Regions

Between the country and the province sits the region: a named historical or administrative territory such as an American state, a Soviet oblast, a Swedish county, the city of Berlin or an overseas possession. The 1946 scenario divides the world's land into more than 1,300 regions.

Regions are geographic, not political. A region's borders never change, but who owns its provinces can. One region can be split between several countries at once. Berlin, for example, is shared among its occupying powers. A province belongs to at most one region, and some provinces belong to none.

Regions on the map

The map has three tiers of labels. Zoomed out, you see country names. In the middle distance, region names take over. Close to the ground, province names appear. Hovering and clicking follow the same tiers: in the regional band, hovering lights up the whole region and clicking selects it. Clicking a region that is already selected drills through to the country that owns the province under the cursor.

Unit nameplates group the same way. Zoomed out, each owner gets one plate per region, showing its regional total, and clicking it selects that owner's brigades in the region.

The Regions map mode gives each region its own colour so neighbouring regions are easy to tell apart (see Map Modes).

The Region view

Every province that belongs to a region shows a Part of button at the bottom of its panel. The button opens the Region view, and the region is outlined in gold on the map while the view is open. The view lists:

• the region's provinces grouped by owning country, with each country's province count and population;
• each country's autonomy status and the tax it contributes, compared with what it would pay at full contribution;
• the modifiers active across the region;
• every member province by population, with its owner's flag, population and GDP;
• your outreach in the region (regional networks and party branches, see below) and the region missions your diplomats can start there.

Region modifiers

A region can carry modifiers that apply to every province inside it, whoever owns them. They add to the province's own modifiers for Unrest, Education, population growth, supply, attrition, strategic importance and so on. Events can add a region modifier permanently or for a set time, and regional diplomat missions deliver their timed effects this way.

In 1946, the regions of Berlin, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong carry Geopolitical Flashpoint, which adds 25 Strategic Importance to each of their provinces. Every army plans its garrisons around that importance.

Autonomous regions

A country can grant one of its regions autonomy. Its provinces there then pass only part of their tax to the national treasury. Autonomy affects only that tax income. GDP, rankings, education and unrest are all calculated as normal. It costs the owner money and nothing else.

At the 1946 start, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico each pass 60% of their taxes to the United States. West Berlin passes half of its taxes to its holder. The budget's Tax Income line shows how much your autonomous regions withhold each month (see Taxation).

Autonomy can also be forced. A foreign Autonomy Campaign ends by making the host choose: grant autonomy, which leaves it 60% of the region's taxes, or refuse and face two years of higher unrest, more agitated separatists and a lasting grudge against the sponsor.

Region missions

Twelve diplomat missions target a region rather than a country. The region's host is the country that holds most of its population, and abroad that host is the one that can discover and expel your diplomat. Work in your own regions is never discovered.

• Regional campaigns organize a foreign region for your ruling ideology. There are five campaign lines: Strike Committees, Peasant Leagues, Campus Circles, Relief Committees and National Front. Which lines a region offers depends on its cities, education, war damage or separatists. Each success organizes more of its provinces. At 30% you pick a legal front or underground cells. At 75% you spend the network: stand candidates and found a regional party branch, call a general strike, or hand the network on to later autonomy and separatist work.
• Party Organizing builds the same kind of network at home for the ruling party. Counter-Agitation dismantles a rival ideology's network in your own regions.
• Autonomy Campaign and Cultivate Separatists (Agitator talents) press a host from within.
• Broadcasting Station beams your ideology into a foreign region within 900 km of land your bloc holds. It can't be discovered.
• Reconstruction Aid (Ambassador talent) pays to repair a war-damaged region and wins the host's goodwill.
• Partisan Network (Spymaster talent) organizes partisans in an enemy's region in wartime and cuts its supply.

Networks of different ideologies compete in the same region. The Outreach map mode shows yours, and the rivals you can name.