Smirnov - New Soviet Super Hero

[Bozo_the_Clown]

Smirnov is on of those stinkers in the Soviet army. That's why I sent him on a suicide mission in one of my recent games. On turn 21 he came back a different man. [:D]

Too bad that it just doesn't make any difference in WitE how many victories you get. Shouldn't the ratings improve with 37 victories in a row.

[Flaviusx]

It's all luck of the draw who gets improvements on ratings, near as I can tell.

He's not that horrible. I'd feel comfortable putting him in charge of a run of mill rifle army. He has a 5 admin and 5 infantry rating, which is good enough for government work in Soviet Russia. He's average. The real stinkers fall below 5 points in those categories.

[Tom Hunter]

early in my game with Saper222 I found some 2-4s in empty corps HQs. Just relocate them until someone gets the hint and forgets to buckle them into the seat in their plane, and forgets to lock the door....

A 3-5 is ok for quiet areas.

[M60A3TTS]

You have to be careful with relocating to kill bad generals. You don't want someone like Tolbukhin who is awaiting an assignment to get that post and find himself with no MP close to the Axis front lines.

[Gabriel B.]

THe 18th army commander ...
I remember replacing it with Zhukov to open the rumanian rail in turn 1 .

[Bozo_the_Clown]

He's not that horrible. I'd feel comfortable putting him in charge of a run of mill rifle army. He has a 5 admin and 5 infantry rating, which is good enough for government work in Soviet Russia. He's average. The real stinkers fall below 5 points in those categories.

Managing generals is an interesting subject. I would like to know what other players do in there game. I think I might be swapping generals too fast. Is it better to keep some of the really good generals in reserve for the blizzard offensive?

[M60A3TTS]

A couple things. First as Flavius points out, promotions seem pretty random. But generally, Front commanders have a harder time getting promoted. I've stuck Konev in charge of Reserve Front in October '41 and he takes forever to get promoted. Now, if you want to have a particular commander get to General-Armii before 1943 and have a crack at making it to Marshal by wars end (assuming he survives), create an army initially with all cavalry divisions. Use those divisions to contribute wherever possible to local battles that get the army wins and then pull it back to minimize defeats. Rokossovsky is a good candidate because he has strong stats and starts as General-Mayor. Vasilevsky is also a good choice because of his extremely high admin rating that can contribute to good unit movement rates. Konev is a third option because otherwise he languishes with North Caucasus Front initially and won't see much action early war. But Konev does require extra admin points to first get him out of the front command and then you pay again to get him into an army. Seems like he is unique in that regard of paying twice for his services.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: Bozo_the_Clown

He's not that horrible. I'd feel comfortable putting him in charge of a run of mill rifle army. He has a 5 admin and 5 infantry rating, which is good enough for government work in Soviet Russia. He's average. The real stinkers fall below 5 points in those categories.

Managing generals is an interesting subject. I would like to know what other players do in there game. I think I might be swapping generals too fast. Is it better to keep some of the really good generals in reserve for the blizzard offensive?

Depends on circumstances. I like to keep an ace or two in hole until blizzard, but will deploy some of the better generals to critical areas.

The other thing is that you simply do not have enough good generals to man all the HQs. You have to accept that a lot of not amazing guys will be staffing them. There are enough 5 admin 5 inf generals out there to cover your needs, and that is as low as I'm willing to go. 5 admin because that is the lowest possible rating where you are guaranteed to pay only 1 admin pt for non corps reassignments, and 5 infantry because it's the average.

The next two most important ratings after that at the army level are initiative and morale, but sadly, Soviet averages here are terrible. You will quickly run out of decent generals on this score and have to accept a lot of 4 ratings or less.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

And what are your thoughts on managing STAVKA? I leave Shaposhnikov in place. But sometimes Stalin has other ideas. I've seen him get kicked out as early as T1 and replaced by Zhukov. Is it OK to leave Shaposhnikov in charge or would you consider it a major mistake?

[Flaviusx]

All Zhukov all the time at STAVKA for me on account of his initiative rating. This isn't as good of a trick as it used to be, but Soviet initiative is so horrible across the board that you still need to backstop it at the highest level.

Zhukov's admin rating is adequate for STAVKA purposes.

Very late in the war once the Soviets are on the offensive for good, then I might consider switching him out for Shaposhnikov or preferably Vasilevsky. Early on defensive reaction is more important that admin.

[Bozo_the_Clown]

Don't you wait at least a couple of turns until the dust settles?

[Flaviusx]

Nope, I don't want the risk of him getting assigned to West Front or somesuch thing and then being killed in action. Zhukov dying on turn 1 might be grounds for resignation, lol.

STAVKA is the safest posting in the game. I've never seen any commander of it die. (I have seen Shaposhnikov sacked early on by Stalin, though.)

[morvael]

I lost Zhukov on turn 1 and didn't resign. I have also lost 60% of all the famous Soviet leaders in 1941/42 (famous = an average WitE Soviet player can name them).

[:)]

[Bozo_the_Clown]

STAVKA is the safest posting in the game. I've never seen any commander of it die.

Hm, is that in your games against the AI? I'm wondering what would happen if a human Axis player would target STAVKA. Especially in the early turns STAVKA might be vulnerable when it moves up and down the front to assign SUs.

[Flaviusx]

Er, in any game, period.

In fact I have never heard of anybody losing a STAVKA commander due to KIA. Not just me.

If somebody wanted to, I suppose they could contrive to get a STAVKA commander killed by exposing the HQ to front line combat. Not that I am volunteering to test this.

[821Bobo]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
Nope, I don't want the risk of him getting assigned to West Front or somesuch thing and then being killed in action. Zhukov dying on turn 1 might be grounds for resignation, lol.

STAVKA is the safest posting in the game. I've never seen any commander of it die. (I have seen Shaposhnikov sacked early on by Stalin, though.)

+1

In my current game, I wanted to wait with assigning Zukov to STAVKA. I have changed my mind very quickly. Turn 1, WF HQ displaced by Pz division, Pavlov KIA, Zukov auto assigned to WF.
First thing I did has been putting Zukov in command of STAVKA.

[carlkay58]

I lost Zhukov in one game while he was commanding STAVKA. I had the HQ in Moscow and my opponent bombed the hex and he died. Real pain.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

I lost Zhukov in one game while he was commanding STAVKA. I had the HQ in Moscow and my opponent bombed the hex and he died. Real pain.

Ouch.

That's the first I've ever heard of that.

I always keep the HQ 20+ hexes away from the front line and stacked with something -- and with enough nearby air cover that if somebody tries to bomb it, they'll have to do it with unescorted bombers. Which means that Moscow eventually isn't a safe place for it.

Didn't you have anything in the hex in Moscow besides the HQ?

[Bozo_the_Clown]

I lost Zhukov in one game while he was commanding STAVKA. I had the HQ in Moscow and my opponent bombed the hex and he died. Real pain.

That's what I thought. Although bombing Moscow would probably cause massive bomber losses it's a small price to pay to kill Zhukov.

[carlkay58]

Yes, I had a tank XX, but it was about turn 5 or so and he had a good bombing attack.

As the Axis I lost Guderian, Model, and Manstien in the first four turns of a campaign game. Makes for an interesting time of it all.