HOI4 Soviet Union AAR

Post 1 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-07 15:02:05 UTC

Soviet game time. The plan is to avoid temptation of invading everyone left and right, try not to get into war with the Allies, but try to be sneaky instead.

As I don't plan to get into wars any time soon, I sent my support to communist parties is USA and nationalist China, got captain of industry to mass build civilian factories, and sent 5 divisions to help Spain, and I won that war for like 10th time by now.

My efforts in China resulted in one state flipping to PRC, but Americans elected Landon over Roosevelt, and he's got much higher ideological drift defense, so that probably won't work. France is going hard left (this game really needs ideology map mode), but is not there yet, and it could do "ban communism" before next elections.

And as scheduled, Japan attacked China. Let's see if Mao and minors will join it as usual, letting me send a few more volunteer divisions. I think there's always a chance that they won't.

I don't think I can "win" this war, but I should be able to use my 7 armored divisions to squash any naval invasions, so as long as the Chinese hold Beijing front, it should stalemate that while Japan bleeds out.

And thanks to the war, I was finally able to go war economy. Now I can build civilian factories about twice as fast, and that's the only thing I'm going to do for quite a while.

 #hoi4

Post 2 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-07 18:13:57 UTC

I sent 7 divisions to nationalist China and 5 to Communist China - both as many as I could. It's actually huge pain in the ass to manage troops game insists on putting into separate theaters even though they're in same provinces. All fighting of course while at officers purged penalties.

By the way you really should be able to see how battles of countries you sent your volunteers to go.

War went as follows:

• crushing invasion of Shandong Peninsula (across Korea)
• making Japan's puppet capitulate
• second invasion of Shandong Peninsula (killed some divisions, but couldn't finish it off, they were too well fortified)
• dealing with Japanese crossing of river next to Beijing - and retaking Beijing
• crushing invasion of Fujian (across Taiwan)
• back to Shandong, now that they spread a bit more, so I could isolate and crush them
• second landing of Fujian
• crushing landing next to Beijing
• running over Manchuria and Korea as Japanese army all bled to death
• and seriously, you're trying one more landing next to Beijing? Sure
• and one more landing at Fujian? What are you doing AI, you have like 20 divisions left
• and that was it - Japan was left with just the islands

Meanwhile Democratic France and Communist France had a civil war, so I sent them 8 infantry. Unfortunately Democratic France had 70% national unity, and Communist France only 38%, and as the French like to do, left Paris completely undefended.

And then the world war begun - Germany and Italy vs Czechoslovakia, UK, Communist France, and Luxembourg. Communist France was in even less shape to fight than regular France, and they didn't even bother to man the damn Maginot Line. My volunteers had little hope of making Allies win the war, but the least I could do was manning the damn Maginot.

Unfortunately while I could defend Maginot line, Italians managed to break through. I'm trying to patch it with soldiers I can spare from Maginot Line, as Germans temporarily seem to be tired of attacking, but it probably won't be enough.

By the way I lost motorized division to a shitty bug - when you're attacking and you decide to move elsewhere instead, if you click on your province, then on target province, it will make you cancel attack and move. If you click on target province directly it will make you "withdraw" (even though that's bullshit), and you can get "overran".

Enemy death tolls so far:
• Japan 1.15M
• Germany 247K
• Italy 243K

 #hoi4

Japan attacks


Last days of the burgeouis rebellion against French Commune






And it only got worse from here

Post 3 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-07 20:26:11 UTC

Japan is basically defeated. It keeps sending tiny invasions every now and then, but two Chinas can deal with them on their own without any serious help from me. Unfortunately there's no way to just recall volunteers, even though they'd be of much more use elsewhere - they only go home when they're at peace (and China won't invade Japan, so that won't happen) or I'm at war.

