Hoi4 Guide: The Ultimate Soviet Union in 2024

[@eltharnox6406]

Well, the video works! I did the full setup, then my wife got home when I was supposed to be working, so I quickly alt-tabbed off the window. Realised I hadn't paused, came back in 1943 and the Stalin Line still held! Great guide.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Godspeed, sneaky gamer

[@eltharnox6406]

@@Bitt3rSteel thanks! Love the vids btw. Whilst I've got your attention - any chance of a historical UK? I mean pure historical. No invasion of Italy until 42 or France until 44. It's my fave campaign as you're totally stretched across multiple fronts with limited manpower and industry to support air, naval and land!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

@@eltharnox6406 sounds like a bit of a waiting game

[@eltharnox6406]

@@Bitt3rSteel hmm ok ill let you invade a year earlier ;)

[@davidcurrie8962]

Fear the wife...smart man. You will live longer lol

[@kyallokytty]

42:30 its denmark when denmark declares war on the germans, *for some reason* Japan joins on every war the germans are in

[@whitezombie10]

It’s because Japan guarantees Germany with the tripartite pact

[@talesferreiralimadossantos8806]

That's just stupid, I know it's a game, but still, irl they weren't freed until the Nazis capitulation. And why does this especific declaration of war makes Japan fight all the other factions Germany is at war with?

[@lexi1031]

@@talesferreiralimadossantos8806because paradox

[@derevianne1108]

why would they even add this declaration? literally Poland had twice the uprising Denmark had 💀

[@kyallokytty]

@@whitezombie10 yes, but guarantees shouldn't be an invitation to wars already happening, much less offensive wars

[@inductivegrunt94]

USSR, mired by negative national spirts but with a huge industry, plenty of resources, and a huge military. Honestly it's one of my favorite nations to play in Hoi4, and having a guide for the nation is very welcome to improve my gameplay as I haven't played since Man the Guns.

[@50Steaks68]

Jesus Christ that’s 5 years ago

[@inductivegrunt94]

@@50Steaks68 Yeah, it's been that long. All the stuff from then to now, secret agencies, customization of planes and tanks, all the new focus trees for the Nordics, Baltics, Balkans, and South America, the revamped trees for USSR, Italy, France, etc, railway guns, all that stuff is new to me. It has been so long since I played Hoi4.

[@50Steaks68]

@@inductivegrunt94 that’s how I was earlier this year. I just forgot about the game for a few years and came back just before trial of allegiance. I STILL have no idea how to design planes tanks or even ships cause I only just subscribed to get all the dlc last month and played full vanilla before that.

[@inductivegrunt94]

@@50Steaks68 I should probably get back into the game before the next DLC comes out. At least we have plenty of tutorials to view for all the stuff we don't know how to do, me especially for all the stuff added over the last 5 years.

[@50Steaks68]

@@inductivegrunt94 yeah I heard they’re redoing Germany and they’re gonna add much needed focus trees like Belgium and maybe Austria. Guides like these help me succeed and I personally think bittersteel is one of the best hoi4 players so it works

[@OrangeOrange13]

The amount Bitt3r loves futurama is amazing

[@redjohn2523]

It's his editor, no?

[@glauberglousger956]

Since when does he watch hentai?

[@FilliamPL]

@@redjohn2523It could be his “editor’s style”, but considering Bittersteel’s age, I think it’s likely that it appears thanks to Bitter’s taste. But who really knows? I certainly don’t

[@STAIR_WAY14]

​@@FilliamPL Isn't he like in his late 30s or early 40s now?

[@FilliamPL]

@@STAIR_WAY14 He’s old enough to not only have a family (wife and kid/s) but also he values his and his family’s privacy (hence no face reveal). I can’t tell you his exact age since I don’t know, but the Futurama demographic is in the ball park of late-20s and older.

