WWII-Global, Emperor difficulty, Soviet Union.
House rules: I use ground artillery only against Fortress units, as otherwise it is an overwhelming advantage to me.
Week 4, 1940:
Stalingrad has completely industrialized and is now producing heavy artillery in anticipation of knocking down Turkish fortifications. The Soviet Union will need access to the Mediterranean.
General modernization, industrialization, and foreign trade improvements made during the next two months.
Week 13, 1940:
The Japanese have razed Yenan. After much debate, we have decided to lend our support to our Communist brothers by securing their cities in the name of international peace. Chairman Mao may not appreciate this, but it is certain that our socialist brothers who labor under his rule will. We send our mobile units to Ulan Bator in order to prepare for a crossing of the Soviet/Chinese border near Lanchow. Estimated arrival: 6 weeks. We hope only that Lanchow can hold against the Imperial Japanese forces.
Week 17, 1940:
The Japanese capture Ansi. It is imperative that we secure the Communist Chinese cities as soon as possible in order to prevent more suffering. It occurs to us that if we had intervened earlier, great suffering could have been avoided and the great city of Yenan would still stand. No more will Soviet Russia stand idle when intervention could alter the fate of a people, especially a socialist people.
Week 18. We cross the new Soviet/Japanese border near Ansi on our way to Lanchow. The Japanese contact us and protest, and we reluctantly offer a Right of Passage agreement. Hirohito greedily accepts.
Week 19, 1940:
Excellent news from our tank research program. Two new tanks have passed trials and are ready for production. They are the T-34 tank and the KV-1. We have high hopes for their performance on the battlefield. All Soviet Tank Division production has been switched to the T-34s, and all Motor Rifle Division production is switched to the KV-1. We will use the heavy KV-1s to defend our cities, and the T-34s will become the fist of the Red Army.
Our motorized divisions enter the hills to the northwest of Lanchow with the intent to secure it before the Imperial Japanese can. The Communist Chinese military responds with a declaration of war. Soon they will see the wisdom of cooperating with Soviet Russia.
Week 20, 1940:
Our bombers hammer Lanchow, with sub-optimal results: only some of the garrison damaged, very few civilians killed. Our army, however, takes Lanchow without a single loss. Undamaged units move to the hills north of Sian in order to take it next week.
Week 21, 1940:
Our bombers move to Lanchow. There isn't enough time to wait for them to refuel for a bombing run over Sian, because three Imperial Japanese Type 97 tank divisions are moving westward past Lanchow toward Su-Chou. We must take Sian and beat the Japanese to Su-Chou. We asault Sian and take it, with the loss of a single Soviet Tank Division. There is now only one undamaged Soviet Tank Division. Unless our new T-34s arrive at the front sooner than expected, we may learn how Communist Chinese infantry fares against our Motor Rifle and Cavalry divisions.
We send some Motor Rifle divisions to clog the road between Lanchow and Ansi so that the Japanese tank divisions will be slowed down. The Japanese will soon learn that a Right of Passage Agreement can be a mixed blessing.
Week 22, 1940:
Our clogging of Japanese roads around Ansi seems to have worked. Our motorized forces close to within striking distance of Su-Chou, including five veteran Soviet Tank Divisions fresh from the factories of Moscow, Stalingrad, and Tankograd (Chelyabinsk). One of the new Soviet Tank Divisions destroys the radar installation serving Su-Chou. Furthermore, some new T-34 divisions have begun to cross the waste north of Su-Chou in an attempt to rendezvous with the army once Su-Chou has been taken.
Week 23, 1940:
We have taken Su-Chou with the loss of a single Soviet Tank Division. We have also connected Ulan Bator to Lanchow via road, which gives our new Chinese territory the benefits of our luxuries and industrial resources, as well as providing a convenient reinforcement route. However, the Japanese seem to have learned how to foul roads with their troops, as our reinforcement route is currently blocked by a Japanese Infantry division. Japanese control of Ansi is already a source of grief for the virtuous Soviet people.
Our forces move toward Urumtsi, but will not be able to strike next week, with the exception of a T-34 division and a Motor Rifle division.
Week 24, 1940:
Our Motor Rifle division and T-34 division next to Urumtsi each destroy two Communist Infantry divisions defending the city. The rest of our mobile assault force advances toward Urumtsi, which will almost certainly fall next week.
Week 25, 1940:
We take Urumtsi with no losses and move into position to take Tian Shou. Our homeland engineering corps have mostly completed the industrialization of Russia west of the Urals and have turned to building a rail network. There is currently a short trunk connecting Moscow, Tula and Voronezh, with a branch going from Moscow to Smolensk.
Week 26, 1940:
We take Tian Shou at the cost of one Soviet Tank Division. Our mobile forces enter the mountains north of Kashgar. Soon we will have secured the Chinese Communists from further violence at the hands of the Imperial Japanese forces.
