Attacking as the Soviets in 42

[Weasel]

It is July 42 now (yes I am slow, but each turn still takes me 90 minutes + to play) and with 8M men in the field I am trying to push back the Germans.  All of my attacks seem to fail even with 9 divisions attacking; am I correct in assuming that with the low morale of the Russians in 42 that the only real way of winning a fight is to attack with corps, say 9 corps on 3 sides of the hex?

Right now the game is a stalemate, the Germans cannot advance through my hordes of men, but I cannot either so the line is frozen 12 hexes south of Leningrad and about 8 hexes west of Smolensk and Odessa.

Also, I have conducted numerous airfield attacks on the Germans, using 160 fighters and 100 bombers and I fail to destroy anything on the ground (recon shows aircraft there) with 19 German fighters knocked 19 of my fighters out of the air.

[Ricky B]

The Soviets need to build up experience and morale. Fighting and losing helps experience, especially if losses are fairly balanced (Soviets will always be a bit worse at this point). Morale is from winning, and leads to Guards units when a unit wins enough battles.

A lot of times, I would attack but not move into the hex the Axis retreated from, as I believe a lost battle negates at least a portion of the benefit of a win toward achieving Guards status. And it will leave the hex with a lower entrenchment if the Axis moves back in.

No magic solution, it takes time and attrition at this point, with a good mix of units for the Soviets, and maybe even try rotating attacking units for each turn - you should be dropping the entrenchment levels with most attacks so stay focused, think Zhukov, wear them down, and be patient.

[Weasel]

So attack and attack, even if you lose just to build up experience...interesting. I have a lot of guard units now, but can always use more I guess.

Thanks