The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze)

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topeverest
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The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze)

Post by topeverest »

I am brand new to WITE and embarking on my first ruskie 41 campaign game - or any WITE game of any length. I am playing an experienced German opponent, so I expect several quick and painful lessons in tactics.

Before we start, I am open to any and all comments and suggestions.
1. which campaign scenario should we choose?
2. we will play FOW, but should we play movement FOW?
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

test

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Standard campaign was started with FOW and movement fow. So far, fist turn seems pretty average. below is south to north Tarnopol area

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Brest area - surrounded as expected. All units will be lost

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Talin and northern area - again surrounded and on edge of taking Riga.

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

I have a couple priorities in the first turn.
1. do a front commander or 2
2. prioritize factory evacuations. I am curious which ones I should do first.
3. think about SU. Prob will try the HQ's
4. have to think about Leningrad and have no idea what to do

What am I missing?
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by hfarrish »

Try and google search for turn 1 soviet moves - this will tell you a lot...a couple pointers:

- Don't be afraid to counterattack; even if visible CVs seem hopeless a 4 to 6 to 1 advantage in divisions often produces a retreat

- Put all the air force in the national reserve and then immediately start farming back out to IADs, BADs, VVSs and other non-SAD bases (these will be disbanded and are a waste of time to fill)

- Put Zhukov in STAVKA

- Set all HQs except STAVKA to 0 support and set STAVKA to 9...you can then fill HQs back up as you see fit (and then lock them)

- I tend to evac ARMs in the South and Center first, then the Leningrad factories (particularly the T50, KV1 and Vehicle) and then Kharkov. ARMs, tanks and aircraft usually are the priority, although you don't want to lose all your heavy industry. Evac in units of 4 or more for ARMs and Heavy Industry, weapons as little as 1 but more is better. Kiev is a nice 4 unit heavy industry to evac at a time when you have a lot of rail points

- Rail strong units out of the South to the center and especially the North. The swamps, hills and rivers S and SW of Leningrad are prime defensive territory. Use it.

- Keep weak units in hexes adjacent to panzer spearheads. If a unit touches them they won't refit and take attrition losses. Marginal help but still help.

- Don't do anything with Corps HQs (they disappear) but do start forming your Army HQs. Make sure to stuff them with 3-4 artillery units and 3-5 sappers. This will ensure your divisions get combat support (arty and sappers) and also dig in more quickly (sappers)

- Keep air bases on rail lines to conserve trucks


There is tons more that others can add...
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Here is the air doctrine change

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by Toidi »

It looks to me that you get a relatively conservative German opponent. As such, I hope you will have good game as conservative German play is helping Soviets a lot. A very experienced Soviet player would take advantage of the opening but I guess with your relative lack of experience in the game, you will have a lot of fun. Good luck!
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by SigUp »

Agreed, the German opening is not a particularly harsh one on the Soviets. He left you with very, very much to play with. Especially in the South you have very much left. Kovel and Dubno groups are both alive and he has done no Lvov opener. Here you can legitimately try to slow him down at the Stalin line (the line of forts going north to south behind the Sluch and Goryn). In the centre the Baranovichi group is also still there. All in all, as Toidi said, against an experienced Soviet player he would already be in deep trouble, but as you are new, it probably will even out.

As for the air doctrine, set percent required to fly very low. So perhaps around 10 or so, otherwise most of your planes won't fly. Furthermore, you'll want to set fighter intercept high. Right now you'll have no fighters in the air. Although early Soviet fighters are crap, you still want to harass the Luftwaffe as much as possible. There is no point in trying to keep those I-series fighters anyway. As a general guideline, try moving all bombers to national reserve in order to sort this mess out. And disband those groups that have a maximum of only 12 planes. They are more or less useless.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by loki100 »

ORIGINAL: topeverest

I have a couple priorities in the first turn.
1. do a front commander or 2
2. prioritize factory evacuations. I am curious which ones I should do first.
3. think about SU. Prob will try the HQ's
4. have to think about Leningrad and have no idea what to do

What am I missing?

