Chimeraguard
We do deserve to exist.
If they don't want to be part of the Voluntary Cooperatives project, they can be part of the Involuntary Gulags project.
Attempting to Fulfill the Plan MNKh Edition
- Thread starter Blackstar
- Start date
- Alt. History Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
- Location
- The great frozen north
How close to full motorization of the military can we get?
And I see it's purge o'clock on the farms. At least we can hopefully avoid purging anyone critical to our operations,
Turn 18(1936 2nd Half): The Great Break Results
- Location
- The United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Turn 18(1936 2nd Half): The Great Break Results
Resources per turn 650+60+10+5+ULAG with 0 in storage.
Party Support 40+10+5+5
Current Status of ULAG:
Population: 589,000 (I'll round to the nearest 100k)
Attitude: Stable
Food State: Hearty Meals, -45 Resources Per Turn
Guard State: Intensive Monitoring, -15 Resources Per Turn
Resource Income: Construction focused, 90 Resources Per Turn
Infrastructure
Bitumen Road Programs(Stage 1): The construction of newly updated roads to better traverse multiple regions of the Union would be a massive military asset. It would allow for rapid transit of equipment and armor to where it is needed. While such a program would be expensive due to the limited but steady production of bitumen, it should be possible to ensure that the roads are fully paved. The first stage of such a project will start with the cities and urban areas, ensuring they have all paved roads. (544/200, Stage 1 Complete) (344/300 Stage 2 Complete) (44/500 Stage 3)
The construction of the Soviet Union's road system sees one of the largest attachments of NKPS labor through the entire planning period. Thirty-one full divisions are attached to the effort with a further large quantity of engineering attachments and voluntary shock labor. Overall, as the effort initiates all over the Union, an insanely ambitious goal is set in the paving of every urban zone's streets, along with gravel connections between the cities. While the first effort is accomplished in mere months, the latter construction of gravel roads takes a far greater effort, with the fleeting fall months used to lay down swathes of gravel and the cutting down of routes through the woods. With the conclusion of the construction, now the Union's major urban centers have paved roads, with simple inter-linkages made to allow for fast transit of motor vehicles through the countryside. While the later effort does induce some minor casualties, overall, the entire process has led to a significant improvement in agricultural transport and the ability to move trucks between installations.
Heavy Industry
Gorky Machine-building Plant(Stage 3): The expansion of the machine-building plant is critical for producing a full domestic series of large industrial machinery. While the planned city itself is already producing many goods, further expansion is easily in the books, allowing a further massive production ramp-up. The steel shortage has passed for now, and while there is insufficient domestic steel to maintain the plant's full planned production, minor imports will combine well with it, making the facility one of the largest machine production plants in the world. (10 Party Influence) ((402/400) Stage 3 Complete) (2/600 Stage 4) (+60 Resources per Turn)
The massive machine producing complex is completed right as the winter is closing in with multiple domestic heavy presses already making massive quantities of components. The presses have some minor issues with productivity, but overall they work well. The plant currently involves a massive, sprawling industrial complex focused on making parts and tooling for other plants, finally altogether breaking away with the need to import new machines from the West. Currently, the staff has been massively expanded with a mess of new hires coming in to work on the machines. The city has become one of the most important industrial cities in the Union, as the bulk of all other machinery will be made here.
Norilsk Combine: The processing of Nickel and Palladium fulfills a critical domestic need in the case of war with the Capitalists. Large sections of our industrial production require these metals, from catalyzed processes to alloying, necessitating their mining in large quantities. However, the issue is that the deposit is relatively far north, necessitating large quantities of cold weather equipment to work effectively. (5 Party Influence) (272/200) (Completed) (+10 Resources per Turn)
The construction of the northernmost mines proceeds at a good pace as a large quantity of personnel is moved in during the balmy summer months to construct the massive plant. While the new personnel are used to the cold, most are surprised that it is already this cold in the Summer. Still, the trains manage to keep them warm enough to keep casualties at acceptable norms for long enough for thick insulated homes to be constructed along with a dedicated thermal power station. The power station is set to also provide mass hot water heating, as a steady stream of coal will be burned in it as both heating and power. Deliveries are set up, warehouses are set up, and then the mining effort begins with imported crews from Donetsk. While the teams report constant issues with cold rock and freezing, the casualties are so far light compared to the initial days of mining. Even during a moderate blizzard that interrupted supply deliveries, production has managed to stay constant.
Light and Chemical Industry
Baku Oil Extraction(Stage 3): The time for the near-total utilization of the oil fields is now. Yet a few more deposits are not being actively extracted, allowing for the Union to ramp up production further. This will start hitting the field's limit, but a further campaign can increase oil production. (5 Party Influence) (278+10 Omake Bonus(Moldavanka)/300)) (Completed Stage 3) (+5 Resources per Turn)
The expansions of the oil fields go well with the ongoing construction of hundreds of new derricks, incorporating lessons learned on the old systems. While everyone has so far complimented the new designs, a problem has rapidly emerged as the bulk of the field is already being tapped, possibly creating an issue with later fuel supply. The effort has still managed to connect a truly massive amount of Oil into the Unions transportation network. However, the refining capacity for most of this oil is not there and still needs to be constructed to use the capacity for anything but export.
