Curious about the Russian side....
That's the sort of thing that can make time disappear. After finishing the second German grand campaign, I spent a couple of days in gaming limbo. I wanted to see what it was like to play War in the East as the Russians. But I had trouble getting started. Not only did I not know what to do exactly, I also realized the massive scale of the undertaking. The German side is big enough, but the Soviet side is on another level, and this heavy load kept me from actually getting started. There are far more units (eventually), far more organizing, strategic movement, administration and on and on. But the challenge of it all was like a flame to a moth. Having seen what the Germans were capable of, how they could rip the Russians apart when the commander takes a non-historical tack, I was really curious of how I might do. But this is a complex game, and I had zero clue about Russian mechanics. What should I do? I had an overall grand strategy, but no idea how to do it within the context of this game.
After a couple of days of browsing the Steam sale and reading the Decisive Campaigns:Barbarossa manual, I had failed to shake the nagging desire to replace Stalin and see if I could do a better job. I didn't take screens since I planned no AAR, but I want to give an overview of the grand campaign in War in the East from the Soviet side.
I think that having played the Germans a couple of times was valuable for tackling the Russian campaign. I knew what they were capable of, what their objective likely were, the distances they could cover in a turn, who their best commanders were, their reinforcement schedule, that sort of thing. But I still had no clue how to play the Russians. I concluded that was perfect. Being clueless would mirror the state of the high command in June of '41, and as the Stavka did in reality, I would learn as I went
1941When the map opens, your forces are arrayed more or less as they were on June 22 1941. Fatally vulnerable to a panzerblitz. German has the initiative, it is a surprise attack after all, and gets to go first. As the Russian, this is pretty traumatic. The opening airfield strikes were effective, but against the AI I got off a bit better than I expected. Lost 2,000 planes, which are historical levels, but half of what I managed when playing as the Germans. On the ground the Germans had what I felt was a poor opening in the South. They took Lvov and Rovno first turn, but failed to gain any big encirclement, or deep penetration, allowing me to extract most of the forces in the south and begin a retreat to the Dnepr river. In the Ukraine my best armored forces were deployed, and most were saved. I began the retreat toward Kiev and the Dnepr. Falling back on my own railheads, while the Germans ranged away from their own meant I might be able to get there first despite the German mobility advantage. And in Army Group South there is only one Panzer Group, most of it is foot slogging infantry and no faster than my own.
In the North and Center however, the German AI ripped me apart. Not only did they manage a number of large encirclements, they also managed to flip a lot of territory. The AI's first turn was better here than any I have managed. The entire front was written off essentially. A few of the trapped units would hold out for a few months, simply because the German bypassed them. One air-drop supported cavalry unit almost reached Warsaw when I deemed the enemy wasn't paying attention, but they were and destroyed them one hex short.
After the first turn I was in a sort of mild panic. My forces were no match for the German. Crap units, low morale, obsolete equipment and on the run everywhere. And the Germans had just chopped off a full quarter of my total strength. German success in this campaign is critically tied to their performance in the first summer. Is is crucial they destroy as much of the Red Army as they can, otherwise they will eventually be snowed under. Here the first turn had to go to the German, but I felt I saved more than expected, especially aircraft and the good tank and mechanized divisions in the Ukraine due to the German's tepid opening turn in the South. More than anywhere else there is space to trade for time here.
Despite the dire situation I had a couple of things going for me. Reinforcements and rail capacity. Virtually every turn new units arrived at the far eastern edge of the map. Using the rails, these units were relatively quickly moved to the places I needed them. In addition, the rails were used to shift forces from one threatened sector to another. This sort of strategic mobility is a big advantage over the Germans, who never have enough rail capacity to do this sort of thing.
As the turns ticked by I got my act together, and formed defensive lines. We were able to stop the blitzkrieg on a line Narva-Pskov-Smolensk-Kiev-Odessa. This was better than I had expected frankly, especially after the opening turn. But the relentless reinforcement and ability to shift forces quickly meant I had plenty of operational leeway to defend the country. Heavy German pressure eventually forced me out of Pskov, and I abandoned Odessa and fell back on Nikolaev when the German threatened to get behind me. But we held firm 100 miles west of the Denpr bend. The high point of the German advance saw them reach the gates of Kiev, and they had shoved me out of the way to the north of Smolensk, though the city itself would hold. As the mud and blizzards arrived the German assault had ground to a halt and we were managing our first local encirclements. It felt like the two armies had reached an equilibrium, which meant the future looked good for me.
