@burmaboi The rules consistently use the term “into” when referencing the ending space of a unit’s move and “through” when referencing spaces passed through along the way. So, an air unit must conduct combat if it moves “into” an enemy-occupied space, but not “through” one (other than being fired upon by AA guns). Also, on page 14, the rules mention AA guns in “flown over” territories, which indicates that enemy-occupied territories may be moved through, and the Official Rules Clarifications make the same reference on page 2 in point 6 regarding AA guns.
USSR opening move
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Yeah, the basic strategy for Russia - build infantry and more infantry. However, you can postpone the German offensive for a good few turns to give your allies time to help re-enforce Karelia. That is - on the opening turn, throw everything that can reach into Eastern Europe. Leave one guy in Caucuses. (move the rest into Karelia) and build all infantry in Karelia. Reason being - if you have at least 1 guy standing in E Europe after the battle, you nullify Germany’s tank advantage. (Hence, they cannot blitz through). If you build in Karelia all infantry, you’d have a very sizable force to withstand a couple German attacks. (And if you’re lucky, maybe able to take EEurope a couple of times afterwards. )
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I wouldn’t be overly worried about germany attacking. Sure they look frightening on the board, but on paper they are pussycats. I’ll usually hit ukraine, retreat to karelia, and dare the germans to attack. There is always the chance that they will get very lucky, but I’d rather have that happen on the first turn. Assuming they don’t get extremely++ lucky, even if they take karelia you should be able to overtake them briefly.
Lets assume the scenario that russia does nothing but stack karelia with what they have and builds 8 inf there with one speedbump in the caucaus. If I’ve done the numbers right, that is at most:
11 inf + 7 arm + 5 ftr + 1 bmb vs. 19 inf + 3 arm + 2 ftr
That’s about a 48% chance at a take for germany, and guess who loses the more expensive units? That’s not even mentioning that taking out the transport in the baltic is childsplay especially when using two fighters. Getting rid of those 2 inf alone brings germany’s chances to 26.5%.
So in short, why bother attacking eastern?
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Lets assume the scenario that russia does nothing but stack karelia with what they have and builds 8 inf there with one speedbump in the caucaus. …
Looks like a Russia Restricted game :wink: but you don’t need to send EVERYTHING on Karelia. I usualy send some Inf towards the east and keep some Arm in the back to create counter-attack pressure.
If you’re not playing RR then I beleive it’s pretty much game over already for the Axis.
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Yeah, RR games always annoyed me, I hate being an even less useful russia. The problem is that every inf and arm you don’t use against karelia is quite a few percentage points in the wrong direction. Simply not using 2 infantry on the attack lowered the chances of a take from 48% to 26.5%, which is very drastic.
Mainly I am just trying to argue against the eastern europe attack to nullify germany’s tank advantage. I’ll let germany bring it on if they want. I certainly find it more appealing than letting my tanks rot in eastern europe.
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True, I’d probably do the same in that situation: Killing the Tran and regrouping in Kar.
I’m interested to see your odds calculation (you can pm me).Cau would now be a dead zone, Kar too costly to take AND Germany attack on the British fleet would be more risky too without the Sub and/or Tran.
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I have always had great success with a “standard” opening move for Russia. Buy 8 infantry. Take all land forces that can reach, plus the Russia fighter and take Manchuria. Unless you are totally blasted on dice, you will take this territory with 1 or 2 land pieces remaining, and the fighter to retreat to Yakut (which is protected by 2 infantry moving up from Evenk in non-combat phase). The Eastern Europe attack also serves to really screw up the Germans, forcing them to re-take territory in Europe rather than expanding. Hit Eastern with the fighter, all Karelia infantry, and all available tanks. You will succeed in this battle, though all of your tanks get blown away on Germany’s next move. Retreat your fighter back to Karelia. Use your fleet to attack the sub and transport. I have tried variants of naval usage, including a lot of attempts at using Russia’s navy to help protect the initial British fleet. It never works (the German attack is mostly air power, so you only add a little cannon fodder and a 1 defense). So instead go on the attack and remove the transport threat from Karelia, as well as sinking a pesky sub to free up your UK air force for other purposes. Remaining non-comabt moves, shift 3 infantry from Caucuses to Karelia, shift 2 infantry from Russia to Karelia and the other 2 Russian infantry to Novosibirsk (to be moved forward to Yakut to replace the Evenk infantry now there that will be used next round on a second Manchuria assault, or to move into Sinkiang if Japan focuses on southeast Asia. Finish off placing 6 infatry in Karelia and 2 in Russia. If you are well supported by the UK building up offensive forces and attacking Norway then other targets of opportunity as they arise, Russia can continue to “mixed build” sending 2 infantry East each turn with the balance facing Germany. Using this strategy, if Russia can alway remain at 24 IPC or higher (they will have 30 at the end of turn 1), the Axis can’t win (unless USA and UK are simply totally inept).
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