Red Front

kobayashi

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Since it is many people's favourite WW2 scenario, I thought I'd put up a thread to let people discuss it.

ideas to discuss

What is your favourite opening strategy?
What are the really clever things built into the game which impressed you?
What's the best way to get the Murmansk convoys through?
Most useful units to concentrate on?
Any historical inaccuracies / inadequacies (heaven forbid)?
 
My favourite opening strategy is to move any units of value back, re-homing them to new cities as I go. Basically, anything more powerful than Red Army gets moved back to Leningrad, Smolensk or Rostov, depending on it's starting location.

I have cities in the Urals build Refugees, to remove the need to move them from the front.

The fortified positions near Leningrad can be built upon, and sometimes moved: I took the fortified battery that lies to the north of Leningrad and moved it into Tallinn using a freighter.

With regards to the Murmansk convoys: I don't bother. Instead, build an airbase in the UK, and every turn home one of the freight units to the UK, and airlift it to Baku (obviously you need to build an airbase there too). By doing this, you gain a ****load of cash and you can get one tech per turn too.

The most useful unit in the game is undoubtedly the IL-2. This thing goes through German units like a hot knife through butter, and I always find it useful to have at least 15 of them before Summer 1942. With ground units, the T-34/85, Katyusha and Red Guard are extremely useful.

Using these tactics, I'm ready to storm Berlin in June 1943.
 
*Deleted due to extreme stupidity/senility...*
 
early stratagies: similar to paul: I pull back units to a realistic defensive line, and then give the proverbial "not one step back" order, and concentrate all my efforts on a few key cities, to slow down the advance to help hold out untill winter. I usualy lose a few of these cities, but I've usualy held them for long enough, that winter will come before the Germans can't exploit it.

What are the really clever things built into the game which impressed you?
The major thing, is the huge (and historicaly accurate) change to the situation during the winter months, which realy makes for a exellent dynamic of finaly being able to counter-attack the previously unstoppable enemy. The use of two identical Red Army Units, one of witch changes to Red Guard is a very clever idea.
Also the way he has used events to make a realy effective and agressive A.I. which is a drawback of many such scenarios. And the way the way the game is so historicaly accurate with Siberain Veterains arriving, and the major German Offencives being simulated accurately. I could go in there are realy loads of great things Nemo put into this.

What's the best way to get the Murmansk convoys through?
I never found it that hard realy, sticking to the edgwe of the map with the transports, and building destroyers in the U.K. to help sweep for subs.

Most useful units to concentrate on?
Early on when the KV-1 can be built you finaly have some hardware that can realy hold up the German advance so I rush build them in cities all along the front, selling improvements to help pay for them. I found the Katyusha's to realy be neccisary for smashing into Germany itself, by which time you should have the economy to build them in huge numbers. I never realy concentrated on air units like Paul Hanson, mabe I will next time.

Any historical inaccuracies / inadequacies (heaven forbid)?
Well the events dont resposnd to what position the lines are in historicaly reather than what they are in the Games based on how well you are doing (so Germany hedgehogs might appear far behind your advancing lines if you are doing well, or if you capture enough citys in the area, Kursk (operation Citadel) doesnt happen. However with the limitations of the Civ2 events it's hard to see how these could be changed.

Paul Hanson: is'nt airlifting convoys and biulding "refugees" in the Urals a bit gamey?

Due to the hugeness of the game I've only played it all the way though 3 times, the first time I made inroads into Northern Germany by the end of the Scenario but never Recaptured Staingrad. The second time I did much better, getting to the Gates of Berlin by the end, but without the units to capture it :mad: . And the 3rd time I did pretty much everything right and finaly captured Berlin, in Summer 1944 no less! :D

On killing the big guns: I have killed them before, cant rememeber how exactly, possibly a naval bombardment by cruiser, after softening it up with your own artillery. :goodjob:

As you may have gatherd I luv this Scenario, thank you Captain Nemo! :love:
 
Veteran cruisers are very good at killing those giant guns.
It usually only takes 2 or 3 of them.

To take out hedgehogs, you need to do it with partisans.
 
hi, I´m playing red front right now, but i´m having a problem, the game told me that there are too many units in the game and that is not possible to build new units

did that ever happen to any of you??
what can i do?
 
Originally posted by Shaka Naldur
hi, I´m playing red front right now, but i´m having a problem, the game told me that there are too many units in the game and that is not possible to build new units

did that ever happen to any of you??
what can i do?

1. kill more german units?
2. disband your own useless units?
3. use your lower value units as cannon fodder?
 
Story of my most recent Red Front game.


