Turn 2: Consolidating Power in the "Near Abroad" - Warsaw Pact and Korea

Build up three Warsaw Pact territories to 3.

Initiate the second espionage mission

Police action in South Korea

191 Tribute, 21 nations:The liberated populace of Eastern Europe, Finland, and the Balkans will no longer grumble for more nylons and washing machines, leaving you free to focus on the Arms Race, the Space Race, and the Peace Race. You have succeeded in fulfilling this objective and these territories will no longer rebel, allowing your armies to conduct better-supported operations overseas. [-90]Your Spies will have to infiltrate and bribe enemy units. Make sure to send the Spies in groups, as the enemy patrols will usually arrive in groups. Also, make sure to set escape waypoints far from the enemy to get your Spies out of harm's way once they're done bribing (after you've right clicked on an enemy unit to bribe, hold shift and right-click at a safe distance to tell your Spy to run away once she's done). There is a Barracks facility just north of your starting point, and an Auto Plant to the east. Three U.S. Howitzers also patrol to the northwest. Once you have bribed them and a sizeable attack force, go north and launch an attack against the major city there, using the Alt-RightClick command so your army protects its artillery. The Blue army will put up some resistance, but if you've preserved your Spies, they can bribe away enough enemy Tanks to neutralize the threat. South Africa becomes client state. [-20]The Korean War may have been born of mutual misunderstandings. Kissinger maintains that Kim Il-Sung of North Korea made contradictory representations to Stalin and Mao, successfully exploiting distrust between the two Communist leaders and securing the green-light for his invasion of the South. Another potential miscalculation by Stalin meant that the Soviets were not present to veto the UN Security Council resolution to intervene in the Korean War - leaving the Soviet support for the attack grudging at best, and requiring a large-scale intervention by the Communist Chinese to avoid a complete collapse on the Communist front. Fighting ended almost at the same frontier on which it began, on the 38th Parallel North, with a growing rift between the Chinese and the Soviets, and a Korean nation that remained split over five decades later.We will not be making these same mistakes in our runthrough as the Soviets. We will be supporting the North Korean assault directly with boots and treads on the ground, and most importantly we will refuse the Chinese offer of aid (which will make them more amenable to client state negotiations in following turns).First, take a look at where the Soviet economic infrastructure is located on this map. Most of your Timber, Metal, and Food production is located near Vladivostok and Slavyanka. They are right by the seaside, in coastal regions of the map, and the UN Allied Forces will soon be sending ever-increasing naval raids to destabilize our economic base.Accordingly, we're going to send all of our Civilians up north, to Khabarovsk - an inland city with good access to Timber and Metal. We are going to raze every economic building at Slavyanka and Vladivostok to the ground, and then we will build Farms and a Granary around Khabarovsk.Meanwhile, our economy is lagging far behind practically everybody else's, and our tiny expeditionary force stranded in North Korean territory is not likely to even dent the conflagration below. The one thing we do have is open slots for more cities. We will send a Civilian to the military base to put down a city (which may well emerge as a Large City, thanks to the variety of buildings in its radius). We will also put down a Fortress and maybe another Airbase when the time is right. In time, with a few redundant key buildings such as an extra Library, Market, and University, it may look something like this:Putting down a city near military buildings will also increase their strength, which is important because halfway through this scenario, the UN will start launching missiles at hard targets, including our military production buildings. Anything that increases survivability is good.Economically, there are also a good number of Rare Resources around the top edge of the map, hidden by the shroud. If your Scouts can uncover them, send out Merchants to collect them. To bring our economy back on track in this underdeveloped eastern hinterland, I placed one final city somewhat north of the military base (above) where there was a good source of Metal and Timber. Keep an eye on the Market's exchange rates, as well - I found Timber to be extremely cheap on the market, which helped me build basic infrastructure quite quickly.A further five Farms and a Granary, and we're at roughly 10 gatherers per resource. The Soviets should start off with about 4 Oil Wells scattered throughout the map, so no need to build any more. Just remember to send Civilians out to gather Oil at those wells, and build Refineries at your cities when possible. (Annoyingly, there is no easy way to find empty Oil Wells. The best I could do was to click on one, then hit HOME to select all wells, and then go manually one by one through the wells and assign Civilians to them.)At somewhere around the 10 minute mark, the Chinese will offer to intervene in exchange for a non-hostility pact. However, if you accept, then the Chinese will be unreceptive to client state negotiations later on. Although the Chinese can offer significant infantry backup, we will decline their offer and prosecute the war on own own. This will make the Chinese more amenable to client state relations in future.Once your economy is strong enough, you can set up an invasion force to break through to the South and take their three cities. Aging up to Age8 and upgrading your units will allow you to sweep the UN and South Koreans into the sea. Fighters will be useful to give them cover, and Cruise Missiles will be helpful to reduce cities so your ground troops can take and hold. First attack Seoul with two squadrons of Fighters and one of Bombers, coordinated with a ground invasion force:Then cut east to bomb and take Suwon, and finally southwest to take Daejeon.Income: 60 from end of turn, +40 for South Korea police action, +50 from industry. Total tribute: [150].