First GC game as USSR...any advice?

[Crashingtree]

Hey everyone,

Looking to try my first GC campaign with the soviets. Have previously played as the Axis and...well, I had fun but probably still have a lot to learn in this game . Basically stalled out in the summer of '42.

Anyway, looking forward to trying a campaign with the soviets. I've read through the posted soviet guide (very helpful). Any tips from experienced players? Favorite AARs / strategy guides you like? Is it easier overall than the axis??

Cheers

[Jango32]

Soviets are very easy to play as. Once you know how to play with Soviets (supply priority 4 for everything from turn 1 for example), even in PvP you'll likely win all games in 1941 (or very early 1942).

[Crashingtree]

Soviets are very easy to play as. Once you know how to play with Soviets (supply priority 4 for everything from turn 1 for example), even in PvP you'll likely win all games in 1941 (or very early 1942).

Interesting! Thanks. That’s very helpful. Since I wasn’t able to win as Axis under normal difficulty I was thinking of toggling this game to a lower difficulty setting but that may not be necessary.

When you say “once you know how to play as Soviets”….any others tips like the supply priority one?

[Warmus]

I have only played one game as Soviets in GC but my general notes during the retreat in 41 are:

* Use terrain to your advantage, your units are really terrible and the only way to slow the advance is to defend in depth and slowly retreat backwards. Any river/swamp/wood should be where you place your units. You will still loose the battles due to low experience/morale etc. but the main thing is to not have the massive routs.
* Decide early if you want to defend Odessa or any other tactically good cities, you might want to build a fortress and start funneling troops there, at least to hold up some german troops.
* Similarly to the german tactic it is advisable to funnel all support units to STAVKA on turn 1 and then lock all HQ, then funnel down as needed.
* Building forts are key for holding positions until winter so place units early around Leningrad/Moscow/Rostov/Crimea corssing.
* Might be a bit micro managing but there is a lot to say about soviet air at this stage, if you handle it manually i would try and put alot of units into reserve TB who fly crap planes, manually rebase AOGs, and put supply for air to very low. Preserve as many pilots as possible and only use the airforce for ground support.

There are some good guides pinned here as well that you should find useful:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=367822
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=365359

[Crashingtree]

I have only played one game as Soviets in GC but my general notes during the retreat in 41 are:

* Use terrain to your advantage, your units are really terrible and the only way to slow the advance is to defend in depth and slowly retreat backwards. Any river/swamp/wood should be where you place your units. You will still loose the battles due to low experience/morale etc. but the main thing is to not have the massive routs.
* Decide early if you want to defend Odessa or any other tactically good cities, you might want to build a fortress and start funneling troops there, at least to hold up some german troops.
* Similarly to the german tactic it is advisable to funnel all support units to STAVKA on turn 1 and then lock all HQ, then funnel down as needed.
* Building forts are key for holding positions until winter so place units early around Leningrad/Moscow/Rostov/Crimea corssing.
* Might be a bit micro managing but there is a lot to say about soviet air at this stage, if you handle it manually i would try and put alot of units into reserve TB who fly crap planes, manually rebase AOGs, and put supply for air to very low. Preserve as many pilots as possible and only use the airforce for ground support.

There are some good guides pinned here as well that you should find useful:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=367822
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=365359

Thanks! That’s great advice, very helpful.

Can you share more about moving SUs to stavka and shuffling them down as needed? Is that because you are going to lose the battles anyway, so you should preserve them? I understood that moving SU takes out 50% of CPP so this surprised me a bit

[Warmus]

I have only played one game as Soviets in GC but my general notes during the retreat in 41 are:

* Use terrain to your advantage, your units are really terrible and the only way to slow the advance is to defend in depth and slowly retreat backwards. Any river/swamp/wood should be where you place your units. You will still loose the battles due to low experience/morale etc. but the main thing is to not have the massive routs.
* Decide early if you want to defend Odessa or any other tactically good cities, you might want to build a fortress and start funneling troops there, at least to hold up some german troops.
* Similarly to the german tactic it is advisable to funnel all support units to STAVKA on turn 1 and then lock all HQ, then funnel down as needed.
* Building forts are key for holding positions until winter so place units early around Leningrad/Moscow/Rostov/Crimea corssing.
* Might be a bit micro managing but there is a lot to say about soviet air at this stage, if you handle it manually i would try and put alot of units into reserve TB who fly crap planes, manually rebase AOGs, and put supply for air to very low. Preserve as many pilots as possible and only use the airforce for ground support.

There are some good guides pinned here as well that you should find useful:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=367822
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=365359

Thanks! That’s great advice, very helpful.

Can you share more about moving SUs to stavka and shuffling them down as needed? Is that because you are going to lose the battles anyway, so you should preserve them? I understood that moving SU takes out 50% of CPP so this surprised me a bit

I'll just cite tyronec in the second guide i sent:

"SUs.
Deploy all SUs back to STAVKA at the start of the game. Don’t use any combat ones for the first few turns as you are getting trashed in most combats. Then give each army 6 artillery/mortar/rocket SUs starting with your better leaders. Only deploy them from STAVKA once their TOE gets above 60% or so, otherwise they may get lost in combat. Note that some HQs start as shells and will be less effective until the fill out.
You can assign motorcycle/infantry/tank/AT/AA SUs to infantry divisions or to Corps once they are available, however consider that attaching a motorised SU to an infantry unit will mean it requires fuel and will use more trucks. Assigning an infantry SU to a motorised unit will use up trucks.
Each turn check the TOEs of your deployed SUs and send the weak ones back to STAVKA to refit, otherwise they can get lost in combat.
City AA are not much value, they do not fight in ground combat and may be destroyed if their city is taken. You could reduce their Max TOE so they absorb less guns, it is hardly worth the effort of transferring them anywhere. When you have surplus APs maybe the large ones could be converted to normal SUs but the small ones are barely worth bothering about."

The general essence i suppose is that your SU will not contribute very well in the first few turns no matter how you place them... the defence is just not very sophisticated and more of a meatwall until the germans starts to get streched out. The main offensive tasks would be to interrupt supplies by mabey sending cav units through holes in the front to catch rail repair units as a delay tactic.

Personally i put all lower HQ to 0 support level and on turn 2 i locked them (apart from the ones that were too low TOE - these i send to reserves). I then manually add as needed during the game.

Again, i am not an expert at the game but this worked out well for me.

[timolang63]

Thanks for the advice. This is good stuff. I think I've figured out supply and defense, building forts and so on. The air game is pretty hard though - and it's difficult to know if I'm doing that correctly. I've sent all my level bombers to the reserve so mainly have fighters and fighter-bombers left. I put a few naval bombers over the Black Sea and Baltics, but everyone is pretty much assigned to ground support. I just saw an old guide (from 21) that suggested getting rid of all fighters except for MiG-3s. What's the best advice for Red Air Force in Sep-Oct 41?

Map position for Sep 41 isn't great -- holding in the north from Lake Peipus to Valdai Hills to Moscow, but I just lost Tula. The center is a bow, from Tula down to well east of Gomel, and then horizontally across to Kharkov, which was just surrounded. Then another bow south in a long arc to Kherson. Odessa holds out.

Army in the field is about 3.5 million.

Any advice?