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Fickstern 11 Jan @ 11:11am
How can I bypass MEFO issues?
It's about the four year plan, the alternate path won't be subject of discussion here.

In my game at 1942 I'm standing with 169 Civs and 174 Mils. I've reached 100% consumer factor with the Economy of War mefo spirit. 53% of my factories (Civ + Mil) must be used for consumer goods and are therefore not available to me, which leaves me with 0 civilian factories, where I'm not able to trade, build and repair anymore.

Now I'd like to know the following:
1. What should I have been doing differently, in order to not drive into this issue? As far as I remember, I had a almost identical gameplay last time, but I could still build with a lot of factories. I imagine it is the lack of civs compared to mils, but less mils would cause me to get outproduced by countries like the Soviet Union.

2. Is there any way to get out of this situation now, in the same save game? It's 1942 and I feel exhausted like it's 1944, negatively impacting my war with the Soviets.

3. Generally: 53% of all of my factories, does this mean that some mils are now also producing consumer goods and are therefore not available, or does this only influence the availability of civs?
Last edited by Fickstern; 11 Jan @ 11:18am
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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
Khorps 11 Jan @ 1:16pm 
You have to capitulate other countries so you get the decision to steal their gold reserves. The Soviet Union actually has multiple regions where if you occupy them, you can steal the gold reserves there.

It's better to wait as-long as you can on using decisions to bring down the MEFO bills since even if your consumer goods is very high, if you have a ton of factories you'll still be able to build.

But the ultimate goal is to conquer both the allies and comintern in order to complete autarky so you can get rid of the economy of conquest.

Also, this only impacts civs. Mils are not used for consumer goods.
Last edited by Khorps; 11 Jan @ 1:17pm
#1
HappySack 11 Jan @ 1:37pm 
You achieve Autarky to remove the debuff, and you only need to capitulate either the Allies or Comintern to do it since both the factions have the resources to be able to do it.

If you're fast then you can invade and take out the UK before the USA joins them as the time limit is when Japan declares war on the Philippines.

But before then the gold you get from France should be all you need to lower your consumer goods factor and get your military ready because if you're just doing nothing all game and wasting all your military advantages then you really should have picked the other option or economic recovery in the first place before you got to this point.

As always the best way to beat the USSR is to do collaboration governments and have absolute control of the air, then do encirclements or leapfrog to supply hubs using your tanks, once they're weak enough you can just endlessly push with everything you have and they won't be able to stop you.
Last edited by HappySack; 11 Jan @ 3:56pm
#2
Fickstern 10 hours ago 
Originally posted by Khorps:
You have to capitulate other countries so you get the decision to steal their gold reserves. The Soviet Union actually has multiple regions where if you occupy them, you can steal the gold reserves there.

It's better to wait as-long as you can on using decisions to bring down the MEFO bills since even if your consumer goods is very high, if you have a ton of factories you'll still be able to build.

But the ultimate goal is to conquer both the allies and comintern in order to complete autarky so you can get rid of the economy of conquest.

Also, this only impacts civs. Mils are not used for consumer goods.

I already know about the gold and capitulation thing, it's obvious, because you get it in your decisions. What would be the benefit of waiting? Last time I conquered Britain before attacking the Soviets and I achieved -16% consumer factor as a whole with the Mefo spirit. Therefore it doesn't seem like a delay would have any impact, except you don't get less consumer factor earlier.



Originally posted by HappySack:
You achieve Autarky to remove the debuff, and you only need to capitulate either the Allies or Comintern to do it since both the factions have the resources to be able to do it.

If you're fast then you can invade and take out the UK before the USA joins them as the time limit is when Japan declares war on the Philippines.

But before then the gold you get from France should be all you need to lower your consumer goods factor and get your military ready because if you're just doing nothing all game and wasting all your military advantages then you really should have picked the other option or economic recovery in the first place before you got to this point.

As always the best way to beat the USSR is to do collaboration governments and have absolute control of the air, then do encirclements or leapfrog to supply hubs using your tanks, once they're weak enough you can just endlessly push with everything you have and they won't be able to stop you.

I know about Autarky, because it is obviously stated within the focus tree. Also this doesn't answer my question, because with 0 civs to work with, I can't win any war and therefore never achieve autarky. Except, you want to >suggest< that I have no chance in turning it around now. Also I already stated it's 1942 and the US are therefore part of the war for over a year now.