Sulfuric Acid Plants: With the current likely expansion of shell and industrial chemical production, there needs to be dedicated production of the chemical industry's basic feedstock. Given the current and planned expansions for ore refining and chemical industrial processes, a more efficient way to convert waste sulfur on a large scale is needed. Thus, multiple large scale plants will be constructed through the Union to act as supply points for the material. (20 Resources per dice (53/200))
The starting construction of the new sulfuric acid plants starts off well with multiple large industrial storage buildings constructed with rail and pipeline links. While neither the machinery for the production nor the mining equipment has been installed, orders have been made to the factories. With a bit more effort and funds soon, the Soviet chemical industry can start on a solid basis. These plants, however, will use a good bit of electricity, and in time may necessitate more power generation.
Agriculture
Voluntary Cooperative Construction(Stage 5): Further large scale farming cooperatives need to be constructed on the land still available that is still fallow as farmers leave it for the cities. With this final leg of the effort, the Union's agricultural land will be fully brought under mechanized cultivation. Thus, it will ensure a flow of labor never before seen in the Union towards far more productive city work. (5 Party Influence upon completion) (Think Kibbutz with more propaganda) (15 Resources per dice (421/500)) (nat 1)
The farms' massive construction effort has had multiple delays due to local resisting peasants in the mostly abandoned villages. These have so far been the very old and traditionally-minded ideologues that have stayed in these villages all their lives. Unfortunately, these peasants have also occasionally taken up resistance against the state with their attempted destruction of agricultural assets in the region, along with various structures. While they may believe that they are doing damage, and such is reported in the paper and radio to draw out more possible dissidents, they have so far accomplished little but burn down their possessions. The overall media campaign of playing up the small traditional farmer's victories as a thorn in the state's side has exposed many unrelated traitors through their actions. Overall though, substantial progress is made to create thousands of new mechanized communities for agriculture, with rushed crops put into the earth to get some yield out of the newly set up ones.
Services
Creation of the State Hospital System(Stage 3): With most people in the Union now having access to at least some form of doctors, a good quantity of specialized healthcare is needed. Thus, multiple large specialized hospitals need to be constructed, one for each major urban center, to provide high-quality care to the most severe cases and injuries. (351/300) (Completed)
The construction of the new specialized schools and hospitals is complete with the full network setup. Despite the constant shortages of doctors, the hospitals are constructed. A new official annual meeting is set up for doctors of their specialty to meet up and discuss new discoveries in their fields. At the same time, a new system of medical exams and textbooks is created with up-to-date knowledge to ensure the consistent quality of doctors and nurses. However, there is still a problem with the medical networks, as there are just not enough doctors currently to fill all of the planned posts, and more time is needed for them to graduate from the system of medical schools.
State Childcare Services: As more and more women are entering the workforce, it has become a critical concern of the state to ensure that their children are cared for. While such an effort will take some resources and only apply to the cities, it will allow for more working-age women to go into the factories to further increase production. The effort will also allow the further removal of religion from society with the proper education of the youth of those taken in by various cults. (10 Resources per dice (139/200))
Hundreds of daycares and orphanages are constructed all over a multitude of urban areas. While they currently do not do much past housing and caring for the Union's various orphans, this is still a valuable service. They are also useful for those whose parents have been arrested for political crimes, as they can be brought up with proper knowledge of socialism and correct knowledge of religion. Such a changeover will, however, take a considerable amount of time and likely the bulk of multiple generations to truly get rid of religion in the Union.
Military (Authors note: Most military efforts will have quality dice rolled after they are completed, which will affect the quality of the buildup/equipment/information) (ABM points are a thing that most factory actions will cost while you have them, but while you have them, all will be around ¼ cheaper. Currently, you will have 300 after the end of this turn.)
Trial New Aircraft Weapons: With the prevalence of the old rifle caliber weapons and the lack of a proper heavier MG, the union desperately needs some new form of gun to use in the air. Thus, the testing and refining of Berezin's currently promising gun should allow the Union to have a new standard gun in the air. As a benefit, the current heavy cartridge shows some viability towards being up-calibered to 20mm. (72/40, Completed) (Military Roll: 70)
The new Berezin UB machine gun succeeds in most of its trials by a good margin, with the cheap to manufacture gun proving reliable and accurate. While the mechanism itself is fairly plain, comprising a simple cheap to make gas system, it functions well at a good rate of fire. Beyond the minor issue of a large amount of force needed to charge the gun, it works well, fires, and almost every branch wants more of it. So far, the bulk of proposals have been to mount it to aircraft, but even the tank designers want an adaptation of it as a new coax gun. However, gun production is fairly small as there was no expectation of the army wanting mass adoption of the gun into a multitude of platforms. (New Project: Resources per Dice 20, (0/75) to get enough production of the gun)
Expansion of the Leningrad Locomotive Plant: With the considerable production capacity in the North of the Union, it would be prudent to utilize it to create a new series of trucks to allow easy transport of troops, resources, and supplies. Such a design inherently would use a licensed American engine but should perform fairly well, ensuring a steady movement and advance speed. (173/150, Completed) (-50 ABM) (Military Roll: 84)
With the resources allocated and the necessity to supply trucks to the bulk of the army, both a new design and a far larger plant is needed. In terms of the design, a new three-axle truck is ordered with the stated goals of transporting five tons on a gravel road and two tons on any possible reasonable ground state. While the latter goal fails to be met, the leading design that managed to get close gets the green-light. The plant itself becomes a fairly large facility, focused on the assembly line production of trucks to make up the current shortfall in both the civilian and military sectors. A new engineer named Gastev is also a major help, with large portions of the assembly line further optimized, demonstrating an increase in production with far better worker training and management.
