Great Brittain '36

[Gen.Nikolaj]

Hey there

After playing HoI 2 Arma for some months i've decided to try playing AoD. The game is great, especially the new cold war scenarios and combat system, but i have some difficulties playing the Grand Campaign as Great Brittain. The problem is that I cannot allocate enough recources to upgrade and reinforce my troops in a decent time, not to mention allocating anything to production. The next problem is the new funding system, which makes my money surplus go "dry" after trying to fully fund more then 4 tech teams, even after selling any reasorces I can (btw, the trade tab is a marvelous improvement). What should start from?

PS. Sorry for any spelling mistakes, despite my love for UK i'm not british

 

[Pang Bingxun]

UK is designed to be very short on icd and money before the war starts, there you need to priotize. You might want to try AoD 1.09, there you start with 75% ic instead of 50% ic due to the peacetime penalty.

 

[Mr_B0narpte]

I would recommend reducing your research speed to 75%, as it reduces the cost by 50%, which will free up some IC.

I don't remember if HoI2:Arma has these events, but for AoD these events are most relevant to the UK:
~7th January 1936: Rhineland event (if Germany is human controlled, or March 7th if Germany is AI) -> +150 manpower, +1 Hawk lobby, +10% IC
21st January 1936: King George V dies, replaced by Edward VIII -> -10% IC
~20th July 1936: Spanish Civil War intervention -> Intervene: -400 money, -10 manpower, -1800 supplies, 2 dissent, +1 interventionism --- Don't intervene: 1 dissent, -1 interventionism
December 1936: Edward VIII abdicates -> removal of the -10% IC penalty
March 1938: Anschluss event -> +150 manpower, +1 Hawk lobby, +10% IC
30th September 1938: Sedetenland -> +150 manpower, +1 Hawk lobby, +10% IC
March 1939: annexation of Czechoslovakia -> +150 manpower, +1 Hawk lobby, +10% IC
30th March 1939: Guarantee Poland -> Accept: -200 money, +1 interventionism --- Refuse: 15 dissent, -2 interventionism
25th August 1939: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -> +150 manpower, +1 Hawk lobby, +10% IC (this is removed in Pang's recommendations for 1.09 because, as Pang said, the UK starts with +25% more IC compared to vanilla 1.08)

 

[Pang Bingxun]

In 1.09 it is removing 5% penalty per step and there still is only one gear up event that is triggert five times. Also the last step is achieved by the guarantee on poland.

 

[Emmanuel_M]

Playing Uk requires a few "tricks"

* reduce research expenses allocation, you need ICD
* reduce slightly military salaries
* Accept that you'll have to "make believe" with outdated ships. You do not need warship improvement searly game
* Some minister/slider tinkering will help
* Forget armored divisions for early game. MOT 1 is an acceptbale ersatz unit

 

[Commander666]

Playing Uk requires a few "tricks"

Common sense strategy will work too

 

[Emmanuel_M]

Common sense strategy will work too

* The research expense allocation trick is not "gamey", but it's an undocumented trick that new players have a hard time discovering except for browsing this forum. It does wonders, so much that IMHO the "default" position of the research slider should be 75% (maybe with a "scale change" so that it reades 100% but allows sliding research cost to 133%, for exactly the same actual effect)
*Same for military salaries. A "trick" that is little documented and gives you a significant number of ICD in the 1936 scenario
* I could follow with "disbanding most colonial garrisons", another unorthodox way of getting some easy MP
* The whole "minister choice" preference is also an undocumented trick, since some ministers are so effectiveley superior to others. Army ministers are intersting (bonus in movespeed or defense ?). Navy ministers (carriers or obsolete ships), economy ministers (IC or some marginal bonus you don't give a fuck about), Intelligence (IC or some marginal shit you won't even notice ...), armaments (-15% supply cost or some unsignificant boost here and here) .... The idea that some ministers are so superior to others is ntot obvious, yet gives such a boost it matters far more than any tactical military choice ....
* As for armor division being a luxury UK36 cannot afford, it's ahistorical somewhat. If I find enthusisam to one day code a mod, it would be a tech tree modifier rebalalancing doctrines for a simple yet slightly different game experience. Yet for 1936, armor divs is, unlike tea and rugby matches, a luxury UK can't indulge into. DH has it right with it's armor division formation tech that's reasearchable around 1941 except for Germany (which starts with it).
* Some one posted on how much UK has to gain by manually micromanaging convoys. Didn't dig it myself, but is seemed like some real "free" buff to you can explicitly manage manually to gather a meaningfull warforce before the bell tolls.

My feeling is that the strategy you would need for GB 36 is far from intuitive for a new player, and requires tinkering with some non-intuitive game mechanics wich are not obvious to discover unless browsing here.
Unlike USSR, wher you can put this song(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgH_NBMACA) in loop mode, spam INF-art and ARM, and then unplug your brain.

 

[Pang Bingxun]

Imo the default spending slider position are right as they are. Reducing reserach or reducing the BWA of troops is something one should avoid if affordable. It comes at price that is high if war acutally breaks out. Regarding Ministers 1.09 has changed that, the choice now is more a matter of prefence.

 

[Emmanuel_M]

Imo the default spending slider position are right as they are. Reducing reserach or reducing the BWA of troops is something one should avoid if affordable. It comes at price that is high if war acutally breaks out. Regarding Ministers 1.09 has changed that, the choice now is more a matter of prefence.

Regarding reducing reasearch : the "default"position is "max reasearch at max cost". It's far from cost effective, especially during the long early peacetime for the 1936 scenario

As for military salaries, same. BWA climbs back really fast on september 1, 1939. The slight incovnenience is a tiny amount, of MP lost to attrition, which is marginal regarding the amount of ICD gained for UK.

Agreed for minsiters though, while I do not admire all of 1.9 changes this one is a straight improvement.