Sortub's Strategy For Red Front
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Author: Captain Nemo
Strategic Comment: Sortub
Date Submitted: 7/15/00

It is May, 194... 4. All Soviet soil has been liberated. Romania surrendered in March. Best yet, the Fuhrer has now shot himself in his bunker, along with Eva.  Going chronologically, this is how I did it:

Summer 1941:
As noted elsewhere, build tons of refugees. Be sure to support them from new cities as they move East, or else they will perish once the Germans take their home cities (I learned this one the hard way).  Take laborers and build cities on any Fortified Batteries and Fortified Positions that you can. Support them from these "new" cities. Some may call this cheating; however, if the Germans can hide their submarines and cruise on the indestructable ocean mines and bribe your fortified positions, you should be able to build cities on them. The river crossing SE of Moscow is crucial, as is the fortified position just west of Narva. If you can cover that one, and snip the roads around Luga, the Germans can't touch Leningrad. I moved bunkers into Vipuuri (sp) and Leningrad as well.  Later, snip the road square in the marshes SE of Voronezh. There will be hardly any way the Germans can cross the Don if you do that.  I also moved a bunker into Rostow and let German units concentrate around it. Once Winter '43 came around... well, read on and find out what happened. Send the Black Sea fleet to patrol the Don for panzers that may stray over.  Carefully husband those T28 tanks, as they become T34/85s one winter sets in.  Airlift NKVD units to Murmansk and other places where needed.  Pillage and sell off any industrial capacity you can. With cities that are about to fall to the Germans, I like to simply turn all the citizens into scientists in order to get one tech a turn.  Overall, the general line to defend runs through Leningrad, Kalinn, Moscow, Voronezh, Rostow, and Kerch.  Build a series of airfields (railroad effect) between Moscow and Gorkiyy.  One you get a critical mass of T34s produced, plus a Kat launcher or two, keep them behind the lines at Gorkiyy so they don't get beaten up when the Germans hit hard at Moscow in October/November. As Stalingrad is your most productive city at this point, airlift T34s into Moscow/Gorkiyy.  Disband all Red Army at this point so the Germans don't get 3 105 mm guns for each one killed.  Most importantly, don't freak out. These Germans will be at your mercy by 1944.

Winter '41-'42:
Now send that Kat launcher from Gorkiyy to Moscow and let those wounded, stacked Germans have it! Blow away Germans stuck on the barbed wire. Don't play to recapture cities; just to repel the German threat from Moscow at this point.

Summer '42:
Does anyone remember the scene in Braveheart, the battle of Stirling, I believe, when the English heavy cavalry charge and Mel Gibson commands "Hoolllddd... Holldddd... Hollllddd" to the Scottish Pikemen? Well, if you have the right fortified position placement on the Don River, this season is tantamount to that scene.  The Germans will throw almost everything they have trying to get across the Don. Use artillery, cruisers, and tank hunters to make sure they don't.  Most importantly, they will make a huge push on Rostow. If you have a bunker in that city, just let them gather ("Hold.. Hold...)and built 152 mm artillery, Red Guard, tanks, Kats, etc., waiting for the right time to strike in the winter.  Importantly, use those new laborer brigades to build minefields in the three squares where the German units are supposted to land after crossing their pontoon bridge. Once I had done that, and fortified Kotelnikovo with a few artillery and tank hunters, the Germans didn't even attempt to cross onto the minefields!

Winter '42-'43:
For another cinematic reference, remember the battle scene in the beginning of Gladiator in which General Maximus Decimus (something rather) -- Russell Crowe -- deftly says "At my signal, unleash hell."  Well, unleash hell around Stalingrad. I killed off 107 German units in the area that turn (yes, I counted).  In the north, if you can hold at Leningrad, the Germans will try to send Panzers into the narrow corridor around Chrepovets and Vologda. Use Red Guard to stop them. If you can spare a laborer or two, build minefields in this area as well.  These three phases of the game were the most crucial. By December '43 I had Ploesti.

General observations:
Getting convoys into Baku results in a huge increase in beakers needed for the next tech.  Form a wall of steel to defend against the pestiferous Finns. Mobile Red Guard are good for fighting them in the Winter. Throw a few fortified T34s into those northern cities and the Finns will have a real hard time attacking you.  My opinion of Cossacks has improved as of late. I have realized they are they only unit you can build that are all-terrain in the summer months.  They are especially useful against the rough terrain around Finland.  The most fun part of the game this time for me wasn't the shoot 'em up, but rather, it was the industrialization process. I built several industralized giants where there was nothing in July '41. There is a spot to the north of Chrepovets/Vologda with like 2 bauxite and one coal mine square, and a similar one on the river south of Novii Port. By the end of the game, those spots became a 100 shield plus industrialized giants. While you wait for these remote cities to get road access, have them at least produce aircraft.  When possible, build industry on suburb squares. It makes them much more productive than ordinary industry squares. Some of the suburbs with the "village" appearance actually turn into the more modern-looking ones, although I can't exactly figure out why.  Also, if you turn Kollectiv squares into farmland, and build industry on them, then you get MEGA production from the citizen working that square.  In order that Zlatoust and other wooded cities didn't starve in wintertime, I cut down a lot of the trees and turned the land into farmland.