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Soviet Strategies for 1941 - A Brutal Slog


I have played a number of multiplayer games through 1941 as both Germany and the Soviet Union, and I thought I would like to create a guide for new players or players inexperienced with multiplayer games. I desired to do this in order to encourage more people to venture into the glorious world of head on head WITE action and have a successful outing. However, a detailed guide for the Soviets is almost impossible as there are many contingencies depending on the actions of the invaders.


Instead of producing a detailed guide, I decided to share my thoughts on strategies and tactics to help withstand the storm, turn the march east into a brutal slog, and make the Axis player dread opening their save. In many ways, this is a more historical result than many games which end in the panzers riding off into the sunrise. The ultimate goal for 1941 is to force the Axis into a winter offensive to meet the HWM. Since around 35% of the total victory points come from capturing objectives early, the goal is to bleed these bonus points as much as possible while holding onto the major cities.


To this end, we must grind the Germans down on a tactical level, wasting their CPP, increasing movement costs, and counter attacking advance units while preserving and hopefully growing the Red Army.


Your Axis opponent who just received their turn


I will start the discussion by presenting the most common and easily rectifiable mistakes I see made by Soviets. Then after moving to proactive strategies, cover areas vital to the defense of the Motherland, and maybe some army management, I hope to equip you with the tools you need to stem the tide against the fascist hordes.


While this is specifically tailored based of my experience in multiplayer games, I see no reason why it wouldn't apply in 1941 against the AI.

Not Defending VP Cities


This is one of the biggest mistakes I see players make. After punching through your lines (impossible, I know), the enemy races 10+ hexes to the nearest victory city and find it unoccupied with a sigh of relief. Instead of leaving their panzers vulnerable in open terrain where they will be cut off and useless for at least two turns, the enemy will find shelter in the city, transport fuel to the airbase, and gain the time bonus all without spending CPP, tanks, or time. Since our goal is to waste time, waste CPP, and destroy tanks, this is the worst-case scenario, and yet it happens almost every time I play Axis.



Guderian Welcoming Model and Company into Orel



If the city is 35 or more MP away from the nearest panzer corps, it is acceptable to leave a brigade (not airborne as they can easily recon this!) or low CPP division in the city. Many times, this will deter the fatigued division from even moving next to the city as they need to find cover from your tank army hit squads (more on that later), or simply don’t have the MP to attack and occupy the city. Also, if you have 10-15 or more defensive CV, the defending units should be strong enough to withstand a hasty attack from one or two exhausted motorized/panzer divisions.


Within 30 MP, the motorized units can make a deliberate attack on the city, and you need two to three decent divisions with at least 50 defensive CV to withstand or deter the assault. Tank and mechanized divisions are particularly suited to this task, as they have strong anti-tank capabilities, and should be placed in the rear anyway as I will explain later. They need to be paired with Rifles to form a truly solid defense however.


If they stack three+ motorized and panzer divisions and deliberate attack, you will probably lose anyway, but this is a significant commitment and will weaken their corridor, bleed CPP from their best units, probably lose 30+ tanks, and leave them ripe for a counter attack.


Trust me, your brigade will not stop the enemy’s breakthrough, and is much more effective defending your valuable cities against a worst case scenario.

Placing Front Line Units Under Stavka


This is another no brainer. Never leave units on the front line or in high risk areas (VP cities for example) directly under STAVKA’s command. I see this every game, and is an easy way to prevent 10,000’s of casualties. No matter how worthless you think the unit is, it will perform much better under an army or corps, even if the HQ is depleted, out of range, and with a worthless leader. In many cases this will turn shattered results into routs, or rout vs retreat. This quickly adds up to 10,000’s of avoided losses.


By reducing your losses in this way, you preserve the Red Army, waste enemy CPP and movement by turning routs into retreats, and help to prevent the Axis from reaching the ~120,000 a turn causalities they need to keep the Red Army down.


I know this has been said before, but I still see it, so it can't hurt repeating.

I'm in the midst (really quite early on, its just taken me many hours to get to August) of a Soviet campaign against the AI, so I'll definitely try to apply some of these tips. Definitely need to scour the line for STAVKA links. I think I've changed a fair number of units to more local commands, but I'm certain there's some I've missed. Thanks jubjub!

ORIGINAL: gekkoguy35

I'm in the midst (really quite early on, its just taken me many hours to get to August) of a Soviet campaign against the AI, so I'll definitely try to apply some of these tips. Definitely need to scour the line for STAVKA links. I think I've changed a fair number of units to more local commands, but I'm certain there's some I've missed. Thanks jubjub!

