Australasian Confederation/Paths

Lore

Paths

Introduction

Nearly two decades after the Weltkrieg, Australasia still hasn't healed. Unbelievable, catastrophic manpower losses and sacrifices in the Weltkrieg all for naught have led to an atmosphere of cynicism and hopelessness as the once-great British Empire crumbled to pieces. The economy is a complete dumpster fire, a natural consequence of the fall of the United Kingdom and the ensuing loss of exports that followed. The shadow of the syndicalist Melbourne Commune still haunts the continent, but there are still plenty who haven't forgotten the Empire and are ready to reclaim its birthright.

National Spirts

ANZAC Spirt

Division Organisation: -2.0%

Division Recovery Rate: +10.0%

Division Attack: +5.0%

Division Defence: +5.0%

Oversized Fleet

Fleet Co-ordination: -10%

Consumer Goods Factories: 5.0%

Dockyard output: -25.00%

Bled Dry

Recruitable Population Factor: -20%

Surrender Limit: -10.00%

War Support: -25.00%

Economic Depression

Daily Political Power Cost: +0.25

Stability: -10.00%

Construction Speed: -20.00%

Production Efficiency Cap: -20.00%

Factory Output: -20.00%

Resources To Market: -10%

National Focus

Australasian Confederation/Paths
Flag of the Australasian Confederation
Full Name	Australasian Confederation
Common Name	Australasia
Motto	"Advancing Onward!"
Anthem	God Save the King (Official) Waltzing Matilda (Unofficial, Regional) God Defend New Zealand (Unofficial, Regional)
Official Languages	English
Capital	Canberra
Government Structure	Confederated federal and unitary constitutional monarchy
Head of State	George V (1910-) (represented by William Birdwood) (1924-)
Head of Government	Billy Hughes (1915-)
Currency	Australasian Pound
Established	1924 (Consolidation of Resources Act)
Area (core territory)	Around 7,960,045 km²
Population (core territory)	Around 8 million

Democracy Prevails: Becoming a democracy enables Australasia to transition out of National Party's grip on power, focuses in this tree will mostly involve demilitarising the country providing stability boosts and party popularity as well as dealing with the fate of the trade unions in this 'democratic' Australasia enabling party popularity to shift to national populists or syndicalists depending on branch chosen. This tree automatically triggers after the 1936 election however the later focuses such as "The Maori Act" will only unlock after the 1939 election in which the following focuses allow Australasia to decide to remain in the British Empire or secede into its own republic.

Victory for the Syndicalists: Syndicalists can come to power in the aftermath of a Labour party victory in the 1936 or 1939 elections, their focuses will involve transforming Australasia into a bastion of syndicalism and dealing with internal unrest which will result in a purge of the army and temporary debuff, after which Australasia can follow the Syndicalist or Totalist branch granting intelligence and political buffs (in case of the Syndicalists) or Military buffs (in case of the Totalists) both however will grant the "The New Business Leaders" and "Progress In Industry'' focuses granting a healthy economic boost. Lastly "Join the Internationale'' will of course allow Australasia to join The Third Internationale.

Victory for the AFM: The Australasia First Movement will attempt to break Australasia's ties to the British empire following an election victory in 1939 It's focuses will involve it consolidating its control over the country as well as leaving the Entente, following which the "The Monarchist Officers" focus will debuff the army identically to the syndicalists following six months will be replaced with bonus as well as "Enact The State Economy" branch which will grant economic bonuses. Australasia can then decide to do "Ties With Japan" or "On Our Own", note however "Ties With Japan" will not grant Australasia membership of the Co-Prosperity Sphere.

Victory for the Guard: New Guard focuses will unlock following a Centre Party victory in the 1939 election or coup following syndicalist takeover or defeat in the 1939 election, The New Guard will imminently set about destroying syndicalism giving changes to party popularity as well as additional manpower from the "Create The Secret Police" focus after which The New Guard's Australasia will focus on militarising and supporting the Entente alliance with military and manpower buffs through the "We Need Loyal Officers" and "Invite British Advisors" focus branches, as well as economic buffs from the "Laissez Faire Reforms". Finally ending with "A Rising Power" or "To Serve The Empire" providing political power and a relations increase or hit with the Dominion of Canada.

