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Five Year Plan - Interrupted? (An Explanatory AAR)

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Well, after playing a game to test 1.03b and discovering that somewhere my difficulty settings got redone, I decided to try again with proper (VH/Normal) difficulty settings, and thought about an AAR. I don't know that I can really get into a story AAR at the present patch level, and story AARs are easy to lose track of. But what did I not find when I first got HOI? An AAR that gives you a good idea of how to play the game. I had to mess around with endless reorganizations of armies, guessing at the tech tree, and other stuff before I got a handle on playing.

What I'm going to try to do here is intersperse stuff on how this game goes (without a whole lot of story development) with some advice and explanations of why I do things. While I doubt I'm the best player around at HOI (I don't play MP so haven't gotten into the really serious optimizations), I think 'why I do stuff this way' from me should be useful to someone trying to figure out the game. I also don't plan to do the AAR in super hi-res detail; I find those far, far too boring to write and I don't think newbies really get helped by single-click detail.

So, here goes: Patch 1.03b, Country USSR, 1936 scenario, difficulty VH aggression normal
 
By 1936 it was very clear to those without the idealogical blinders forced upon anyone trying to keep their degenerate capitalist ediface from finally falling to the ash-heap of history that the struggle for the hearts and minds of the world would turn to open battle within a few years. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics under the wise direction of Joeseph Stalin was the only signficant progressive country in the world, though China did have a long-running civil war which might turn out to be a glorious revolution in time. The Capitalists and Fascists held most of the world under their plutocratic regimes, and would obviously attempt once again again to destroy the one bastion of freedom in the world.

By 1936, Germany was throwing aside the last strictures of the Versailles treaty while Italy launched a brutal campaign against Ethiopia. While the Capitalists publicly expressed outrage at both of these incidents, they did little to hinder the fascists from asserting military might. Perhaps the decadence of the capitalists and their efforts to subjugate the will of the proletariat left them bloated and ineffective, or perhaps they sought to use their ideological brethren to do the dirty work of crushing solidarity amongsth the workers of the world. Whatever conflicting motives drove the engine of the western world, it was clear that that we needed to respond to this gathering threat.

Thus was born The Five Year Plan. Not just a five-year plan, detailing some improvement in one part of our glorious republic, The Five Year Plan dominated all thinking and forced every worker, soldier, planner, and leader to bend their efforts to its one overriding goal. That goal? By 1941, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would be strong enough in all areas to march armies through the whole of western europe in the greatest instance of external revolution ever seen. The Red Army will be strong enough to defeat the dominant power in the West (probably Germany), the dominant power in the East (probably Japan), and then protect the peasants and workers of those lands from whatever the ocean-going capitalists try to do to them while new ships and other weapons are developed. Ambitious? Yes. Achievable? Either we will bring True Socialism to all of Europe and later the world, or the ashes of what was our republic will serve as a monument to inspire future revolutions.
 
What are the individual parts of the Five Year Plan?

Industry and Economy: Soviet industrial capacity will be increased dramatically in the underdeveloped provinces east of the Dneiper River, most of this expansion should be complete by 1940. A stockpile of as much industrial material as possible will be laid down to avoid the need for trade once war starts.

Military: The army will be modernized and massively expanded. To facilitate modernization, no new units will be formed until 1938, and the army will be partially demobilized and kept in a reduced state of readiness until some threat is clear. Fortifications and air defense will be increased in the key cities of Moscow, Lenningrad, Vladivostock, and Stalingrad and along the western border.

Technology: Technological research will focus on long-term improvements, our development will be focused on projects that either increase our capability for research (industrial and computer techs) or allow later research into army and air force improvements. Research into naval, rocketry, nuclear, and other disciplines not related to the coming ground war will be banned until it becomes clear that the Red Army has the tools it needs.

Foreign Policy: Foreign policy will be to avoid any general war until the Five Year Plan is completed. Small wars with limited aims are acceptable, but nothing that will throw us into a long-running conflict is allowable. Aside from maintaining peace with the major powers, the foreign minister will attempt to secure defensible border areas when possible, by whatever means are appropriate. In the Balkans, ideology is not as important as influence; while every effort will be made to assist with People's Revolutions, our goal is to acquire as much of a buffer as possible - we can offer far more assistance to a people's revolution after most of the capitalists are destroyed than during a life-or-death struggle with them.
 
1936

And so it begins. New industry construction begins in every province east of the Dneiper with 5 or fewer industry. Because this takes a lot of industrial capacity up, no fortification programs will be implemented for another two years or so. As a temporary measure until world socialism is implemented, our extra coal, oil, and stell is being traded for rubber, the only resource we lack in quantity. Aside from negotiating these trade deals, our foreign minister works at maintaining the status quo and building up influence. The existing jumble of Red Army units is reorganized and redeployed into something sensible, and a broad panorama of technological research commences.

