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A lot of wrong stuff going on in your game.
Where to start?
Like the previous user said:
ON-GOING CONFLICTS:
- war with allies
- the war itself isn't problematic since they can barely do a thing against you but:
- you are denying yourself of easy rubber trade and potential trading partners (ussr has a ton of resources to sell, mate)
- you are building a ton of refineries in order to compensate due to lack of rubber (the allies pratically have a monopoly on rubber). Refineries are expensive and in order to build/improve said refineries you are also wasting time researching tech for them.
- you blocked yourself from completing industrial focus branch (third five year plan) since any war with any major will block you from completing them
- the offensive war penalty is also tanking your war support and this is having its toll on your stability and indirectly on production since stability affects a lot of things
DIVISIONS, ARMY TEMPLATES AND MORE:
- your division templates are still wrongly done
- forget anti tank completely already - if you want extra hard attack, go like marcelo said and opt for anti air, it will help against enemy air superiority and also provide some kick against tanks. Its much better for generic infantry builds. Anti tank is very situational.
- forget about motorized recon, this is a plain leg division with a max speed of 4.0 km/h. Motorized recon is only good due to speed (and due to a small bump in recon values). If you want recon for infantry, opt for cavalry recon (much cheaper in terms of production) or for armored car (which you can't build due to lack of dlc, so definetely go for cavalry recon)
- now it comes down to preference and tastes, but i generally go with engineer support company due to entrenchment values. This is extremely good for defensive units, as long as you actually have time to dig trenches.
- for main infantry divisions, I never go for less than 20 width as well. so add at the very least an extra infantry battalion. You might actually go higher, somewhere near 20-30 width but it will depend on where you will place them and for what. You can't expect to place large divisions like these in the middle of finland and in the arctic!!! for areas with very poor supply like africa I generally go with 12-16 width.
- Most/Many of your divisions are green or merely "trained". TRAIN THOSE MEN! There is no reason they shouldn't be "regular".
- You should realize some generals are more geared toward being "defensive generals" and others toward "offensive generals". Inflexible strategists for example can unlock the "Unyielding Defender" field marshal trait. This synergizes well with "Defensive Doctrine". Which, also goes well with "Ambusher". Defensive generals are also much better at doing exactly that, DEFENDING.
- With what I just said, you should also consider that divisions can be more geared towards defense, and others towards offense. For defense, one can go with a ton of slow moving infantry (static warfare requires pratically no mobility after all if your lines have been properly made), for offense it is much better to opt for mobility and armored units, although pure infantry armies are plausible if you know what you are doing and can spare the manpower. But even when I go full infantry, I still have 1 or another full army of tanks/mechs/mot.
ARMY PRODUCTION, FACTORIES AND OTHER NUMBERS:
- its 1941 and you are producing 1936 fighters and 1936 close air support airplanes. germany will send those flying off to uranus (pun intended) almost immediately (and you don't even have that many since I bet you lost a good deal to the allies).
- you are wasting a lot of factories into making trucks while fielding mostly just infantry.
- you have a deficit of 90.000 infantry equipment and you are actually trying to recruit more infantry
- garrisons have insuficient equipment in order to perform their duties
- you are using line infantry to perform basic garrison duties. create a specific division already just for the task, or use the existing cavalry division for it. supression is what matters for garrison duty. no one cares if you bring an anti tank weapon to show the plebs that they should not to revolt against you. the only support company that actually matters is the one about military police, but that usually increases production costs so base cavalry division (with only cavalry battalions) is OK.
- you are producing a ton of 1936 artillery and as stated, its 1941. how dare you sir, to bring such shame upon the soviet army. the germans will only run away if you bring some pipe organ, or, start singing about a certain lonely girl by the name katya (katyusha) - yes yes the russians are terrible singers. You cannot do that with 1936 artillery - you should definetely be producing 1939 artillery instead, if you cannot understand what I am saying. Complementing your base infantry divisions with rocket artillery (support company) would be nice too, if you have open slots. After all its 1941 and rocket artillery is from 1940 and no one can complain about extra soft stats.
- you are producing a ton of unecessary refineries - yes you are at war with the allies, but to produce aircraft like the ones you are producing, or trucks for an army that pratically has only infantry, might as well forget about rubber completely.
- you are also completing "development of tankograd" but didn't even built enough factories on the urals / far east. largely irrelevant with so many bigger errors right now, but you are also going to miss a lot of factories because of that.
- its 1941 and you still have only 3 research slots. Man, no wonder you are still with stick and stones, but don't expect atheists to defeat goliath (or the germans) with stones like david did! Prioritizing extra research slots is usually a must in most games with ANY country. With USSR you need to be smart and avoid delaying stalin's paranoia, but you shouldn't let it stagnate your industry / tech either.
