Bulgaria

Preamble

There are possibly many options for Bulgaria. Other than the historical way, you can always try to seize Yugoslavia alone (in mid ´40 after the last GoI expired) and you always have the chance to take Romania. There is an event that make it likely that Hungary joins the war. The Romanian surrender event gives Bulgaria some new cores, so it sounds like a very nice way to go. But I decided for another course of action: as an (unhistorical early) loyal Axis member. It´s another possibility to be successful as you will see. All information based on an Armageddon 1.2 game.

Starting Position

Advantages:

• You sit on a nice spot , because you have no major powers as direct neighbours.
• Nice terrain if you have to defend yourself
• 20 IC, enough for a second research team.
• Slider settings allow you to DoW without dissent within three years.
• You have an OK industry tech team (level 5), and a nice Land Doctrine research team (level 3) that has the right five specializations for the Firepower-Focus -> Grand Battle Plan path (the doctrines top right).

Disadvantages:

• Few men available, although not as few as the Netherlands or Belgium.
• Low IC in the beginning
• You start without any useful techs
• No navy, no air force
• Most research teams are level 3 and have not the best specializations.
• Only two research team slots at start
• You have to trade for many resources
• Your Head of state and Head of Government give you -15 IC. Only a +10 IC Armaments minister makes this tolerable.

In the Beginning

Set up some trades so you don´t run low on any resources. Trade some oil, you don´t get any and a small stockpile could be helpful later. And trade some money. Do it with Switzerland, so you get +50 relations, you will need their money once you are at war. Before that you can easily trade with US, but that´s not your best trading partner.

Use the money to influence Germany and join Axis.

Don´t upgrade anything, just set up two runs of factories. With the industry increasing, due to new factories and due to new techs, you can build a third run of factories. Make it a short one. My three runs finished in May ´39, October ´39 and April ´40.

Research the usual industry techs (oh yeah, that takes time!), Land Doctrines, and the ´39 infantry. With German blueprints the mountaineers are a nice thing to have.

First: Greece

The war begins, and you still have only a small, outdated 1918 army? It does not matter at the moment, as nobody can reach your territory, but that will change. Better be the one who changes it :). In Mid ´39 you should start one run of 39 infantry and have upgrades running. That means you can only have two runs of factories and it should soon be only one so you can upgrade faster and replace the losses that will come. If you have upgraded, one run of new infantry and the last factory under construction you may find some IC to build a run of ´39 mountaineers. I attached engineers, as I wanted to skip artillery research and as they add some speed at this early model.

Now, the tricky part: You want Greece. You want it, before Italians might find it a good idea that they want it. In ´40 you can demand some territory with a great 50% chance, so do it! Now be quick, move most of your army to Edessa and DoW as soon as possible. Seize Larissa and cut of some Greek troops in Salonika. Make sure you destroy them before Greek troops coming from Athens force you to retreat. After you destroyed a few armies there and took Salonika you should have a few more divisions in the west. Take Larissa again, and move most of your army there. Support attacks from Edessa against Ioannina from there. Don´t take Ioannina, just force the enemy to retreat. The AI will move troops north instead of attacking you in Larissa. When Athens is empty enough, attack it and move most troops there. It does not matter, if you will be cut off, as it´s their last VP, so it´s only important you really get it. Annex Greece.

As the UK likes to land at empty beaches you don´t want to have empty beaches. But you have neither IC nor manpower to defend them adequately, so use cheap militias instead. You can´t afford more.

Second: Yugoslavia

In mid ´40 I found out, I had no idea, what to do with my IC. After Greece was Bulgarian, I had ~30 base IC and not enough manpower for more than the militias and the one infantry series run. So I decided to go air and started to research the Fighter-II with German blueprints, and the aircraft assembly line. As I still had much IC and I did not want to build any more factories I started to build an HQ mid ´40. My infantry army was poor 20 divisions strong, three mountaineers were all I could be proud of.

At the end of ´40, Italy, Romania and Hungary had joined Axis. France was conquered.

In early ´41, when my army was in position after I manned all beaches with militias, Bulgaria decided to take out Yugoslavia. Bulgarian troops -attacking from Sofia- seized Pristina, so that enemy troops were cut of south of it. The mountaineers+eng did what they could best in winter: Blitz from Vraca over Nis to Belgrade. With support from Hungary and Romania that was very easy and so the 9 IC - capital and all the resources there were seized by Bulgarians. When my troops from the south arrived further north Axis troops had already seized most of the country, so Bulgaria could annex it.

