Defense In Depth #1 [A USSR Let's Play for Hearts of Iron IV]

The most titanic struggle of all human history - The Eastern Front. Join me for this exploration of HOI4's mechanics in an attempt to hold off the Wehrmacht.
Full Schedule Here: gaming.kzbin.info...

[@ammelodiana5664]

a bunch of KV-1s? I like this guy.

[@thecaptainflowers4937]

Ahh but the KV-2 was much better for defense,its much heaver.

[@Barcodez5555]

@@thecaptainflowers4937 and it just looks like a beast.. i remember good times with that tank on wot

[@rickroll4286]

Wow, you are the first youtuber that actually makes Hoi4 interesting to watch. I always loved this game and always will. Whenever I can't play ill watch your videos. Keep it up!

[@snoo333]

one hour forty mins in and love the commentary and gameplay. thank you

[@cadeaponick4276]

I love the videos and I love your voice. Keep it up man.

[@kubusta]

I like your stream, keep up doing great work. Subscribed! :)

[@diegoalvarez9960]

heey really nice video, keep up the good work man

[@badejong]

I realy liked your play. I was looking for someone that is not playing like a rabit on steroids that I see in other playtroughs, but someone who takes time to overthink things and set strategies. And even more important; someone who shows what buttons are and do, and explains things about what he is doing and why he is doing things. And for that I thank you. Subscriber gained...

[@Bridger15]

Thanks! Streaming is certainly not easy, but I plan to do some more let's plays soon. I've been focusing on my "help learning the game" videos recently.

[@HeGotsaSnipa2]

"Stop exercising! This is hardly a time for calisthenics!"

[@minelord29]

When he said that he wanted 60 kv1's my first thought was: Your a madman.

[@doctorspartan6119]

I'm glad this guy is very good at specializing in teaching you how to play. It's helped me a lot in my learning as Italy. In my Italy game it's 1937 and I've been at war with Yugoslavia for three months, and if I win I will consider myself to know how to play the game. I easily won the Ethiopia War and feel mastered in aspects other than war. Navy seems quite easy despite me never having the opportunity to use it and I'm having difficulty knowing if my Air Force is working, but I'm guessing it does since i always seem to have air superiority. This game is easier to learn than the other Paradox game I play a lot EU4 imo because EU4 has several aspects irrelevant to HOI4, such as force limit, AE, OE, Monarch points dictating everything, ideas, among others.

[@doctorspartan6119]

Plus tanks, airplanes, bombs and rockets are badass. In real life I actually do love rockets and planes.

[@BattlefieldBlitz]

Just stumbled upon your channel, awesome video! subbed!

[@DasKauzer]

Nice game. Gona watch all 3 hours right before release. )

[@electricatom2]

thank you so much for this gameplay dude im new to the game and im still learning how to do things, i also wondered where was the trigger for winter war with finland, those national interests trees are giving me idea paradox took away my freedom to just invade countries early in the game

[@Owlr4ider]

The best part about the Mass Assault doctrine is not the extra manpower but rather the extra combat width reduction. Combine that with your typical combat width reduction field marshal and you get to bring significantly more troops to each battle than your opposition. These extra troops are worth more than a few more bonuses your troops receive from the other doctrines. It also allows you to fully utilize Russia's already immense manpower and actually make a significantly larger part of it relevant in the actual war.

[@Bridger15]

You're not wrong about the combat width reduction. In addition, the supply use reduction is pretty damn great too.

[@bwaman2370]

I love how the unit next to Malaga in Spain he said how did he get there but he has been there nearly the entire war

[@echomjp]

Hmn, I was under the impression a stream of yours was about to begin, but I can't go watching that if I have to get caught up! Hope it all goes well for you in any case. Keep up the good work.

[@sensation6327]

*Entertaining video*

[@GenghisVern]

2nd HOI4 playthrough of yours I've watched all the way through. Got to see a lot of the various game mechanics. The Russian civil war was interesting too., as well as those 5 divisions in the Spanish civil war.

[@TheJackHood]

Holy crap you could be a voice actor. Real creamy-like voice.

[@YellowSwordtail131]

Have you even heard the guy that voices ExtraParadox's HoI 4 tutorial vids?

[@TheJackHood]

Spreader of Positive Vibes You mean Cknoor? Yeah he's alright but not as good as this. (No offence to Cknoor)

[@Bridger15]

I believe he meant DDR Jake? Isn't he the one narrating the tutorial vids?

