Croatia is a Tier II nation located in the northwest Balkans, which is located in Southern Europe 
. A well managed Croatia can overpower all of its threats and become a regional power, maybe even a superpower, while a poorly-managed Croatia will just end up as a territory of foreign powers.
Background[]
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Croatia, as a sovereign state, which first appeared around the 7th century, when it was established in lands formerly belonging to the Roman Empire. From its establishment in the 7th century to 925 AD, it was targeted by both the Carolingians and Byzantines, who wanted to expand their influence in the Balkans. It also waged wars with the neighboring Bulgarian Empire, and started a rivalry with Venice that would last for centuries. The Duchy of Croatia ended in 925 when it was elevated from a duchy to a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia saw many of the previous conflicts that its predecessor did, including more conflicts with the Byzantines and Bulgarians, as well as its rivalry with the Venetians. Though, with these conflicts came periods of peace, or even alliance, between the Croats and their rivals. The Hungarians came into the picture as a new threat around this time as well. In 1091, the Kingdom suffered a succession crisis which would force it into a personal union with Hungary in 1102. King Coloman of Hungary was crowned "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102, and his dynasty would rule over Croatia until 1301. When the Arpad dynasty died out, kings from the Capetian House of Sijou, or House of Anjou-Sicily, ruled over the country until the end of the personal union with Hungary. While in a personal union with Hungary, many events occurred. These include the sacking of Zagreb in 1242 by the Mongols, more competition with Venice over eastern Adriatic cities, internal warfare of Croatian nobles, and wars with the Ottomans towards the end of this period. Croatia exited the personal union with Hungary in 1526. The fall of the Kingdom would see Hungarian and Croatian nobles join the Habsburg dynasty and its possessions. In the 16th century, they suffered heavily from numerous wars with the Ottomans. They had control of little land until the 18th century, when they recovered from these wars and regained most of their lost land. This new Habsburg-controlled Kingdom of Croatia would end in 1868, when it was reorganized into the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavon ia was supposedly given many powers, such as power over tax and military, but in reality was ruled by Hungary, who made most of the decisions for them. The emperor of Austria ruled over the kingdom, and they appointed a steward to be the ban (viceroy) of Croatia. In 1918, after many disagreements over Trialism, the idea that the Austro-Hungarian Empire be reorganized into a tripartite state with Croatia being elevated to the same level as Austria and Hungary, Croatia declared independence from the empire after World War I. They subsequently joined the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, which would be reorganized into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was in shambles during the time of the Great Depression. It borrowed large sums of money from the West and became dependent on Nazi Germany. In April 1941, following a coup d'état in Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav pullout of the Tripartite pact, the Axis Powers invaded and partitioned Yugoslavia, turning Croatia into an independent state, hellbent on xenophobia and fascism ideals. The Independent State of Croatia was a condominium of Italy and Germany for its entire period of existence and commited many horrific war crimes which even the Nazis thought was too harsh. An 'interesting' fact about WW2 Croatia was that is was the only country in WW2 which had concentration camps for children. Following the end of World War II, Yugoslavia was in the Soviet sphere of influence, along with many of its neighbors. Though, the Soviets would not be a large influence following the Tito-Stalin split in 1948. Yugoslavia went on to become a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement and changed their economy from a command economy to market-based socialism. Josip Broz Tito was a driving force in Yugoslavia, unifying the country ethnically and bringing much stability to the country, both economically and politically. When Tito died in 1980, Yugoslavia started to crumble. Its economy collapsed, and ethnic groups, such as the Croatians, started to want independence. They would get their wish 11 years later, when on March 31st, 1991, the Croatians declared independence from Yugoslavia. Croatia fought a hard war for their independence [1], experiencing invasions from the Serbian rump states of former Yugoslavia. Serbia looked to reintegrate Slavonia into its country, as it was ethnically populated by Serbs. Ultimately, after a 4 year war, Croatia decisively won their independence. Following the end of the war, Croatia joined many global organizations, most notably the European Union and NATO. Today, it is classified as a high-income country with a very high Human Development Index, or HDI. Croatia also provides many luxuries for its citizens, such as social security and universal healthcare. |
Base Statistics[]
Economy[]
Croatia generates $183,973 in total income without counting the Home Guard. $181,791 from tax and $2,182. When counting the expenses of the home guard, it's $$143,973.
