Join me as I take on the task of surviving as Poland against both the Soviets and the Germans in the upcoming No Step Back expansion. This diary will function as a sort of compilation of the new features. Normal caveat is that there might be bugs here, and balance are prone to change. It's also a pretty screenshot heavy diary.

Without further ado, let's start.

First off let's start with some housekeeping and strategy. I know that Germany will attack first and I can’t properly defend against both the USSR and Germany. My plan is to give up eastern Poland when the USSR demands it to buy myself time and take out Germany, then swing around and take back my lost land.

Therefore I’ll focus my industry buildup on western Poland since I plan on losing eastern Poland, thus limiting my potential losses.


We start off with the looming peasant strike, which we need to deal with eventually but I like to start out taking care of Danzig first since it gives some easy factories and only takes 35 days. The strike is on a long timer so there is currently no emergency to deal with it from the get-go.


It is also the path where you can get rid of the Embargoed Economy law which is quite crippling. Since I need to build up compliance it takes some time to get rid off it, so I like to get that ball rolling as quickly as possible.

I know that I will need to increase equipment buildup since Poland has lots of borders to cover. I plan on making cheap tanks later on as well just to deal with basic infantry.

I am a bit worried about German bombing, both against my troops but also because I know that the AI likes to bomb trains, so I plan to make a token air force just to intercept bombers as well as AA tanks and get AA into my divisions.

I have started my industrial buildup and in early 1937 I have completed all the must have industrial focuses that I want. There are still quite a handful of very nice focuses to take here, but time is of the essence and I need to deal with the political focuses as well. I am on a very tight deadline.


The national defense fund is particularly good to kickstart the Polish industry.


I have also dealt with Danzig and achieved enough compliance to Ban the Nazi party. This will get rid of the crippling trade law. After that I will switch to dealing with internal politics.



While the industrial buildup was ongoing I was a little sneaky. Krystyna, the gunslinging seducer has quietly infiltrated the Reich with the end goal of preparing a collaboration government to make it easier to capitulate Germany.

I also started hiring military advisors for additional XP gain. Since historical Poland can’t farm XP in Spain, advisors are the next best bet.

This reduced my total command power cap, but it's more than worth it. I will need it to unlock doctrines but more importantly, design my tanks.


It's now mid-1937 and I am starting to deal with the internal politics of Poland. As I do this people will get more and more irritated, and I would rather avoid a civil war, but I don’t like spending 100 pp to sideline people.


Luckily for me most of the focuses in the Sanitation path can be used to modify the left and right irritation (I like to think of it as a big aspirin).
There are also some really nice “bonus” focuses that can only be taken as long as you are dealing with the Sanitation, and then becomes locked out that I want to try and take. You can kinda mix and match which of these bonus focuses you want to take, depending on how much of a rush you are in.


I get the sense that someone is considerably more annoyed than the other



At the end of it all I manage to keep everyone relatively happy without too much effort.

I managed to pick up some focuses along the way, mostly advisors that will help me later on. It is now December 21’st 1938 and I am starting to feel a tingle in the back of my neck. Surely it's just my paranoia. No one is out to get me, surely.
So, no ones really out to get me, but just in case I start to plan for all eventualities.


Before I go back and finish up the industrial focuses that I left behind I do a detour to take Plan West, which gives me some hefy temporary construction bonuses for forts.


At this point I start to look into what type of spirits that I have available to me.
Theatre training looks pretty tasty for getting terrain traits much faster, and is relatively cheap. This is a grand battleplan exclusive, but I don’t feel that I have enough XP to switch as I currently need it for other stuff, and it's pretty ok for defending.
When all this has been chugging along I have been researching tank modules. As said previously I plan on making a cheap tank that can deal primarily with light infantry. I need to be rather quick to deal with the German enclave in Köningsberg, while also working within the rather modest industry output that Poland has to be able to get out any divisions before the war starts.


It does not have fancy bells and whistles that other tanks have, but it is relatively cheap. With a Automatic cannon it's also moderately good at taking out infantry, but terrible at going against anything else.

This means that I need to focus these tanks on infantry v tank battles and avoid German panzers as much as possible.

Armor is also quite low, but as long as the infantry does not pierce it it's fine. I usually prefer welded armor since it provides a good balance between cost and armor. I use Christie suspension and Gasoline Engine to boost the speed of the tank considerably, and a 3 man turret for some extra breakthrough, with a radio to provide some extra breakthrough (gotta have the Poles being able to listen to the latest hits)

I am also setting up a separate tank construction for some AA tanks, which is using the same modules, except I am changing it from a Automatic Cannon to a basic anti air gun





This is how I am currently doing. I have 3 tank divisions in the field, 1 army guarding against attacks in the south, and 1 ⅓ armies defending central Poland, mainly huddling behind rivers. A full army is preparing to take out Köningsberg and then switch around to face the Germans.

As the Germans starts to pile in I spring my trap, reducing their supply to buy myself some time


Early on in the war and I am getting pummeled by CAS and Tacs, and even though my token air force manage to mitigate some damage I am quite happy that I have equipped my divisions with AA

Early in the war I am getting pushed on some fronts but I am sticking to my original plan, following the railway and sniping the ports.

Katowice is lost pretty quickly, despite reinforcing it with forts.

As I push into Memel I realize that my supply is getting awful. I don’t want to have to build railways at this stage as my industry is strained already. I try to alleviate the issues by motorizing the node closest to it. It did improve my situation a bit, but not enough to solve it.
In November there has been some back and forth. The Germans are piling up as I try to make another push against Köningsberg. I also manage to take over and link up a new Supply hub in Allenstein
A thrust has begun to form, and they are pushing quite hard as well. I need to finish Köningsberg fast. Things are looking a bit bleak, but in the darkness there is a hero ready to rise. It's Romania.


Romania coming to Polands aid, colorized

I convinced my neighbors to join our cause, and there they come, a shining beacon of hope.(A better love story than Twilight)

With the aid of the Romanian allies I managed to perform a push to take back some land, but in my negligence the Germans sent some medium tanks to Memel and quickly started pushing me back. As feared my automatic cannons could not deal with these tanks, and supply flow deteriorated quickly as supply lines were cut.


I used some of the XP I gained to add Quick Improvisation. By doing this I got the ability to do several force attacks in a row, finally cutting off Memel from the tanks. They are stranded now. With one last force attack I manage to finish the cornered Memel guard off, stabilizing the front.

With the last pockets dealt with and Köningsberg that entire army is free to deal with the German front.
Poznań and Łódź will be my 2 first targets since they contain a lot of industry that was lost early in the war.

Planning to go on the offensive decide to promote Marian Rukiei, my field marshal, who has now leveled up enough to be able to be an Chief of Army.

After that I plan my attack. I can see that the railways that supplies the Polish front is largely supplied by 3 points which if cut off, would create 3 breaches that would force the Germans to either fall back or start taking logistical penalties

2 of those are supply hubs which, if I take out, should force the Germans to leave Poznań . I can then go via the sea, taking the ports there for added supply all the way to Berlin.