- you are not producing trains. Might be irrelevant now, but by the time you notice you are lacking trains, it will be probably a bit too late. Production takes time to increase, so you should have alocated at least 3 factories to trains. In your case, germany will enjoy absolute air supremacy in your skies, so your trains will be easy target. 3 factories might not be enough under such case scenario, specially since the only train tech available for you is the normal one, and not even the armored one.
THE EUROPEAN AND POLITICAL FRONT:
- you are at war vs the allies!
- your old friends (or new friends?), the germans, are justifying war goals against you!
- your army hates you. they are making mutinies! currently -10% org, -20% recovery, -25% division attack, and soon to double in (negative) effects!
- the population does not really like your wars and your war support is below 40%. In short, you are not having sucess in making new friends. you might still make a good russian one day. Papa Stalin has faith on you.
- I noticed you have some armies on coastal duty. While it makes sense to have some men, you have them set to "guard the coastline". This will place 1 division in every tile near the coast. Which is NUTS! Place them merely on "guarding naval bases", because this will prevent the enemy from resupplying their armies, in case they make naval invasions. No supply for their men will mean they can be encircled and destroyed easily. "Guarding naval bases" will also reduce the amount of men you require by a very good amount, since you are pratically only proctecting ports.
- your front is gigantic. from the arctic going around the baltic, back to the black sea and all the way to the caucasus.
- there is no point in making a front like this, specially if it brought into war with the allies
- if you want to make war as the ussr on a historical game, either do it early vs non-majors and before Japan declares war on China, or don't
- puppeting finland is great, but you shouldn't create an extra front with Norway
- when war comes, don't invite Finland. Puppets are usually great walls and better kept that way. And in this case all the men guarding the finnish coastline can be relocated elsewhere
- you are "encouraging frugality" (which reduces war support lost due to convoy raiding), when the loss to war support is coming from army casualties
- you still have yagoda as political advisor. This muppet decreases stability. I am sure the people will prefer Nikita for example.
- you never made the switch to war economy, or to free trade. This is tanking consumer goods, factory production and construction speed.
- foreign experts is also much better than national specialists specially on a historical game, since you have time to prepare. Invite some yankees after hiring Gosproyekstroy, they will help you in your task of sending those plebs to the mines... err, factories.
- you took many focus that you could have avoided taking, and did not take many that you should. Air focus are irrelevant if you cannot build modern airplanes. Most industrial focus were never taken, and you completed a lot of focus related to the army but totally neglected/ignored the extra research slot on it. Research slots and newer tech is crucial.
- building factories close to the enemies is a bad idea. When war comes, and if territory falls to the enemy, its assets that they will get. With the USSR you have so many territories and depth, it doesn't make sense to build near them.
--------------------------------------
In short, the errors are many. Some can be easily neglected, others, not really. USSR is not really the most newbie friendly nation out there, so if you still have a lot to learn, I recommend reading some guides and actually playing other nations, in order to get experience and understand how things work.
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@BurningEGO you're a saint, I didn't have it in me to give advice on more than supply lol
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Where you get your templates from?
Who said signal and AT companies are are good in singleplayer?
Why you recruiting divisions endlessly?
Signal was probably my fault, my bad. I said I like to use signal for reinforcement chance, but I never said how I used it. Tldr, I use signal basically never in the early game, sparingly during the main war, and more frequently when I’m trying to break a hard defensive point.
Early game, because organization is still semi-precious, I rarely add ANY support battalions to the default templates. As production allows, depending on which country I play, then I will usually add anti air to many units because it’s so multifunctional, and sometimes artillery and engineer for my defensive units, depending on country bonuses and stuff… but only as my artillery and anti air and support equipment builds up and I can afford it without letting my units run around with missing equipment. I will keep the default template for the entire game and duplicate it, build up the new template to progressively add battalions, and switch unit templates as needed, piecemeal.
It’s only later when I would build more types of templates than I need to, when I have a surplus of army xp and supply equipment, so I’ll have a dedicated plug the line unit with signal corps, but also that’s later on when I have units (and the spare equipment) to redeploy.
Of course, I would never add engineer to an offensive unit, just like I would never add more support battalions to the units I intend to use to specifically soak up org damage. I think playing with all DLC changes the math a bit, but the base game still encourages you to use purposeful designs, separate dedicated offensive and defensive templates.
It’s only later when I would build more types of templates than I need to, when I have a surplus of army xp and supply equipment, so I’ll have a dedicated plug the line unit with signal corps, but also that’s later on when I have units (and the spare equipment) to redeploy.
