A few tips for the Soviet player in '41

[K62_]

I have good experience playing the Soviets and holding out against top players, so here are a few tips for surviving into '42.

Production and equipment

You want to switch as quickly as possible to T34 and Yak1 production. The T34s will first go replacing the T37s in those huge 200 tanks batallions several Soviet divisions have. Then replace the rest of the tanks in those divisions, giving priority to the ones with 4 batallions. You will get several tank divisions with 300-400 T34s this way. They still have low experience, but will make an impact.

The Yak1s will first go into making a pool of 1000 of them. The reason for this is, everytime an air group gets replacements it loses experience. But if you have more than 1000 of that type of aircraft in the pool, you will get 30 replacements each turn instead of the usual 10. So you will lose experience 3 times as slowly, which means for the Russians that you can actually gain some.

After you have 1000 Yaks, the next ones produced replace into groups with 200 aircraft (I16 etc) that you kept in training so far. Sometime in October, you will get wings of 200 Yak1s with 60 experience. These fight decently against the Germans. Send half of them to the front; they will get decimated but will inflict loses as well. Next turn, withdraw them to rebuild and send the other half in. Keep alternating like this and you are on the way to gaining air equality in '42.

The most profitable employment for the Red Air Force (before '44 at least) is hunting German bombers. That's why you need to go for big cannon ratings. My favourite line of production is thus Yak1 - Yak7b - Yak9t. Used properly, the few Hurricanes you get can be devastating.

Deployment & battle

The mech corps will disappear on July 20, so you want to make good use of them before that. Put a weak mobile division in each and send them to cut German supply lines. On average, a mech corps will execute 3 of its 5 plots. They are most predictable when ordered to move in a straight line.

While this guerilla warfare is going on, you need to build a defensive line. First you place all the army/corps shells available, with weak units in them, so they can gain entrenchment. Then you fill them with divisions as these arrive by rail. The order of preference for defensive terrain is:
1. behind a river
2. mountains, swamps, arctic terrain
3. a straight line covering as many forests as possible

I have a favourite location for the line of defence myself, but I'll let you figure out the best for your needs. The reason for a straight line is that each unit in it can only be attacked from 2 places. If for any reason the line protudes, such units have to be overstrength since they will receive stronger attacks; this is a good place to use shock armies.

Now take those huge divisions with 400 tanks you have and place them as reserves in the HQs behind the lines. Make sure the most threatened areas get the best commanders since they are most likely to commit the reserves. Nothing destroys those PzKorps like running into 100 T34s (this is how many will actually fight, for experience and readiness reasons) commited from the reserve!

The German player will still penetrate your lines, but will take losses and won't be able to cut off too many units. Keep a secondary line entrenching a short distance behind the first and be prepared to give way instead of being cut off. Once a position becomes untenable, withdraw the units and fill the secondary line; at the same time establish a new secondary line 2-3 squares behind that. To prevent cutoffs, you also need to keep some units linking the front line and the secondary line.

Other small tactics

Often a PzKorps will run out of its fighter cover. You can bomb it, but this won't affect it much. More effective is to put a lot of fighters in an HQ and suicidally attack the PzKorps with a unit attached to that HQ. You'll destroy a fair amount of Nazi bombers this way.

Watch the German rail line conversion. It is very valuable to prevent such conversion with your guerilla units if you can.

Conclusion

These tips have helped me hold my own in more than one game. I hope they will be useful to other players as well and will make the game more interesting in the standard version. Happy hunting!

[JagdFlanker]

oot-standing info! would you be offended if i put this at the bottom of the readme in my mod, just so it's 'immortalized'?

[K62_]

I would be honoured rather than offended. Just indicate the author please.

[JagdFlanker]

i already called it:

K62’s Guide To Playing The Soviet Union

thankyou very much!

[K62_]

When playing your mod I would change a thing or two though in the Production&Equipment section. For instance, I would stick longer to the Yak-1 because of its superior cannon rating and I'd give the LaGG3 a chance because of its lower cost. Also, because of the increased cost of the Yak-1 it might be problematic to get a pool of 1000 of them in time. I can't know for sure because I haven't played it yet.

[JagdFlanker]

thought i'd throw this to the front in regards to another post...

[asa]

Hi Flanker Leader,
I'd like to play against an experienced Soviet human player as I understand you are.
I am a newbie to the forum, so I don't have any idea of special house rules, but if you wish I can see to accept them.
My personal record - against my own computer - is having been able to finish up a Camp 41 before the blizzard hit my troops, having taken Leningrad, Moscow and Gorki - in this order.
What about a game??

[cabron66]

It sounds like you've put a bit of thought into this and it has paid off. Building up good strong defensive lines along important axes is definitely the way to go. At the very least you can make it impossible to lose the game in 1941.

My first complaint would be the unrealistic use of mech corps. Sorry, but this is about as gamey a tactic as I can imagine. Any mechanized units operating without their own organic supply or ready source of petrol are essentially infantry. And not the good kind of infantry, but rather the kind of infantry operating behind enemy lines with few radios and no supplies. In 1941, the only Russian units capable of performing the kind of mission you are describing would be cavalry and possibly airborne (if the drop went well which it usually didn't).

In terms of command and control, you have a catch 22 with the 1941 Russian mechanized corps. First, they are too large to effectively control, but split them up and you have a shortage of command personnel and rear service means. The answer was to split them up, but to subordinate them to larger armies with the necessary supply and command structure. In the short term, the effect of this choice was to lose the capacity for deep battle, but was to gain the survivability of the tank divisions and brigades in sustained combat.

That is the whole point of Russian doctrine and the main reason behind their crushing losses in the early part of the war. They would have loved nothing more than to be able to conduct deep battle, but simply couldn't for any number of a thousand reasons.

Second, the suicide attacks on isolated panzer divisions are crafty, but fairly gamey as well. This is a hole in the game engine which should be fixed. The Germans were well aware of the vulnerability of their tactical attack aircraft and never used them unless air superiority had already been achieved or sufficient escorts were available.

In any case, German bombers (He-111s and Ju-88s) were not used to directly support ground operations. They were employed in an interdiction role or were responsible for bombing airfields, train stations and other targets of opportunity. The Luftwaffe would not have been caught dead sending out solo flights of vulnerable bombers to assist a threatened panzer division.

Cheers

Paul