Part 1 - The Humble Beginnings
Zdravstvuyte tovarishchi, hello comrades! Blessings of Johan be upon you!
My name is Danubian and I will be your guide through this after action report. Today I have been volunteered (by a couple of NKVD Commissars in long leather coats - no, I'm not talking about dev-gods) to show all the bestestest achievements of our glorious Motherland, as we prepare for the inevitable clash with those-who-shant-be-named.
First lets start with some basics. This is the state of our Country in 1936 scenario, and I will show you the basic modifiers that we start with:
Check out that shadowy noob looking the other way, away from us all dismissively. We'll show him.
As you can see we are a All-Union Communist Party state, Home of the Revolution, but also target of the Trotskyite plot (rebel scum). The All-Union commie is a pretty basic thing, nothing special there (we start with more or less the same stuff as other great powers), but Home of the Revolution is definitely a way more important thing, because of that construction malus. It basically means that everything we construct (industries, infrastructure etc) will take longer to complete. Since Soviet Union is a country that gets a "later" war start (compared to say, France or Poland *evil grin*) building up industry is the key element of our overall strategy. Thus this modifier is quite an unfortunate thing. However if "building empires was easy, Poland would into space" as we like to say in Eastern Europe, but I digress. We accept the challenge, the proletariat will just have to work harder.
And last but not least we have Lev Trotsky and his little plot. Now while this guy and his merry gang of rebel scum do provide an interesting alternative to good old uncle Joseph, personally I'm more of a traditionalist, so to say, so this little modifier is a pretty significant thing overall as it will dictate our opening moves. The plot must be purged, and our National Unity restored - if Soviet Union is to win The Great Patriotic War (optional: for added dramatic effect youtube "Farewell to Slavianka" as you read these last words).
Let's move on.
Difficulty level: Regular. This means neither AI nor myself get any bonuses or penalties.
Ironman mode: off
Historical AI focuses: on. This is pretty much self explanatory. Basically the AI will follow a pre-determined path when it comes to national focuses, ideally, generating key war-related events close to when they happened in real life. (poor Poland)
Options: Nothing worth specifically mentioning there.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand,
We're moving, we're moving, keep up please.
Here we are in game.
1.) First stop, political stuff.
Here, we start off with 3 laws and a wooooooooooole bunch of empty spots for staff and advisors. If I was to compare this system to anything, I would say that its a lot like National Ideas and Idea Groups in EU4. Essentially each one of those empty slots carries bonuses; most of the time you have a (meaningful) choice to fill those spots with different laws, people and organizations, each of whom brings different benefits to your country. Some laws have benefits and penalties, and some are more situational than others. Picking the one that allows me to recruit the highest % of my population will also lead to a huge penalty to my industrial efforts, so these things have to be carefully studied and picked at right times. Most of everything costs around 150 political power so you'll be getting one every few months (depending on country you play and other stuff).
Some examples of choices (I wont go too much into details right now):
2.) Military Stuff
As you can clearly see Soviet Union is (bloody) huge. It is also surrounded by many lands that can (should) be conqu- I'm sorry comrade commissar, liberated*, liberated is what I meant to say.
To our West we have traditional Russian clay in form of Poland and Romania, bordering what is known as Pribaltika. To the South we have potential liberationatus target in Persia and we neighbor the pesky Ottom-I mean Turkey (old habits die hard). (Never trust the Turk, always remember to garrison Turkish border, I won't be making that mistake twice). And last but not least we have Ruler of the East - Vladivostok and Primorye, where Japan lurks.
3.) Strategy and assessment.
My primary operational assumption is that history will unfold as expected by historical focuses being turned on. Essentially this means inevitable conflict with Germany, and responding to opportunities when they arise, should they arise (Poland, Finland, Baltic States).
With that in mind my primary focus is the Western, or European theater. Primary military build up shall be on what is eventually to become my shared border with Germany, with secondary build up on Finnish border, in preparation of liberation of Finland and splitting that force into sufficient presence required to defend Scandinavia should Germany break into Norway/Sweden and merging the rest with the primary front. And last but not least we have Caucasus. Turks are well known tricksters, so you never know whether they're gonna try to pull something funny. This border must be garrisoned (and possibly some additional airforce infrastructure must be built).
