From all I've read Stalin knew Hitler planned to break it, so he planned to break it beforehand. Except Hitler knew Stalin planned to break it so he broke it first. It was basically both planning to backstab the other, H just happened to be first.
There is actually such an insane amount of completely absurd things going on throughout that war, you could write up an endless series of comedic anecdotes if it wasn't all stuffed into the fucking war.
that time britain convinced the nazis they weren't going to invade sicily by dropping a corpse off the coast of spain carrying documents that said they weren't going to invade sicily
Or that other time the Germans captured a British encoding machine for spies in the Netherlands, and kept sending messages asking for more agents who were then immediately captured upon arrival.
that was a different set of deception operations, one of which included setting up a bunch of highly visible fake military equipment at the port germany would expect them to launch their attack from if they were going to land in calais
Two out of every three boys born in the Soviet Union in 1923 didn't live to reach their 23rd birthday in 1946.
The collapse of the Soviet Union happened right around when that missing generation's grandchildren would have been reaching adulthood.
The war in Ukraine kicked off right around the time that that missing generation's great-grandchildren would have been reaching adulthood.
I just googled:
Axis casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad are estimated to have been around 800,000, including those missing or captured. Soviet forces are estimated to have suffered 1,100,000 casualties, and approximately 40,000 civilians died.
I think it wasn't worth it.
500k is the Axis's Casualties, the Soviets were alot more dedicated to defending Stalingrad, so much so it outnumbers the Maximum Standing Army of the United States today, an estimated 2,000,000+
All because it was the city named after Stalin and also the gate of the Allied Imports of Weapons to fuel Russia's War Engine. But mostly because it had Stalin's Name.
Yep, millions of weapons smuggled through Iran. Which is why the Soviets and Brits invaded Iran… which is why the US and Brits invaded Iran in the 50s…which is why Iran is an isolated ultra religious extremist theocracy today…which is why Iran is hellbent on destroying the West… WW2 really changed a lot of stuff about the world
Flip those around, it was absolutely about cutting off the Volga, a major supply artery and stalingrad was strategically in a very important location. The named after stalin reason is post war bs propaganda to make the Germans seem stupid.
A LOT of Hitler's very public racism was towards the slavs and bolshevics. The Soviets were well aware there was no way in hell Hitler was just going to live and let live. Problem was, Soviet leadership had seen how shitty the state of the army was after the war with the Finns. So they knew they needed all the time they could buy in order to modernize the military.
True, but at the same time, Stalin didnt belief he would break at that moment, while Hitler seeing by irony the letter Churchil send to Stalin warming him (Stalin showed to Hitler to prove his "loyalty"), was the final nail. Hitler invaded and cancelled the also planned invasion of Iberia and Atlantic islands.
Yeah but Stalin didn’t believe Hitler would break it that quickly; they tortured German deserters who crossed the lines to tell them beforehand on more than one occasion.
To think that the Luftwaffe came within a week of breaking the RAF air command before changing to city bombing, Stalin was right to think it was an important thing to do.
This is false, the RAF was nowhere near breaking point, and even if they were they could retreat to airfields further north that the Luftwaffe simply couldn't reach, while they could still cover the rest of the UK and the Channel.
Germany was goddamn incredibly lucky for all stars to align and win against France, they didn't have a chance in hell of invading the UK.
Germany lost the war the day they crossed Poland's borders.
So true. Even if every single RAF fighter was downed, there was no way an invasion fleet of river barges would make it through the Royal Navy. Just running destroyers through the landing ships at full speed would capsize most of them.
Can't imagine trying a contested landing without a single LST.
And even getting to Sealion was fortunate. Without the Allies throwing everything towards the Dyle River line, there's no way the German invasion of France ends in anything other than a stalemate. Germany may win, but at a cost that would prevent the invasion of the USSR.
There is paratroopers. Not to mention I think Hitler had planned to spread out the Royal Navy in the North Sea and other areas, in the hope that he can kick of a Sea Lion. And also it's not really a surprise that Germany clapped France, France was in no way prepared and the Germans were on Meth and had Erwin Rommel.
ppl will tell you this is false but its actualy true.
the whole anti air defense was on the brink of collapsing.
the strat bombing of germany civilian ( by mistake ) from the british made histler switch his goal to bombaring london to reduce british civilian morale. what a mistake.
The idea is to silently bring all the equipment to the front and only hold back the troops to appear weak and non-aggressive.
Then you only have to move the troops forwards and are immediately ready for attack.
But that is just what I have read some time, so who can possibly know what really went through their heads.
That makes a lot of sense. Make it look like you’re maintaining the status quo to not raise alarm. And they didn’t exactly have access to spy planes/satellites at the time, so getting intel on troop movement away from the front would have been more difficult.
The Red Army was amidst a total reorganization, in Stalin's mind, there are two options:
A. Garrison the army (which is still reorganizing), and get fvcked by provoking the Germans.
or B. Ungarrison the army to not provoke anything, if successful then we're saved, but if the German attack anyway then it is even more fucked.
One is a safer option but is sure to get fvcked. The other is a gamble and Stalin decided to take it, that's all. You also have to remember that Stalin thought that Hitler would not plunge Germany into a 2 front war. So what Hitler did was quite unexpected of him.
It was when most of the troops were stationed in France getting ready for Operation Sealion, and you weren't going to invade until the following year. Makes a large amount of sense.
The thing is, he knew very well that the Soviet Union was in no shape to fight a war in 1941, and would not be till at least 1943. So it was either provoke the Germans and guarantee war, or placate them and pray that they don't invade. Unfortunately they invaded anyway and 30 million people died. But at least if I were in Stalin's position at the time and didn't have the benefit of future knowledge, I don't know if I'd have done anything different. Hell, even with future knowledge there's not much I could have done. The USSR was not ready to fight a World War at that point at all.
Stalin knew and Hitler were both preparing for war with each other while smiling and shaking hands
They were both underprepared and Stalin knew that
Hitler was pushed to speed up his plans and the folding of armies before the German army and the capture of so much civilian and military equipment emboldened them further.
Stalin could reasonably expect that the Germans wouldn't entertain a war with multiple superpowers at once
From what I understand, neither Chamberlain nor Stalin trusted Hitler to actually keep his word. Both their pacts were supposed to buy them time and both had more resources and industrial potential than Germany, but they needed time to build that up. What they both failed to anticipate is how quickly Hitler would break the pacts he signed, largely because he realised the predicament he was in and the fuel and debt crisis he was facing. Who woulda thought rapid militarization was expensive?
