When I first played the Historic World War Map, I picked France, my heartthrob nation. I was pretty surprised when I realized how terrible the colonial powers were.
First, Africa has almost no resources. All the provinces are just empty. There was almost no infrastructure in western Africa. Worse still, the total resources produced in the colonies were reduced by 75%, because of the non-core penalty. Lastly, there was a total of about five troops defending the entire place. And because of that, I suffered. France starts out with negative oil and food production. It's essentially the same with all other colonial powers(UK, Italy, and for the All Countries All In map Belgium, Portugal and Netherlands too). I only survived my first ever Historic World War because I allied myself with the UK and Italy.
What I want to point out here is the colonies are absolute garbage. They produce barely any resources, the resources they do produce are slashed by 75%, they drain all your food and oil and defending it is so difficult. Compare that to Germany, or the Soviet Union. They're so stinking rich, it's not even funny.
Some people will say "just build infrastructure or industrial complexes". But if you build those, you have no money for your army. Then, you get flattened by your neighbors. If you play as France with no allies(a stupid move) and you try to strengthen your economy, you can get invaded by Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain. It's a Catch-22; build your army, and your economy drowns. Build your economy, your army remains pathetically weak. Even though I allied with Italy and the UK, Spain still almost killed me(they nearly took Paris), because I had few troops left after beating up Germany and building infrastructure.
My advice is this: Bytro should either add more resources to the colonies, or make them core provinces(the way Austria and Czechia are German cores, even though they really shouldn't be). France and the UK in particular are ridiculously underpowered, especially compared to Germany and the USSR. Even the smaller countries like Persia and Xinjiang are better than France and the UK! At least they have positive production rates!
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
First, Africa has almost no resources. All the provinces are just empty. There was almost no infrastructure in western Africa. Worse still, the total resources produced in the colonies were reduced by 75%, because of the non-core penalty. Lastly, there was a total of about five troops defending the entire place. And because of that, I suffered. France starts out with negative oil and food production. It's essentially the same with all other colonial powers(UK, Italy, and for the All Countries All In map Belgium, Portugal and Netherlands too). I only survived my first ever Historic World War because I allied myself with the UK and Italy.
What I want to point out here is the colonies are absolute garbage. They produce barely any resources, the resources they do produce are slashed by 75%, they drain all your food and oil and defending it is so difficult. Compare that to Germany, or the Soviet Union. They're so stinking rich, it's not even funny.
Some people will say "just build infrastructure or industrial complexes". But if you build those, you have no money for your army. Then, you get flattened by your neighbors. If you play as France with no allies(a stupid move) and you try to strengthen your economy, you can get invaded by Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain. It's a Catch-22; build your army, and your economy drowns. Build your economy, your army remains pathetically weak. Even though I allied with Italy and the UK, Spain still almost killed me(they nearly took Paris), because I had few troops left after beating up Germany and building infrastructure.
My advice is this: Bytro should either add more resources to the colonies, or make them core provinces(the way Austria and Czechia are German cores, even though they really shouldn't be). France and the UK in particular are ridiculously underpowered, especially compared to Germany and the USSR. Even the smaller countries like Persia and Xinjiang are better than France and the UK! At least they have positive production rates!
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
"That's impossible! The Americans only know how to make razor blades."
"We could do with some of those razor blades, Herr Reichsmarshall."
Hermann Goring and Erwin Rommel
"We could do with some of those razor blades, Herr Reichsmarshall."
Hermann Goring and Erwin Rommel