A COLLECTION OF THE BEST WAR IN THE EAST POSTS - V3 May 2013. V1.

07
This is a collection of the most useful posts to play WITE that I have collected from the
Matrix forum for the past year or so. Many are specific to the German or the Red Army
player, and range from logistics, the use of reserves, surviving the blizzard to the best
Red Army offensive techniques in 1943 or later. I learned a lot from the collective wisdom of many different people. Most of these posts (a total of about 100) can be very
helpful to beginners, and several will help even the more advanced players to improve
their game. I was able to quote the original contributor for many entries as none of
these posts are mine. (small editorial comments are marked as FG). Feel free to send
me a PM if you find one of your posts and would like to be explicitly quoted. I will post
an updated version of this file every now and then. (Update: a few obsolete posts have
been removed.)
ENTRIES LIST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RED ARMY POSTS LIST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------RED ARMY LOGISTICS IN 1941
AP ALLOCATION
COMMAND STRUCTURE 41-42
REINFORCEMENTS
SPECIAL UNITS 1941
SUPPORT UNITS
OVERALL STRATEGY FOR TURN ONE - (Hermann)
LOGISTICS FAQ
LEADERS
SAVING VEHICLES
WHAT SU TO ATTACH
AIR UPGRADES
MANAGING SU ARMAMENTS
FORTS USAGE
1941. BUILDING CORPS (Flaviusx)
1941-1942 TANK UNITS (Klydon)
ATTACK TRICKS (Farfarer)
UNITS ATTACHMENT MORALE BENEFITS (Mike13z50)
MANAGING AIR UNITS - (tullius detritus)
TANK ARMIES - (Flaviusx)
ADVICE FOR 1941 (Klydon)
1942 SHOCK UNITS AND SU UNITS (Bletchley_geek)
ARTILLERY PREP BARRAGES. (Mike13z50)
ATTACKS AND SU USAGE (1942 and later) (Q-Ball)

USE FOR DIFFERENT AIR BASES

USE OF U-2VS (larryfulkerson)
DEFENDING LENINGRAD (UNTESTED) - (gingerbread)
FORT CONSTRUCTION SPEEDUP (Mike13z50)
DECEPTION AND OFFENSIVE USE OF STRATEGIC RESERVES (Tarhunnas)
SOVIET MORALE
STRATEGIC ADVICE (horza 66)
SU ARMAMENT POINTS COST (MIKE13Z50) and SU LINEUP in 1944
AIR UNITS - PARTISAN SUPPLY (Omat+Seminole)
USING STAVKA AS A FRONT. (ComradeP)
LOW PRIORITY EVACUATION FACTORIES - (Klydon)
ATTACKING IN 1941 - (Farfarer)
PARTISANS 41 vs 42 Q-Ball
DEFENSIVE TACTICS 41 (Farfarer)
--------------------------ADDED APRIL 2013
--------------------------BEST FIGHTER PLANES AND MANUAL UPGRADES (Mehring+Denniss)
BEST ORGANIZATION OF SOVIET ARMIES (fbs+Flaviusx et al.)
DEFENDING LENINGRAD v1.06
AIR FORCE (Flaviusx)
BUILDING COSTS (M60A3TTS)
KV1 FACTORIES - Farfarer
FACTORY EVACUATION PLAN Walloc et al.
MANAGING THE AIR FORCE in 41-43 (Flaviusx and Gingerbread)
AIR BASES 41 (delatbabel)
GETTING FORTS TO LEVEL 4
BAK/LONG RANGE AIR BASES (Flaviusx)
MANAGING APs turtelfang
STAGING BASES FOR FIGHTERS (Flaviusx)
MANAGING ARTILLERY DIVISIONS (Flaviusx, Schmart & randallw)
SAVING TRUCKS IN 41 (Walloc and Gingerbread)
AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AXIS POSTS LIST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES (BigAnorak)
SUPPORT UNITS IN 1941
DISBANDING SP FLAK COMPANIES
MANAGING TROOPS BEFORE BLIZZARD (Pelton)
REFIT UNITS (1941- PELTON?)
TURN ROUTINE
AIR STRATEGY TURN 1 (ketza)
REFITTING MECH UNITS IN WINTER 41 (Pelton)
ODESSA EARLY TURNS (Q-Ball)

MOVING SU UNITS FOR FREE

MANAGING SUPPORT UNITS (offworlder)
AIR DOCTRINE
WINTER 41 (Q-Ball)
BLIZZARD STRATEGIES (Mike13z50)
HQ BUILD UPS II (Attack)
1942 SUMMER OFFENSIVE (Pelton)
OFFENSIVE TARGETS (ComradeP)
IF LOW ON ARM POINTS BUT HIGH ON MANPOWER - (Sillyflower)
BLIZZARD AXIS STRATEGY (Bletchley-Geek)
SETTING TOE TO MAXIMIZE RESOURCES AS A GERMAN (Pelton)
AXIS RAILWAY REPAIR STRATEGY TO FEND OFF PARTISANS (Killzone)
AXIS ROSTOV 1941
WHAT TO DO WHEN ROMANIA SURRENDERS (ComradeP+Baelfin)
MANAGING SU UNITS WHEN GOING ON THE DEFENSE. (Q-Ball)
OKH AND COMMANDERS TO ACTIVATE UNITS IN 'RESERVE MODE' (BigAnorak)
LVOV POCKET (Q-Ball)
MANAGING MANPOWER
LEADERS REPLACEMENTS - (omat)
MANAGING AXIS ALLIES - (Q-Ball)
QUICK ADVICE ON BLIZZARD (Pelton)
-----------------------------------------------ADDED APRIL 2013
-----------------------------------------------Turn 1: GE BOMBING SU AIRBASES for v1.06 (LiquidSky,Tazak)
BLIZZARD MANAGING (KENH)
MAXIMIZING RESERVES I (Pelton+ANONYMOUS)
AXIS TURN 1 GUIDES
AIR BASES IN BLIZZARD
MINI BLIZZARD GUIDE (Pelton)
RESERVE ACTIVATION II (Pelton)
42 LEADERS (Pelton Big Anorak)
USING AXIS MINOR ALLIES - sjohnson
-------------------------------------------------POSTS USEFUL FOR BOTH SIDES
-------------------------------------------------THE WAR IN THE EAST WIKI
MAPS OF INDUSTRY AND MANPOWER CENTERS
INDUSTRY EVACUATION PLANNING MAP
AIR UNITS
END OF TURN
RECON INFO (comradeP)

REFIT AND ATTRITION CASUALTIES SCREEN (carlkay58)

AIR DOCTRINE - (gingerbread)
THREAD ON SUPPLYING HEADQUARTERS
FORT CONSTRUCTION - (Bletchley_Geek)
RESERVE UNITS - (Pavel)
AIR DOCTRINE (Bletchley_Geek)
AIR INTERDICTION (BletchleyGeek + FlaviusX)
ADVANCED FEATURES TO LEARN/KEEP IN MIND
RECON MISSIONS - (JAMiAM)
BOMBING UNITS TO INCREASE FATIGUE - (Marquo)
USE OF FORTIFIED ZONES (delatabel)
PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY GUIDE (RED LANCER)
-------------------ADDED 4/2013
-------------------TOE OVERVIEW (Morvael)
BEST LEADER FOR STAVKA AND OKH (Flaviusx)
----------------------------------------------------------------------RED ARMY
----------------------------------------------------------------------RED ARMY LOGISTICS IN 1941
Here are some basic guidelines that beginners may find useful and use as a basis to
develop their own preferences. They are aimed at preserving and rebuilding a decent
red army during the first season of the game - from june 1941 to the mud season. They
work in pbem but I'm pretty sure that there is ample room for optimization or alternate
doctrines.

AP ALLOCATION
APs allocation Each turn, 1. Appoint one new leader (cost 10-20
aps). Appoint the best ones (good stat in Administration with decent
stats in Inf and Ini) to Front HQs and then, when every active front
has a decent commander, take care of the armies, and last the air
HQs. Start working on the more threatened sectors. Usually Leningrad,
Western. Put very good leaders for armies that defend critical
sectors. After 3 months, no active army should be commanded by an inf
4 leader anymore. [....] . 3) Equip the army HQs with at least 2
Construction brigades.

RED ARMY - COMMAND STRUCTURE 41-42

1. Let Shaposhnikov run the Stavka. [FG Zukhov may be better in 1941-42].
2. Starting from turn 1, have a vision of the succession of front
sectors you want from the baltic to the black sea. Do your absolute
best to avoid overlapping sectors and stacks of frontline units
responding to different hqs. If necessary and critical, spend a few
aps to change the hq affiliation of frontline units and sort the
mess out. In the first turns chaos, it won't always be possible so
use common sense.
3. Keep the armies under their command limit (24 points, 18 in 1942). A good
all-around basic composition for regular armies is 9-10 infantry
divisions (20 pts), 2 tank brigades (2 pts) that will be transformed in a tank corps
in due time with an extra tank bde. This way, you have a 20-22 pt army.
4. Give each front 3 to 5 armies. Some front-level overloading is
unavoidable. Keep it low. If you use the 20 points army model, you
may have 4 such armies per front with some overloading (80 points
vs 72). The optimal distribution of force would be 3x24 points armies
per front HQ but active HQs are way too rare to allow that. During
the winter, Volkhov and Transcaucasus front HQs will be activated,
alleviating the burden. [FG as of 1.07 overloading armies is not
recommended anymore. Fronts maybe OK)
5. Do not give armies to Kharkov MD hq. For some reason, it will be
disbanded and its armies will be switched to South-Ural Front that
is an Eastern map border static hq and you will lose the benefits
of an in-range front HQ. (an annoying bug imho). (FG NOT SURE IF
THIS IS STILL TRUE IN V1.05)
--------------------------------RED ARMY - REINFORCEMENTS
1. My replacement policy is to strengthen as many frontline divisions
as possible (vs using frontline divisions as expendable cannon
fodder and putting all manpower and replacements in new
divisions). Select all units in CDR report, sort them by hq and put
on refit all those that are not stavka. It has two advantages 1/
the frontline will be stronger (but be smart and try to detect
upcoming encirclements because pockets will hurt more) and 2/ it
maximizes the xp gains. It is common to have 3-5 guard rifle

divisions as early as September.

2. The drawback of this policy is that the arriving divisions will be
completely depleted and need a longer time to grow to full
TOE. Keep these new divisions under Stavka, out of harm way (unload
them from the train 10 hexes away from the front sector where you
want them, in a town or a city).
3. Build "ghost armies". Bunch together a free HQ and 9-12 rifle
divisions. The rear areas must be kept clean and orderly. These
reinforcing divisions are perfect to build fortified lines in the
rear (Vyazma line, Luga line, Tula line etc). But do not insert
these in the command structure until the last moment - there may be
emergencies. Keep in mind that putting a unit in command from
stavka is free but transferring a unit to another command costs
APs.
----------------------RED ARMY - SPECIAL UNITS 1941
1. Airborne brigades. Preserve them (ie construction duty or stack
them to keep absolutely critical hexes. (3 ab bde = 1 rifle guard
div)
2. Tank divs. Avoid putting them on the frontline, keep them 1 hex in
the rear in reserve mode. Do not expect miracles.
3. NKVD rgts. Rail them to the finnish border. Hand them over to
Stavka control. Use as border guards.
4. Motorized divs. Disband them - enjoy the extra vehicles.
5. Corps HQs. Disband them - less clutter, preserved SUs. [FG they will
disband automatically pretty soon].
[....]
------------------------RED ARMY - SUPPORT UNITS I
1. In each army HQ : at least 2 Construction bns (for roleplay reason,
I do not build RR brigades this early in the game). 2-4 artillery
(mix the types : guns, howitzers, mortars to hammer the [front] at
different ranges).

2. Keep the scheme simple. When armament production is lavish, you

will start having more sophisticated army support schemes (tank
bns, sapper rgts, skis bns, etc).Lock.
3. In each front HQ : 1 RR construction bde, 1 PVO rgt. Lock.
4. Set the Stavka support level to 0. Support units are needed at the
frontline, not in Moscow.
General advice
1. Have a vision and develop it turn after turn.
2. You may panic but never give up.
------------------------RED ARMY: SUPPORT UNITS ALLOCATION STRATEGY II
If I'm understanding the system correctly, you can either manually
attach support units to whichever units you want, or you can have the
HQ's automatically shuffle them around (or mix and match,
obviously). In the latter case, as I understand it, an HQ will
temporarily send support units to help its attached combat units in
battle, as long as they're within 5 hexes, and each SU attached to
that HQ can take part in several battles each turn. [as long as the HQ
does not move]. Support units help only combat units attached
directly to the same HQ.
Quick and dirty approach to cheaply (relatively) getting support units
where you want them. The following is written around the Russians
organization, but the same principle applies to the Germans
1. Set STAVKA level to 9
2. Set all Front levels to 1 (otherwise SUs will not flow through them either up or down
3. Set all army levels to 1 and all corps levels to 0
4. Go back and set only the armies that you want to support with SUs
to 3 (Note that if you wish to keep any corps active you can set them
to 3 as well) 5. Run three to five turns (This allows SUs from
unsupported HQs to flow up to STAVKA and then down to the ones you
wish to support; the longer you wait the fewer you have to move
manually and pay APs but you may be in a hurry to get support to where
you need it)
6. Lock the armies (or corps if you wish) you want to support and manually add any additional SUs that did not flow naturally
7. Lock all fronts containing supported armies. Set all other fronts (and inactive armies)
to 0. Add construction units to supported Fronts as desired.

--------------

RED ARMY OVERALL STRATEGY for turn 1 - (Hermann)

1. Assess your situation.
There are 6 areas of concern:
1. The Dvina line South of Riga: Did the enemy cross the river ? A
cautious enemy will stop and wait for his infantry to arrive and set
the entire tone of your defense. An aggressive enemy will rush the
river and a meticulous enemy will take Riga and Dvina. This doesn't
cover incompetent players - though with the cost of the game and time
it consumes I honestly doubt those exist in WIR.
2. Central Pocket area at Bialystok/Minsk. Did the enemy split the
Pocket or Bypass, A Cautious enemy will secure the Bialstok region
without pocketing the Minsk area, attacking units heavily at Minsk and
usually neglecting the Pripyat area.. An Agressive enemy will close
the pocket at Minsk without splitting it, and totally bypass
Pripyat. A meticulous enemy will hermetically seal both pockets with a
stronger presence in the south along the Pripyat.
3. The Pripyat Marshes: This THE most critical area on the map. A
Cautious enemy will seal the entrances and advance around it after
taking Bialystok, without sealing off the Kovel region properly. An
Aggressive player will totally bypass it North and South totally
neglecting Kovel. A Meticulous player will take Brest- Litovsk and
seal off Kovel then seal off the rail entrances and advance into the
Marsh with a cavalry division and some infantry.
4. The Rowno-Tarnopol-Chernovtsy axis. Another critical area. A
cautious player will fight to destroy the units in the
Kovel/Tarnopol/Rowno triangle advancing only slightly in the direction
of Tarnopol and Rowno. An aggressive Player will head straight for
Proskurov, taking Tarnopol, lightly screening the Chernovtsy region
and bypassing Rowno to the south. A meticulous player will make
himself felt either by taking Rowno, pocketing the troops in the
triangle and/or aggressively sealing the Lvov pocket in the Chernovtsy
area.
5. The Lvov pocket. A Cautious player wont create it, but will attack
heavily in the Lvov region. An aggressive player will loosely screen it
and a Meticulous player will hermetically seal it, attacking to gain

position.
6. Classifying your opponent: As you've noticed I've broken
this down into 3 classes of enemy. This is what you base your turn on
and hope you're right. I'll start by running an overall response to
each class of enemy, later we can go into more detail. Cautious
enemy: Lots to be said for this strategy but the harm outweighs the
good. in the North he allows you time to build defenses along the
Dvinsk this stops his tanks for a turn or so but you lose most of your
troops when he attacks. most you stay is 1 turn. Rail movement is good
into the area use heavier units at crossings and light stuff along the
river. You should be able to get a few units out of the Kurland via
ports. In the center you'll have extra troops to move to the Dnepr and
Landbridge in a timely fashion. The Kovel attacks will be a deep blow
as will the attacks in the triangle but the benefits of saving the
troops in the Lvov region almost make up for it. these troops need to
go to the area around Velikye Luki. Basically put 3 lines in the north
along the narwa and start your leningrad defenses about 4 hexes west
of the city stretching to novgorod. You'll have plenty of time to build
a defense line south from Pskov but why bother ? this player likes to
close up and attack in force. use a checkerboard defense screened by
nkvd regiments and fall back a couple hexes every time he closes up start your defense line east of Pskov running north between velikye
luki and novgorod where the terrain and the time spent will actually
stop him. build the line using your weakest division sized units. In
the center he will give you more trouble use a line 2 wide with
another line of armor behind it in the landbridge. along the dnepr
line the entire bank southwards one deep with 3 at each crossing point
- that hold the river and force enemy armor to wait or bleed
themselves at the landbridge. cautious players wont move south past
the swamp. East of rowno use the same 2 deep defense on the river but
space the armor behind it and use a multiple layer checkerboard
defense in the clear area leading to kiev. further below vs the
rumanians use a 3 layer spaced checkerboard with armor in the last row
and fall back 2-3 hexes per turn. go ahead and build the Odessa
defenses, a cautious player will certainly invest the fort - make sure
you evacuate the troops by sea to sevastapol.after a few turns delay.
Thats the basic strategy against a cautious player. remember as you get
depleted units replace healthy units in the moscow and leningrad
etc.. areas with them and use the healthy ones. don't try to create a
line with depleted units and use damaged or weak units only in
checkerboard or river defenses. As you scrounge the map grab all the
very powerful units, infantry and tank and use them at leningrad, the
landbridge and the river east of rowno as well as river
crossings. these units are your most important asset dont waste them
in frontier battles.

-------------------RED ARMY: CONSTRUCTION VS RR UNITS

There's only one reason to ever build construction battalions over RR
brigades: replacement concerns. Otherwise, yeah, RR do the same jobs
and better. If you're not worried about the amount of manpower needed
to make a swarm of RR brigades as opposed to CBs, then go to town.
Honestly, the sapper brigades are a waste of time. The better thing
to do here is simply to make a bunch of sapper regiments and directly
attach them to each and every corps. (And I mean every single one.)
[...] if the HQ is in range it will always support deliberate
attacks, but hasty attacks it will only support if the HQ itself
hasn't moved during the turn.
--------------------RED ARMY LOGISTICS FAQ
First time as the Soviets and I have a few silly questions.
1. I want to combine 3 Soviet infantry brigades (no naval) into a
division. the manual states that they can be combined if in the
same hex by pressing b (or corresponding icon). however this does
nothing. The date is November 1941. Has anything changed with the
patches?
2. Which Soviet Arty SU is the most effective?
a. In the attack?
b. In the defense?
c. Against heavy forts?
3. I'd like to assign Konev to an Army HQ but cannot do so. He starts
the game commanding the North-Caucasus MD and historically was
transfered to 19th Army in Western Front. But it seems this is not
possible in the game. Am I missing something?
4. When do Tank regiments come available as SU?
5. Any use for AA brigades? How to best employ them?
6. what's the current likelihood (and range) that leaders get killed in action?
a. Does attaching AAA regiments to higher HQ's reduce the chance?
b. Does anything reduce the chance of leaders getting KIA through air?
7. How effective is bombing ground units by air units? And which air
assets are best used in the game? Is it more effective to
interdict?

