after finally beating the russians senseless and annexing them by '45 (the older version) when there were no events to annex or puppet the russians, here are my tips for you to try and win the epic operation:
_ you need infantry, and lots of it. though you might be tempted to just go for a massive panzer army full of tanks and motorized/mechanized, they will not be too useful if the russians break through your lines in return. in short, i set myself the objective of manning every single province in contact with russia with at least 12 divisions of infantry, without brigades since they usually cost me speed and oil, 2 commodities you cant afford.
_ when planning for the main offensive, always take the southern russian steppes first. forget the historical plan of rushing the russians through the marsh lands in memel and minsk, they are a natural barrier. by the time you take the south the enemy front lines will be so weak in the north your infantry will be capable of pushing the ruskies back to smolensk and the dniepr river.
_ dont try to go for massive, country-wide encirclements unless you are completely sure the enemy has no reserves. this is a typical mistake. its much better to encircle small (3 territories max, one is better) groups of divisions, allowing you to quickly destroy them and move on. if you get stuck trying to destroy 50 divisions the russians will bring troops too fast and you will go back to trench warfare.
_ save some 500 (at least) manpower by the time winter sets in. i cant stress this enough. if you have less than this, the attrition modifiers you get will make you easily lose 50 manpower losses per month. stop unit production at least until next summer when you have some manpower left. if you go into another winter your manpower situation might reach critical mass and get 0 manpower, and your units will start to fall apart. get both ministers that get you massive manpower bonuses, the one with 10% more manpower and 10% foreign manpower bonus, as well as the one that gives you infantry construction bonus with 25% manpower growth bonus. the second one appears right at jan 1 1942.
_ airpower is definitely a big plus here. the russian airforce will likely outnumber you from the beginning. send your interceptors (if you have fighters, god be praised) to the areas overlooking where your tactical bombers and close air supports will go. the objective here is trying to destroy as many russian divisions while they are moving to the front line. send the CAS to the provinces closest to the front line, while you send your TACs to attack rear provinces, where the isolated enemy divisions will be destroyed in short order. order attacks only by daylight, when efficiency is highest. dont bother trying to do logistical strikes or nonsense, your ability to win goes in hand with your ability to destroy as many russian divisions as possible.
_ if you encircle a city, quickly surround it with a few infantry divisions and move on. attacking cities that arent out of supply is military suicide, and even then they will take weeks to lose men and troops. prime examples of this are kiev and odessa. odessa can safely be ignored by setting 12 allied divisions (rumanian hungarian) around the city and leaving them there. the russians wont be able to supply more forces and if they try a breakout you can destroy them with ease.
_ using TACs with Ground Support missions are great ways to establish breakthrough points. if set to day only attacks, a group of 3 TAC bombers can quickly destroy the russian's organization in a province you are trying to capture. anymore tacs and the stacking penalties rear their ugly heads.
_ use CAS to destroy retreating russian divisions (if possible). i mean if possible because your CAS usually pick random targets when they are attacking, so they might not consider the big chunky armored divisions retreating as "military objectives of any strategic value"
and here's another tip, aside from the others because its more a personal tip than anything:
_ if you have destroyed a significant number of divisions by the time you hit winter of '41, the russians will have basically moved their entire army to the front lines, which means their rear is completely unmanned. if you can gather your panzer armies to do an encirclement of the entire russian rear you pretty much get a pat in the back. use a group of TACs set to air superiority to scout the russian rear. its likely that it will be empty, and readily inviting your panzer army. if you find any enemy resistance (usually troops the russians set as they get them off the factory line), move around them and keep pushing for the enemy's coast line.
the prime example of this is if you follow my tips and begin an advance south.
by the time you reach kharkov and some little to your east (around the volga river), winter will start to set in. get your forces in the south to make a direct strike north aiming to cut off the finnish peninsula from russia. leave a single group of divisions in each province you pass. if you manage to encircle them congratulations, you have just encircled 90% of the russian army.
now the timing is critical. you must begin to launch offensives onto the units that are out of supply with your infantry forces in the frontlines. the battles will be slightly in their favor due to frozen ground, but by attrition alone their forces will begin to get pushed back. if possible use the kriegsmarine to shore bombard enemy positions while you advance. your panzer army should only stick to guarding the rear and making sure the russian lines dont get any supply. use your tacs to ground support your forces. dont ground strike, since they will not get resupplied anyway.by mid january the russian losses will be on the edge of crazy and their armies on the edge of starvation. by now the russians will have manned a new "front line" with a few infantry divisions and perhaps some armored divs. by the beginning of spring (thats around the end of april-beginning of may in the game) you can easily destroy the entire encircled army. by now the frontline will be just below russia, and if the finns were puppeted, well they wont be able to do much anyway.