Glad to hear it! An easy way to check is to right click on STAVKA, and look for the combat units that directly report to it. You can do this with Front HQ's as well, and it's worth it to incorporate this into each turn's routine because you have corps disbanding almost every turn, which can cause units to start to report up to the inappropriate command.

Managing Reserves


Another game killing mistake that I see too often is poor reserve management. If there are 600,000 able bodied comrades bumming around in the reserves drinking vodka, there simply aren’t enough bodies on the field to stop the Germans. These units need to make it to the battlefield as soon as they are combat worthy. While this number will be quite high for the first few turns, it should come down below 200k by turns 6-7 and then hover around that number.


These huge reserves arise from not setting units to refit in the reserves and/or having too strict standards for deployment. Since refitting on-map units may have issues receiving replacements, manpower inevitably winds up going to reserve units. Without setting units to refit in the reserves, the AI tends to distribute the remaining manpower more or less evenly among the reserves. We want to concentrate these replacement among a few divisions, instead of ending up with scores of under strength divisions that are not fit for deployment.


Once you set units to refit in the reserve they jump to the top of the replacement priority. Since this can starve on-map units, there is a balance between refitting on-map and off-map units. Additionally, as Loki pointed out, during turns 1 and 2, the initial 600k manpower pool should go to your highest morale on map units via refit. After this, from turns 3-20, it is quite easy to accumulate low strength divisions in the reserves. We want to get these counters on the map ASAP.


An easy way to manage this is to filter for units over 40% TOE in the reserves, and set the top 5-10 XP rifle divisions in the Soviet Reserves to refit every turn. This is the amount I have found you can refit without starving your on map refits. These divisions will be available to deploy the next turn. By doing this, you will have fresh divisions every turn to distribute to your armies. Once you have some experience managing this aspect of the game, you can tweak the amount you set to refit and deploy.


For AA you can refit 1-3 a turn, AT can refit about 1 brigade every 2 turns, the guards light rockets you get can refit about 1 every 2 turns initially. I recommend not refitting 41a tank divisions or mechanized divisions in the reserve. These divisions are gigantic, and will starve your on map divisions. I don't send these divisions to the reserves for the same reason. Just wait until they upgrade to 41b or rifles on map and then refit them.


I personally like to set standards for deployment and deploy whatever comes up. I usually use the following criteria:

• Arty
o 90% TOE
o 45 XP
o 45 Morale

• Infantry
o 80% TOE
o 40 XP
o 45 Morale

• Calvary (typically don't set these to refit, as we would rather have the manpower fill infantry divisions)
o 60% TOE
o 45 XP
o 50 Morale

• Armour / mechanized
o 40-45 XP

• AA / AT
o 45 XP
o 80% TOE


If things are going poorly, you can slacken your standards to get more men on the field quicker, although this may result in higher losses in the long term.


M60A3TTS has excellent tips for managing reserves as well in his AAR: smokindave34 (Axis) vs M60A3TTS (Soviet) 41 CG. He goes through a lot of the units you can/should disband, including how to find units that received the wrong ground elements.

ORIGINAL: jubjub

Managing Reserves


Another game killing mistake that I see too often is poor reserve management. If there are 600,000 able bodied comrades bumming around in the reserves drinking vodka, there simply aren’t enough bodies on the field to stop the Germans. These units need to make it to the battlefield as soon as they are combat worthy. This number will be quite high for the first few turns, but the number should come down below 200k by turns 6-7 and hover around that number.
...
An easy way to manage this is to set the top 5-10 XP infantry divisions in the reserves to refit every turn. They will be available to deploy the next turn. By doing this, you will have fresh divisions every turn to distribute to your armies. Once you have some experience managing this aspect of the game, you can tweak the amount you set to refit and deploy.
...

not totally sure about this - think its more situational. The opening 600,000 should be claimed by on-map formations via the refit routine (remember the order is refit/reserve; refit/map; .... - the key is to make sure the on map units are in a position to claim this allocation). After that 1941 is hand to mouth for replacements. But its no harm to let the December manpower dump just go into bringing up a mass of formations to around 50%, that makes it a lot more feasible to empty the reserve by April/May 42.

Linked to this, the real constraint on the Soviets isn't manpower, its artillery.