Summer 1941:

     Life is hard when Nazis auto-replicate. After bitter experience in previous games (and some unauthorized peeking) I was careful to 1) avoid letting too many Red Army units get killed, and 2) to never attack German infantry, tanks, or planes (artillery, however, I attacked with vigor). I disbanded almost all the frontier armies in place, and tore up as much of the road system east of the line Tallinn - Velikie Luki - Minsk - Kiev - Dnepropetrovsk as I could. I even sacrificed some tanks, but was careful to leave most hard-to-replace roads alone (it's really difficult to advance a road through a mountain in a war). I disbanded most of the other frontier units, and threw everything I could into a few towns. Minsk and Kiev were my two "must-hold" cities; a German invasion that can't take them fairly quickly will never make it to Moscow. I also spent a lot of effort strengthening any cities on rivers, because a city on a river is a bastion!
     I built very little except T34s (the best defenders), Cossack Cavalry (cheap, fast, and just good enough defenders) and AA guns (It's not the tanks I fear, it's those wretched Stukas!). My navy hid in port. The Brits lurked in their minefields, sniping at submarines. My air force avoided battle.
     Key techs were anything that gave me more economic strength and scientific knowledge; I spent as mush time on development as I could (but I also abandoned a few isolated cities). Almost the first thing my few Labour bridges did was to build roads near Baku, Grozny, and Maikop (major increase in trade). Almost the first things I spent money on were developments (especially airfields) in those cities.
     I also discovered that nothing in the documentation warned me against abusing the fortifications. I built cities on them. I moved them by ship to cities placed right in the invasion routes. I built four transports, and moved one of Sevastopol's forts all the way to Kiev! I submit to you that this is a little gamy; next time I play, I won't do this.
     The Germans never took Tallinn, Minsk, Kiev, or Dnepropetrovsk, but they blew through Velikie Luki and were not far from Vologda when the snow started to fall. They did not take Murmansk.

     Hint: There is a subtle difference in graphics between the Red Army units that stay weak, and those that turn into Red Guards...

Winter 1941-42:

     Life is good when Nazis die like flies. It is especially good when you can open the offensive with almost a hundred units. Cossack cavalry slaughter infantry and can usually take out Panzer IIIs. Red Guards move like the wind and can kill almost anything. I sacrificed many men to kill any Germans I could find (with the exception of some of the hedgehogs, especially any on river squares). I built very little except Red Guards.
     My navy sortied, and killed just as many units as they could. The British sortied, and managed to get most of the accumulated supplies through. The transports waiting in the Russian minefields were a great help in getting past the last, most difficult section (where the Battlecruisers lurk).
     I built quite a few cities, especially on river squares. I built a deal of infrastructure. I created a number of supply routes to and from Baku, Grozny, and Maikop. Because I had early on built the "Savings" wonder in Moscow, that city had excellent trade (should I have built that wonder in Gorki instead?).
     Key techs are anything that gives you KV-1s, then T34-85s and possibly Sturmoviks, and more economic advancements, and the Convoy wonder. You really need to have a lot of KV-1s and AA guns in place by about April, '42, preferably in good defensive locations (there are some very nice forest-on-river squares).

Summer 1942:

     Life is hard when Nazis auto-replicate. My armies hid in cities and grimly endured the second Hunnish onslaught. I had almost no southern navy left to hide. My air force mostly hid (the fighters still weren't strong enough, and it's a fat lot of good killing replicating units with Sturmoviks). From this time on, any German hedgehogs were fair game. Because I had built a city on top of the fortification two grids west of Stalingrad, the German offensive there failed miserably.
     The British continued to get about 2/3rds of the supplies through; by the end of '42, I had quite a lot of trade routes. Economic development continued to be a priority, but so was the mobilizing and hiding of enormous numbers of Red Guards and T34-85s, and a few Katushas.

Winter 1942-93:

     Life is good when Nazis die like flies. I aimed two hundred units westward, and told them to stop for nothing! Warsaw fell, as did Konigsberg, both the Finns and Romanians lost a city, and except in the extreme south, there were no Germans on Russian soil.

I then abandoned that game, and swore not to abuse fortifications any more.
 
I only ever played one game - without the benefit of any hints or stuff. I was slaughtered and only barely managed to keep moscow with 2 or three units at the lowest point. Every other major city was lost at some point. The germans concentrated on the south flank and swept through all defensive efforts and they almost reached the city where the Iran convoys arrive at one point.

By the end of 1945, I had only managed to recapture cities to the east of a line drawn roughly from leningrad to sevasapol.

My thoughts about the next game.

Do not disband units. sell all tank ditches in the front cities at the first turn to deprive the luftwaffe of air bases. As the germans attack, many cities will simply be razed. By the time you invade germany in 44, your IL-2 will be useless against german cities anyway.

Research the KV-1 first. I went for the PE2 first which was quite pathetic.

Start building settler units in the rear cities from the beginning.
 
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