_ you need infantry, and lots of it. though you might be tempted to just go for a massive panzer army full of tanks and motorized/mechanized, they will not be too useful if the russians break through your lines in return. in short, i set myself the objective of manning every single province in contact with russia with at least 12 divisions of infantry, without brigades since they usually cost me speed and oil, 2 commodities you cant afford.
_ when planning for the main offensive, always take the southern russian steppes first. forget the historical plan of rushing the russians through the marsh lands in memel and minsk, they are a natural barrier. by the time you take the south the enemy front lines will be so weak in the north your infantry will be capable of pushing the ruskies back to smolensk and the dniepr river.
_ dont try to go for massive, country-wide encirclements unless you are completely sure the enemy has no reserves. this is a typical mistake. its much better to encircle small (3 territories max, one is better) groups of divisions, allowing you to quickly destroy them and move on. if you get stuck trying to destroy 50 divisions the russians will bring troops too fast and you will go back to trench warfare.
_ save some 500 (at least) manpower by the time winter sets in. i cant stress this enough. if you have less than this, the attrition modifiers you get will make you easily lose 50 manpower losses per month. stop unit production at least until next summer when you have some manpower left. if you go into another winter your manpower situation might reach critical mass and get 0 manpower, and your units will start to fall apart. get both ministers that get you massive manpower bonuses, the one with 10% more manpower and 10% foreign manpower bonus, as well as the one that gives you infantry construction bonus with 25% manpower growth bonus. the second one appears right at jan 1 1942.
_ airpower is definitely a big plus here. the russian airforce will likely outnumber you from the beginning. send your interceptors (if you have fighters, god be praised) to the areas overlooking where your tactical bombers and close air supports will go. the objective here is trying to destroy as many russian divisions while they are moving to the front line. send the CAS to the provinces closest to the front line, while you send your TACs to attack rear provinces, where the isolated enemy divisions will be destroyed in short order. order attacks only by daylight, when efficiency is highest. dont bother trying to do logistical strikes or nonsense, your ability to win goes in hand with your ability to destroy as many russian divisions as possible.
_ if you encircle a city, quickly surround it with a few infantry divisions and move on. attacking cities that arent out of supply is military suicide, and even then they will take weeks to lose men and troops. prime examples of this are kiev and odessa. odessa can safely be ignored by setting 12 allied divisions (rumanian hungarian) around the city and leaving them there. the russians wont be able to supply more forces and if they try a breakout you can destroy them with ease.
_ using TACs with Ground Support missions are great ways to establish breakthrough points. if set to day only attacks, a group of 3 TAC bombers can quickly destroy the russian's organization in a province you are trying to capture. anymore tacs and the stacking penalties rear their ugly heads.
_ use CAS to destroy retreating russian divisions (if possible). i mean if possible because your CAS usually pick random targets when they are attacking, so they might not consider the big chunky armored divisions retreating as "military objectives of any strategic value"
and here's another tip, aside from the others because its more a personal tip than anything:
_ if you have destroyed a significant number of divisions by the time you hit winter of '41, the russians will have basically moved their entire army to the front lines, which means their rear is completely unmanned. if you can gather your panzer armies to do an encirclement of the entire russian rear you pretty much get a pat in the back. use a group of TACs set to air superiority to scout the russian rear. its likely that it will be empty, and readily inviting your panzer army. if you find any enemy resistance (usually troops the russians set as they get them off the factory line), move around them and keep pushing for the enemy's coast line.
the prime example of this is if you follow my tips and begin an advance south.
by the time you reach kharkov and some little to your east (around the volga river), winter will start to set in. get your forces in the south to make a direct strike north aiming to cut off the finnish peninsula from russia. leave a single group of divisions in each province you pass. if you manage to encircle them congratulations, you have just encircled 90% of the russian army.
now the timing is critical. you must begin to launch offensives onto the units that are out of supply with your infantry forces in the frontlines. the battles will be slightly in their favor due to frozen ground, but by attrition alone their forces will begin to get pushed back. if possible use the kriegsmarine to shore bombard enemy positions while you advance. your panzer army should only stick to guarding the rear and making sure the russian lines dont get any supply. use your tacs to ground support your forces. dont ground strike, since they will not get resupplied anyway.by mid january the russian losses will be on the edge of crazy and their armies on the edge of starvation. by now the russians will have manned a new "front line" with a few infantry divisions and perhaps some armored divs. by the beginning of spring (thats around the end of april-beginning of may in the game) you can easily destroy the entire encircled army. by now the frontline will be just below russia, and if the finns were puppeted, well they wont be able to do much anyway.
