The Drang scenario starts with Germany demanding the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the Ukraine. Durk chose to give into the ultimatum (the same choice I made against Highlandcharge). We both thought it was the sensible thing to do for a Red player.
While Germany is waiting for an answer, the Red player has one turn to do some mischief. Against Highlandcharge, I (ab)used it to take Kharkov which later enabled me to get troops into the Ukraine a lot faster. In this game I wanted to counter such a strategy from the very start. Unfortunately, the German player has only the small Ukrainian army and Mamontov's Don Cossacks to stop the full might of the Red Army in this first turn. All other troops are locked. I concentrated them in the two cities I couldn't afford to lose: Kharkov and Kiev. Durk seems to have expected this (he did the same in our first Drang match when he had the Germans). The attack I had feared thus never came. But at least the Ukrainian army was now nicely concentrated in key positions.
With Russia bowing to the ultimatum, the further course of the game was now in Durk's hands. He would decide when war would start. In the meantime, he was at liberty to deal with his internal enemies. All I could do was prepare my army for war and draw up plans ...
Warplans:
Having played the Reds in two PBEMs, I had some ideas on how to play Germany. My warplan would rest on two basic principles:
- Make the front as long as possible.
- Attack everywhere but never frontally.
The first principle is supposed to prevent the Soviets from ever establishing continuous frontlines. As long as Durk's stacks stay isolated from each other, they will be vulnerable.
Just as importantly, pressure will constantly be applied along the whole front. Highlandcharge rarely presented me with more than one challenge at once. This allowed me to shift reinforcements around. But if the whole length of the front is on fire, Soviet reserves will be quickly exhausted. Moreover, Soviet railway capacities are very limited.* This limitation makes it very hard for the Soviet player to react to pressure on multiple fronts at once. The goal is to wage a war of movement. If pressure seizes in a sector, the Soviets gain time to solidify their front and will be more difficult to dislodge later on.
Three methods will be key in achieving these goals:
1. Opening new fronts: This will occur in four phases:
As soon as the war starts, German troops will be rushed by railway into the Eastern Ukraine. This should prevent the Soviets from establishing a shorter line along the Dniepr. Secondly, a Soviet declaration of war against the Ukraine will be countered by the Baltic states entering the war the next turn.
The second phase will follow within the first three turns of war. At Kiel the I. Armee under von Francois, consisting of 3 corps (in total: 3027 power), is ready to launch an amphibious assault on Soviet territory. Possible targets are hard to find, though. In the North, Murmansk and Arkhangelsk will most likely be fortified, the coast between Petorgrad and the Estonian border is a nightmare of minefields and coastal fortifications. This leaves the Black Sea.
Map of the starting positions, January 1921:
4-5 turns after the beginning of hostilities, Finland will join the war in phase three. The precise moment depends on available EP and the number of reserves the Soviets have left in the North.
The fourth phase will see the Caucasian nations enter the war. This is optional. German spies (generals I don't need for active command) will have to determine whether the Soviet Union has any significant reserves in the South. If not, the tiny Caucasian armies should be able to create some havoc. One German corps (900 pw) will be held back to provide some punch to their effort.
The goal will be to create a Soviet nightmare with rapdily expanding frontlines.
2. Encirclements:
Limited by insufficient railway capacities and a shortage of troops, the Soviets have no choice but to concentrate their armies in key positions during the first few turns of the war. In my game against Highlandcharge, I faced the same dilemma, I hadn't enough troops to build a line of mutually supporting corps along the entire front. Instead, I occupied key positions and rushed in reinforcements to the points where they were most needed. Out of these initial firefighting efforts, stable fronts developped and entire sectors of the front became locked in stalemate.
To counter such a strategy, I intend to encircle the enemy forces closest to the German positions in the very first turn. If several of Durk's main armies can be taken out of the game. His remaining troops won't be able to achieve more than the defense of isolated positions which in turn can be outflanked or encircled again.