Construct Officer academies (Stage 5): The last stage of the officer academy expansions is a critical step in ensuring that enough officers are made for the massive army. While the bulk of the candidates by necessity will not be from the party or Komsomol, they can still be trained into acceptable officers. This will also create a multitude of large scale training fields for the improvement of army doctrine and large scale exercises. These officers will also be trained on the capabilities of the weapons that are issued to the common conscripts to ensure that they know the capabilities of what they are commanding. (15 Resources per dice (314/400))
The construction of a new series of massive classes for younger officers goes well, with thousands of workers and basic conscripts applying to join in the effort. With the new academies, the older officers are mostly spread thin, as they, by necessity, are training the planned class for the expansion of the army. Still, assuming all goes to plan, the newly graduating classes will be quite inexperienced for the bulk of the mobilization period, as most will be used to commanding far smaller units. Still, they will all have the training to be promoted up. The only question will be the relative experience.
Bureaucracy
Encourage Sales: The expansion of sales to the Spanish Republic must be pushed to ensure that the Republic can fight on while securing the resources necessary for army modernization. Simultaneously, the effort will only dispose of the oldest of equipment, ensuring that there is a good exchange of gold for weapons. Hopefully, if the gold reserves can be transferred in full, both nations can greatly benefit. (DC 40/113) (100 Resources) (Completed)
The Spanish republic takes the sales of material happily, with hundreds of thousands of rifles transferred over along with a considerable number of older divisional guns and retired artillery pieces. Despite the age of most of the equipment, the republic is happy to pay top dollar even as their government forms, also in a stroke of luck, through negotiations and early deliveries, almost all of the gold spent as payment has been transferred to us instead of the Capitalists, as our arms were already there when the transfers started happening. In news on the actual front line, though, the situation is less happy as there are small gains made by Fascist forces. Still, there have not yet been any decisive engagements, just a slow-going slog depleting men and equipment.
Expand Hiring: With the projected lack of personnel due to internal political maneuvering, it would be prudent to expand hiring. These new workers will transfer from multiple sources, with large parts of entire university classes transferred to the department. While they are going to be green, this should at least maintain proper staffing levels. (DC 30/8) (No Action Loss from Severe Purges) (Failed)
Despite the opening of new slots for thousands of personnel to be hired, far fewer than expected come, as the education needed for their positions is still rare. Thus, with unfilled spots, the only order that can be given is for the personnel already in the department to work more and harder, as there are just fewer people to pick up the slack. However, not all is lost, as the next years' graduating class promises to be massive, allowing multiple easy pickups of talented personnel fresh out of university.
Sign Kill Lists: Due to constant expansions of the workforce and administration, there have been many wreckers and traitors who have slipped through the hiring process. Or, so says the party, but in practice, these lists are nothing but loyalty tests for those positioned lower in the pecking order. While not signing them is a theoretical option, such a decision could cause a considerable risk. However, such problems can be used as an opportunity, as over-fulfilling the quota of traitors will allow the choice of the more indolent old-guard to be cleared out of their positions and replaced. (Vote on Extent) (Dice: 103, Opportunities)
Reading the kill list, it is worse than you expected, but in terms of the minimal extent, the list is not too bad nor too disruptive despite it being chosen apparently at random from a personnel roster. Despite the already relatively severe list, however, the man giving the briefing on the list's importance and you hit off a relatively amicable conversation. While he is one of the most ideologically aggressive party members you have ever talked to, he did, however, come off as believing his own espoused worldview and thus easy to direct, creating many opportunities. While the bare minimum degree of purge would be accepted with few complaints and only minorly hurt relation to the party, there is always an opportunity to do more and ensure that your political goals can more readily be met.
[]Sign the List: There is no point in shooting more than is necessary. While this will not exceptionally over-fulfill the quotas like other members of the party, it should allow the bulk of suspicion to pass. (-10 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of three actions)
[]Expand the List: Some useless functionaries have been hired and retained for no reason other than just filling positions, with their factual work being very little. Thus, through expanding the list with hanger on's, more of the suspicion can be diverted. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of four actions)
[]Expand the List(Internal Enemies): Through the listing of a multitude of personal enemies along with strange ideologues in the department, the running of the system can be far improved, as power will all be centralized towards your seat. Such a purge would clear multiple personnel still in important seats, but it would allow personal near-total control. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of six actions)
[]Sign the List and Direct Yezhov: With the current reasonably famous falling out of the military staff between Voroshilov and Budyonny, and the brewing discontent of the establishment towards the military. It would be prudent to discuss a few of the more regressive officers with Yezhov. They have tried their best to hurt production by favoring cavalry, and with the likely upcoming trails of the military, it would be the perfect time to dispose of them. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (-20 Party Influence) (Loss of five actions)
Moratorium 2 Hours
Current Economic Issues:
Rail: Minor Shortage
Coal: Meeting Demand
Aluminum: Massive Surplus (You aren't using much)
Steel: Moderate Shortage
Energy: Minor Surplus
Food: Minor Surplus
Labor: Minor Surplus
Resources per turn 650+60+10+5+ULAG with 0 in storage.
