I thought there was a dismissal cost? Oh well.....
Yup, but that's for the assigned leader, so if you want to assign Rokossovsky to replace Some Guy, you pay a dismissal cost for Some Guy, but nothing extra for Rokossovsky if he's still in command.
Some alternate tactics to consider that I have seen (and sometimes experimented a bit with).
For the Red Air force, flying the "garbage" (anything with an "I" and a "D" in it) and inflicting whatever casualties you can, even though you will get your butt kicked is not bad. Even I series planes can shoot down German bombers. You don't want to overdo it, but perhaps a bit better than nothing at all. I personally also like leaving the Red Air available in the Leningrad area. I also like doing this in the Odessa/Crimea area where Luftwaffe coverage is not that good and you can sort of protect your airfields in most cases. You will need the help there and I actually look to send some better fighters there after a couple of turns to help out. One of the reasons to send air to the reserve is to keep it from being overrun by the Germans who are typically making big advances. When things slow down enough, then bringing air back in makes some sense.
Check which military district HQ's will become active when. (Some never do). It has been recommended not to attach armies to military district HQs because of their 36 count limit. You also don't want to use your good front leaders on them.
Putting motorized units on static is an absolute no brainer. They are not worth much in combat and generally have a pile of trucks you will need later. You will get a big CP bump out of them and eventually they will switch over to rifle divisions that you can reactivate for a couple of CPs if you feel like it. Tank divs are a different topic. If they survived and have T-34/KV tanks in them, they are hustled off to the rear to dig or I disband them. I typically use them to dig and as a last line of defense type of thing. Any attacking (or defending) you do with them results in a lot of your tanks winding up dead and a huge decline in power, so consider wisely when/where you use them. Also realize that at any time, they can go from a big nasty tank div to a whimpy brigade. If you are hurting on command points, you can put them on static and get a good bump on CP's right then, which can be helpful to help get rid of crappy leaders, get stuff moved around; whatever it is you need done. The issue is that even after they have popped to a brigade, it will cost you more CP's to reactivate them than you got when you put them in static, so you may not reactivate them for a long time if ever. One final note is make sure you have them assigned where you want them because once they go static, you can't reassign them to another HQ without first reactivating them.
I have gone from disbanding and static for Motorized and tank, to keeping some strike forces in play. They are one, maybe two shot deals, but can really cause damage if your opponent is going for broke with that lone SS Motorized Brigade. Also, any of the Axis one shot fast divisions i.e. Allied can be torn up nicely - they are so tempting to be used by the Axis as "pocket closers".
ORIGINAL: carnifex
I set the air groups to manual upgrade because I like to micromanage that aspect of the game.
I thought that Soviet air groups are set manual upgrade so air system can be exploited to have larger Soviet air force later on which can be used to decimate Luftwaffe with endless waves of airbase bombing until Luftwaffe have no mileage left to react?
I do not use this tactics simply because I see it dull that game mechanics give benefit from letting Soviet most experienced air groups fly with obsolete aircraft (by not upgrading them at all) while rookies gets the best equipment and form new air groups. I think Soviet side should be forced to auto upgrade to stop Soviet side using this tactics to decimate Luftwaffe.
First turn can be played a thousand ways as russian. Theres really no set strategy because things are so reactive.
From north to south:
Finnland - Get an inf division to a friendly port and exchange the brigade at hango with a division - it will distract substantial forces, very annoying. build 3 fort areas in the north above lake ladoga. holding those 3 hexes is critical especially if you lose leningrad. Build up the 7th Independent Army when forces are available i usually put my best general - Tolbukhin and 3 construction batts, a sapper regt, aa and corps and heavy artillery there. dont underestimate the importance of those 3 hexes. If you play it right and you hold up there you end up with 4-6 gaurds divisions to add to your shock army before the winter offensive and a victorious commander.
Leningrad. I usually hopscotch the Novgorod line turn 1 with a few divisions in key hexes and build on that by railing in heavily damagged units again an army hq with a high admin general and about construction battalions to build those forts.
