Barbarosa Defense?

[keith63]

Where is a good place to set up as the Russians? Way forward with a lot of the army? Or just leave a screening force and set up behind the first good river line? And what about the Baltic states?

[paulderynck]

The latter, and the Baltic states work as well as the home country until you lose the last city in each country.

[Neilster]

This is from the (I think) latest WiF scenario notes for this scenario...

USSR: You are forced into the dangerous front-line, historical set up that Stalin was caught with in the summer of 1941 ~ but don’t despair, Russia won that war and you can, too.
You have two assets: your army, and the large size of the USSR and you must use them both.
Your set-up is extremely important. It’s best to set up all your front line units in stacks 2 high. If you can’t afford 2 unit stacks in every border hex, you need to set up 1 hex back from the border to stop your units being infiltrated.

Preferably, place as many units as possible under the shade of a good forest or in a swamp. Put your slowest infantry and garrison units in the Lvov mountains and the front line cities of Kaunas, Vilna, Brest-Litovsk and Lvov ~ they can’t be blitzed and don’t need to move. 1 or 2 CAV in the Pripet Marshes is probably also a good idea.

Your goal is to prevent the Germans from crossing the Neman or the Dneister during the surprise impulse when the river defense is ineffective. If Germans set up in Memel, it could be difficult to hold the Neman, but you should be able to hold the Dneister. Defend hex E2740 strongly; it is forest so you are safer from ground strikes, and it is the best hex the Germans can attack on during the surprise impulse in this area to unhinge the Neman.
In the south, you will be forced to defend some clear terrain. Do so with two infantry type units in each defended hex to deny the Germans any easy attacks and in the hope of disrupting some of their units. Your units will be easy targets for ground strikes, but if they spare your precious ARM, MECH, and HQs (which should all be in forests or swamps if possible) then it’s worth it.

Timoshenko should be set up in a southern Pripet marsh hex, such as E2134, where he provides supply to the Lvov to Brest-Litovsk region. Provided he is not ground-struck on the first impulse, he should then run like the clappers for Kiev and the Dnieper, surrounded by whatever of their forces escape the maw of Army Group South.
Yeremenko should set-up in the north, in the forests around Vitebsk (outside stuka range). You will also need 2 armies in Leningrad, another 2 armies in Murmansk and at least 1 in Archangel.

Your air force should be set-up outside enemy ground-strike range, 1 per hex, and again in forest, wherever possible. You should keep them in a position to cover the Dvina and Dnieper river crossings.
Once the onslaught starts, the worst mistake you can make is to send your front line units into headlong retreat. A stubborn front line defense will cause heavy loss of Russian units, but may keep the Germans busy and unable to penetrate as far as Vitebsk or Kiev until late in the July/August turn.

Withdraw gradually, one or two hexes per impulse, defending every other hex with two units wherever possible to minimize breakthroughs. Remember that you are trading both space and your army to keep the Germans from getting at your vital interior hexes (factories and resources) for as long as possible. The key is knowing when to sacrifice a unit and when to yield ground.

If this isn’t possible, leave garrisons in (automatically supplied) cities to distract the Germans and then fall back with the remainder of your forces. Your aim is eventually to reach the Dnieper and Dvina river lines and to make a stand there with your reserves, reinforcements, and the units not required to start near the front.

Your air force will help you hold these river lines, as you should have complete air supremacy that far back, at least until the German air force can reach the front. Use your LND bombers wisely to reduce German attack odds in an effort to disrupt German units. If the Germans use up many of their HQs early in a turn, it might be worth a chance to try to ground strike the remaining HQs ~ if you succeed, German supply lines will be locked and their units will be unable to advance. Your FTRs should be used firstly to cover your HQs and secondly to contest key defensive hexes.

If those lines just can’t be held, fall back with what you can to hexes outside of the German supply range (6 hexes from the furthest hex an Axis HQs can get to in the following impulse) and defend with 1 unit in every second hex. Being out of supply, the Germans will be able neither to attack nor overrun your weakest unit. Unfortunately, this last resort forces you to give up a lot of the mother country.

With luck, you will get some rain in the Arctic zone (which covers most of the northern front), slowing up the Germans there, making it possible to reach those lines with some sort of intact force.

Your HQs are vital ~ without them your armies will be out of supply and dead meat. After the surprise attack try to give them FTR cover and do not use them to reorganize anything until at least three impulses have past ~ you cannot afford to lose these units lest an entire front crumble due to lack of supply, and if they are flipped over they can’t move! Their job is to lead an organized retreat. One of your back line HQs could be used to reorganise some bombers.