ANSWERS:
1: Changed to 1942. I think you need 2 and it is June 42 before you
can convert them I believe.
2: The one that has guns in the pool. I tend towards the 122/152 size
guns, but will build some 76 size guns if I have a bunch in the
pool. Take a look at each unit and I like picking the ones that have
the most. (Some have 24 guns and some have 36 guns for instance). I
also like building mortars as well. I think part of the trick is to
have a mix so you have something to fight with at various battle
ranges. I have not noticed any difference between attack and defense,
but then I have not paid that much attention to it. I have a tendency
to withdraw all support units early in the game just to try to spare
as many as possible during a time period that the Russians won't stop
much anyway.
3: Konev is frozen for awhile since the HQ is frozen down there. I am
not sure if he becomes available before the HQ unfreezes.
4: You can look at this excellent link Joel posted as a sticky in this
forum. http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2882717 In answer to
your question, Sept 42.
5: I don't have a current use for them and have a tendency to scrap
85mm AA guns to convert them to AT guns. The air model has issues
right now and flak seems to be fireworks at this point. (FG probably less true with 1.05+,
and flak is quite effective)
6: They have been tweaking it. My experience is not as much lately and
I don't think attaching flak is going to help with that. I would try
to make sure the HQ is back a bit from the front and that it is also
around some airbases with plenty of fighters when possible.
7: I don't think it is very effective, although it is hard to tell. I
think more is damaged than destroyed, so it would be more effective to
bomb something and then attack it to inflict extra retreat losses on
them. I think you save your tactical planes for ground support and use
your bombers on the ground units if you want to pursue this particular
strategy. As far as interdiction goes, I like it a lot because it can
cost an enemy unit critical movement points to the point that they may
not be able to participate in a planned attack and even if they do,
they have more fatigue and damaged elements.
-------------------------

RED ARMY - LEADERS

Konev is one of these guys that I want in Front command anyways and
would stick in a Front the moment he hits Colonel General. Happily, he
already starts on a Front command. So I don't see any good reason to
spend APs on shifting him around. I have a short list commanders that
I aggressively try to promote to Colonel General to give them front
command ASAP -- Konev is near the top of that list. Others include, in
no particular order, Tolbukhin, Malinovsky, Bagramyan, Purkhaev,
Vatutin, Rokossovsky and Zhakarov. That's your a-list, the 7 point
wonders. Zhukov of course can assume front command front the get go,
but I tend to leave him in STAVKA [...] The b-list includes the 6 pointers
like Chernyakovsky, Eremenko, Popov (who, like Konev, is already
running a front at game start and ought to be left alone there), etc.
North Caucus activates at the end of 1941, just in time for the
blizzard counteroffensive. I slide it right in there just below South
Front and let Konev go to town. It's all about redundancy and having
multiple checks along the command chain. Even a very strong army
commander can fail checks. But decent Army commander backed up by a
strong Front commander can improve on that. Especially on admin
checks.
The challenge here is dealing with overloaded Fronts and STAVKA. There
comes a point where STAVKA overloads and cannot be brought under
command limits. I rather wish STAVKA had a higher command cap, as a
matter of fact. Fronts can be managed, but there will be times when
there's a critical shortage of command capacity at the Front level.
The Soviet command chain is short as it is compared to the German, and
it's dangerous to rely entirely on army commanders to get the job
done.
------------------RED ARMY - SAVING VEHICLES
In 1943, Lend Lease is 4500 Vehicles a turn. Until then, you will run
a deficit. In 1944, it's 6,000 a turn, at which point you can probably
build whatever you want.
The Red Army has a big vehicle problem in 1942. There are few things you can do:
1. Try not to lose too many Tank and Motorized divisions in 1941.

2. Disband some Tank Brigades; you will probably have about 100 or
so. You probably don't have the tanks for that many until later in
1942, and you don't have the vehicles to convert them all to Tank
Corps. The Red Army just can't support 100 full-strength Tank
Brigades.
3. Limit use of Tank SUs; this one is tough to swallow, as
I personally love Tank SUs. [FG this is a bit controversial]
4. Hold off on Mech Corps until 1943
You can conserve use of vehicles by moving part of your troops in
reserve. I mean away from front line and deploy them over fixed rail
lines behind the lines.
You can also convert part of frontline static it also saves vehicles,
reduce offensive operations (this reduce need for fuel and ammo
transportation and vehicle fatigue caused by moving units).
[FG setting units to static is not recommended for the Red Army] Extreme
methods for saving vehicles is set part of mechanized and tank corps
static and even disbanding troops. If you want to make big offensive
operations you have to conserve use of vehicles. Soviet have to manage
vehicle pool.

--------RED ARMY - WHAT SU TO ATTACH

1 RR brigade, 2 sapper regiments, 1 heavy gun, 1 AVGK artillery, 1
heavy mortar. No one will agree with this or what is best, but it is
simple. This will change as years progress and your stuff gets better.
If an Army owns Cav Corps, buy enough tank battalions and sappers to
give each Cav Corps 2 tanks, 1 sapper regiment. again, people will say
something else is better and they are probably right, but this is
soviet simple.
Units expecting to fight must not be under STAVKA control. If you are
sitting on APs, just hit "G" for auto assign. Be careful that an HQ is
not selected when you do this :)
------------RED ARMY - AIR UPGRADES

I'll upgrade the VVS manually later but AP's are too precious to spend
on it in 1941, so it will be flying around with mostly rubbish for
about a year. You could try a limited amount of auto-upgrading by
placing squadrons that have only 1 type of plane available to upgrade
to on automatic (and then on manual again, so they don't downgrade
next turn).
------RED ARMY - MANAGING SU ARMAMENTS
Soviet Fort Zone is 4,140 Arm points to build. A 41c Rifle Division is
6,914. So far in our game, I have destroyed 60 Fort Zones. 20 of those
were on turn 1, so that can't be helped; but 40 were after Turn
1. When a fort zone is destroyed, maybe 1/4 of the guns survive, so I
have probably destroyed 30 Fort Zones worth of Armaments, or about
120,000! That is enough to equip approximately 17 Rifle
Divisions. Thus, destroying those Fort Zones, I have probably saved 17
Rifle Divisions lined-up against me in December. That is not
insignificant. I didn't realize that was happening either, until
today, when I calculated what a Fort Zone costs.
I am sure other Soviet players are making similarly misinformed
choices in Armaments. A Motorcycle Regt costs 1,670; are they really
worth keeping in the field? How about an AT Bde? Haven't calculated
that one, but I bet it's almost as high as a Rifle Division. An
Artillery Regt? Probably 2,500 to 4,000, depending on which one you
pick. Would you rather have 2 of those, or a Rifle Division?
When Blizzard hits, you have limited resources. You need to funnel
Armaments to as many Rifle Divisions that you can reasonably keep up
to 100% strength. 1/2 Strength Rifle Divisions will be UNREADY, and of
no use whatsoever; they may as well be shells. Thus, even with your
limited resources, you need to turn 1/2 the Red Army on REFIT, and the
other half or whatever, do whatever you can to keep their strength as
close to ZERO as possible. You need to funnell all your replacements
into the units that are doing the fighting. UNREADY units should get
nothing. I know alot of Soviet players don't manage the Replacements
in Blizzard, and let everyone get replacements. This is a mistake, and
you will lament this when many of your front-line units are UNREADY.
Others may add to this, but I think Soviet Players need to get good at
managing armaments. Among other things, I would:
1. Set TOE's to Artillery Units to 50%
2. Disband Motorcycle Regts gradually

3. Don't build any SU's other than Construction Bdes, until Blizzard
4. For Blizzard, some Sappers and Tank Bns are OK; they are cheap. But that's it.
5. Don't EVER put a Fort Zone in harm's way. Pick it up, and save the weapons for later
6. When Blizzard hits, you must manage REFIT carefully, and make sure
shell units do not pick up any replacements. All your replacements
should be assigned in the REFIT segment.
German Fort Zone TOE's, on the other hand, are very different. It's
Rifle and Construction Squads, a few mortars and MGs. No big guns. n
1941, you really cannot afford to be buying artillery SUs. You have to
do some fairly drastic TOE micromanagement/disbands just to keep
armaments from cratering to zero to early as is.
Even in 1942 things are tight with the new multiplier. If you can
preserve your initial artillery SUs, you don't need much more than
that, imo. I add a few rocket artillery regiments and mortar
battalions as the war progresses (no more than one of each per army,
and not even for all armies.) I also like to build one AT, one tank,
and one AA unit per army, in addition to the construction assets, as
the war progresses.
SU production should be geared more towards tricking out combat corps
than stuffing all your HQs with them.
One should buy thoseSU's which put on the table assets which aren't available in
Combat Units TOEs. Heavy tube and rocket artillery, sappers and Tk Bn's
certainly fall into this category. The 203mm is used by the Howitzer
Regts SU ( left over from game start) and is a problem, so I will be
getting rid of some Howitzer Regiments shortly. I currently am trying
2 Arty, 2 Sapper, 1 Mortar and 1 RR Brigade into an Army HQs
----------RED ARMY FORTS USAGE
I would place one on the Leningrad Backdoor Turn 1, then 10
or so immediately around Moscow. But even if you place them, they
don't really dig; you need Rifle units there to do that. So, if you
place Fort zones, you have to also place 1-2 Rifle units in the hex to
build. I would probably stack 2 in the Backdoor hex.
I see the Soviets using Fort Zones mostly in the Spring of 1942 to
prepare for the Summer.
The Germans will use them heavily; without it, I can't see how the
Wehrmacht can survive 1944.

---------RED ARMY. 1941. BUILDING CORPS (Flaviusx)

I like to get started on them right away, from April 1942 onwards, get them
trained up and have some available for the summer offensive. They will
be weak, but very mobile, and their mobility is the main thing. Get
them some easy wins and put them on the road to guards status ASAP.
However, there is one advantage to holding off on building them: the
July 42 TOE upgrade. It's pretty massive compared to the incredibly
weak 42a tank corps. And the ones you've already built before then
will take their sweet time flipping over to the 42b TOE. You could, in
theory, try to get by with just cavalry corps until July and then
start building tank corps. But you're looking at around two full
months of clear weather operations here with very limited mobile
reserves if you hold off like this. I don't like waiting that long.
------------RED ARMY. 1941-1942

TANK UNITS (Klydon)

What I do is try to pick out several tank brigades and get them as
many victories as I can during the Winter offensive. Have a brigade
stack with two strong divisions and make as many hasty attacks as you
can (if you can). The victory count to become guards status as a
armored unit is much higher than just regular infantry. Eventually
they will become guards and as soon as they do, yank them out of the
line and send them to some central staging area. 2 guards brigades and
a regular brigade will net you a guards tank corp. I think it is
easier to get the brigades to guards status vs trying to take a
regular tank corps and turn that into a guards tank corps. Nothing
wrong with regular tank corps and you will wind up forming some since
I doubt that many guards tank brigades get formed, but you never
know. One last note on formation; I try to use more "seasoned" tank
brigades. Never use a newer tank brigade. Look for those that have
good experience so the climb out of the experience hole is shorter
when the corps is formed.
Next thing you do is to figure out what you want to do with support
units. Since the tank corps itself is so weak, you will want to have
some good support units for it. If you wait until the last second to
build a bunch of support units, they will be just as crappy as the
tank corps. I typically start building sapper regiments and tank

battalions in January so they will have plenty of time to train up and

be ready to go for when you form up the corps. I have never done it,
but you could take this a step further and pull any guards sapper
regiments you may have created and use them. I will usually go with 2
sapper regiments and 1 tank battalion to start, but I think there are
a couple of combos that are perfectly fine to pump up a early tank
corps.
After I get them formed up, they generally sit for awhile to train up
since they take such a heavy experience penalty. Obviously the
preference is to attach tank corps to either shock armies or guards
armies if you have non guards tank corps.
After I get them, I have a tendency to be very careful with them at
first. They will take very heavy casualties much like a tank division
from 1941, so you get a few shots with them and then you need to
withdraw them to be refitted. They have great uses in 1942 by breaking
Axis pockets due to their movement and they can be a good pursuit unit
against units who have been knocked around already during the current
turn.
---------------------RED ARMY -ATTACK TRICKS (Farfarer)
SOV secrets time. Put all your airbases - and this means a LOT of
aircraft - in range of the same target area. Screw the rest of the
front. Set doctrine for a carpet bombing campaign. Use human mission
selection at first to max out recon level. Bomb all the Pz/Pzgrn/Mot
Inf and your targeted front line enemy units. Disruption and death
precludes any Reserve reaction by the much vaunted mobile
reserves. Air Command APs are cheap. By late 42 you can concentrate
8,000 airframes against a front controlled by a single German Army. (
load and place your Bases according to range and payload). Choose
which FB should be B, as you don't care how many fighter aces you have
as long as the LW is kept away from the the bombers. who cares if the
LW has air superiority elsewhere? It is however impolite to bomb LW
airfields directly until the Air war is tweaked so I suggest not to do
it. (FG: this might have been fixed in patch 1.05)
(in reply to Marquo)
------------------

RED ARMY UNITS ATTACHEMENT MORALE BENEFITS (Mike13z50)

[FG this post may be obsolete in 1.07+]
Cavalry, Mountain, and Motorized (Tank/Mech) units receive a
"specialty" morale bonus, they do not benefit from being attached to
Shock/Guards Armies. (patch 1.05.18 19.a & f) So that means only Rifle
& Artillery units benefit from attachment to Shock/Guards Armies.
Guards units do not benefit from being in a Shock Army. "Shock Armies
provide their +5 bonus for non-guards units" (patch 1.05.18 19.f)
Guards Rifle/Artillery units do benefit from being in a Guards
Army. "Guards Armies provide their +5 bonus for Guards units" (patch
1.05.18 19.f)
Which means to maximize morale benefits Shock Armies should have
mainly Rifle & Artillery non-guards units, and Guards Armies should
have Guards Rifle and Guards Artillery.
-------RED ARMY - MANAGING AIR UNITS - tullius detritus
nigth bombing: harass the most dangerous enemy units with the many
hordes of U-V2s and long-range bombers attached to the BAK air
Commands. This is a tedious task, yes.
3) the rest of the air force will automatically intercept and support
ground forces. Well, in theory. I have never changed the air
doctrine settings. And yet my opponents confirmed I was doing a lot
of interdiction.
4) the VVS air bases are close to the front. They are filled minimum
with at least one long range transport or bomber to supply
partisans.
---------RED ARMY - TANK ARMIES - Flaviusx
In future 41-5 games I think I'm going to let tank armies remain under
STAVKA command. These puppies have to shift around so much it is
pointless to attach them to any single front because the costs to send
them to a different front are prohibitive.

------------------RED ARMY - ADVICE FOR 1941 (Klydon)

Not sure what level you have the AI on as that will make a
difference. This is my current game (Russia vs German AI).
The Germans are not nearly as dangerous when it comes to trapping
units after the first turn or two, so you can afford to be a bit more
aggressive as far as forward defence. This also means you can be a bit
more risky with industry as well. Minsk will likely be gone, but you
can typically get most of the rest out in time.
Basically, I look to get specialty units out of the line I want to
save (Mountain units for sure) and be careful with some other units
(cav and tank/motorized so I can save the trucks, etc). You can also
look to evacuate industry as well that is closer to the front as the
AI doesn't usually "raid" deeper spots, especially if you have a
garrison.
I would also set support level to 0 for my HQ units and transfer all
the support units up to Stavka. No need to expose artillery, etc in
the first part of the campaign as you will needlessly take
losses. Save them for later. After you get everything out, set to lock
and start building rail repair units for extra help in digging.
The AI will take a crack at Leningrad, so make sure you give the
appearance of making it tough up there if you want to keep it. The
other area it likes to push on is in the middle to the south in all
that nice open area.
Start disbanding motorcycle regiments and also look at disbanding
corps HQ. Getting some good leaders in place will be helpful as
well. I would likely start my command changes with the more northern
armies/fronts in order to protect Leningrad, but you need to look at
getting some of the worst offenders out of command if they don't get
executed first.
--------------------RED ARMY - 1942 SHOCK UNITS AND SU UNITS (Bletchley_geek)
the main concept lies in structuring my offensives on the Shock Armies
surprise, surprise. [...] because they're quite
useful as an administrative focal point. Becomes easier to manage

allotted SU's, leaders, TOE settings and the like. Regarding their
composition it's also quite clear for me.
I will aim at a core formation of six Rifle Divisions handpicked
amongst the ones with the higher experience level -, a Cavalry Corps
and two or three Tank Brigades, the latter being the Operational
Maneuver Group, or in other words, the guys who are supposed to occupy
any hexes vacated by enemy units and do hasty attacks if/when
possible. That means that I will have 5 command points to attach
whatever ancillary forces I see fit, either divisions or brigades.
So equipping 4 Shock Armies means getting out of the front or
collecting from any Siberian reinforcements still on their way the 24
best Rifle Divisions in the RKKA roster, the best 8 Tank Brigades and
the best 4 Cavalry Corps. Besides that, I would like them to have a
fixed establishment of non-artillery SU's. I think that 5 Sapper
Regiments each and 3 Tank Battalions will do. I will concentrate
heavier caliber tube and rocket artillery under the STAVKA, and assign
them on a mission-oriented basis. This is going to be quite expensive
regarding AP's, but I think it's the way to go, since I can't afford
buying tons of tube and rocket SU's.
Regarding Cavalry Corps, I have 37 Cavalry divisions, which mean 12
Cavalry Corps. 4 of them will be reserved for the Shock Armies and the
rest will be kept under the STAVKA and assigned to Armies or Fronts
depending on the situation. Regarding the SU payload for these, I
think the best mix will be 1 Tank Bn, 1 AT Regiment (Type A or C,
equipped with either 85mm AA guns or 76mm guns) and 1 MG-Arty Bn. Why
the latter? I think Cav divisions are really light on support weapons,
and these Bn's are just a bunch of support weapons.
So summarizing, the build plan is:
* 32 Sapper Regiments
* 14 Tank Battalions
* 12 AT Regiments
* 12 MG Arty Bns
which means a budget of 70 AP's, plus the Cav Corps formation costs,
130 AP's, will mean that I'll be spending, in the next seven turns
about 200 AP's. I think I have more than enough: Volkhov Front arrival
will help greatly 150 AP's right off the bat and I've got accumulated
a total of 93 AP's so far. I'll have plenty of room for building some
heavy caliber SU and appointing leaders and SU's on a mission oriented
basis.

This turn I build:

* 36 Sapper Regiments (I lost my count and built 4 more than I wanted)
* 14 Tank Battalions
* 12 AT Regiments (6 of type A, 6 of type C)
* 12 MG-Arty Battalions
* 6 Rocket Light Regiments
* 7 Army Artillery Regiments (20 152mm Howitzers each)
I realize there's a missing ingredient for the Shock Armies: they'll need to be able to extend the railheads in their wake. I commission 8 brand new RR Brigades to be attached
directly to Shock Army HQ's.
------------RED ARMY - ARTILLERY. (Mike13z50) artillery prep barrages. yes you can!
It just occurred to me that you can deliberate attack with just
artillery. Before you send in the infantry. Prep fire. Three attacks
from two brigades and good-bye fortification. This is a game
changer. (FG it seems that two -three rounds are necessary. It is
possible that larger caliber tubes do better than small ones).
--------------RED ARMY ATTACKS AND SU USAGE (1942 and later) (Q-Ball)
Also, you can crack any fort with enough Artillery, Sappers, and
multiple attacks. Bomb the hex a couple times first, then suicide in a
Rifle Division, maybe twice, and the units will be fatigued enough
they crumble.
------------RED ARMY - USE FOR DIFFERENT AIR BASES
IAP
IAD
BAD Bombers Air Div.
NBAD Night Bombers Air Div.
SAD
SHAD Shock Air Div
LBAP Long Range Bombers Air Div

Seven airbases for each front.

