How is Swords of the Stars? :P

I didn't like HoI2 and 3 because they simply ditch the nation building aspect of the game that made EU and Vicky good game, to replace it with (way too much) strategical micromanagement. I know you can automate many things in HoI3, but what's the point of having a game where everything is done by the AI simply because it's too tedious for the player?

And obviously, IMO, HoI3 greatly suffers from the new engine (is it Clausewitz?) and Paradox's new mindset, which tends to eliminate set-in-the-stone historical events. I don't have much problem with this in a EU3 game, but it simply outright blows for a WWII game.

WWII was the outcome of specific events that have had their roots as back as 1918. There was a reason why Germany declared war on that day and not on this one, why Italy decided to invade Greece and not Yugoslavia. In HoI3 it just goes randomly. Italy attacks France for no reason in 1938, Germany stays neutral until 1942, and what not. Doesn't feel like WWII at all.