Of course, I would never add engineer to an offensive unit, just like I would never add more support battalions to the units I intend to use to specifically soak up org damage. I think playing with all DLC changes the math a bit, but the base game still encourages you to use purposeful designs, separate dedicated offensive and defensive templates.
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Then here is a good video for beginner division templates.
Watch and learn.
Absolute Beginner Templates explained in 148 seconds.
Watch and learn.
Absolute Beginner Templates explained in 148 seconds.
- 1
ok thanks I can beat the Germans next time for sure!A lot of wrong stuff going on in your game.
Where to start?
Like the previous user said:
ON-GOING CONFLICTS:
- war with allies
- the war itself isn't problematic since they can barely do a thing against you but:
- you are denying yourself of easy rubber trade and potential trading partners (ussr has a ton of resources to sell, mate)
- you are building a ton of refineries in order to compensate due to lack of rubber (the allies pratically have a monopoly on rubber). Refineries are expensive and in order to build/improve said refineries you are also wasting time researching tech for them.
- you blocked yourself from completing industrial focus branch (third five year plan) since any war with any major will block you from completing them
- the offensive war penalty is also tanking your war support and this is having its toll on your stability and indirectly on production since stability affects a lot of things
View attachment 1282570
DIVISIONS, ARMY TEMPLATES AND MORE:
- your division templates are still wrongly done
- forget anti tank completely already - if you want extra hard attack, go like marcelo said and opt for anti air, it will help against enemy air superiority and also provide some kick against tanks. Its much better for generic infantry builds. Anti tank is very situational.
- forget about motorized recon, this is a plain leg division with a max speed of 4.0 km/h. Motorized recon is only good due to speed (and due to a small bump in recon values). If you want recon for infantry, opt for cavalry recon (much cheaper in terms of production) or for armored car (which you can't build due to lack of dlc, so definetely go for cavalry recon)
- now it comes down to preference and tastes, but i generally go with engineer support company due to entrenchment values. This is extremely good for defensive units, as long as you actually have time to dig trenches.
- for main infantry divisions, I never go for less than 20 width as well. so add at the very least an extra infantry battalion. You might actually go higher, somewhere near 20-30 width but it will depend on where you will place them and for what. You can't expect to place large divisions like these in the middle of finland and in the arctic!!! for areas with very poor supply like africa I generally go with 12-16 width.
- Most/Many of your divisions are green or merely "trained". TRAIN THOSE MEN! There is no reason they shouldn't be "regular".
- You should realize some generals are more geared toward being "defensive generals" and others toward "offensive generals". Inflexible strategists for example can unlock the "Unyielding Defender" field marshal trait. This synergizes well with "Defensive Doctrine". Which, also goes well with "Ambusher". Defensive generals are also much better at doing exactly that, DEFENDING.
- With what I just said, you should also consider that divisions can be more geared towards defense, and others towards offense. For defense, one can go with a ton of slow moving infantry (static warfare requires pratically no mobility after all if your lines have been properly made), for offense it is much better to opt for mobility and armored units, although pure infantry armies are plausible if you know what you are doing and can spare the manpower. But even when I go full infantry, I still have 1 or another full army of tanks/mechs/mot.
View attachment 1282579
ARMY PRODUCTION, FACTORIES AND OTHER NUMBERS:
- its 1941 and you are producing 1936 fighters and 1936 close air support airplanes. germany will send those flying off to uranus (pun intended) almost immediately (and you don't even have that many since I bet you lost a good deal to the allies).
- you are wasting a lot of factories into making trucks while fielding mostly just infantry.
- you have a deficit of 90.000 infantry equipment and you are actually trying to recruit more infantry
- garrisons have insuficient equipment in order to perform their duties
- you are using line infantry to perform basic garrison duties. create a specific division already just for the task, or use the existing cavalry division for it. supression is what matters for garrison duty. no one cares if you bring an anti tank weapon to show the plebs that they should not to revolt against you. the only support company that actually matters is the one about military police, but that usually increases production costs so base cavalry division (with only cavalry battalions) is OK.
- you are producing a ton of 1936 artillery and as stated, its 1941. how dare you sir, to bring such shame upon the soviet army. the germans will only run away if you bring some pipe organ, or, start singing about a certain lonely girl by the name katya (katyusha) - yes yes the russians are terrible singers. You cannot do that with 1936 artillery - you should definetely be producing 1939 artillery instead, if you cannot understand what I am saying. Complementing your base infantry divisions with rocket artillery (support company) would be nice too, if you have open slots. After all its 1941 and rocket artillery is from 1940 and no one can complain about extra soft stats.
