questions about Redfront

[Shaka Naldur]

I would like to ask a few questions about redfront´s strategy

is it cheating to build and air force base in UK??
where should I try to stop the germans??
which technologies do I have to discover??
defend Moscow or Smolensk??
how do I stop the Werchmat SG?? (it´s that the name???) I mean the units that paradrop


well the germans are kicking my but and I read all the strategies around
I would appreciate some advices not included in the strategies
I´m on my last turn of 1941 summer

[Sten Sture]

Shaka - I know you posted this a long time ago, but I have been playing a lot of RF lately, in lieu of posting, and here are a couple of things that will help you:

These are my house rules:

I don't let myself airlift trade caravans or reinforcements from the UK; I don't build cities on fortified position units or move them; I don't disband Red Army units in the field (there is an events reinforcement for the Germans); I don't attack Romania early; I don't allow cities to be totally destroyed by selling walls or attacking a size one city without walls; I reduce the FP of the Cossack units to 1 in rules1.txt and rules3.txt; I don't build airfields (not to be confused with AF Base the city improvement).

I do bomber stack, ship-chain, incremental rush-build, starve my own cities by using specialists, disband units in cities to cheapen rush building, build and pillage roads and fortresses.

Building an AF Base in the UK should be okay, but try to force yourself to ship all of those reinforcements and trade caravans across the sea. Don't ship out your first caravan in a transport and have it sit six squares away from the UK base - it will get sunk. Wait a few turns for the caravans, but send out empty transports spread out across the North Sea. Early on I disband a mech unit each turn to help with the cost of rush building extra transports in the UK - if you do this, save the original Vets for later. By setting up a ship chain and waiting until you have built the convoy wonder, you should be able to scoot caravans across to Murmansk four per turn most of the time. Also try not to hug the coast of Norway or you will be in bomber range. You will still lose a lot of naval units, but most of your supplies should be able to get through across the northern map edge starting in about the spring of '42. By building two bomber type units of your own in the UK you will be able to keep at least one nearby transport protected from subs in the summer months. Use your destroyers to find subs, then crusiers to sink them; by basing your ships stacked with mines in the first few turns you will attract a lot of attention and can get rid of some of the kreigsmarine. Also use the mines north of Murmansk to park a caravan. I also build a few caravans in Archangel, using the first one to ferry over some reinforcements to the city south of Murmansk.

Where to stop the Axis? Cities on rivers. I found a couple of fairly simple things to be very effective.

Rush build barracks in your first turn. Disbanding a non-vet unit if necessary to save funds. Non-vet units are almost worthless.

The two opposing units that caused me the most trouble were Stuka's and WehrSG's - their armor units got severely hampered by anti-tank defenses. To combat the Stuka's I got a few vet fighters into the southern Dnieper cities early - it is my first priority. Airplanes benefit from terrain - something I didn't realize for a long time - so a couple of vet fighters in Dnepetrovsk and Nikolaev can really save your butt. If the four fighters on the airfield survive the first turn they will almost single handedly save the southern flank. If the Stuka's think the cities are too well defended they will fly on to another target. Every square they fly is an attack not made = a unit that survives. Rush building fighters is a lot cheaper than AA Batteries in cities that don't have access to the 60 shield freighters and 70 shield destroyers, with almost the same effect - even non-vets take some of the punch out of the Stukas. Don't use the planes to attack - they are much better used to defend. In the first turn remember to move your AA's forward toward Nikolaev - don't forget that some units are pre-fortified and can be moved if you look for them.

WehrSG's are very strong, and most importantly ignore city walls. If you want to defend against them make sure you fortify your in-city units on the very first turn. A lot of units are not fortified at first, they are in a city behind walls - so what - the SG's ignore walls and rip them up. If you fortify, you at least get the 50% bonus and that should save enough to slow down their assault. Get NKVD's forward to absorb early attacks - there are several of them well back from the front that need to get moving pronto to make it west in time to do anything. Make sure that you are building one every turn in Kharkov. (I switch the NKVD in Saratov? to building refugees - lack of shield production.) Anti-tank guns work well against regular Wehrmark by the way - their 2x def vs >/= 2move only affects units with 1FP, so tanks ignore it, but inf get ripped-up. Remember that it is the "pikeman" bonus which was only designed to affect horse type units.

Talinin can be reinforced by transport from Leningrad and the local islands - rushing a transport the first turn brings back the AA and two Red Army units from the coast of Finland. Riga is doable, but a waste of effort in my opinion. AA Batteries in Leningrad are not needed with the Air Defense improvement - same with Stalingrad & Moscow.