1 VVS (half recon, half transport
aircrafts).
2 IAP/IAD (fighter bombers - only Yaks,MiGs and LaGG).
2 SAD (1 with U2VS for night harassment - close to the front - and 1
with IL2 for assault).
2 BAD (mostly with pe2 level bombers).
5. Give 1 PVO rgt to every Air HQ. Lock.
Level bombers require much more support than fighters and recon. 3-4 max!
-------------------RED ARMY. USE OF U-2VS (larryfulkerson)
I'm divided about how I feel about U-2VS's. On the one hand it's a
slow biplane and easily shot down so they almost have to be flown at
night to avoid the worst of the carnage so that means I use them to
supply the partisans, with means I base them at the VVS bases set on
night missions.
------------------ RED ARMY. DEFENDING LENINGRAD UNTESTED! - (gingerbread)
(FG/Gingerbread: This approach is is so far untested. Use at your own risk!)
I have been toying with an idea of massing artillery in an Army
defending the back door - at least 10 41b Corps Art Reg and 5 regs of
120mm Mortars. An F.R. in the hex can hold a sapper and 2 more
artillery. 2 ID's as defenders + 6 more for rotation and
reserves. Some Nav Inf (not rifle) as reserves as well. Leader with
good Ini & Inf. Fort up Osinovets to enable retreat when the hex
falls. Airbases in the lt. forests east of The Volkhov. Possibly
commit a 152 field Gun Reg in the F.R. for counter battery. The rules
allow for SU commitment up to 6+fort level, that means 2 from F.R. and
9-10 from HQ.
The desired result is that the German Pioneers and high quality Inf
get so mauled that they cannot go at it again without resting. So
instead of it taking 3 turns to crack the hex, it should take 5 or

even 6. It is a pretty heavy investment in ARM, but nothing

irreplaceable (well some Nav Inf...) but there is no better spot to
put some hurt on the Germans! Sort of a Stalingrad a year early, and
the German artillery and Pioneers are not being used anywhere else.
----------------------RED ARMY- FORT CONSTRUCTION SPEEDUP (Mike13z50)
You can also attach construction SU directly to the fort unit, then
once it gets to lvl 3 reassign them to another fort. When you disband
it they go to the assigned HQ. I'm assuming you [have] APa to burn.
----------RED ARMY - DECEPTION AND OFFENSIVE USE OF STRATEGIC RESERVES
(Tarhunnas)
I have found that as the Soviets, you can load up a striking force on
trains, let them sit on the trains some distance back and then next
turn rail them in, unload and attack. That way your attack force will
not be obvious at all, and even if detected, the point of attack can
be along a very long length of front. I think I remember reading
something about the Soviets doing just this before Uranus, and I was
pleased to discover that it works in the game too.
---------------------RED ARMY- SOVIET MORALE
The major change that may have escaped many people is
that Refit only benefits unit morale when more than 10 hexes from an
enemy unit. If the unit is more than 10 hexes from an enemy unit, it
may advance its morale by up to 3 per turn up to the National Morale
level. If it is not more than 10 hexes away it may only advance its
morale by up to 1 per turn. If the Soviets rail their reinforcements
too close to the front too soon they do not gain morale above their
original 30 - 35 they start with. This forces the Soviets to build up
their reinforcing armies well in the rear as it will take about 5
turns for their morale to reach the National level. This really
changes things for the Soviets.
---------------RED ARMY - STRATEGIC ADVICE (horza 66)

... You get all sorts of toys (corps) to play with, and after the
horrendous events of '41 you feel payback of the blizzard turns should
continue. Unfortunately this is entirely the wrong attitude. The
German army still has one more good summer in it, and you have to
prepare accordingly. You've obviously learnt well from your previous
experiences in '41 - this is just the next lesson. Hindsight, or Too
Late Now Department: You should spend the last two turns of the
blizzard tidying up your line, pulling out Reserve armies (at least
three full strength) and all your Shock armies. Keep one Reserve army
in each zone (north, centre, south) and the Shock armies in the
centre. They are your strategic reserve. Guards divisions should
withdraw into local reserves. Corps: Tank and Rifle Corps should be
Guards wherever possible, so use 2 Gds div/bde and 1 regular to form
as many as you can. Concentrate Rifle Corps in your Shock Armies, and
Tank Corps in Front reserves until Tank Armies are available. Summer
'42: Wait for the German breakthrough and swamp it with Reserve
armies. Look for an opportunity to hit the spearhead or safe flank
with your shock armies. Perform local counter-attacks elsewhere in the
line, but do not step out of your fort double/triple line. At this
point the Germans will be looking for opportunities for the back-hand
blow - do not give them to him. Attrit, but do not conduct offensive
operations. Autumn mud '42: Start planning your offensive arm. The
important thing is not to learn from the Germans - they use Finesse,
you must use Mass. Rather than committing Armies to an offensive you
must commit Fronts. I use 2 Shock + 1 Tank Army in a Front command,
and usually have two of these. These are my breakthrough units (yes, a
front is a unit in Soviet scales) - I keep independent Tank Armies for
exploitation above this. Later you can add artillery divisions to
taste. Winter '42: Look for a target. It doesn't have to be a
Stalingrad - not many humans will give you the opportunity. You don't
even need to form a pocket (though it's nice). Where did he put his
allies? They have to go somewhere, and they're always the weakest
units on the line. Hit them with the steamroller, force him to commit
his reserves. Expect your Tank Corps to get bounced around, but hit
back with your Rifle Corps - bleed him. Plan to withdraw and refit all
offensive units in the mud. Summer '43: Watch for a German offensive,
and swamp it with Reserves. When he runs out of steam, grab the
initiative and keep it for the rest of the war.
Executive summary: Bide your time. Build the right tools and you will
be able to dismantle him. Do not lose heart.

---------------RED ARMY - SU ARMAMENT POINTS COST (MIKE13Z50) and SU LINEUP in 1944

(FG this post is useful to show what SU units use many trucks)

I went looking for those pesky Motorcycle Regiments
everyone tells you to disband because they are not worth the trucks,
turns out not so much. They are the only SU other than tank regiments
with a CV of two. Anyway, one thing led to another and here are the
Soviet support units in the OOB and roughly how many trucks they take
up. Turns out to almost exactly the 50,000 I need. The problem is
there are over a thousand of them and at 1 AP per...not the immediate
solution. I'd like to have the 7000 trucks used by 563 flak units back
please.
------------------SU Units----CV---Trucks--Total---TOE
Armor SU--------------87
42 Heavy Tank Rgt-----1--------1-------84---84------21 Hvy 1 AC 5 spt
42 Sep Tnk Bn---------2--------1------107---214-----20 Lt 11Mt 5 Ht 5 spt
42 Sep Tnk Reg--------3--------1------135---405-----16 Lt 23 Mt 11 spt
44a Sep. Tnk Reg------1--------2------185---185-----36 MT 9SMG 3AC 10 spt
44b Sep. Tnk Reg-----45--------2------220---9900----31 MT 10 SMG 3 AC 7 spt
44 Hvy Tnk Reg-------35--------2------175---6125----21 Hvy 1 Ac 9SMG 3ENG 8 spt
Misc
43 Motorcycle Reg-----3--------2------216---648------Combined Arms
43 AT Art Reg---------103------1--------5---515------24 AT 24 Inf AT 11 Sprt
AAA-------------------563
43 AA Regt------------385------1-------15---5775-----16 M 16 L 20 MG 28 Sprt
41 PVO AA Regt----------6------1--------9-----54-----20 M 4L 10 Sprt
41 Rum AA Regt----------9------1-------25----225-----24M 32L 8 MG 50 Sprt
41 AA Bn--------------163------1--------5----815-----8M 3 MG 5 Sprt
SP Gun----------------135
44 Light SU Rgt--------78------1------100---7800-----22 Lt TD 9SMG 3 ENG 1 AC 5 Support
44 Mdm SU Rgt----------19------1------100---1900-----21 TD 9SMG 3ENG 1AC 5Sprt
44 Hvy SU Rgt----------38------1------150---5700-----21 Hvy AG 9SMG 3ENG 1 AC 5Sprt
ENG--------------------36
42 Rom Pioneer Bn-------9------1--------3-----27
42 Flamethwr Co--------10------1--------1-----10

41b Sapper Bn----------17------1--------1-----17

RR Const Bde-----------19---------------5-----95
NKPS--------------------4-------------1000----4000
43 Mortar Regiment-----92---------------11----1112---36 Heavy Mortar
42 Lgt Rocket Regt-----89---------------20----1780---24 Rckt 6MG 6 flak 35 sprt
Artillery--------------86
43 Corps Art Rgt-------11---------------33-----363---24x 122 12x152 75 support
43 Corps Art Bn--------37---------------18-----666---8x122 8x152 18 Support
42 Light Gun Rgt-------22---------------11-----242---24x76how 60 support
41 Hvy Gun Rgt----------1---------------29----- 29---24x152
41 Rom How Bn-----------7---------------12------84---12 Tubes 15 support
41 Rom Lt How Bn--------7---------------10------70---12 Tubes 15 support
42 BM Howitzer Regt-----1---------------22------22---12x203
Total Trucks: 49662
---------RED ARMY - AIR UNITS - PARTISAN SUPPLY (Omat+Seminole)
Every transport unit or level bomber which is set on night mission
should to that. They must be placed in a VVS air base and the AI for
partisan supply missions. (FG night missions are set clicking on each
unit main panel)
----------------------------RED ARMY - USING STAVKA AS A FRONT. (ComradeP)
There's nothing stopping you from using STAVKA like a front HQ
and keeping all STAVKA attached frontline armies in more or less the same area.
---------------RED ARMY - LOW PRIORITY EVACUATION FACTORIES - Klydon
Russians may want to check this list when trying to figure out what to
move when it comes to factories that produce a specific item (IE tank
or aircraft factory). Most will convert over, but some don't and will
shut down at some point, so no need to move them in most cases.
Aircraft:
Kharkov: Su-2 (shut down 12/41)
Moscow: Mig 3 (shut down 12/41)

Gorky: Lagg 3 (shut down 7/42)

Saratov: Lagg 3 (shut down 7/42)
Taganrog: Lagg 3 (shut down 7/42)
Leningrad: Yak 6 (shut down 7/43)
Vehicles:
Leningrad: BA-10 Armored car (shut down 9/41)
Gorky: ZiS30 (shut down 10/41)
Kulebaki: BA-20 Armored car (shut down 5/42)
Gorky: T70 (shut down 12/43)
Kirov: T70 (shut down 12/43)
--------------------------------------------------- SOVIET - ATTACKING IN 1941 - Farfarer
I always attack in 1941, but judiciously. Mostly in the south, as the terrain favours the
Cavalry and Armoured Divs. I think the key is to create 2 attack armies - one with your
high speed cavalry, the other Armour. Any lonely Panzer Division or any surroundable
unit gets pounced. I don't play for the surrender, just the "rout" due to no retreat route.
You are unlikely to keep any 1941 pockets intact, and will likely be pocketed yourself
trying to do so. Use you good leaders to command these armies, and the Admin rating
is important. On average this is only a half dozen victories against mech in 17 turns, but
I consider this quite acceptable peformance for summer 1941. Your tank losses will be
shocking 10 to 1 easy.
---------------------------------------------------SU PARTISANS 41 vs 42 Q-Ball
Partisans are most critical in 1941, and THIS is when you focus on them. Once the
Germans have a redundant railnet, which they will by 1942, they are much less important; just a nuisance, really. In many cases, garrisons can take care of partisans, and a
couple Romanian Cav units are enough to fill the slack. They just aren't much of a
problem. But in 1941, they can cripple the German advance. Twice now, I have cost
Baelfiin a turn of FBD construction due to RR damage. This is important, as the Germans generally will advance in the south to the limit the RR will support. Attacks in Blizzard can be more critical; hate to think what happens if a whole line goes down in the
middle of it. Starting very early, I stocked all my VVS airbases with IL-4 and TB-3, and
set them all on supply. I don't use those planes as bombers, they just drop ammo and
Vodka to partisans. I use them manually to drop to Partisans in very key spots; those
units are smothered with supplies. So, Partisans are already having an impact, and I
recommend to all Soviet players to focus on Partisans early.
---------------------------------------------------

-SU DEFENSIVE TACTICS Farfarer

I have settled into a hybrid Soviet strategy with aggressive, but prudent
1941 attacking by a few armies using Tank Divs and the Cossacks with good leaders
who later will be assigned to Fronts, but not now. While the ants are off doing speed
bumps, fort lines, ZOC swamps, the Attackers strive only to unbalance the Axis drive,
inevitably in the South. The lure of the Don Bas and AGS split is strong. Some Axis
players will bypass the Crimea if your Steppe Dancing ( that's now patented BTW) is
delaying them too much. You then have an ulcer in their side. You can always bug out
by sea. The cost of delaying the Axis in say 2 of 17 turns can be annoying to the axis
effort. Occasionally, you can get a bonus "rout due to no retreat path". Good Axis players take operational pauses on their own terms, one taken on your terms is unwelcome,
especially if it isn't really a pause.
If your Axis opponent is simply too good, just make sure 1 point of
every factory is sent to the Far East as your dire emergency plan.
Generally, your Cav won't get surrounded and be lost to you for the
Blizzard. BTW, Blizzard does not equal "Banzai".
Little things add up, like an aggressive "rally plan" using all those
Corps HQs to get your ants back in the game even if they are next to
useless. They are more useless Routed.
HQ Relocation - if you are isolated and doomed, relocate the HQ on
your turn, particularly if a Front or important Army. The leader may
die or not, but you can guide the relocation location by covering the
closest (useless or dangerous towns) with 3 units. Now YOU can plan
your comeback on your own terms.
When you get to 1943, you will rue every lost truck, so never let your
Motorized divisions get captured. Always rally hem, and always get
them to safety. There is no higher AP priority ( other than that Fort
on the port of Leningrad and stuffing it with AA so Feld Marschall
Pelton can't bomb it closed :)
The Baltic islands have ports, you can put airbases in them, VVS is
best, and supply partisans deep in the rear even with crap early war
planes. Those "FBD-created one rail line wonders" are vulnerable, for
some reason in particular that one hex dip south of the baltic rail
zone that most axis players use. (As axis, I leave a regiment there
having been burnt too many times - may be a partisan-attackchoice-code-thing). Dig in on the crossing points. Pull the aircraft out
and relocate the base when the jig is up.

----------------------------------------------POSTS ADDED IN V3 APRIL 2013

-----------------------------------------------SU BEST FIGHTER PLANES AND MANUAL UPGRADES (Mehring+Denniss)
In the first year once Lend-Lease kicks in, for air combat, its your only fighter, the P40B. Well worth a few AP to re-equip your best FB units with them. Mass them with YaK
1s and MiGs in support and you will be able to inflict serious losses on the LW, even
drive them out of a chosen sector. You don't get that many so I'd say better a good
handful of units with plenty of replacements than loads that are going to run out and
need to switch planes again, losing experience. SB-2 may need manual upgrading to
something like Pe-2 if they are not autochanged after their stocks are used-up.
-SU BEST ORGANIZATION OF SOVIET ARMIES (fbs+Flaviusx et al.)
[FG This is a very useful post]
1x SHOCK ARMY


6-41: 6 tank bde, 3 rifle div, 6 mixed bde (18 cp)


4-42: 6 tank bde, 3 rifle div, 6 mixed bde (18 cp)


4-43: 2 tank corps, 1 rifle corps, 6 mixed bde (18 cp)


4-44: 2 tank corps, 1 rifle corps, 6 mixed bde (18 cp)
Alternative: 4 cav corps, + tank brigades

1x TANK ARMY


6-41: 6 tank bde, 3 mixed bde (9 cp)


4-42: 6 tank bde, 3 mixed bde (9 cp)


4-43: 2 tank corps, 4 mixed bde (12 cp)


4-44: 2 tank corps, 7 mixed bde (15 cp)
Alternative: allow for 1 Mech Corps

4x RIFLE ARMY:


6-41: 3 rifle div, 1 tank bde, 2 mixed bde (9 cp)


4-42: 4 rifle div, 1 tank bde, 2 mixed bde (11 cp)


4-43: 2 rifle corps, 1 tank bde, 2 mixed bde (12 cp)


4-44: 2 rifle corps, 1 tank bde, 3 mixed bde (13 cp)

FRONT TROOPS:


6-41: 3 mixed bde, 6 air bases (9 cp)


4-42: 4 mixed bde, 6 air bases (10 cp)
- SU DEFENDING LENINGRAD v1.06 (Hooper
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3079806)
Command and control

