Land Forces

Damage is relative to the combat power of units


Air Forces



Tips

• Always increase industry at the start of matches
  
• Constantly keep in check all borders that are potentially weak
  
• Even if you have little money, increase agriculture throughout
  
• Build up stronger fortifications on coasts and borders with strong countries
  
• Check the military powers of other countries periodically
  
• Keep coasts well guarded when at war as a precaution
  
• Stockpile up resources your country does not produce much of early on
  
• Always make sure all cities are producing something (especially when taking land)
  
• If you go ont he offensive, always have enough army to defend if the attack fails
  
• Only start battles you believe you can win with the current army
  
• Careful not to trigger wars against you that you didn't intend for

Out of the default scenarios, The Limits of Peace is generally the best option because it allows you to make more of the decisions before the AI start declaring war on each other.
You will want to choose one of the super powers, Argentina, or Brazil if you want to be able to effectively play the game and have an impact on the outcome.

Sticking with most of the default settings is typically a good idea. I changed a couple minor settings such as how much power is required for victory. Other options allow for harder or easier AI and whether an idealogy or nation has the most power.

Advantages

• Sufficient resources
  
• Easy to take out Communist China
  
• Potential allies nearby
  
• Many cities

Disadvantages

• Large amount of land to protect
  
• Weak cities
  
• Quickly attacked by superior Japan
  
• Only has basic infantry and mounted infantry
  
• Very weak naval force

I recommend moving most of your starter forces next to Japan controlled Manchuria and plan on replenishing troops protecting the coasts later. Send around 100 combat power to prepare for invading Communist China.


Before ending the first turn, change all of your arms production to industry. This will make your army's effectiveness lower dramatically, but you're mostly just going to use your army to deter any offensive movements for now.

Once all of your troops have finished moving at about turn 15, declare war on and move in on Communist China before your army loses too much effectiveness. At the same time start expanding all of your coal and metal deposits. These resources will be useful to stockpile and sell to other countries later on.

When Communist China is taken out, split up those troops and move them over to the same border your other troops are at. You will soon want to also start upgrading some agriculture in more populous regions so you can be self sufficient later on.

As you go through more turns, make sure to try preventing a goods shortage by reverting cities creating industry. The same idea goes for food and oil, but instead you'd have to buy these resources from nations that are still offering them.

Start changing many cities into creating troops as a precaution for when Japan attacks. Arms will be needed now so start changing some cities into arms as well. I got unlucky in my match and Japan declared war early on and is already allied with Germany.

I had gotten very unlucky as China with both Japan and Germany declaring war on me early on. The combination of their airforce and troops quickly overwhelmed my army, and although I managed to ally with USSR it was too late and I lost.

A few last tips for China:

• Build up a big army of infantry
  
• Don't focus very much on research
  
• Try to match the enemy's combat power on borders
  
• Defend coast with a decent army
  
• Try to ally with USSR or UK quickly for back up

China Difficulty: Hard

Advantages

• Start with higher quality troops
  
• Plenty of metal deposits
  
• Decently industrialized cities
  
• A lot of land owned elsewhere than Europe

Disadvantages

• Bordering both soon-to-be enemies Italy and Germany
  
• Not very easy to be helped by potential allies
  
• One small oil deposit, despite oil being much needed

Although it isn't as necessary, you can move the European troops to the German and Italian borders. Change some 1 IPU cities into industry and make a couple cities create troops. We donot want to destroy our arms or goods supply but the low overall IPUs make it impossible not to.

You will want to move some troops over and declare war on Nationalist Spain because they are easy pickings. You will also want to put all your navy in port to save on arms and maximize your resource output. While increasing resources, you'll want to sell some to slow your deficit. You may ally with Republican Spain because of the new war with Nationalist Spain.

If done correctly, Nationalist Spain should be easily taken out. Now return troops towards Germany and Italy and switch some European cities to create industry if you haven't already. You will have to take on a larger arms deficit, but it will only get worse if industry is not improved. You will want to avoid war with Germany for awhile because now you're vulnerable.

Make sure that you continue creating more troops periodically so you have a chance if attacked. Also, as a tip, don't let the other countries see all of your troops by placing them on the border. Keep them close by but not quite visible so you have a slight upper hand.

After some judgement calls on use of production, I am now in bad debt but not too bad arms and goods deficit considering I've been still making troops. Around this point you might choose to have a city doing research as I will, and I recommend you start researching improved infantry.

It is a good idea to check army powers (bottom right button) every so often to see how you'd do against certain countries. For me, I am ahead of Germany but they're catching up to me quickly. I can't do very much to prevent them from catching up to me other than declaring war, which would likely end in disaster.

After awhile Italy, Germany, and a few others will be allied and taking down Eastern European nations. Their combined power will definitely outmatch your own at this point and you must make sure your country is well guarded. Your best bet is to get an advantagous movement on the enemy later on or take the easy route and try to ally with Germany. I will continue to be neutral.

There is a good chance that the British Alliance will declare war on the German Alliance after they take down a certain amount of nations. You will still want to try to stay neutral because it's unsure if the UK can help with ground forces or not yet.

If you decided to research infantry earlier, your research should be done about now. I wouldn't recommend what I'm doing that of which is researching advanced infantry. I decided to take the risk of not having the IPUs for goods or arms so I could potentially still fight off the enemies later.

In my match, the UK has landed in German owned Denmark. I have decided to take the risk and take advantage of this battle by joining the British Alliance. This will effectively put me at war with Germany and allies. If I succeed I will end this match in a quick victory and if I lose, the match will take far longer.

My plan mostly worked because I took out a good amount of German troops and captured most of Italy's homeland. The UK and Republican Spain have sent reinforcements to back up my battles. I am however losing resources at dangerous rates.