Your second pt can be misleading. Some rifle divisions will shatter and go into the rebuild queue with a few remaining elements. These can look misleadingly high on experience but that will be swamped when they actually do take on replacements.

If you want a quick rule of thumb, refit the ones with more artillery.

Not disagreeing with your post, just think this side of a Soviet 1941 is more situational than you present.

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: jubjub

Managing Reserves


Another game killing mistake that I see too often is poor reserve management. If there are 600,000 able bodied comrades bumming around in the reserves drinking vodka, there simply aren’t enough bodies on the field to stop the Germans. These units need to make it to the battlefield as soon as they are combat worthy. This number will be quite high for the first few turns, but the number should come down below 200k by turns 6-7 and hover around that number.
...
An easy way to manage this is to set the top 5-10 XP infantry divisions in the reserves to refit every turn. They will be available to deploy the next turn. By doing this, you will have fresh divisions every turn to distribute to your armies. Once you have some experience managing this aspect of the game, you can tweak the amount you set to refit and deploy.
...

not totally sure about this - think its more situational. The opening 600,000 should be claimed by on-map formations via the refit routine (remember the order is refit/reserve; refit/map; .... - the key is to make sure the on map units are in a position to claim this allocation). After that 1941 is hand to mouth for replacements. But its no harm to let the December manpower dump just go into bringing up a mass of formations to around 50%, that makes it a lot more feasible to empty the reserve by April/May 42.

Linked to this, the real constraint on the Soviets isn't manpower, its artillery.

Your second pt can be misleading. Some rifle divisions will shatter and go into the rebuild queue with a few remaining elements. These can look misleadingly high on experience but that will be swamped when they actually do take on replacements.

If you want a quick rule of thumb, refit the ones with more artillery.

Not disagreeing with your post, just think this side of a Soviet 1941 is more situational than you present.

Thanks for the feedback! First, I corrected an error, units under 50% toe aren't treated as being on refit, but they definitely seem to receive replacements first all else equal. I also clarified the priority of replacements.


There is definitely more nuance to managing reserves, and I think you make solid points about the first few turns and initial 600k manpower pool. I think the main point stands: if you still have 600k manpower in your reserves by turn 8, you have a problem. At least, you won't be able to maintain the aggressive defensive strategy I will continue to lay out in further posts.


I should also clarify that my strategy is mostly relevant turns 3-20. During this time, it's easy to end up with a lot of RD's units in reserve hovering around 50-60% TOE, and I feel it's important to get these divisions on the map. After that, deploying men from the reserves is not going to make much impact on defense, but instead need to be prioritized according to situational needs and the Winter offensive.


I'd also agree that the lack of artillery limits offensive capabilities. However, on defense, infantry elements (counting MG's and 50mm mortars) seem to account for around 70-80% of HE hits with a full toe 41b RD. I think it's more important to maximum the amount of CV on the map with combat capable units than to worry too much about maximizing combat potential. Remember, my goal is to force the Germans into a Winter offensive, and we have to fight to achieve this. This requires lots of counters on the map.

I doubt that low TOE units have priority in the reserve (although it’s possible—I didn’t code the game). I think what you’re seeing is that there’s always a bottleneck of some sort—AT guns, 122mm howitzers, 81mm mortars, DSHKs, etc.—that is more limiting than other constraints. High TOE units are full on most elements, but are likely waiting for the most limited element to be produced. In contrast, a low TOE formation needs everything—the same limited capacity element as high TOE formation, limited capacity elements that are relatively less scarce, and no constraint options like rifle squads. Because it can draw replacements from many different types of elements, it gains more. That’s not priority—it’s just that fewer of its needs are constrained by shortages.

I only recently began to experiment with Soviets and am not an expert. But for my reserve management, I tried to identify the elements that were capacity constraints by looking at the empty active pools in the production screen. I then divided my production constraint (ie 675 81mm mortars, 70 122mm howitzers, whatever it was) by the number of elements in the rifle division TOE. This imprecisely measures how many divisions I can fill in a turn, ignoring on map reinforcements. I then started refitting about half that number of divisions each turn, preferring on map formations and then adding enough formations in the reserve until the target number. If I had surplus elements leftover at beginning of the next turn, I added a few more divisions to refit on the next turn until I figured out the maximum number of formations I could refit and still satisfy non-refit replacements on the map).