When it comes to secondary theater, basically we must build up sufficient presence to primarily contain Japanese aggression, and secondarily counter their power should we end up being at war. Managing this front is a dynamic thing. One must be careful not to divert too many units there, as the infrastructure is not exactly great, and reinforcing Far East while losing to Germany in the West is obviously a brilliant strategy. However it is also important to keep in mind that context might develop either way; Japan might end up losing to China, in which case you can send your additional armies to Yurop, or Japan might end up winning in China, which means you'll have to divert more resources to Asia. Covering this theater up to a standard of combined arms (meaning superior ariforce and mechanized and armored units) is strictly speaking not possible due to sheer vastness of this region and additional cost of developing infrastructure required to service all of that. Thus we must make up in attitude and aggressiveness that which we may lack in quality.
4.) Navy.
Since our country is a continuous homogeneous blob of land, navy is not our primary concern. So as that famous song says "but from taiga to British seas, Red Army is the strongest of them all" (optional: for added dramatic effect youtube "White Army Black Baron"). However, as soon as I can afford to, I should be building some carriers. War with Germany will be over some day, but that won't be the end of our struggle. *stares intensely at UK and US*
5.) Research
-From day one we will be researching land doctrines in order to collect as many bonuses as Stalinly possible.
-Since the core part of our strategy is to build up the industry (or as the English version of the Soviet anthem says "build up the land that we love"), anything that reduces the construction costs is Johan-sent.
-While it may not seem so at first, electronics is a super important part of the tree as it unlocks some research and military related stuff. But essentially these small research bonuses add up, and when you have 4 or 5 research slots working, the sheer amount of time saved is quite significant.
6.) Industry
-Since I can only afford to research 1 industrial tech at the moment, I must be rational with my choice and go with construction bonus tech. However what I really need is the Synthetic Oil tree, as it will allow me to construct synthetic factories highlighted in the screenshot above. Basically oil and rubber are mostly highly restricting resources (you wont be producing hundreds of them), both being key for production of practically any specialized land gear, airplanes or ships (well this mostly requires oil). If I am to become a true super power, I must start producing these things ASAP. Note that each Synth Oil tech allows you +1 Synthetic Factory size in a state, and because I plan to put at least 2 levels in many Soviet Asian provinces (places where Germans will have hard time reaching them) I'm currently building my civilian factories with some room left in their states (forward planning FTW). Also note that with other industrial techs, the factory size limits in states will increase.
7.) Production
-As you can see I'm lacking rubber for my starting production since the day one. Which is why aircraft production will sadly have to wait. All of my navies have been diverted for deploying to Leningrad (in order to centralize my fleet location). And my main construction efforts are going into producing infantry gear required for developing new infantry divisions. You could argue that perhaps I went a bit too much with artillery production, but you can never have too much fire power. Saturation of the battlefield, that's what its all about. Ah Russia. I love you.
8.) Development and deployment
-Basically it's simple. We can't afford to go fancy right now. Special resources we have at the moment are too limiting. So tanks and motorized units will have to wait. As a great man (or rather demi God) once said "build me an army!".
-Now when it comes to templates what's important to understand is that each division is comprised out of battalions (the 9 infantry helmets in the middle). However everything you add there adds to your combat width (you can see this stat in the far right). You don't want that to go too high. But also you have support battalions to the left, and these don't add to your template's width, so you can go crazy there, provided you can produce stuff that goes there.
-All of my units under development are set to be deployed to Kiev, and they are set to infinite production.
9.) National Focuses
-Now at first sight this might look scary, and sure its a lot to take in. But it's actually really simple and straightforward. There are "give me stuff" lines and there are "let me claim stuff" lines. Basically everything to the middle leads to war, and everything to the left and to the right lets you do more stuff.
-Being evil as they are, Paradox dev-gods have created a noob trap. If you look at the "Finish the Five Year Plan" and follow it downward, you'll see "extra research slot". However in order to get that one you must take Collectivist Propaganda, which is not a bad thing in itself, but it disables Positive Heroism, which means you don't get Georgy Zhukov. You'll want Georgy Zhukov.
-However being Soviet Union, we can't simply do what the Western Capitalists get to do from the day one: improve their stuff; No, that would be too easy. You may be tempted to go and improve industry or infrastructure but then those damned Trotskyists might overthrow the dear old uncle Joseph, and we want uncle Joseph.
And thus there isn't really much choice here. We must purge the plotters and start rehabilitating our military.