[@TheJackHood]

Bridger I mean, im like 95% sure it's Cknoor, I have been wrong before though...

[@Bridger15]

I'm 99.9999% sure that's DDR Jake. I just listened to it. He's the one who's been with Danial for most of the WWW streams. CKnoor is the guy on the Blorg streams. Totally different accents.

[@StrategyJoe]

Starts at 7:40

[@TrueMokael]

But the music is so epic I dont want to skip!

[@futenodeku3441]

Thanks m80

[@bobmarine7392]

Thank comrad.

[@garrett6734]

most epic voice award

[@thecaptainflowers4937]

German:this will be easy Russian:bring in the KV-1s German:we can't pin Italian:whared our anty tank ecuiment go?

[@TheUlquiorraCifer]

Trotsky gets a ruler trait.

[@zlatkosljivic830]

You can see more about the war (stats i mean) by clicking on the world tension button and going under current wars :)

[@bobcrafty8091]

Soviets didn't lose the Winter War in real life. They just suffered heavy casualties.

[@FaithRox]

Bob Crafty They sure as fuck didnt win it lol

[@theodoreavison1927]

they won with heavy casualties

[@SaveYourselfGents]

Faith Rox it was like ww2. Heavy casualties, but they won.

[@ComradeHellas]

They won the war. 50.000 deaths are not heavy casualties either with 3 million births per year. They replenished the manpower in a month.

[@russianman7571]

You are a good comerade, I just subscribed to you

[@wolv0223]

As to the Civil War size, the Non-Aligned state, Russia, is entirely independent of the party popularity. It only changes based on your choices in the purge. The smallest it can be is 18%, which occurs in the case that Trotsky becomes a leader (which happens in late 1938, but you can't have purged any leaders, so no Great Purge focus), varying levels in the 20s and 30s depending on purge choices in the focus, and 50% if you refuse to let Trotsky back.

[@Necrotoxin7]

Love the voice! You sound like John de Lancie.

[@jamesyak52]

hey Bridger. I watched all of your ToH's back in the day with Vitensby. :)

[@JohnVanderbeck]

Would it be possible to choose your side in a civil war? For example in this video when you get the Russian and USSR sides in the civil war can you play as Russia instead and carryon that way?

[@MisanthropicMarxist]

The wording on the German-Soviet treaty event is weird. The Marxist-Leninist interpretation of fascism is that it represents capitalism in a state of decay, in which the State's power has been dramatically increased, in response to a threat (whether real or perceived) to the class dynamic. The Soviets considered Nazi Germany to be just another kind of capitalism, not the same as Britain, France, the US, etc, but still fundamentally part of that system, so the phrasing of the choices makes no sense.

[@SuperKittenator]

I get the impression from this that the Marxist-Leninist perspective is that fascists are on the right path, but they don't do enough, is that correct?

[@MisanthropicMarxist]

Dr. Gazooks No, just the opposite. Basically, Marxist-Leninists are saying that, in societies that adopt fascism, the most reactionary, extreme elements of the capitalist class have taken over. They do this because there's either a legitimate risk of capitalism being threatened there, or because they perceive such a risk, even if it doesn't exist. Bottom line, fascism is the real face of capitalism, once the gloves come off.

[@SuperKittenator]

DefinitelyNotYakra lol, Lenin really likes to flip flop "What a waste that we lost Mussolini. He is a first-rate man who would have led our party to power in Italy." - Addressed to a delegation of Italian socialists in Moscow after Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922

[@MisanthropicMarxist]

Dr. Gazooks That's a misleading quote. When Lenin called it "a waste," he was referring to Mussolini's conversion to fascism. For all his flaws, Mussolini was a charismatic figure, and he would have been an asset to Socialism, had he chosen the right side.

[@MisanthropicMarxist]

He would have been an asset to any political cause, had he not been a megalomaniac fascist

[@norman4908]

Can you do a let's play of USSr vs the world?

[@tyray3p]

"I dont want this going up as one big stream on KZbin." famous last words.

[@Bridger15]

hah, well yeah. Trying to break things up during a live stream is difficult, and trying to do it after the fact is very time consuming. I just decided to let it be :)

[@MSMUN2009]

Bridger! I listened to Tales of Heroes back in the day, and I'm glad that The Algorithm introduced me to your new-to-me youtube channel. (You won't actually read this, but The Algorithm will).

[@Bridger15]

Sure I'll read it. I have a bunch of the old (and new) Tales of Heroes episodes on the channel. You can find them sorted by season here: kzbin.infoplaylists?sort=dd&view=1

[@sickre]

This would be so hard to play. Or at least, to try it without watching lots of lets plays with good explanations. Thanks!

