Argentina

Axis Argentina

This a 1936 GC guide, playing HoI2 v1.3b.1 (Mac). Work in progress, please bear with me. :)

Focus

The idea here is not to score World Conquest, but to turn Argentina into a credible Axis junior partner and play a major role in the Southern hemisphere. Or die trying...

Startup

Argentina starts with a few obsolete and underpowered divisions, one mountain division and, most important, a HQ. You also have an obsolete interceptor and a naval bomber, plus a bunch of ancient ships. That's not too bad: true, you're nowhere near major powers level, but compared to your neighbours, you're a tiger. or, more appropriately, a jaguar. Well, something nasty, anyway... Your only true rival is Brazil.

The first thing you need to decide is, what to do with the bunch of obsolete units that is pompously known as "Argentinian Navy". One the one hand, they eat up a lot of supplies; on the other, even obsolete battleships bear a formidable amount of firepower and can be very useful later, if used wisely. Plus, you can't really afford the research and IC to build newer types. My advice is thus to keep them, for the moment.

Spend some IC on reinforcements, to bring your infantry up to strength; set aside one or two points to upgrade, but don't sweat it: you have time.

Lastly, move the political slider towards Interventionism; you'll go to war, sooner or later, and this means taking a huge dissent hit (we're talking 10-12% here). In prevision for that, start stocking on supplies. Trade what's necessary to cover your needs and also try to trade for money. The US is a very good partner for this. You will need the money to influence Germany.

Your goal is to join the Axis as soon as possible: the earlier you join, the more blueprints you get. Which leads us to...

Research

Face it: you don't have the best tech teams in the world. On the other hand, you have some of the best in the southern hemisphere and quite likely the best in Latin America. The biggest problem you face is that you only have two tech slots: you will have to make choices.

Your first two research should be Machine Tools and Census Tabulating Machine. For your next moves, I would recommend:

• Industrial techs: Manufacturing (for the IC) and Computers (for the research bonus). As often said, don't go into nuclear research, you're not up to par, anyway. Rockets can be useful later, for rocket- and turbojet-propelled aircraft, but don't rush it, either. Agriculture has its use for increased manpower, as does the oil techs. Radar are more likely lower priority.
• Infantry: get Infantry 1936 soon; it's not that urgent, but by the end of 1936, go for it! If you have the resources, check Mountain troops, maybe Marines, too. Also, don't underestimate the Supply techs.
• Armor and Artillery: if you must research something there, focus on artillery, possibly static AA. Don't bother with tanks: South America is not the best-suited terrain for these.
• Aircraft: don't sweat it, for the time being. Your Naval Bombers (which will be your main air force) won't be upgradable until 1940. Look into Interceptor techs, maybe CAS, which are nice all-around ground- and sea-attack planes.
• Naval: decisions, decisions... You cannot research everything, you cannot build everything, so I would advise you to focus on Submarines. Research up until Long-Range and then let it rest. Later on, you may wish to build a larger surface fleet, but limit it to smaller ships (CL and CA may be the best value here).
• Doctrines: land and sea doctrines take a lot of research time, but are vital for your combat efficiency. They are not that important early in the game, but don't forget them after 1938. Try to bargain for blueprints -- except, of course, Germany has a different Land Doctrine path... Air doctrines are usually faster.

Whenever you can do so, start building a small quantity of industries (such as 2x4 or even 2x3). This will be important in getting to the 40 IC holy grail. Also have a couple transport ships ready for 1939; get some Marines, too, if you can.

[ ]{#The_road_to_war_(1936-1939)} The road to war (1936-1939)

This is the time when you go wild in South America. Attack, annex, recover; rinse, repeat. Have a few garrison in the construction queue (with Police if you already have Infantry 1936 tech).

Your biggest problem will most likely be the dissent hit due to low Interventionism, which is why supplies stockpiles are important. Right after you declare war, move all your sliders (except construction) to Consumer Goods and hope you have enough supplies to last until it's down to reasonable levels. You most likely won't have large production queues, but make sure your IC allocation to construction is always 100%.

Your first targets should be Uruguay and Paraguay . For each one it's fairly simple: move all your armies to a province adjacent to the capital province (Asunción holds the only VP for Paraguay, Montevideo the only VP for Uruguay), attack with your mountain division (which is fastest), possibly with air support (although it will be quick and you might wish to save your oil supplies) and all your other unit in Support Attack. Annex and garrison.

Next in line should be Chile . This is a bit trickier, as they have a bigger army and the front will be very wide. Also, they have the nasty habit of attacking you when you attack them... Put the bulk of your army near Santiago; the mountain division near the Chilean VP at Punta Arenas and another infantry division next to that one.

