Russian oil drained

[peterjfrigate]

I wonder if others have experienced severe oil shortages for the Russians? I pretty much ran out of oil in August 1944.

Here's a run-down of the game:

1. The Axis did a med strategy and a half-hearted Barbarossa in 42.
2. No Soviet oil wells were ever lost.
3. Soviets had good development of industry, tank and air tech.
4. Soviet offensives took place in winter 42, winter 43, and then continuously through 44.

Severe oil depletion began in 44. Maybe I was profligate in running my gas-guzzling airforce all over the place (e.g. the UK was mauled,
so the Russians lent them a TAC armada to take back Africa). Meanwhile, the Allies have tons and tons of unused fuel.

Here's the current OOB for the USSR: 14 MECH, 10 ARM, 16 TAC, 8 FTR, 3 STR.

As you can see I am a little overbuilt in TAC, but probably close to historical strengths. Crucially, I was more overbuilt in 43.
So, I have a question and a suggestion:

Do others agree that the Soviets should not be running out of fuel here? I suspect that the Russians' fuel shortages are an unintended consequence
of the most recent fiddling to get rid of the armor and mech blob strategies for the Axis. But in a game where the UK is very beaten up, it's important for the Soviets to be able to do the heavy lifting.

So, maybe the Allies should be able to lend the Soviets "aviation" fuel. That would take care of the problem, and I understand that this would add
realism, as it did occur as part of lend-lease.

My platform: MAC/GS 2.01

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I think your Russian force is way stronger than a normal force when it comes to oil consuming units. Building corps units is not a bad idea for the Russians either. Your force is a killer force and can quickly wipe out the German defenses. No wonder it consumes A LOT of oil.

In my Allied games I usually end up with more than 2000 spare oil as the Russians. I can maybe get up to about 10 tacs by the end of the war. With such a huge for you need to rail units whenever you can to save oil or not upgrade the units to max.

This proves that even the Russians have to think about their oil consumption and I think that's good. The western Allies could also run out of oil if they build e. g. 20+ strategic bombers and used the battleships and destroyers to bombard Axis coastal units every turn.

So all sides have to think about their oil consumption and that's a good thing in my opinion. Russia didn't have unlimited oil production. You can quickly build up the reserves quite well after Barbarossa begins because your oil consuming units are too weak to use in battles so early. So if you drop in oil reserves it means you've built too many oil consuming units and need to remedy that problem.

The more important question that needs to be asked is: How is your game going? Are you about to win the war in 1944 (early 1945)? If you get a shot at an early victory by building so many oil consuming units then that's your choice to make, but if you fail then you need to deal with the consequences of being out of oil.

If you, however, had run out of oil in 1944 and still struggle in Russian against the Germans then it's a different story. If I had had such a strong force you have and could support it with oil then I could break ANY German defense line in Russia. So I assume you're steamrolling towards Berlin at the moment.

[peterjfrigate]

Thanks for your reply,

You make a good point - yes, I am about to take Berlin and Hamburg (Italy is already gone) and it's only Sept. 44 - so what is there to complain about? I wasn't sure how overbuilt I was, but it sounds like I should be burning lots of fuel. Still, I had grounded a lot of my air and even had to stall lots of Central Front units for a couple of turns, so that got me to wondering if other people are also experiencing problems with an even smaller Soviet arsenal. I also agree that the management of a finite fuel supply makes the game more interesting.

[zechi]

Holy shit, 16 TACs? I sometimes wonder how such army builds are possible. I rarely get half the TACs in 1944 with the Soviets.

I totally agree with Stauffenberg that your Soviet Army is overpowered and such a strong army should give the Soviets oil problems. In my games with the Allies I was never able to build such a force and I never encountered any real oil problems. I also never lost a game with the Allies yet, so I do not think that the Allies need such a powerful force to win and your force is overpowered.

[Plaid]

Soviet TAC unit mass production is logical answer to 1942 german invasion or germans passive on eastern front. Seems the best way to utilise resources, when you have enough ground forces.

Still never had 16, 10-12 maybe, but in very late game.

[schwerpunkt]

yes, I noticed something similar in a recent game I played before the new oil consumption rules came in. By Nov 1944, I had the following units:

ARM 3
MECH 33
FTR 17
TAC 18 (beats the 16!)
STR 1

I think I was consuming about 120 fuel points from my reserves each turn when moving everything. "Fortunately", I was repairing about a third of my units every turn so the reserve oil burn was generally only about 40 per turn. I think I finished up with about 400 oil by the end of the game. What actually saved my russians was that they reconquered the middle east from the axis and so captured the Iraqi oil fields - this did hurt the allies though as they ran out of oil in Feb 1944 so I was forced to stop using CVs and limit my use of STRs. Quite a tough game as the allies due to the oil problems but I managed to conquer Germany on the April 1945 turn. A very close game.....

PS: Game situation was;
1. The Axis did a med strategy, allying Spain and getting deep into Persia. Barbarossa in 42 consisted of a DOW only (no actual advance).
2. No Soviet oil wells were ever lost.
3. Soviets had good development of industry, inf and air tech.
4. Soviet offensives had to retake the middle east and knocked out Finland whilst doing this. Advance into Poland began in late 43 - attacks were continuous until Apr 45 apart from 4 consecutive MUD turns in early 1944.