Conflict of Nations (CoN), as it's game description implies, is a Real-Time Strategy game available from a Browser, Steam, or most popularly, by smartphone. One hour in Conflict of Nations is equivalent to one hour in real life (with the exception of 4x games), giving the 'Real-Time Strategy' game an emphasis on the word 'Real-Time.' When you play a game in real time, you can bet your liver that it will take up a lot of your constant attention. As such, many new players will quit their first game seeing how much time and attention this game needs from them. So, if you aren't turned off by this aspect, continue reading.

Since Conflict of Nations is set in a modern confrontation, many of the key elements that contribute to nations winning real wars fought by real nations are also referenced by CoN. The ability to wage war by your virtual nation relies on your nation to have a modern and mobile armed forces, a well-managed economy to back it up, and a strategy. But like in most games, it can essentially be gameified to a set of things that work (metas) and things that don't work, and in this guide we will try to cover this as much as this author knows.

There are three military doctrines in Conflict of Nations. Each doctrine plays differently, has access to visually different units, and has it’s own strengths and weaknesses, which of course can be considered and offset, by individual player strategy. Essentially, each doctrine faction has a known and effective counter class that is detectable and allows for counter defense tactics.

There are three doctrines in the game:

1. Western.
2. Eastern.
3. European.

Each military doctrine has its own advantages and disadvantages. These mainly come in the form of research availability.

The Eastern doctrine favors early research of:
- Main Battle Tank
- SAM Launchers
- Gunship Helicopter

The European doctrine favors early research of:
- Mechanized Infantry
- Tank Destroyers
- Strike Fighters

The Western doctrine favors early research of:
- Armored Combat Vehicle
- Theatre Defense System
- Attack helicopter
- AWACS

It is generally agreed upon that the first thing you should do when starting in a nation is to:

• Double your Army.
  
• Build a Unit-Producing Building in Every City.
  
• Build Arms Manufacturing.

However this can be executed differently depending on which nation you play as, or what your long-term strategy will be. The most common opening move is:

• Research Lvl 1 Motorized Infantry.
  
• Build Barracks in Every City.
  
• Queue up Lvl 1 Motorized Infantry in every City.
  
• [Optional] Build Recruitment Center in every City.
  
• Build Arms Manufacturing, Local Industries on resource tiles.

This start doubles all infantry you have by the time the queue is finished. Infantry are flexible units, but for more seasoned players, they will favor a start such as this:

• Research Lvl 1 National Guard.
  
• Build Recruitment Centers in Every City.
  
• Queue up National Guard in every city. If neighbors are perceived to be hostile, then research Recon vehicles and queue up in some cities some recon vehicles.
  
• Build Arms Manufacturing, Local Industries on resource tiles.

There is an argument to be made that the only purpose of infantry is to conquer territory and hold cities. From a practical point of view, this is true. Most of the damage you inflict upon your enemies will entirely be from support units, such as artillery, aircraft, and naval. By the time everyone has some kind of support unit in the opening stages of the game, the role of the infantry is reduced to simple capture-and-hold missions. Proponents of the National Guard argument believe that you could get far better early game efficiency by exclusively investing in national guard as your main 'infantry' unit, with the optional recon vehicle for early game situations when your attacked.

They make a very compelling argument on paper. The advantages of the NG + Recon start combo are superior to the infantry in more ways than it's downsides:

• The level 1 infantry unit costs 1,325 rare material. The basic national guard unit is 950. If you needed a quick early game armor unit, the recon vehicle is 1,350.
  
• The cost of a recruitment center costs 250 less fuel than the army base.
  
• The Recon vehicle is stronger than every infantry unit of the same level. If you choose to invest in level 1 recon vehicles, you can easily choose to make an aggressive push or a bitter defense against your attacking opponents.
  
• If you have researched all your main focuses, recon vehicles are airdrop-capable by level 3, which is very useful for rapid deployment if you have a global-spanning empire.
  
• Recon units can reveal stealth, handy in detecting special forces and revealing the exact composition of army units in enemy cities.
  
• National Guard gain a 50% Defense bonus for protecting cities, the highest defense stat buffer for any infantry unit.

However, there are obvious drawbacks to using National Guard:

• National Guard are inferior to all other Infantry in all respects.
  
• One infantry unit is enough to attack and control an insurgent-held city, but it takes two National Guards to do the same.
  
• National Guard's HP pool is determined by the morale of the city they are mobilized in. If you wanted to have full-HP NGs, you're going to have to wait for them to heal. Motorized Infantry on the other hand doesn't have this issue and can be deployed right away at full HP.

Coalition Alliances are a big part in winning a game, your chances of survival are a lot higher if you join a coalition, and furthermore acts as a deterrent to prevent other coalitions from invading you. Coalition wars are almost always a costly affair if you can't conclude the war quickly. That is why most coalitions just focus on expanding their sphere of influence by conquering weaker nations and the non-aligned, while separating distance from other major coalitions until they are confident that they can take them on.

If you are a newbie joining a coalition, your chances of joining a coalition run by an experienced player are a lot lower than if you were an experienced player with many games under your belt and a K/D ratio higher than 1.00. Experienced players in this game are often elitist and prefer to work with players who know what they are doing.

For most coalition leaders, the order in which to view potential recruits are considered by the following hierarchy:

1. Player Rank.
Player rank is an indicator for how many games you've played. Usually, the learning curve for experienced players cuts off between Corporal and Sergeant ranks or about 2-3 large games + 2-3 Flashpoint/Conflict USA/Blood & Oil/Cold War/Z minor games. Most veteran coalition leaders will find it acceptable around these ranks to extend their recruitment effort to you. Either way, the most experienced players are recruited first and then go down to the lower ranks.

2. Player K/D.
Sometimes seen as an indicator more important than player rank, if your K/D is 2 player kills for every 1 unit death you can be confident that other players will view you a bit more seriously. If you are an experienced player at Corporal level and your K/D is less than 0.50, many Coalition leaders will be reluctant to accept you.

3. Geography of Player.
If there is a bigger picture involved, sometimes coalition leaders will swallow their pride and invite players based on what nations they are playing. Coalition Players prefer if other players in their coalition were of close proximity to each other, and often times you won't see many long-distance alliances, like a South American nation being in a Middle-Eastern alliance. Long-Distance Coalitions usually do not last long as they are disunited by design.

4. Strategic Significance.
Similar to Geography, 8-city nations can significantly pump out more resources than 6 or 7 city nations, this math is obvious, but when you can use those cities to their full potential you get a very dangerous player able to outproduce your nation's production and army. Often times the least experienced players play as these nations because they arrive to the game before you and just ♥♥♥♥ around thinking this is like Hearts of Iron IV and the 'big conquers the small', but this is a great deception and they get put down very quickly. Almost every nation starts off with the same amount of units. The smaller nations with more tightly-connected cities are able to better defend their country from external threats than the larger ones, simply because the larger nations have more land they need to defend. Its for this regard that nations like Algeria, Bolivia, and the UK are favorable to play.

Simply ask the Coalition Leader of the Coalition you wish to join that you want to join them, and say that you used to be a higher rank before you lost your account. Typically around Level 30-60 is the believable ranks. They will believe you.

If you are forming a coalition, the same rules that apply above to joining a coalition applies to forming a coalition, just that instead of you joining a coalition your trying to convince others to join. Look for the more experienced players to join your coalition. Typically experienced players can tolerate a coalition leader at around level 28+ or a K/D ratio of 1.3-1.5 to lead a coalition. It may be the case that you have to surrender your leadership to the more experienced player once they are inside your coalition.

Some seasoned players might choose to wait and see how the world order is shaped by avoiding to get involved in coalition politics until they have to. Typically they can secretly form multiple non-aggression pacts with the other coalitions through backdoor deals. When the time comes for what side they want to join, they join it.

This is the forum signature of Opulon, a member of the Conflict of Nations forum since 2017. He is well-acquainted within in the CoN community and you can apply this quote as a way of describing how Conflict of Nations works. The success of a coalition in a populated game is largely determined by how active you and your coalition is in responding to threats on a tactical, and strategic level. It is the difference between losing a quarter of your army within an hour and destroying a quarter of the enemy's army within an hour. But then again, at the end of the day, players are people. They have more important things in real life than this game.

Coalition Leaders are executives of each coalition. Against you is the other teams and players, and your objective is to ensure that your coalition, or at the very least, you, win. World Conquest is a long process, and sometimes, you may need to make a temporary alliance with another coalition or proxies that you'll eventually have to backstab or merge with. It is a brutal management job that demands the loyalty of your coalition, their willingness to listen to what you say, and your time. Good coalitions leaders are uncommon but they can inspire their team to reach targets and goals. They are people who know how to handle players, or who know strategy and can see the bigger picture as well as the small.

Less experienced players will often miss the bigger picture and decide to go their own route in favor of short-term objectives, like obtaining specific units they need to help widen the scope of their ability to conquest, but for those who have played large-scale coalition games, who have lost and won protracted multi-coalition wars, they know that once you have a plan on what you should do, you should stick to it. Good coalition leaders know this best and it is frustrating for them when their allies are supposed to be focusing on a specific class of units but end up getting something else or stalling the main focus. An example is a player who has been proclaimed to focus on Air Supremacy but is delaying that focus for Mechanized Infantry, thus wasting resources on a low-level unit they won't maintain, and jeopardizing the coordination of the entire coalition.

Conflict of Nations is a team-based game, and as such, being diplomatic is key to resolving differences in player mindsets. You should speak to your coalition members with reason and perspective of the higher objectives, and show them why it matters.