[@RhettOlson]

There is a way to minimize who dies in the purges to the absolute minimum of only who died historically, but it forces you to rush every single purge focus and you can NEVER choose any other focus until the purge tree is done (you also have to use exactly 2 falsify production reports at a specific time every time) except for a few times between major purge cooldowns. By following a hyper specific path and specific timer for falsify production reports, you can keep the paranoia below 30% at all times, negating any purge events that may ever pop up. I love playing the Soviet Union, it's my favorite nation in the game due to their unique situation, but post No Step Back I have started branching out because I'm tried to having to do the exact same focuses in the exact same order every time I play the Soviets. I can never do the naval focuses at any point in game, and air focuses can't be done until well into the war with Germany. 75% of the focus tree is unusable until the purges are finished. Also in the early game, I find it more advantageous to bank all political power until the SCW, send an attaché and immediately go to war economy, rather than grabbing free trade first. You should have exactly enough PP by the SCW outbreak to improve relations, attache', and war economy.

[@vahlen5281]

The Soviet Union has essentially the same issue most nations have: Way too many 70 day foci that offer too little in return.

[@shiyian]

@@vahlen5281 just say focuses

[@ahhno4662]

@shiyian you can’t be a pedant if you’re also wrong

[@vahlen5281]

@@shiyian No.

[@shiyian]

@@ahhno4662 foci and focuses are both correct but which is simpler

[@maciekGTR]

Good video, but i have a couple of very important remarks. The biggest mistake is paying 200 PP for Novikov since you can get him practically at the start for just 50 if you get some xp from spain and pick the Independent Air Force spirit for -75% air advisor cost. This also applies for a doctrine advisor which lets you get the most important air doctrines before germany invades. You will need the light tanks for recon companies so it's good to keep at least a single factory on the BT-7. Also it's good to put tanks near vladivostok to ensure a victory in the border conflict and get a very important doctrine bonus. The Captain of Industry only gets purged if another advior was purged previously. That's why you need to pop the paranoia decisions at 30 paranoia to prevent the advisor purge event firing. There are a lot of nasty events after 30 paranoia so i would recommend clicking the decisions as soon as you hit 30. Starting building MIC at 1939 nets you a whopping 20% less equipment at 1941 than starting at 1938. It's a thing of preference but it's important to mention it. I don't know if it was changed, but the way reliability worked for the entirety of HoI4 is that if you have any number under about 99%, it doesn't matter at all and your equipment will get chewed like crazy. So if you want to battleplan your tanks and not worry about attrition costing you tons of equipment it's good to make the tank in a way that if combined with a maintanence company, your tanks have at least 99% reliability. You don't need to build a supply hub near Kherson, it's expensive and takes a lot more time to build than a simple port which will do the trick. Base game AI is terrible at air warfare so you don't really need the self sealing fuel tanks, they are too expensive for nations without rubber. It depends on if you want to go full historical but it's better, cheaper and faster to just ignore the finland focus and do a war goal against them as soon as you get M-R pact. Also you're doing something wrong with industry because you're about 100 factories short of what you can have in 1941.

[@gocool_2.0]

Mate you have mentioned all the points that I wanted to comment here.

[@ryankline1164]

You make it sound like -100 factories in '41 is some minor issue.

[@maciekGTR]

@@ryankline1164 for singleplayer? Not really. For a competitive MP? Yeah things like these will get you kicked out of the lobby and banned from playing majors.

[@inflateableman8340]

Re: Lack of Factories - Probably because he wasnt building infrastructure and not using propaganda, that's my guess.

[@doubleskulls]

Lots of good points there @maciekGTR. I'd also say that falling back to the Dvina/Dnieper line isn't really necessary. If you have better infantry divisions (e.g. 30 width with 2 arty) 120 of those, plus 120 'basics' is sufficient to hold the Germans at the border. You may lose a tile or two but you can retake them pretty easily with the tank army.

[@idk_what_to_set_it_to]

A week ago returned to hoi4 and wanted to play ussr so spot on lol

[@freshtresh2441]

6:17 it's called the Dvina river

[@Brantman19]

Also Daugava River.

[@darthbob88]

I confirm it's the Daugava/Western Dvina. I thought it was the Neman river, but that's to the south, flowing through Kaunas.

[@lunalingo4461]

​@@darthbob88 the neman rivers where the infamous treaty of tilsit was signed i believe between napolean and tsar alexander I. But good ol' napolean went on to betray russia, just as another conqueror went on to do a century later. In a way brest-lit was in a way just another version of tilsit.