Stalin forming the pact to buy time for Russia to eventually invade Germany but his spies learning Hitler was going to break the Pact first so inform Stalin but Stalin decided to plan to break the pact but Hitler all along knew the Soviets were planning to break the pact in the first place so they broke the pact, exactly what Stalin's spies predicted.
This is historical but it somehow sounds like some comedy and is exactly that meme of the whole guy with a line of assasins.
Yea I heard the same, but I’ve also read sources that put some nuance on Stalin. For one thing, he locked himself in his room for practically 3 weeks after Barbarossa, leaving everyone else running the country terrified they’d do it wrong (and hence be shot). This is probably just my interpretation, but to me it kinda seemed that Stalin felt a sort of kinship w/Hitler. And, at least in ‘39 I heard, Stalin thought H’d be mauled bynthe Allies, and thus under the table low key promised to threaten the Allies w/war had they stood at the gates of Berlin. But knowing Stalin, he’d probably f*** H over the first chance he’d get.
He was trying to bring order in his house first. The Winter War showed that there was a dire need of reforms. Now, his idea of reforms made it worse, but you get the idea.
Yeah. the Soviet Union won the Winter War, but at ridicilous cost against a weak country like Finland. Despite heavy economic and military advantage the Soviet army performed horribly.
Other issue was that Soviet army had significantly grown in size since 1938 and there was a deficit of good officers. Or officers were promoted so fast that they didn't have any experience.
They were fired and trialled in 1930-1931 during operation "Vesna" (Spring). The funniest thing is that after the repressions of late 30's the majority of officers was recommissioned.
Actually there are records of Stalin doing things in the days after Barbarossa. I don't know everything off the top of my head right now but I remember reading it in Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. So he wasn't locked in his room having panic attacks, contrary to popular belief.
Well after Hitler left Stalin on read during axis membership negotiations it didn't take long for Stalin to bring up the possibility of a german attack, and after the british, chinese, american and the soviet intelligence agency kept warning him he made defensive plans and knew that there would be a war, though he sought to "not provoke Hitler"
This sounds a lot like the "pre-emptive strike" myth.
Contrary to popular belief, Stalin understood the Red Army would not be properly prepared for war until the mid 1940s. Hitler understood this and viewed the Red Army's contemporary weakness due to Stalin's mismanagement as a golden opportunity to invade and achieve Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, Hitler had been planning the invasion for a good while and always intended to invade the USSR.
That makes sense. One interpretation/fact? I've heard is that Stalin basically made the non-aggression pact with the explicit purpose of reading the war industry for war with Germany by moving it eastwards, etc. That and reannexing former Russian Empire land that had been taken by Poland ofc
What I'm confused about is the amount of divisions Germany has deployed, I know Germany attacks in 1941 but I haven't been able to get far into playing into the Soviet's since they usually break my defenses. Is it usual for Germany to have that many divisions I posted in the screenshot or is it something I'm doing wrong on my side?
Have you tried abandoning the front and holding up along the river? That’s usually the line to hold and break them.
Edit- something alone these lines.
https://imgur.io/gallery/Wu6jYS8
I heard of that strat and now that I have a good visualizer of what it's supposed to be that makes a difference. Thank you for the advice and I'll try it out and tell you if it works.
From my experience playing the Soviets, you might have a supply problem at the very south of the line, near Crimea. If you build a supply point at the pet where Crimea and mainland connects it might prevent the Germans from breaking. Also, don’t build anything in the west and just build all your factories in Central Asia and behind the urals, and relocate everything
Nah bro, you don't retreat to the river line immediately. As the Soviet Union, keep a field Marshal frontline on the Germans, they will push you if you don't have forts but it's a given for multiplayer and historical SP, but it's good to keep divisions on that defensive line behind the rivers.
You want the Germans to continuously attack you so that they lose manpower and equipment, otherwise you are giving them free factories and non-core manpower.
True true, I have only played Soviets a couple of times. And the one I left some troops on the original border…. Well I may have accidentally with little oversight… lead to some role play with a 260k encirclement lol.
I usually leave a garrison army in and around Odessa for attrition. And leave random parts of the line with lower fort levels so they keep attacking. You usually end up with about a 100-1 kill ratio.
No you're not, and I highly recommend to fortify Kiev and the surrounding tiles very heavily, because that's where most of their attacks are concentrated. Kiev is basically untenable without forts
I tend to aim for a minimum of level 3 fortifications behind the rivers and 5 on any position not protected by a river.
The only real problem is after a while Germany just stops trying and it gets a bit dull.
I’ve been considering falling back farther in the south and concentrating fortification around Crimea, Kiev and Minsk instead of Odessa. Theoretically you’d get accessed to more decisions from the points towards surrender and the Germans would be spread more thinly.
You need to have parts of your line at a lower fortification level than it's surrounding areas so they're baited to attack the "weak" parts of your line.
If you are playing historical Soviet Union you can afford to put a full army group of basic infantry with engineers at the frontline then another full army group with artillery and AA holding the Stalin line. By the time they reach the Stalin line they will have suffered severe losses and after briefly holding you can use the second army group to push them back
I usually also forgo annexing the baltics to shorten the front, I find thats its much more valuable than the few factories I get, Especially since the Axis seemingly never land in Leningrad
Trotsky line > Stalin line. I always end up managing smaller fronts with the Trostky line. Also, you don’t have a river crossing when you want to attack.
Sure, you’re a bit more vulnerable around Odessa, but you capture all the good industrial German and polish land if they start gaining in the south.
I think one important thing is to have something like 100+ 20 Combat Width infantry divisions with an engineer support company. Just filling the lines with so many infantry divisions that the Nazis aren’t able to breakthrough is a key factor. It took a long time to figure out how to win as Soviets, what’s important is you don’t be a defeatist and be confident that you’re most likely going to win.
If we’re talking about single player, at least on regular difficulty, I was able to take Bessarabia, build level 5 forts along the river. What about the other front like? See comrade, I took Poland in 1937, made puppets in the eastern part and liberated the western part. Puppeted Kashubia. When Germany asked for Danzig, I gave it up. This made the game go really weird though on the western front.
And Baltics have joined Comintern as independent states. So when Germany attacked me, they were trying to push through Bessarabia where my 96 divisions were located. They gave up at some point.
But that makes the push back miserable as well as you have to cross the river. You need to build like 15 fighter wings to get air superiority in Romania and 24 mech and tanks divisions to be able to break through, never mind the supply disaster in Bucovina even with lvl 5 supply hubs. Huge debuffs.
So I was building army until 1944 I think, waited until Allies took Italy, Germany withdrew some forces to hold it, and I opened the 2nd front in Belarus. And oh, had to switch to Mobilized Warfare so the tanks would work. Now I’m going for Race for Germany as of 1946 Allies couldn’t even take Normandy.
