Russia Turn 2

IF you can merge into one zone so that he CAN’T attack it, or to make it provide you with a counter offensive DO SO.

If your troops are going to die for nothing, leave the zone.  If you don’t care if he blitzes, or if he can’t blitz through a territory, but is going to take it with a stack leave it empty.

Build a good mixture of men and equipment, keep your units more to the centre, then to the south or the north, it provides you more options.  Be wary of his Navy, and the range of his air units.  Watch for an Amphibious assault of Karelia, or Nenestia.

Be wary of Italian air-power too, and it’s can-opener effect on your defensive lines.

I usually leave 1 infantry in the border provinces, just to stop Germany from blitzing through them.  I retreat most of my other units to the important points to defend (Ukraine, Leningrad, Moscow) depending on where it looks like Germany will attack.

Generally I think Russia should retreat if it doesn’t have a good chance of winning.  You can easily hole up in Moscow with dozens of infantry if necessary, and if the Germans are occupied on other fronts you may be able to survive there.  It also seems to be good to keep a few small groups of tanks to try to exploit weak points in the German advance, but that’s really situational.

bryansk is a territory that can get you all your armor and mech inf to the front lines. i like to mass armor their cuz it usually scares the German player into thinking im planning a mass counter attack.

/The/ best spot is EPol, provided you can defend it and not lose it to barbarossa.  I always try and mass there if I can.

To clarify, its the best because it borders every border square and is best for launching an attack into Europe…or Russia.

If Germany gives you room to breath, send a couple tanks and some mech infantry toward India to prepare for a counter attack when Japan takes the capital.

Trouble is, if he is staging for Barbarossa, you may not have a choice but to pull back.  If he’s going Sea Lion, you can probably get away with front line stacks.

Put one inf in frontline territories and buy attacking units (art, tanks etc) and try to get a stronghold in a 2nd line country. If he attacks, casualties are low and you can provide a counterattack. You start with sufficient infantry.

Right now, I prefer all infantry + 1 artillery build on R1, then Infantry/Artillery round 2 (tanks if Japan attacks and you have the cash as well) then mostly tanks on Round 3 to get in range of Germany on Round 5

If the German player is smart and expierenced and chooses not to go for a full out Sea-Lion then the only thing Russia can do is defend, threaten the counter attack, and as slowly as possible fall back to Moscow to await slaughtering by the German airforce and tanks.
If however the German player has less experience than you, or you have found a gap in his front/strategy take full advantage of it. Now if the German is careful and calculated their will be none of these “gaps” and you shall have to resort to trading space for time and hoping your allies help you before Moscow falls.

If you managed to develope a strategy that was both brilliant and unexpected, with a little luck (or the lack of bad luck) you could turn the tables on the Third Reiche

Always leave 1 Inf in any territory that’s worth any IPC’s. That way he can’t just put 1 Inf in it and get the IPC’s. And prevents blitzing. Make him fight for every inch! The other key factor is, divide your troops between Bel and Nukr before he attacks. You will have to see where he puts his troops and see if he is going north or south or both. Most good Axis players will put their troops in Epl(most likely this prevent a Russian counter attack but might possibly presents an opportunity to kill his large stack depending on how many troops he puts in it) the turn they attack, so you don’t know which direction he’s going. Then, you can fall back to Nov and Bry, if he goes north. Or, Bry and Sukr if he goes south. Or, if he goes both directions(usually a bad idea unless you have a major or minor IC in Romania) then you balance out your defense accordingly, always knowing it’s best to steer him north if possible(away from the Italians and towards your Allied help). Usually the Allies can help if necessary w/Nor, then through Fin and Kar.

I always like building at least 9 Inf a turn, w/2 Art or 1 Mech, 1 Arm in addition to the 9 Inf. That way you have fast movers and Art to counter attack. Usually best to build your 2 Art on Turn 1, then your fast movers on Turn 2 so the Art can reach the front faster. By Turn 3 or 4 when the Germans attack, you’ll have a nice force to trap him in one of the above mentioned territories. I believe that’s why there are a lot of posts right now, where folks are stating Russia is too strong or Germany is too weak.

@Strikers:

If the German player is smart and expierenced and chooses not to go for a full out Sea-Lion then the only thing Russia can do is defend, threaten the counter attack, and as slowly as possible fall back to Moscow to await slaughtering by the German airforce and tanks.
If however the German player has less experience than you, or you have found a gap in his front/strategy take full advantage of it. Now if the German is careful and calculated their will be none of these “gaps” and you shall have to resort to trading space for time and hoping your allies help you before Moscow falls.

If you managed to develope a strategy that was both brilliant and unexpected, with a little luck (or the lack of bad luck) you could turn the tables on the Third Reiche

I agree.  Russia will eventually lose to Germany if Germany decides to ignore England and America and anything else out there.  Thing is, I think Russia can hold out until England and/or America will force Germany to pay attention to them and if not, then I feel America and England will be able to liberate VCs and prevent the Axis from winning anyway.

