ComradeP
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quote:
Isn't that precisely what having Kleist running around as a loose canon away from the main axis of attack is designed to avoid? If you throw all your reserves at Hoth, then Kleist runs amok, forcing you to move South to counter. Then Model kicks off and you need reserves there. Rinse and repeat...
To me, thinking as the defender is never about what you will lose or won't achieve, as that's often pretty obvious, it's about what you can afford to lose and trying to figure out what you can achieve.
Even though the game is months from release and I've never touched it, I've been thinking a lot about the Soviet strategy in the past few weeks. Starting a 1941 game and not accepting that, potentially, you'll lose everything West of Moscow will be problematic, as the early disasters which are more or less automatic will ruin your morale and strategy. To me, it would be about working from West to East starting at Moscow and not the other way around in terms of planning a defence.
You're thinking too much in terms of the attacker. As the defender, you should never do what the attacker wants you to do, unless it's what you intended to do in the first place.
If the attacker is breaking through your frontline in more than one sector, determine which sector(s) you can lose and which sector(s) you really need.
There's a lot of open steppes in the South, the Soviets could easily withdraw a bit without giving up any truly important cities. That would also drag the Germans further to the East. Good for you, bad for them.
Let's say the Germans want to encircle Moscow, like PyleDriver is doing now. They will probably try to decrease the pressure on the main axis of advance through attacking other sectors, because that's a standard military strategy and it would almost be foolish not to do so. In this case, the attacker relies on two assumptions: 1) the defender will be strong where the attacker expects him to be strong, which is near Moscow in this case 2)as a result, the defender is fairly weak everywhere else.
Moscow is the logical target, so from the first turn you place some guys in many of the good terrain hexes or the Moscow side of rivers and let them dig in for a couple of months. It would be nice if leaving them alone like that would both boost their morale/experience as described earlier and the fort level of the hex.
Such a defensive position can be held with a minimum of manpower, whilst it will still be strong enough to make sure the Germans need to use a lot of force to get in.
At the same time, you prepare the position you want the Germans to attack at the flanks several months in advance. You create an appearance of strength, but not make it too obvious that it's actually not a crucial part of your defence, and you make sure the appearance is credible through placing plenty of expendable units there that will basically die for the cause.
Let's say that a force like what Kleist is using in this game will attack that part of the front. The front will break up, you'll take losses but so will the Germans. The Germans will designate a few cities in the area crucial objectives. However, just like the deaths of millions is basically a statistic, to you the cities are just a spot on a map somewhere because you're playing the Soviets and you know that the city is probably completely insignificant to the overall outcome of the conflict. You'll get it back in due time in any case.
Kleist has 5 Panzer divisions and 2 motorised divisions, as well as a comparitively small amount of infantry divisions. When Kleist strikes, preferably placing troops on "your" side of a river, you hit him with half a million men that have been training to do just that for several months and thousands of tanks. You'll send a couple of waves of hundreds of obsolete aircraft (you have plenty of those) over to attack the Luftwaffe. Your aircraft will probably be butchered (which you can afford) but will tire the Luftwaffe pilots, and then you mix a wave of obsolete aircraft with the quality air groups that you have been training for months. Due to the fatique, the Luftwaffe should be taking some losses and will be far less prepared to counter what your bombers are scheduled to do to the Panzer divisions.
The Germans get a few hexes closer to Moscow and maybe a city or two elsewhere, and you weaken or pulverise what comes down to two Panzer Corps. That's a trade I'll make any day of the week as the Soviets.
After that, the Germans will have to bring in reinforcements and you will achieve what the Germans are trying to achieve: reduce pressure on the crucial sector.
As the defender, you decide when and where to strike, not the attacker.
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RE: OKH Plan 1942 - Alpha AAR - 
RE: OKH Plan 1942 - Alpha AAR - 
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