Netherlands strategy
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Starting Position
You are sitting next to a potential, violent country called Germany. Better be prepared. You start with a nice amount of IC, your starting research is pretty much advanced for a medium power and you have very good tech teams. Besides your starting position your problem will always be exactly this one: manpower. You own some of the very best colonies in the game and that´s the reason why I suggest to try to hold them.
Research
First: The usual industry techs (of course including all the manpower techs), infantry, Land doctrine. DD´IV. The two most important things are: The third construction tech must be ready in mid ´37. And you should have fighters II researched in time, so you can start to build them when your fortifications are finished. If you have spare research time: Use it for air doctrines. From ´40 on, with fighters II researched, air doctrines should become a priority.
Step zero: How to build up "Fortress Netherlands"
To survive against the AI there is only one working strategy: Build up land fortifications along your border. you need level 10 ones until Spring ´40. The trick is not to start building them in panic from the start of the game, but to build two rounds of IC at first. With this extra-IC you can start to build the fortifications in mid to late ´37, when you should have researched the third construction tech that makes land fortifications much faster to build. With the extra IC you built you should be able to run the needed four series of fortifications. Any spare IC you might find you should use to build some infantry. You need at least three infantry units in each fortifications, a little bit more won´t hurt. But don´t build all you manpower into infantry, you don´t regain enough to do something for the whole game if you are down to zero. Usually I build AA as well (level 10 for the ports at least), but that also eats up precious manpower. But it also helps against strategic bombing. I also built militias for the two undefended beaches, but I don´t know if they are necessary.
Step one: Homeland secured, and now?
The war starts, your homeland is secured and now you will very soon notice the other big problem: your convoy losses. You can easily afford them IC-wise, but you can´t afford the manpower loss. Minimize your convoy losses by micromanaging them: Only one convoy at full strength at any time, that reduces the number of potential target convoys for enemy ships and bombers. But that´s not enough, what to do about the losses? Low on manpower, but high IC forces you to the optimal choice: Air Force. As the interceptor upgrade path through rocket interceptors eats up valuable research slots a Dutch player should build fighters instead. The range comes in handy in the Pacific theatre, the better ground attack values make them a poor man´s CAS (for the beginning). With fighters the main threat, the German and Italian naval bombers, are soon history. One or two series of DD´IV or later DD´V should help against enemy subs. But they are far away from being as dangerous as the enemy naval bombers. Research CAS II with the French blueprints.
One other important thing in this phase is to build up a little bit more IC. You absolutely need the three research teams, and you are going to loose IC in Indonesia.
Step two: The Pacific theatre
OK, so you have your convoy losses under control as your fighters rule. But still, you want to do something. At home? Not really possible. But that problem is solved by Japan, when they finally DoW you. They will come with massive forces and you have no chance to fight them directly. Here is what I did and what worked, but it was a very tough and very close fight: I shipped all available units (thx to French expeditionary forces at home I could spare a few more units than expected) to one Indonesian island and tried to hold it. It was a fierce fight over Sumatra, I finally ended in Medan, the northern jungle province without port or air fields. That needed correction so I started to build naval bases and luckily I had air fields already under construction. They cost no manpower, so it´s easy to build :). From there I still was not able to bomb enemy forces without losses too big for me, so all available aircraft started to bomb Japanese convoys. It took nearly a year until Dutch troops finally managed to retake Sumatra, but it did work. From there on it was continuous convoy bombing, starving enemy troops, and retaking all the Dutch territory.
Step three: Expanding?
If you are lucky, you get manpower events. That saves your fun, because you can do something. Don´t waste it on infantry, build more planes and ships (and convoys and escorts). If you are lucky and get one +100 event you may find a way to fight north towards Japanese home islands via the Philippines and Taiwan. Then you have a very nice naval battle going on, with your destroyers and bombers against the IJN. That´s totally micromanagement, but it´s fun as every single battle is important for your possibility to continue the war.
And then there is still Europe
If you are lucky and view at home at the right time you can grab some territory before the Soviets can conquer it. Maybe you have some French fast moving units as expeditionary forces, than your chances to outrun Soviet tanks increase significantly. If you are even more lucky you may find a way to use an allied invasion so you get some more territory. But better don´t count on that.
This guide is based on a Netherlands game played in Armageddon 1.2. I did it nearly the same way in Doomsday, but never lost most of Indonesia and was able to go on the offensive earlier.
