• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Finally, Stalin had a question for his nuclear scientists: with the first nuclear reactor due to come on line of 3 April and another already started, should a third be started straight away to use the IC freed? Or was two enough (for now anyway), given how tremendously expensive they were? Another alternative would be to just start adding levels to the already built reactors (having more than one is is more about the rate of technical improvement/speed of construction and I probably can't affors to have three going at once). Views and opinions are sought – on a highly classified basis, or course! ;)

I'd start leveling up the existing reactors and put the rest into upgrades, infrastructure (if needed), air/naval bases (if needed),
new units (if needed and manpower available).
 
I like the new battle reporting style, it's easier to understand what's going on in the huge front. Now that the winter conditions are receding, we're making good progress into cutting a portion of Japanese army. Those low range old submarines can be useful if the Japanese try to ship their troops out with transports. Soon, Siberia will become Japanese-free!

[Question: do people have views on whether this is worth it now, or whether it should be stopped once practical experience can be gained by actually building nukes?]
I think I wouldn't go on with this since we already are building reactors etc, but I'm not really an expert on the subject
 
As far as the theory tech: given that it's lowers the decay (and aside from any nuke-minded ministers with those reductions and if you've "patched" the game to employ the minister decay offset properly), I would keep it going for awhile. For the reactors, why not a third if you're hitting the limit of what you could otherwise spend the IC on, and it will hype the practical (which I don't know if nukes grant practical (I'd assume so, but I can't find any reference specifying)).
 
[A question: so for subs is it just the engine and hull that don’t upgrade? I know AA does and presume sonars and air warning techs do as well. What about torpedoes?]
I believe this is correct. The torpedoes upgrade over time, as well.

Noticing that many did not have supporting brigades, especially artillery, two of those were started to replace the three infantry brigades delivered on 2 March.
Ah, the silly starting OOBs and their lack of support brigades... I don't fault Paradox for releasing the game with those OOBs, since they clearly based them on HoI2 OOBs and that game had you build divisions as single units with optional attachments and they clearly used the same model when the translated that to brigade-based OOBs. I do, of course, fault them for not correcting this in the following expansions when it should have been obvious how the game was actually being played. :rolleyes:

Finally, Stalin had a question for his nuclear scientists: with the first nuclear reactor due to come on line of 3 April and another already started, should a third be started straight away to use the IC freed? Or was two enough (for now anyway), given how tremendously expensive they were? Another alternative would be to just start adding levels to the already built reactors (having more than one is is more about the rate of technical improvement/speed of construction and I probably can't affors to have three going at once). Views and opinions are sought – on a highly classified basis, or course!
It should not matter where a reactor is built, i.e. if it is a new one or improving an existing site. Once a single reactor is placed on the map, the techs are all as far as I remember unlocked in vanilla HoI3 and any follow-on are just building up practicals. The question as to whether to build more at all should really be, do we have more pressing needs for our IC or can we afford to sink IC into reactor building to speed up research and (indirectly, I think) nuke production? The practical gain per reactor building is I think +6 apiece which is quite substantial, however the impact of additional practicals drops off after about 10 or so, so I think just the two reactors is sufficient for a while. If nuclear practicals drop below 8 or 9 we should consider building a third just to push it back up, if we're not nearly done with the research by then.

Now, mods are usually stingier about this and make you build multiple levels of nuclear buildings to unlock all the techs, but this is vanilla so we have no such onerous liabilities here! :D

As far as the theory tech: given that it's lowers the decay (and aside from any nuke-minded ministers with those reductions and if you've "patched" the game to employ the minister decay offset properly), I would keep it going for awhile.
I'm curious what this "patching" you mention is? I know mods like HPP have tried to eliminate theory and practical decay with e.g. ministers but not been as successful as hoped. Is there a known, more successful method I can patch into my personal submods?
 
I believe this is correct. The torpedoes upgrade over time, as well.

And in Paradox's infinite wisdom, models will upgrade (so, they'll start showing as level III or IV or V) regardless of what the original hull is! :rolleyes:

I'm curious what this "patching" you mention is? I know mods like HPP have tried to eliminate theory and practical decay with e.g. ministers but not been as successful as hoped. Is there a known, more successful method I can patch into my personal submods?

Someone in the forum boards found through a hex editor of the exe that two things were reflecting the incorrect integers:

Decay sliw-downs are bugged without editing the exe, which is easily done. The theory techs might work but many have taken note of noticing no difference with appointing ministers.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-seemingly-not-working.1104187/#post-24392668

It is probably advisable that people be made aware of the issue, that they can then fix it themselves (if they have admin privilege on their computers, and making that work on Win10 can be bothersome to say the least).
 
