Also thinking a little bit more on the factory unit. From a purchasing standpoint, the main consideration is probably still total income over anything else. If you have already achieved the maximum transport capacity off your coastal factories, or achieve a level in the ground game where you are making more money than you could reasonably spend at your facilities on the mass infantry spam, it can make sense to buy new production. This is usually only a consideration for the dominant nation on the map. So for example, when a nation achieves about +1/3rd of their starting ipcs in conquered territory, then production buys can be interesting. Usually this factory game is played exclusively between Japan, USA and to a lesser extent UK.
Japan starts with 30 ipcs, when they achieve 40 ipcs a round, it often makes sense to buy new production. Most players will buy this either in a forward territory like East Indies, Borneo or FIC, or the safe territory next to the home sea zone, Manchuria. Once they get up into the mid 50s it might make sense to do this again, to put max ground and especially tanks into Eurasia immediately each round. With 24 ipcs income you can shuck 8 inf units out of Japan. With the support factory you can up this production value to between 10 or 12 ground units a round, 36 ipcs in infantry, with the remainder spent on upgrades to art/armor or on air/naval buys. With India that raises the total production in the region up to potentially 13-15 ground units (if you bought a support factory.) That takes 45 ipcs right there to max spam just infantry, so you really want to be collecting pretty heavy as Japan before you go for the second factory. The older games were a bit different in this respect, because India didn’t have a starting factory back then (Classic, Revised, AA50 etc), and tanks were 1 ipc cheaper. Still expanding 5 production points for a cost of 30 ipcs, to drop 5 extra units per round directly into Asia can be very useful. Or up to 7 units a round for that same cost, if they build out of a money island and Manchuria. Additional factories almost always makes sense for Japan, when they are in the ascendant, the only danger of a factory expansion comes right at the beginning under full KJF conditions, otherwise its generally a strong play.
For USA, starting income is at 42 ipcs. To get them all the way up to the mid 50s in ipcs (using my +1/3rd of starting income shorthand) requires that the Americans have either made a full Pacific press with success, or have begun their landings in Europe. In this situation production can be advisable, especially if you’re taking the money islands from Japan, but sometimes also in a KGF, at a location like Norway.
For UK the situation is a bit more complicated. They start at 31 ipcs, and usually this value will be diminishing. Getting them up into the 40s through luck and perseverance can happen on occasion, but UK is usually cash strapped required to spend everything they can for max placement at existing facilities. But UK can also occasionally benefit from a “bluff buy” or a factory in South Africa, which they can’t afford to fill forever, but which might give them enough of an early mobility advantage to deter Axis forays into Africa. I’ve seen this work, and it was a strong strategy in Classic going back to early SA days, but in the newer boards I think its rather brazen. The UK just has a hard time on this board in early rounds, with everything to do, and never enough money to do it haha.
I said earlier that Russia doesn’t benefit from production buys. I can maybe stretch to imagine rare situations where they might work. Russia starts out at 24. If they get up to 32 ipcs or more per round, like in a full KGF or KJF endgame where the Allies are already totally crushing hehe. The game might be entertaining, but under normal 1942.2 circumstance, never. Germany starts with 41 ipcs, if they get up to around 55 ipcs, again maybe a production buy would work to tilt the balance on the eastern front, or to expand naval production. But again, that seems rare and rather unlikely.
The Factory can also be used as a bait or a draw, if you place one in a contested area of the map, but one where you have a positional advantage. The idea being that the enemy will see you drop the factory and then gun for it, attempting to “steal” your production investment, or get a “free” factory out of the trade. So that’s the bait, trying to draw enemy units into a position where they can be destroyed, or at least distracted. Egypt, SA, Norway and the Pacific money islands can be used this way.
There is also the school of thought that buys factories to lock down some peripheral territory or region, or some specific sea zone. Basically with infantry or destroyer spams. These can help to secure income into the endgame or to secure a defense power or counter attack advantage. East Indies and Borneo seem particularly ideal when used this way. Basically 2 or 3 rounds of solid ground builds, and its nearly impossible for the enemy to retake such islands once they have a factory. Sometimes Japan can take this approach early as a way to secure the income in the Pacific vs a sudden Allied build up.
Other considerations that might come into play with the factory unit are things like blocking actions. A factory is a permanent blocker. Once bought it can’t be removed. This can sometimes make a factory buy on the Eastern Front interesting, in the event that USA or UK takes one of those spaces during a KGF scenario. Provided Germany is not in a position to take and stack it, the factory can prevent certain blitz routes. I’ve seen this happen occasionally in W. Russia, usually in the hopes that USA can drop 2 units directly onto the Russian front line, and be stack supported with Russian units/Air immediately. Basically any “originally German” territory on the eastern front could potentially be used this way, its rare, but might be a reason for preserving those American infantry in Szech for exactly this kind of late game play. A similar build can also be achieved by UK, with a tank rush. The danger here is that G takes the factory and stacks it eventually, but it can force heavy trading if USA or UK wants to ignite the dynamite, and then leave the Soviets to clean up the mess when they bounce, in W. Russia for example hehe
:-D
I think factory units are fun. Even at the OOB cost of 15 they can be entertaining. A good factory game on 1942.2 can be the among the most intense.