How would you stop this?

[TheDesertFox]

How exactly would you as the Russian player stop this? It’s currently R3 right now and they have a multitude of things they can do however one small blunder or one mistake can cause the downfall of the Soviets on the first turn they’ve been attacked. Any thoughts?

[barnee]

@thedesertfox A small Tactical Nuke in E Poland should work. I don’t believe that’s an option though : )

Idk, just wanted to say Cool looking map. Haven’t seen it before :+1:

[TheDesertFox]

@barnee

Wish I had a time traveler to take us into the 1950s now that you mention it… problem solved at that point. I actually managed to figure out a solution myself that involved… well… retreating, as the Russians.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

Love that map! So clear.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

I’m late to the party but here it goes:

Send all ground units from Western Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic States into Eastern Poland. The battle calculator gives 87% odds, not bad. Move units from Leningrad to defend Karelia. Ceding Vyborg is okay since Leningrad will be threatened anyway when Germany takes the Baltic States.

Also send all you aircraft to destroy the Luftwaffe in Romania.

[TheDesertFox]

@superbattleshipyamato

Interesting take, I never would have thought to destroy those planes on Romania since I was so focused on the big German blitz into Eastern Poland.

I considered going on there to take em out, but I figured that if I did the battle casualties on my end would be too tuff to top making it into a pyrrhic victory. I find it kind of interesting that the battle calculator read out 87% odds of winning since I looked at the stuff I could take in versus the stuff that he had and didn’t think there was a chance in the world I could come out on top. What I opted to do instead was I pulled back to smolensk, Bryansk, and Archangel for another counter attack line incase he moved in. (Germany moved in toward Leningrad and we had a big tustle there, ultimately lost but took down TONS of tanks with it.)

[MarshmallowofWar]

@thedesertfox I disagree with attacking the planes in Romania. As juicy a target as they are, you will be trading two of your very valuable planes (that you cannot afford to replace) for three of Germany’s proportionally less valuable planes.

(Yes, Germany’s planes are valuable, but it has more of them and can afford to replace them over time. Russia has much more difficulty doing this.)

It’s difficult for me to make out the exact composition of the force in Bessarabia, but if you have an edge over Bessarabia a much better play would be to take the planes in combination with the infantry from Ukraine and hit the stack of German infantry in Bessarabia. Now Germany has lost a devastating amount of ground forces and has to sacrifice valuable tanks and mechs to hold back your assault while it marches in new infantry stacks.

If you don’t have that numerical parity, then you should use your planes in East Poland to get your chance of victory to almost 100%.

Marsh

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@marshmallowofwar

I thought Bessarabia isn’t a good target. It’s all infantry. The heavy equipment in Eastern Poland is much better.

And yeah, I do have a penchant of sending aircraft by themselves to attack ground units. I like to imagine that’s close air support. There’s nothing cooler than Germany using aircraft to destroy isolated Soviet tanks or Japan using aircraft agains infantry.

As you said though, it usually leads to unsustainable and not profitable losses.

I think Bessarabia has 12 infantry.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

That’s a good idea too, keeping your infantry on defense. Normally I don’t support the Allies winning, but I wish good luck to the Soviets this time.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

Shoot, I made a huge mistake on the battle calculator. You’re right, the Soviets cannot win in Eastern Poland. My bad. :(

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

Guess all you can do is just retake Bessarabia or attack Eastern Poland with your aircraft as well (I always want the amount of aircraft the anti aircraft artillery can shoot and the amount of aircraft actually attacking balanced, so I wouldn’t do it, however since you probably don’t share the same view of this as me).

[TheDesertFox]

@marshmallowofwar said in How would you stop this?:

@thedesertfox I disagree with attacking the planes in Romania. As juicy a target as they are, you will be trading two of your very valuable planes (that you cannot afford to replace) for three of Germany’s proportionally less valuable planes.

Sorry I should have been a little clearer. I meant to say that I considered going into Eastern Poland to attack those guys but went against my better judgement knowing I was going to suffer a lot of casualties from it. As for the 2 tac bombers, yes you are correct. The Soviet’s planes would be much better used on defense then offense.

[TheDesertFox]

@superbattleshipyamato

Instead of going into Eastern Poland I pulled my units back to what I call the “2nd line of defense”. Essentially, I pulled my units back into Archangel, Smolensk, and Bryansk so that my infantry could attack Belarus/Western Ukraine if need be and so that they had the option to move toward Ukraine/Leningrad in case Germany decided to do an all out bomb rush for one of them with my tanks obviously being in Smolensk so that they can reach both Leningrad and Ukraine.

[TheDesertFox]

I think Bessarabia has 12 infantry.

The chips are a little bigger then what they might seem. The Germans have 8 infantry in Bessarabia.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

That means…

If you use aircraft, you can destroy Bessarabia and Eastern Poland at the same time!

The Soviets will be exhausted, but it’ll be fun while it lasts.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

Smart. I’m always too offensively minded. My strategy for the Soviets (which always fails) is attack, attack, and attack the weak points until your resources are exhausted. Never works.

Please makes more of these posts, as someone who doesn’t have the time to play a full game, little excerpts like this are fun for their possibilities.

[TheDesertFox]

@superbattleshipyamato

Of course! The Soviet Union was the first nation I ever played in A&A and it’s still probably my favorite nation to play due to the challenges you’ll face as well as the potential you have as that nation. I definitely would say that the Soviet Union has a many different paths it can take on how they want to go about facing Germany, most widely debated amongst others in these forums and on youtube but I’ll probably describe this strategy of mine more in depth in a separate thread.

[SuperbattleshipYamato]

@thedesertfox

Good idea. My favourite is Japan and the Axis in general, since they were the economic underdogs of the war.

[MarshmallowofWar]

@thedesertfox If the attack on E Poland is in doubt and there are six Russian infantry in Ukraine to 8 German infantry in Bessarabia, it looks to me like you should take the three planes in combination with the tank and infantry from the Ukraine and annihilate the German stack in Bessarabia.

It looks like the East Poland attack is in doubt, but losing the stack in Bessarabia will hurt Germany as well. Germany will be forced to divert forces from the main stack to keep you from pressing into southern Europe with your remaining ground forces, which buys time for Moscow to build more defenses. (If Germany doesn’t divert forces, then you’re remaining ground forces are positioned to boost your economy at Germany’s expense.)

The planes would land in Ukraine, along with the forces you are building there. You would need a blocker in Western Ukraine to keep them from dying to an immediate counterattack through Western Ukraine. Everything else can retreat.

If the attack on Eastern Poland is on (again, from the thread it seems like that’s in doubt), then the tank doesn’t participate and at worst you are going to take in the planes and infantry from Ukraine into Bessarabia and stop the attack once you are at risk of losing planes. Losing those infantry is going to hurt Germany.

@superbattleshipyamato said in How would you stop this?:

@marshmallowofwar

I thought Bessarabia isn’t a good target. It’s all infantry. The heavy equipment in Eastern Poland is much better.

If that attack is indeed at 87% (I don’t think it is – see my numbers question below), that is a GREAT attack for Russia to make and I agree with making it as well. If Bessarabia is off the table (because I just can’t read those numbers of units from the map), then the planes (at the very least the tactical bomber) should go too despite the risk of AA hits.

Marsh

[MarshmallowofWar]

Someone please confirm my numbers:

E Poland
3 AA gun
11 infantry
4 mech infantry
5 artillery
5 tank

Bessarabia
8 infantry

Ukraine
6 infantry
tank