoslovakia can research a lot of very useful techs before war breaks. Also notice that, because of its very low manpower, you should invest in officer, in order to have 140% of needed officer to have the best bonus. On the other hand, depending on your global strategy you may need some spies to raise threat of your neighbours, and increase national unity.

Technology

Starting in 1936, Czechoslovakia has good cavalry techs (enough to build Mot-Inf), and up to date infantry tech. Your first concern will be to research education tech, infantry weapons, radio, and artillery/AT. Researching armour upgrades can be useful though it will cost you a lot to produce. If you plan to invade your neighbours, this will give you a great advantage.

Land doctrine techs are a bit old, you must focus on the most essentials techs, such as infantry/artillery doctrines. Blitzkrieg and schwerpunkt for instance cost too much to be used, the same goes with mobile units doctrine.

Industrial techs are very low at the beginning, but upgrading these is not the first thing you must do. Due to Czechoslovakia low IC, these upgrades will give you only a poor IC bonus.

Diplomacy

Alliances

Allies The Allies are only for veteran players and only if you are able to hold your own against Germany. Notice that holding will be hard, because you will have a huge terrotiry to protect, and it will get worse after Germany annexed Poland, but due to your starting fortress this is not impossible.

Joining the Allies will give you some new opportunities. First of all, Czechoslovakia can now buy some pretty units production licence, for instance UK multirole/interceptor. It will also allow you to declare war on your neighbours easily, and if you manage to reach the sea you will have an access to the Allies strategic ressources, which can be pretty useful. On the other hand, you will have a penalty of 10% in consumer goods demand, which could be hard for Czechoslovakia small industry.

If you choose to join the Allies, Germany will not trigger the treaty of Munich, protecting you from a 1938 war or the annexation. Nevertheless, you will still have to fight in 1939 when the world war breaks out.

Axis The Axis is probably your best bet for building your Balkan Empire. It will limit your conquests if Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia join the Axis.

Comintern It is an option, but a poor one. If you choose to join the Comintern you are able to DOW at ease and it is possible to cut a swath of devastation to the Soviet border, giving you a better chance and an ally. On the downside the Soviets don't give good lend lease and you will more than likely surrounded by enemies at the start of Barbarossa.

Decisions

List all decisions, all decision options, and all results.

Politics

Describes laws and political parties.

Ministers

What are some of the best ministers? When do they become available?

Intelligence

A good way to make Czechoslovakia a strong land power involves using spies efficiently. The first 10 spies must be used to protect your homeland, as usual, by supporting ruling party/increasing national unity. Starting with 70 national unity, it is easy to think you don't need more. Nonetheless, if you plan to resist to Germany, or to fight with Soviet Union, you will probably lost some key locations. Indeed, Czechoslovakia has a huge territory to protect, and not much good natural defence lines to do so easily. So, a good strategy might be to increase your national unity to 75-80. With such unity, you will not lose the war if you hold only Bratislava and Prague, both being easy areas to defend.

The other spies can be dedicated to a more offensive goal. If you start increasing threat of Hungary/Romania from the beginning of the game, you will have the opportunity to declare war on both countries before Germany tries to annex the sudetenland.

Last opportunity, Czechoslovakia has not much technologies already researched, making of it a good countrie to use the "steal technology" option. For this, France is the perfect target, as explained in Nat. China countrie guide : France as not enough LS to have a large spies pool, it is not an aligned countrie so it does not benefits from unaligned spying bonus, and it has a huge pool of technologies.

Economy

Trading

What are the best trading partners for this nation?

Industrial Production

Is IC production necessary or helpful?

Military

Air Force

Although in real life Czechoslovakia had a rather large (~500 combat craft) air force in 1936, this is not reflected in the 1936 scenario. It is, however, included in the 1938 scenario.

War

War with X

All possible wars, etc.

Gaming the System

As Czechoslovakia, it's easy to lower your neutrality and increase threat. Never accept the German claims on the Sudetenland, but instead join the Axis Powers. This will allow you to declare a premature limited war on Poland. They'll be building up on the German border, and your superior Motorized Infantry and Light Armour will take care of what troops they do have on your border. After your northern border is secure, conquer and puppet the Baltic States, to strengthen the power of the Axis but also to limit your Russian border. When the North is secure, set your sights on Yugoslavia in the south. Their coastline and ports are key for future invasions of Egypt and the Middle East. Invasions of Yugoslavia might require help from Germany in the north, so leave that for them and Italy. Send troops toward urban areas, such as Beograd (their capital, Sarajevo, Ljubljana, and Skopje. Even if the Italians take their ports, the Greek border will be almost all yours. By this time, it will likely only be 1939, granting you a strong lead going into the war with the Allies and Comintern.

See Also

• Czechoslovakia ministers
• Czechoslovakia military leaders
• Czechoslovakia provinces