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PARAfel

The Samier
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Jan 12, 2018
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Draw front, hit execute, wait two years, optionally make hot beverage while waiting.

As you reach the urals and Baku / Azerbaijan, finish said hot beverage.

In a game recently I defeated the Soviet Union as France with grand battle plan and tanks. A country with crappy manpower issues and the wrong doctrine and even Calvary in place of motorized in many instances.

How to defeat Soviet Union?

Build many many lines of 1936 infantry equipment. In 39 build new lines of 1939 infantry equipment. Keep the old lines going.

Like 10 infantry equipment to start. 15 to 20 by 1940.

You need about three or four infantry armies and one or two tank armies.

A tank army is about half tanks and half motorized or infantry.

The tank armies have their own specific battle plan a spearhead along a narrow front through plains.

There are two such pathways on the map. If particularly skilled you can set both panzerns armies to go through the plains and meet in the middle and have a big encirclement.

Air is not important. Navy is not important.

It is simply a numbers game with having a big army and enough equipment for them all to last two years.

Obviously adding an artillery battalion helps with the infantry.

Soviet Union can make a big army but usually isn't skillful enough to equip them.

So simply by having 20 to 30 lines of infantry equipment you will win. More lines of infantry equipment two and three you can get the better.
 
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Mostly as Jays298 wrote. Plus from me:
1. If You have La Ressistance, prepare three levels of collaboration goverment. Thanks that only You have to do is taking is most valuably victory points in Europe. In other way You will be have to move out of Ural. In BBA soviets advisors were incredible boosted to catching spies, but last patch I think made more sensible balance. But still You need russian operative, so You have to build Localize training center.

2. Soviets AI is not very bright (surprisingly, true? :) and she likes to burn own manpower and equipment into border without sensible reasons. If I fight with Soviets, I like to let them die for first couple of months, until I get 1:10 casualties. If Red Army does not seems to attack You, You can train Your troops for a second, as they lost some of organization. Little cheesy, I know, but I like to do it.

3. Soviets AI can't handle multiple fronts. You can open up another fronts with naval invasion on Leningrad or Crimea - the second one is even better option, because this move opens way for You into Caucasia.
 
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I Tried again and Again and i not can figure out how the hell i can Destroy the Soviets..

The most successful try was placing all the tanks along the front and pushing with it...But they long stay out supplied and without any doubt the front bogs down.
I find most of the time supply becomes an issue when i don't focus on supply hubs during my advances. Even against a very weak enemy an advance can stall easily if you don't capture supply hubs along the way as your units (especially oil using) will end up not being able to move.

Even for relatively simple campaigns i tend to try to advance along railway lines and toward supply hubs which usually keeps my units supplied at least enough to carry on moving and also denies the enemy supplies which mean they start to get severe debuffs even if not fully encircled.
 
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if you're asking as germany, division design isn't the starting point. you can get ridiculous casualty ratios against ussr and solo them with much weaker nations, so i would instead recommend looking up how to get enough factories going and equip a large number of divisions. after that you can practice unit control/micro to beat the ai.

you can cap ussr with hot garbage divisions or without changing templates at all, so if you're struggling division design isn't the primary reason. good division designs will make it easier, but most of that performance gap is somewhere else.
 
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Supply shouldn't be an issue until you get past Moscow.

Here's some pics from a save game.

Note how Rommel and Guderian lead tank armies (Purple and Red Spearheads). They are going to encircle the swamp.

In this game I was able to switch over to mostly MP 38 fairly early. But I still have 4 lines of the old guns going and they will stay.
20221116232231_1.jpg
20221116232338_1.jpg



If you see here, 59 divsions of 18w infantry, the default division (plus support AA!!)
18 divisions with an extra artillery added
8 tank divisions, 12 motorized (not essential)

AA production is critical to German war effort. Not only for piercing vs random tanks, but for REd / yellow air.

20221116232917_1.jpg
 
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Some things if you want an easy time.

Use a general with Trickster grind out 2 terrian traits if you can during the Spanish Civil War and get Adaptable on them.
Get the Makeshift Bridges Button.