Resources[]
| Resources of Croatia | |
|---|---|
 Oil
|
+1.22 |
Military[]
Croatia has a manpower cap of 60,000 on Volunteer conscription law. Its Home Guard is 20,000 infantry located in the capital, Zagreb. Croatia gains 398 manpower every turn
| Base Manpower Capacity of Croatia per Conscription Law | |
|---|---|
| The following columns below present the manpower capacity from lowest (Disarmed) to highest (Required). RP stands for "Recruitable Population". | |
| Disarmed [1% RP] |
|
| Volunteer [2% RP] |
|
| Limited [5% RP] |
|
| Extensive [10% RP] |
|
| Required [25% RP] |
|
Geography[]
Croatia is shaped like a boomerang, wrapping around the left side of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina. It sits in a strategic location, right at the crossroads between Central and South Europe, which was the reason why so many countries wanted to control Croatia, most notably its largest port city, Rijeka.
Terrain[]
Croatia's sea-bordering half is hilly.
The other half in the North (also called Slavonia) is flat.
You can draw a vertical line passing between Karlovac and Zagreb and you can divide Croatia into a hilly and a flat part.
Biomes[]
During December-January, the northern half of Croatia gets affected by mild winter. The southern half is unaffected by this.
During the rest of the year, Croatia is in the normal biome.
The situation with biome is similar to the terrain: the flat north is affected by winter while the hilly south isn't.
Borders[]
Croatia borders 
Slovenia, 
Montenegro, 
Hungary, 
Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also shares a maritime border with 
Italy.
Politics[]
Croatia starts with the non-aligned ideology which allows you to choose a suitable ideology according to your playstyle.
Communism[]
Communism is the recommended ideology in this strategy because of all the factory output and war exhaustion reduction buffs along with the powerful Forced Labor for Dissidents policy which significantly boosts tax income, resource output and factory output as if the 125% boost from the ideology alone wasn't enough :)
Fascism[]
Fascism is also a good ideology because it it excellent if you're going to expand rapidly and the prequel to Fascism is Nationalism which has no debuffs. However, fascism doesn't have a resource and factory output boost, so proceed accordingly.
Democracy[]
Democracy is the worst ideology you can choose as Croatia because it's focused on making money, which is pretty useless to Croatia as it has 10 cities, no square cities and only 3 of those 10 cities have a population of over 100k people, while severely slowing down any kind of offensive wars.
Formables[]
Croatia has the following formables:
Kingdom of Croatia - made by conquering Bosnia and Herzegovina.- Balkan Federation - made by conquering Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Greece.
- European Union - made by conquering all of Europe.
- Ostrogothic Kingdom - made by conquering Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Monaco, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Threats[]
- Italy: Italy is the main threat to Croatia, as it needs it to form the Roman Empire or if it just wants to expand.
- Turkey: Turkey will most likely expand into the Balkans.
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosnia needs Croatia, along with Serbia and Montenegro, to form its formable, the Kingdom of Bosnia.
- Serbia: Serbia players will almost certainly go for Yugoslavia, which requires Croatia.
- Any other Balkan nation wanting to form Balkan Federation.
- Germany: Even though this is mostly in late game, Germany will maybe want to form European Union.
Strategy[]
Croatia has many threats at the start of the game, but most of them can be repelled with the right tactics. I'll explain some of those in this article.
Industrialization and Early Game Moves[]
The first thing you should do is build 2-3 electronics factories and buy 4-6 
Gold and 
Copper to sustain them. After they're built, sell most of them to AI countries but keep in mind that they'll only accept 
Electronics if they're not already buying them. Keep 7-10 Electronics as you'll need them for consumer goods.
In the meantime, try to ally strong European countries such as 
France, 
United Kingdom, 
Germany and 
Russia, justify a conquest war on Bosnia and Herzegovina and convert 50k of your starting manpower to infantry. Keep that 10k extra manpower in stock just in case you need to create artillery or ships.
