From: graham@cs.washington.edu (Stephen Graham)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Fire in the East questions
Date: 8 Jan 93 22:15:09 GMT
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <3275@devnull.mpd.tandem.com> bruceb@mpd.tandem.com (Bruce Burden) writes:
>In article <cscoging.45.726490085@unpcs1.cs.unp.ac.za> cscoging@unpcs1.cs.unp.ac.za (Chris Scogings) writes:
>>Q: What is the general Russian strategy ?  Should you make a strong line and
>>   take enormous casualties or should you hold reinforcements back and let 
>>   the Germans take large chunks of Russia ?
>>
>	In the south, you have to trade time for land. Besides, after Kiev,
>    there is very little except Stalingrad. In the north, you need to build
>    the railroad from Archangel to the Murmansk/Moscow line, and the rail
>    road north of Leningrad. Your best bet is to build a fort line in the
>    Moscow/Leningrad rough, and hold out as best as you can. Also, move the
>    factories ASAP. Use supply to increase the railcap as necessary. Pray for
>    mud. Mud is your friend.

Mud is indeed nice. You should NOT move all your factories at once. Railcap
is far too valuable early on. The Tula and Kharkhov factories should be
prepped for move on Jul I (the earliest legal turn) and moved Jul II. Rostov
should be left in place, as well as Leningrad. These factories should only
be moved under imminent threat of capture. Resource points should never be
spent to increase rail cap. In 1941, resource points should be spent for
forts. During early 1942, you have my permission to think about a few
permanent airfields. However, the ten airfields in the initial set up can
be sufficient, if placed well. Otherwise, save everything for forts. You'll
need them during the summer.

BTW, try to save as many engineers out of the frontiers as possible. They
should be No. 1 on the rail priority list.

>	Try to save your tanks. For the FitE/SE grand campaign game, it was
>    suggested that AFTER 1941 a 2-1 casualty ratio would drain the Germans
>    before the Soviets, and a 3-2 ratio was doing VERY well. Also, the 
>    Germans can't be strong everywhere, so attack where they aren't. Try
>    for those damn annoying trucks, use the river gunboats to ferry troops
>    (marines, usually) to cut supply/railroads and keep a supply of marines
>    in Leningrad to cross the ice and get unprotected seige artillery in
>    the winter. Protect the "winterized" units as much as possible, they
>    will be handy in the winter time.

Protecting winterized units for the first winter is wise. The Transcaucasus
is a lovely place for them. Tanks shouldn't be protected so much as expended
wisely. If you can trade your armor straight across for German armor, it's
worth it. However, during the first summer, the Germans can be strong
everywhere. Just assume that any exposed units are going to be visited by
a panzer fist.

As for your suggestions for the river flotillas, Bruce, I really don't
like them. My river flotillas tend to spend the first year in the central
hex of Leningrad under 13 points of flak or with the Black Sea Fleet someplace
in the far south. River flotillas that go out tend to die horrible deaths.
That's not to say that you should never use them, but... Marines and
river flotillas are rare and valuable enough in late 1942 or later that
I want to save them for that. 

>	Concerning Finland - you have to protect the Murmansk railline,
>    but after an initial strong push you should be able to hold this area.
>    Do you drive on Finland? Personal decision. I have had offensives
>    die (literally) in Finland due to a disasterous AE result. Until the
>    Sovs can again re-inforce this area the Finns will bedevil you to no
>    end. Keep in mind that the railroad north of Lake Lagoda is Leningrads
>    only chance, so you can't endanger this link.

I'm writing an article on Finland for publication that should show up 
this spring. Here's a summary. Finland isn't worth any special effort.
If you lose Murmansk, you lose a maximum of 21 armor points, 9 resource
points, 2 Hurricanes and 3 P-40s over the entire game. Useful, but you
can live without them. Keep the initial forces in facing Finland, except
for the armor. During mud, replace the winterised units with 3-6 rifle XXs.

Don't worry about the Axis attacking in the Arctic. This is Good. They're
spending resource points. A serious offensive will consume many resource
points. And this means they're more vulnerable on the main front later,
because they can't dig enough forts. <<insert evil, cackling laughter>>

Trying to defend the rail line north of Lake Ladoga will consume too many
valuable Soviet units. Consolidate the 7th & 23d Armies into the area
north of the Svir river to slow the Finns. But don't worry about them too
much; we know how far they can go. Any Finns that get too close to Leningrad
should be firmly stepped on.

Normally, I would advise against attacking the Finns in 1941. However, since
I just did that in the last game I played, I have to qualify this. If the
Finns commit a gross operational error, and you aren't being pressed strongly
on the main front, it's worth killing them. But keep the troop commitment
low. The Finns can be killed whenever the Soviet player wishes and the
winter of 1942-3 is a good time to wish this.


>	Also, purchase Scorched Earth now, and play to combined game. You
>    will only have to go through the "surprise" moves once. Of course, if
>    you are a real masacist, then play it as many times as you want. Also,
>    SE will prevent to German from exhausting himself reaching the (short
>    term) obvectives of FitE. After all, there are several more years left!
>    Pray for mud. Mud is your friend.

Actually, we always play the surprise turn. Little things can change.
It's not fun for the Soviets but it can be a good exercise in troop
management.
-- 
Stephen Graham
graham@cs.washington.edu	 uw-beaver!june!graham