City fort strategy as Soviets in 1941

[Alsadius]

I'm playing my first WitE2 game against myself, in the grand campaign. And I'm spending a lot of time thinking about city forts for the Soviets as a way to roadblock the Germans. So far on turn 6, I've built Smolensk up strongly (7 good divisions with Purkaev in command, 724 defensive CV), and Odessa decently (8 okay divisions, Galitsky in command, 180 defensive CV), and both are now on the front lines. It's also time for me to look at Kiev, too, which probably needs to fort up this turn if I want to hold onto it.

Thing is, these forts are about a strong infantry army each, plus the AP of a commander swap, and they're inevitably going to fall(because it's 1941). I figure air supply can keep them fighting for a good while, but I'm not sure if it's worth the sacrifice. How aggressively do most Soviet players fort up their cities?

Also, if it makes a difference, I'm still on version 1.00.00 - I saw a thing in patch notes for a later patch about how city forts could now draw supply from their own hex, which makes me worry if my plan to keep Smolensk and Kiev in supply is workable.

Thanks!

[Lovenought]

I'm not sure people know how viable they are yet. There is a problem with air supply missions not being intercepted. So either you use transports, and can easily prevent any city from being isolated indefinitely. Or you forbid it via house rules, and the City Fort is isolated permanently once encircled, with all the severe problems that come from that.

It will be interesting to see if the Soviets have the ability to break Isolation intermittently once auto-intercept is working properly, and at what cost.

[DeletedUser1769703214]

City Forts are a death trap against a good German player knowing what to do in 41, air transport or not.

[Alsadius]

Obviously they're a deathtrap. It's 1941 - any effort to hold a fixed position is a deathtrap. I'm more curious about whether it buys enough time to be worth it.

And yeah, I could house rule them away, but as a relatively new player who's playing against myself, I don't feel any need to do that.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Alsadius

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Also, if it makes a difference, I'm still on version 1.00.00 - I saw a thing in patch notes for a later patch about how city forts could now draw supply from their own hex, which makes me worry if my plan to keep Smolensk and Kiev in supply is workable.

Thanks!

ignoring everything else, I'd strongly suggest patch your game at least to the latest official version

[Alsadius]

Yeah, I probably should. But it breaks saved games, doesn't it?

[loki100]

no, some patches stop you loading saves with a later patch with an earlier one but no patch will stop you loading a save from an earlier game and updating.

Given how long the 1941 campaign takes this is inevitable

[Alsadius]

Ah, excellent. I've been burned in other long-running games, so I'm used to just freezing my version of any giant strategy game for the duration of a campaign. Glad to see Matrix avoids that pitfall.