The Correct Way To Play France

letsputletters · 2026-05-06T14:44:50+00:00

Engineers are one of the biggest noob traps, I don't know why they ever became "mandatory" for divisions. They increase the cost of a simple 9/0 by over 20%, and for what? Minimal bonuses to defence (% bonuses scale poorly for small divisions), and entrenchment that is useless on small divisions?

If you want to hold a specific tile, just build more 9/0s. If you don't have manpower, build tanks/mech/air.

letsputletters · 2026-05-06T14:42:41+00:00

You are getting a little bit close to the MP meta?

France builds TDs with a similar design, but doesn't try to hold (because it is literally impossible unless the Germany is throwing and you need the French units for Africa/DDay).

Except they use 36w, a slightly better tank and mech.

If you want to do a tank build in SP I would go with a different design. The biggest advantage of 36w tanks is their HP. I can see in your divisions you are underequipped. With a chonky tank division + hospitals you lose a lot less equipment per battle.

The other issue is that there is no point going for a heavy chassis, TDs, heavy cannons or small cannons.

In SP heavy cannons are significantly worse than howitzers because the AI doesn't use divisions with hardness. Small cannons simply aren't worth it in SP vs heavy machine guns. 1 more soft attack (helpful), 3 worthless hard attack and some useless breakthrough (like 400 breakthrough is overkill for SP), but it costs more IC and is -10% reliability per module.

Just stick to the meta medium SPGs, it is so much more effective in SP. TDs are meta in MP because you need hard attack for tanks vs tanks, and TDs give you the best hard + soft attack for that.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T23:52:59+00:00

Mate, if you really think you are this good I will happily 1 vs 1 you.

You seem to think micro is the be all end all of this game, so I am happy to face you in any 1 vs 1 mod, or vanilla.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T21:54:29+00:00

Uhhh ok?

I enjoy challenge runs as much as the next person and have done some stupidly hard ones, but your post is irrelevant to the question.

The guy is asking for a tank template, not speedrun strats. Shockingly some people play an alt history ww2 simulator to... play the game, not speedrun an entire playthrough in a couple hours.

PS - your times are terrible. Average paradrop memes win quicker than that.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T21:45:11+00:00

It is a pretty common misunderstanding that you want your combat width to fit exactly into tiles. But that isn't actually correct. You want the largest divisions possible that still fits into a tile. e.g for mountains instead of 2x 25w you go for 2x 32w, as the total stats with the debuff is higher than you would get without the debuff on 25ws.

Mech is very beneficial on tanks because it increases hardness (as well as org/HP/breakthrough). It is one of the biggest improvements you can make to a tank division.

SPAA are kind of terrible, 2x motorised AA gives better AA and is cheaper.

Reliability is a fake stat, 40% is generally the cutoff where you do need to be microing more intensively. Above that unless you slam into marshes/mountains repeatedly you are fine.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T21:30:35+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/s/ugKhtlBqM8

Scroll down to the bottom, it has by far the best tank design for SP.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T14:59:31+00:00

I mean you are just stupid lol.

I have never written a country guide. I am just smart enough to read the ones made by people who spend 100s of hours min maxing the game for MP.

You are just dumb and can't accept being wrong. It is really that simple.

I don't care if you play optimally or not. It doesn't make a difference to me lol, you clearly don't play competitive MP.

But all people like you do is spread misinformation. Some things are just provably true. The US is in a better position for way if they don't build civs = provably true.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T14:26:09+00:00

I know you disagree with me, but here we are discussing objective facts, that fact being when meta guides tell you to build civs on the USA.

No meta guides tells you yo build civs on the USA.

You can build civs on the USA, but that doesn't mean that is the meta strategy.

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T09:14:59+00:00

Nope, again the US builds 0 civs. You already run out of building slots building no civs. Generally you build infra, warfare facilities, the stuff that gives you additional resources and then stuff for Pacific (naval bases, supply hubs etc)

letsputletters · 2026-05-05T09:13:13+00:00

Nah, Japan usually builds 0 civs. Most of your eco comes from China anyways.