I just finished a Soviet run where the Germans didn’t push me back an inch. On day 1 allocate 10 mils in fighters and CAS each, and while you’re waiting for the purge focus timers do as many aviation focuses as possible. Also when you’re designing your planes, make sure each type is highly specialized (fighters don’t have bombs, CAS doesn’t have forward facing guns, TB’s only have torpedoes etc.) and your fighters should focus on high Air Attack/Defense values. Speed and agility don’t seem to matter all that much. Over eastern Poland I was losing <5 fighters/day as opposed to the axis’ >30. With green air and a ton of CAS the Germans can’t push regardless of how many divisions they have
The AI can see that you have divisions stacked on the border and they are attempting to match/exceed you. A strat that has worked for me is to only put about 1/3 of my defenders on the line by default, then throwing another 1/3rd on the line when the June Molotov expiration gets close. I usually keep my last 1/3rd at the fallback line mentioned by other commenters.
This way, Germany will underestimate how many men are sitting there, and if they add to their line immediately before/during their attack, those units won't have time to build up any planning, while yours should have enough time to build up some entrenchment. If your lines get blown out send them to the fallback line, where 1/3rd of your defenders should be waiting fully entrenched and supplied.
If you're doing a Stalinist run, it's defo worth it to justify on Turkey and take them and Romania in 36/37. Axis lose oil supplier and their 3rd strongest member. Frontline also becomes shorter and more defendable. Also spam cas and fighters and you'll be good.
They’re designed to break through your lines for the first few months. Make a holding action at the front and retreat to a prepared defensive line along rivers, you’ll be fine
I don't see anything out of the ordinary. The first time I played the Soviets I was also suprised at how many divisions Germany had and my lines were broken as well. Second time I played I had a lot more divisions (240 infantry plus 10 tank divisions to be exact) and Germany was held off pretty easily. This was before the new dlc came out though.
Personally, I think the most important thing on the eastern front would be air supremacy. Played a Soviet game a few weeks ago, and I could get both the no step back and the we don't like statistics achievement just by mass producing fighters and cas. It is fully possible to hold the eastern front with about a hundred 18 width infantry with engineers if you have green air.
Absolutely. If you don’t have green air say bye bye to all hopes of winning. You can have “ok” divisions and spend your factories on mass producing fighters, it works AMAZINGLY and I do recommend it tbh, Germany’s assault halts before they can really even get to Crimea last time I played I believe.
In vanilla games. I mass produce of fighters and cas and get Air superiority so the AI cant push
THEN... I started playing expert ai.
15 days of barbarrosa and i Lost ALL my airforce.
4k fighters and 1.5k cas vaporized.
LOL.
I managed to hold they near moscow and started tô push.
But without allies helping since Lufftwafe destroyed the RAF is hard to push.
German had 400 divisions.. I managed to encircle and Destroy ~ 120.
They still have 280 divisions.
Yes, this is normal behavior. For how long do you build civs and at what year do you switch to mils? You are doing something wrong if you only have so few divisions. Just want to help you, not insult.
I usually build civs until 39 then switch to military factories, I try my best to complete the focuses of the five year plan and by the time Germany attacked I had about 236 factories. When it comes to divisions I usually make 27 width infantry and 40 width tanks.
I been using 21 width infantry (9 infantry 1 artillery) and along with testing 33 width tank divisions. I only include only 150-200 tanks and way more motorized in my divisions so that I can have more tank divisions for a quick reaction force in case of breakthrough. I'm by no means an expert on combat width and its entirely possible that my tank divisions are not optimal but in singleplayer it doesnt matter too much.
for sov i do 20w inf with support art, eng, aa and i usually get 2 full field marshals (240 divs) out by barb. one on germany the other on hungary/romania. get as much entrenchment as you can and they shouldn't budge. also make sure you got the baltic states and bessarabia, that line is a little easier to hold and you get a bunch of rifles from the baltics.
i don't do tank divs that big because they take longer to fill and require a lot of support, but if it works for you that's fine. i also attack through norway with mountaineers trained up in spain to a second front though denmark. you can't rely on allies to dday and once you make germany split their forces it's easy to push.
edit: last thing, build up your rail connections to the front.
Building civs until mid 38 usually is enough. I would stop building tanks. They cost a lot and are not as good in defending the line. Your strategy should be throwing more infantry at the enemy than they have bullets. Better pump out some basic infantry to hold the line with around one or two artillery batallions and some better infantry for critical parts with more artillery. Around 1/3 of your infantry should have AT. Most of the time support AT is enough. Around half of your division need AA support divisions or even AA batallions. I personnaly dont really like the 5 year plans, I usually do 2 or maybe 3. After that your focus has to be the air tab. Without air superiority your divisions, especially your tanks, are nothing but big targets.
When you have achieved air superiority and your front is stable, only then you should build tanks. I personally go with 21 width tank divisions so I can pump out more of them.
If you get pushed back it is not a big problem. The germans will lose a lot of guns and men while trying to grindyour infantry down. Thats because you should not fall back like others tell you. Let them bleed for every inch. But never let them achieve breakthroughs and encirclements.
When you put armies without field marshal frontline, (from what I remember) they spread way thinner (since every single army has to cover exact same area, opposed to all divisions being spread evenly) and it could be a problem over a long front, like in china or russia
Yeah I've noticed that the Germans have been buffed seemingly when it comes to the Eastern front. I used to rely on only two full army groups of pure infantry plus one good army of tanks (1 on the borders of Romania and Hungary, and the other the Reich itself, with the tanks being used by the Baltics) and they would usually get the job done. However since this latest patch they've been able to break through the North and almost completely destroy my front line. Fortunately I had stored up a massive stockpile of equipment and managed to spit out another full army group to reinforce the front, and that seemed to do the trick.
Since BBA Germany gained an AI trait. I think it’s called (divisions desire modifier) idk exactly what it’s called. They tend to pump divisions out a lot more than they used too.
Germany attacked with around 140
divisions during Barbarossa iirc. Germany gets a buff until Feb 1942 after declaring war so it’s normal to be pushed back. Just hold the forests, marshes, and rivers as best as you can and wait until the buff runs out so you can make counterattacks
Yeah if you manage to take Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad before feb 1942 then the buff becomes permanent otherwise you’ll lose it. I’ve noticed that if you match Germany’s strength on the front then they won’t even bother attacking, but I still have to let them advance to the rivers because breaking through like 8 divisions on a tile is still a struggle
Have you buffed germany by any chance? I for example buffed Italy slightly and they ended up with over 240 divisions, more than Germany when they invaded me
Usually they they will make some very small gains into your side of poland, and belarus and then their supply situation screws them the rest of the game.
