Taking arms against a sea of troubles...(no Mike 29)

[JAMiAM]

A count of "destroyed" units, along with some statistics.

[vlcz]

Interesting "battle clinic" anilisys, I´m on the bandwagon of those who thinks soviet play is being a little too conservative from 1.5 onwards, so will follow your developments.

[Peltonx]

Nice AAR.

Running never pays off in the long run for Russian players. The only ones that have given me a game fight forward.

Very few players look at the big picture on eather side.

I have played Mike before and he takes to many unessary risks and will probably pay the price vs you as he did me.

Pelton

[kevini1000]

His situation wasn't really that bad to begin with

[Wuffer]

As every european schoolkid knews today, the final victory of the working class was inevitable. However, after only moderate Axis' casualties during the first months of war (including at least a complete panzercorps), there is no doubt amongst historicans that the change of charge to Marshall Jamiamski shortened the whole patriotic war significantly. "The Germans had never expected the forecoming disasters", the Marshall explains during the victory parade 8th May 1944 in Paris.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: sath

His situation wasn't really that bad to begin with

Indeed not, he was in a perfectly good position. Much better than a lot of 1.05 games.

James, I'm skeptical about disbanding and merging so many units. You're incurring serious AP costs doing this: upfront for the disbands proper, and down the line when (and it is when) you have to build more units. The reduction of the overload on STAVKA is meaningless.

As much as I hate doing it, the real answer here is: the attrition shuffle. You just need to cycle in fresh in units up front and get the clapped out ones into the rear. Once you have the junk in the rear, then you have to micromanage refits and TOE settings to get replacements where you want them -- more tedium. It's a ton of busywork. But in the end, better than what you're doing.

I think you were right to put more strength up front though. And I also agree with you that far too many Soviets are playing passively now and foregoing perfectly good counterattacking opportunities. There's way too much panzer fright out there.

The game is severely biased towards the offense in terms of the morale mechanism. As such mere passive defense isn't good enough. You absolutely must, even as the defender, find places and create opportunities to take shots at the German. This lowers his morale and raises yours. It is far more effective than mere training. Training just gets completely green units to a tolerable level of morale, but after that, it's the school of hard knocks. And no amount of training will ever lower the enemy's morale.

[Wuffer]

merging of units

In theory, Flavius, you are right.
But in this special case _both_ armies had been suffered badly (look at all the out-of-supply turns of German infantry during the summer!) and while the soviet case could handle nearly everything, the Axis will never ever recouver when it's broken by gamedesign.
I wouldn't wonder if we see a destruction of an Armeegruppe muuuuch before '44... James is allready on the offensive.

[Wuffer]

morale mechanism

yeah, it's a bit strange, one had involuntarily making associations with socialdarwinism, you more you eat, the stronger you'll be [:D]
At least, it's survival of the fittest, not the strongest...

[Seminole]

How many Guards, and Guards eligible, formations do you have?

Another factor in disbanding and merging units, you're driving down the denominator in Guards limit calculation.  Speaking of which, does that go by counters on the map, or is there a unit size consideration that factors in (does 300 Inf Div mean I can have as many Guards Inf Div as 225 Inf Div and 75 Inf Bde?)

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: vlcz

, I´m on the bandwagon of those who thinks soviet play is being a little too conservative from 1.5 onwards,

Don't include me amongst the conservatives. I've kicked Carnage out of Holy Russia and it still September '41[;)]

[JAMiAM]

Northern lights? Or, just the flash of artillery?

[JAMiAM]

In the Center...

[JAMiAM]

A big, ugly picture of the South.

[JAMiAM]

More detail...no less ugly...[:D]

[JAMiAM]

Turn 40 OOB, and the combat losses from my half of the turn.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Seminole
Another factor in disbanding and merging units, you're driving down the denominator in Guards limit calculation.  Speaking of which, does that go by counters on the map, or is there a unit size consideration that factors in (does 300 Inf Div mean I can have as many Guards Inf Div as 225 Inf Div and 75 Inf Bde?)

That is true that a smaller pool, yields a smaller total of Guards. I intend, as Flavio notes the inevitable necessity, of growing the Soviet army back out. For now, though, it is undergoing a bit of a "pruning" so that the growth is a bit more controlled, and stronger.

According to the manual description, the size of the various guards units factor into the approximate ratio that can be guards at the various breakpoints in the game. Whether it is "linear" is unknown.

ORIGINAL: Seminole

How many Guards, and Guards eligible, formations do you have?

On turn 40, I have the following:

45 Guards Rifle Divisions
1 Guards Rifle Brigade
4 Guards Cavalry Corps
1 Guards AT Art Regiment
1 Guards Mtn Division
1 Guards Tank Brigade
8 Guards Sapper Regiments
2 Guards Motorcycle Regiments
11 Guards Lt Rocket Regiments (note, these are always Guards)
17 Guards Artillery Regiments (of various flavors, but mostly RGVK)

So, I am actually getting close to my cap on units, at this stage. I have to admit that Toidi did an admirable job of harvesting Guards. I've got another couple of dozen Combat Units that are ready to flip, with an unknown number of Support Units.

[vlcz]

Quite a bunch of "helds" on the south,specially around that thin penetration that will surely keep their forces honest , and yours in the morale way up..

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: vlcz

Quite a bunch of "helds" on the south,specially around that thin penetration that will surely keep their forces honest , and yours in the morale way up..

Actually, if you look at the detailed picture, most of those Axis attacks were successful. I just moved back into the hexes to keep a "tar baby" on his units. He gets some relatively easy wins, but ends up wasting his turn with hasty attacks against the various brigades that are sticking to him. Given how far his supply trace is, this leaves his forces with not enough fuel, and thus MPs to make any forward progress.

[vlcz]

most of those Axis attacks were successful. I just moved back into the hexes to keep a "tar baby" on his units.

he stayed in that ...sausage of a penetration after pushing your units? [8|] he must be VERY short of fuel indeed [X(]

[JAMiAM]

The shot from the North.