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How much Cavalry do you guys have left? Are you stacking it up 3-deep in preparation for making Corps when December hits?

I would also build a handful of Sappers and Tank Bns to attach to said Cav Corps when you get a chance

You will need to manage your REFIT very carefully. You need to set nearly all Front-line units on REFIT. You want all the "Shell" units to get nothing all winter. If you just have everyone on READY or UNREADY, every one of your 100s of units will get a handful of guys. In the end, you'll end up with 100 Rifle Divisions with 4,000 guys each.....all of them UNREADY.

In order to Maximize the number of units that stay "READY", you have to channel all your replacements to fewer units, to keep them up. This is very important.

Thanks for the advice, I know the hard way you have fresh experience! [;)] Yes, I have one three-stack of Cav divisions ready in the center, and there are a couple more in the south.

How expensive are Sapper units in ARM terms? We are pretty low on ARM, we took a lot of factory losses!

Actually, I think our industry losses make for a very tense and interesting 1942!

Sappers are very cheap; Sapper units have no guns.

Tank Bns are uber-cheap in terms of Armaments, because Tank production doesn't consume armaments. The limitation on Tank Bns is that they use about 110 or so Vehicles, and that goes up to 180-ish when the turn to Regts. That's the only thing you really pay for on those.

But managing REFIT is most important. You cannot let "shell" units pick up any replacements. If they do, that's just waste.

Turn 25, STAVKA ORDERS

COMRADES!

The time has come when the Russian winter will punish the invaders! Now is the time to strike back!

OVERALL

Attack, attack, attack! Execute the STAVKA winter attack plan, but do not hesitate to punish the invaders in other areas if the odds appear favorable. As usual, take command of any STAVKA units up to 7 hexes behind your front. What reinforcements there are have been sent mostly to the south again, including the newly formed 2d Shock army HQ.

STAVKA units behind the front have stopped refitting as per the advice of our capitalist American production adviser.

NORTH

Attack on the northern flank of the 1st Shock army in the Vyshni Volochek area! I spent the points to transfer one of your armies from NW to Leningrad front, as NW was overloaded. You might consider edging some more units south of those that are facing the Finns to widen the attack sector.

CENTER

Attacks in the central direction have already been started with startling success!

SOUTH

Punish the German invaders with all your might! The main hope rests on you, Comrade Flam!

Note that STAVKA conducted a little amphibious landing on the Crimea last turn that cut off a couple of Rumanian divisions. Kill them if you can!

Stalin. Shaposhnikov.

Attacks on the central sector.

The situation on the Crimea before Soviet moves. Two units landed last turn, and two more in Feodosiya this turn.

And in the Soviet turn, the Rumanians learn the price of aggression against the Soviet Union!

Total losses from the first turn of the winter offensive. I don't have anything to compare with, so I don't know how good this is. Note however that the hapless Rumanians on the Crimea are responsible for about half the axis losses.

Turn 26, STAVKA ORDERS

HEROES OF THE MOTHERLAND!

Victory! The enemy is falling back in disarray before our winter offensive! Keep up the pressure!

OVERALL

Continue pushing back the fascist invaders! We are doing fine! As usual, take command of any STAVKA units up to 7 hexes behind your front.

NORTH

STAVKA expects more aggressive action here. Put heavier pressure on the Germans in the Vyshni Volochek area and north!

CENTER

Attacks in the central direction are continuing!

SOUTH

Your offensive is going forward heroically in true socialist spirit! Keep going! Take command of 2d Shock army HQ SW of Voronezh and use it get a morale boost for your offensive. You can use some AP to transfer units to this army.

Follow up the success in the Crimea, but do not committ more units to this direction, as the offensive here will soon run out of supplies. The main front is more important.

Stalin. Shaposhnikov.

Situation northwest of Moscow after Soviet moves turn 26. The liberation of Rzhev is imminent.

And the south after Soviet moves. Gorlovka has just been liberated by the Caucasus front! The Soviet defenders of the motherland are driving the fascist invaders before them in the south!

Losses during Soviet turn 26.

Tarhunnas invited me to comment, so......looks good so far!

Killing 3 Romanian units is a great start. Yeah they are Romanians, but the Axis needs everyone it can get it's hands on.

How many attacks are you doing per turn? Anything over 100, and you are really cookin'.

How are your front-line units holding up?

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Tarhunnas invited me to comment, so......looks good so far!

Killing 3 Romanian units is a great start. Yeah they are Romanians, but the Axis needs everyone it can get it's hands on.

How many attacks are you doing per turn? Anything over 100, and you are really cookin'.

How are your front-line units holding up?

I'll count the attacks this turn. I don't think we are at 100 though.

Front line units holdinhg up rather well. Some sectors have several unready units where resistance is stiff, but Western front is still battering forward. I try to rotate units in and out of the front, leaving unready units to revive a hex behind the front.

Turn 27, STAVKA ORDERS

HEROES OF THE MOTHERLAND!

We are chasing the fascist invaders back like the rats they are. The enemy is falling back in panic on the front both sides of Vyshni Volochek, and great progress has been made in the south.

OVERALL

Continue attacking, but try to reinforce success rather than failure! As usual, take command of any STAVKA units up to 7 hexes behind your front. I have found a nifty way to get divisions up to strength. You can merge a rifle brigade with an unready rifle division and get a healthy division. Don't practice it too often though, even though we have plenty of brigades, we do not want to burn them freely. It will indirectly use up APs, so only do it in selected cases when needed to keep the offensive going. Do not merge divisions, even if unready. We will need those formations eventually, even if they are weak now.

As the enemy is falling back, we will need to repair railways in some sectors. You might want to build a couple of railway construction units where needed.

NORTH

The enemy has made sustantial withdrawals here. Follow up and keep the pressure on them!

CENTER

Attacks in the central direction are continuing, but the going is best on the flanks of AGC, at Kalinin and Voronezh!

SOUTH

You are doing fine, just keep up the good work! Consider making an amphibious assault on the north coast of the sea of Azov. STAVKA is moving naval brigades to ports in preparation, which you may use next turn if you want.

Stalin. Shaposhnikov.

The Kalinin area before Soviet moves.

The area around Rzhev after Soviet moves, showing Soviet attacks. Rzhev is close to being surrounded.

And turn 27 in the south.

Losses from the Soviet part of turn 27.

We made 58 attacks, of which 1 was a rout, 36 retreats and 21 helds.

Turn 28. At Vyshni Volochek we have kicked the fascists out of their entrenchments. Now they are on the run in the snow...

Map before Soviet moves.