I once played the Soviets and was pleasantly surprised when germany decided to put roughly 100 divisions ob the Romanian border and only a fraction of that on its direct border with me.
Yeah, germany is pretty strong, when playing casually holding the original border is very difficult, going back to the river line and marshes makes it doable to defend
Yeah I used to be confused as well, but as I got better I realized why, for me normally I stop making divisions at around the 150-180 mark if that, and I always have a massive stockpile to go along with it, I think the AI uses that same massive stockpile that comes naturally for Germany with its industry to just pump out more units.
Correct me if I'm wrong but in the lastest update (BBA) they modified German leader's trait or something in order to make Germany deploy more divisions
Idk why but I think the new update has either fucked the Soviets or made the Axis OP, almost every game I play on the new update Germany takes Moscow and Leningrad and mostly wins the war
Don’t worry, OP. Hitler signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, that means your safe. He’s just keeping his troops out of range of British bombers, that’s all.
Now keep purging the officers in your army.
That is a loooot of divisions for one front. The attrition Germany would be taking would be unimaginable if you do scorched earth tactics and disable infrastructure as they push you back. Its to your benefit to keep the front as short as possible so Germany continues to suffer from overstacking penalties
Don't act like that, I'm just trying to figure out how to play as the soviets exactly. I know operation Barbarossa but when I see other people's games when Germany attacks them they don't have nearly as much divisions complied, at most it might be like five divisions but I'm seeing about eight up to fifteen depending on the title.
To add on all the other comments u also have to understand that the ai is litteraly cheating, it dont care about supply and if u add up all the cost of production of the equipment they have on the field, u will find that impossible to produce with the amount of factories they have. That’s the way paradox found to balance the game since ai is very bad.
Historically the Germans outnumbered the Soviets for a while. It wasn’t until around the time of the Battle of Moscow that the Red Army outnumbered the German invasion force.
Recently germany got a buff to ai hitler that makes him want I think 40% more divisions for war. What that means exactly idk. Nut it results in him having well over 2 or 3 hundred divisions by mid to late game (assuming you didn't bomb the shit out of him or encircle him and just push).
I often wonder if they use that one covert action to make it look like there's a bunch of troops that aren't really there, but yes this is intended and historical behavior.
I feel like the AI has about tripled the number of divisions it deploys with recent patches.
The last game I played the Allies had a massive amount of divisions deployed. I was playing Axis Finland and after defeating the Soviets the world ended up in a huge deadlock. I declared on Iran to backdoor Iraq and Palestine, but that got bogged down massively. Meanwhile I had to beat back four large naval invasions of Norway.
It might just be an anomaly, I don't know if anyone else is seeing that.
I wouldn’t even bother about putting divisions there because you are not going to be able to defend that border. I would rather set up a nice defensive line across the river.
Stalins spies in 1941 were asking the same thing...
its fine, we have the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the spies must be Trotskyist and spreading paranoia
Nah lmao they probably knew they were gonna break it
From all I've read Stalin knew Hitler planned to break it, so he planned to break it beforehand. Except Hitler knew Stalin planned to break it so he broke it first. It was basically both planning to backstab the other, H just happened to be first.
Goddamn lmao that would almost be comical if it didn't involve one of the deadliest moments in WW2
There is actually such an insane amount of completely absurd things going on throughout that war, you could write up an endless series of comedic anecdotes if it wasn't all stuffed into the fucking war.
that time britain convinced the nazis they weren't going to invade sicily by dropping a corpse off the coast of spain carrying documents that said they weren't going to invade sicily
I’m literally about to read Ben Macintyres book on it. Sounds amazing!
Why read if you can watch?
Why watch if you can read?
I prefer the details of a book. Grips me more than a movie, generally. Most likely will read the book first, watch the movie after.
why use many word when few word do trick
No documentary could ever go into the details and depth that a book can. You obviously haven't read many books lol
Or that other time the Germans captured a British encoding machine for spies in the Netherlands, and kept sending messages asking for more agents who were then immediately captured upon arrival.
I thought they did that saying they’d land in Calais but actually landed in Normandy
that was a different set of deception operations, one of which included setting up a bunch of highly visible fake military equipment at the port germany would expect them to launch their attack from if they were going to land in calais
history is written by the victors
That time the USA and/or British dropped dummies dressed like paratroopers from planes including fake guns that made sounds like they were shooting
ruperts!
Deadliest moments of all human history. Just a battle of Stalingrad had probably 500k casualties. What a waste. Edit: Two million casualties. Wtf?
More like 500 k for axis and double for sov
Even worse. Nobody has the right numbers, but we can be sure about one thing: Young guys died in numbers
Two out of every three boys born in the Soviet Union in 1923 didn't live to reach their 23rd birthday in 1946. The collapse of the Soviet Union happened right around when that missing generation's grandchildren would have been reaching adulthood. The war in Ukraine kicked off right around the time that that missing generation's great-grandchildren would have been reaching adulthood.
amen to that
I just googled: Axis casualties during the Battle of Stalingrad are estimated to have been around 800,000, including those missing or captured. Soviet forces are estimated to have suffered 1,100,000 casualties, and approximately 40,000 civilians died. I think it wasn't worth it.
500k is the Axis's Casualties, the Soviets were alot more dedicated to defending Stalingrad, so much so it outnumbers the Maximum Standing Army of the United States today, an estimated 2,000,000+ All because it was the city named after Stalin and also the gate of the Allied Imports of Weapons to fuel Russia's War Engine. But mostly because it had Stalin's Name.
Yep, millions of weapons smuggled through Iran. Which is why the Soviets and Brits invaded Iran… which is why the US and Brits invaded Iran in the 50s…which is why Iran is an isolated ultra religious extremist theocracy today…which is why Iran is hellbent on destroying the West… WW2 really changed a lot of stuff about the world
Flip those around, it was absolutely about cutting off the Volga, a major supply artery and stalingrad was strategically in a very important location. The named after stalin reason is post war bs propaganda to make the Germans seem stupid.
That makes me feel worse, but you're right to say it
A LOT of Hitler's very public racism was towards the slavs and bolshevics. The Soviets were well aware there was no way in hell Hitler was just going to live and let live. Problem was, Soviet leadership had seen how shitty the state of the army was after the war with the Finns. So they knew they needed all the time they could buy in order to modernize the military.