I tried defending France with 9 divisions of volunteers, and I only just figured out I can send another 9 to UK and transport them by sea. That should be just about enough. The plan was that they'd arrive in London, I'd transport them by sea to France, and use them. Unfortunately they arrived in Palestine instead. Seriously? Well, it's time for the Soviet North Africa campaign. It wasn't terribly conclusive, but we pushed them a bit.

Of my 9 units I sent to France, 6 stayed on Maginot Line, 3 I sent to patch the breach in French Lines Italy made. Somehow we managed to not only encircle invading Italians, and link with defenders of Marseille/Toulon/Nice who were cut from us for half a year (supplied by sea, so not too bad), but we even managed to push into Genoa and Turin.

Albania told Italy to go to hell, so Italy declared war on them, but so far it's still independent.

Poland is building its own faction, and got all Baltic states into it. German got both Memel and Danzig by ultimatum.

I tried to use my focuses to get Central European claims, but somehow I got message that all of them got bypassed at once. That left me with "Demand Eastern Poland" focus. War with Miedzymorze is nice, as that's the weakest faction, and I should be able to wreck them all at once.

Germany attacked Belgium and Netherlands which let me send extra 13 volunteer divisions, but I see little hope. I made Axis bleed, but there's only so much I can do with just volunteers. If I had 18 divisions in France all the time, I would be able to protect Maginot Line and wreck Italy at the same time. Unfortunately they decided to go to Palestine instead, so France's fate is in doubt.

Enemy body counts:
• Japan - 1.24m
• Germany - 724k
• Italy -  855k

 #hoi4



Russians to the rescue!


And with this pocket Italian invasion of France fails




Western Front seems about even, but I don't have high expectations (unless Germany DoWs Yugoslavia, Poland, and Denmark all at once next)

Post 4 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-07 22:51:23 UTC

Poland refused my legitimate claims, so war with Miedzymorze began, and volunteers have been recalled.

Summary of my volunteers:
• (winning Spanish and French civil wars for Communist side, but that's old history now)
• 11 armored division (and 1 motorized division, lost to misclick) in China - completely destroyed Japan and took over all Japanese lands on the continent - the most recent Japanese invasion is now 19 divisions stuck on two mountain and one hill provinces, with low supply
• 9 infantry in Africa - got all of North Africa, but Italy and Germany have very strong forces in East Africa
• 3 infantry divisions in South France - amount of wrecking they did relative to their size was amazing, managed to push the front all the way to Genoa and Turin
• 6 infantry divisions holding Maginot Line - a lot of Germans got killed trying to take their positions, but in the end they came around Belgium; so used as reserve to reinforce any battle of my allies to delay and bleed Germans as much as possible
• 11 infantry divisions in Belgium and Netherlands - just reinforcing whichever battle they could see, to delay and bleed Germans

Body counts:
• Japan - 1.27m
• Germany - 955k
• Italy - 977k

Poland and Baltic states opposed me and got wrecked. Romania gave up Bessarabia and went Communist. Then it went Fascist and joined the Axis like two weeks later. Finland gave up Karjala, but I got 3 clamis not 1 from my focus, so why not attack them anyway. This is probably a bug (if they accept ultimatum, it should clear all claims, either giving them to me or cancelling them), but what the hell.

My army's performance was not amazing, but it was adequate. I wouldn't want to face Axis one on one, but I think opening a second front might work pretty well.

Meanwhile in WW2 Italy attacked Greece - without even being able to deal with Albania. Axis keeps gaining groud, but all that ground is covered by dead German and Italian bodies.

By the way I'd totally send some lend lease to France if only there was any way to know what the fuck they actually need.

 #hoi4

Post 5 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-08 01:14:42 UTC

I sent France 2000 towed artillery and 10000 basic infantry equipment. That's enough to have 100 infantry battalions and 55 artillery battalions (21 regular divisions). No idea if France actually needs that, but I have a ton of old equipment leftover after upgrades. The game just needs a damn ledges, all this cutesy bullshit with encryption, decryption, and number ranges needs to go - especially between allies.

