No doubt that is a rather unusual request. It is quite ironic that one of the “objectives” of the Soviet Union in A&A AE is to have no allied soldiers on your territory, in which case you are rewarded an extra 5 IPCs. So I can hardly believe they would even consider doing such things, the Russians were far to proud for that.
It is a good rule to reward the Soviets, because real players would have British units attacking Germans in the Soviet Union. This happens all of the time in Revised games.
Agreed, I’ve seen far to many games where people just used mass Russian infantry and British supporting planes, this way it makes the game more historical by encouraging Russia to stand on it’s own, as it essentially did in history.
Ahh, you are all in for an education. Actually using British aircraft to support Soviet infantry is historically accurate!
In 1941 shortly after the beginning of OP Barbarosa. RAF aircraft were moved to the Murmansk area in the USSR were they fought along side Russian troops! After about 6 months the aircraft were turned over to Soviet troops. More info can be found here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_151_Wing_based_at_Murmansk
The US had also establish a support base in I believe the Amursk area to help train the Soviets how to use American equipment that was being shipped over there. However, I don’t believe US troops ever provided any direct combat support.
Well the history lesson is all well and good, but my beef with the Karelia/Archangel stack, has more to do with the gameplay mechanics, than with the history.
Its generally safer to stack and shuffle troops to Russia, then it is to confront G in France, so many players have adopted this kind of strategy as a matter of course. The new Russian National Objectives are good step in the right direction, since they provide an incentive for the Allies not to do this sort of move.
I worry that it won’t be enough though. Compare the extra 5 IPCs per round from the NO, to more than 24 ipc worth of units that the British can park into Archangel. This might be one of those National Objectives that gets trumped by the need for boots on the ground.
Any thought of keeping a force of UK troops in Finland as future Soviet support in order not to lose the N.O IPC’s.
That might work actually, and I was indeed contemplating a seizure of Norway and Finland by the U.K., especially since Germany will be hard put to take it back by sea. Simply send in planes to attack and fly back to Finland and you get the best of both worlds, you get to help the Russians and they still get their extra 5 IPC’s.
Well the history lesson is all well and good, but my beef with the Karelia/Archangel stack, has more to do with the gameplay mechanics, than with the history.
Its generally safer to stack and shuffle troops to Russia, then it is to confront G in France, so many players have adopted this kind of strategy as a matter of course. The new Russian National Objectives are good step in the right direction, since they provide an incentive for the Allies not to do this sort of move.
I worry that it won’t be enough though. Compare the extra 5 IPCs per round from the NO, to more than 24 ipc worth of units that the British can park into Archangel. This might be one of those National Objectives that gets trumped by the need for boots on the ground.
Bear in mind that a Western Allies invasion of France nets both the UK and US 5 IPCs each for their NOs, while preserving the Soviet NO and costing Germany an NO worth 5 IPCs. Along with the value of France itself, the Allies gain 21 IPCs (France plus 5 each to UK, US and USSR) and Germany loses 11 IPCs if the Western Allies invade France rather then shore up Karelia and Archangel. The opening of a second front and dividing Germany’s attention adds to the value.
Ah, I didn’t think about that. Yes the prospects of gain are to much for me to pass up. I would leave Russia to fend for themselves until I could land in France, or move into France from Italy.
i can see italy being scared at that point since the americans/ british would love an industrial complex near germany to get so they can make men. This will make most likely a turn of tanks/men going to russia. Instead they willb doing a battle of the bulge.