There will be times where you as a coalition leader will have to make some sacrifices at the cost of winning. That includes (but is not limited to) removing incompetent or not-so-active players, merging with other coalitions to ensure a place for victory, and outright betrayal. This is where loyalty is key, because if your allies are not loyal to you, they are less inclined towards helping the coalition as a whole succeed. Ideally, if your a coalition leader you should play with a group of friends or players whom you have played with in the past, as it is far better to know someone's strengths and limitations than trusting people who you don't know. That said, Conflict of Nations is a great game to make new friends, as it is forged by the difficulty and the brutality of true real-time strategy and teamwork.
When you have to make a difficult decision to cut someone out, ensure that you and your allies are ready to support you, as the person who you are going to cut out is definitely not going to take it too kindly. They should be dealt with swiftly and without too many casualties, as a quick resolution to put them down is better than a long war in which they have time to contact new allies to help them, ultimately becoming the downfall of your coalition.

Once you have finished your opening move, you then have to determine what your main research focus will be. There are a few ways to determine this, and a strategy on how to be able to maximize the strength of your nation's resources. For this example, we will take Myanmar in the WW3 map, an often overlooked nation that can be a powerhouse in the hands of a competent player:



As we can see, this rather unassuming South-East Asian country has 2 cities that produce supplies, 1 component city, 1 rare material city, 1 electronic, and 1 fuel. It also has local resources in provinces within it's territory that includes extra electronic and component extraction. Now, what do these indicator have to do with what tech focus you should go for?

Well, for starters, by having two supply cities this means there will be more resources available towards building units such as:

- Artillery.
- Infantry.
- Gunship Helicopters.
- SAMS.
- Theatre Defense Systems.
- Ground-based Radars.
- Corvettes.
- Research Techs

By having an extra surplus resource city, you are able to produce more units without stopping to wait for a specific resource to be available so you can produce the next unit. You can always research other techs and produce other units that don't benefit from the surplus resource advantage, but just know that it is more efficient to use your surplus resource cities into producing something that balances your overall resource output.

A figure for knowing how efficient you are at using your nation's resources is comparing the number of supplies to the number of components and electronics your nation outputs at any point of time. If you have 2 supplies:1 component:1 electronics it implies that you are not spending enough supplies to even out your nation's resource spending ratio. If this happens consistently consider building or researching units that don't take up too much of your electronics bandwidth but uses a lot of supplies, such as Corvettes, Infantry, or Anti-Air units.

That said, many experienced players will ignore this theory as it is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but unconsciously accounting for this before you choose your nation's focus will allow you to get more efficiency out of your economy to the benefit of integrating your military-industrial strategy.

There is an answer to this, and it is backed by the wisdom of many seasoned players who have played many coalition games. The reasoning is as follows:

By splitting your tech focuses up, your taking up more of your rare material bandwidth on units that expand the scope of your ability to counter threats, but decreases the overall tech level of your entire armed forces. By specializing in a specific area (Land, Air, Naval), you are able to project power against another nation with state-of-the-art units in that domain. All other domains would be supported by the coordination of your coalition allies. Almost every game in Conflict of Nations is coalition-based. With the exception of solo games, it is very difficult to cover all combat environments without sacrificing the modernity of your overall armed forces. You either have to focus on that one domain with a modern fighting force or get multiple mediocre units. For most experienced players, the answer is obviously to specialize.

This section is a general repository for different stacks of units you may see in multiplayer games. The names I give these combinations are totally made-up so call them as you will. The combinations marked with [Meta] indicates that this strategy is popular in most games. Each focus has a name, the typical research combinations that could be pursued, and possible deviations that can come from players choosing a similar combination of these strategies to their needs.

Note: These are just general descriptions for describing focuses, they are not in any way combinations that you are guaranteed to see in games.

For information on how individual units stack up in most games, see this guide by Colonel Waffles: https://forum.conflictnations.com/index.php?thread/11607-quick-guide-to-common-units/


Typical Research Focuses: Main Battle Tank, Rocket Artillery, Ground Radar, SAMs
Deviation Research: Specialized Infantry, Point-Defense AA, Theater Defense Systems, Air Superiority Fighters.
Description: Consisting of a land force dominated by MBT spearheads, Infantry, SAMs, Rocket Artillery, and Ground Radar, this combination is quite basic yet a powerful army combination that a nation with an Army focus can go for.

Typical Research Focuses: Tank Destroyer, Towed Artillery, Ground Radar, Air Superiority Fighters, Rocket Artillery, SAMs.
Deviation Research: Special Forces, Cruise Missiles.
Description: Anti-Spearhead builds focus primarily on defending cities and choke points by maximizing the highest potential damage you can possibly inflict, while also upgrading land forces into an extremely mobile force thanks to air assault upgrades. These types of combinations are first and foremost oriented to directly counter against tanks, strike fighters, and other meta builds, with infantry or towed artillery handling soft targets. Players who decide to go for Anti-Spearhead builds have to upgrade their units over a longer course of time than meta builds, but they will give any spearhead builds a run for their money. Anti-Spearhead builds are also far more cheaper to produce than regular spearhead builds. This build also works best for Eastern and European Doctrine players as they benefit from damage bonuses.

Typical Research Focuses: MLRS, SAMs/ASFs, AA, TDs/MBTs, Ground Radar, National Guard.
Deviation Research: Special Forces, Airdroppable Units, Theater Defense Systems.
Description: Considered by many to be THE meta, this strategy differs from the Anti-Spearhead strategy in that it attempts to cover all air-land domains in one go. I refer to this emphasis on MLRS and AA as the 'Cope Tube Strategy' due to the heavy reliance on MLRSes and SAMs to achieve all goals, and the fact that the only way to counter this strategy is with another Cope Tube strategy or a Navy makes this the ultimate option. Air threats are BTFO'd thanks to the SAM/ASF support in these combinations. It is dependent on investing in support units exclusively, with infantry and armored units being lower in the research priority. It is possibly the most effective strategy out of all the land focuses, but it is not very mobile at all.


Typical Research Focuses: Strike Fighters OR Elite Attack Aircraft, Air Superiority Fighters, Cruise Missiles.
Deviation Research: Stealth Drones, Stealth Strike Fighters, Stealth ASFs, AWACS, Support Land Units, Ballistic/Intercontinental Missiles.
Description: An All-Fixed Wing Fighter focus should aim to field at least 15 or more Strike Fighters. Typically this focus neglects land forces in favor of air superiority with regular upgrades to standard Motorized Infantry. This strategy is usually effective against inexperienced players and can result in winning games if you play cautiously and conservatively. Typically players who go for this strategy have surplus resources to spend on and can thus also build high-level hospitals and secret laboratories.

Typical Research Focuses: Helicopter Gunships, Attack Helicopters, Airborne Infantry, Tank Destroyers.
Deviation Research: Air Superiority Fighters, Towed Artillery, Recon Vehicles, Special Forces.
Description: Airborne Assault Focuses, as the name implies, are intended to be used to storm deep into enemy territory and capture core cities very quickly and cause chaos behind enemy lines. Helicopters form the main support arm of Airborne Focuses and are extremely effective when given the air cover, shredding land units. This type of strategy is usually neglected in favor of Fixed-Wing Fighter Focuses as they can do the exact same job as helicopters but faster and further. Players who go for focuses such as this are capable of combining their Airborne Infantry with Special Forces, which is also a niche unit.


Typical Research Focuses: Frigates, Destroyers, Cruisers, Marines.
Deviation Research: Submarines, Carriers and Carrier-Based Assets.
Description: A popular choice for naval focused players is to go for a balanced approach in obtaining Frigates, Destroyers, and/or Cruisers. Although Destroyers are inferior to a Cruiser or Submarine stack in all respects, this strategy relies on cost effectiveness through a decreased rate of consumption of electronics. It is best used from early to mid-game and attempts to redeem itself through a steady but numerous buildup of naval forces. By the time you reach the late game, players will have many ships and be able to project power globally while still defending regional waters. Given that Destroyers are seen as a noob trap, most experienced players couldn't recommend you to build them. Even for their ASW role, they cannot beat a submarine in a 1v1.

Typical Research Focuses: Attack Submarines, Cruisers, Ship Admiral, Submarine Commander, Frigates.
Deviation Research: Cruise Missiles.
Description: Almost all large-scale multiplayer games such as WW3, Rising Tides, and other world maps require the winning coalitions to have a bluewater navy. This focus is specifically intended to fight other coalition navies, starting off with submarines and then obtaining cruisers forming the main tanks of you fleet. All of these units are intended to work together as one or two giant naval battle groups sailing in close proximity. 5 submarines protect the cruisers from other submarines, 5 Cruisers deal with the surface threats, and 5 Frigates protect the cruisers from air threats. It is a nearly unstoppable task force but it is extremely expensive to build and replace. The only counter to this focus is superior positioning.

Typical Research Focuses: Attack Submarines, Submarine Commander, Cruise Missiles.
Deviation Research: Frigates, Missile Tech, and MRBM Submarine Lvl. 1.
Description: Attack Submarines are an economical way to build a navy that can fight other navies to a reasonable extend. They are oriented specifically for attack and ambush of naval forces and you better hope your submarines attack first, because the low HP of the submarine and the fact that it gets a significant penalty while fighting in coastal waters means they are very vulnerable to anti-submarine units. Red October strategies are typically meant to compliment a land-focused player's strategy after satisfying research.

All wars are motivated by economic gain. There is not a war in history that is not motivated by material gain, even holy wars. No matter what strategy war game you play there is always a material incentive for a player to go to war. Conflict of Nations is no exception. You are married to your economy, and common sense dictates that you must protect it at all costs and improve it whenever you can. Even monkeys know that more resources available to them, the more they can do with those resources. If you don't have the common sense to think that your way of thinking is less than a monkey.

