Slitherine

Hi,

I've played the game and the mod enough PBEM that I have a pretty good handle on most aspects of it I think. Of course every game is different so there's always something new to learn. Gabriele runs a very good Barbarossa, better than any other I've faced. In Game 1 he drove the Soviets in '42 south of Rostov and back to Stalingrad, and almost back to the Urals before they finally slowly rallied to come back in 44 onto the offensive. They were saved only by a desparate allied invasion of Europe in late '42 that pulled Germans away from the east front.

Now I'm in a 2nd game vs Gabriele. I ran the classic conservative Soviet defense strategy. Allies fully escort Soviet lend lease convoys. Soviets invest to max lvl in general, air, infantry tech w/ spare points into armor tech later. Soviets build enough leaders (4) to stay back from the line and extend command across the front.

Gabriele has about 7 or 8 German subs in the Atlantic. He also took Spain in 1940/41. He's also made a major commitment to Norway: 3 or 4 infantry, 2 FTR, 2 TAC for almost all of 40, and 41 where he skirmishes w/ Brits near Bergen for 2 years. So he's not completely focused on Barbarossa. The air has been called back to Russia in '42.

Soviets launch small offensive into Finland which is called off when Germany ships troops into Finland to prop them up.

Defensive line double deep from Leningrad to Moskva to Rostov.

Soviets build nothing but infantry corps, one FTR built in mid'42, a few garrisons also built.

In '42 Gabriele just picks at the Soviet defense line killing about 1 corp per turn at the north corner around Leningrad. He uses air strikes vs armor based 3-5 hexes behind the line around Rostov-Voronezh area. Armor is railed out after air strikes to try to rebuild it. Usually armor is down to 1-3 strength after 2 German TAC strikes. Soviets concentrate all FTR's in the south.

By July '42 Gabriele launches offensive against the double defense line in the south. In one turn he kills 4 corps, next turn 6 corps. Line falls back to rivers, then finally cracks apart under the weight of panzers, air, and superior German tech.

I'm really not sure how to defend USSR better than this. The only thing I might change is keeping armor farther back so his air couldn't hit it since it's expensive to repair.

I'd like some suggestions. I think I got rather unlucky on tech w/ Soviet infantry corps at lvl 5 tech until his offensive when I got 2 tech hits to increase organization and artillery, making max Soviet infantry tech 7....but not in time to face the offensive unfortunately.

Thx for any thoughts.

I always withdraw my air and armor units out of German tac bomber reach. The Germans can kill 4-6 corps units per turn, but will suffer some losses as well. So the German manpower level will drop and drop until they get below 75% and later below 50%. The Russians need to be careful and wait for the proper time to go on the offensive.

When I get dogfight tech 3 or 4 as the Russians I sometimes try to upgrade the fighters and send all of them to one part of the front line. This means you can get partial air superiority for a few turns. The Germans will have to shift his fighters from the other front sections to regain air superiority and then you can shift your fighters to another front section. As long as the Germans know their bombers can be stopped by Russian fighters then he must make sure he has some fighters in the area before sending the bombers. That can disrupt his offensive plans a bit.

Trade space for time and don't cling to certain cities if your front line is about to crack. Moscow is just a hex on the map. You can quickly get it back once the Germans get into trouble.

If the Russians are pushed very hard then the Allies MUST do something that will divert German forces to the Med or the west. If the western Allies are passive while Russia is fighting for their lives then the Germans can actually defeat the Russians.

It's a bit strange for me reading the experiences with the BJR-mod. Some players say the mod favours Allies and other players say the mod favours the Axis. I think this shows both sides have a chance to win the game and that is definitely a good thing.

I think one major mistake the Russians can do is to allow their armor and air units being harassed by the Germans. This means you can't afford to build enough units for a major offensive in 1943. The German tac bombers are very dangerous for Russian armor until you get good armor techs.

I've seen many Russian players placing their fighters too close to the enemy line. That means the fighters can be attacked at its airbases and maybe even destroyed there. I always make sure my Russian air units are more than 9 hexes away from the German second defense line until I know for sure I have air superiority. This way my fighters will only fight interception dogfights. Such losses can be repaired and the fighters will be back to full strength. As long as you defend only then the Germans will fight full strength fighters every turn. That means the Germans must repair some fighters and have fewer left to escort their bombers.

You defeat the Germans by overloading their capacity. Always make sure the Germans suffer some losses, even in the Med at less than favorable odds. The western Allies can easily afford to repair all their units, but the Germans can't repair units on all fronts and at the same time build new units to protect against Allied invasions or to replace lost units on the east front. The oil reserve level drops quickly if the Germans stay on the offensive through 1942 and into 1943. This is another reason the Allies should always engage the Germans as much as possible. If most of the Luftwaffe fighters fly sorties every turn then the oil level will drop to 0 and then you won't have to worry about tac bombers killing your armor.

Hi Stauffenberg,

Thx for the reply. I think that most of your comments are things that I already know (burn German oil, wear Germany down, allies can't be passive, trade space for time.

However 2 things that you said seem to stand out as good and interesting advice:
1) Keep FTR's more than 9 hexes from German FTR's. This is something I should have done and didn't do.
2) Don't let Luftwaffe bomb my armor. I shouldn't have allowed this to happen in retrospect.

I think these are my 2 big learning takeaways from this game. Thanks for your comments.

The other question that I'm wresting w/ in several games as allies is whether a Med-Italy-first strategy is really ever a good one due to the terrible terrain in the Med

Also if Axis get Spain do you think it's ever worth trying to retake it? There is no easy airbase to support an operation against Spain so it seems like it might be too tough to try to retake Gibraltar. I am doing torch out of Libya since Germans hold Gibraltar and large number of German u-boats make any landing very risky on the west coast of Africa or even in the Med since German u-boats are in the Med as well as the Atlantic.

JJ

As i wrote you by email, i think you defended well. The armor on frontline allowed me to make 100P losses to russians (usually 12 steps to armor and 6-8 to air units) without even moving my armors for few turns just with air bombing. But it also delayed my offensive of 5 turns.
if you moved out air and armors since start, i would have taken stalingrad and caucasus. So not sure you did bad.
At least now it's september '42 and unless winter comes very late i doubt i can take any major city (moscow/stalingrad/caucasus).

I think russian player must accept to lose units in '41 (if germany starts an early barbarossa) and '42. Nothing you can do about it.

I agree with Stauffenberg that any city is just an hex on map. But it's also true that losing moscow means 15PP/turn swift between russia and germany...in 1 year is around 300PP swift. 600P in 2 years. this is the price to lose moscow.

I believe the BJR mod is very balanced and historically accurate on russian front (i know i said otherwise before, but now i played many games, and i must say i was wrong).

Maybe i am also wrong regarding africa. My only concern is UK having many garrisons in last version (the one with oil cap) making sealion almost impossible. But this is not the subject of this thread and maybe i am wrong even in this.