Production:Consumer Goods: 148.5 (the minimum to maintain 0 dissent) Supplies: 0 (this will be increased to about 1/3 of what is needed when the stockpile is exhausted) Research: 98.4 Construction: 0

For pre-war production, you want to avoid any increase in dissent, minimize the amount spent on supplies (though there are risks with that), and maximize research. Since the USSR starts off with a very strong army, I've chosen to fully minimize production and have none to start off with.

World Trades are:
300 Coal for 100 Rubber, 300 Coal for 100 Rubber, 300 Steel for 100 Rubber, and 201 oil for 67 rubber.

For the world market, you want to trade whatever you've got an excess of at 3:1 for rubber for as long as you can, then at 4:1 for rubber until you're at war. All of the other resources can be gotten with 1:1 trades, but the USSR has excesses of everything but rubber so there are no trades like that. Look at some of the general threads for an explanation of how world trade works, but the guidelines above are what you want to do with pretty much any country pre-war.

Foreign Actions:
None this year. It's best to save up DPs because having a lot of them makes you more likely to succeed at diplomatic actions. I generally don't do any diplomacy other than trading tech until I've got 100 DPs banked up. While there's no real risk of a big war breaking out for snapping up minors as the USSR as long as you avoid democracies, the dissent hit means that it's really not worth it this early in the game.

Technology:
Techs in the queue are: Binary Coded Machine Language, Assembly-Mass Production, all available base level (unindented in the display) infantry, armor, artillery, ground doctrine and air doctrine techs, plus the start of the work for basic MR fighters and tac bombers.

I'm researching computers because they boost all other research and will get the industrial techs of Nylon and Vehicle Assembly when they become available. I want to go ahead and have basic fighters and bombers since they're a lot better than the prewar versions and require an upgrade. Other than that, I'm just trying to get the stuff that allows other stuff, deliberately avoiding all of the little techs like flamethrowers, AT guns, or individual doctrines that just boost my fighting abilities since I can always research them all at once later on.


Military:
By mid-Febuary the army's reorganization is complete. Using a mix of strategic redeployments and walking, the initial unit jumble can be shuffled all over the place rather quickly. If need be you could do it even more quickly with a lot of exact timing for SRs, but there's no real reason to rush here. The final disposition of the army is listed below. The big cluster outside of Finland is there since, if things go according to plan, Finland will be the first country I go to war with and if not, it's not that hard to relocate those units to wherever they're needed. The Far East has only its starting forces all set up in Vladivostock, there's no real reason to reinforce it now.

Western Border:
11 infantry corps spread to every province with an extra at Minsk. 3 Shock Armies stationed at Pskov, Vitebsk, Kirkovograd
1 Cavalry Corps (4 Cav) at Kirkovograd

Finnish Border:
Petrozadovsk: 1 Infantry Corps, 1 Shock Army, 1 motorized Corps, 2 Tank Corps (one with Reduced Strength)
Leningrad: 1 Infantry Corps, Seven Fighters and 4 Tac Bombers
Murmansk: 2 Infantry divisions

Turkish border:
4 mountain infantry divisions spread along border provinces

Far East:
Vladivostock: 1 Shock army, 1 infantry corps, 1Fighter

Reserve: 1 Infantry-Artillery division

Since the military is the major thing to organize in a wargame, here's a long explanation of why I organize them like I do:

The plain 'ol infantry is organized into corps-sized units of three divisions. Each corps consists of 3 infantry divisions commanded by a Lieutenant General, usually with a skill of '2'. Once a front line is organized, additional leaders use these corps to provide more leadership - Field marshalls (skill '3' or '2') go along the line to ensure that all units are getting the 'within two hexes of a FM' bonus, and generals (skill '3' or '2') work their way in to any space without a FM that might end up with mutliple corps to ensure there's enough good leadership. Mountain and Motorized infantry is organized like vanilla infantry, but get higher-quality (skill '3') leaders.

The infantry with brigades are organized into shock armies. Each shock army has a core of 3 artillery divisions and support of 2 anti-tank and 1 anit-air division. These units are commanded by a field marshall since they tend to anchor fronts and because they're typically supported by enough other units to need the field marshall's command bonus. While the very top FMs command armored units, skill '4's, especially those with offensive or defensive doctrine, control these units, which means that a large number of infantry corps can come in to support them without any problems. Since the USSR doesn't start out with a plethora of AT and AA units, the initial shock armies get by with whatever support they can come up with, so some of them end up with 3 ART infantry and 3 plain infantry.

When only a small amount of force is needed individual divisions under the command of a Major General are used. Generally divisions operate independantly to secure minor beaches against invasion and to garrison mountainous provinces against less-capable opponents, they may also occasionally enter a major theater of battle to hold some ground while awaiting reinforcement to corps size but this is more of a desparation measure. Mostly Major Generals of skill '2' will be used, since they're numerous and these units are not expected to engage in real battles alone.