I have come to the conclusion that it is better to try to make the corp system work. It is
fiddly and cumbersome, but if you have the patience to operate it, you do get extra die
rolls, so your combat units should perform better. Overall direction of the initial stages of
the battle should be taken from Kuznetsov and given to Zhukov. I have found that if you
put him in charge of the NW Front and keep the units attached below the command
limit, there is either a big improvement in performance, or it feels like there is and it is a
pretty good solution to the problem of getting the best out of your best leader. He can be
moved to another sector once you have a decision at Leningrad.
Beneath him, we have Golikov in charge of 11th Army and Bezarin in charge of 27th
Army, who are both fine. Sobennikov should be removed from the all-important 8th
Army and replaced with a top class general; I put Vatutin in charge and give him control
of 1st Mech Corp. This is the team for defending the Pskov-Leningrad axis. The other
army of NW front, 22nd Army should hold the Sinyaya River on the approaches to the
Valdai Hills with the ultimate aim of defending against a determined push south of Lake
Ilman, the deep right hook. This army is under the keen but borderline incompetent Vostrukhov. At a convenient moment he should be replaced by Eremenko or similar level
commander.
The Northern/Leningrad front can be left with Popov, Pshennikov can stay with the 23rd
Army and Meretskov is fine with 7th Army. However, if the Germans reach the outskirts
of Leningrad, switch Pshennikov with the best leader you can spare: Rossokovsky for
example. He will fight the battle for the city itself.
Air forces
Group the NW airforce in the Divenskaya area and keep it at full strength. The Leningrad air force can be divided, with the PVO headquarters filled with fighters and kept
north of Leningrad. This is will have a second function as an airhead if the city is isolated. The Northern Fleet airforce should be fully stocked and assigned to support 7th
Army and the Northern Air Command left relatively unmanned in preparation for the defence of the Volkhov line in support of 52nd Army, when it arrives.
Defence against the deep right hook
The key to an parrying an ambitious thrust past Lake Ilman followed by a left turn to link
up with the Finns on the Svir is the Valdai Hills. This should be garrisoned on the first
turn with the 41st Corp of the Moscow Defence Zone and the 111st Division. On the
second turn put Kachalovos 28th Army in charge and attach sapper regiments to it.
Control of Valdai can be the difference between winning and losing the entire war.
The Bolt
As we know, the weak point in the Leningrad defence perimeter is the "back door" to the
east of Pavlovo, and this should be fortified as soon as possible. However, in my experience the key to the position as a whole is the hex to the east of Schlisselburg. It turns
out that the Germans have to go through this if they are to isolate Leningrad and take
the city without a huge battle across the major river. I therefore recommend fortifying
this as soon as the cost drops to 8AP on turn three, attaching three digging units to the

fortification on turn four, and putting it under the command of the northern front, which
also has digging units attached. By the time the German's arrived, it should be garrisoned by the 1st Tank Division, and if possible, the elite Siberian 26th Division, when it
turns up on turn 10. The aim is remove the fortification and leave a defense with a value
above 30.
------------------------------------------------------ SU AIR FORCE (Flaviusx) http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3136580
The efficiency of the Red Air Force has an inverse relationship to its size, and beyond a
certain point becomes a huge drag in terms of support and supply. I don't like putting in
more than 5 airbases on any front, and a half dozen or so airbases to handle long range
aviation. (Up north I'll slim this down to as little as 3 airbases per front.) Once I hit those
numbers, I limit the numbers of units assigned to airbases so the AI doesn't keep making more. Whatever excess groups get produced beyond those airbase figures just gets
put into the national reserve and I rotate stuff in an out of there. The NR is always going
to be pretty well packed if you do this, you'll never come anywhere near emptying it and
putting it all on the map, and that's just fine by me.
I really don't want more than about 600,000 men tied up in airbases. So 60 airbases is
my target figure. Those suckers also divert a lot of trucks. If I wind up with more than
that, I'll disband.
In 1941 I get rid all the SAD airbases, btw. That leaves me with around 3 bases per
front, and given how useless the Red Air Force is in 1941, that's good enough for me.
Ground support doesn't work until 1942 (unless you consider 6 planes showing up
"working" which I do not), so I basically just throw a bunch of fighters out there, since
interception is good to go from turn 1 and these are cheap to supply, even with 9 per
base.
------------------------------------------------------SU BUILDING COSTS M60A3TTS
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3136580
[FG these are supply points NOT ARM points. The Red Army is rarely short of supply
points].
The cost to build an aircraft is its build cost divided by 20. The cost to build an AFV or
combat vehicle is its build cost divided by 10. For example a FW 190A has a build cost
of 484, so it would require 24.2 tons of supplies to produce one such aircraft, to include
four 20mm cannon, one 250 KG Bomb and two 300 litre drop tanks as installed devices
as well as integral aircrew. A Tiger AFV ground element has a build cost of 673, so it

would require 67.3 tons of supplies to produce one such AFV, to include one 88mm gun
and two 7.92 machine guns as installed devices.
That supplies about 4.25 rifle divisions that each need 80 supply points. That's closer to
40,000 men.
But to expand on the thought, looking at the IL2M3:
Build cost = 647
Capacity= 162
(cost*capacity)/20 = 5240
65 rifle division equivalents.
So there may be some savings there if you have a large stockpile of aircraft from earlier
runs of the IL-2 and IL-2M where you might rail some capacity to a second Urals location to damage the factories and reduce production. Worth thinking about...
------------------------------------------------------SU KV1 FACTORIES - Farfarer
HI discussion follow up. Since the tank battalion to regiment upgrade in Sep 42 boots all
your KVs into the pool ( like 2-3000), I am reconsidering the standard evac i.e saving
"all" the KV1 factory from Leningrad. I'm thinking 1 point only at the last minute.
------------------------------------------------------SU FACTORY EVACUATION PLAN Walloc et al.
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3148679
(based on rules as is per 1.06.13)
Comments are welcome. Pointing out errors, improving my horrendous formulation
"abilities", other ways of doing it, or discussion on the stuff that is up for debate.
1. Tank/AFV/Combat vehicles/Aircrafts
Things u need to know. When you evac a factory of this type you remove any factors left
behind. So if u evac 1 point of a 7 point LA-5 factory the remaining 6 is removed. They
arent and in most cases not necesarrily lost for ever. When a factory of this type is fully
repaired it will expand up too its build up limit as given for that factory, at the given point
in time. How ever you will naturally lose production overall. While there are a chance for
producing while damage, ill come back to that later, it will be at a lower level, its only a
chance and the possibilty of the factory could have expanded further if not evaced is a
factor too.

When you evac a factory in of any type the factory will be damaged. What determains
by how much is depending on 2 factors. How large the factory is when evaced and how
large a portion of the factory that is evaced. If u evac a 100% of factory's current capacity it will be 50% damaged. If u evaced not that its possible 0% it will be 100% damaged.
The level of damage in beetween is pretty liniar. So in case of the above 7 point LA-5, if
u evac 4(3 over, 3 under) it will be at 72% damage about just at half inbetween 50 and
100%. Now if the factory had been 24 point large and to evac 4 points the damage to
the evaced factory is 92% because 4 out of 26 is such a low % of over all factory. Math
is 4/26*100 ~ 15%. 15% of the 50 difference between 50 and 100 ~ 7.5 rounded off to
the 8%. 100%-8% = 92%. A factory of this type repairs with a fixed 3% per turn. When a
factory is at below 50% damage it has a chance of producing. The closer to 0% damage
the greater the chance. Math is again linear so at 25% damage it will have 50% chance
of producing that turn. This means that a factory at 72% damaged will take 24 turns to
fully repair and then starting to expand towards the build limit generally at 1 per turn. 8
turns until the possibility of production. 92% would take 31 turns before fully repaired
and 14 turns until it can possibly start to produce.
What does that mean. It means at times, certinaly not always, there are a point in
evacing factories as early as possible. If u wait the factory will be larger so even of u
evac the same points as earlier on teh factory will be more damaged. Taking longer time
before it give a chance of production and also before its fully repaired and are able to
expand. Or u will later on will have to evac a larger portion of the factory = more RR cap
to ensure the same repair time.
Enough of that. IMO, there are 7 factories of this type that are imperitive that is evaced.
I dont care, if u have to evac 1 point of them, dont ever lose them! If a german is within
MPs of being able to ZoC it out, preventing evac, then evac the factory. Ofc this should
be taken with a grain of salt and common sense. im not saying its the best way to do the
evac. Just saying these factories are essential for ur long time warfaring abilties. So just
evac 1 point if that is what is possible, if threatned, just do it!
Its the KV factory in Leningrad, the 4 IL2 factories(2 in moscow, 2 in Voronez, the
LI2(transport) factory at Khimki near Moscow and the Pe 2R near Moscow
Why. KV is non essential to the russian war efford, but that factory is 50% of ur potential
IS tank production. Russian got preciously few things that can kill panthers and tigers in
the later part of the war and here is 50% of ur tank production of that.
IL2s this is the primary ground attack aircraft u will have. Im a big believer in streamlining production so i prefere to have as few types of aircraft doing 1 job. This aircraft gives
u the ability and does it well enough. Even if u dont care for that sorta thing and want
variation when looking at the production number this aircraft will be by far the most used
aircraft u will have. Its simply a question of numbers.
LI2. Only real transport aircraft with any range u have until u get the C-47s in feb 43.
Will help on the potential of airdrops and eliviates the use of heavy bombers for partisan
supply drops.
PE-2R factory at Moscow. U get preciously few new recon aircrafts with any kinds a
legs as russian. This is 50% of em and u will need em!

Now to the optimized part deal with each and every factory that is in danger.

Leningrad
YAK 6, Evac 1 point, turn 3-5. You dont get many transport aircraft so i find i worthy to
evac, tho its debateble if its worth it. Evac only 1 cuz it enters production 12/42 giving
plenty a time to fully repair and fully expand with only 1 evaced.
KV-1 M1941 Evac 1 point, turn 3-5. Debateble if u have the RR cap to spare there are
merits in doing more. Up too around 15 has merit. I prefere to save the RR cap tho. U
dont have many uses for the KV-1. While an excellent tank it self there are so few spots
in ToE that they dont have any real effect and the other factory u have should produce
enough until this factory is repaired and expanded. Yes there might be a shortage in
around late 41 early 42 but thats it after that u should see any short fall. Since this factory eventually converts to 50% of late game IS tanks its a must to get out.
BA 10. Leave! Stops production 9/41 and doesnt upgrade to any thing else. Waste of
RR cap to evac, and if so chance are u gona lose the production cuz of damaged state.
T-50 Evac 1 point, turn 3-5. In it self nothign worth while, but it upgrades to T-34/42 7/
42. Evacing just 1 point give time to fully repair(33 turns, expand 7 = 40 turns well before 7/42.
Kharkov
T-34 Factory. Not the most importand as u sorta have enough but non less i prefere to
evac it. 15 points should be doable early(turn 5-8) on and gives ok time to repair and
expand to when T-34/M42 become operationally. Note here that he T-34/M41 has a
build limit of 75, M42 62. This means that there is limited idea in fully evacing it cuz it wil
be fully reparied and expanded just about the time that it goes from 75 to 62, making the
expansion of those 13 turns not worth much since they are removed any how. Again
one of those i'd evac 1 if germans are within Mp to zoc/take city. 1 tho it will take long to
repair and expand its better than nothing.
Su 2 factory. Leave! Stops production 12/1941, doesnt upgrade. Leave it.
Taganrog
LaGG-3 Leave. Stops production in 7/42 doesnt upgrade. U get better fighter aircrafts
and enough of em so i dont think this one is worth the cap rail. If u wana evac them do
all. Else they wont have time to repair and expand until production stops.

LaGG-3 29 series evac 1 point turn 8-12 or before. Doesnt start to produce until 8/42
and evacing one at that time gives time to fully repair and expand or near fully expand
at time of production
As per Flaviusx and M60A3TTS. Question if its worth evacing. From a RR cap point of
view evacing 1 point is next to nothing(1560 IIRC) so it isnt really that, that stops the
evac. So we down to a pure Hi/supply issue vs having a pool of aircrafts u might not
use. More on the possible supply problems later on. That said ill leave it for now for another reason. There was a rumor(from Denniss) a few months ago that in the next database patch the LaGG-3 29/66 series was gona get a boost in stats. I wouldnt mind seeing those for a re evaluation before making a "final" judgement.
Voronezh
IL2 *2. Evac 4 points each on turn 3/4.. Debateble choice to use rail cap on this so early.
My point of doing it this early is that they havent expanded much yet which means the
time before fully repaired and start to expand will be around start of 42 where u will start
to be able to use them. Doing it later with same evac amount and they will be damaged
more postponing the time until its fully repaired and will expand. Limiting production in
42. Or they RR used to get larger parts out is a hinderance later on. What ever u do get
1 of each out no matter what.
Flaviusx Notes: Personally, I don't bother evacuating anything from Voronezh until
around turn 10. Yes, this will be somewhat inefficient from a production standpoint, but
I'm more interested in structuring my evacuation for denial of targets, and that means
stuff that far in the rear is going to have to wait. It's more important to get things out of
immediate danger first. I'm working on Poltava and Kharkov on turn 3-4. operational requirements > production efficiencies in this case.
I dont disagree if that is what is needed, just never found it to be needed and u can
overall save RR cap by doing it early. Spend 40k for all 4 facs, now instead of possibly
2-3 times as much later.
IL 10, evac 1 point before city falls. Doesnt get into production until 45 so will have more
than enough to time to repair and fully expand when evacing only 1. Not the most importand factory to get out since it starts to produce so late in the war that it has very limited effect.
Moscow Area
LI-2, evac as much as possible when get spare RR cap. Only long legged transport aircraft before the C-47. Has many uses so i like to get it fully out when ever i get free RR
cap. As it will so soon will expand to its 9 build limit that it doesnt pay to evac early. Its
one of the evac just 1 if threatned candidates.
LI-2VP, dont evac or move 1 point to where it will be captured. An ok aircraft with nice
payload and range but its very limited production and my liking of streamlining i dont

use this aircraft. If of the same opinion and assuming u dont find it gamey its a candidate to be moved forward to save a bit of supply that is used in building it. From now on
known as move stuff to Flav's front yard. All those bits and byts will make a beautifull
piece of art some day!
IL2 *2 evac 4 each points turn 3/4. Debateble. Yes u can wait with these. They arent in
imidiate danger, but logic is same as descriped for IL2s at Voronezh. Its one of the evac
just 1 if threatned candidates. Get em out!
IL10, evac 1 point before city falls. Doesnt get into production until 45 so will have more
than enough to time to repair and fully expand when evacing only 1. Not the most importand factory to get out since it starts to produce so late in the war that it has very limited effect.
IL-4 evac fully before city falls/during mud. IL-4 is the heavy bomber of choice, periode.
This is 1/3 of the production. Importand to get out. One of those that are evac just 1
candidates if threatned. It is an aircraft u will use. Is next on my list after the 7 mentioned, but not making the list cuz u do produce them in numbers in safer places.
Pe-2R evac fully at first possible oppertunity. Usually in the turn 10-14 span This is 50%
of ur long legged recon planes, get it out! Costs around 11k to get out so its one of
those cases if i have 11k RR cap left after doing other stuff any where in turn 5-10 i will
take it out over a single arm or what ever ppl might do. 100% a 1 point evac candidate if
threatned.
MIG-3 *2 Leave. Stops production 12/41 doesnt upgrade. While an importand figther
aircraft early on, the stop date doesnt justify using rail cap or the lost production actually
evacing it.
YAK-7A evac a few early if spare RR cap or wait until mud and evac all/just 1 if needed.
Starts producing at 12/41 which gives several options. U have some time to repair and
possibily expand or doing soon after enter production if u move turn 3-4-5 early on if u
have the spare RR cap. Not losing any produciton or much. If not wait until mud assuming city doesnt fall before and get them out there. A evac just 1 candidate as it continuesly upgrades during the war and is an fine aircraft.
U-2VS Leave, possibly move to be captured candiadate Opinions on this plane/series
differ. Some have used it for night attacks for extra losses and it all helps. Others are on
the firm this is piece of utter crap all it does it use supply to be made. Using it just takes
resources as in supply/vehicles/manpower on airbases that could be put to much better
use. In that view its a canditate for moved forward to be captured, if u dont consider that
gamey. Personally im on the its piece of crap bandwagon. How ever u view it it should
really be on the buttom of ur totempole evac wise.
T-40 M41 evac full or near before city falls/mud/Snow/Blizzard. Upgrades to T-60 and
again to Su 76 serie. It provides a portion of ur CV through out the war tho especially in

42 as it T 60 makes up nice part of the ToE aka CV of ur tank force. Unfortunatly the CV
it gives, more or less only last until they spot an enemy that just have an inkling of a AT
gun. Which means u need huge numbers made. So it is a 1 evac candidate if threatned
but overall of stuff in Moscow area its down on the list.
Pe-2 evac what u can before city falls/mud/Snow/Blizzard, but Pe-2 are nice aircrafts
that will team well with ur IL-2s This factory is 50% of the production, so it makes it a 1
point evac candidate if threatned.
Pe-3 evac 1 each point turn 7-8-9 The low production numbers doesnt make it worth
much IMO, but it upgrades to Pe-3bis in april 42(turn 42) and well of the prepare for any
thing kinda type and u dont get that many night figthers. So its taken out as a precautionary meassure. If taken out with 1 point in the time periode it gives it will have time to
repair and expand to the max 5 before upgrades to P-3bis. Math is 1 out = 90% damage= 30 turns of repair and 4 turns to expand to 5. If wait u take it out later u will need to
take out 2 or 3 depending on date. It has a very short production run of only 4 months
so if u want this plane it needs to be at full production come april 42. The 4 months production wont take out that much supply in making any how. It stops producing and no
supply use after 8/42.
Thats the factories those in immediate danger.
Then a discussion about merits of using spare rail cap during the blizzard and spring 42
periode to evac factories futher back. There are factories not mentioned in the immediate danger section, but which stil arel fairly close to the front, for example like Yaroslav
and Tambov. Those should defernately be evaced when u spare RR cap come some
time in the blizzard periode. Goes for both the tank/aircraft type factories and arms/HI/
vehicle type. My assumption is that u will still have lots of RR cap to spare over all from
dec 41 to june 42. This begs the question, if u expect just any kinda 42 axis offensive
and u might not know exactly where it will fall. If it has merit in evacing stuff futher back
like Stalingrad, Saratov and Gorky area's. If u ask me the answer is yes. Assuming u do
it in a way where u fully evac factories, maxing the damage to 50%. U will lose production, but doing it that way u will on average lose 50% of the production for the 17 turns it
takes until repaired. When it comes to tank like T 34, T 60 u have spare production. So i
no reason not to do it, covering all eventualities. When it comes to aircraft especially the
figthers. i will still do it, but it can use a delicate touch. U in the process of building up ur
air regiments with the newer types so lost production is a factor. If u decide to do it. Either have a certain number off X aircraft in the pool before u start to evac or space out
the evac if several factories of same type. So u dont get into a situation where since just
after evacing even fully the chance of production is still so low u might not get any. No
need to find ur self in a situation where ur pool dries up if it can be avoided.

Notes:

La 5 starts to produce in 5/42. So if u evac it in late Dec 41/ early Jan 42 it will be or almost fully repaired come production day. So u dont have to lose any or much production
on those if evacing them from the Gorky area in dec/jan.
La 5FNs starts production in 4/43 so u can freely evac them until late in 42 and still get
full production.
BA 64 production start 4/42 so if facs in Gorky/Murom area are evaced in dec 41 they
will be fully or near repaired come prodcution.
T-70 got a 3/42 start production date. So if evaced early dec 41 they are near fully repaired come production date
Yak 3 free evac until late 43.
OT 34 starts production 7/42 so free evac if before 3/42.
LaGG 3 leave! stops production 8/42 no need to disrupt the production
All those types not mentioned u will lose production from if evaced. As per above i
would still do em, cuz come a surprise 42 offensive u will only have arm/hi/vehicles to
evac and that can usually be done in a turn or 2 from each of those area's. Leaving u in
a much better situation come such eventuality.
U-2 series discussion vs a potential supply shortage in 42. It has been noted by several
player that if they have a large army come 42 and with a "normal" evacuation of HI, U
can find ur self in supply problems. There are so many factors playing into it that u cant
give a hard limit, the best estimate at moment is that if u get above 7.5-8m u might run
into this issue. Since each Tank/AFV/Combat vehicles/Aircrafts produced costs supply it
raises the question if there is some of those that u never use and they will just enter ur
pools. Since there is no way per say to turn production off, it has lead some players to
use a tactic of evacing these into teeth of the germans in effect destroying em like that.
Saving u supply. This use has an ethical side too it. Ill leave that up too yourself.
As noted earlier some players find the U-2 series especially useless making it a prime
candidate for this tactic.
The series consist of several types.
U-2VS light bomber. The lack of interchangeability of other aircraft mean it can just be
moved forward with no further thought.
U-2 transport. Early on this is the aircraft that creates, new transport regiments. Which
means u need it until u have created enough regiments u can switch out with other
types. U have a number of transport aircrafts in the initial pool plus u want to convert
some to LI-2 regiments So u cant move it forward initially, but will have to wait until u
have build of a pool of these regiments.
U-2 recon. This is the aircraft that creates, new recon regiments. Which means u need it
until u have created enough regiments u can switch out with other types, like R-5 and
the SB-2 recon u have in the pool, plus the Re-2R u eventually will want. So u cant
move it forward initially but need to wait until u have created a number of air recon
regiments in the national reserve.