[@sr.royaldoge5275]

YAY !

[@CastelDawn]

3 hours, that's in depth indeed lol.

[@bencasey7023]

we need more videos like this. a lot. very informative. next time, pls do japan..

[@Zamolxes77]

25:16 You have mountains in the east, against Japan, the whole godamn Mongolia and Northern China are nothing but mountains ! 42:21 I know this video is one month old, but I can't help it. If you research the bt-7 light tank, and equip all your infantry divisions with 1 regiment of those tanks, they will get that golden shield you seen on italian and german volunteers. Basically, if the armor rating of the division is above 4 I believe, they receive 50% less damage AND get 50% EXTRA damage, when in combat against a regular infantry division. The enemy basically needs anti tank support regiment to negate that bonus you get. They don't have to be kv-1's, even with light tanks you will get that bonus, and when the time comes, off course you can switch the lights for heavies. KV1, stronk tank, made out of Stalinium ! "This city, is not Minsk, nor Kiev. Its Stalingrad. STALINGRAD ! This city wears the name of the Boss ! "

[@Bridger15]

I'm not sure what pointing out the existence of mountains is supposed to mean? And I'm well aware (by now) what having higher armor does. The point of adding a heavy tank battalion to the infantry divisions is to get that armor bonus but also get high breakthrough, piercing, and soft/hard attack. The breakthrough is the key. Light does add some breakthrough, but it wasn't worth wasting IC on light tanks that I was going to throw away before the war started.

[@reddroid8499]

How many Kv-1's did he put in each row?

[@bengast2]

Those axis volunteers pocketed by the Commies,... strategical failure of the axis rofl! pretty funny.

[@keupkana]

Hey man hope you'll make a new 3h vid :)

[@TwoBitWriter]

The reinforce rate from the NKVD route is quite large, though the actual number escapes me at the moment.

[@Bridger15]

Someone said it was 30%? I haven't tested it myself but that is pretty crazy high.

[@nickj.648]

When does Trotsky show up?

[@user-tz5no1nm9z]

Zhukov! My man))

[@CmdrLaw]

For the Russian Coup, you only checked for Unaligned members after the Coup started. So Presumably they would have already split off so there would naturally be none left in the Soviet Pie Chart.

[@danielunnamed9438]

Game developers should contact Ola Strandh for more great music!

[@ryanbravata3349]

Did you play any more of this or did you switch to the Germans?

[@Icewood9999]

Da, comrad! You mistaked in every russian name )) But it was funny. Spasibo from Russia.

[@Bridger15]

Hah! I apologize to all nations for my terrible pronunciation.

[@YiannissB.]

3 more hours!! NOW!!

[@AdiGaming]

How do you play this?

[@SkilledKill]

Do you think the manpower bonus with the social science is a bug? I think it's meant to give you a 5% bonus, not 5 million. unless 5% of your population is actually 5 mil which isnt impossible, idk population of USSR circa 1937

[@billyhonker3072]

SkilledKill over 150 mil

[@praline4162]

But, if you took the high road, I'd be in Scotland before you.

[@orso14]

why you don't re-organize the USSR Fleet?

[@7yearsryugami169]

you can go to world tension and check and see all current war progress.

[@Thumper770]

So, @1:15:20 the reason you can't see the icon is cuz you aren't at war. Republican Spain is. Your volunteers doesn't pull you into the war so, there is no war icon.

[@JaniceHope]

Where can I find the start of this?

[@Bridger15]

This is the first video, i'm not sure what you mean?

[@WMB96]

6:20

[@JaniceHope]

weird... when I first started it... the first hours was missing ... now it's there. *shrug*

[@ObssesedNuker]

When does the next part go up on youtube?

[@crypticmcnuggets754]

It starts at 0:00... Welcome!

[@elsasslotharingen7507]

I find it funny that anti-Stalin revolts always have Stalingrad as capital.

[@MrPralord]

Bella Ciao!

[@liviu_dragnea_psd]

+1 subscribers!

[@finnmcdonnell9194]

Ironically you sound very similar to Steve Buscemi who plays Khrushchev in the Death of Stalin film.