There are two major types of armored formation. An armored corps consists of 2 mechanized infantry divisions (usually with engineers) and 2 tank divisions (usually plain), and is usually commanded by a Field Marshall (for supply bonuses) of the highest caliber; Konev and Zukhov (both '5's) always take an armored corps, and the '4's with panzer and offensive bonuses also command them. A tank corps has 3 tank divisions all with engineer brigades and is commanded by a Field Marshall until FMs start to run short, at which time they get lower-ranking commanders, preferably with the 'panzer leader' trait. The light armored corps consists of 2 motorized and 1 tank division, these are only used on fronts where opponents are light on armor of their own (which in practice means the far east). These units are commanded more like infantry (lt. gens with some higher-ups) than armored units.

Why did I set up all of these units at what is really corps size rather than organizing massive army groups of 18 units under a field marshall like some people do? Because I pretty much never need a big 18-unit stack for more than one or two combats, so I'd have to go split it up and reassign leaders all the time, and that's too annoying for my tastes. I can also easily keep track of how strong my forces are in a given area. With a big single unit, I'd have to scroll through it and keep track of individual divisions, while here I only need to think "2 Shock armies, 2 Infantry corps, a motorized corps, a mech corps, and a tank corps" (compare to "6 Inf-ART, 4 Inf-AT, 4 Inf-AA, 6 Inf-plain, 2 Tanks, 2 Tanks-E, 2 Mech Inf-E, 3 Motorized Inf"). And on the other side, why go for organized units at all - wouldn't individual divsions offer more flexability? Only flexability that I wouldn't use at the expense of massive complexity. Aside from certain garrison duties, individual divisions aren't usable on the battlefield because they're too weak to do anything. In playing, I've found that corps-sized units are the smallest I really want to work with.

When combat actually starts, how do these units all actually work? Well, infantry do all of the grunt work - any border should be covered with infantry corps in every province, with stronger more in each province if possible. Pretty much all infantry corps get deployed to the front line, they're not used as reserves. When attacking, one infantry corps will normally stay behind as a garrison and any others in the area will help with the assault and foot infantry will be the first ones to stop to hold captured provinces for supply. Motorized infantry work mostly the same way, but go in deeper when attacking and shift around a whole lot more when defending; most motorized infantry will be held out of the front line until there's a significant attack somewhere nearby for them to disrupt. Mountain infantry work like infantry and mostly operate in, you guessed it, mountains.

No major attack would be complete without a shock army. For fortified and mountain hexes they're simply the best thing to have, often it's just not worthwhile to even put armor in the fight. For big breakthroughs, they help make the initial breakthrough and move forward for a short while, but usually turn back to help destroy trapped units while the armor rushes on to take more ground. On the defense, they garrison important provinces (like Vitebsk, the short road to Moscow, or the one province your huge mess of units needs for supply) and generally stay in the front lines, not in reserve somewhere.

Of course, it wouldn't be WWII without tanks. Both types of armor help with major attacks, but armored armies generally get much more use for hunting down enemy units and supporting infantry attacks from the rear while tank armies primarily use their speed to zip around to cut supply lines, cut off retreats, and hold key provinces while infantry catch up. Armored forces are almost never in the front lines; their speed makes them ideal for rushing in to break up an attack or rushing to cut off one of the provinces basing an attack. Light armored corps are used just like armored corps, but are only deployed in the far east.

[Edited to add Murmask and Reserve forces to list]
 
Last edited:
Good, I figured this would be useful. I figure I'll continue this in the same style, with an occasional few paragraphs 'in character' and most of it in the form of reports and analysis. It's also going to tend towards broad descriptions, though I'm going to use the Winter War to show how I launch an assault. I've got notes out to mid-1940 so far, and if nothing else the AI is doing something a bit off the normal track for this game and I'll get to try something for the first time 'on camera.'

(The edit on the previous message just accounted for 3 divisions that I left off the list of where my armies are).
 
OK, here is '36 and '37. Feel free to ask 'why did you do that' since that's the main purpose of this AAR, though there's not all that much going on.

1936, The year in review:

January- Industrial development commences in all areas East of the Dneiper with less than 5 industry. This reduces the amount of production available now, but will provide so much strength down the road. (In my first game, I did this manually and it took forever. I've since added a handfull of events to automatically start industry building in all bazillion provinces that can be upgraded).

March - With the completion of Binary Machine Language, Basic Electromechanical Computers are now available. I bump computers to the top of the research queue since they'll help all of the other research along, and it will take a while to complete everything in the queue - at this point the computers, Basic Artillery Pieces, and Great War Experience Analysis are using the entire research budget. All resource stockpiles are in the 30,000s and rising so there's no need for a change in policy there.

May - Consumer goods requirements drop a little bit, so a little bit more production can go into research, though it's still only 102/245. Generally I check the production screen every month or two for any changes in requirements, consumer goods demand tends to drop gradually as allied war entry increases. This highlights why building up industry in the prewar years is so useful; while building industry ties up factories that could be doing work for you, most of that industry will get soaked up by consumer goods for the first two years or so.

