Soviet Naval Strategies

[Mr_Dimento]

A less discussed topic, does anyone ever realistically invest into Navy as the USSR? If so, what do you do?

I have found trade interdiction and Soviet submarines to be quite effective. As long as you don’t purge the submarine officer.

 

[Casko]

There's few ways to go ahead with naval Soviet game.

1) Submarines for days, but then, Submarines are OP and always work, even if you were Saudi Arabia.

However for more interesting naval game, you could turn whole of Crimean coastline to a massive naval factory as you have plenty of building slots there even on day 1.
Researching 36 Battleships, Cruisers, and Battleship Converted Carrier comes next, then you just begin to produce screening cruisers, and few capital ships.

After this is done, you get to roleplay the Soviet Naval theorists before the start of operation Barbarossa, And build "light cruisers" that weight more than most countries heavy cruisers. And use these as Screening ships for your brand new navy you'll give Japanese a taste of revenge for the Battle of Tsushima.


Also of note is, to rush to take down Turkey, as having access through the straits is very important due to how naval AI works, and for some reason Paradox thought that Black Sea is the best spot for Russian naval constructions to spawn into.

 

[brainiac1530]

I think the Soviet Union is in a unique position to exploit mines well, so you should get some heavy-duty minelaying going in the Black and Baltic Seas at least. Naturally, the best minelayers are submarines. Submarines can bypass some straits, which is often going to be relevant for Russia. Their range is also highly useful given the awkward location of Soviet bases, and the fact they've got a Pacific coastline (the Pacific usually involving long ranges and deep ocean.) All signs point to submarines. The Baltic isn't so friendly to submarines, though; it's probably best to just pull that entire fleet out of there and yield that sea zone entirely.

I would say, submarines or nothing. It's probably a waste to spend construction capacity on dockyards given that you're going to be in an arms race with Germany, which they're almost certainly going to win, and ships absolutely aren't going to save you.

 

[Caeric]

There's few ways to go ahead with naval Soviet game.

1) Submarines for days, but then, Submarines are OP and always work, even if you were Saudi Arabia.

However for more interesting naval game, you could turn whole of Crimean coastline to a massive naval factory as you have plenty of building slots there even on day 1.
Researching 36 Battleships, Cruisers, and Battleship Converted Carrier comes next, then you just begin to produce screening cruisers, and few capital ships.

After this is done, you get to roleplay the Soviet Naval theorists before the start of operation Barbarossa, And build "light cruisers" that weight more than most countries heavy cruisers. And use these as Screening ships for your brand new navy you'll give Japanese a taste of revenge for the Battle of Tsushima.


Also of note is, to rush to take down Turkey, as having access through the straits is very important due to how naval AI works, and for some reason Paradox thought that Black Sea is the best spot for Russian naval constructions to spawn into.

Operating a submarine force out of Murmansk/Arkhangelsk is always an option to raid the Atlantic, if you can get docking access from the UK, even better.

You could also potentially put that smaller scale battlefleet into use in the Baltic. With some modern ships and air support you should be able to wrestle control over the Baltic and potentially naval invade North Germany or land in Denmark and deny them access in and out of the Baltic at all if you also take the Kiel Canal.

Or Turkey like you mentioned of course. Not sure if operating into the Med offers as many advantages though as taking control over the Baltic though.

 

[KubiG37]

I have found the minelaying extremely ineffective as SU. I have mined both Black and Baltic Sea to 100% , and it never really sunk anything. Germans keep their fleets in the west, fighting the UK, and Black Sea - totally useless to have any fleet there at all, since no one can move through the Bosphorus, unless you take it away from the Turks.


Submarines are decent, but can't really hurt any land nation in Europe, like Germany, they just don't need the convoys and can sink your subs with aircraft.
Surface fleet is only good in late game, against UK/US (if you've build any at all), since the naval AI is braindead and can't upgrade its ship designs, 1940/1944 ships can rip their fleets apart even in fairly low numbers.

 

[DGuller]

Obviously submarines are the best bet, but make sure that Kasatonov stays alive. He's the naval Rokossovsky in that he's both a highly useful leader and a highly useful adviser.

