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Yeah, that was before Soviet moves, I should have been more clear on that. I withdrew most of the units in the Orel bulge, and next turn the German advance continued, but all they managed to encircle was... one rifle division.

After this turn there will be mud for five weeks, hopefully time to get the Red Army in order for summer...

Be cautious! With the MP's of clear weather the attack of turn 40 would have given him a superb encirclement

Yes, but we have non-random weather, so I knew it would be snow. But I am a bit apprehensive about summer, given that I have read your AAR and furthermore I have been comprehensively defeated by Timmyab in a 1942 offensive before.

The situation at the end of March 1942.
The German army has only limited offensive capability in March 1942 and I did consider just resting and refitting throughout the Spring. TOE and morale are low so the order to advance was met with decided reluctance. The Orel Kursk bulge looked like the most obvious target for the offensive especially as a lot of the armor was already in place at the start of the month (T's turn 37 map above).
I had no expectation of an encirclement and actually came closer to a breakthrough than I'd expected. The idea was more to force a withdrawal from the bulge and to recapture the cities of Orel, Kursk and Tula. In the end, Tula and Orel have been recaptured but Kursk is still enemy occupied.
The Southern push from 1st pz army was much weaker than the Northern push and only gained about 50 miles at it's deepest. On the whole though, considering the weakness of my blizzard ravaged forces, I'm quite happy with the outcome.
The Soviets have also withdrawn from Zaporozhy and the lower Dnepr obviously fearing that their position there was too exposed which it probably was.

End of turn 41

Turn 42. Mud.

I am building the Soviet army for the trials ahead.

I am trying to give each army at least one separate tank battalion on the reasoning that they are a good way of getting tanks to the front line, and they don't take up stacking room or army command points like the tank brigades. From previous experience, I know the Red Army tends to be swimming in tanks in late 1942 and I want those tanks where they will be killing Germans, not just sitting in the pool. I also give each army at least two sapper regiments, one AA unit, one AT unit and whatever artillery is available. I like the MG artillery battalions, they look like they contain useful stuff on paper, not sure how cost effective they are. Here is a fairly typical army. Opinions and suggestions welcome.

I don't build separate tank battalions or regiments. Truck sink that hurts my supply situation. I'll take another sapper regiment in lieu of, thank you.
No motorcycle regiments. Another truck sink. Mine are all disbanded within the first two months of the war while I have the APs to spare.
Rifle armies 3-4 sapper regiments in '41. More in '42 if you anticipate building rifle corps (2 per corps). In fact my cav armies in 1941 get 10, so I can later put 2 in each of the four corps and leave two more in Army HQ.
No sapper battalions. All disbanded in the first two months of the war. The disbanded sapper squads fill out all the new sapper regiments being formed.
Ski battalion. No useful purpose, gets disbanded.
No construction battalions. All RR construction bdes/engineering assets retained at Front level. Usually 4-5 per front HQ.
No real opinion on MG-arty bn.

At some point towards end of 1942, rifle divisions that flip to a new TO&E lose their organic AA weapons, so you may decide to add 1-3 AA regiments in each army at that time.

agree re the tank battalions - it is tempting to get those tanks out of the pool but I find the truck issue such a constraint.

Merely for realism and interest, I don't do the sappers+sappers+sappers build.

I've started adding AA to cavalry corps. My logic is these are often the most exposed units, so attract a lot of German attacks. Its clear that flak is the biggest threat to the Luftwaffe so it makes these units more dangerous in that respect.

Don't the ski battalions give +1 on the CV, if so they are (to me) a cheap way to get a useful bonus?

I've started using the MG-arty, not least they tend to draw on resources that are easily available in your pool so have a limited cost for armament points - no idea if they are any good though.

Thanks for the input!

But won't tanks draw trucks wherever they are? Do they require more trucks in battalions than in brigades (or Corps)?

The ski battalions get a morale bonus and also have their CV doubled in winter according to the rules, so I add a few to get some extra punch for the winter offensive.

I tend to disband motorcycle regiments too, but there are a few left that have escaped so far. I have noted though that they often seem to contribute well to the CV of attacks.

The sapper battalions are leftovers from the beginning of the war, but since they exist, why not let them stay on? It will cost me two AP to disband one and build a regiment instead, which sees a waste.

I don't like building seemingly unrealistic amounts of sapper regiments, not sure what the realistic number for an army would be though.