I also thought it was important to disband SUs that used elements that were in short supply—in particular I disbanded a lot AT battalions (since I was short on AT guns in rifle divisions) and AA battalions/regiments (because the guns, quad maxims and dshks were all in short supply, including on map air bases) or reduce the maximum TOE for the formations while in the reserve. I was overzealous (disbanding naval brigades to free manpower for more rifle divisions), but think this was generally a good approach because I wasn’t winning most combats generally, didn’t have enough divisions to triple stack and create a real chance of winning, and was instead trying to slow the Germans and deplete CPP with depth. SUs help with winning combats by boosting CV, but don’t create ZOC and had too high of a shatter risk as standalone units, if converted to combat units.

If I had to do summer 41 again, I would probably also consider sending very low TOE armies into the reserve, and I don’t know that I would have let as much manpower accumulate in construction battalions. Certainly the brigades were useful, but I don’t know whether their experience level affects their construction value. If it doesn’t, I don’t think I would have let them accumulate manpower early as a reservoir for the later arriving brigades. Instead, I would have just filled the brigades later when they arrived.

@jubjub - firstly I don't think there is much advantage in reducing TOEs. I am at T38 playing as the Soviets and have most items in abundance, except for those which have historical production limits. The problem with the early Soviet Army is that it appears to be in penny packets. Also remember with TOEs the % is not a manpower or combat count but an element count and can be misleading. 28% TOE of a Sov Cav Div is anti tank rifles. I think you are better off disbanding battalion sized units. First all motorised sapper batts to free up the trucks, and so on. Check the TOEs though as some ot the smaller units maybe better than the larger ones eg a Tank Regiment has more tanks than a Brigade.

ORIGINAL: Firewire9452


I only recently began to experiment with Soviets and am not an expert. But for my reserve management, I tried to identify the elements that were capacity constraints by looking at the empty active pools in the production screen. I then divided my production constraint (ie 675 81mm mortars, 70 122mm howitzers, whatever it was) by the number of elements in the rifle division TOE. This imprecisely measures how many divisions I can fill in a turn, ignoring on map reinforcements. I then started refitting about half that number of divisions each turn, preferring on map formations and then adding enough formations in the reserve until the target number. If I had surplus elements leftover at beginning of the next turn, I added a few more divisions to refit on the next turn until I figured out the maximum number of formations I could refit and still satisfy non-refit replacements on the map).

I'm curious to know, what number did you come up with for # of RD you typically refit in reserve? Like I said, my number is 5-10.

ORIGINAL: Firewire9452

I doubt that low TOE units have priority in the reserve (although it’s possible—I didn’t code the game). I think what you’re seeing is that there’s always a bottleneck of some sort—AT guns, 122mm howitzers, 81mm mortars, DSHKs, etc.—that is more limiting than other constraints. High TOE units are full on most elements, but are likely waiting for the most limited element to be produced. In contrast, a low TOE formation needs everything—the same limited capacity element as high TOE formation, limited capacity elements that are relatively less scarce, and no constraint options like rifle squads. Because it can draw replacements from many different types of elements, it gains more. That’s not priority—it’s just that fewer of its needs are constrained by shortages.

You're probably right, but regardless, the elements are spread more or less evenly when we need to concentrate them in a smaller amount of units with higher morale/XP.

ORIGINAL: 56ajax

firstly I don't think there is much advantage in reducing TOEs. I am at T38 playing as the Soviets and have most items in abundance, except for those which have historical production limits. The problem with the early Soviet Army is that it appears to be in penny packets. Also remember with TOEs the % is not a manpower or combat count but an element count and can be misleading. 28% TOE of a Sov Cav Div is anti tank rifles. I think you are better off disbanding battalion sized units. First all motorised sapper batts to free up the trucks, and so on. Check the TOEs though as some ot the smaller units maybe better than the larger ones eg a Tank Regiment has more tanks than a Brigade.

We're saying the same thing. If you look back, I'm not saying to reduce maximum TOE, but instead provide my minimum criteria units need to meet before they are deployed. Agree about the battalions, but didn't want to get into that level of detail.

I believe I started with 10 divisions, and then increased closer to 15. It changed quite frequently because (1) the TOE changes and (2) the soviets start with stockpiles of some items, so those items become constraints later. I might be misremembering though--I'm in Feb. '43 of my campaign now...so this is 80 turns ago.

Tank armies


Now that I have hopefully saved someone from making mistakes that make me shake my head, I want to start laying out the methods to grind the Axis advance into a slow crawl.