In my latest USSR game I started the war with the Allies just before the regularly scheduled invasion by Germany, and I was able to make progress against both at the same time. The most overpowered thing about submarines is that you can build up a war-winning fleet with a small enough investment that even a Soviet Union racing to arm itself against Germany can afford.

 

[him_15]

USSR just doesn't has enough research slots and initial naval research tech to build a sizeable navy, unless you give up other areas of research heavily.

 

[DGuller]

USSR just doesn't has enough research slots and initial naval research tech to build a sizeable navy, unless you give up other areas of research heavily.

Research is manageable with the all-sub strategy. You need maybe 6-8 naval techs in total, and most of them can be accelerated with naval experience, which you should have plenty of due to oil not being an issue for USSR. Obviously every slot helps as USSR, but losing 2 slot-years is not the end of the world.

 

[Casko]

Operating a submarine force out of Murmansk/Arkhangelsk is always an option to raid the Atlantic, if you can get docking access from the UK, even better.

You could also potentially put that smaller scale battlefleet into use in the Baltic. With some modern ships and air support you should be able to wrestle control over the Baltic and potentially naval invade North Germany or land in Denmark and deny them access in and out of the Baltic at all if you also take the Kiel Canal.

Or Turkey like you mentioned of course. Not sure if operating into the Med offers as many advantages though as taking control over the Baltic though.

Mediterranean access is Fun possibility if you have incompetent Allies, and want to invade Italy, or help British to take control of Suez again with few quick naval invasions.

And a Baltic Navy is indeed quite fun for Naval Soviets, so you can invade Denmark on historical, and from there to Norway. and force Germans to split its forces further.

 

[Sbrubbles]

I have found the minelaying extremely ineffective as SU. I have mined both Black and Baltic Sea to 100% , and it never really sunk anything. Germans keep their fleets in the west, fighting the UK, and Black Sea - totally useless to have any fleet there at all, since no one can move through the Bosphorus, unless you take it away from the Turks.


Submarines are decent, but can't really hurt any land nation in Europe, like Germany, they just don't need the convoys and can sink your subs with aircraft.
Surface fleet is only good in late game, against UK/US (if you've build any at all), since the naval AI is braindead and can't upgrade its ship designs, 1940/1944 ships can rip their fleets apart even in fairly low numbers.

Yeah, I agree with this. Sure, you can convoy raid the baltic, but not only does that barely do anything, it's also easily countered by naval bombers from north poland. I would just grab all your fleets, split them up 3:1 between baltic and black sea, then have your trigger finger ready to convoy raid if an invasion shows up.

 

[Aeroclub]

I'm soooo hoping they will add a focus that gives the SU partially completed "Sovetsky Soyuz" superheavy battleships when they rework the Soviet tree in 1.11.

Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That would really fit the other nations that have similar foci, and also bode so well for crazy Stalin megaprojects roleplay.

 

[Morbus Bubbonicus]

SU CAN dedicate theif effort to have a navy that beats RN or something like that, and yes that is somewhat expensive, yet necessary for USA invasion.
You can go either through CAV or BB oh SHBB, as SOV NF boosts battleships.
Anyway we'll see how things change with upcoming SOV rework.
Now, it is always easier to invest in NAV and wither enemy navies with swarms of planes

 

[Emren]

I have found the minelaying extremely ineffective as SU. I have mined both Black and Baltic Sea to 100% , and it never really sunk anything. Germans keep their fleets in the west, fighting the UK, and Black Sea - totally useless to have any fleet there at all, since no one can move through the Bosphorus, unless you take it away from the Turks.

Minefields are useless if the enemy never enters it. But then again, they served their purpose.

 

[eastcoastceojam]

Here's an naval scenario for the USSR I'm thinking of trying one day:

• Declare an early war (~Dec 1936) against Turkey, Romania will join the defense. After they capitulate, puppet them both.
• You've now taken Romania away from the Axis, and blocked Germany's land access to oil from Iran/Iraq when at war with the USSR.
• Build 4-5 extra dockyards, and dedicate them to building 1936 Subs. You already have this tech unlocked, so no extra research required.
• Once Hungary flips fascist in mid 1939, justify on them, and attack them from Romania before Hungary joins the Axis. This will keep them from stealing land from your Romanian puppet, and remove another nation from the Axis.
• By early 1941, you should have a decently large sub fleet. Move these subs to Murmansk or Turkey before the Germans declare war on you.
• Once they declare war on you, the Axis will lose access to your oil, and need to use convoys to trade for oil with Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, or the USA.
• Ask each of the Allies member states for docking rights.
• Then you can base your subs in the North Atlantic or Indian Ocean, and hunt Axis oil and rubber convoys out of range of their airplanes.
• This strategy will be more effective if you research the Torpedo upgrades, sub techs in Naval Doctrines, and 1940 Sub hulls, but you might not want to spend scarce research time on this.

