Armament points loss in early Soviet game

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A game
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Joined: Tue May 08, 2012 10:35 pm

Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by A game »

In my current game as Soviets I had 989309 Arm points in the pool end of turn 4, beginning of turn 5 I have 561404. So a loss of 427905... this seems like a lot, and is certainly more than I have lost in one turn in previous games. But is that normal for this stage of the game?

And I am aware of the measures that must be taken to reduce the load on arms factories, all arty, AA etc. is at 50% TOE, and a lot of rifle divs that arnt in hot zones are on 75% TOE which is something I havnt done before, but seems to not be helping at all...

And going through the turn log trying to do a rough estimate on units built = Arm points used I cannot see how or where I have spent 400 000+ in one turn.

Anyway is this unusual or just a normal part of the Soviet game?
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A game
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by A game »

And I may have found the reason, I built a lot of cavalry squads last turn. They are listed as 69 build points, so it appears I spent 263,097 Arm points on cavalry alone this turn. Are cavalry really that expensive to build?? Their weapons are roughly equivalent to a rifle squad so where do all those arm points go? You cant actually build a horse...
Denniss
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by Denniss »

A lot of new units arrive in these turns, they are often empty shells that need to be refreshed. AFAIR cav units change their cav squads to a new type in July so that may explain the drain (especially if they are on refit).
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Flaviusx
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by Flaviusx »

It's very typical for Soviet armament points to flatline around October 41, and for them to live hand to mouth for months after that, with no surplus until Spring of 42. So you haven't even seen the worst of it yet.

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governato
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by governato »

Cavalry squads are useful, but definitely expensive. I try to manage their build up and set on refit only the divisions with a) high morale that are b) attached to an army with a good leader and set the others at ~80% TOE. I also resist the costly temptation to use them as screen units. It won't solve the problem, but it will help a bit. I did not like the 250k arm pt. bill either.
turtlefang
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by turtlefang »

The Soviet need for arm pts is increasing just as the number of arm pts is decreasing in late 41. In many cases, the new units - as already pointed out - arrive with a few men and need to be "armed up" over three or four turns. And you have this happening from August to end of December. So you have multiple waves training up from August to January.

At the same time, you will usually be seeing a decline in the number of arm pts produced due to either captured by the Germans (hope not) or factory evacuations resulting in lowered production. Many of these factories won't come back to full production until the late winter or early spring. At that point, you will see many of the factories - and the 42 production modify kick in and start helping IF your not taking massive losses that require you to rebuild.

And in the fall 41, a lot of the reinforment OOB requires a LOT of arm pts - a large number of CAV divisions and tank BG plus the infantry divisions.

So its a case of BIG DEMAND+DECLINING SUPPLY+ OOB SHIFT=ARM STRAIN.

Flav can manage this better than I can. Possibly better than anyone can. I usually have a problem until the middle to late 42 rather than Spring. But he's considered the master on running a thin Russian Army - I just don't have the confidence to go as far as he proposes in that direction.
hfarrish
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RE: Armament points loss in early Soviet game

Post by hfarrish »


I can't speak to what causes the initial drop, but I don't think anyone should worry about armaments unless they have a lot of units pocketed. I honestly think TOE changes have minimal impact - the key driver is number of units pocketed. If you have a lot pocketed, you are going to get crunched. If you don't, you won't.

For example, my current game I have had between 450k and 600k armaments consistently throughout the war up to April '42 where we are now...and I am an aggressive builder of artillery, sappers, tank regiments and new units...what didn't happen? I didn't lose many units past the initial '41 pockets.
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