Any way to make the USSR neutral to the axis?

[Benzin]

I love the previous game Strategic command: European Theater, so im seriously planning on buyin this one.
However, after watching a couple of videos, something worries me...

When playing as Axis, On European Theater at the start of the game i can set the USSR to be random or neutral, (same for other countries). However on this one there doesnt seem to be such an option, and the victory conditions specifically say i have to capture moscow to acheive victory. Wich means i HAVE to go to war with the USSR.

In other words, the victory conditions seem stiff. Is there a way i can select them? Such as having a list of checkboxes with countries i would have to defeat to win? I would like to be able to NOT fight the USSR.
I would like a scenario where victory is just defeating the western alies france, UK, etc.
Is this possible in this game?

As a side note: one thing i really wish this (as well as European Theater) had, is a full world map. I love conquering Africa and even America in similar games!

thanks!

[Hubert Cater]

There are a few options for this and one would be when you launch the desired campaign to simply go to the ADVANCED->SCRIPTS screen and disable all the Victory events that include Soviet objectives, and disable all the MOBILIZATION events that are flagged to increase USSR mobilization towards the Allies.

The alternative is to use the Editor and to save a copy of the desired campaign and perform the one time edits and save, and then this customized version of the campaign will always have your settings ready to go without having to turn them off in game.

[gothimyes]

Hi Hubert, I asked a similar question on how to make the USSR not DOW the Axis. It would be good if the scripts section had a bit of fluff text to explain what each event does. They are a bit cryptic at the moment.

[Benzin]

Thanks for your reply Hubert. I will give it a try if i decide to buy the game, Im waiting to see if i can catch if with a small disscount on the steam summer sale (its a bit pricey tbh) :)

As an opinion/suggestion: From what ibe seen in the videos, this game has a lot more flexibility in regards to diplomacy when compared to Strategic command: European Theater, so it seems like "wasted potential" to not provide the simple options that European theater had to select other countries as random/neutral. Imagine the diplomatic features in this game, such as ability to influence via diplomatic points, combined with havint the initial options the older game has! you could say set the ussr to random and influence it to join you!
I hope you consider adding such features to the game in the future. Simply adding the "normal/random/neutral" option to campaign starts would be enough.

thanks!

[Benzin]

Not even a small discount during the summer sale?
cmon guys

[Benzin]

Hi Hubert, now that i own the game, i tried doing what you advised, disabling the scripts related to the ussr, but there are a ton of them on the various categories, can you tell me exactly wich ones i would have to disable in order for the ussr to remain neutral (unless i attack it)?

Any chance of an aditional scenario coming soon to the game? i mean like the ones that come with the game "storm over europe", "Dday to Berlin" etc, but that focusing on Germany - only - attacking the west without intervention of the ussr?

I tried focusing on the Uk after i took france, i even spent some diplomatic points (quite a lot actually) on keeping the ussr neutral, but even though i had less than 10 units near warsow (i had 5 exactly), shortly after i invaded the british islands the soviets got spooked and declared war on me by late 1941. I got hammered btw, as i dint have any aditional troops to defend te east, all my forces were in the uk, afrika and yugoslavia.

thanks!

[Bill Runacre]

Hi Benzin

The ones you'll need to disable will be those in the Mobilization #2 and Mobilization #3 categories.

If you disable literally all of these that have (USSR -> Allies) after their name then it does mean you can get away with more aggressive behaviour such as Sea Lion, but be careful that it doesn't imbalance the game.

Of course, you can always rebalance the game by declaring war on the USSR at a time of your choosing.

Sea Lion is hard to achieve before the USSR wakes up, that is the challenge!

[Benzin]

Hi Bill
Thanks for your reply. I do want to invade the USSR, i just want them remain at peace a little longer while i finish Sea Lion.

Doing some testing, i found that It seems that once my troops touch the british isles the USSR immediatelly declares war on me.
During my last test, I had the USSR at only 22% towards allies, they stood there for a while. Then my first paratroopers landed besides London, and the very next turn i got several messages about the ussr being alarmed by my invasion of the UK. and their mobilization to war.
The very next turn, they declared war on me.

Do you know what specific script i would have to disable to avoid this specific behavior of the ussr declaring war on me the minute i set foot on the UK?

Right now its too late, im allready engaged with the UK near london, and in the ussr, but for my next playthrough i would like to be able to delay war with the ussr.

thanks!

[Bill Runacre]

Hi Benzin

There is a Mobilization_2 script called:

#NAME= Sealion (USSR->Allies)

But this only moves the USSR between 10-15% towards the Allies when it fires, in response to the Axis having units within 1-2 hexes of London, Manchester or Edinburgh.

Something else must have been going on to take them from 22% to mobilizing for war.

Though by late 1941 I would normally expect them to have a significantly higher mobilization value, and to certainly be fairly close to entering the war, i.e. a SeaLion could potentially be enough to trigger them joining the Allies.

But if it were to happen before then, then there would have to be other factors at work. The most important being perhaps whether there have been any Axis units around Warsaw after the fall of Poland, as weakness in the east will trigger Stalin's warlike intentions.

[Benzin]

Thanks Bill, i had exactly 5 units no more than 10 grids from warsaw, i think i read in the manual this was the recommended number to keep those russians at peace.

I have a saved game from the turn before i landed in UK, i loaded it up and they were in fact at 58% not 22% as i tought(my mistake). Still they seem to go all the way as soon as i land in the UK.

[Bill Runacre]

If you run through that saved turn again perhaps you can see what events are being triggered, as all major events will have a Pop Up event for them, e.g. "Stalin is annoyed at..." or words to that effect, and hopefully it will become clear, as that one script shouldn't take them from 58 to in the 90s like that.

[Benzin]

Will do. i will load up that save and pay close attention to events. I do remember getting one message about stalling throwing a tandrum because of my advances in the middle east haha but it happened before sealion.

thanks for all your help!
Oh, and by the way... thanks for making what is to me the best grand strategy game ibe played to date! :)

[Bill Runacre]

Thanks Benzin, it's great to hear that, and have fun!