Is this the start of the Soviet steamroller? One certainly hopes so - there is so much Japanese dominion to roll over and out of existence after all.

Indeed all over the tide seems like it is turning now.
 
First Army appears to have finally awoken from hibernation. Hopefully they can start pulling a little of their own weight for a change from now on.

The casualties are definitely falling heavily in the Soviets' favor. The Japanese can ill afford a grinding war of attrition like this, assuming their manpower and resource pools are in any way modeled as historically.

As for nuclear tech and production: I don't have any special insights into how things work in this game in particular, but if you feel you can afford it, I'd say go for it.
 
The Japanese can ill afford a grinding war of attrition like this, assuming their manpower and resource pools are in any way modeled as historically.
Hello, welcome to Paradox games. I can assure you that the above is categorically not the case. :p

Actually, if my recollection is accurate Japan is often used in MP games as a source of expendable MP since they have significantly more than Germany or Italy, although I'm not certain how that translates into a situation this late in the game but I'd assume MP is not the principal Japanese concern of the moment.
 
Hello, welcome to Paradox games. I can assure you that the above is categorically not the case. :p

Actually, if my recollection is accurate Japan is often used in MP games as a source of expendable MP since they have significantly more than Germany or Italy, although I'm not certain how that translates into a situation this late in the game but I'd assume MP is not the principal Japanese concern of the moment.
Your recollection is accurate, alas. According to the latest intelligence screen, they have in excess of 1.3m in their MP reserve. It will hopefully be the increase of IC for reinforcement that might have some impact.
 
Last edited:
It's really kicking off now... In one month, the 6th Army got halfway to the Pacific coast compared to February. I can see that big pocket forming in the course of the next month. Casualties remain reasonable, on the Soviet side, though as others mentioned above, breaking Japanese resistance by reducing their manpower to 0 is rather unlikely. The VVS is having a big impact too. The reduction in organisation of the enemy units being arguably more important in this case than the substantial number of enemies killed.

Interesting to see you're finally addressing the Division composition of the AI-built units and the original OOB.

I don't think a third Nuclear reactor would really be worthwhile.

A month to subdue such a large uprising is pretty good, though of course the resources employed to do so were not commensurate with the threat. Glad that's fixed now.

New Submarines could play a significant role in a future war against the Allies. If you can isolate the European Allies from US supplies, that would be brilliant.

I like the new way of presenting the battles on the map. I've been experimenting myself following the conversation in 'Odin'. I've been unable to fit the air and ground data on the same map at the same time, though.

Keep it up.
 
One work on one stack of nuclear reactors, the second is only for better practice in this case. Use the extra production to beef up the fleet in anticipation of a naval showdown with the west, the name of the game is also here practice makes a master builder.
 
On the Nuclear Question:
I'd start leveling up the existing reactors and put the rest into upgrades, infrastructure (if needed), air/naval bases (if needed),
new units (if needed and manpower available).

I think I wouldn't go on with this since we already are building reactors etc, but I'm not really an expert on the subject

As far as the theory tech: given that it's lowers the decay (and aside from any nuke-minded ministers with those reductions and if you've "patched" the game to employ the minister decay offset properly), I would keep it going for awhile. For the reactors, why not a third if you're hitting the limit of what you could otherwise spend the IC on, and it will hype the practical (which I don't know if nukes grant practical (I'd assume so, but I can't find any reference specifying)).

It should not matter where a reactor is built, i.e. if it is a new one or improving an existing site. Once a single reactor is placed on the map, the techs are all as far as I remember unlocked in vanilla HoI3 and any follow-on are just building up practicals. The question as to whether to build more at all should really be, do we have more pressing needs for our IC or can we afford to sink IC into reactor building to speed up research and (indirectly, I think) nuke production? The practical gain per reactor building is I think +6 apiece which is quite substantial, however the impact of additional practicals drops off after about 10 or so, so I think just the two reactors is sufficient for a while. If nuclear practicals drop below 8 or 9 we should consider building a third just to push it back up, if we're not nearly done with the research by then.

Now, mods are usually stingier about this and make you build multiple levels of nuclear buildings to unlock all the techs, but this is vanilla so we have no such onerous liabilities here! :D

I'm curious what this "patching" you mention is? I know mods like HPP have tried to eliminate theory and practical decay with e.g. ministers but not been as successful as hoped. Is there a known, more successful method I can patch into my personal submods?

Someone in the forum boards found through a hex editor of the exe that two things were reflecting the incorrect integers:

It is probably advisable that people be made aware of the issue, that they can then fix it themselves (if they have admin privilege on their computers, and making that work on Win10 can be bothersome to say the least).