Party Support 40+10+5+5
Current Status of ULAG:
Population: 589,000 (I'll round to the nearest 100k)
Attitude: Stable
Food State: Hearty Meals, -45 Resources Per Turn
Guard State: Intensive Monitoring, -15 Resources Per Turn
Resource Income: Construction focused, 90 Resources Per Turn
Infrastructure
Bitumen Road Programs(Stage 1): The construction of newly updated roads to better traverse multiple regions of the Union would be a massive military asset. It would allow for rapid transit of equipment and armor to where it is needed. While such a program would be expensive due to the limited but steady production of bitumen, it should be possible to ensure that the roads are fully paved. The first stage of such a project will start with the cities and urban areas, ensuring they have all paved roads. (544/200, Stage 1 Complete) (344/300 Stage 2 Complete) (44/500 Stage 3)
The construction of the Soviet Union's road system sees one of the largest attachments of NKPS labor through the entire planning period. Thirty-one full divisions are attached to the effort with a further large quantity of engineering attachments and voluntary shock labor. Overall, as the effort initiates all over the Union, an insanely ambitious goal is set in the paving of every urban zone's streets, along with gravel connections between the cities. While the first effort is accomplished in mere months, the latter construction of gravel roads takes a far greater effort, with the fleeting fall months used to lay down swathes of gravel and the cutting down of routes through the woods. With the conclusion of the construction, now the Union's major urban centers have paved roads, with simple inter-linkages made to allow for fast transit of motor vehicles through the countryside. While the later effort does induce some minor casualties, overall, the entire process has led to a significant improvement in agricultural transport and the ability to move trucks between installations.
Heavy Industry
Gorky Machine-building Plant(Stage 3): The expansion of the machine-building plant is critical for producing a full domestic series of large industrial machinery. While the planned city itself is already producing many goods, further expansion is easily in the books, allowing a further massive production ramp-up. The steel shortage has passed for now, and while there is insufficient domestic steel to maintain the plant's full planned production, minor imports will combine well with it, making the facility one of the largest machine production plants in the world. (10 Party Influence) ((402/400) Stage 3 Complete) (2/600 Stage 4) (+60 Resources per Turn)
The massive machine producing complex is completed right as the winter is closing in with multiple domestic heavy presses already making massive quantities of components. The presses have some minor issues with productivity, but overall they work well. The plant currently involves a massive, sprawling industrial complex focused on making parts and tooling for other plants, finally altogether breaking away with the need to import new machines from the West. Currently, the staff has been massively expanded with a mess of new hires coming in to work on the machines. The city has become one of the most important industrial cities in the Union, as the bulk of all other machinery will be made here.
Norilsk Combine: The processing of Nickel and Palladium fulfills a critical domestic need in the case of war with the Capitalists. Large sections of our industrial production require these metals, from catalyzed processes to alloying, necessitating their mining in large quantities. However, the issue is that the deposit is relatively far north, necessitating large quantities of cold weather equipment to work effectively. (5 Party Influence) (272/200) (Completed) (+10 Resources per Turn)
The construction of the northernmost mines proceeds at a good pace as a large quantity of personnel is moved in during the balmy summer months to construct the massive plant. While the new personnel are used to the cold, most are surprised that it is already this cold in the Summer. Still, the trains manage to keep them warm enough to keep casualties at acceptable norms for long enough for thick insulated homes to be constructed along with a dedicated thermal power station. The power station is set to also provide mass hot water heating, as a steady stream of coal will be burned in it as both heating and power. Deliveries are set up, warehouses are set up, and then the mining effort begins with imported crews from Donetsk. While the teams report constant issues with cold rock and freezing, the casualties are so far light compared to the initial days of mining. Even during a moderate blizzard that interrupted supply deliveries, production has managed to stay constant.
Light and Chemical Industry
Baku Oil Extraction(Stage 3): The time for the near-total utilization of the oil fields is now. Yet a few more deposits are not being actively extracted, allowing for the Union to ramp up production further. This will start hitting the field's limit, but a further campaign can increase oil production. (5 Party Influence) (278+10 Omake Bonus(Moldavanka)/300)) (Completed Stage 3) (+5 Resources per Turn)
The expansions of the oil fields go well with the ongoing construction of hundreds of new derricks, incorporating lessons learned on the old systems. While everyone has so far complimented the new designs, a problem has rapidly emerged as the bulk of the field is already being tapped, possibly creating an issue with later fuel supply. The effort has still managed to connect a truly massive amount of Oil into the Unions transportation network. However, the refining capacity for most of this oil is not there and still needs to be constructed to use the capacity for anything but export.
