Some basic questions about the game.

[SleeperAgent]

Hi all. I've just finished my second campaign, so I guess I'd call myself an experienced novice (my first campaign I played on easy difficulty and won before 1943 so it doesn't even count really). I played the Soviet Union, and by 1944 things devolved into an unbreakable stalemate fairly close to the original 41 border. No matter what I try I can't acheive a meaningful breakthrough in the German lines, the best I can do is blow a small hole in it forcing them to move the line back a few hexes, and even just doing that is so costly in terms of time and materiel that there's simply no way I'd get to Berlin before the end.

So I lost and that's fine, but before I start on campaign 3 I was hoping that you all could help clear up some things that I was tripping over during the campaign.

1. How many units should the Soviet player be building? I only ask because during both my campaigns I took the approach of throwing as many units on the map as possible, but that seems to not be the recommended course of action on this forum.

2. How do replacements work? Do units not on refit get replacements? In my game there were many units on quiet fronts that I just left alone for months at a time and they never seemed to raise their TOE at all.

2b. If units not on refit don't get replacements, or don't get them at a fast enough rate, how can I replenish my forces after a prolonged operation? I frequently found that after major German offensives more than half of all my units were unready or even depleted. What is the best way to bring them all back up to strength? (preferably with as few mouse clicks as possible )

2c. Is there any reason not to have units that I want to keep at full strength on refit permanently? Is there a combat malus or anything similar? Similarly, do units in reserve mode perform any differently in direct combat?

3. How important is command efficiency, exactly? What does it affect? It should go without saying, since I was at the unit cap for every unit for most of the campaign, that I was way over the command capacity for just about every HQ just about all the time.

3b. Are the penalties of being just a little bit over the command capacity the same as being way over, or does the penalty get worse the more units you have attached?

4. Are Soviet tank formations supposed to be terrible, or am I doing something wrong? I routinely found that they punched well below their listed CV, which isn't exactly unusual but they performed exceptionally poorly, regularly failing to push back already-broken formations with 1CV. This was one of the major reasons I had trouble breaking through German lines. I learned to mass my guards rifle corps and artillery to break through the first line of defenses, but my mobile formations consistently failed to push further back behind the line, and on the rare ocassion that they were able to break into the German rear they were easily destroyed by German counterattacks the next turn.

5. How do support units work? When I deploy them from the national reserve I assume they go to STAVKA, and then from STAVKA they get distributed to lower HQs depending on their support level? Do I need to micromanage things any further or can I just let the AI handle it?

I'm sure I could think of more questions to ask but this post is long enough already. I'd appreciate any advice you can offer a beginner though!

[IDGBIA]

1. you want to be building as many units as you have manpower/trucks for, you can see this in your pools. Tank and mech Corps use a fair chunk of trucks so you especially don't want to overbuild them as it will hamper your logistics.

2.units on refit get priority during an addition refit replacement phase so for example if you don't have that much manpower in the pool then units not on refit might not get any by the time its their turn.

2b. The best way to replenish is to sit them on depots in refit mode that will often shoot them back up to 100%
you can also merge rifle brigades if you desperately want a specific unit back up

2c. As far as I know no reason, so you should keep all guards' units on refit all the time really

3. going over command cap gives a slight malus on leader dice rolls but more importantly it cancels the benefit of assault front HQs for all units if you go over cap at all

4. You should attach rifle brigades to soviet tank formations to beef up their cv offensively and defensively, this will require a few more trucks so after you do it sit them near a depot till, they fill up. Early war they are fairly brittle and have not that many combat elements so their CV tumbles due to disruption

5. you want to put your arty in assault front armies and generally want every army to have 3-6 arty but for playing vs ai there isnt much more to it than that. some support units can be directly attached like rifle brigades or tank brigades and you should do this in your rifle corp and strong inf formations

[loki100]

To add to the above

1 - the only answer here is experience, also as the game goes on you should be prepared to modify your SU set. As an eg, by 1943 I'd disband all the engineer and AA battalions (the tank battalions should have gone long ago), they are basically useless given the likely state of the game (the engineer brigades and regiments will give you all the construction you need). The Soviets have 3 choke points in their production and these tend to only appear by 1943. Medium tanks can be lost at a terrifying speed, esp in 1943, artillery is usually short (so as historically rely on mortars and rockets) and manpower gets tight, especially into 1944. How you balance that set with the need for an army around 7m (can drop to around 6m as you enter the Reich) is the challenge