As for nuclear tech and production: I don't have any special insights into how things work in this game in particular, but if you feel you can afford it, I'd say go for it.

I don't think a third Nuclear reactor would really be worthwhile.

One work on one stack of nuclear reactors, the second is only for better practice in this case. Use the extra production to beef up the fleet in anticipation of a naval showdown with the west, the name of the game is also here practice makes a master builder.

Thanks all. I definitely won't be starting a third, but will definitely keep going with the first (ie rolling the production over to start levelling it up). The key question (and one I'm not sure about yet) is whether I just let the second reactor sit there once it's built and use the freed production for something else, or keep levelling that up too. My technical understanding of the relative merits is still hazy - but there is some time to go before that next decision point is reached. For now, getting nukes quickly is what I'm after.

But if I find, once I get the first nuclear reactor built (due very soon) and then get to level 4 civ nuke tech (so can start actually building bombs) that building/developing two reactors is absorbing too much IC, then one may have its priority lowered for a while.

On sub techs/torpedoes:
Nice to see the airforce and the poor old submarines get some research pumped into them. I'm sure the Soviet Union will soon be leading the world.
Oh and ahistorical, unreasonable and insanely sized fleet of Stalingrad class battlecruisers!
Not sure if I'll get to battle-cruisers, but the Air Force, subs, rockets and nukes will be priorities. Especially if I want the steamroller to grind over Allied-dominated Europe. Japan is just the practice run! ;)

I believe this is correct. The torpedoes upgrade over time, as well.
Thanks.

And in Paradox's infinite wisdom, models will upgrade (so, they'll start showing as level III or IV or V) regardless of what the original hull is! :rolleyes:
Interesting. But the capability from the hull and engines remains as it was, irrespective of the numeric model generation upgrade shown, I'm assuming.

New Submarines could play a significant role in a future war against the Allies. If you can isolate the European Allies from US supplies, that would be brilliant.
That will be a side aim - after flattening Germany and then others with rockets and nukes! :eek:

General

I like the new battle reporting style, it's easier to understand what's going on in the huge front. Now that the winter conditions are receding, we're making good progress into cutting a portion of Japanese army. Those low range old submarines can be useful if the Japanese try to ship their troops out with transports. Soon, Siberia will become Japanese-free!
Thanks! Now that I have it set up, it should also cut down on episode production time a bit, too.

Ah, the silly starting OOBs and their lack of support brigades... I don't fault Paradox for releasing the game with those OOBs, since they clearly based them on HoI2 OOBs and that game had you build divisions as single units with optional attachments and they clearly used the same model when the translated that to brigade-based OOBs. I do, of course, fault them for not correcting this in the following expansions when it should have been obvious how the game was actually being played. :rolleyes:
True enough. In this run, I'm only making limited efforts to address them: no div reorgs (both for time and player handicapping reasons), but I will gradually and partially address it via new builds.

one can never have too much air power :D
Indeed. Though it's saturated the available airfields in the Far East. New air units will largely go into the West now. And why I'm going in big for equipment and doctrine improvements for now. And there will no doubt be a requirement for more units in the west in due course. But not immediately against Japan.

Is this the start of the Soviet steamroller? One certainly hopes so - there is so much Japanese dominion to roll over and out of existence after all.

Indeed all over the tide seems like it is turning now.
I'm hoping so. Given the steamroller drivers some practical experience in the east, so they do better in the west in due course. ;) If it comes to that. ;);)

First Army appears to have finally awoken from hibernation. Hopefully they can start pulling a little of their own weight for a change from now on.

The casualties are definitely falling heavily in the Soviets' favor. The Japanese can ill afford a grinding war of attrition like this, assuming their manpower and resource pools are in any way modeled as historically.
It's kind of 'good' (in a realism sense) having hesitant or uncooperative commanders to help even things up against the AI a bit. :rolleyes::) Re the grinding war - I wish it had been so (we carried that line through in earlier responses). Manpower pools - no joy there. Resources and IC: they should be in more trouble there, hopefully.

It's really kicking off now... In one month, the 6th Army got halfway to the Pacific coast compared to February. I can see that big pocket forming in the course of the next month. Casualties remain reasonable, on the Soviet side, though as others mentioned above, breaking Japanese resistance by reducing their manpower to 0 is rather unlikely. The VVS is having a big impact too. The reduction in organisation of the enemy units being arguably more important in this case than the substantial number of enemies killed.

Interesting to see you're finally addressing the Division composition of the AI-built units and the original OOB.
It was really pleasing progress, against still determined resistance. The air force is having a massive tactical impact, even if they have the numbers to replenish. It destroys the immediate fighting strength and organisation of their front line troops pretty effectively.

