IC buildup with investment

[CzeReptile]

Hiya,

been trying the 33 scenario (huge huge huge thanks to Novapaddy!) as Germany. The 40% starting dissent was initial shock but it went fine within first year. Germany has 28 less base IC then in the 36 scenario, which effectively lets you start with approx 190-ish IC when you use ministers and central planning.
I tried to do IC investment, leaving small portion of my IC to constant upgrades (10-25 IC). There is one fact thats been troubling me a bit though, its 1939 and I have about 320 IC, 3 INT, 5 ARM, 2 INF, like 10 ships and garrison units in my queue and still being able to upgrade like mad. How oh how, I think there should be limited option on

national investments in research / infrastructure

In 1933, if you dedicate your IC to supplies, you can gather 3k stockpile, which you can sell for HUGE amounts of cash. I modified my economy towards full central planning in 1933, a neat 20% bonus straight from the start. Easiness with which AI gives loads of cash for few worthless supplies (USA, SU most notably) is little bit gamey on my point of view.
Ive outproduced everybody already and added years of research give you edge as well. While I enjoy it, think it should be somehow nerfd.

Opinions?

on 2nd try, by early March 1934, I got full CP and no dissent. Starting CP buildup for full capacity of my nation

 

[hansnery]

You are an administrative genius! :O
plus 10% IC for you lol
I will try this later.

 

[CzeReptile]

I find it little bit of abuse really.
If you start in 33, move one to hawk and then just use all possible cash to buy into full CP, not only you get alot of extra IC but also -2 dissent everytime. With other events, its easy to reduce dissent really fast and you can build IC straght from 35, with the extra CP bonus youll get ahead greatly. Ill be trying that today.

 

[CzeReptile]

I just tried the 33 scenario. Started with move towards Hawk Lobby.
in 33, two events give you two free CP movements. I funded remaining (12k, -6 dissent).
October 21, 1933 - full central planning and 14.74 out of 40 dissent, half a year into the game. My IC is already going over the base almost. Ill edit / update this page as I go.

April 4th 1934, dissent fully gone, moving entire IC to building more industry. Currently running on 129/122 with still a -11% tech decrease.
July 14th 1935, 187/136 IC, another hawk slider move. Thanks to one smear campaign, some dissent.
On first January 1936, I stand at 199/144, effectively more IC, then you can have when you play 1936 campaign as Germany from start. Not to mention far more upgraded units most likely, +10% research bonus from investments and already done 1936 techs in research.
30th of July 1936, 241 effective IC. Running one panzer SR, seven ships, about 15 ICs and 30 IC to upgrades.
1st of 1938, 287/194 IC. Still building few ICs, otherwise 5 rows of tanks, 5 of INF, 3 MOT, 3 INT, 2 CAS, 3 destr, 2 CL, 1 CA, 5 Subs.
14th Jan, anschluss, 324 / 216 IC. And still there is CZE to absorb and several to be built. Germany 400 IC prior to war?
1st 1939, final IC status for GErmany during my playtest 378/252. All infantry is 1936, production queue incl. 5 ARM, 9 INF and as per above. Also made 60 AA guns. For the defense. But relations with SU are baad for M-P pact and war trigger - this got fixed by repeated diplomatic campaign, although from -150 to +50 is going to stretch your purses out.
The extra useage of hawk slider movement makes you upgrade units much more efficiently even with full CP. With just small IC dedication from 36, you can have nearly all units properly upgraded even before invasion of France. I expect the IC to rocket over 500 after France, Norway, POland and Low countries are captured. Wondering what will Russian bear say to that.

 

[MartinBG]

That seems OK to me. The player should be rewarded for all the micromanagement (hundreds of manual trade deals) he did

 

[CzeReptile]

Really? Germany with all the IC bonuses can really grow tough opponent early on in the game without problems. Though recent wartest shows that the army is not big enough. I have devoted too much to upgrading units. I will be replaying it entirely to see better unit output and hopefully, 400 IC.