[@inflateableman8340]

They done the maths on the building of the factories, if you need to build 5 or more, you will do it faster if you build 2 lvls of infrastructure first (same for 4 and 1 IS lvl). More people need to know about this.

[@zignik2213]

Could you explain more? Building 2 inf where?

[@doktorwyvern2883]

​@@zignik2213In any province where you are going to build 5 Civs, build 2 infrastructure first.

[@niku4154]

24:05 You can get a lot lower Fuel Consumption by using the Christie Suspension, normally you have far more Breakthrough than you need, and Oil is always needed. For speed, the best is to always aim at least over 8km/h (twice as fast as Infantry) or go even a bit higher to offset Province debuffs such as Deep Snow.

[@jansatamme6521]

8km/h cuz thats how fast the cheapest mech goes, actually

[@noblCZ]

Germany declared war on Bitt3rsteel Bitt3rsteel: So you choose death.

[@jaredtheamerican1776]

Watching Bitt3rsteel is like watching Saturday morning cartoons. Love the content and would like to see a Nordic Defense Council guide.

[@Sigmamale-alpha]

Challenge idea for USSR: you are only able to build infrastructure(this does not include factories from focus tree)

[@mmakan8652]

Pointless. You block whole your industry focus tree, then you not rush industry research. Spam 240 infantry and build like 4 tanks

[@Sigmamale-alpha]

@@mmakan8652 it ain't possible to block your focus tree because Russia has shit ton of states

[@mmakan8652]

@@Sigmamale-alpha you literally need 120 factories for some foci

[@Dedelblute3]

USSR is so fun to play because the entirety of it is just trying to prepare for the invasion of Germany. Sure, I could min-max my divisions, build level 10 forts on the entire border, and just win, but it’s more fun seeing how many army groups you can fill to the brim with pure infantry and feed it into the meat grinder. Though it does get a bit frustrating to push through 10 divisions per tile in 1946. Also… even if you don’t invade Finland they still do the continuation war which is just plain silly.

[@FilliamPL]

I noticed this too. This is certainly bad game logic. How can there be a Continuation War if there was nothing to continue in the first place? I experienced that just yesterday lol

[@kellymcbright5456]

there is nothing to continue, but they continue?

[@Dedelblute3]

@@kellymcbright5456 this continues to not make sense

[@maciekGTR]

Mannerheim and the Finnish government would have joined the invasion anyways.

[@Lex-dw7ng]

Paradox keeps accidentally implying that Stalin was right. With the purge, there IS a plot to overthrow Stalin that IS solved by purging a bunch of people. Finland IS planning to attack Leningrad regardless of your disposition. It's hilarious because there's no way it's on purpose - but in the interest of encouraging a more historical path, they have to keep validating his choices.

[@Unklom]

42:07 I think the game broke because it may consider you to be in an offensive war against Germany and the tripartite pact is signed so Japan is guaranteeing Germany? Maybe?

[@The_Only_Pickle]

I feel SO validated watching Bitt3rsteel do what I already do!

[@muhammadaris7726]

Never late for bittersteel video love eveey content of your video.i know its pain playing heart of iron but you have a blast.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@glauberglousger956]

Easiest way I play the Soviets is just infantry only, a few artillery and anti-tank, and that's it! (Planes are optional) Historical to an extent, and just fun, no one can push you, but you can oush them

[@saithedemon4916]

Funny enough I have never been pushed by historical Germany

[@MiniSugus]

You almost lost Moscow Stalin

[@saithedemon4916]

@@MiniSugus Nuh uh

[@saithedemon4916]

@@MiniSugus I never ever got pushed in my ussr play through no cheese

[@phasesaber5040]

​@@saithedemon4916classic commie propaganda

[@heyuhmark2025]

Thank you for all of the guides recently. You have helped me become an infinitely better player than when I started playing hoi4. Will you make anymore videos on kaiserreich? It’s my favorite mod by far and would love to see your take on its gameplay!

