The Great Patriotic War - A Soviet Union AAR (TFH)

First Organisational Steps...

Okay here it goes,

We are still January the 1st 1936.

Economy:

Starting IC is quite low but I plan to change that by adding more base IC and changing laws as soon as possible.



Here you see the IC distribution after some adjustments, Consumer Goods will have to be increased a bit to get rid of the dissent I have at the moment. IC distribution will then be concentrated on the production of Industrial Capacity.



I added 23 IC in series of 3 to the Production Queue. This will take around 3 years which would enable to produce army units from 1939 onwards. If thats too short I will skip the third series of IC.

Army:



As you see, the Red Army already is an Infantry Army with almost no support brigades but with far more mobile brigades than I anticipated. I guess there is capacity for about 8 mobile corps and about 34 infantry corps (including mountain infantry and garrisons). The Units in the Far East Theater are regulars but all the others are reserve units.

I plan to deploy two Borderguards Armies in the Far East. Each of these Armies has 4 Borderguards Corps and one regular Infantry Corps:



To deploy these Armies I will need to build a lot of units:



Note: The "Already Build" Column shows a selection of units attached to the Far Eastern Theater.

The total build time of 211 days does not take into acount practicals or the increasing IC. These Units will be deployed as Regulars because they would be almost useless to stop a surprise attack by the Japanese if they had only 25% of their nominal strength.

I will now start the clock and begin reorganizing the Armies in the West. I have already decided to reduce my total number of Theaters to 3: Far East, Stalingrad for the the Center and South of the Soviet Union and Stavka for the Western Front(s). Stavka will be reorganized into 4 Army Groups: Finland, Baltic, White Russia and Ukraine. The remaining units in the Far East (regulars) will be transferred to the Army Group Finland as thats where I plan to wage my first War.



Thats it for now, next post will probably be tomorrow.

January 1936 - July 1936

July 1936:

Note: I forgot to mention previously that I am using "AHOI-Mod-widescreen-TFH" mod by Chromos, it brings no changes to game-play only the UI.


January 20, 1936: Our beloved Comrade Iosif V. Stalin has been appointed as Armament Minister, giving a bonus to supply production.

February 19, 1936: The Spanish Civil War has started and the Soviet Union intervenes immediately, sending a volunteer force to Madrid.

June 1, 1936: France had the event "The Popular Front!", we are pleased to hear that they now have a government of the united left.


Economy:

Bad news! The IC production program is progressing more slowly than planned and would probably be completed in September 1941. The third series of IC will certainly not be produced which will reduce the produced IC to 46 and the program will be completed in October/November 1939.








Technology:


There have been some technological advances:






Army:


Stavka has been reorganized into four army groups as I stated in my previous post. There will be 5 Reserve Infantry Armies with 5 Infantry Corps each attached to the Army Groups (2 for the AG Ukraine and 1 for each other AG). Almost all the infantry brigades needed for these armies already exist but all the support brigades have to be build.





Stalingrad HQ has been renamed to Astrahan HQ and its 3 Army Groups have been reduced to one. It will have 2 Mountain Corps and a yet undefined number of Borderguards Corps under its command. The mountain infantry brigades needed already exist but they are reserve units, I will have to live with it. I have also been thinking about using my Cavalry Divisions (also reserve units) as mobile units for the Astrahan and Far East Theaters.





There is a big difference between the Army I plan to have and the Army I have. Furthermore the time needed to produce the needed units is too long. In the actual state of things the current TOE would be fully operational by Spring 1941 and I plan to add more units, the Army Group Finland would not have the strength to invade Finland with 5 Reserve Infantry Corps even if it was fully operational.





Note: I multiplied the manpower and the supply need of the reserve infantry corps by 0.25 instead of using ingame stats.

One solution would be to cut the IC program even more, another one to replace some Artillery brigades with cheaper support brigades and a third one (very marginal) to replace the regular Garrisons in the Borderguards Division with reserve Infantry, I know I said its bad.





Thats it for today, I will continue tomorrow

gokiller said:

Me 2. However idk just a suggeston to perhaps start with "Custom start" in 1936? It makes playing as the Soviet Union much more easier

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion but I'm gonna try with Historical mode, perhaps I will CGM in my next AAR.

cheers

July 1936 - January 1937

January 1937:

July 2, 1936: Nationalist Spain is rumoured to have won the Spanish Civil War but the Prada did not lose a word on such nonsense.

August 6, 1936: There has been a discussion among Stalin's Cabinet about limiting the formation of new political organisations, but the Comrade Stalin firmly rejected the idea.

August 17, 1936: The Games of the XI Olympiad were held in Berlin but sadly our wonderful Athletes could not distinguish themselves.


Economy:

A first batch of IC will soon be finished, the IC boost will be welcome.






Technology:

The technologies influencing Infantry are mostly up to date, Industry techs are also up to date with some exceptions and Armour techs are being researched at the moment. I invest about 20 Leadership in technology, under 1 in Spies and Diplomacy and 0 in Officers (I have a ratio of 106%).








