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People will recall that Avalon Hill’s Rise and Decline of the Third Reich had a very simple economic model.

Perhaps you can explain the economic model of this game.
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ORIGINAL: Joe 98

People will recall that Avalon Hill’s Rise and Decline of the Third Reich had a very simple economic model.

Perhaps you can explain the economic model of this game.

The economic model in WiF FE is focused on military matters, obviously.
You have multiple things that come into play :

The map has a number of resource (RP) hexes. Another thread of this forum shows you discussions about identifying those resources, which is irrelevant to the economic model. There are only 2 kind of resources that matter, normal resources and oil. For example, Germany has 8 normal resources, and 1 oil.
Each country also has a number of factories. For example, Gemany has 19 factories.

During the production step, the resources your country control are shipped (by rail over land, or by convoy over sea) to the factories you control, and each resource thus shipped to a factory earns you a Production Point (PP). For example, Germany can ship all its 9 resources to 9 of its factories, earning 9 PP. It can also save the oil for other use, and only produce 8 PP.

Each country has a production multiple (PM), that starts in 1939 quite low, and increase over the years. For example, Germany's production multiple is 0.75 in 1939 and 1940, 1 in 1941, 1.25 in 1942, and 1.50 in 1943+. This represents the increased industry output devoted to the war effort.

You multiply the PM by the PP to obtain the Build Points (BP) you earn. For example Germany in 1939 would have 9*0.75=7 BP.

During the production step, with those BP you buy military units. An Infantry corps costs 3 BP, an armored corps costs 6 BP, a Fighter air unit costs 4 BP, a heavy bomber air unit costs 6 BP, a cruiser costs 1-4 BP, a Carrier costs 2-8 BP.

Note : My Germany example is wrong because Germany starts the game with Czechoslovakia aligned, Austria annexed, and trade agreements with some neutral minor countries that increase its production :

Austria : 1 factory, 1 oil.
Czechoslovakia : 3 factories, 1 resource.
Germany : 19 factories, 8 resources, 1 oil.
Hungary : 1 resource.
Rumania : 3 oil.
Sweden : 3 resources.
Turkey : 1 resource.
USSR : 5 resources, 2 oil, but must give USSR 2 BP in exchange.

So Germany in 1939 has 23 factories and 19 resources and 7 oil. The 23 factories can produce 23 PP, with 3 oil saved for other uses, and the 23 PP with the initial PM of 0.75 gives 17 BP. to which 2 BP are substracted lent to the USSR, which leaves Germany with 15 BP to buy its toys.
This is in theory, as the conquest of Poland will immediately gives Germany an extra factory and 2 extra resources, for more production.

Also, there are 2 types of factories. Red and blue (or black). You can use all those from your major power home country, and from all aligned minor countries. You can only use the red factories from the countries you conquere. Thus Poland, who has 3 factories (1 red), only gives Germany 1 factory.

On the other hand, you can use all the resources you conquer.

Actually I thought infantry corp cost 3.
Militia 2
Infantry 3
Motorised 4
Mechanized 5
Armor 6
There are also specialised corp that are usually 1-2 points higher than thier base.
Div (does not take into account specialised divs such as mountain, supply, engineer or para)
Infantry 2
Motorised 2
Mechanized 3
Armor 4
Aircraft (add +2 if playing without pilots)
Carrier Plane 0-2
Fighter 2
Twin engine Fighter (and some advanced fighters) 3
CAS Bomber 2
Tactical Bomber 3
4 Engine Bomber 4
Naval is boken into first cost/second cost and varies by ship usually light ships (including light carriers and subs) have a first cost of 1 and a second cost of 1-2. Heavier ships have a first cost of 2 and a second cost of 2-4.
Convoys 1

If I have mistaken anything please correct me. These where the cost last time I played which was a couple of years ago and I don't know if they are correct for the MWIF.

ORIGINAL: autarkis1967

Actually I thought infantry corp cost 3.

They cost 3.

ORIGINAL: autarkis1967

Actually I thought infantry corp cost 3.
Militia 2
Infantry 3
Motorised 4
Mechanized 5
Armor 6
There are also specialised corp that are usually 1-2 points higher than thier base.
Div (does not take into account specialised divs such as mountain, supply, engineer or para)
Infantry 2
Motorised 2
Mechanized 3
Armor 4
Aircraft (add +2 if playing without pilots)
Carrier Plane 0-2
Fighter 2
Twin engine Fighter (and some advanced fighters) 3
CAS Bomber 2
Tactical Bomber 3
4 Engine Bomber 4
Naval is boken into first cost/second cost and varies by ship usually light ships (including light carriers and subs) have a first cost of 1 and a second cost of 1-2. Heavier ships have a first cost of 2 and a second cost of 2-4.
Convoys 1

If I have mistaken anything please correct me. These where the cost last time I played which was a couple of years ago and I don't know if they are correct for the MWIF.

There are 3 tutorials threads on the units: air, land (#4), naval. Those contain recent pages listing the unit costs, among other things.

There is also a tutorial thread on the map, which describes what the icons (e.g., factories, resources) mean and makes passing reference to production. Patrice's description is more thorough though.

Perhaps Harry has already thought of this for the up-coming Production-in-Flames, but today it struck me that a simple way to incorporate a growth mechanic similar to Third Reich would be to be allowed to spend Build Points to buy increases in Production Multiple.  This would simulate investing in infrastructure rather nicely, and give Germany an incentive to go easy in the earlier years in exchange for extra stamina to stand ground in the end-game.

Assuming the Allies don't adequately bomb Germany, the German war economy in WiF has no trouble churning out war materiel in the late game, with a potential 45-50 build points a turn (or so) from January/February 1943 on.