[@boipolones6580]

42:17 It's because you probably refused the non-aggression pact

[@sirkiz1181]

Yeah I think he misclicked earlier because he hovered over the wrong thing haha

[@talesferreiralimadossantos8806]

No, it's beacuse Denmark declared war on Germany, which triggered the Tripartite Pact Guarantees involving Japan, and once that happens, the non-aggression pact is immediately canceled.

[@28lobster28]

Free trade is nice to have, but definitely not first overall when you're sitting on civ eco. Save for improve relations, attache, war eco, and then free trade. As Germany/Italy where you start on limited, going FT first PP makes more sense but Soviets are already on export focus so they're pretty fine. I tend to risk the paranoia getting a bit high just to get war eco faster. 5% CGF is nearly nothing once you're on war eco, but it has a larger impact when you're still sitting on civ eco (not to mention the 25PP delaying war eco further). On the mountaineer template, no reason to remove mountaineers. You want max combat width from the 6 divs in Spain to get max XP. Duplicate it before changing if you want actual 25W mountaineers later on but Soviets don't really need to fight in mountains. On tanks, reliability is a fake stat. Anything over 50% is fine. Christie suspension gives the most reliability because you don't have to put as many points into engine (assuming you want 8km/h). 3 man turret, medium cannon 2 (or improved high velo cannon if it's MP), radio, 2 small cannons, and easy maintenance. Swap EM or one of the small cannons for autoloader when you get to AT3. Can also consider stabilizer if you want a breakthrough focused tank, but then you'll need to have TDs mixed into the divisions to give better stats. Heavy tank is meta for Soviets at this point but mediums are fine. Assign the special Soviet designer as the production while Okmo (infantry tank designer) designs the tank itself - better stats and 140% production efficiency cap. Even more efficient if you set up conversion lines, then you can make shit tanks starting early and convert them over when you get the better gun. Japan war may have come from the border conflict. If you don't have 6 divs on the corner of Korea, they'll win (which is fine, it's a choice between AT or doctrine bonus for Soviets losing vs winning) but if the Japanese win, they can pay PP to escalate the border conflict to a full scale war. Easiest to just leave 6 decent infantry divs adjacent to Korea and forget about it, Japan rarely brings good divs and your troops benefit from entrenchment.

[@someonewhonooneseverheardo5271]

In my first soviet playthrough i manage to stop the german advance mainly just bu defending in marsh tiles and forest tiles but i literally couldnt push them. They were so entrenched and i think thr game glitched cause they never went on a offensive after February 1942. But at least i stopped them ig. I had to wait until 1947 for the allies to take berlin

[@saywhatnow2173]

It's WW1 all over again

[@Weeble_RL]

9 seconds, 0 views. Fell off

[@educacionespecialchannel3756]

Was this the funniest and most original KZbin comment you could think of 😐

[@james2529]

​@@educacionespecialchannel3756yeah this type of comment has aged instantly. Already sick of it.

[@serbiankanyewest]

@@educacionespecialchannel3756 can we just appreciate how bittersteel always fills us up with his nice content 🥺 edit: omg thx for the likes

[@thesovietshark8945]

@@educacionespecialchannel3756this is the shit you say when you wanna get likes but can’t be bothered to watch the whole video

[@SuperMarioBales10]

Nuh Uhh

[@jhawk25]

I done this as ussr if you don’t put divisions on the border they can start either a border war or a war😅

[@lvckymoritz6555]

bro why are your videos that good i allways watch them when i cant sleep

[@anate9]

12:41 did you seriously click that before the paranoia surpassed 50? Thats a waste of paranoia reduction. Just wait until it completely covers the paranoia reduction. The event doesn’t go off before a couple weeks and even if it goes off it auto accepts so the most beneficial move would be to just leave the event in the corner.

[@vasrank]

been playing hoi4 for almost 2 years with about 1.5k hours and still never have any idea what to do when it comes to air and navy so this helps alot when it comes to those 😅

[@wastelander89]

I love long videos longer the better. Great video as always

[@mh.gamer.1809]

24:00 Nice to see that I already use the same template as you!

