How to beat USSR?

[Emperor Penguin]

Anybody know how or what combination of cities will cause them to capitulate (as Germany)?

[MrSatan]

I played as fascist Poland, took Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad, Sevastopol and other major cities, basically all they got left was Vladivostok and they still refused to capitulate. But as Germans you might have some events to make them capitulate faster?

[Warcrimes]

I made them capitulate as facist poland, they key is to do huge offesives to weaken their whole line, and to also make sure to take moscow, sevastopol, and stalingrad only then did they capitulate. Another problems is any other people in thier faction need to die to or they will need to be at 100% before they capitulate.

[Emperor Penguin]

Okay this was my first playthrough and I did so very many things wrong. I called in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary and they are all now occupied, mostly by the Soviets. Will I need to retake that territory to make them capitulate?

[Warcrimes]

Originally posted by Emperor Penguin:

Okay this was my first playthrough and I did so very many things wrong. I called in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary and they are all now occupied, mostly by the Soviets. Will I need to retake that territory to make them capitulate?

Probably not becuase their not core states just focus on the important citites and leninigrad if you can the citities with rivers are hard but start bulging your line to stalingrad becuase i took moscow and wasted one year by not foucusing on stalingrad first then moscow becuase its so far.

[Warcrimes]

Originally posted by Emperor Penguin:

Okay this was my first playthrough and I did so very many things wrong. I called in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary and they are all now occupied, mostly by the Soviets. Will I need to retake that territory to make them capitulate?

You might have an easier time since germany didnt help me on my offensives to much and focused on other places and i only won with 78 divions with 8 being armored and 2 mech infantry the rest being regular infantry.

[Emperor Penguin]

How'd you manage to take them down with so few soldiers?

[Warcrimes]

Originally posted by Emperor Penguin:

How'd you manage to take them down with so few soldiers?

Sometimes germany would help which is the only reason i won becuase they sat on the border otherwise those divisons would be to far spread to work out, the way i did it after tireing out the ussr with slow conquest was to launch many series of attacks to make there soldiers move desperatly on the line making them easier to conquer. And after all this i thought i won but of course i attacked sweden and they have more divions than me which i have no idea how is that possible. Regardless i think the stratagey of succesive attacks and control individual diviosn opposed to full on assault is also usefull, like stack several divions in a area you want and focus it until they lose. And lastly you can use politcal influence to buy army organizer who gives like 15% defense offesne which is really nice.

[xXx_Groß_Chunguß_xXx]

Minsk, Sevastopol, Kiev, Leningrad, Moscow, Baku, Tbilisi, and some little cities

[mom's spaghetti]

as Germany, be sure to take them out when they still have the debuff 'officers purged' and the USSR is weak early and are pretty ill-equipped, they're a powerhouse later in the game though

[perato]

Depends on their national unity. Check war screen how big percentage of victorypoints you need from them. I had to invade all the way to Sianking to actually make them capitulate.

Use tanks. About 18 divs will do. Rest inf to mop up. Call allies to fill all the gaps, especially Italy and nationalist spain.

[Josh]

The number of cities needed depend on their national unity level.

You can beat them even at their strongest.

I defeated them as Germany after they declared war on me, when they had a national unity of 90%, with no Trotsky plot and the General purges were finished.

The year was mid 1941, or somewhere around there.

Here's what I did as Germany vs the Soviets:

1. Stop using battle plans if you use them. You need to micromanage every fight on the frontline.

2. You should easily be able to get naval supremacy in the Baltic Sea as Germany. Launch a naval invasion with 20 divisions at Leningrad - it's a key city that hurts their industry and will divert at least 20 divisions of theirs to address the problem.

Build forts on Leningrad and the airbase next to it, so you can easily defend,

If they leave the area, advance your troops (don't advance all of them, leave at least 4 entrenched in each square - so send 12 out). If they respond, back your troops to Leningrad. Just keep them in a perpetual state of "if you leave I will take territory, if you stay, then you're just guarding doing nothing.

Your goal is to advance the frontline to link up with Leningrad. It's going to be slow, but once you do your 20 divisions will come into play - with an angle advantage.

You'll have a frontline near Tallin (Estonia) and then you'll have 20 divisions North-East of that at Leningrad. Makes it hard for the Soviets to hold a two angle assault.

