Red Star Ascending Axis (BrianG) VS Soviet (HLYA) All Welcome

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Since the Soviets have a problem with overloaded HQ's most of the time the Soviets will use AP points to get units under this limit so as to not incur penalties. Well this time for me in this game that is not going to be the case. I am going to rely on the Germans fixing my overburdened HQ's with the units they eliminate in the pockets. By turn 3 the Soviets should not have any overburdened HQ's except for one without spending AP's. Thank you Germany

Soviets will also use AP's to get good commanders in key places. Well, that isn't going to happen here. Which is going to translate into even more loses because of sub par leaders. I have noticed in all my games as Soviets it really doesnt matter who or what you have in command the first 10 turns. The Germans can pretty much hasty attack it out of place. So I have watched numerous battle reports and basically in 100 battles you will be lucky to get 12-18 holds. Which is an 18% ratio. With sub par commanders that ratio stays pretty much the same but you take a great deal more loses. Therefor I won't be changing out commanders any time soon for my Soviets. I can hear all the commotion going on now across the internet. The second reason they aren't going to be changed is because these guys are going to be losing battles, A LOT of battles. I don't want that resume attached to my good commanders

Now let me tell you what I am going to do. I am going to take the AP that was saved in the above two examples (no Command Control optimization(let the Germans do it for you) & no changing of the Commanders to do something else which in my opinion which is huge. I am going to spend my AP points on Forts. Yes, you heard me. Step right up and take a look. I built 5 fort areas around Leningrad turn 1 & stocked them with diggers. Yes they will take up replacements but I would rather those go there and get the benefits of the forts. I will have an entrenched area to retreat to. I will have 60+ gun 45mm Anti-tank guns to help foster some kills on German tanks. So for turn 1 at a cost of 8 AP I am going to build as many as I can to get my defenses set up. I have liked the results from some of my games with these forts. Lets see how they do in this game. So essentially I am going to be a Fort buying digging maniac My game with ST I purchased 140ish points worth of forts in that game when the Soviets got the big 175 AP dump.

Here is the picture of the forts I built. I placed 4 in the clear terrain since those hexes are always a pain to defend with no fort in it. Also the fort behind the river. The next couple of photos after this one are some of the diggers I placed in those forts to help assist in the digging. By turn 4-5 these will be at fort level 2. Turn two I plan on building another 4-6 Forts in the Leningrad area to turn this into a WWI style battle in this area. Turn 3 I will probably build a few more but Moscow will be most focus of Fort spam since the cost will come down to 4 AP on turn 3.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Here is one of the forts with attached SU diggers. 14 isn't bad and with the fort itself diggers coming online turn 2 this will easily be at 20 or above on digging.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Here is another fort build Turn one with a dig value of 13. Not too bad and should be in the 20 range turn 2.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Next I play with the TOE of my Soviet Units. I set all Corps HQ's, Army HQ's, Front HQ's, and Stavka to 100%. I do the same for all the Airbases.

For Armor I set TOE to 50% (I have a ton of Armor that are all low on TOE across the board. Once I get comfortable on a front I will pick a few of these armor Divisions and nurse them up to 100% TOE monsters and pray they don't get auto disbanded ;-P) It is going to be difficult this game since there is going to be a ton of loses across the board. I want to stay at the 55-60 range is my nice spot

For Infantry I have set the TOE to 55% I dont' want to go lower than that until a decent front in which time I will raise up to 60% for any infantry under 30 Rifle squad experience. For any Inf division with higher than 30 to 40 rifle experience I will up this TOE% to 75-80%. For Inf Divisions higher than 40 rifle experience squads I give full TOE based on where they are on the battlefield. I am not going to give full TOE to a division that has the likely-hood of getting surrounded and forced to surrender.

For Cav, Art, and AT and pretty much everything else I have set at 55% TOE AT & ART will be raised to 75% TOE around turn 4ish then to 100% TOE turn 8-11 depending on what I see.

Just a note that the forts I build are set to 100% TOE & when a new turn happens with the new units I once again reset all the defaults to what I wrote above. It is a pain in the azz but I will have to manage where my replacements go to. I want them going to my good divisions instead of being pissed away on an Experience 15 Rifle division. At these levels of TOE it keeps my units from getting shattered on the first couple of battles. Makes them more likely to retreat with this low of a TOE since some will be in the "unready" state which they will retreat automatically. Without further ado here are some pictures of TOE

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Here are my Infantry TOE picure

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Here are my Cav, Art, and AT TOE picture

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Housekeeping

Just a disclaimer here that a great deal of what I am doing in this game goes against traditional practices. I have read many posts on the forums recommending the opposite. And that is good advice to newcomers to the game. So please realize that I have tried different parts of this strategy in other games and this is the first time I am putting everything together here in this game. Especially the part on HUGGING the Germans. I don't recommend this strategy to any new person since the skill level for this type of defense is higher than normal. I more than likely will get my azz handed to me this game but if I can glean a few things then that is a good thing. If you as the reader can get understanding from my madness then it makes it worth it.

Thank you much!

[Telemecus]

How much of this different strategy is down to v1.11.03?

For example the forts and digging was less useful when sappers and fort levels in general were nerfed. With the latest versions having gone back a bit on this, is this why you are going back to that kind of a defence. If the developers go back to trying to reduce "siege warfare" in the game again, would you change this strategy again?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Results

I will share a few High level information screens but I won't post any map pictures until turn 2 or 3 depending on what happens. I will say I did defend up front on all fronts. I have no illusions on the coming results of such a folly. Anyway here is the loses done to Germans during my turn with attacks and air bombardment. Pretty much the ratios are pretty sickening. I was able to capture 17 vehicles from the enemy in my attacks!!!!! This report is just my attacks done during the turn. You can see the column on the far right to see total loses for the turn.

