raising National Unity

[j_k_k]

So, thanks to Nick3210 (yeshcho raz bolshoi spasibo!), I'm off and running in my Soviet 1936 game. I see what Misterbean was talking about when he said if you could manage the Soviet military organization, you could handle any other in the game. As usual, he was right.

My analysis so far is that these are the priorities:

• Raise National Unity to obtain better laws
• Raise Threat on Germany and Japan to lower CG requirements and give them a headache
• Build no supplies--sell resources and trade for all the supplies you can afford
• Work toward modernization and build a full OB
• Catch up on outdated techs
• Build up construction practicals so that when you can build infrastructure, it's quicker and cheaper

All right, great. I know how to do most of that. But on NU, is there any other way in addition to using domestic spies on that mission?

One of my epiphanies was that it was okay to prioritize home spies on raising NU, because early in the game, the Soviets don't have that much tech that any of their competitors could benefit from stealing.

 

[50shadesofgreen]

Using domestic spies is the only way I know to control your NU, other than events. The officer purge raises NU by 25. The odd thing is NU is marginally easier to raise each day when the total is lower. So hammer it with spies well before you take the 25 bite with the purge.

 

[roverS3]

You can boost the increase in National Unity by going with Free Press and by assigning a security minister that boosts national unity changes.
Eliminating the negative 'fractured government' modifier will also help get NU up faster. To that end, if at all possible appoint ministers to reflect party popularity. If that's not possible, go for the most repressive civl law possible and appoint as many ministers as possible which raise ruling party support whilst being part of the ruling party.

 

[Kovax]

You can boost the increase in National Unity by going with Free Press and by assigning a security minister that boosts national unity changes.
Eliminating the negative 'fractured government' modifier will also help get NU up faster. To that end, if at all possible appoint ministers to reflect party popularity. If that's not possible, go for the most repressive civl law possible and appoint as many ministers as possible which raise ruling party support whilst being part of the ruling party.

From everything I've seen, unless you need to win an upcoming election (not a problem for the Soviets), there's no point in boosting party popularity until/unless you already have Ruling Party Organization in the 80-90 range. As long as ANY of the other parties can control even a single seat, you get the "Fractured Government" NU penalty. Since party popularity strongly follows party organization (the reverse doesn't seem to be true), and popularity will rise or fall fairly rapidly to roughly match it, you need to marginalize all of the competing parties first.

Unless you have a minister who raises party organization (not popularity), you will need to use those same spies who are boosting National Unity to raise party organization instead. The way Paradox designed the systems, it pays to throw most or all of your spies into a single task, only paying the base cost for one task instead of several. That means you should either ignore party organization and popularity and just suffer the "Fractured Government" penalty, or else dedicate most or all of your spies to boosting org until it's high enough to marginalize the competition, THEN switch over to raising NU while assigning ministers to boost party popularity (which now won't be pulled back down again due to low organization). I have no idea which course would be more effective.

 

[j_k_k]

Using domestic spies is the only way I know to control your NU, other than events. The officer purge raises NU by 25. The odd thing is NU is marginally easier to raise each day when the total is lower. So hammer it with spies well before you take the 25 bite with the purge.

My plan was not to do the purge. USSR is already leader-poor, and just as occurred historically, this would make that plenty worse. But what is scarier is the Leadership penalty. Since it's throwing a lot of LS down a hole to start recruiting officers early, and since one is already behind on tech, losing 15% of it seems catastrophic. Which as before, is realistic...realistic enough for me to reflect on not doing it.

 

[j_k_k]

You can boost the increase in National Unity by going with Free Press and by assigning a security minister that boosts national unity changes.
Eliminating the negative 'fractured government' modifier will also help get NU up faster. To that end, if at all possible appoint ministers to reflect party popularity. If that's not possible, go for the most repressive civl law possible and appoint as many ministers as possible which raise ruling party support whilst being part of the ruling party.

I had not even considered going with Free Press. Not sure I have any security ministers that could help with that. I was wondering how I should organize the leadership to get rid of that little fractured government penalty and had been thinking that having them all of the majority party would make sense, but I see that what I need them to do is mirror my current party situation.

 

[Kovax]

..., but I see that what I need them to do is mirror my current party situation.