Sulfuric Acid Plants: With the current likely expansion of shell and industrial chemical production, there needs to be dedicated production of the chemical industry's basic feedstock. Given the current and planned expansions for ore refining and chemical industrial processes, a more efficient way to convert waste sulfur on a large scale is needed. Thus, multiple large scale plants will be constructed through the Union to act as supply points for the material. (20 Resources per dice (53/200))
The starting construction of the new sulfuric acid plants starts off well with multiple large industrial storage buildings constructed with rail and pipeline links. While neither the machinery for the production nor the mining equipment has been installed, orders have been made to the factories. With a bit more effort and funds soon, the Soviet chemical industry can start on a solid basis. These plants, however, will use a good bit of electricity, and in time may necessitate more power generation.
Agriculture
Voluntary Cooperative Construction(Stage 5): Further large scale farming cooperatives need to be constructed on the land still available that is still fallow as farmers leave it for the cities. With this final leg of the effort, the Union's agricultural land will be fully brought under mechanized cultivation. Thus, it will ensure a flow of labor never before seen in the Union towards far more productive city work. (5 Party Influence upon completion) (Think Kibbutz with more propaganda) (15 Resources per dice (421/500)) (nat 1)
The farms' massive construction effort has had multiple delays due to local resisting peasants in the mostly abandoned villages. These have so far been the very old and traditionally-minded ideologues that have stayed in these villages all their lives. Unfortunately, these peasants have also occasionally taken up resistance against the state with their attempted destruction of agricultural assets in the region, along with various structures. While they may believe that they are doing damage, and such is reported in the paper and radio to draw out more possible dissidents, they have so far accomplished little but burn down their possessions. The overall media campaign of playing up the small traditional farmer's victories as a thorn in the state's side has exposed many unrelated traitors through their actions. Overall though, substantial progress is made to create thousands of new mechanized communities for agriculture, with rushed crops put into the earth to get some yield out of the newly set up ones.
My family was still living in the town despite everyone leaving, the party couldn't just kick us out, they had to be better than that. Everything just got more and more destitute, and all I could buy with my harvest were a few roof-tiles. But, as time passed, no help was coming and I read in the paper if I just started to try to sell my own grain, the party would notice and help. How much of an idiot I was.
-Samuil Gusev, Journal, Sentenced to 10 years ULAG
-Samuil Gusev, Journal, Sentenced to 10 years ULAG
Services
Creation of the State Hospital System(Stage 3): With most people in the Union now having access to at least some form of doctors, a good quantity of specialized healthcare is needed. Thus, multiple large specialized hospitals need to be constructed, one for each major urban center, to provide high-quality care to the most severe cases and injuries. (351/300) (Completed)
The construction of the new specialized schools and hospitals is complete with the full network setup. Despite the constant shortages of doctors, the hospitals are constructed. A new official annual meeting is set up for doctors of their specialty to meet up and discuss new discoveries in their fields. At the same time, a new system of medical exams and textbooks is created with up-to-date knowledge to ensure the consistent quality of doctors and nurses. However, there is still a problem with the medical networks, as there are just not enough doctors currently to fill all of the planned posts, and more time is needed for them to graduate from the system of medical schools.
State Childcare Services: As more and more women are entering the workforce, it has become a critical concern of the state to ensure that their children are cared for. While such an effort will take some resources and only apply to the cities, it will allow for more working-age women to go into the factories to further increase production. The effort will also allow the further removal of religion from society with the proper education of the youth of those taken in by various cults. (10 Resources per dice (139/200))
Hundreds of daycares and orphanages are constructed all over a multitude of urban areas. While they currently do not do much past housing and caring for the Union's various orphans, this is still a valuable service. They are also useful for those whose parents have been arrested for political crimes, as they can be brought up with proper knowledge of socialism and correct knowledge of religion. Such a changeover will, however, take a considerable amount of time and likely the bulk of multiple generations to truly get rid of religion in the Union.
When they bulldozed down the church we were all staying at, the nice party officials told us that we were going to a nicer home. But, when we got there it was just an old smelly apartment. The guy in charge was also so much meaner than old father Kirov, he just wanted us gone on most days, only serving some soup and telling us to go to school.
-Demyan Kiselev
-Demyan Kiselev
Military (Authors note: Most military efforts will have quality dice rolled after they are completed, which will affect the quality of the buildup/equipment/information) (ABM points are a thing that most factory actions will cost while you have them, but while you have them, all will be around ¼ cheaper. Currently, you will have 300 after the end of this turn.)
