Flavio v. James, GC 41.

[ComradeP]

The problem is that it now takes around 5 attacks to increase morale above national morale, rather than getting a +2/+3 morale for every attack, so that routing of ants was a good strategy in terms of morale gain before, but now it won't do much aside from making sure he can't kill those units.

[Klydon]

I don't really understand what he is trying to accomplish in the south to a point. There is no pressure at all towards Kiev and there does not appear to be a lot of forces headed that way and what is there is infantry. The Russians will be dug in hard behind those river lines, slowing any advance to a crawl. The only thing I can come up with is he intends to swing his armor back up towards the NE to outflank those river lines, but as tight as Flav has them right now, they are not going anyplace in a big hurry. If he insists on driving SE with them with that many Russians in the area, I smell the potential for some panzers getting smacked around.

My other observation is there have not been that many Russians knocked off the board either. The Russians still having all those units is gonna hurt down the road in terms of being able to lay carpets, digging, etc. Obviously the tank and motorized losses will go up yet, but they are fairly low right now along with only 2 cav units being knocked out.

[Blind Sniper]

I will follow your AAR, I need to understand how to make a good Russian defence.

Buona fortuna!

[Sabre21]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Yeah he just went nuts routing my ants. He wants to inflate his morale and took the free shots, I guess. My own view is this eats up a lot of gas and supply to no particular operational purpose. Not to mention driving up his fatigue.

It's going to take him a dozen or more MPs just to hit that line along the Smolensk landbridge, and there is a screen in front of it. But I actually wouldn't mind him getting frisky here and sending some unsupported panzers into this area. I prefer him going in this direction than towards Gomel.

Yep..it is pretty evident he misunderstands the real purpose behing the use of the checkerboard. He could have been up to and probably penetrated the land bridge defenses, so I would say your delaying tactics there are doing well.

Down south he is going to be in a world of hurt real soon when he finds out he has little gas as you pinch off those spearheads.

[raizer]

yah he talking about vics and advancing with ease thru the checker board...its not about that.  Its about putting a body on a german mobile unit and then making him pay with Gas for each empty soviet ZOC and then onto the actual next body.  His mps are gonna drop each turn by what? a third?   He also commenting about flav doing no recon...lol who cares about soviet recon.   You dont need it as long as you know where the panzers are. And you its no secret where they are.

[Flaviusx]

I'll fly recon when his panzers disappear. All 4 panzer groups are committed. I know exactly where they are and am in contact with all of them. Indeed, I make it a point to have a zoc on any frontline enemy unit.

Beyond that, the Red Air force is only now coming back from the national reserve and getting back into the game. It takes a couple of turns to sort out the surprise attack mess.

[ComradeP]

I've stopped doing recon in summer 1941 as the Axis too. I know where I want/need to go, and there's not really much of an alternative to going to that point most of the time.

[mmarquo]

Well - for better or for worse I like to build up the Soviet airforce, so I recon until I find a juicy target for ground attack...I kill more Axis unit in the opeing months by aerial attacks than by the occasional foray against a broken down security unit.
 
Marquo

[Blind Sniper]

Beyond that, the Red Air force is only now coming back from the national reserve and getting back into the game. It takes a couple of turns to sort out the surprise attack mess.

Can you explain me your Air strategy?
I mean how do you think to handle the Russian airgroups, how many time you keep your aircrafts in the national reserve and so on.

[Flaviusx]

I don't overthink the VVS.

Turn 1: scrap 0 strength air groups. Just get rid of 'em. Evacuate everything else on the front to the national reserve. Get bases into position. (This takes a good two turns to run them away from the border to the interior.) Refill bases with stuff from reserves.

Repopulate airbases once they've redeployed from the reserves. 3 fighter bombers per IAD, 3 level bombers per BAD, 3 tac per SAD (you may want to scrap some of these, there are more than you need. They also get disbanded automatically by the computer going into 1942 and replaced with ShaP bases.) VVS gets 1 recon, 1 level bomber, 1 transport. (This is your utility base and covers recon, partisan supply drops, and eventually, air resupply for mobile forces.) Add more as production allows but keep the aircraft mix consistent with these base specialization.

There's a bunch of bomber bases in the interior which can survive the strike intact and can be moved up a bit.

You can fiddle with the air doctrine settings according to your taste. But the default settings work fine.

I don't do cheese like strategic bombing or airfield bombing. I really want to spend as little time as possible on the Red Air Force and hate micromanaging it. It's just flying artillery to me: I want it to show up to ground battles with lots of shturmoviks, the rest is of no particular interest. I'm all about the Red Army. Recon, as mentioned above, is just for tracking panzers if they disappear from the front line. Don't bother with it otherwise.