No need. Ministers from another party won't support your ruling party anyway, so it really doesn't make much sense to choose ministers from other parties except on the basis of valuable traits. If there are any positive effects for having ministers who match the political alignment of the available cabinet seats, it's subtle enough that I've never noticed a difference.

As for the suggestion about Free Press, the espionage down sides to that are enough to chase me away screaming. As someone who takes the spy versus spy side of the game seriously, that feels pretty close to surrendering the entire covert battlefield to the enemy.

 

[roverS3]

If there are any positive effects for having ministers who match the political alignment of the available cabinet seats, it's subtle enough that I've never noticed a difference.

The only positive effect is the removal of the 'fractured government' negative modifier on national unity. As OP is looking to increase NU as quickly as possible, this does help. Of course, as a trade off against valuable traits, it's unlikely to come out on top.

 

[j_k_k]

As for the suggestion about Free Press, the espionage down sides to that are enough to chase me away screaming. As someone who takes the spy versus spy side of the game seriously, that feels pretty close to surrendering the entire covert battlefield to the enemy.

I also like the espionage side, but from what I can see, the reality is that good things happen to the USSR at NU 60, and more so at NU 70. Playing GER before, I noticed how, at the game's start once I've topped off the domestic counterintelligence staff and set them to top priority, it shovels out the whole barn. I always catch like 30 spies in Jan 1936. And since I do not have much worth stealing by the majors at this point (more like I should steal from them--and am doing so), the vast hastening of the approach of NU 70 seems much more beneficial. Of course, if the other powers start in trying to lower my NU, things will change.

What I have done is now and then put my people on counterintelligence for a couple weeks and watch them catch a lot of spies.

It's true that they are getting a pretty good idea what I'm building and where my deployments are, but that will not be the case by wartime, when I will have cleared NU 70 and will dial it back to a maintenance-level investment of LS.

 

[Kovax]

Just be sure you clear those spies out every now and then, because they become harder to remove after they're in for a while. Gaining spy superiority in January of 1936 is easy compared to trying to wrest control away from the enemy in 1939.

I usually dedicate a big chunk of Leadership and 100% of my espionage efforts to counter-espionage until at least the end of January, and usually through February. As you say, it clears out about 25-30 in January and another 5-10 in February. Then I can start raising either National Unity or Party Organization (which will help raise NU later on, by eventually getting rid of the Fractured Government modifier).

 

[50shadesofgreen]

So when do you estimate the USSR will pass 60 or 70 NU? Are you still going to try to hit party org and remove the fractured government penalty beforehand?

 

[j_k_k]

So when do you estimate the USSR will pass 60 or 70 NU? Are you still going to try to hit party org and remove the fractured government penalty beforehand?

I think it was about thirteen months to 60 and fourteen more to 70, but that was with one click of counterintelligence for about fifteen months. Since the clicks for domestic spies obviously divide the energies, it could have gone notably faster. I would estimate that with no counterintelligence at all, and max on national unity, you get there by the start of 1938.

Edit: I didn't bother with fractured government remedies. I agree with rovers3 that the benefits of the best ministers far outweigh the drag on NU.

The greater problem is officers. With the USSR's limited leadership, I found it made sense to neglect officers completely until it became possible to change to more favorable recruiting laws. My logic was to do as much as possible for the industrial and research base, so that during the officer replacement process (takes quite a while; in mid-1940 and still only at 89%) I'd have maximized my use of natural and LS resources. The drag, of course, is the ground lost during the officer process.

 

[50shadesofgreen]

I was trying the same thing in a test, just hitting NU after clearing the spies and ignoring the fractured government. Can get to 60 NU by start of 1937 which gives you access to most best possible laws. Only missing out on two leaps in manpower and the chance to go Heavy Industry.

Was weighing up the effect of hitting the Purge at that point. You'd get 500 extra manpower plus about 14 extra per month. So total extra of 700 manpower over not purging in your 14 months (not including other bonuses). The effect of Heavy Industry are harder to judge but need to be weighed against your extra 3 research slots.

I didn't think I lost any leaders of worth in the Purge?

Curious note for another campaign is that the leadership hit of the Purge goes away with a conquest of Finnish Vipurri (?). Wondering about raising the threat on Finland and starting that war early. Possibly then get the best of all outcomes?