Per above, I'll do limited and anecdotal OOB updating through adding new brigades, but otherwise will not be reordering brigades between divisions.

A month to subdue such a large uprising is pretty good, though of course the resources employed to do so were not commensurate with the threat. Glad that's fixed now.
Yes, a few little tricks learned and contributed by commentAARs there. For such a decent sized uprising, it was dealt with OK in the end.

I like the new way of presenting the battles on the map. I've been experimenting myself following the conversation in 'Odin'. I've been unable to fit the air and ground data on the same map at the same time, though.

Keep it up.
Thank you! I'll see how it holds up as things go forward, but it seemed to work all right in what ended up being a pretty busy month in the Centre. How it might go in a second large European campaign would be another matter! Though it might just be a matter of adjusting thresholds for depicting what is shown on the map, or the time scale for each map (like weekly or fortnightly maps within an entry, for example). But I'll keep trying to make it Quick and Dirty - a quite different approach to my other HOIs AAR.

OK, I'm now off to do the next Q&D2 session. Wish me (or AI Stalin, anyway) luck!
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Thanks all. I definitely won't be starting a third, but will definitely keep going with the first (ie rolling the production over to start levelling it up). The key question (and one I'm not sure about yet) is whether I just let the second reactor sit there once it's built and use the freed production for something else, or keep levelling that up too. My technical understanding of the relative merits is still hazy - but there is some time to go before that next decision point is reached. For now, getting nukes quickly is what I'm after.

But if I find, once I get the first nuclear reactor built (due very soon) and then get to level 4 civ nuke tech (so can start actually building bombs) that building/developing two reactors is absorbing too much IC, then one may have its priority lowered for a while.
If it wasn't clear before, continuing to level-up an existing reactor has (in Vanilla TFH anyways) the exact same effect as building a third reactor in a different location. Once you've got the building on the map, the only effect of building reactors is the +6 practical each one gives you which boosts research speed, regardless of where the additional reactors are built.

Given that practicals start to fall off after about 10 or so, there's certainly not a lot of reason to keep leveling up the second site, and even the first site is questionable (though not useless) if we have higher priorities for our IC.
 
On sub techs/torpedoes:
Interesting. But the capability from the hull and engines remains as it was, irrespective of the numeric model generation upgrade shown, I'm assuming.

Yes.
 
Chapter 14 – April 1945
Chapter 14 – April 1945

AuthAAR’s Notes: Things are certainly livening up – and so I must further condense the presentation to keep it Quick and Dirty enough! I will only give battle details for the largest engagements, the rest are summarized on the sector maps. This would have been up earlier, but for the delay for the rather ugly new forum design, then my shocked reaction to it!

PS: Have fixed the broken image link and included an updated map legend on the first summary map as a 'hot fix'. Will think about how I might include an easy-reference cut down legend for subsequent maps on a future update. :)


******

1. Far East – Northern Sector

No territory changed hand in the far North during April 1945. Vast distances and slow movement times kept things gradual. The one action of the month occurred in Tomtor, where the previously retreating Japanese Sasebo Marine Division struck south to support an attack on Jakutsk after the Soviets occupied it on 5 April. This attack from Tomtor was soon spoiled by a Soviet assault from the west, with victory on 7 April.

******

2. Far East – Central Sector

CjTHkD.jpg

Operational summary, Far East – Central Sector, April 1945.
NB: in all these maps, small numbers in the battle icon represent the order of the battles in the province if there is more than one.

221 Mot Div in Aldan came under heavy attack on 1 April. Two days later, (with no report received from the battle) the whole division apparently shattered, disappearing without a trace [I assume they shattered anyway, but there was no message or screen, no sign of them after they were defeated]. The Japanese retook the province on 6 April.

Early in the month, Soviet tank divisions from 6th Army were racing towards Jakutsk, the air base lost around a year ago while the Japanese were still on the offensive. Tjung was liberated on 3 April and Jakutsk two days later.

1kAbQh.jpg

Jakutsk then came under concerted Japanese attack from Tomtor and Lazo between 5 and 16 April. After 7 April, as mentioned above, the attackers from Tomtor were driven off by 6th Army forces in the north. The liberated air base was held after a bloody fight (Soviet 269 v 1,691 Japanese casualties).

Japanese-held Torgo was attacked between 3-6 April and reoccupied on 13 April as the Soviets finally managed to breach the river defences that had held them up in March.

Japanese forces in Mosgolloh were attacked on 11 April but retreated almost immediately, allowing the Soviets to eventually occupy it near the end of the month without further opposition.