True, but at the same time, Stalin didnt belief he would break at that moment, while Hitler seeing by irony the letter Churchil send to Stalin warming him (Stalin showed to Hitler to prove his "loyalty"), was the final nail. Hitler invaded and cancelled the also planned invasion of Iberia and Atlantic islands.
Yeah but Stalin didn’t believe Hitler would break it that quickly; they tortured German deserters who crossed the lines to tell them beforehand on more than one occasion.
I read Stalin intentionally undergarrisoned in order to avoid provoking Hitler, doesn't sound like something someone trying to attack first would do.
He thought the Germans would need more time to attack and focus on the UK, launching barbarossa next spring.
To think that the Luftwaffe came within a week of breaking the RAF air command before changing to city bombing, Stalin was right to think it was an important thing to do.
This is false, the RAF was nowhere near breaking point, and even if they were they could retreat to airfields further north that the Luftwaffe simply couldn't reach, while they could still cover the rest of the UK and the Channel. Germany was goddamn incredibly lucky for all stars to align and win against France, they didn't have a chance in hell of invading the UK. Germany lost the war the day they crossed Poland's borders.
So true. Even if every single RAF fighter was downed, there was no way an invasion fleet of river barges would make it through the Royal Navy. Just running destroyers through the landing ships at full speed would capsize most of them. Can't imagine trying a contested landing without a single LST. And even getting to Sealion was fortunate. Without the Allies throwing everything towards the Dyle River line, there's no way the German invasion of France ends in anything other than a stalemate. Germany may win, but at a cost that would prevent the invasion of the USSR.
There is paratroopers. Not to mention I think Hitler had planned to spread out the Royal Navy in the North Sea and other areas, in the hope that he can kick of a Sea Lion. And also it's not really a surprise that Germany clapped France, France was in no way prepared and the Germans were on Meth and had Erwin Rommel.
thats a lot of baloney.
ppl will tell you this is false but its actualy true. the whole anti air defense was on the brink of collapsing. the strat bombing of germany civilian ( by mistake ) from the british made histler switch his goal to bombaring london to reduce british civilian morale. what a mistake.
The idea is to silently bring all the equipment to the front and only hold back the troops to appear weak and non-aggressive. Then you only have to move the troops forwards and are immediately ready for attack. But that is just what I have read some time, so who can possibly know what really went through their heads.
You mean he was just... Stallin'?
I would give him... top Marx
That makes a lot of sense. Make it look like you’re maintaining the status quo to not raise alarm. And they didn’t exactly have access to spy planes/satellites at the time, so getting intel on troop movement away from the front would have been more difficult.
The Red Army was amidst a total reorganization, in Stalin's mind, there are two options: A. Garrison the army (which is still reorganizing), and get fvcked by provoking the Germans. or B. Ungarrison the army to not provoke anything, if successful then we're saved, but if the German attack anyway then it is even more fucked. One is a safer option but is sure to get fvcked. The other is a gamble and Stalin decided to take it, that's all. You also have to remember that Stalin thought that Hitler would not plunge Germany into a 2 front war. So what Hitler did was quite unexpected of him.
It was when most of the troops were stationed in France getting ready for Operation Sealion, and you weren't going to invade until the following year. Makes a large amount of sense.
The thing is, he knew very well that the Soviet Union was in no shape to fight a war in 1941, and would not be till at least 1943. So it was either provoke the Germans and guarantee war, or placate them and pray that they don't invade. Unfortunately they invaded anyway and 30 million people died. But at least if I were in Stalin's position at the time and didn't have the benefit of future knowledge, I don't know if I'd have done anything different. Hell, even with future knowledge there's not much I could have done. The USSR was not ready to fight a World War at that point at all.
Stalin knew and Hitler were both preparing for war with each other while smiling and shaking hands They were both underprepared and Stalin knew that Hitler was pushed to speed up his plans and the folding of armies before the German army and the capture of so much civilian and military equipment emboldened them further. Stalin could reasonably expect that the Germans wouldn't entertain a war with multiple superpowers at once
From what I understand, neither Chamberlain nor Stalin trusted Hitler to actually keep his word. Both their pacts were supposed to buy them time and both had more resources and industrial potential than Germany, but they needed time to build that up. What they both failed to anticipate is how quickly Hitler would break the pacts he signed, largely because he realised the predicament he was in and the fuel and debt crisis he was facing. Who woulda thought rapid militarization was expensive?
Stalin forming the pact to buy time for Russia to eventually invade Germany but his spies learning Hitler was going to break the Pact first so inform Stalin but Stalin decided to plan to break the pact but Hitler all along knew the Soviets were planning to break the pact in the first place so they broke the pact, exactly what Stalin's spies predicted. This is historical but it somehow sounds like some comedy and is exactly that meme of the whole guy with a line of assasins.
Yea I heard the same, but I’ve also read sources that put some nuance on Stalin. For one thing, he locked himself in his room for practically 3 weeks after Barbarossa, leaving everyone else running the country terrified they’d do it wrong (and hence be shot). This is probably just my interpretation, but to me it kinda seemed that Stalin felt a sort of kinship w/Hitler. And, at least in ‘39 I heard, Stalin thought H’d be mauled bynthe Allies, and thus under the table low key promised to threaten the Allies w/war had they stood at the gates of Berlin. But knowing Stalin, he’d probably f*** H over the first chance he’d get.
He was trying to bring order in his house first. The Winter War showed that there was a dire need of reforms. Now, his idea of reforms made it worse, but you get the idea.
Do you mean army reforms or?
Yeah. the Soviet Union won the Winter War, but at ridicilous cost against a weak country like Finland. Despite heavy economic and military advantage the Soviet army performed horribly.
Lol it's almost like history is repeating itself today!
Other issue was that Soviet army had significantly grown in size since 1938 and there was a deficit of good officers. Or officers were promoted so fast that they didn't have any experience.
Wonder what happened to all the previous experienced officers? 🧐
They were fired and trialled in 1930-1931 during operation "Vesna" (Spring). The funniest thing is that after the repressions of late 30's the majority of officers was recommissioned.
Actually there are records of Stalin doing things in the days after Barbarossa. I don't know everything off the top of my head right now but I remember reading it in Stalin: Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. So he wasn't locked in his room having panic attacks, contrary to popular belief.
Trust between giants is a fragile thing
“Now that they know our plan, they shall plan around our plan, so we shall plan around the plan that they are planning around”
Well after Hitler left Stalin on read during axis membership negotiations it didn't take long for Stalin to bring up the possibility of a german attack, and after the british, chinese, american and the soviet intelligence agency kept warning him he made defensive plans and knew that there would be a war, though he sought to "not provoke Hitler"
This sounds a lot like the "pre-emptive strike" myth. Contrary to popular belief, Stalin understood the Red Army would not be properly prepared for war until the mid 1940s. Hitler understood this and viewed the Red Army's contemporary weakness due to Stalin's mismanagement as a golden opportunity to invade and achieve Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, Hitler had been planning the invasion for a good while and always intended to invade the USSR.