Minsk and Kiev - fly in AA Batteries; build fighters; and drive in T34s. Defending Moscow should only be necessary after (if)Smolensk falls. Keep bare bones defenses home in the capital and get those units forward.

Sell EVERYYHING that isn't manditory. The only things that are manditory are Barricks, & Anti-tank - except in the Caucases oil cities. Easy things - Oil Refineries in cities that don't have rivers with roads or special terrain squares. Marketplaces etc in cities that are all science specialists. Aquaducts and Sewers almost everywhere. Steel mills and power plants in cities that don't build units. Everything in small cities that won't produce much before late '42 - by then you'll have enough trade revenue to pay for buying it back. Use the money to buy top-notch units and afford running max science. I run taxes 10/80/10 into '42 when I am researching toward GOELRO and the electrification (Hoover) wonder.

Research priorities Mobile II, 85mm AP, Mobile III, that will get you KV-1s with a 9def and 3hp - very tough; and then T34-85s the best unit for the cost in the game. (Beware building a lot of T34-76s - they become non-vet 85s with the Leo wonder - Sov Arm Industry) Then I go toward air defenses - Civil Defense and Air Defense Corps, this allows the construction of Air Defenses in all of your cities during the winter of '41 and makes AA's and fighters unnecessary. Then I go for Adv Flight III to get the IL-2s - the Russian Stuka - easily the most powerful unit in the game for the Reds. Then to Electrification wonder for the wrap-up.

A couple of things will dramatically impact your early research effort. Building roads in the oil fields ASAP, and using a ton of science specialists. Coupled with a 80% science rate, you should be able to get close to one tech a turn for the first several turns. I rushbuild an airport in Baku, Maikop and Grozny in the first turn, fly in Labor Brigades and rush build a University in the second turn. If a city has a market and a bank, but no library - use tax specialists instead. Science specialists in Gorky get an extra bonus because of the Trans Siberian RR science wonder.

Also - I build mostly refugees in part 1 in my small siberian/khazak towns, move some to good city locations, keep the others at home to instantly grow and replace pop lost by building labor brigades. New city building sites need to be on grass for winter survival, and have access to plains with a kollective, coal mine or suburb for further mining. Remember that a suburb is a railroad that adds 50% to shields generated. Those cities will stay small and will only need a barricks and a steelmill to get to 60 shields in production for T34-85s once Electrification is built at the end of '42.

Red Guards get built everywhere in the winter of '41.

I don't worry about major attacking much until the winter of '42. Finland is a minor threat if you blow-up the road west of Viipuri, they can be taken care of in the early summer of '43 when you have plenty of partisans and T34-85s.

Hope that adds to some of the other strats.

[Henrik]

Sten Sture are you a Swede?
Your name sugests it but your location says you are american.

[Xin Yu]

For the tech path now I have another idea. Go for the bomber tech and build bombers everywhere. Send them out and stack with AAs. Enemy stukas will try to attack the bombers and stuck in the air; land units will also be detained and it will take a couple of turns for them to find their way. Especially effective in the Southern front since German fighters are rare there. This can be done one turn earlier than KV-1 would be, plus the tech is on the way to IL-2, so the next turn IL-2s will be ready to blow out every germany advancing unit (then soon you'll get that too many units thing).

[Sten Sture]

Henrik - My grandparents emmigrated to the states from Ludvika, my grandmother still visits for several months every other year or so. I am a Karlsson (now Carlson) but the extent of my swedish is "Jåg förstör inte svenska"

I picked the Sten Sture (the younger) handle since he never won any battles and didn't get to be King.


*I forgot to add in the WehrmarkSG defense to defend from fortresses, especially on rivers, since the ignore walls thing doesn't skip forts.

Xin - I assumed that the Stuka's could attack bombers so I never tried that, though I have used the LA-5s in a similar fashion in '42, you can collect quite a few targets conveniently stacked for dismissal.

[Henrik]

Originally posted by Sten Sture "Jåg förstör inte svenska"

Its nice to hear that you: "doesn't destroy Swedish"
But I think you meant: "Jag förstår inte svenska".
Förstör=Destroy Förstår=understand

Oh and it's "Jag" not "Jåg"

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Henrik


Its nice to hear that you: "doesn't destroy Swedish"

LoL - I should have looked it up!

[Xin Yu]

Originally posted by Sten Sture
Xin - I assumed that the Stuka's could attack bombers

Don't assume, try .

[Cal]

Of course, there's always the old "is moving fortifications into cities via a frieghter cheating?" debate, and if it's not, then what about building a city over one that exists?

Good to see some life in this forum.