I think in my last playthrough I built a lot of civs, more than mils (until later), maybe that's the reason why I was able to sustain without feeling mefo impact. Well, and I also defeated Britain. But yeah, I can't repair stuff now, I'm in minus regarding vital equipment and therefore can't push to cities where I could get gold. F me, I guess.
#3
pjd110 10 hours ago 
When you get the pop-up you can elect to take the second option below conquest econ. a +70% to required civs with no periodic increases. This can be reduced with the the decisions. If you have war economy and civ requirement reductions from advisors etc it will end up boosting your required civs to a total of about 25 to 30%.
#4
Khorps 6 hours ago 
You don't need civs to win the war, only mils, since that's what makes guns. And you should be building almost exclusively mils from the very start of the game. But if you run out of decisions to reduce consumer goods and don't achieve autarky then by all accounts you are stuck with what you have. At that point you just have to make sure you win the war.

Earlier on you have less civs overall, so the consumer goods will more significantly impact how many civs you can use. For example, if you have 40 civs and consumer goods are at 90%, then you only have 4 civs to work with. But once you start conquering, if you have 400 civs then you have 40 to work with. So using the one-time decisions to reduce consumer goods early on doesn't have as much benefit.

Also, you can reduce the growth by establishing Vichy France and reichskommissariats.

But as said before, if you get to 100% with no options left, then it's solely a military affair at that point.
#5
Fickstern 5 hours ago 
Originally posted by Khorps:
You don't need civs to win the war, only mils, since that's what makes guns. And you should be building almost exclusively mils from the very start of the game. But if you run out of decisions to reduce consumer goods and don't achieve autarky then by all accounts you are stuck with what you have. At that point you just have to make sure you win the war.

Earlier on you have less civs overall, so the consumer goods will more significantly impact how many civs you can use. For example, if you have 40 civs and consumer goods are at 90%, then you only have 4 civs to work with. But once you start conquering, if you have 400 civs then you have 40 to work with. So using the one-time decisions to reduce consumer goods early on doesn't have as much benefit.

Also, you can reduce the growth by establishing Vichy France and reichskommissariats.

But as said before, if you get to 100% with no options left, then it's solely a military affair at that point.

Let's say I can lower the consume factor by 40% through some decision. Let's say now, in 1940, I am with 50% consumer factor. If I now use the decision, I will be at 10%. Let's say it is 1942, and my consumer factor is now at 100%. Using it now will get me back to 60%. Still, had I used the decision in 1940, my consumer goods would also be rising to 60% gradually by 1942. Because as far as I know, the speed of consumer factor increasement is not being influenced by the current amount. Please feel free to proof me wrong here, but that is how I see it, which has not been debunked yet.

In summary, I think it doesn't make any difference when you use the decisions, but actually you profit from it using it earlier.
Last edited by Fickstern; 5 hours ago
#6
jr3050t 4 hours ago 
You are where you are. I think that you are going to be military only with no imports until you can get Autarky. I don't see a way out using focuses.

I'm surprised that you say that factories etc aren't repairing. I'd expect the slow automatic repairs to still be happening.

I'd check what resources you are missing to achieve Autarky. Depending on how far you are into the Soviet Union you may need to focus your advance on provinces with the resources you are missing. Check what can be added by asking for control of states occupied by your allies. If you've already captured the main SOV oil fields then a swift side conquest of Iran or Iraq should provide the rest of the Oil.

I've always completed peace with the Allies before the USA joined. I just needed to be careful in the peace conference to take the high resource states with an eye on Autarky. I didn't have everything but Yugo plus Iraq or invading the USA provides the rest.

I think you've chosen a hard path leaving the UK alive.
#7
Fickstern 2 hours ago 
Originally posted by jr3050t:
You are where you are. I think that you are going to be military only with no imports until you can get Autarky. I don't see a way out using focuses.

I'm surprised that you say that factories etc aren't repairing. I'd expect the slow automatic repairs to still be happening.

I'd check what resources you are missing to achieve Autarky. Depending on how far you are into the Soviet Union you may need to focus your advance on provinces with the resources you are missing. Check what can be added by asking for control of states occupied by your allies. If you've already captured the main SOV oil fields then a swift side conquest of Iran or Iraq should provide the rest of the Oil.

I've always completed peace with the Allies before the USA joined. I just needed to be careful in the peace conference to take the high resource states with an eye on Autarky. I didn't have everything but Yugo plus Iraq or invading the USA provides the rest.

I think you've chosen a hard path leaving the UK alive.

I tried conquering Britain, but failed unfortunately. I landed simultanously in Dover and Scotland, but they have too many troops on their island. Their permanent attacks also make it difficult to move forward.

Anyway, I'm not far enough into the Soviet Union to even get any gold, furthermore my infantry weapons and support equipment are far into the reds. But I've accepted it and started a new game. As far as I've experienced, it seems like building many Civs in the beginning and only some mils around Anschluss 1938 affects the entire consumer factor situation positively.
Last edited by Fickstern; 2 hours ago
#8
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Date Posted: 11 Jan @ 11:11am
Posts: 8

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