This is really difficult. Nice job Makke in giving all that info on Finland by the way. I am only interested in a European theater situation as I think the World Wide Mode is impossible to create in anyway that is particularly interesting to play or have any historical feel.
So for the Europeans I try to think of it from the German perspective as to what countries helped or hindered their situation. Since for Allies the production and manpower of UK, then USSR, and later USA was so massive that other allies contributes can easily be abstracted for the purposes of game play. Please don't get mad at me if you are a fan of other allies this is purely a game play issue - in the real war every contribution certainly counted.
So if we look at this from a Sep. 1939 start it seems the Benelux must be seperate - since it is unreasonable for Germans to attack it and get enemies all over the place as it is now. Obiously the odds are going to get wiped out quickly but they are still needed to force the Germans into a difficult but not crazy choice.
If you take my suggestion of having commodities such as Coal I and Coal II and Steel I and Steel II, and most importantly Oil I, II, III, and IV then several other countries can be introduced that would make things for realistic.
For example Germany could have Steel I but not Steel II and Steel II would be pocessed in USA, UK (representing off map colonial/ally contributions), USSR, and Norway and maybe Sweden. This would give Germany a reason to attack Norway similar to the actual reasons of the war along with Naval advantages. So if that is the case possibly a Norway/Denmark combo nation and a seperate Sweden.
In terms of Oil I would give Germany and Italy Oil I and all other majors. Oil II would be in USA, UK (representing off map and or middle east), USSR, and most importantly Romania - giving Germany a strong need to ally with Romania or take the middle east for that commodity. Oil III would be in deep middle east on the map (maybe modern Saudi arabia, and/or Iraq, and/or Iran) forcing Germany to conquer a lot to get them. Oil III would also be in a couple locations in USSR giving Germany strong reason to take key areas of USSR. USA would also have Oil III. Finally Oil IV would only be for USA maybe to give special building or some other nice bonus to represent the massive production advantages they developed. This could easily start as undeveloped at the start of the scenario to represent ramp up times or require research to develop.
My suggestion was to have these level not exclude building certain unit - i.e. if you only had oil I you could build most unit but you would need higher oil levels to build certain building such as a tank factory to represent the ability to suport such large oil burning forces. Same would go with Steel and Coal.
So Romania strikes as key to have in this situation.
Finland was an important ally of German and a real pain for the USSR so I would include them.
Sweden is interesting question. For game purposes it might be good to add a new religion maybe called True Nuetral that might include Sweden, Switzerland, maybe even Portugal, and Ireland - anywhere that would cost Germany a lot diplomatically to attack - so if Germany wanted Sweden thay would suffer the penalty of having to deal with a heavily defended Switzerland as well as support from other areas such as Portugal to simulate the problems of the time of attacking Sweden. So I would suggest no seperate Sweden but this special True Nuetral nation. I appologize to all my relatives in Sweden
What ever Sweden's status some strong defense should be in place that does not easily convert to strong offence.
This reminds me that something like a Fort unit (like machine gun but much more powerful) should be created to similate defense in Maginot line, Switzerland, Sweden, and elsewhere. Maybe this could be done by having it be a very late tech but having the unit exist in several locals at the start of the game like Kodzi did with the Inf IV in Switzerland on the 39 Scenario.
Hungary might be included as part of Romania (maybe Bulgaria too) simply to keep number of Nations down.
Spain is a good on to have but must be set up in such a way that it will take some serious effeort to get into the war other than outride attack by someone else.
Greece would be a nice Seperate because it was so difficult as would be Yugoslavia.
Turkey also was a key neutral and could be seperate or possibly included in that True Nuetral group I suggested although this would have to be watched for play balance so that it didnot actually become more desireable for Germany to attack Sweden etc.
These would be my suggestion for best countries to add to game play and historical feel.
I of course want to add lots of countries and I do have a pretty powerful Core2 Duo with 2GB Ram and top notch Graphics card ( I got it as partial payment for a networking job I subcontracted with local computer company) - but since I previously had medium level machine and most folks still have such machines I would suggest trying to restrict nations to absolutly most necessary ones.
