Britain's little helper - a newbie's Canada AAR

[Brougal]

Hello, some days ago i posted a thread on AoD forum asking for good starting nation for a new player, Canada was recommended and that made sense, being in North America and getting into action from start of WW2 .

While i have attempted a few games, i don't understand the game that well (tech tree being very confusing to meo ) and started this aar in hopes of getting some advice from more experienced players .

Now, for game itself, as title implies, i intend to remain a loyal supporter of Great Britain in game so you won't see me annexing USA and/or half of Europe .

But finally the options for the game:

Difficulty: Normal
AI aggressivness: Aggressive
Democracy can start start war: On
Ending date: 1964
Full IC take over: off
Tech-team take over: On

Now i'd like to ask, what should i be researching? i presume that macine tools and agricultural techs are important, but what after them, besides keeping infantry up to date? should i research into air forces? are tanks worth researching for me? and about prodution, should i start with factories, whitch seems to be good idea, but pushes back early military development? or start training troops already?

 

[KcindX]

Subscribed just because of the name! Britains little helper=Perfect! Start with base m tools, canada has no airforce at first so that should take some priority

 

[Brougal]

KcindX- good to know atleast someone found the title amusing

 

[Brougal]

The Beginning

Well I started research with basic machine tools and agrichemistry, the latter because Canada seems to be desperate for manpower with only 0.16 daily manpower

In production I started with factories and bombers to get IC, third tech team and to get potential air force started, note that I did add three queues of six infantry after taking this screenshot.

The first two months went pretty normal way, with nothing really happening and me getting blueprints from allies, as well as our only infantry unit upgrading to match times standards

On march 7. Germany re-occupied Rhineland

When defense policy event fired I chose striking bargain with conservatives for a reason clear in this screenshot

I completed basic machine tools tech and started researching rear area supply dumps, but would like to know some other tech I should start researching

In June 5. Guangxi Cligue declared war on Nationalist China and on July 17. Spanish civil war began.

 

[KcindX]

Does canada start with any navy?

 

[Brougal]

Only with one warship (forgot what type) and 6 transports

 

[unmerged(83496)]

A DDI if memory serves...

Are you building any infrastructure at all? Might be more efficient than factories.

Keep up the great work! G'oh Canada!

 

[Brougal]

A DDI if memory serves...

Are you building any infrastructure at all? Might be more efficient than factories.

Keep up the great work! G'oh Canada!

No i haven't build infastructure becouse i don't know what it does o

 

[unmerged(226974)]

No i haven't build infastructure becouse i don't know what it does o

It acts as a multiplier for resources and IC in the province. 200% Infra (max allowed) provides about 50% more IC and resources than 100% infra, for example.

That's a rough rule of thumb, but it gives you an idea.

Edit to add: when I start a game, I put any province with at least 10 factories (base IC) or a notable share of critical resources (varies by nation, may be rares/oil/metal...) in for upgrade to 200% IC. It takes a while, but will pay off in the long run.

 

[Brougal]

The waiting years

I changed production plan from 4 stacks of 5 factories to 2 stacks of 5 factories and full upgrade of infrastructure in those provinces

In first 12 days of Spanish civil war republicans seem to having made first push into nationalist held north, by the way, when France and Britain select “Why support anarchist rabble” do they send help to Spain or not?

agrichemistry research was completed and moved forward to agricultural production

After rear supply dumps was researched, I moved on to early field artillery, because I’ve gotten impression artillery brigades are useful to have, now as I mentioned in first post, tech tree is pretty much most confusing part to me and I’ve already run out of real knowledge as to what I really should research, other than imp. machine tools for next year, so I’d really appreciate some help in tech field

On November 2. Italy annexed Ethiopia

when new year started, I moved sliders to hawk lobby

In Spain situation seems to be favorable to republicans at one point nationalists managed to seize Guadalaraja and Sigüenza (two provinces east of Madrid) but republicans retook them and keeps pushing northwards

 

[unmerged(226974)]

I suggest improving your infantry division tech (Infantry tab), your Land Doctrines tab in general, and just about anything on the Industrial tab will wind up being useful. I'd skip Naval and Naval doctrines entirely - the other allies have you covered there. Artillery is indeed useful.

This early, I suggest cutting down the parallel builds in favor of longer serial builds.

 

[unmerged(83496)]

I agree with Gridley83: Industrial and Infantry techs should be your main focus.

The "Why support anarchist rabble?" event means that France/UK have elected not to lend any support.

 

[Brougal]

In this update i go through entire year becouse nothing of note happened before Japanese invasion of China

Waiting years part 2

On February 28. Germany offered Anti-Comintern pact to both Japan and Italy, to which both agreed to

The next thing that happened was in 1. July, when Marco Polo bridge incident sparked second Sino-Japanese war (thou Wikipedia placed date on 7.-9. July)

So, Japanese invasion is big enough threat for Kuomintang to offer peace with communists and other warlords and even accept help from Soviet Union but not to accept help from US?

After their initial advance into China, Japanese established their puppet Mengkukuo

When new year 1938 came, I moved sliders by one on hawk again

In China the Japanese have overrun all of old Shanxi territory, while in Spain situation hasn’t changed at all during whole year, at least in territory control