--------------------------------------------------SU MANAGING THE AIR FORCE in 41-43 (Flaviusx and Gingerbread)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3155947
Put all your tactical bomber regiments in the national reserve in 1941. All of them.
Ground support is crippled in 1941 by hard code. No more than a handful will ever show
up regardless of settings and numbers available, and in low single digits tend to get shot
down mostly. Save the regiments and production for 1942+ when it actually works. The
Red Air Force is good for interception and interdiction early on.
Aim for 3 airbases/front early on. You really do not need more than this until well into
1942. The Soviet Union starts with far more airbases than it can meaningfully use. Disband the swarm of SAD airbases. That gets more rifles on the front and avoids the
problems of autodisbands with these airbases going into 1942.
Take 9 VVS bases and assign 3 in the north, center and south for long range aviation.
1-2 of these bases per group will be set on night missions for partisan resupply. The remainder can fly interdiction or other missions. Put 3 bombers per base, using IL-4s,
DB3Bs, and TB-3. Those are your long range birds. Eventually you want to convert all of
the airframes to IL-4 (or B-25s.) The game gives you 4 BAK air HQs to manage your
long range assets; I use only 3 of them and disband the 4th. Over time add 3 fighter
regiments per base, but early on this won't be possible.
As the game goes one you can add more bases to your long range aviation.
For frontal aviation, stick to fighters and SB-2s in 1941. Note that a lot of the I-15 and I153 regiments are bomber trained. (The ShaP regiments.) Make sure to enable them on
bomber mission mode. All of these will be converted to IL-2 in due course manually. The
SB-2 is an excellent light bomber with very long range and well suited for interdiction
missions. Eventually you will flip these over to Pe-2s, but not before 42, and indeed
there's no rush to do this.
Pure fighter bases can stack up all the way to 9 regiments without issue. Bomber bases
tend to have support problems with more than 6 regiments. Shturmoviks have relatively
light support requirements and can be treated more like fighters than level bombers. It's
probably best not to mix these with level bombers, give them their own bases.
In 1942 and on the AI will start to automatically produce airbases if the average airbase
has less than 6 regiments. You can therefore manipulate this to produce as many or as
few airbases as you want by either filling up the available airbase space to force production of new bases, or leaving some open to turn off the tap. My rule of thumb is to increase airbase count to 4 per front by the end of 1942, and then to 5 in 1943 for a few of
the fronts (not all of them) and stop there. I'll add 3 more air bases to long range aviation and stop there (for a total of 12.) You will always have a large proportion of your
regiments in the national reserve if you do this, and I prefer to restrict airbase numbers

and cycle regiments in and out of the reserve to keep them fresh and also to limit the
amount of manpower and supply being diverted towards the air force. This can become
enormous over time.
Note airbases have some restrictions in use. PVO bases can only fly interception; these
should mostly be disbanded (saving some by Leningrad and Moscow is ok.) Only VVS
bases have guaranteed partisan resupply for bombers set to night missions, the other
long range bomber bases only have a chance to do this. Mostly the airbase designations are cosmetic besides this. If you want to fly 6 shturmoviks from a IAD base, that's
perfectly ok. Likewise, if you want to use a ShaP base for fighter regiments, that's ok
too.
So far as flak goes: 2 battalions or one regiment per Air HQ. Note that you start with
more than enough flak to cover this and need build no more.
Jack up the intercept settings. All the way up to 300 imo. You have swarms of fighters
from the getgo and want to get those flying.
Do remember the Air HQ leaders. Some good ones are unassigned at start and a 7 and
a few 6 ratings arrive in October. It's an AP expense, but at least the NW Front Air HQ
leader should be changed - I like to have more than 3 bases with Fb active under the
NW and give that Front priority when swapping groups between reserve and active assignment.
After Leningrad has been decided the focus shifts to Moscow so the good leaders
should go there.
You only need 1 Air HQ in the North Front, keep the standard one with the 6 leader and
disband the 3(!) others.
Always keep your Air HQ:s and Air Bases on a functional rail hex and if you move them
during mud or blizzard, move them by rail. This is to spare your trucks.
------------------------------------------------------------SU AIR BASES 41 (delatbabel)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3155947
Disband the southern Urals (?) air command asap, it eventually turns into a frozen air
command that can't be moved or disbanded later. You get more mobile air armies later.
For the same reason, on turn 4, transfer all of the air bases from the Moscow Air Army
to the Reserve Air Army, and disband the Moscow Air Army. It also turns into a 0 movement air army that can't be disbanded at some later stage, you want to disband it before
that happens (preferably as soon as the reserve air army shows up, so you can recover
the manpower and trucks).

I also disband the Northern Fleet air command, and also the Baltic Fleet air command
and move its bases to the Northern/Leningrad air command. Or maybe send a couple of
the bases south to join the Reserve air army.
Personally I don't waste the APs on disbanding the SAD bases -- they will disband
eventually anyway and I'd rather keep the planes up front at the start.
One important thing to do each turn is to open your command window, move to the Air
Groups tab and pick up all of the very low morale units and send them back to the reserve. Or, as some have mentioned, disband them. If they have good planes then put
them back in reserve and they will pick up morale there. Others can be disbanded. In
fact early on in the game I tend to move a lot of my I-15s and other rubbish aircraft up to
the front and let them take losses. They will occasionally shoot down some German
planes and once they are low morale just disband them to be replaced by better units
later. The higher morale units I keep and use spare APs when I have them to swap the
planes over.
I have abandoned the separation of planes by airbase type. I used to put all of my fighters in IAD bases, use ShAD bases for tac bombers, etc. Now I just put a mix of bombers and fighters in each base, it appears that 3 x fighter, 2 x bomber, and 1 x something
else (tac bomber or recon) per base is a more efficient use of the support than putting 9
x fighter in one base and 3 x bomber in another base (maxing out the support). The only
exception is to put transports and some level bombers on night missions into the VVS
bases to supply the partisans, and the DBAD bases at the back get stacked with long
range level bombers.
----------------------------------------------------------SU FORT ZONES UP TO LEVEL 4 (Gingerbread)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3169459
SUs are pulled to the F.Z. via the Assign interface. The F.Z: can pull from HQs in their
line of command. Each SU will cost an AP.
Best way is most likely to first assign F.Z. to the Corps with the construction SUs, pull
said SUs and then re-assign the F.Z. to OKH. The last step is to free up the Command
of the Corps and, since digging above lvl 3 takes an ADMIN roll, to get a good leader in
charge (OKH usually have a good ADMIN leader, but few Corps have).
It also takes a huge amount of supply! 10k to go from 3->4 and then 10k more to get to
4 + 10%. Huge is relative, but every point must be transported to the hex, probably by
trucks that will be damaged/destroyed.
In all, lvl 4 should probably be avoided during '41! You get 10 lvl 3 forts for every lvl 4
(except for the extra AP, of course).

Edit: There is a limit to the distance that an SU can be pulled from an HQ. I think it varies with the level of the HQ, but have not tested it. You might want to do some tests in
sandbox mode before going live.
(Shupov) It's a real benefit to assign FZ's to an HQ within supply range to maximize
their % supply capacity and construction value. You can even use Hungarian and Romanian HQ's for this purpose.
---------------------------SU BAK/Long Range Air Bases (Flaviusx)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3155947&mpage=2&key=&#3170638
I disband one of the 4 HQs, and assign 3 VVS bases to each of the remaining ones.
The DBAD bases that start with them I actually rotate into Front air commands as VVS
bases become available to replace them. (Some of them may get disbanded. I only use
3 airbases per Front in 1941.)
The 3 remaining BAK commands and their attached bases get placed well in the rear
and act as Long Range Aviation/Partisan Resupply bases. Place them such that each
command and its airbases can cover 1/3 of the front. 3 level bomber regiments and 3
fighter regiments per base. Later on you can add transports to these. If you need to do
para drops, remove the level bombers altogether, put more transports in it, and move
that base closer to the front.
----------------------SU MANAGING APs turtelfang
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3209663
Everyone has their own style of play and you have to develop one that fits you.
1) If possible, try to save AP points. You will need them in 1942 for a lot of things. Such
as building Tank Corps, Art divisions, replacing losses, hopefully a few command
changes.
2) I lock on my aircraft to manual upgrades at the start of the game. Then I will unlock a
few as the game goes on the pool builds for the upgrade path that I want for the aircraft
to save on AP points. If you unlock too many, you will get a yo yo effective - trading up
to good aircraft one turn, trading down a few turns later. So it's a little bit of a balancing
act.
3) At the start of the game, I set all the HQs to 0 support except STAVKA which is set to
9. After about three turns, about 90% of the SUs will end up at STAVKA. You can then
do a rail road tour around the front to parcel these out at no AP cost. When you do,
LOCK the HQ to prevent migration. Its a pain in the butt, but worth it in the long run.

4) I have a set SU allocation I prefer for each army rather than move the SU around which can get expensive in terms of AP points (on the other hand, it saves ARM pts).
You will get a different opinion from everyone you talk to regarding the right allocation
from zero SUs to massive numbers. Pick what works for you and adjust depending on
how your doing. My base starts with 2 RKVG art regiments, a MTR battalion, a PVO
regiment, and 2 or 3 sapper regiments. I put my RR construction units at the Front level.
Note that I start building this up after I allocate all the SU units that have migrated to
STAVKA and been sent to the HQs. So a lot of the art regiments are assigned this way
rather than built.
5) You need to change leaders out at the Fronts and Armies. There are several post that
are stickies that talk about this better than I can. This actually uses up a lot of AP points
early on but you have to get good leaders in position.
6) Regarding tank brigades. I don't build them. You will end up with over 100 in early
1942 which is more than I can effectively use. I plan to convert these to Tank Corps and
usually end up with 20 to 30 tank corps depending on how badly the German is beating
on me. Any tank bg above what's needed to eventually convert is just wasted IMO as its
a rather minor combat unit and takes a lot of trucks to supply.
You will get different opinions on this from people - and I don't put myself out as "one of
the best". So read a few AAR and some other post and make up your own mind.
7) Cav divisions. I may build a few depending on how I feel and how many I have lost.
These are you best units for the first blizzard when combined in a corps but they are
expensive. Frankly, its more of an emotional decision with me and usually made on
whim. Not the best gaming decision. But then again, I the group I play with plays more
for the enjoyment than for the blood.
8) If you just have to burn APs or lose them, the gentleman who pointed out building inf
bgs is right - even though you will get nearly 100 of these in 42, you can combine them
into a division or corps later. Ideally, you should target an army of 150 or so infantry
corps. They are several ways of getting there. And inf bgs are on all the paths.
9) In December (I think), you can combine three cav divisions into a cav corps. Create
as many of these as possible. You can put four of these corps in an army without overloading it. Most of the people here recommending keeping your Shock Armies for that.
You really shouldn't have a problem filling out the 4 Shock Armies with Cav Corps. Attack the Germans where you can win. In most games, I have converted all my Cav
Corps to GD status by the end of the first winter. Makes them a lot more useful the rest
of the game. If you have extra cav divisions, combine the rest into Corps. If you have a
few left over, assign them to the shock armies to get them up to 18 command points. If
you have more than that, your doing better I usually do and do whatever you want.
There is a sticky on the Russian first turn - I would recommend that you read it. A little
dated due to the patch upgrades but it gives some good advice and got me started.

------------------------------SU STAGING BASES FOR FIGHTERS (Flaviusx)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3208517&mpage=17
Use staging bases down south. Leave the ones forward empty and put the other ones
outside of easy fighter cover by the Luftwaffe. If he wants to bomb those, he's welcome
to do so and pay the price.
On your own turn you might want to start flying some offensive fighter sweeps in other
parts of the front where he is weaker and draw out his remaining fighters there. Then
follow that up with your own bombing missions once you exhaust that local fighter cover.
Unlike the Luftwaffe, you should have more than enough airpower to be active across
the whole front, and should punish this concentration on his part by asserting air superiority everywhere else.
--------------------------------SU MANAGING ARTILLERY DIVISIONS (Flaviusx, Schmart & randallw)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3231952
There's no reason to ever assign these to a Front, imo. All Front command capacity
should be reserved for actual maneuver units -- things you actually want to put on reserve and want to pass a leader initiative check. Or things with CVs. Stuff that can actually take and hold ground, in other words. Arty divisions should either be assigned directly to STAVKA, an independent army, or an airborne HQ. Front command capacity is
a precious resource and on map artillery, properly speaking, is a strategic resource that
should be managed at the strategic level. They contribute little to no actual CV, and their
purpose is to disrupt well entrenched defenders by sheer volume of fire. They can do
this outside the normal command chain. Alternately, you can occasionally assign one to
a rifle army to fill out the 2 CP spare change that's left over after giving it 4 corps. If you
are like me you do eventually get to the point where there's not a whole lot of brigades
or divisions to fill that capacity late war.
Arty can join a defensive battle ( or offensive battle ) in reserve mode, if behind the very
front line; it's liable to the same initiate/MP/unit size rules for other stuff in reserve mode.
It can also join an attack if directly selected, and has enough MPs. The Airborne HQ
gives the attached unit a better chance at passing admin checks. Which does matter to
me at least. With enough MPs, arty divisions can put in two deliberate attacks per turn.
This is also a good way to train up leaders assigned to them. These HQs tend to get a
lot of wins. Never seen them flip to guards, though.
If you want to keep artillery under tight control, an alternate organization method would
be as follows: create armies with 3 corps and 3 artillery divisions. These are essentially
single hex armies (3 corps up front, 3 division supporting immediately in their rear.) But
this is going to require a lot more army commands and will drastically reduce the

amount of command points at the Front level dedicated to controlling maneuver elements. A typical late war Front with around 90 CP organized in this fashion will sport 5
armies with a total of 15 corps and 15 artillery divisions and be able to attack on a 5 hex
front with max stacks at each hex and max support behind each hex. This assumes no
tank armies. You could drop one of the combined arms HQs and switch in a tank army
with 3 corps, and use the spare change to squeeze in an arty division and brigade.
Then the Front would have a bit of leftover command capacity for direct attachments,
but not enough to include another full army. (5 armies is about as good as it gets.)
They should be assigned to Armies or Fronts, but typically they operated on a front
level. Anything else is a gamey loophole. Later in the war, they were grouped under Artillery Corps HQs within the Fronts, but this is not represented in WitE. In a way, the Airborne HQs act as Artillery Corps HQs, but they should still be under a Front command.
Not everyone likes playing by historical rules, but there it is.
-------------------------------SU SAVING TRUCKS IN 41 (Walloc and Gingerbread)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3208517&mpage=4)
For each veh factory point u save u get in rough numbers 1000 trucks until the end of
the war. So those 25 veh fac u evaced will give around 25k veh. When u know u get
4,5k per turn in 43 IIRC and 6k in 44 in LL. Its only a few turns worth of LL. So overall
while veh are important and especially in 42 looking at it at in the long run is why if u
pressed that arms usually take precedence over veh for evac purposes. Doesnt mean
its unimport and if u can evac em its still 6-7-8 ish mech corps more.
About saving veh there is one thing im struck by in about half the AARs and that is how
many mot and tank divs ppl lose in pockets in T3-T17. i dont use them in the front lines
and where they in danger of being surrounded. Its not the same as they arent being
used. Its just in 2nd and 3rd lines so its not those that gets surrounded. A 1 CV tank div
can still have 400-800 veh and lose many of them plus mot divs it starts to add up fast.
Especially if u lose some "full strength" divs to, fielding up too 1500-2000 veh each.
Then it really adds up fast. From my guess is its not uncommon to lose 25k-100k trucks
I think is unnecessary, in some AARs. I know there are others that uses other methods
to save those early divs. Doesnt really matter method as long as u dont get them captured.
About saving trucks in 41 by moving stuff by rail, as only purpose, forget it. While u indeed lose veh from a lot of moving its not that great. I tested it on the divs i move from
ural and they lost 6-800 veh in all. When u add up they save 6k RR for each div = 1 potential veh fac = 1k veh saved. The math is on the side of moving them manually. In 41
while in the evac phase u need teh RR cap for evacing and moving important forces,
period. The veh lost by manual move in this period is just some thing u hafta live with,
IMO. U can follow this in the log. The numbers u lose by "units movement" isnt that
many.

Air bases are expensive to move OL or by rail if they contain a lot of fuel & ammo. They
do have that if they have LB type air units assigned (or had when the turn started). This
means that movement of air bases with LB must be planned a turn in advance so that
they can be emptied of air units the turn before they are to be moved.
Now, LB have a very long range, so it should not be necessary to move their bases a lot
so planning is not such a large effort as it might seem. But they do not have to be
moved on turn 1, so don't.
As to the rest, I think it's OK to move them OL without concern for vehicles during turns
1-5, though except for the NW Front ones, I'd rather disband a SAD base instead of
moving it.
By turn 6, the number of bases in use should be greatly reduced due to SAD disbands.
The Northern Front should give up bases to NW so that NW can disband their SAD as
well. It's still OK to move OL - you have to since rail is used for evac.
Most FB have a decent range, so bases can be somewhat to the rear and should therefore not have to be moved every turn.
To sum up vehicle saving regarding air base movement, I allow some break down
losses but strive to avoid the avoidable ones.
Supply OP vehicle losses is in direct proportion to how many movement points the supply & fuel points has to be moved by vehicles.
Combat units must be where they must be, so no savings to be had here, apart from the
ones from not having to supply & fuel all those fuel dependant TD:s - they are moved
OL but to always end up on a rail hex. Another loss not suffered is from tank SU:s since
they are not built nor used until the Lend lease have kicked up to the '43 level. I also
tend to not have artillery SU in action during '41 except vs. AGN. Saves on ARM as well
and I can assign the high exp ones from STAVKA when all SU have been collected
there after the first few turns. (I digress, I notice. Back to topic.)
Air bases and their Air HQ:s are always on rail hexes as well, so no SuOP vehicle
losses here either. The Army HQ:s must be given a little more flexibility but given a
choice, a rail hex is preferred.
The majority of the SuOP losses will occur during the blizzard offensive. This is simply
due to that the distance to rail in MP increases (hopefully). There are two things to do
that can mitigate your vehicle losses.
I favour a generous number of RR Brigades with an average of 10 per active front. This
totals to ~100 and will tie up 300k men which is probably double what is typical, but I
want to do all that can be done to repair the rails. Supporting tricks are to first ensure
that you have not stacked units in the hexes that are to be repaired - the RR brigades

must have room - and to stack 3 high in the hexes that are dead ends or leading east so
that the RR:s are not doing unneeded repairs. Defending the western most rails during
the final snow offensive is also a good idea, but those hexes are most likely the ones
the Germans wants to capture.
Then I avoid blindly shoving everything forward. If a unit is unready due to low TOE this
turn, it most likely will not receive enough replacements even further from a rail hex next
turn to achieve ready status so it is probably best to leave it or even move it east. This is
of course dependent on that there are men & ARM available in the first place, but that is
another issue.
Also, during blizzard (& mud) the air bases are moved by rail. There should be ample
cap available, and with this routine in place it's more likely that the air bases will end up
on a rail hex, which is very important during blizzard. Do look into using air supply during blizzard to have enough ammo in the leading units.
-SU AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE morael
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3210881
---------------------------------------------------AXIS PLAYER POSTS
--------------------AXIS STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES (BigAnorak)
I know every Axis player is looking for an "I win" button, and is
currently wondering if they will ever find it.
Is a decisive Victory achievable in PBEM play? Personally I think only
a major skill/experience mis-match will ever see a decisive victory,
and only if the losing player doesn't concede.
To achieve a draw the Axis has to hold on to Berlin and a bunch of
Cities South of Berlin until October 1945.
To achieve a Minor Victory the Axis has to hold the line it starts
Barbarossa at until Turn 225, and I think the Axis should base their
Strategic Principles on achieving this.
I believe this can be done by preventing the Soviets from building an

army capable of achieving their objectives. In WITE, the Red Army

needs 4 things to achieve their objectives: Manpower, Resources, APs
and Time. The Axis therefore needs to base all it's planning on
depriving the Red Army of these resources. Each year of the Campaign
will enable the Axis to achieve better than historical success in each
category:
1941. This is the best opportunity to deprive the Red Army of it's
manpower. Large pockets and capture of Manpower Centres should
be the basis for all operations.
1942. The Red Army stops getting free replacement divisions and will
have to spend APs to replace destroyed units. This year also
sees the best opportunity to deprive the Red Army of the
resources it needs. A campaign in the south which is
pocket-friendly and resource heavy will force the SU to spend
APs on replacing losses instead of building the Tank Corps and
Artillery Divisions that he needs for offensive operations. Less
resource availability will slow down the rate at which the units
can build up to full strength.
1943. Assuming the Axis has not given the SU the opportunity to
recreate Stalingrad; 1943 gives the Axis the best opportunity to
deprive the SU of what he needs the most - Time. If you have
captured resources in the south the Axis should make the Soviets
fight for every hex south of the Don as there are a lot of
them. The area between the Don and Rostov will gain in
importance as the SU needs this to cut off the Caucasus.
If, by July 1943 the Axis is holding a line
Leningrad/Rzhev/Tula/Voronezh/Boguchar/Voroshilovsk, they have 115
turns to keep the Red Army east of the Barbarossa start line. The
shortest distance between those 2 lines is 50 hexes. It may not seem
like a lot, so that will be the challenge for 1944.
1944. Time. Defend, delay, counter attack and manage your manpower to
maintain your infantry front line strength, because while you
have been applying the Axis Strategic Principles, the Soviet
will have been applying his main tool - Attrition. The Axis
simply does not have the manpower to maintain front line
strength at 1941 levels, and will need to find every source of
manpower to keep rifle squad strength at levels that can
maintain the infantry front line at a decent level of combat
effectiveness. If you fall below 24k rifle squads, start to
worry, if you fall below 16k, the line will be close to
collapse!