I wouldn't bother spending APs on your command structure till turn #4/#5. My logic is that things are so dire that the quality of commander makes little difference and there can be more pressing use of APs - like getting Support Units out of corps that are in danger of being isolated or some early start on the rear fortification lines. Also odds on Stalin will start sacking people and then you have to spend the APs again.

For factories, at the start get out the irreplaceable and then the armanent factories. You can cope with some loss of the industry so leave that for a few turns. I tend to sketch out a very rough rail budget and make sure I have enough for some critical redeployments but can still get the factories that matter away (for this, Kiev is incredibly important in boosting your rail points)

I'm not convinced at chucking Shaposnikov out of Stavka. His very high admin value is worth quite a lot and putting Zhukov into a key front can really improve that portion of your command chain.

Leningrad - odds on you won't hold, but you can tie up a lot of German units. So try to ensure enough is left that that the front line is well manned and you have some spares for reserve activation or to refit - but you don't want a lot in case (or when) it all collapses. Keep at least 1 airbase and the Leningrad PVO command in the city area. Once it goes, those Germans will probably turn on Moscow so you want them hung up in the north as long as you possibly can.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

new air doctrine corrected

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

My 1st turn moves...

I am really jut guessing with what I am doing. I set support 0 for all commands except Stavka which is a 9. I put Zukov in Stavka. I burned all my rail capacity trying to fill holes and bring units up.

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Middle / marshes. Don't know how I would supply a lot of troops in the marshes, but I blocked the entrences

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

In the north, I decided to naval evac several units cut off west of Riga, and I put the rest on the supply line.

Aside - I don't think I yet know how to burn units in the defense. What are some good tips?

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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

AS turn one closes, I feel 100% the neebie to the game. I also pushed back as many airbases and hq's as possible by rail to save the motor pool. But I don't yet know how to push airframes out of the airbases like suggested. I will try to study up on that.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by loki100 »

ORIGINAL: topeverest

AS turn one closes, I feel 100% the neebie to the game. I also pushed back as many airbases and hq's as possible by rail to save the motor pool. But I don't yet know how to push airframes out of the airbases like suggested. I will try to study up on that.

use the commanders report, select say Baltic Air Command, at the top you can send all to reserve. Or do this for all. Open each airbase and do it manually for selected groups.

Your settings, I think will cost you dearly.

You've told it do ground attack at 0% (ie only do the attempt if it has 0% of what it thinks it needs), you'll get lots of small interventions to no effect. If you don't want it to happen, set that value at say 300% (ie it will only do a ground attack if it has 3 times the aircraft it ideally wants).

Some of the values are rather counter-intuitive till you get used to them.

more generally - try to keep his panzers in zocs - that will stop them taking on replacements and thus add to their slow attrition, beyond that at this stage I think its all about costing the axis MPs. So a NKVD border division in a swamp is a pain as it'll cost a lot of MPs to move (it'll be beaten easily but thats not the purpose). So deploy so as to delay, make him pay combat/zoc costs for rivers etc.

If you are prepared to use them, the paras are good. They have high morale so will survive a defeat and may well make him attack again (ie lose MPs).

Unless your opponent is into abusing the supply rules (and it looks like he is being reasonable), you have about 4 turns to deal with the Germans at full supply - so terrain and/or forts matter. Once he slows down, you can think about a more conventional defense.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

So I recently came back from Fairbanks, Alaska, and to my surprise it is illegal to give beer to moose. Imagine that. And I was going to give my moosehead to a 1200 pound bull moose during the rut.

Anyway, thanks for all the tips so far and letting me know I had the air doctrine backwards. I am about 120 pages into my second reading of the manual. It's amazing the things I have picked up in the second reading after minimal exposure to the game.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by topeverest »

Will update turn 2 shortly, a few questions
how soon should I start to build Moscow fortified zone. It is asking for 16 admin points per hex, and I am curious if I am doing something wrong or too early. Is there a best practice on using reserve. Is it too early now considering the large advantage the germans have.
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RE: The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze) no AK

Post by SigUp »

The only place where you should consider spending 16 AP for a fortified zone is the backdoor of Leningrad. Other than that you can build up forts using regular divisions. APs should be spent elsewhere.
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