With aprox 2400 producing manpower points and a <6M army, I'd be more concerned about the infantry formations. Do a check in the CR each turn filtered to Inf. If the number of men in Inf is not going up, you have a problem. Attrition will be a killer...

That said, the SU for the '42 campaign ought to be bought late '41 - early '42 to give them time to gain experience at 1 pt/turn.

That also said, there is some room for some colour/chrome in the game to suit the player, but you have used up that quota with you choice of defending forward. Everything in your SU list except Art, AA & sappers is chrome.

Edit: As for myself, I build Mortar Bat's in '41 well in the rear and then in late April give 5 to each Army with enough left over to give an extra 5 to the Armies where the fighting is. Say total 250 and by April they have 50/50 Mor/Exp. That's my way of causing attrition to the Germans when fighting a defensive campaign.

Well OK, I can't resist the temptation to distribute some of the mortars during the '41 campaign, but only those with 40+ exp. The starting exp of the Bat's have an aprox Gaussian distribution, so I skim the best of when they reach 40. That is mostly for player morale since I think that the mortars are nerfed until May '42.

The morale bonus for ski bat's is consumed. NM in '42 is 45. Ski do get +5, but all Soviet units regiments or smaller have a minimum NM of 50.

When I look at the units, it actually seems that a Separate Tank Battalion has more tanks per truck then either a Tank Brigade or a Tank Corps. I might be totally wrong here, but to me it seems like Separate Tank Battalions are one of the most truck effective ways of getting tanks to the front... Edit: And manpower effective for that matter.

They seem to use between 100-110 trucks on average so if you stick one tank battalion in each army, that is the rough equivalent of trucks in one mechanized corps.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

With aprox 2400 producing manpower points and a <6M army, I'd be more concerned about the infantry formations. Do a check in the CR each turn filtered to Inf. If the number of men in Inf is not going up, you have a problem. Attrition will be a killer...

Infantry strength seems to be growing nicely so far. Attrition is not too bad. No combats this turn (mud) so losses shown below should all be attrition. Not too bad I think. I am quite happy to attrit 2 Germans for 3 Soviets.

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

That said, the SU for the '42 campaign ought to be bought late '41 - early '42 to give them time to gain experience at 1 pt/turn.

I have been building tank battalions for a long time, so no worries there. As a matter of fact, a number of them had reached Guards status, but now they suddenly seem to have lost guards status and now I have no guards tank battalions at all![X(] Very curious.

A possibly stupid question: I created a new army Hq, and it came with a number of support units, apparently without extra AP cost. Is this normal, or where did these units come from?

It's normal. It is your choice to spend the additional APs to disband the excess which you don't want.

Turn 47
The first clear turn of spring finds me continuing on from where I left off at the end of March. i.e. a two pronged attack on the Kursk - Orel bulge. The genius of this plan is, to quote a favorite line of mine from Blackadder "Doing precisely what we've done seventeen times before is exactly the last thing they'll expect us to do this time."
This time the pincers do bite through the defenses. The Soviet position is so deep that there's no opportunity to fan out behind and I have to settle for a stacked defense against counterattacks. It's particularly important that the pocket isn't broken because of mud next turn.

The other offensive action is in the Crimea. I added 39th pz corps with two fresh pz divisions (22nd and 23rd) to the four infantry and three mobile divisions already there with the intention of capturing the three bottleneck hexes. As it happens the force blew straight through the Perekop Isthmus and found itself in the middle of the Crimea not knowing quite what to do next. It was tempting to try for Sevastopol but too risky. It's probably well garrisoned and I can't risk the Soviet army escaping or even cutting me off so the containment and destruction of the Soviet forces takes precedent.
I'm not even sure if I want the Crimea. It seems like more of a burden than anything.

I'm not even sure if I want the Crimea. It seems like more of a burden than anything.

Burden or not, you have turned it into a killing ground for Reds.&nbsp; Sure they can walk to temporary safety this turn but it looks like they will be doomed very soon.

The pocket near Kursk looks very nicely done.&nbsp; I like your secondary ring which makes counterattacks a lot more difficult.

SHC can reopen the Pocket from north or South and maybe from both sides.

But the units in the Pocket are lost.

I wonder what is the best way for the russian to avoid multiple mid size encirclement during summer 1942?

In depth defence is neceesary but is it enough?