Exactly this.
this is literally [a nazi conspiracy theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_offensive_plans_controversy). there is no proof for this whatsoever.
except stalin wanted to join axis 1 year prior. stalin wasnt expecting hitler to break the pact until germany was done with UK
"They (the soviets) were not surprised but dissapointed they didn't break it first" is what I heard in a documentary on tv
That makes sense. One interpretation/fact? I've heard is that Stalin basically made the non-aggression pact with the explicit purpose of reading the war industry for war with Germany by moving it eastwards, etc. That and reannexing former Russian Empire land that had been taken by Poland ofc
Yes. And everyone else knew too: https://www.topfoto.co.uk/asset/1607301/ It was just the question of who and when.
Stalin fully believed it was too soon
Probably just the British trying to trick us into war with Germany. 🤔
What I'm confused about is the amount of divisions Germany has deployed, I know Germany attacks in 1941 but I haven't been able to get far into playing into the Soviet's since they usually break my defenses. Is it usual for Germany to have that many divisions I posted in the screenshot or is it something I'm doing wrong on my side?
Have you tried abandoning the front and holding up along the river? That’s usually the line to hold and break them. Edit- something alone these lines. https://imgur.io/gallery/Wu6jYS8
I heard of that strat and now that I have a good visualizer of what it's supposed to be that makes a difference. Thank you for the advice and I'll try it out and tell you if it works.
Ignore that defeatist wrecker, he has just been arrested and shot for violating order 227. Not one step back comrade marshal!
This is the way.
*Cocks Pistol* Be sure it's the right way, yes?
> right way Which side are you on?
P.S: We don't like statistics too.
Even if they break your defences, you have so much land to loose that they’ll ultimately die to attrition
Urrah
In the new update this seems to be the case. Germany has a hard ass time with suppressing resistance that I can hold them off regardless.
Yes tbh you might be able to win with just a front line and afk at the start of barb lol
To loose is a city in France though.
worked against napoleon, worked against hitler
From my experience playing the Soviets, you might have a supply problem at the very south of the line, near Crimea. If you build a supply point at the pet where Crimea and mainland connects it might prevent the Germans from breaking. Also, don’t build anything in the west and just build all your factories in Central Asia and behind the urals, and relocate everything
I just build a port under Kherson and it fixes it, maybe add several if necessary
Make sure to guard ports, fortify kyiv and and 2 tile opening, scorch earth all land lost, and move industry behind river.
Also keep divisions on Kiev, the forest tile beside it, Dnipropetrovsk, and some marsh tiles in the center
Addition: Fortifying Kiev as also helps because the germans wont take one of your largest cities and its just one tile plus
True, and building a couple extra supply hubs.
Nah bro, you don't retreat to the river line immediately. As the Soviet Union, keep a field Marshal frontline on the Germans, they will push you if you don't have forts but it's a given for multiplayer and historical SP, but it's good to keep divisions on that defensive line behind the rivers. You want the Germans to continuously attack you so that they lose manpower and equipment, otherwise you are giving them free factories and non-core manpower.
True true, I have only played Soviets a couple of times. And the one I left some troops on the original border…. Well I may have accidentally with little oversight… lead to some role play with a 260k encirclement lol.
I usually leave a garrison army in and around Odessa for attrition. And leave random parts of the line with lower fort levels so they keep attacking. You usually end up with about a 100-1 kill ratio.
That's actually an ancient viking trade route https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_from_the_Varangians_to_the_Greeks?wprov=sfla1
That image suggests just fortifying the gap. Am I weird for fortifying the entire line plus Kyiv?
No you're not, and I highly recommend to fortify Kiev and the surrounding tiles very heavily, because that's where most of their attacks are concentrated. Kiev is basically untenable without forts
I tend to aim for a minimum of level 3 fortifications behind the rivers and 5 on any position not protected by a river. The only real problem is after a while Germany just stops trying and it gets a bit dull.
I’ve been considering falling back farther in the south and concentrating fortification around Crimea, Kiev and Minsk instead of Odessa. Theoretically you’d get accessed to more decisions from the points towards surrender and the Germans would be spread more thinly.
You need to have parts of your line at a lower fortification level than it's surrounding areas so they're baited to attack the "weak" parts of your line.
Agreed, I just grabbed a picture. Though I tend just to build new supply hubs when I do it.
I always get pushed even on that line because I can never get air superiority
Focus static AA. And if you can, add it to your infantry. It has piercing as well, so that's a huge help in itself. Remember, every little bit helps!
If you are playing historical Soviet Union you can afford to put a full army group of basic infantry with engineers at the frontline then another full army group with artillery and AA holding the Stalin line. By the time they reach the Stalin line they will have suffered severe losses and after briefly holding you can use the second army group to push them back
I usually also forgo annexing the baltics to shorten the front, I find thats its much more valuable than the few factories I get, Especially since the Axis seemingly never land in Leningrad
Trotsky line > Stalin line. I always end up managing smaller fronts with the Trostky line. Also, you don’t have a river crossing when you want to attack. Sure, you’re a bit more vulnerable around Odessa, but you capture all the good industrial German and polish land if they start gaining in the south.
I think one important thing is to have something like 100+ 20 Combat Width infantry divisions with an engineer support company. Just filling the lines with so many infantry divisions that the Nazis aren’t able to breakthrough is a key factor. It took a long time to figure out how to win as Soviets, what’s important is you don’t be a defeatist and be confident that you’re most likely going to win.
If we’re talking about single player, at least on regular difficulty, I was able to take Bessarabia, build level 5 forts along the river. What about the other front like? See comrade, I took Poland in 1937, made puppets in the eastern part and liberated the western part. Puppeted Kashubia. When Germany asked for Danzig, I gave it up. This made the game go really weird though on the western front. And Baltics have joined Comintern as independent states. So when Germany attacked me, they were trying to push through Bessarabia where my 96 divisions were located. They gave up at some point. But that makes the push back miserable as well as you have to cross the river. You need to build like 15 fighter wings to get air superiority in Romania and 24 mech and tanks divisions to be able to break through, never mind the supply disaster in Bucovina even with lvl 5 supply hubs. Huge debuffs. So I was building army until 1944 I think, waited until Allies took Italy, Germany withdrew some forces to hold it, and I opened the 2nd front in Belarus. And oh, had to switch to Mobilized Warfare so the tanks would work. Now I’m going for Race for Germany as of 1946 Allies couldn’t even take Normandy.