Trial New Aircraft Weapons: With the prevalence of the old rifle caliber weapons and the lack of a proper heavier MG, the union desperately needs some new form of gun to use in the air. Thus, the testing and refining of Berezin's currently promising gun should allow the Union to have a new standard gun in the air. As a benefit, the current heavy cartridge shows some viability towards being up-calibered to 20mm. (72/40, Completed) (Military Roll: 70)
The new Berezin UB machine gun succeeds in most of its trials by a good margin, with the cheap to manufacture gun proving reliable and accurate. While the mechanism itself is fairly plain, comprising a simple cheap to make gas system, it functions well at a good rate of fire. Beyond the minor issue of a large amount of force needed to charge the gun, it works well, fires, and almost every branch wants more of it. So far, the bulk of proposals have been to mount it to aircraft, but even the tank designers want an adaptation of it as a new coax gun. However, gun production is fairly small as there was no expectation of the army wanting mass adoption of the gun into a multitude of platforms. (New Project: Resources per Dice 20, (0/75) to get enough production of the gun)
Expansion of the Leningrad Locomotive Plant: With the considerable production capacity in the North of the Union, it would be prudent to utilize it to create a new series of trucks to allow easy transport of troops, resources, and supplies. Such a design inherently would use a licensed American engine but should perform fairly well, ensuring a steady movement and advance speed. (173/150, Completed) (-50 ABM) (Military Roll: 84)
With the resources allocated and the necessity to supply trucks to the bulk of the army, both a new design and a far larger plant is needed. In terms of the design, a new three-axle truck is ordered with the stated goals of transporting five tons on a gravel road and two tons on any possible reasonable ground state. While the latter goal fails to be met, the leading design that managed to get close gets the green-light. The plant itself becomes a fairly large facility, focused on the assembly line production of trucks to make up the current shortfall in both the civilian and military sectors. A new engineer named Gastev is also a major help, with large portions of the assembly line further optimized, demonstrating an increase in production with far better worker training and management.
Construct Officer academies (Stage 5): The last stage of the officer academy expansions is a critical step in ensuring that enough officers are made for the massive army. While the bulk of the candidates by necessity will not be from the party or Komsomol, they can still be trained into acceptable officers. This will also create a multitude of large scale training fields for the improvement of army doctrine and large scale exercises. These officers will also be trained on the capabilities of the weapons that are issued to the common conscripts to ensure that they know the capabilities of what they are commanding. (15 Resources per dice (314/400))
The construction of a new series of massive classes for younger officers goes well, with thousands of workers and basic conscripts applying to join in the effort. With the new academies, the older officers are mostly spread thin, as they, by necessity, are training the planned class for the expansion of the army. Still, assuming all goes to plan, the newly graduating classes will be quite inexperienced for the bulk of the mobilization period, as most will be used to commanding far smaller units. Still, they will all have the training to be promoted up. The only question will be the relative experience.
Bureaucracy
Encourage Sales: The expansion of sales to the Spanish Republic must be pushed to ensure that the Republic can fight on while securing the resources necessary for army modernization. Simultaneously, the effort will only dispose of the oldest of equipment, ensuring that there is a good exchange of gold for weapons. Hopefully, if the gold reserves can be transferred in full, both nations can greatly benefit. (DC 40/113) (100 Resources) (Completed)
The Spanish republic takes the sales of material happily, with hundreds of thousands of rifles transferred over along with a considerable number of older divisional guns and retired artillery pieces. Despite the age of most of the equipment, the republic is happy to pay top dollar even as their government forms, also in a stroke of luck, through negotiations and early deliveries, almost all of the gold spent as payment has been transferred to us instead of the Capitalists, as our arms were already there when the transfers started happening. In news on the actual front line, though, the situation is less happy as there are small gains made by Fascist forces. Still, there have not yet been any decisive engagements, just a slow-going slog depleting men and equipment.
Expand Hiring: With the projected lack of personnel due to internal political maneuvering, it would be prudent to expand hiring. These new workers will transfer from multiple sources, with large parts of entire university classes transferred to the department. While they are going to be green, this should at least maintain proper staffing levels. (DC 30/8) (No Action Loss from Severe Purges) (Failed)
Despite the opening of new slots for thousands of personnel to be hired, far fewer than expected come, as the education needed for their positions is still rare. Thus, with unfilled spots, the only order that can be given is for the personnel already in the department to work more and harder, as there are just fewer people to pick up the slack. However, not all is lost, as the next years' graduating class promises to be massive, allowing multiple easy pickups of talented personnel fresh out of university.
Sign Kill Lists: Due to constant expansions of the workforce and administration, there have been many wreckers and traitors who have slipped through the hiring process. Or, so says the party, but in practice, these lists are nothing but loyalty tests for those positioned lower in the pecking order. While not signing them is a theoretical option, such a decision could cause a considerable risk. However, such problems can be used as an opportunity, as over-fulfilling the quota of traitors will allow the choice of the more indolent old-guard to be cleared out of their positions and replaced. (Vote on Extent) (Dice: 103, Opportunities)
Reading the kill list, it is worse than you expected, but in terms of the minimal extent, the list is not too bad nor too disruptive despite it being chosen apparently at random from a personnel roster. Despite the already relatively severe list, however, the man giving the briefing on the list's importance and you hit off a relatively amicable conversation. While he is one of the most ideologically aggressive party members you have ever talked to, he did, however, come off as believing his own espoused worldview and thus easy to direct, creating many opportunities. While the bare minimum degree of purge would be accepted with few complaints and only minorly hurt relation to the party, there is always an opportunity to do more and ensure that your political goals can more readily be met.