One rail junction to the south is also susceptible to being cut off, close to Brno. I doubt I will be able to take it in the first offensive but if I can I will go for it. For now reclaiming my core territory takes priority so I will go for the two supply hubs.

Shortly after Hungary is doing what Hungary does and declares war on me, cutting a large portion of my force away from supply. I force deploy my now freed army via rails to respond. While it might have looked bad for a second it has opened up an opportunity elsewhere. I redeploy my tanks…


A coordinated push with my tanks later and Poznań is retaken, a pocket is encircled and the Berlin railway is cut off. Romania is struggling in the south against Hungary. My race-cars sees the opportunity and…


A temporary victory to be sure. The tank is alone and the railway is unguarded. I have some spare units to redeploy and I pray that they will get there in time.

Alas the tank was encircled and destroyed, but it did pull enough troops away from the front to allow me to advance and redeploy troops. With overstretched supply lines I stop my advance to allow the railways to be regauged.

As I have unlocked some tactics I set mine to Elastic Defense for some extra defense. I would have liked to have Blitz


But I feel that I don’t yet have enough tanks to make do with this tactic. I'll switch it around later

Through some shenaniganry Germany managed to get a hold of Norway and Sweden. I set a small task force to deal with this. It should be simple as I took every German port, so even though I know that there are German units guarding it, they are basically sitting ducks.


As expected the Soviet Union finally woke up and on the wrong side at that.


Although I planned for this already I cant resist leaving them a parting gift

As the end of the Third Reich draws near I draft plans for doing after the USSR.
The tanks made at the start of the war are now inadequate to go up against the Red army and as such I am drafting new designs


Tank destroyer with a high velocity gun and a Squeeze-bore adaptor for extra piercing


Main battle tank with medium canon and wet ammunition storage


Anti air


Flamethrower tank (these are support companies, which mainly gives attack boost modifiers to Urban, Jungle, Fort and Forests and are mutually exclusive with engineers)
In the first month of the new year Germany finally capitulated after a series of tank offensives. Supply started to become an issue, first due to lacking trucks for motorization and after a while just due to the sheer amount of troops in the field.

The last city to fall was Vienna (I am super happy that I did the initial collaboration government , otherwise I would not have enough victory points.


The state of the world

I grab my tanks to go straight for Hungary and Italy. Obviously I prioritize Hungary first to liberate the Romanians (yes I know I should go for Italy but it’s not my fault I get emotionally attached easily). Although I am stopped pretty quickly due to the German remnants holding key strategic railways which prevents supply from reaching the new front.


Once the railways are fixed Italy is a piece of cake to steamroll since they lost most of their troops in Germany.



The final tally of the war is as follows. The vast majority of casualties inflicted (90%) on me was early in the war from Germany where I struggled the most.


Post peace conference looks similarish to what it was during the war, with the added wormy southern Slovakia in the middle of it all as a bonus

The absolute nerve. Its alright we don’t need them where we are going

I now have time to prepare to retake Eastern Poland

Fast forward a couple of years to rebuild my armies to take on the Soviets. Not much happened in between since the bad man was destroyed.

I now have an army of tanks ready, with an army of mechanized to follow up behind them.

I got the cost of mechanization down to quite low by upgrading its production cost.


I also produced some Railway guns for support, which now give these effects (as per popular request)


And this is how my tank template current looks like



The plan is to follow the Kiev line up to Moscow since its mostly plains.


I want to avoid the north as much as possible since there is mud and marshes galore, which really makes offensives difficult.

I also sent a part of the army to Burgas (Bulgarian coast) in the south (which was why I grabbed that part of Bulgaria to begin with) to make a naval invasion using mulberry harbors into Baku to cut off the oil for the Soviets. I formed the Międzymorze to invite Turkey into my faction since I couldn’t get access with my submarines otherwise.


With everything planned and ready I guess its ok to knock and see if anyone's home?



I successfully land on the shores near Baku. Some of the divisions land without a port, although that is no problem at the moment since I have mulberry harbors, so I don't have supply issues, but I need to take a port for permanent supply quickly.

As you can see I also have transport planes delivering supplies by air, stationed in Turkey which also helps in really bad areas.


When I land I am met with fiery resistance and although I manage to take a port before the mulberry harbor is destroyed I realize that I will be unable to take Baku immediately. Although an opportunity presents itself as Sevastopol is vulnerable and lightly defended. I take 4 tanks and zoom across the Island, managing to encircle a lot of the Soviet southern front.

As the southern front collapses the Soviets are forced to retread from Baku to fill it

In the meantime a titanic air battle is happening in Eastern Poland. The enemy is trying to bomb my trains, and as the majority of my trains are War Austerity trains that leaves them vulnerable to bombing and disruptions.


As the caucasus frontline is in shambles I see an opportunity to cut off the entire supply chain. The entire frontline is supplied by just one railway, which I manage to cut off. Effectively forcing the Soviets to retreat towards Stalingrad

As the year comes to an end I have pushed quite a bit into the USSR. However I am having a harder and harder time advancing towards Moscow. The city of Bryansk is giving me quite a headache as it's quite well defended and attacking cities from multiple angles is less effective than other terrain. It also has a supply hub that I need in order to advance further, and my lines are quite stretched.


I stop for a while, build up the railway and then let them eat 2 nukes to the face. After that a breach is formed in the frontline as my tanks push towards Moscow. At its gates fierce fighting commences.


It does not help that it's January and a lot of the provinces outside Moscow are in deep snow. The red army is pretty exhausted at this point with most of its armor being destroyed. Eventually Moscow falls under a barrage of tanks, fighters and tac bombers.

During this Leningrad falls under a combined assault from Sweden by the allies and Rostov is encircled, entrapping a lot of the remaining southern army that defended Stalingrad.

Even though a lot of the army that defended Stalingrad is dead and the red air force lies in a scrapyard somewhere it is still somewhat tricky to take as the red army still controls a long stretch of the railway.

Trying to take Stalingrad head on is still impossible, so I focus on cleaning up the infantry protecting the Stalingrad outskirts. As supply becomes better (relative) I can finally perform the last push and take the city. This puts the USSR quite close to capitulation, and I only need to snipe a few victory points.

Casualties just before Stalingrad capture and their eventual capitulation.

That's that! I tried to show off as many features as possible, and I hope you enjoyed reading through my craziness.. Now I guess there's only one thing to do, as a reward for being a true friend in need

Today we have two important topics to cover, for which we have reinstated @podcat with a battlefield commission, in order to detail our latest efforts to combat the width meta. In addition, Comrades @Bratyn and @Wrongwraith return for a dive into changes to the Soviet Exiles branch of the focus tree, based partly on community feedback.