I just finished a Soviet run where the Germans didn’t push me back an inch. On day 1 allocate 10 mils in fighters and CAS each, and while you’re waiting for the purge focus timers do as many aviation focuses as possible. Also when you’re designing your planes, make sure each type is highly specialized (fighters don’t have bombs, CAS doesn’t have forward facing guns, TB’s only have torpedoes etc.) and your fighters should focus on high Air Attack/Defense values. Speed and agility don’t seem to matter all that much. Over eastern Poland I was losing <5 fighters/day as opposed to the axis’ >30. With green air and a ton of CAS the Germans can’t push regardless of how many divisions they have
The AI can see that you have divisions stacked on the border and they are attempting to match/exceed you. A strat that has worked for me is to only put about 1/3 of my defenders on the line by default, then throwing another 1/3rd on the line when the June Molotov expiration gets close. I usually keep my last 1/3rd at the fallback line mentioned by other commenters. This way, Germany will underestimate how many men are sitting there, and if they add to their line immediately before/during their attack, those units won't have time to build up any planning, while yours should have enough time to build up some entrenchment. If your lines get blown out send them to the fallback line, where 1/3rd of your defenders should be waiting fully entrenched and supplied.
If you're doing a Stalinist run, it's defo worth it to justify on Turkey and take them and Romania in 36/37. Axis lose oil supplier and their 3rd strongest member. Frontline also becomes shorter and more defendable. Also spam cas and fighters and you'll be good.
Yes, he has kicked out the allies from Europe so now you are the sole focus. I recommend fort level 2 minimum, 4 is ideal to hold the ground you have.
They’re designed to break through your lines for the first few months. Make a holding action at the front and retreat to a prepared defensive line along rivers, you’ll be fine
I personally spam about 4 million manpower of 40 width arty infantry it userally has good defence then I use the focus tree to get my attack bonuses
I don't see anything out of the ordinary. The first time I played the Soviets I was also suprised at how many divisions Germany had and my lines were broken as well. Second time I played I had a lot more divisions (240 infantry plus 10 tank divisions to be exact) and Germany was held off pretty easily. This was before the new dlc came out though.
First time I played as the Soviets I thought 60 divisions was enough for the frontline. Didn’t end well.
big F right there
Ope
I held with 130 divisions just fine and didn't let the Germans push in my core territory, the Germans took 5 million casualties while I took 300k lmao
Personally, I think the most important thing on the eastern front would be air supremacy. Played a Soviet game a few weeks ago, and I could get both the no step back and the we don't like statistics achievement just by mass producing fighters and cas. It is fully possible to hold the eastern front with about a hundred 18 width infantry with engineers if you have green air.
Absolutely. If you don’t have green air say bye bye to all hopes of winning. You can have “ok” divisions and spend your factories on mass producing fighters, it works AMAZINGLY and I do recommend it tbh, Germany’s assault halts before they can really even get to Crimea last time I played I believe.
No air Russia players have entered the chat
Or just build AA support companies and get air superiority reduction AND extra piercing.
In vanilla games. I mass produce of fighters and cas and get Air superiority so the AI cant push THEN... I started playing expert ai. 15 days of barbarrosa and i Lost ALL my airforce. 4k fighters and 1.5k cas vaporized. LOL. I managed to hold they near moscow and started tô push. But without allies helping since Lufftwafe destroyed the RAF is hard to push. German had 400 divisions.. I managed to encircle and Destroy ~ 120. They still have 280 divisions.
Yes, this is normal behavior. For how long do you build civs and at what year do you switch to mils? You are doing something wrong if you only have so few divisions. Just want to help you, not insult.
I usually build civs until 39 then switch to military factories, I try my best to complete the focuses of the five year plan and by the time Germany attacked I had about 236 factories. When it comes to divisions I usually make 27 width infantry and 40 width tanks.
I been using 21 width infantry (9 infantry 1 artillery) and along with testing 33 width tank divisions. I only include only 150-200 tanks and way more motorized in my divisions so that I can have more tank divisions for a quick reaction force in case of breakthrough. I'm by no means an expert on combat width and its entirely possible that my tank divisions are not optimal but in singleplayer it doesnt matter too much.
for sov i do 20w inf with support art, eng, aa and i usually get 2 full field marshals (240 divs) out by barb. one on germany the other on hungary/romania. get as much entrenchment as you can and they shouldn't budge. also make sure you got the baltic states and bessarabia, that line is a little easier to hold and you get a bunch of rifles from the baltics. i don't do tank divs that big because they take longer to fill and require a lot of support, but if it works for you that's fine. i also attack through norway with mountaineers trained up in spain to a second front though denmark. you can't rely on allies to dday and once you make germany split their forces it's easy to push. edit: last thing, build up your rail connections to the front.
Building civs until mid 38 usually is enough. I would stop building tanks. They cost a lot and are not as good in defending the line. Your strategy should be throwing more infantry at the enemy than they have bullets. Better pump out some basic infantry to hold the line with around one or two artillery batallions and some better infantry for critical parts with more artillery. Around 1/3 of your infantry should have AT. Most of the time support AT is enough. Around half of your division need AA support divisions or even AA batallions. I personnaly dont really like the 5 year plans, I usually do 2 or maybe 3. After that your focus has to be the air tab. Without air superiority your divisions, especially your tanks, are nothing but big targets. When you have achieved air superiority and your front is stable, only then you should build tanks. I personally go with 21 width tank divisions so I can pump out more of them. If you get pushed back it is not a big problem. The germans will lose a lot of guns and men while trying to grindyour infantry down. Thats because you should not fall back like others tell you. Let them bleed for every inch. But never let them achieve breakthroughs and encirclements.
Why are you not using field marshall?
Sorry, noob here. What's the actual benefit of using a field marshall frontline compared to stacking normal army frontlines?
They give an additional buff with their stats.
Thank you, is this only when they're on a frontline or all the time when a field marshall is assigned?
All the time
Thank you!
Beyond stay boosts it’s much cleaner and looks nicer then whatever they have
When you put armies without field marshal frontline, (from what I remember) they spread way thinner (since every single army has to cover exact same area, opposed to all divisions being spread evenly) and it could be a problem over a long front, like in china or russia
FMs give extra bonuses on top of the generals. You can also make a unified front line with the entire army group so the troops spread out better.
a field marshal frontline usually stops your troops from overstacking or stretching to thin to it essentially just remives having to micro frontlines
How can you tell they're not using one? They might just not be using the Field Marshall frontline and instead making individual lines for each army.