July - The supply stockpile hits 0, so our factories start turning out enough supplies that the army is functional (between 1/3 and 1/2 of what is required). This amount of supply will let organization levels stay high as long as all units sit still, but would result in a rapid collapse if the troops were involved in actual fighting.

On the 18th the Spanish Civil War begins and I elect to send volunteers, which knocks the supply stockpile down by 2500 (no real effect). I share encirclement-destruction doctrine with them (boost to org levels for most land units), and will send more technology if they can hold on. If it looks like the Republicans have a chance to win then various land technologies will help them triumph, but if they're going to lose anyway then there's no reason to waste DPs prolonging the inevitable. By august, howver, it is clear that the Republicans aren't going to win - they've lost a lot of ground (including Madrid) and so we leave them to fail on their own.

On the October 4th, Italy Finally annexes Ethiopia. On November 24th, after a lot of effort pushing the Republicans out of a variety of mountain strongholds, the Nationalists formally take control of Spain. While I try to keep abreast of events like these, they really don't affect my plans all that much.

1937 - The prewar years just zip on by.

As the new year rolls around, most resrouces are in the 80,000s, however except that rubber is in the 90s and oil is in the 50s. To balance things, I remove the oil-rubber trade. Another big batch of industrial development begins in the east.

In Febuary, work on the Stalin Line commences with the construction of forts all along the western border and in Smolensk, Kiev, and Vladivostock. I'm not sure if the fortifications in the west are really worth doing, but since they were there historically so I like to add them. Fortifying Vladivostock helps protect the Far East should Japan enter the war. Since I've never seen that happen, it's really more of a roleplaying build than a practical one.

In March, the first round of the Purges begin. Since the disorganization effects of the purges seem to be built into the USSR's tech level, the only real choice in the game is whether keeping a handfull of leaders out of the huge Soviet pool is worth +10 dissent. Let the purge commence!

Also in this month, scientists have completed an Improved Light Tank Prototype and are working on a 40mm gun for it. By the 26th, however, I decide not to develop a 40mm light tank. From looking at the technology tree, it's clear that medium tanks will be available fairly soon and the 70mm gun not long after that. Different people have different uses for their tanks, for me light tanks aren't really useful. The extra speed doesn't do any good when they're supported by infantry (medium tanks are still fater than mechanized infantry with engineers), and I don't find it worth the reduced combat power to have tanks that can roam a little faster. The research on Improved Light Tank Prototype isn't wasted, however, since it allows the assault gun and tank destroyer techs later on.

In June, the second round of purges removes a few more generals and in August a third round provides much ceremony to kick off the second rank of fortification in the Stalin line. That's as much fortification as I plan to build, though there's 6 months of AA to build once this line gets completed.

In September, a periodic check of who's who in the Communist Cabinet shows that a new chief of staff is available. Instead of the Maneuver-oriented Tuchatjevskij (+10% land unit speed), the army is being handled by Mass Combat advocate Boris Shaposhnikov (x2 monthly manpower, +5% unit production). While faster units is certainly nothing to sneer at, "Quantity has a quality all its own".

In Novemeber, the Vladivostock fortifications are finished and work begins on the far easter AA battery. In the last round of purges, one leader "died in battle" instead of mysteriously disappearing, so I have to search through all of my armies until I find the one missing a real leader and replace him. Also, research on SP Artillery is finished which allows the 50mm tank gun. I bump that to the top of the queue, since I want a big gun for the medium tanks.
 
1938

In January there's more all around idustry building, and Febuary kicks off the last AA in Vladivostock, Smolensk, and Kiev. In March, Austria refuses the Anschloss and the USSR holds a military parade to celebrate. Since Soviet dissent and supplies are both 0, this has no effect at all.

By the end of April, Basic Medium Tank Prototype is available. However, since work on Sloped Armor also finished I again elect to put off building a new tank model and instead bump Improved Medium Tank Prototype to the top of the queue.

In May, the Stalin Line fortifications are done, though building 2 levels of AA to match the 2 levels of forts will take another 6 months. Since tensions are heating up in Europe, I decide to make a small addition to the Red Army by ordering 30 fresh infantry divisions and shifting enough industry to production to complete the whole set in 9 months.

In June, it's time to get those scientists preparing for war; I put all of the technologies I've been putting off into the queue. There's about 50ICs worth of research to finish before they get cleared up, so next year should see a flurry of new practical technologies. In July Basic Medium Range Fighter Prototype gets completed, so I start and bump Basic MR Fighter to the top. I want to be able to start building upgrades to my tanks and planes at the start of 1939 so that I'll have improved versions by the end of the year.

By August, prototypes are complete and work begins on the T-34/76 (jumped to the top of the queue). After starting the final round of AA for the Stalin Line, 25 of the USSR's 101 DPs show the world a successful people's revolution in Rumania. While they refuse an immediate offer of alliance, by the end of September they've been influenced enough to become the first new Comintern members. By the end of October, I've taken control of and reorganized Rumanian forces into 1 Shock army, 1 mountain corps, 1 mobile army (One tank plus six cavalry divisions), and 6 infantry corps and moved them to cover all of the borders but the one with the USSR (There is one cavalry division with an artillery detachment, I treat it like an infantry unit since it's the same speed).

