The Eastern front is a horrifically hard one! As you might already know the Germans are unstoppable for the first two years- but dont worry! I've held them back and pushed to Berlin ( before a new enemy appeared..error! *crash* Cant load save game!)
I admit- i was about to give up, the turn of the tide was a utter and complete shock for me- not unlike what historically happened! This was my strategy for the Soviets- and it worked!
First of all get the dissident down to 0%- that should take 6 months at least. You will need all that IC for production.
Research: Land doctrines, infantry, heavy armor, encryption and decryption, manufacturing, and agriculture. I didn't bother with air-power because i just cant see it's use until much later..
Once the traitors are put down, start using every IC you have to produce factories! As many as you can, and as far East as you can! ( Don't want the Germans over-running them and taking them over!)
Make two rounds of factories. About 60% of the way through the 2nd factory the great purge should happen. Do not kill the officers! It will cut you off from the shock armies doctrine ( a excellent doctrine path!) This will cause you another 6 months of trying to lower dissidents again - but make sure you finish those factories first!
At this time Germany should be acting up in Europe, annexing Austria, and barking at the other guys ( Cant spell it's God-forsaken hard to spell name)
Now you need to reinforce your understrength divisions after you lower the dissent down to 0% again. After that upgrade your army and modernize it. Hopefully by now ti should be 1941 infantry. Germany should now be starting the 2nd world war.
Annex the Baltic states, and spam heavy armor brigades for your infantry ( make sure everyone gets one!)
After everyone has been reinforced, upgraded, and have heavy tank brigades its time to start mass-recruiting infantry. You should get about 3 batches of infantry in by March 1941.
Formation is extremely important now, you will not hold the Germans at any point for the next 1.5 years you can only delay them at best. Defence in depth was my strategy, i formed cores of two divisions each and spread them out from the Polish territories to Moscow. Place the first line one province away from the front, after that start using the terrain and Stalin line as suggestions on where to place your other lines. These lines do not have to be perfect, some of mine where very erratic- remember your goal is to delay the Germans and prevent your armies from clustering, remember your men will get pushed back and that means gaps will open leaving large potions of the land unguarded, so several lines will help fix this problem- never let the Germans advance unhindered- even if there is little chance of stopping them.
A mistake i made was letting my center become unmanned- so the Germans eventually pushed me back to the Volga river before new conscripts could be sent in.
Winter is your friend here, German doctrine gives them a -40% defence and attack in frozen, and snow weather- plus the normal penalties for fighting in that weather! This will ensure your lines will not be pushed back in the winter.
By late May the Germans should start advancing again, and they will stop late October and early November- thats a good half year+ you have to reinforce weak points and dig-in.
By 1942 the Germans pushed me back to a couple provinces away from Moscow, and Stalingrad! but i held Estonia, the Caucuses, and that little peninsula of South Ukraine and the line stabilized.
You will be desperate to keep the dissent down, it will grow rapidly ( -2, -5, -8) at a time for each city you lose to the advancing Germans. You will also be hit with a -30 to organisation and -30 to your dissent the day the Germans attack you! ( This is why you will not hold)
At this point you can take one of two strategies, prioritize lowering dissent, or get some more men onto the field. I chose to lower my dissent, i put reinforcements on hold, produced 4 mechanised troops ( serial run) and had half-supplies.
The great patriotic war event should help return things to normal ( Your a German bitch until it fires) There is also a bug i get every time. The Germans attack on June 1st- not June 24th! This causes you to be helpless for almost a whole month longer! It can be fixed by reloading the game as Germany ( before the war) waiting until June 2nd, and re-loading back to the soviets.
You must make use of your motorized infantry, and armor divisions. Split them into several groups and send a group to each of the areas : Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. Have them quickly support the defence of units involved in battles. Unless you are far better than me, you will be pushed back again in the summer of 1942.
For me, Leningrad was surrounded and eventually taken late 1942, the enemy reached the gates of Stalingrad, and the Caspian sea ( I had my mountaineers hold Georgia, along with those who bravely held Southern Ukraine in 1941) Moscow was in a dire situation. Halfway surrounded with a single province preventing my 30+ divions from being cut-off. The Volga was penetrated at 4 points ( 3 beaten back).
I was actually about to respond to this topic when i took this screen shot, asking for help..but i was having major technical difficulties in posting so i continued..alone...
The gray is what they took before winter, the blue is what they took- but i retook that same year.
If what i experienced is normal, then you will be hanging on by the skin of your finger nails.
In 1943 you should have no dissent, and reinforcements being made again.
Breaking through is up to your tactical skill, i had actually achieved it by total accident. I was trying to surround a single division slightly East of Moscow, Zhukov's tanks penetrated as far South as Ukraine in a single province line. This invoked the Germans to attack my rear flank with +15 division. So i saw my chance and tried to surround them. I brought up 30 division of my own to attack them ( Including Moscow's garrison) This caused the Germans to reinforce it self with another 15 divisions, bringing the fight up to 30 vs 30. I took turns with my men, when they got into red i disengaged that division and let them rest. My infantry reinforcements arrived and i managed to pin down the Germans with them, and broke off my mobile troops and tried to swing them around the Germans. The battle lasted for months but at the last moment, my mobile force took the only linking province between two German provinces and the rest of it's army- trapping them. Moments later they routed and i crushed a estimated 35-40 divisions directly outside of the gates of Moscow.
That broke the Germans back in the North- the entire army shifted to cover the gap left behind but my own Baltic-line charged South and the rout was totally over-whelming, the tide of the entire war changed and before Winter set in i had pushed the Northern front all the way down to that river with a city between them.
I shifted the advance East and took the Ukraine in a forced winter march and took the Ukraine and cut off over 60 divisions in the Caucuses.
Took out 60+ of their divisions, and freed up 52 of mine.
The rest is easy to guess, i advanced basically unhindered save for weak resistance, America landed in France early April of 1944 and blitzed to a province away from Berlin. I managed to get there first though ; )
Anyways that strategy won me the war, i was beyond desperate but victory never tasted sweeter. I was beyond thrilled when i managed to take out the German army outside of Moscow, i never imagined going after a single division would end up as me taking out 1/3rd of the German army in the motherland, and lead me to take out 60% of what remained that same year.
If that had not happened, i do not think i would have won. I made 100+ divisions in a half year though, the Germans would not advance any further- thats for sure.
Oh another thing i did was hold back a half batch of infantry in the deployment pool so i could add men where i needed them quickly when the Germans advanced in 1941. It seemed to work nicely.
Hope that helps you out a bit.
PS Come to think of it, i never got Order 227- not one step back. I *needed* whatever it would give me..ground defence +! Something!
Why didn't i ever get that order? I even looked up when it was issued so i knew when i could expect it ><
So I have a couple of questions. For example, can I switch my Soviet land doctrine to German one, in order to get better organization? Should I concentrate on building infantry or use tanks and motorized as well? Should I purge the military or not? In vanilla, I used to switch doctrine to German one and start building factories right away, so by 1940 I had a huge industrial capacity for building tons of tank and motorized infantry divisions. I also did not purge (because I didn't want to lose good research teams and generals). Should I change my strategy in WiF in order not get badly mauled by Germans when they start Barbarossa?