Note: Both the Syndicalists and AFM have access to the "New Social Reforms" and "End White Australasia" focuses granting economic bonus as well as increasing monthly manpower. Also all political trees end with a +200 political power grant, these are "We March Forward"(Democracy), "Join the Internationale"(Syndicalist), "United We Stand"(AFM) and "The Future is Ours"(New Guard)

State Of The Economy: Australasia's primary industry tree granting 2x research bonus to industrial technology following which focuses will reduce the penalties of the Great Depression national spirt and add party popularity, which may be useful to the party that wins the 1936 election, "Liberalise The Economy''(market liberal), "Privatise The Failing Public Sector"(social conservative), "Reform The Bureaucracy"(social democracy). "The New Railways'' will add 2 levels of infrastructure in New South Wales, Canberra and Victoria, "Urban Expansion" will add 5 building slots in total and "Wealth of the Antipodes" unlocks decisions to access iron and aluminium resources in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania. "Seek New Markets'' and "Trade With The Commonwealth" will give Australasia decisions allowing them to approach other nations, restricted to Entente alliance if "Trade With The Commonwealth" is selected, for trade deals, acceptance adds +50 political power, +100 if Canada, USA or Japan, or -50 political power if refused, note these decisions are affected by Australasia's and targets ideology, namely which nations can be targets of a trade deal. "End Of The Depression'' at last will allow Australasia to remove the Great Depression national spirt. Following focuses add industry to Australasia totalling 8 civilian factories, 8 military factories and additional 1 infrastructure in every owned state.

The Australasian Research Council: this branch gives bonuses to research. "The Australasian Research Council", "Expand the Council" and "A National University" gives research bonuses. "Focus on Radar" and "Focus on Computers", "The Advanced Rocketry Division" and "Radium hill Uranium" all gives research bonuses to radar, electronics, rockery and nuclear weapons respectively. Additional research slots are unlocked through the "Increased Research Funding" and "New Minds in Australasia" the latter only unlocking after 35 total factories are constructed. "New Oil Exploitation" and "Seek New Resources" are unlocked with the economic tree and unlock oil in Queensland and New Zealand as well as iron in Kimberley and New Zealand as well as aluminium in New South Wales

State Of The RAN: Australasia's naval tree will initially consist of "Upgrade Naval Facilities" adding additional naval base levels in Fremantle, Sydney and Auckland, building additional 2 dockyards in New South Wales with the "Rebuild Cockatoo Island'' and unlock naval doctrine bonuses and 50 XP from "Establish The Navy Academy". "Overhaul The RAN'' will finally allow Australasia to rid itself of the 'Oversized Fleet" national spirt. "Upgrade The Reserves" will give a temporary penalty to dockyard output and consumer goods but will grant periodic events that grant ships to Australasia including 4 battleships and 2 armoured cruisers and up to 50 smaller ships, "Scrap The Reserves" will grant a +100 political power and the reserve ships will be lost, depending on preceding focuses "A Navy For The Pacific'' or "A Navy For Our Defence" will unlock. "A Navy For The Pacific" will give a national spirt increasing capital, screen and submarine attack as well as increased max range of fleets, "A Navy For Our Defence '' will penalise fleet range but will increase capital, screen and submarine defence as well as fleet speed. Further focuses will grant research bonuses for capital ships(Pacific), marines/amphibious(Pacific), screens(Pacific/Defence), submarines(Pacific/Defence). "Man The Coasts" will add the coastal forts to all Australasian coastal states, "The Australasian Shipbuilding Board" adds a permanent increase in naval base and dockyard construction speed, dockyard output and reduction in production costs for convoy, submarines, destroyers and cruisers, "Expand The Dockyards'' and "Further Expand The Dockyards" as expected will build dockyards 4 in total.

State Of The RAAF:

State Of The Army:

Army focuses start with the "Modernise The Artillery", "Relics of The Weltkrieg" which will grant research bonuses to artillery and infantry equipment respectively, "Clarify ANZAC" will modify the "ANZAC Spirt" national spirt adding division attack and defence, division training time, division organisation or division recovery rate depending on player choice. Finishing the first 3 focuses gives Australasia the opportunity to change conscription laws by referendum or force. "The War Effort" removes the "Bleed Dry" national spirt unless already removed with the "A Renewed Call To Arms", Invest in victory will give +100 political power and +10% war support, "The New ANZAC" will provide a formidable national spirt buff. Middle focuses will provide standard research bonuses of note however is the "Z special Unit" which will spawn a unique unit at maximum experience level and "Focus on Jungle/Urban combat" which will grant a buff when fighting on particular terrain. "Focus On Defence" will add national spirt bonus to division defence on core territory, justify war time and fort construction, Following which "Fortify The Cities" and "Increase The Reserves" adds forts, additional manpower and automatically increases conscription law. "Enact The Anderson Doctrine" allows Australasia to claim and potentially reconquer British possessions in the Pacific.