15th Army was not willing to let the Japanese get comfortable in Aldan for long: a counter-attack from Olekminsk was organised for 15 April, with the Japanese defeated four days later with fairly heavy losses, the Soviets marching back in triumphantly on 27 April – the same day Mosgolloh was taken to its immediate north.

A few probes on Ust’ Nyukzha came to nothing in the days leading up to a major attack on 19 April. This time, the river was crossed successfully, with victory on 22 April and the province retaken on 25 April.

As that attack was unfolding, Soviet forces from Torgo were striking south-east against Nejungri on 20 April. After a sharp fight they won against light resistance, retaking the province on 27 April, just before Aldan was reoccupied, meaning the Japanese lost a swathe of three provinces in the one day and just two days after Ust’ Nyukzha had fallen. There were hopes the heart had been torn out of the Japanese line in this part of the sector, but only time would tell if the rate of advance could be sustained.

Indeed, a strong Japanese counter-attack had hit Ust’ Nyukzha as soon as it was retaken on 25 April and was still going as the month ended, with the Soviet defenders in trouble.

But to the north, on 25 April 6th Army deployed two CAS wings into the recently liberated air base at Jakutsk.

E2cOEm.jpg

With Mosgolloh taken on 27 April, 6th Army pushed forward in Curapca, with an attack on 28 April still in progress by the end of 30 April (and 1,137 enemy already killed in air strikes), while a Soviet probe on Tommot was repelled on 30 April. Then the Japanese in Tommot launched their own counter-attack later that day on recently reoccupied Nerjungri, which continued as the day ended.

Strong Soviet air support throughout the month caused heavy Japanese casualties, while no Japanese air missions were flown in the sector. The heaviest raids were in Torgo (1-6 April, 2,749 casualties), Aldan (15-19 April, 2,037 casualties), Ust’ Nyukzha (19-22 April, 1,891 casualties) and Erofej Pavlovic (1,694 casualties).

******

3. Far East – Southern Sector

OhXJhJ.jpg

Operational summary, Far East – Southern Sector, April 1945.

7th Army became very active along the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, both north and south, while 15th Army was engaged in heavy combat in and around the mountainous Japanese stronghold of Mogoca. And 1st Army, with a new commander and stripped of many of its divisions, finally became engaged in combat as the month drew to a close.

The month began with a continuing Japanese attack on Burjatija, which the Soviets had retaken in March. The attack would fail by 3 April (Soviet 306 v 1,388 Japanese ground and 1,767 air casualties in Barguzin and 1,985 in Bukacaca).

The Japanese attempted to intercept one of the damaging air raids on Barguzin on the evening of 3 April (4 Zerosen, flying the Ki-88 Hayate), but was met with additional Soviet interceptors (Yak-3s) and a determined 36. IA-PVO, whose multi-role escort fighters (non-jet MiG-9 ‘Fargos’) took most of the damage defending the bombers.

goyKyO.jpg

The Japanese also made a determined but expensive attack on Dronovskiy from 1-2 April, repelled with even heavier casualties (Soviet 231 v 1,728 Japanese ground casualties).

A series of four small Soviets probes against Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy from 2-6 April did little and were all quickly called off, while two more lighter Japanese attacks on Dronvoskiy from 2-4 April were easily repelled.

Meanwhile, when Soviet cavalry probed Barguzin on 3 April, resistance ceased almost immediately and they continued their advance. They would meet heavier resistance on 4 April, ultimately winning a tough battle by 8 April, aided by air support (Soviet 700 v Japanese 860 ground and 930 air casualties). Barguzin was eventually occupied on 17 April.

Simultaneously, 7th Army was also attacking Goryachinsk at the southern end of Lake Baikal, that battle also extending from 4-8 April, when Soviet forces triumphed. While ground casualties were relatively moderate, devastating air raids from 5-8 April killed 2,585 enemy defenders. The province was liberated quickly, 7th Army lead elements marching in on 9 April.

With no action by 1st Army in the first week of the month (an earlier apparent attack on Bukacaca on 31 March having been called off), 52nd Corps was transferred to 7th Army command, leaving 1st Army with just one corps under command. A day later, the Mildigun depth objective was taken from 1st Army and given to General Rybak’s 7th. The diminished 1st Army was told to simply concentrate on attacking Bukacaca.

xlM03D.jpg

Further east in Mogoca, the largest ground battle of the month in any sector (other than perhaps the unknown losses suffered in Aldan a few days before) was fought when 15th Army responded to the earlier series of three Japanese attacks on Dronovskiy with a major attack on 7 April. The Soviets tasted victory on 13 April after six days of hard fighting in mountainous terrain (Soviet 608 v 1,560 Japanese ground and 1,101 air casualties).