Zdravstvuyte tovarishchi, hello comrades! Blessings of Johan be upon you!
My name is Danubian and I will be your guide through this after action report. Today I have been volunteered (by a couple of NKVD Commissars in long leather coats - no, I'm not talking about dev-gods) to show all the bestestest achievements of our glorious Motherland, as we prepare for the inevitable clash with those-who-shant-be-named.
First lets start with some basics. This is the state of our Country in 1936 scenario, and I will show you the basic modifiers that we start with:
Check out that shadowy noob looking the other way, away from us all dismissively. We'll show him.
As you can see we are a All-Union Communist Party state, Home of the Revolution, but also target of the Trotskyite plot (rebel scum). The All-Union commie is a pretty basic thing, nothing special there (we start with more or less the same stuff as other great powers), but Home of the Revolution is definitely a way more important thing, because of that construction malus. It basically means that everything we construct (industries, infrastructure etc) will take longer to complete. Since Soviet Union is a country that gets a "later" war start (compared to say, France or Poland *evil grin*) building up industry is the key element of our overall strategy. Thus this modifier is quite an unfortunate thing. However if "building empires was easy, Poland would into space" as we like to say in Eastern Europe, but I digress. We accept the challenge, the proletariat will just have to work harder.
And last but not least we have Lev Trotsky and his little plot. Now while this guy and his merry gang of rebel scum do provide an interesting alternative to good old uncle Joseph, personally I'm more of a traditionalist, so to say, so this little modifier is a pretty significant thing overall as it will dictate our opening moves. The plot must be purged, and our National Unity restored - if Soviet Union is to win The Great Patriotic War (optional: for added dramatic effect youtube "Farewell to Slavianka" as you read these last words).
Let's move on.
Difficulty level: Regular. This means neither AI nor myself get any bonuses or penalties.
Ironman mode: off
Historical AI focuses: on. This is pretty much self explanatory. Basically the AI will follow a pre-determined path when it comes to national focuses, ideally, generating key war-related events close to when they happened in real life. (poor Poland)
Options: Nothing worth specifically mentioning there.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand,
We're moving, we're moving, keep up please.
Here we are in game.
1.) First stop, political stuff.
Here, we start off with 3 laws and a wooooooooooole bunch of empty spots for staff and advisors. If I was to compare this system to anything, I would say that its a lot like National Ideas and Idea Groups in EU4. Essentially each one of those empty slots carries bonuses; most of the time you have a (meaningful) choice to fill those spots with different laws, people and organizations, each of whom brings different benefits to your country. Some laws have benefits and penalties, and some are more situational than others. Picking the one that allows me to recruit the highest % of my population will also lead to a huge penalty to my industrial efforts, so these things have to be carefully studied and picked at right times. Most of everything costs around 150 political power so you'll be getting one every few months (depending on country you play and other stuff).
Some examples of choices (I wont go too much into details right now):
2.) Military Stuff
As you can clearly see Soviet Union is (bloody) huge. It is also surrounded by many lands that can (should) be conqu- I'm sorry comrade commissar, liberated*, liberated is what I meant to say.
To our West we have traditional Russian clay in form of Poland and Romania, bordering what is known as Pribaltika. To the South we have potential liberationatus target in Persia and we neighbor the pesky Ottom-I mean Turkey (old habits die hard). (Never trust the Turk, always remember to garrison Turkish border, I won't be making that mistake twice). And last but not least we have Ruler of the East - Vladivostok and Primorye, where Japan lurks.
3.) Strategy and assessment.
My primary operational assumption is that history will unfold as expected by historical focuses being turned on. Essentially this means inevitable conflict with Germany, and responding to opportunities when they arise, should they arise (Poland, Finland, Baltic States).
With that in mind my primary focus is the Western, or European theater. Primary military build up shall be on what is eventually to become my shared border with Germany, with secondary build up on Finnish border, in preparation of liberation of Finland and splitting that force into sufficient presence required to defend Scandinavia should Germany break into Norway/Sweden and merging the rest with the primary front. And last but not least we have Caucasus. Turks are well known tricksters, so you never know whether they're gonna try to pull something funny. This border must be garrisoned (and possibly some additional airforce infrastructure must be built).