One of the reasons I'll never amount to much as a German player is that the Luftwaffe has to be micromanaged and I simply don't have the patience for that. The VVS favors a macro style game.

[Blind Sniper]

Thanks Flaviusx, you give a very detailed response.

You can fiddle with the air doctrine settings according to your taste. But the default settings work fine.

How about interdiction attack and fighter intercept?

Do you ever made ground attacks?
Personally I prefer to use my aircraft in ground support...

[jjdenver]

Interesting VVS strategy. Do you find that mixing recon and TRS in VVS airbases leaves you w/o enough action points to drop supplies to partisans after doing recon? Also I'm surprised no FTR with any base other than IAD? Don't the bombers and TRS need escorts?

[Flaviusx]

Partisan resupply occurs at the beginning of the turn during the logistics phase. No action points involved, it's done automatically by the AI.

Fighter escorts will fly from IAD bases to support aircraft from other bases. They do not need to be all in one bases.

Interdiction attacks are done automatically during the opponent turn. You have no control over this.

I make very few direct ground attacks. Basically, only when I intend to attack a unit on the ground will I launch a preliminary ground attack on the unit in question. These strikes are not terribly effective. The real damage comes from the automatic ground attacks flown during ground combat by the AI. Pretty much in the same way that artillery divisions are awesome in combined arms attacks with other units, but do very little damage in independent bombardments.

The VVS is all about numbers, not finesse, nor experience, nor trickery. If you get the basics right at the macro level, it will run itself just fine with little input on your part. A few supply airdrops for your mobile units (this becomes increasingly important in 43+) Some occasional recon to keep track of the panzers. Airstrikes prior to ground attacks. That's it. You could, I suppose, also do strikes on Luftwaffe airfields, but meh. The important thing is that when actual ground combat occurs, the skies are darkened by your shturmoviks and Pe 2s and whatnot. Everything else is just a sideshow.

You can choose to get into far more micromanagement than this, but the sheer size of the beast will make this exhausting.

[randallw]

I suffer the wandering of construction units that some people also have, with them moving from one HQ to another.  If you have just 3 at a Front HQ and 3 for some Army HQs under the Front do the units try to wander up to the Front?  Is locking of the Army HQs required to prevent the running?

[ComradeP]

Locking of HQ's is usually the only way to prevent construction/engineer units from being automatically moved.

[Flaviusx]

Yeah. I lock everything. The AI will scatter your construction assets to the winds. It's better to do this yourself and get your assets where you want them and then lock the HQs. For that matter I handle all SUs manually and give the armies the package of support units I feel it needs. If there is an excess -- and there will be -- these get sent eventually to STAVKA and redistributed as needed.

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
Repopulate airbases once they've redeployed from the reserves. 3 fighter bombers per IAD, 3 level bombers per BAD, 3 tac per SAD (you may want to scrap some of these, there are more than you need. They also get disbanded automatically by the computer going into 1942 and replaced with ShaP bases.) VVS gets 1 recon, 1 level bomber, 1 transport. (This is your utility base and covers recon, partisan supply drops, and eventually, air resupply for mobile forces.) Add more as production allows but keep the aircraft mix consistent with these base specialization.

Just one question Flavius, the rest of your exposition is very clear.

What difference does make to assign planes to the bases whose historical designation makes more sense? Is there any kind of bonus to air units commitment? Is it just to keep things organized?

[Flaviusx]

Mostly it doesn't matter, but it simplifies things from an organizational standpoint, and I'm all about simplifying stuff.

That said, certain base types do matter: partisan resupply only can fly from VVS bases (guaranteed) or from some bomber bases (up to the AI.) So I try to concentrate transports and a few long range level bombers in VVS bases. I also put recon into those same bases for the sake of (again) simplicity. So I know at a glance that the VVS base is my utility base that covers "other stuff." You could actually put those recon groups anywhere.

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Mostly it doesn't matter, but it simplifies things from an organizational standpoint, and I'm all about simplifying stuff.

I can only wholeheartedly agree with that. I used to mix airframe types... not anymore [:)] Just wondering that there was something on the manual other than what you have already pointed out.

Thanks for clarifying this.

[Flaviusx]

Just got my turn 3 in from James.

Mud in the Soviet south zone. Not my idea, btw. I think random weather grossly favors the Soviet in 1941, the German timetable is tight and a single mud turn can throw it off. Especially mud this early. Essentially I got a free turn out of this.

But he insisted. We'll see if the weather gods (they are very fickle) decide to favor the German at a future date.