You can gain money by helping people (they will give you money for the service), bring them things they need for their job (certain plants, uncommon objects), or you can steal it in the soldiers camps, and sometimes even find some treasures in wild areas. Concerning the economy, there is a high level simulation of it; so that for example if you convince the farmers to stop harvesting the fields, or you stop the armed food convoys, the soldiers will be weaker after a while and this will give you an advantage over them. More.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.