The lack of Good political advisors for the Soviet Union

[Ceorl]

I think, as the OP admits, the thread title is somewhat misleading as the SU has, overall a great pool of political advisors and some very nice Military Staff (Genius Air XP for ex.). The problem is, unlike most factions save for minors like Spain or a radical British playthrough, you have to plan which you advisors you will use around the Great Purge. This requires abit of planning for your army comp.

That said, I think the SU has some good MHC people apart from Rokossovsky (and I agree with Stabby5 that Positive Heroism is a powerful focus path). If you forgo an air force (a vable SU path), Ivan Konev is a must take. If you go air, Stepan Krasovsky is a great take (Sergei Khudyakov tends to die in the purge for me). I always try to build an SU navy and prefer surface fleets so Gordey Levchenko rounds out my third slot (Vladimir Kasatonov is a good choice if you like subs).

The remainder are nothing special. If you do take the Collectivist Propaganda (that 20% stability difference with PH can be up by promises of peace due to SU's high war support), you will miss Rokossovsky.

@DGuller
Hah, yep Khrushchev always die. Even if I don't want to min/max I can't bring myself to kill Kalinin or waste that RP.

 

[Hungrydingo]

Didn't Stalin kill most anyone who would've been a good adviser?

Yep, an advisor that would actually be semi useful, Nikolai Yezhov, gets killed in the Great Purge. The game reflects the real situation. Lavrentiy Beria is just not useful in game with the traits he comes with and one of the only other really useful advisors might be the one who boosts Communism but even that a fairly insignificant benefit as it's not that much extra stability to push Communism to 100%. The military high command is pretty lacking too but that reflects the real life situation the USSR was in.

 

[noobermenschen]

From a gaming standpoint, I like the challenge that lack of advisers present. On the other hand, from a flavor standpoint, it seems weird that the three advisers who are present in the game who succeeded Stalin as a group are all utterly useless. In the fact, the future leader of the Soviet Union probably gets shot by everyone in every game.

But but... He's going to tear down all my statues! And he can be replaced by a 100PP decision. I wish shooting Tukhachevsky was this easy.

 

[grommile]

I like the Soviet focus tree,

I stopped liking it when I realized how easy it was to completely explode the game with a well-timed freestyle war justification alongside taking the Great Purge as early as possible.

 

[DGuller]

I stopped liking it when I realized how easy it was to completely explode the game with a well-timed freestyle war justification alongside taking the Great Purge as early as possible.

Yeah, it can be gamed badly. You'll be well-advised to start justifying right before the Great Purge, so that you can go down the whole Great Purge tree in one go uninterrupted. If I feel like cheesing it only a little, I attack Mongolia to clear my malus and get the 5th research slot. If I feel like really smashing the game, I attack Turkey and by extension Romania.