There are three axes on HOI 3’s triangular political spectrum: Allies (i.e. the “Western Democracies”), Axis, and Comintern. Each of these alliances, historically, was philosophically opposed to each of the others. While that model was distorted by “Realpolitik” considerations during the 1930s and 1940s (i.e. the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between national-socialist Germany and the communistic USSR), it works well enough for what HOI 3 is trying to simulate. We refer to these alliances as “factions.”

Only a few countries are members of factions at the start of the game in 1936. A country’s government may choose to “Align to Faction” and ideologically shift themselves toward one of these great alliances. Faction members may also try to influence countries toward their faction, and may even have to compete for a country’s allegiance through “competitive bidding,” with influences coming from more than one faction.  Later on, countries may be invited to join a faction as a member.

Each Faction has a “special ability,” which is something that it alone can do, by nature of the kind of government it has, and helps it to stand out from the other factions.

• Allies (Britain, France, etc.) – Countries who are members of the Allies are protected by a universal mutual assistance treaty. If any member of the Allies is attacked, all members consider it an attack upon all of them and are automatically considered at war with the attacker or the attacking faction.  Allied faction countries require more consumer goods during peacetime, but less during wartime (because their people feel a civic duty to support the war).

• Axis (Germany, Italy, etc.) – Axis members have the ability to declare “limited war” upon another country. They may attack another country without inviting their faction members to join them, which allows them to keep the territory for themselves and not share in the victory spoils. If the country gets into trouble, they may still issue a Call to Arms, which invites their faction allies to join and help them. Axis countries also have fewer restrictions on when they can declare war, and get a bonus when fighting in enemy-owned provinces which are claimed by the Axis country.

• Comintern (Soviet Union) – Because Comintern countries are so closely joined ideologically, they pool their resources for the common good and are able to trade resources with other  Comintern members without using money (i.e. they can “gift” resources to another member). Comintern faction spies also get a bonus to their effectiveness.