Superpowers gone wild—It's all about willpower, baby!

[Miihkali]

It's all about willpower, baby!

Rules:

1. Playing as the USSR
2. Normal / normal.
3. DH lite.
4. I have added a cheat-alliance between the USA and the USSR.
5. I'll wipe out all the dissent (15%) as soon as I can and then declare war on anyone.

I had almost forgotten how much 'flashier' the gameplay was in the original HoI2. This is both its advantage and disadvantage--anyway, sometimes it's good to just have fun and play a little game with no reason or sense. Here it is, an ultimate World War II--USA & USSR against everyone else. I'll take the USSR, let's see how the AI will do in the boots of Roosevelt.

Contents

1. 1936
2. 1937, part I
3. 1937, part II
4. 1938, part I
5. 1938, part II
6. 1938, part III
7. 1939, part I
8. 1939, part II
9. 1939, part III
10. 1939, part IV

[Miihkali]

At first I ban my dear allies Tannu Tuva and Mongolia from the alliance. On the field of technology, I'll use most of my slots to rush better IC, manpower growth, infantry, armour, and land doctrines, as what I really need is well functioning army with a plenty of divisions. I also cheated my interventionism slider to the extreme so that I will get not 100 % from the war declarations. First of them were made April 27, 1936. Sadly I forgot to cancel some non-aggression pacts so the ultimate world war has to wait for a couple of weeks. These enemies will anyway do their job for a while.



It is also a time to produce some cannon fodder, while waiting that the better equipment gets finished.



The progress is much slower than I thought. Central and east European nations joined to Axis, while virtually everyone else jumped to the Allies-wagon. It was not until the late september 1936 when some Central Asians finally got some ass kicked.



On the western front all was more or less quiet. My air force had not much chances against combined French, German, and British fleets. My initial assaults were all failures, and the enemy's superiority was overhelming, especially when compared to my poor doctrines. Thus I adopted the doctrine of deep defence and counterattack. September 29 was the date of my first major victory on the western front. As the Soviets start with several motorized and armoured divisions, I was able to create 4 armoured corps, all with one light armour and three to four motorized divisions. Taking advantage of this mobility is a crucial part when trying to overcome the superior enemy. The biggest problem is their air superiority (though luckily not complete), which they can use to severely damage my spearheads.



October 3: note the major Japanese advance in Far East Siberia.



In Finland we have a most charming expression which states that if you've been naughty, Santa Claus (who's name Joulupukki translates slightly dubiously to 'Christmas Goat') brings you brickbats instead of gifts. Your parents can then use them to punish you for your evil deeds. Progress till december 27.

[KaiserMuffin]

I think this is gonna end in tears.

[Deus Eversor]

GOOD LUCK!
cuz you need as mych as you can!

[BootOnFace]

I want to say that you're going to die super hard. But with the US on your side, maybe not.

[Miihkali]

In his new year speech of 1937 Stalin announced a significant advance on the Central Asian and Middle Eastern fronts. Besides, he stressed two things: "We will never be defeated, and all defeatists are going to be punished for their mistrust in the world revolution!" As a result, two traitors were ordered to service in a special penal platoon, which soon enough was air transported to the south Ukrainian pocket. You can see the names of these quislings in the posts #3 and 5#, just above this update.



"Me no likey."



Trying to take all the VPs from Afghanistan.



My new policy of not tolerating any kind of treason seems to have had a significant effect on the war effort. Also, concentrating all my motorised force to the weak Romanian border may have helped. Even Budyonnyi is perfoming well! It seems that the traitors of the motherland didn't survive long enough, though--well, they had their chance to survive. Sadly they rather surrendered.



Another nice pocket closing. The American air force is still weak, but their expeditionary fleets are still giving some much-needed help, making enemy defences fall earlier and thus saving a lot of my valuable manpower. (Yes! Manpower--valuable--as the USSR--with the old manpower system!)



This means that by late march 1937 I have encircled three enormous pockets. As you see, our late Romanian friends didn't last for too long. The other pockets will take some time to reduce, though, due to their size.

The Spanish in the north have already been more or less wiped out by the lack of supplies. The provinces are slowly being recaptured by a sole infantry division. Sadly I will not have enough motorised guys for so such a low-profile job. (I actually remembered now, that I a cavalry corps somewhere, but on the other hand, they probably will have better job to do, and those North-East European provinces don't anyway possess anything valuable.)