Army:

There has been an extensive restructuration of the Red Army... on a theoretical level. Support Brigades have been deleted from most Army Formations, the Infantry Corps now has 3 Infantry Divisions and a Light Mobile Division for more punch and to use the available Light Armour and Motorised Brigades. I will think about adding Support Brigades later in the Game.





The new Organisation has not brought a reduction in IC need for new units but a full regular Infantry Army and a Reserve Infantry Army have been added to the needs of Stavka as well as a Borderguards Corps for the Astrahan HQ.





I also took the time to draw an Organigram of Stavka including planned additions:





I can now have the "Great Officer Purge" decision but I'm hesitating. Is the manpower gain worth the leadership loss?

The Weekend is over now and I will post less often during the week, in the worst case I will be back Friday evening.

Avindian said:

Can't wait to see how this turns out! I've always wanted to play the USSR but have been terrified of the OOB stuff -- how long did it take you with TFH to get a workable OOB?

Click to expand...

me too...
Organizing the Soviet OOB does take some time, especially as I am fond of renaming all my units but the brigades and assigning all Commanders manually.
Do you mean finding the good unit mix for TFH? Its still not done but I'm searching, proof of that is that I reneged the Orthodoxy of separated Armoured troops.

January 1937 - January 1938

hi, here I'm again. I played a whole year this evening, there isn't a lot happening at the moment...



January 1, 1937: Stalin ordered the NKVD to purge the Armed Forces of every Officer with dangerous ideas (aka 'intelligent')

May 7, 1937: A German passenger airship, the Hindenburg, was destroyed by a fire in the US. High ranking NKVD Officers assured me that they had nothing to do with it.

August 27, 1937: The German rearmament programme is worrying Stalin and he decided to double the goals of the current 5 year plan, our workers will now work longer shifts.



September 20, 1937: Parliamentary Scandal: There was a scandal involving some members of the supreme Soviet, they have been promptly taken in by the NKVD for interrogation.

October 22, 1937: Japan has annexed Shanxi. The war in China had started a few weeks earlier. Plan are being made to reinforce the Red Army Far Eastern Forces.

November 27, 1937: Surge of Volunteers: The title says it all, long live the glorious worker's revolution.


Economy:




Base IC has increased from 161 to 176, increased mobilisation and technological improvement allow 184 IC. The actual IC distribution is the following:



Note the decrease in Consumer Goods due to our lowered neutrality. Included in the Production queue is a number of infantry brigades destined for the 5th Army and the Infantry Divisions of the 6th Army.


Technology:


There have been advances in land and air doctrines, industry and support brigades technologies.


Army:


It seems that I can't play for a while without turning my OOB upside-down...



This is the actual (theoretical) Composition of an Infantry Army. The Mobile Division has been removed from the Infantry Corps and specialised support Divisions are now the punch of the Infantry Army. I'm ignoring the other theaters at the moment as I don't know how to organize them...


I will go watch a movie now, see you tomorrow (probably)

January 1938 - January 1939

June 17, 1938: Chasan Lake Incident: the Japanese have won a series of border-squirmishes, nothing to be worried about.

August 20, 1938: Operation Zet: The war in China is an excellent opportunity to let the chinese test our equipment and hinder the japanese expansion.

September 6, 1938: Anshluss of Austria: Hitler is beginning to put his rethoric of a third Reich into practice. The game started and its time for the Soviet Union to put its own pawns into motion.

October 16, 1938: Treaty of Munich: The weak western bourgeois regimes have no courage nor honor, Hitler can do with their Czech allies what he wants.


Economy:


IC capacity is still increasing, available IC is now at 221. The IC production programm has finally not been cut down, less than 70 IC of the 186 currently being dedicated to production is used to build new IC.





Technology:


There have been some major technological advances:




Technologies improving the Infantry are currently being prioritized. But I plan to be able to build Heavy Armour before the war with Germany.


Army:


Here is the current Administrative Organisation of the Soviet Land Forces:




The Far Eastern Theater is currently being restructured and is not yet conform to this organigram. It will be composed of two Regular Infantry Armies although they will have no AT Divisions and minimal Artillery support.

The future annexation of Finland has been named "Operation Arctic Bear". Here is an overview of the troops that will be involved.




Note: (reserve) means that the Corps is composed of reserve divisions.

All these units are not yet operational but I plan for them to be ready soon. The 6th Army will execute the initial assault on the Finish Defence lines in Karelia while the 5th Army holds the line on the rest of the Front. Once 6th Army has achieved a Breakthrough, the mobile troops will move to take the Victory points of Helsinki and Turku (VP's are marked with the Combat Icon on the map)






The Officer ratio is currently sinking very fast, I plan to change from Volunteer Army to 3 year Draft in January 1940, once that is done I will invest some Leadership into Officers.