Week 27, 1940:
Our mechanized troops advance closer to Kashgar. KV-1 tanks have started arriving at border cities, starting with the borders with Germany and Japan, where we have borders close to foreign cities.
Week 28, 1940:
Our military has developed new aircraft: the faster, stronger Yakovlev-1 fighters, and the modern Petlyakov-2 bomber, which should perform much better than our old DB-3 and SB-2 bombers.
We have taken Kashgar, and with this act Mao Zedong's futile and disruptive resistance to Communist Unity has ended. The Communist Chinese are happy to be Soviets, but they lament that their brethren in the rest of China have been denied the glories of a proletarian revolution by the greedy, self-serving bourgeois. We will be watchful for opportunities to remedy this problem.
We begin to move the Red Army toward Damascus. The Turks declared war on the Greeks a month ago, and it falls to Soviet Russia, as the only peaceful European power, to maintain peace in the region. Surveillance flights indicate that the formidable Turkish defenses are weak along their southern border, so perhaps a northward assault can crush Turkish resistance in one short month.
Week 33, 1940:
Our motorized forces are in place near Damascus. We declare war on Turkey, and our army rolls across Turkey's southern border, stopping outside the gates of Adana. 17 T-34 divisions, 6 Cavalry divisions, and one Motor Rifle division are at Adana, with another 9 T-34 divisions, 14 Soviet Tank Divisions, and 9 Motor Rifle divisions on the road behind them.
Interestingly, the British are moving 42 British India Infantry divisions west through the mountains near Kandahar, no doubt in order to assault Italian Ethiopia.
The Allies declare war on the Spanish.
Nicosia's borders expand, cutting off my reinforcement route from Damascus to Adana.
Week 34, 1940:
We direct the Damascus engineering corps to begin building a road around Nicosia's borders.
Our assault on Turkey begins with no air support. Our old SB-2 and DB-3 bombers are being dismantled for parts and scrap, and our new Pe-2 bombers are still en route to the Middle East.
We taka Adana with no losses. Our mobile forces then roll northward to take the heavily fortified city of Ankara, where we lose 3 T-34 divisions and 2 Soviet Tank divisions. Once Ankara falls, the unstoppable Soviet tide moves northward to take Samsun, at the loss of 2 T-34 divisions. A cavalry division scouts Istanbul, where we see an elite Fortress in place, no doubt the result of Turkey's war with Greece. We begin moving our eight Heavy Artillery divisions south from Kharkov. Istanbul will not be an easy mark. We move our remaining undamaged divisions into the mountains between Erzurum and Trabzon.
Week 35, 1940:
Five Pe-2 wings arrive in Ankara.
We take Erzurum, losing one T-34 division in the process. We take Trabzon at the cost of a single Soviet Tank Division.
The Turkish reputation for strong fortifications is well-deserved. If not for our superior mobile doctrine, we would have lost many more divisions. Istanbul may prove to be another matter entirely.
We stop our 8 Heavy Artillery divisions in the Caucasus - rather than run our artillery all the way around the Turkish fortifications, we will blow a hole in the Caucasian defenses and take our artillery through that hole, saving perhaps two weeks of marching time. We mercilessly pound the Turks, who no longer receive reinforcement and resupply from Erzurum and Trabzon. Miraculously, we manage to punch a hole in the battered Turkish line at the cost of only one T-34 division. Our artillery will be at the walls of Istanbul in a week.
We also complete the new Damascus-Adana road, reestablishing our reinforcement route into Southern Turkey. It's not strictly necessary, but unlike our new Caucasian route, the southern road is not subject to harrassment fire from the Turkish strongholds.
Istanbul receives infantry reinforcements from its Greek expeditionary forces. Two Turkish Infantry divisions attack our Cavalry divisions near Istanbul. They lose one Infantry division, and we lose one Cavalry division.
The British India Infantry divisions near Kandahar seem to have been given new orders, and begin marching back east to India.
Week 36, 1940:
We prepare for our assault on Istanbul. A sixth wing of Pe-2 bombers arrives in Ankara. Our troops arrive at Istanbul: Eight Heavy Artillery divisions, 16 T-34 divisions, 7 Soviet Tank Divisions, 10 Motor Rifle divisions, and 5 Cavalry divisions.
The Turks move 5 Infantry divisions toward Ankara from Istanbul.
Week 37, 1940:
Our Heavy Artillery damages the main fortress in Istanbul, but there is still at least one other. Our Pe-2 wings destroyed the Turkish battlecruiser in Istanbul harbor with no losses, but did not damage any of the fortresses. Our generals advise us to wait until next week to begin the assault, when it is likely that our air support can do some good against the Turk fortresses.
We butcher the 5 invading Turk Infantry divisions with no losses.
