Newbs in the East: Psych0 (Axis) vs Drakken (Sov) - SOVIET RETURNED - NO AXIS

[WingedIncubus]

Three more turns, man... just three more turns, then the reinforcements will start to arrive. [:o]

[Stelteck]

T-34 production is useless currently as you do not have the units that can use them. If you check your armored divisions, you will be surprised to see that they mostly use ligh tanks (and your light tanks production is ridiculous). Separate tank bataillon use light tank too. Saving only one point could have been enough. the factory will grow and will be a big factory when you will be able to use it. In spring 1942 [:'(]

For Armament production, Heavy industry and vehicule, saving one point is only saving one point. The factory will not grow. It is completely different than item factories.
Vehicule is the most important, then a mix of Armament and heavy industry.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Drakken
One thing I noticed is that my Air Force was never bombing from my airbases in the North, but from the Centre. I checked and they seem not to be very fatigued, so I do not understand why. [&:]

Try selecting a northern airbase first before conducting the air mission. This will force the AI to select northern airgroups. It is not that unusuall for the AI otherwise to select airgroups from somewhere else far away! If it does nto work when you select a northern airbase (i.e. no mission) then there would be something in your northern airbases you need to correct.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Drakken
However, I noticed that Sviritsa can be attacked from the North through the Finnish No Attack Line, when the Finns reach it soonish.

So long as you hold either Leningrad or N Leningrad the Finns cannot attack Sviritsa. If you have lost N Leningrad you then probably do not need to hold on to Sviritsa. So do not worry about the Finns, but do keep some units on the no attack line to stop them moving over it.

[WingedIncubus]

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

For Armament production, Heavy industry and vehicule, saving one point is only saving one point. The factory will not grow. It is completely different than item factories.
Vehicule is the most important, then a mix of Armament and heavy industry.

But they are so expensive in rail cap, I am often unable to move every HI and Armament from a city especially when more than one city is threatened.

[WingedIncubus]

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Try selecting a northern airbase first before conducting the air mission. This will force the AI to select northern airgroups. It is not that unusuall for the AI otherwise to select airgroups from somewhere else far away! If it does nto work when you select a northern airbase (i.e. no mission) then there would be something in your northern airbases you need to correct.

Tried it, did not work. They would still leave from the Centre airbases.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Try selecting a northern airbase first before conducting the air mission. This will force the AI to select northern airgroups. It is not that unusuall for the AI otherwise to select airgroups from somewhere else far away! If it does nto work when you select a northern airbase (i.e. no mission) then there would be something in your northern airbases you need to correct.

Tried it, did not work. They would still leave from the Centre airbases.

I would say that should not happen at all - are you sure a Northern airbase was selected when you did the air mission? If it was then no centre aircraft can fly at all. Can you send a screenshot to show us?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

T7 - July 31st, 1941 - Central Sector



I have no more Reserves to spare, though - the bulk of my reinforcement will start arriving on Turn 10.

Reinforcements are weak requiring replacement. Normally inexperienced squads in the Division and sub 40 morale. Put on top of that you will have to rail in some of these reinforcements on a rail network that is already stretched to the limit. Didn't want to get your hopes up too much yet.

[Stelteck]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

But they are so expensive in rail cap, I am often unable to move every HI and Armament from a city especially when more than one city is threatened.

You can easily fall to 300 Armement points and 200 HI without consequences. And 250 AA and 180 HI will not kill you.
I always swim in armament points in all my game except 3 weeks at the end of 1941.
Saving all vehicles is a good long term idea if you can. (But it will not kill you either if you can't).
If you have to move only 1 points of all item factories you can do it, it will not change your life so much.

The most important item factory is the IL-2 factory of voronev because you can use IL-2 right now, built right now as many tactical squadron as you want and they are awesome. So if you can keep production of IL-2 it is good.

If you move only one point of IL-2 factories, you will have to use level bombers and UVS instead of IL-2 in 1941.

Others can be moved one point only and let them repair&built for next year.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

For Armament production, Heavy industry and vehicule, saving one point is only saving one point. The factory will not grow. It is completely different than item factories.
Vehicule is the most important, then a mix of Armament and heavy industry.

But they are so expensive in rail cap, I am often unable to move every HI and Armament from a city especially when more than one city is threatened.

