Bulgaria

Bulgaria is not an easy country to play with, given its relatively low IC (26 base value) and leadership points (about three). However, it has the great advantage of not having direct borders with any of the majors, unlike Romania, Turkey or Yugoslavia. Bulgaria's neighbouring countries pose no direct threat, therefore should a player decide to start the game from 1950, winning and building an empire is likely if clever research and diplomacy are applied. Victory is possible with all factions, and early aligning towards one of them (unless you use the Axis strategy) is not recommended.

Technology
Bulgaria has a relatively high Infantry practical upon start, so researching your infantry weapons should be your primary concern. Research the main weapon up to Lebel 1907 rifles, then light artillery up to level one or two. Your infantry will need organisation, so make sure you also research Infantry Warfare up to the 1950 standard. After you are done with these, the choice of techs to research is yours - however, it is highly recommended that you increase your leadership with Education, your supply production with Supplies production, and invest some time in Electronic and mechanical engineering. If you manage to further equip your infantry with the level 3 Sbrujowka SMG, you will have a very well armed and organised army. Constructing decryption/encryption machines, radar listening stations and electronic calculation devices will be of great use later on in the game.

Distribution of Leadership Research is very important to succeeding as Bulgaria. In order to have efficient research, choose a Big Education Investment from your Politics menu - it will cost you, but the efforts are worth it.

Diplomacy You are a member of the Warsaw Pact, normally at the start of the game you are drifting 0.4 towards NATO.

Here you can choose the aggressive game strategy or not - you choose. Be aware that every non communist nation joins NATO eventually. Also you may start influencing Greece and Turkey when you are part of the Warsaw Pact, so you will not have to occupy it, alternatively so that they won't be able to join NATO before you are ready to attack them.

Intelligence
No matter which strategy you choose, one of your enemies will most likely be your neighbour. As it is almost certain that Greece and Turkey will align towards the Allies, invest at least 1.30 of your leadership in Espionage, and make Israel your level 3 (green) priority target. Select "Increase threat" as a mission. If you have enough luck, by 1959 Israel will have a global threat level of about 45 - far larger than that of Japan. If you also send spies on a level 2 priority threat mission in France, its threat level will increase to 2 or even 3 - this will keep most countries, including your neighbours, drifting away from the Allies. After all, the best target is one that is both unaligned and posing a large threat. The purpose of this exercise is to attack and conquer colonies by 1959/1960, thus securing its resources, IC and leadership. If you make it a puppet, you will have an excellent buffer state - it will protect you from the majors, yet you will be able to exploit its capacity to the fullest. In order to ease things, select "Lower neutrality" as a mission to your domestic intelligence. If you manage to conquer Romania, you will gain access to rich oil, coal, metal and rare material deposits.

Economy Choose your production wisely. From the very start you need to build two infantry and one militia divisions as regulars (not reserves). It will be excellent if you manage to add armoured cars to your infantry divisions. ACs are an excellent light infantry support and give you a lot of edge against regular infantry divisions. DO NOT invest too much IC into production, and don't switch to Mixed industry immediately; this will only drain too much resources into supplies and consumer goods production, and actually has the opposite effect upon production. It's better to have lower IC efficiency and wait for one more week to train two divisions, instead of making only one division faster while struggling to keep your consumer goods production to a decent level. Also, try securing a licence production of one unit (air unit if possible) from a closely aligned state.

A Warsaw Pact Greece Great Idea since most of the Balkans are members of the Warsaw Pact and they are Greece's neighbors Landwise. Invasion is easy for anothet reason since Greece Has unstable Government Issues. Subjigating Greece is easy, however there's Turkey and Italy who will try to stop you.  A Warsaw Pact Israel If Israel is protected by NATO and the Tokyo-Tehran Pact then that is a no no unless you got help from your client state the Soviet Union and your Warsaw Pact co-workers with aid of the United Arab Republic, Libya and Ba'athist Iraq. If you do conquer Israel that way then you will have to let your collaborators the UAE, Libya and Iraq officially Annex Israel in which they desire Palestine. However if Israel is not protected then it's easy and you get a communist Israel.

Politics
Ministers