On day one, attack Santiago with all your strength and move your mountain division in the southern VP province. Remember to keep a division guarding your VP at San Miguel de Tucumán and also watch for invasion on industrial provinces; you don't have a lot of IC, don't lose them to the enemy. Here, air support might help. Once Santiago is taken, immediately attack Antofagasta with all your strength. It will take a while to get there, but, in the mean time, continue to attach Chilean troops: it keeps them busy and weak and it gives your leaders and troops some experience. Once Antofagasta is gone, annex and garrison.

For Chile, I would recommend to garrison every province: it will be useful later as early warning systems, when the Allies will come knocking on your door with massive transport fleets.

Next in line is Bolivia . The trick here is not to attack the capital directly: by the time you can do so, they will have close to six divisions in an mountain province -- got a good plan! First, have you main attack forces (with Moutain divisions) in Antofagasta; then move three infantry divisions to Sucre (which should be unoccupied), with the rest of the forces supporting the attack. Once Sucre has fallen, you can attack with your main forces and with support from your Sucre divisions. Hold off on air support: Bolivia has an Interceptor that can put serious amounts of hurt into your NAV... Annex and garrison.

You can try and attack Peru , but only do so if you're certain you can annex it before the war starts in Europe. Because, when it does, Peru will almost automatically join the Allies -- and you can expect a fair deal of Allied troops joining the tango... Should you choose to attack, Peru is a nasty customer: its VPs are in mountainous areas and the Peruvian army is marginally better than its neighbour's; yours is most likely better, but still. Your best chance for a quick victory is to first launch an attack on Arequipa with your mountain troops, and then, when victory is achieved, double up with an amphibious assault on Lima. Taking Cuzco first will help, of course.

The gist of it is, as soon as the war starts, conclude any ongoing conquest activity, as soon as possible . Now, by the time you're there, you should be well into 1939. By that time, you should be allied with the Axis power(s) (that can be done by late 1937) and have 40 IC -- and the third tech team.

Alternate strategy

Attept to build a axis Alliance in South America, with Bolivia, and Peru, which will allow you to have a much easier fight against Brazil, and Chile. Also those two countries are ripe for fascism to take them.

[ ]{#Argentina_in_the_War_(1940-?)} Argentina in the War (1940-?)

Now is the time for defense and construction.

The good news is, you have a priviledged position: you're deep south, far from the main zone of conflict. The bad news is, this only means the Allies will take longer to get at you -- but they will! This is why it is very important to grab the Falklands from the UK as soon as the war starts: first of all, because it's a major air and naval base next to your home turf, second because the Malvinas are yours by right, those Brits be damned!

From now on, you have three priorities:

1. Safeguarding your land, by garrisoning the coastline;
2. Safeguarding your waters, by building submarines and naval bombers;
3. Planning your future conquests.

Build a few more infantry, possibly one fairly long queue. These will be your garrison troops for Argentina proper. One per province should be enough (maybe a reserve three-division force, for reinforcenments), as you will be mostly counting on them to sound the alarm for subs and NAVs to intervene.

One nasty trick is to leave Tierra del Fuego open and to wait and see Allies placing themselves in the "prison camp" island. They won't be able to attack if there are hostile fleets in the surrounding waters, so keep a couple subs cruising around. It's dangerous, but attrition might do much larger damage to those troops that your army can ever hope to do...

Your main builds, however, will be subs. Try to get 4-6 series running for a long time. They build fast and you should get a nice gearing bonus there. You will, however, lose a lot of them. With any luck, you will also do a good deal of damage to the Allied fleets. Also have 1, possibly 2 NAV series. Try to upgrade to Improved NAV as soon as possible and push those Sea and Air Doctrines to the maximum. Encryption/Decryption techniques are also good for detection and surprise.

Have your old fleet (remember them?) set up near the most frequent Allied landing point (it's usually Santiago, but your mileage may vary) and bring them out as a backup force when the US tries something. They may be old, but they can still turn a good deal of transports and their escorts into artificial reef. And if they are sunk, at least they went in a blaze of glory...

Coming Soon: Back to the offensive

Argentina as a major power

AIM

It is possible to conquer any nation (possibly Germany and Soviet Union?) with Argentina in the 1936 GC.

Technology and ministers

Since the biggest problem for all minor powers is manpower, swap the ministers to give the most manpower bonus (you need them to fight USA later). The intel and armament ministers should give +5% IC bonus. However, some ministers don't come until 1938 so check after every year to get maximum effect on manpower.