- you are producing a ton of unecessary refineries - yes you are at war with the allies, but to produce aircraft like the ones you are producing, or trucks for an army that pratically has only infantry, might as well forget about rubber completely.
- you are also completing "development of tankograd" but didn't even built enough factories on the urals / far east. largely irrelevant with so many bigger errors right now, but you are also going to miss a lot of factories because of that.
- its 1941 and you still have only 3 research slots. Man, no wonder you are still with stick and stones, but don't expect atheists to defeat goliath (or the germans) with stones like david did! Prioritizing extra research slots is usually a must in most games with ANY country. With USSR you need to be smart and avoid delaying stalin's paranoia, but you shouldn't let it stagnate your industry / tech either.
- you are not producing trains. Might be irrelevant now, but by the time you notice you are lacking trains, it will be probably a bit too late. Production takes time to increase, so you should have alocated at least 3 factories to trains. In your case, germany will enjoy absolute air supremacy in your skies, so your trains will be easy target. 3 factories might not be enough under such case scenario, specially since the only train tech available for you is the normal one, and not even the armored one.
View attachment 1282584
THE EUROPEAN AND POLITICAL FRONT:
- you are at war vs the allies!
- your old friends (or new friends?), the germans, are justifying war goals against you!
- your army hates you. they are making mutinies! currently -10% org, -20% recovery, -25% division attack, and soon to double in (negative) effects!
- the population does not really like your wars and your war support is below 40%. In short, you are not having sucess in making new friends. you might still make a good russian one day. Papa Stalin has faith on you.
- I noticed you have some armies on coastal duty. While it makes sense to have some men, you have them set to "guard the coastline". This will place 1 division in every tile near the coast. Which is NUTS! Place them merely on "guarding naval bases", because this will prevent the enemy from resupplying their armies, in case they make naval invasions. No supply for their men will mean they can be encircled and destroyed easily. "Guarding naval bases" will also reduce the amount of men you require by a very good amount, since you are pratically only proctecting ports.
- your front is gigantic. from the arctic going around the baltic, back to the black sea and all the way to the caucasus.
- the effects of political paranoia are still active. somewhat. You never took the decision to "loosen prohibitions in military academies".
- there is no point in making a front like this, specially if it brought into war with the allies
- if you want to make war as the ussr on a historical game, either do it early vs non-majors and before Japan declares war on China, or don't
- puppeting finland is great, but you shouldn't create an extra front with Norway
- when war comes, don't invite Finland. Puppets are usually great walls and better kept that way. And in this case all the men guarding the finnish coastline can be relocated elsewhere
- you are "encouraging frugality" (which reduces war support lost due to convoy raiding), when the loss to war support is coming from army casualties
- you still have yagoda as political advisor. This muppet decreases stability. I am sure the people will prefer Nikita for example.
- you never made the switch to war economy, or to free trade. This is tanking consumer goods, factory production and construction speed.
- foreign experts is also much better than national specialists specially on a historical game, since you have time to prepare. Invite some yankees after hiring Gosproyekstroy, they will help you in your task of sending those plebs to the mines... err, factories.
- you took many focus that you could have avoided taking, and did not take many that you should. Air focus are irrelevant if you cannot build modern airplanes. Most industrial focus were never taken, and you completed a lot of focus related to the army but totally neglected/ignored the extra research slot on it. Research slots and newer tech is crucial.
- building factories close to the enemies is a bad idea. When war comes, and if territory falls to the enemy, its assets that they will get. With the USSR you have so many territories and depth, it doesn't make sense to build near them.
--------------------------------------
In short, the errors are many. Some can be easily neglected, others, not really. USSR is not really the most newbie friendly nation out there, so if you still have a lot to learn, I recommend reading some guides and actually playing other nations, in order to get experience and understand how things work.
My view on this would be that it best to try a smaller nation to learn some basics but the only way to test your learning is to try a nation where there is some consistent expectation of what you should be able to achieve. You move on, try playing the Soviets and then find out that in reality you still have no idea what you are doing. It needs to be a major nation with clear expectations and the absolute classic example is the Soviet Union but it does still have the rather severe issue of long preparation time so the replay cycle is a bit long winded.
I don't disagree but he has no way of knowing how poorly he has understood the overall operation of the game other than to try a country, like the Soviet Union, that gives a fairly unambiguous "you aren't up to speed yet" result. To be fair to him, he is way past the standard that would allow you to do sort of OK in other games it's just playing HOI4 USSR is rather unforgiving and provides a huge stack of opportunities for doing it wrong.
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