Oshawott (Russia) vs. Stef78 (Axis)

[Oshawott]

T23 - North

Fortress Leningrad is still holding. I am not sure why he is not going for an all out attack on the city using 1st and 2nd Corps.

I start pushing a little south of Lake Ilmen.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Center

He takes VL and Rzevh. I mostly rest my troops now so that they get close to 100% TOE. Otherwise he just focuses on building fortifications. You can see the fort line. Not sure how smart this is. The construction value of those forts is pretty dismal.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Tula + Voronezh

You can clearly see the second line forming west of Voronezh. I flip a lot of individual hexes.

[Oshawott]

T23 - South

As you can see I have started reorganizing my army. I use Volkhov front in the south. I apologize to all the historians in the forum but I simply have no use for it further north. Transcaucasus takes position south of Volkhov front. North Caucasus front defends the Crimea and one army takes position at the very south of the main front.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Crimea

His last push into the Crimea. It is clear what he wants to do. Capture the landbridge and defend it with three units and reserves behind. There is nothing I can do. My forces are too weak. But I continue to fill the Crimea with rifle and tank brigades.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Battles

Only 5 battles and 1 battle requires 1=2.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Data

Would be interesting if someone could comment about these numbers. For example is the vehicle number normal? Is it normal to run out of armament points that early?

[BJP III]

ORIGINAL: Oshawott

T23 - Data

Would be interesting if someone could comment about these numbers. For example is the vehicle number normal? Is it normal to run out of armament points that early?

I think you have two issues. First, your casualties are really low, so your army requires proportionally more ARM. Second, from your earlier comment, you have your TOE set to 100%. If so, that is a big drain on ARM -- I believe most SHC players keep their divisions at 80% or so, and all artillery units at 50% or so.

[Flaviusx]

It's quite normal to run out of armaments at this stage of the game or even as early as October if you've done a good job preserving the Red Army and evacuated all the armament factories. I don't recommend setting divisions to 80% TOE, myself, rifle divisions are weak enough as is. I do dial down the settings on artillery SUs. Beyond that you should consider outright disbanding a bunch armament hungry but doubtfully effective SUs. All you really need are sappers and enough arty RVGK regiments to trick out your armies. You shouldn't have to build any SUs at all besides sappers until later in the game. Then you can consider adding AT, AA, and mortar units.

You need to be careful about who gets refits at this point, though. And you probably also want to leave the mass of rifle and tank brigade shells you get towards the end of the year on depleted status. (By steering replacements elsewhere via refit.)

Armaments along with trucks are the two major chokepoints for the Red Army in terms of replacements. No matter how well managed shortages will plague you all the way into 43. Any kind of reserve that you build up tends to get wiped out by mass TOE changes in 42.

[Oshawott]

Thanks for the input. I do adjust TOE settings. All units not used on the front line are set to 50% and all artillery SUs are set to 70%. All armor and motorized units are set to 50% with a few exceptions. And I mostly build sappers as support units because I know that every Axis player goes for forts if he doesn't win in 42. The only other support unit I build in 41 are Howitzer regiments because there are so many in the pool.

It is a good idea to leave all those rifle and tank brigades depleted until the armament and manpower situation improves.

[hfarrish]

ORIGINAL: BJP III


I think you have two issues. First, your casualties are really low, so your army requires proportionally more ARM. Second, from your earlier comment, you have your TOE set to 100%. If so, that is a big drain on ARM -- I believe most SHC players keep their divisions at 80% or so, and all artillery units at 50% or so.

I don't know, I've been playing Soviet from the get go and have never set anything to less than TOE 100%. Yes, you bottom out on ARMs for a while in early '42...but its hardly a gamebreaking issue. If I have given something up by not reducing TOEs its unclear to me what that would be.

[bigbaba]

one can reduce the TOE in lesser important front sectors in late 41 when the front is more or less stable there and there is no gain for axis to star a offensive there.. for example crima paninsula or around leningrad or against the finns in the far north. that helps a bit with armament problems.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

one can reduce the TOE in lesser important front sectors in late 41 when the front is more or less stable there and there is no gain for axis to star a offensive there.. for example crima paninsula or around leningrad or against the finns in the far north. that helps a bit with armament problems.

Just turn off refits in those areas. You can push replacements exactly where you want them to go simply by limiting who gets refitted without monkeying around with divisional TOE. The only exception here being tank and motorized divisions which I ruthlessly starve down to 50% across the board. But rifle divisions can be controlled for replacement purposes by refit priority.

SUs need to be more actively managed in terms of TOE due to their more abstract mechanics.

[Oshawott]

T24 - North

He finally displaces the air base that was supplying the pocket. 6 divisions remain in Leningrad. I always thought it was pointless to supply pocketed troops without an airbase but it is not true. I supplied both stacks by air using all my remaining TB3 bombers and some transports and the CV value almost doubled from 20 to 38. This is a new experience for me. I like this game!

Blizzard plan in the north: Two thrust. One west towards Pskov and the other one northeast to unhinge his defensive line. Pskov seems feasible but the northeast push is tricky because he has a lot of firepower there.

The main goal here is to stretch him like pizza dough. [:D] This will require a constant funneling of troops into this sector.

[Oshawott]

T24 - Center

I don't wait for the blizzard and immediately take back Rzevh.

Blizzard plan in the center: Try to pocket some troops with 16th and 13th army and push towards Smolensk. Also, I need to relieve Kaluga. There are still 8 armament points in the city.

[Oshawott]

T24 - Tula + Voronezh

Most of my forces are concentrated in this area. My plan is to push towards Kursk and Kharkov and encircle large number of German divisions. This is of course a pipe dream. No German player will allow a bulge like this. He will retreat and I will have a hard time even catching up to him.

[Oshawott]

T24 - South

There will be two thrusts in the south. I would like to link up with my troops at the Crimea. The other thrust is towards the Dnepr.

[Oshawott]

T24 - Crimea and Odessa

This is completely new to me. I never held Odessa during blizzard. I will try to push out of the city and land reinforcements including an army HQ. I will also try to break out of the Crimea and link up with my main front and threaten his supply lines.

I don't think I will use amphibious landings. I dislike this aspect of the game.

[Oshawott]

T24 - Battles

Only four battles. Need to rest my troops.

[Oshawott]

I managed to get 24 guard rifle divisions during the pre-blizzard campaign. I am also listing the units I lost during this time period.

I have a large number of units with 7 victories that have not switched to guard status. I am expecting a flood of new guard units during the blizzard.