Ideal number of factories devoted to infantry weapons (Soviet)?

[mforww]

I just started playing HOI4 a few weeks after after being somewhat of a HOI3 vet. One thing I haven't been able to nail down yet is how many infantry weapons I should really be producing at any given point. It seems like no matter how many I have stockpiled I somehow manage to run out.

How many factories should I be devoting to infantry weapons alone?

 

[Hootieleece]

At least one full production run (15 factories) from the start if possible.

 

[dasaard200]

Depending how my STARTING FACTORIES are spread between rifles, equipment, and artillery; I don't build WF;s (War Factories) until AFTER I have 3 CF (Civilian Factories) Lines going [45 CF's] to start pumping out WF's . The 3 CF Lines pump out CF's {3 at-a-time per building cycle} , and anything over those priority CF lines goes into WF's [ and whatever you need] .

If you're up to making 100-120 rifles/ day; you can outfit an infantry division every 10-15 days, still have enough rifles to train with, AND keep a stockpile !!

For rifle WF's, I think that 15 WF's is a tight budget, 20 WF's is a little looser, 25 WF's are just fine; and 30+ WF's are GREAT !!, but REMEMBER TO PUT THESE WF'S EAST OF THE VOLGA RIVER !!!

 

[Culthrasa]

In SP (multiplayer is a different beast), I usually start with about a full line at start and some factories spread out over support/art and if i feel like it Mot and LARM. USSR begins with a huge deficit in rifles, so i rectify that first. Against the AI having a wall of fully supplied troops is usually enough.

During the game, make sure you have enough PP available to switch to wartime production as soon as possible (WT limited). That will be the biggest boost to building new factories you can use anyway you choose. I personally don't build CIC (civilian factories) as Russia, they have more then ample. The wartime laws free up more then enough to have plenty to build with.

Not your question, but a tip none the less... Help Spain out with as many units you can send. Make sure they are well supplied (duplicate a template, set it to highest priority and stick about 8 units in them). That gives you all the army experience you need to tweak your templates to your hart's content

 

[Sarmatian]

One full line at start, but I usually end up with two lines 1941 and later. When the Germans and Japanese attack, basically all your divisions will be in constant battles. It also helps later if you like to assign controls to AI, as they will often attack nonsensically. If you micromanage everything and keep losses at the minimum, you could probably use less MIC.

 

[Lord of Beer]

About 5-10 at the start of the game, more as you get more factories. Build civilians for the first 1-2 years.

Make sure you use wait until Molotov Ribbentrop and then justify to retake cores on Finland, Baltics, Romania. Make sure you fight them, so you can take their weapons once they capitulate. If you annex them through the event you don't get to capture their weapons.

Capturing all the weapons from those countries should give you about 50,000 infantry equipment.

Towards the end game I would have about 30 factories on Inf equipment, the rest on artillery, tanks and planes.

Its better to put early factories into motorised and support, since they don't change through the game. Make sure you are on concentrated industry, and just stick with infantry 1 if you think you will run out.

Doing the above I have never been short of Inf as Russia.

Once you have about 100 hours, start to play multiplayer as a small country on an organised TS server game to pickup the other tips. Be humble and ask players to help, there are many out there with 1000s of hours.

 

[Secret Master]

Put me in as saying a minimum of 15 MIC on infantry equipment. Maybe more once you have eaten all the aluminum and oil you can rustle up.

 

[dasaard200]

For Culthrasa ;
YES !!, it's always a great idea to clear up the opening backlogs in equipment, however, you'll soon need to expand your production capacity ... so get it done EARLY ['36-37] to have at hand the "Slings and Arrows of Outragous Fortune" to drop on somebody else's head .
1] Almost all of my games have had a short, sharp SCW; which lasted 2-3 WEEKS tops, and it was OVER before I could send anybody there !
2] Most of the videos I've seen show later-game production screens with 45+ WF's of this or that in the pipelines, and "where do I want/need to put these 8 new WF's", {a thing of drooling ENVY} when you look at the date - August'43, of earlier . If you don't build those CF's now, you'll HAVE to build them later; to put WF's into place while going up to the next level of tanks, etc .
3] I don't know if this works in MP, but I refuse to send green troops to anything, much less than a fight . Regulars can take care of themselves, greens can't do a proper bar fight .
4] Absolutly agree that War Economy is essential; just be careful in picking a little twerp nation to stomp to get there .
5] Once a template is made, you can train a bunch of them in your training centers, OR you can promote units in the field on a 1-by-1 basis into the new template .
6] Producing equipment determines the use of manpower; 3 million men and only 10K rifles = a bad case of un-preparedness .
Oh !, my point about the eastern Volga River WF placements IS historically accurate .

 

[Diados]

It depends on what your division composition is tbh. For example 8 INF, 2 ART w/ ENG SART SAA. Not saying this is good for Soviets, just an example. For this you would want the following ratio of factories:
8 Artillery
8 Infantry Equipment
3 Support Equipment
2 Anti-Air Artillery

You can figure out the ratio by adding and removing things from the template without saving, then putting the numbers into a calculator (or estimating).

Generally, I like to have 1/3 of my factories producing leg division EQ, 1/3 on aircraft, and 1/3 on tanks. Russia is a superpower, so the goal would be 240 total or 80 in each category (this is by 42-43ish).

 

[skif_observer]

12 at the very beginning. Allocate the first 3 mil factories you get / build to the line so you have 15.

23-25 in 1939 when you switch to the new gun (you want this upgrade).

35 when you start invading GER (but only add the factories you've captured to the initial 25 - tanks are more important) and whilst you're at war.

I'm working under the assumption that you standardise all your cav and inf units at the start (replace them with the good starting template) and aim to have 250-300 inf divisions by 1941 (as well as tanks and mountaineers).

IMHO, don't overfeed your gun production - tanks are very important too; try to dedicate at least 60 factories to tanks.