Civilian Versus Military Factories | General Rules?

[Darthclimo]

I just watched a Let's Play on Poland where the guy ONLY built Military factories and managed to hold back both the Germans and USSR. I've never started a game where I don't start with Civ factories. Clearly my presumptions have been incorrect. Are there any general rules about the CIv to Mil factory ratios? What are some of the factors you guys take into account before getting production kicked off?

I should specify that he obviously built Civilian factories, but all of them were from the National Focus.

[Biggs]

"rules" of how to have fun playing a game?
cant think for yourself?
must always do the same meta tactic over and over again?

[Lance]

It varies a lot on what country you're playing. Building military over civilian factories will give you an early game advantage in military production, but it will negatively impact you late game.

If you're Poland it would make sense to build military factories right from the start, if you're the US it would make sense to build civilian factories at the start. If you're resource poor, you might need civilian factories for trade to keep your military factories operating. There's not a single general rule that applies to everybody.

[Operation Iraqi Freikorps]

Rule of thumb is that it take about three years for a new civilian factory to pay itself off. You will have more mils if you start building them day one as Germany, but there are always trade offs.

[drewbstar]

It depends on your starting factories, your focus tree, and when you plan to go to war.

Earlier wars = switch to mils earlier.
Focus trees (and advisors) vary and can give buffs to building factories which can make them more or less worth it.

Starting factories ties into the other two. If you have a lot of civs and few mils, it may make more sense to build mils first.

Otherwise, a common tactic for the USSR is to convert your mils to civs to build up your IC faster. From there you can progress through your 5 year plan focus branch earlier, letting you complete more before you go to war with a major. I’ve never done it, but it’s an option.

[HappySack]

Hold shift to left click some provinces and make civs in a handful of provinces then make mils for the rest of the game.

[CaptainSpacetime]

I do mils if I'm super short on mils and need them now to even build up basic divisions.

Civs if I've already got a good enough number of mils.

[Dagoth Brain Made Of Tired]

If you start off with mills at the start of the game you're technically better off than building with civs for the first 1 to 2 years. It's even more beneficial if you can go war economy early.
As he started with mills straight away his output will be higher till about 1940-1941 so he was able to field alot more divisions earlier and that's exactly what you need to stop the oncoming wave as poland.