Hi everyone, @podcat here for a little guest appearance to tell you some more about the combat changes coming with Barbarossa. Back in the Combat and Stats Changes diary we outlined our quest to break down the 40 width meta and try to combat an “overall best division”.
In there we outlined several changes such as varying terrain width without easy multipliers to exploit (meaning you can still make optimums for particular terrains but not all), as well as reduced penalties to going over widths.

To expand on this we have changed how targeting and damage spreading works. One way 40 width (and also larger) divisions were stronger than smaller ones was how they could concentrate all of their damage into one target overpowering defense more easily. Targeting is now changed so that divisions will select targets up to its own width (so a 40w can fire on two 20w), but doing so spreads the damage over them relative to their width (and just to be clear, it’s not just for 40w. This applies to any widths that match up like 30+10 say).


‘tis mathematics innit


With these changes I can say that I am not really sure what the best meta is anymore. I think there are likely some optimums depending on your opponent and location (when balancing Org versus cost and piercing and such) but what that is I look forward to see you players try to figure out :)

We also have one more change that I think will have a pretty big impact. When deciding if a division can reinforce to the battle line inside combat we no longer check in order of the order they joined combat, but instead we will now pick randomly among all waiting divisions with their chance weighted by their reinforce chance. This means that to optimize reinforcing you no longer need to pull micro feats to get the right divisions in order, and can much more safely toss in your newly designed tanks to save the day in an ongoing combat. Also, don’t forget your signal companies, they should be more impactful now!




Hi guys! This is @Bratyn and @Wrongwraith, part of the CD team on the Exiles branch for the Soviet Union. The last month has (other than lots and lots of keyboard-scrubbing...) seen some significant changes to the branch, and while we’ve kept much of the original design, we’ve also incorporated feedback from you guys, the community, and did some further iteration of our own on how the tree looks and works.

I believe we mentioned last time around that the civil war was hard if you chose to go down this path of the focus tree. Really hard. “Realistically hard” someone might argue. "Unwinnable", our testers might say. And while that might be to some degree realistic, it isn’t that fun. So we decided to make it _slightly_ less hard, while also introducing a few new elements to make the war even more interesting. Among other things, you now use Command Power to recruit units, rather than Political Power. And we have increased the amount of things you can get from countries supporting your cause.

We also added a few new focuses.


As you can see, the main structure of this section is similar to what it was before, with some minor changes. Maybe it should be stated at this point that most focuses are short focuses. The new ones that you can access before the war are these:




Why do you need these? Well You really, really need to be the one triggering the war, and you want to ensure you have control of as much land and units as you possibly can. So you need to be juggling your PP’s and CP’s while keeping an eye on the Political Paranoia of the Soviet Union. If Stalin starts the war before you are ready, it will still be very hard to win. And in order to do the latter, you can use the Covert Operations focus to try and divert the attention away from you - by providing fake evidence that e.g. the army is plotting against the state. This will cause an inquiry into army affairs, and this in turn will both damage Stalin’s army, and lower the Paranoia level temporarily - allowing you to continue with your schemes. The other new focus here is intended to give you a better supply situation when the war breaks out. Fighting through Siberia can be tough. Extra so if you don't have a supply system that supports it. So why not get some more help from the Japanese, right?

But I suppose the most interesting thing is this set of Focuses:



What do they do? Well, they give you different options in how to deal with nations that declared independence during the civil war…


A number of countries can declare independence during the war, especially if it drags on for too long. You then get the choice to see that as an act of war, or as a potential ally (for a while at least). Getting help from minor nations can be a good distraction, and something that can greatly reduce the time you need to fight against the Bolsheviks. However, being the empire -wanna be, you might not want that situation to last forever, hence the post war options.



This, together with a few other events that can happen during the war, should make the 2nd Russian Civil War winnable for the exiles, although still a challenge.


Some of the biggest criticism we received from you was the fact that the Western and Eastern expansion branches depended on whether you went down the Tsarist or Fascist branches. And rightly so! It made no sense to arbitrarily lock some of these options behind an ideology choice; a Fascist Russia would certainly have cause to wish to reconquer in the West, and a Tsarist Russia might well have even more reason to exact vengeance upon the Japanese than the Fascists would.

Making these two expansion paths available to both branches would, however, mean other focuses were required to continue to offer a unique identity to both of the ideological branches. Some people suggested more focuses geared to creating alliances, and we paired these with certain focuses intended to offer some flavor to the branches. This is the current state of the post-civil-war branches:



The difference will be immediately apparent. The tree has ‘thickened’ quite a bit, with over 10 new focuses, and the branches against Sweden, the Baltics, and Finland on one side, and Japan on the other, are now available regardless of the political choice you made, clustered near the center of the branch. Nothing has changed in these focuses, except The Lonely Island, which, if you relied upon Japanese aid too much and thus were puppeted after the end of the civil war, converts into a “war for independence” focus.



Let’s explore the newly-added focuses. On the Tsarist side, Capital of the Tsars moves the capital to St. Petersburg, and adds a bunch of goodies for the state itself. Reforge the Triple entente does what it says on the tin: reach out to the UK and France to re-establish the old alliance aimed squarely at Germany.




To emphasize old Tsarist Russia’s emphasis on being a ‘defender of the Slavs’, there’s yet another “Slavic Commitments” focus. If you elected to go down Third Rome, this will still give you an option to send guarantees to the various Slavic powers (along with some other bonuses), after which you may invade Romania (The Fate of Romania) to establish a land connection to the Balkan powers. And finally, “The Iron Wall off Russian Resolve” gives major bonuses to research and production cost, reliability, and armor for Super Heavy Tanks, incentivizing their use by offsetting the most detrimental aspect of them (their production cost), and thus offering a more unique playstyle for the Tsarists.



On the Fascist side, Russian Corporate State offers some factories and industrial bonuses. There is a focus to create a Berlin-Moscow Axis, and follow-up focus Japanese Overtures allows for an alternative choice to simply avenging the war of 1905 by going to war with the Japanese: you can invite them into the new Axis and secure Russia’s flank that way.



Eastern Expansion is now Fascist-only. After this, there is still the option of meddling in the Americas and, ultimately, declaring war on Canada and the USA for the old Russian colonial possessions on the continent. A second branch can be taken, however, offering wargoals on Afghanistan and Iran, and ultimately leading into Iraq, Turkey (if it hasn’t already been taken as the Third Rome), Syria (France), and India.



These changes should offer a bit more identity to the Exiles branches, while also allowing both to fulfil the ‘basics’ of recovering Imperial Russian possessions in the West and avenging the war of 1905 in the East.

Finally, here’s some pictures of certain characters:


As usual, the tree is still under development, and even what you see here might not match what ends up being released :) See you next week for another dev diary!

Greetings all!

Today’s dev diary contains the details of a few smaller features coming to the table in No Step Back. In addition, I’ll get ahead of the curve here and point out that there will be no diary next week - we’ll be back the week after with more to see.


