Soviet Air Doctrine

[Koniev]

I'm a little puzzled. I know the Red Air Force takes horrible casualties in the beginning and I'd like to know how some of you guys handle your Russian Air Force units. How do you gain air superiority? Aside from completely withdrawing all air units till I have overwhelming numbers, I can't think of a thing. I don't think the Red AF ever has qualitative superiority.

[_mikromanageri_]

I wirthdraw most and give them "training" mission. Some of the best fighters i put to the most critical spot. In winter/spring soviets can run some bomb af missions too.

[_mikromanageri_]

look like that im good double poster...

[JagdFlanker]

i would suggest pull back and build up the soviet air force for your winter offensive. you can perhaps deploy some air units before the blizzard at some critical junctures, but i doubt your airforce will help you out much before the blizzard so i would suggest don't bother. convert ALL aircraft factories to 1 fighter type - Yak-1 would be your best bet because it is the best soviet fighter in 1941 and you start off with a lot of I-16's which auto upgrades to the Yak-1.

primary stat when choosing which fighter to produce: cannon. it's not until later in the war that the soviets can build a fighter that can compete with the Fw-190 so you have to try to hurt germany another way. high cannon is a bomber killer and most german players change most/all their production to Fw-190 so the more you thin out the german bombers the better.

make sure you have 1000+ planes in your pool so that the Air Rgmts increase to their maximum size quicker so they can train up faster. when I-16s auto-upgrade to Yak-1's they lose very little or no experience, as opposed to manual upgrading where they lose a lot of experience. i noticed 70+ experience is the magic number - there seems to be a BIG difference in capability between 69 and 70 experience, but i could be wrong there.

why wait until blizzards?

Aircraft Mission Availability
is now dependent on weather as follows :
82% - Clear
66% - Snow, Soviets & Finns in Blizzard
51% - Germans post-1941 Blizzard
37% - Mud, Germans 1941 Blizzard (capped at 50%)
These are averages, actual numbers being dependent on random rolls.

as you can see the germans have a HUGE handicap during the blizzards, and you can use your ground attack aircraft with little fear of massive losses. don't waste even a single ground attack aircraft before the first blizzard turn! even during post-1941 winters the soviets get a nice edge in air availability so consider conserving your ground attack aircraft before winter in any scenario.

hope that helps!

[Koniev]

Thanks Flanker. That's essentially what I've been doing. Your tips about the Yak-1 will help me fine tune my play a little bit.

[Morphy]

That's a good idea to withdraw all Soviet airplanes and put them in training mode. But I use different tactics:
1. I don't withdraw all airplanes to Siberia/Ural but leave some like 20 hexes from front line. When Germans perform an armored raid and an armored corps is stranded far away from maternal HQ I try to bomb it. That doesn't hurt Germans much but decreases their readiness and Soviet pilots usually gain a lot of experience.

2. Some players forget or don't bother about fighter protection of Hungary and Romania. After a few weeks of war try to bomb Ploesti, Budapest and Bucarest. If you have some luck you can severly decrease German's oil supply. But remember not to put level bombers close to the front line since Germans can easily destroy them. It's a good idea to use Il-4 (long range: 60) in Caucasus.

3. When you have some fighters with experienced crews you may try to hurt German bombers: when Wehrmacht moves too fast sometimes their corpses are too far to be protected by reasonable amount of fighters but they're within bombers range. Thus you may move a HQ closer to the German unit, assign a the weakest Soviet unit to the HQ and reinforce it with the strongest air divisions you have, put in C(ap) mode. Then order the unit to attack. It will, Germans will send bombers with few or not fighters and they will face hundreds of Soviet fighters. Result of such confrontation is easy to be forseen.
Hurricanes do especially well such missions due to their excellent cannon ratio.

4. Not to be used in 1941 (usually) - when you cut off a German unit, attach all surrounding units to one HQ and deprive it all others. Reinforce it with hundreds/thousands of fighters. When German player notice his unit is without supply he will send plenty of Ju-52 and bombers to deliver supply. It will result in real melee.

You should not use this maneuver in 1941 because German advantage is so huge losses will not be heavy and your opponent will use plenty of fighters to attack your airfields.

5. Always have plenty of HQs behind frontline: German player will have a lot of troubles with locating your airfields. At least some their attacks will be directed against empty airfields Additionaly try to have 'weird' HQs with regular ones (for example: Southern Front HQ with Karelian Front HQ in south) and attach airplanes rather to 'weird' HQ. German opponents have a tendency to attack 'normal' HQ rather than 'weird' ones just like Soviets have a tendency to attack Panzer Armies HQ instead of regular armies HQ.

6. To be used after VI 1942: when you have tank armies try to hunt for German HQs. Most players attach plenty of airplanes to Panzer armies thus try to perform some suicidal missions. When you notice there is an open way to German HQ you may deprive your tank army of units, leave one tank div and order it to do a long raid against enemy HQ. Remember to give your unit some extra supply - it will need it!

[pyguinard]

That is a very helpfull post Morphy, thank you very much. [&o]
(This answer should stay on top)

Nevertheless if I may... I tend to find that placing HQs away from their historical geographical location is a gamey tactic and useless since empty HQs are easy to spot. They show a low combat value. HQs that are worth bombing will look like the one on the attached picture.

---

Here's my tip: try to keep some HQs within reach of one or more Tank Army/ Pz Korps, preferably in a swamp or in a city hex then, fill it with good combat units.
The HQ may lose the battle against the mobile unit and be forced to retreat but it will not shatter if it is strong enough. The more the opponent sends, the more he will lose in the following turns. [8D]

[Poopyhead]

You cannot withdraw your air force and train it in Siberia. On the first turn as the Germans, I rail the Italian and Hungarian HQ's to southern Romania. I then air trans all of my He 111's, Ju 88's and the brand X axis ally bombers there and start turning the oil wells of the Caucasus into a night light.[:D]
You must move all of your fighters to the Caucasus and perform "Cap" or your oil production will go from climbing up to 130, to diving to about 80. No oil, no winter offensive, no summer of '42 for that matter.
And I will defend Ploesti. Always. I must, because the Russians have a fighter that can escort from the western Crimea all the way to Ploesti (not the Yak 1).
I'll mix up the attacks, too. One big raid on Baku, or split them up and hit each city a couple of times each turn. I might even hit those fighter HQ's [;)].
Your air force must win in the Caucasus or Russia will perish.