Infantry SAF Guide

Written for historical games in elwolfmod, but applicable to any vanilla-based historical or semi-historical game with minor modifications (ex. hire army chief earlier).

Original guide by @griffon_65, Red Baron Discord Server

Focus Order:

Support policy of appeasement
South african railways
Expand mining industry
Infrastructure effort
Armament effort
South african steel
Pretoria arms
University of south africa
Expand the rand mines
—------ usual tension spike in Sept '37—----
War measures act
Emergency workers
Cape garrison artillery
Reconstitute the cape corps
Expand the cape corps
—------Afterwards—----
Apply heavy engineering bonus on dispersed 4
Go towards suppress the stormjagers
DO NOT do native laws amendment act

PP Picks:

Silent workhorse
Improved worker conditions
Army defense expert (after picking relief of command army spirit)
Captain of industry
Free trade
Anti fascist raid
Save 250 pp for tension spike in Sept '37 - send attache to China + go partial mob
Anti fascist raid + anti communist raid
Improved worker conditions again as soon as it becomes available
~Mid '38 **Military theorist (as soon as you have 570 army exp to get human wave offensive) + get human wave offensive so you start mobilizing
Anti fascist raid + anti communist raid again
Spend 175 pp to click war support decisions (radio propaganda + allied propaganda films)
Save 350 pp for war - send attache for war support + total mob + women in the workforce
Industrial concern (optional)

Research:

Only research industry (dispersed) + at 1, radio, truck, aa1, signal company + gun 2 on time
Get passive buffs ready for June '39 war: 1939 at tech, 1938 gun soft attack, 1938 support weapons, signal company 2

Construction:

Start of game: build British Guyana (Britain aluminium state in South America) to level 5 infra, then build Transvaal (in SAF) to level 5 infra, do 5 levels of agency for 2 spies in the meantime, infiltrate Germany army and keep intel network there
Afterwards: Do not build any civs, build mils directly (otherwise you will run out of building slots). This should time nicely with partial mob timing

Production:

Start of game: 1 mil on gun
As you gain mils from focus:
1 mil each on AA, support eq., truck, AT
As you build additional mils, go up to 2 on AT (switch to license AT 2 when possible) and all other mils go up on guns
When you finish researching dispersed 3, switch gun 1 line to license gun 2, and later switch to your own gun 2. Keep producing gun 2 until told otherwise.
When you have dockyards from UK development, build convoys so you become self-sufficient

Template:

For deserts in Africa:
22.4 width after mass mobilization doctrine (14 line infantry battalions) + support AT, support AA, signal company. Defend important tiles by org cycling them into the tile.
Elsewhere:
20.8 width after mass mobilization doctrine (13 line infantry battalions) + support AT, support AA, signal company.

General:

Use your level 4 desert fox as general (promote him to field marshal, so you can pick offensive doctrine trait, but use him as a general)
Field Marshal:
Take best of the best army spirit, promote field commander to general and promote that general to field marshal. You can do this multiple times, and pick the guy with highest attack/defense (traits: pick charismatic for recovery rate and offensive doctrine for stats)

Check with UK:

Request 30 trains lend lease from them, and ask for more if needed in the late game (never build any trains)
Request 1000 old guns from UK to fill 1 div train day 1
Request 50 convoys from UK day 1.
License AA1 and truck from the UK to start off early production, but research your own too