Brits managed to conquer Rome, and Germany figured out it's overextended and shouldn't do anything silly... Who am I kidding, they declared war on Yugoslavia.

I put all my army on the border, even with logistics companies (they are so awesome!) supply in Poznan was somewhat poor, but I couldn't be bothered to wait for it to build, fortunately it's just 15 days to fabricate a CB at this point.

It was extremely micro-intense, but that's totally OK as long as everyone fits on one screen. For some reason Hungary joined Axis while it was completely crushed on all fronts.

After I crushed Germany I came back to deal with Hungary and Romania (ignoring them and putting token force on the borders was part of the plan to rush Germany with maximum force before they can organize any defenses), then I sent most of my troops to face Japan, but left 24-stack to take Sicily, or else Italy wouldn't capitulate (in real history Italy capitulated after losing Sicily only, before anybody showed on the mainland).

Of course even Even dumber was that Germany declared war on Norway after its capitulation. Seriously, capitulated countries should be unable to either declare war or be declared upon.

At least Spain joined Comintern, so that's fun.

Here's a fun story. There were 3 wars:
• Chinese faction vs whole Axis
• Comintern vs whole Axis
• Allies vs Germany, Italy, Hungary

Italy will presumably capitulate first, so is it going to be a peace conference where Allies will take everything and me and the Chinese get nothing?
 #hoi4

This is the plan. Two small stacks to cut East Prussia and Slovakia, bulk of the army to steamroll everyone.


You don't say!




Japan tried to do something cute. Horses I happened to have around can't actually attack, even surrounded and out of supplies opponent.


I must have wrecked Italy harder than I thought, Rome fell to UK.


Bringing much needed supplies to the Maginot Line.


Preparing for showdown with Japan, who made a few small naval invasions in China again.

Post 6 - Originally published on Google+ on 2016-07-08 03:11:11 UTC

I figured out a strategy for forcing straits. You make a plan to do so, then take as many units as will fit and attack - the rest of your army will be gaining planning bonus. Every now and then switch them around for units with more planning bonus - but never stop attacking so they never have a chance to regain organization (other than by moving units to and from reserve). It's not amazing hack, but it was just enough.

Anyway, there were 3 wars:
• Chinese faction vs whole Axis
• Comintern vs whole Axis
• Allies vs Germany, Italy, Hungary

So I was wondering if with Germany/Italy capitulating first, if Allies are going to get peace conference and take everything while me and Chinese get nothing. Turns out something more ridiculous happened.

I took puppets Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria, as well as some land from Germany and Italy - but most of their lands were liberated as Democratic countries. And what Republics of Italy and Germany do as the first thing? Rejoin the Axis of course! Italy came back to its senses, but Germany joined Japan's war.

I dropped paratroopers from the North side this time. I tried to transport some real infantry, with 0% chance of interception, and 1/2 divisions got sunk. Well, at least I have total air superiority, their fighters all got shot down in a few weeks, so I could move all my paratroopers with no losses - except losses due to accidentally landing on Japanese troops, this happened a few times.

In the end, Japan, Romania, and Mengjiang, China took half of Mengjiang, I took the rest of Germany (except for bits that France took before) - and so ends the world war.

It was all quite fun. Technically I wasn't at war most of the time, but I kept fighting with volunteers. AI showed new ways to be dumb. I think that's enough HOI4 for now, unless I find some fun mods.

 #hoi4

WTF? Axis is back?


First peace conference. Notice Democratic Germany and Italy.


Paradrop from different direction


Fighting for every bit of land. Paratroopers are not that great at fighting.


Japan only surrendered when I got their literally last victory point.


Factions after the war


Diplomacy to make China flip states to PRC was moderately effective. USA was not even close to flipping Communist, and that's like 3rd or 4th campaign when I'm trying to flip USA.


Europe. Communist France took some land, as did I. Democratic countries don't seem interested in land somehow.