[@blitz8221]

This is what the AI does when I play Germany

[@obeytrinity2987]

7:36 Trinity division go brrrrrr

[@RainyPlayz-nh5ql]

Bitt3r i am so excited you did another guide. Can you please update the usa guide? Your guides are the reason i started playing hoi4. I love all of them.

[@truelightningstriker5803]

I've been looking forward on seeing a guide for the USSR. This is epic.

[@adamcharman8726]

Here's a suggestion for a challenge for you Bitt3rsteel: At the right hand side of the tree are the focuses for intervening in china. You can, if you're good enough, capitulate china with Japan > carve it up with japan > force japan out of mainland Asia in the follow-up war, whilst holding Germany at your western river line. The benefits of this are; removing your army debuffs very early as China is a major, a thicc Chinese puppet, a less thicc Japanese puppet, and the IJN with which to cross the Atlantic and bring communism to the USA

[@Juhsamaki]

This guide worked! I played on non-historical, I followed your guide but Germany declared war on me early (around the end of 1939). Even tho they managed to break through my line they couldn't push to Moscow and got stuck at the Smolensk area. After that I waited and the allies did D-Day a bit earlier and with germany pulling troops off my front I managed to create nasty encirclements.

[@nx3233]

Fun fact, the line does not hold

[@levd4685]

You make it look so easy! I just started learning the game and get absolutely annihilated by Germany every time I try, while you just conquered 3 continents by taking ONE TWENTIETH of the casualties of the actual war…😢 Awesome video.

[@rupertbrice774]

Not trying to be the ‘ackchyually’ guy here but ‘free trade’ refers to barriers to trade and not the ideological motivation or structural of an economy. This is in contrast to a closed or autarkic system. Communism doesn’t mean there is no trade nor markets and the USSR absolutely practiced free trade in the global market. Love your videos btw 😌

[@metalsonic17]

He does even allude to that by saying the real ussr did do free trade

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content! Keep up the good work🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@thenamestoddretodd4538]

Love how i open yt, this is the first vid i see, click on it then youtube gives me a notification for this same video right after it starts playing letts gooooo

[@theblazingcharizard7446]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!! i always lost being the ussr germany always beat me because i never really played smart just always kinda winged it with almost every major i had a solid plan for any focus i wanted but the ussr since germany scared me so thanks for the guide!!! after using this i beat them in 1942 and captured all of eruope but france leading to a massive comintern and i also beat japan 2 months after

[@soosizei3973]

@Bitt3rSteel 42:03 i think you misclicked when the non-agression pact event with japan fired

[@jippy33]

I feel like you skip a few steps. At some points you are producing BTRs with no mention of ever researching them. Same with the relevant upgrades you have chosen for your tanks and airplanes.

[@panoskappos2735]

No step back is by far my favourite DLC and if you think it added so much stuff to the game the tank designer (cant remember playing without) the supply system (that i like a lot) and the best focus tree in the game SOVIET!!!Its simple to undestand ,long to have stuff to do even and past 1944 and great historical gameplay that's forgotten a lot in the laters DLC's

[@AdamSharif.]

YESSSS THANK YOU!!!

[@realWWdude546]

This guide works even for the no step back achievement. I just spammed 3 army groups of inf with the template having 9 inf & engineers+artillery support. I put 2 army groups on the Axis border and 1 army group at the Stalin line in reserve due to supply issues. Wherever i’d see some yellow or red bubbles i’d bring an army to reinforce the front. Literally just sat there doing this for two years, grinding their air force to dust and cas-ing the hell out of their units, until i launched an all out offensive with the battle plan which i could afford because i had a ridiculous amount of equipment in storage and that completely destroyed Germany (also I used 12 tank division for some micro-ing and encirclements here and there) If you play the USSR right in this game Germany doesn’t stand a chance against you they need a nerf or something because they’re too OP Edit: I honestly prefer to keep them at the border than sit at the river because it is a pain in the ass to push them back over that river

[@r1zzl31990]

Guide still actual with the new DLC! :) Got both the race for germany and The Pope? How many Divisions does he have? achievements in the same run! War ended somewhere in 1943. Great guide as always.

