2 January, 1939
And we're back! This should be a busy year. Assuming the war starts historically, we'll be in Poland and the Low Countries by September.
3 January, 1939
The Soviet Union gears up for war.
This deserves a moment of explanation. As I'm sure all of you already know, the USSR acquitted itself quite poorly in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa thanks to an inflexible command structure and orders from the top to avoid provoking the Germans, even as the Germans were crossing into Soviet territory. The game models this: the Soviet Union starts the scenario with a very low Ground Defense Efficiency--that is, the effectiveness of all of its ground forces. We gain a little bit of that over time, but the lion's share will only come once we are 1) at war with someone or 2) attacked by Germany.
16 January, 1939
Sometimes, the staggering scale and lack of infrastructure of Russia doesn't come across too well. Much of Russia is currently frozen, which drastically slows down armed forces, but even so--Zhukov's 6th Corps, three motorized divisions and a tank division, and therefore pretty quick as military units go, would take over two and a half years to go from the Estonian border to Komandorski Islands off of Kamchatka. If I sent them today, they estimate their time of arrival as the 21st of July, 1941.
25 Jaunary, 1939
Our progress in industrial technology continues. In a year or so we'll be able to start on the assembly line technologies, which will greatly improve our ability to spam infantry.
A division of new BT-7s was deployed today.
14 February, 1939
Our intelligence reports the Germans currently have a larger military than we do.
1 March, 1939
We've finished two more Industrial Capacity. Like a smart fellow, I'm building all of the new factories far beyond the Moscow-Leningrad line.
13 March, 1939
Boris Shaposhnikov, doctrinaire extraordinaire, finishes the First Strike Doctrine in the Air Doctrine tree, and moves on to Deep Operations Doctrine in the Land Doctrine tree.
29 March, 1939
EuchreJack, your 6th Tanks are now equipped with... BT-5s. Sorry.
1 April, 1939
Non-aggression pacts with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland expired today.
2 May, 1939
Research begins on the T-34. It should be ready sometime by mid-1940, and should start coming into service by the end of that year.
7 June, 1939
We begin research on tank destroyers. We gear up for war again, bringing our Ground Defense Efficiency to 40%.
14 June, 1939
Estonia is proving maddeningly spy-resistant.
22 June, 1939
Zhukov's Corps estimates it could make it to the same island on the far side of the USSR in a little over a year, now that there's not snow in the way. The Russian winter really kicks a speed-based style of warfare in the teeth.
23 July, 1939
Estonia is proving maddeningly resistant to spies.
1 August, 1939
The Battle of Khalkin Ghol:
23 August, 1939
The Molotov-Ribbentropp event goes historically. I didn't feel like reloading until the Unholy Alliance event worked; Germany isn't particularly inclined to accept it.
30 August, 1939
The Poles cede Danzig to the Germans, connecting Koenigsberg and the rest of Germany.
2 September, 1939
Germany declares war on Poland. The Soviet Union follows suit, and gets Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in on it too.
The plan in the south is limited somewhat by the need to grab territory before Germany gets to it; the idea is to send forces as deep as possible as fast as possible.
In the north it's a bit more interesting. I have two options: I can use Zhukov's corps to run along the coast and provide me friendly territory to encircle enemy units into, or I can make a fairly standard Soviet wide-front attack.
The diplomatic situation, and an overview of the theater:
The plan in the south:
The first option in the north, using Zhukov's corps to sweep along the coast:
The second option in the north, a standard wide-front attack:
Poll
6 (60%)
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Topic: Arsenal of Democracy LP (1 October, 1944: Vperyod!) (Read 95999 times)