larry ( Soviet ) 1.04.36 vs Axis AI

[larryfulkerson]

While I'm waiting for some moves from Kevin I thought I'd start a game against the Axis AI to give me some more practice as the Soviet
player. I did a game against the Axis AI on "normal" setting and it was less than satisfactory so I thought I'd do this one on the setting of
"challenging" to see what differences there were. After Elmer got through with his turn I was faced with this as the front lines:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production for this turn so far ( I haven't moved any of the Soviet stuff )

[larryfulkerson]

I was just about to shut down the production of U-2VS's and noticed that there's no railing of industry on the first turn and then I remembered that it's supposed to be that way ( WAD ). I was going to shut down production of the U-2VS's because they are somewhat less than fully useful. I could use them to supply partisans I guess but other than that they are biplanes, slow, clumsy ( can't maneuvore ) , in short......mostly deathtraps for good pilots. I'd rather those resources were used to build something more useful.

[larryfulkerson]

I found it a lot faster to set everybody to "refit" status by using the Commanders Report. What I did was sort on "%TOE" so you get an ascending order and just set everybody to "refit" using the functional label "refit/reserve" . Then I set everybody who was 90% or greater "%TOE" on something besides "refit". Reserve status if it would go there.

EDIT: I found that I had to eliminate Partisans from the listing as they couldn't be changed from one status to another.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I thought I'd do with my airplanes. I'd park the fighters up closer to the front than the bombers so they could reach the enemy airfields and park the bombers where they can just reach the enemy airfields and with their superior range be out of reach of enemy fighters too, hopefully. I'll have to keep track of where Elmer can hit and what he can't hit with his aircraft and move my airfields accordingly.

Ignore the lowest ( most southern ) red circle. I've since re-thought it's label and I think it would be more like a fighter area than a bomber area.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm going to post a question in the Tech Help section of the forum but I just noticed that the numbers don't add up correctly in the hex pop up info thingies

EDIT: Maybe the bottom hex pop-up thingie is including the damaged planes in the count?

[larryfulkerson]

In turn 1 there were 145 Axis battles:  38 airfield strikes, 15 Surrenders, 18 shattered results, 21 retreated results, and 53 routed results.

[Farfarer61]

I beleive the first Axis AI turn is a Script ( by a pro) vice a calculation.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Farfarer
I beleive the first Axis AI turn is a Script ( by a pro) vice a calculation.

That would explain why there's pockets of isolated troops in turn 1 but not in the other turns. Cool.

I was just about to search out the most experienced air crews and put them into more late-model plane types when I got the message that you can't change the plane type on the first turn. Oh well.

[larryfulkerson]

Would it surprise you guys to find out that the most air-to-air kills was scored by an I-153? I found that surprising myself.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what I did in the way of moves. I don't have nearly enough units to form a proper line, some units I couldn't move ( MP 0 ), and I got a checkerboard started most everywhere except for the deep south where I just formed a line on the river for now. I'll have to pull them back pretty soon now but along the river is good for now.

[larryfulkerson]

I never noticed this before but I'm really hurting for trucks right now. Maybe that's why the movement points for the Russian units isn't monumentally high.

[larryfulkerson]

I moved all those air groups that don't have ANY airplanes in them to the national reserve. There's a lot of them because of all the recent Axis air strikes.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T2 front lines before I move anything

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the OOB, losses, destroyed units, and production

[larryfulkerson]

I turned off the production of U-2VS's by moving 1 point from each of the currently producing cities to Arsk:

[larryfulkerson]

Fourteen airfields were struck: lots with just Axis bombers alone ( Yellow dots ) and several with Axis fighters and bombers ( red dots ):

EDIT: I visited each of the struck airfields and moved those ravaged groups to the NR and ensured that there were adequate fighters
based there so that the next time the Axis strikes there will be a welcoming party. I'm leaving the I-153's and I-16's in service since there are lots of them in the pool yet. I hate to lose the good pilots just because they are flying an inferior type of plane but I need to flood the skies with Russian planes right now.

[larryfulkerson]

There were 98 Axis attacks in turn 2:  34 airfield strikes, 19 routed, 7 shattered, 15 surrenders, and 6 retreated ( and 17 observed ).

[randallw]

If you put your airfields about 20 hexes behind the front lines the Axis air attacks won't have good fighters protecting the bombers, but the computer will insist on doing it anyway.  Take advantage of this before the devs fix it, if ever.
( the choice of the computer attacking without fighter support, that's what I mean )

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: randallw
If you put your airfields about 20 hexes behind the front lines the Axis air attacks won't have good fighters protecting the bombers, but the computer will insist on doing it anyway.

Good tip thanks muchly.