Industry

Industry

State	Civilian	Military	Dockyard	Resource
Canberra	1	0	0
New South Wales	2	1	3
Victoria	4	1	1	12 Steel 6 Chromium
North Island	3	1	1
Southern Queensland	2	0	0
North Queensland	0	0	0
South Island	0	0	0	6 Tungsten
Western Australia	2	1	0
South Australia	1	0	0
Tasmania	0	0	0
Northern Territory	0	0	0	28 Steel
Central Australia	0	0	0
Kimberley	0	0	0
Pilbara	0	0	0
Papua	0	0	0
Fiji	0	0	0
Christmas & Cocos	0	0	0
Total	15	4	5	40 Steel 6 Tungsten 6 Chromium

Military

Army

The Australasian Army in 1936 starts with 12 divisions total. No special forces or armoured divisions are fielded and manpower due to the "Bleed Dry" national spirt is low, however Australasian units are boosted by the "ANZAC Spirt" national spirt which may help the army stand up to more numerous foes.

Australasian Army 1936

	Divisions
Infantry	4
Cavalry	5
Garrison	3

Navy

Royal Australasian Navy 1936 is quite large but quite outdated, almost all of its ships are Weltkrieg origin and the "Oversized Fleet" national spirt will cripple fleet coordination and will likely prevent any meaningful build up before the Second Weltkrieg starts.

Royal Australasian Navy 1936

	Ships
Aircraft Carrier	1
Battleship	4
Cruiser	2
Escort Cruiser	6
Destroyer	34
Submarine	12

Air force

Royal Australasian Airforce 1936 is easily the smallest service branch with only 110 aircraft, however it is also the least burdened by national spirts making expansion a real possibility.

Royal Australasian Airforce

	Planes
Fighter	25
Tactical Bomber	25
Fighter (Carrier)	32
Naval Bomber (Carrier)	28

Gameplay

General tips

• Legation Cities: Canberra controls the British Empire's interests in the Chinese treaty ports. Although this is dependent on the Legation Cities' focuses and can be ignored for most of the game. However it is possible for Australasia to rebuild the British presence in Hong Kong through decisions and eventually annex Hong Kong if the Legation Cities collapse
• Conscription: Australasia has a unique way to change it's conscription laws. Once the first 3 focuses in the army branch are completed Australasia unlocks a unique decision that will in turn trigger an event chain in which each state of Australasia, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand, votes for or against conscription, if a majority of states are in favour conscription laws can be changed normally, if against conscription law will remain locked on "Volunteer Only" and conscription will have enacted when the "Force Conscription" decision is taken.
• New Zealand : When(and if) Canada reinstates the United Kingdom an event may fire in which New Zealand requests a referendum to secede from Australasia various factors determine the outcome, If factors on one side outweigh the other then an event fires in which New Zealand secedes and Australasia will revert to being Australia. Of course Australasia may refuse the referendum entirely, this will result in Australasia losing cores on New Zealand until the "Restore Order in New Zealand" decision is taken. Referendum breakdown as follows.
  • New Zealand Stays
    • Has "Maori Act" national spirt
    • New Zealand voted yes in conscription referendum
    • Conscription was not forced through
    • Has social democratic government (Labour party)
  • New Zealand Secedes
    • Has "No Maori Act" national spirt
    • United Kingdom exists
    • New Zealand voted no in conscription referendum
    • Conscription was forced through
    • Has national populist government (Centre Party)

• Convoys: Australasia starts the game with only 59 available convoys, given its an island nation the player should keep a good eye out on what they're convoys are being used for or else Australasia may find itself unable to properly supply it's army overseas, nor import necessary resources properly.
• Navy: Unlike many nations in the game, the naval aspect plays a pretty important role for Australasia as all of its scripted enemies are a sea zone away and in many cases have significant navies themselves(Union of Britain, New Zealand and Deutsch Ostasien), naval invasions are important for it's army and due to limited number of convoys, Australasia is incredibly vulnerable to commerce raiding.
• The Anderson Doctrine: Claims taken by the The Anderson Doctrine can only be pressed, without war with the Reichspakt, once Germany collapses and is exiled to Mittelafrika. Otherwise prepare for war against the Reichspakt, do note however unlike Japan, Australasia does not have an event that allows them to peace out with the Reichspakt once Deutsch Ostasien is conquered.
• National Spirts: The "New ANZAC" national spirt will give a strong boost to to land doctrine, planning speed and surrender limit however it will cancel once Australasia is not at war, as a result it is advisable to withhold this national focus for major wars, the Second Weltkrieg being the most obvious example.