Defence of Finland will be important, as if the Soviets get this the

Axis will need to hold VPs east of the start line on turn 225.
1945. By forcing the SU to take back more territory faster than they
did historically, the Axis Allies should be available for longer
to help absorb the attritional losses. As Historically, AGS will
be under the most pressure as the terrain is the least helpful
for defence once the Dnepr is breached.
--------------AXIS - SUPPORT UNITS IN 1941
Similar to the Red Army. But you would want to flow everything down to
the corps level instead of the army level.
Also, I'd consider when attacking, panzer/motorized units will often
be more than 5 hexes away from their corps hq. This has 2 main
ramifications regarding SU's and mobile units:
1. If you want to make sure SU's are available to your panzers, you'll
need to directly attach them. This trades flexibility for
certainty.
2. You might want to consider reversing the support levels of Infantry
and Panzer corps. If your panzer divisions are >5 hexes away from HQ,
no amount of a rtillery in the Panzer corps hq will do you any good
(you can't attach artillery SU's to divisions). You might as well put
them where they can be used, supporting the infantry.
Besides, most of your deliberate attacking will be by your infantry,
and the panzer/mot divs used for exploitation.
------AXIS - DISBANDING SP FLAK COMPANIES
The light flak and SP Flak Companies don't help. In fact, the
SP Flak Companies hurt, because they will often take up a support slot
in lieu of Artillery or Stug or something useful. I tend to DISBAND
these units, as the Vehicles can be used later when Panzer Division
TOE's expand to include alot more SP Flak. (FG Flak downs a lot of planes once in
1943..)

-----------AXIS - MANAGING TROOPS BEFORE BLIZZARD (Pelton-Gingerbread)

Some Axis players dial down TOE to keep Manpower in the pool until
after blizzard. In my view, the logic is impeccable - if you can hold
during blizzard with what you have already, it makes sense to avoid
having more men than necessary exposed to blizzard attrition. In the
last turn of February, you dial up TOE and set to refit for the units
where you want the new men to go, in smaller steps to lessen
experience loss. You do need a pool of ARM as well to pull this of.
--------------AXIS PLAYER: REFIT UNITS (1941- PELTON?)
In both cases where I turn refit off most troops go to the pool and
sit there. It builds up to 1,000,000 men or more and saves on
armaments. Basically the GHC is not wasting allot of resources to
general winter. On the last blizzard turn turn back on refit to all
mech an panzer units and the following turn to infantry units. I also
like the idea of pulling out as many elite moral (86+ moral) units out
and send them to Germany/Poland to winter to avoid losses, etc. These
units should be able to form the core of your 1942 offensive and still
be extremely effective due to their ability to deeply penetrate enemy
territory. One thing I also tried out was to suck my support units
back to OKH to pull them out of Russia.
------------AXIS PLAYER TURN ROUTINE
LAND UNITS
1) Examine my lines all across the front and see what the general picture is.
2) Open commander's report and check all aircraft for damage levels,
morale problems, and fatigue issues. Move to National Reserve
aircraft that need rest (FG air units sent to the NR increase their
morale).

3) Move forward all FBD rail repair units (unless enemy presence
dictates otherwise). Once you forget an FBD unit over 2 successive
turns, you'll make that a high priority to do early.
4) Check reinforcements on the western edge of the map, and move them
unless you expect to have rail bottleneck problems, or you don't
want to move them overland (sometimes you're fine moving things
overland)
AIR UNITS
In addition to the above, before you do ANY attack that might involve
your aircraft flying (intercept or ground support), prepare yourself
for the air missions that must be done first. For me these are:
a) Resupply of forward ground units via bomber airdrop (only bombers
are restricted to 1st sortie of turn for resupply, and bombers are
VERY useful in this capacity for the German) b) Ground unit attack (by
air only) c) City (factory, etc.) bombing (which I hardly ever do) d)
Decide if you want to bomb airfields or not, and whether you want to
bomb them early in the turn or late in the turn, or ad hoc.
----------------AXIS AIR STRATEGY TURN 1 (ketza)
There are a couple of things you can do different to increase Soviet
airframe kills that involve a different way of starting the Axis turn.
Typically the Axis launches all of his air attacks first then switches
to land attacks. If you mix it up a bit more you get better results.
1) Change your air settings to turn off GS and crank up fighter
intercept to 150% or more.
2) Launch your initial border land assaults. You will notice a
considerable amount of Soviet planes being downed by your fighters
as easy kills that attempt to fly ground support.
3) Create a few narrow lanes to advance some of your airbases forward
into former Soviet occupied territory.
4) You will now notice Soviet airfields are open to air attack much
deeper then before. Everything by Smolensk is attackable as well as
Leningrad. Now is when you bomb the airfields.

5) Finish your land attacks and exploitation. Overrun as many

airfields as possible to clear out the damaged airframes.
Using this slight change in the opening turn leads to on average 4.5
to 5k Soviet airframes killed as well as a large increase in Axis
fighter experience from easy air to air kills.

------------------------------AXIS REFITTING MECH UNITS IN WINTER 41 (Pelton)

Your tank numbers are low, so once you pulled them back turn OFF the
refits to panzer divisions, plus infantry divisions for a few
turns. Have all your mech units on refit. They have only a hand full
of tanks so they get decked out in a few turns. Then fill out whatever
you like. Its a cheap easy way to make sure you have some strong units
for next summer or blizzard.
Things can fall apart quickly in Winter, necessitating the commitment
of Panzers, but I need to carefully note and manage the morale of my
mobile units, and how they can be used in '42.
For example, GD Mot Regt has a Morale of 99. It's going to sit in
Poland all winter no matter what. Why put it where it can lose morale,
but only contribute a little combat value? In March, it upgrades to an
Uber-Mot Div, which will also have 99 Morale.
I am pulling most Panzer/Mot Divs with morale over 90. I hope to keep
them also out of harm's way. I probably can't for all of them, but I
will for the most depleted. For example, 4th Panzer has a morale of
92. It also has only 9 operable tanks (my lowest division). This unit
needs to park for the Winter, if I can manage it. By Spring, it should
be high-morale, filled-up with newer Panzer types, and loaded for
bear.
I plan to commit 10th Panzer, Das Reich, and LAH SS divisions FIRST,
for example. Why them? They all withdraw by July 1942. Who cares if
their Morale is fried? 10th Panzer has a date with destiny in Tunisia
anyway.
I have 3 Infantry Divisions with 90+ morale that I also hope to pull,
and leave in Poland.

-----------------AXIS - ODESSA EARLY TURNS (Q-Ball)

LEAVE ONE hex adjacent to Odessa un-occupied as you surorund it.
That's because Red Army units will retreat into that hex, isolating
themselves, instead of routing to safety (via ships) to the Crimea.
(FG a bit gamey perhaps?)
------AXIS - MOVING SU UNITS FOR FREE
When you right-click on a division that has attached units, you will
see an X to the right of the attached SU. Click that and the SU goes
to the division's HQ (free of cost, by the way).
-------AXIS - MANAGING SUPPORT UNITS (offworlder)
First of all lock HQ's - SU's tend to move around a lot unfortunately.
Secondly check out who's got what - VIII corps is especially loaded and
should distribute its assets around.
Regarding attachments, here are my preferences:
Panzer Div's get SP AA battalions. There aren't enough to go around so
you can use 2 SP AA companies. The reason is that Panzer formations
tend to operate upfront and can become a target for interdiction.
Panzer Grenadiers tend to get Stug formations attached plus the
motorised (army) flak units. This will give them some offensive
firepower (Stugs) and defensive staying power (flak) since they need
to both attack and hold the line around pockets.
Normal infantry formations don't get anything in particular unless
they are on a specific mission. One exception are the Jaeger units these are smaller than typical Infantry divisions and so I attach to

them the few German MG and sole Recce battalion to bolster their
staying power.
For the Germans SU's are mostly important at Corps level. As a rule of
thumb I like to have the following attached to each Infantry corps - 3
artillery (gun) units, 1 pioneer and 1 Mixed Luftwaffe Flak battalion
(for anti tank duty). In threatened sectors I add a Panzerjaeger
battalion and/or Stugs. Panzerjaeger battalions, especially early in
the war tend to be fragile (only light AT guns or Lt Panzerjaegers
which are not replacable till '43), so I use them only at corps level.
If an infantry corps is intended for breakthrough operations, I tend
to replace 1 or more artillery units with rockets, add Stugs and
pioneers as needed.
For Panzerkorps I prefer to have rockets and a pioneer unit. Don't
need to have Luftwaffe (mixed) flak battalions since Pz and PzGren Div
tend to have good anti armour capability. The only addition I make is
to have lLuftwaffe ight flak battalions to the HQ's since these tend
to show up if your divisions are attacked from the air (at least
that's my impression).
The only SU's that are completely useless are SP infantry gun
companies. These tend to evaporate after the first attacks. As far as
I know, no replacements are available any time and so they just vanish
over time - they're just one shot wonders.
Regarding Construction units, there are two tiers of repairs needed deep behind the line and within 10 to 15 hexes of the frontline. Use
the FBDs on main rail lines only. At first quite a number of
construction battalions are at OKH or AG level, and that's ok since
they just 'fill in' the rail network deep behind the frontline. Of
especial importance is Army Group Antonescu in the south which has a
lot of Rumanian Construction battalions at hand, and will serve to
repair the rail lines around Lvov at first, moving forward as the
rails are repaired.
Quite a lot of such units are found at Corps level. Most are not
really needed there though it seems that construction battalions may
help divisions to dig in faster (heard it on the forum but can't
confirm). Most of these I move to army or AG HQs. Army HQ's will
repair lateral rail ines, something which is vital in '41.
Regarding Axis SU's, the only gripe I have is that Minor Axis allies
cannot attach any to their line divisions (Rumanian and Finnish MG
battalions and Italian legions could actually bolster the pathetic

infantry divisions of the allies). Thus most players tend to disband

them, especially the infantry based ones like MGs. I tend to follow
the 3 artillery, 1 Pioneer and 1 (medium or Heavy) AA unit rule as
well for Axis minor allies as well, with extra MGs for the Rumanians
(sometimes, rarely, they actually get involved in a fight). The
Hungarians get few SU's (just enough to have some for each corps), the
Rumanians get a few AT battalions as well, the Finnish have an
abundance of artillery while the Italians have an abundance of
everything except for pioneers.
not sure which is best:
- Setting support level in Corps+Army to 0 at turn 1, then lock at
turn 2 and start re-assigning
- Locking Support at turn 1, and manually re-assigning
(in reply to Offworlder)

--------AXIS - AIR DOCTRINE

1. Set all upgrades to manual (FG that is a lot of work)
2. I flew recon flights to all soviet airfields
3. Set the air doctrine, airfield attack and escort to 100 each
4. Bombed airfields until they had only a few aircraft left, closest ones first
-----AXIS - WINTER 41 (Q-Ball)
Several Units are going back to East Prussia for the Winter. Including:
1. 4 Infantry Divisions of 90+ Morale
2. 2 Mot Divs also 90+
3. 2 Panzer Divs of 94+ Morale
4. GD Mot Regt; 99 Morale
5. 8 Airbases; with all my bombers in Germany, no point keeping them
up front. A few more will go back later; right now, they are
watching trenches
-------------------------------------------------

AXIS. BLIZZARD STRATEGIES (Mike13z50)

In a town hex, one unit with the highest CV is eligible to avoid the
penalty, but only if Die (4) is less than or equal to the population
value of the town.
OUCH! I stopped reading at the bold part. I'm in mid-January in my
first game as Germans and have had Panzers sitting in small
towns. Live and learn.
---------AXIS. HQ BUILD UPS II (Attack)
Ill try to explain how to do a chain of HQ build up. There is an HQ
(A) with some motorized or panzer divisions attached to it (a1, a2,
a3, a4). And another HQ (B) with other motorized or panzer divisions
attached (b1, b2, b3, b4). Turn 1: The divisions a1-a4 move and
attack, but before the end of the turn, they retreat within 5 hexes of
HQ A (A is within 20 hexes of a railhead), and they receive an HQ
build-up. B1-b4 move and attack too, but they advance as long as
possible. HQ B advances too at 25 hexes of a railhead. Turn 2: B1-b4
attack as they can, after this they retreat within 5 hexes of HQ B. HQ
B is now within 20 hexes of the railhead (usually, a chain of HQ
build-ups needs a rail line doubled). Then, b1-b4 receive an HQ
build-up. A1-a4 can then advance at full speed, because they are at
100% fuel and because b1-b4 have breached the front. After this, HQ A
advances till 25 hexes of the railhead. B1-b4 can retreat at 5 hexes
of HQ A, or not. Turn 3: A1-a4 attack and push, after this they
retreat within 5 hexes of HQ A. HQ A is now within 20 hexes. Then,
a1-a4 receive an HQ build-up. B1-b4 then advance at full speed This
is the mechanism . You can do it even better changing the HQs of the
divisions, i.e. after combat you can assign all the divisions to the
HQ which will do the HQ build-up, and the moving HQ will be empty. Is
now clear? Sorry, my English is not good. In my opinion, the Germans
need to do some HQ build up, but the chain of HQ build ups is a
gamey. And more, every HQ build-up will cost 1.000-1.300 trucks
destroyed and 1.200-2.000 trucks damaged (more or less).
------AXIS - 1942 SUMMER OFFENSIVE (Pelton)

I generally put Model in charge of the 18th and then the next best 4
infantry commanders in charge of the 4 corps. 1 pioneer per division,
stugs and the flam panzers. best artillary in HQ's. Also you need to
boat loads of art in your best pz divisions and atleast 1 pioneer per
corps. I am not convinced that small pockets will do the trick.
-------------AXIS - OFFENSIVE TARGETS (ComradeP)
-Pick a target that matters. Just like you shouldn't attack for the
sake of attacking, don't advance for the sake of advancing. Advancing
towards the Caucasus, with a minimal chance that you'll capture it,
just gives you a large exposed flank. Capturing cities or towns is
fine, but always keep in mind what capturing a certain area will do
for your war effort. Capturing the Rostov area gives you another AG
and it gives you a fairly solid flank on a major river. That's a good
idea. Moving further to the east doesn't really get you much.
-----------

AXIS- IF LOW ON ARM POINTS BUT HIGH ON MANPOWER - (Sillyflower)

have you got the TOEs of your artillery SUs down to, say, 50%? If not,
doing it should solve your arms problem as you will then stop building
expensive arty and start on rifles instead.
-----------------AXIS - BLIZZARD AXIS STRATEGY (Bletchley-Geek)
the degree of success of the Red Army during blizzard is directly
proportional to how pigheaded is the Axis player about keeping a few
meaningless hexes. This has been always the key, always. If Q-Ball had
just sit on his lines, allowing me to use my armies to full effect
rather than having me to burn MP's chasing him, there would have been
a breakthrough. But he didn't. As soon as I saw that he was not going
to be baited into a "Not a step back" stance, I basically gave up,
attacking where I could hurt him without bleeding me white. Also that
thing he did of stacking three units and leaving one hex between them
was pretty smart. He massed CV and he wasn't exposing any real soft
spot for me to strike.

Do not evac HVY, focus on ARM Production figures. If I knew

that HVY is unimportant I would feel confident. Unfortunately I didn't
focus on ARM. (FG 3/12 update: evac just a few HVYs)
---------------------------------------------------------AXIS. SETTING TOE TO MAXIMIZE RESOURCES AS A GERMAN (Pelton)
HQ,Airfields, Eng, constuction, AA,AT,Art Spguns,Rocket and MG units set TOE to 50%.
All Infantry set to 80% ToE, other then ones with 85 or higher morale. 100%
Mech and panzer to 100%.
[...]
Your TOEs need to be set on turn 1. In my game vs Kamil I have almost 300,000 armament pts Aug 1st 43.
Forts should also be set to 50% TOE before you end your turn.
--------------------------------------------------AXIS RAILWAY REPAIR STRATEGY TO FEND OFF PARTISANS (Killzone)
1-Disband RHG HQ's
2-Break down all Security Divisions down to brigades and attach to OKH to
ease command load
3-One secy brigade will fully garrison a town, small city. Two for
large city. With the Rumanian brigades you can easy garrison every
town/city you capture in Summer. (FG: check the manual for the unit size vs Town population requirements)
4-By turn 12-13, you should have some spare Administrative Points even
if using HQ buildups.
Assign 6 construction units (from Corps HQ's) each to 3 Army HQs and
put these HQs at rail-heads where you needs some linking done. Assign
all the rest from the Corp's HQ's to the Army Group HQ's and put them
at rail-heads too, as well as Army Group Antonescue. Sit back and
watch your rail network turn green very fast.
[5- Put all the Rumanian airbases on newly converted rail of your main
rail line in the South to protect from Partisans Obsolete for 1.06?]