When the justification is done, declare war and take over Bosnia and Herzegovina and form 
Kingdom of Croatia for an easy 10% stability boost.
Now you should turn Government Spending to at least low, build 2 fertilizer factories and buy 7 
Phosphate to sustain them. Steel and motor factories won't be useful just yet because you have no square cities, however this problem can be solved by conquering Serbia since their capital Belgrade is a square city. Once you conquer Serbia, construct a steel and motor factory somewhere in Slavonia or in a Bosnian city close to Slavonia.
War Against Italy[]
Let's say you have Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Build 2-3 consumer goods factories if you have the money for an extremely important 25% stability boost. Let's also say that Italy justified a war goal against you.
It will be hard because Italy has a superior manpower capacity and a stronger economy than you, but it won't be impossible. Create around 1800 tanks in Belgrade, split it in 3 groups, send one to Zagreb, the other to Sarajevo and keep the third one in Belgrade. Also, don't forget to research tank defense and attack as it will help immensely. Turn socialist for its 50% increase in factory output, more manpower and reduced war exhaustion.
Create around 500 artillery and pair it up with entrenched infantry in cities where you built your factories. If you built factories in Zagreb, Sarajevo or Belgrade, then there's no need to use infantry as you already have tanks stationed there.
Create 2 destroyers and a battleship if your economy supports it, if not, sell 50-100 consumer goods to rich and semi-rich AIs to keep your economy afloat and preventing you from going to deficit/debt. Also, do not forget to buy Oil if you see an oil deficit warning.
Italy should have probably declared war by now. Move your ships right off the coast of western Istria (peninsula south of Slovenia) and allow them to bombard Italian troops.
If they create artillery to counter your destroyer, quickly create 2 submarines to escort your battleship as it will be devastating to you if you lose it and you most likely won't have time to build a new one because Italy will most likely gain naval superiority and land troops in your port cities if they are smart. But if they're not, they will just spam units of 20k-30k infantry, which will ultimately have the same effect.
If Italy uses tanks, research anti-tank tech for infantry and recruit a military general with either an attack bonus or a defense bonus, preferably both. But make sure that the general you recruited doesn't give a buff to attack and a debuff to defense and vice versa.
If Italy sends unescorted troops across the Adriatic, build 2 submarines to sink troop transports. Also, it's absolutely crucial that you protect Zagreb, Sarajevo and Belgrade, the 3 largest cities. When Italy drains all their manpower or rage quits (whatever comes first), you can either white peace them or go on a counterattack and take them over. This will significantly boost your economy, manpower capacity and land area and will bring you one large step closer to forming 
Ostrogothic Kingdom.
Note: should Italy create a battleship, send a submarine to sink it. However, if it's escorted with a destroyer, move artillery closer to the coast so they can wreck Italy's destroyer and then (and ONLY then) send a submarine to sink it.
Post-war moves[]
After the war with Italy, you will probably recieve ally requests from either small countries, countries which are fearing an invasion or both. It's not recommended that you accept ally requests from countries outside of Europe , as the war will probably finish by the time you get there.
After the war, you should wait for the unrest in Italy to go below the gold line so you can develop cities and build recruitment centers. While you're waiting for the unrest to go down, justify and take over Montenegro and Hungary if it's free. Now you should justify on 
Romania. Why? 2 reasons:
- It has very valuable Titanium deposits that, when the unrest completely disappears, will allow you to build an aircraft manufactory without much trade. Extremely useful and important.
- It has a port on the Black Sea, Constanţa, which allows for much easier defense and offense measures against potential invaders.
Once you conquered Romania, you should wait until you have enough political power for communism. If not, turn on government spending to at least medium to help gain political power faster. If you do, switch to communism and wait until you have enough political power for the powerful Forced Labor for Dissidents policy which will significantly boost your factory output, resource and tax gain.
But here we face another problem: 
Turkey will most likely have 
Greece, 
Albania, 
Bulgaria, and 
Macedonia under their control so you have to be careful, but you can easily emerge victorious by following this strategy.
