Great video! The aggressive Russian strategy is a great way to make the Germans intimidated and force them to commit more and more troops on the East, while giving the British time to reorganize and start helping. This is also historically accurate, however I am strongly against counteracting without efficient artillery support, as the infantry is seriously crippled when compared to the defenders infantry. As Russia, generally I would go for it, but I would focus strongly on buying artillery early on, like the first turn, buy a tank and as much artillery as possible, and later something like 4art and 7inf, that would be a decent enough ratio.
I know a lot of guys like to leave those border territories open but I have a problem with giving up a territory without a fight. I'm not saying it's the smart thing to do it's just the way that I play. Yes the mechs make it a very different game, especially when using can openers.
Well the cost of that is 9 IPC, which is defending a 1 value area. I would just occupy the area where i can block a sizeable tank force from moving 2 spaces and destroying the main front line, I want to control where he attacks and where i counter. Economics of protecting 3 IPC with a 9 IPC force does not make sense.--- Imperious.
Well, mein Kaiser a tactical genius such as yourself must have forgotten that the tanks and mechs can blitz. The infantry in each border territory gives Russia one more turn to build up. @@KaiserWilhelmIV
I've found the tactical bomber is a serious misnomer to buy. Those 11 bucks could almost be 2 tanks, 4 inf etc. Too often have I seen germany just bring up some aa guns to his main tank stack and good luck getting through with your air. The starting 2 fighters and tac bomber are enough for a good hit and run force on weaker axis stacks.
Good strategy! I have always tried to find a way to take Finland and Norway but it depletes the south too much. Guess I'll just stick to your strategy instead lol.
Also thanks for this video, understandably its a lot harder to give direct strategy ideas and buys. Its very much going to be dependent on where they are pushing.
Yes you have to give only a general strategy. In this case it's a balance of defence and counter-attacks when the opportunity presents itself to take high value units off of Germany
Whenever I play the game, I always attack Russia on the first turn if a certain person is playing it. One of my friends has this infuriating strategy of giving up everything but the border territories by moving EVERY SINGLE PIECE to the borders. So, on the first turn, I kill as many units as I can.
Great video as always, GHG! I do have a question, though. If you have no infantry up front, wouldn't Germany's infantry have to stop 1 territory in anyway which means if they wanted to attack further they'd be using tanks with no fodder? And wouldn't that be a good thing for the USSR? If not, why not? Disclaimer: I am aware of mechanized infantry's existence, but none of the versions I play actually use them. Is that unit a game changer along the German-Soviet front?
Jonathan Meyer Totally agree, that is a waste of infantry. I find very usefull to use infantry as blockers to stop Germans from blitzing around the Soviet armies, but doing this, you are using infantry in the worst way possible. Also what do you think about a push in Finland and Norway? Let say you coordinate well with the British and they prevent the Germans to get more troops there, and you push. These two territories produce 5 ipc and with the Communism rule addition 6, so 11 in total. Do you think this is a good idea, and if so, how would you try to do this? Also good job for your videos, keep it up!
I drilled a hole the same size as the diameter of the plane stands. The hard part is not punching through to the other side so you have to take your time and go slowly. You get better at it after the first few. After that you glue the stands into the holes. If you get magnetic strips to stick to your Carriers then they will sit on top of them no problem better than without stands and magnets.
Most games I see Germany attacking on turn 2 or 3, not on turn 4 or 5, what should Russia do if Germany goes after them early before they have time to prepare?
Every game is different so there is no set strategy. All you can do as the Russian player is try to hang on until help arrives (if it ever does). I would still try to counterattack if Germany leaves their tanks exposed but not at the risk of leaving yourself defenceless. Maybe your allies could fly some fighters to Moscow to help out with the rolling if Germany arrives there quickly. If they arrive too quick then they may not have anything in behind that initial invasion force if they fail.
GHG. Nice view of an aggressive defense of RU. Another thought on customization. Sometimes if you start long game on one weekend and want finish on another you take pics of board and stacks. Using black chips from HBG as '2' counters and blue chips as 10s makes for esier setup or counting. Also, theres a way to speed up combat phase in half the time. Roll dice in larger box facing off vs your opponent. Use small dice of different colors to represent small ground and sea units and use the larger FMG dice for TNKs, A/C, and Capital ships. Roll all attacking dice at once and separate our the hits in one corner. Then opposing defender rolls all dice and does same. Then choose units to remove by taking dice (and actual AAA) out and put in casualty corner. At end of final rnd of combat, its easy to see what remains and then move to next battle. Game also moves faster. What do you think? Tef
GeneralHandGrenade I will say it beats the heck out of counting all those chips and setting up the battle board. what you can do is turn the box top into a jumbo battle board by placing the thin battle strip in the middle of the box top. Roll all the attacker dice one way then step around and throw the defenders the other way. Then peel the hits off in the corner of each side. after defender assesses casualties,attacker assesses and you both place those dice in your boneyard by the top. Whatever is left in boxtop at end of combat is what remains on the board. Key is having different dice for every type of unit. this could require a large number of smaller common dice to represent paired and unpaired units.
oh i was just interested in teflons idea in speeding up games. Ive heard about this before but i always thought it was impractical but now it seems interesting and wanna see it in action
Seems like a good sound strategy, but one question: If you see early that the Japanese will wait to attack allies to round 3/4/5 something, do you still think Soviet should not declare war on Japan round 1/2?