Men killed is pretty much 15 to 1

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 1 Results

Turn 1 end OOB for both sides

I have 17,735 Tanks!!!!! (too bad they sux)

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

How much of this different strategy is down to v1.11.03?

For example the forts and digging was less useful when sappers and fort levels in general were nerfed. With the latest versions having gone back a bit on this, is this why you are going back to that kind of a defence. If the developers go back to trying to reduce "siege warfare" in the game again, would you change this strategy again?

How much of this was done because of v1.11.03??? I would say it wasn't done because of the patch. I have been toying with this idea for awhile but the cost of the forts were cost prohibitive(I remember them being 16 the first couple of turns then 8 at turn 3) So I thought of another way to make it work by not having to spend AP on other things. Then BAM!!!! I noticed that the cost of forts had come down and hit me like a ton of bricks of what I could do. Before in my other Soviet AAR I had to use combat ready units to dig because the cost of forts were so darn much. Now with the reduced cost & not spending my AP on other items I am going to spam forts like crazy to get nice retreat zones built up before the Germans get there. Yes it will take my replacement but I managed the replacements pretty well in my game with ST always having 200,000 to 500,000 in my pool.

So in a nutshell fort building was too expensive to build the forts in my earlier games. Now with the lower cost I am using it to offset a great many advantages that the Germans have. Did not the Soviets do this in real life? I recall they did. To answer your last questions of would I change my strat? I am sure I can make almost anything work even the cost restrictive old fort cost now on what I am doing if brought back. But then again I really think I am going to get way-laid fighting so close on Turn 1. But I have my reasons.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

How much of this different strategy is down to v1.11.03?

For example the forts and digging was less useful when sappers and fort levels in general were nerfed. With the latest versions having gone back a bit on this, is this why you are going back to that kind of a defence. If the developers go back to trying to reduce "siege warfare" in the game again, would you change this strategy again?

How much of this was done because of v1.11.03??? I would say it wasn't done because of the patch. I have been toying with this idea for awhile but the cost of the forts were cost prohibitive(I remember them being 16 the first couple of turns then 8 at turn 3) So I thought of another way to make it work by not having to spend AP on other things. Then BAM!!!! I noticed that the cost of forts had come down and hit me like a ton of bricks of what I could do. Before in my other Soviet AAR I had to use combat ready units to dig because the cost of forts were so darn much. Now with the reduced cost & not spending my AP on other items I am going to spam forts like crazy to get nice retreat zones built up before the Germans get there. Yes it will take my replacement but I managed the replacements pretty well in my game with ST always having 200,000 to 500,000 in my pool.

So in a nutshell fort building was too expensive to build the forts in my earlier games. Now with the lower cost I am using it to offset a great many advantages that the Germans have. Did not the Soviets do this in real life? I recall they did. To answer your last questions of would I change my strat? I am sure I can make almost anything work even the cost restrictive old fort cost now on what I am doing if brought back. But then again I really think I am going to get way-laid fighting so close on Turn 1. But I have my reasons.

The other benefit of building the forts is that now my units can be in "Reserve Mode" with no hard feeling any more for doing so. Instead of being in reserve mode and taking a hit on digging being in Reserve Mode since I should have the forts already built in specific key areas

[dcaflak]

Very ambitious strategy, I'm sure I'll have tons of fun following it!

Losses are always ugly...but if you manage to tire and weaken the almighty panzer divisions, then it can be worth the trade, methinks.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: dcaflak

Very ambitious strategy, I'm sure I'll have tons of fun following it!

Losses are always ugly...but if you manage to tire and weaken the almighty panzer divisions, then it can be worth the trade, methinks.

That is what I am hoping. I have tried bits and pieces of this in other games. Now is the true test with all of it combined together. The loses are going to be horrendous.

[Stelteck]

This game will be very interesting. Good luck everyone.

You will have to micromanage to hell your forces and try to attrit the german using the combat phase.

I'am not sûre it is possible, but i'am very happy to see you try and test it.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

This game will be very interesting. Good luck everyone.

Thank you Stelteck.

I am not looking forward to opening turn 2 when I receive it for sure.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

You will have to micromanage to hell your forces and try to attrit the german using the combat phase.

I'am not sûre it is possible, but i'am very happy to see you try and test it.

The way I have thought this out this really boils down to what happens turn 2 that will tell me what I need to know. If BrianG can keep me on my heels and force me to keep back peddling then that is good for him. This means he will have to have penetrated the line deep without me being able to use my rear areas effectivily. Because what really comes into play is the "ADVID" use of "Reserves" and without having to backpedal I can get those set up pretty nicely.

[dcaflak]

Best case scenario the Germans will be surprised by your tactic, suffer losses that will cripple them in the crucial first turns (for them) and prevent them from achieving their objectives, and inflincting irreplaceable losses to the Red Army.

Worst case scenario...

[chaos45]

audience is waiting for updates from the newsreels [:D]

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: chaos45

audience is waiting for updates from the newsreels [:D]

Had early morning work the last few days with minimum time to do anything else:-(. Getting up at 3am suxs and working til 4 in the afternoon. I have turn 3 that was sent to me last night. I should have that back to Brian tomorrow and will update the AAR. But yes I am still hugging PZs