Mechanized Russia

The way to think about losing Moscow is: “what compensation am I getting?” It’s like losing your queen in chess. Can you still win? Sure. Are you going to win if you can’t point to the massive, obvious advantages that you’ve accumulated that outweigh the value of the queen? No. You’re not going to just ‘get lucky’ or ‘have a fighting chance’ if you lose Moscow and don’t get much in return.

On the other hand, if you can trade Moscow for 5 or more active, sustainable Allied factories in Normandy, Southern France, Southern Italy, Norway, Finland, Leningrad, Egypt, Persia, and/or Iraq, then that’s probably a good trade, especially if you also hang on to India and Australia.

If Moscow isn’t lost but is merely misplaced for the moment in that Germany is sitting in Moscow but can’t necessarily afford to keep it, because there are 50+ Russian units camped in the Urals, then maybe only 3 of those factories would be needed to even things up.

We could (and should!) quibble over exactly how much compensation the Allies need, but claiming that losing Moscow is “no big deal” or that losing Moscow is “game over” is at best an oversimplification, and often quite silly.

@Argothair

i think you have it exactly
buying a few mech and tanks for the russians will convince Germany that to go big stack and go straight for Moscow, Russia can feign a turtling defense while at the same time sending a few fast movers west to China (KJF), a few infantry north to Norway to support a US invasion and/or troops to the middle east to facility a UK shuck or factory, at the same time backing off the main stack in moscow when the Germans get ready to make their strike. What are you accomplishing by losing your stack in Moscow any way by the time the germans get there your production capabilities are very limited.
The original question was about fast movers for Russia, the question is are those fast movers good for making a difference somewhere, i think they can make a huge difference in the middle east, india and china and possibly Norway and its a flexible response too depending on your choice to go KJF or KGF.
I will differ to the more experienced players now but i think it has potential.

So i tried this today on Triple A. Went all mechs R1, then all arty R2, it was a G3 DOW. I had Finland, Norway, Romania. So i’ve gotten some good paydays and this has allowed the US and UK to begin to bug Germany on the West Coast. i’ve enjoyed this so far and at the onset of turn 6(where we currently saved) Germany has made no progress other than recapturing Norway and taking Leningrad and Archangel which Archangel will be easily recaptured. Ukraine, W Ukraine, Bryansk, Smolensk and everything east still under heavy guard and threat.

I like this so far. I will post additional updates as we continue.

Very interesting; thanks for sharing the concrete example! I hadn’t seen anyone throw their entire stack of infantry into Belorus before on R2 (you’re abandoning Scandinavia without a fight), but I can see why you’d want to.

One minor tweak that I would suggest is sending 1 infantry to Bessarabia to partially block the Italian tank – otherwise it can blitz through Bessarabia into Western Ukraine on I2, and then your 3 mechs in Ukraine can’t reach Eastern Poland on R3. Alternatively, the Italian tank can blitz through Eastern Poland to Bessarabia on I2, and then the Germans can send one mech to cut you off in Western Ukraine while landing planes in Eastern Poland on G3.

The fact that you are actually able to nearly stalemate the German player in this way is part of why I strongly prefer to take Greece with Italy if at all possible, and to try to strafe Yugoslavia with Germany on G1 and wind up in Romania with extra forces…if the German player were just a little more detail-oriented about getting his forces onto the front lines of eastern Europe, then your mechanized forces would not in fact be able to deadzone Eastern Poland.

@Argothair Also not sure why there was a purchase of 10 infantry for germany. Gives russia more time.

@Mursilis Yes this is a great idea but if germany can amphib leningrad it could kill all those goodies. Also as you point out if G had purchased mechs or tanks instead they could join the stack and bend the odds a bit more–though the threat is pretty high from those art/inf up front.

Argo I think you’d need to block both bess and epoland to keep him from moving through

@taamvan Agree with you re: infantry.

This is very nitpicky, but disagree on blocking east Poland – there is only one Italian tank in Romania, so if you block Bessarabia then either it blitzes through East Poland to attack Bessarabia (in which case you can just go through West Ukraine to get to East Poland) or it blitzes through East Poland to occupy West Ukraine (in which case you can go through Bessrabia to get to East Poland).

@Argothair Ah yes, i see your point. And the mechs don’t need to blitz to do that, the question is only about blocking the 3 extra units with 1 blocker.

@weddingsinger also noticed over the weekend that a tactical or strat bomber purchased on your R2 can threaten E.Poland so in the short term that would be a more powerful buy than the 3 mechs that cannot make that battle.

@weddingsinger Yeah, I love it–going to try it next game.

One of the Ifs is a G1–Dave’s G1 is really bitchin and gets ahead of Russia’s ability to configure as you’ve shown. But if no G1? Smooth sailin—this could be the Petrov Defense to the Queen’s Gambit

Well, it was the intervention of the Axis dice gods. I got variance smoked on a calculated 94% win for R in E. Poland and it crumbled. I got diced and the wheels fell off this thing. To me this means one bit of bad dice variance and you’re toast. Which is the case in most games, but this was painful. I held off till round 10 but with R struggling after the dicing there was no hope.

I will try again with the reverse purchases of Arty first.

@weddingsinger

I think it’s nice to conversate on this subject for fun. However, I have to be the devil’s advocate in this case. For instance, the posted triplea picture demonstrates to me that the Germany player was very novice. Honestly, if you bought mostly mech with Russia against me, I’d be happy. Germany will still drive to at a minimum turtle Russia in Moscow; and be able to setup more of a defense for western allies after Russia is turtled. But since you bought mostly mech, I won’t have to worry as much about a Russian Counter Attack on say Turn 7-8 when the Siberians make it back and do NOT pair up with a huge stack of artillery.

@weddingsinger

If germany stacks everything it can in the baltic states, using the italians and their transports you get a pretty sticky situation and not sure what you would do as Russia then.