Encircled Poles have quite a lot of divisions and decent organisation, so killing them will take some time, but is assured anyways. The British are still advancing, but they don't have troops defencing their supply lines and the bulge they made after the landing already has been cut in two--I have sent one mechanised corps (led by good ol' Pavel Rybalko) to end their desperate adventure quickly. I want my IC back! In short: the British invaders are gone too. As are the Afghans, as you can note. It seems the Soviet graphicists get some more job to do: they may design yet another superb flag with a beautiful contrast between red and pastel colours.

All in all, everything is going surprisingly well, though the American front is unbelievably passive. I even deleted the non-aggression pacts to prevent this from happening, and I guess both Americans and the Canadians should have built remarkably large armies to this point. As for the British and Polish pockets, both were destroyed by mid-April. I was thus able to send some more divisions to the Persian, Turkish, and Romanian theatres. Also, two to five infantry divisions are finished monthly, so I'm soon able to wage a new major offensive.



I had almost forgotten the Japanese front. Unfortunately. It is however a fact that this is not my fault, but that of my completely untalented generals, not to mention the defeatists that have poisoned the mighty Red Army. Even the recently finished 1939 infantry division will not help if my soldiers can't hold the Japanese invader for puny half-a-year. I just came to a conclusion that Deus Eversor was acting like a defeatist too, as saying "you need a lot of luck" implies an assumption that I need luck. That is a lie, of course, because I'm a certain winner. As a result, Deus Eversor took part in the Battle of Birobidzhan. Sadly that was not enough to decide the battle in my favour--or perhaps it was because of him. No one will ever know.

See ya!

[Davisx3m]

Dear God! Good Luck!

[Miihkali]

As the time counter turns to July, it's finally about a time to show the fricking Fenno-Ugric poo-pooers the might of the mighty Red Army's might. As you see, the Spanish invaders are soon going to die, and the American air force has finally came en masse to crush the enemies of the people!



The same applies for Persians. I deployed some mechanised troops to help the progress there. When it comes to the military power, I have no worries about my enemies--I, however, am bit a afraid that I might run out of manpower and that means that I have to try to destroy as much enemy forces as possible. The easiest way to do this is to annex quickly as much countries as possible.



The other way, of course, is to encircle as many enemy divisions as possible. It seems the Frenchies are very vulnerable to Blitzkrieg, no matter what is the language the enemy speaks.



The Japanese advance in the Far East worries me a bit, but luckily the Chinese are doing next to nothing. Except getting battered by the Kwantung Army.



Self-explanatory.



By the mid-October I need no longer to worry about the combined Scandinavian-French army. The same cannot be said about the French air force, which power is growing to fearsome numbers. On the Estonian border it's almost impossible to move the troops.



Thanks to the big provinces, counterattacking is easy. I'm anyway forced to deploy growing number of new troops to the Japanese front, where no quick advance is not to be expected.

[Leviathan07]

Madness !!!!!

Or is it... SPARTA ???

[Miihkali]

Probably both.



As of 1938 the situation is clearly turning on my favour on the European and West Asian theatres.



As for newly trained divisions, I'm currently investing heavily on the Southwestern front. Significant mechanised force has also been redeployed here, as I'm hoping quickly to take Romania and Turkey out in order to erase their powerful armies from the strength of my enemies.



Along with some minor military defeats Februay brings me two unpleasant surprises: remarkable manpower losses, and the Great Officer purge event. As I have no intention of killing all my useful leaders while a global war is going on, I refused to purge, which of course means a nasty dissent hit. Well, this is a good spot to cancel my obsoloted infantry serial runs and make some money instead. The bread will be used to improve my national infrastructures, as the transport capacity load will be huge.



No remarkable progress by April 21, excluding the fact that partisans have began popping up.



It seems that I also forgot to declare some wars. Probably this had no effect, though--as you can see, the Yankees are still waging the American version of Sitzkrieg. Some minor fighting going on in the New England on the Canadian border, if you watch closely.



April 26: Estonia gets what he deserves. At least the danger of getting encircled by the Estonian and Finnish spearheads has now ceased.



Enemy is making some advance in the Central Asian front. As a result I decided to redeploy there some fresh troops from the Estonian front, including mountaineer division I had completely forgotten and which' specialties were completely being wasted on the plains of Baltia.



Preparing for the Euphrat & Tigris campaign.



May was met with a successful Persian campaign.



Need for new flag designs is growing. But why am I called "sir?" It should be "comrade"!

