42-45 Campaign - Soviet Strategy

[Bozo_the_Clown]

I am playing the 42-45 campaign as the Soviets for the first time ever. The first turn is a total mess. Almost all units south of Voronezh are encircled. Mostly two gigantic pockets plus an additional pocket at Rostov. Lipetsk and Voroshilovgrad have been taken, industry in Voronezh is locked. Sevastopol is gone. And a pocket northeast of Smolensk has been sealed with no hope of getting anything out.

Never having played this campaign, I wonder what the best strategy is for the Soviets. So far, I have established air head supply of the pocket west of Voronezh and I broke the pocket west of Voroshilograd. I haven't moved any units. What should I do? Help!!! [:D]

[Hanny]

Is that what if scn from either of the two DLC?, i dont see the same in the vanilla 42/45 campaign.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

I don't have any DLCs. Isn't that one of the standard campaigns that came with the original?

[Hanny]

42/45 is vanilla campaign, ive just never seen the Ai perform such a solid job on sealing pockets on T1 before, so thought it might be a scripted T1 what if variant in a DLC.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

It's not the AI. It's a human opponent.

[Hanny]

ORIGINAL: Bozo_the_Clown

It's not the AI. It's a human opponent.

Doh!, that explains it all.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

Looking for strategy tips. What should I be focusing on?

[timmyab]

The 42 campaign start is flawed I think. The Soviets learnt from their mistakes in 1941 and mostly legged it in June/July 42. I think there was one decent sized pocket near Stary Oskol. Also army group A didn't start their offensive until July 9th. The campaign needs adjusting so that some of the Soviet Southern forces can withdraw before the Axis can get behind them.

As for strategy, my first instinct would be to strategically surrender
The thrust towards Voronezh is dangerous because it unhinges a possible Don defence and also threatens a move towards Tula/Ryazan. So like you haven't enough to worry about in the South you also have to worry about Moscow and the Western front, which is unhelpfully mostly static.
My strategy for the South would be to concede plenty of territory to get away from Axis supply points to give time to rebuild a strong army. Something like tambov-Bugachar-Chir river-Stalingrad. I would delay where possible with pickets, but not risk my main force.

[chaos45]

the 1942 campaign seems unbalanced to me due to all the changes to the game and no modifications to the scenario since. You will find the Germans much much stronger than historical in the 1942 start....esp with the fact that the soviet player has 2/3rds their army stuck in static mode.

I gave it a try in pvp and the Germans are just unstoppable with the scenario as is, you will quickly find German tank formations also activated before you and launching offensives on your other static portions of your line. The Game germans just do not have the same logistics limits the Germans had historically, so will attack all over. My 2 cents on it...as you will lose almost the entire southern front thus need to active units to patch the huge hole...and while doing that it will allow the Germans to pocket u in the center if you dont retreat quickly. German CV has just been increased by patches to much for the historical start in static mode to make sense. As this was done to limit soviet mobility if I remember right when the scenario was published years ago...now with German CV being higher it just makes you a punching bag all along the line unable to really respond.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

Agree with your assessment. Holding the Don is impossible and Tambov, Boguchar, Chir seems the only plausible first line to delay his advance. The first real line of defense will most likely be the Volga.

The push north to Lipetsk unhinges the entire Bryansk Front, although, my guess is that it is more a ruse than anything else.

How should I spend APs? My guess is I should first reactivate as many static divisions/corps as possible and than build nothing but rifle brigades.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

I gave it a try in pvp and the Germans are just unstoppable with the scenario as is, you will quickly find German tank formations also activated before you and launching offensives on your other static portions of your line. The Game germans just do not have the same logistics limits the Germans had historically, so will attack all over. My 2 cents on it...as you will lose almost the entire southern front thus need to active units to patch the huge hole...and while doing that it will allow the Germans to pocket u in the center if you dont retreat quickly. German CV has just been increased by patches to much for the historical start in static mode to make sense. As this was done to limit soviet mobility if I remember right when the scenario was published years ago...now with German CV being higher it just makes you a punching bag all along the line unable to really respond.

That is probably a realistic assessment. I wonder if I should actually waste any time with this scenario. The first turn alone will probably take 6 hours to finish.

[timmyab]

How should I spend APs?

Yes I would be reactivating like crazy. I might go more with divisions for rebuilding.

[piotrmx]

IMHO this scenario in unbalanced, S lack of cars. So their attriction loses are too much. They cant rebuild army. G take a lot cities so S lost manpower. Nothing to do.
BTW this german opening was great.

[hei1]

I played as G (against strong human opponent ) - from my point of view, you can not win in the south (all said before...). BUT if possible, connect to your Leningrad forces at all cost. If successful, this would be a dramatic thread to G.

[Rusty1961]

ORIGINAL: Bozo_the_Clown

Looking for strategy tips. What should I be focusing on?

Well I'd say preservation of forces, but that cow left the barn!

How is Leningrad? Start entrenching hexes with roads in forests.

Now those purple units NW of Voronezh should be pulled back to the NE.