As noted in the 'Opening Moves' section, as soon as you finished executing the first building queue you should immediately go for the Arms Manufacturing building. Not only does Arms Manufacturing increase resource production, but it is also the prerequisite for building all of the most common units available, so it is a logical step to build one. However, after this building is completed your guide on what you should build next depends on your overall strategy. See the production queue examples for an idea of how you should budget your focuses.

This section serves as a guide towards general tips on balancing your economy.

• Avoid overspending your budget.
  
• Progression of your upgrades and units should be steady and manageable. If your strategy is to build an air force, and you instead build towed artillery, you are delaying when you can start building that air force.
  
• If you have a surplus of a specific resource, do not sell it off unless you want to trade it to an ally. On the market, when you sell a resource you are selling to everyone, and you might be selling your resources to your potential future enemy. Do not give your future enemy resources, unless its fuel, which is generally abundant in later stages of the game.
  
• Surplus fuel becomes common in the late game and can be sold cheaply once everyone has enough of it, but at the start of the game fuel is bought up rapidly. If you have surplus fuel consider undercutting the other competitors for fuel to give you a little bit of extra cash.
  
• That said it doesn't hurt to sell just a little bit of resources if you have a surplus and there are buy orders for strategic resources such as supplies, electronics, components. If the number of resources being bought is less than 600, you can sell it off.
  
• Typically you should start investing in Counter-Ops in your main cities once you reach mid-game. Work towards getting at least 3-4 Counter-Ops Agents in every major production city, then expand slowly to getting these numbers to less relevant cities. If you have surplus cash you should invest that into agents.
  
• If you need specific resources, ask your coalition for some. Make an order on the market for the amount you want and the amount your willing to pay, then tell your allies. Make sure your price per unit is higher than the next item listing because if your ally sells resources, the resources automatically go to the highest bidder, not you.
  
• One strategy to be able to obtain resources from the market is to make multiple small orders for that resource so it gives the appearance that there are multiple players or AI asking for that resource, and pay varying prices by undercutting/overspending yourself. Nobody knows exactly who is selling what on the market, so it is fairly convincing that not all of those orders are from you.
  
• As soon as you conquer a non-homeland city, demolish all the non-essential buildings that do not give an economic bonus or logistical hub. Such examples include barracks, which have an operational cost of only 100 cash per day. It may be pennies to you, but it leaches off your daily tax revenue if you have many of them in your empire. As a tiny bonus by demolishing the barracks, you get a tiny amount of resources back. Do not destroy airfields or upgrade harbors, they provide a % bonus in resource production in that city.

There are a number of economy tactics that can be used to manipulate the market and the world economy in dirty ways and at the same time prevent coalitions from sharing resources. One such strategy is to make a listing for a resource at the highest possible price and a large quantity of it. By doing that nobody is able to trade resources in that category because they will know that those resources won't be going to their ally, but to you. This tactic is especially frustrating for coalitions as it means there is a blockade on the trade of resources, overall slowing down an entire nation's ability to maintain favorable economic efficiency.

Another, even more frustrating move is to make an early game corruption attack against a future adversary's capital city. This really cucks their early game economy as it decreases moral in all their cities and thus their resource output. You will be in a world of hurt if your agents are captured, so get ready to fight a spy war.

These next three sections serves as a general game flow for getting an efficient use of your economy, production queues, and research. This is backed by my own experience. You can make deviations of these samples depending on your needs.

Example Type: Army Focus, Motorized Infantry Opening, Peaceful Neighbors, Common Ground Focus Type (MBTs, Motorized Infantry, Rocket Artillery, Ground Radar, SAMs).

Stage 1: Opening Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories.
Research: Motorized Infantry Lvl. 1 (1 min 30 sec)
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Barracks Lvl. 1 (1 min 30 sec)
Production Queue (All Cities): Moterized Infantry Lvl. 1 (19 hours, 55 minutes, 9 seconds)
[Optional] Infrastructure Queue (Some/All Cities): Recruitment Center Lvl. 1 (31 min, 21 seconds) (-1 Hour, 52 minutes to Motorized Infantry in current Queue)
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Arms Manufacturing.

Stage 2: Post-Opening Production Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories.
Research: Main Battle Tank
Infrastructure Queue (2-3 of your Cities: Barracks Lvl. 2 - Position Barracks Lvl. 2 in the cities closest to the locations where you are to attack with your army, and preferably away from the coast.
Production Queue (All Cities): Halt until MBTs researched.
Infrastructure Queue: Build Local Industry Lvl. 1 in all provinces that have resources.

Stage 3: Initial Focus Unit Production Run
Army Objectives: Secure City of AI Disputed Territory.
Research: Wait until Lvl. 2 Motorized Infantry.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Barracks): MBT
Production Queue (Every other City): None.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 2 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Barracks Lvl. 2 in all other Cities. Doing this will have you at low fuel resources. Avoid considering this option unless you are completely confident in your resource budgeting.
  
• [Option 3: Hospital] Military Hospital Lvl. 1. Do this if you are the nation that coalition has chosen to build a Lvl. 5 hospital in. Ideally a Coalition Hospital should be built by the nation going for an Air Focus. Build this on a city with an airbase on it, usually its your Capital.

Stage 4: Initial Focus Unit Production Completed
Army Objectives: Neutral. Standby locations for next invasion or threats.
Research: Lvl. 2 Moterized Infantry
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Barracks): MBT
Production Queue (Every other City): None.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 2 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Barracks Lvl. 2 in all other Cities. Doing this will have you at low fuel resources. Avoid considering this option unless you are completely confident in your resource budgeting.
  
• [Option 3: Rocket Artillery Production Rush] Lvl. 3 Barracks on Primary Army City, build this on the city that has the fastest logistics to the front line of where you will be expanding. Depending on how much resources you might have you will have enough to build 1 x Lvl. 3 Barracks on the city that has the fastest logistics to the front line.

Stage 5: Preparations for First Major Expansion
Army Objectives: Rally Troops near your next country you will invade. If you are planning to invade an inactive player you should spread your troops along a wide front to capture the surrounding territories near cities. If your planning to invade a player, combine your forces around your armored units to make a spearhead push towards cities when the invasion happens. Prevent them from reacting by limiting their ability to go around your army groups.
Research: None, Save for Rocket Artillery.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Barracks): MBT. Continue building MBTs until you have 1 tank for every two infantry. Later on you can change that ratio to 1.3-1.5 Tanks for every two infantry.
Production Queue (Every other City): None.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 3 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Barracks Lvl. 2 in all other Cities. Doing this will have you at low fuel resources. Avoid considering this option unless you are completely confident in your resource budgeting.
  
• [Option 3: Rocket Artillery Production Rush] Lvl. 3 Barracks on Primary Army City, build this on the city that has the fastest logistics to the front line of where you will be expanding. Depending on how much resources you might have you will have enough to build 1 x Lvl. 3 Barracks on the city that has the fastest logistics to the front line.

Stage 6: Invasion of Playable Nation
Army Objectives: Invade Country, Win the War.
Research: Rocket Artillery.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Barracks): MBT. Continue building MBTs until you have 1 tank for every two infantry. Later on you can change that ratio to 1.3-1.5 Tanks for every two infantry.
Production Queue (Every other City): None.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 3 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Rocket Artillery Production Rush] Lvl. 4 Barracks on Primary Army City, If you have the resources to spare, build a lvl. 3 Barracks in your 2nd best Army City.
  
• [Option 3: Production Expansion] Barracks Lvl. 2 in all other Cities. By now you should have enough fuel to do it.

Stage 7: Ongoing War
Army Objectives: Win the War.
Research: Save for Motorized Infantry Lvl. 3. As your researching this unit, you can obtain a new unit, such as SAMs or Ground Radar depending on your needs.
Production Queue (All Cities): Nothing. By now you should have 1 MBT for every two infantry units. You should focus on your infrastructure. If you sustained any losses during the war, build units to replace those losses.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 3 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Rocket Artillery Production Rush] Expand Lvl. 4 Barracks to the rest of your three main army cities.

Stage 8: Ongoing War/War Conclusion
Army Objectives: Garrison infantry units in newly captured cities. Destroy all other resistance.
Research: Same as above.
Production Queue (All Cities): Nothing. By now you should have 1 MBT for every two infantry units. You should focus on your infrastructure. If you sustained any losses during the war, build units to replace those losses.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 4 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Rocket Artillery Production Rush] Expand Lvl. 4 Barracks to the rest of your three main army cities.
  
• [Option 3: Territory Logistics Improvements]

From here, you should be near or have reached the point in which you no longer need handholding. Your economy should be relatively good, and you now have the ability to produce your main support unit (Rocket Artillery). After this point you can begin upgrading your main units (MBTs, Rocket Artillery, etc.) progressively. Make sound economic decisions and try not to overspend your resources. For tips on how to do that, see 'Managing Your Economy'

The Air Force Focus example aims to get you 2 or 3 airbases that produce Strike Fighters. Initially, you produce the first batch of Strike Fighters until you have 5 of them, to which you then halt and focus back on your infrastructure improvements. Then depending on whether or not your neighbors are hostile or passive, you can choose to build Air Superiority Fighters or more Strike Fighters. The end goal is to have at least 20 Strike Fighters and 15 to 20 Air Superiority Fighters, because any more and your daily electronics income will start taking the hit, making production longer and harder. 20+ SFs is the standard for most coalitions, 15 ASFs is the minimum amount of fighters you'd need to cover your allies' airspaces. You will also need a Lvl. 5 Hospital to heal your air units, as they will be doing most of the work in your conquest.

Bonus Points: Pick a Nation that has Western Doctrine for an amazing 10% additional damage for Land-based ASFs. If you pick European Doctrine you get Strike Fighters earlier and an increased health pool.

Example Type: Air Coalition Support Focus, National Guard Opening, Peaceful Neighbors, Typical Air Focus Type (National Guard, Strike Fighters, Air Superiority Fighters, Cruise Missiles).

