Barbarrossa Encirclement Help

[David Hansen]

When launching the invasion against Russia...bypass much of the border Russian units and encircle them...creating "pockets" of out of supply units...with the result the entrapped units are much easier to defeat than a head on approach...so the conventional wisdom goes.

What I am finding in my limited play thru experience that this strategy is not as effective in quickly destroying these pockets of enemy units as I expected. I find multiple turns are required to collapse these pockets and numerous Axis units to do so... that hinders rapid advances eastward that are critical prior to the first Russian winter.

Typically I see 3 and sometimes 4 turns to completely overrun a pocket of 3/4 defenders...with the length of turns being typically 14 days during the late spring to early fall...that translates 6-8 weeks...I cut rail supply and focus on first eliminating HQ's...but I feel my tactical/blitzing efforts are to slow and somehow ineffective with the goal of rapid advancement to the east.

At the start of the invasion (Apr 1941) I have 6 tanks...3 mech...5 tac bombers...5 med bombers...5 fighters...7 armies...4 HQ's...7 cores...2 para. Tanks/fighters/infantry units at level 2. Is this enough strength? Should I wait 2-3 more turns and continue to build, but reducing favorable weather conditions?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Playing the 1939 campaign on intermediate level.

TXS

[Taxman66]

The bonus Russian units (not regular units already on the map) show up at 0 supply.
So if you kill them on the opening turn, they can't be brought back at reduced cost/time.

[PvtBenjamin]

Most important is keeping SU mobilization low, sPz has a post in here somewhere that lays all of the decisions out

I practiced Barbarossa playing the first turn of the '41 scenario with FOW off then on, good practice