January 1 - May 5, 1939:

January 1 - May 5, 1939:


On January 7 I decided to enact the two-year draft law, mainly to be able to recruit Officers more efficiently. During the following months I continued to build up my Armies, Artillery brigades start to become a familiar sight especially on the Finnish border. I also made some "small" OOB restructurations, again...

March 26: Germany takes 'The First Vienna Award' decision but Czechoslovakia resists and WW2 begins. My first reaction is to begin massing troops on the Finnish border. On April 1 the UK declare war on Germany, France and Poland follow them. On April 4 Germany declares war on Denmark and the Netherlands. That sounds good for me as it will force Germany to fight on several fronts, they will be loosing more manpower.




It seems that the German AI did not have any troops on the border with Czechoslovakia.




April 5: Italy joined the Axis.

April 6: I deployed my Submarine Forces in the Baltic on the coast of Finland. And I grouped all my planes in 4 Wings and base them in Leningrad. The Army Group Finland is ready to launch Operation Arctic Bear although Spring Bear would be a more fitting name at the moment.






April 7, 13:00 : I declare war on Finland! And I fail...
I don't know why but all my screenshots past this point have disappeared, but the war ended on May the 5th with the annexation of Finland.

In the beginning the Infantry Divisions of the 6th Army pushed the Finns back without much efforts. But once I put them on a defensive line to the north and send my mechanized divisions towards Helsinki things got ugly. With their powerful 'no' upgrade levels they were stopped by nothing less than two Finnish Infantry Divisions. I had to send a few divisions around the Finns to encircle them in order to finish them off. After that the 3 or 4 Garrison Brigades the Finns had left in that sector were quickly overpowered and the Finnish VP's taken.

All in all I think that my Airforce made a big difference by flying non-stop Ground attacks during the whole war. My Strategy for the next months will be to prioritize upgrades and get a higher Officer ratio.

In the meantime the Danes have been annexed, the UK grabbed Grönland and Island from the Germans, and Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Netherlands are almost completely conquered. I guess that France won't resist for long after that.




I reloaded the game to take this screenshot.



Thats it for this evening.

May 5 - July 21, 1939:

After the annexation of Finland, 5th Army and 1st Cavalry Corps are deployed as garrisons, 6th Army is reattached to the Army Group Baltic and the 2 mechanised Corps will form the 1st Tank Army.

On May 16 the Germans have completely encircled Warsaw.




The Netherlands too have one province left.




On May 18 Germany declares war on Belgium. A few days later, on May 28 Czechoslovakia is completely annexed by Germany and Albania is annexed by Italy via a decision.




On May 29 the Poles managed to break the enciclement of Warsaw. On the 2nd of June Germany conquers Luxemburg, I actually missed the declaration of war. Poland eventually surrenders on the 3rd of June, I guess Warsaw fell. On the 16th Germany finishes the conquest of Belgium.




The German border is now dangerously close to Moscow. Around that time I had an idea: why not attack the Germans in late 1939? The plan would be to take the Baltic states first then to mass troops in Lituania. 6th Army would run on Königsberg and use the fortifications and the river next to it as a defensive line while the 1st Tank Army and all troops I can muster will encircle the German troops in northern Poland. The 2 1/2 Infantry Armies I have in the Ukraine would have to hold the line, Romania is still neutral and I won't push them towards the Axis.



Operation smertʹ Barbarossy? (death to Barbarossa)

On June 19 Germany declares war on Norway, 5th Army is ready to open a front in Scandinavia. By June 20 the last pocket in the Netherlands has fallen and French and Germans fight each other on the Belgian border. The same day Army Groups Ukraine and White Russia begin to move towards the border.




Still June 20 I declare war on Estonia, I also enact new laws: 3 year draft, heavy industry emphasis and war economy.




By July 3 the Germans are steadily advancing in the northern plains of France while the Italians are invading from the South.





In Asia Japan and China are still fighting each other...




On July 10 Estonia is annexed and I begin attacking Latvia. The same day the USA join the Allies and it seems they are at war with Japan as the latter take the Tora Tora! decision. A day later I get the Gulf of Finland modifier.




On July 21 Latvia is annexed. I declare war on Lithuania. I fear that I won't be able to attack the Germans before the fall of France.






Concerning the economy, I actually have 300 available IC and resource stockpiles are doing well, except perhaps for the supplies. The Mobilisation of the Army is finished and it is being rapidly upgraded.

Concerning the OOB, I scrapped all fancy plans of dedicated support divisions and went back to standard 3Inf+Art Infantry Divisions. Now I just have to produce the Art. The Tank Army has 4 Corps with 2x 2LArm+Mot and 1x LArm+2Mot each. It was planned to upgrade the 2LArm+Mot divisions to 2Arm+Mot but I don't have the IC and time before attacking Germany, which makes me hesistate about that attack, if I wait for the Germans to attack I will have more time to prepare. Leftover Motorised Infantry has been formed into a reserve mobile Corps for the Army Group Ukraine.