[]Sign the List: There is no point in shooting more than is necessary. While this will not exceptionally over-fulfill the quotas like other members of the party, it should allow the bulk of suspicion to pass. (-10 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of three actions)
[]Expand the List: Some useless functionaries have been hired and retained for no reason other than just filling positions, with their factual work being very little. Thus, through expanding the list with hanger on's, more of the suspicion can be diverted. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of four actions)
[]Expand the List(Internal Enemies): Through the listing of a multitude of personal enemies along with strange ideologues in the department, the running of the system can be far improved, as power will all be centralized towards your seat. Such a purge would clear multiple personnel still in important seats, but it would allow personal near-total control. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (Loss of six actions)
[]Sign the List and Direct Yezhov: With the current reasonably famous falling out of the military staff between Voroshilov and Budyonny, and the brewing discontent of the establishment towards the military. It would be prudent to discuss a few of the more regressive officers with Yezhov. They have tried their best to hurt production by favoring cavalry, and with the likely upcoming trails of the military, it would be the perfect time to dispose of them. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (-20 Party Influence) (Loss of five actions)
Moratorium 2 Hours
Current Economic Issues:
Rail: Minor Shortage
Coal: Meeting Demand
Aluminum: Massive Surplus (You aren't using much)
Steel: Moderate Shortage
Energy: Minor Surplus
Food: Minor Surplus
Labor: Minor Surplus
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Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
- Location
- In transit
That's brutal. God were not gonna have a good winter.
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
Time for MEGAMAG
Eh. I mean, they're actively sabotaging our modernization attempts:
HanEmpire
Delicious
[]Sign the List and Direct Yezhov: With the current reasonably famous falling out of the military staff between Voroshilov and Budyonny, and the brewing discontent of the establishment towards the military. It would be prudent to discuss a few of the more regressive officers with Yezhov. They have tried their best to hurt production by favoring cavalry, and with the likely upcoming trails of the military, it would be the perfect time to dispose of them. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (-20 Party Influence) (Loss of five actions)
Perfect! These are the incompetents that got the Red Army's ass kicked during the early days of the Eastern Front. Good riddance.
Perfect! These are the incompetents that got the Red Army's ass kicked during the early days of the Eastern Front. Good riddance.
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Yeah shooting the generals is expensive but clearing out the dinosaurs is too big to pass up. It's by no means going to solve all our military problems, the new officers who would be taking over are super green, but inexperience can be remedied while thinking horses and swords are still cool can't. Intensifying scrutiny of the military will probably get some people swept up that we'd rather see left alone, but eh these things happen. Takes the heat off the civilian side of the department, too.
Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
- Location
- In transit
Currently at 60 support, this drops us down to 40 as a cost then 35 next turn(?), there's a ton of potential but we'll be in a desperate race to keep our head above water with a severely reduced action economy. I thiiiiink that Thirty or less is where the threat zone on being purged is but that might have changed, be a wrong assumption/memory, etc..
If we're doing this I think we need to seriously consider that we might get purged as well.
Edit: corrected stats
If we're doing this I think we need to seriously consider that we might get purged as well.
Edit: corrected stats
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That is gonna hurt...
Losing actions and needing a stable source of PI to eat the per turn loss is gonna make things difficult
HanEmpire
Delicious
If we Purge the cavalry generals we'll lose 5 PI per turn, so we'll go down to 35 PI next turn.
[]Sign the List and Direct Yezhov: With the current reasonably famous falling out of the military staff between Voroshilov and Budyonny, and the brewing discontent of the establishment towards the military. It would be prudent to discuss a few of the more regressive officers with Yezhov. They have tried their best to hurt production by favoring cavalry, and with the likely upcoming trails of the military, it would be the perfect time to dispose of them. (-5 Party Influence per Turn till the end of Purge) (-20 Party Influence) (Loss of five actions)
I have to caution against taking this option, and the very high PI expenditure is only a small part of my reason.
The bigger concern is capability. Right now we're behind OTL on production of trucks, and we probably wouldn't approach American levels of motorization by 1941.
Our military theoreticians have a good grip on how the next war is going to be waged, more or less. And what they know is that we need strong exploitation force to do that.
Right now, the only real such force in RKKA is cavalry. If we go through with such a purge, we're liable to have even less cavalry formations than USSR had in OTL by 1941, and they engaged in just such a downsizing, going from ~40 divisions to a dozen in span of three years (Before forming 80 new ones in between June 1941 and January 1942), and we're going to have five to do the same misstep.
If we commit to destruction of cavalry as a thing that RKKA does, we have in span of remaining five years to create an entirely new exploitation force, that is both vast and entirely motorized, and somehow organize it well enough - in OTL a lot of militaries failed at this (France, UK and USSR, to name but a few).
Thus, I urge you to take any other purge option.
I have to caution against taking this option, and the very high PI expenditure is only a small part of my reason.
The bigger concern is capability. Right now we're behind OTL on production of trucks, and we probably wouldn't approach American levels of motorization by 1941.
Our military theoreticians have a good grip on how the next war is going to be waged, more or less. And what they know is that we need strong exploitation force to do that.
