653Nv1.7 Allied AAR

[sPzAbt653]

Again to Russia, move the units that were placed last turn forward, and place new arrivals in the towns. I lost Zaporizhe, I don't care, he can have it, he can have all of these towns. But it will cost him in time and casualties.

[sPzAbt653]

Ok, I've sneaked into Spain, one transport can unload next turn, the other the turn after [unless Opie pulls a good move and hits them now]. The USA is in but has no land units yet, although some are in the pipeline. Then they can be moved to reinforce this small beachhead which I hope the UK and Canadians can hold for a few turns. 2nd Army HQ is built and I am waiting for it to arrive so I can send it here immediately. I expect Opie will operate a unit into Vigo and there is nothing I can do about it.

[sPzAbt653]

MPP Report

[sPzAbt653]

I've reached Level 1 Infantry, and immediately spent the 200 MPP's to go for Level 2. That will cost me a couple of Infantry Corps right now, but as I said earlier you need to get the Infantry Upgrades for the Soviets. I won't bother upgrading every unit right now, only the ones deemed important based on their place in the line [that would mostly be units that are in front of Leningrad and Moscow. It may only cost 8 to upgrade an Inf Corps, but if you do a bunch of them in one turn it will add up, and I'd rather have 2-3 more Inf Corps built.
Now that a line is forming and the Axis pressure is less than it had been, I'll start doing one thing different. Instead of leaving damaged units forward where they would get destroyed, I will move them back to rest and refit. In the shot below, there is a corps to the lower left that has been reduced to 3 and retreated. Its Morale and Readiness is so low that if I reinforce it where it is, it will most likely take heavy casualties next turn. So he will move back and once in a safe area will get reinforced 1-2 each turn until back to full and ready to rejoin the line.
Another thing to do when things calm down a little is to move a unit out of the line to a better supply position to reinforce and upgrade, as is the case with one of the corps at Stalino.

[sPzAbt653]

I'm going to attack Syria, although I must admit I have no real reason to other than history. Historically, Syria was allowing German and Italian planes to base there, and Syria had 60,000 Vichy troops that were not very friendly to the UK, so the UK invaded it and took it over. Currently, Syria is at 79% Axis, so I suppose if the Axis side threw some Diplo at it, it might go Axis, so maybe some justification for 'securing' it.
I'll be using the UK 9th Army containing the III UK Corps and XXI Indian Mech Corps. Both units have recently participated in the capture of Iraq. Syria will fall easily as it only has one weak corps in Damascus, and the Tac can hit it first, followed by a III Corps attack, after which the XXI Indian can either make a final attack if the unit still survives, or just move into Damascus for the win.
Persia and Turkey will move away from the Allies due to this attack on Syria, but I don't think there are any other consequences.

[sPzAbt653]

I've been moving slowly thru Libya to see if Opie will make any effort to move his HQ's up to Benghazi to improve his supply, but he has kept both HQ's far off to the west, so I will go for Banghazi now. DAK has already been eliminated and only a few Italian corps remain.

[sPzAbt653]

With a tiny beachhead established in Spain, the UK navy returns to its regular duties [two Subs to the Med to harass the Italians, Destroyer to protect North and South Convoys, and one Sub to hit the Norway Convoy]. As soon as USA Corps begin arriving, they will be shipped in to reinforce Spain, and UK 2nd Army HQ just arrived in England so will get here soon.

[sPzAbt653]

Ten Guards Corps arrive for the USSR every January, from 1942-1945. Historically, these were regular army units that distinguished themselves in combat, for which they were rewarded with the Guards title plus a couple more artillery pieces. There is no way to replicate this in SC3, so this is the best solution I could come up with. At their high point, the Soviets fielded about 180 Infantry Corps, and in 653N there are 140 Rifle Corps, plus the 40 Guards Corps.
Generally I reinforce one to full strength each turn, then operate that one to the front next turn. This is slow but easier on MPP's.

[sPzAbt653]

Continuing to build the defense. Move up the units that were placed last turn, place new units in towns, maybe reinforce and upgrade a unit or two. It is winter, plus there are no Panzers in the area, so the Axis advance pretty much halts on its own.

