I’m sure that this has been discussed a few times (posting links to any existing insightful discussions is very welcome!), but I’d like to ask again for your take on whether Russia should indulge in buying 2 tanks (and 4 inf) or stick with the more conservative 4 inf, 3 art approach.
I played around with both approaches and subjectively feel like the artillery start has worked out better for me in general. Bear in mind that this just a personal feeling because I find it hard to explain any given win or loss by merely looking at my opening purchase. In fact, I find a far better outcome predictor for a game is a look at the West Russia/Ukraine battle. Especially if Ukraine goes poorly, I find it extremely hard to pull off a win against a decent opponent.
One observation I made is that, if I started out with tanks and got lucky with the dice rolls in West Russia and Ukraine I had a lot more momentum than if I started with artillery. Conversely, starting with artillery while having poor to mediocre results in the two opening battles, seemed to yield better results. Can anyone confirm this, or have I fallen into the trap of my own confirmation bias?
Pros/Cons tank:
The tank approach obviously focuses on the mobility which gives Russia more options to attack and defend. R1 tanks in particular can allow for an attack at Karelia R2, assuming Ukraine went well (and maybe was just strafed so 3 tanks are left in Caucasus). If Ukraine was captured (and all leftover tanks will most likely be destroyed in G1), the new tanks could come in handy, if Russia can afford to help UK in India against a J3 attack. However one could argue that the same can be accomplished by buying tanks R2 and placing them in Caucasus, so it’s definetely not the main selling point.
The cons are fewer bodies to defend against the German onslaught and every unit counts in a tight battle.
Pros/Cons artillery:
The artillery is less mobile than the tank but offers one more unit and at the same time elevates the offensive power of any existing infantry unit making medium to big fights more cost effective for Russia.
I would also argue that Russia doesn’t need very high flexibility in the early stages of the game since the main goal is most likely stack West Russia as much as you can and make small trades here and there. Japan won’t be a real threat that requires tank assistance before round 3, maybe even later.
Russia doesn’t have and can’t handle many fronts/stacks it can switch between so it’s probably better off building one big stack with maximum efficiency.
What has worked for you in the past and are there things I might have overlooked to evaluate the situation?