Stage 1: Opening Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories.
Research: National Guard Lvl. 1 (30 minutes)
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Recruitment Center Lvl. 1 (32 minutes)
Production Queue (All Cities): National Guard (~7-8 Hours)
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Arms Manufacturing, Build Local Industry Lvl. 1 in all provinces that have resources.

Stage 2: Post-Opening Production Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories.
Research: Strike Fighter
Infrastructure Queue (Capital City): Airbase Lvl. 2
Production Queue (All Cities): Halt until Strike Fighters are Procured.
Infrastructure Queue: Arms Manufacturing Lvl 2 in Fuel, Electronics, and Rare Material Cities.

Stage 3: Initial Focus Unit Production Run
Army Objectives: Secure City of AI Territory.
Research: Pause until arms manufacturing Lvl 3 is spent.
Production Queue (Capital City): Strike Fighter
Infrastructure Queue: Air Base Lvl. 1 (Ideally build on a city that produces Components or Electronics), Arms Manufacturing Lvl 3 in Electronics, Rare Material, and any deficit resource city.

Stage 4: Electronics Production Increase
Army Objectives: Neutral. Standby locations for next invasion or threats.
Research: Air Wing Ace
Production Queue (All Cities w/ Lvl. 2 Airbases): Strike Fighter
[Optional] Production Queue (2 Cities, NOT ON YOUR CITY WITH AN AIRBASE): National Guard.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Airbase Lvl. 2 on the City with Components or Electronics as your main production.

Stage 5: Preparations for First Major Expansion
Army Objectives: Rally Troops near your next country you will invade. If you are planning to invade an inactive player, you should spread your troops along a wide front to capture the bordering territories, then go for the cities. If your planning to invade a player, combine your forces around your armored units to make a spearhead push towards cities when the invasion happens. Prevent them from reacting by blocking their ability to go around your army groups.
Research: None. Focus on Economy to Curb Electronics/Components Deficit
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Airbases): Strike Fighter. Continue building SFs until you have 5 of them.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion Rush] Airbase Lvl. 1 on the City with Components or Electronics as your main production.

Stage 6: Invasion of Playable Nation. Economic Deficit Curbing
Army Objectives: Invade Country, Win the War.
Research: Air Superiority Fighter OR Nothing. Save for Economy or next level Strike Fighter.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Airbases): Strike Fighter. Continue building SFs until you have 5 of them.
Production Queue (Every other City): Curb any losses from War.
Infrastructure Queue: Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.

Stage 7: Ongoing War
Army Objectives: Win the War.
Research: Air Ace Level 2. As your researching this unit, you can continue to improve either your production output to three cities that produce Strike Fighters or use this round to make improvements to your resource output by investing in local industry and arms manufacturing.
Production Queue (All Cities): Pause. By now you should have 5 Strike Fighters, and your army will be dependent on air wings to clear cities of enemies.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Upgrade in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: 3rd Airbase Lv. 2 or Diversification Infrastructure] If you feel that you need three airbases, which normally you don't, it would be a consideration to direct your research focuses to a support units, such as a navy or artillery force.
  
• [Option 3: Military Hospital Lvl. 1] Regardless if you are playing in a coalition or not, you should build a coalition hospital on one of your airbase cities. Your Strike Fighters will be doing most of the work and thus need to heal often back to full operational index. Typically I send my Strike Fighters to my military hospital city whenever one of them reaches close to losing one Strike Fighter in a stack of 5. The HP of Strike Fighters varies by upgrade and doctrine.

Stage 8: Ongoing War/War Conclusion
Army Objectives: Garrison infantry units in newly captured cities. Destroy all other resistance.
Research: Naval/Land Unit OR Nothing. Wait until you have 10-15 Strike Fighters then proceed to upgrade them to level 4.
Production Queue (All Cities): Air Superiority Fighter. Have 5 of them by the end of the production run.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Upgrade in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Diversification Infrastructure] If you happen to have surplus rare material and want to get either a low-level Land or Sea unit, you can begin building the infrastructure to support it, then research it.
  
• [Option 3: Territory Logistics Improvements] Add airfields to far-away territories to expand the range of your Strike Fighters.
  
• [Option 4: Military Hospital Lvl. 2] Continue Upgrading the Military Hospital up to Lvl. 5

From here, you should be at the point in where you no longer need handholding. Your economy should be relatively good, and you now have a starting air force (5 ASFs, 10 SFs). From here on out, you continue building Strike Fighters until you have 15-20 of them and 10-15 Air Superiority Fighters, then stop to decide what you want to do next (Maybe go for Stealth Strike Fighters? Cruise Missiles? More Strike Fighters? More Fighters?). Note that if you upgrade a unit, it becomes more expensive to build past a certain level, so you decide the pace of modernizing your Air Force. You may also have available either a Lvl. 2 Barracks or a Lvl. 2 Naval Shipyard, and that will enable you to build units other than Fighters or Strike Fighters. If you are a coalition player, you will be responsible for upgrading your Coalition Hospital up to Lvl. 5.

The Standard Naval Focus is targeted towards nations that have 3 or more coastal cities and are nations that have 2 Component (or rarely, 2 Electronics) cities. The usual post-opening production move is to right away get 5 Frigates for a basic initial naval task force that can help take minor outlying islands, and this works for either the Well-Rounded Navy strategy and the Naval Death Star/Three-Fives strategy. You could grab some Corvettes but they serve no strategic long-term purpose other than coastal defense and blockade of non-naval, non-aerial players.

Example Type: Focus Nation Bias: Japan, Australia, Indonesia. Standard Opening, Far-Away Passive Neighbors, Either-Strategy Meta Type (Rounded Navy/Naval Death Star).

Stage 1: Opening Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories or Minor Outlying Islands.
Research: Motorized Infantry Lvl. 1, Corvette Lvl. 1
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Barracks Lvl. 1 (1 min 30 sec)
Production Queue (All Cities): Motorized Infantry Lvl. 1 (19 hours, 55 minutes, 9 seconds)
[Optional] Infrastructure Queue (Some/All Cities): Recruitment Center Lvl. 1 (31 min, 21 seconds) (-1 Hour, 52 minutes to Motorized Infantry in current Queue)
Infrastructure Queue (All Cities): Arms Manufacturing.

Stage 2: Post-Opening Production Move
Army Objectives: Capture all AI Disputed Territories.
Research: Frigates
Infrastructure Queue (Components or Electronics City): Naval Base Lvl. 2
Production Queue (All Cities): Halt until Frigates are Procured
Infrastructure Queue: Naval Base Lvl. 2, Build Local Industry Lvl. 1 in all provinces that have resources.

Stage 3: Initial Focus Unit Production Run
Army Objectives: Secure City of AI Disputed Territory.
Research: Wait until Lvl. 2 Motorized Infantry.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Naval Base): Frigate
Infrastructure Queue: Naval Base Lvl. 2

Stage 4: Second-Round Economic Investment
Army Objectives: Neutral. Standby locations for next invasion or threats.
Research: Lvl. 2 Motorized Infantry
Production Queue (All Cities w/ Lvl. 2 Naval Bases): Frigate
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Naval Base Lvl. 2 on a City with Components or Electronics as your main production.

Stage 5: Preparations for First Major Expansion
Army Objectives: Rally Troops near your next country you will invade. If you are planning to invade an inactive player you should spread your troops along a wide front to capture the surrounding territories near cities. If your planning to invade a player, combine your forces around your armored units to make a spearhead push towards cities when the invasion happens. Prevent them from reacting by limiting their ability to go around your army groups. Send in your Frigates to support the landing invasion.
Research: None. Focus on Economy to Curb Electronics/Components Deficit
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Naval Base): Frigates. Continue building until you have 5 of them.
Infrastructure Queue: [Economy] Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.

Stage 6: Invasion of Playable Nation. Economic Deficit Curbing
Army Objectives: Begin bombarding your neighbour's cities. Keep bombarding the city with your Frigates until there are no enemy units left, then send in your infantry to capture the city. Rinse and repeat this step until all cities are captured this way.
Research: Destroyer OR Submarine OR Save for Motorized Infantry Lvl. 3. Depends on your Naval Strategy. If your going for a Well-Rounded Navy, go for Destroyer first. If your going for Naval Death Star, go for Submarines.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 2 Naval Base): Frigates. Continue building until you have 5 of them.
Production Queue (Every other City): Curb any losses from War.
Infrastructure Queue: Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.

Stage 7: Ongoing War
Army Objectives: Win the War.
Research: Save for Motorized Infantry Lvl. 3. As your researching this unit, by now you should have three Lvl. 2 Naval Bases, and are actively researching Destroyers or Submarines or invested in Motorized Infantry Lvl. 3 already.
Production Queue (All Cities): Pause. By now you should have 5 Frigates as your initial Naval Task Force. Replace any losses from the war.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing Lvl. 3 in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Naval Base Lv. 3 in 1 or 2 Cities] By now you should begin gearing one of your three Naval Port cities to build either Submarines or Destroyers depending on your naval strategy
  
• [Option 3: Army Base Lvl. 2] You can start building next-level Army Bases on your naval base cities to procure Naval Infantry, allowing you to make insertions in any place that has a coast.

Stage 8: Ongoing War/War Conclusion
Army Objectives: Garrison infantry units in newly captured cities. Destroy all other resistance.
Research: Next-Level Motorized Infantry OR Marines. Wait until you have 10 Frigates, 10 Submarines/Destroyers before upgrading your naval units to the next level.
Production Queue (All Cities with Lvl. 3 Naval Base): Destroyers/Submarines. Build them up until you have 5 of them.
Infrastructure Queue:

• [Option 1: Economy] Arms Manufacturing in Cities that produce resources you have a Deficit in, i.e Fuel, Electronics, Components, Supplies, Rare Material, etc.
  
