Argentina

Argentina is a country in South America.

== Technology == Starting technology and research priorities First research should be made in the field of industry updating Education, Industrial Efficiency and Construction to more current levels. Researching Industrial Production doesn't help much in the early years and can be ignored.

Starting with 1918 infantry technology researched and Mountain Infantry being in the roster, Argentina is all set for Special Forces route. 1936 levels of all four infantry techs should be researched to allow research of Jungle and Mountain Equipment. Arctic Equipment will help to the troops during cold winters in the Andes. Equipment research shouldn't be skipped on, those techs are one-time and help conserving Argentina's low manpower pool. After Equipment techs are unlocked, anti-tank weapons research can be abandoned and Infantry and/or Special Forces doctrines brought up to speed.

Operational Level Organisation is a doctrine high on Argentina's priority list. Along with that basic research of Guerilla Warfare to make Ambush event launch more often will be very beneficial allowing port garrisons to hold a little bit longer so navy has time to intervene and sink attacking ships.

It's worth noting that a lot of work was already put into Militia technology pre-1936 and with little effort Argentinians can pursue this route of research as well. Artillery as an addition to Infantry and Special Forces is suggested by high starting level of Assault Concentration doctrine and low manpower pool. Long research time of Artillery techs will make this route cost dearly though and Artillery effectiveness in the mountains (-140%) and jungles (-60%) is very questionable in the first place.

No Cavalry, Mobile unit, Tank or Naval research was done so far and it should stay this way throughout the game and needed units should be licensed from faction leaders instead.

Air research is a bit outdated but still quite decent for a country of the size of Argentina, especially in the Bomber tab. Suggested route is abandoning air research completely only licensing hand-picked planes from faction leaders which will always be far more modern than what Argentina could create on its own.

Fleet research after researching Sea Lane Defence (to be able to build escorts) and Fleet Auxiliary Submarine (to be able to hunt enemy convoys more easily) doctrines should be abandoned completely and only vessels built should be licensed Light Cruisers. Late in the game Argentina can attempt to build heavier ships on its own but it won't be with much success. Heavy Cruisers are the advised type and they aren't very likely to be very modern.

Distribution of Leadership At the beginning most Leadership should be invested into training 10 domestic spies. Then compulsory industry techs mentioned above need to be researched. After that there's time to spread leadership between raising threat of neighbouring countries and casual infantry and special forces research.

Half a year before planned wars, a complete shift should be made to bring Officer ratio of Argentina close to 200% to improve organisation of all Argentina's units. This should happe only after Argentina's recruitment law was switched to Three-year Draft.

Possible gains of Leadership aren't big (allowing for 8 research projects at once after annexing every single country in the South and Central America including Mexico). Argentina will never be a major country and it's better to accept this fact sooner rather than later. One or two enemies going for Government in Exile could help a tiny bit but it's not likely to happen to rather neutral South America.

== Diplomacy == Alliances Best choice and only choice is Axis because Peron is pals with Germany.

Decisions There are no country-specific decisions for Argentina.

Politics
Ministers Laws Argentina's laws in mid-1938, training elite troops cheaply with Volunteer Army and Specialist Training. Chasing enemy spies away with Repression and State Press. Reducing Consumer Goods demand with orientation on them. War Economy level of mobilization was achieved thanks to active work of domestic spies since early 1936. Big Education Investment allows for faster research and officer training. Argentina starts with Repression and State Press preventing enemy spies from spreading FUD in the country. This level of restrictions should be maintained.

Due to very low amount of Leadership, every even smallest bonus to it is invaluable. Thus Big Education Investment can't be switched for less costly law.

Volunteer Army and Specialist Training laws will allow to train an elite army very cheaply and should both be enforced. Mobilization of the army should be avoided as long as possible to preserve favourable recruitment laws.

Enforcing Consumer Product Orientation for the first few years will allow to free around 3 points of Industrial Capacity (which is much for Argentina early on) for military purposes in exchange for 5% more resource cost and 5% longer production. It breaks even.

