
We originally planned for the mod to start at 1861, since the American Civil War was the first stance of modern warfare that's represented with the HOI4 engine. The army I sent over: State of the war when my units arrived … About Hoi4 German Civil War Cheese. they are cheap and good to defend land forts and if they switch side at the start of the Civil War, they are lot less problematic to deal with than regulars or armored divisions. If you want to stay as communist, though, then Trotsky is a fine choice.


Technically, I'm pretty sure the "optimal" way to play the SU is to switch to Konstantin Rodzaevsky as quickly as possible, which avoids the civil war, removes "home of the revolution" and its construction penalty and means you can join the Axis for ridiculous global domination. In contrast, the only downsides are having to wait a bit longer to get the fifth research slot and having to find a war in the more dangerous high-tension environment of 1938-9 instead of almost immediately when noone cares. With both, coups take 80 days to complete instead of 400, and you can fabricate claims almost as cheaply and quickly as the fascist CB without needing to be at war with a major. You save 210 days on national focuses, get to keep all of the most useful military high command while also having a fairly light civil war and in addition Trotsky's leader trait is actually pretty good and stacks with NKVD primacy.