@@primroselane1 You recommended against attacking Japan as Russia, I wondered if there were any scenarios where you would consider attacking them/declare war.
hey, i wonder if someone can help me. i have 2 questions. first1: you have your russian sub and cruiser in 114, say germany attacks it with planes and they hit the cruiser, sub is left ther, and on noncombat germany wouldlike to move troops to finland zone 115 as noncombat move, does the sub in anyway stop the movement? if its submerged or not?, and 2nd one: when germany takes france does its factory of major (10) then turn into a minor (3) on capture? same if it takes london? is this global only? or does this happen in europe only aswell. i cant find anything in the rulebook that states this happens,. and also if this happens do england need to upgrade its london fac on liberation to a major again?? been looking to find anyting abouth these 2 subjects for some time now. cant find any direct anwers, in advance thx
1. No the sub does not stop the movement of the German boats whether it is submerged or not. You can do a non-combat move to drop units off in Finland. You would not be able to do a combat movement through that zone though because all of your combat moves must be made at the same time and the destroyer was there on the first attack of sz 114. 2. Yes the factory turns into a minor when captured. You will find this in the very last paragraph on page 20 of the Europe rulebook. The rule is the same regardless of where it is on the board. I don't know if it's true in the other editions, I only know that it's true in Global. The minor complex would not be upgraded to a major complex when it is liberated (page 21 in Europe rulebook under the heading "Liberating a Territory").
wow so ther it is,, under conclude combat.. and not under capturing and lib a complex,,whitch is the next step, whitch is where i looked for it, ok thx for the help, got 2nd editions yes :)
Thanks Pascal. You can find the flight stands at iwillnevergrowup.com here is a link to the stands; iwillnevergrowup.com/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=251
GeneralHandGrenade LOL. no. it's when Russia buys almost exclusively fighters and sends them to China. they are then used to attack Japanese units and defend Chinese territory. it's not great in my opinion but it's definitely worth a look
Hello, do you have any idea when you will be releasing your Germany strategy? Or can you recommend where I can find a strategy that details the Moscow advance. Thank you.
Solid Russian Strategy. I for one always felt that leaving Germany alone would allow them to build too much force. Do you usually play with moving soviet factories house rule?
Hello! I was wondering if anyone knew how to counter if Germany attacks on turn 1. Im going to play a game with some friends in 2 weeks and I know without a doubt that the Germany player will attack on turn 1.
I feel, having 1 infantry unit on the border isn’t the best idea. You might as well give it up, if it’s a turn 3 or turn 4 attack by Germany, you will get 6 or 8 IPC’s from having the Baltic states and eastern Poland for 3 or 4 turns. But your going to lose 3 infantry, worth 9 IPC’s, the German player would be able to blitz through yes but shouldn’t be strong enough to launch an attack in a following territory. That’s my only thought, but apart from that, GREAT strategy and video
No disrespect to the general, but this strategy doesn't really work very well all together. In that attack on Baltic States, Russia didn't even destroy all the German units and had to retreat, meaning they lost the battle. On top of that, an easy EASY counter to this strategy would simply to impose Blitzkrieg onto Soviets by consolidating a vast majority of your troops in Eastern Poland and the Soviets are done, especially with the way he had his units set up. He would be forced to retreat or stay where he is and lose all his units.
@@ryanjw15yeah also if this was an actual German player they would have had much more mech and artillery since Germany fights an offensive war so why do they have so little tanks and infantry? Also it’s silly how he has the Germans not go all in and let some stay back for legit no reason like why he leaves 6 mech that could’ve gone into the Baltic states to block a counter
@futbol6505 like I said, no disrespect to general hand grenade but his Allied strategies in general are sub par and can easily be beaten by a sensible axis player. I still kinda laugh at the irony of how he thought his Middle Earth Allied strategy was unbeatable.
@@ryanjw15 so what is your general strategy as the soviets? In almost every game I play I try to experiment but can never seem to hold the Germans so what do you do and does it work?