So for the Europeans I try to think of it from the German perspective as to what countries helped or hindered their situation. Since for Allies the production and manpower of UK, then USSR, and later USA was so massive that other allies contributes can easily be abstracted for the purposes of game play. Please don't get mad at me if you are a fan of other allies this is purely a game play issue - in the real war every contribution certainly counted.
So if we look at this from a Sep. 1939 start it seems the Benelux must be seperate - since it is unreasonable for Germans to attack it and get enemies all over the place as it is now. Obiously the odds are going to get wiped out quickly but they are still needed to force the Germans into a difficult but not crazy choice.
If you take my suggestion of having commodities such as Coal I and Coal II and Steel I and Steel II, and most importantly Oil I, II, III, and IV then several other countries can be introduced that would make things for realistic.
For example Germany could have Steel I but not Steel II and Steel II would be pocessed in USA, UK (representing off map colonial/ally contributions), USSR, and Norway and maybe Sweden. This would give Germany a reason to attack Norway similar to the actual reasons of the war along with Naval advantages. So if that is the case possibly a Norway/Denmark combo nation and a seperate Sweden.
In terms of Oil I would give Germany and Italy Oil I and all other majors. Oil II would be in USA, UK (representing off map and or middle east), USSR, and most importantly Romania - giving Germany a strong need to ally with Romania or take the middle east for that commodity. Oil III would be in deep middle east on the map (maybe modern Saudi arabia, and/or Iraq, and/or Iran) forcing Germany to conquer a lot to get them. Oil III would also be in a couple locations in USSR giving Germany strong reason to take key areas of USSR. USA would also have Oil III. Finally Oil IV would only be for USA maybe to give special building or some other nice bonus to represent the massive production advantages they developed. This could easily start as undeveloped at the start of the scenario to represent ramp up times or require research to develop.
My suggestion was to have these level not exclude building certain unit - i.e. if you only had oil I you could build most unit but you would need higher oil levels to build certain building such as a tank factory to represent the ability to suport such large oil burning forces. Same would go with Steel and Coal.
So Romania strikes as key to have in this situation.
Finland was an important ally of German and a real pain for the USSR so I would include them.
Sweden is interesting question. For game purposes it might be good to add a new religion maybe called True Nuetral that might include Sweden, Switzerland, maybe even Portugal, and Ireland - anywhere that would cost Germany a lot diplomatically to attack - so if Germany wanted Sweden thay would suffer the penalty of having to deal with a heavily defended Switzerland as well as support from other areas such as Portugal to simulate the problems of the time of attacking Sweden. So I would suggest no seperate Sweden but this special True Nuetral nation. I appologize to all my relatives in Sweden
What ever Sweden's status some strong defense should be in place that does not easily convert to strong offence. This reminds me that something like a Fort unit (like machine gun but much more powerful) should be created to similate defense in Maginot line, Switzerland, Sweden, and elsewhere. Maybe this could be done by having it be a very late tech but having the unit exist in several locals at the start of the game like Kodzi did with the Inf IV in Switzerland on the 39 Scenario.
Hungary might be included as part of Romania (maybe Bulgaria too) simply to keep number of Nations down.
Spain is a good on to have but must be set up in such a way that it will take some serious effeort to get into the war other than outride attack by someone else.
Greece would be a nice Seperate because it was so difficult as would be Yugoslavia.
Turkey also was a key neutral and could be seperate or possibly included in that True Nuetral group I suggested although this would have to be watched for play balance so that it didnot actually become more desireable for Germany to attack Sweden etc.
These would be my suggestion for best countries to add to game play and historical feel.
I of course want to add lots of countries and I do have a pretty powerful Core2 Duo with 2GB Ram and top notch Graphics card ( I got it as partial payment for a networking job I subcontracted with local computer company) - but since I previously had medium level machine and most folks still have such machines I would suggest trying to restrict nations to absolutly most necessary ones.
(i have **** computer, currently 1939 scenario works perfectly 
