Early game strategies

[Praetor]

What faction do you guys prefer to start with and why?
Also, which technologies and constructions do you prioritize first in order to have a well supplied army capable of growing while maintaining a mildly stable economy.
I really struggle with being able to reinforce my battalions in the mid-game and often end up fighting enemies with higher tech and more men. Usually I’m forced to fight and lose men faster than I can acquire gear and numbers.
Also what do your favorite squads consist of?

[Automaton Spy]

I go for AFVs first, because those auto cannons can chew through infantry. Focusing on economy and diplomacy early on will help you out in the long run, since products need time to adapt, (they all start on a 20% productivity, slowly developing to 100% productivity after several months). Befriend your neighbors, ally them if you can, so they don't suddenly surprise attack you. you can choose whose territory to take once you amass enough men and vehicles. My go-to early squad is about 5 IFVs supported by 4 squads of infantry. late game, swap to 3 tanks and 2 artillery, supported by 4 squads of spec ops. Only downside of AFVs and IFVs are that sometimes the AI will decide that it's high noon and snipe them with RPGs from a distance. (They are all one-hit kills with RPGs btw), so keep them in the back as much as possible.

[Bob Lebronzay]

I'm in august 2026 and the AI is selling already stuff from 2027, like it has researched it, produced it and can afford to sell it, it is like making me behind from 2 years at least ...

[SickaSalmon]

Make police armored squad in the MRAP or Tiger and spam the hell out of the 12.7mm ammo and fuel. Raid for resources. Only build garrisons of police and never run out of 12.mm. This keeps infantry losses low and that is a useful troop to keep stability. Doesn't scale well until you can reliably train elite and spec ops for real armor. I've notice untrained they will shoot up all the big ammo like 40mm right off the bat then not even use the machine gun.
Keep your first couple garrison slot infantry. When defending they should be already entrenched in the battle line facing the attack. this makes it way faster to deploy motorized in a logical line. I recommend looking at the squad guide to learn how the game uses custom squads. That way you can make 1 off big police squad full of rpgs for garrison defense and stability. Then after training them you just change the squad back to duo armored cars.
Batch cars in groups of 3's for rapid repositioning and start the next move order when the 1st car arrives. AI gets better at shooting on the move and causes RPGS to hit the environment and even their own troops. when you see one in position but failing to track immediate targets take direct control and start the shooting gallery till you get to a defensible position to recheck the tactical map.
Against heavy rpgs send yolo cars through the woods around the long flank. Try to get the front line to fire RPGs through their entire ranks to hit you. Bonus if you find a safe aggro hidden behind trees and their own motorized units.
The AI doesn't seem to defend cities as much. It could be worth taking it, then sending literally everything from it back to your city then abandon it and leave the garrison with all the trash weapons you don't want to sell. When AI retakes it then take it again to get even more good supplies. If you do this as rebels you can make a living just selling weapons from people trying to siege their own cities early game. You can also send stuff to your battalions. Extra supplies and even weapons.
Vehicles>ammo>armor tier>RPG's>RPG Rockets
Keeping a simple army and battle doctrine allows you to focus on the important things like tobacco and alcohol. I let my enemies build the buildings for me and I take them when they're ready. If I'm facing a tiered up army in greater numbers I just send my police squad cars one at a time around the woods, get out, and take my rpg shots, switch to partner get out of the car, rpg some more, get in the car, leave partner in the woods, Leroy behind enemy lines targeting RPG carriers.

[DeltaFoxtrot]

IMO the best way to start is just skip producing ♥♥♥♥ guns (like pistols/shotguns etc.) and try to reasearch and produce as quick as possible AK74/M4A1. So its good to build one research building as a first building. Then very important is to make food so bakery is usualy my second choice. Construction building is also good - it speeds up construction.
In terms of vehicle start with just humvee/Tigr up to mid game - you dont need anything alse at the beginning and spreading production between many models is not good IMO. After that BMP3 or LVAC is good option but usually you can get some good vehicles from the enemy (so try not to damaging them in the battle if possible).
Do not produce any ammo - its very cheap on the market and if you producing ammo you loosing a production slot. The exception is a late vehicle ammo for cannons.

In terms of fights - try to protect your vehicles against enemy RPGs - do not rush with them, especially in towns. Vehicles are pefect for clearing open field from enemy. Hide your soldiers with RPGs in building to snipe enemy vehicles if they are a treat. Its crucial to have some RPGs in every squad. Without them you are in deep ♥♥♥♥ if enemy has some vehicles...

[Michi]

I startet with "Benevento"-faction and i am now in 2027. I did conquer only 3 factions so far. With other factions i tried i did rush much faster but stuck later by lack of ressources (especially recruits). So i think to survive longer you need to expand slower and build up economy and tech in the right way.

In the first year the challenge is to build up enough bread production (it is not the army, they do not need a lot, but the cities need a lot. If you conquer too fast you may not have enough bread production to feed your cities).
First buildings are research center and construction site to speed up building and research.
Then (after conquering 2 factions) i build up about 6 wheat fields and 6 bakery. But it seems wheat production is bigger then bakery production and you can have 2 bakery for 1 wheat field. I have more wheat fields as they are later needed also for destillery and alcohol production.
After end of first year your bread ressources will probably be exhausted if you did not build up the production.

In the second year i build up 3 stone pits and buildings for similar wood production to get the stuff for more buildings. I focused then on improving iron production to produce modern equipment and vehicles.
In the second year your reserves of building ressources (stone / wood) and iron will probably be exhausted if you do not build up the production. I made the mistake to waste my iron on too much ammo, weapons and vehicles i really did not need. So you need to watch production and stop it in time before reserves get too huge. It may be good not to produce all that is possible but just the stuff you really need. I have stocks of 100 000 ammo that i do not use anymore as i switched to modern equipment with other ammo. Market is only slowly buying some of this expendable stuff. I sent all ammo, weapons and recruits to one capital city to get a better overview. From there i send the convoys to the demand.

In the third year i did build in every of my 4 main cities a research center and a bank. Research now speeds up and i have all tech researched before end of the year. I need the cash from the bank as i use a lot bribe in diplomacy to keep friendly relation to my neighbours. And with extra cash i buy on the market missing ressources.
I build a cloth production to produce the spec ops equip for all my troops. I have 2 attack bataillions with each 200 men, and 2 "guardian" bataillions with each 150 men (to quickly take down rebels).
In the third year i run out of fuel (there was not enough on the market to buy) and i had to build a refinery for my own production (but i still do not know where to get the crude oil. I have buy it on the market).
I build up some alcohol production and spread it to my main cities. Although it disappears (consumed) i have not found any effect so far.

In forth year i still do not know how to continue. I have no more recruits (numerous rebel attacks with sometimes strong vehicles did exhaust me) and it seems there do not come new recruits. Well my mistake was, i did lot of rebel fights by auto mode with sometimes high losses as i got really fed up of this non stop rebel fights. Nearly all construction slots of my cities are full. So i have to conquer more cities to build more (aluminum and copper production should be next). Rebel attacks were strongest in the third year and calm down in forth year (maybe it was the alcohol production?). Stability is on 15 - 17% now, in third year i was often below 5 % . l have still problems with the stability feature: Food is in every city about 3000 + (in total i have 100 k+ bread). Police Squads are according to population size: in the main cities about 12 - 15 police squads in garrison, in the minor population cities about 2 - 5 police squads.