In october, Germany annexes Austria due to me manually triggering the event again; I was worried that an Austria-Free Germany would make this AAR too boring.

With the completion of AA in the Stalin line in November, I order AA construction in Moscow, Lenningrad, Stalingrad, and Sevastopal. The coal stockpile is decreasing slightly at this point, so I add a trade of 75 steel for 75 coal. While I could adjust my coal-for-rubber trades to use up less coal, that would knock them down in the priority list and probably force me to trade at 4:1 insteda of 3:1.

In December research on the T-34/76 is finally complete, and I immediately take the five existing pre-war tanks in for a slight upgrade. I also add another tank and 6 Mechanized Infantry-Engineer divisions to the queue, which will make 3 complete armored armies. Emboldened by the successful revolution in Rumania and not really sure what to use all that diplomatic influence for with a solid foothold in the Balkans, I give Turkey the gift of Stalinism with a successful coup. It looks like the Southern front will be safe in this war...
 
Hiya Ribo!

Like your AAR, as it has the same philosophy as mine.

Question: Wouldn't fighters be better air defense than fixed AA, not to mention more flexible? This would allow the provinces to do something else.

Question: Your 5 year plan is to attack Western Europe. Therefore, why waste resources on a Stalin line? Afraid the Germans will beat you to the punch?

Question: How were you able to research the 40mm basic light tank? I have found that having researched basic light tank, the gun upgrades are foreclosed no matter what I do.
 
Originally posted by Joisey
Question: Wouldn't fighters be better air defense than fixed AA, not to mention more flexible? This would allow the provinces to do something else.
Click to expand...

Fighters are better at stopping strategic bombing, but the the AA on fortresses is there mainly to make tactical bombing very painful. I don't think the level of fortifications and AA guns I'm doing here are really optimal, against a human player I'd put 2 or 3 levels of AA on the big cities. I wouldn't leave AA off of the big cities entirely, though, because it definately makes bombing far more painful, and Lenningrad-Moscow-Stalingrad is far enough from the front that the Germans would be trying to seize them quickly (or would be so far ahead that the game is over for me), and for that AA to come into play my airforce would have to be pretty decimated.

Question: Your 5 year plan is to attack Western Europe. Therefore, why waste resources on a Stalin line? Afraid the Germans will beat you to the punch?
Click to expand...

IRL, I'm kind of hoping the Germans will beat me to the punch - if they wait until '41 to attack, I'll probably be too strong for it to be interesting. But yes, the Stalin Line is there in case someone attacks before the five-year-plan is finished and to allow more concentrated attacks when the plan is finished.

For this AAR, I probably should have flagged it better as 'non-optimal play'; I created it more because it feels historical, not because I think it's going to be useful. Against a human player, I'd wait for M-R and put a line of level 1 forts and AA along the real border. I've not had a game where the Germans were threatening to really destroy the USSR, so I'd have to experiment to know what's really optimal.

Question: How were you able to research the 40mm basic light tank? I have found that having researched basic light tank, the gun upgrades are foreclosed no matter what I do. [/B]
Click to expand...

I wasn't; the USSR starts with 30mm Basic Light Tank and once you have one you can't research any of the others. What I was looking at (but decided not to research) was the 40mm Improved Light tank; the gun size for an improved tank isn't limited by what you researched on a basic tank.
 
1939

The last phase of the great industrial buildup in the east continues. Since there's not much for all of this new industry to build, I make another small adjustment. All planes go in for refit to modern types by september; the basic tac bomber is 4 times as effective as the pre-war model, and the Chaika fighters have a range of 350 instead of 200, which is especially important since rebasing aircraft disrupts them now. Production of 2 Inf-Artillery, 2 Inf-AT, and 1 Inf-AA will, together with the Inf-Art sitting in the redeployment pool, add another shock army. 5 Mountain-Engineer divisions will round out the mountain troops to 3 corps. Those are all static units, though, so another armored corps, tank corps, motorized infantry army (3 corps), and two light tank armies will provide a little bit of mobility. And what would the Red Army be without infantry? Another 10 corps of basic infantry round things out nicely.

Of course, Soviet industry is not quite big enough to actually construct all of that at once; the build queue has 563 ICs versus 75ICs actually being produced. These units should be completed sometime in 1940, and will provide a very solid defense for the USSR. Additional builds of armor and aircraft during 1940 and 1941 will provide the offensive punch to meet the original five-year plan.

In Febuary, AA construction continues in the major cities as Turkey joins the Cominterm. Since the first big infantry expansion is also done, it's time to take a quick look at Russia's defenses. The mountain infantry guarding the Turkish border gets redeployed; one corps goes to the Bulgarian border in Rumania and one division goes into reserve. I also send 2 infantry corps to Rumania and 1 to Istanbul for whenever a Balkan war breaks out. I also decide that the borders with Persia (Baku) and Sinkiang (Semipalantsk) both warrant a single corps for defense, and 6 individual infantry divisions line the mountains bordering Japan and Manchuria just to keep them honest.

