Overview

I must say that my general strategy, when playing any Soviet campaign, is the following.

Zhukov

A quick note. These are my notes so far on this campaign. I am playing it at a relatively easy setting of 120. I have been playing the scenarios pretty much in clockwise order. So the first few were headed toward the north, and then to Moscow and then to Stalingrad, and then toward Sevastopol and then into Poland, etc.

Scenario 1: Za Dvina blah, blah, blah

My units are pretty weak, other than my tanks. I have three three star leaders, one with the blitz special.

I also have one good four star bomber leader.

Everything else is pretty weak including two star fighters (1), two star artillery (1), two star recons (2), two star ATs (2), etc.

The ZSU-85 mm gun has one major flaw, which I just discovered. It has a AD value of 1! So it got zapped really quickly which led to pretty quick collapse of my turtle formation when it got peeled away by the three German aircraft. When I reloaded the first scenario, I got the ZSU-37 mm gun, which only has a range of 2, but it has an AD value of 6, so it should be around longer.

I was able to get an MV.

Scenario 2: Stoiali Nasmert

This one was pretty straight forward, at least enough to where I don't remember it two hours later...

Scenario 3: Moscow

This was a fun one, and the map looks nice in white!

I basically moved all of my forces due east in a large turtle followed by a little turtle formation. I also left my infantry parked in Moscow with an AT adjacent to him. But the AA and artillery that were in Moscow ended up moving out and moving west with the other troops.

Keep your scouts (or in my case, scout) toward the front, and watch out for the AT on the road between the lakes.

My new strategy for dealing with entrenched ATs is to park one of my units in its face, say "nah-nah-nuh-nah-nah" until he fires at me. Of course I keep an artillery unit in back which typically clips a notch or two off of his shoulder, suppresses him almost entirely, and then he gets in his trucks and flees down the road. Guess what invariably happens to him on the next turn?

Scenario 4: Zimnie Dorogi

The hardest part of this one was trying to pronounce the name.

Actually, all kidding aside, the hardest part of this one was staying together. This is one of those typical "sprint as fast as you can" PGIII scenarios. My artillery, which needed to slow down here and there to take pot shots at little recons sneaking into the turtle, were hard pressed to keep up after firing. Luckily, my main artillery is a 5 star kind of leader. The other artillery is a SP artillery who piddles along with a flatulent motor. He moves slowly, but steadily.

I never worried about capturing the airfield to the south of my initial deployment zone. I spent the entire time wondering if that was a good idea or not. It ended up not being necessary, so I was okay.

I was never able to deploy my aircraft. Good thing I had some good AA to keep the Germans at bay. My AA shot up an He-111 and an Me-109.

I wondered if I should go through the northern town to exit in that direction or through the southern town to exit in that direction.

In the end, I zigged south to one of the little towns and then zagged north toward the other. But I never worried about taking them. I had only to get six units off of the map, and that's what I worried about. And that's what I did, but one turn too late for a BV.

Scenario 5: Volkovskiy Front

Great. No new equipment yet again. All of my decorated leaders still have three or fewer promotions.

I lost my recon on the first turn thanks to an ambush. My fault for walking into that one. My best artillery has a range of three, but the Germans have artillery with a range of four. That is a handicap that keeps coming back to haunt us.

Watch for counterattacks at the southern objective of Nikolsk.

The scenario ended on a down-note. We lost another unit: a group of T-34s that strayed too far beyond the protection of both artillery and AA. It got ground to pieces from attacks by German SP-artillery, Ju-87s and Panzers.

The objective, once captured, was easy to hold. We then moved to the northern objective which was only guarded by a recon unit that was easy to force out.

Scenario 6: Serp i Molot

This scenario was a fun one!!!

Stavka was obviously preparing for a long time for this one. Some of the new equipment offered to us included a T-43 prototype, T-34/76Cs, Spitfire Vs, Yak-9s, P-39s in the attack role, IL-2M3s, Guard infantry and more!

I was able to get a BV by taking the big risk of not keeping any of my VHs covered for rear-guard counter-actions.

There are only three VHs, and none of them are in Stalingrad. Actually, there is one, a fourth named Starya Otrada, just south of Stalingrad, but that one was alreayd in my hands.

I pulled everything out of Stalingrad except for some regular infantry anchoring the north end. I left them there so that they could ambush enemy units. That worked. They had three kills by the end of the scenario.

My artillery and all else that was in Stalingrad, I pulled out, to the south east. Since there were no real German thrusts into Stalingrad, I pulled them further south-west to reinforce Starya Otrade, where I incorrectly anticipated a counter-attack. With nothing attacking there either, I started to move two infantry units and three artillery units to the north-west to start supporting the attack from my core units, sweeping in from the west.

That eventually did the trick and resulted in the first BV in a while.

Scenario 7: Rostov: Ograzhdenye Kavkaza

The most exciting new equipment was artillery: Now we finally are starting to get some decent stuff. We now have Su-122s and 15.2cm artillery that can fire at four hexes.

I still only have one decorated leader that is a four star or better out of four decorated leaders total. The lack of promotions and the lack of decorated leaders is having telling results and is leading to a collective degredation in capabilities.

My force has two fighters, two bombers, three AAs, two artillery, two recons, one AT guarding our original VH in the northeast, and the rest tanks. What's missing? Infantry. I have yet to find a need for them. And I don't have any leaders. I had one two star, but decided he wasn't worth keeping.

I lost my Spitfires and replaced them with Yak-7s, but other than that, it was a pretty straight forward turtle formation all the way to Rostov.

Scenario 8: Kharkov

This one looks pretty intimidating. The objectives are spread out everywhere, but they're all past Kharkov. And Kharkov looks like it's in a salient that is just begging for a German attack. And that ends up being the case.

