Bezerk Russian Strategy

[SJS063]

Over the weekend I came up with a totally fun and extremely crazy idea for how to play Russia. Note, this strategy is only useful if and only if the Russian revo is not in play or modified. While playing I; on Turn 1 as Russia, attacked Prussia with my polish forces, attacked Mesopotamia with sevastapol, and withdrew all other armies to Finland, Karelia, Moscow, Tatarstan, and Kazakhstan. My 2 attacks bought me time, and as I waited for the CP steam roller, every turn with my 12 ipc’s, I built 3 art. by turn 4, Germany was waiting outside Moscow with about 18 inf, 6 art and 2 fighters. AH had 12inf, 4 art, and 1 fighter. This strategy GREATLY helped france. Germany realized the massive size of my army in Moscow, and was forced to send more troops. this, in turn, left france with less men to face, and a counter attack that reached as far as Ruhr. on my front, the german army and I were in a bloody stalemate, with Germany (having long supply lines) soaking up much of its economy to hold on to Belarus. finally, I had to retreat out of Belarus, but Germany was never capable of an assault on Moscow. Austria"s only gains were tatarstan and Kazakhstan, but had little to offer due to the war with Italy. the ottomans got sevastapol, but were crushed by GB. It was actually a very fun strategy, considering just a stockpile. Every once in a while id buy a sub or two, sneaking in an attack on the german navy. please feel free to respond, critique, or just comment on this. id like to know any other fun strategies people have come up with.
          SJS063

[ColonelCarter]

Sounds like your CP opponent made the mistake of splitting both Austria’s and Germany’s efforts to both fronts. While I personally don’t think the CP can win OOB without Allied mistakes, going medium with two powers against Russia is never going to work (unless they do something stupid like buying straight ships). If the CP really want Russia, Austria can have their entire starting army (minus ~5 inf for losses in Serbia & Romania), 1 round of ground, (2 inf 5 art for max punch) plus 1-3 fighters to attack Ukraine on AH’s third turn. That’s 45 inf and 17 air supremacy artillery; enough to force out even a max retreating Russia and make a solid attack on Moscow AH4. But from your description, Russia’s out at least 13 of their starting armies, so Austria will have plenty of troops left over after taking Moscow, possibly enough to push south and take India, definitely enough to help Ottomans hold Persia for quite awhile.

[Flashman]

My usual strategy for Russia is to build a huge army in Belarus with all the artillery I can muster and enough fighters to keep control of the air. By the time the CPs have worn down this lot the UK should be ready to send massive reinforcements to Petrograd via the Arctic convoy.

[ColonelKurtz]

Interesting that the CP overestimated how much to send to their Eastern Front.
Did you mobilize Romania?

[SJS063]

I did not. Austria sent half of his troops from Budapest (if I remember correctly) to attack it. I didnt send reinforcements and Austria won a2, but lost quite a bit of inf in the process. Serbia, however, scored NO hits against him, which ticked me off, but, they started it so oh well haha.

[Flashman]

Some very simple match here:

If Russia builds a superstack, Austria and Germany can only attack it one at a time, with horrific losses. If Russia splits its forces into smaller armies, the CPs can finish each of them off in single attacks.

Concentration is the key to Russian survival.

[Oddbjoern]

From a CP perspective, you wanna hit the Russian superstack with germany first as you can then reinforce with AH. Going AH first, will most likely end up with huge loses for AH.

[ColonelCarter]

@Oddbjoern:

From a CP perspective, you wanna hit the Russian superstack with germany first as you can then reinforce with AH. Going AH first, will most likely end up with huge loses for AH.

Not really, if you send your own Austrian superstack big enough to get ok ratios against the Russian one, which is no less than every Austrian on the board. Plus, when Russia is forced to retreat from the Austrians, the German contingent in the east can move up and claim vacated territory.

Russian Revolution rules are necessary to give the CPs something better than mutual annihilation, though. I prefer also giving the CP the option to decline the armistice.

[Flashman]

Like giving Germany control of “Red” Russian units after the Revolution?

[ColonelCarter]

I meant the OOB optional rule. Forces Russia to spend armies contesting 3 of the territories adjacent to Moscow to prevent the loss of their army without killing any Austrians. Otherwise Germany has to suicide its eastern contingent to get Austria able to take Moscow with only a couple units that will easily get overrun by Brits from India or Karelia.

[Chacmool]

All that Russia, France and Italy have to buy in the first 4 Rounds is Infantry.

They dont have to attack (except for Sewastopol -> Mesopotamia R1) they just need to hold the ground and reinforce contested tts.

That will give the UK enough time for their Balfour Declaration which will increase significant new forces (US) to tip the scale.