By March, I notice that I craftily wrote down that I was adding a tank and mechanized infantry to the queue late in 1938 without actually adding them so I add them now and bump them up. It's good that I noticed this, since on the 15th of March, Chzechoslovakia Chooses to fight rather than knuckle under to Hitler's demands, and war is on in the west. The best response to a war between the capitalists and fascists is, of course, to let them fight it out, and in April the Molotov-Ribbentorp pact makes it official. The MR pact marks a good point to take a look at the cabinet, and I appoint Beria as head of the KGB for +25% production from foreign ICs and +5% dissent costs - while the USSR has no foreign ICs now, the M-R pact provides claims on a respectable batch of them. I was tempted to take Molotov as foreign minister since he's better at demanding territory, but Litvinov reduces the cost to share technology with fellow Communists which I'm going to be doing a bit more of.

How do I decide what technology to share, anyway? Well, first I decide which countries are worth the effort. Pretty much only allies are worth sharing tech with, since non-allies are either bitter enemies or only temporary friends. Of my allies, Tanu Tava and Mongolia can't really contribute much of anything, being rather isolated and weak, so they only get enough technology to overcome serious problems. In this game, Mongolia's industry got stuck (their units have org 0, which means no supplies) so I gave them Basic Synthetic Oil Plants to get them back on their feet, but no military techs since the four divisions in their army are just there to stop Japan from taking them over. Rumania and Turkey both have large armies, decent manpower, and a good location, so both of them get full support; they can provide a lot of help by conquering and garrisoning their neighbors and won't do anyhting foolish since I take military control of them very early on.

"Full Support" means that I try to keep their armies up to date. Mostly this means infantry-boosting techs, as tanks and planes have a lot of little prereqs and it takes too mcuh clicking for too little benefit to share them off. The first thing I help them with is antitank weapons, since both countries start off with HA 1 for their infantry. 30mm and 40mm antitank guns bump that up to a three so that each division is as good against tanks as a corps was before. Improved AA guns (20mm and 30mm AA guns again take them from 1 to 3) follow next to slow down enemy planes, and a few soft attack techs like Improved Infantry Guns and Howitzers round out the first boost. Now I work on getting them better doctrines, as there's a huge difference between infantry with an org of ~30 and those with an org of ~65. I'll intermix the big doctrines with other "+1 to something" technologies (like mortars, submachine guns, mines, etc.) until they're at a reasonable level. Once they've got respectable armies I don't worry about sharing technology as much and tend not to keep waiting for the week to roll over, so my allies are pretty much always a bit behind.

By May, it's time for another round of AA construction and the Turkish armies are now reorganized. They have a shock army at Constantinople (along with a Soviet infantry corps), infantry corps on both mediterranian beaches, 2 divisions at Ankara, and a scattering of infantry and cavalry divisions along the under-developed border with Iraq and Vichy France. Their aircraft have been organized into individual squadrons since there are no air generals for the Turks.

Looking around at the world a bit, Nationalist China has been pushed back a lot by Japan, but is still around and probably will manage to hang on for a long time. I've never seen that before, so it looks like the 1.03b changes are working for them. With their 90 militia units, the Nationalists actually have the largest total army at the moment (110 divisions vs my 105), though the 5 tanks and 15 infantry divisions I haven't gotten around to deploying mean the Red Army's not really second place. Looking around also explains why Poland and Afghanistan have been asking me for military access; Poland is in the Allies (and in serious trouble now that Germany has absorbed the Chzecks) and Afghanistan, oddly enough, has joined the Axis. Nationalist China ends their brief stay at the top of the chart when I deploy 2 Infantry corps to Samarkand to watch over the Afghanis.

June sees more countries throwing in their lot With the Berlin-Kabul axis; a failed coup attempt against Bulgaria pushes them in, and Italy joins in by the end of the month. It's clear that the world is now a rather dangerous place, so I place the army on full alert by moving the 'supplies' slider to give a slight surplus.

On July 9 Gemany finishes crushing poland, and on the 12th they cede eastern Poland as part of the Molotov-Ribbentorp pact. Two modernized armored corps deploy on the Finnish border, and the bulk of the Red Army shifts to guard the new frontier and constructs a line of level one forts to protect them. Tallinin ignores our demand for their territoy, and I decide to wait on all demands until Finland is Finnished. At this point, the coal stockpile is declining again so I cut one of the 300:75 trades of Coal:Rubber.

In August, another round of AA construction in the 3 major cities marks a good time to look at technological progress. In another month most of the basics will be complete (30mm AA gun, 40mm AT gun) and by the end of the year enough droctrines for decent org levels will be done. While Germany is still busy with France and so won't be able to attack east this year, the Red Army is significantly behind where it should be. I think this is the new human research penalty in 1.03b rearing it's ugly head, in the future I'll have to be more careful about research rates; those few months of technology will make a huge difference if Germany gets aggressive.