By early blizzard turns these construction units will have converted

so much rail that its a carpet of green, and partisan threat is all
but removed.
--------------------------------------AXIS ROSTOV 1941
As a city to conquer Rostow is in 41 the most undesirable place
in whole rodina. To defend it you need 15 divisions you simply dont
have. But there are these tiny 3 little towns south of the Don you
need so badly for your logistic. So you have to bring all your skill
together to get hold to these 3 towns for one turn, whilst not taking
Rostow. Why not take Rostow? Cause then you have to hold it, what you
will not and can not. Means you have guard it by an unlucky Rumanian
division, whom the Russians will play ping-pong with. To leave it
unguarded you cant cause if I played the Russians Id never take back
an unguarded city, I watch the whole population turn into partisan
zombies that spread all over the place. There are so many AARs where I
have to see unguarded cities. I get the crisis all the time I see
something like that. (FG you want to take Rostov at the beginning of your 42 campaign
to get the extra Army Group)
-------------------------------------------------------------------AXIS - WHAT TO DO WHEN ROMANIA SURRENDERS (ComradeP+Baelfin)
Remember that you can form a ZOC line along the railroads in Romania
to keep them from flipping to Soviet control when the country
surrenders. Do keep in mind that you also need a unit in every
town/city along the track (keeping it in ZOC is not enough, as
towns/cities will automatically switch to the Soviet side when the
country surrenders, you should keep a unit in them so they don't
convert if you want to keep the rail line open). Doing that will
result in your units still being in supply and not being isolated
provided they can trace a path to the rail line.
You can also create a ZOC line running north/south through Romania
(from Hungary to Bulgaria) which will mean that although the hexes
west of the line you control are not in your ZOC will convert to
Soviet control, they will automatically convert back to your control
in the next logistics phase provided they are not in the ZOC of enemy
units. I prefer to do both that and a line along the rail lines, as

the rail line will be wrecked if the control over it changes for even
a single turn.
If the Romanians really do have a higher CV than your German units,
you have a bit of a problem there. You could do the gamey thing and
sacrifice them, or you can just place them somewhere where their
automatic conversion to the Soviet cause won't immediately hurt you.
Also make sure you have no rumanian turncoats on the border of
bulgaria or yugoslavia. If you do both of those countries will
surrender and become no move zones for you. Not a major problem just a
heads up.
---------------------AXIS- MANAGING SU UNITS WHEN GOING ON THE DEFENCE. Q-Ball
I am starting to re-configure the Wehrmacht for mostly defensive operations. [...] I am
doing a major re-distribution of Support Units. I had alot of Pioneers attached to
Panzers to help get forts down, but I think most attacking I will do now with Panzers will
be against Soviet units in the open. I also need Pioneer help to dig. So, I am redeploying all the Pioneers to have at least one assigned per Corps.
I had several STUGs assigned to Motorized Divisions. With those now picking-up organic armored elements, I am also redeploying STUGs defensively, one per Corps
roughly. I don't have enough for every Corps, so I am deploying 1 PanzerJaeger per
Corps up north. I am deploying them up North, because I expect that sector of front to
be quieter, and the Wehrmacht struggles to get enough Marders, while STUGs are
relatively plentiful. I'll probably re-arrange again once those units start taking on the
1944 heavier Tank Destroyers, like the PzJg IV and Jagdpanthers.
So, each Infantry Corps will roughly look like this:
3 Artillery Units
1 Pioneer
1 Stug
1 Mixed Flak (88mm equipped Flak unit; for AT purposes)
1 Construction Bn
Panzer Corps, roughly, a bit more like this:
3-4 Nebelwerfer and/or Artillery
1 Pioneer
1 Stug
2 Mixed Flak and/or Light Flak

Of course, this isn't exactly uniform; the Germans have a few Infantry-type SUs (MG
Bns, and that Bicycle Bn) that are mixed in.
A lot of the Construction Units I am keeping at the Army/OKH level. They are
repairing the railnet, and later-on I will use them attached to Fort Zones to help dig directly.
--------------------AXIS OKH AND HIGH LEVEL COMMANDERS TO ACTIVATE UNITS IN 'RESERVE
MODE' - BigAnorak
[Who is the the best guy to have in charge of OKH?] Admin is needed when going forward so Halder/Zeitzler are fine [in 41-42]. When you move to defensive you need high
initiative so Guderian, Manstein and Schorner are your go to guys with Kesselring a
possibility too. Guderian's admin rating is OK for defensive needs. You want high initiative guys at korps level, but obviously guys like Guderian and Manstein would be
wasted at korps level, so you use them as "backstops" at the higher levels. There may
be a couple of panzer korps commanders with 8 initiative, but the majority are 7s. [FG
this discussion relates to having PZ Divs set as 'reserve', which is recommended instead of having to counterattack the next run. Extremely useful post].
----------------------------------------------AXIS LVOV POCKET Q-Ball
would do it turn 1. To do that, you will need to use a Pz Cp from Pz Gp 2; I use the one
with Das Reich Division in it. You will run into some strong resistance north of Tarnopol, but once you clear Tarnopol it's smooth sailing. I also add to the Lvov pocket by
pocketing the Mech Corps
and friends around Kovel. These are powerful untis, and good to get off the board. You
can do this without using any Panzers, provided you use the Cav Division. I don't think
taking Rovno is as important turn 1. You can flank the Russians out of there anyway,
and the Soviets have to be careful
not to get motorized units pinned against the Pripet marshes, and not be able to rail
them out.
-----------------------------------------------------AXIS MANAGING MANPOWER
If you have lots of manpower in the transfer pool, locate the
equipment shown in transfer pool. If you have masses of support and

labor squads in transfer pool (often as Axis), there's a workaround to

get them back: Go to commander's report, clear all filters, set maxTOE
for all units to 84%, then click None to disable all types and
re-enable fort and construction type units. Set their maxTOE to
54%. Over the next turns you should get most support/labor back in
active pool, the manpower now usable for other equipment.
--------------------------------------------AXIS: LEADERS REPLACEMENTS - omat (some edits by FG)
Army Group North: Leeb: replaced by von Kluge (4th Army) end Nov - Dec 41
Army Group South: Von Rundstedt replaced by Guderian, Manstein (2nd Panzer Army)
in 1942 when you want start your offensive in the south. (FG: some historians consider
Guderian most suited for an Army command).
Armies:
17th Army: Stulpnagel replaced by Heinrici (after the pocket fighting
and when the army have contact with th Red Army again)
4th Army: von Kluge (when he takes over AGN) with Lindemann
4th Panzer Army: Hppner by Manstein (before blizzard to conserve the moral of the
tank units
(I think Manstein increases the chance) or summer 1942
9th Army: Strauss replaced by an good leader, but you have to wait till a good one have
the rank in 1942
11th Army von Schobert. But you also have to wait till a good leader is ready.
11th Army withdraws in Nov 1942.
Panzer Corps Leaders:
Von Wietersheim (2nd turn)
Kuntzen
Infantry corps:
Frster
Kienitz
Kuntze
Geyer
Koch
Kubler

------------------------------------------------------AXIS - MANAGING AXIS ALLIES - Q-Ball

Looking at AARs, I personally think most Axis players misuse their Allies.
The most important thing they miss is replacements. You have to plan for the long-haul.
Everyone seems to be OVERUSING the Finns. They keep them over the no-move line
in 1942, which is a disaster for Finnish morale. Finns can't go static, so they also attrite
over time. Finland gets almost no replacements, so doing this burns the Finnish army
out forever. Those 10-CV Infantry units are gone permanently if you do this. I think it's
smarter to use them sparingly
until 1944, when you will likely REALLY need them. (exception might be first Blizzard).
At that point, they can easily take-over large sections of front from German units north
of No-Move line. In the meantime, you can still use Finnish HQs to relieve command
burden, and command German units.
Everyone underuses the other Allies, particularly Slovaks and Italians. The Slovaks are
decent, but get plenty of replacements; that SEC div should be at the front taking attrition losses in lieu of a German one, IMO. The TOE of that unit is an Infantry unit, even
though it's called "Security".
Most players seem to use that unit for Security, but it's wasted there; use a Romanian
unit that needs a break instead. Because the Slovaks get plenty of replacements and
armaments, losses to that unit are basically "free".
The Italians really stink, but the one thing they have is plenty of replacements and armaments. Italian losses are basically free, so anything they do to the Soviets is a bonus.
Plus, losing an Italian unit in 1942 or
'43 isn't a big deal, because it's leaving anyway. The Italians are the ultimate "throwaway" units.
The Hungarians are the best balance, because they are decent if given rest, and by
1942 you will have a good replacement pool of Hungarians, plus a surplus in armaments.
The Romanians are brittle, but they are OK if you give them rest. This means rotating
them, which there is plenty of opportunity to do, as you need garrisons anyway. They do
struggle to accumulate armaments.
Everyone uses the Axis Allies primarily as diggers and security only, but if you are going
to make it to 1945, they have to also be at the front taking attrition losses in lieu of Germans. Ideally, German units should be digging, not because they stink, but because you
don't sufferlosses digging. Obviously, players should pick quiet sectors or easy to defend hexes to put
Romanians/Italians at the front, and probably need to stack them.

That's my two cents, but I think you have to manage all this to keep the Wehrmacht in
reasonable shape in late-game.
AXIS - QUICK ADVICE ON BLIZZARD (Pelton)
Do not break units down. In most cases in the North you don't need to retreat as terrain
slows down everyone. From Oka south retreat 1 or 2 hexes per turn starting with last tur
of snow. You should have built during summer a February fort line about 12 hexes behind the front. Basically slowly retreat to fort line then try to hold that line.
----------------------------------------------POSTS ADDED IN V3. APRIL 2013
----------------------------------------------- Turn 1: GE bombing SU AIRBASES for v1.06 (LiquidSky,Tazak)
In the air doctrine screen: 1. Turn off ground support. Turn the '% to
fly' at the top to 0%, I like 30-40% [FG after turn 1) as long as you
dont lose too many figthers.
1b. Recon Airfields (possibly on automatic)
2. set air intercept and fighter cover to 200% (I set ground attack to
100%) at this point don't bomb anything as bombers can only use their
first 33% of airmiles for airfield attacks.
3) carry out your ground assaults but dont overrun/attack airfields.
4) just before overrunning/attacking a airfield use your aircraft to bomb
it once or twice to personal tastes (this increases enemy damaged
aircraft which are then destroyed during the overrun/ground attack)
5) after you have carried out all ground movement then switch over to airfield attacks
and bomb them as much as you can.
This sequence of events has the following effect your fighters get more air-air kills (increases experience/morale) and less enemy fighters for intercepting your bombers your
overrun/ground attacks cause as many aircraft kills as your airforce leaves your airforce
in a much better state with less enemy intercepts
Turning off ground support turns off bombing during a ground attack,
saves the bombers air miles.
[FG However,] the first turn losses are not really as important as people are making it
out to be. Most of the aircraft are obsolete biplanes or early monoplanes, and are only
good for increasing the morale of your fighter squadrons. The trick is to destroy the air-

craft that really matter...like the TB3's and IL-4's in the back. To reach them, you do your
ground attacks first, which will shoot down about 500 of his fighters, then move one of
your fighter bases up to the front, protected by your panzer divisions. Now you can
reach those meddlesome bombers in the back by staging.
-GE BLIZZARD MANAGING (KENH)
In my experience the best course of action, that first winter, is to gather a nucleus for
your Spring Offensives and put them in safe warm billets beyond the Soviet Weather
Zones, in Germany even if you have the rail. Then pretend they do not exist until spring.
This way they will gain Morale instead of loosing it (blizz effect) and be powerful contenders in what is usually a difficult offensive (3rd week June) to conduct in a decisive
manner. This last point is especially true if the offensive is to follow in the heels of a
successfull Russian Winter Offensive. Your highest exp/moral infantry divisions, together with your worst hit Panzer Divisions, should be contenders for this force, which I
locate in urban hexes within 5 hexes of OKH back all the way back in Germany. Putting
some Ju87's in Reserve till then would be a good idea too, I think.
Skim a little from all of your Pz Corps, so none are more than about half full to make
their resupply process easier in the hard months to come. Of course every unit not in a
city/urban hex will suffer moral losses and attrition during blizz conditions.
If you get Leningrad then watch the Finn's Moral levels closely too as they drop 1 pt per
turn if they are below the stop line. This means that though they don't suffer blizz penalties they do deteriorate rapidly if not rotated 10 hexes back above the line to "heal" on a
routine basis. This is a case of intelligently managing a forward line with an eye on the
Karelian Stop line as your NE anchor. Figure at least a third to half of your Finn's should
rotated out at any one time. Use healing Germans to garrison the Urban Hexes around
Leningrad, instead of the Finns; you'll need STRONG Finn's later if your June Offensive
Fails to be decisive.
-GE MAXIMIZING RESERVES I (PELTON+ANONYMOUS)
[FG very useful post]
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2962633&mpage=6
You need to structure your C&C and leaders to maximise initiative, and you need to rotate armoured units in a mix of regiments and divisions. Once I am on the defensive my
standard army package is 2 infantry Korps of 4-5 divisions holding an 8-9 hex frontage,
with a panzer korps of 4 divs in reserve split into 6 regiments and 2 divisions. This
minimises the C&C penalties and maximises the chances of reserve activation.

With a 9 initiative leader in OKH and in 3 of the 4 Army groups, 8 initiative leaders in
armies and 7 initiative leaders in PZ korps, you can trigger activations in 35%+ of battles
and 80% of those will produce hold results, so 10+ hold results per turn from reserve
activations is easily achievable.
I ran 2 test 1942 campaigns against 115/95 AI for 100 turns i.e. to June1944, the first
without reserves, the second with reserves maxed. The front lines in the 2nd test were
20 hexes east of the first test and Soviet casualties were 800k higher.

- GE AXIS TURN 1 GUIDES

[FG the entry on chaining might be obsolete]
07/2012 Ketza's
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3147715&mpage=1&key=
07/2012 Pelton's http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3144389
07/2012 Pelton's Chains http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3148604
-GE AIR BASES IN BLIZZARD (Heliodorus04)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3137393)
All airbases are good candidates to 'hide' in population 1,2, or 3 towns, including keeping aircraft on them. I can't say if the lack of Recon will hurt much in the current versions, but in the earlier versions of 1.06, it didn't take many flights to get the basic idea
of what hole the Soviets are going to stick it in. So those I don't have any qualms about
throwing on a railroad and getting to the cities along the frontier (Riga, Kaunas, Brest
Litovsk, Warsaw). In any event, remember to reduce your TOE settings as necessary of
all your air fields, based on their NEED in terms of staging aircraft.

-GE MINI BLIZZARD GUIDE (Pelton)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3142279&mpage=3&key=&#3170593
1. Tula north generally you can hold the line for a few turns using reserve mode and
forts in good terrain, but by January you need to retreat 1 hex a turn. I will retreat 2
some times as by 42 SHC leave litte north of Moscow and it can be easly pushed back
using 3 pz divisions and some regiments.
2. Tula south retreat 2 hexes a turn, in February you can stop as supplies an SHC units
will be depleted.

3. Crimea I use the 2 German MT divisions to hold the west and center bridges. The
east one hold with the Hun MT and 2 german divisions.
4. Near Stalino I build forts to sea and 6 hexes north. Stack up pz units in the city and
retreat one hex or less a turn. build the FZ asap. I screw up myself some times not
building them asap.
5. Winter your 9 highest morale infantry divisions and 12 panzer divisions. Generally in
the south. At some point in late january or early February you can house as many units
as possible.
6. Winter as much of the LW as possible.
- GE RESERVE ACTIVATION Pelton
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3230163
At some point as GHC you are forced to defend.
The fact of the matter is if you play the full 41-45 campaign you will play about 70 on the
offensive and the other 140 on defense.
I figured I go over reserve mode activations (RMA) as I believe I have this tactic down to
a science. If you have more to add please do by all means.
Basically there are 2 parts to RMA: Regiment RMA and SU RMA. I be addressing regiment as there are others who are far better then me at SU RMA. The SU set-up is also
very important as they are not effected by bombing. Hopefully SJ will post on this, if not
at some point in the near future when I get my SU reactions to 10+ like SJ I will throw
down what I know. My normal SU reaction was 4-6 and now its 8-10.
Basically you set-up your Army with 9 infantry divisions and 3 panzer divisions this will =
27 cup when the panzers are broken down.
The infantry hold the front and panzers in 2nd line broken down into regiments. You
should have a min 7 int leader.
With about a 33% chance of reaction per unit per battle this means you will be more
then likely to get 2 per turn generally more then enough to get the odds below 2 to 1.
Now most turns panzers can react 3 times. So you have a possible 27 reactions. Thats
allot of soaking attacks.
Ok now generally SHC have in the past done the Rifle / Tank Corps ball and made a
bulge in the line, that can easily be countered.

1st over lap 2 armies, so you get up to another 27 reactions. You need to try and get the
over lap right where the Reds are forming there main attack.
I also have several independent Corp set-up after 3-43. 4 Infantry divisions and 1 mot
division. I have I Corp set-up as the big stopper.
You put 3 divisions in the front and 1 infantry ( 8 cv per regiment) and the 1 mot division
in the back broken down. The divisions up front are stacked with the divisions from the
other fronts. You will have very high front line CV with or without a fort and up to 64
panzer reactions and 3 big ass infantry reactions. There is no amount of bombing from
the air of the 2nd and 3rd line units that will cut down on the 100% 2 reactions per turn.
Make sure you have enough air force in area, great way to build up the fighters exp.
Also bombing the Tank Corps causes disrupted units and lowers Mp's. Great fun really
:). You will lose 1 hex per turn, but SHC will be forced to take the hex that they can attack from 3 sides, which means it will take them at least 4 turns to make a 10 deep 40
mile long "hole". Then its still not easy to get a hex in the 2nd line because you will have
a 3 high stack vs an attack from 2 hexes, not likely to work because of massive reactions and just a plain lack of space to get off more then 3 attacks. I have had hexes hold
vs 3 9 rifle divisions assaults and 2 Corp lvl assaults in a single turn. Holding hexes vs 3
massive attacks is normal.
This tactic will only work as a stop gap. At some point the SHC will be able to attack at
more spots in the line then you can stop and a slow withdrawal will have to be undertaken. You will get ground down, but this will delay it for 60-80 turns, with out it GHC can
be ground down in 20-30 turns.
Allot depends on the SHC skill at grinding.
In the winter as GHC you have to defend the hole front, but once the rivers are free of
ice you can pick some good river lines. This will make it very easy to defend as the few
soft spots can be defended with a mass reserve mode set-up. It will be easy to hold the
lines during 43 spring/summer and fall. The trick is 1944, hopefully you can hold the
river line, if you can you got a minor win in the bag.
OKH and AG leaders should have 8 int also.
There are several ways to set-up the Corps as far as HQ goes. You really only need 1
Corp HQ per army. You can slowly disband them 1 per turn at some point. Still trying to
figure that out coupled with SJs SU reactions.
Katza's thread on GHC air power is also a huge part of a good GHC 43-45 defense.
-GE 42 LEADERS Pelton Big Anorak
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3204648

I start setting up for the defence in 42. I change out starting at OKH working my way
down. I do not change over the armor until late 42 early 43.
You need to structure your C&C and leaders to maximise initiative, and you need to rotate armoured units in a mix of regiments and divisions. Once I am on the defensive my
standard army package is 2 infantry Korps of 4-5 divisions holding an 8-9 hex frontage,
with a panzer korps of 4 divs in reserve split into 6 regiments and 2 divisions. This
minimises the C&C penalties and maximises the chances of reserve activation.
With a 9 initiative leader in OKH and in 3 of the 4 Army groups, 8 initiative leaders in
armies and 7 initiative leaders in PZ korps, you can trigger activations in 35%+ of battles
and 80% of those will produce hold results, so 10+ hold results per turn from reserve
activations is easily achieveable.
I ran 2 test 1942 campaigns against 115/95 AI for 100 turns i.e. to June1944, the first
without reserves, the second with reserves maxed. The front lines in the 2nd test were
20 hexes east of the first test and Soviet casualties were 800k higher.

