R1 Ukraine Attack - Finish the fighter off or pull back?


  • A standard R1 attack on Ukraine/West Russia will typically see 2 or 3 tanks, 1 or 2 fighters, 3 inf, and 1 art attack Ukraine, with all other available units hitting West Russia (maybe one staying back to prevent a blitz through Karelia).

    Under what circumstances, if any, would you withdraw from Ukraine voluntarily?  (Meaning, you’re not losing the battle due to dice, you’re winning but pulling back to save your pieces.)  In a recent game, I got a nice first turn in Ukraine, killing eveything except the German Fighter, and losing 2 infantry.  I hate letting the German fighter live, but decided to pull back to save my armor.  Right decision or no?

    This is R1, so there’s not too many variables at play.  Build was 3 inf, 3 arm on R1.  (I did the West Russia battle 2nd, so didn’t know the outcome at the time.)

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    I think you made the right decision. Those units, especially the armor, are very valuable to Russia, so you don’t want to lose them to a German counterstrike. I’d say that retreating from the Ukraine is pretty much a normal thing to do. I would only consider staying there if the battle had not gone that well - say that Russia would just have a single armor and two planes left, then it would make sense to fight another round to kill the German fighter.


  • I believe you made the right decision too. Your 3 tanks are very valuable. However next time, I would always do the WR attack first. Precisely because it helps you decide when/whether you can retreat from Ukraine.  Especially if you take WR with many losses, you need to be very cautious about an all-out counter attack on WR during G1. In those cases, taking as many german units from ukraine as possible is more important.


  • If you ever have a situation where you have 3 tanks or more and he has a fighter I’d retreat. I’d even retreat if I had 3 tanks an arty and he had a tank fighter. those units can be very nice later for russia, and the fighter doesn’t really mean all that much.


  • The ukraine fighter does mean something: With it, G1 egypt can be taken with high probability; without it, G1 egypt is a big risk. At least, that is what I found.

    This doesn’t change my policy to withdraw from the R1 ukraine attack if I can afford it.


  • G1 Egypt without the fighter is 2 infantry arty tank fighter bomber vs inf tank fighter… not that big of a risk at all.


  • Maybe I should have added that I assumed that G1 would use bomber + fighter + ss to take UK BB+ transport. Combining this with G1 egypt is a bit risky if ukraine fighter is lost.

    But maybe G1 chooses to attempt the US fleet with ss. In that case, egypt is not a big risk because the bomber can be brought, as you said. But most people I play prefer to take the UK BB, because it will force UK to invest heavily in naval defense in the first 2 turns.


  • Ya I’d prefer to use the Bomber hitting the BB as well. In LL Egypt attack would be a pretty much automatic, but in dice who knows. Taking the fighter out is nice, but having extra tanks as russia is even nicer.


  • @theROCmonster:

    G1 Egypt without the fighter is 2 infantry arty tank fighter bomber vs inf tank fighter… not that big of a risk at all.

    When I am Germany it is.  :-P :wink:

    When I would play Revised more often, I had a penchant for having that battle go horribly wrong. We usualyl had 7 bids for Germany which meant inf/art in Libya

    The best example.
    With 3 inf, 1 art, 2 tanks, 1 ftr, 1 bmb, I rolled 12 out of 13 6’s the first 2 rounds. He got 4 hits the first two rounds. I wish I still had the screenshots.

    I eventually I had ftr/bmb left and I think all he had was ftr, but I still retreated. Sometimes you just gotta know when the dice hate you and it is futile to object.

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