Command Staff Advice As a rule of thumb the more competent (higher Initiative rating) a Commander becomes, the higher his Threat rating will rise due to Stalin’s inherent suspicion of any military commander with rising popularity.
A breakdown of Army Commanders, and their Threat ratings, is provided in Paranoia Summary, grouped by Front.
Effect of Front Marshals Each Front Commander (they are always a Marshal) has a Threat rating which contributes to Stalin’s Paranoia level. You can see the cumulative total of all Front Commanders in the ‘Calculation’ section of the Paranoia Summary report.
It’s early in the campaign and the three Front Marshals are able to suppress the negligible level of threat emanating from the ranks of the Army Commanders
As senior leaders within the Red Army, Marshals have an important impact on Stalin’s Paranoia level. Mostly they are supportive of Stalin but TSARISTS and NEW SCHOOL Marshals (the most competent) can possess dangerously independent views (they have a positive Threat rating which adversely affects Stalin). designer note
The Front Marshals are, at the start of the campaign, typically militarily incompetent (very low levels of Initiative). They are, as a rule, very supportive of Stalin and have negative Threat ratings which act to keep a lid on any discontent coming from below. This is why they have the job. Stalin’s prime concern was to fill the upper echelons of the military with commanders who supported him. Military competence came a distant second.
The ‘Front Commands’ section of the Paranoia Summary report details the impact that each of the
three Front Marshals are having. A negative Threat rating acts to reduce (good) Stalin’s Paranoia level and a positive to raise it (bad).
The sum of all three Marshal threat ratings is -23 which can be seen in the summary above
Effect of Strategic Cities Strategic cities (ones with the Red dots) were politically important and have a significant impact on Stalin’s Paranoia Level. With each successive loss of such a city the impact grows by +10 (it’s capped). If Stalin suffers a Paranoid episode any residual effect from the loss of cities will disappear.
Brest-Litowsk has fallen. The effect of the next Strategic city to fall will be double this (10+10 gives 20)
In the early stages of the campaign when the German Panzers are running rampant the loss of a series of Strategic Cities can have a large impact. If a captured Strategic city is retaken by the Soviets the Paranoia effect of losing Strategic cities is lowered by -20 (can’t go below a minimum of 5) which will ensure that any future Strategic cities that are lost will have a lower impact. It’s a big morale boost. The ‘Recapture’ bonus can only happen once per Strategic city (you can’t keep recapturing and gaining the bonus).
Effect of Troubleshooters Where Marshal Zhukov’s role is to improve activations and combat performance, Commissar Khrushchev is the man who deals with ‘threats’. A number of the actions he takes will decrease Stalin’s Paranoia level such as ordering a Marshal to be shot, but in general the effect is small.
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