Rodina-mat' zovet! (no Lysander pls)

[821Bobo]

We are already in Blizzard and don't have much time to post.

11.09.-17.09.41
North

[821Bobo]

Moscow looks save for now.

[821Bobo]

I am little bit worried here. Looks like buildup here, defense is not very strong I really want to avoid pocket.

[821Bobo]

In south Panzers are moving back and forth, wasting time while looking for weak spot. I have left one HQ with 2 divisions in Dnepropetrovsk, hope they will hold for couple of turns.

[821Bobo]

18.09.-24.09.41

Germans across the Neva, there is no more hope for Leningrad.

[821Bobo]

Moscow area.

[821Bobo]

Panzers resting for 3 consecutive turns. Maybe not build up but just out of fuel.

[821Bobo]

Total waste of Panzers. They just isolated Dnepropetrovsk.

[Dinglir]

At Kursk I am wondering about the distance between your defenses and the German advance. Will you share your reasoning?

I would probably have had no more than two hexes bewteen the lines, as that would be enough to prevent the German Infantry from making penetration attacks. If the Panzers did an attack, they would just be so very deep in "no fuel" land that this in itself would render them useless for a prolonged period of time - and the rasputitsa mud is not so far off.

Also, why is there an Army HQ in Kursk and a couple of units far forward of the main Soviet lines?

[SparkleyTits]

There is a risk with being only 2 hexes back in AGS as the problem with a very thin line of forces in this situation is they are easily maniputaled with retreat paths and not well fortified, so very easy to pierce
It could be easy pickings for hasty attacks in middling to good Axis circumstances then the panzers could of penetrated and sealed their own pocket from the inside of somewhere like Kharkov for example

All this depends on his fuel situation of course but with aggresive players like Lysander they will go for moves such as that even if it leaves them out of supply and it wouldn't be too hard to get the right situations to make it stick without much in the way of a proper centralised counter attack force

My opinion is Bobo lost nothing of note and eliminated putting himself in needless risk

I imagine he has armies in cities that will be isolated for their SU?

[821Bobo]

Regarding the distance between my defense and Germans basically what ST wrote.

The units forward, especially divisions are victims of interdiction. AT brigades are just next to Panzers to rise fatigue.

And the armies in cities are to have better CV. Units out of command radius suffer penalty and I have lot of spare army HQs so why not. In the worst case I will lose some crappy general.

[SparkleyTits]

Some tips Bobo, Soviet units under an army have no range penalties so you can literally put the HQ in the Urals and they will still fight at 100% commander ratings
Same for Axis with corps

You could get the best modified CV results by putting the units into an army under a dedicated front, put SU into the army, put said front HQ and STAVKA closer to the fotress city
That would give the best best range penalties from front HQ and STAVKA, air support from said front and SU if that is what you are going for but putting an army in there would give you no range penalty benefits unfortunately so would only be helpful for added SU (I sometimes assign unwanted/uneeded AA directly to the city if I want to make sure I have the best chance of holding)

Also the morale ratings of each general along the chain of command has no range penalty for ratings either

[821Bobo]

When I was holding Vitebsk I did exactly this, however Front HQs are hugely overloaded so now when I have lot of spare army HQs I changed the approach. And having air support for battle 10+ hexes behind the front is not exactly what I want. Will get tons of bombers shot down.

Btw. what is the date and cap for getting guards air groups? Can recall and have lot of groups with many kills.

[SparkleyTits]

Yeah it was certainly an idealised bit of advice and having the odd unit to prop up a fortress town definitely would not be worth the CP & AP it would cost in a lot of situations so I would probably just leave them in STAVKA too in the same situation if I just intended them to be a small speedbump

I don't know about guard air assets sorry mate, hopefully one of the much more knowledgable air boffins can answer!

[56ajax]

ORIGINAL: 821Bobo

When I was holding Vitebsk I did exactly this, however Front HQs are hugely overloaded so now when I have lot of spare army HQs I changed the approach. And having air support for battle 10+ hexes behind the front is not exactly what I want. Will get tons of bombers shot down.

Btw. what is the date and cap for getting guards air groups? Can recall and have lot of groups with many kills.

I thought it was 100 in 41 and 200 in 42, but when I read the manual it is double that (changed in a patch) and states this is for Soviet Airbase units.

I think the figures stated above are for Air Units and Airbases need like 400 in 41...though a Guards Airbase is as useful as a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

Air Units that go Guards get an immediate 10 boost to morale and possibly replacements get +25% in experience.

[821Bobo]

Thanks, I found the cap for airbases in manual but not groups. Well, with 50-70 kills there won't be any guards anytime soon.

[821Bobo]

We are currently in middle of January 42 but Lysander wants to quit. I was planning to make more detailed update for Blizzard but there no reason to do now. I was little bit surprised because I have had success during Blizzard but nothing spectacular.
I didn't achieve anything north of Rzev. Advance was around 2 hexes every 3 turns and north of Ilmen I only bleed my divisions to death without gaining single hex.
From Rzev to Orel it was the usual grinding with gain 1-2 hexes every turn.
Focus area for Blizzard was around Kursk and I have been able to destroy 5 German inf divisions. 12 cav corps participated. However with some retreats most could have been saved.
Another successful sector was coast of Azov. Only 4 cav corps(and few tank and motorized divs) here but faced mostly only Axis minors. This was the real surprise for me. Lysander mush have been aware that Romanians will meltdown facing Soviets during Blizzard. Lot of Romanians(and Hungarians) units were destroyed. Not a single encircled, all shattered.