Commando Brado:

I don’t with Russia.  Why?  I want Germany to blitz in! I can kill 6 IPC Tanks and lose 3 IPC infantry!

Round 1 = inf  Round 2 = Inf  round 3 = Inf  round 4 = inf –— and so on and so on… imo russia is easy as hell to play… keep buying inf and wait for the USA… which adventually takes Japan out and then you can start to spread out again with the 50+ inf in moscow… works everytime for allies when we play.  Russia never falls.  Boring to play… but you never lose.

You need armor, or you won’t have the punch needed to keep the Germans out.  But yes, primarily, you need infantry.  (PS: all you really need is 8 armor total with Russia!  It’ll hold you until Saint Swibbon’s Day!)

Artillery are also good for a punch, in addition to Tanks. Yes, Jennifer I agree. If Germany blitzing deep into Russia puts his tanks at risk, then yes, I’m all for it. I guess in all these posts, I’m assuming I’m playing against a 1/2 way decent Axis player who isn’t that stupid.  :-D

A)  If Germany is fully utilizing MI and Armor, then they don’t have Infantry, Artillery, Fighters or Tactical Bombers for support.  They cannot.  Since none of the units can both keep up and be with the MI and Armor at the end of the turn.

B)  That means Germany must either put his MI and Armor at risk, and I will attack them EVERY SINGLE TIME, or not fully utilize them.

C)  If you lose them to Russian infantry, then what’s the point?

D)  If you don’t fully utilize them, you would have been better off getting Infantry and Artillery instead of MI.

E)  Armor is never a waste!  Fine, yes it is, if you have 48 Armor and only 3 Infantry, then you wasted money on armor.

now i have the feeling that i must comment this. only just because i have seen it working differntly and therefor i have another opinion…

@Cmdr:

A)  If Germany is fully utilizing MI and Armor, then they don’t have Infantry, Artillery, Fighters or Tactical Bombers for support.  They cannot.  Since none of the units can both keep up and be with the MI and Armor at the end of the turn.

maybe you have a false idea of it. as germany you have a lot infantry combined with some artillery from the start on, which you don´t need to waste on England. this stack already existing can be enlarged by mech etc. so your “they cannot” is kind of absolutely false!
they can keep up the pace with mechs and tanks, because they don´t have to be bought, they have to move. G1 move those units, buy mech, G2 move those units, combine them on G1 bought mech etc. it soo easy to do so. ;)

@Cmdr:

B)  That means Germany must either put his MI and Armor at risk, and I will attack them EVERY SINGLE TIME, or not fully utilize them.

see above! you would attack minimum 15 inf, 6 art, 13 mech, 8 tanks and maybe 4 to 6 planes? cool! than germany has an easy go-through to moscow!

@Cmdr:

C)  If you lose them to Russian infantry, then what’s the point?

winning! :D

@Cmdr:

D)  If you don’t fully utilize them, you would have been better off getting Infantry and Artillery instead of MI.

no, russia is too big and inf is too slow to pass this big russia. MI buys time every round, inf wastes time.

@Cmdr:

E)  Armor is never a waste!  Fine, yes it is, if you have 48 Armor and only 3 Infantry, then you wasted money on armor.

agreed.

all those comments include no stupid suicide blitzing BEHIND russian lines. the mobility of mech has an inherent cumulative attribute which must not be disregarded. the first three turns germany can build 30+ mech. add those to the 20+ inf already in position. add 10 art and minimum 12 tanks. now spice it up with 3 to 5 fighters, 3 to 4 tacticals and your strategic bomber.

rock`n roll

bonus question: what is needed to beat it or defend against with? (please tell me a number of really needed troops to stop this mass…)

@rock`n:

now i have the feeling that i must comment this. only just because i have seen it working differntly and therefor i have another opinion…

@Cmdr:

B)  That means Germany must either put his MI and Armor at risk, and I will attack them EVERY SINGLE TIME, or not fully utilize them.

see above! you would attack minimum 15 inf, 6 art, 13 mech, 8 tanks and maybe 4 to 6 planes? cool! than germany has an easy go-through to moscow!

bonus question: what is needed to beat it or defend against with? (please tell me a number of really needed troops to stop this mass…)

The question is, would you rather have:

15 Infantry, 6 Artillery, 13 Mech and 8 Tanks

or

25 Infantry, 10 Artillery, 9 Tanks

I vote for the later.  In the second set there are two more units.  In the second set there is 21 more attacking punch.  In the second set there is 5 more defensive punch.

Anyway you look at it, Infantry trump Mechanized Infantry EXCEPT when you are blindly charging into enemy lines with nothing but MI and Armor without any infantry, artillery fighters or tactical bombers.  In that case, you end up trading 4 IPC MI for 3 IPC Infantry as I will be pummelling those stacks with my cheap infantry, punishing you for advancing without your own cheap infantry (thus you will NOT be advancing them without your infantry and thus, why not just get your own infantry instead?)

With 37 ipc i like to buy 6 infatry, 2 mech inf and 2 armor. seems balanced to me. Maybe some art in turn 2 and and more tanks in rounds up.