Overview
This guide is for playing a multiplayer gme as the Soviet Union on Road to 56.This guide covers:FocusesResearch orderarmy set upair force set upConstruction orderAnd other useful things!*This is my first guide and I only have several hundred hours in this game so constructive criticism would be appreciated.
Introduction
The Soviet Union and Germany in Road to 56 are very powerful, however, the germans will still overpower you in factories. This Means that as the Soviet Union, you should assume a defensive doctrine.
Your responsibility is to hold in the east when war breaks out between you and the axis in 1941, and hope that your allies are competent enough to conduct a successful d-day landing in the West.
All servers are different, and this guide might not work with certain rulesets. I will be assuming that your server does not allow:
Early wars
Exploits
Strategic Bomber Spam
Ideology Boosting
Couping
Replacing Stalin with Trotsky
I have done 4-5 playthroughs that roughly follow this guide and these are my results. I only tested against AI, so this may not hold up in a real multiplayer game. That being said, enjoy the guide.
Focus Tree Order
First we will go for the great purge. This will give your army horrible debuffs, reduce your factory output, and reduce the research speed of your doctrines for 4 years. This may sound really bad, but the earlier we get rid of it, the better. For this guide, due to the guidelines, we will not be rushing lessons of war to clear the great purge debuff. Instead we will wait it out.
Stalin Constitution (spend on war economy and free trade)
Continue the 5 year plan
Take social welfare ASAP. You may need to keep improving railroads before you have enough factories.
Mass immunizations
Education Initiative
progress cult
Improve the Trans Siberian railroad
Finish the 5 year plan
Workers Culture
Invest in Engineering
Socialist Science
Socialism in one country
Anti Fascist diplomacy
Improve the Stalin Line
A bunch of focuses should get bypassed, and you will now be able to justify on the baltic states and send them ultimatums for annexation (They always accept)
Keep taking focuses depending on what you need, this part shouldn’t need a guide.
Build Order
This section will likely be the most controversial, and this is because of the different schools of thought in the HOI4 community regarding when you should build what and where. Feel free to differ from this guide. Now, on with the list.
Construct civilian factories until 1940, building them in areas above 50% infrastructure always. Build them as close to the Ural Mountains as you can without going past/above Sinkiang and the Stalin Line. You will be glad you did this later in the game.
Constuct Military factories in the same style until 1941 comes around.
After this, build forts on the Stalin Line. I would reccomend lvl 3’s to start off.
When you are satisfied with your stalin line fortifications, if you are worried about Japan, build airports and forts on a line bordering Sinkiang and going north through Siberia. The attrition alone should give you a massive advantage against the Japanese.
After this, spam military factories.