Smolensk '41: Strategy and Tactics

[Ubercat]

Orsha_alt gives newer players a chance to experiment with ways of dealing with enemy units being loose in the rear because it starts out with 2-3 weak Soviet divisions on the wrong side of the river.

Besides ignoring them, there seem to be only two ways to deal with these annoyances. Either send motorized battalions after them, which wastes valuable momentum in the offensive, or leave them to the plethora of recon elements.

I've mostly tried surrounding them with motorcycle/armored cars and blasting away. This is a SLOW way to go. Smaller engineer battalions can be taken down in a reasonable amount of time, but the standard 350 man rifle battalions are just too big to reliably deal with in this way. Especially when there are 2-3 together. They generally dish out as much damage as they take and tie up your recon assets for a few days (tens of turns). Motorized battalions can disrupt and decimate them fairly fast, but a main combat element like this can scarcely be spared from the front line.

What do experienced German players do once they penetrate far into the vast areas east of the Dniepr in a campaign game? Can you afford to separate a couple of motorized divisions and split them into little roving patrol companies/battalions?

What about the German regular infantry divisions? How soon do they start arriving and how soon can they march far enough to be useful garrison units? I will try to answer this question myself by starting a campaign game just to check the reinforcement schedule, but it's worth bringing up here.

I think my next step is to try to take on an experienced player in this scenario, with me as the Soviets, so I can experiment with being a headache and see how he deals with my forces being behind his lines.