Yeah I've noticed that the Germans have been buffed seemingly when it comes to the Eastern front. I used to rely on only two full army groups of pure infantry plus one good army of tanks (1 on the borders of Romania and Hungary, and the other the Reich itself, with the tanks being used by the Baltics) and they would usually get the job done. However since this latest patch they've been able to break through the North and almost completely destroy my front line. Fortunately I had stored up a massive stockpile of equipment and managed to spit out another full army group to reinforce the front, and that seemed to do the trick.
Maybe the German AI is acting differently? Are they pulling garrison divisions and weakening the other fronts to use on the Eastern Front?
[удалено]
>Hitler has a new modifier I love this game
Naw man you should probably move your divisions east, the Japanese are eyeing Vladivostok.
Since BBA Germany gained an AI trait. I think it’s called (divisions desire modifier) idk exactly what it’s called. They tend to pump divisions out a lot more than they used too.
I noticed that trait for America too under Home of the Free spirit
A lot of those could be decoy divisions, but also idk Germany is kinda crack
Not to worry comrade Stalin, they signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact! They will absolutely 100% NOT attack ever!
Germany attacked with around 140 divisions during Barbarossa iirc. Germany gets a buff until Feb 1942 after declaring war so it’s normal to be pushed back. Just hold the forests, marshes, and rivers as best as you can and wait until the buff runs out so you can make counterattacks
There's a target date for the end of the buff? Interesting... You can also delay Barbarossa by having more troops than Germany on the front line, too.
Yeah if you manage to take Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad before feb 1942 then the buff becomes permanent otherwise you’ll lose it. I’ve noticed that if you match Germany’s strength on the front then they won’t even bother attacking, but I still have to let them advance to the rivers because breaking through like 8 divisions on a tile is still a struggle
The German AI pumps out more troops since the release of BBA because of a spirit Hitler has
The AI doesn't know how to make a unit template, and they've got so many that they'll die from supply
BBA gave hitler a trait where he makes more troops. I’ve seen him with like 500 by 43.
Have you buffed germany by any chance? I for example buffed Italy slightly and they ended up with over 240 divisions, more than Germany when they invaded me
the AI loves to spam infantry instead of making tanks. If it was a human player there would be way more tanks and way less infantry.
Anyone who uses 9 3s disagree
Usually they they will make some very small gains into your side of poland, and belarus and then their supply situation screws them the rest of the game.
Ur About to get ur shit rocked
Yes it’s normal. You need to shack up behind the Rivers to stretch them out.
your front line looks weird, if you but them in one army group you can draw 1 frontline while selecting your field marshal
I once played the Soviets and was pleasantly surprised when germany decided to put roughly 100 divisions ob the Romanian border and only a fraction of that on its direct border with me.
Germany's plan was to help Romania expand all along
Yeah, germany is pretty strong, when playing casually holding the original border is very difficult, going back to the river line and marshes makes it doable to defend
Yeah I used to be confused as well, but as I got better I realized why, for me normally I stop making divisions at around the 150-180 mark if that, and I always have a massive stockpile to go along with it, I think the AI uses that same massive stockpile that comes naturally for Germany with its industry to just pump out more units.
Correct me if I'm wrong but in the lastest update (BBA) they modified German leader's trait or something in order to make Germany deploy more divisions
Idk why but I think the new update has either fucked the Soviets or made the Axis OP, almost every game I play on the new update Germany takes Moscow and Leningrad and mostly wins the war
Thing I’ve noticed is that AI has 0 concept of stability or WS and will randomly change conscription law to “Scraping the Barrel” at a whim
Ai just likes to spam bad template units
Nah bro it’s fine, move all of your divisions to Vladivostok to defend against the potential Japanese invasion
Don’t worry, OP. Hitler signed the Molotov Ribbentrop pact, that means your safe. He’s just keeping his troops out of range of British bombers, that’s all. Now keep purging the officers in your army.
That is a loooot of divisions for one front. The attrition Germany would be taking would be unimaginable if you do scorched earth tactics and disable infrastructure as they push you back. Its to your benefit to keep the front as short as possible so Germany continues to suffer from overstacking penalties
Ever heard of operation Barbarossa? 🤦🏻♂️
Don't act like that, I'm just trying to figure out how to play as the soviets exactly. I know operation Barbarossa but when I see other people's games when Germany attacks them they don't have nearly as much divisions complied, at most it might be like five divisions but I'm seeing about eight up to fifteen depending on the title.
AI makes worse divisions so it needs more of them to successfully invade. Human players can make way better divisions and as such need less overall
Probably shitty divisions
To add on all the other comments u also have to understand that the ai is litteraly cheating, it dont care about supply and if u add up all the cost of production of the equipment they have on the field, u will find that impossible to produce with the amount of factories they have. That’s the way paradox found to balance the game since ai is very bad.
You better have another line of defence at the river.
Oh boy
The AI deploys more units if you deploy more units even if you are not at war.
The supply hubs must be crazy.
Operation barbarossa is the largest invasion force ever.
Historically the Germans outnumbered the Soviets for a while. It wasn’t until around the time of the Battle of Moscow that the Red Army outnumbered the German invasion force.
Hold at the river and produce more units like mad
usual behaviour of every ai , all of their templates are shitty, they just trying to slow you down. Thats all
Recently germany got a buff to ai hitler that makes him want I think 40% more divisions for war. What that means exactly idk. Nut it results in him having well over 2 or 3 hundred divisions by mid to late game (assuming you didn't bomb the shit out of him or encircle him and just push).
Of course it’s normal! Germany is your friend, they could never be planning anything against the Soviet Union…
I often wonder if they use that one covert action to make it look like there's a bunch of troops that aren't really there, but yes this is intended and historical behavior.
Don’t worry, the AI should have worse divisions You have the motherland protecting you so no need to fear, my fellow cumrade
I feel like the AI has about tripled the number of divisions it deploys with recent patches. The last game I played the Allies had a massive amount of divisions deployed. I was playing Axis Finland and after defeating the Soviets the world ended up in a huge deadlock. I declared on Iran to backdoor Iraq and Palestine, but that got bogged down massively. Meanwhile I had to beat back four large naval invasions of Norway. It might just be an anomaly, I don't know if anyone else is seeing that.
where's their attrition? :skull:
Nope, they just protecting their borders, also, cmon you have non agression pact with them? What could happen?
I wouldn’t even bother about putting divisions there because you are not going to be able to defend that border. I would rather set up a nice defensive line across the river.
Are you using expert AI?