Declaring war as USSR in 1942 (DEVS; issues thrown up by alt history ?)

[Tisifoni12]

Situation:

Playing as the Soviets:

• Spanish Civil War won by Franco
• Poland campaign started a few weeks early, in August
• Invasion of France and Benelux begun early and bogged down in Belgium and the Netherlands

Situation early 1942:

• Germany bogged down on Western Front, has not attacked USSR
• Yugoslavia has been broken up; Croatia, Montenegro, the rest occupied by Italy
• Hungary conquered Romania and has declared 'Greater Hungary', except for one Southwestern province which is anomalously administered by Germany
• Italy has lost North Africa, is bogged down in Greece; Crete and the Peloponnese still free, the allies are pushing into Northern Italy from the South of France

Soviet situation:

• When Hungary occupied Romania the USSR lost its claim on Bessarabia; should Hungarian control negate the Soviet claim ?
• If the Soviets declare war on Germany that doesn't automatically include the German puppets (whatever the occupied Polish territory is called) which seems strange
• The Soviets can still do 'desperate measures', but while that makes sense for a USSR that is attacked I'm not convinced it makes sense for a USSR taking the offensive
• A different 'shape' of Soviet army; fewer and better equipped divisions ? Not very Russian ?

Soviet attack quickly runs out of steam, unsure if this is because the divisions were designed expecting a defensive war, or some other factor/s ?
The changed Soviet threat does seem to alter the situation with the allied invasion of Italy progressing more quickly

 

[LastButterfly]

Okay, what's the issue here ?

 

[General Tao]

• I believe Germany is hard coded not to declare on USSR if France has not fallen, that might be the reason
• Agree strange that USSR loses its claim in Bessarabia
• You can immediately declare on any puppets of a nation you are at war with without needing a war goal, just try it. It doesn't declare automatically because, well, why would it?
• Agree "Desperate Measures" focus title makes less sense when you are fighting an offensive war
• Sounds like your attack is failing? If you want advice on why you'll need to post screenshots of your division designs.
• Italy AI is terrible, by design, almost never achieves anything and loses to everyone, not a yard stick to measure anything by.

 

[Tisifoni12]

@LastButterfly (see replies below)

1. I believe Germany is hard coded not to declare on USSR if France has not fallen, that might be the reason (and the USSR is grateful . . . )
2. Agree strange that USSR loses its claim in Bessarabia (an issue for the DEVs to consider)
3. You can immediately declare on any puppets of a nation you are at war with without needing a war goal, just try it. It doesn't declare automatically because, well, why would it? (I have realised that I can declare without the 'qualifying period', but it seems strange that a separate declaration is necessary)
4. Agree "Desperate Measures" focus title makes less sense when you are fighting an offensive war (an issue for the DEVs to consider, should it be bypassed and the following focuses become available, or should that and the following focuses become blocked, or a mix of some blocked and others available ?)
5. Sounds like your attack is failing? If you want advice on why you'll need to post screenshots of your division designs.*
6. Italy AI is terrible, by design, almost never achieves anything and loses to everyone, not a yard stick to measure anything by. (however I am used to seeing Italy (unrealistically in my opinion) steam roller through the Middle East and also mess up the German invasion of France by declaring war on Switzerland)

For a defensive fight in 1941 I generally go for lots of infantry divisions with 9 Rifle, 1 Artillery (and an engineer company) and try to upgrade them as the war progresses, with more artillery, AT and AA. But here I have had time to start doing that. Also each army containing 2 - 4 tank divisions with usually a mix of light and medium, maybe a handful of tank divisions upgraded with a heavy battalion and or assault guns.

 

[General Tao]

I'd recommend submitting a bug report for individual issues, asking for devs to consider things here on the General isnt the best strat.

Re. Your divisions, infantry seems solid but your tank divs, whilst realistic, are suboptimal. You want to focus on one of light/medium/heavy, with medium being the best. Aim for around 20w initially, use mix of tank and motorised inf to get org >= 30, armour of the division to be ~50, rising to 100 by 1945 to prevent AI from ever piercing you. Can cheese the armour and piercing by using one battalion of heavily armoured tank destroyer. Aim for 8/9 km/h speed, have all the tanks in their own army, and use them to punch holes and make encirclements.

Notice you didn't mention air - assuming you haven't developed air you will definitely want support AA in as many of your div types as possible. I suspect this might be reason you're losing - uncontested enemy CAS is no joke.

 

[Tisifoni12]

I have AA, production hasn't caught up to my revised Division design which has 9R, 2Art, engineer, AA and AT companies and some will not have a full complement of guns. We're talking over 90 infantry divisions (90 x 24 = 2,160) on that front and 18 armour. There are also I think maybe 7 cavalry divisions, maybe a couple of mountain in the south, so I'm not sure of the exact number of infantry divisions without opening up the game again.

I have three versions of the infantry division, so those on the southern frontiers, in the East and on the Finland border aren't of the spec above, allowing the AA and AT that I have to be concentrated where needed.

I have two 'light tank divisions' in the East. But building enough T34s once they become available to build 'medium divisions' is challenging.

I have lots of aircraft, but that includes old inventory . . .

 

[marcelo r. r.]

I play tons of end-games, by my experience the historical outcome is a very delicate issue, you can derail just by lend-leasing or even selling stuff on market.

if you want historical outcome til 1942, avoid any lend-lease/market sell equipment to allies, otherwise risk germany be bogged down, then everything else will derail.

the best safe-fail is use sliders, give a boost to the side that you want a upper hand. another option is open market to germany let GER AI buy rifles/support equip/art.

 

[Tisifoni12]

@marcelo r. r.

I've done nothing to effect the history 'flow', no lend lease, haven't sold equipment, didn't send volunteers to Spain*.

*Historically the 'volunteers' sent to Spain from both the USSR and Germany were few. Only Mussolini sent 'volunteers' in any number and I've seen evidence that they were told they were going to Africa and only found out they were in Spain once they disembarked. Would be much more realistic for the USSR and Germany to send 'lend lease' to Spain with some advisers / trainers as each sent a few hundred pilots and support ground crew, tank crew and some advisers. Perhaps an event / or political choice with the option to send what was sent historically, or send more, or less, or nothing.

I am not complaining about the unusual historical direction, apologies if I gave you that impression, but I have planned for a different war. The time seems to have come to pitch in but my forces seem incapable of a sustained assault. If I wait for a better moment perhaps that moment will not come.

If I can provoke the fascists then perhaps they will waste effort on me and allow the allies to take Italy out of the war. That may stretch the Germans enough that my chances of breaking through improve.