[@vonmang3524]

Most problematic element to weapon research in games, is the ability to research better armor and weaponry before any experience with the present armor and weaponry occurs. The Germans did not create the Panther tank until they saw the sloped armor on the T-34 tanks, and the Russians did not develop the sloping armor T-34s, until the Germans Mark III and IVs tore through their armor, and they developed the wide tracks from experience in the frozen wastes of Finland. While the Mark IIIs and IVs was advanced due to war experience in Spain and then in France. In other words a player should not be able to research and build advance weapons without military combat experience. So the German player should not be able to research Mark IVs until his Mark IIIs see combat, and so on, for all nations. A combat experience research modifier should be added.

[@ericwalters3126]

1:58:00 Oh... Oh my.

[@SSSandhu13]

YOLO!!!

[@alexg6464]

BUT WHAT IF BUDDHISM DOE?

[@deepsteep4748]

How can you play that game so early? :D

[@comsubpac]

press release

[@geraldc5093]

Are there no casualty figures in this game?!

[@Bridger15]

There are for the whole war. Click on the "explosion" looking icon at the top of the screen with your other alerts. Alternatively, open up the "world tension" view and go to the "wars" tab and click on a war to see casualties.

[@MikhaelAhava]

Mass assault was the doctrine commonly used by the Soviets in WWII for that they had massive man power and fight a war of attrition, that's why the Germans lost since they can only do quick wars. Aside from that, they invest in little training for that those men will eventually die and training will be wasted, which the sort of opposite for the Germans, usually in their main armies. It makes sense for the Soviets to use massive assault doctrine not only it's historical but makes sense, adds more man power, supply reduction, and combat width (reduction? Can't remember name).

[@FaithRox]

MiguelPmpM Mass assault? I find that idea about the Soviets very foul. If throwing enough shit at the Germans was a viable strategy, the Germans wouldnt have been winning for so long. The Soviets had plenty of strategies and the two sides experimented with warfare more than any other nations ever have. The Soviets worked out that the best way to deal with heavy artillery by infantry is direct assault and rapid manouvering. They found that as soon as their troops took cover, their casualty rates went up sevenfold. They found that the best odds for survival is a direct, fast and overwhelming assault, and it often looked like Human Waves but it was really Deep Battle Doctrine. A quick synopsis; Deep Battle was the Soviet's focus on decentralizing tactical decisions and had a large emphasis on flow. The most important element was Deep Penetration (lulz), which meant get as much forward as possible and drag the battles into territory that favoured the Soviets. Soviet equipment was much better designed for this kind of warfare and when the Russians got to the German lines, the Germans were usually devastated because they had little strategical understanding of defence (Hitler seen defence as a weakness, hence the shortage of AA guns late war).

[@MikhaelAhava]

Faith Rox I'm just saying the Soviets got the man power and industry or resources for a longer war.

[@lukefoster5838]

this will probably make me insta-lose, but how do i join russia's side instead of the soviets' in the civil war

[@Bridger15]

It should be a choice when trotsky comes back, you can choose to support him or oppose him as one of the events leading up to the civil war. Or do you mean the democratic Russia? That's a different thing, but I still think you get a choice after you've pushed the country democratic for long enough.

[@lukefoster5838]

i meant democratic Russia, thanks!

[@ryanpruner1853]

You could've checked the casualties if you just clicked the war slider from the globe screen

[@Bridger15]

Someone in the chat pointed that out later, but it doesn't show casualties.

[@ryanpruner1853]

Also, NKVD primacy reduces subversive activities cost, not subversive activities in general

[@marcuszobnoer]

How do you not have more Subs? I think you are doing good educational videos. You should do others strategic games aswell. And maybe cut down the video siezes ;)

[@overlord3083]

make mountains troops go in caucasia coz there will be fight , it was one of frontlines in WW2

[@foxdagamer1061]

Causcus was a front in WWI,not WWII

[@simonfrederiksen104]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caucasus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue#Breaking_into_the_Caucasus

[@flyingpirate0456]

Synthetic oil produces rubber

[@kristinvanness1523]

why does nobody ever puppet in this game?

[@kristinvanness1523]

puppeting is a really good strategy because they will give you their resourses for free, they get all of their manpower and they make their own army. so as japan it is better to puppet china. so as long as you have enough factories your all good to puppet.

[@theokaraman]

you 've just killed Stalin's "heir" in 01:51:30 ...

[@Graymenn]

"The most titanic struggle of all human history - The Eastern Front. Join me for this exploration of HOI4's mechanics in an attempt to hold off the Wehrmacht." you mean the western front right?

[@Bridger15]

Hah, I see what you did there :P

[@Graymenn]

hui hui hui

[@user-yo8ab1ys9e]

*your post* (-_-) < my head Explain please.