[@DeezNutter-tn7mz]

"you got steamrolled by the germans" no i can get steamrolled by the allies turning it into ww3

[@PanzerV21]

u can take desperate measures before geremany war through sweden there is an event where u do smthn to sweden during finland war and if u dont back down and they dont back down they u gain puppet focus against them and since they are considered major u can take desperate measures and fix ur modifiers much sooner

[@fred5763]

yess, was waiting for this video to come out! Thank you for your service comrade O7

[@jjquinn295]

You went to war with Japan because Brazil declared on Germany and Italy, causing Japan to be drawn into the wars due to the tripartite pact. Its a new thing from the last DLC.

[@MiniSugus]

That would only be the case if Japan and Germany were in the same faction. Tripartite pact only makes the guarantee each other it should only draw then to war with the aggressor. What I think happened it's Bitter declared on puppet Denmark which is guaranteed by Japan

[@jjquinn295]

@MiniSugus it show him at peace with puppet Denmark and it happened to me the first time I played USSR with the new dlc. I think it is because Brazil declares an offensive war rather than joining the defensive one the allies have.

[@MiniSugus]

@@jjquinn295 yeah Denmark isn't in the peace deal idk what caused it. I've played USSR with the latest DLC and was never at war with Japan. Maybe it's because he misclicked the non aggression pact. Either way it's stupid that Brazil declares war and then joins the Allies. They should just take a focus that makes them join the faction and then the wars they are in

[@jjquinn295]

@MiniSugus itbis stupid and what caused it in the video. I just did a run as Germany and had defeated the allies before Japan declared on USA. I had forced a nonaggression pact with Japan with spies, when Brazil declared war I accepted call to arms, Brazil joined the Soviets but I was at war with USA and China.

[@applepiepieapple5464]

My best guess for why you were at war with japan is, because they signed the tripartite pact, they were called in after the non aggression pact with you ended

[@MrCalls1]

7:45 you do not have to manually rename divisions in the field. Duplicate the template. Set the template’s new naming scheme. Swap the template to the duplicate and back, and it should rename them all appropriately iirc. I think there’s a chance you still save 1 click and some movement by being able to click the x delete name button instead of the drop down and selecting the next one.

[@AbdallahBinLadenTheGreat]

We all needed this

[@mrkrembo1942]

This informational material has been distributed and has been approved by the people's ministry of order.

[@doc9851]

I’ve been waiting for this a very long time

[@LorTinooo]

I agree with Bitt3r he has made me a fan of encirclements very satisfying

[@Aqvalar]

Only recently I happened to try something else. Take the actual border of 1936 and man it. HARD. Then throw some forts. And then some more. And then more. And more. In the end I had lvl 7 or 8 forts from Black Sea to the Baltics :D Got the achievement of No Step Back as well. Oh, and I kept my Airforce too. I updated the Soviet Airforce and Army during the wait times of the Purge and just threw my Admirals to the purge to keep it running :D

[@thatdudethat7824]

Stalin did blitz through Mongolia to Japan after Europe was sorted out, also great video

[@maxkaufmann833]

I do not know what I did wrong, but I did have the factory amount to finish the Five Year Plan as you did. A minor setback in following the guide (alongside losing Spain), but overall I'm hopeful all is well as I continue this.

[@maxkaufmann833]

Aaah. All the time being put into specific research, I did not know.

[@MrGollum4000]

Holy hell, I think I've nerver been this early to a new Video :D

[@jeremyglass4283]

the reason you end up at war with Japan is due to the danish uprising against Germany from their new focus tree in AAT. Because the game treats this as an offensive war by Denmark, who joins the allies, it invokes Japan's guarantee of Germany's independence established with the tripartite pact. Thus, Japan gets called into your war.

[@thestoryoflibertaria1253]

4:38 i don’t know if you know that already, but its better to not build the ships that are in the queue at the start! Just wanted to let you know in case you didn’t notice! 😊

[@Vladonix_]

Well played, well played ...

[@ragnarandreasson3925]

Bittersteel the best Hoi gamer, bittersteel can make a Archimentrun as Mandschuko?? I think this is the heavyst run in Hoi

[@egilholmsten616]

I would like to see a challenge video were you only controll "wasteland states" which is the worst kind of state.