A broadly simultaneous Soviet attack by the 7th Army was nearly as large a battle, as they exploited east from Goryachinsk almost as soon as they had occupied it. The battle for Petrovsk Zabaykal'skiy lasted from 9-14 April and resulted in another Soviet win (Soviet 667 v 1,264 Japanese ground and 2,658 air casualties).

The Japanese again slipped reinforcements into Barguzin before advancing 7th Army units could secure it, with another sharp battle fought there from 13-17 April, ending in a final Soviet victory won without further air support (Soviet 506 v 1,144 Japanese ground casualties).

4 Zerosen attempted another intercept, this time on aircraft apparently returning to Irkutsk from a mission further east. The TAC bombers of 2. BAD suffered some light damage, but 4 Zerosen ended the dogfight further damaged and badly disorganised.

tSMNyJ.jpg

Mogoca was liberated on 15 April, Barguzin on 17 April and Petrovsk Zabaykal'skiy on 19 April.

zpHYnh.jpg

The liberation of Barguzin on 17 April re-established the lines of communication along the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, linking 7th Army units to its north and south.

Far from being subdued, the Japanese responded with a series of attacks to try to regain lost ground. An attack on Petrovsk Zabaykal'skiy from 19-21 was beaten off but not on 21-23 April, with neither battle attracting Soviet air support. But reinforcements arrived to save the day on 26 April – the Japanese stopping their advance as soon as they bumped into the fresh Soviet troops.

A determined Japanese attack on Burjatija began on 21 April. As a result, Bukacaca was added as an objective for 15th Army, in the hope they and 1st Army might combine to send some of the heavy concentration of units sitting idly to its north-west against it.

It took eight days to defeat the attack on Burjatija, which soaked up much of the sector's air support between 21-25 April. It was finally defeated after a spoiling attack began by 1st (finally!) and 7th Army divisions on Bukacaca kicked off on 28 April.

gUowlo.jpg

1st Army – now only left with 15th Mech Corps and its assigned air support, finally stirred into action, joining with two divisions of 7th Army’s 60th Corps to assault Bukacaca on 28 September.

That attack was still going as the month finished [77% progress], after the battle for Burjatija itself was won on 29 April (Soviet 360 v Japanese 905 ground and 1,988 air casualties).

The quiet in Mogoca was shattered on 26 April with a major Japanese attack from Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy and other surrounding provinces that saw the Soviet defence in some trouble by the end of 30 April, as the battle wore on [84% Japanese progress]. A ground probe on 25 April and Soviet air strikes on Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy (27-30 April, 689 killed) failed to discourage the attack.

East of Lake Baikal, a 7th Army probe on Romanovka was turned back quickly on 27 April, but an attack on Chita begun the same day was still being pressed by the end of the month [45% progress].

******

4. Far East – Mongolian Sector

LI9de9.jpg

Operational summary, Far East – Mongolian Sector, April 1945.

7th Army’s other (once primary, now lesser) responsibility was to team up with the Mongolians to retake lost Mongolian territory, especially the former capital of Ulaanbaatar. But despite some early successes, progress proved elusive in April.

Major combat operations started on 6 April with a Soviet attack on Khadasan fron Muren and Khantai, while 170 SD attempted to follow up its previous victory by advancing to secure Tsetserlig.

JLRMzo.jpg

The battle for Khadasan was won on 9 April, but not before heavy casualties were sustained in the attack (Soviet 966 v Japanese 530 ground and 1,075 air casualties). The province was occupied later that day.

But six days later, a strong Japanese counter-attack from the north-east began and the weakened units trying to hold to Khadasan, not given any air support to blunt the attack, were in turn defeated on 18 April (Soviet 533 v Japanese 381 killed). Khadasan was lost again on 23 April.

The same day, forces advancing on Tsetserlig ran into reinforcing Japanese units, with a fierce battle raging for the next five days. It ended in another expensive defeat for the Soviet attackers (Soviet 933 v 354 Japanese killed).

The weary troops pulled back to Dzhirgalanta and were then attacked on 28 April by the Japanese who had re-secured Khadasan, and were in some trouble by the end of the month [66% Japanese progress].

Anecdotal evidence suggested the diversion of air support for most of the month had a negative effect on Soviet ground operations. The three battles which did not receive it were either lost or apparently being lost.

******

5. Intelligence

In Japan, the Kempeitai had started and finished the month with one team, producing and losing the two during the month, but no Soviet agents were lost. Japanese national unity had decreased by 0.8% from 67.0% to 66.2%.