[@Graymenn]

Bender he is playing as russia... the russians fought the germans on their western front.. it was only the eastern front from the german perspective

[@jackwalters5506]

how dare paradox not have the kv-2!

[@jimanderson3694]

Knock knock

[@AkkayaOzgun]

Who's there?

[@jimanderson3694]

Ozgun Akkaya BLITZKRIEG!

[@DasKauzer]

You can upgrade KV-1with military exp points and name it KV-2 )

[@elsasslotharingen7507]

True

[@simonfrederiksen104]

Kyzyl Orda - Kazakhstan

[@g0lanu]

It's not pronounced like that either :). For an american to get it right it would probably help if the spelling would be like: Se-viglia (with a muted g and an emphasis on the first syllable).

[@brandtallen9363]

Great vid but the 480p is killing me

[@Bridger15]

It's in 1080p though. Not sure why you're watching in 480?

[@stanjockson]

WHERE DID U GET THIS GAME? OHMYGOD!#@#!#!#@!#!#@!

[@SamBlips]

Certain streamers and KZbinrs get the game early :b

[@justinbear6718]

Stas Garcia not on xbox or ps4, it is on steam, hearts of iron 4

[@LazySwed888]

the reason why france is more focust on defens is the mentalety of the generals first they belived that ww2 would be a tranch war like ww1 so they bilt the bigest and best line of fortreses and tranches in the World and when the war began they did not want to abandon the their plan so they sat ther waited for ther germens to attack their superier fortifikations secendly they dident belive that germany wanted the war and they whould seek Peace after the first seris of attacks on the line but it dident work like that and the line became obselit when meet with mobile warfer

[@ungface]

Right, his point was that the ai wasnt behaving like that, hense why they gave the ai a specific modifier to focus on defence.

[@LazySwed888]

I just thought that not evry bothy new so I mentioned it

[@jeffneufeldt3158]

United States gets up to 6 reached spots

[@germen343]

Why doesn't everybody use NATO counters?

[@Bridger15]

They are not as intuitive as the default icons. I was easily able to tell exactly what all the support companies were after seeing them 2 or 3 times. I'm still not sure what the nato equivalents look like. The default icons work just fine for me.

[@kubusta]

where another episode? It seems there are 2x Anti-comintern videos of Germany but not USSR

[@Bridger15]

This is the rest of the USSR Video. I have it on 'unlisted' as i'm currently chopping them up into 30 minute chunks and will have them all in a playlist by tomorrow (youtube takes forever to process the videos). kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5yudaqKpbqXfc0

[@mobilegamertv3007]

Bro bt 7 tank from Soviet union

[@michaelangelo3647]

Why was Romania more valuable than turkey?

[@WinstonKillDeath]

Romania has a SHIT ton of oil and is also likely to go fascist so if you get them before Germany it poaches resources from the Axis.

[@guilhermenagano]

Waste a lot of research time while fighting in Spain...

[@kubusta]

yea true, such a long time ingoring pop-ups

[@Bridger15]

In my defense, that's the only time that happened in ~15-20 hours of streaming :)

[@stig4]

you sound like Tom Hanks...

[@bosnian5385]

#yolo

[@FaustSketcher]

@1:08:20 its okay, either way you were pronouncing the Spanish names pretty terribly :P Dont worry, you dont wanna know how I used to pronounce Hyannis at first.

[@TheWoodstock2009]

Hahahah kamikaze wtf.Do you have any idea how effective they are?Seems like it would actually be really useful for the soviets if you end up fighting the US or something

[@user-mz3bo1mr1e]

Круто, давай только не слей катку, я горжусь Советским Союзом!!!

[@ungface]

2:22:22

[@ungface]

3:06:00

[@crypticmcnuggets754]

1:11:11

[@TheRazorTS]

Lithuania not Latvia >_

[@TheDiamantus]

хаха

[@PoiSonSonic]

Would be better if you pronounced Zhukov like the russians called him :)

[@vatsonhamter7667]

.

[@benjihero86]

why don't you conquer the middle east while germany goes and conquers europe. this would help to win the ideological war between axis allies and commitern.

[@Trifler500]

"Finnish" border, not "Finish" :)

[@orso14]

lol it's funny if you create a Army with all the 100 Division of Infantry ahahahahah

[@alanwu9019]

Why did you save up so many political power?

[@Bridger15]

Because sometimes things get missed while I'm trying to learn the game (this is my 2nd game ever) and entertain the stream.