Boosting manpower sacrifices valuable IC, thus less tech slot avalible. Trim your research to the following (* means priority): Food production* The assembly lines (SM*, vehicle* and aircraft) Land doctrines* Infantry* Artillery* Supply efficiency Mot CAS CAS doctrines

You will only have 3 free slots most of your time so don't research anything else.

Diplomacy

Use all your spare metal and oil to trade with the USA for food. Keep influencing the USA and the allies because they are annoying pests who will attack you prematurely and end your game. You must sign NAPs before a war with USA when your belliengerance is too high.

Just push for interventionsm. Going Hawk and/or standing army is useless, USA will influence you to screw up your sliders anyway. However, they don't seem to do anything to my intervention and authorian slider. You can exploit this later on. Since USA has full open society and free market, you will recive free slides and have less partisans and get your free market slider maxed(the only way you can get it because you are too authorian anyway). Later events will make USA full intervention and probably 8 points in Hawk, you will get your Hawk slider back so don't worry if you became Dove early in the game.

Bang on to War in South America

Do not worry about dissent at all, you are going to have it for a few years, so attack when your army's ready. Set your production automatic. Trade all your oil and metal with USA for food. Disband your interceptor and NAV. Disband all brigades. March your Mtn to the southern part(the province next to the chile VP). The others attack Montevideo and do not annex yet. Striaght after that march everything to paraguay, attack and annex. Build one convoy now, after it is completed, do a series of 3 transports.

Move everything to Chile and attack their 3 VPs at once. They have minimal resistance so its fairly easy to take down. Move all your army to the south of Bolivia. Do the same old attack and annex trick. You may experience problems when attacking their army of 5. Simply lure some of their troops into the moutainous province before taking their capital.

Your first transport probably has arrived. Load up one division and do an Amphabious landing in Peru. The trick is having your main army to support attack at the adjacent province. You should have annexed them in no time. Build 3 inf divisions and one naval port(without the naval port you are screwed). Place one division in Ascioun to defend it. If your dissent is leveled already, build some artillery for your inf to give extra punch. When the port is nearly done, declare war on Brazil and use the amph+support attack to take all the coastal VPs. There is one VP province you have to march in to take it. Have 1 division walk there and 4-5 supporting attack with HQ. Keep taking coastline VPs with your remaining army. After you have taken Recife. You realised you need a port there to take the last VP. Place the Port in Recife and finish the Job. Remember to annex Uruaguay now. Or else the USA will come down and kill you.

I HAVE TO STRESS THIS: DO NOT GO TO WAR WITH ANOTHER COUNTRY WITHOUT A NAP WITH THE USA AFTER THIS POINT. They hate you, they want to kill you so get a NAP before doing any conquests. Build 2x3 transports. In the meantime, finish off the remaining South American Countries. When you have 9 transports, attack Panama with everything. If you do this too late, these tiny countries will probably have 2-3 divisions, which is hard to get in. You should have completed this by late 1938.

Central America and Carrabian

It must be so attempting to switch to a Prince of Terror by now since you have 200+ manpower, and get another tech slot. However, 200+ manpower only equals 20 divisions. Not even enough to cover all your coastal provinces. Disband your mountain division because we are not getting up that tech tree, and recive some extra manpower. All you should build is inf with art. Don't even lay a finger on garrisons. You don't have the manpower to do it. At this point, some majors like France would probably declare war on you, so get your relations better with them. (The following is not tested: I have -200 relations with France by early 1939, they always declare war on me. However, I spent a few months improving relations and have neutral relations with them, they don't seem to do anything to me. Thus you can probably carry on conquering central America and the carribian earlier if you get good relations with them.) If my theory isn't right. Wait till mid 1940 because our pal Germany is punishing them for their pesty behaviour. Then you can take all the minor powers in America. You should get your 4th tech team slot by now. (However, its base IC is 61 so a few stratigic bombing will finish you off. before you go to war with USA, make sure your 4th team finished researching).

Total dominance in America

Before you go to war, garrision ALL beach heads with inf with artillery. You don't want a cock up after you went this far. Your army should be consisting Mot and Inf-art. Mot because it is cheap and quick. Build as many CAS as you can. When you go to war, remember to take the four allied province in South america by amph landing, colon, falklands and Belize City. You should be able to defeat the USA and its minion Canada.

