War in Donbass 2016-10-05

The Ukrainians are at an initial disadvantage because they have fewer units, and those they do have are less advanced than the Russians'. However, their land is much richer in food, and they have more cities. Playing as them, you need to hold the Russians as far back as possible until your cities grow to size 7, allowing you to draft. Move your units out of the airport and Debaltseve onto the forested hills adjacent to both, and consider evacuating the more valuable units in those stacks. Continue reinforcing those two stacks as well as Mariupol until the cities grow to the necessary size, then bury the Russians under stacks of conscripts.

The Russians have a massive initial advantage in both production and units. Playing as them, you should use this advantage quickly, smashing the Ukrainians at Debaltseve and the airport as soon as possible, so to then move on Mariupol, Krasnoarmiysk, and (most importantly) Slovyansk. Remember: speed is everything. Infantry and Marines are replaceable. From there, the road to Kharkov is open. Once Kharkov falls, the game is essentially over, because Zaporizhia and Dniepropetrovsk, while they will be able to draft by that point, have little to no productive capacity and so will be unable to withstand your armies.