From the time your army has reached good defensive positions, you may want to pass to hasten the end of the turn.
Don’t forget to rail your factories out of danger of German capture. You probably won’t need much rail for your units, so you should dedicate most of the first 2 turns rail moves to factories.

Eventually, the horrific May/June turn will come to an end. Your reinforcements in Jul/Aug will exceed 20 units (13 reserves, 4 from set-up & 7+ militia) giving you a huge draft of fresh troops. Rush them to the front. If you can get them to the Dnieper before the Germans get across, you have a good chance of holding them there permanently. If not, you must continue to retreat keeping your stacks as strong as possible in order to disrupt as many German units as you can.

Be very careful about any attacks in this scenario during the first three turns ~ a bad die roll could cost you far more than you stand to gain. The rule of thumb to remember is: can I afford to roll the worst result on this attack? If not, don’t do it.

Once bad weather begins, the front should stabilize, and you should begin to look for opportunities to strike. The scenario is too short to organize any large counterattacks, so be on the look out for German ARM which have spearheaded an attack but were left face down; they may be ripe for counterattack ~ assault them to try to kill them, if you can afford the extra losses yourself. Take advantage of the winter to try a modest offensive or two to regain lost resource or factory hexes.

Your production should be targeted towards building units which arrive quickly: MIL, GAR and INF are your best builds, along with the odd aircraft or two.

If you are playing with optional rules, you will have a lot of artillery units at the start. These are outstanding units for holding static defensive positions, like the Dneiper river, and they should set up there. Their slow movement means that positioning them near the front will ensure their doom, sooner or later, and their high cost will be prohibitively expensive to replace for years to come, so don’t fritter them away.

You may wish to build a SKI division ~ this nifty unit will give the German fits once the snows begin to fall. Breaking down some other corps into divisions will give you added flexibility, but this need not be done at set up.


Cheers, Neilster

[Neilster]

Note in the above, "flipped" means disorganised.

I notice they've also used "past" when it should have been "passed" in...

"After the surprise attack try to give them FTR cover and do not use them to reorganize anything until at least three impulses have past..."

Cheers, Neilster

[brian brian]

also note that those notes refer to the Barbarossa scenario, which requires a forward deployment of the bulk of the Red Army. A defense against Operation Barbarossa in a full campaign game of Global War, leaves the Russians with many more options to choose from. But then, so do the Axis...

[Neilster]

Here's the advice for the Global War campaign...

"USSR: Although the game starts slowly for you, do not be lulled into a false sense of security. Every action you perform must be made with a view to countering German efforts to destroy you. In particular, you must employ a tight building strategy to ensure that every land unit possible is on the board before Barbarossa is unleashed.

World in Flames: the final edition has changed many of the dynamics involved in your defence. First, your set-up. Many of your free set-up units should set-up on the Japanese border in a defensive posture around Vladivostok. You can’t sign a pact without Japan’s agreement, and Japan may prefer to attack you instead.

Next, you must determine your relationship with Japan, and Japan with you. This is one of the many decisions where yours and your allies’ interests may not coincide. It is definitely in your interest to sign the pact as soon as possible. However, only one side will eventually benefit. The question is, will that be you?

This is a tricky twist on classic prisoner’s dilemma (see designer’s notes) because, no matter what you decide, you will be hurting someone. I usually leave it up to the Japanese to approach me about a pact (you don’t want to look desperate after all). If the Japanese set-up looks anti-Soviet and they refuse any offer you are desperate enough to make, press the panic button (at least you’ll have fun from the start of the game!).

If you do end up in a war with Japan, call out your reserves and try and make Tojo pay for his aggression. If the going gets hot, bail out (force a peace after Vladivostok is lost). You cannot afford much in the way of casualties if you are going to hold out against a 1941 German campaign.

Ignore Persia (at least until a collapse of your British “allies” around Suez). Until then, it is providing Britain with vital oil (most of which is inaccessible to you anyway), and you don’t want to annoy the shopkeepers quite yet.

If Suez falls, you will reluctantly need to take over the internal affairs of Persia. This can be achieved with 20+ land and aircraft factors in 1 turn. Most of these units can return to your western border as it is very difficult for Axis units to trace supply across the Syrian desert, and your Commonwealth “ally” can cut their supply through the Red or Arabian sea.