At this point I'd only being showing anything noteworthy in my match that wouldn't specifically help you in your own matches. I'll finish my France guide with some last tips that pertain the playing as this country.


Tips for playing as France

• Do not destroy your arms supply too much at any point
  
• Slowly, but continuously build up troops (both tanks and infantry)
  
• Do not show your enemy all of your troops at once
  
• Try to hold on to the homeland for as long as possible as its very important
  
• Wait for British assistance

France Difficulty: Medium

Advantages

• Many troops and large airforce
  
• Incredibly large metal and coal deposits
  
• Many small weak countries nearby
  
• Well industrialized cities
  
• Multiple potential allies close to homeland

Disadvantages

• Low relations with many nations
  
• France, UK, and/or USA likely to declare war quickly
  
• Low oil deposits
  
• Weak starter navy

A good way to start with Germany is to have your cities doing little of everything: research, industry, goods, troops, and arms. Your arms and goods supply will suffer but it should be manageable later on. You will want to move some troops to various borders just to be sure you're safe. Last thing you'd want to do for the first turn is to buy large amounts of oil on the market or you'll really be hurting for it later.

If you have not done so yet, it would be a good idea to maximize the output of all your raw resources that way you can sell them later on to support your economy.

Now would be a good time to declare war on Austria. Austria's army is weak, they have much needed IPUs, and it will open the border with Italy. Italy should ally with you now, and it is worth trying to ally with Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania now.

Japan will declare war on China not too long later. It is normally not a terrible idea to try to ally with Japan, although doing so will increase the chances of other nations attacking you. If you do decide to join Japan, you will need to start steadily increasing transport capacity. I was unable to join Japan because of Italy denying the alliance request.

When you believe your army is strong enough, you should declare war on Polan, Czechoslovakia, or Yugoslovia. Every 10 turns or so, attack each of the 3 countries until you've beaten them or anothe rnation declared war on you. Be fure to keep a decent amount of power on your border with France. In my game, Japan allied with me after declaring war on Czechoslovakia

At this point the game will likely skew off in a direction making the specific match too unique for a guide to help anymore. For the record, I was able to win my match.


Pointers for playing as Germany

• Build a sizeable army quickly
  
• Be careful with food and oil supplies as they run dry quickly
  
• Have cities producing industry, troops, goods, arms, and research throughout
  
• Try gaining many allies while also declaring war on others
  
• Stockpile large amounts of coal and metal for a profit and to help allies in need of resources

Germany difficulty: Easy

Advantages

• Easy to ally with Axis powers
  
• Good starting army
  
• Best starter airforce
  
• Large navy

Disadvantages

• Terribly small resource desposits
  
• Nearly all land is on the coast
  
• Weak industry
  
• Poor
  
• France, UK, USA, and others are likely to declare war

I'd suggest placing all navy in port for now to save on arms usage. I would also change all my arms production to industry or goods. The purpose of doing this is so your industry will rise very quickly at the expense of army efficiency, but this is fine for now because it is still early on and there is still peace. I'd also suggest to start maximizing all metals and coal outputs.

This is mostly just something I do for a free ally, but allying with either side in Spain's civil war is an easy way to get help for future wars.

Now (in about 50 turns) would be a good time to change the production of your cities. Swap your cities that were making goods into industry and the cities working on industry can be changed to goods. If needed/wanted a few cities can be changed to a some other productions


My game from here on was dragged in an odd direction, rendering my Italy portion of the tutorial useless from here on out. Due to lack of motivation, this portion of my guide will not be changed until I want to.

Pointers for playing as Italy:

• Build industry and collect raw resources quickly
  
• Ally with Germany as soon as they start declaring war
  
• Keep a good navy, but be careful not to let it be destroyed
  
• Upgrade fortifications with French border as often as possible

Italy Difficulty: Medium

Advantages

• Good navy
  
• Strong relations with Germany
  
• Weak neighboring Ally power (China)
  
• Early Tanks

Disadvantages

• Mainland is an island
  
• Low relations with nearby USSR
  
• Little oil and metals resources

Start by moving navy into ports and 2 of the 3 ground units of mainland Japan into Japanese controlled Manchuria. Request ~200 metals and ~400 oil from the market to build up valuable resources. Maximize output production of each resource and start industrializing 5 - 7 small cities.

After 30+ turns of letting your industry grow, now would be a good time to make a decision. You can either choose to grow the Japanese controlled Manchuria and Korea industry enough to make armies on that land, or vice versa for homeland Japan. If you use Manchurian and Korean land for military production, the cities will have a harder time growing, but troops will be closer to the front lines. If you decide to create a military in the homeland, industry will be stronger, but you'll need transport capacity for each troop going to the front lines. I will decide to create troops mostly in Manchuria.

When you're confident enough that your industry and military can take on China, it would be in your best interest to declare war on China for the industrial growth. I declared war on turn 77.

If you overestimated your army's strength or underestimated your enemies' power, you will want to to hold a strong enough defense against China until Germany starts attacking other nations and join them. If you have managed to fight past the front lines, you'll get the option to take start taking all of China's land for yourself or create an ally. (Communist China) I will decide to create an ally as I personally don't like managing too many cities and rescources.

I have successfully fought past most of China's strongholds and should have all the the land in about 20 more turns. At this point my own playthrough will start to get skewed based on my own preferences on how to play the game and not necessarily the most efficient way of playing.

Pointers for playing as Japan

• Buy a lot of metal and oil right away
  
• Maintain a good navy, but keep most in port to save on arms
  
• Ally with Axis countries
  
• Take over China early on

Japan difficulty: Medium