@@futbol6505 Been a little bit but if I recall, I can't say I really used any particular or specific "strategy" when playing the Soviet Union, rather a set of principles to follow and a sort of code. The problem that I think most Soviet players face is they try to fight the might of the German army all at once or none at all, and that just doesn't work. The first step to even standing a chance against Germany with the way I play is recognizing that as the Soviet Union, there are some battles you're gonna have to save for another day. I guess if I were to call it a strategy it could be called the "mirror strat" which involves me shadowing Germany's army. Think of it like one giant game of chess between you and the German player. You need to decide what territories you wanna sacrifice and what territories you wanna hold. Regardless, the German player is going to have to make a precarious decision on whether they want to go after Leningrad or the Ukraine. Thus allowing you as the Soviet Union to center your main defenses on one territory or the other to deliver heavy losses to the Germans.
I remember when i was playign As germany in axis and allies 1942 2ed i attacked lening gras whit like 4-6 tanks about 5infantry 4figthers 2 bombers and Russia had idk 6 infantry 3 tank 1 fogther and i LOST ALL OF THEM EXCEPT 2 TANKS AND 3 FIGTHERS
I wouldnt have attacked after you were down to the tanks and artillery, keeping your offensive units alive allows for more counterattacks on future turns. Germany was forced to wait for more dudes themselve anyway if they wanted to avoid losing their tanks in an attack. So you could put your infantry reinforcements with the tanks and they would be fine on defense. Fighting advantageous battles of only 1-2 rounds can help whittle down the enemy numbers while you always retreat back to a safe position (join up with the reinforcements), they would be exposed if they would take the region.
This whole strategy of his is kind of a hog wash. Truth is, had GHG realistically built up the Germans for a proper Barbarossa, and his Soviet strategy would have gotten nowhere. He didn't even win the battle of the Baltic States, he had to retreat from there. Imagine if he had actually taken in every available unit he could have? Also, what happens if I just throw every single unit I have onto Eastern Poland. He has absolutely no ability to attack that blob of units.
A good plan, but I think in most games it is useless. For everything I've seen so far Germany is focused on USSR. In this case Germany always has large army and it is suicide to attack them. You have to wait untill they attack to have your infantry and fighters at advantage. Only after the initial strike on your major force you can counter attack.
There is no exact moves for this Sam. The whole point is how to react to what Germany is doing and that you don't back down and hide. I'm going to do another video on Allied strategy in Europe and the Atlantic so watch for that.
I like to use planes too but I was concentrating on Russian strategy and not German strategy. I wasn't really playing a game I was just attempting to use an example of a Russian counterattack instead of retreating as a strategy so I was keying on the border south of the Baltic Sea. Good eye for spotting that though, Simon.
I don't really expect a good German player to move all of those tanks in there like that either I was only trying to make the point that you should wait until they do expose some and pounce on them. I just didn't want to wait for another turn or 2 for the sake of making the video shorter.
This is impossible against any German players using battlecalc. You'll never be able to take out their tanks, because they'll *never* leave themselves in a province where they can be counterattacked successfully. Your strat only works in live play where players don't have access to battlecalc and can only eyeball things.
gonavygonavy I don’t play against machines. I only play against people who have enough honour to leave their calculators at home and play like real men. No suckholes allowed in my war room.
@@primroselane1 Great, then maybe you should preface your strategy videos with the notice that your strategies don't work against anyone using battle calculators.
gonavygonavy It should be self evident to any viewer that any strategy doesn’t work against an opponent who is cheating. Most of the people who watch my videos don’t cheat so I don’t feel the need to put up a disclaimer for the few that are lacking in integrity. Calculators should only be used as a teaching tool for players who are learning or working out a strategy on their own time. To use them against an opponent is shameful and disgusting.
the strategy can still work against battle calculators. Good players can calculate in their head and don’t use machines (at least those old enough to have been taught arithmetic can do so). The issue is you still have to deal with dice. The decision making process is made easier when you properly calculate odds, but it is the risk/reward aspect that dice provide and opportunity cost that you must weigh along with your calculation that makes any good game. GHG is giving a general strategy that is suitable and more useful than just hanging back with the Soviets. It is an active defense. Since the game has no fog of war or unknown variables, the active defense takes advantage of irregularities provided by the dice. Active defense makes you less predictable and disrupts opponents calculations. You are playing the players as much as the game.
Interesting thoughts. I suppose you could create a strong point in Western Ukraine USSR which might be a deterrent to Germany going after Ukraine. I tend to fall back to Bryansk straight away but that really isn't needed and if you can stop Germany from fortifying Eastern Poland straight after the DOW you are doing some good for your war effort.
It's going to be a different situation in every game. You basically have to take what the Germans give you when they give it to you. If they play a good game then they won't have to expose their tanks until they get close to Moscow.
As Russia I usually go all tanks, this allows you to attack en masse with armor on any place the germans break through, allowing you to plug gaps effectively. Tanks are also the most powerful ground unit you can field, and since you can only bring in 3 units in the forward factories, it makes sense to bring in the most heavy hitting units.
The tanks have to stay in the territory however, meaning that Germany can counter-counter attack your tanks with infantry and planes. You also need infantry to take as casualties during your attack.
