Pacifist Tibet Run (1939 Historic World War) - Situation Update (Day 22)

So, three weeks ago as I was finishing up a round of Europe: Clash of Nations, I decided to add a little something to my plate since progress in that round was a little slow. I joined a round of Historic World War 1939, but the majors and strategically advantageous minors were all taken; so I picked Tibet.

Then I decided to meme a little. I made Non-Aggression Pacts with my player neighbors (UK, British India, and Nationalist China) that stated that I was trying to see how long it would take to max out industrial output of a standard five-city nation, and that I would offer some resources and maintain only a small standing army while I did so. Miraculously, all three agreed to my insane plan and left me alone.

The First Fourteen: Road to Modernization

I immediately set to work developing my Oil, Metal, and Rare Material cities in order to accumulate the necessary resources to continuously build Industry.

At the same time I committed some resources to constructing bunker complexes and recruiting small Militia/Artillery/AT/AA divisions on my border - Tibet is exclusively Mountain and Hill terrain, no Plains or Forest to be found, and so Militia and Artillery in my Mountain border provinces got an insane terrain bonus on top of Home Province and Fortification buffs. Still pretty sure that a 5-stack of my Militia in that terrain could beat back a full stack of Armor, especially with the upgrades that I've put on them.

Anyway, Province Morale was peaked out by Day 7, and I finished Industrialization in the three aforementioned cities shortly after; I was now producing upwards of 800 per hour from each of those, augmented further by outlying resource provinces with Local Industry. I then set to developing the other two cities and remaining resource provinces, and by Day 14, Tibetan industry was completely maxed out, coming in as the 7th largest economy in the world. Even today, at Day 22, I have moved up to #4 in the world, with a total industrial output of 118,080 ton per day.

For the record, Max Industrialization at the pace that I set for development took just over thirteen days to complete.

A Bastion in a World in Flames

Naturally, as I turned Tibet into a neutral utopia, the world went to pieces.

Germany immediately allied with Greater Romania, and the former invaded Poland; at some point during that process, Poland sued for peace and became the third member of the Axis coalition, turning around immediately and aiding Germany in the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, Persia proceeded with a slow but steady crawl across the Middle East, quietly swallowing up Iraq and Syria, followed closely by Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen. The latter two somehow managed to give the Persians some pause, but no more than a few days.

The Americans never left North America; in fact the United Stated proceeded immediately with an invasion of Mexico, followed shortly after by Canada. This began a chain of continental conquests that has continued even to this day, and the USA now controls all of North America, and the northern half of South America.

Anyway, back to Tibet. Something curious started happening as players started dropping and reverting to AI, and as I continued to remain out of war: Random AI across the world started offering Right of Way, and a few - British Egypt and the AI of British India - even offered Shared Map! I'd never been at peace this long, so I had never before observed this phenomenon; or at least, I'd never gotten more than Right of Way before the AI eventually turned around and stabbed me at the back because I was at war with too many nations.

Upon the completion of my journey to industrialization, as I watched Persia's armored divisions sweep across British India with full map access, I knew that my time was short - it was time to take up arms. Fortunately, I'd had the presence of mind to continue R&D as industrialization was taking place, since lord knows I had the resources for it.

To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi: "Greetings from the Reting Pinoche. The words of Tibet are backed by nuclear weapons."

To Arms!

I had very early on started stockpiling caches and special divisions of Wonder Weapons - there are isolated, fortified airfields all across Tibet housing stocks of Flying Bombs, while the outer provinces are supported at range by several Railroad Gun Divisions protected by top-of-the-line AA defenses.

Not to mention the Rocket Fighters flying CAP over the Himalayas, or Nuclear Bomber squadron that's currently parked at an undisclosed location.

Thanks to the terrain bonuses of the Pan-Asian Doctrine, my Elite Militia and Anti-Tanks weapons are not only top-tier, but nigh-unstoppable when coupled with home field advantage.

I realized my mistake early on when I was still building my industry: I had maxed out development for my mainline units, but in doing so I'd make the production and upkeep of new regiments into an obscenely expensive prospect. I was able to get around this somewhat by keeping the Self-Propelled Guns, AA, and AT at a relatively low level.

Additionally, I had waited to even begin developing the Armored tree beyond Tank Destroyers and Armored Cars, since tanks are almost exclusively an offensive unit. Even now, Tibet's state-of-the-art Tank Factories are churning out the finest Asian armor outside of Japan herself.

But as Persia finally timed out and Nepal of all nations declared war on the overextended Arab powerhouse, I realized that I am now faced with a conundrum:

How Does a Pacifist Nation Wage An Offensive War?

This brings my story back to the present day, Day 22. The Tibetan military is 74 regiments strong, and her defenses are impassable - but no one wants to test those defenses.

As previously stated, the encroaching Persian armies have reverted to AI, and allied Nationalist China to the north now boasts the largest and strongest army on the Eurasian continent. The AI battles itself, with the last human leaders in the world being myself, Romania, and the United States.

So, let's break character for a moment and talk Meta. I am left with a challenge: How do I take land without appearing to the AI as the aggressor?

My current theory is that since I have Right of Way from half of the nations of the world, I could simply move a single sacrificial unit into a neighbor's territory ahead of an advancing army, and thereby become the "unfortunate" victim of an enemy offensive.

Does anyone know if this would fly with the 1.5 AI? Or would I would start to lose popularity simply by being at war?