• [Option 2: Production Expansion] Naval Base Lvl. 3 on all the rest of your Naval Base cities.
  
• [Option 3: Diversification Infrastructure] If you happen to have surplus rare material and want to get either a support Land Unit like an Amphibious IFV or Naval Fighters, you can build the infrastructure for them on your cities.

From here, you should be near or have reached the point in where you no longer need hand holding. Your economy should be relatively good, and you now have a starting naval force of at least 5 Frigates and 2 Destroyers/Submarines. Depending on which strategy you go for, either the Well-Rounded Naval strategy or the Naval Death Star, you will have to wait to get a very large navy before upgrading your ships to the next level, as it is vastly more expensive to build upgraded naval ships than starting ships, so be patient and up your arsenal. After getting Frigates Lvl. 4 you really don't have much of a reason to go beyond this level, as they will be bumped down to Anti-Air support roles by mid-game for your Cruisers or Destroyers, so you can pause after reaching this level, focusing on your mainstay units. As a Naval Focused player you absolutely should get the Ship Captain to be in one of your flagship task forces for defense and offense bonuses.

Winning a war involves having a brain. If you have one, then you are already better than 50% of CON playerbase. You won't believe how many times I've seen players throw their units at other enemy units expecting results from under-indexed, under-performing, or ineffective units to win. A better player relies on ranged supports, knows where their enemy units are, and utilizes melee attacks only sparingly.

Some of the better players I know in CON are conservative in their approach to war and only attack when they are sure they will get an expected result, otherwise they are on the defensive to conserve their energy and momentum. This isn't to say that aggressive players aren't good players, if they are really good they can make it absolute hell for defensive players to fight against.

However if you are looking for just practical applied advice to how to win a war, I've compiled here a list of tips on typical behavior of how you should treat wars:

• When in doubt, avoid War.
  
• When in doubt, AVOID War.
  
• When with certainty, Go to War.
  
• Defense always inflicts more casualties than Offense.
  
• When possible, force your enemy to attack your strongest units.
  
• Always assume the opposing player has the advantage.
  
• Retreat is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. Do not mistake retreat for weakness.
  
• Take as much land as possible to separate yourself from your future enemy. In times of war, you will use that land to trade in space for time.
  
• The best hour to declare war is when you wake up, in real life. It is also the best time to join a new game.
  
• The best hour to capture a city is just before the in-game day timer resets.
  
• The best date to begin an operation is when your adversary is most exposed. This could mean that they are overstretched, involved in war on another front, or plain weakness.
  
• If your adversary is only getting stronger by waiting, see point 3 above.
  
• Keep in mind the far-away adversaries: Strong players who are continents away will one day challenge you. Plan your entire strategy on defeating them from the beginning of the game.
  
• Don't get bogged down by local rivals; there is always a bigger fish. End your disputes before the bigger fish ends you.
  
• A coastal invasion is sudden, unexpected, and always a possibility.
  
• Sometimes, a good defense for your empire is having good border gore. AI-controlled nations between you and your primary adversary are a psychological barrier. Even if the territory between you and your adversary's territory is unguarded by an inactive or AI nation, players, especially experienced, will be reluctant to the be first one to encroach on your sphere of influence if there is a significant amount of border gore left behind by past players. The reasons for this effect are due to the morale drain caused from being involved in many wars. Every new war drains just 1% off controlled city's morale, but while one war might not hurt their economy from morale drain that much, over time many of them will, so its best to cut losses where possible.
  
• Related to above, utilize AI nations as a buffer. Sometimes, by not invading an inactive nation is the right thing to do, as they basically spawn free guarding units to protect you against an attack from an unanticipated vector. The less vectors of attack there are, the easier it is to defend your nation's territory. This factor becomes relevant as your territory expands to continent-sized empires.
  
• People who spend gold to win are everyone's enemy. P2W players are unsportsmanlike, and should be eliminated as soon as possible or tag-teamed.
  
• Harass your opponent whenever you can as you retreat or advance, keep them always on edge, and make them expect a long-range sneak attack, especially in large-scale coalition wars.
  
• Although I hate to want to mention this, toxic players are most effective at getting you to do mistakes, especially if your enemy is a bully. You will be hated by everyone if you are an unsportsmanlike player. That said, PLEASE DO NOT BE A TOXIC PLAYER.
  
• Be polite to everyone, even your future adversaries. Be friendly in diplomacy like opening up with a 'Hey man' or 'Good Day' to show your openness. If your polite enough you might just make a new friend.
  
• Never Underestimate Rank 10s or above during war against them.
  
• Underestimate your coalition's lower skilled players unless they have a K/D higher than 1.5, prepare to carry them.
  
• Do not believe that the big will eat the small, it will always be the swift that will eat the slow.
  
• That said, keep an army always highly mobile, and preferably flexible.
  
• Build Military Logistics on routes where your army often passes through, unless your resources are better spent elsewhere.
  
• Plan Retreats.
  
• In Coalition Wars, make coordinated pushes or retreats.
  
• If you are an Air Force player, help your allies often, clear cities for their troops to advance.
  
• Prepare an exit strategy if your coalition is full of rètards.
  
• Do not keep your planes parked on your airfield if they are full health. Always keep them airborne.
  
• Frequently look at who the top nations are on the tri-daily largest economies. The higher they are on the list, the more dangerous the player is.
  
• It never hurts to have a powerful navy as a coastal nation.
  
• NEVER Play as Korea. If you solo Korea in the WW3 Scenario and win a solo victory, you earned the bragging rights.
  
  More tips to be added.

This section serves as a guide towards general tips on how to use certain units and how to not wear out your armies so quickly.

(Aka tips that should be especially noted)

• Piercing the AA Bubble. To summarize what this is, it is sequentially launching conventional cruise missiles in a way that at least a few of them gets through the AA defenses of ships, AA batteries, and Theater Defense Systems. The way you do this is by sending in one cruise missile to 'spoof' an enemy air defense unit to attack it. After the enemy air defense has engaged the missile, it will spend approximately 10 minutes reloading. During this window, you should follow up with another set of cruise missile strikes to hit your target. If your target is beyond a 10-minute launch distance of your cruise missile, you need to time your cruise missiles such that your missiles will hit the target, which means preemptively firing one spoofing cruise missile every 9 minutes, then firing a group of cruise missiles during the period that the air defense is reloading. Saturation attacks are usually expensive but they can work, so having a large stockpile of conventional warheads before a coalition war is recommended.
  NOTE: The point defense of an air defense unit WILL STILL BE ACTIVE if you engage it directly with missiles. This means that even if an air defense unit is in a stage of reloading, and your missiles hit an air defense unit, it can still defeat your missiles.
  
• Build a Lvl. 5 Coalition Hospital. This should be best handled by an Air Force focused player because they will use this hospital the most and typically have more resources to invest in one. A Coalition Hospital allows every member of a coalition to send their units to that hospital to heal in a shorter amount of time than stationing units in cities. Ideally, this should be geographically positioned in the middle of a coalition and placed in an inland city, with an airport, and in a place where non-air-liftable units can easily travel to.
  
• Rotate your Combat Units Often to the Hospital. It is much cheaper to heal a unit than it is to make a new one. Control your rate of expansion such that all of your troops are at maximum health whenever you enter a new war. Many ground unit players are not patient enough to do this, especially with tanks, but it can make a huge difference when fighting other players.
  
• If you are fighting an opponent in which you are technologically outclassed, resort to hit-and-run tactics. It is best advised to retreat and pick your battles carefully when this happens. If you know your nation will be defeated in a future war and your homeland cities will be conquered, you can continue the fight with an asymmetrical war. Use as many of your available units as possible to hit the homeland cities of the enemy nation your at war with. If the enemy homeland is unapproachable, it is best to invade territories or cities with little to no protection, then leave and proceed on to the next. Using insurgent spawning to your advantage, you can give your enemy a massive headache if they have to deal with a big insurgency behind the frontlines.
  
• Be aware of the healing mechanics:
  
  

• Improvised Hospital Tactics: If you don't have a level 3 hospital or above, one way to game the healing system is to move your land units into coastal sea such that they are converted into convoy ships. Since all naval units heal at a rate of 2 HP per day, your land units, since they are convoy ships, will receive the same benefits. An additional plus to this tactic is that, for units with large HP pools such as tanks, it is actually faster to heal in water than it is to heal at a level 5 hospital. The reason why this is is because convoy ships have an HP pool of 12, while the average HP of a tank is 50. If you divide 12 by 2 HP gained per day, an MBT can gain all 50 of it's land HP from 0.1 in about 6 days, while a tank healing on land will gain 50 HP at a level 5 hospital (6 HP gained per day) in 8 days.

• DEFEND YOUR HOMELAND CITIES AS BEST YOU CAN! If an enemy conquers your homeland city, it is very hard to restore that homeland city's morale and production to pre-capture levels once it has been recaptured. In the long term, a recaptured homeland city has serious implications as, for that city, you will no longer have the same production rate as before, being at a disadvantage to all the other players' production for that resource. It is for this reason that you must lock down your nation's own homeland territory defense.
  
• When anticipating an invasion from a naval force and you have no navy, move your troops inland and avoid the coast. You might as well consider your cities captured by the enemy if there is no allied navy to support a defensive. This is so that your actual units don't sustain damage from Naval barrages, and when the actual enemy troops land in your city, you can counterattack them in full force. If you can afford it, have artillery be within range to bombard your city port once an enemy unit is disembarking.
  
• In such a situation as the point above, having cruise missiles is handy to deter ships from approaching your coast. See the author's note on how 'piercing the bubble' works.
  
• Common sense will reason that you should defend cities and choke points where an enemy might go through. That is where your strongest units should be.
  