Switch from Full Civilian Economy to Basic Mobilisation should be made on day two (having spent day one on lowering neutrality below 80%) and industry should be mobilised more and more as game progresses and neutrality falls down.

By the end of 1938, switching to War Economy should be possible if spies were trained and tasked with reducing Argentina's neutrality.

Political Parties Ruling party of Argentina, Partido Justicialista and starting government type of Paternal Autocracy both influence Argentina to lean towards the Axis.

Intelligence
Starting with 80 Neutrality means a lot of work needs to be done to motivate the society to join the war on the side chosen by Argentina's leaders. Training 10 domestic spies and tasking them with lowering neutrality should be the first priority for Argentina.

Then cautious attempts to raise threat of smaller neighbours like Uruguay or Bolivia can be made to allow Argentinians to join the war a bit faster.

After that, Argentina can either focus on Counter-espionage right away or spend two additional years raising National Unity to 80% to be able to switch to Heavy Industry Emphasis which will be very beneficial to Argentina's industrial efficiency and supply transportation across low-infra provinces.

Economy
Trading At the beginning, Argentina is secure as far as resources are concerned having positive influx of Metal and Rares. It can easily sell surplus of Crude to buy Energy. Throughout the game it's Energy which is going to be the biggest problem but trading for it shouldn't be hard provided Argentina joins one of factions and maintains good relations with its leaders.

There's a lot of natural resources to be gained via conquest and this is the preferred way of obtaining them for a small and less wealthy nation like Argentina.

Industrial Production Argentina starts with 28 IC meaning having only 14 at their disposal for the first few years of the game and around 45 when the war starts. Biggest regional competitor, Brazil is much stronger industrially but also isn't very likely to expand its industry very much over the years. In 1941 Brazil's industry can reach around 60 IC and Argentina should do its best to not be far behind. If cautious expansion of industry is concluded along with IC earned via conquest, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

1936 should be a year of quick industrial upgrades. Research of Industrial Efficiency, Industrial Production and Supply Production will allow to free up some IC to work on military production.

Building airports early on in western and northern parts of the country in 1936 will allow to build up practical knowledge for limited IC expansion in later years. Argentina could also use an airport somewhere in the heartland of its country in case of naval invasion which took a port with airfield needs to be fought back. Another airport down in the southern tip of South America will provide starting NAV squadron with a great hunting point for enemy convoys. As a supplement to that, construction of low-level coastal forts in main ports of Argentina can be concluded.

When future expansion of industry is secured, the remainder of IC should be invested into fielding new units and upgrading old ones. After the war starts, additional IC influx can be diverted towards Air and Naval unit production.

Military
Army Starting army Argentina starts with 4 divisions of Infantry and 1 division of Mountaineers divided into two Corps. Their biggest regional rival, Brazil starts with 3 divisions of Infantry, 2 divisions of Militia and one division of Cavalry.

Commanders and Command Structure Starting pool of commanders is small and with mediocre skills. Many commanders start at 0-skill level and need to learn how to command armies from scratch. Those commanders are best put in frontline divisions where they can see the most of combat and advance up the ranks much faster. They will learn the most leading Mountaineers in their long battles in the mountains of Chile, and Peru.

It doesn't get any better over the years, the starting pool is expanded by only a handful of low-skilled commanders each year and Argentina is most likely to have quite a few divisions without commanders at all time. Thus every commander should be preserved and none of them can be wasted on jobs other than commanding front-line divisions.

Command structure should be adjusted to this model with rather big Corps of 5 divisions each attached directly to an Army (for Organization bonus) or Army Group (for lower supply usage bonus).