[@biaaszinterneta1050]

He knows Vistula is in Poland 🥹 Best youtuber

[@iruji1872]

ive been WAITING FOR THIS!!!

[@gamerixhun4347]

Also very important if a focus is finsihed wait the 10day bc you get more pp example: you get daily 1pp and when you not make focus you get 1+1 so 10x2=20 (if you wait 10day) so every time wait

[@HansBremenfaerden]

Hi Bitter! Love your vids! please continue and ignore all the hate.

[@derevianne1108]

42:20 it appears that Danish uprising somehow breaks the game. i think that's because Denmark attacks Germany, whom Japan guarantees, and as you're at the same side, you get attacked by Japan

[@Bosnianfish]

One problem i ran into lol, trotsky came back to the soviet union and was arrested in like late 1936 early 1937. I am on historical and everything so its a little suprising

[@1Godslayer1]

Denmark breaking free triggers the tripartite pact which will make Japan declare war on everyone, not sure if that's what happened there, but it can and its super annoying.

[@user-dk3fg2bn3p]

The First time i Played the Sovit Union in historical, the japanese invaded me. Because of bittersteels advice, there were no Units at the border.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

They should not invade tho. I honestly don't know why they did in this video, I'm assuming it has something to do with wars being merged

[@REALnotsu]

when denmark declares independence via arms against tyranny since japan and germany guarantee eachother it places the soviets at war with japan bc of wars being merged

[@Frederickthegreat425]

@@Bitt3rSteel Japan always does border conflict(if its AI). you should always have 6 mountaineer divisions near Vladivostok to deal with that so you get a doctrine discount.

[@fanglix_]

as the soviets, i always like to build max forts in all the big cities (stalingrad, moscow, leningrad, minsk etc.) and just wait there in sieges so i cant capitulate

[@The_Cooler_Statics]

accidently did "we don't like statistics here" achievement with this

[@k.alipardhan6957]

It might be a good idea to share the save files from maybe 1938 and 1940. Would save a lot of people time and let them skip to the fun. I used to make my own back when i actively played

[@SmoothieWoothie]

Thanks, I needed this guide so bad

[@pujanshah7868]

What is the tank template?

[@matthewsmith5104]

I like to do a slight different opening focus-wise with the Soviets. "The Path of Marxism Leninism" provides a -10 to paranoia, but by doing it first, there is no paranoia yet, so that gets wasted. The paranoia mechanic either kicks in when you do a political focus, or after a set time, and by going with the set-time method I think it's slightly more optimized. It also defers the spending of political power as long a possible - I can usually get all the way to 1937 without having done "Forge Reports" for the first time and by then I've spend the PP to get on War Economy in like September of 36. There's enough time to bang out 3 short focuses (My preference is Heavy Industry for civ factories, then the first Air focus to get 50 air XP and unlock the first airforce spirit that grants gradual XP gain, and then Infrastructure Effort to set up the 5-year plan focus for later). By doing those 3 focuses first, the paranoia mechanic will have kicked in, and then you start the purge focus and Marxisn Leninism's -10 to paranoia will actually be used to re-set to zero (or close to zero, maybe like 2 or 4) as the 4th focus. I do really like taking the 1938 tanks ahead of time before the German treaty though. I'm going to have to remember that for next time because it's best to just skip to 1940 Mediums ASAP.

[@whitezombie10]

Honestly my strategy is to go through the civil war and win as Trotsky. You avoid the purge debuffs, you can start with the expansionist focuses early (if you finish by the end of 1937 which is not hard) and do more of them, there are some nice buffs at the end of the Trotsky tree and you have the part of the focus tree that lets you spread communist support and give stability debuffs to your neighbours. The only downside is that your army will be damaged but honestly right after the war I am usually back to prewar strength

[@dpjinjo]

What would you think about adding Rangers as a support company to your infantry divisions? They add a bunch of attack and defense buffs on various terrain.

[@jsheeds]

If possible a guide for the Trotsky and Bukharin paths would also be great cause I keep getting FUCKED by the civil war, either cause Stalin kills me or Germany guts me when they eventually come knocking.