3. Attacks deep into enemy hinterland:
Again the goal will be to prevent the Soviets from occupying the ideal frontline which I strifed to defend in Act I (Narva-Pskov-Minsk-Prypiat Marshes-Dniepr-Black Sea). If the open territory east of this ideal line can be reached, the war is as good as won. In particular I don't want to lose half a dozen of regions of front length to the Prypiat Marshes.
Troops:
The entire warplan rests on mobility. Most importantly, it requires a strong force of fast-moving units that can spearhead flanking and encirclement operations. Germany has a decent amount of cavalry and motorized infantry - enough for two strong stacks. But the real treasure are its tank units. Say hello to my little friend ... the tank movement bug. In my initial planning for this game, I intended to exploit it shamelessly (after all both sides can profit from it and the Soviets start with an equal amount of tanks).**
But most importantly, I will need as many boots on the ground as possible. The Germans have to win the peacetime recruitment race. With less than 100 recruits per turn***, this should be impossible. But if a mix of units suited to Germany's conscript shortage is built and EP are saved for the right options, the impossible becomes achievable.
Recruitment priorities:****
1. Artillery: Germany has excellent infantry, lots of tanks and armored cars and plenty of support units, ... But it is severly lacking in one field: artillery! Most German corps have a ratio of 1:10 between artillery and infantry. Luckily, this can be easily changed. Germany is short on conscripts but rich in money and war supplies. Artillery requires very few conscripts (1 per element) but huge amounts of the two other ressources. Highlandcharge waged most battles with insufficient artillery (I believe he focused his recruitment on fast-moving troops), this wouldn't happen to me. During the peacetime turns I build almost every artillery unit in the German unit pool: 8 armored trains, 22 artillery brigades (3 elements of artillery each), 10 motorized artillery brigades and more than 60 artillery regiments. Once the war had started I continued with Austrian artillery (they can't be built while the peace lasts) ...
Typical order of new units in the early stages of this game -
this is what I build in two turns:
2. Military advisors: There is a little treasure hidden in the German unit pool: 4 military advisor units. Build them as fast as possible! These units have no combat value but they come with two invaluable special abilities:
Training officer (upgrades two elements each turn into a superior version: militia - reserve, reserve - regular, regular -elite) and
infantryman (adds 10% firepower to all infantry units in the same stack). Two more of these units can be found within military missions sent into the Ukraine and the Kuban. Move them back to Germany! Together with a handful of officers that have the training officer ability as well, these military advisors enable Germany to upgarde units at an astonishing rate. You may not be able to field a lot of new infantry but you can vastly improve the quality of what you already have. Red advances in quantity matter less if they fall behind even more in regard to quality.
3. Tanks: There are two German heavy tanks left to build. If you want to exploit the tank bug, build them.
Units under construction by turn 3 -
the artillery units are brigades containing three elements each,
the spiked helmet represent military advisors:
4. Stormtroopers: A few German corps lack stormtroopers. At 16 conscripts for four elements of elite infantry, they are a pretty decent deal. But tanks fulfill the same purpose (disrupt enemy entrenchment). Still it is nice to have one stormtroops unit per corps (divisions are called corps in this scenario). More is a waste. In reality, the German Kaiserreich concentrated this elite infantry in separate divisions but this isn't advantagous in RUS.
5. Regular infantry: Build as much as possible. I was usually able to build two new divisions each turn (about 15 new elements of infantry).
6. Create a manpower reserve: once war breaks out Germany's mapower will be quickly drained even if casualties remain low. Saving a few conscripts is definitively a good idea. But make sure never to reach 400 conscripts. If that happens the game may convert some automatically into replacements. Usually each replacement costs 6 money and 6 conscripts. The event has a different exchange rate: 0 money but 10 conscripts. It's a great deal for the Soviets but lousy for the German player.
