Originally posted by Munchkin
You are really talking about the 1939 scenario, ver1.03, Germany/Italy vs. Soviet Union/Whoever?
Do you use any House Rules (such as No Tech Transfer)? I hope you are talking about Very Slow? 
We have "no tech transfer" and "no SU dow on Germany unless sharing a border" as the only house rules. Speed is adjusted by demands of the player.
The key to victory as SU IMHO is to build loads of plain Inf, ca. twice the number Italy + Germany have together. This will prevent any quick territorial gains by the axis.
Once this is achieved, there are many ways to win the war. Go heavy tank, or do a ww1 style war, wearing down their manpower.
German stukas are a bit of a pain, so some fighter are needed. As SU I use bombers normally only in the far east against Japan.
Another strategy is to surprise attack Germany when it concentrates on France. But here one should be careful and don't take too much risks. Better stop at some nice defensive positions close to Berlin than risking everything in a decisive (and most likely lost) battle. Time is favouring SU.
With the current retreat bug it is most crucial to never lose a battle. I play extremely careful and only attack if I outnumber the enemy at least 3:1 (of course only if playing SU, as Germany I go into 1:1 or even 1:2 battles). Defensive positions are normally 2 provinces deep, with the option to either reinforce the front line or enable the front line units to retreat. However, if I manage a breakthrough I tend to play more risky and throw a lot of units into the gap in the hope to encircle enemy units. That has cost me dearly, but on the other hand lead to some of my most glorious victories.
Another nice tactic is to let German tank troops break through by doing a fake retreat early in the battle. Once the tanks advance, close the gap and destroy the tanks.
I normaly use armies of the size of 5 divs. This allows for a lot flexibilty in the deployment, but is not too fiddly if you need a strong force concentration.