War with Turkey[]
Okay, this will be harder than Italy because Turkey is more powerful than Italy in every way and it has a megacity (a 10M+ population city) of Istanbul. But this threat can easily be subdued with the right strategy.
First, construct one of every single type of factory on easy to defend cities in Italy, 
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Make sure to import resources needed to operate them. Then buy 30 Oil from an oil-rich nation and start building an aircraft carrier in Venice. When the factories are done, sell Electronics, 
Fertilizer and consumers to rich and semi-rich AIs for extra income and develop all of your cities.
You should also build 2200 tanks, buy the required Oil to upkeep, pair them up with those 1800 from before and start training them.
Conscript 480k infantry, pair them up with those 70k from before and start training them.
Build another 500 artilleries and keep them as an independent group (turn auto merge off).
By now, your aircraft carrier should have finished. Pair it up with the rest of your navy but send one destroyer and submarine to Constanţa and build another battleship and an aircraft carrier there. Remember to turn off reinforcements for the aircraft carriers as they cost $250 million to reinforce each.
If your income is less than $5 million before the 2nd battleship and an aircraft carrier, build 3 more consumer goods factories and sell consumers to AIs.
Once they're done, position them 200km north of Istanbul, position the Venice group off the coast of central Albania and form a defensive line made out of infantry and tanks going from the Montenegrin sea border to Constanţa and use artillery a bit behind them for support. It's also strongly recommended to produce aircraft to bomb cities and chip away units of large stacks of troops (200k+).
By now, Turkey should have declared. Stop the training of infantry and tanks and allow your navy to bomb Turkish troops in Bulgaria, Albania and Macedonia as aircraft carriers are very powerful and will deal large amounts of damage to all ground and air units. Combine that with a range of 525km and you've got a force to reckon with.
If Turkey has allies in Europe , try to dissuade them from joining the war by offering money, manpower or both.
Don't forget to keep a watchful eye on your defense line. If you see or think a part of the line is going to fall, make more infantry and tanks to support the weak link.
If Turkey makes a destroyer, simply wait until it is in the range of your navy and wait for your aircraft carriers and battleships to sink it.
If Turkey makes a battleship and sends it to your fleet, send one submarine from the respective navy group (Venice and Constanţa) to sink it while making sure it stays more than 170 kilometers from the rest of your navy (165km is the range of the battleships).
However, if Turkey makes an aircraft carrier, you should IMMEDIATELY send a submarine from the respective navy group to sink it before they have time to make escorts. However, if they make an escort before your submarine destroys the aircraft carrier, wait a bit so your aircraft carrier can damage it enough to the point where 2-3 subs will be enough to sink both the carrier and any potential escorts.
When Turkey runs out of manpower or their war exhaustion becomes very high, they may attempt to white peace. DO NOT accept as Turkey is very strong and 2 years will be more than enough time to fully prepare themselves and gather powerful allies which they can use to crush you.
When Turkey rage quits, you can start the offensive. Command your line to auto-capture Greece Albania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia and stop them once they do. Then split that group in 2 parts for the upcoming two-pronged offensive.
Send one group to Istanbul (make sure to wait for the aircraft carrier to soften up any remaining troops which Turkey possibly left) and capture it. Send the other group (including the Venice navy group) to Antakya, a city 90-or-so kilometers west of Aleppo, 
Syria. When the landings are done, simply set your groups to auto-capture Turkey and make sure enough divisions are attacking large cities such as Izmir, Ankara and Bursa.
You should be quick with capturing the southeast part of the country because their releasable, 
Kurdistan, might break free.
When Turkey collapses, select all of their cities and 75% of their treasury in the Demand terms peace screen, confirm and form the Balkan federation. Congratulations!
After the Turkish war[]
For now, you can either colonize in Asia 
and Africa 
and maintain good relations with other players, or you can become the dominant power in Europe , the choice is yours. However, if you chose the latter, you will have to face an extremely big threat: Germany/ France
War with Germany/ France[]
Note: in RoN public servers, anything is possible, and by this time either Germany or France will have conquered most of Europe and, if you're unlucky, Russia. Follow this strategy and it will be way less painful to take them over.
