USSR 1940?

[Lord Drakken]

Can anyone answer me this. How close do you have to be to the border with your garrison for it to count in neutrality pacts? The rules say on the border. Does that mean adjacent? This seems awfully strange and I remember it differently in past versions.

Do many USSR players actually keep their forces on the border to prevent a 1940 Barbarossa. It seems like most people are using said forces for Persia, Finland, etc in early 1940.

In fact with an early attack on Yugoslavia and aligning Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria I am not certain how hard it would be for Russia to keep enough garrison to stop a 1940 attack. The USSR starts with so few units and with only combined impulses plus the moves needed by the Chinese Communists it seems very very hard to maneuver units into positions for defense let alone aggressive action in any theater.

If Romania is not aligned do troops on that border even count towards the garrison ratio?

I would be thankful for any knowledge in this area.

[paulderynck]

Within 3 hexes of the common border.

In the first year of the pact, all the garrison units are doubled in defensive value, so essentially the Germans need a 4 to 1 ratio. See 9.5 of the RAC.

[Lord Drakken]

Thanks for the 3 hex rule. [&o] I have not been able to find that in the RAC anywhere. The 4:1 in 1940 I already knew.

The question I have for others is have you been able to stop a concerted effort by the Germans to DOW in 1940? The USSR doesn't seem to have many troops and only one mech, mtn, armor, etc. to bump the garrison early.

[paulderynck]

It's almost impossible to break the Russian garrison in 1940, unless the Russian lets you.

[Orm]

It is easy to get the USSR air into the hexes to count for garrison purposes since you have so many air moves. If you occupy the Baltic States early then you have more cities to which you can rail one unit per impulse even if the Chinese Communists eats up all your land moves.