In September the Balkan people brace for war as Yugoslavia enters the Axis, leaving Greece as the only unaligned Balkan nation. Over the next month, I add a weak tank corps to the Finnish border force (the mechanized infantry for it are still not complete), and the modernized airforce sets up shop in Lenningrad. November sees the finishing round of AA guns at Moscow, Lenningrad, and Stalingrad. Hmm... Finnish might just be a big deal in the next update...
 
On November 14, 1939 Finland refused to turn over the disputed border region to the USSR, and the USSR promptly invaded, starting the Winter War. The forces involved were:

Finland:
2 fighters, 15 Infantry Divisions (2 corps at Viipuri, 1 at Sortavala, others scattered)
Fleet: 2CA 2DD 2Sub

USSR: Total of 11 aircraft, 27 land divisions
Lenningrad: 1 Infantry Corps, 7 fighters, 4 tactical bombers
Murmansk: 2 Infantry Divisions
Petrozavodsk: 1 Shock army, 1 infantry corps, 1 motorized corps, 2 armored corps, 1 tank corps (understrength)
Fleet: 3BB 2DD 5Sub

Now, this is clearly not an equal fight (especially since the Red Army could come up with another 30 divisions or so without much risk), but Finland can put up quite a fight. I'm going to use the Winter War to detail the techniques I use while attacking, this should give you an idea of what's in the details of later battles (I'm not writing them up in as much detail).

The first step in fighting a war is to decide what your objectives are. In this case, it's easy - my goal is to completely annex Finland, thus securing Lenningrad against assault from the north. This is clearly an achievable goal, so I look next at what I have to accomplish to reach it. Annexation requires the occupation of all VP provinces in a country, so I need to hold the southern loop of Finland's coast (Viipuri, Helsinki, Turku, Pori, Vaasa). If you're not sure where a country's VP provinces are, go to the ledger and sort page 1 by 'controller' to get a complete list, though you'll still have to click around to locate them exactly. Now, it would be possible to take those provinces by simply smashing into Viipuri and driving up the coast, but this would be costly because Viipuri is fortified. My plan is to send armored forces behind Viipuri to encircle it and launch a coordinated attack, which will make the fight much, much easier and less costly. Some armor will try to speed along the coast to sieze the other key provinces, and if it is blocked then the bulk of the forces used against Viipuri can easily assist in clearing out the Finns. Infantry in Murmansk and Lenningrad (my only nearby key provinces) will prevent the Finns from siezing one of them to prolong the war.

So, on November 14th everything but one infantry corps sets out on a coordinated attack to assault Sortavala at dawn on Dec 4 (ctr-click to pick a date, then pick the earliest daylight time) supported by the Red Air Force from Lenningrad. The long delay is due to the low infrastructure rating at Sortavala. On December 4th, the Finns manage to hold out for only three hours before falling back. All of the units from this attack except for the motorized corps drive on to Mikkei. Since there are no units at Mikkei, I don't tell them to arrive at a particular time.

In other news, on December 8th Germany decides not to establish Vichy France after capturing Paris but to go for total conquest. Later on, I elect not to purge a minister who's name I don't recognize. I really wish that event would tell you what he is minister of.

On December 23rd, Zhukov's tanks rout the Finns who had retreated to Mikkei and the armored and tank units all drive on to Helsinki, leaving the 5th Shock Army to hold Mikkei (once they arrive). Notice that while the tanks are rushing on ahead, there is a chain of units along their supply line. When a major force is attacking, it is generally necessary to cover their entire supply line with troops so that your opponent can't just walt a single unit into it. You don't want to end up with your strongest units stuck in place and weakening from lack of supply while enemy units rush by like your attack didn't even happen. This is even more important now, as encircled enemy units will launch desperation attacks to get free from encirclement.

As Tukachevsky's tank corps takes control of Helsinki on December 27th, the Finns offer their border provinces for peace. Since there doesn't appear to be any real obstacle to annexation, I refuse that offer and prepare to wipe them out. On January 2nd, as Tukachevsky races along the Finnish coast, all other forces launch an attack on the Viipuri fortifications from 4 directions and supported by air power on the 9th. The units holding open the supply line now serve to hit the defending units from as many directions as possible:

Vipuri_1.jpg


On January 12th at 1800 hours, Finnish troops retake Helsinki while most of our army is tied up in the battle for Viipuri. This cuts off Tukachevsky, so the Red Banner Baltic Fleet sails out to guard a supply convoy. Two hours after the Finns liberated Helsinki, Zhukov and Konev win the battle of Viipuri and both armored corps move out to counter-liberate it. The Viipuri fight was brutal, the units involved all lost about 1/6 of their strength. This is a lot less than they would have lost in a frontal assault, however, and isn't that big of a deal to the USSR as a whole.