[sPzAbt653]

More of the same. At this point I hope all can see that getting a defense set in Russia can be done, and I'm sure that people smarter than me will figure out even better ways to do it. So I will stop posting on this topic for now, but first a couple of final points.
Once the weather clears the Axis have more success, so sometimes it is necessary to abandon a town and fall back to the next one [generally when one Axis unit gets adjacent to a town I let it go, as it usually isn't long before he gets two adjacent thus causing supply to drop and defense improbable].
Where the panzers are there will be more losses, and generally this is on the Leningrad-Moscow Line. To hold these lines forward isn't totally necessary, you just don't want Opie to get too close to the prizes. This will often require a good bit of unit shuffling, and during bad weather this is sometimes very difficult due to restricted movement.
Keep the Sapper units back or else Opie will destroy them. Keep them busy fortifying every hex they can around Moscow-Leningrad. They can't stop the Axis but they can do a good job of slowing them down.
I know that historically the USSR was constantly counter attacking, but don't do it, it won't help you. Your goal should be to get all the Infantry Corps built so that you can have a double line of defense.
Don't spend on anything other then Infantry Research and Infantry Corps. Air and Armor is too weak to help this early on, and both are expensive to build and maintain.

[sPzAbt653]

The defense of Greece has worked out well. Opie has a lot of units in this area and that means less for me to face in Russia. He actually has too many units here, creating a traffic jam which makes it difficult for him to effectively attack. He also has three HQ's here, and even with that overkill he is only getting '2' Supply to that frontline Inf Korps.

[sPzAbt653]

This is good fortune, seems like I just got Level 1 a couple turns ago. This will help a lot in defending Russia.

[sPzAbt653]

So um, Opie has loaded up the Rzhev-Vyazma area with panzers and destroyed a bunch of units [including an HQ] and clean broke thru the front. He did that on purpose, because I had just moved the Moscow factories and now I can't place any new units there nor operate any in.

[sPzAbt653]

Well. Okay. At least nobody is watching this thread to witness such an embarrassment.

[sPzAbt653]

This version of 653N has no AVL's [as an experiment to see if they are needed at all]. Therefore, we have to script at least this one event for the Allies, similar to the German scripting of the invasion of Norway. I'll definitely say YES to this to see how it works out. There are a lot of variables so we will see what happens.

[sPzAbt653]

The UK gets Oil Imports from Persia, but only if Persia is leaning Allied. With the recent events in Russia, Persia has swung to the Axis. As the Axis are in no position to help Persia, I will invade it to gain back the Oilfields. The same XXI Indian and III UK Corps that previously conquered Iraq and Syria are now under command of the UK 10th Army and are in position to move into Persia.

[sPzAbt653]

Here's a look at the Leningrad area. A full line of forts was never completed. The Soviets are hanging on by rotating units in and out of the line, reinforcing and upgrading, and placing new units whenever corps are fully eliminated. Remember, don't place new units into the line unless it is an absolute emergency. Give them at least one turn to gain Morale and Readiness at a hex of 6 Supply or better.

[sPzAbt653]

The arrival of US 1st Army has allowed the expansion of the lodgement area. US 3rd Army should arrive soon to enable further expansion.

Opie seems content with roping off the area using Minor units from Spain, Hungary and Rumania.

[sPzAbt653]

This looks to be the last turn where the USSR is spending only on Rifle Corps. From now on any destroyed ones will be rebuilt and the rest of the MPP's will be spent on Research [other than Infantry, the USSR has not invested in any Research to this point].

[sPzAbt653]

You've probably seen this shot of how the Research Categories are arranged. For the USSR, Naval Escorts isn't needed as no Amphibious Operations are planned. Resource AAA will be first as this is a nice defensive category to have at Level 1 if Opie starts bombing resources. Then there will be investment in one category of each of the blue sections, two in the green section, and the gold section will be for whenever there is a luxury of MPP's as these aren't critical for the USSR.