[Miihkali]

June 14: The success on the Persian front and the calming-down European front have allowed me to deploy several fresh troops in order to take Turkey quickly out.



Even the U.S. of A. have finally managed to do something!



Normally I don't give much attention for the proper use of special forces as training them takes a lot of time, additional technology slot, and the usefulness of their specialties is very limited, at least in European campaigns. In my Southeast Asian campaign then again it is then again a must to have advantage when fighting on mountains. It is worth noting, that in Kabul there are 5 more bergsjaegers under command of Voroshilov.



Surprising Turkish counterattack is delaying my operation as the airfields of Ankara are taking heavy damage from the fighting.



Finally I have produced enough bread & circuses. Time to switch to war economy again.



Cool!



Just finished the research of basic medium tank.



Mid-september means the time for beautiful autumn colours and my large-scale counteroffensive on the Indian front.



Despite several attempts to recover the Romanian offensive after it had literally freezed during the last winter, the enemy was able to push me away from the bridgeheads.



I will anyway still keep my troops, including a motorised reserve, in Bessarabia, as the enemy bulge in the Western Ukraine form a huge potential pocket. Two tank divisions equipped with engineers will be redeployed to Turkey, however, as I am preparing to completely crush all my enemies in the Middle East.

[dhomas]

Very nice! I see Polish soldiers in Romania; are all your enemies allied against you? Or are they divided?

[Miihkali]

There are four major alliances thirsty for my blood: Axis (Germany, Italy, and Eastern European nations), Japan and her block, Chinese unified front, and Allies containing virtually everyone else (except South America).



October 22. Time for some serious blitzkrieg.



'Coz I like nukes.



I love the smell of breakthrough in the morning.



The Turkeys shall learn to fear my new III model tactical bombers!



Preparing for the big push. My target is to take the enemy airfields as quickly as possible in order to take their air force out.



Merry Christmas. Again.

[dhomas]

There are four major alliances thirsty for my blood: Axis (Germany, Italy, and Eastern European nations), Japan and her block, Chinese unified front, and Allies containing virtually everyone else (except South America).

Ah, so Poland is together with Nazis! Wow.

[Miihkali]

Yup! This is with no doubt the weirdest game I've ever had.



January 8: massing lots of experienced infantry, mobile units, and engineers seems to provide a fast advance--something I really need in order to finish this war some day.



Operation Iraqi Freedom.



On the Baltic front there's no much hope for quick recovery of my air defence, as the enemy's air superiority is overhelming (at least 20 air units attacking me at the same time) and my air fields completely destroyed. With these new interceptors I can at least try to make my troops in Southern Europe able to manouver again.



I'm currently focusing on upgrading my ground forces. Transports and escorts are for the possibility that enemy counterattack could somehow reach the ocean, and for future plans of course. I'm also beginning to build air bases for two reasons: first to help the Baltic situation, secondly to make advantage in the Central Asia easier.



Feel my wrath! (I sadly accidentally moved my divisions from Mersin so a Turkish mountaineer division had escaped--for now. >8€ )



February 28.



This is no good, but luckily the insane distances prevent change for any serious breakthrough.



"Your puny rivers mean nothing for I have engineers."



Two cool things in one pic. Turkeys are leaving their last VPs completely unprotected.



A third cool thing. The fall of Iraq means that there are several enemy divisions less now, not to mention that they lost Baghdad airfields and my armour can now roll freely on the desert.

[Deus Eversor]

freely? what about british offensive into central asia? but yeah... ME is probably your so far most succesful theater

[Midge]

I'd be doubtful about the need for interceptors. You're very close to taking all of the worlds major oil supply. Once you have Romania, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela then nobody will be able to fly a airforce. The only other oil exporting nation will be the Dutch and they won't be able to feed the demands of the world.

Map to illustrate my point (Red being you, Green being oil sources owned by you or the US and blue being enemy oil sources):

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/139/hoi2blankmap.png

[dhomas]

Once you take Saudi Arabia and Romania the opposition will be buggered for oil.

Will it have any effect? I've only played HOI2 Doomsday, but it feels like the AI never runs out of anything, no matter what you do.

[Midge]

The AI will prioritize building Infantry instead of Mot or Arm. I think 6 months down the line or so you'll see much fewer allied planes. 1-2 years down the line countries will be turtleing their navies. Of course I've never run an actual test, this is just from my experience, I could be wrong.

[Pityubaa]

Nice thread you've got here. I didn't think that this game will be so challenging.