British Raj

Delhi

Authoritarian, Despotic

Neutral

In 1936, the British Raj is one of the largest countries in terms of manpower, area and natural resources. The Raj contributed over 2.5 million soldiers to the Allied war effort, making its army the largest volunteer force in the history of the World. However, they are still a puppet of the United Kingdom and their fate is inevitably tied to that of the UK.

Historical background[edit]

The British Raj was the result of piecemeal annexation of Indian princely states by the British East India Company. After a series of failed mutinies in 1857, the British Government took control of India from the BEIC and the Raj was born with Queen Victoria being given the title of Empress of India. Modern day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar form part of the British Raj in 1936. Although some territories like Rajputana were independently governed under British suzerainty, they have been abstracted under the overall control of the Raj for game play purposes.

During World War II, British India fielded the largest volunteer army in the war, and used it to contain the Japanese advance into the Indian Ocean basin, as well as stopping Japanese advances into the Indian subcontinent. The Battle of Imphal was a critical victory that stopped the Japanese army's advances from occupied Burma. The war, however, was not without consequences to the people of the Raj, as wartime needs for the military often superseded any civilian concerns. A massive famine in the Bengal region was blamed upon British refusal to send food supplies there in favor of sending those supplies to the European and African theaters.

The British Raj suffered politically during the war as different groups vied to command leadership of the then flourishing Indian independence movement. The Muslim League and the Indian National Congress disagreed on their opinions on supporting the British war effort, with the League backing the British and Congress calling for supporting the British in exchange for concessions. Eventually, the British government agreed to consider Indian independence after the war ended. The last Viceroy of India, Louis Mountbatten, left in 1947, just two years after the war.

Events[edit]

Main article: British Raj events

National focus[edit]

British Raj's national focus tree.

Main article: British Raj national focus tree

British Raj, along with other nations of the British commonwealth, gets a unique national focus tree as part of the Together for Victory expansion. Without the expansion, the British Raj utilizes the Generic national focus tree.

The British Raj has a unique focus tree with 3 main branches:

Provincial Elections: Focuses on gaining independence and modifies the debilitating national spirits of the British Raj.
Lessons of the Great War: Focuses on expanding the army, establishes the air force and gives elite infantry divisions.
Great Indian Peninsula Railway: Focuses on building infrastructure, naval dockyards, and gives extra research slots.

Technology[edit]

The British Raj starts with the fewest technologies in the Commonwealth, lacking any tank or naval technologies whatsoever.

Army Technology	Naval Technology	Air Technology	Electronics & Industry
Infantry Eq. I Engineer Company I Recon Company I	Transport Ship	Close Air Support I	None
Doctrines
Grand Battleplan	Fleet in Being	None

The Raj starts with only 2 research slots. It can get a third quite quickly, but can't unlock any more until becoming independent. However, with Together for Victory it does get access to technology sharing from being in the Commonwealth. Becoming a dominion will increase the maximum cost reduction to -50% from -25%.

Diplomacy[edit]

With the Together For Victory update it is now possible to leave the Commonwealth. India can choose to join the Comintern or Axis via the Swaraj branch of the National Focus tree. This will lead to a civil war which will be backed by your new allies.

Diplomatic Rules[edit]

Politics[edit]

National spirits[edit]

With the Together for Victory DLC enabled, the British Raj starts with the following national spirits in both the 1936 and 1939 scenario. Otherwise, they don't start with any national spirits and the ones they gain are dependent on the choices they make in the generic national focus tree.

Princely States

Daily autonomy progress gain: -0.1

Marginalized Muslim Community

Stability: −10%
Recruitable Population Factor: −20%

Agrarian Society

Recruitable Population Factor: −69%

The local administrators believe that their agrarian lifestyle has made a large part of the Indian population simply unfit for military service or warfare of any kind. They maintain that we should only recruit from the so-called "martial tribes". This belief is so wide-spread and well-entreched that it will require at least a generation to overcome. For the foreseeable future, we must accept that they would simply ignore any order to draft farmers.