Expansion Expanding Argentinian army should be made after considering the following variables:

Brazil has much bigger manpower and commander pools than Argentina and is likely to drain it completely through the first 5 years of the game to reach around 120 brigades in 40 infantry divisions by 1941. It will be very hard to match their numbers so instead investment should be made in the field of quality. Brazilians aren't likely to field a more modern force so it's compulsory for one Argentinian division to match two of theirs. Whole western coast of South America, including countries of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela as well as some parts of Uruguay and area around Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil are all mountainous which means using Mountaineer divisions who move in such terrain faster and attack much better is a great way of boosting overall performance of the army. This will allow to conduct conquest of those areas much faster and with ability to overpower enemy in the terrain where he expects to hold very well. South America is said to not be a favourable place to use mobile or armoured forces but this isn't entirely true. Most of the fight against Brazil will take place on a quite flat strip of land between Uruguay and Rio de Janeiro where Cavalry, Motorized Infantry and even tanks can be used with great effect. Still, if the choice is made to invest into some speed and mobility, those units should only be treated as a supplement to infantry army and preferably licensed from faction's leaders rather than designed and built in Argentina. If one does not invest in building CAS planes and a deployable air base before their war with Peru, then chances are that no matter what blitzkrieg tactic one is using you will most probably witness your frontline become indefinitely stuck somewhere in the mountainous regions just before the Peruvian capital city. Make sure to balance land unit construction with air unit construction accordingly. Argentina may have a rather low IC pool to start with, but this by no means cripples Argentina in terms of its comparably capable standing army. 6 out of 7 Brazilian Victory Points are in coastal provinces. The same goes for all VPs of Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. The only Victory Point of Ecuador is only a province away from their port in Manta. This means all those countries are very vulnerable to a naval invasion and thus having a smaller Marine force at army's disposal to quickly take over and secure those ports is a very useful tool to have.

Jungle is a big part of South American landscape but only a handful of Victory Points are actually placed in the jungle and most of them are easily accessible by sea. So instead of investing into Engineers or Cavalry to navigate the jungle faster, an investment into transport navy should be considered. Most of fighting will take place on the shores rather than deep inside Brazilian jungles. To secure homeland from enemy incursions a big part of forces should be directed towards defence of many South American ports. Argentina starts with 2 ports on their own, taking Santiago from Chile and Montevideo from Uruguay increases this amount to 4. Brazil and Peru have 2 ports each, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia one and there are three colonial ports up for grabs as well. This amounts to around 14 by the time South America is united. This means a huge chunk of Argentinian army will have to be diverted towards port security. At least two brigades per each along with at least some basic navy to quickly sail forth and fight against American invasion on the port. They shouldn't be given any commanders and it would be best if they were cheap Garrison units.

Summarising, Argentina not being able to outbuild Brazil in the amount of troops due to smaller amounts of manpower and commanders is better off going towards quality than quantity. Investing into handful of Special Forces infantry divisions, Mountaineers with supplement of one or two Marines divisions to strike enemy from sea is the best combination of forces. A small addition of Cavalry, Mot. Infantry or Light Tanks can be added to the army as a supplement to quickly navigate vast areas of South America. Relying on pure Infantry divisions also is an option to conserve Industrial Capacity.

Defending all the Argentinian ports with Garrison units is also a viable option provided there's at least one research slot left to upgrade their small arms every two years.

Navy Starting navy

ARA Rivadavia, one of two starting Argentinian Battleships. Source: Wikipedia. Due to extremely hard terrain a big role in warfare in South America is played by navies which on the offensive are tasked with deploying naval invasions behind enemy lines to quickly seize crucial parts of his territory and on the defensive have to attack invasion fleets and chase them off the port they are trying to take at least until reinforcements can arrive.

Argentinian navy in 1936 is composed of 2 Battleships, 4 Heavy Cruisers, 2 Light Cruisers, 2 flotillas of Destroyers and 1 flotilla of Submarines. Except for two of the Heavy Cruisers, all those ships are of pre-WW1 design and can't stand their ground to more modern vessels of major countries.

Hiding Battleships in a port and making them move out only to intercept US invasion fleets is the best way of defending ports from US invasions. Still, they are a force much more potent than ships of any other South American country, focused on transport ships rather than combat vessels Brazil for example also has two pre-WW1 Battleships but no Heavy Cruisers whatsoever and isn't likely to make any expansion of their navy at all throughout the game. Third naval power, Chile has one Battleship and one Heavy Cruiser along with handful of escorts. Other South American countries either have no naval units at all or have only a few escorts and submarines meant for harassment rather than naval supremacy.