If anyone's already tried something like this, I'd love to hear how it went.

 

[DGuller]

Don't attack Turkey too early. You want to use the war with Turkey to clear your Great Purge maluses and get an early 5th research slot.

 

[Commi]

Here's an naval scenario for the USSR I'm thinking of trying one day:

• Declare an early war (~Dec 1936) against Turkey, Romania will join the defense. After they capitulate, puppet them both.
• You've now taken Romania away from the Axis, and blocked Germany's land access to oil from Iran/Iraq when at war with the USSR.
• Build 4-5 extra dockyards, and dedicate them to building 1936 Subs. You already have this tech unlocked, so no extra research required.
• Once Hungary flips fascist in mid 1939, justify on them, and attack them from Romania before Hungary joins the Axis. This will keep them from stealing land from your Romanian puppet, and remove another nation from the Axis.
• By early 1941, you should have a decently large sub fleet. Move these subs to Murmansk or Turkey before the Germans declare war on you.
• Once they declare war on you, the Axis will lose access to your oil, and need to use convoys to trade for oil with Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, or the USA.
• Ask each of the Allies member states for docking rights.
• Then you can base your subs in the North Atlantic or Indian Ocean, and hunt Axis oil and rubber convoys out of range of their airplanes.
• This strategy will be more effective if you research the Torpedo upgrades, sub techs in Naval Doctrines, and 1940 Sub hulls, but you might not want to spend scarce research time on this.

If anyone's already tried something like this, I'd love to hear how it went.

It should work against AI. The question is - why bother?
Decently led USSR can easily crush the Axis, with or without navy.

IMO USSR should go into navy only to fight the Allies. 15 dockyards will do. Build a couple of SHBB and some escorts. Borrow a page from Kriegsmarine manual and "liberate" workers of Norway (via Sweden, obviously).
That's it. You have become the master of Atlantic. British navy is too old and slow to compete with your new and shiny ships, especially if you support them with a couple hundreds NAV.
Collapse Germany by naval landing on Baltic and Atlantic coasts, all the while turning the Royal Navy into scrap metal. Then invade Britain (or do it in parallel just because you can).

Home by 1943.

 

[Morbus Bubbonicus]

It should work against AI. The question is - why bother?
Decently led USSR can easily crush the Axis, with or without navy.

This answer is the direct analog of "reinstall Windows" or "install new drivers" from tech support.
People are coming to forums to ask for specific strategies and expect some input on the matter, not "why bother?"

 

[Meglok]

The Soviets have a navy? Who knew?

 

[Casko]

The Soviets have a navy? Who knew?

World of Warships and its by no means existing Russian Bias.

 

[KubiG37]

Here's an naval scenario for the USSR I'm thinking of trying one day:

• Declare an early war (~Dec 1936) against Turkey, Romania will join the defense. After they capitulate, puppet them both.
• You've now taken Romania away from the Axis, and blocked Germany's land access to oil from Iran/Iraq when at war with the USSR.
• Build 4-5 extra dockyards, and dedicate them to building 1936 Subs. You already have this tech unlocked, so no extra research required.

If anyone's already tried something like this, I'd love to hear how it went.

Not recommended.
I did exactly this via the Montreux convention,

And then it all fell apart...

1) Because Greece decided it's a good idea to declare war on my puppet Turkey.
They joined allies and called them all in.
2) Then my puppet Romania refused to give up Northern Transylvania and Hungary declared war on them, calling the whole Axis.
3) Hitler ofc did not forget to also attack any available neutral state around there, adding them all to the Allies as well.
4) For some reason half of fascist/democratic american states also joined the allies later

War until 1950. Without declaring a single war myself!