I learnt later on that capturing Leningrad stops the Soviet focus tree ability "move industry to the Urals". It stops them from saving 11 military factories that would have been lost to your advance, by moving them further inland. So that's a big bonus.

Plus, it stops the national focus "defence of Moscow" which provides the Soviets with a tonne of land forts in and around Moscow.

So there's three extremely good reasons to take Leningrad.

3. Winning against the Soviet Union is about two things: battlefield assessment and making breakthroughs.

You need to assess where there's a weakness in your frontline and address it. This mean shuffling troops around a fair bit or re-directing men completely to different parts of the front to stop a red army push back.

Apply pressure to weaker areas of the red army frontline to get a red army response. If they're losing ground they will try to re-fortify that spot in their frontline - leaving others spots vulnerable.

You need to find breakthroughs (squares you can punch through the enemy frontline with and funnel men into).

Your goal is to encircle their frontline or provide enough pressure attacking from multiple angles to force them to retreat, thus gaining ground.

Avoid trying to breakthrough squares on river crossings, it's extremely difficult. Sometimes it might be unavoidable but generally you should try to breakthrough at other locations.

4. Use every combat advantage you can get. Decryption advantage, air support + air superiority (very important to providing assistance in wearing down enemy organisation), even naval bombardment if possible during fights along the coast to Leningrad.

5. Repair your infrastructure as you conquer, so troops can be properly supplied. Supply is very important.

6. Accept that you will need to deploy troops early. Often you cannot deploy trained troops fast enough to stop the Soviets, they just have too many men.

What's more important is just having the troops to plug up holes in your frontline or to push even harder. Doesn't matter if they're "fresh" and lack the experience.

7. I used a 100% ahead of time research reduction bonus to get Tiger tanks by 1941. Helped a lot to make big breakthroughs. Not sure if it's possible for you though, depends on your national focus/research tree.

8. Make sure your infantry equipment is up to date for the year you're in, every % advantage to defence and breakthrough makes a big difference.

In your division template for infantry include field hospitals, engineering corps, recon, support artillery and logistics.

These support companies will reduce the supply needed for your troops, increase their movement and combat performance in a variety of tactical settings (forests, river crossing etc), give them initiative, meaning your General has a bonus chance to counter-pick a tactic to the enemy General and they will also save your troops from losing experience due to casualties. Support artillery adds some extra firepower vs enemy infantry.

9. I spent a long time in my battle with the Soviets. Probably 30-40 hours of pausing, micro management and playing on 1 speed.

You literally need to look at every fight on the frontline and then make the right decisions about what to do.

Realise that there will be many waves of Soviets and sometimes it feels pointless to keep going, but the further you go the easier it gets, until you've finally broken their back.

[perato]

Originally posted by Vladimir Putin:

9. I spent a long time in my battle with the Soviets. Probably 30-40 hours of pausing, micro management and playing on 1 speed.

You literally need to look at every fight on the frontline and then make the right decisions about what to do.

Realise that there will be many waves of Soviets and sometimes it feels pointless to keep going, but the further you go the easier it gets, until you've finally broken their back.

Jesus, 30-40 hours? My Germany invades all the world lasted about 24 hours. Invaded SU the same time. Took about 5-8 months them to throw in the towel(depending do you count the time when they stopped having divisions or the time they actually capitulated).

Not a lot of micromanaging needed, just punch through with tanks, groups of 12. Leave the first 4 in first slot, next 8 advanced, and again 4. Other 12 advances from another direction if going for massive envelopement. Italian infantry fills the gap so you can just punch with your armor to every direction.

[Fņŏŕď]

Or you can simply get 80 divisions or so of six inf 2 art and one tank or tank destroyer divisions play Superior Firepower or Grand Battleplan and walk to Moscow. You'll get there eventually but there won't be many Russians left.

[Zandraak]

2 Way: First, build a huge wall, and grind they're troops and planes with DCA.
Bunkers, Trains, Radars, CDA. And when communists are dead, you can march.

Second, like in history, build a line, and an other army of cavalery (tanks+Horses+Motorised Troops) and rush behind them and make a huge bubble.

[Texonater]

Easiest way to Win against Russia? Wear them out. Have an army of 7in 2 art all on cautious orders. Give Russia a year to smash their troops against yours while you are on the defensive and just be patient. As significant russian losses mount, they will fall further and further behind on infantry equipment for their soldiers. Eventually, thier infantry will be little more then placeholders that you can steamroll over.