Make a Divison with an Equal number of Tanks and Motorsised ( or Mech) and Put on an Enginnering Support Company with atleast Enginner 2's
Click that button at the start of the war and battle plan it.
 
- The main thing u need know is that AI doenst know how to make a comeback, they will never push u back.
- Then when supply become a issue, take ur time, build railways or hubs, let troop refresh equipment and manpower, atack again.
- The allies(UK, USA) won't bother u til 1943. i have til end 42 to use the strategy to pause and refresh, some experience ppl beat URSS even in 6 months.
- My army composition is basically same as HOI2: 48 armies(=240 divisions), 2 field marshals, plus 2 full panzer armies(=48 divisions). im kind of overorganized person. 1 field marshal is the "north group", the another is the "south group".
- air can become a issue, but i didnt tried germany on BBA yet, so i cant have a word on air warfare.
 
The true war is fight with all manpower. One can learn how to total mobilzation first. If you have million manpowers free, you don't mobilize enough. Let's get 4 millions German troops for invasion, not counting minors.
 
The true war is fight with all manpower. One can learn how to total mobilzation first. If you have million manpowers free, you don't mobilize enough. Let's get 4 millions German troops for invasion, not counting minors.

I disagree with this for two reasons.

One because a large army interferes with the supply system and woll have a lot more attrition to a point where it doesn't make sense.

The other side is you need to have a large reserve for casualties. An extreme cases like France you can do it with no reserves but with Germany for instance I think it's better to keep them in reserve. You will also have a creeping manpower usage for garrisons as you take territory.

And the way to minimize casualties and make effective use of your manpower is by equipment. By simply making sure your army is 100% equipped at all times close to it it'll perform much better than say an army that's only half equipped.

Finally from a game play perspective I find it easier to have everything on one Field Marshal. Or at least all the infantry armies on one field Marshal.

I think a lot of people sabotage themselves by committing too many troops.
 
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Well of course more troops more supply. But that's another matter to solved and it is easier than to reduce enemy divisions.

If we stucked, then try encircle one province at a time and clear everything inside that provinces, then repeat. Attack from 2 or more province to extent the front width.
 
The one thing that nobody is mentioning is that the key to a successful attack on the Soviets is to understand that your objective is the destruction of the Soviet armies and not the capture of territory. You really need to destroy their armies as far to the west as possible so that you deal with them before supply becomes an issue. When playing as Germany against an enhanced Soviet Union (some sort of extra difficulty setting), I usually find that their front has thinned to very limited forces well before I am capturing the Leningrad-Moscow-Rostov line. What is most likely happening is that because your invasion is weaker than other posters you are probably failing to overrun enough Soviet troops. Focusing on destroying forces rather than taking territory will probably help a lot.

Using the army AI to just launch a general advance may be effective at advancing a significant distance into the Soviet Union but if those armies aren't strong enough, relative to the Soviets, then you will be just pushing them back rather than destroying them. If you add significant player "guidance" towards destroying Soviets forces then the advance will slowly become easier.

To be clear, I ALWAYS focus on destruction of enemy forces until the enemy army is defeated and only then begin to consider objectives as something that may cause the enemy to surrender. For example, if I capture Leningrad earlier then this is so I can use it as a supply base.
 
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I used to advocate for heavily for collaboration governments, because you could essentially make them fold just by taking Stalingrad, St Pete and Moscow and skip the horribly painful process of going past the Urals just to make them capitulate.

But nowadays it seems like your spies are instantly caught every second that there is. Even with seduction and Soviet nationality traits.

Anyhow, Id heavily advocate for a strong airforce. The Soviets tend to get melted in the air if you can produce enough, and once you have enough CAS or TAC their huge manpower divisions get melted by all that air damage and they cant really stop you.
 
The one thing that nobody is mentioning is that the key to a successful attack on the Soviets is to understand that your objective is the destruction of the Soviet armies and not the capture of territory.

I agree. But you also want to take away their oil, which requires seizing territory. Once you capture the Caucasus, you've basically won the war (although it will take some time to fully realize the victory). Without that oil, they can't field their full air force, deploy their tanks, etc.

