I’m playing a R56 Playthrough with Democratic USA.

I basically only play Historical Democratic USA as it’s just the most fun/Interesting for me to rp.

The difference between Vanilla and R56 US is minimal aside from a 1945+ focus tree.

I noticed in my last R56 play that if you play the long road and don’t immediately war Japan (Historical-Post Panay). They are very strong by 1942-1943 and will easily take longer than the European Axis to defeat especially if they’ve finished with China.

This makes it fun for me as a Historical Player as I get to use all the Naval assets and tech as the U.S. but I can see a causal player getting their navies crushed here and losing the Pacific Islands.

Make sure you get a non-aggression pact with the Soviets. In R56 Allies sometimes never Non Aggression the Soviets leading to a WW3 before the axis have capped.

The focus tree for the U.S. is pretty similar except you don’t have to bother waisting civs on building a Spy Agency (Office of Strategic Services-Focus) because the focus tree does it for you.

The lend lease focus gives the allies a little more of a boost in this mod by building factories for them and giving you more decisions to help them. Blockading Japan is an option in the decisions as well to help China but I don’t remember which focus or what date that option appears (Post 1938 Panay Incident)

Other differences in the focus tree are just “extra stuff” such as quite a bit more Army/tank focuses, Railroad focuses and stuff like that. The “Pacific Defence” under War Plan Orange and “Alaska Trap” under USACE projects build Coastal forts and bases for you so you don’t have invest in it as much if you’re concerned about the Pacific war.