Options:
Even more important than building new units is the right choice of options. Options in Drang are not very well balanced. For 5 EP one can get a single element of armored cars or an entire German tank division with a first rate commander. I made some mistakes in this regard since I was unaware that much better options would become available later. Here are the options that are powerful and should be taken:
German Corps in the Baltic: this spawns three small divisions of German volunteers in Lithuania. The Baltic armies are weak and will have trouble holding the Red Army back on their own. These new divisions will be extremely helpful.
A new Finnish division: This spawns a Finnish infantry division at Helsinki. It contains seven elements of infantry and two artilleries. It's not a great option but if the Finnish are to have a chance at breaking Petrograd's defenses, this option will be helpful.
Build the Mannerheim Line: It's pricey and the forts are useless to anybody intending to wage an offensive war but the garrisons unlock after a few turns and they make for a nice addition to the Finnish Army: 2 elite infantry brigades (two elements of infantry + 1 artillery each) and 5 additional artillery regiments as well as two engineer units.
German Panzer divisions: After a few turns Germany gets the option to build its first armored division.
It provides 4 tank batallions (3 elements each) + 1 armored car batallion and a motorized infantry brigade but the real treasure may be its commanding general: Heinz Guderian (he has 6-4-2 stats as well as the training officer ability and a 25% movement speed bonus). Moreover two of the tank units can be abused to speed infantry divisions up.
I would recommend to split this division into its pieces and distribute the tanks amongst divisions lacking armored support. Pure tank divisions provide no advantage in RUS. The game reflects the tank doctrine of WW I: panzer serve as infantry support.
After the first panzer division Germany can recruit two more (they will be commanded by Rommel and von Rundstedt). Incidentally, Germany deploying its first tank division unlocks a new option for the Soviet player which provides him with a tank division under Zhukov's command (
a fix for this option can be found on the AGEOD forum).
Recalling von Hindenburg is another good idea. With 5-3-3 stats and several abilities that increase cohesion as well as fatigue recovery he is probably the best army group commanders available to the German player.
However, the really exiting options only become available after ten turns: Germany can get
4 German and two Austrian armies via options. In total these six armies contain more than 200.000 men. Obtaining these armies is key to keeping up with the Soviets in the recruitment race.***** They aren't cheap, though: each costs 10 EP and 5 NM. Absurdly, the smallest of the six, the Austrian Army Group Donau, costs most (30 EP).
Prior to the war, I managed to get four of these six armies on the map: 4 German armies (II. Army, VI. Army, XIII. Army, XV. Army) were transferred from the Western boarder to participate in the war against Communist Russia.
The Soviets get two similar options (allowing for the transfer of armies from Siberia and Central Asia) but have to make up the rest by bulding units from scratch.
Moreover I needed to hold 10 EP back at all times in order to be able to get the Balts into war as soon as Durk chose to attack the Ukraine.
AGEOD scenarios usually start when war has already been declared. Thus army reorganization has to happen on the fly. Building an army during peace was a luxery I was unaccustomed to. However, I never knew how much time I would have left before Durk declared war on the Ukraine ...
Soviet "peace"time activities:
While I was organizing and improving my army, Durk hadn't been idle, either. Not only was he recruiting at high speed but he was also fighting the remnants of the Southern White as well as a series of Green uprisings in his backyard.****** The Southern White held up pretty well, I think Durk underestimated their strength and suffered at least one defeat against them.
Moreover Durk had quietly prepared a nasty surprise for me: he had continuosly taken a number of options (support communist party, provoke strikes) that lower the loyalty in the German and Austrian off-the-map boxes. In most places this hadn't been very effective (loyalties were still between 73% and 85%. But there were two exceptions: Slesia and Berlin pro-German loyalties had dropped to 48% and 55 % respectively. This has several consequences: production is lowered in these regions which in turn reduces Germany's ability to field new units. More importantly, the tooltip indicates that revolution may break out in Germany if loyalties sink too low.*******
A screenshot using the loyalties filter:
while Poland is still greyish-green (high pro German loyalty),
Germany and Slesia have become dangerously red)
For a long time I overlooked this danger. Moreover, I didn't want to spend EP on options that didn't expand my army (a bit short-sighted, I know). It was only during the last two turns of peace that I started propaganda campaigns of my own to raise loaylties in the affected areas. This cost me a lot of EPs but it also limited strikes and removed the danger of a revolution.
