Moscow Stack, a comon russian strategy?

[Napoleon]

I was Germany last game and  attacked round 4 with overwhelming forces, the russian player bought many infantry and just stacked moscow with 50 infantry. Japan was behind with 10 units but no reinfoircement, i was not in situation to attack 50 infantry at least for now but western allies were in position to land in france. So my question is, how to defeat a moscow stack while defending against USA and Brits? Isd this russian strategy a comon one in your games?

I thought to attack earlier or to buy more tanks. I did have about 28 mech and infantry, 3 mech with artillery, 12 tanks and some stukas/bombers.

[Chompers2]

I have played 7 games so far (2 as axis and 5 as allies).  Russia has not been cracked yet once by an axis opponent.  In the second game we played Russia kept falling back against a combined German and Japan assault and ended with a stack of 80 plus inf and then about a mixture of 20 other units.  By that time The US had built two major factories in Europe and was building 20 units a turn there while Britan landed in Europe at will.

I have gotten Germany into Lenningrad and believe I have enough experience as Germany to be able to hold it now but I have a plan for the Germans to get Moscow.  The other games I have played Russia started buying about half art and half inf.  It makes there stack slightly smaller but they can move forward and kill any stack that does not keep pace by adding numbers to it.

Maybe I am just not skilled enough yet or not patient enough but it seems real hard to take Moscow as Germany.  We have tried a Germany factory in Romania, transports off the coast of Lennigrad, Mechs and Tanks, and none of it has been able to defeat the Russian stacks.  Japan made a path to Moscow one game and kept their initial airforce in tack but they could only reinforce their attack from India and by that time America was knocking on Berlins door.

[Raeder]

@Napoleon:

I was Germany last game and  attacked round 4 with overwhelming forces, the russian player bought many infantry and just stacked moscow with 50 infantry. Japan was behind with 10 units but no reinfoircement, i was not in situation to attack 50 infantry at least for now but western allies were in position to land in france. So my question is, how to defeat a moscow stack while defending against USA and Brits? Isd this russian strategy a comon one in your games?

I thought to attack earlier or to buy more tanks. I did have about 28 mech and infantry, 3 mech with artillery, 12 tanks and some stukas/bombers.

Forget Moscow. Take Leningrad and Stalingrad, Paris, Cairo, Calcutta, Honolulu, Sydney and what not. You don’t need Moscow to win.

[oztea]

How do you people play this game? who is allowing the US turns of holding soil in europe?
Repel Norway attacks at all costs

and besides, isnt there a rule that majors cant be built on foreign soil? if there isnt that rule then there should be.

[oztea]

The Russian stack has fallen twice in 3 solid games ive been in so far

Once to a straight shot. All german units moved in a clump. East Poland, Belarus with Inf/Art & Novgorod with fast units Tnk/Mec. Converged at smolensk some 20 infantry strong, 8 ART and near 20 tanks.

Took on 44 INF 2 TNK and 2 FGT, crushed it….I was UK this game

Then as Germany myself I did a pronged attack south and north, cutting off soviet funds. Moved a sub to 125 the turn i declared war and USSR never got its archangel bonus that game. By the time the UK killed the sub I had Archangel.

The infantry spread out and moved to surround Moscow (collecting like 12 IPCs now) and i just choked it out.

Important note…Fast unts can blitz from Volgoda to Volgagrad through Samara, so be careful stalin.

In my game I only took moscow to end the game. there was still a monster stack there, some 30 INF but I felt no need to take it strategicly. I had the other two cities. And could have detoured bombers from bombing london to neuter russia forever. Drop 20 damage on em and watch it take 7 turns to wear off.

The monster stack is a bad idea, rolling that many 2’s is so prone to disaster, you just cant rely on them.
You need to make a stand as russia up front. You have a lot of territory between the germans and moscow. You dont need a monster stack, that doesnt buy you time. What buys you time is to force the axis to retake territories it had before.

[Whackamatt]

I agree with Oztea.  Sit back and wait is not a good strategy; that effectively hands over most of the territory to Germany for free.  Make them fight for every inch.  Divide and conquer.  If Germany spreads themselves thin to take territories, hit the smaller stacks and avoid the bigger ones.  Make them lose tanks instead of infantry because they’re stretched out.  Pick your battles.  You only really need your capital to surive, so protect that at all costs.  Be willing to lose any other territory if it no longer helps your survivability.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

There is a time for russia to fall back and wait for help.

EVENTUALLY the americans will land and tip the balance in the allies favor if all else is equal. So russia can delay. This doesnt mean jusy sit there.

A good russian player will be able to help his own cause by selectively attacking the germans. Knocking them back a square costs them a turn. Russia can also help the chinese, india and deal with the japanese in siberia.

Trick is russia has to see where the enemy can move and not get their units trapped away from moscow when the time to defend comes.

[Flashman]

Maybe it would be better if the VC conditions were revised, so that the Axis condition in Russia is any 2/3 VCs; this way the Soviets have to keep defending or retaking Leningrad or Stalingrad.
Or perhaps a NO based incentive to prevent Russia just turtling on Moscow.

[chompers]

In my experience so far a good Russian player playing conservatively can make Moscow close to impossible to take.   The way Russian territories are set up allows them to fall back and shadow any approaching German army until the Russians have reinforced their stack to the point where it can turn around and chase out or destroy the invaders.  There’s no real downside to this vs standing and fighting as you’re only giving up 1-2 ipc provinces as you fall back and you’re continuing to preserve and grow your Russian stack at a rate faster than the Germans can hope to reinforce theirs (assuming, of course, that GB and the US are putting any sort of pressure on the other side of Europe).  I’ve pretty much given up going for it and instead have resolved to find some way to take Leningrad and Stalingrad.  I’ll admit that Germany and Italy, given free reign to attack Russia can eventually bring them down if they focus all their strength on it but how are they doing this while preventing or counter-attacking allied landings?  There’s just not enough IPC’s available for them to effectively do both.