Militia as soviet strategy

[Atlantikwall]

As far as I read the gamereviews and the answers of the combat model and the tech and weapons parameters charts, I came to the (certainly very early) "conclusion", that pumping up militia is the best soviet statategy.

Reasons:

SU has enough resources and population. The limiting factor for getting further production points is more industry. So untill you built up further industry (best in central reagions just close to Moscow), you pump up huge masses of militia every turn, as they reuire only one production point, but two population points. If production points (PP) are higher than 1/2 of the population, further PP are used to upgrade infantryand propably catch up tank technology as well. Once you have sufficient industry, you change production into "regular units". Can`t tell yet if additional inf or tanks will be better.

Actually you could use the same strategy for japan at start as cthey have double the population as production points (because of the limiting factor of ressources).

Any comments on that strategy???

[paullus99]

Artillery, Artillery, Artillery. You start with a decent tech & artillery fires twice per attack/defense, so its great to put the hurt on the Germans. Militia is also good, but rather than producing gobs of it, you get a ton mobilized when the Germans invade.

I usually start with artillery, then build up some infantry to back it up - then AA & Air. Tanks come later when I'm ready to attack.

[Becket]

I agree with paullus. Militia are fodder, but artillery will be your potential savior. Massed artillery in Leningrad can really frustrate your opponent, right paullus? [:D]

[Atlantikwall]

ORIGINAL: paullus99

You start with a decent tech & artillery fires twice per attack/defense, so its great to put the hurt on the Germans

Do you mean that artillery has a coastal opening-fire? This would, of course, help against a german amphibious invasion onto Leningrad. But does artillery also shoot twice against other land units? Hard to believe.

But can you hold Leningard anyway in turn 1 of Barbarossa, if Germany just places all formerly built tanks in East Prussia. Let`s assume, you`ll place 15 or more tank there, supported by e.g. a amphibious assault with units from Germany (btw: how many could you carry with your three (?) baltic transports from the starting-setup?) and air, you`ll not very likely hold Leningard with the surprise attack factor, I assume. How many units can you built there every turn at the beginning?

[Becket]

There is nothing you can do to hold Leningrad if your opponent really, really wants to take it. This is true for any Soviet territory. The German is playing a race against the clock to inflict as much harm on the Soviets as quickly as possible, though, so if you make certain areas into fortresses, and your opponent obsesses over them and devotes too much to take them, you're ahead of the game.

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Atlantikwall

ORIGINAL: paullus99

You start with a decent tech & artillery fires twice per attack/defense, so its great to put the hurt on the Germans

Do you mean that artillery has a coastal openng-fire? This would, of course, help against a german amphibious invasion onto Leningrad. But does artillery also shoot twie against other land units? Hard to believe.

But can you hold Leningard anyway in turn 1 of Barbarossa, if Germany just places all formerly built tanks in East Prussia. Let`s assume, you`ll place 15 or more tank there, supported by e.g. a amphibious assault with units from Germany (btw: how many could you carry with your three (?) baltic transports from the starting-setup?) and air, you`ll not very likely hold Leningard with the surprise attack factor, I assume. How many units can you built there every turn at the beginning?

You won't have more than 7-9 tanks ready by the time you attack. The transports will Carry 1 infantry unit since you have to string them through the areas (and it would get blasted by artillery and never make it ashore). You could add a paratrooper unit if you planned it, plus air support. A maximum effort will tak Leningrad, but then you are giving up something on the rest of the front. Artillery fires with it's range 2 fires in a range 2 phase, and then gets to shoot again at range 1. They will match up against enemy arty if there is any. Arty also is a prime target for air units, and has a lower defense factor, so there are ways to take it on. However, in my latest game, I too went for the heavy arty defense (along with major research spending). I hope the arty/auto mobilized militia plus flak/fighters to defend the arty along with assorted other available troops will hold on long enough to get some better armor and infantry into the mix. That's the fun of this game though, as I've seen players trying many different strategies.

[Atlantikwall]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

You won't have more than 7-9 tanks ready by the time you attack.

A maximum effort will tak Leningrad, but then you are giving up something on the rest of the front.

Artillery fires with it's range 2 fires in a range 2 phase, and then gets to shoot again at range 1. They will match up against enemy arty if there is any. Arty also is a prime target for air units, and has a lower defense factor, so there are ways to take it on.