Mechanically I at first had little idea what to do. It's completely different from the German side as the Russian player needs to essentially build his army. Things like support units are created manually using admin points. The command structure goes through a number of changes. For example I had spent a good deal of time and points squaring away my corps structures only to have these HQs abolished several turns later. I knew this happened historically, but in the game this info is missing for the withdrawal list, it just happens with no notification. Additionally, over time the command capacity of each HQ drops, as the Russians realized that smaller formations were easier to control. It all adds up to a massive administration challenge to the player. Honestly the amount of effort that goes in to organizing and transporting the Russian army in the game is daunting and few will relish this sort of thing.
Along these sames lines other changes occur. Those beautiful tank divisions that I was so happy to have saved in the opening stages are downgraded to tank brigades, which are a fraction of the combat value. The excess tanks go in to the pool to fit out arriving units. So while it has an immediate detrimental effect it is setting the stage for the Red Army 2.0.
Another thing the Russian player needs to deal with is the evacuation of threatened industry. Our prospects of successfully mobilizing a kick-ass army are closely linked to our industry and production. It's important to save what you can, and transport these factories to remote cities near the Urals. I managed to save everything. We didn't lose a single armament or heavy industry point, nor any vehicle or aircraft factories. The bliztkreig did have an effect on manpower, but our production was unaffected long term. There is a short term effect as these factories come back on line however. Crucially, the production at Leningrad, Kharkov and Moscow was never seriously at risk.
So 1941 was spent retreating to defensible lines, re-organizng the command structure and filling out HQs with support units. I focused especially on AAA, artillery and units that could dig like sappers, engineers and RR construction units. Fortification levels are so important, especially as the Russian in 1941. You need to be able to dig in as quickly as possible to help resist the powerful German units.
When the blizzard hit I launched a counter offensive north of Smolensk that eliminated the salient there and re-took Vitebsk and straightened the line. The stage was set for 1942.
19421942 is the birth of Red Army 2.0. A number of important changes occur that help to strengthen the Russian formations. The best of these is the corps structure. The Russian army after 1941 is set up similarly to the German army, but with the corps eliminated as a HQ level. In the German army the descending hierarchy is OKH-Army Group-Army-Corps. in the Russian Army it is Stavka-Front-Army. So in effect, the Russian Army is the equivalent to the German Corps. Except it's not really, and that;s because of the Russian ability to form corps out of their divisions and form a single counter. Three brigades can be combined in to a division. Three divisions can be combined in to a corps. Over time, the Russian player gains these abilities, and cavalry corps are the first to be allowed, and this occurs in December of 1941, just in time for the counter offensive. The reason that corps are so powerful is due to the stacking limit. You can't have more than 3 units of any type in any hex. So by combing divisions in to corps, you are essentially putting 9 divisions in a single hex. By the end of 1942 the Russian has the ability to also form Rifle, Tank and Mechanized Corps. All of this cost admin points, it's not free and takes time.
The Russian player also has the ability to manually build any type of unit for an admin cost. need more tank brigades or fighter squadrons? Just a couple of clicks and they are formed and will fill out depending on pool levels. It's an amazingly flexible system and one that I complained earlier that the German player would benefit from, especially the ability to create new HQs. I didn't even know I could manually build combat units until spring of 1942 when I worked it out. Until then I had only built new support units. Which is fine because I think it worked out well, and meant the summer of 1942 would see a massive expansion of the Red Army.
