Soviet Corps Bialystok-Minsk Battle

[MickM2]

Wow just got a triumph in this battle in my Soviet Corps campaign playthrough. Took a few attempts but finally managed to fend off the hordes of German troops and armour. Turtled my initial defence with artillery and AA backup. Took down the Stukas as initial priority. Sacrificed my auxilery units to save my core units. Allowed the first wave to pass and then successfully evacuated my 5 core units. Bought 5 new core units to defend the northern objectives, 1 KV1, 2 artillery and 2 Infantry (all no transport as had static functions and saved prestige). Having now played the vanilla game, Africa Korps and Allied Corps I found this scenario the most challenging and rewarding so far.

[captainjack]

Bialstok Mnisk is definitely an easy one to get wrong, so well done for getting a triumph.

Buying units without transport where you know it's likely there will be a lot of losses is a good move. 3 move is enough to be useful in difficult terrain or on defence, and on attack isn'tmuch worse than a cross country truck. Add a horse drawn gun or two for company and they are great for finishing off strongpoints. They are cheap to elite reinforce in game and especially good in snow as you don't need to worry about fuel. You can always buy transport for them later if they get lucky,.

The main lesson for me was that towed 85s are more likely to survive than the airforce and are cheaper to replace (and better against tanks when switched). Balancing the number of guns, armour and infantry and trying to position guns and AA to support defenders is important.For me, it is a scenario where resupplying with ammo is more important for defenders than killing off weakened units - it's better to be well supplied and facing a unit on 3 strength than empty and facing a space that a fresh unit on 10 strength can enter to attack you when you can't defend.

Initially, damaging rather than destroying enemy air is a good plan. The AA deters attacks, strips off overstrength, and if you can drop them to about 7 or 8 the AI uses green reinforcements so theyy will come back at least one star weaker. With lower strength and experience, not only is damaged reduced by a useful amount, but you also reduce teh likelihood that they will attack a unit defende by the AI. When they come back weaker, you wiil have a better chance of destroying them or (and maybe more effective) stick with causing damage so they return to base and lose experience.