Thoughts on Building New Soviet Units

[Ricky B]

Hey guys,

I see we are generating some experience, based on games being reported. I was wondering what are the thoughts on playing as Soviet and when it is good to build new units, especially divisions. I am in my first game as Soviet in Operation Blue where there is the ability to build anything, but am trying to decide when and where - although the placement requirements make the where fairly simple.

Thoughts?

Thanks
Rick

[typhoon]

Well I'm building them against you Rick in the same scenario. Although I've got no idea if that's the right thing to do. To me though if the admin points are available it seems crazy not to. And the earlier the better more chance to refit and recover before the Germans arrive. Although maybe Marquo can answer this better he's got 25+ turns under his belt against me in a campaign as Soviets and he's doing very well.

[Marquo]

I am buying cavalry for the Winter '41 offensive; not sure what I would do in summer 1942 - but I think that infantry is a safe bet - always good as speed bumps.

Perhaps independent artillery units if they are available :)

[Ricky B]

I have been mostly building a rifle div with either an AT unit or Arty with it, around Stalingrad - but it appears the strike may be due east along the north map edge more so than toward Stalingrad. But the units are taking awhile to become useful. We are still early, and it is a real learning experience.

As you say Marquo, the infantry can be speed bumps at least, just need time to dig in.

[Marquo]

I have been mostly building a rifle div with either an AT unit or Arty with it, around Stalingrad - but it appears the strike may be due east along the north map edge more so than toward Stalingrad. But the units are taking awhile to become useful. We are still early, and it is a real learning experience.

As you say Marquo, the infantry can be speed bumps at least, just need time to dig in.

Do not forget that will take the new units at least 3 turns to become more or less function - build and refit at least 10 hexes in the rear on a rail hex.

[raizer]

in the small scenarios dont waste your time...on the narrow fronts, use those aps to stock your armies with great sov leaders....in road to moscow you get a 130 ap dump on turn 7...take 4 -5 armies put the best generals in those and then unify all the divisions under each army prior to each turns attacks-all you need is 1-1 odds and you will have the 100% command bonus while, more likely than not the germans will get the 20% penalty if you hit a stack thats not under the same xxx and that will get you to the 1-1 odds. You can have 4 or 5 armies running at 32 command points and you will be fine. Having your divisions near the panzers, all under one army command, run by a superior leader is better than building units-at least in the 17 turn games
put your infantry on the panzers-make him hasty them out of the way

your amry commanders must have good morale and good initiative-zuk, tolbolkin, pukarev, vautin-those 4 can do a lot of damage on attack and defense, esp. if a cluster of soviet divisions are unified under each of them

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

in the small scenarios dont waste your time...on the narrow fronts, use those aps to stock your armies with great sov leaders....in road to moscow you get a 130 ap dump on turn 7...take 4 -5 armies put the best generals in those and then unify all the divisions under each army prior to each turns attacks-all you need is 1-1 odds and you will have the 100% command bonus while, more likely than not the germans will get the 20% penalty if you hit a stack thats not under the same xxx and that will get you to the 1-1 odds. You can have 4 or 5 armies running at 32 command points and you will be fine. Having your divisions near the panzers, all under one army command, run by a superior leader is better than building units-at least in the 17 turn games
put your infantry on the panzers-make him hasty them out of the way

your amry commanders must have good morale and good initiative-zuk, tolbolkin, pukarev, vautin-those 4 can do a lot of damage on attack and defense, esp. if a cluster of soviet divisions are unified under each of them

I've been building up reserve armies by building infantry divisions in the rear and then when they are built up moving them as a group to trouble areas.

[Ricky B]

Thanks for the comments, that is very interesting to hear, especially about not building anything in the shorter scenarios. I know that the Soviet bonus helps a lot, didn't think about combining it with great leaders for best results, but that makes a lot of sense.

I have been building new divs in the Stalingrad area to prepare fortified positions before the Germans arrive, but not sure of the ability of the troops yet, until the Germans reach the city.

Rick

[raizer]

I think its better to teleport a leader into a troubled area, by exchanging him with the sub par army commanders that exist thruout the front and then assign all the divisions in contact with the panzers-maybe 15+ to that leader...there you have all your contact divisions or divisions that can get in contact, under a unified command-this will help in your attacks for the present turn and also help in the following german turn when those divisions in contact are attacked...odds are the germans wont be unifed and you will be. And the soviets have 5 or 6 uber leaders that you can put into army commands, so figure at least 50-60+ divisions under great russian leaders with 8+ morale, 7+ initiative...all in charge of divisions in contact and you will get to that 1-1 odds you want against any german stack of your choice. Its all about throwing soviet divisions up against the panzers...one division on it and the ones behind that in carpet stacks -under a unifed commander. Put a body on a panzer...and in turn 7 you get 130 ap dumped on you...use that for your leaders not to build divisions. Ive played 3 pbem road to moscows as the russians and none of them got past turn 11-its kinda hopeless because the german player is stuck with a fixed amount of panzers and cant lift any panzers from AGN or AGS to assist on the drive.
btw there were 2 panzers and a moto division in the vautin screen shot, right in the middle but they were decimated by 16 divisions that i was able to unify under vautin for one attack. Several of those divisions I floated to vautin from pukarev-there is just way too much flexibility for the soviets

[Hermann Balck]

The key is how youre doing with your manpower. One of the most neglected functions for the soviet player is setting units to static. Divisions give up 1-2 ap but tank brigs give up 3-4 or nearly their entire cost. odds are you wont be using them on most fronts - the germans attack on a limited front and the russians rarely attack. the most harmful thing you can do is stack is stack 3 divs in a frontline hex. you want 2 in the front with a tank brig behind it in either reserve or static role to prevent fort deterioration followed by a 3rd line with 2 divs and an inf brig. That means you retrewat rather than rout and fall back into a forted hex. reserves are immediately behind to retake the hex. The inf brigs can be used to flesh out damaged units or build corps as you see fit, but dont get swallowed up in corps building till 44. Keep your gaurd units seperate and in reserve lines to the rear of threatened sectors stacked with inf brigs to form corps if needed and space tank corps strategically behind threatened sectors with tank brigs nearby again to flesh them out if needed. Aside from that constantly form inf divs. keep them in the rear developing new defense lines at all times and move them up as needed. Building army hqs is important inf and later tank armies to manage your units. beginning fall 43 start building up corps in your shock armies and artilly units. The most valuable unit in 42 is the cav corps followed closely by the motorised brigades, russian armor is tragically weak but the mech brigs that get formed by the mot and later mech brigades are awesome.