So we simultaneously launched a general offensive and built a new army. New airfields, and fighter and bomber squadrons. New tank brigades and mechanized brigades. Turn after turn these units were built, and combined with arriving reinforcements and the Red Army would be massive by the end of the year. In the South I essentially held in place in 1942. Local attacks, small gains, getting new armies in to the line. In the Center we pushed forward a bit. More of a blunt thing, no chance to run pincers or encirclements really at this point. The German had recovered over the spring, My main operation was an effort to shorten the line to set good jump off points for 1943. The goal was to strike west from a point north of Vitebsk, using the Dauvina river as a southern boundary and heading for Riga. This would cut off any forces that failed to get out of Estonia. And that's what happened. It took a few months, but the German failed to properly recognize the threat and we ended up cutting off nearly a million men. It was a blow from which they would struggle to recover and our first real operational success other than the counteroffensive north of Smolensk during December and January.
The end of 1942 saw us hold a line of Koenigsberg-Orsha-Kiev-Nikolaev. As good as that was, the best thing to come out of 1942 was Red Army 2.0. The corps structure meant we could now put a hell of a lot of combat value in each and every hex along the front. Three Guards Rifle Corps is about 100,000 men. Three German Infantry Divisions is about 45,000 men. This is where the real power of the Russian army comes from. As 1943 opened we held a massive advantage in numbers across the board. 10,000 more tanks,15,000 more aircraft,100,000 more artillery tubes and 4 million more men. With our industry at full tilt the stage was set for massive assault in 1943.
1943The new Red Army crashed in to the German all along the line with objectives of Lvov in the south, Warsaw in the Center and crossing the Vistula in the north. All were achieved, although Warsaw only in the final week of December. In addition, operations were run to strip Germany of her allies. The Italians left in summer, that's scripted. But Romania surrendered in August and Finland followed the next turn! In just one month, the German lost three of his satellites and their southern front was ready to crumble with the sudden loss of the Italians and Romanians (who it should be noted flipped to our side). The surrender of the Finns freed all of the forces defending the Leningrad region and they were sent south to add weight to the push to Berlin.
The German reacted well and constricted his lines but it meant that by the end of 1943 we had taken Posen, Warsaw, Bucharest, Krakow and Danzig. Of course as we move to the west in these regions, the front becomes narrower, meaning greater and greater concentrations of striking power on both sides per hex. My army is so big that this means large groups of operational reserves that can be railed to any sector, usually to exploit an advance as the German is no longer attacking except to relive pocketed units.
At the end of 1943 my army was complete. A massive force of over 8 million, with 25,000 tanks and 20,000 aircraft and all structure sorted. Armies linked to fronts, each with their attendant air groups, and in place and under command capacities. The stage was set for the assault to the Oder and then Berlin itself. Each hex sports an army. Of course the entire army can;t fit in the front hex, but across the frontage each hex is an army. Three rifle crops in the front hex, with additional corps and divisions along with tanks/mech backing them up with Shock Armies and Tank Armies deployed behind them. So even if the front hex burns all of it;s MP on an attack, the units in the next hex can leapfrog them and take advantage of an enemy dislodgement. And that's how we advance, Bang them back one hex at a time. The Germans don't hold a massive CV advantage like they once did, but they haven't stood still either and those German units have some excellent equipment in them. Still, they are just no longer able to hold us off in in general. The Red wave rolls on
1944In 1944 I had a few objectives. One was to knock the last remaining German ally out of the war. Hungary still stood by them, so I shifted an entire front, the North Caucasus Front, to an assault through Romania to take Budapest, and with it Hungary surrendered. The Hungarians and the Germans put up a fanatical resistance on this operation and it was difficult but Hungary was out. It's now June of '44 and I have launched an offensive toward Berlin and the leading armor spearheads are within 30 miles of the Oder, and from there 30 more to Berlin. What a massive game.
A few screens.
This was the front at the end of 1943, Warsaw has just fallen. I seem meticulous about keeping a tidy line eh?
This is a month later and shows two offensives as well as the operation in Romania/Hungary to capture Budapest and knock Hungary out of the war.
And finally, the turn after an armored breakthrough was made in a thrust to Berlin in June of '44. The enemy has placed a ring around it. I will need to feed infantry in to the salient to hold the shoulders before the armor can push on. All of the red counters are Guards units. Units gain this designation through meritorious combat achievements and it increases morale and TOEs and if the entire Army is designated as Guards they gain an increase in command capacity.