I played as France next and the world, once again was changed drastically. Building armour like crazy from 1936, I managed to have a formidable war machine by 1938. More formidable on modern terms than the historically large but horse based French army.
In September 1938 Germany had militarised the Rhineland and had taken Austria. Next would come the Sudetenland in October with the Munich Pact - or would it?
In September I attacked the West Wall of Germany and broke into it, I took Saarbrucken but was halted there. Not much of a move but the political cogs began turning, the Kriegsmarine were not ready to face up to the Royal Navy and suffered accordingly. Italy didn't join in on Germany's side. And Poland saw an oppurtunity and attacked Germany. Germany was in the worse position imaginable, caught between two European powers. But Germany held on and the war dragged into 1944, when Germany was finally defeated. I gained the Rhineland and Austria, Poland had everything else.
While the way was going on against Germany, Japan declared war on the Allies and the US, which brought the US into the alliance. The Alliance crushed the IJN and captured all Japanese land but Japan itself, and a few islands. In fact, I had to capture Leyte, Okinawa and Hong Kong [back].
With Germany destroyed, Italy frightened and Japan contained there was one enemy left that was too big for it's boots. The Soviet Union! With 528 divisions it was the largest force in the world ...as France, I only had 116 divisions and I had one less armoured division. I thought it be best to strike first and invaded in March 1946. Although out-numbered, I did gather all forces together in the south...and encircled the Soviet armies in the Dnieper bend which crushed at least 30 divisions in the first encirclement, they hadn't placed any local reserves nearby leaving the way to Stalingrad clear! I had skirted just south of Kiev and found it unimportant. I was after the armies, not the cities. So, I pushed to the Don but found no significant amount of forces to engage. So I turned my attention to the Soviets in the north and turned around then headed north towards Moscow. By now, US, Canadian, Dutch, British and Polish troops were covering the areas I had left behind.
I pushed up to Moscow and encircled, then captured it. I realised a perfect oppurtunity to encircle a massive amount of the Red Army and pushed simply on to the Gulf of Finland. It encircled at least 150 divisions in the biggest encirclment in history! After several other encirclements by me, and my armour, the Soviet Union was reeling from the constant pressure. By January 1948 [when the game ends], we'd pushed past the Urals and the Red Army had gone from 528 divisions to 76 divisions, with 3 armoured divisions.
:note: You see two of the encirclements in the pictures, but I didn't picture the Dnieper bend one.