Took Berlin in 1944 in my first 1941-1945 campaign.

[CRW1940]

I have been fairly new to Gary Grigsbys War in the East, with only 159 hours in, so I am a novice. I have played several other campaigns as the Soviets, and won them, so I decided to give the 1941-1945 campaign a try, and I managed to take Berlin in may of 1944. I have to disclaim that I played this on easy mode, because I am still learning the mechanics of the game. Let me give a rundown of what I did in the game as the Soviets :
1. In the first few turns of the game, I began moving as many of my units as I could to a line of defense.
I withdrew to the area in front of Smolensk, between the Dvina and Dnepr in the center.
in the south, I withdrew troops to the front of Kiev, and made a defensive line along the Dnepr river.
In the north, I held a line along the Narva river, further down, the town of Pskov, and along the Velikaya river. (I obviously held a line against the Fins as well).
2. In 1941, I held this line, built it up with a defense that consisted of units two hexes behind each other. In the winter, I began to utilize the winter weather and launched counterattacks in which I managed to push the axis armies in the center and in the south.
3. In 1942, I managed to recapture most of Ukraine, and managed to breach into Romania with cavalry and managed to force them to surrender. This caused the axis to extend their line of troops, and allowed me to make substantial gains in 1942-1943.
4. In 1943, I managed to cut off the northern army group in Estonia, and then created a second pocket in Latvia and Lithuania. These units were eliminated in 1943, and didn't hold out much ( I think they were evacuated).
5. I pretty much spent 1943 advancing towards Berlin. I took Warsaw, Budapest, and I took Danzig, and had Koenigsburg encircled.
6. In the winter of 1943-1944, I advanced all the way to Berlin, and managed to take it, and won the game.

I didn't managed to take Vienna, Prague, or Leipzig, but I managed to prevent Kiev, Smolensk, Pskov, Leningrad, Sevastopol, and Velikie Luki from being captured as they were historically. I also managed to produce quite a few encirclements that took out a good deal of axis units.

I got some takeaways from this: If I play as Germany, it is very important I try to encircle as many Red Army units as possible, and that I try to pierce their defensive lines before they can create them and make it hard to win the campaign. In the future campaigns, I see the idea of tricking the enemy by falling back, extending their lines, then attacking their weak points, encircling them, and causing them to surrender.

Honestly, I like playing as the Soviets, and I feel like they're much easier to play as, that when I play as Germany, it feels so daunting to win the game.

[CRW1940]

Here's a screenshot

[BrianG]

Good play.

It's now time to enter the big arena and play a live opponent!

[EwaldvonKleist]

Good job.
You have a lot of trucks. Did you build any tank/mechanized brigades? Did you form tank/mechanized corps?
If not, try it out-forming new units is very important for the Soviets.