One of the enduring tactical practices of the Soviet defense during the German invasion, was the use of scorched earth. In No Step Back, you’ll be able to spend Command Power on ordering the strategic disabling of railways in the event of a tactical retreat.


(All visuals WIP!)

Enacted on a state level, every railway present receives full damage, and is immediately flagged, making sure that your eager workers do not attempt repairs.



The pending repairs will show up differently in your construction queue, and won’t be worked on. Rather than re-enable these all manually, you can toggle the state of Scorched Earth off on a state, in the same way it was enabled. All affected railways will begin repairing at once.

Scorched Earth is a pretty simple mechanic here, but has potentially devastating effects on invaders. In addition to the rail conversion time that exists on captured railway, damaged rail must now be repaired in order to continue supply flow onwards. While we considered extending some effects to factories, we determined that this was likely to affect balance far more than we wanted.


We touched on this feature briefly during a previous diary, however, due to some good feedback from the community and from inside the team, we’ve made some alterations to how it works.

Where previously, you set a preferred tactic on a national level, giving a positive chance modifier for that tactic to be chosen in combat, your generals and field marshals will now also possess the ability to earn a favored combat tactic.




At level 5, you’ll be prompted to choose a preferred tactic for your generals. This represents their doctrinal school of war - a choice that affects all units under their command.

Note here, that we are not removing the national preferred tactic, and that the additive weight will compound from national -> field marshal -> general. To pre-empt the question, you can of course stack all 3 as the same tactic, although this drastically reduces your flexibility, and potentially makes it very easy to be countered. The overall additions granted by preferred tactics, have of course been reduced somewhat to account for this.

We wanted to avoid a rock-paper-scissors choice here, and in order to further emulate the core, doctrinal nature of a general’s fighting style, we have chosen to make this choice permanent for characters.


As we hinted at, strategic redeployment will now make use of railways in order to simulate more realistic army relocation. This applies a different weighting to the regular pathfinder, resulting in choices that largely look sensible where routes of a similar weight are encountered.


Here, we take a train followed by a scenic bus-tour in order to avoid the long connection.



Sometimes it becomes difficult to predict what will be considered 'sensible' in every scenario - there will be edge cases where pretty looking behaviour and logical behaviour do not overlap.

That’s all we have for today’s diary - just a final reminder that next week there will not be a dev diary - tune back in on the 29th!

As usual, I’ll be around to answer questions in the thread below!

/Arheo

Hello there, C0RAX again.

It’s time again to reveal some more secret information that was hinted at in the last dev diary. Specifically this week will be revolving around the final part of railways and trains. So without any more need for introduction here are our stars of the show today.

The railway guns.

So to start off I'll go through how you get a railway gun on the map because it’s a little different to normal land units. First of all you are going to want to research railway guns which comes after armored trains



Then you can find it in your production tab just like building normal equipment. But unlike other equipment you build, these production lines are limited to 5 factories and the railway gun won't be added to your stockpile.



Instead, once completed, your brand new railway gun will appear in your capital, in this way they are built similar to capital ships.



Moving your railway gun is limited to provinces with railways, and so to get to the front you must have a rail connection. Taking into account the rail conversion time when capturing territory is important as you will have to wait for the big guns to be able to help you out.



You can also attach railway guns to armies just like with planes and they will attempt to place themselves relative to the frontline. If you have several, they will be distributed where possible to support your army. There is also a quick select button on the army to select all railways guns attached to an army should you need to.



Finally, the last bit of control understanding is range. Railway guns have a range in which they can support and so from any one point are limited in which provinces they can support. This range is shown by hovering over the unit icon.

On to combat now, here we can see a combat with a supporting railway gun, we have added the useful icon on the combat progress indicator that there is a supporting bombardment. This new icon will also show if there is shore bombardment happening in the combat.



The combat effects of railway gun bombardment work just like shore bombardment, causing negative combat stat modifiers to those on the receiving end of the big guns. These modifiers affect both soft and hard attack as well as defence values. Notably, these effects do not stack - it becomes more important to spread out your railway artillery than to concentrate it.



Finally we need to talk about capture and damage, railway guns can be captured via encircling them and damaged by damaging the railway they are placed upon.

Now railway guns are the biggest guns by far used on land and so it's important that we have representations of those built by the major powers. So now we look at the unique guns for the major powers.

This is the german Schwerer Gustav model you will see when playing as the germans. It's perhaps the most famous railway gun and definitely the biggest and so had to have a part in this feature.



This is the BL 9.2inch railway gun, a relic of the first world war but these big guns were kept in service until 1945.



Following that we have the french Canon de 305 another veteran of the first world war.


Next up is the USA’s 8-inch Mk. VI which remarkably first entered service as late as 1941!


Type 90 240 mm railway gun whose claim to fame is being destroyed by the retreating Japanese in the soviet invasion manchuria.

And finally the TM-3-12, three of these were made in 1938 and were used in the winter war against finland, unbelievably these where in service until 1999 (a whopping 61 years of service)

Finally here's a cool clip of the Schwerer Gustav firing in game.

Greetings, and welcome back for our last look at the supply system that ships with the Barbarossa update. As you all know, I’m British, and in Britain the trains never run on time - I couldn’t possibly break with this tradition, hence a completely intentional 10 minute delay on today’s diary.

There’ve been a couple of changes since we last looked at this, so you may find I’ll be reiterating a few aspects that we’ve already covered in previous diaries, albeit in some cases with a new twist.

Trains

As indicated in a previous diary, the logistics network that supplies your troops relies on the large-scale relocation of supply using trucks and trains.

Whereas trucks serve as an optional last-mile carrier for military supplies, trains make up the backbone of any logistics network that supplies an army which exceeds the local state supply available in its location.

The domestic production of trains is something that is unlocked via the technology tree. Many countries will start with the initial (civilian) train technology readily unlocked, however, there are several more options available to you as time progresses (more on this below!).

Your overall train need for the logistics network is derived from the overall supply usage of the nodes supplying your troops, and the distance factor that supply has to travel in order to reach them. In essence, the more troops you have drawing supply, the more trains you will need to keep supply running.

Needless to say, if fewer trains are provided than are required, supply output at point of demand will incur penalties proportional to the magnitude of the shortfall.

In one of our previous diaries, we alluded to a number of interactions that could be performed on supply nodes - one of these was a train priority setting. It transpired that this did not fit well with the underlying simulation, and we’ve removed this setting from nodes.

Logistics Strike

Of course, a freight-train loaded with supply makes a juicy target for the enemy. In NSB, CAS and bombers are able to perform the new logistics strike mission, which can put a severe strain on an enemy’s ability to supply their network - actively destroying trains and trucks, as well as damaging railways in the target area.

The strategic bombing air mission will also target rail and supply infrastructure, however the logistics strike mission is a much more effective way of neutralizing an enemy’s fighting capabilities while retaining important industrial infrastructure if you intend to occupy an area for any period of time.

