Industry and economy for n00bs

[Frédéric Chopin]

I just got Doomsday and started a game with France. It went decently for a while, but after holding off the German invasion for a little bit my production halted and all my money began to disappear. My economy was never really strong, but as the game progressed it became more and more pitiful. What is a good way to manage industry and the economy?

[hellheaven1987]

Well, the fact is that Germany would bomb your industry slowly, so the best way is to defend both your land and your air.

Oh, and start building industry if the situation is not too tight.

[Tankfriend]

Hellheaven is pretty much right, but you'll also have to take naval defense into account so you can maintain your ressource supply from the colonies even though that might not be very large.
I'll sum it up for a bit:

Economy
As hellheaven has said already, if you've got some IC to spare, try to use them for building additional factories to improve it further. Note though that it's a time- and IC-consuming task so try to schedule it in such a way that you can prepare appropriately for the war.

Another factor that you should consider is infrastructure. It's very time- and ressource-consuming to improve as well but it also influences pretty much every aspect of a province like unit movement, IC efficiency etc. Mainland France already has a very high infrastructure that shouldn't take too much work to complete but don't even consider to work on the colonial provinces because they are way too low in terms of infrastructure and will be in danger of capture very early in the war.

Defense
Defense is probably the most important part in keeping a healthy economy in war. It's sounding a bit weird, but trust me: You won't have enough time and/or ressources to improve your economy by much as soon as the war starts anyway, so the focus shifts towards preserving your current economy.

Land Defense
Obviously an important part but it's probably one of the easiest to achieve depending on the circumstances you have to deal with. Given the description you've given above it shouldn't be the problem with this. It's good to note though, that finishing the line of fortifications up to the Channel is worthwhile in the end but it takes too many ressources and workforce to be desirable; you'd better use them for other tasks.

Air Defense
As hellheaven has said, Germany (and probably Italy and Japan, depending on how the game is playing out) will start to bomb your provinces - it's a slow process but it will eventually force you into submission because you can't support, reinforce, train or upgrade your units any more (a good thing to do to your enemies btw ).
There are enough ways to defend against airstrikes though:

- try to build your new factories on the Atlantic Coast in mainland France, that way, they are as far away from the enemy airforce and the frontline as they can get while also being in provinces with good infrastructure and without the necessity of convoi transports; that means that enemy aircraft usually won't attack them because they have got many more targets closer to them so you can concentrate your defenses closer to the frontline

- try to stock all your important provinces (fortifications, industrial provinces etc.) with the maximum number of AA emplacements; they are very cheap, quick to build, relatively easy to upgrade and certainly can have a major impact on the effectiveness of the enemy airforce

- try to set up a fighter screen along the frontline and around important areas of mainland France so they can engage the enemy airforce as soon as they are trying to enter your territory; go for interceptors if you're mainly facing bomber squadrons, otherwhise take fighters as they are more general purpose; as far as I have heard, night (naval?) fighters are supposedly very good at air combat as well (especially at night naturally, but that's not all that important )

- try to set up some radar stations along the frontline and around important areas to improve the effectiveness of your anti-aircraft measures

Naval Defense
The main aspect of naval "defense" is a more offensive approach: Assemble a fleet (also use naval/tactical bombers, they can be extremely efficient) and move against the enemy navy in order to prevent or impede any merchant hunter missions carried out by them (like bombing, it can be quite effective against the enemy - submarines are especially useful for it).If the enemy is using submarines against your traders, dispatch a small fleet of destroyers or light cruisers scheduled with anti-submarine-warfare (ASW) against them, they are best suited for the task. Also, try to increase the amount of merchant ships and escort destroyers (simply called "escorts") to improve your transport capacities and their protection against merchant hunters. This is not to be underestimated for some rather simple reasons:

- the more IC you have, the more ressources you're using up; if you run out of even a single ressource needed, your IC will be reduced to the level where production and demand meet; that's something you definitely don't want because it can seriously decrease your IC

- the ressources, especially rare material and oil, are often imported from your colonies or allies; that means that a shortage of sea transport capacity will result in a shortage of ressource import which in turn will lead to an IC collapse; therefore, you need to have an adequate amount of transports available (note that any units in deployment mode count towards your transport needs!); especially any enemy merchant hunters around can be very dangerous to your transport capacity; simply go to the production menu and check the numbers for transports and escorts on the lower right to see if you need to build some more; basically, you should always have a bit more capacity than you're using up in order to have a small "buffer" against losses

- if you have units abroad (which naturally is the case with colonial troops e.g. in Africa), they also use up transport capacities because they need supplies shipped to them; no or few supplies naturally decrease their efficiency

[Frédéric Chopin]

Thank you both for all the advice; I hadn't even considered some of those things. Hopefully my second attempt will be far more successful.

[hellheaven1987]

Thank you both for all the advice; I hadn't even considered some of those things. Hopefully my second attempt will be far more successful.

Second attempt would be exptend Maginot Line I guess...

Or simply leave Allies; I have done that before and it works very well.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

I have once run the Maginot line from the Atlantic to the Med.

Anyhoo my economy advice:

The pre-war build up is very important, none more so than for France.

Increase your IC, I usually have 5x5 IC being build (25 IC total), its not to harsh on the economy and provides a yearly 25IC boost to your economy.

Secondly organise your TC, build some extra suppy convoys, this will help with holding your colonies (if you chose too).

Supplies: Always build up a massive surplus, the supplies slider can provide a handy emergency IC boost. If you run out of supplies however you get increased dissident, leading to less IC leading to less supplies and it turns into a vicouse ciricle.

I'm quite good at economies, I've managed to get the Soviet Union to 400IC by 1945, turned Italy and Japan into economic powerhouses and turned Republican Spain into a major power (like France at the begining).

[hellheaven1987]

I even build up Australia up to 100 IC before 1942...

The thing is that if you want to build IC, start it earlier; also, move to free market as it would take shortest time to build industry (since it all cost you 5 IC to build industry Free Market is better).