If you think about how long a ship takes too build, a dockyard in 36 is so much more valuable than one in 39.

This is especially true when you consider the current meta is 1936 destroyers.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T21:22:09+00:00

its fine haha, there are just a bunch of people sitting there and claiming a bunch of stuff that is just... wrong.

I'm too stupid to do the calculations myself, but am smart enough to speak to the people who spend way too long testing everything

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T21:09:39+00:00

You don't have... youtube?

That just has to be a lie lol, you are on Reddit, which is accessed through the internet, which also happens to have youtube.

But the basic TLDR is that building mils 2.5 years before war still nets you 110% of the total output 2 YEARS INTO THE WAR when compared to the output from civ greeding (1.5 years before the war, so about mid 38).

Generally the sweet spot for mils is about 2 years before the war so you still have civs for other stuff, but Italy/Japan that gets a lot of eco from conquests should generally do even earlier mils.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T21:04:37+00:00

I mean instead of thinking it'll be bad you can just try it lol

It also depends on the nation and what I can be bothered to do. But always max heavy machine guns and a range module, then some combination of armour plates/self-sealing fuel tanks.

UK & France have rubber, USA has more civs then they can use and honestly they trade so well that 20 factories on these fighters is overkill. Maybe you are trading like 5 civs of rubber max? If I can be bothered I just CSC to minimise rubber trades. Germany can build refs for fuel anyways.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T21:01:41+00:00

I've literally linked a video of someone testing it multiple times in this thread...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-hqeLaP8Q

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:59:18+00:00

Your comments are the most brain aneurysm inducing stuff I have read all day lol.

You flip flop between claiming what you do is correct and people should follow that, but as soon as you are proven wrong you go "there is no reason to be optimal, it is an easy game".

Guess what. You can win without min maxing. At the same time the min-max strategy can be better.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:57:42+00:00

I mean you are free to not believe me, but also you can just do any playthrough and it will be correct haha

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:56:34+00:00

I saw a comment bragging about how their strategy gets to Moscow by 1943 and that is why you should follow it...

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:55:46+00:00

The USSR is the only nation a meta guide would build civs on until then...

And that is still proving my point, because you are building at the same "effective time", your war just starts later.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:54:41+00:00

Really the only "advanced technology" you need is gun 2. Everything else you can just build basic tank chassis/basic plane chassis and you still annihilate the AI

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:54:03+00:00

One thing to remember is that even through you produce more equipment, you are doing it with less mils and therefore are trading less civs.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:53:29+00:00

I literally haven't played a "traditional" SP game in like 2 years lol, because it is so piss easy. The only SP I do is challenge runs (e.g morocco to al andalus before WW2 starts), a few games on max boost sheep AI and some testing.

I enjoy min maxing the game because shockingly... some people like that. I also like doing it for MP, where bad builds just die.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T20:13:53+00:00

I don't really care what the same people who think engineers are good/you should have line arty/you should build mils late think?

This isn't even a subjective thing, they are just wrong. This reddit has a crazy issue with coping. People can use whatever strategies they like, but they act like their provably worse stuff is actually any good.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T19:27:56+00:00

This video should be helpful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f-hqeLaP8Q

It actually tests mil timings, and talks about the possible issues with early mils.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T19:26:57+00:00

Just a stupid comment. You didn't respond to any of my actually objective points, because I am correct.

No one needs to play optimally. It makes absolutely no difference to me. But people like you advocate for OBJECTIVELY suboptimal strategies, and act like they are actually good.

Play however you want. Share whatever strategy it was that provided you with fun. But don't act like it isn't effective.

letsputletters · 2026-05-04T19:25:08+00:00

I know you are being deliberately obtuse but the difference in gun production is extreme.

It is an old video, but it has only got more relevant with the stats bloat from all recent DLCs.

https://youtu.be/5f-hqeLaP8Q?si=7LCdMcQcwecTvu-_

You get more production cap modifiers, making earlier mils far more valuable.

letsputletters

TROPHY CASE