England's Contribution

[unmerged(33925)]

The Brits have the widest empire on earth yet their economy does not match that. I have to reserch navy, air, and land, and still be able to build a fighting force before war starts. How can you condense the british Economy right so it actually fight a very efficient war instead of just bombing everything. What I mean by efficient is fighting the italians in libya very well as well as helping China with Japan and maybe a few more divsions for D-day.

Thanks for any replys.

 

[Bandit109]

Improve the IC of all of your islands/ african provinces that have 1-2 IC. Do this for a few years to get them in between 4-5 IC each, and you'll be able to boost your total IC by about 100.

 

[unmerged(17501)]

With IC improvements and the proper ministers, I found I had an industry about 450-500 when war got under way. You have to manually improve the provinces, and not just rely on the CORE events (if you're playing CORE).

 

[el freako]

The IC distribution in HOI is skewed against the UK proper and towards the dominons (over 100IC that should be in the UK has instead been shifted to the dominons) so a lot of what should be your production is happening in Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand - try to take advantage of this by sharing some tech with them (you'll find you get a lot back as well) and taking command of their military forces.

 

[unmerged(26982)]

You shouldnt be able to have a massive amount of divisions by the time the Germans invade France. You should have to work for everything. It can be done, though. Just remember, that since you cant out produce Germany, you should pick and choose where to attack and where to defend.

 

[Kyril]

For whichever country: if you find yourself unable to do everything you want in terms of research and production, make choices. The best thing about strategy is to have one, so decide early on what your focus should be. Examples of choices for UK could be: defend France (so build a lot land units and research appropriate Techs), go for defending everyhting you got (build Forts and loads of Inf), go for Italy (Marines/Mountain troops, reinforce the Med), harass the Axis by Airpower, etc. I find it impossible as the UK to do all things, so I focus on one strategy, with the appropriate Tech and Unit builds, and alter it as the game continues. In my opinion, it's better to have some areas where you are strong and neglect the rest, then to have mediocre forces in all theatres/areas.

 

[unmerged(33925)]

Thanks a lot, I'm going to try a new '36 game and hopefully I can completely knock out italy while harrassing Germany with Strat bombers. Another question I have is that if bombers meet fighters in enemy provinces, do they continue to bomb or try to dogfight the fighters?

 

[Kyril]

Thanks a lot, I'm going to try a new '36 game and hopefully I can completely knock out italy while harrassing Germany with Strat bombers. Another question I have is that if bombers meet fighters in enemy provinces, do they continue to bomb or try to dogfight the fighters

Good luck in trying Strategic Bombing. Make sure you focus on excellent fighters to gain Air Superiority, and I would suggest reading the Air Stacking Penalty thread.

 

[unmerged(23663)]

The IC distribution in HOI is skewed against the UK proper and towards the dominons (over 100IC that should be in the UK has instead been shifted to the dominons) so a lot of what should be your production is happening in Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand - try to take advantage of this by sharing some tech with them (you'll find you get a lot back as well) and taking command of their military forces.

Also the Indian provinces of the Empire are considered to be national provinces which is utterly stupid. As such but they contribute their full IC (about 80) to the Britiish total, hence a similar amount has been removed from the IC of the home Isles provinces. Thus the total IC for the home provinces of the British Isles is barely more than that of metroplotitan France which is absurd in terms of potential industrial output of the two countries.

Anyway, the the British Empire is under represented in in terms of its historic military capacity. I have pondered this issue at length and the only conclusion I can draw from this is that this has occurred to allow adequate game balance. Simiply making the Empire weak enables the Germans to run amok so that the AI can generate historic outcomes.

A more realistic model would have more IC in the Britain Isles (+150 IC) and a lot less IC in Canada, Australia & NZ, practically no IC in India. However, in order to maintain game balance (historic outcomes), some way of modelling the poor performance of the Empire, includindg the leaders (military & political) and the land forces would have to be introduced. This has been done in CORE for various countries (France Italy and Russia) to limit their military effectiveness in the early war years and could be appropriate for the British Empire.

 

[unmerged(3221)]

Thanks a lot, I'm going to try a new '36 game and hopefully I can completely knock out italy while harrassing Germany with Strat bombers. Another question I have is that if bombers meet fighters in enemy provinces, do they continue to bomb or try to dogfight the fighters?

A bombing mission will first have to chase away any enemy air units in that province. Any includes bombers and air transports besides fighters. Basically all air units fight in any air battle.

If the enemy air retreats then there is a chance that the bombing mission continues. Sometimes when the enemy air retreats so do your bombers though it is not clear what sets apart the two different outcomes (perhaps distance, time in air, low org, ...)

But most time your bombers just beat up the enemy fighters which beat up your bombers. That's why Cyril mentioned fighter sweeps to first clear the skies.

If you do try a strategic bombing campaign focus on resources besides IC. Resources recover slower than IC. Bombing the Ruhr (Essen et al) can reduce German IC for several months depending upon how big their stockpiles are.