I`ve seen that you have already 7 tanks in the starting setup. Let`s assume you attack in spring 1942 (turn 9), than you could use the tanks that started production in summer 1941 (2 turns for buiding, one for moving) and you can certainly build several tanks every turn. That would mean 7 + 5 * no. of tanks per turn.

LEN has 7 units at start. But how much can you produce in LEN every turn? One unit or more?

[Joel Billings]

You can do a lot of things at the cost of not doing other things. Delaying the attack will gain you time to build. But the Soviets gain time to tech their troops and build as well. They can build as much as 2 units every 2 turns (arty or infantry).

[Atlantikwall]

You have 4 countries adjacent to german territories. They should all be easyly taken at the start of Barbarossa by infantry and artillery only. And you have another 4 countries within range of tanks. With the "surpise attack factor" you imho should blast away almost everthing if you had enough tanks. You could imho either go for LEN or try to "encericle" the units from East Poland by attacking Belorussia and Valia Luki (or how is it called between BEL and LEN), giving them no place to escape for potentially only demaged units! Going for Baltic States, East Poland, Odessa and Kiev ist cerainly a must, propably also attack Eastern Ukraine.

How many of these 8 territories have factories? So LEN has 2 (or can you build 2 units in one factory)?

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: Atlantikwall

You have 4 countries adjacent to german territories. They should all be easyly taken at the start of Barbarossa by infantry and artillery only. And you have another 4 countries within range of tanks. With the "surpise attack factor" you imho should blast away almost everthing if you had enough tanks. You could imho either go for LEN or try to "encericle" the units from East Poland by attacking Belorussia and Valia Luki (or how is it called between BEL and LEN), giving them no place to escape for potentially only demaged units! Going for Baltic States, East Poland, Odessa and Kiev ist cerainly a must, propably also attack Eastern Ukraine.

How many of these 8 territories have factories? So LEN has 2 (or can you build 2 units in one factory)?

You seem to know just enough of the rules to be dangerous. Surprise attack only impacts the first region attacked, not all Soviet zones. Yes, if you have enough tanks you could do it, but I'd be impressed if you had more than 9 available as of Summer 41. Yes, you can wait, but by 42 the WA will be putting pressure on you and the Russians will have built up. Together the WA and SU have 65 Production per turn in 1940 and 1941 against about 37 for the Germans and 13-15 for the Japanese. It is definitely a strategy worth trying once you have the game.

[Atlantikwall]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

You seem to know just enough of the rules to be dangerous.

Surprise attack only impacts the first region attacked, not all Soviet zones.

I WILL be "dangerous", you can bet on that one[:D]! But to play a stragegy game, you fist have to know everything about the rules (e.g. I nowhere read that "surprise attack" just works for one country, not for the whole turn).

But you could save you a lot of time answering my questions[;)], if you just mail me the rules (atlantikwall@freenet.de)[:D]!

[Atlantikwall]

[quote= "FAQ"]
- How are the militia rules suppose to work? A once only added militia equal to the population, or new militias added each time an attack is executed?

Soviet is one time in all areas when first attacked by Germany (2 per population point). This is mass mobilization of reserves and happens during the Soviet production phase.

For all others, the way it works now for China is the model for the others. Happens just before combat, each time an area is attacked. 2xpopulation for China, 1x for US, UK, Canada, Japan, and Germany. This may change in the future, but we only had the Chinese system to use when we added the others. Because most of the system is externalized in data files, it's easy to mimic one rule and extend it to others. It's harder to adjust the rule (that takes the programmers to do)./quote]

Could you please clarify WHEN exactly and much more important in HOW MANY territories soviet militia is recruted. One in attacked countries of a certain turn or in all countries that have already been attacked by Germany? Do you have to use any production or population points for recruiting militia? Just ask, because if population points are substarcted, you might get problems with the production of regular units.

I understood it as a one-time bonus that won`t happen the next time a territory is attacked, which would be a clear handicap for long-term russian war efforts!

[paullus99]

Soviets get the one time mass mobilization of militia - in every territory not overrun by the Germans (but with at least one population point - so there are territories, like Siberia, where you don't get any). They act as a buffer against the Germans until you have time to build up your regular army units.

If you research your artillery & infantry defense first thing, you will have some nasty surprises in store for the Germans. The militia are fodder & will die like flies anyway - but seeing 12 - 14 in key areas (massed by you of course) can be a very daunting prospect.