When it comes to secondary theater, basically we must build up sufficient presence to primarily contain Japanese aggression, and secondarily counter their power should we end up being at war. Managing this front is a dynamic thing. One must be careful not to divert too many units there, as the infrastructure is not exactly great, and reinforcing Far East while losing to Germany in the West is obviously a brilliant strategy. However it is also important to keep in mind that context might develop either way; Japan might end up losing to China, in which case you can send your additional armies to Yurop, or Japan might end up winning in China, which means you'll have to divert more resources to Asia. Covering this theater up to a standard of combined arms (meaning superior ariforce and mechanized and armored units) is strictly speaking not possible due to sheer vastness of this region and additional cost of developing infrastructure required to service all of that. Thus we must make up in attitude and aggressiveness that which we may lack in quality.
4.) Navy.
Since our country is a continuous homogeneous blob of land, navy is not our primary concern. So as that famous song says "but from taiga to British seas, Red Army is the strongest of them all" (optional: for added dramatic effect youtube "White Army Black Baron"). However, as soon as I can afford to, I should be building some carriers. War with Germany will be over some day, but that won't be the end of our struggle. *stares intensely at UK and US*
5.) Research
-From day one we will be researching land doctrines in order to collect as many bonuses as Stalinly possible.
-Since the core part of our strategy is to build up the industry (or as the English version of the Soviet anthem says "build up the land that we love"), anything that reduces the construction costs is Johan-sent.
-While it may not seem so at first, electronics is a super important part of the tree as it unlocks some research and military related stuff. But essentially these small research bonuses add up, and when you have 4 or 5 research slots working, the sheer amount of time saved is quite significant.
6.) Industry
-Since I can only afford to research 1 industrial tech at the moment, I must be rational with my choice and go with construction bonus tech. However what I really need is the Synthetic Oil tree, as it will allow me to construct synthetic factories highlighted in the screenshot above. Basically oil and rubber are mostly highly restricting resources (you wont be producing hundreds of them), both being key for production of practically any specialized land gear, airplanes or ships (well this mostly requires oil). If I am to become a true super power, I must start producing these things ASAP. Note that each Synth Oil tech allows you +1 Synthetic Factory size in a state, and because I plan to put at least 2 levels in many Soviet Asian provinces (places where Germans will have hard time reaching them) I'm currently building my civilian factories with some room left in their states (forward planning FTW). Also note that with other industrial techs, the factory size limits in states will increase.
7.) Production
-As you can see I'm lacking rubber for my starting production since the day one. Which is why aircraft production will sadly have to wait. All of my navies have been diverted for deploying to Leningrad (in order to centralize my fleet location). And my main construction efforts are going into producing infantry gear required for developing new infantry divisions. You could argue that perhaps I went a bit too much with artillery production, but you can never have too much fire power. Saturation of the battlefield, that's what its all about. Ah Russia. I love you.
8.) Development and deployment
-Basically it's simple. We can't afford to go fancy right now. Special resources we have at the moment are too limiting. So tanks and motorized units will have to wait. As a great man (or rather demi God) once said "build me an army!".
-Now when it comes to templates what's important to understand is that each division is comprised out of battalions (the 9 infantry helmets in the middle). However everything you add there adds to your combat width (you can see this stat in the far right). You don't want that to go too high. But also you have support battalions to the left, and these don't add to your template's width, so you can go crazy there, provided you can produce stuff that goes there.
-All of my units under development are set to be deployed to Kiev, and they are set to infinite production.
9.) National Focuses
-Now at first sight this might look scary, and sure its a lot to take in. But it's actually really simple and straightforward. There are "give me stuff" lines and there are "let me claim stuff" lines. Basically everything to the middle leads to war, and everything to the left and to the right lets you do more stuff.
-Being evil as they are, Paradox dev-gods have created a noob trap. If you look at the "Finish the Five Year Plan" and follow it downward, you'll see "extra research slot". However in order to get that one you must take Collectivist Propaganda, which is not a bad thing in itself, but it disables Positive Heroism, which means you don't get Georgy Zhukov. You'll want Georgy Zhukov.
-However being Soviet Union, we can't simply do what the Western Capitalists get to do from the day one: improve their stuff; No, that would be too easy. You may be tempted to go and improve industry or infrastructure but then those damned Trotskyists might overthrow the dear old uncle Joseph, and we want uncle Joseph.
And thus there isn't really much choice here. We must purge the plotters and start rehabilitating our military.
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