MajorMayhem
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Sneaky strategies?

Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:43 am

So, I've recently thrown myself into the PBEM side of RUS, and so far so good.

Would those who have played a few PBEM's care to share a few of the more developed points of play?

So far, my strategic genius has extended to sending a Red division down the Belya to fall on Ufa (which ended badly) and a naval landing at Krasnovodsk that achived nothing.

So what sort of strategic acrobatics have people been able to pull off in PBEM?

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loki100
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Tue Jan 20, 2015 8:56 am

Hi

I can only suggest close and careful study of One Armed Mexican's (Bornego) RUS AARs. They are, unfortunately, all on the Paradox forums but can be found here
AJE The Hero, The Traitor and The Barbarian
PoN Manufacturing Italy; A clear bright sun
RoP The Mightiest Empires Fall
WIA Burning down the Houses; Wars in America; The Tea Wars

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Philo32b
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Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:30 am

While playing RUS one of my first priorities is evacuating by ship all the Red troops in southern Russia, a little north of Georgia. You can get a corps-worth of troops preserved that way, which would otherwise get cut down under the Southern Whites blades (and boosting their generals' experience).

Here are a bunch of unrelated points that I would make for playing the Reds: The Red troops and generals are poor generally. But if you make very large divisions, get them entrenched on the paths towards Moscow, and make sure they have enough artillery, they can be more than a match for the Whites. Do all the requisitions you can ceaselessly, focusing at first in the areas near the Whites that will soon fall to them (but not too close that they will get overtaken before they bear fruit). You will need to start using the Cheka regional decision eventually to make regions available to requisition again--try to start the Cheka preemptively so you don't ever run out of requisition decisions you can run. As loki notes, read Bornego's valuable AARs, especially the one he plays the Reds. Bordego has a post in that of recommended division composition in RUS: this is extremely important. I recruit a fair amount of Red Guards and use them as expendable "hands" for nearby corps; the Red Guard units probe enemy positions, start entrenchments, raise MC, step on enemy supply lines, etc., and if the Whites kill them they are easily replaced. I also assign partisan units to all the corps for similar assignments, but not as brazenly--they are too valuable to waste. If you have one partisan cavalry unit embedded in a corps, in will make it slightly harder for the Whites to see the corps' makeup or strength. It is important for the Reds to put an engineer in each corps (not at the divisional level, though, just loose in the corps). Finally, after you put armies to block main rails to Moscow, start using your interior lines to massively build up one of your armies so you can go on the offensive. If you have enough troops, even crappy Red soldiers can overwhelm a White army. You can then try to take out piecemeal the White armies.

I hope some of this helps. Playing the Reds in RUS in a lot of fun.

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Durk
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Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:50 am

loki100 thank you so much for pointing us to One Armed Mexican's (Bornego) wonderful AARs. If any player of any Ageod game wishes to learn the nuts and bolts, as well as the strategic insight, this AAR is the answer to your most
hopeful dreams.
Philo32b - Sound points. These are nicely complimentary to Bornego's notes. RUS is complex and not easy to play well, but really a splendid challenge.

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ERISS
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Wed Jan 21, 2015 8:47 am

Yes excellent post from Philo32b, deserving better presentation, here:
Philo32b wrote:. While playing RUS one of my first priorities is evacuating by ship all the Red troops in southern Russia, a little north of Georgia. You can get a corps-worth of troops preserved that way, which would otherwise get cut down under the Southern Whites blades (and boosting their generals' experience).
. Do all the requisitions you can ceaselessly, focusing at first in the areas near the Whites that will soon fall to them (but not too close that they will get overtaken before they bear fruit). You will need to start using the Cheka regional decision eventually to make regions available to requisition again--try to start the Cheka preemptively so you don't ever run out of requisition decisions you can run.
. As loki notes, read Bornego's valuable AARs, especially the one he plays the Reds.

. Bordego has a post in that of recommended division composition in RUS: this is extremely important.
. I recruit a fair amount of Red Guards and use them as expendable "hands" for nearby corps; the Red Guard units probe enemy positions, start entrenchments, raise MC, step on enemy supply lines, etc., and if the Whites kill them they are easily replaced.
. I also assign partisan units to all the corps for similar assignments, but not as brazenly--they are too valuable to waste. If you have one partisan cavalry unit embedded in a corps, it will make it slightly harder for the Whites to see the corps' makeup or strength.
. It is important for the Reds to put an engineer in each corps (not at the divisional level, though, just loose in the corps).
. The Red troops and generals are poor generally. But if you make very large divisions, get them entrenched on the paths towards Moscow, and make sure they have enough artillery, they can be more than a match for the Whites.

. Finally, after you put armies to block main rails to Moscow, start using your interior lines to massively build up one of your armies so you can go on the offensive. If you have enough troops, even crappy Red soldiers can overwhelm a White army. You can then try to take out piecemeal the White armies.

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Philo32b
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Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:25 am

Thanks, ERISS, I got a little carried away and neglected presentation. I see now that my post looks like a great text block.

I did think of another couple things that I do as Reds to suggest. A couple more things, and then I promise I'll stop:

* I used to use partisans to continually scrap enemy rail behind enemy lines. This was helpful, but the partisans would eventually get killed because anti-partisan troops were assigned to always look for them. Now I keep my partisans silent for several turns in a row behind enemy lines and wait to use them in combination with an attack (cutting off rail reinforcements to that area) or just to pester the opponent for a couple turns and then go silent again. They seem much more useful if the enemy forgets they are there and leaves the area.
* Whole divisions or even corps can be built from Red Guards. Not to actually use (except in emergency, I suppose), but as a ruse to throw off the opponent and make your numbers seem higher in a region than they really are. The only drawback is you might run into supply issues if you have a whole lot of them. They can always be disbanded later, though. Red Guards are really useful, as they recruit very quickly and don't require any WS to build.
* Tachanka are really cheap, and so while you don't get any special abilities for having more than one in a unit, I will often include more anyway because they eat up the opponent's readiness. Even though the last two won't show on your unit diagram, you can squeeze 32 elements into a division, so why not add another tachanka or two? (Actually, it might be 33 elements. I forget if it is 32 or 33.)
* I argued elsewhere that armored cars are preferable to tanks because they are cheaper and you don't really get much more for the tanks. Recently, though, I noticed that tanks' "disruptor" ability may have more value than I thought--from the gamelogic file:
[INDENT]cbtMaxDmgIncDisrupter = 50 // Each disrupter functions at +50% for retreat damage[/INDENT]
If I'm understanding this correctly, if you had several tanks in a battle, you could really do some damage to the enemy if they retreat. I haven't tested this, though.
* Use your remote deployment command (one per turn) to shift generals around to your advantage. For example, if I have a low strategy 2-star general ("Anatoli") in an area that now is going to see active combat and maneuvering, I will deploy a higher strategy 2-star general ("Boris") there and assign Anatoli to command of a division in the corps he used to lead. Anatoli will stay there until Boris gets deployed elsewhere, and then Anatoli will get command of the corps again. This way the unit gets the benefit of the better abilities of Boris, but Anatoli still has a chance to gain some experience during the battles and get better. Boris will also develop quickly into an amazing general, since he is getting moved from one combat area to another.

OK, I'm done now. Thanks for reading! I hope this helps.

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Durk
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Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:11 am

ERISS, thanks for arranging Philo32b's comments in a clear format, and Philos32b, thanks for additional comments.
I have added both to my player's notes for RUS.

The tanks are really tricky to use well. I love the idea of Red Guards 'ghost' divisions. I will have to try.

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