• Work towards having the entirety of your army be airlift-capable. Once your army is airlift-capable, you can put more emphasis on secondary focuses (such as an air force or navy).
  
• Most builds are too expensive to fully upgrade, so weigh in your research priorities.
  
• It is efficient to stack AA Defenses together to maximize air defense points. An exception to this rule is when there is a large air wing stack which deals a lot of damage, dividing your air defense into separated bubbles of air defense can waste an air wing's attack as it will only engage one unit rather than the rest of your air defense stack.
  
• Rather than just destroying enemy airports/airfields/shipyards, try to spare them of infrastructure damage or demolition as you will provide yourself with a lot more logistical convenience having them there. Equally, if an enemy unit is about to seize your airbase or shipyard, demolish all buildings immediately to rob the enemy of any strategic benefit by capturing that city.
  
• A Tank Commander can benefit an artillery stack GREATLY with it's attack buffers. It is absolutely recommended you invest the time and resources into one if have a significant artillery force.

• Check the amount of HP a single air wing has. Subtract the HP of one of those air units from a group of 5 air units. When your air unit's total air HP is close to that number, that is when you should send them back to the hospital, all 5 of them.
  
• Bombers are typically a pointless endeavor. They are a waste of time to peruse but have some strategic utility in it's long range and ability to circumvent frontline air defense.
  
• To prevent the enemy from spotting your air wing stack as long as possible, try to loiter or transfer over ocean/coastal tiles rather than land. There is a small white dot beneath where your air wing is loitering that indicates the exact point where unit is flying over. If that white dot is over a tiny 'connection' (or 'line') of river or sea, you can even fly above a neighbor's 'territory' and cities without declaring war.
  
• Keep your air units airborne whenever possible. You never know when the airport your planes are on is going to be hit. You should also loiter away from air defense if such a threat is possible.
  
• When in a coalition war against other air force focused players, the first target you should go for is the airfield where the enemy's fighters are operating from. By hitting this infrastructure, you are relocating the enemy's planes further back to the nearest airbase. If they are out of range of the nearest airbase, they will relocate, allowing you to position your air superiority fighters on an intercept path and deal damage.
  
• Logically speaking, there are generally fewer airfields than airplanes are flying. Hitting these airbases is strategically a better idea than directly attacking air units. However, if the enemy has multiple frontline airfields it will take considerably more effort to do this. This effort compounds with Air-Defense units.
  
• If you know you won't have air control parity or superiority in an upcoming coalition war, consider building multiple backup airfields near and behind the frontline so that your enemy has to commit to more sorties and you have somewhere to back up to.
  
• If your coalition has a lot of land to trade, you can consider intentionally falling back to overstretch the enemy's air control, and destroy the enemy units as they are advancing on your territory.
  
• In an Air/Land War stalemate where both sides cannot destroy the other's units, missile saturation attacks are the answer; or rocket artillery protected by air defense.
  
• If you are playing against an air force focused player with Western Doctrine, Western ASF Wings will outperform both European and Eastern Doctrine ASFs with a 10% air defense bonus. Play WITH CAUTION against them and AVOID DIRECT CONFRONTATION against their ASF wings unless you are technologically superior to them.
  
• Utilize your Strike Fighters conservatively, only commit to Strike missions when you know you won't lose a Strike Fighter unit.
  
• AWACS planes are very useful for scouting. If your an air force player, you can support your allies' naval task forces with expanded detection range, allowing them to setup ambushes and get the first hit.
  
• If your adversaries are researching anti-air AA, consider your strike planes obsolete, unless you have higher-level cruise missiles.
  
• Stealth planes are an extremely expensive endeavor and are generally not worth the time and investment unless your adversaries are not researching AA, don't notice you have them, or they don't notice you have level 5 airbases.

• In general, the only way to counter a big navy is with an even bigger navy.
  
• RANGE IS EVERYTHING. Your ship/submarine's range can singlehandedly determine the outcome of a naval battle. Always try to keep ahead of your naval adversaries' naval technology.
  
• Hit and Run tactics is the meta. You move a naval task force to the maximum range you can engage your enemy, hit them, then move back by 1 hour to ready the next attack cycle. When your enemy has more range than you, you can only hope to catch them when they are reloading or moving.
  
• There is no way to make your naval units heal faster other than having them heal by the coast (any coast) at the slow rate of 3 HP per day. Stacking identical naval units benefit from HP gain efficiency as noted earlier by the healing mechanics infographic.
  
• Submarine units can heal a lot quicker than full naval task forces. This makes Red October strategies faster in terms of combat rotations.
  
• Submarines have lower HP when they are near a coast rather than open water. One tactic to circumvent this disadvantage is to edge your submarine unit as close to the coast as possible, but not too close, through the tile connections. You can tell if your submarine is on a coast or open seas tile by pressing the 'i' info button on your unit.
  
• If you are a nation looking to focus on naval superiority within your regional waters, you should go for Submarines. They are a highly efficient anti-naval unit. Otherwise, go for Cruisers.
  
• 4 Cruisers + a Ship Captain can best be classified as a 'Naval Death Star' Task Force. They are super expensive to build but are the strongest surface task force you can deploy.
  
• Equally, 4 Submarines + a Submarine Commodore possesses the strongest anti-naval task force configuration in the game.
  
• When guarding a waterway choke point such as the Panama Canal or the Suez, have your naval units not be blocking the actual naval route but to the side or next to the tile. This makes it so that if an enemy task force is passing through it doesn't run directly into your ships forcing a melee engagement, and your ships also bombard their ships first if they are moving. If you need to directly block the chokepoint, place a disposable unit such as a corvette to guard it.
  
• When you want to bombard an enemy city in contested waters knowing there is an enemy navy, it is best to move your ships first to place you want them to go AND THEN attack the cities when it is clear. The reason for this is that when your logged off and your units are bombarding a city, any enemy ship can hit your fleet and your ships wont retaliate back until they don't have a target.
  
• Corvettes are purely for area denial for transport ships that might land at cities. Please do not upgrade them past level 1 if you use them.
  
  

In an ever-competitive environment, the edge that a player can have can be determined by a bug of the game. There are quite a few ones that CoN players use, some of them quite well known (such as the infamous 'Refresh Movement' territory-conquering bug), while others are not even being known by seasoned players.

Note. This list is continuously being updated as new bugs and game mechanic exploits are known to the author.

• The Refresh Movement Bug - It is known by a number of different names but this is by far one of the most well-known bugs in CoN, coined long ago, but even the new player should encounter this one at some point. Basically, if you have a land unit that is close enough to the center of a territory tile (typically around 10 or so minutes away from taking the tile), you can instantly transport them to that tile by refreshing the unit's attack or movement order. The applications of this bug include the following:
  - Forcing a Battle to Take Place. If two units are close enough to each other, they will enter an engagement. If both units are moving without refreshing movement, both units will be exchanging damage based on their attack damage values. If one unit is moving while the other is not, the one that is not moving benefits from defensive statistics. It is extremely important to know this fact as it can absolutely make the difference in the outcome of the battle. If your unit is about to collide with an enemy unit, stop your unit's movement immediately (outside of the 10 minute range, otherwise you will force a battle to take place to your dismay) and move back to a tile where you benefit from defensive bonuses (such as a forest or urban tile). If the enemy unit your about to collide with is superior to yours, you should avoid engagement with it and move aside to another 'connection' of the tile, or retreat back until you can sufficiently defend against the enemy unit.
  This application also extends to naval units.
  - Conquering territory before your opponent does. If nation A and nation B, who are both competing to take over the territory of nation C while not at war with each other, nation A can employ the refresh movement bug to incrementally increase his unit's movement position by a few minutes ahead of where his unit would be if it didn't use the bug. If there comes a situation where both of your units are of equal time away from conquering a territory, employing the bug will instantly transport nation A's units to the center of the territory, thus conquering it and trapping nation B's unit that was transiting to the tile. If nation B tries to move his unit back to his territory, this might cause an unintended war to occur. Some diplomacy on both of the nation's parts to move nation B's unit back might prevent a real war.
  
• The 'Bait and Switch'/'Hit and Run' Mechanic. If a ranged unit that is stacked together engages another unit, it expends an attack cycle. This can be taken advantage of by using a decoy unit to force a stack to expend it's attack, allowing you, during this time, to hit the ranged unit back. This mechanic is noted in part 3 of the 'How to Use Your Armed Forces' section, where naval units should resort to hit-and-run when engaging a naval unit. The mechanic also applies to artillery, but sometimes, if the attack that was expended immediately annihilates a unit, the cooldown for re-engagement becomes 1 minute. Commentary requested.
  The basis of all 'Sniper Wars' between two ranged units usually requires a sacrificed unit in order to destroy the priority unit- which is the ranged unit. Sometimes, the price of your tank is worth the price of killing the enemy's Rocket Artillery.
  
• The Hospital Cruise Ship Bug - I explained this one earlier in part 1 of the 'How to Use Your Armed Forces' section of this guide. Many experienced players will come to rely on this bug as its basically a free hospital without wasting any resources on a real one. You just move an army out to sea and let the army on board heal while enjoying a vacation on a transport ship.
  