After you rule America

I allied with Germany and got only a few blueprints, its probably not worth joining the Axis if you want to fight them later ((From Emperor Gumby IV- Buy the blueprints from them with Oil and Metal. It's not like you can use everything you have))

[ ]{#Emperor_Gumby’s_Argentina_Strategy_(Axis_Junior-into-Senior_Member)} Emperor Gumby's Argentina Strategy (Axis Junior-into-Senior Member)

HOI2 DD v1.2, 1936 GC

The objective to this strategy is to turn Argentina into a credible world threat. This isn't for inexperienced players as I set some pretty tough early goals. They can all be achieved however.

Phase 1: Initial Growth

There's no way we can help the Axis or anyone else by staying within the borders of Argentina. We must expand. Ignore the tiny countries on your border; we're taking on Brazil first. And we're going to win by the end of July '36.

Before unpausing:

Move your intervention slider toward intervention. Dissent will be through the roof until we get this bumped back a little. Begin construction of 2x2 Milita and 2x1 Transports For research, I usually pick Census Tabulating Machine and start with the Machine Tools line, and then Rear Area Dumps, and the Agricultural line. In that order. Also, don't rush to join the Axis. Strictly speaking, the game will probably never register that we're even in the axis because we're siding with Japan, not Germany, but it's all the same in the end. The Axis will rule the world... or there will be the Argentine World Order. Last, make sure your advisers give IC bonuses if you have a minister for that type that would.

After unpausing:

Sell oil to the Americans for cash. We don't need it and it will free up IC from consumer goods so our militia and transports will finish on schedule. Divide up your troops so that you have a bunch of one-division armies. Make sure you have a General or Field Marshal in charge of the HQ. Leave them all in Buenos Aires.

Now take a look at the “Argentine Navy” . . . Pretty pathetic, right? Anywhere else in the world, yeah, it would be the laughing stock of the seas. We're in South America though, and it's the most powerful fleet around. Combine all the heavy cruisers and battleships into one group, and everything else into another. Rebase both fleets to Buenos Aires. We're going to need these later.

When the first batch of militia are ready to go in February, put one in Concordia and the other in Buenos Aries. Group both transports when they finish in March (on the 10th) and base them out of Buenos Aires. Move your battle fleets to block the escape of wherever the Brazilian fleet is hiding... usually Porto Alegre. They only have 3 ports, so it's not that hard to find them. Also, check to make certain Curitiba is undefended, if not, find another nearby province that is.

As soon as the second batch of militia are ready on the 19th, deploy them to Buenos Aires and declare war on Brazil. Don't start building anything new. Let the consumer goods bring down our dissent.

War with Brazil

Load your mountaineer division and the HQ into the transports and do an amphibious assault on Curitiba if it was undefended earlier. You'll take the province and ensure this is an entirely defensive war for Brazil. March that militia group from Concordia to Porto Alegre. Start using the transports to quickly move your divisions from Buenos Aires to the next point up the coast. Don't do amphibious assaults onto defended positions. This wastes valuable readiness. Use the troops from the province you just captured to attack. They will seldom have more than one or two divisions to defend each province. If they put up a fight, land more divisions, then attack again. Use your battle fleets to ensure the Brazilian navy stays in port and doesn't harass our transports. Use Coastal Bombardment when you're certain there is no threat to the transports.

Don't advance inland yet. All but one IC and VPs are located along the coast. Recife might pose a small problem. There's a river between it and Salvador, but Fortaleza is never defended and you can land troops there and attack from both directions. Your last amphibious assault should be on Belem. Use a militia for this as it won't be a defended province and there's no harbor there to pick up the unit, so it will have to march to another province. Advance a unit from Vitoria to Golias, support the attack from all directions that can, or they might get defeated due to poor infrastructure and losing lots of organization while moving. As soon as you control Golias, annex Brazil, dissent or no dissent. We don't have time to keep fighting them.

Post-Brazil

As I said, we don't have time to keep messing with Brazil. We have to finish taking over South America before the USA starts raising their intervention to the point where we can't sneeze without Patton showing up in our capital. Try not to worry about Partisans unless it actually spawns a unit.

There are three real gems in South America as countries go: Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela. You can guess where we're going next, can't you? Use your transports to start moving troops to Macapa. You'll probably have to rebase the transports to Rio de Janeiro. With your first three or four divisions that arrive there, march to Boa Vista. Don't use your HQ for this, it moves very slow through the jungle.

As soon as dissent is back to 0%, invade Venezuela. Send those guys in the jungle to Cuidad Guyana. As soon as the garrison there is defeated, load the transports again and move them to Bocas del Dragon (the water in front of the province we just attacked). The game will tell you they cant get close enough to do an amphibious assault on the province, but this is rubbish. Click the button to see the troops loaded on the transports and manually move them to the land. Do this with the rest of your forces as well since we won't be able to do another invasion like Brazil. This one will require grunt work.