Train Variants

As mentioned above, trains will be a researchable technology with several variants. Trains, unlike regular units, are not controllable - their movement and behaviour is entirely simulated based on the needs of your logistics flow. This said, there are several important statistical aspects to them.

To begin with, most of your network is likely to be populated by civilian trains. You can construct more of these by co-opting military factories. Further on in your campaign, you can unlock a variant of the civilian train with a significantly reduced construction cost.

To combat the strategic mission mentioned above, there is one (or..is it more?) further item in your toolbox for owners of the NSB expansion. Armored trains, while coming with a higher price tag, are much more resistant to destruction from air missions, and can act as an effective deterrent against logistics disruption.

Train enthusiasts (we have none of those here, right?) will note that the trains displayed above belong to the soviet union - there is indeed unique art as well as 3d models for several other major nations.




A highly camouflaged train in action.

Displayed trains are based on your stockpiled train equipment. This is the german armoured locomotive!

That’s all from me for today - I’ll hand over here to @YaBoy_Bobby to go over some of the details on supply distribution at a hub level:

Hub to Province Supply Distribution

We have talked about how trains and rails feed the supply hubs, but not so much about how hubs feed divisions in the field. As hubs are fed from the capital province by a rail network, divisions are fed by hubs over land.

Every Hub has an overland range that gives it a collection of provinces that it touches. This range is constant, but the cost of moving over each province is impacted by things like weather, terrain, rivers, and infrastructure. Motorization decreases the penalty for crossing each province, thus increasing the number of provinces a hub will touch and potentially creating greater hub density and thus greater overall supply in an area.

As has been alluded to with the phrase “hub density,” a province may be touched by multiple hubs. When multiple hubs touch a province, a ratio is created to determine what percentage of the supply requested each hub is responsible for. Every hub that touches a province lessens the supply burden of other hubs also touching the province.

In the final step, Divisions draw supply from hubs, depending upon the relationship between their current province and the hubs that touch that province. When a hub does not have enough supply to meet demands, the lack of supply is distributed evenly across all divisions currently drawing from the hub.

In older DDs we talked about a penalty to the amount of supply delivered to a province based upon weather, terrain, and distance. Over the summer we decided to remove this penalty as we found it compounded in a hard to predict way that created bad supply and sometimes penalized having more hubs touching a province in a way that we did not like.

Greetings all, and welcome back for a slightly less content-focused dev diary than our latter soviet efforts. Today we’ll be covering a couple of smaller additions to be added in NSB, some of which have been hinted at before, followed by a small announcement from project management.


One of our long-standing goals with the new supply system, was to introduce some changes to the way weather affects the gameplay experience. To give some strategic relevance to weather, we’ve slowed down the system to modulate between potential weather effects on a less frequent basis. This gives a player some time to react to potentially advantageous/disadvantageous conditions, as well as being somewhat more predictable on a larger scale.

In addition to this, we’ve taken a broad look at the combination of stat effects on ground conditions, temperatures, and weather, in order to mesh more closely with the new supply system, and to give a greater impact on campaigns - especially those conducted in adverse conditions:

• In addition to Org recovery, weather will now affect org loss from movement, and in extreme cases, supply consumption.
  
• While temperature has no new modifier effects, we’ve taken a pass on temperature data across the world, with the intention of improving accuracy.
  
• Ground conditions now also have the potential to affect org loss on moving divisions. This becomes particularly important in muddy/cold conditions such as the eastern front, where the combination of various conditional effects can severely slow an advance.

Visually the weather effects have been updated to be easier to spot on the map, with updated particle effects weather will look better than ever. This also makes it clearer when a region is experiencing a weather event so you can react to it faster.


In NSB, we’re introducing the ability to manage specific equipment usage by division template. This means you can ensure that your elite breakthrough divisions have everything they need, while line divisions have equipment of a lower priority. Please bear in mind that the interface is still a work in progress!



You can access this new feature in the division designer, where you’ll have a comprehensive breakdown of all equipment types currently stockpiled.



We’ve provided several broad methods of manipulating equipment usage, in the form of a togglable setting on whether this division template should automatically have newly researched equipment enabled, and a quick method of toggling the usage of foreign equipment.

Beyond that, you’ll be able to toggle categories (such as Infantry Equipment II), all the way down to individual variants.



Changing these settings will not incur any explicit cost, though you’ll need to maintain awareness of your production lines when using these settings prodigiously. The update division tooltip, as before, will give you a summary of the scope of your changes, as well as how many divisions are likely to be impacted by this change. Lastly, it is important to note that these settings will affect reinforcement and training only - your existing divisions will not have their weapons immediately confiscated.

Indeed, as hinted at yesterday, we’re introducing allied construction to the game. This oft-requested feature will allow you to build certain buildings in the territory of members of your faction.


Unlike subject construction, this will utilize only your own factories, leaving your favored ally to continue with their own constructions as before. We have limited the building types permitted for allied construction to Infrastructure, Railways, Airbases, and Radar, however this setting is easily moddable for those interested in expanding their options. We initially allowed the allied construction of forts, but, well, the office MP proved why that was a terrible idea.

For balance reasons, constructions with levels dependent on technology (ie Radar) will be limited by the tech of the recipient country, not the builder.


We've taken the opportunity with NSB to add some feedback to one of the more serious situations an army can find itself in - encirclement. Whenever an encircled division is destroyed, a short animation will be played to draw some attention towards it. Of course, this animation also plays if you are the one doing the destroying.


Here, I’ll hand over to @podcat to cover an upcoming change in the HoI development team.

Hi everyone Dan here, I want to let you know that you’ll be seeing Peter more and more as he is now taking over as game director on Hearts of Iron IV.

Looking back I have been working on HOI4 for about 7 years now and before this I worked a few years on HOI3. So it's fair to say that Hearts of Iron will always be close to my heart, but I also feel like it's time for something new to sink my teeth into.

I’m going to be working with a Secret Project which I can't tell you very much about - except that I am super pumped about it, and that it isn't HOI5. While I’m sure the time will come for that, right now we feel that HOI4 still has room to be developed with content and cool stuff.

Timing wise it fits well for me. No Step Back was the last expansion step I had penned down back when the original game released in 2016 so it's time for another 5 year plan (heh). It takes the game full circle as with NSB we will have touched on all the major systems in free updates and expansions at least once. It's also a perfect time to get more fresh perspectives to help evolve the game when most of my original ideas and plans have now been done.

Of course you will still see me around and I expect I’ll be poking around here and there in HOI (one does not simply let go of their baby so easily!), but I am confident in Peter and the team to take the helm and keep steering the ship now, and I am sure No Step Back will be awesome and that you will all love it.



Et tu, Peter?! Game development is serious business!

Peter here - I’m honored to have been asked to take the reigns on HoI. I’ve been working closely with Dan and the team over the last months, and feel confident that we can keep on building HoI in the right direction.