New Zealand Crisis

If Australasia becomes Syndicalist or Paternal Autocrat the New Guard will attempt a coup, which if failed will trigger civil war in Australasia between mainland Australia and Entente loyal New Zealand, this will result in the defection of a good chunk of Australasian navy and army resources and Australasia will find itself at war with Entente if Canada decides to intervene.

In such an event it is best for the player to quickly deploy all available forces into invading New Zealand, Auckland is a very good invasion spot as it it sits on a narrow piece of land which would be easy for an invading force to land around, encircle and capture. Wellington is also not a bad spot as it controls the straight between the north and south islands of New Zealand. The key however is speed as the Australasia will need to overrun New Zealand before Canada or any other Entente member can send a sizeable army to New Zealand or worse invade Australia.

Once New Zealand capitulates an event should fire which peace's Australasia out with the Entente. If it doesn't fire then the next priority for Australasia should be to eliminate points from which the Entente can launch naval invasions of Australasian territory, namely a captured Fiji, Christmas & Cocos or Timor if Portugal is in the Entente.

Intervention in India

Provided Australasia stayed in the Entente then it will have the opportunity to assist the Dominion of India in reclaiming India against the Princely Federation and Bharatiya Commune.

Naturally the Australasian army will be smaller than any other Indian factions due to manpower, however a good strategy is try and force the enemy faction to fight in as many fronts as possible, by way of a superior navy Australasia can naval invade various naval bases and force the Indians to draw off divisions from the primary front and into facing a new front. Usually the Dominion of India and other Entente members will send troops to the new beachhead once this happen the player can either perform a new naval invasion or narrow the Australasian army frontline into a spearhead and take the offensive for the enemy capital and force a victory.

Intervention in Third Boer War

Provided Australasia stayed in the Entente then it will have the opportunity to assist the Natal and South Rhodesia in reclaiming South Africa against the Boers. This is however dependent on the South African civil war actually happening and Canada allowing Natal and South Rhodesia into the Entente, allowing Australasian intervention.

Once events trigger that indicate the South African civil war is incoming it is a good idea to ferry 2-3 Australasian divisions to Portuguese Mozambique, if Portugal is in the Entente. Once the civil war begins dash those divisions to Natal to secure their victory points and a naval base allowing Australasian and Entente reinforcements to pour into South Africa. Unlike India, the South African army will not be terribly bigger than Australasia's, especially fighting a two front war with South Rhodesia, this should allow Australasian troops to capture Pretoria fairly easily, however keep an eye out for German and Mittelafrikan volunteer divisions as they will be tough to beat.

Second Weltkrieg

Australasia's place in the Second Weltkrieg is dependent on its place in the Entente or Third Internationale

Entente

An Entente Australasia will most likely be invested in reclaiming Great Britain with Canada. When the Entente goes to war against the Internationale ferry ships, divisions and planes to Portugal as it provides the best launch point at a naval invasion f the Union of Britain, Ireland if in the Entente is an even better choice. The best invasion spots tend to be north in Scotland or south west in Wales and Cornwall, places to be avoided are naval bases that are in urban terrain such as Manchester or Bristol as combat there can drag on for a long time. Overrunning Britain should be relatively easy, although its a good idea to encircle as many British divisions as possible in the initial movements from the Australasian beachhead.

Invading the Commune of France may be possible after conquering Britain but this will be incredibly difficult for Australasia to do alone. Best option is to to join a National France beachhead in southern France or land in Brittany or Normandy after capitulating the Union of Britain with the goal of tying up as many Commune divisions as possible in order to allow Germany or the rest of the Entente to overrun the Commune.

Entente Tips

- Key situation to avoid is 'fortress Britain' in which the Union of Britain with it's navy destroyed and allies on mainland capitulated, will pump out infantry divisions along its coasts and ports preventing any naval invasion and an end to the war. This is the main reason why invading Britain first and France second is advisable as Australasia.

- Given the long distances to Australia its a good idea to keep an eye out on divisions transiting hazardous sea zones especially the Mediterranean and Iberian coast as Internationale navies can easily commerce raid unprotected division convoys draining valuable manpower and equipment. If the player has Man the Guns dlc it is a good idea to change the naval access of sea zones the Australasian navy cannot cover.

- It is advisable to create a separate army for divisions coming from Australia that are not part of the main army as it will simplifying brining new divisions in and prevent a frontline in Britain being manned by divisions in the Indian ocean or something of that sort.

- If the Second Weltkrieg starts while Australasia is engaged in India or South Africa it is generally recommended to finish those wars first as India and South Africa will likely fall without player intervention, especially if National France and Canada draw off divisions from those theatres.

The Coming Sun

Provided the Empire of Japan as had a successful game it will eventually unlock the