Right now, the only real such force in RKKA is cavalry. If we go through with such a purge, we're liable to have even less cavalry formations than USSR had in OTL by 1941, and they engaged in just such a downsizing, going from ~40 divisions to a dozen in span of three years (Before forming 80 new ones in between June 1941 and January 1942), and we're going to have five to do the same misstep.
If we commit to destruction of cavalry as a thing that RKKA does, we have in span of remaining five years to create an entirely new exploitation force, that is both vast and entirely motorized, and somehow organize it well enough - in OTL a lot of militaries failed at this (France, UK and USSR, to name but a few).
Thus, I urge you to take any other purge option.
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-5 PI per turn limited to the ~4 turns until the Great Purge ends really isn't that bad, we've got VCC on deck for a +5 next turn, and then there's the aluminum factory that could be done in one turn for +5, and libraries are another +5 that could be done in one or at most two turns. Baku oil refineries are going to take a few turns but they're +5 as well and we're going to want them so we can actually use all the new crude we're extracting. That's just what we have available from last turn, we'll probably see new options appearing and we still have some emergency purge buttons to slam in Bureaucracy in case something goes really wrong and we need +10/+20 PI to not get shot ourselves.
Shooting the generals is the last big spend we can make for a while, and it will require chasing some PI every single turn, but the Great Purge was always going to be hairy no matter what and I think we can get away with it.
Shooting the generals is the last big spend we can make for a while, and it will require chasing some PI every single turn, but the Great Purge was always going to be hairy no matter what and I think we can get away with it.
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Dream Logic
An offseason swallow
- Location
- In transit
What?
...
Ok then...
Nevermind, we should probably not be in too much danger then.
No matter what we choose, we will need to deal with draining PI, though only doing the minimum would give double the drain than what the other three gives us.
If it was just shooting Budenny and Kulik, then it would have been perfect.
The problem, in my mind, is that in OTL USSR slashed cavalry even with those remaining up there all the way to Barbarossa.
If we start slashing cavalry earlier, and take out all the cavalry generals up there in Stalin's circle, we commit to destruction of cavalry. We won't have it by 1941.
And that means that we would have to get army entirely motorized and work out logistics and get it right from the first try, as otherwise we would be unable to fight according to our doctrine.
Last it came up - in discussions of plans for this turn - we were behind OTL USSR on truck production. And OTL USSR most assuredly wasn't nearly motorized enough to wage WWII properly, even with what cavalry forces they did retain.
As such, in my mind, committing to that option is foolish. We would be locking ourselves into a task of creation of good enough mobile motorized and mechanized formations which we might not manage to finish by start of Great Patriotic War, while ridding ourselves of backup in form of cavalry.
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We're not going to be doing much exploiting in the early part of the war no matter what, and having the high command mostly staffed by our new graduates with their newfangled ideas about initiative and radios will be worth more than some cavalry units for preserving our forces during Barbarossa. The OTL Soviets only had to bring back cavalry because all their trucks and tanks got blown up or captured during the first months of the war, and by the end of the war all the cavalry was gone again once they rebuilt the motor pool. Between TTL's better coordination, higher distrust of Germany, and larger industrial base (even if it isn't tooled for trucks specifically rn we have a lot more general economic might that can be mobilized) we hopefully won't need to bother nearly as much with horses and swords.
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The problem isn't with horses themselves. We could always use horses - even if for food.
The problem is that we're committing to destruction of cavalry as a thing that we have and that we do, while we don't have a replacement, and we're behind OTL on shit needed to create a replacement (and we're going to need more of that shit, as we're going to have even less cavalry), and there's no reason to think our generals would get that replacement - aka motorized or preferably mechanized formations - organized right and used properly.
We're still going to motorize. But destruction of cavalry means we don't have a backup in case we learn on June 22nd that our motorized infantry has to get to battlefield on foot in practice.
Best case, you'd be right. Graduates would do well, we're going to have enough trucks, and so on.
However, we can't be sure that it would be a best case scenario. We can screw up on getting enough trucks, fresh graduates might be out of their field being promoted that fast, generals might go too much tooth-heavy and tail-light on tank and motorized formations... There are many points of failure.
Cavalry, however, is already organised and trained more or less properly. Soviets had a lot of experience with it, particularly in Russian Civil War.
And absence of exploitation/mobile forces in WWII means very bad things. It's not just being unable to do breakthroughs and encircle entire German armies - it also means we're unable to react to enemy attacks and, indeed, stop Germans from doing breakthroughs and encircling our armies.
For us to manage WWII significantly better, we need a lot of relatively mobile formations, like cavalry or motorized divisions. And we're behind on production of trucks for the latter.
As such, commitment to destruction of the former without concrete evidence that we will manage to compensate for it is not ideal.
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Klim and his boys aren't just the cavalry arm, they're an influential faction that's squashing developments in tank and aircraft production too, I know it's a risk but it's one that's worth it imo if we want a Red Army that lives up to its full potential
- Location
- Austria
The answer to this is not submitting to outdated forms of warfare, it's building more trucks. Many, many, many more trucks.
We have no idea what to do with all the oil anyway.
