I'm using this as an excuse to procrastinate on my taxes, so let's jump into day one. I ended up with more detail here than I'd planned, but maybe it'll spawn interesting discussion--I'm happy to take improvement ideas. The detail might fall off as this series goes; we'll see.
Day 1
I already decided to go with Axis for my doctrine, now just needed to decide on map and country. The 22p map felt too small and too easy--I'd probably win before being able to roll out many heavies. The 100p map felt a little too competitive--I'm putting myself at a huge disadvantage by ignoring ranged units and focusing my build around an easily-beaten strategy, and didn't want to risk running into alliances before I could have some fun. I settled on the 50p Homefront map, which seemed to be just about right.
In the 50p Homefront map, there are a few Axis countries in Central and South America. One of them, East Mexico, has double steel, double oil, AND double rare rural provinces--perfect for heavy tank spam!
*Arnold voice* Time to crush things with some tanks!
Construction: I start by prepping my production facilities. Two tank plants, one ordnance factory, and one aircraft factory to cover the core units of my strategy. I also build a barracks, assuming I'll use militia as coast guards and cleanup crew at some point. No secret lab and no naval base--despite having a city on the Caribbean, I don't think I'll be building a Navy this game. Following production facilities, I decide to build L1 Industry in all five core cities. Normally I'd consider dedicating these resources towards unit production, but given my strategy for this game (and the low activity I see from my neighbors) I decide to invest for later. Once the industries complete, I decide to level my Steel city up to L2 right away and start a Recruiting Center in my Food city, trying to get ahead of that big manpower requirement.
Research: I start with AC research, as always. I also research Light Tanks, AA, interceptors (always), and militia (always).
Diplomacy: I give Share Map to all AIs to get the popularity boost. I border four humans and one AI. One of them looks like they got the first-game bonus, meaning they'll have two medium tanks waiting for me when I invade. As of a few hours into Day 1, amazingly, zero of my four neighbors have built anything in their core cities, so I assume they'll be going inactive and plan accordingly. The rest of the diplomacy tab is pretty bleak--it looks like ~half the players in the game are level one, an abysmal ratio that means there will be a lot of AIs later. (Side question--did I join the wrong Homeland map or something? I don't remember ever encountering this many first-time players.) Other competitor notes:
- North Carolina immediately posts a racist article to the newspaper, so they'll be a target later if they stay active (sadly, they don't)
- One group of three immediately creates a coalition (Arizona, S California, N California). Wyoming joins them later in the day. Another single, Florida, creates their own coalition. My usual assumption is that Day 1 coalition-joiners are terrible and I have no reason to think otherwise in this game.
- The only player of note appears to be Colombia, so I go through some competitor analysis. Level 163, 1.09k/d (normally a terrible ratio, but they've played since 2018 so there could be some COW 1.0 games in there, when k/ds were worse), 126 wins in 235 games (mostly coalition). They're only averaging 58 PVP kills per game, a pretty low rate. Top maps played are Clash of Nations (81 games) and Homefront (14 games), so it also appears most of these games were played against bad players. Achievement snooping reveals that they don't get many kills with aircraft--nice--but have produced a decent number of RRG--hm. I check their recent games and find one where they got smoked by another human and immediately quit. Conclusion: not concerned.
Moves: Even though I'm gearing up for heavies, I still need to move quickly and gain as much territory as possible to boost my economy. I buy the cheapest rares available in the market (something I do at the beginning of every game in which I plan to build industry early) and the two cheapest bunches of steel.
I move mixes of starting units to my human borders and bolster them with my newly-produced ACs and LTs. I can always knock out the AI later and want to take advantage of inactive humans while I can. I consolidate my units into five stacks, two at one border and three at another, designing each one to be strong enough to at least two-shot a 2-infantry stack. Moving through all these mountains really makes me wish I had artillery 
As is, I try to plot out the path each stack will take and adjust the unit mix accordingly--more infantry in mountains and cities, more ACs and LTs in plains.
I start attacking two opponents ~6 hours before day change: the inactive Allies player to my northeast (picking up a supply drop with 8k each of steel, rares, and money--nice! I celebrate by buying some Oil from the market, since that's now my limiting resource) and the inactive Axis player to my South. I only make it through a few provinces before day change. I plan to finish off these inactives in the next 24-36 hours.
Stats at the end of Day 1: 11/0 k/d, 9/0 provinces
. I fund some of this by selling Food, also at a poor price (7.5) but I have no use for it right now. I start upgrading my Oil city to L3 Industry and build a Local Industry in one of my rural Oil provinces, later starting L2 as well. I also upgrade my Tank Plants to level 2 to coincide with the completion of medium tank research. By day end, I'll have 3 L1 Industry, 1 L2 Industry, 1 L3 Industry in progress, an L2 Local Industry in progress, 2 L1 RCs, 1 L2 RC in progress, and 2 L3 RCs in progress.