I moved all of my core forces toward Kharkov, except for one solitary Su-76, as rapidly as possible using two turtles moving parallel toward Kharkov.

I left my auxilliaries pretty much where they were.

The Germans attacked right away right on Kharkov with a light attack that just about did the trick.

Once Kharkov looked stable, it was a matter of getting to the other three objectives as rapidly as possible.

The Germans hit us hard from every side with simulateneously coordinated attacks at three different points. The Luftwaffe come out of the wood work at the same time. The attack to the center west was headed by a Tiger. He hit hard, but didn't have too much movement left, so my T-34 was able to escape. By the next turn, I had two 15.2 cm batteries in place. When the Tiger went after my Ba-64s, he was fully suppressed and retreated.

The rest was just patience! Final result was a BV with 22 kills and no losses. With 2039 points awarded, this was the best result I had since the second scenario.

On to Sevastopol.

Scenario 9: Sevastopol (aka Chorniy something or other)

This one was fun too, but it was a real stretch. I didn't think that I would make it at all.

I clustered almost everything in the south-central deployment zone, and went for the eastern objective. There were 3 T-34s that I had in the south-eastern deployment zone, and those I moved forward cautiously in parallel to the road toward the central Victory Hex. I made sure that they didn't move through the forest.

The Yak-9s have proven a bit weak except for on defense, where their 14 AD matches the FW-190s 14 AD. I use them to weaken or pick off already weakened units.

We captured the northern objective with the main group, and then swung it around so that it came upon the central objective just after my T-34s.

And then I moved everything together toward Sevastopol. On the last turn for a BV, I arrived with three artillery units, one recon, three tanks, two AAs. I weakened the German artillery first until it was fully suppressed. I then hit the infantry defending Sevastopol with all the artillery that I had left, and then prayed. Anyway, between the recon and the two tanks that could cross the river and hit the infantry, they did the trick and captured Sevastopol at the last possible moment.

Another BV!

Scenario 10: Bitva za Vinnitsu (Zhitomir)

Well, Stavka continues to torture us with names we can't pronounce. But basically this is Zhitomir. New equiment includes an Su-152, but new leaders are all terrible.

We have four Decorated Leaders (DLs), three of whom are at 5 stars or better, but one is still at 2 stars.

The key to this one is to never turn back or look back. Use recons wisely. By this point, my bombers are becoming good enough to damage and sometimes even destroy German armor. That's a good thing, because my tanks, by themselves, can't.

The core has to be split into two here, and I was able to exit the southern core forces easily. Of the 10 units that I needed to exit the map, nine exited on time from the southern edge. But the northern side was another matter. I should have held a defensive edge along the river, but got too hasty in trying to cross it. This action set me back two turns. And I also lost one flight of Yak-9s...

Minor Victory.

Scenario 11: Kamanets Podolskiy

I now have 6 DLs, 4 of whom are at 6 stars or more.

Stavka gave me two stars to start off with.

This is another mad dash, but one where the player must split his core forces into northern and southern groups. My southern group had three units of armor and one Katyusha 300 artillery (with only two shots...). This proved to be too little. And with the total lack of air superiority or AA for the southern group, this meant that it got shot up a lot, especially my Katyushas.

I eventually peeled a T-34 unit off from the northern group, and then another one, and had both of them join the southern group. My northern recon unit got beaten up, so I replaced it with a Pe-2 attack bomber.

The northern force was very strong, and had most of my air force supporting it. I have two six star bombers which are practically destroying one German unit per turn.

Victory was Brilliant, on the last turn possible, as usual. 23 kills and 1 loss.

Scenario 12: Lvov

Well, I want to quit to start over to get it right... but then again, now I'm really having fun. My Soviet forces are now to be reckoned with, and can move almost imperviously across the Soviet steppes and toward the German homeland.

This scenario started nicely with a great deal of new equipment. Churchill IVs and Shermans are pretty much useless. But the KV-85s, Su-85s, Su-76 (8 ammo, 3 range, 4 attacks!), A-20s, Tu-2s are making things interesting! Thanks Stavka!

I opted for a total force rebuild.

We now have 7 DLs: 3 at 6, 2 at 7 stars.

I deployed as much as possible south of Poritsk other than a 2 star DL Su-85. He defended against the one counter-attack with no problem.

By turn two, Dovsk was mine. The Su-76s and Su-152s made short work of the German artillery and 88s.

By turn 5, Strelishya was mine.

And by turn 7 or so, Chitova was mine as well. I was continuously anticipating some German Panthers, but there was only one, with 88s and with a 17K18 battalion defending Chitova. But with my three artillery units, I was able to blow out the 88s defending the VH at Chitova and waltz in to a hero's welcome, never having engaged the Panthers.

Now it's surely time to defend Lvov.

Scenario 13:

This scenario was a lot of fun. By now, my armor, which is very strong, is able to play almost without any action. Savor the irony. I have one IS-2, two IS-1s, one KV-85, and three or four KV-1Cs or T-34/85s. I still have absolutely no infantry. Part of this is because I have only had two infantry leaders during the whole game, and they were both two star leaders only. So how is this possible?

It is possible because I have three amazing bombers. Actually only two are amazing. The other one is a four star. But they get the job done. I typically face two strong German armor units per turn, at most. Each bomber takes out one. I have three artillery units which are six stars or more each. Two ATs and three AAs play defense. And that pretty much leaves the tanks to pound whatever weakened units are left. I don't think that my lone Yak-9Ds have seen any action in two scenarios now.

Scenario 14: Na Zapad y Pobyeda

Coming soon...