Left unmolested, the Axis armor formations will pierce your defenses and race off into the sunset. It is critical to blunt this spear. Mobile hit squads of tanks and mechanized divisions can play this role and spoil the Axis party. By concentrating all of the best armor into 3-4 armies in the Western and Southwestern Fronts and giving them the best leadership, best SU’s, etc., the Red Army can quickly achieve impressive amounts of mobility and firepower.


These units are excellent quick reaction forces, able to repel advances across the Dnieper, break encirclements, and contain breakouts. In my opinion, these formations are absolutely necessary to slow the game down until the winter breaks down the invaders. It's also just a ton of fun to have huge tank battles and trash panzer divisions [:D]


As seen in this screenshot, I manage to win 1-2 battles against armored formations by turn three and destroy 63 mechanized elements on my turn. Not only was I able to win battles on turn three, but I kept hitting my opponent hard for multiple turns, crippling his offensive. By turn 10, any panzer division left in clear terrain was fair game. You can see the high W/L ratio for these leaders as well, especially Rokossovsky [&o]



How to Develop Your Tank Armies


To develop these armies as quickly as possible, we need to make Southwestern and Western Fronts assault HQ’s on turns one and two respectively. Additionally, we need to allocate our best mechanized units to our best corps leaders (e.g. Rokossovsky’s 9th MC). These corps should all go into the same armies. We want to minimize how often these units change HQ’s, as this eliminates the assault HQ bonuses for the turn.


As the corps go away, replace the army leaders with the best mechanized leaders, with the strongest armies receiving the best leaders. However, I don’t use Zhukov in this role, letting him instead lead one of the assault HQ’s on a later turn.


Refit these units at your own peril. The 41a TD and MD’s are behemoths, and suck up replacement supply at an stunning pace. This is a big problem until the supply backlog clears around turns 3-4. However, since they are so huge, they can still be quite powerful at 50% TOE. I prefer to wait until they change to the smaller 41b TOE to refit them, but may refit the big boys if the supply situation is strong.


A key aspect to developing these armies is to not place them on the front lines except where they are absolutely necessary, and they should never be front line against infantry. They are much more useful in the rear, where they maintain their mobility and firepower, and defend against mobile units instead of infantry. A couple placed on reserve also help immensely as they add a significant amount of uncertainty to the axis attacks, and forces the axis to overcommit to each battle. Keeping them in the rear also helps them to avoid encirclement, which is imperative as each unit can donate 1000+ vehicles to the fascist cause if encircled and destroyed.


Let's Smash Some Tractors


Now that you have built 3 to 4 of these armies, it’s time to gank unsuspecting victims. By this point in the game, the panzer divisions have exhausted most of their combat capability after racing hundreds of miles to the east in a few weeks. Often leaving low CPP, high fatigue panzer divisions in clear terrain, many players underestimate or are unaware of the imminent risk of 1000’s of swarming tanks. We want to prioritize hitting these as hard as we can. While their divisions may still have 8-10 CV, they are nothing our brave tankers can’t face with a bit of vodka and encouragement from the commissars. If you’re lucky, they may leave spare tank regiments lying around. These are terrible on defense and should be attacked mercilessly.


I have found that you need about 4:1 ratio in CV in the initial stages to overpower a panzer division in clear terrain – the only terrain you should attack them in. I’d also recommend bringing along a RD from another army to fill out the attacking force. Solitary panzer divisions are the priority targets, as they are harder to refit and worse on defense, but motorized divisions are also good targets. Don’t bother attacking SS units, however. They are totally OP and never lose.


It’s also a good tactic to cut off the unit you want to attack with the weakest mobile units prior to attacking, as this eliminates the risk of facing additional support units. It’s ok to lose some of these weak units as they take forever to refit anyway, and they should be sacrificed without hesitation if you can cut off the enemy’s advance.


Once you’ve fought and hopefully won the battle, you need to retreat these units and use the infantry for cover, as we don’t want them to get encircled.


The presence of these formations on the map have a couple of knock-on effects. Obviously, they are great at destroying tanks and cutting off advance units. Additionally, once you have given your opponent a couple of bloody noses, they will be forced to either start playing more cautiously or continue to get their most important units trashed. They need to build up CPP and rest before advancing, think twice about fighting with their tank divisions, and generally advance a much more manageable pace until the weather stops them.

Good and intresting advices here! Do they apply to ai opponent as well as human opponent?

DAMN, just noticed you wrote a guide Jubjub!