1943 I merged with Austria and Bohemia, then took out Yugo and Bulgaria by 1938, then when Germany declared on Russia in 39 I swept through and took most of their land. I built up my army and got the start of a navy. Then Japs declared on my puppet Malaysia (Netherlands and Poland joined Comintern), in late 41 so I crushed them, then swooped in for China because they took most of my Jap land in the peace deal. Now I'm trying to take out US and UK fleets without help from the axis. I just ran into the US carrier fleet in the British Channel and they sank a ship, my first naval loss of the game. Kind of disappointing, but my 20 ship fleet struggles against 4 carriers, 12 capitals and 60 screens without air support. I think I'm going to have to join the axis so I can use their airbases and invade the UK from northern France instead of trying to launch my invasion from Gibraltar. Austria-Hungary is way more fun than playing a major. I've been struggling with manpower the whole game and you start landlocked so you don't have a navy. As Germany you can sweep through everyone with 40 width tank divisions and cheese OP Sealion with your crappy fleet. I still only have 10 tank divisions and have to use under equipped divisions with obsolete rifles to garrison my ports.