This means Argentina may feel pretty secure at sea as far as local competitors are concerned but also means lack of potential to stand on its own against Royal Navy or US Navy. Argentinian ships should be kept in ports unless they are trying to sink invading transport fleets.

Admirals and organization There are two good Argentinian admirals, both level 2. Pedemonti and Storno aren't capable of commanding more than 8-10 ships each but Argentina doesn't have that many ships to lead either. After conquering Chile and Peru necessity to cover far-away ports of Santiago, Lima and Arequipa will force a split of Argentinian navy into two groups, half of which will cover homeland and Brazil and half will cover east coast ports. Conquest of Venezuela and Columbia will allow to move Arg/Bra part of the fleet up north to the Caribbean since invasions into homeland aren't likely to happen any more.

Expansion With low starting IC and practical knowledge and minimal ability to research new technology, Argentina isn't likely to expand its fleet by many capital ships. Thus good care should be extended over starting Cruisers and Battleships.

The main focus should be put into equipping both fleets in at least a few transports allowing to move two or three brigades behind enemy line, unload it on his coast and attack from behind. It's good to have spare transport to not lose any units while one of them is sunk accidentally.

The only realistic way of expanding the fleet with combat ships is licensing Light Cruisers and Destroyers from faction's naval leader (UK, Japan) to accompany and protect pre-war capitals. Later when Cruiser Practical is high, building a few additional Heavy Cruisers may start being an option but isn't likely to happen until much later in the game.

Air Force Starting Air Force Argentina doesn't start with very impressive air force. One squadron of Interceptors and one squadron of Naval Bombers and that's it. What's worse, both those squadrons are of WW1 quality and there's very little chance a tech slot and can be spared in close future to improve them. Neighbours don't start in a much better situation and they also aren't very likely to research much in this area. Brazil being the local leader in IC and Leadership will invest mainly into Interceptors bringing their numbers up to around 6 squadrons by around 1941 and then investing into some skeleton TAC force.

Commanders and command structure There are two low-skill commanders at the beginning of the 1936 scenario and not many will join the ranks over the years which doesn't encourage Argentina to invest heavily into air force. By 1941 the number of air commanders reaches around 7 promoting creation of bigger stacks.

Expansion Ever-growing size of Brazil's Interceptor force discourages from building many planes, especially other than Interceptors of your own. Still, a few important expansions can be made over the years to add to Argentina's air power and help outnumbered by enemy troops on the ground. A good alternative strategy to building 6x INT on your own is to build a smaller force of Multi-Roles which are a bit more durable than Interceptors, have better range and are stronger as far as attacking ground troops is concerned.

Adding a squadron of Tactical Bombers is the next logical step. It will aid troops on the ground providing them with bombing support in their hardest battles but it won't really have as much impact on the war as one would anticipate so it shouldn't be a direction pursued very actively.

Licensing even a single squadron of long-range Strategic Bombers to perform Logistical strikes behind enemy lines cutting his supply off and forcing him to leave fortified positions to reinforce will greatly speed up Argentinian offensive. It will be a massive investment but it will pay for itself tenfold. A similar very long-term investment can be made into purchasing a Transport Plane license along with a license for two or three Paratrooper brigades. It also will cost a big chunk of IC and take a lot of time to complete but similarly to STR investment will pay for itself many times in the coming war.

War
War with UK It is possible to retake the Falklands! If you are at war with the allies it maybe useful to take and garrison British Islands in the south Atlantic. While they offer no economic benefit they reduce the bases that Argentina can be attacked from. While acting as a buffer zone.

War with Persia

To conquer Paraguay you will have to declare War on Persia. It is best to do so for trade with Brazil.

War with Japan

To conquer Uruguay declare war on Japan. This might be beneficial to trade with the Axis countries in Europe. This is an option if the Falklands campaign fails.

War with Chile

Only declare war on them if Allande is still in power. If Pinochet is in power create an alliance. Either way Chile is a useless target to conquer because there is no purpose to the campaign.