Manchukuo started the month with one agents at home, producing one and losing none to finish with two, with one Soviet spy neutralised on 26 April. This prompted a priority change with all Soviet in-country effort being directed to counter-espionage to try to stamp out the local agents. Manchurian national unity had fallen by 0.5% from 68.5% to 68.0%.

The Soviets had lost one team in total for the month, adding five, and therefore finishing with eleven in reserve. A new mission to another country was still at least a month or more away.

There was a decrease in enemy agents were rounded up in the Soviet Union and overseas during April: 23 were apprehended, down from 30 in March and 35 each in January and February. This time Germany led the list with four agents neutralised, two each from Czechoslovakia and Japan (the latter probably both picked up in Japan itself), and one each from Belgium, Bhutan, Communist China (the class traitors!), Hungary, India, Lebanon, Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden, Syria, the UK and the US. Of those, the Swedes were the only non-Allied country.

******

6. Diplomacy

Tibet began aligning towards the Comintern on 5 April but had ceased doing so by the 29th. Sweden began aligning on 12 April and was still doing so as the month ended.

Despite having been called into the war and now given objectives in Mongolia, the army of Sinkiang had shown no eagerness to send forces east. An investigation that reported on 7 April showed this was probably due to their concerns about the threat of Xibei San Ma on their border.

AWYoSG.jpg

The Ma Clique was very close to the Axis and under their continuing influence. Perhaps that problem would need to be suitably ‘rectified’ once the main front had been better secured and some troops could be spared to combine with Sinkiang to overthrow the Ma dictators and institute a Peoples’ Republic in Xibei San Ma.

As the month ended, Molotov reviewed war goals against various Axis minor powers. It was decided that Manchukuo and Mengukuo would both be puppeted after Communist governments (existing war goals) were installed. Finland’s ultimate fate had been neglected, so the first priority would be to bring the glories of Communism to the rebellious counter-revolutionaries, to be followed by puppeting subsequently (though their recalcitrant government-in-exile would delay that no doubt until the Axis was fully defeated).

5A2cQU.jpg


******

7. Research

It was a busy month for Soviet researchers and academicians. It started on 3 April with the introduction of amphibious warfare equipment. With submarine designs being heavily researched, crew training was now also addressed.

IaH9Oo.jpg

With the USSR’s first nuclear reactor coming on line (see production below) a check of civil nuclear research showed it would achieve Level 3 in a month (2 May), with Level 4 required to begin producing an actual weapon. Nuclear physics was at 5.7 skill, giving a 7.8% research bonus. Practical nuclear bomb making skill was now at 6.0.

In other secret research, rocket engine research would be completed on 1 July 1945. After that, jet engines could be researched – and the Soviet ballistic rocket program would be a step closer to implementation.

The next level of single engine aircraft armament research was achieved on 7 April. Effort was now directed to continuing the medium tank upgrade program, with new sloped armour to be developed.

GnMwE4.jpg

Two days later Level 4 aero engine design was attained, which brought all main fighter designs to that level (1945 standard). This allowed the new aircraft type of helicopters to be researched, with the aim to improve battlefield medical evacuation (and perhaps pilot rescue) in the future.

JiiDil.jpg

The latest round of heavy bomber pilot training improvement came on 13 April, with the doctrine researchers turning their attention to doing the some for the primitive ground crew training manuals.

DF3dzk.jpg

Spearhead doctrine (Soviet officers would not use its German descriptor) reached Level 6 on 15 April, with effort then directed back to engine development for the medium tank upgrade.

sqQ01o.jpg

With four-engine airframe development now beginning to approach contemporary standards, cargo capacity was finally addressed, with the niche paratroop capability being developed for future landing operations against Japan – and potentially in a later conflict with the West.

yYYOmR.jpg

Fighter pilot training was improved on 25 April but it was still behind the times by contemporary standards. The doctrine program for it was continued.

lrYytZ.jpg

With better large fuel tanks for heavy Soviet aircraft available from 29 April, researchers were finally set to improving defensive armament for the heavy aircraft arm [even if the air defence element is bugged in HOI3].

04Uguz.jpg

Finally, with two engagements against the latest Japanese fighters during the month, a technical readout of the Nakajima Ki-84 ‘Hayate’ and the equivalent Soviet Yak-3 interceptor was made, to show where Soviet fighter technology still lagged (and noting a new Soviet model was now available for any new aircraft produced, while current wings were upgraded: more details on the new Soviet models are provided in the Production section below).

pvYYoX.jpg

The Japanese aircraft, though small in number on the Far Eastern Front, were superior to their Soviet counterparts in many key aspects and especially at night, where the first generation of airborne search radars for small aircraft were still being researched and navigation radars were not yet even in blueprint form. At least speed and air attack factors were equivalent and Soviet aircraft had increased range with drop tank technology and were significantly more logistically efficient.