See my comment earlier in this AAR on rail moving HI & Arms. Normally Soviets that try to move "everything" from every city will get behind the power curve of saving industry. If you let the up front industrys go and start concentrating on everything east of Dnep/Zap in the South starting on turn 3 you will normally do ok. Chalk this one up to a learning experience. Also look up on google & this forum how much industry you need to save as a Soviet. You will find some interesting reads.

[WingedIncubus]

T8 - August 8th, 1941 - SITREP

In other words, WTF I am doing wrong?

No really, what I am doing wrong, tactically???

Each turn brings in another disappointment. Pavlovo is gone, and his panzers in the Centre are just free to do whatever they want.

I am at loss at how I could even do anything against Psych0 here. Six range of carpet again, and he just waltz through it, woods, rivers, and all. [:(]

[M60A3TTS]

Always stack your airbases on or adjacent to rail lines when practical.

The game limits a player to bombing an airbase hex twice a turn. If you have 9 airbases, each on one hex, your opponent can bomb them 18 times. On the other hand, if they are stacked in 3 groups of 3, they can only be bombed 6 times. Airbase bombing can be very effective for the Axis player particularly in 1941. You want them close to rail hexes to minimize the number of trucks being used each turn to supply them.

You have more potential trouble in the north, as I see the Finns have flipped hexes in eastern Karelia close to the no attack line. To review, the Finns cannot attack you south of that line as long as Leningrad holds, but they can still move into unoccupied hexes across that line. That means they can move south where you have no ground units, forcing your airbases to displace, and making it easier to cut off your forces by Sviritsa. Abandon Novaya Ladoga, it buys you nothing. If Osinovets falls, you will be out of supply there regardless of any eastern port along the lake.

Since you don’t show much in the way of combat results or information from the commanders screen, it is more difficult to see how you are organizing, but you’re on the right track thinking in terms of an army commanded by General X or Y. Why Kulik as the defender of Moscow? He’s a weak general in terms of his combined score of morale, admin, initiative and infantry rating.

Here are side-by-side comparisons of the two leaders with their respective ratings added up. Zakharov comes in with a value of 27, among the best in the Red Army. Kulik is only 18, really not what you are looking for. In general, anyone with a combined value under 20 is on my short list for replacement. To make things worse, Kulik has a high political rating because of his friendship with Stalin, so it costs more admin points to try and replace him. You see this similarly in the VVS where there are a number of mediocre air commanders replacing better ones courtesy of the AI, all because they have a better political rating.



Here is an example taken from the Kursk scenario of the 51st Army, led first by General Zakharov and then by Marshal Kulik. Better CV math is used here just as in your game. See how much better the CVs are with a really good commander as compared to a middling or poor one? It’s about 25% and that is quite a difference.



Semyon Krivoshein is similarly a second tier general, although if I badly needed a mech commander in the late game, he might be considered to lead. But with infantry, he rates no better than Kulik.

You say you badly want T-34s but Stelteck is right. T-34s right now are of very limited use. They will join units with no experience, hence no real combat value. They will not have a real part to play until 1942, when they have a chance to build up experience and morale and can then be formed into corps.

Remember the difference between replacement units and reinforcement units. I dare say the units arriving on and after T10 are a lot of replacement units. They are shells with little combat value. You need to largely defend with what is on the map plus reinforcement units that come onto the map with real troops and experience.

[Stelteck]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

Each turn brings in another disappointment.

Perfect, it is exactly what you are supposed to experience !!! [:D]

You cannot stop the ennemy, even with a stack of 3 divisions. You can only slow him and force him to commit troops.

You will not defend what the ennemy really want. But maybe you can hold some of its secondary objectives.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

T8 - August 8th, 1941 - SITREP

In other words, WTF I am doing wrong?

No really, what I am doing wrong, tactically???

Strategically you are in the wrong place at the wrong time with not the right resources. You will be wrong tactically if you start off incorrect strategically imo. Like I have said in previous writings you have to be set up with a defense a turn or two at a minimum in advance. That means you have to have strategically placed units digging a fall back line if that is your intention.

You are defending everywhere which leaves you defending nothing. The Axis have narrow attack vectors, learn those attack vectors and set your defense up. Practice a defense in depth, just "carpet bombing" units out with the "spray & pray" setup will not cut it. Do you have reserve activation setup? Do you have refit turned on on important units?

