War Footing Procurement Contracts: Deals, Licensing & Production

War Footing procurement contracts bridge your weekly defense budget and the combat formations holding your borders. In War Footing, developed by Strategist's Den Games, your military strength is determined before the first shot is fired across a 35 to 50 week preparation window. Success relies on balancing foreign market purchases, multi-turn arms deals, and domestic licensed manufacturing without bankrupting your treasury or stalling frontline readiness.

Core Procurement Methods: Direct Buys, Arms Deals, and Domestic Licensing

Every piece of equipment in the game—from standard small arms kits and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to main battle tanks and multirole fighters—must be acquired through one of three procurement channels. Each method imposes distinct trade-offs between delivery speed, upfront capital, and diplomatic requirements.

1. Spot Market Buys

The arms market displays available foreign stock that can be purchased and delivered immediately into your national stockpile. While this resolves immediate deficits before a pending invasion, it is the most expensive route. Stock is constrained by supplier inventory, prices carry steep markups if relations are lukewarm, and spot purchases provide zero diplomatic affinity.

2. Multi-Turn Arms Deals

Arms deals contract directly with foreign manufacturers rather than foreign government reserves. You specify the desired quantity across a delivery timeline (commonly 5 to 15 turns).

• Paying the full contract sum upfront secures scale discounts (5% on a 5-turn deal, scaling up to 15% on a 15-turn deal).
• Choosing financing spreads payments across future turns with an interest surcharge (such as an 8% financing fee).
• Placing arms deals actively raises relations with that supplier's home country, making small, repeated contracts an effective diplomatic tool to unlock higher-tier equipment.
• As of update v0.9.0, you can maintain up to 6 concurrent arms deals simultaneously (expanded from 3 in earlier demo builds).

3. Domestic Licensed Manufacturing

Domestic production allows you to build equipment locally using industrial capacity. You start the game with indigenous rights to produce basic trucks, recovery vehicles, assault rifles, and light mortars. For modern foreign hardware, you pay a one-time license fee to unlock the design in your domestic workshops. Locally produced equipment costs roughly 50% of the base market purchase price, but each unit consumes a specific number of industrial effort points per turn.

Structuring Multi-Turn Arms Deals and Financing

Arms deals are the primary mechanism for acquiring complex military hardware when domestic capacity is either occupied or undeveloped. Structuring them properly prevents payment defaults when political tension or unexpected crises strain your weekly budget.

Managing Cash Flow vs. Financing

When signing an arms contract, evaluate whether your weekly capital allocation can sustain the installment payments:

1. Upfront Payment for Cash-Rich States: If your treasury holds surplus funds, paying the full contract price at signing locks in up to a 15% discount and prevents future weekly deductions from competing with ongoing maintenance and training.
2. Financed Installments for Tight Budgets: Financing lets you acquire expensive assets—such as self-propelled howitzers, advanced anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), or armored fighting vehicles—without spending your entire liquid reserve. However, installments become fixed weekly obligations. If escalating defense spending or conscription lowers your stability and cuts recurring revenue, overlapping financed deals can push your treasury into deficit, blocking new procurement contracts.

Diplomatic Leveraging Through Small Contracts

Because foreign industry appreciates commercial business, executing small, short-horizon arms deals (such as ordering 5 standard infantry kits or 5 RPGs across 5 weeks) grants an immediate relation boost (often +3 relations). Players can run multiple minor deals simultaneously to rapidly reach the diplomatic thresholds required for licensing critical vehicles or heavy weapons.

Domestic Licensing and Production Programs

Domestic manufacturing transforms raw industrial capacity into frontline materiel at half the sticker price of foreign acquisitions. However, domestic output is bounded by two mechanics: industrial capacity and unit effort.

Queue vs. Industrial Program

Once you license a vehicle or weapon system, you can produce it through two domestic workflows:

• The Standard Queue: You pay the full domestic manufacturing cost upfront. At the end of each turn, any unused industrial capacity in your factories automatically processes units in the queue until the order finishes.
• Dedicated Programs: You schedule a specific batch size over a fixed timeline (such as 10 or 15 turns). The game assigns highest priority to this order, claiming the required industrial capacity automatically each week. A 15-turn domestic program provides an additional scale discount (around 12%) on top of the 50% base licensing discount. The interface allows a maximum of 3 concurrent production programs.

Effort-to-Price Efficiency

Every item has a production "effort" cost representing how many factory capacity points are required to assemble one unit:

High-tech infantry missiles like Spike or Javelin require an immense amount of factory effort relative to their baseline procurement cost. Investing hundreds of thousands in industrial capacity just to build ATGMs locally yields a poor return. Conversely, licensing aircraft like the JAS 39 Gripen or tanks like the M1 Abrams pays back the license fee after building just two or three airframes or a single company of armor.