[@MrG.13]

we needed this video

[@OvenHut]

Fuck yes. I’ve been throwing myself at the USSR for months now, and i’ve never been able to stop and push back barbarossa. thanks for the guide bitter

[@topphatt1312]

SAY WHAT GODDAMN FOCUS YOU ARE DOING FOR THE FUCKING LOVE OF GOD

[@päärynänugetti]

You should finish the purge first and then industry

[@alatamore]

I had a laugh noticing that the war was actually the "Italian War on Ethiopia"

[@Heitorsalvador-c3t]

Yea you can do that to win but is much fun if you do a full infantary with alot of air

[@Munkeyy]

Love this video many thanks. but... Could u do a guide on France?

[@bradbartran5348]

I keep having this weird thing when I do (A Historical) as the Soviets around 1940-1942 I get either Germany or Japan declaring war with zero warning no justification going or anything

[@IakovBardin]

can you do the same guide for Bukharin?

[@BSideWasTaken]

Sometimes the Futurama clips feel a bit forced, this one was perfect.

[@pasbaf]

as a soviet union player with 20+ ironman games with it l can confirm l still found this helpful

[@Archduke_Astatos]

For those of you who don't like the prospect of losing half of eastern Europe to the Germans before the war, you can do the following for the stalin path: 1: Focus entirely on civilian industry at the start of the game. Do not build anymore than 10-12 military factories until AFTER Germany invades. You'll have plenty of time for this later. Focus most of your military factories on infantry equipment. 2: during the winter war, reject Finland's peace offer and either puppet it or annex it. This prevents you from having another front in the north and saves equipment you'll be desperately needing the whole campaign. 3: begin focusing on building up your army to at least 264 divisions, divided into two army groups and one separate army. 4: in early 1940, focus all of your industrial efforts on building an 8-9 level line of forts along your entire eastern border from the coast of Lithuania to the mouth of the Danube. When you're finished with that, build as much anti-air as possible in the three air zones that cover your eastern border. 5: place one entire army group on the German border, one group on the border with Hungary & Romania, and the stand alone army on your border with Norway, regardless of if they've capitulated or not. 6: when Germany invades, sit there and build up your strength. Do NOT call Finland into the war. Prioritize repairing forts above all, and prepare for a counter attack most likely to come between 1944 and 1946. With this strategy, you can save a large amount of manpower while still wasting a large amount of Germany's manpower, and have an obscenely large army of 700-800 divisions by the time you decide to counterattack, all with none of the downsides. If anyone wants I can record gameplay of me doing this on my KZbin channel, since I haven't seen anyone else do it.

[@doubleskulls]

Its relatively easy to hold the Germans so long as you have sensible division design. 30 width with 2 Arty and a medium SPAA are good enough a single army group is capable of stopping the Axis on the border without any additional forts / static AA. I've done this on veteran without losing a single province.

[@drahcir2210]

Bittersteel,oil up I’m coming

[@topazand5479]

286 factory at barb is very funny

[@NovelArc127]

Could you do an updated UK run please? :) Love the videos!

[@1stWarlord]

Radar is super useful against the germans, gives a nice boost to your fighters and you can destroy the luftwaffe in like ~1 year of fighting. Also, I think at the beginning of the game it may be better to hire the +15% stability guy instead of going free trade with the first 150pp.` As for the tank design, I think christie suspension is better to have than manually increasing the engine stats. Also sloped armor helps ( as armor also increases the breakthrough stats on the tanks ). EDIT: Also, if possible train your air wings to level 3 before deploying them ( the -25% debuff from being rookies in combination with the other soviet union debuffs to airforce will make it very hard to win the air war ). As for army spirits, proper heritage is a funny one to use as Soviet Union ( and China / Communist China ) since most of the fighting is going to take place on your core territory.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Thanks for the tips!

[@arankoka]

sloped armor does not increase breakthrough

[@UpgradedCounterTitanV2]

Bitt3ersteel im a big fan of your videos, can you do an the ultimate poland hoi4 guide if you do requests?