Finland poses a more difficult question. It may well be in your interests to demand the Finnish borderlands. In 1939, Finland can only defend with 3 corps on the turn you declare war. You can attack with many more (after railing units from the Asian map in Sep/Oct). There will be only one unit in Lapland. You can attack with 4, almost certainly guaranteeing that you can advance in and prevent Finland lapsing the war. Three or 4 units near Leningrad can threaten that front too (remember the ice and swamp freezes in snow or blizzard). These threats should be enough to convince the Finns to concede the borderlands without a fight, securing your Leningrad defence (and the ability to rail out the Leningrad factory after war with Germany).

If you decide to ignore Finland, you should set-up your European forces against Rumania. You want to be in position to meddle in Balkan politics from the start of the game. Even if you do end up setting up against the Finnish units, you should still move them to the Bessarabian front as soon as you have resolved the Finnish question.

Don’t claim the Baltic states until 1940 but definitely do it then.

From early in the game, you want to maximise your garrison ratio against the German border. This will force the Germans to reduce their forces against the French in order to maintain their own garrisons in the east. Shortly, though, you will have to make a decision about your defense posture.

You probably want to avoid a 1941 Barbarossa. Unlike WiF5, it is more likely to succeed than a 1942 attack. Your production up to Mar/Apr 1941 is almost identical to WiF5. However, Russian infantry now cost 3 and there are fewer of them to build. The net effect is a 1941 campaign much closer to its historical counterpart. This can mean a wild, volatile ’41 campaign. Consequently, there is a risk of a wild, volatile German romp into Moscow. If that happens in 1941, your reign as Secretary of the Communist party may be very brief indeed.

So, you probably prefer Germany to attack you in 1942. You can encourage them to do that by moving all your reinforcements into the border zone. Even excluding entry markers, you should be able to get a defensive garrison total of 60 by May/Jun 1941.

With the inclusion of Axis minor allies, the Germans can only get an offensive garrison total of around 110. Unless you are unlucky, you probably have sufficient forces to keep the Germans below that vital 2:1 throughout 1941.

Unfortunately there are two down-sides to this rosy scenario. Firstly, you are going to have to strip your Siberian front against the Japanese. Secondly, there is no way that you can stop a 1942 attack, so you must fall back during the winter of 1941/42, and if you are neutral you will be reduced to combined actions. There is a risk that you will be caught en flagrante, half your forces on one side of the Dnieper and half on the other. This could lead to a catastrophe in 1942.

Like many other decisions involved in World in Flames, the correct choice may reveal itself from an assessment of the predilections of your opponent. Does your Adolf prefer a Battle of Britain, a touch of the Gibraltar sun or does he like his Siberia cold on the rocks?

If Adolf prefers the latter, you must usually set up your initial defence behind the Dvina and Dnieper. Otherwise, seriously consider the forward defence which both maximises your chance of going to war with Germany as well as reducing Germany’s forces facing Britain.

When war with Germany comes, defend in depth to minimise German breakthroughs. The best place to defend is behind the Dvina-Dnieper river line. Leave just a few CAV and GAR forward in the forests, cities and the Pripet marshes (units in these places can’t be overrun) to delay the attackers.

Remember to rail out your blue factories wherever possible. Nowadays, if the Germans get adjacent to your rail lines, they may stop you from being able to get your factories out, so anticipate!

When things seem at their darkest, don’t give up. Bad weather will slow the Germans and severe winter could give you good opportunities for counter-attacking. Keep your INF production high throughout the winter of ’41 because, even if you have survived last year’s blitzkrieg reasonably well, the Axis still have the superior force throughout 1942 and a long summer may well see a dramatic decline in your fortunes. Prudence is the key.

If you survive till the end of 1942, and with some visible western threat on the horizon, you will most likely survive until the end of the game. You will be surprised how quickly the initiative changes from the Axis to the Allies after your allies have opened a second front in Europe.

When you counter-attack, wait until the Germans have shot their bolt (launched their waves of assaults) and then launch yours. If the German player stops attacking, be more prudent, launching a few high odds attacks. Build your FTRs to ward off German defensive air support. Keep your gearing limits high, keep track of your losses and vary the tempo of your assault according to your success earlier in the turn.

Don’t panic if your advance against the Germans is slow during 1943 and ’44. The Germans must weaken your front to face the threatening Americans. This will lead to a breach in the German defence, and once you make it, there is usually no place in Russia that Germany can re establish it. Good hunting!


Cheers, Neilster

[Neilster]

I suppose the advice about Japan may be different given the new unified global scale affecting the Soviet Far East.

Cheers, Neilster