As some of you will be aware, I’ve come to HoI by way of Imperator, having previously worked on several PDS projects as a content designer. Prior to that, I had a long and entirely unrelated career in classical music. Historical PDS titles are something I’ve been an avid fan of from long before I worked here, and I’m super excited to take my experiences forward from Macedonian nation-building to the 20th century.

We have many plans for the future of HoI so after NSB is safely out of the door, you’ll get a chance to see my take on the future of the game. This said, I’ll point out that Dan and I are very much aligned on the creative direction of HoI 4, so to pre-empt some questions, a switch in game director does not mean lootboxes, mana, or any radical shift in core design philosophy.

What does it mean? Well, it’ll take time to see that properly. We’ve made no secret of the intentions around future dlcs and content (see last PDXcon for more details!), so the best answer I can give you there is that we’ll be doing our utmost to meet this potential roadmap while I begin to put my personal spin on the game. I’m more than happy to try and answer broad questions about my thoughts on the future of this excellent game, my industry experiences thus far, or myriad other topics, but please be aware that (beyond what I’ve already implied) we will not, as usual, be able to answer qualitative questions on future releases.

In general, you’ll find me present and willing to engage in polite discussion on the forums and other media inasmuch as my time allows, so I expect to begin interacting more with this passionate community in the near future!

/Arheo

“Comrade Bratyn, you have been found guilty of counter-WW2 activity. You have been seen consorting with citizens and even figurehead ideologues of the Imperator team. Undeniable proof of work -by your hand- can be seen in publications by this group of dissidents made over the course of the past year. You do not fool us. We know “Drikus” is just another alias you use.

“Your attempts at shirking your duties to the Team will not be tolerated. Discussion of the Classical Period is wholly unacceptable behaviour for a HoI4 citizen; publication of treasonous material is a crime far, far worse. You are hereby stripped of your rank and sentenced to the mines in HoI-beria. Perhaps a year’s hard labor working on good, proper WW2 material will enable you to see the errors of your ways, and rehabilitate you sufficiently to regain your previous liberties.

“Comrade Bratyn, I will not welcome you back. You were foolish to think you could ever leave, in the first place.”

Hello everyone, and welcome to the third (yes you read that right) dev diary on the Soviet Union focus tree! And yes, in the words of a famous hero who fought valiantly and sacrificed himself for the defense of Earth some 25 years ago: “Hello boys! I’m baaaaaaaaaack!” Not to worry, though! Unlike Russel, I’m not here to destroy the project by dealing catastrophic damage to the superweapon that is this very next DLC that we’re unleashing upon a collection of RVs near a remote and officially non-existing military base in Nevada the world. That requires backbone, and we’re not allowed to have one of those here in HoI-beria.

It has already been explained in previous DDs that the sheer size of the Soviet tree has meant multiple CDs have been slaving away working proudly on it. This has been doubly the case for the non-Communist branches (which the eagle-eyed among you already noticed in last week's diary must lurk off to the side of the picture you were shown): the collection of CDs that have contributed to these have almost been as numerous and varied as have been the groups comprising the White Movement that inspired the branches... *Laughs nervously, glancing at his room’s locked door* While I initially was given some background features to toil away on, I eventually was drafted into this group of laborers-- *Glances at the silhouettes of guards visible through the window in the door, sweating this time and continuing in an excessively loud voice* ...Erhhh, I-I mean, I volunteered for this honorable task to contribute in some small way to the ever-increasing glory of the HoI4 Team, which has so graciously and mercifully deigned to allow me to prove my unceasing loyalty through my labor! *Sweats profusely* ...I, uh, am also proud to have volunteered as… as spokesman for this assembled group of CDs, and tell you all about what we’ve been doing!

*Clears throat raspily* Very well, let’s get started.




In 1936 the so-called White Movement was in shambles. Despite extensive international support, the Bolsheviks had eventually defeated the loose and diverse anti-Communist coalition (who really only agreed on one point: that the communists must be defeated) that vied for control of the country in the Russian Civil War. With many of their leaders dead, much of the remnants of the Whites fled the country rather than be purged. Many of these fled to Manchuria, which in the early 1930s was invaded and occupied by the Japanese.

In the years afterwards these exiles in Manchuria were supported by the Japanese to cause problems for the Soviets across the border (including such intrepid endeavours as erecting a giant neon swastika 3km from the Soviet-Manchurian border). While certainly not the only collection of White exiles in the world, they were the only ones to be in any conceivable position to do any material damage whatsoever to the Soviet state. If an anti-Soviet uprising was to take place, it would therefore likely be in the old White-controlled areas of the Far East and Siberia: far from the tightly-controlled industrial areas of the far west of the Soviet Union, and where Japanese equipment and support would be most forthcoming.

Are you up for the challenge of ousting the Bolsheviks after all, guiding the nation through an Electric Boogaloo of Russian civil wars, reinstating the Romanovs, and, finally, returning its former Glory to the Russian Empire?

If so, the only way to affect such a drastic change by the mid-1930s is through civil war.

In many ways the build up to the Civil war for the Nationalists and the Tsarists plays similar to the Communist Opposition build ups, albeit with a somewhat different touch. The red army is highly politicized so you will find it harder to actually gain a large following there, and you won’t get any support from the NKVD either. But let’s look at the “pre-civil war” part of the tree:



This part of the branch all revolves around various ways in which to prepare for the civil war: obtaining equipment, units, factories, national spirits, decisions, and even advisors for when the civil war kicks off. At the same time, decisions allow you to spread your influence (starting in the Far East) throughout the Soviet Union, readying states for an uprising to coincide with crossing the border from Manchuria. Despite this preparatory work, however, the Soviets have solidified their power tremendously over the past 20 years, and this war will be a challenge.





One way of preparing for the continuation of the counterrevolution, and undermining communist support, is to gain the support of the church. Some of the Orthodox Church’s bishops (‘metropolitans’) had fled abroad rather than cooperate with such a militant atheist government as Stalin’s. Others elected to stay, and in 1927 Patriarch Sergy issued a divisive Proclamation on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church that professed absolute loyalty to the Communist government of the country. Many metropolitans broke communion with him as a result. Despite the proclamation, 1931 still saw the destruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, to make room for a colossal Palace of the Soviets. These are the kinds of decisions that need to be overturned to return faith and religion to the central position that it deserves in Russian society, providing suitable rewards accordingly.



Eventually, you may begin the war:


As stated, it will not be easy, and the Soviets enjoy a tremendous military and industrial advantage over you. You will have to make intelligent use of your resources and subversive activities to level the playing field even slightly and make an unlikely victory happen. Luckily, the possibility of foreign aid exists, though even this may not be enough. The final ‘ace in the hole’ is swallowing your pride and making the Japanese an offer they cannot resist: the elimination of a rival power to their northwest, major territorial gains on the Pacific coast, and even the installation of a subject regime in the power vacuum their rival’s collapse would create… All this might buy their direct involvement, but the price is very high...