A line maybe divisions south of lake illmen is a big priority to prevent an end run. use rail very frugally in the north - if you get your stuff north of pskov headed for narwa odds are he wont go after it. German is usually good for 2 turns in the north before he gets low on fuel so he will stop at least 1 corps. youre dealing with armor for 3 turns and thats not really too bad if you dont let em get behind you. blocking positions in swamp hexes really shake up a tank attack. no matter what he does he wont reach the pskov area till turn 3 in enough force to attack and youll need to leave before that happens so dont waste a lot of effort there. He can only do the hq buildups effectively on turns 3 and 4 so your objective is to fade away whenever armor closes. wait an extra turn and you die. Put you effort into a defense in depth beyond lvov rather than a stand and fight on the river line. You dont want to force him to sidestep south towards the landbridge, that simply gets too messy to deal with give him enough to keep him coming at you and wear him down at leningrad. same with velikye luki - hold forward at the fort line till he closes up and fall back to the velikye luki line behind a defensive screen based on terrain strongpoints theres nothing there for him strategically so he wont come in overwheliming force.
The landbridge: screen forward with security units and divisions in swamp terrain build the typical 3 high defense line with an hq holding at least 3 const battalions and a strong admin commander. he will bypass and establish himself north and south of the landbridge to pocket you. make sure you have a second line built at smolensk from the valdai hills south to orel. dont be a hero and defend the river at turn 4 he is built up and will smash you. after the dnepr is crossed german armor gets progressively weaker. the key for you is to have your best and most modern fighters in this area split between day and night you HAVE to stop his airlifts in the landbridge area at all costs.
The South is basic. he comes in staggered and will buildup at least a corps every turn. dont fight forward for the first 4-5 turns steady pull back, let him close and pull back again while you build a defense forward of cherkassy from kiev to proskurov and another behind the river. dont neglect oddessa, defend it or you will let him concentrate his inf elsewhere. evacuate by sea after the romanians close up.
Having played my first PBEM ever, as the Soviets GC 41 -45, here is what i think you should do, or ather some observations. My experience is based on betas 1.05.23 to 1.05.39 up to turn 46. (there is lots of excellent information above).
1. Retreat
2. If in doubt, retreat
3. If not in doubt, don't retreat, RUN.
4. If pocketed try and break out. You will probably never get any divs out but it will allow you to re assign support units to Stavka.
5. Assign low grade junk units with TOE set to 51% to the Finnish No Attack Line.
6. 90% of the Red Army is equipped with water pistols.
7. Don't bother with hasty attacks, you get slaughtered.
8. If you have to move to attack, don't bother. If you don't have to move to atttack, you forgot points 1-3.
9. Non random weather benefits the player with the initiative.
10. Don't stand and fight, you get slaughtered.
11. If you must attack pick on the Rumanians.
12. There is no sense of a campaign season. The AXIS can attack in mud and launch a major offensive on the FIRST clear turn of the year.
13. Attack during Blizzard but get ready to retreat on the last turn.
14. Early on build support units that do not stress your armaments pool ie those that use active elements from the pool.
15. Railroad units from the eastern edge whilst they are empty shells.
16. Dont position your troops as seen in maps in military history books, you get slaughtered. Use the carpet or checker board defence.
17. You can spend hours micro managing the red Airforce for no obvious benefit.
18. Bomb airfields and HQs (seems to cause high numbers of casualities).
19. Make sure you have competent commanders in your HQs
20. How supply works is on the syllabus at Hogwarts.
21. When you create a Corp dont forget you can assign Support Units directly to them.
Molotov : This we did not deserve.
Foch : This is not peace. This is a 20 year armistice.
Playing on normal difficulty. Retreat a bit and built a line. (built mine roughly from Narwa, Pskow, Welikije Luki, Smolensk, Pripjet marsh, Proskurow, Dnestr) Just don't stack your units.. Just put them behind one another. 2-3 lines of worthless units next to each other will stop the germans. No problems at all. You don't even have to bother with the above tips.
I hope that it won't work at higher difficulty levels though.. The germans just give up after attacking 2 units in a row.
Any experienced player up to making a You-Tube series about the first Axis turns? What little info around is mostly four + years old.
I learnt so much about the game by watching the many Axis opening turns videos available. Searching for a Soviet equivalent is the proverbial Needle in a Haystack.