On the 14th, Zhukov liberates Helsinki and drives on Tampere to catch the retreating units while Konev sweeps up the coast to help Tuckachevsky, whose army has stalled. Motorized forces leave Viipuri to secure Helsinki just to be sure. By the 18th, Tukachevsky retreats from Pori at less than 25% strength, so on the 19th Zhukov secures Tampere, then drives on Pori to be sure that Konev does not have the same problem. The defenders at Pori are crushed after a 27 hour battle starting on January 21, and Tukachevsky recieves reinforcements before being redeployed out of Finland. On January 28s at 1000 hours, Konev finally reaches Vaasa and disrupts the unprepared forces there, bringing the Finnish campaign to a successful close.
 
Early 1940: On Febuary first, all three Baltic states accede to Soviet demands and cease their independance. Also, the Finnish armies get a bit of reorganization. The Infantry corps from Petrozavodsk splits into single divisions to hold the three beaches, the shock army and one Zhukov's armored corps redeploy to the Ukraine, Konev's armored corps moves to the Baltics, and Tuchachevsky's armored corps plus the motorized corps moves to Rumania. During all of this shuffling, a rather suprising bit of information surfaces - Japan has joined the axis, so for a change the far eastern forces will not be just for show. The newly complete shock army is designated the 2nd Far East Shock Army and deployed at Tynda (though its AT and AA divisions go to the Ukraine since Japan is not exactly known for tanks) while single divisions shift slightly to cover more of the border.

So, by the end of March what's the world situation?

In Europe, Germany is dominant and will soon finish off France. In Africa, the Allies are ahead; France still holds about half of her territory (including the Dakar victory area), though North Africa is Italian. The UK has traded part of Egypt to Italy for all of Ethiopia, and will probably begin driving the Italians back soon. The one potential pitfall for the allies is Nationalist Spain; if they join the war they could take France's African holdings. In Southeast Asia (not pictured) France still holds Indochina, and British and Dutch holdings are secure, and the UK has taken a handful of Chinese coastal provinces. I'm not sure what Japan is doing about that but they haven't been in the war for long.

Africa_2.jpg


In Central Asia, the UK is about halfway through with destroying Afghanistan, so they probably won't play a role in the war after all. Unaligned Persia has built a significant number of armies and sent them north in an amusing attempt to intimidate me, so there's a Russian corps in Baku just in case they join up with someone. Sinkaing still exists (probably due to 1.03b changes) and an infantry corps sits on that border.

Asia_2.jpg


In the Far East, the IJA and Red Army uneasily face off across the border. Most of the Soviet units in the area are single divisions, the exceptions are Valdivostock with an infantry corps and shock army, and Tynda (to the right of the point of Japanese territory) with the second Far East Shock Army. Japan has 4 corps of some sort in the 'point' next to mongolia, and Manchukuo has various collections of 1-3 divisons patrolling their border. In the event of war, the Second Far East Shock Army will sweep down to clear the point of Japanese forces, while the other forces will defend. There are two light armored corps being built, when complete they will join with the First Far East Shock Army near Vladivostock and drive on Changchun to knock Manchuria out of the war.

FarEast_2.jpg


The Balkans are quite interesting; Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Bulgaria have all joined the Axis, so only Greece and Albania are neutral. Once war is declared, Turkish and Soviet forces from Istambul will spread out to seize Blugarian lands, with a Rumanian mountain corps in support for the final drive on Sofia. The large infantry forces in Timisoara will march on Belgrade and later Serbia, while the armored forces at Arad will race to sieze the Hungrian vital provinces. It is quite possible that Comintern members will be able to crush all of the Balkan Axis before Germany or Italy can respond.

Balkan_2.jpg


Finally, on the main front in Poland, plans are pretty simple. The Baltic armies will attempt to sieze Memel to cover the river line. All other forces will assume a defensive posture and call on the mobile reserves to break up any German attack. Until 1941, that is, when there should be sufficient forces to go on the offensive.

I'm really giving the computer a hand up by not attacking Germany right now; with the single-division border guard Germany has in his east, I could occupy a lot of ground before he could pull forces from the remains of France to stop me. Against a human opponent, I would have taken the Finnish offer of border provinces and DOWed Germany back in December, when Germany had decided to go for total conquest of France and had only a line of single divisions guarding the border. While I wouldn't neccesarily manage to annex Germany, the front line would be somewhere west of Berlin (or at the very least west of Warsaw) which offers some slight advantage to the USSR.
WestFront_2.jpg
 
I salute your dedication, Riboflavin. I can only imagine how long it took you to do those long posts. Nice insights, you make it look so easy:D

Another question (thanks for answering my previous):

How did you achieve all the diplomatic successes. This is the one aspect of your gameplay that you have not given any detail to. Specifically, with regards to Romania and Turkey, what was your level of DI when you brought them in as allies, and when you were able to assume military control? How much "influencing" did you have to go through first?

I have been spectacularly ineffectual thus far in the diplomatic arena and would appreciate these insights.
 
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