Once the civil war has been won, it is now time to consolidate your power, rebuild the war-torn nation, and replace the White provisional government with the more stable will of a Romanov. This calls for the convening of a Zemsky Sobor, who will elect Tsar Vladimir I to this position. These focuses (and some of the later religious branch’s focuses) also will also spark the return of many anti-Communist exiles to their homeland. From here, you may continue to embrace either of the two predominant ideological flows that comprise the White Movement:



The first of these is the Tsarist branch - solidifying the Tsar’s autocratic control over the country and restoring the Romanov dynasty. This branch seeks to restore the Russian Empire’s old borders; reconquering the many states that were lost after the Great War, and pushing beyond.




The second of these is the Fascist branch - turning over power to Rodzaevsky and reducing the Tsarist to a figurehead monarch, like in many nations in the West. Under this leadership, the embarrassments of old will be redressed and avenged; in particular the Empire’s defeat at the hands of Japan over 30 years prior. This path also focuses on naval build-up in the far east, and even explores bold forays into the Americas…



Finally, a doublet of formable nations exist for these branches. As the Tsarists, it is possible to extol the unity of the Slavic Peoples, and truly take up the role of their Protector. Be strong enough, be liked enough, and Slavic nations under threat will join you willingly. If not, you may take them by force. Regardless of how you unify them: you may form a grand Union of the Slavs if you succeed in this task.




Alternatively (and open to both branches), you might emphasize the role of the Church in the new nation you have created. Choosing this spiritual path will elevate the Metropolitan of Harbin to leader of the nation, and opens up the ability to claim Russia’s rightful place as the only true heirs of an empire long gone…



Finally, I’ll briefly hand over the word to Comrade @Wrongwraith.



As hinted in last week's DD we’ve also added a few more releasable countries that can become independent in a peace deal or through focuses. So basically all SSR’s, ASSR’s and some of the Okrugs of the USSR are covered, as well as some other countries that existed before the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922.

To give you an idea, the map can now look like this:



Some of the releasable countries overlap. For example, the Far Eastern Republic has cores on both Chukotka and Vladivostok as well. The map above shows as many simultaneous countries as possible in the Soviet Union area.

And of course this means loads of new flags. Some of you guessed right last week! The flags shown were for an independent communist Karelia and a non-aligned Buryat Republic.

And there are loads more, like this one for example:


In addition, we added a few new formables for those countries, just in case you feel like reforming Idel Ural for example.

Now, with that out of the way: that was all from us for today! It should go without saying that the tree is still being actively worked on, and so what you saw here may not represent 100% what is eventually released. I do hope you liked this little peek into what’s going on with the not-so-Communist Soviet things! *Attempts to feign a joyful laugh, but then glances nervously at the door again, and adds in an urgent whisper:* I mean it… If I don’t meet my quota of likes and get a ratio of above 90% for this diary I’ll be scrubbing keyboards for a month!

Oh - almost forgot - the Soviet Focus Tree behemoth as of currently:

Hello comrades, and welcome back to another DevDiary for No Step Back. After Comrade @ManoDeZombi (as chairman of the People's Commitee for Focus Tree Production) introduced you to the historical and shared branches of the Soviet tree last week, today we will be talking about the Opposition against Stalin.



The opposition to Stalin during the 30’s was diverse and divided. Thus I guess it is fitting that the work on the various paths for the Soviet Union has been divided between several CDs unlike normally, when one tree is designed by one CD. Thus the creation of the CD Soviet.

I got the honor of writing this diary, so I shall do my best at covering all the options available for the alternative communist branches.

It is also my first dev diary, as I am relatively new to the Content Design team at HoI. Hope you like it!

Please note though that at the moment of writing this dev diary, a lot of things are still being worked upon, and copy edits to be done, so there will be changes before release.

Even before Lenin’s death, there was a bitter power struggle within the party. Lenin introduced a ban on factionalism, which Stalin later used to defeat his opponents. But before that happened, several sub groups had formed behind outspoken leaders. Initially the strongest ones were Kamenev and Zinovyev and their so called “New Opposition”. Their main opponent, back in the early 20’s, was Trotsky, leading what came to be known as the Left Opposition. On the other “side” of the spectrum was the Right Opposition, fronted by Bukharin. Of course, there were other groups as well - as the Workers’ opposition, and the Decemist faction, and nothing was stable for long as allegiances shifted.

Stalin, forming his own faction, aptly called the "center", and using his position as party secretary to his advantage, played the others against each other, gradually gaining total control of the communist party.

While all this was happening, the surviving leaders and generals of what had been the disunited white movement were plotting in Manchuria.

As communist you will have three main options. One is to stay with the center and keep Stalin as country leader. That option has already been covered, so let’s move on.

The second option you have is a move to the left.




As you can see from the tooltip, if you go down this path, you will end up in a civil war. There was simply no way Stalin would just hand over power to Trotsky or his allies. You have a few things you can do to make life easier for you once the war starts, and to prepare for what comes after.



You can send trusted advisors abroad, in order to keep them safe from Stalin. Relatively safe anyway, stay clear of ice picks.



You can tie closer bonds with Smirnov, and his Workers' opposition, who were always close to the left opposition anyway.



Additionally you can convince a few notable Military Officers to side with you. That will strengthen the ties with the military, making your side stronger in the upcoming civil war. Like e.g. Primakov (portrait is work in progress by the way, just wanted to show you one of the new guys):



Also, Stalin agitated a lot against what he called “wreckers” - organized workers doing planned sabotage - associated with the Trotskyists. Whether historically true or not, you can use that tactic against him and actually organize wrecker squads.




As can be seen from the screenshot above, you can point your finger at the Right opposition, in the hope that Stalin’s paranoia will hit them, rather than your people.

When you feel ready, you complete the “Ignite the Flames” to start the war - unless of course, Stalin’s paranoia has forced your hand already.

We’ll return to the Civil War in a sec, but first, let's take a peek at the other end of the alternative Communist Branch:




If you want to oppose Stalin, but don’t feel Trotsky is your guy, you can always go to Bukharin, and the Right Opposition. In order to confuse everyone, this time we have “the right” to the right of “the left”... But at least “the left” is to the right of “the center”, to keep some chaos… (There’s a reason for that though - which you can probably guess from the above, but more of that later).

Bukharin was one of Stalin’s first allies, and he used him to thwart Kamenev’s plans. Later he got brushed to the side and accused of plotting against Stalin. When the game starts he is out of favor, out of power, but not entirely out of options.

Just like the Left Opposition you can try your luck at removing Stalin by starting a civil war:



It should be noted though, that the Right opposition will have a much lower support within the military than the Left Opposition has - it is after all “Trotsky’s Red Army” - so if push comes to shove you might have to get some help from abroad.



For example, you can offer Vladivostok to the Japanese, making them more inclined to support you when the war starts.



Other options include e.g. trading future resource rights in return for Military factories.
If you are lucky, some nations might even send a general or two to help you.