Managing Diplomatic Blocs and Supplier Relations

Equipment availability is governed by foreign relations. The international market is split across three distinct blocs:

• Western Bloc: United States, Germany, Sweden, France, United Kingdom.
• Eastern Bloc: Russia, China.
• Neutrals: Brazil, Israel.

Diplomatic Friction and Bloc Alignment

Assigning diplomatic envoys to a nation improves relations each week. However, building ties with one superpower bloc actively deteriorates standing with the opposing bloc. Gaining +4 relations with the United States reduces relations by -2 with Russia and -2 with China, though relations generally will not fall below a baseline floor of 30 unless driven by specific scenario parameters.

Because of this friction, spreading envoys across both the Eastern and Western blocs is inefficient. Standard campaigns usually align with one of two strategies:

1. Western Core: Partnering with the United States, Germany, and Sweden gives complete coverage across elite small arms, Leopard/Abrams armor, Marder/Bradley IFVs, and Gripen multirole fighters.
2. Eastern Core & Neutrals: Pairing Russia or China with neutral suppliers like Israel provides access to robust Eastern armor and transport helicopters while tapping Israeli precision systems (such as Spike ATGMs, Soltam M-71 155mm howitzers, and upgraded combat kits) without triggering Western export blocks.

Supplier Refusals and Embargoes

Specific scenarios restrict supplier availability. In the "Western Proxy" scenario, the United Kingdom may have its relations locked, preventing all access to British arms, while US relations start near rock bottom. In such cases, leaning on neutral suppliers like Israel or Brazil allows access to Western-caliber equipment without relying on US or UK export clearance.

Procurement Strategy: What to License vs. What to Buy Abroad

Navigating the pre-war buildup requires sequencing purchases to match the assembly of your field units:

1. Phase 1: Turns 1–10: Establish logistics -> License domestic trucks & recovery vehicles.

2. Phase 2: Turns 10–25: Arm the line -> License towed guns/armor; run arms deals for ATGMs/MANPADS.

3. Phase 3: Turns 25–40: High-tech & air -> Upgrade airbases/hangars; license/buy fighters & attack craft.

4. Turns 1 to 10 (Logistics Foundation): Units deployed to the front line suffer massive readiness penalties and vehicle breakdowns if transport capacity and recovery vehicles are insufficient. License and program utility trucks (such as the Ural-4320) and recovery vehicles immediately. Their low effort values allow fast production while industrial capacity is still expanding.

5. Turns 10 to 25 (Ground Combat Mass): As infantry and garrison battalions are raised, fulfill your high-volume artillery and combat kit needs. License cost-effective towed artillery (like the Soltam M-71 or M198) and run multi-turn arms deals for infantry anti-tank weapons (TOW, NLAW, or Spike). Avoid building ATGMs in domestic factories.

6. Turns 25 to 40 (Armor and Aviation Integration): Allocate accumulated treasury reserves toward high-complexity platforms. If fielding fast jets like the Gripen (complexity 78) or F-16, ensure you have invested the millions required to upgrade maintenance hangars and the airbase network before signing the contracts. Equipment delivered without operational infrastructure cannot be assigned to combat squadrons.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many arms deals can I run at the same time?

In the current release (version v0.9.0 and later), you can execute up to 6 concurrent foreign arms deals. Earlier demo builds restricted players to 3 concurrent deals.

What is the difference between queuing and programming domestic production?

Queuing requires paying the full manufacturing cost upfront and uses whatever leftover factory capacity remains at the end of each turn. Programming schedules a fixed delivery of units over a designated number of turns (e.g., 10 or 15 turns), guarantees production priority for that capacity, and awards up to a 12% scale discount. You can run up to 3 dedicated production programs at once.

Why won't a foreign country sell me specific weapon licenses?

Every foreign equipment type requires a minimum diplomatic relation score. For example, licensing the Ural-4320 logistics truck requires 52 relations with Russia, while advanced combat kits or vehicles may require relations of 65 to 90+. If a supplier nation refuses to negotiate, assign additional diplomatic envoys on the Politics screen or run small, short-term arms purchases to boost relation scores.

Should I license ATGMs like Spike or Javelin for domestic production?

Generally, no. Advanced anti-tank missiles feature very high manufacturing effort relative to their baseline procurement cost. Building them domestically ties up hundreds of points of industrial capacity that are far more cost-effective when applied to vehicles, aircraft, or artillery. Purchase ATGMs via 10- or 15-turn foreign arms deals instead.

What happens if I lose a sector during the invasion?

Losing a sector inflicts an immediate domestic stability penalty and forfeits the defensive entrenchment bonuses accumulated in those provinces. If the enemy captures the central heartland sector, your defense collapses and you lose the game immediately.