u/Laskaris76

Playing as the Soviet Union, I am trying something different from the historical path, i.e. stopping Germany during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

I thought the "Policy of Collective Security" focus tree would be a good path towards that. However, it doesn't really seem to help. The focus "Seek a defensive Pact with the Allies" makes the Soviet Union and France guarantee each other, but then France goes to war with Germany because of the invasion of Poland in 1939, and because that is not a strictly a defensive war for France, I am not called into it. And by the time Germany invades me in 1941, France has already capitulated, anyway, so the guarantee doesn't help me there, either.

There is an option for Poland to join the Soviet-French defensive pact, which obviously would help, but in my games, Poland always refuses to join (they'd rather be gobbled up by Germany, it seems!).

Am I missing something, or is the "Policy of Collective Security" focus tree utterly pointless?

I have a suggestion for the "Move to restore Brest Litovsk" focus in the German tree.

Presently, one of the prerequisites is that the current ruling party is fascist OR Germany does not have elections. Because of the latter, Communist Germany can do the focus - because the Communists don’t have elections. This makes no sense in my view, because realistically, the Communists would not have wanted to restore the Brest Litovsk order (which includes decisions like "Empower the Lithuanian Monarchy").

A better prerequisite would be:

Country is fascist, OR

Has completed focus DNVP in coalition AND Hugenberg’s revival

The DNVP under Hugenberg would definitely desire to restore Brest Litovsk (not under Goerdeler, though).

Playing as Germany, I went for the civil war and established a constitutional monarchy under Wilhelm IV. I am aiming for a "good guy", pro-European Germany, so I reconciled with the UK and France, founded the Berlin Pact and then did the focus "Secure a Europe of the Fatherlands". Upon completion of that focus, according to the tooltip, I should get the national spirit "A Europe of the Fatherlands". However, the focus is finished, but I did not get the national spirit (and neither did any of my allies, who should also get it).

This seems to be a bug. Why am I not getting the national spirit? Does it work for you guys when you complete the focus ""Secure a Europe of the Fatherlands"?