Annex Venezuela as soon as they're boot-heeled. If you have a prince of terror, you should be at the magical 40 IC to start another tech team. Sometimes there's a weird glitch and I only get 39 IC, but that just means we need to kill another neighbor. You can do what you like with the new research team, but I strongly recommend abandoning the firepower doctrine and starting toward the infiltration doctrines while we still have a team that can do this efficiently. You will lose Justo as a research team whether you have the sudden change of government event or not in 1938, so use him while you've got him. Also note, you won't lose him until after whatever he is researching finishes, so if it is December 1937, by all means, start another doctrine.

After Venezuela, Colombia is the obvious choice since all of our troops are right next to their victory points anyway. Start selling the oil we just acquired to the Germans, we'll need the cash to influence our way into an alliance with Japan, and the Germans will need the oil. When dissent hits 0%, invade Colombia.

Keep kicking in the neighbors. The Americans might hate us, but they won't usually do anything until they raise their intervention, guarantee of independence or no. So we've got a deadline to keep, after Colombia and Ecuador fall, strat-deploy where you have to in order to get troops in position on time. Tick-tock.

As you start nearing the last two countries, start building 2x2 more transports and start influencing Japan. You might consider switching foreign ministers to the Apologetic Clerk for cheaper influence. You're not really going to have a cash shortage, but it can't hurt.

Alliance with Japan

Once you are lord and master of South America, join Japan's alliance. If you have done all this right, it should be mid 1938. If you try joining Japan while still conquering your home continent, Japan will carry out Pearl Harbor on the USA and you'll be stuck fighting them. You'll need more troops for the next part, so you might as well start building 6x2 or 7x2 infantry as soon as you have the spare IC. Once these are finished and your dissent is at 0, start building more IC. Buy whatever blueprints you can from Japan. You won't have any lack of resources so don't get stingy with the oil and metal. Their land doctrines are good, and their aircraft carriers are way more useful than the submarines you'd have gotten from Germany.

Also, a change in ministers from prince of terror to man of the people is in order. Also, the chief of staff that gives 25% more manpower too. Otherwise you're going to run out of troops while fighting some of the bigger nations later. You might be able to get away with not doing this, but I don't recommend it. You'll lose quite a bit of IC, but you'll double your manpower. Be careful about switching too early with Prince of Terror or you'll lose the third tech team and anything they were doing until you're back to 40 IC. Be warned that the sudden change of government event might make this change for you and there's not anything you can do... so don't mess around with the dissent and make sure you've been moving your intervention slider all this time.

Joining Japan's alliance will automatically put you at war with China, but with no penalty to dissent. Rebase your transports to Quito and begin moving troops across the pacific. You won't be able to use Sea Transport missions, but you can tell your transports to rebase to allied ports in Asia via the dropdown menu. Shanghai is usually a good spot, if not, just use Dalian. Once your troops are in Asia, rebase back to Quito and restart the process. Until you have 16-ish divisions in Asia, loan them to Japan as expeditionary forces. Once the bulk of your army has arrived, start trying to take key points like Guangzhou, Guilin, and Chongqing. This normally leads to Japan achieving victory over China around the time things start to heat up in Europe.

Post-China

Once China is defeated, Japan will still be at war with Sinkiang, but they won't need any help with that. Communist China, might be good for some free XP for your generals if Japan is still fighting them.

Now is the time to start thinking more long term. I'm not making a detailed guide on what to do next, because there are lots of guides that already tell how to take down the Americans, Russians, or British with a minor nation. I usually go after the Russians because if you don't, Japan will attack the Americans in late 1941 or early 1942 and you'll be pulled into fighting your much more powerful neighbor. With Japan, Argentina, and whatever happened to China attacking on one side, and the Germans attacking from the other, the Commitern is doomed and then you only have to fight the Allies (Brits and Americans). You might have to edit your save file, but sometimes when I attack Russia, the non-aggression pact between Japan and the Russians doesn't go away and its me and China vs the Russians, which is winable, but Japanese troops will unrealistically do nothing.

Something else to consider, drop the Alliance with Japan in late 1941 and build industry and infrastructure in your 3 home provinces that have 20% infrastructure (need 40% to build IC). Attack the other industrial minors, Spain like and Portugal (and later Vichy when Germany starts losing) and you can establish your own worldwide empire. Or do something crazy like join the allies and lead an attack on the red menace. I mean, seriously. This is very open ended. Good luck.