******

8. Production

The USSR’s first nuclear reactor, located near the capital [as with rocket research, for game physical security reasons only] came on line at midnight on 3 April 1945.

RZTapO.jpg

The practical knowledge gained led to an enormous reduction in the costs for the second reactor under construction, down from over 60 IC to just 35. The spare production capacity was channelled into building the Mytishchi facility to Level 2, with enough left over for a new model five-brigade medium armoured division (which now cost almost as much as a new nuclear reactor) and two engineer brigades for reinforcing existing formations in the Far East. The medium armoured division would likely be deployed in the West when completed.

eFeBs5.jpg

By 4 April, elevated reinforcement costs from fighting in the Far East led to a deficit in production (around 15 IC), slowing down the new projects at the bottom of the queue (though not to the expansion of the Mytishchi reactor).

On 5 April, Mutina air base (Far East Central Sector) was improved to level 5, with production rolled over to developing level 6 facilities.

And by 10 April, while reinforcement costs had dramatically shrunk again, upgrade costs from recent technical developments rose to 73.8 IC, leaving the current production shortfall at around 25 IC (again, with no supplies being produced).

And on 10 April, the latest interceptor model had been upgraded to the Yak-15 ‘Feather’, though none had yet been put into operational service, meaning the Yak-3 was the front-line fighter until upgrades had been completed. The latest multi-role fighter was still the MiG-9 ‘Fargo’. There were plans for both designs to be equipped with jet engines, but these were not yet ready [just me trying to gloss over the obvious Paradox discontinuity in the pictures/models ;)].

wv7Y6X.jpg

The largest Soviet air base in the east at Irkutsk was upgraded to level 9 on 12 April, with expansion to the maximum level 10 facilities ordered to follow on. There were eleven wings of various types based there at that time.

jAipNo.jpg

A new engineer brigade was deployed to a (3xINF) rifle division in 15th Army on 13 April.

As at the end of the month, upgrade costs had decreased somewhat, but the IC saved had been fed into supply production as the stockpile had been run down in previous weeks and was still running at a modest daily deficit (-200). The production shortfall was about 10 IC.

5jq0Dm.jpg


******

9. Theatre Summaries

The Far Eastern Theatre had seen excellent gains in the Centre and Southern (Lake Baikal) sectors. The Far North and Mongolia had seen no territory change hands.

KvqYoq.jpg

Total recorded Soviet losses to land combat for battles were nominally less than March at 8,397 and none from Japanese air raids. But the apparent destruction of 221 Mech Div in Aldan had likely seen another 7,438 Soviet soldiers killed or taken into captivity.

The operational tempo had been even higher than in March, with the Japanese and their puppets losing 16,787 men (over 3,000 more than March) in ground combat and 26,645 to air strikes (about 600 fewer than March). Total Japanese/Axis casualties were therefore about 2,600 higher than in March at 43,432. But they had lost a good deal more territory.

******

The Japanese had proved more resilient in South East Asia during April than expected. They hung on in their new lodgement in Indo-China, had lost most of Malaya and the key base of Singapore, but had gained some ground in Borneo.

NwMu3o.jpg


OuFiPV.jpg

The Allies were closing in on the Japanese enclave around the port of Cam Rahn against stubborn Japanese resistance.

7VooGs.jpg

The Indian Army, which had been filing down to Malaya during April, was now returning to the sub-continent.

7DjERl.jpg

The Thais had ‘cleaned up’ most of Malaya, including Singapore, by themselves, while most of the Allied forces that had been heading there had back-tracked, apparently to deal with the new Japanese landings in Indo-China.

EajfXE.jpg

Allied forces in Borneo had retreated north, apparently not under pressure. It remained largely a side-show.

******

With again no changes in the wider Pacific, the situation in Australia had remained largely static, with Japanese effort once again apparently swinging to the south, but with limited Allied progress in norther New south Wales.

OHcu3E.jpg


******

The Caucasus Theatre had largely reconstituted its garrison along the border with neutral Turkey by the end of April.

b55i9n.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • 2Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Good results all around, given the season. Looking forward to an aggressive spring offensive and perhaps we can finish things off with our own version of August Storm?

Really liking the new maps giving an overview of each front plus the theater overview at the end to put it all in context. One suggestion would be to still have a small legend for the symbols in each map, I know I easily forget which symbol means what, and that way if a specific map needs a unique symbol for some reason that's trivial to add without breaking up the flow of the whole post to show us a new symbols graphic.
 
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions: