Republican strategy

[Leibst]

Hi,
Recently i've started a new pbem taking the reps. An ageod veteran is playing the Nationalist.
This player won me two times last year, so i expect a hard game and maybe again to lose the game [:(]
As you now the republican has two great problems at the start of the game.
- Lack of regular troops.
- Lack of commanders.

So what i want at the beginning of the game is to gain time. I want to reach October to create the Popular Army because that gives me regular troops.
How can i do this?
Imo at the begining of the game the republicans strong point is that they have many battalions so i want to keep them moving, atacking where the nationalist are weak and breaking rail lines as much as possible in order to ralentize enemy movements.

In Andalucia no much to do, just breaking rail lines and trying to keep Granada surrounded by my troops, i dont want reinforcements there.
In Mallorca i ordered the dissembark just to have soon that artillery on my hands and send it to the peninsula. Maybe later i will attack there. In the other hand nationalist troops will remain there in Mallorca, not in the peninsula.
In Madrid i sent troops under Miaja to Cordoba, because Franco is attacking Cordoba in September. A small contingent will advance towards Soria.
The rest of the Madrid troops advanced to Avila and took it. In Segovia is the main Nationalist army of the Center.
In Teruel front i advance with a Leader, artillery and 3 regular infantry battalions that we have at the start of the war in Levante.
The Catalonian troops simply will take positions in front of Zaragoza and Teruel.
In the North we have to keep as much time as possible the main factories there. Waiting for better leaders and the Asturian miners reinforcements.

Main objective: Take Soria and Teruel in order to advance to Pamplona and Alava, this will make very difficult the nationalist position in the Basque front.

[Leibst]

We are now in November 1936.
Fallen cities to Nationalist hands: Huelva,Badajoz,San Sebastian and Malaga
Fallen cities to Republican hands: Soria, Avila, Teruel.
Factories taken by the nationalist in Mieres, Torrelavega and Eibar. So in the future i must retake some of them or build new factories.
In October was created the Popular Army and started to arrive the International Brigades (now with Miaja at Ciudad Real).

MAP November 1936

In this map you can see the front and the main armies situation.
In Yellow, arrows of current tepublican offensives.
In white the goal of the Aragon offensive.

Pozas will advance with his corps towards Pamplona and Alava. This movement should make the Nationalist to stop their attack to Bilbao. The Republicans can't lose Bilbao, this is the key of the war with this strategy.

[Leibst]

At this stage of the war, raining all the day, and thus making difficult offensives and combats, its a good moment for recovery.
I need money, i need men and Engage points. So its critical to make a good use of your resources every turn.
I buy Artillery when an option is available, this is a must for the Republic if you want survive. Artillery is a great factor in Ageod battles, so if you want to hold a possition you need artillery against the Legion and Regulares, the best Nationalist troops.
If you want to prepare a good attack as the Republican a good strategy is to select one of your best Leaders for this task.
Give him the best units you have in that front (use railway to move faster your units from one region to another). For this you have to go through all your units, one by one, you need units with experience (black stars in the model detail). If you have tanks send them to that offensive army. Be sure your army units are rested (high cohesion) and its units are near the 100% of health.
Take care of not being over the command points of that leader.
Wait to the leader be activated and if you have good weather, better.

Attack!

[Leibst]

In this screen you can see better the situation of the armies.
Its December and now winter has come.
Franco has been halted at Ciudad Real. How?
Miaja has bonus in defense, is our best commander and in charge of an army.
Miaja has 3 artillery regiments and regular infantry, around 17 regiments, entrenched at level 2, and it was raining in the attack. I'm still not sure if we can halt the Nationalist here because another corps is behind Franco's corps.

December 36 map

[Leibst]

Year 1936 is ended.
The fronts are defined. Imo my situation as Republican is good. The North seems to be far from been taken by the enemy, even i could see a possible Republican offensive towards Burgos.
In Aragon Cabanellas is almost isolated in Zaragoza without support, far away is Mola in Alava.
CTV has arrived but is still growing in cohesion and had to be delivered to the front.
Miaja's army is really strong and is facing Franco north of Jaen. In Granada the front is static.

So what can i say is that this strategy is being good for the Republic. With the pass of the weeks my entire army will be regular and this means that my units will be very similar to the enemy units.

If i'm able to crush Cabanellas army then i could go with a huge army against Mola and if Pamplona, San Sebastian and Alava falls i will be in situation of winning the war.

[Leibst]

We are in April 37.
You can see in the picture that finally the main objectives are being taken and the Nationalist are in clear retreat.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/paradoxiano/media/RepOffensive_zpse631d80d.jpg.html

They have lost several battles that had given to me a National Morale of 114. The Republci production is high and better than the nationalist, now i have 12 EP's per turn, 30 Money and 19 conscripts.
If i dont do any stupid mistake i will win the game.
I earn 48 VPs per turn and the Nationalist 31. I have 1603 VPs and he 1495.

So this is all. A good republican strategy.