• The Intercontinental Missile Bus Bug - If you happen to have an air wing that can fire cruise missiles, you can transfer that air wing to another continent while still being able to fire cruise missiles in-transit. This allows you to fire cruise missiles upon your enemies where you otherwise couldn't have the range for at a regular airbase. This bug has become less useful ever since Bytro made it so that airborne units have to return to base if they re-transfer or commit to an action such as interception.
  Intercontinental transfers still have a number of other applications, such as:
  - Long-range reconnaissance - A UAV drone or any aircraft can immediately see what unit is beneath it while in transit. The nation your flying over would be supremely annoyed if he catches you doing this.
  - Evading Air Defense/Long Range Interception - I am personally not sure of this one, but in observations when I used this bug I was able to evade ASF interception with my fighters while firing cruise missiles. This could extend to using ASF to intercept planes that are deep inside the hostile nation's territory. I am not sure about how it is for evading ground air defense, most likely you can't. Commentary requested.
  - [Defunct] Multi-transit stealth transfer - In the times when air wings had infinite loiter time and were not forced to transit back when you commit that air wing to an action, it was possible, if you had multiple airbases at different 'angles' relative to the position of where the flying unit was, to tediously navigate your airlifted units around a nation's territory by flying over sea or around a hostile nation. You would zig-zag that airlifted unit in the direction of other airbases from behind and towards that unit's destination until it would fly over undetected over sea.
  
• The 'Extra Range' Bug - Sometimes, but not always, a ranged unit can engage slightly above their stat card range limits. Despite being patched a number of times, the bug can sometimes still be observed. It is used liberally and whenever possible in naval warfare and 'artillery snipeing battles' by seasoned players. A practical demonstration of this bug can be seen with the level 1 naval captain unit, whereas their stat card may say their maximum engagement range is 75, it can actually engage at it's upgraded limit at 80 to 100 range. As far as it is known by me, the maximum theoretical range extension that a unit can exceed is about 10-15 extra range from it's current statcard information. This bug likely is related to the 'refresh movement' bug.
  
• The 'Disembarking Unit' Bug - When a unit is disembarking at a sea port, while it is disembarking it is still considered a ship until it has fully disembarked. It is possible to take advantage of this transitioning period by forcing a melee engagement using a ship to directly move unto the disembarking army, which is edged at a sea tile. Since the unit is in a disembarking phase, it can neither retreat on land nor water, forcing the unit to be stuck in an engagement loop until the attacking ship is destroyed or the land unit is destroyed. This can be lethal for those not careful in timing.
  
• The 'Land Ship' Bug - I've personally never observed this before and if it has ever occurred its likely a rare bug, but a naval unit such as a ship could simultaneously be both on land and on water. The implications of this bug, if it is explored, means that naval ships could, in theory, benefit from the healing rate of cities with hospitals and (maybe, also) sea healing rate. A way to observe this bug would likely be to build a naval ship in a tiny city tile, to which it is in a position closest to the origin city's center.

In Conflict of Nations, there are spies that can collect intelligence, spur corruption, or sabotage your adversary's buildings. Agents can also defend your cities from foreign agents. How they are employed is the subject of its own section. Typically, the way how agents are used throughout the game are as follows:

• When you get the cash to afford agents, you can start putting counter-ops on all your cities, starting off with the most strategic hubs. These include your capital, cities with upgraded infrastructure (such as shipyards, barracks, and airbases), and cities that are crucial for your war economy.
  
• Over time, you should aim to employ about 3, then 4, then as many counter-ops as you want in those strategically important cities. At around 4 counter-ops agents is the point in which sabotage from foreign agents gets exceeding difficult and expensive to sustain.
  
• At this point, you should feel reasonably confident that you can defend against a sustained spy war, and you can start planting your own agents on foreign soil.
  
• The rate of success of a spy mission is 50%. This is compounded regressionally by counter-ops.
  
• Typically, putting spies in adversaries' cities is the most common way to yield the most results.
  
• However, your enemy also knows this, and they will have their counter-ops in all their major cities.
  When engaged with multiple adversarial spies on your territory and your enemies, this becomes a 'Spy War,' where the winner is whoever runs out of cash to commit to sustained offensive spy actions.

However, what is not universally known are the various strategies for how you can get the most out of your spies:

• The very start of the game is where nations are the most vulnerable to spy actions. Typically no one can afford to buy agents as they are just concerned with upgrading their economy. One particularly annoying way to piss someone off in the early game is to send a single corruption agent to their capital. If that agent succeeds, morale in every city will take a hit, thus reducing economic output. When you do this action, you better get ready to fight a spy war with that adversary, because they will retaliate with their own corruption mission.
  
• You can sometimes get away with not investing in counter-ops at all until you have to. The upkeep cost of counter-ops saps away at your budget (albeit a minor amount), and since it is uncommon for other nations to send spies after you until the late game, the chances of espionage by an enemy nation past day 5 is statistically unlikely (source: trust me bro).
  
  
• Rather than putting intelligence agents in your adversaries' cities, put them in territories adjacent to those cities. Their chances of success in gathering intelligence are much higher because your adversary will likely only put counter-ops on cities and not useless provinces. The intelligence yield of what information you could gather from your adversary may yield less than if you were to put them on cities, but over time you will get the same information on what your adversaries are researching, building, and the locations of their counter-ops than you were if you were to make a sustained intelligence gathering campaign on one city, where your adversary will know it is you who is putting foreign agents on their soil.
  
• It is more efficient to spur corruption in your adversaries' nearby occupied cities than it is to put agents in your adversaries' homeland cities. No one ever bothers putting counter-ops on occupied cities as it would be too expensive to cover them all. If you succeed in reducing the morale of a nearby city to the point that it revolts into a state of insurgency, those insurgents will force your adversary to send troops to recapture those cities. If you are particularly lucky, those insurgents may spread like a virus to other cities and create insurgencies there, creating a chain reaction and distracting your opponent's reinforcements to places other than their theaters of operation. You can carefully engineer an insurgency behind your adversaries' homeland so that the AI targets unprotected homeland cities and destroys their economy.
  
• Annexed cities' reduced morale is ideal for a sustained corruption campaign. Sometimes your opponent may forget to put counter-ops on those cities, allowing you to make an opening blow.
  
• Although it is not likely you are to succeed within a reasonable amount of time and money, corruption agents in your adversaries' capital are the most effective way to reduce morale across the nation. A single successful mission, even if it reduces morale by 1% in that capital, will reduce morale in every city your opponent has, thus reducing overall economic output.
  
• Sabotage missions are typically an expensive endeavor as the more attractive strategic targets are cities with infrastructure, such as upgraded barracks, airbases, and shipyards. That said, there is a more efficient way to damage your opponents' economy and that is through sabotaging local industry. Your adversaries most likely will not defend local industries with counter-ops so it is a free chance to damage industrial output.
  
• Contrary to popular belief, the VP sites in the Rising Tides and Overkill scenario do not actually provide the practical fixed income of rare material as it is claimed in the info tab. They are influenced by local morale just like regular provinces with resources and provide *slightly less than 1k rare material. By damaging morale at the VP site territories you damage the owner's economic output.

Large-Scale games are on the maps of the WW3 Scenario, Overkill, Rising Tides, Squadron Cycle, and other seasonal events. Each of these maps have players spread across multiple continents, and coalitions generally form based on regional proximity. Luckily, there are some rule-of-thumb unifying grand strategies for all of these regional coalitions and it can be summarized for each coalition based on their region of the world:


Continental America is always going to be at odds with Latin American Coalitions unless the North American coalition players unite under the South American coalitions. For a North American coalition to win, it must quickly seize the North American continent and immediately get to work on protecting it's coast and economy. North American coalition players have the fortune (or equally, misfortune) of being able to go for any one focus (Army, Air, Navy) and be able to do something with it when an invasion comes. North American Coalition players are always in danger of a naval invasion from any approach, and so its impossible for it's navy to truly cover all attack vectors, but the chance of invasion happens only when the other coalitions have an interest in taking you out. For a key defense strategy, North American coalition players must rely on excellent cross-continental logistics and move important facilities inland when it allows. Unlike Asian coalitions where they can trade space for time, North American coalitions can't do the same despite it's size, as it's strategic cities are positioned by coasts and are subject to invasion at any point of time, however it is uncommon to be attacked in the mid-stage of the game since there are bigger fish to fry.

That said, North America is dependent on having a powerful navy. North American coalitions should keep in mind that there is no future where both them and South American coalitions can coexist on the same latitude.


South American coalitions, once they unite, can be extremely powerful thanks to their positioning in the world and awful logistics discouraging any large-scale invasion. That said, like North America it is a subject to raids by foreign armies and navies at any point of time on it's coastal cities. One of the primary things a South American/Latin American coalition should do is build a powerful navy. Atlantic Dominance is key to long-term defense of the continent. There are three primary chokepoints a South American coalition navy should focus on: The Panama Canal, The Argentine-Antarctic Gap, and the South Atlantic Sea by the tip of Brazil. These areas are of strategic importance as all naval invasion vessels will pass along these corridors. Unlike North America's vast oceans that make defending all areas with a navy difficult, South America is positioned closer to Africa with clearer defense zones, and the mountainous terrain in Chile and Bolivia make naval invasion unfavorable by Asian and Oceanic Coalitions. A Latin-American controlled Panama Canal and Caribbean can assert the coalition as the gatekeepers to the Pacific, and at the same time keeping the North America anticipating a Southern invasion from either ocean.

Noting these geographic features, South American and Latin American coalitions are often one of the strongest coalitions in the game, and they have some flexibility with coalition allies, with West African coalitions being the primary partners for world domination, or conquest.


