Australia - HOI4 - 01 Jan 1936 (I)

I spend a lot of time playing Hearts of Iron IV - a real-time strategy game, i.e. not turn-based like Civilization, which allows you to take control of ANY country and guide it through World War 2. I've chosen Australia because it is a small nation (in game terms) with a small economy and a small military. That will change though. A few pics to illustrate what is available at the beginning of the game which is 01 Jan 1936.

Here are its neighbours...
….and Australia is part of the British Empire - the light blue countries on the map below.
There are lot of symbols on the main screen which show more info when you click on them. At the top-right you see the date while the 0% beneath the globe means that there is zero world tension - that will definitely change as the game progresses. There are three icons below the date which show the land, naval and air forces available. In Australian Theatre 1 box the green symbol means that I have 1 Army with 7 units (divisions). Clicking on three icons I mentioned earlier reveals my land forces, commanded by LG Thomas Blamey,
my navy
and my air force. Note that one of my airfields is white showing that aircraft are based there. The other airfields coloured black are empty.
The Australian Squadron based at Sydney and commanded by Adm. Harald Farncomb has been placed on patrol in the Solomon, Coral and Tasman Seas. They are a slightly different colour.
If I click on the Australian flag, top-left, voila...the Political screen is shown. John Curtin is the Prime Minister and Australia is a Dominium and is democratic. The first three symbols in the Laws and Government box show Conscription Law (Volunteers only),

Trade Law (Export Focus),
and Economy Law (Civilian Economy).
These can be changed if you have the necessary Political Power (PP) and certain conditions are met - the screen below shows how it is calculated.
Next to that is Stability and how it is calculated, then finally...
War Support which is currently at 30%. 
Next to that is the manpower I have available (25,730 is not much). 
The 100 next shows how many convoys I have then the 17 is the number of factories Australia has.
In the next post I shall introduce more options available and maybe we can start making history.

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