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Turn 33, 29th january 1942

Last turn of january, from experience february is slightly in favor of the germans with mild blizzard

A view of the losses



And Stalino is mine (for some weeks...)

ORIGINAL: STEF78

...

A view of the losses

you've done well to keep your captured so low, that will help with arms pts in early 1942 (less going to rebuild the returning divisions) and should help you build up a substantial army as the year goes on.

You've clearly made him pay a high price for his gains so far

Since end january, I'm building rifle brigades at a high rate (beetween 6 and 8 per turn) but I noticed that my AFV OOB ddin't increase.



So I looked at my pool...



And almost all units have their "heavy tanks TOE" > 100%.

Should I build tank brigades? It seems to me that they are pretty useless while defending....

Should I build tank brigades?

I don't think, it's a good idea.
They are too expensive on trucks.
For this problem, somme times I had to disband or put on static some of them.

>So I looked at my pool...

you evac full t34 factory from kxarkov and forgot 20 vechile, i think it was very strange choise.
in my sov games, pool t34 after 43 have 4-6k+ and not deductible. i cant use them have 20-30 mech\tank corps.

p.s.
in new version old tanks can disassemble arnaments, it rly nice! maybe t34 41 you can too.

I wouldnt build tank brigades. You get a ton of them and when you start attacking later on you will burn up alot of armored vehicles especially T60/T70s. I commonly lose 100+ AFVs per attack in mid to late 1942. So having a built up pool of tanks isnt a bad idea.

Also as long as you dont lose alot of tank BDEs- you will have enough auto created to tank BDEs to form something like 30+ total Tank corps alone. I have not nor do I intend to build any tank BDEs period. As I doubt I will need more than 30 tank corps.

If you build anything build some motorized BDEs and keep them in the back to get fully trained up. As you can convert 3x motorized BDEs to mech corps late in 1942. Again though you will be using up alot of trucks. As you dont get any free motorized/mech BDEs and mech corps are better than tank corps CV wise.

Personally Ive found that as long as you about 80% or better on trucks it doesnt seem to have alot of effect on the Soviet army. Im typically at around 100k trucks and require like 120k. Soviets just dont build enough trucks period to keep up with units/attrition. Even if you had kept the 20 vehicle factory that only ends up being like 110 or so trucks a week, which is a drop in the bucket compared to your requirements. So over an entire year that 20 vehicle factory only equals 2 tank/mech corps worth of vehicles, you get much better payoff saving other things than vehicles in total I do believe.

Entire war 20 vehicle factories only equals 6-7 total tank/mech corps in truck capacity its really not a huge hit to the soviet war effort. It seems the game is built to were most of the Soviet trucks have to come from the western allies via lend lease. So really the Soviets will be truck poor until 1943/1944 no matter what you do with vehicle factories.

70% trucks has little effect so trucks are simply window dressing

ORIGINAL: beekeeper

you evac full t34 factory from kxarkov and forgot 20 vechile, i think it was very strange choise.

Obviously I made some mistakes while evacuating industry but it was a constant headache as you played agressively and advanced very fast...

I lost most of Leningrad industries, 8 armaments in Stalino and of course the Tula's industries which where destroyed by an ahistorical raid...

Rostov, Vorochilovsk and Taganrog where saved after some desesperate counterattacks.

I'm rather satisfied with the final result

Thanks to chaos45 and pelton for the comments about trucks.

At the moment, it's not my major concern.

I wonder where will the lightning hit?

I have a full map of turn 34 but as whe are only turn 38, I will wait 2 turns before posting it.

Let's have a look at my best units on the 12th february 1942. Not that bad!

At 207 Heavy industry and 307 armaments your fine. You have more than enough to fight the rest of the war.

Turn 34, 5th february 1942

A general view of the front. I've lost my offensive momentum.

My objectives for the next monthes:
- Holding Moscow
- Keep my army in good shape...

But of course Beekeeper will have the initiative

Turn 38, 5th march 1942

End of blizzard and first 1942's german strike! The pocket wasn't sealed but I didn't expect such an early strong move.



I decide to enlarge the gap and evacuate most of my units in the pocket

Yep once the first week in march 1942 hits its back to the 1941 all over again until mud......Looks like you got lucky and he didnt concentrate his armor, as that looks to be half or less of the German panzer/motorized forces.

ORIGINAL: chaos45

Yep once the first week in march 1942 hits its back to the 1941 all over again until mud......Looks like you got lucky and he didnt concentrate his armor, as that looks to be half or less of the German panzer/motorized forces.

I would say 80% of the german Pz army, the 3 others are near Velikie Luki and Novgorod

Hi stef,

Have you any idea why no one SU was involved in the two first combats under the command of the 6 army ???

ORIGINAL: schascha

Hi stef,

Have you any idea why no one SU was involved in the two first combats under the command of the 6 army ???

My headquater was moved by a previous attack and was far from the fight.

Turn 39, 12th march 1942

Sometimes it's better to give up some units.... I pay the price as Beekeeper achieves a superb encirclement!



No way to break it, my losses will be significant!

Pretty harsh encirclement, but it happens in this game alot when anyone plays the soviets lol.

Where are you Cavalry Corps at? They are in my opinion the Soviets best means of making/breaking pockets in the early to mid 1942 period. Also they usually have enough movement you can move in and do 1-2 attacks and still fall back a couple hexes depending on hex control an such. Thus they can run in try to help bust into the pocket then hopefully fall back to the next defense line and avoid getting pocketed by any follow on GErman attacks. Especially if they beat up a couple German armored divisions in the process.

ORIGINAL: chaos45
Where are you Cavalry Corps at?

They are spread all along the front... but will be soon concentrated at the "right" place.