-GE USING AXIS MINOR ALLIES - sjohnson

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3241021
Here are some tips regarding "AMAs". They can actually be very useful on the defensive or on flanks of a German drive. However, they have to be "stiffened" with German
troops.
I generally try to create corps with 4-5 divisions in them of AMA's. These corps will deploy 1 unit per hex on a frontage of 3-4 hexes (I use one division for rotation) in with
German troops to stiffen a front line.
Place a good mix of the AMA's SUs in the corps command - I think 6-8 is a good number with a mix of artillery, aa, engineer, MG (for rumanian). Shoot for about 3 artillery, 12 flak, 1-2 engineer and anything else carrying some actual CV.
What you will find is that as long as the AMA corp is at least in the same army group as
the defending German unit, then the AMA unit will suffer only about a 10-13% Command CV reduction. However, the unit's corp HQ will commit (with a good init leader)
around 3-6 SUs to the fight bringing a good amount of firepower to the defense. Also,
note the SUs, if the fight is won, will gain victories and over time will be reasonably high
experience/morale and thus begin to have their effect magnified.
The only way to get AMA SUs to fight is to have them under their own corp/army HQs
and you will note that to start the 41 scenario that:

Finland - has one tank bn, one commando bn, one inf bn, 20 art SU, 9 AA SU, 8 engineer and 11 MG SUs (total 51 SU)
Rumania - 19 MG units (each one is 1400 men!), 9 engineer, 9 aa, 2 cavalry bn, 33 art,
and 5 AT bn (total 77 SU)
Hungary - 18 art, 20 aa, 9 engineer (total 47 SU)
Italy - (note some reinforcements come later) 1 MG, 1 Eng, 4 AA, 1 AT, 3 art, 5 CCNN
legion (1,500 man infantry components) - total 15 SU
Germany by comparison has:
3 Flamm PZ bns, 1 bicycle recon bn, 125 art, 5 at, 127 AA, 25 SP gun, 52 pioneer, 28
rocket, 3 MG - total: 371 SU
So the AMAs offer a total of 190 SU to 371 for Germany. This is a lot of extra manpower
that can be brought to the fight, especially as reacting defensive units.

-------------------------------POSTS USEFUL FOR BOTH SIDES

-------------------------------THE WAR IN THE EAST WIKI
http://www.witewiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
--------------------------------------------MAPS OF INDUSTRY AND MANPOWER CENTERS
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2685466&mpage=1&key=&#2685466
--------------------------------------------INDUSTRY EVACUATION PLANNING MAP
Link to WitE Map with all industry centers superimposed:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2729061
----------------------------------------------

THREAD ON MANPOWER AND INDUSTRY DISTRIBUTION. GREAT MAP. (heliodorus04)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2977895&mpage=1&key=&#2984190
-----------AIR UNITS
Now, in 1.05, I have seen a lot of aircrafts damaged every time that
an airbase is moved. It seems that more MP expended, more aircrafts
damaged. You must do the supply missions with bombers or the bomb
city or bomb ground unit before moving the airbase, after moving it is impossible.
To do night missions, you must put the aircraft squadron in "night
missions: yes". And after, in the general map, to put the "sun" in
"moon". You can place the airbase where you want, but to fly aircrafts, must
be not in swamp or heavy wood. Im not sure, I think not too in urban
hex. As soviet: I place my bombers in "manual upgrade", if not, some of
them will change in biplanes night bombers.
-----------------------------------END OF TURN
1) Check all divisions, corps, and armies for the DtHQ column
(distance to HQ) of the commander's report! Sometimes you know you
have units far away from HQ, but sometimes you forget to move an Army
HQ and you fail a bunch of morale checks and [you] are a sad panda.
-------------------RECON INFO (comradeP)
keep the new detection rules in mind, which basically mean you
can't identify Guards (and he can't identify the SS) unless they're
next to the frontline in most cases.
-----------------REFIT AND ATTRITION CASUALTIES SCREEN (carlkay58)
You can eliminate the attrition casualties from the report by
opening the casualty report immediately when you receive the
turn. This zeroes the count and further reports will only report on
changes during your move.

-----------AIR DOCTRINE - (gingerbread)

Air groups cannot gain experience above their morale so that's a handy
rule of thumb regarding which AG's to rotate [to the National Reserve]
-------------THREAD ON SUPPLYING HEADQUARTERS
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2905239
--------------FORT CONSTRUCTION - (Bletchley_Geek)
you really want to increase those fort levels by not having enemy troops
adjacent to them (there's a 80% reduction in Construction value when
enemy units are adjacent). (FG this is really useful to know when
your enemy is retreating, it is worth maintaining contact even if with
a small tank brigade).
-----------------RESERVE UNITS - Pavel
what is a Commanders most important attribute when it comes to
increasing probability of a Reserve Unit commitment?
Initiative
-----------------

AIR DOCTRINE (Bletchley_Geek)

I need to thank M60 for pointing me out a detail on the rules
regarding Air Doctrines that hadn't registered. Certainly, increasing
priorities in air doctrines generates less AI missions. Which is not
clear to be a bad thing for Support and Attack missions. I guess that
for Intercept it would depend on the situation an general plane

availability. For Interdiction where it seems that the chance of

sapping MP's is independent of the number of planes involved in the
sortie, then certainly a very low setting is the way to go. Is it
really independent.
Regarding Flavio's remark about the air bases. I do really think we're
much better off attacking HQ's. When massed (i.e. Ground Attack
priority to 300) and one gets good rolls, you can really do some
logistical damage, which is not too shabby. Also there's a chance of
killing the leader attached to the HQ, which isn't either a bad thing
(in another game, currently in March 1942, I nuked 2. Armee HQ with
100 IL-4's, resulting in Generaloberst Von Weich's becoming KIA).
------------------------------AIR INTERDICTION (BletchleyGeek + FlaviusX)
I also applied Flavio's advice to max out
Interdiction starving Ground Support missions with the hopes of
generating many aerial interdictions.
------------------------------I had seen this and wanted to point out if it hadn't already been
mentioned that raising that number should commit that % more aircraft
to the individual mission the AI flies for you. Logically then you
would get fewer missions with more planes in each with a high
percentage set in the doctrine screen. More missions with fewer planes
with a lower percentage. That's how I read the manual.
"Determines the number of bombers that the computer will attempt to
have participate in a ground support or strike mission as a percentage
of what the computer would normally attempt to send. For example, a
setting of 50 results in the computer selecting air group units in an
attempt to equal half the number of bombers it would select in a
notional strike."
Yes, you don't need or want to crank up the interdiction settings, as
this will necessarily lower the number of missions launched.
That being said, interdiction in 1941 is kind of sketchy regardless of
the settings. It picks up considerably in 1942. I'm not quite sure why
this is. Ground support is even sketchier, however. I'm not getting a
whole lot of that in 41 either. It shows up in extremely limited

numbers during ground combats. This also picks up in 42 when you have
large numbers of shturmoviks.
I'm finding myself starting to launch attritional airbase attacks
towards the end of 41, just to get the damned planes doing
something. I can't seem to fly more than a very limited number of
direct ground attack missions, whereas you can launch greater numbers
of airbase attacks. The results of these airbase attacks are not
amazing, however. The Red Air force is an exercise in frustration
overall early on.
----------------------WitE ADVANCED FEATURES TO LEARN/KEEP IN MIND
1) Fortified Zones
2) HQ Build Up
3) Range limiter for air commitment to Air Bases
4) Merging of units
5) Air Transfer
6) Air Drop (of unit, I have used Air Drop of Supplies and Fuel)
7) Naval Transport
8) Amphibious Assault
9) Bomb City
10) Toggle to Night Mission
11) Motorize a non-motorized unit
12) Attached/Detached support to a Location (i.e., AA to a city)
13) Relocated an HQ
14) Switch a Fighter Bomber mission mode (figher/Bomber)
15) Switch an aircraft to/from Night missions
16) Changed allowed replacements/upgrades of units
17) Look at a city detail window
18) Returned a construction unit to its HQ
19) Conducted an "Air Superiority" Mission (as described in the manual)
20) Played by email.
1) Fortified Zones - I come and go on these. Because they take 4 AP I
tend not to use them but they are very good for helping to create
fortified lines, sitting there and digging. Might also be useful
for covering ports in the Black Sea against Soviet invasions but
suspect they would be defeated. Critical use? probably during 1942
summer while panzers advance, use them to build your line.

2) HQ Build Up - Essential, Can't win vs human without it. Most

recently it has been crucial to me surrounding Moscow in Turn
17. Limits on range make it something which works towards the
latter 1/2 of summer blitz. Doubt you could succeed in a breakout
in 1942 without it either but those are rare.
3) Range limiter for air commitment to Air Bases - yep not used this
either. I am slack at managing air game.
4) Merging of units - late in the war and even then the lack of German
units means it is probably not a good idea. Once used it vs AI when
was getting close to decisive victory so didn't need to worry about
longterm.
5) Air Transfer - very useful when you have a quiet front and want
those planes somewhere else but my main use has been to shift
JU-52s from north to south to improve supply drops around Turns
10-12, and the other way when I wanted to air drop paras in snow
turns.
6) Air Drop (of unit, I have used Air Drop of Supplies and Fuel) used twice. Once as part of successful snow offensive to cut off
Moscow; once as part of snow offensive to cut off Crimea. In most
games, where you don't have such successes, the Germans don't use
it.
7) Naval Transport - Riga gambit (check out the AARs), but also been
using it in Black Sea successfully after a campaign which saw me
take Caucasus. Used it to pull out when I started losing.
8) Amphibious Assault (FG they are fun I use them with the Red Army
in 1943)
9) Bomb City - to damage the port at Kuessare (a town north west of Riga)
-- see AARs.
10) Toggle to Night Mission - tried once to bomb with my night
bombers. but yes, can't say this matters to me
11) Motorize a non-motorized unit - once did, regretted it. Better to use railroads.
12) Attached/Detached support to a Location (i.e., AA to a city) detached AA late in the game in vain effort to stop 10000s of KV1s
13) Relocated an HQ - not done it...I let soviet armour do it for me :)

14) Switch a Fighter Bomber mission mode (figher/Bomber)

15) Switch an aircraft to/from Night missions - yes, did this to try
and use regular fighters to reduce partisan supply drops. Doubt it
made any difference
16) Changed allowed replacements/upgrades of units - nor me.
17) Look at a city detail window - Need to check out the industry and
other goodies you want to destroy :)
18) Returned a construction unit to its HQ - essential. as the snow in
1941 draws near, stop all those units building railroads and
return them to HQs, then assign downwards to Armies and lock the
HQ. They will then dig forts. Leave a few to do railroads but 75%
to forting.
19) Conducted an "Air Superiority" Mission (as described in the
manual) - got me on this one.
20) Played by email. - do it quite a bit ;)

-RECON MISSIONS - (JAMiAM)

If you've been running air recon missions, then they'll show up on the battles. You
should assume that [your opponent] is looking at them, and has an idea that you're focusing on it. However, boots on the ground will let you know whether there's anything in
the two hexes (rough, and the town hex 1NE from it) simply by moving a divisional unit
into your furthest east RR hex. If you flip the control of the next RR hex, then there is
nothing in the other two. This way, you don't tip your hand prematurely by running a
boatload of air recon in the hex, and having those air recon icons bring his attention to
the potential gap.
More probably is that his forces are lined up in the four hexes one row back, forming a
slight cul-de-sac. He's probably entrenched back there better than he would be, if he
had moved forward. Again, boots on the ground can do a better recon of the hexes,
and if you do like Flavio mentioned, break down a Cav Corps into divisions, you can
run in, check out the defenders and run back without alarming [the other player] to
your intent. All he will (might) see would be a conversion of hexes that didn't exist last
turn. Players generally don't notice no-man's land gap flips as much as they notice recon icons, and battle icons. Be sneaky and check it out before committing to an operation that may not go anywhere.

--------------------------------------------------- BOMBING UNITS TO INCREASE FATIGUE - Marquo.

do not ever let/use the AI do it as it [also] will find enough enemy fighters to
slaughter unescorted bombers; and if [the AI] says nothing is in range
it is most often not true; click on airbases and you will generally
find some planes in range.
---------------------------------------- USE OF FORTIFIED ZONES delatabel
You need to have a fortified zone in a hex for the hex to go beyond level 3. Or beyond
level 2 if you're not adjacent to an enemy. It's in the US_Letter manual towards the
back amongst the changes. A fortified zone is not a fortification by itself but will help
you build fortifications in the hex, especially if you attach some construction SUs to it.
(FG: remember to disband your FZ when the enemy gets close to it)
-------------------------------------------- PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY GUIDE (Red Lancer)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3313585
-SUPPLY CALCULATIONS - MichaelT
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3131984&mpage=2
I have done some rough calcs on the number of HI I need to have going in to and beyond 1943. The ceiling on supplies produced is Resources. The SU has 196 Resource
Centres (RC). They can expect to lose around 40-45. So assuming they lose 45 that
leaves say 150. So that gives 150,000 resource points per turn. That gives the maximum amount of supplies that can be produced assuming the loss of around 45 RC. The
HI multiplier in 1943 is 1.55. So as it takes a 1:1 ratio for supply production from RC/HI I
need to produce 150,000 HI points. That gives 150,000/500/1.55 = ~190 HI. So if I
save around 190 HI it will give me the maximum possible amount of supply in 1943.
Right now I have 211. So not a lot of leeway left. But from what I have seen from other
AAR's the Soviets end with 1000's upon 1000's of unused AFV's and A/C in 43/44. So if
supplies become a problem I can always wind back production of AFV and A/C so that
more supplies are used for ammo/supply.

Example
The SU might be producing 280 T34 M42's each turn in 1943. If we have stacks in pools
we might decide to downgrade our production to say 140 tanks per turn. What would
that save us?
Build cost of 140 T34's in supply points = 377*140/10 = 5278
How many HI centres would it take to produce 5278 supply points in 1943?
5278/500/1.55 = 6.8
Cutting back production on superfluous war material can potentially save ballpark 15 to
20 HI centres for supply production assuming you have a surplus of stocks. And as
Flavious as mentioned elsewhere things like U2 or whatever can be eliminated.
A question for anyone who may know.
What does the value in parentheses represent in the Production screen for "Supply
Stores:" Eg it might be something like "Supply Stores: 650690 (353758)"
With Resource Stores the parentheses number represents what was consumed that
turn, the number I am asking about definitely does not represent Supplies consumed.
---------------------------------FORT CONSTRUCTION - Gingerbread
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3077406&mpage=2
To make a level 4 fort you have to spike the construction (like retirement benefits ),
since the code calculates the number of fort points your construction assets will generate based on the level the fort has when the logistic phase begins. Ideally, the fort
should be 2 & 98% and you should have 150+ CP for the job. You'll get to level 4 one
more turn after that. It also costs 10 000 supply, so keep the HQ holding the Sappers/
RR Brigades in Leningrad, plenty of supply there. The F.R. in the Neva hex must be assigned to this HQ. Delicate timing!
(in reply to HITMAN202)
------------------------------------BOTH TOE OVERVIEW (Morvael)
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3243486
I have compiled an overview of every TOE in WitE. Data is based on WitE 1.7.06 and
available in .xlsx and .ods format.
Column explanation:

ID - TOE's identifier used inside editor

Country - Country to which given TOE belongs
Name - TOE's name (Prefix + Suffix for those using the editor)
First date - first date on which given TOE is available
Last date - last date on which given TOE is available
UpgradeID - if not empty, ID of the TOE to which this TOE will upgrade
Upgrade Name - if not empty, name of the TOE to which this TOE will upgrade
Type - type of the TOE (as seen in Commander's Report filters)
Class - class of the TOE (either Combat or Support, HQs were left out of this file)
Size - unit size
Elite - elite status of the majority of units using this TOE (German) or hardcoded Guards
status for certain TOEs (Soviet)
Max CV - maximum CV value (when morale=100, experience=100 and fatigue=0)
Exp CV - expected CV value (based on expected morale on "first date", with experience
equal to morale and fatigue equal to 15)
Mrl - expected morale on "first date" (taking all 9.1.3 and 9.2.1 special rules into account)
Men, Guns, AFV - numbers at 100% strength
Elements - number of ground elements at 100% strength
Mot - whether majority of units using this TOE are motorized or not (checked against
generic data and 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1944 GC) with TOEs of type Armor, Mechanized, Motorized Infantry and SP Artillery always being counted as motorized
Supply (m) - supply needed when motorized
Fuel(m) - fuel needed when motorized
Vehicles (m) - vehicles needed when motorized
Ammo - ammo needed (does not depend on motorized status)
Supply - supply needed when non-motorized
Fuel - fuel needed when non-motorized
Vehicles - vehicles needed when non-motorized
Support - number of Support Squads at 100% strength
Support Need - number of needed Support Squads
Support% - Support/Support Need
I have included both motorized and non-motorized supply need for every TOE, since
whether a unit can be either motorized or not does not depend on the TOE.
I hope this data will be useful to everyone trying to assess strengths and weaknesses of
their units. I for one now understand that Soviet Mortar Battalions are not that great they drain more support from the HQ (compared to regiments), which means all the
other units are starved of even more support (the Soviets tend to have not enough support in every type of TOE, which results in higher wear&tear losses).
Have fun!
------------

-BOTH BEST LEADER FOR STAVKA AND OKH (Flaviusx)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3203994&mpage=9
Vasilevsky is good if you are on the offense and admin is at a premium.
But for defensive warfare there is nothing like Zhukov running the show. He is the ultimate backstop for the Soviets due to his amazing initiative rating. Soviet initiative ratings generally are horrible and having him there will dramatically increase your chances
of defensive reaction. Note these rolls go all the way up the chain of command and
more often than not they will fail at the army and front levels thanks to poor initiative all
around. You only have a bare handful of leaders with good initiative, nowhere near
enough to address this concern at the army level. This critical deficiency must be addressed at the very top.
Note this very same rule applies to the Germans when they are on the defense: they
want an initiative superstar in OKH. On the offense, they want a strong admin leader.
And their initiative situation is much better than the Soviets.
When you are defending reserve activations matter more than admin, your supply situation more than sufficient for Zhukov to handle, his 7 admin rating is pretty decent in of
itself. You have to keep the German guessing, and reserves are a major force multiplier.
They introduce a major level of uncertainty in his attacks, and force him to be more conservative lest reserve activations start turning combats into holds. Fewer attacks means
slower operational tempo and that's what you need on the defense: to slow the enemy
down.