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

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


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

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

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    @Strikers:

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

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

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

    Commando Brado:

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


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

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

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


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

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

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

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

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

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

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


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

    @Cmdr:

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

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

    @Cmdr:

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

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

    @Cmdr:

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

    winning! :D

    @Cmdr:

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

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

    @Cmdr:

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

    agreed.

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

    rock`n roll

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

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    @rock`n:

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

    @Cmdr:

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

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

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

    The question is, would you rather have:

    15 Infantry, 6 Artillery, 13 Mech and 8 Tanks

    or

    25 Infantry, 10 Artillery, 9 Tanks

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

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


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

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Artillery, Artillery, ARTILLERY!  Where is my ARTILLERY SUPPORT!

    Sorry, flash backs to my days teaching ROTC-Nazis, my bad…anyway, yes you need artillery units or Germany will never fear your stacks.


  • @Cmdr:

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

    first: the numbers i gave are minimum numbers. “worst-case” you can call it. i always “calculate” this way, when i am on trying out a new strategy.

    second: noone said it will be without any infantry. BUT, in the ongoing game - as reinforcement - normal infantry is too SLOW to help during an attack two or three spaces away. what is already there - what is not needed to buy - can move step by step. directly on the front there is nothing more needed. BUT all the new equipment - the reinforcement -, except round 1, must be faster to keep up the pace during those very attacks. this way you have mostly attackers on “1”, right, but so much that it is regardless, there is so much cannon-fodder '(in moscow). those minimum 12 tanks plus planes do the work.

    in this stage of the game it is about to get moscow at any cost -right? -, and even if there is only one german tank left, moscow is taken, russia, because of turteling in moscow, is out! German ICs, on the other side of the continent, are already producing for defence. etc.

    what you do , i think, is - simply put - arguementing with statistics in a too simplyfying manner. you leave out what would comming next, call it the “empiric moment”. okay, you would counterattack with infantry, which attack on 1 against MI which defend on 2. please do! expose your troops so a decent german player can take away a big part of russian home defence easily!

    if you wish and you are still sceptic, i can outline an attack scheme which is likely to be a russia-killer. (i hope so :D) but maybe you already have read it in the european-threads of this board. (if not, search by my posts)

    third: i agree, artillery is really important. without it, there is nothing to win!

    Rock`n Roll
    P.S. what do want to express by calling yourself “Flottenmörderin”: annihilatress of the fleets? or what? :) i ask, because in german mostly noone would use this word in this context… ;)


  • @Cmdr Jenn,

    I read your Russian strategy somewhere on here and have followed it for the most part, although you say Russia can have 3 turns of 37 Ipcs and i didnt have the 3rd b/c Japs were taking my income in east, and I wanted to retreat away from his aircraft range, forcing him to commit to using it in Siberia or China/India/home defense.

    I have a good balance of infantry, artillery, and tanks with Russia.

    I am not sure what to do other than slowly retreat back to Moscow, as you recommend a strategy of picking off German infantry or going for stacks of tanks when exposed. However, he has massed everything together, and currently has 23 or so infantry plus about 8-10 tanks (with more coming from Germany) and artillery and mech, ALL massed in east Poland I believe (the one south of Leningrad and 2 turns out from Moscow)

    I hesitate to attack that stack b/c I dont want to throw away units that are better on the defense. Or should I? Last game I did and had favorable rolls and wiped the German army, which pretty much secured the game, or at least bought Russia a lot more time. What I fear on the defensive though is German aircraft.

    Thoughts on what I should do?


  • You should always build a few offensive units w/Russia, along w/your Inf. A few Art or Arm go a long way to countering the Germans…


  • @SSPanther:

    I hesitate to attack that stack b/c I dont want to throw away units that are better on the defense. Or should I? Last game I did and had favorable rolls and wiped the German army, which pretty much secured the game, or at least bought Russia a lot more time. What I fear on the defensive though is German aircraft.

    Thoughts on what I should do?

    never count on great dice.

    And imagine the consequences for you if this goes wrong. Then decide.


  • German troops positions:
    E Poland: 21 infantry, 4 mech, 6 tanks, 5 artillery, AA
    Poland: 5 artillery, 5 infantry, 1 tank
    Germany: 9 tanks, 5 tacs, 5 fighters, 1 bomber
    Romania: 5 infantry
    Karelia: 4 infantry

    If he moves his E Poland army forward to Belarus, I could hit them with about:
    31 infantry, 2 mech, 6 tanks, 8 artillery, 1 tac, 2 fighters

    In reserve I would have about 9 infantry and 1 tank, minus purchases for the round. Obviously my advantage is my troops would be right on the front. I also have all (18) of my eastern forces, but will probably make a stand this round against Japan since he vacated the Jap supporting aircraft out of Siberia. My 18 would face 10 infantry and 1 tank. If worse comes to worse I could throw a few British aircraft out of Persia into Moscow for the defense

    Worth it??


  • Something I have been doing with Germany the past few games is prior to war with Russia, I end up purchasing a lot of arty.  I usually have a few more arty than inf after the initial clashes in Russia.  This is great for the Germans because all those reinforcing infantry, and any you build from Lenningrad/Ukraine will have arty support immediately, also any following mech inf….  This keeps Russia from being able to stop my forward progress until I have reached the gates of Moscow, at which time Germany is making sooooo much more than Russia that they can just wait it out and start manning the Atlantic Wall in force.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Rock’n’Roll:

    The point I am making is this:  Either you advance with the Mechanized Infantry, and thus leave your Infantry fodder in the dust, or you use your Mechanized Infantry exactly like expensive Infantry units.  So why bother?

    I have my reasons, what are yours?


  • Hmmm…Aircraft Carrier anyone???

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    If you do not go after England, why get a carrier?  Wouldnt an airbase serve you better?  (in Germany.  Gives you 6 aircraft to protect transports)

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