Risk of Famine

The Indian system of food production is very fragile. Even a small interruption might cause a collapse.

Princely States and Marginalized Muslim Community are automatically lost on becoming independent peacefully (including the more beneficial versions of these traits unlockable via focuses)^[1]. Princely States and Risk of Famine are also removed if India becomes communist or fascist^[2]. Agrarian Society can't be removed.

Political parties[edit]

In both the 1936 and 1939 scenario, the non-aligned Indian National Congress is the ruling political party in the British Raj with Lord Linlithgow acting as the Governor-General and Viceroy of India with overwhelming popularity.

Political Party	Ideology	Popularity	Party Leader	Country Name (If Independent)
Indian National Congress	Non-Aligned	80.00%	Lord Linlithgow	India
India Independence Movement	Democratic	17.00%	B. P. Sitaramayya	India
Communist Party of India	Communist	1.0%	P. Krishna Pillai	Indian People's Republic
All-India Hindu Assembly	Fascist	2.0%	V. D. Savarkar	Free India

Economy[edit]

Laws[edit]

Conscription Law	Economy Law	Trade Law
Volunteer Only 1.5% Recruitable population	Civilian Economy 35% Consumer Goods factories –30% Factory construction speed +30% Factory (type) conversion cost -40% Fuel Gain per Oil -25% Fuel Capacity	Export Focus 50% Resources to market +5% Research speed +10% Factory/Dockyard output +10% Construction speed

The Raj can't increase its conscription law past Volunteer until it becomes independent.

Industry[edit]

Factories 1936
2 Military Factories	1 Naval Dockyard	14 Civilian Factories

The Raj starts with 53 free slots, enough to build up a much larger industrial base. If built up this way, it can rival some of the major countries.

Resources[edit]

Total resources 1936
Oil	Aluminum	Rubber	Tungsten	Steel	Chromium
11	1	33	245	55	55

The Raj starts with significant reserves of rare earth minerals and enough steel and oil to field a sizeable force.

Strategies and Guides[edit]

Democratic Raj[edit]

Focuses: The Raj, like France, has to deal with it's internal problems before it can fully militarize and project it's power - however, to do so you need to go down the Provincial Election tree, which requires 10% World Tension. In the meantime you should start by picking The Great Indian Peninsula Railway, then going down Industrial Expansion towards your research slot. Wait a couple days without selecting a focus once you get your research slot(don't worry, you can wait up to 10 days without penalty), because often the AI does things that bring the WT over 10%, allowing you to go down Provincial Elections right away. Otherwise, either going down towards Ishapore Arsenal for the Military Factory or going for the Dockyard focuses are valid options.

Once WT gets over 10%, you want to go down Provincial Elections and rush Two-Nation Theory, then Quit India Movement. The reason for that is simple: your Princely States debuff takes away your autonomy over time, and you need to make up the difference ASAP. There's also three focuses on the extreme right side of the tree that require you to be over 40% autonomy to be picked, so even if you don't want to be free it's still a good idea to pick this path. After that Princely State Donations and Imperial Service Troops are next, as both of them improve your economy and manpower. Afterwards work your way down the military focuses base on your army preferences(more on this later on this guide), going towards your fourth tech slot - just be warned that you need to be free to get your fourth and fifth slots.

Construction: Your start at civilian economy, meaning your Civilian and Military factory production is heavily nerfed. I suggest keeping 250 PP in reserve for when Japan fires Marco Polo, so you can send an attaché to China, get over 25% War Support, and go straight into Partial Mobilization. In any case, you have three useful things to build without penalties: Land Forts(for the eventual Japan push), Airports(to receive allied planes to help against Japan) and Naval dockyard(to make convoys). The reason for spamming convoys is so you can lend-lease most of them to the UK the moment they get into a war, getting a great increase on your autonomy - I've became free three months into WW2 using this method. Either way, once you leave civilian economy you should build mils and a couple civ factories - you NEED mils early, but civs can payoff in long games. Adjust according to your preferences. Do not build anything in the six northwestern provinces(they will become Pakistan the moment you become free and all your buildings will disappear), or in the big port on the East(same reason, will become Bangladesh).