Ok, you're in the big leagues now. First, immediately take over 
Saudi Arabia for its Oil and remember to keep track of your military. You should have 550k infantry, 4k tanks and 1000 artillery. Now, you will increase that number. A lot.
It's also absolutely crucial you protect Italy, Turkey and Saudi Arabia as they are one of your most important regions and you will mot likely lose the war if you lose them.
Switch your conscription law to limited if you haven't already and create 2.5 million infantry, pair them up with the ones from before and start training them.
Build 8k tanks, pair them up with the ones from before and start training them.
Create 2k artillery, split it into 4 independent groups and start training them.
Create 2k anti-air, split it into 5 independent groups, send 2 to escort your invasion force and the other 3 to protect big and industrial cities and start training them.
Build 2 more of every factory (except aircraft manufactory) if you have enough resources and sell surplus goods to AIs to keep your economy from crashing in the middle of the war.
Also, make a destroyer, battleship, aircraft carrier and submarine somewhere in Crete (try to avoid Turkey and other non-cored areas since it will take longer to make). When all of that finishes, start training every navy group (Venice, Constanta and Crete).
Also don't forget to add more infantry/tanks/artillery/anti-air to your major cities especially Zagreb and other industrial cities in the north.
By now, your troops in training should have finished and now we can move to something just as important as a good ground military: a good air force. Make 10-15 attackers, 10-15 fighters and 10-15 bombers (optional, but recommended). Make them in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina's airports. Remember to train them after they are finished.
Now, everything except planes and anti-air should be finished training. Wait until they are finished too and split every ground unit into 3 groups: one to invade territories east of the Rhine (Venice navy group), one to invade everything European west of the Rhine (Constanta navy group) and the third for anything African (Crete navy group). And don't worry, the ships will have the name of the city they are built in, so it'll be easier to select the correct groups :)
However, make sure they don't have any colonies by scouting the map from top to bottom and if they don't, send the one surplus division to the north Scandinavia and the United Kingdom.
If they do, send that division to the colonies, but don't send it too far (e.g. the Americas, Asia and anything south of the Sahara desert). Instead, invade a country close to the colonies with newly-conscripted 200k-400k troops, try to target countries with sea access and build a destroyer and a battleship in that country (close to the colony/ies). Eg. if they have 
Vietnam, invade 
Cambodia; if they have 
Nigeria, invade 
Cameroon etc.
Now the real deal: justify on any of their AI allies and then attack them when you declare war on the ally. However, if they have none, be extremely quick when declaring after justifying. Alea iacta est.
First, make sure to capture their colony/ies while you wait for your navy groups to weaken any potential troops they have. Use your destroyer and the battleship to weaken any potential troops in the colonies and take them over. If they try to ram their ships into yours, use submarines to at least try to weaken their navy before they clash with you.
Then pull a little sneaky on them and secretly send them to Europe . More specifically, to the Scandinavian peninsula. Remember to train them for winter conditions.
Now the main part: land your Crete navy group troops in Africa . Tunis (the city), Algiers, Rabat and Casablanca are good choices as you prevent them from making a decent amount of tanks in that area. Send your Venice navy group to land in Brittany, since it is close to 2 of the largest cities in that part of Europe : London and Paris. Send the Constanta navy group to Kiel since you will have access to the canal and you can prevent your ships getting stuck behind the canal. Don't forget to close it so they cannot use it. Also use your attackers to weaken any large troop stacks coming your way, fighters to kill their fighters and bombers (if using) to bomb industrial and big cities.
Command the Crete navy group to capture the colonies in Africa and be wary of any troops they might spawn. Your top priority is capturing all of the square cities in Africa and soften up reinforcements coming from 
Spain and 
Portugal. Make sure to heal your troops when they are below half health as the cities in the Sahara are spread apart and small, so attrition is unavoidable.
Command the Venice navy group to capture northern France and try to capture London. Make sure you put your ships in front of Calais because it will allow for easiest crossing into the UK. When you capture Paris and maybe London, only one large obstacle is in the way: homeland Germany.