2 - there is a hierarchy, refit/in reserve; refit/on map; not refit/in reserve; everyone else. On map, units at a well stocked depot are more likely to refit than units in the middle of nowhere and units actually in contact will take on few if any replacements

2b - which partly answers this, in effect get them either onto a depot or the reserve. With the Germans I personally try to watch for units heading towards my personal refit thresholds and get then off to a depot before the refit becomes a critical issue

2c - sort of yes and no, there is no malus but as in #2 refit and nowhere near a depot gives you no gains. I use the CR a lot and sort of have rough and ready rules for how many units to refit at any time, so I tend to only use it if I really want them to refit

3 the map mode is a hint as to weaknesses in the command chain, either a broken link or poor quality, so its situational

3b, the manual has worked examples on this problem, but the direct impact is every command point over the capacity adds 1 to the divisor, so for a eg a German corps commander divides their leadership /11 rather than /10, at some stage you can render the best leader incompetent. As above there is a secondary issue, if the HQ is in an assault command (incl the relevant German army group) then all the subordinate units lose the CPP gain bonus. This will hit worse than a small loss of leader effectiveness

with the Germans in 1941 you need to leave at least one army outside the Army Group structure (either reporting to the Rumanians or direct to OKH), later in the war you'll find you need to have some corps (pref on quieter sectors) reporting to Army Groups directly. Generally staying within command capacity is important

4 yes, their TOE up to 1944 is unbalanced. I personally supplement them with mot (later mech) brigades, this has a secondary gain that these units pick up wins and can then be used to build Gds Tank or Mech corps later on. Up to 1943, the Cavalry Corps is a better balance of mobility and defensiveness. Add to this, early war Soviet tanks are hampered by low experience, by 1943 you are on the wrong end of a technological trade off, it all comes together with the T34/85 etc.

5 one thing to watch, multi role units (rifle, mech and mot brigades mainly) appear on map and need to be flipped to a support role by stacking with Stavka (assuming you want them to beef up your key combat corps), beyond that, as the Soviets vs the AI, the auto routines work well enough

[borislav]

5 one thing to watch, multi role units (rifle, mech and mot brigades mainly) appear on map and need to be flipped to a support role by stacking with Stavka (assuming you want them to beef up your key combat corps), beyond that, as the Soviets vs the AI, the auto routines work well enough

was there any change on this as I'm unable to convert mot brigade even being attached to STAVKA and in same hex.
is there any easy way to see what units are multi role?

[Wiedrock]

is there any easy way to see what units are multi role?

multi_role.JPG (112.5 KiB) Viewed 1244 times

[borislav]

Thanks Wiedrock I missed this one.
but this filter clearly shows mot and mech brigades are not multi role units. At least in my game (late 42).
so how you guys add mot. brigade as SU to tank corp?

[Wiedrock]

but this filter clearly shows mot and mech brigades are not multi role units. At least in my game (late 42).
so how you guys add mot. brigade as SU to tank corp?

I am not Sovietaboo.
But maybe that helps?!

mechbrig.png (731.59 KiB) Viewed 1229 times

[borislav]

Wiedrock man thanks for effort to put this in the topic.
It is all fine with mech brigades but what I'm struggling is to make the same with mot. brigades.
In editor they appear as multi role units but in my game (GC 1941) I have no button to convert them.
I'm playing with last beta so is this WAD or bug?

[steven512]

Talking about breakthrough,a little advice
1.gather large enough force to the planed attack sector. 1st wave open the line,2nd,3rd wave to go deeper,and 4,5,6th wave waiting for the next few turns. if your logistics can support, the more the better
2.build some spearhead units for the breakthrough,especially guard rifle corps.keep close eyes on their toe,supply,morale,exp,cpp.you need them for the toughest mission
3. cav corps can help a lot.try to get some of them guard status,they are really good at going deep and crush already beaten enemies
4.get some fresh rifle and cav units as replacements, merge them into your elite units, good way to keep their strength.don’t refit them on the front, you need the capacity for supply, no spare parts for reinforcements
5.if you can’t surround enemy on 1turn, then just have some patience,push steady and don’t let your mobile units go too far(they may get severely damage by counterattacks). keep the pressure and enemy line will eventually break