Research: For doctrines you should go Superior Firepower, full stop. Grand Battleplan is technically somewhat better if everything goes as described in this guide, the issue is that it's horrible at improvising, organizing a mobile defense, counter-attacking and solving problems in general. It'll also make you cause more damage to Japan while on the defense, which is great. While you have enough resources for that, you probably won't be able to supply your units with 1939 guns in time, so stick with the 1936 model for a while to build a nice stockpile before upgrading, if ever. Most of your research will go towards keeping yoru industry on time, getting down your doctrine tree, and improving your artillery/aa/engineers. Thankfully you have bonuses for them in your focus tree, as you'll be running with only 3 tech slots for a good while.

Production: You start with a pitiful 2 Military factories, which I suggest you leave on guns. You should ramp up your military production and add support companies and artillery to spam 20 width divisions of 10 INF, engineers and support artillery. The reasoning is that the Commonwealth needs boots on the ground, as they suffer from manpower issues. That means you. After you get enough convoys to become free(and if your UK is nice they'll give them back afterwards), you should make Subs to protect your coast from Japanese invasions. Once you have your army in place, adding 1940 support AA to your units will help against Japan's CAS.

Alternatively, India has Chromium and a boatload of Tungsten, meaning going Medium or Heavy tanks is feasible. Just warn your UK in advance so they can make more guns to use your manpower with, since your industry will be mostly focused on tanks. A single Heavy SPAA mixed with your infantry units makes Japanese CAS/TAC cry and works as a poor man's space marine division.

Tactics: Delete all your divisions but one at the start of the game and train it for experience to fix your templates. You want a 20 width infantry template with Engineers and Artillery(and later AA), a 40 width 14-4(INF-ART) template for later pushes and protecting key points, and a 10w pure infantry template to guard ports. If you followed this guide you should have had enough factories/time to prepare a full 20 width army with support artillery and engineers by 1939. Send all of them to Africa before the war starts; your job is to surround Ethiopia(or the italian territory there if they annexed it), attack it as soon as the war starts(if they are called in) and conquer it for your UK. Italy can't afford to defend there, so it's very likely you'll have to deal with the Ethiopian AI. Winning there means clearing the southern africa front, allowing your allies to focus elsewhere. After Ethiopia is dead you can either push forward to protect Suez/take North Africa(and maybe invade Italy if you see a chance to do so) or return to the Raj to help defend against surprise invasions/prepare for Japan.

You should garrison Singapore, your ports, the Suez and Gibraltar, in that order. All of them but your ports should be defended by 40w infantry, but until your industry gets there send 20w in their place. Use 10w infantry to hold your ports and the two provinces next to them - people usually invade next to a port to take it by land. Eventually, Japan will attack after dispatching China. You want to meet japan in a line of forts you built earlier on top of mountains, inside the range of an upgraded airport, with at least one and a half armies fully entrenched. Don't attack, let Japan waste themselves against you - if they bring light tanks, your support AA are more than enough to pierce them. You might have to move some units around to hold the line as they get low on organization from the constant fighting. The secret to holding is having air superiority, so upgrade that airport and talk to your UK! These subs you made with your dockyards should be used to protect your coast from naval invasions, if you're lucky ou can drown the japanese in the indian brown waters. Against really bad players or AI, you can use your subs to convoy raid their main islands, leading their invasion army to starve.

Your job is to stonewall Japan until the US enters the war and the distract the enemy while the americans invade them. Don't be afraid to push the japanese back if they weaken the line too much.

Tips and tricks: You need to build no dockyards in MP if the Allies organize themselves: France lend-leases their convoys to you, then you lend lease them to the UK, who sends them back to France. Nothing is lost in this loop and you become free quicker.