War - at last:
We didn't have a house-rule on how long the Soviet player was allowed to delay war. After playing many games with Durk, I know that he is a true sportsman and wouldn't abuse such a situation ... at least not too much.
On October 15th 1921, the Soviets finally declared war on the Ukraine. The war would start in turn 19. Yes, Durk kept me waiting a long time. But he didn't gain much of an advantage: while he had gotten rid of the fronts against Green and Southern White and could thus focus his entire army against the Central Powers, the German Army had become an even more intimidating war machine. At the start of the game the power of the Red Army amounted to 52% of the fighting strength of the combined forces of the Central Powers.******** This percentage had fallen to 41% by turn 18. I had actually won the recruitment war! This success came at a price, though. Durk led by almost 700 victory points. Costly options had thrown me into negative numbers. German NM was under 100, a side-effect of the options that spawn new armies.
But most importantly, the timing of Durk's declaration of war was quite cunning. He forced me to wage war with winter around the corner. First mud, then snow would slow down my armies. The war of movement, I had planned may prove to be impossible ...
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* Even if the Red player increases his rail capacity as much as possible, it won't exceed 600 points. On the other hand, German rail capacity can be increased to roughly 1300 points if war is delayed (it starts at less than half that number).
** This isn't exactly true. The bug is a lot more useful on offense than on defense. Most importantly, it's effects are so ludicrous that I quickly changed my mind. But more on that later.
For those who don't know this bug: if a heavy tank unit (it doesn't work with the light tank model) is added to a division, the whole unit adopts the speed of the tanks. Historically, these tanks were awfully slow but in RUS they move with a speed that reminds of WW II.
*** If one counts the mobilization options as well the average rises to roughly 150 conscripts per turn.
**** Cavalry which would have been another recruitment option highly suitable to my strategic needs and compatible with Germany's ressource limitations wasn't a priority at all. At the time, I figured my advance would be spearheaded by infantry divisions profiting from the tank bug. When I decided not to exploit the bug, the recruitment was already done. I had to wage my war of movement with a slow infantry army.
***** I figured, these options wouldn't be available until war was declared. Otherwise I would have saved some EP which I spent on less profitable options during the first 10 turns.
****** These are rather nasty. For one the Soviets start with the entire South out of control. Several regions have very high Green loyalties. Sometimes as high as 70 %. This all but garantuees frequent Green uprisings. This situation is exacerbated by several scripted Green uprisings putting another 20.000 - 30.000 Greens on the map. Lacking generals and commanded by the AI, their effectiveness remains limited but they nevertheless managed to take Kazan for a short while. In my game against Highlandcharge, these uprisings happened right after I declared war. With little troops to spare, I lost Saratov for a few turns.
******* Revolution is the real danger here. I found a chain of events that deals with revolution in Hungary: The magic threshold is 50% Red loyalty. In that case the Red player gets a new option which allows him to trigger revolution in Hungary. As a result, Bela Kun and a small Red army spawns. This in itself wouldn't be so bad. The nasty part of the code applies to the German faction:
AlterCuSubUnit = ApplyToList;probability 20;Kill
This is followed by a list of regions: Boehmia, Austria, Hungary, Transylvania. The
kill in this line of code definitively got my attention.
If I read it correctly, there is a 20% chance for every element in these regions to be removed from the game. In other words, the Central Powers lose one fifth of their troops stationed in these off-map boxes.
I am not sure if similar events exist for the Germany. It would seem logical.
******** This is slightly misleading since locked units are counted as well. Thus the armies of Germany's potential allies (even Turkey that doesn't get into the war unless the Cauucasus is conquered by the Reds) influence the percentage.