Command your Constanta navy group to auto capture north of Germany including Berlin and then send the infantry to capture other big cities like Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Remember to take Prague if they own it, as it is a square city.
Create mountain artillery in northern Italy if you see them creating any troops/tanks in 
Switzerland.
By now, the colony troops should have arrived in the Scandinavian area. Land them somewhere in south 
Norway (Oslo is recommended). Then use them to capture Stockholm and Helsinki to make them unable to make any significant amount of tanks there.
Use your Constanta group to capture 
Poland and Switzerland. Use tanks for Poland and infantry for Switzerland.
If the Crete group troops finished taking over the African part, command them to capture Spain and Portugal, but don't capture the small islands (Azores) owned by Portugal in the Atlantic. However, capture the 
Canary Islands as they can use it as staging ground for a potential offensive.
Make sure the Venice group captures all of the square cities in the United Kingdom and 
Ireland but be especially wary of any potential submarines in the sea. Send your navy to escort them to Ireland.
Now, you should have captured all of the square cities. Simply Strategies/Blitzkrieg through their land but remember to use appropriate troops depending on the terrain (don't use tanks on mountains). When you have captured >90% of their land, select all cities, 75% treasury and resources and end the war. Congratulations! You have conquered the majority of Europe as a tier II nation and now you can form Ostrogothic Kingdom and maybe even the 
European Union!
Late game[]
So what do you do now, my friend? The answer is simple: from this point onwards, you can manage your country by yourself. Colonization is strongly recommended in the Middle East and Africa for all kinds of African resources and valuable Middle Eastern oil.
If any major power attacks you, simply use the strategy described on the Turkish war section: allow your navy to weaken their troops, form a defensive line and wait until they run out of manpower or rage quit and then take them over.
Anyways, hope this strategy helped you to bring Croatia to its golden age and helped you make Tuđman proud!
Trivia[]
- Croatia has the smallest city in the world, which is Hum.
- Croatia has one of the most funniest politics in the Balkans. If you want, you can read about it here (and yes, everything mentioned is real and has happened):
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What can you expect from a country where its politicians call each other clowns, issue threats to each other, the president and the prime minister (the two most powerful people in the country) hate each other to the point where they barely talk to each other? And of course, how can we forget that one time where a guy literally made a paper airplane in the middle of the meeting in the Parliament and tossed it to the person speaking, Ivan Pernar and all the times they literally had to carry him out of the Parliament? The one time where a guy kept talking about his thing even after the president of the Parliament warned him that the thing he was talking about will be discussed later so the opposition walked out of the Parliament and he (president of the Parliament) had to give everyone a 10 minute break to calm down? Also the time where a meeting of the Parliament got to the point where politicians almost started a fistfight with each other? But how can we forget that one time where the Croatian president called the prime minister 'plameni jazavac' ('flaming badger') and numerous other gaffs by the president. Context (with translation): President: 'Do jučer nema pojma ni o čemu, dakle ne radi svoj posao. Danas se svima prijeti i riga vatru kao... plameni jazavac. President: 'Up until yesterday he doesn't know anything, which means he isn't doing his job. Today he threatens everyone and spits fire like a... flaming badger. And the Presient of the Parliament sometimes loses his cool and then we have moments like this (with translation): PotP: Dragi kolega Grmoja, reći da ste smeće, je malo. PotP: Dear colleague Grmoja, to say that you are trash, is an understatement. And another one (with translation): PotP: SAMO MALO SAMO MALO VAS MOLIM, KOLEGA PERNAR, DOBILI STE OPOMENU. JOŠ JEDNOM OVO NAPRAVITE, LETITE VAN! PotP: JUST A MOMENT, JUST A MOMENT PLEASE, COLLEAGUE PERNAR, YOU GOT A WARNING (which means he can't talk until further notice). YOU DO THIS ONE MORE TIME AND I'M KICKING YOU OUT! Folowed by 'KAKVO JE TO PONAŠANJE?! (WHAT KIND OF BEHAVIOR IS THAT?!) and ŠTA JE VAMA?! (WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!) which is something you'd hear teachers say around 8 year old kids, not grown-ass people running the country. |