It was February ´41 and so all Bulgarian troops, except the beach defending militias, moved to the Romanian/SU border. All in all the 20 infantry divisions, one HQ (ready in March ´41), and the three mountaineers. At that moment, after the HQ was ready, Bulgaria had lot´s of spare IC that produced supplies then, as the fighter-II model was not yet ready.

Third: Decide the war against the Soviet Union

With this small 24 units army I made sure the German southern flank did a good job. Do what you can but don´t engage larger groups of the Red Army alone, you will loose too much manpower most times. Support all the time when you can. March east. Use your fast mountaineers to secure the Caucasus before it can be reinforced, try some minor encirclements. I would like to give more tips, but Barbarossa is so differently every game that most information would be plain useless.

If, after a long time, the front reaches the Ural, try a spearhead towards Sverdlovsk and wait for bitter peace. Be happy :).

Next steps

You did it, you helped your ally to win against the Red Army. Main goal achieved. And now? You can use your fighters against the Allied troops in the Mediterranean Sea or over the channel. You can research and build CAS and start to bomb ships and convoys. You can take out Turkey and go for the middle east. You can continue to help the Germans in Persia/India. You can do whatever you want with your shiny little >40 IC Bulgaria :)

Bulgaria strategy starting 1944 year:

First Steps

The starting date is very difficult for this country, Germany is on the ropes and the Soviet Union and USA are very strong. You start as an ally of Germany, but to survive and make Bulgaria an empire we have 8 months to change that.

In the meantime you have all this months to group all your forces around Instanbul, concentrate all you have in army build, forget about research at this part of the game. When you have 11 armies front of Instanbul, annul the "Non-aggression pact" but DON'T ATTACK YET ! Set the attack, just the day after Berlin is down, that way u can ask the almost dead Germany for some "help" and u gonna receive 4-5 armies, which are at this momment in Greece. Now attack Turkey and take Instanbul, Bursa and Izmit, but DON'T go further. Now u have around 1 year to make peace with Turkey, yeah i know it's stupid, but gonna explain it. 1. United Kingdom will attack u if u dont make a peace with Turkey. 2. If u continue your conquest further, Syria will send forces to stop u. 3. Newly formed Greece country will try to attack u, while busy. ... so conquer those provinces and use your diplomatic skills to make a peace.

Germany is down

U remember i told u make peace with Soviet Union and USA ? Now they wont annihialate u, and the "dead" Germany will leave u some nice ships (in my case 60 ships) + some armies at the Balkans. If u haven't made peace with Turkey be sure to put them near Cyprus and guard there. - U can try to get atleast one of the provinces of Iugoslavia, this will result it ownt be formed after the war and territories will stay for USA.

Crysis comes

Yes, your resources are very low u have many problems, u cant repair, u don't have money, u are almost broke.But don't worry we have a plan ! All set to reinforcements and move as fast as possible and attack Greece(need Turkey peace first). Greece has only 3-4 armies after the Second War and NO FRIENDS. I started to conquer and soon got a perfect piece offer, getting 3 provinces. So how to resolve the crysis: 1. Make good relations with Canada and start buying iron. 2. Sell supply to Soviet Union 3. Buy oil from Persia 4. Sell oil for energy with Greece

[ ]{#Peace_with_Turkey/Greece_but_still_wars} Peace with Turkey/Greece but still wars

1. Don't forget: - Japan is "allive" and AXIS still exist - Still in war with Syria, no matter the peace with Turkey - United Kingdom still in war with u, but doesn't attack for now, because of your peace with USA - If u have done all how it must be, u know should have 40+ battle ships, 45+ armies and some territory expansion.

Time to become empire

Do u remember that u didn't had oil and at the same time u were in war with Syria. Tacticts to conquer Syria. 1. United Kingdom doesn't gave me peace and they were pain in the head all the time. 2. Move "your" fleet and block the entrance to Syria, cause UK will try to help them.(Smart AI) 3. You are very poor to produce a transport ships and u'll have to wait a decade for them, so it's time to convince Turkey we love them: 3.1.1 Since your last attack they have 10-12 armies ! 3.1.2 The have relation with u -120-159(before the war it was -59) 3.1.3 They want their provinces back, so lets give them something and use diplomatic skill at the max again... 3.2.1 They have 10-12 armies, but u have ~20 at their border and ~20 in your other provinces. 3.2.2 But still if u attack u can win, but then Syria will finish u 3.2.3 That's why it's good we bought the oil from Persia - the enemy of Syria who will help u.

4. Conquer Turkey, they are weak, will offer u peace. 5. Ignore f*cking UK, all the time they will make u problems, but nothing serious 6. Use Persia to help u against Syria. 7. Make good relations with France so Lebanon doesn't join the war 8. Make good relations with Nationalist Spain, they may be in big help during hte later expansion.