defending Ukraine

[Shaka Naldur]

well as the first ukrainian front I have an important challenge to face
what i´m going to do is left undefended lvov and kirograv

Gomel should build AA bateries and Kharkov keep building NKVD troopers

, usually my main goal is to have a defensive line in Vitebsk and smolensk north
and serafimovick, voronezh and rostov east
at this time my only strategy will be to rushbuild an AA batery and try to move any unit possible

so, do i try to defend kiev at all cost?
i´ll need to rush build an aa batery and a T 34/76 at gomel

do i massive pillage the roads??

sugestions are very welcome since the 1st ukrainian front has never been in my mind before

[greeny]

Is there much point in holding Kiev at all costs? Because we are never going hold it, the best we could hope for is to slow the Axis advance down. I would rather consentrate my defences further back.

The main problem with pillaging the roads is that there is going to be hell to to pay when we advance back across it in 1943/44. And anyway I dont think it will effect the Germans that much as they have very high movement rates in general.

Good luck Comrade!

p.s. Requests for rush-buying are to be posted in the "Office of the Economic Minister" thread

[EZRhino]

You should make this a poll. In general it is a bad idea to mass pillage the roads, taking out some the ones near Leningrad are the only ones I ever really needed to pillage. Trying to defend Kiev or Minsk in the Summer of 1942 is very VERY risky. Unless we plan to do lots of loading, with is unethical for a demogame

[greeny]

I agree with EZRhino, we should add reloading to the list of things not allowed. I'm sure we WONT be able to hold Minsk or Kiev. I've never managed it, and those I have heard have done it were using very questioanble tricks like buiding a city on a unmovable fortress and then shipping it to the ciys by frieghter.

[Shaka Naldur]

so what do i try to do??
i have four cities under my orders I don´t think I'll be able to hold any of them
kiev has a lot of units but if won't last for long, and gomel doesn´t even have a barracks

my main goal will be to slow down the germans as much as possible so Smolensk can have enough units to defend by itself
so, do I just put all the units i have around and try to slow down the germans??

while playing redfront I saw that the ai seems to follow the roads, so if we pillage one road the ai won´t move as many units that direction,
that's why i usually pillage the road

[our_man]

Attempting to prevent the capture of Kiev would be a waste of reserves - what I usually do is try and hold the city long enough while I pillage the road from Kiev to Gomel and from Kiev to Perekop (roughly 2-3 turns - there are enough troops in Kiev to hold it for that long). I've always found pillaging roads to be a very effective tactic in RF. In most games I've played I usually manage to hold onto Gomel (it helps if you can get some of the Partisans out of the Marshes to reinforce the city).

[Henrik]

Shaka, as the front moves you'll get command of more cities from the marshal. So atleast you won't have to worry about losing your comand

[Shaka Naldur]

our man,
I'll make a poll to see if people agree with the defense of gomel

henrik,
that helps