What is the average time you spend setting up your country?
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1) I'm (mildly) OCD, so all of my divisions have to be sequential (i.e, 1 - 2 - 3 - 4), not just in number, but in organization so the First Army Group is Army 1, Army 2, (named appropriately of course), and the first army is 1st Division, 2nd Division, etc. So I have to rename* almost every division I start with.
2) After the Army reorg, I delete the Air Force (moving all the planes back into the stockpile).
3) Next I send all of my Task Forces to my main naval base before merging them together (that way the faster Destroyers stop using fuel when they arrive instead of being slowed by traveling with the BBs and Submarines.) Eventually I will split them by role, so a Carrier Stack, BB/BC stack, CA, CL, DD (usually multiple for Screen, ASW, Escort, etc.) and an SS Stack. Once everything is grouped I exercise them starting with my Subs, then small groups of DD, etc. I try to keep my groups at a size that I am still (slowly) filling my silos and once full just less than my daily gain.
4) After that it speeds up: Research, Military Contruction, Civil Construction, NF, and such are quick because they rarely change.
All told it can take me up to an hour for a larger country like the USSR, UK, US, or Japan. Never really play France, but it would probably take a while as well. Germany is actually pretty fast since it starts out so compact.
* I have custom namelists that have the divisions in order, are all cross linked (so I will never have a 1st Infantry, 1st Mountain, and 1st Airborne at the same time...and I don't get anal about making sure the 81st division is always the 81st 'All-American' Airborne Division). Some countries have special exceptions (i.e, Italy and Germany have separate lists for Alpine/Mountain troops), Cavalry and Armor are usually different lists (from infantry and each other), I don't link the German Panzergrenadiers, but do link the Italian Armor (as far as I can tell Italy didn't have separate sequences for anything except Alpine and Cavalry, they might have reserved numbers/sequences for the different types but they didn't overlap.)
2) After the Army reorg, I delete the Air Force (moving all the planes back into the stockpile).
3) Next I send all of my Task Forces to my main naval base before merging them together (that way the faster Destroyers stop using fuel when they arrive instead of being slowed by traveling with the BBs and Submarines.) Eventually I will split them by role, so a Carrier Stack, BB/BC stack, CA, CL, DD (usually multiple for Screen, ASW, Escort, etc.) and an SS Stack. Once everything is grouped I exercise them starting with my Subs, then small groups of DD, etc. I try to keep my groups at a size that I am still (slowly) filling my silos and once full just less than my daily gain.
4) After that it speeds up: Research, Military Contruction, Civil Construction, NF, and such are quick because they rarely change.
All told it can take me up to an hour for a larger country like the USSR, UK, US, or Japan. Never really play France, but it would probably take a while as well. Germany is actually pretty fast since it starts out so compact.
* I have custom namelists that have the divisions in order, are all cross linked (so I will never have a 1st Infantry, 1st Mountain, and 1st Airborne at the same time...and I don't get anal about making sure the 81st division is always the 81st 'All-American' Airborne Division). Some countries have special exceptions (i.e, Italy and Germany have separate lists for Alpine/Mountain troops), Cavalry and Armor are usually different lists (from infantry and each other), I don't link the German Panzergrenadiers, but do link the Italian Armor (as far as I can tell Italy didn't have separate sequences for anything except Alpine and Cavalry, they might have reserved numbers/sequences for the different types but they didn't overlap.)
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For air wings?
Because I play a mod that reduces airfields to 100 planes per level instead of 200 planes per level, all wings are set to 100 when I reorganize the air force. And all new wings are 100 planes. That's an easy way for me to ensure that I can easily move wings around airfields in increments that work with potential airfield sizes.
Pick NF, pick initial research (usually industry and whichever electronics research gives a research bonus), delete air wings, assign MILs, start building CIVs like a maniac, group army divisions onto one province and then assign them to generals. Maybe trade for a resource if I need one. Repeat for every country I play, more or less. Takes about two to three minutes, tops.
There are a few exceptions. Italy takes longer because they are in a war and most of their MILs aren't assigned, and their air wings need to be moved (I would delete and re-form them, but they are already in a war so those planes need to be over Ethiopia right now). I don't assign generals to the divisions in Italy, just the ones directly involved in the war, until Ethiopia capitulates (it's not like France is going to invade me in the first 70 days, right?). Their navy is big with a few fleets that are too small to do anything, so I have to combine several of the fleets to get things to a manageable number. I usually don't even look at their navy till I finish off Ethiopia, either.
Germany doesn't get its air wings deleted, but all of its divisions get moved to Frankfurt, in preparation for the civil war that I always trigger. I combine some squadrons of their navy, but there honestly isn't much to do there because they don't have many ships.
Turkey is the exception to my "spam CIVs" plan. Turkish infrastructure is complete pants. CIVs get a construction speed bonus based on infrastructure level, and Turkish infrastructure is 3 on average, a smattering of 4s, and a single 5. It takes just under a thousand years to build a CIV in those conditions, so I spam infra in the west until everything is a 6, and get my CIVs from the NFs.
There are a few exceptions. Italy takes longer because they are in a war and most of their MILs aren't assigned, and their air wings need to be moved (I would delete and re-form them, but they are already in a war so those planes need to be over Ethiopia right now). I don't assign generals to the divisions in Italy, just the ones directly involved in the war, until Ethiopia capitulates (it's not like France is going to invade me in the first 70 days, right?). Their navy is big with a few fleets that are too small to do anything, so I have to combine several of the fleets to get things to a manageable number. I usually don't even look at their navy till I finish off Ethiopia, either.
Germany doesn't get its air wings deleted, but all of its divisions get moved to Frankfurt, in preparation for the civil war that I always trigger. I combine some squadrons of their navy, but there honestly isn't much to do there because they don't have many ships.
Turkey is the exception to my "spam CIVs" plan. Turkish infrastructure is complete pants. CIVs get a construction speed bonus based on infrastructure level, and Turkish infrastructure is 3 on average, a smattering of 4s, and a single 5. It takes just under a thousand years to build a CIV in those conditions, so I spam infra in the west until everything is a 6, and get my CIVs from the NFs.
Not long - since most countries I play have wars starting 1939+ I have some time.
usually just 1-2 minutes Setting up national focus, production, trade, construction and research and I do OOB for army, air and navy as I go
usually just 1-2 minutes Setting up national focus, production, trade, construction and research and I do OOB for army, air and navy as I go
Couple of Minutes. Though with a naval power, I tend to take way longer as I organize the navies around quite intently for god only knows what reason.
Eh, nothing too complicated.
In vanilla and against the AI, I focus on 40w divisions, build plenty of fighters (and focus on them), build some CAS. I tend to go for heavy armor so I can use tungsten for ART and other things. I don't fight the Germans at the border, but conduct a static defense on the Riga-Kiev-Dnepotiverisk (however in the Hell you spell it) Line. Once the German army spends a couple of weeks trying to break through (and the Luftwaffe has started to sustain heavy losses), I counter-attack and start wiping them. With even a tiny bit of luck, I can do a sickle cut south from Kiev to trap Axis forces near the river bend. That's usually a death sentence to the Axis, because from there I strike towards Romania to seize the oil. The German army, under AI control, sometimes has trouble understanding where to put units if you wipe the Romanians and Hungarians in a big encirclement. So, they try to defend Germany and Poland, leaving little defense as you take the oil and aluminum, capitulating their friends.
I used to build forts on the river line when facing the AI, but I stopped. Because the AI would see level 5 forts and then just not attack. We'd have a sitzkrieg on the eastern front.
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