When I play as Germany, I'll transfer my second generation capitals and light cruisers to the Black Sea before the war begins (establish docking rights with Italy and Romania). Then naval invade across the Black Sea. Note that I don't believe that your DD will make it (not enough range), so you won't have full screens. You can also use NAV to further degrade their Black Sea fleet. There won't be much in the way of troops that far from the front, so you can seize the territory quickly if you execute well. You can also take the long way around by concentrating your forces in Army Group South. Or you can form an alliance with Turkey, although that will delay things and cost you CIC to bribe them.
 
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Draw front, hit execute, wait two years, optionally make hot beverage while waiting.

As you reach the urals and Baku / Azerbaijan, finish said hot beverage.

In a game recently I defeated the Soviet Union as France with grand battle plan and tanks. A country with crappy manpower issues and the wrong doctrine and even Calvary in place of motorized in many instances.

How to defeat Soviet Union?

Build many many lines of 1936 infantry equipment. In 39 build new lines of 1939 infantry equipment. Keep the old lines going.

Like 10 infantry equipment to start. 15 to 20 by 1940.

You need about three or four infantry armies and one or two tank armies.

A tank army is about half tanks and half motorized or infantry.

The tank armies have their own specific battle plan a spearhead along a narrow front through plains.

There are two such pathways on the map. If particularly skilled you can set both panzerns armies to go through the plains and meet in the middle and have a big encirclement.

Air is not important. Navy is not important.

It is simply a numbers game with having a big army and enough equipment for them all to last two years.

Obviously adding an artillery battalion helps with the infantry.

Soviet Union can make a big army but usually isn't skillful enough to equip them.

So simply by having 20 to 30 lines of infantry equipment you will win. More lines of infantry equipment two and three you can get the better.
Good job. Now try it on Elite.
 
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Yes that is possible, depleted divisions perform poorly. Keeping division strenght at or above 90% is best. If the strength bar is at 50%, you're only getting about half of it's combat potential. (unlike the org bar where you get all or nothing) To address strength, keep an eye on your logistics tab and address any deficits you see there. You can also optimize where your guns/equipment are prioritized in the deployment tab. You can adjust your templates and the quantity of divisions of each in order to scale to the guns/arty/equipment you have available.

Whether you have lots of artillery or not, I would never push an entire line as you will lose lots of men and equipment throwing your troops on their entrenched divisions. Manually use armor to punch through their lines to make encirclements, and then collapse those starved pockets. Each time you destroy a pocket of divisions, you weaken the SU and make their front easier and easier to punch through. Once you're very dominant numerically they won't be able to cover the front and you can then push the whole line to walk to the urals.

There is a lot of good advice in this thread, to recap/reinforce some of the points in a condensed form:

  • You shouldn't have to micro all 200 divs. Use the field marshal command to cover the front without gaps and to pick up the planning bonus. Only activate their orders selectively and rely on manual encirclements instead. There is a new setting to allow for units to move around more or less to cover gaps in the front, you can experiment with this but if you have enough divisions to cover the entire front it shouldn't be too important.
  • Your tank division templates should only contain about half tanks, try to keep their org above 30 and with decent armor, breakthrough and SA.
  • Focus on beating their army first, the territory will easily become yours once their ability to fight is degraded.
  • The best way to beat SU is by having built up your economy and armed forces well beforehand.
  • It is possible to field an army that is too big to supply and larger than needed for Barb.
  • Keep an eye on the supply map, repair in captured territory, and add needed rail lines as you advance
  • Air is important, but you still can beat AI SU without it, especially with some inexpensive AA to help.
  • Cutting off the Caucasus and capturing it's oil for yourself helps feed your embargoed war machine, and makes things more difficult for uncle Joe.
  • Collaboration governments greatly help in that you don't need to capture as much territory deep in the interior to capitulate them. SU is very good at capturing your spies, but if you recruit local soviet spies and pick up other upgrades, it does help. Spending the resources on these spies is less than the time and attrition you'll lose trying to capture everything into the urals with your army.
 
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