All of this comes with experience so don't beat yourself up at the moment. Leningrad is lost you might as well retreat as far as you can and bring as many units as you can towards Moscow. Moscow will fall, you are out of position imho. There are some things you can do to lessen the fall but fall it will.

So in essence what I'm saying is that before you even get to the tactical part of fighting you have to strategically have a sound strategy. Imho you did not (I'm not trying to be mean here just what I have seen) Know what you need where and what you will do when the Germans gets to certain points. This all comes with experience. So my advice is get the overall strategic strat down. Like what to evacuate in an orderly manor not to be put behind schedule no matter what the Germans do. Yes it can be done. Learn the Air War side of things. I still say the road to Berlin is through the Air Force. The quicker the Soviet gain control over 2/3's of the battlefield Air the quicker West they will travel. Learn what forces you need to bring to a specific front instead of rail and pray. If I had more time I would love to play you in just a learning PBEM learning campaign so we could save your turn then I show you what I would do in that same instance on defense. I have done this with a lot of people here and it really helped them & I think it would really help you. But I just don't have the time at the moment Maybe another could step up and help out. Don't get discouraged, soon you will be teaching someone else

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

You say you badly want T-34s but Stelteck is right. T-34s right now are of very limited use. They will join units with no experience, hence no real combat value. They will not have a real part to play until 1942, when they have a chance to build up experience and morale and can then be formed into corps.

Sound advice here that M60 & Stelteck gives


But I like my Armor! so what I do is refit the divisions that convert into brigades and rail them to where I need them. Those Armor brigades already start with experience and by end Oct 41 they are normally cap Morale and cap squad experience. By end of Oct I have two full Armies of 18 experienced armor brigades each sitting behind a front where the German Armor is pushing. Nothing like have multiple Armor brigades reacting to a fight

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

You say you badly want T-34s but Stelteck is right. T-34s right now are of very limited use. They will join units with no experience, hence no real combat value. They will not have a real part to play until 1942, when they have a chance to build up experience and morale and can then be formed into corps.

Sound advice here that M60 & Stelteck gives


But I like my Armor! so what I do is refit the divisions that convert into brigades and rail them to where I need them. Those Armor brigades already start with experience and by end Oct 41 they are normally cap Morale and cap squad experience. By end of Oct I have two full Armies of 18 experienced armor brigades each sitting behind a front where the German Armor is pushing. Nothing like have multiple Armor brigades reacting to a fight

If you ever look at my snapshots in the Dinglir AAR you will see armor brigades with a blue center. That is to remind me that those brigades are new and have low morale and squad experience.

I normally am able to save a good 26+ armor divisions from the beginning of the game. It serves two purposes. 1. it saves on trucks which are always useful. 2. You get a brigade that will already have high morale and squad experience so you can get an army of tanks set up pretty quickly.

[WingedIncubus]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Strategically you are in the wrong place at the wrong time with not the right resources. You will be wrong tactically if you start off incorrect strategically imo. Like I have said in previous writings you have to be set up with a defense a turn or two at a minimum in advance. That means you have to have strategically placed units digging a fall back line if that is your intention.

You are defending everywhere which leaves you defending nothing. The Axis have narrow attack vectors, learn those attack vectors and set your defense up. Practice a defense in depth, just "carpet bombing" units out with the "spray & pray" setup will not cut it. Do you have reserve activation setup? Do you have refit turned on on important units?

All of this comes with experience so don't beat yourself up at the moment. Leningrad is lost you might as well retreat as far as you can and bring as many units as you can towards Moscow. Moscow will fall, you are out of position imho. There are some things you can do to lessen the fall but fall it will.

So in essence what I'm saying is that before you even get to the tactical part of fighting you have to strategically have a sound strategy. Imho you did not (I'm not trying to be mean here just what I have seen) Know what you need where and what you will do when the Germans gets to certain points. This all comes with experience. So my advice is get the overall strategic strat down. Like what to evacuate in an orderly manor not to be put behind schedule no matter what the Germans do. Yes it can be done. Learn the Air War side of things. I still say the road to Berlin is through the Air Force. The quicker the Soviet gain control over 2/3's of the battlefield Air the quicker West they will travel. Learn what forces you need to bring to a specific front instead of rail and pray. If I had more time I would love to play you in just a learning PBEM learning campaign so we could save your turn then I show you what I would do in that same instance on defense. I have done this with a lot of people here and it really helped them & I think it would really help you. But I just don't have the time at the moment Maybe another could step up and help out. Don't get discouraged, soon you will be teaching someone else

Well, now I am discouraged again. I know that from inexperience I have been running aroud like a headless chicken but the alternative of just running away East is not an option. While I'm a fighter, defending heavily in Pskov feels gimmicky to me.

