@Argothair:
The arguments about “oh, I can still place 10 units a turn in Moscow,” and “oh, artillery isn’t that expensive anyway” strike me as wishful thinking. You need to place 13+ units a turn to defend Moscow against an all-out G6/I6 attack on Moscow. Some of those units will have to go in Kiev or Stalingrad and then march to Moscow. That’s fine; that’s how that works. Eventually, you may get to a point where it makes more sense to build 2 mech in Stalingrad instead of 3 infantry in Stalingrad, because infantry in Stalingrad won’t have time to march to Moscow before the key battle. That’s fine too. But you can’t just wish away the extra cost of building your entire army out of 4 IPC artillery & mech. inf. If your units are 33% more expensive, then you have 33% fewer units that still each defend on a roll of 2, and that means what should be a nailbiter for Germany will instead be a blowout victory, every time.
Ok, here is the deal, in my mind. Russia can take this %100 turtle approach and just build INF, not saying it is a bad plan. (I take that back, it is a very bad plan, IMO)
BUT
If Russia builds 0 Art/Mech/Arm they have gimped themselves to the point that they can not counter attack Germany in T1-6. They just all fall back to Moscow and let the dice fest commence but on German terms.
SO
If you are so fatalistic that Russia will fall on G6, my God, my foe is the most experienced German player known to man kind. Then, I would propose you, as Russia, decide to take the dice fate in your own hands. Russia will have a chance to attack Germany as they advance onto Moscow. Now, the chance of total victory will be slim but THIS IS A DICE GAME. Russia could cripple the German advance. Never forget, in A&A the attacker has the one advantage in that he can retreat. So, a Russian attack that goes 60/40 in Russia’s favor on the first attack, Russia retreats, might just buy Russia one more turn. One more chance to counter attack, one more chance to build more troops.
Sitting in Moscow just waiting for the big dice fest assault is just lazy play from a ‘jaded’ player who thinks Russia has no chance against a experienced German player.
Make Germany go into Moscow on a 50/50 or 35/65 chance. You cant do that by just building INF and never attacking them. Make the German player make the hard choice of going into Moscow on 50/50 or less odds. It gives you at least one more turn if he balks. It is just lazy Russian “play” to just build INF and retreat to Moscow.
In my experience of playing WWII board games for almost 25 years this is what I have found. Axis players love the start of the war and getting 90+% attack odds on almost every battle. Once you get to around T6 in A&A with proper Allied play those odds now become 50/50 or 40/60 in critical battles. That is when the Axis start to get concerned. They no longer have overwhelming odds and are forced to make hard choices on attacks. If they lose, it could be the start of the end for the Axis.
As a Allied player you have to get the Axis powers in these critical situations. Some Axis players will balk and not take the attack on 50/50 terms and wait one turn to get more “force” into the combat. This only benefits the Allies.