But before we delve deeper into the Civil War, let’s take a step - not back - but rather to the side. I mentioned there’s a reason the left and the right are together in the focus tree and that is of course because, as I said before, alliances shifted all the time, and if you want, you can actually join forces against Stalin. And ally with Zinovyev and Kamenev if you want to do that.



By choosing the “cooperative” option, you get access to more advisors and get a higher level of popular support, but you also get penalties due to the many differences of opinion in the party.





But of course, you don’t have to do this, if you’d rather work alone, you can always use the other side as scapegoats.

Another (very) important part in this part of the focus tree are the focuses intended to help you prepare for the actual war. You can start infiltrating the military, to gain control of a larger part of the Red Army/Navy/Airforce when the war starts, secure more generals and admirals to your cause, or simply divert Stalin’s attention to the military branch, making him target them instead of your political leaders, weakening his own forces before the actual show of force.



Similarly you can infiltrate the NKVD. This can be extra useful if you are planning on having the Right Opposition replace Stalin. More on that soon.


Ok, so let’s return to the actual Civil War mechanics:

In general, the mechanics are very similar to the Spanish Civil War mechanics, although slightly simplified as the sheer number of Soviet states would make it overwhelming.
The first thing you have to do is decide from where you want to start the uprising. Depending on which branch you have selected you will be presented with slightly different options. This is roughly what it will look like for the Left Opposition. (again bear in mind the rather rough appearance of the Decision text etc - it is a work in progress image after all).



Once you have established a base, which will then be your base during the civil war, you can start infiltrating neighboring states - as long as Stalin hasn’t made a crackdown there first. In general it is a good idea to keep the supply situation in mind when planning your civil war. Only controlling states with a poor supply situation will make your attack on the capital much harder.



When the war finally starts, the states you have infiltrated will be the ones you control, so doing some thinking ahead can be recommended. Note that you cannot infiltrate central Russian states, nor Leningrad. Stalin and his cronies have too tight a grip on those for them to be taken.

The Military support focus unlocks a number of decisions that can be taken:




These will ensure that you get more officers and/or a larger portion of the armed forces when the war starts. However, as with almost anything the opposition does this also affects Stalin's paranoia. The more people you try to sway to your cause, the likelier he is to randomly swing at his opponents, real or believed.

You can also, as mentioned before, interact with other countries. Either by offering various concessions or by just doing a fundraising campaign (Left Opposition).

So far so good. However, Stalin won’t sit idly by while you are preparing to remove him. First of all, as soon as he gets wind of the plot, he will make crackdowns in various states, blocking them from being taken over by the opposition, as can be seen in the next picture, where Mykolaiv is secured by Stalin.



Additionally, he will use whatever means at his disposal to ensure the loyalty of Generals and admirals. So if you dally too long, you might lose a few key ones - having to fight them rather than having them on your side.


But perhaps most importantly, Stalin will continue with his own focus tree. And, as those of you who read last week's diary remember: that has effects on the opposition…



So the longer you wait with kicking off the war, the more people Stalin will have had time to purge. So it’s basically a balancing act. Some purges can be avoided, but it will cost you, and the paranoia will continue to increase. And if it increases too high, there is a risk that Stalin will actually start the war, rather than you. This is not only bad because you don’t get to choose the time, it is also bad as you won’t get the bonuses that the focuses that kick off the war gives.

And sooner or later you have to start that war:


With for example this guy in charge…



“And sooner or later you have to start that war” - to be totally honest; that is not entirely true. If you go down the Right Opposition path, you can actually try to remove Stalin in a different way. If you manage to convert the current NKVD chief to your cause, you can attempt to assassinate Stalin instead, and then stage a coup claiming power in the chaos that reigns after that.

You have to do this before Stalin’s ally (and basically 2nd in command) Beriya becomes head of the NKVD, however, or else it will be too late. If you succeed, you will have a window of opportunity in which you can move to replace Stalin's temporary successor with the man of your choice. Thus basically replaying the historical events of 1953, only some 15 or so years earlier. But beware, if the attempt fails, Stalin's paranoia will increase greatly (rightly so this time, I guess) - and that might lead to him launching a full scale war against you, so you’d better prepare for that eventuality...

Infiltrating the rank and file of the NKVD in addition to getting their chief on your side certainly increases the odds as well.



So you fight the civil war, defeat Stalin. Then what?
Well, if you do it as one of the two communist branches, you can still do basically everything that Stalin could - apart from those focuses locked behind the The Centre focus. Not all, but most of the industrial and military focuses are still valid - as are most of the foreign policy ones.

But going through all this must surely lead to something else as well, right?

And yes it does.

For the Left opposition the “bottom half” (more really) of the tree looks like this:



You have the “Permanent Revolution” sub branch that helps you spread world revolution:




If you have Trotsky as your leader, he also gets an upgraded trait when you go down this route.

You can make final call on how to deal with any remaining opposition groups as well (goes for both left and right opposition)



If you go for the Builder of the Red Army focus ( only available with Trotsky at the helm) you can also have Trotsky assuming command of your field forces.



Aside from restarting world revolution you will have the decision on how to proceed with what was once the Soviet Union. How far will you decentralize? Either you can go for a fully decentralized state, including giving greater autonomy to the republics, in effect releasing them as puppets and then helping them get stronger:



Or you work towards giving the Supreme Soviet increased power, basically removing the need for a figurehead leader



If you are going down the Right opposition path, you will have a similar amount of things to do after the take over, but with a slightly different mix:



The “Back to the NEP” sub branch contains various focuses for revamping the Soviet economy, with the goal of turning the country into an economic powerhouse.



You can also upgrade Tomsky’s traits, again improving your ability to compete with the USA for example.



You can also get puppet wargoals and bonuses against non-communist neighbors through the “Enemies of the people” focus.

Like the Left Opposition you can go down the “Supreme Soviet” path, but you can also choose to keep your current leader and instead go for the “For the Common Good” sub path.



This further strengthens your country, and also your allies. Ending with the Socialist Humanism focus:



And here's a summary of the new leaders you can get through these parts of the Focus tree:


That was all from me for now. I hope you liked this little peek into what’s going on with the not so Stalinist Soviet things!

And hopefully I can come back with more details at some later stage.

Oh, I almost forgot, the entire Communist Focus Tree:


There are a few extras, but you'll have to check those out on the forums!

We know you're ever watchful for more No Step Back information, and we'll deliver with this weeks dev diary, but for now we wanted to take a moment to talk to you about Operation Zoomer.

As of 14:00 BST, August 9th our landing craft invaded our latest Social Media platform - Instagram. Magenta Beach is open. We're under heavy fire and we need reinforcements!

Join the Hearts of Iron community team for a whole host of new, community content on our latest platform. We've got bundles of planned content, including special video content, sneak peaks, history bites and behind the scenes info! Who knows, there might be a dev diary tease later today too!

Added server visibility settings to Steam MP (Public, Private, Friends)
Update MS as well to keep version parity.