Generals guide for beginners+path

Wow thanks a lot ! Now I'm sure I'll manage to get Guderian without selling anyone with all this help x)

Therefore my strategy was quite straightforward - to receive as many medals as possible as soon as possible. There's a thread about key buildings in the game. Read it and plan your strategy accordingly. First and foremost you need 4 generals to defeat 4 types of Invasions. Luckily enough, as I said, Konev with Rumor will be able to defeat Infantry invasions as well as Artillery invasions. So you need one Tank general and one Navy general. So try to hire Guderian and unlock Nimitz's discounts. Upgrade these three men and you will not loose your medals during daily Invasions. Read the thread I mentioned above and you will unlock additional Invasions and increase your rewards. That is a very solid foundation for further planning!

Congratulations! Just a few more achievements and hard mode wins and Guderian will be yours! Do check the existing hard mode guides if you need them

Great job, perseverance has indeed paid off well for you. =) Upgrade Guderian to a decent level, then try to aim for konev through his discount missions. He is the best artillery general in game and getting him will enable you to focus on getting a navy general next.

alright focus on upgrading konev and guderian to a decent level, and once that is cleared invest in nimitz's discount missions.
european-war-4.boards.net/thread/8130/nimitz-discussion?
if you prefer a video,

Brunchminati's guide is better than war master as the latter has fully upgraded navy and air generals used. Replace vasilevsky with the general with the highest rumour level, save guderian and bock for the super carriers. Keep Leeb there.

With Nimitz you can start worrying less and focusing more on going far with the game. After nimitz attempt aiming for rommel, whose last discount mission is as difficult as it is rewarding. european-war-4.boards.net/thread/8129/rommel-discussion ----> the 40% mission guide

from my experience, at most only 2-3 generals I use out of like 5 or 8 should have rumour, the rest can act as supportive or raw damage generals. For any general except for defensive, resource and air generals explosives is handy in getting to invade cities much faster. Plain fighting is also a huge boost to damage, which I have level 5 with medal boost on konev. If you'd like to avoid damage, cover is good where you have a chance to block damage. 

To answer your question better which generals do you seek to upgrade? Do you have Guderian and Konev in mind? Or do you also want to simultaneously upgrade bock and leeb? 
Just to help, I have level 5 rumour and level 5 explosives on guderian. Level 2 rumour and level 5 plain fighting for konev. Leeb for me is unupgraded, while I dont have bock, my starter tank general vatutin is also unupgraded.