 

[j_k_k]

What I did was decide that I didn't want to go back to peace, so I lined the Afghan border with a couple of mountain corps and declared war on them, then did nothing. The Afghan army is puny, the defensive terrain is superb, and it means I don't have much worry there. Unfortunately the best laws don't come until I pick on someone my own size, or more probably, they try and pick on me. We'll see what happens when they drop the gloves. With an eye to combat width and traditional Russian military values, I gave each rifle corps two organic rocket artillery regiments. That's in addition to filling divisions out to INF(or GUA)/INF/AT/ART(or R ART).

I gave a lot of thought to the loss of LS from the Purge and ultimately it was my deciding factor. The Soviet research situation is difficult enough without gutting LS. The leaders, not such a big deal. The LS, real bad. Although if it goes away taking Viipuri, that could be something to reconsider.

 

[50shadesofgreen]

I notice the paradox wiki doesn't agree with me on when the Restore Officers event fires. I def get it on the Diplomacy page in 1937 after I fire the Purge. I used the consol command "surrender FIN SOV" which surrendered the Finns and that province to me and confirmed that the loss of leadership went away.

 

[Wraith11B]

The wiki certainly hasn't been updated in awhile.

 

[j_k_k]

Okay. So it seems that the question for the USSR is whether the loss of LS from 1/37 through 1/40 (or thereabouts) is worth the early bump of NU to over 70. Between that and the threat leap by Japan at Marco Polo, that should be enough to change to the best pre-war laws and lower neutrality quite a bit. A number of situations would change with the law changes, I think mostly related to MP (can never have enough), officer recruitment (which might suddenly become worth doing more of sooner) and production (needed, because the base cost would rise; not sure how much advantage it is).

This would also mean not having to switch to Free Press, since the goal of that was to raise NU. It would mean domestic spies could concentrate on counterintelligence. It would raise serious questions as to whether the SU should ever send a single domestic spy abroad, and if so, where and for what. In two games so far the techs I have stolen were nowhere near worth the long investment of LS in spying to get them; I'd have been better off researching on my own. Should one raise threat on Germany but not bother with Japan? Then there's diplomacy. Without crippling everything else in the LS area, it seems the SU can just about keep influencing one country long enough to keep them out of the Axis.

One of my most important moves, to go along with all this, is go hard to get Advanced Construction Engineering. Few majors need as much domestic infra help as the USSR. I start early building airfields so that my practicals are warmed up.

 

[j_k_k]

Speaking of the USSR, in my game the Axis didn't attack in 1941 or 1942. I tried attacking them in 1943 and that evidently voids Japan's "we'll stay out of it" coding, because they were all attacking along the Manchurian frontier. So I guess my question now is: I had a full rifle corps in every border province. Does that mean their AI decided I was too tough a nut to crack? I had really been hoping they'd start trouble. Would it help to lighten the border presence to, say, half a corps (two rifle divisions) per province?

I am guessing that Japan only stays out of it with the USSR if Barbarossa happens before Pearl Harbor. Not sure.

 

[Wraith11B]

It's because the Soviets launching an attack triggers alliance rules, whereas Germany launching a limited (only in terms of participation) war does not.

Basically, Old Paradox couldn't figure out at the time how to keep the Japanese and Germans from doing ahistorical stuff jointly, which would keep them on merely the same side rather than an actual unified alliance per the game rules.

Bringing a powerful Soviet Union will cause Germany to be smarter than usual. Forward deploying the Army is a threatening behavior. Friendly nations don't put their armies on the border with one another.

 

[j_k_k]

You're exactly right. I did a test. I loaded up an early May 1941 save and pulled back two divisions from each border province (leaving two). Wham! They attacked within a week. Axis minor allies followed suit, but not Japan. So if I want to lure them into attacking me, I should start gradually pulling a division back here, a division there, then wait for the onslaught.

What's odd about the game is that I do not see officer shortages reflected in the combat details (you know, where it shows terrain effects, leader modifiers, combined arms bonus, and so on). All we are told is that 90+ is good and <90 is not good. Yet surely it is incremental, as in 95 is better than 94. I get that there's no bonus over 100 any more.