Hornblower
Cry Havoc!
USSR - Sid - Version 2.5 - Weeks 36-44 1939
Germany conquered Poland by week 38 which is quite a good result for the AI.
German naval units have limited success against the RN in the North Sea but the RAF in conjunction with the RN soon clear the seas of the Kriegsmarine raiders.
From week 37-44, France dithered around probing Italy and Germany with singular attacks all along the lines rather than forcing a breakthrough in one place. This strategy sees France lose their most potent asset early in the game with their armoured units being spent uselessly. Despite this France still stands as a complete entity in week 44. Although Germany appears to be consolidating her gains in the east and is content that France won't be breaking through any time soon. German AI is conducting piecemeal attacks with her superior airforce in the west. I suspect a large German push to the West very soon. History is following its natural course here. The question will be will the low countries be attacked before France?
Italy just does the standard bizarre AI things in southern France and sends her men to their deaths. The Italian navy also renders itself useless by smashing itself to death in the Mediterranean but this does have the benefit of drawing off RN units from Britain.
Japan consolidates for the first 4 or so turns and then declares war on China. My limited recon doesn't reveal much action though.
In week 44 both China and the US declare war on the USSR for no apparent reason. There is no immediate threat from either but for fun I send my destroyers out from Vladivostok toward Alaska for a bit of recon. I will probably leave them to themselves though as I wouldn't mind a trading partner later on with a nice attitude.
Thoughts....
Despite having tested most versions of this scenario since the early days I have never played as the USSR. I was inspired to give it a go when I saw a real T34 in all its rusty glory. A few weeks later I was lucky enough to see a restored T34 as well as a Sherman and a Jagdpanther at the Imperial War Museum in London. That said the AI always put up a good fight as the USSR so I looked forward to the challenge of giving it a go in the latest version.
Little did I realise how much of a disorganised mess the USSR actually is at the start of this game. I think this is an accurate reflection of the state of Stalin's empire though. Having invaded Russia as Germany and Japan in previous games I always captured massive numbers of AI workers. I now realise that you really need to produce high numbers of these guys to kick start your economy/production if you want to compete. I haven't sussed out the difference between a standard worker and a railroad engineer yet but gather the latter will build a railroad quicker? Hopefully the former will also build railroads as well. I've found 23 workers stacked is the perfect number for the creation of a railroad in one turn but these numbers may now be different with the new addition. Russia traditionally used manpower like this enmasse even if it meant high attrition.
The material on offer early on is also really inadequate and as such a determined push toward the T34/76 is the primary driving force for tech. To do this I have ensured that Libraries and Universities are the build priorities for every city and town over a size 4/5 depending on their existing infrastructure. Hopefully with large numbers of workers and a ruthless researching campaign the turns for tech will drop from the 40turns to a more acceptable 10-14 turns within a year or so. I just have to hope that the Germans and Japanese don't get to angry and invade me anytime soon.
Germany conquered Poland by week 38 which is quite a good result for the AI.
German naval units have limited success against the RN in the North Sea but the RAF in conjunction with the RN soon clear the seas of the Kriegsmarine raiders.
From week 37-44, France dithered around probing Italy and Germany with singular attacks all along the lines rather than forcing a breakthrough in one place. This strategy sees France lose their most potent asset early in the game with their armoured units being spent uselessly. Despite this France still stands as a complete entity in week 44. Although Germany appears to be consolidating her gains in the east and is content that France won't be breaking through any time soon. German AI is conducting piecemeal attacks with her superior airforce in the west. I suspect a large German push to the West very soon. History is following its natural course here. The question will be will the low countries be attacked before France?
Italy just does the standard bizarre AI things in southern France and sends her men to their deaths. The Italian navy also renders itself useless by smashing itself to death in the Mediterranean but this does have the benefit of drawing off RN units from Britain.
Japan consolidates for the first 4 or so turns and then declares war on China. My limited recon doesn't reveal much action though.
In week 44 both China and the US declare war on the USSR for no apparent reason. There is no immediate threat from either but for fun I send my destroyers out from Vladivostok toward Alaska for a bit of recon. I will probably leave them to themselves though as I wouldn't mind a trading partner later on with a nice attitude.
Thoughts....
Despite having tested most versions of this scenario since the early days I have never played as the USSR. I was inspired to give it a go when I saw a real T34 in all its rusty glory. A few weeks later I was lucky enough to see a restored T34 as well as a Sherman and a Jagdpanther at the Imperial War Museum in London. That said the AI always put up a good fight as the USSR so I looked forward to the challenge of giving it a go in the latest version.
Little did I realise how much of a disorganised mess the USSR actually is at the start of this game. I think this is an accurate reflection of the state of Stalin's empire though. Having invaded Russia as Germany and Japan in previous games I always captured massive numbers of AI workers. I now realise that you really need to produce high numbers of these guys to kick start your economy/production if you want to compete. I haven't sussed out the difference between a standard worker and a railroad engineer yet but gather the latter will build a railroad quicker? Hopefully the former will also build railroads as well. I've found 23 workers stacked is the perfect number for the creation of a railroad in one turn but these numbers may now be different with the new addition. Russia traditionally used manpower like this enmasse even if it meant high attrition.
The material on offer early on is also really inadequate and as such a determined push toward the T34/76 is the primary driving force for tech. To do this I have ensured that Libraries and Universities are the build priorities for every city and town over a size 4/5 depending on their existing infrastructure. Hopefully with large numbers of workers and a ruthless researching campaign the turns for tech will drop from the 40turns to a more acceptable 10-14 turns within a year or so. I just have to hope that the Germans and Japanese don't get to angry and invade me anytime soon.
You could essentially switch back and forth between the two .exes as many times as you could wish to in a game.