If successful European Coalitions are formed, they are played by experienced and competent players who control the entire eurozone. The early game chaos of so many nations in close proximity to each other means that war will be declared right away as soon as you join your nation, and you must rapidly build up your forces and defend your territory at all costs until your nation or coalition wins. From there, once a European coalition has an iron grip on Europe, it can begin looking outwards towards the Mediterranean and Russia. In the Rising Tides and Overkill Scenarios, European nations immediately have control of two victory sites that produce extra rare material, and one more in Greenland if it is the Overkill scenario, giving a powerful early-game boost to the nations controlling it.
Against the world, European coalitions form a tough adversary against the African and Eastern Coalitions, and coalition leaders of these regions may have to compromise deals in order to prevent an early coalition war. Right away, European nations should get to work on getting a Navy and Air Force, as the nearby North African nations would be setting their sights on Europe. asserting it's territory in the Mediterranean will result in high tensions especially against a united coalition of North African states. Europe must constantly prepare for war from a North African coalition, and make a decisive strike against it to crush any possibility of a navy developing on the other side of the sea.
Naturally, while these tensions are unfolding, European coalitions should by now start invading Russia, as it is often controlled by an inactive player. Taking this country early on will allow you to be separated from the Asian coalitions when the time comes to go to war with them, that is, if they are not challenged by Oceanic or Middle Eastern coalitions.
Overall, playing as a European coalition will have you be surrounded by enemies and it can be time consuming to conquer the entire continent, but if at least one nearby coalition is dealt with early on, it can enable for your coalition to have substantial flexibility for expansion. Coalition leaders of this alliance are advised to strike up diplomatic relations with other coalitions early on.

Africa is home to players who have been late to the party in joining the game as every other nation is taken. Although this is a fact, a united African coalition with many experienced players can form a serious opposition to every other coalition in the game, from North America to Oceania thanks to it's continental position being in a place of relevance. It can expand in any direction and has enough land to trade that in for time whenever there is a large-scale war with a faraway coalition. Usually, a similar chaotic start like in Europe happens in Africa, where multiple nations are instantly thrown into war by newbies and only the strongest survive. But, through the quick formation of a coalition with two other players, you can deter these chances drastically. Typically, 1-3 minor coalitions/powers form in Africa depending on the scenario type. Those coalitions can either be centered in North Africa, West-Central Africa, South Africa, or East Africa. For the next two weeks these coalitions will be competing for continental control until one coalition wins it all.
Regardless of which coalition wins the power struggle, African nations are often forced to go with short-term Army and Air Force focuses such as MBTs, Towed Artillery, Recon Cars, or Strike Fighters, and as such, most African coalitions by the end of the power struggle come out from the conflict having large armies. After there are two minor coalitions remaining on the continent, greater alliance formations may start forming or a future war will loom.

Despite the advantage that Africa has in terms of land to trade for time, it is the most exposed continent on the map from naval invasion, with the exception of Mediterranean coastal nations. For North African coalitions building a navy, it has a head start from Europe and the Middle East when it comes to being able to assert it's authority in this body of water. A coalition consisting of Libya, Egypt, Algieria, Morocco, and/or Mauritania benefit from having clear naval choke points to defend from foreign navies: The Seuz Canal in Egypt, the Gibraltar Strait between Spain and Morocco, and the Bosporus Strait in Turkey. Compared to every other water mass, the Mediterranean Sea is the most defensible sea on the map. Nothing goes through here without North Africa enforcing it.

For every other African nation that is coasted with a large ocean, they are at the mercy of coastal raids happening at any point of time by their adversaries. The best defense against foreign navy-backed invasions is to merge with multiple close neighbors and benefit from the strength in numbers by close proximity. This makes it so that one or more ally has troops or ships nearby that can quickly redirect to naval invasions. This of course does not always happen the way you want it to, but it is the most ideal situation and heavily deters a coalition invasion occurring from local waters.
If a strong African coalition is to become victorious in the early game power struggles, assert it's coastal dominance, and field a balanced combined armed forces with other African nations, it has three logical areas to expand to: South America, Europe, or the Middle East. Alternatively there is Oceania.

For North African coalitions ready to expand, the obvious objective should be to wipe out Europe, and with a decisive spearhead it can quickly invade it's homeland territories without much retaliation. North African coalitions when doing this should ensure they have the air force to protect their troops, as Europe is likely to field Strike Fighters and slaughter North Africa's troops up to their last cities. Locking down the Gibraltar Strait is a must when declaring a coalition war with Europe, and as soon as you do this Europe will be reluctant to make any offensive pushes with it's navy unless it has superior numbers. By doing this you will be able to dictate whether or not you push with your Navy into Europe. Keep in mind while all of this is happening foreign powers will see the weakened Europe and try to take advantage of the power vacuum. They will begin to attack Europe as well from other angles. Be cautious if there exists a major Middle Eastern coalition, as they make consider attacking you while you are occupied in Europe.

For West African Coalitions, asserting dominance in South America becomes an option depending on how far South the Coalition is positioned in. West African coalitions, should they choose to expand into South America, ideally should take over an inactive nearby nation on the same continent and then build up forces for a bigger push into South America. This plan applies the same for South African coalitions.

East African coalitions will have Arabia to conquer, and if it is not challenged by the influence of an Iran-backed coalition, they will be able to expand unopposed all the way up to India and Kazakhstan. If there exists a strong 5 or 3-player Middle Eastern or Central Asian coalition, caution should be exercised as they too would have been using the time to expand their area of control. To Destroy this coalition it requires East Africa to have a highly mobile and flexible army or air force, as it would be crossing vast steppes of mountainous and desert terrain. Against an adversary with India in it's coalition, a navy will be needed to blockade the coastal cities and crush any development of an Indian navy.


Most Middle Eastern and Central Asian coalitions have the benefit of not needing to build any Navy in the early game, as they often border small coasts or have clear choke points on where to defend from, like the Persian Gulf or the Caspian Sea in the Rising Tides scenario. Thanks to this and the fact that no resources need to be invested into navies, Middle Eastern and Central Asian coalitions can almost focus entirely on either Ground or Air focuses. A 5-player led coalition with only two focuses to choose from will be able to far more easily project power against foreign coalitions in any direction, and because of this fact, a full Middle Eastern or Central Asian coalition can be the most defensible coalition you can ever form. You can expand in any direction and no coalition will ever want to mess with you unless two coalitions are against you, but even then you will be able to give them runs for their money with your rugged terrain and vast deserts.

However, despite of this fact, it is not too often that you'll see many experienced players play these nations, and so in most games it just ends up being as free real estate for Asian coalitions.

Asian coalitions are among the strongest of coalitions that can form. The main reason for this includes often bordering many inactive nations with vast territory, which can be traded in for time once a coalition war is due. With no Middle Eastern coalition to challenge an Asian coalition, Asia can become unstoppable in the long run (see Mackinder's Heartland Thesis). However, it has an Achilles heel that must be addressed right away: Many of it's major cities are coasted by oceans, and as such being on top of building a powerful navy becomes a priority after you assert local land control. Asian coalitions who fail to take advantage of their coasts or build a navy in time for a coalition war are doomed to be bullied by far-away coalitions. Just by building shipyards can Asia deter attempts by Oceania and South American Coalitions from making a quick move to take it out from the game. The most ideal configuration of nations in an Asian coalition includes China, India, Japan, one Southeast Asian nation (Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand), and one Oceanic nation (Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand). This allows for massive power projection in the long run, but it also makes you a bigger target due to the amount of land you own.

In the early to mid game Asian coalitions will often be seen acquiring border inland nations, almost immediately going for Russia for an easy land grab. In the long run controlling half of Russia and Kazakhstan will be pivotal in eventual wars with Europe and the Middle East. The primary province an Asian coalition should rush for is Perm, a mountainous province north of Yekaterinburg. It is the province of the Ural mountains and you will have to race against Europe to grab this province in time. It will make conquest and defense of Asian coalitions far easier once Europe needs to be taken care of. If you are unsuccessful in capturing this province before the Euros do, you should at least capture 2/3rds of Russia up to the border of where Europe is bordering you. Next on the Asian Coalition's hitlist is Kazakhstan, another nation that has exceeding large lands. In the long run, Asian coalitions much like Russia will use the shear amount of land they control to their advantage, as for every province Europe or the Middle East conquers, you will be able to hit them back with air force harassment attacks and strong units in choke points.


So your in an Oceanic alliance consisting of/either Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Myanmar, or Thailand? There is good news and bad news. The good news is, no one will bother you for the rest of the game! You can freely focus on purely economic development and no one will bother to invade you for a long time. The bad news is, you will not be able to invade enough significant territories in Asia to be relevant in coalition politics. Even if your team consists entirely of experienced players, you will always be at a disadvantage when trying to take over other continents or regions. Oceanic nations are capable of projecting raw Naval power across the world at any stage of the game, but they are better off at doing so if they were in an Asian coalition that includes China, India, or other mainland nations. Not having a country north of the equator will make conquering Asia a long process, to which you can easily be challenged by Central Asian, Middle Eastern, or even European powers.

However, Oceanic nation's main strengths lie in their naval power projection, and for conquering every other continent such as North America, South America, Africa, or Europe, that is good enough, as most cities are located by the coast. In scenarios where there are Victory Point sites, a purely Naval coalition with a strong ground force and SAMs to lock down airspaces can make for a surgical strike targeting all of the world's VP Sites and instantly winning the game if they hold it for long enough. It takes a lot of planning but its not impossible.

Other Useful Resources to improve your knowledge of the game.

https://playbabe.gitbook.io/con-fan-wiki/ - A Fan Wiki
https://wiki.conflictnations.com/Main_Page - Official Wiki
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kK4zaNvedJMeUNt7_R5xUFRhmru2wOrZhP4GIndJxdU/edit - Missiles explained by Teburu
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oVCjagv91XZ90VRIFpxRoO_YVqrkZkfveJ3SkDGIlY8/edit - Anti-Air explained by Teburu
https://forum.conflictnations.com/index.php?thread/11607-quick-guide-to-common-units/ - A General Guide to common units.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1j8pqFPnJTvHgir4WvIZN5UMofnpgNDLTwraU00ziHAA/edit?usp=sharing - Resources Formula & Generator
https://www.reddit.com/r/ConflictofNations/comments/rkdsg1/population_chart_with_hospital_effect/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 - Population Chart in relation to benefit gained from Hospital Buildings.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ConflictofNations/wiki/index/ - CON Reddit Wiki. A General FAQ on how the game works.