Wasn't what I have been doing "defense in depth"? 3-counters high behind screen, ideally behind River and in good terrain, with strong points in the rear? [&:] Yes, I have been putting everything I can in from second-line onward into Reserve mode.

From I understand from your quote my situation seems to be unsalvageable... so yeah, if someone more experienced with Soviet play would take me closer under their wing to teach me it would be great.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Drakken

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Strategically you are in the wrong place at the wrong time with not the right resources. You will be wrong tactically if you start off incorrect strategically imo. Like I have said in previous writings you have to be set up with a defense a turn or two at a minimum in advance. That means you have to have strategically placed units digging a fall back line if that is your intention.

You are defending everywhere which leaves you defending nothing. The Axis have narrow attack vectors, learn those attack vectors and set your defense up. Practice a defense in depth, just "carpet bombing" units out with the "spray & pray" setup will not cut it. Do you have reserve activation setup? Do you have refit turned on on important units?

All of this comes with experience so don't beat yourself up at the moment. Leningrad is lost you might as well retreat as far as you can and bring as many units as you can towards Moscow. Moscow will fall, you are out of position imho. There are some things you can do to lessen the fall but fall it will.

So in essence what I'm saying is that before you even get to the tactical part of fighting you have to strategically have a sound strategy. Imho you did not (I'm not trying to be mean here just what I have seen) Know what you need where and what you will do when the Germans gets to certain points. This all comes with experience. So my advice is get the overall strategic strat down. Like what to evacuate in an orderly manor not to be put behind schedule no matter what the Germans do. Yes it can be done. Learn the Air War side of things. I still say the road to Berlin is through the Air Force. The quicker the Soviet gain control over 2/3's of the battlefield Air the quicker West they will travel. Learn what forces you need to bring to a specific front instead of rail and pray. If I had more time I would love to play you in just a learning PBEM learning campaign so we could save your turn then I show you what I would do in that same instance on defense. I have done this with a lot of people here and it really helped them & I think it would really help you. But I just don't have the time at the moment Maybe another could step up and help out. Don't get discouraged, soon you will be teaching someone else

Well, now I am discouraged again. I know that from inexperience I have been running aroud like a headless chicken but the alternative of just running away East is not an option. While I'm a fighter, defending heavily in Pskov feels gimmicky to me.

Wasn't what I have been doing "defense in depth"? 3-counters high behind screen, ideally behind River and in good terrain, with strong points in the rear? [&:] Yes, I have been putting everything I can in from second-line onward into Reserve mode.

From I understand from your quote my situation seems to be unsalvageable... so yeah, if someone more experienced with Soviet play would take me closer under their wing to teach me it would be great.

I meant no I'll will and won't comment after I post this one from now on. In a nutshell you are doing really well for a beginner. You will lose Moscow along with Leningrad. Just in your next game put all the things you learned here and you should do very well, listen to the community they are some great teachers. I just have a bad habit of not explaining myself well. Good Luck Sir

[WingedIncubus]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain


I meant no I'll will and won't comment after I post this one from now on. In a nutshell you are doing really well for a beginner. You will lose Moscow along with Leningrad. Just in your next game put all the things you learned here and you should do very well, listen to the community they are some great teachers. I just have a bad habit of not explaining myself well. Good Luck Sir

My apologies, I am conscious I am testing your patience (and everyone's patience too). I just want to do good.

[Stelteck]

Drakken, your situation is not uncommon at all. In my game i was able to save moscow (but not Leningrad) before mud only because partisan cut the main center german railroad Twice stopping the advance for a month.

Loosing moscow&Leningrad is not the end of the world, if you did not loose too much troops.

Ho, and careful a troop in reserve mode dig at around 25% of normal speed, which is bad.