Our railroad network connects Vitebsk to Moscow to Kharkov to Stalingrad. We have two railroad crews working: one will continue east from Stalingrad, building a "Trans-Siberian Railroad." However, it will stay to the south of the great forests, taking advantage of the sub-Siberian plains for faster construction. The planned route will connect Stalingrad, Astrachan, Aralsk, Semipalatinsk, Kondo, Ulan Bator and Bulgan. Where it will go from Bulgan is currently an open question. The second railroad crew will keep working west from Vitebsk to the German border at Vilnius, and then will move southward connecting the cities along the border.
A third railroad crew is forming at Teheran with the intent to connect it to Aralsk via Mashhad.
Week 38, 1940:
Our artillery and bombers pound Istanbul mercilessly. The Turk's fortresses are badly damaged (1 hp apiece), and their troops scattered and disoriented (1-2 hp each). We launch our assault, starting with our elite T-34 divisions. We lose three elite T-34 divisions to the fortresses, but we take Istanbul and Turkey surrenders. Now we have access to the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea makes a mighty harbor for our warships. The Marat, the Krazny Kavkaz, the Chervona Ukraina, and the Krim steam to the Mediterranean in order to let the world know that Soviet Russia has arrived in warm waters.
The British India Infantry divisions have reversed direction yet again. They are cluttering the road to Kandahar and are preventing the engineering corps from establishing mines in the area near Kandahar. We will ask the British to remove their troops.
Week 39, 1940:
We contact the British, and they remove their troops from our territory. We shall see how long this compliance lasts. In the meantime, Persian engineering corps that have finished developing Baghdad and Damascus are sent to Soviet Turkey to develop the rich land there.
Note: At this point, I think that there is really not much that can defeat me.
The Allies don't present much threat: Germany has eliminated European France, and the resource-starved Free French in Africa can produce only infantry and cavalry. Britain is essentially paralyzed: their shipping from the British Isles is subject to German harrassment, their Mediterranean operations are hampered by the weak but not insignificant Italian naval operations, and their African territories are severed from their Indian land. Their rich Indian territories are productive, but they are sending all their units west to battle Italy's Ethiopian defenders. When the Japanese finish off China, British India will be in grave trouble - the single most damaging thing I could do to Britain aside from declaring war would be to allow their 42 Indian Infantry to pass through my land, because it would mean that they'd be caught flat-footed when Japan breaks through China and Southeast Asia. The U.S. has been a non-presence, no doubt engaged in Pacific struggles with Japan.
The Axis is a greater threat, but not much. Germany is powerful, but they don't yet have the more powerful tanks. At this point I could wipe them out of Europe in 20-26 turns. Japan has largely ignored the Pacific in favor of subduing the Chinese (which I consider to be a remarkably good strategy for the AI. The Pacific Islands are useful and strategically important, but the AI rarely uses them effectively. Right now Japan has taken all but four major Chinese cities: Chengdu, Chungking, Kunming and Nanning), but their units simply can't contend with T-34s. Italy, Finland, and the minor axis powers aren't worth mentioning; their units are totally inferior to T-34s, and Soviet Russia's industrial capacity dwarfs theirs.
In the worst case scenario, Germany would wait until it had researched an 8-hp armor unit, and then declare war on me. Germany and Japan would both ignore their other adversaries to attack Soviet Russia without mercy. This would be a challenge, but I think Russia's raw industrial might could prevail - in that case I would fight a delaying action against Germany with my 30 western T-34 divisions while I sent every other available unit to the east to smash Manchukuo, Korea, and Japanese China. The second worst case scenario would be a sustained, all-out attack from the U.S. and Britain. Since Britain has nearly no Pacific presence, and since Japan is a very effective naval screen in the Pacific, the Allied attacks would have to be via the Arctic Sea or the Mediterranean. In both cases they would be subject to German and Italian naval harrassment.
Some observations: Russia starts rather strong, considering that it's not at war with any major powers. The Soviet Tank Divisions it starts with are more than powerful enough to conquer Poland, Persia and Communist China (which I could and should have taken earlier). By the time Barbarossa rolls around, Russia should be very industrialized and have a very powerful military, which I'm not sure is historically accurate. On the other hand, I don't know a good way to keep such a massive civ from becoming very powerful in Civ. More cities = more power.
The T-34s cost only 180 shields. Is that different from 2.3? I had thought that armor costs were going to increase, but 180 shields still seems very cheap. I can easily afford to treat my T-34 divisions as disposable units and still outnumber my enemies (this is not unrealistic, but it's very powerful). I could also very successfully produce only T-34s and sweep across Europe, Asia and Africa. Then again, the Russian infantry is quite weak, so they wouldn't have the same options as the Allies or Japan/Germany to create a vast infantry army.
I plan to continue without any more wars of conquest, although if anybody declares war I'll pursue it hard. If no war breaks out with the Axis by week 30 of 1941, then I'll declare war on Finland to simulate Barbarossa. By then Germany should have some good armor units.
. Remember this is only Week 44, 1939, and Germany is just begining to take off industrially. My plan is to have Bremen make Flak units because Herman Goering needs more anti-air to kill every plane that is bombing that town, mercelessly.
