The Red Army Is (Not) Overpowered - A tongue in cheek aar

[RedJohn]

I have recently started two new Soviet challenges, after blueksy resigned the latest one at turn 46 (more due to fatigue of the game and general busy life than anything, admittedly, I believe) thus adding another Soviet win to my belt.

I believe the Soviets are an overpowered mess, and can snowball extremely easy by making decisions that would have otherwise been politically suicidal. So I will espouse the knowledge I've learned over numerous Soviet games. I, myself, am a pretty bad player, but the Soviets are generous enough to the point I believe I can do well by following the same strategy over and over.

So without further ado let us begin with turn 2 [:)] My opponent is s2tanker.

[RedJohn]

I have sent the entire Southwestern front to reserve, and they will be deployed to Moscow and Leningrad. I do not believe the South is worth defending remotely, and most Axis players will get +6 VPs regardless. I will not bother evacuating industry - it is a mechanic I have ignored so far, and will continue to ignore unless I reach the unlikely state in which Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, or other such cities that did not fall historically are threatened.

[RedJohn]

My air directives are default settings, as I don't really fully understand the air war. My usual strategy before the ground attack changes was to send everything to reserve and then deploy to sectors like Leningrad and Moscow and bomb the life out of panzers.

Recently I've been looking at interdiction. I don't really know if it has any impact, but hey.

[RedJohn]

You might be wondering why I've screenshotted this random, marauding anti-tank unit?

[RedJohn]

...It's because it just assassinated von kluge. In my other Soviet game, Manstein was also killed by a marauding isolated unit. Some individuals were claiming my attempts to get leader death chances fixed was a clear unbelievable nerf to the Soviets - and my counterargument is that it also applies to the Germans, too.

And behold!

[Jango32]

Complacent Axis players not putting HQs on units, smh.

[RedJohn]

Most of the Southern front is moved to the reserve. I keep some elements behind to delay as much as they can. Malinovsky's HQ is safely sent to the reserve, as is Pavel Batov's.

[RedJohn]

An important note, I set every unit to supply priority 4. This will ensure the good health of supply at the cost of trucks, but we'll have plenty of trucks for our purposes.

[RedJohn]

Pretty healthy reserve! I will split what i can this turn roughly 50/50 between Moscow and Leningrad.

[Stamb]

I am going to like this AAR!

It is still worth to evacuate Kharkov t34 fabrics if Axis are nearby and you are not sure that you can keep this city. As airplanes/tanks really get a hit in production if taken by an enemy, opposite to armament points.

[RedJohn]

We end the turn with a mighty OOB. I think things are going well!

[RedJohn]

ORIGINAL: Stamb

I am going to like this ARR!

It is still worth to evacuate Kharkov t34 fabrics if Axis are nearby and you are not sure that you can keep this city. As airplanes/tanks really get a hit in production if taken by an enemy, opposite to armament points.

I might consider doing so then!

[xhoel]

I will be following this AAR. Interested to see how far a Soviet player can push the game mechanics.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: RedJohn

... I will not bother evacuating industry - it is a mechanic I have ignored so far, and will continue to ignore unless I reach the unlikely state in which Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, or other such cities that did not fall historically are threatened.

...

you can't evacuate sites that were not historically redeployed - 28.7

[HardLuckYetAgain]

I have always not liked the mystical "Reserve" haven, along with bringing them to the map. Reserve should be something like 15+ hexes behind the line.(or theater boxes for North, Center, and South the reserves have to move through using rail) But yeah the Soviets can reinforce an area pretty quickly. I started down this road awhile ago on another thread but was attacked as a "game hater". I wish you luck

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: RedJohn

...It's because it just assassinated von kluge. In my other Soviet game, Manstein was also killed by a marauding isolated unit. Some individuals were claiming my attempts to get leader death chances fixed was a clear unbelievable nerf to the Soviets - and my counterargument is that it also applies to the Germans, too.

And behold!

Spot on!

[Stamb]

Agree. There should be no such theater box as Reserve. Wanna refit large amount of divisions faster? Keep them near NSS. Want to move them from one side of the map to another quickly? You have to use rails.

[Zovs]

ORIGINAL: Stamb

Agree. There should be no such theater box as Reserve. Wanna refit large amount of divisions faster? Keep them near NSS. Want to move them from one side of the map to another quickly? You have to use rails.

I disagree. If you play with enhanced TB the Reserve is a great way to manage your TB.

This is a snippet from one of my AARs that I'll be posting soon but you get the gist.

TB Transfers

Western Europe
Ground at 107%, Air Day at 97% and Air Night at 101%. Air Day needs 3%, so I'll transfer in some recon from the Reserves. I may have overkilled here, I transferred in a Recon unit of 9 planes, so I'll check next turn on the percent.

Norway
Ground at 98% and Air Day at 73%. I'll send some recon from Reserves here. I sent in 2 Recon units each with 8 planes, so I'll check next turn on the percentage. Since the ground is only down by 2% I'll just transfer in one mixed flak battalion and see how much that raises it up (need to check on turn 9).

Finland
Ground at 99% and Air Day at 102%. Likewise I'll send a Mixed flak battalion here (will need to check on turn 10).

North Africa
Ground at 93% and Air Day at 117%. Looking through the R&T report shows my transfers earlier will pay off next turn in North Africa (2 Italian and 1 German Motorized Divisions (90th Light) and the 288th SP Battalion will arrive).

Italy
Ground at 104% and Air Day at 101%. So no changes here for a bit.

Balkans
Ground at 103% and Air Day at 130%. No changes here.

[G Felzien]

ORIGINAL: RedJohn

Most of the Southern front is moved to the reserve. I keep some elements behind to delay as much as they can. Malinovsky's HQ is safely sent to the reserve, as is Pavel Batov's.

When you say moved to reserve, do you mean moved back as far as possible, railed away or transfered to the Moscow(?) Reserve?

[Stamb]

What is the problem of sending units directly from a map to TBs or from one TB to another TB, or from TB to a map?

Maybe 1 more turn is needed in this cases.

But IRL you can not keep divisions somewhere in a virtual pool. And removing reserve would represent it as well as fixing Soviet teleportation.
Same should apply to the Axis of course. Not asking to remove it for the Soviets only.