States of Power Demo and France Opening

What the Demo Actually Is

States of Power ships a free Steam demo (app 4400250) that puts you in control of France as the Second World War is about to break out. That is not a teaser slideshow. You get the real map, the real economy, and the real combat rules — with one hard lock: you play France. Steam discussions full of “why can I only be France?” are describing the demo, not a missing unlock tree in the paid game.

The full release of 26 August 2026 lets you pick any playable nation. If you already bought the game, skip the France-only complaint and use Getting Started plus the Best Nations Tier List. If you are still deciding, this page is the shortest honest path through the demo.

Difficulty is adjustable, including an easy setting. Easy is not a free win. Germany and Italy still exist, they still have more aircraft than a sleepy Maginot line, and they will still declare when the script and the AI agree you look weak. Several demo reviews describe dying in minutes on the easiest setting after a two-front surprise. That is the intended lesson: States of Power is easy to start, not easy to coast.

States of Power France demo walkthrough

The Opening Board as France

When the demo boots you are already in a diplomatic web. The United Kingdom, Poland, and Czechoslovakia sit with you. Belgium and Luxembourg are under independence guarantees. Republican and Nationalist Spain are already at war in the Spanish Civil War. French colonies appear on the map; they are not decorative — they are extra provinces with their own supply paths.

That setup teaches the Diplomacy Guide without a lecture. Guarantees are tripwires. Allies are only useful if they can reach the fight. Spain is a sideshow you can poke for a cheap Barcelona if you want to learn combat, not a campaign-winning prize.

Reading the Top Bar

Three numbers decide whether France lives: money (gold), military supplies (ammunition and equipment), and construction capacity. Goods factories print the money. Military factories print the supplies. Construction is the queue that builds both. Stacking the same building type in a province that already has that industry is more efficient than scattering one factory across every département.

A working opening: place extra goods factories inland (Burgundy-style interior provinces, not the German border), then add military factories once income is stable. If you dump everything into tanks on day one you will attack Switzerland with empty magazines. You can buy military supplies with gold in an emergency; doing so advertises that your industry is behind.

The Economy Guide is the full factory math. The demo is where you feel that math under a ticking clock.

Combat: Morale Is Not Health

Each unit shows a green bar and a red bar. New players treat green as hit points. It is morale. When green empties, the unit retreats into a friendly province — it is still alive. The red bar filling is actual destruction. Battles also show a star with a victory percentage. Push when that number is high; reinforce or withdraw when it collapses even if you still “have troops.”

You must declare war before you can legally attack. Right-clicking a Swiss province while at peace does nothing useful. Declare, then concentrate infantry, artillery, and whatever armour you actually built. Air units can bomb a tile while ground units take it; unescorted bombers die to fighters the same way the Unit Counters page describes.

Speed, Science, and Scripted History

The match is real-time with a speed control, not a board-game turn clock. Raise speed while factories build; drop it when you declare. Technology arrives as a full science bar, then a choice of three random options. Pick the bonus that matches the war you are actually fighting — tank strength if you are punching Switzerland, military-resource income if you just spent your last shell buying infantry.

Historical events fire on the clock. Invade Austria and you can lose the war out from under you when Anschluss folds the remaining provinces into Germany. That is not a bug. It is the demo teaching you that diplomacy and events rewrite borders while you are staring at one river.

A Clean Demo Session Plan

1. Drop speed. Count gold, supplies, and your starting mix of infantry, motorised, artillery, and the lonely tank.
2. Queue goods factories inland, then two military factories in a protected province.
3. Optionally dabble in Republican Spain to learn occupation and the victory-chance star — do not disappear into the whole peninsula.
4. If you want a contained war, Switzerland is the community’s chaotic classroom: multiple approaches, mountain supply, and a finite number of provinces.
5. Stop before you guarantee a war with Germany unless you came to study failure. The How to Win Your First War page assumes you kept a supply line; the demo will punish you if you did not.

Watch the embedded playthrough in the middle of this article for the France-only interface in motion, then come back to the checklist. Video is not a substitute for reading the morale bars.

Demo Versus Full Game

The demo is the France 1939 board. The full game adds the rest of the roster, online PvP with global and private chat, and the built-in Scenario Editor with a community scenario browser. Steam listed an introductory price of $11.99 with 15 percent off to $10.19 through 5 September 2026 at launch — check the live store widget before you buy; regional prices differ.

If the demo felt unfair, that is useful data. Adjust difficulty, rebuild the factory order, and try one more France session before you write the game off. If the demo felt like “I get it, I want the map,” buy the full title and open Major Powers Strategy instead of repeating the Maginot lesson forever.

After You Buy

Keep this wiki’s Updates Hub and Launch Notes for review scores and bug-report addresses. The developer email on community pages is [email protected]; Discord is linked from Official Links. The tutorial was improved after early demo testers said it taught nothing — if you played an older demo build, give the current one a fair hour before judging the onboarding.