Still, I believe it to be a bit gamey, since other nations, not running CP, do not get the option to buff their IC using investments. SEeing how easy it is to get cash from AI, no wonder you run everybody over as Germany if you play at least a bit right.

 

[alekseevic]

This could be ok in mp games in which human "creativity" can bring to a real challenge. The ai has fixed patterns and he just showed up a good tricky way (BTW, congrats CzeRepltile ) to exploit the ai weakness.

A human player would hardly buy tons of supplies for cash considering how much cash costs in terms of IC points. At least I wouldn't.

 

[CzeReptile]

The US banking act, passed early in 33, gives you essentially 5000 cash to grab at VERY GOOD rate. THat alone is one CP movement and half of another one. Count 2 free ones, and all you need is another 3000 cash to be fully Central planning. Easily done in 33.Events help dissent reduction big time and then all you need is to catch up with the IC production.
I didnt build any IC until my dissent was gone, but there could be a way to properly re-distribute the IC so dissent is dropping fast yet you build alot of IC. Have to try this way. Questionable is use of the Create public works, which is for 6k, but also gives -2 dissent and some extra industrial capacity. 6000 is alot of cash, but it can be somehow considered useful, if you manage to maintain good output of supplies. FUll stock of supplies (3k) takes about 10 days, when you dont reduce dissent much. Cons goods though produce cash and early on, with no CP points, it is different.
Also, saving up cash to build the IC without the penalty by CP full can be interesting, reach high IC, apply the bonus and roll units like a boss.

WIll try it all

 

[alekseevic]

Forgot to mention one thing: to keep decent relations with USSR you can trade them something like 10 energy for free. For Germany is nothing, but keeps the Soviets calm. I always used this trick. You will probably need to go for diplomatic campaigns as well, but not so many.

 

[CzeReptile]

Yeah I fixd the relations but I found out that having about 100 divisions in total is very close to being overstretched.

The other thing is to prolong terms of service as soon as possible, since they for some reason slow down production big time. I need to try this out throughout again, to see benefits

 

[alekseevic]

I tried your strategy and it works. Now I'm in January '39, I've got 15 tanks (3 mediums, I rushed armor research), 90 inf (6 '39), 4 int, 8 cas and a small bunch of garrisons (don't know why I built them). Regarding the navy, I now have 12 subs. Starting from the '36 scenario I usually get something more, but it's enough for me.

Probably you started to build IC too late, I started once my dissent was below 7% and in June '36 I had 152 base IC. The only problem is that I have a lot of upgrades to do, I will focus on air forces.

 

[CzeReptile]

I just replayed it entirely.
I have less IC now 103 INF, 12 ARM, 6 MOT, 14 INT, 9 CAS and nearly all infantry is 36 or 39 already.

I will be trying out the mass IC building strategy, although I started building ICs in like February 1934, all the way to June 37. Thing is, I kept building units and upgrading them. My airforce is about twice as big and upgrades are probably what makes up the difference. Ill see how it plays out thou.

*edit

I did try it a bit more micro style, making it to full CP in early october 33, started production of new IC by end of 33 / Jan 34 for 2 years to come, but then however I started building units. As stated, the gearing bonus offsets the extra IC and even if you have it, you can only build so much in a short time span. It might be possible to gather about 300-350 productive IC with Anschluss and then just putting it all into production, but that is big IF. Still, might be worth trying and its next thing im going to do Also wondering whether is it worth to go full CP at all.

 

[Fernando Torres]

As Germany, I usually build IC until Munich agreements.
You end up with very few and somehow outdated INF units for Poland invasion, and even France. But then, Soviet Union is in big trouble as you can build hordes of aircrafts and mobile units from 1939 onwards.

 

[son of liberty]

Nice work CZE. Maybe I gave up on 33 Germany too soon.