Not to mention that Switch guy seems pretty smart to me . . .
please don’t give switch a bigger head than he already has :wink:
but seriously, russia can easily find itself out of fodder pretty quick this way as well with nothing left to send towards the onrushing japs.
Crit,
Point taken about Switch.
Anyway, if Germany pickets you, what choice do you have as Russia? Sit there and starve (from an IPC point of view)? Also, you’re never going to fend off Germany and Japan by yourself. Hopefully, your trusty allies have sent some help by the time your fodder is running low. If not, it’s a sushi dinner with Lager to wash it down before you know it . . .
WG
weekender,
what i usually do as russia is keep my stack together, taking a single territory in force and moving the aa into it to stop the stukas, dancing back and forth with the nazis. less total income but less attrition as well. i try and send 2 inf each turn to novo so they can move to either china (sink) or yak if needed or the opportunity arises to make a real move on japan (not likely) and then if eukrope collapses i have a sizable reserve to put back in moscow
and switch, you know i had to jab just a little :mrgreen:
Actually, the idea here is to preserve Russian units. Russia’s going to find herself without enough forces pretty gosh durn early in a normal game. As Germany you want to maximize the bloodshed on Russia as much as possible. That means stacking 2 or 3 infantry as a picket. As Russia you want to minimize that blood loss, so picket only when you have too and pull da _ _ _ _ out whenever possible to save that guarneteed dead infantryman.
Currently the standard mantra is “picket, picket, picket!” And when all else fails, re-enact Picket’s Charge! (Or the Civil War version of the Charge of the Light Brigade.) I gotta think there’s a better way, it may seem less prosperous to give Germany the land, but is it really?
my point exactly jen,
Arrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh. Just lost my whole friggin’ post because I wasn’t logged in!!!
Let’s start again: Crit, I agree you need to reinforce the Novo front– it’s a delicate balance. And Jen, I’m not advocating suicide, just not handing territory to Jerry on a silver platter. Played correctly, I don’t see Japan seriously threatening Russia before J3 at the EARLIEST, and if you pay attention to that front, you can hold the Japs off for a while. So, worst case, you have 3 turns where you are building at least as many troops as Germany and Germany cannot forget W. Europe. And by G3, the Allies should have opened at least one other front on Germany. So is Germany seriously outproducing Russia (in terms of infantry ONLY, not IPCs obviously) the first few rounds? Not likely, unless you let it. At some point (usually R3 or R4), I am seriously backing off and letting the battle come to me as Russia. But I have had battles where I have suffered HALF the losses Germany has suffered, so dice play a factor there too. Besides, Russia is REALLY boring to play if all you do is sit back and wait for the b – – – – slap to hit. Make the Krauts work for it!
WG
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
And and Infantry on your front line is worth more than 3 IPCs income for next round.
What can you buy with 3 extra IPCs? Another Infantry. And where will it be? Back home. So it’s a quick way to transport an infantry back to Germany, but I’m usually trying to move them the other way!
Also, you don’t really deprive Russia of the income, because when Russia recaptures they still get the income anyway. In the end, it amounts to an even trade, the question is who can afford the trade.
That said, I will put a picket if it prevents the other side from blitzing my AF or something like that.
Not saying don’t attack Germany. Just saying, if you can, why bother leaving a picket for Russia when you can pull him back to fight a German picket later iwth MUCH higher success rates?
BTW, when I picket with Russia, it’s 3 infantry. Forces Germany to devot a lot more to the engagement and usually - so far - results in my collecting money for territory he couldn’t take back due to lack of resources.
Jenn, I like that approach as well. In fact, I think we are saying some of the same things. You do have to pick your spots as Russia. It can’t be a tit-for-tit battle with Germany – not for long, anway! But from earlier posts, I had a vision in my mind of two stacks sitting opposite each other swapping territory back and forth with tank blitzes. I have NEVER seen that in any game I have played. I guess as Russia I haven’t been fortunate enough to have a German player be so obliging in leaving territories open like that. :-P
It happened a lot in Classic, but in Revised there’s almost always at least two ways to get where you want, usually 3 or 4. (I think the only stumblers are Egypt/Trans-Jordan and Sinkiang/China.)
