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vinnie71 -> RE: Has anybody started a new game as Soviets against the Axis AI (2/16/2012 4:37:02 PM)
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Have started a game as Axis againt Soviet AI and am at the end of my trials (ie the blizzard of '41 [:D]). I have to admit that the AI has improved a lot with the Red Army slipping wherever it could. I had tried several large pocketings but it either moved through an unguarded hex/area and in one case even concentrated two armoured divisions as a relief force to punch through. Therefore I'm resorting to smaller overall pockets all the time, or else bring together 2 Panzer Armies to carry out large envelopments.
Of even more interest was its behaviour during the blizzard. First of all I had two weeks of probing attacks in different parts of the line. Having overconfidently pulled out the bulk of my LW recon forces, I failed to detect a large movement of troops from the north to the south of the front. Then the attacks started in earnest, with the AI trying to envelop the frontline cities like Orel, Belgorod, Kharkov and the Stalino complex. To stop it I had to commit divisions which had been sent back to rest since the AI was attacking with large stacks repeatedly to break through. Sometimes the same division came under attack twice (on rare occasions thrice) by multiple stacks of divisions, tank brigades and cavalry formations. These attacks were not haphazard all along the line but concentrated in the area below Moscow. It has also barely attacked in front of Moscow, even though my forces at Kalinin and Vyazma are both quite vulnerable if the AI punches through the centre. (I have fortified the area heavily, starting 3 weeks before the onset of the muds which may be why the AI is avoiding the area)
Another interesting tactic is that cavalry formations were infiltrated between my divisions (I don't keep a continuous line but set my infantry divisions in alternate hexes, counterattacking with formations based in cities if a crisis develops). They were trying to bypass defenders to break out in the open. only a few managed but the precious panzer forces had from time to time go out in the cold [:D] chasing fleeting Soviet cavalry. Also the new rule which cuts down German effectiveness in winter means that one has to attack with stacks in order to stop a single soviet division.
BTW the Finns were not the veritible gods of war. They rarely managed to route soviet forces and their attacks seemed straight out of a WWI instruction book. they could not effect any encirclements and now in '42 their army can barely hold its own. Hopefully the soviets would not attack this quarter in spring coz I would have to redeploy some of the fresh German units to bolster them.
All in all it was enjoyable. Now in March '42 and just waiting for the mud so that I can set up my forces to exact some payback...
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