Race for Rostov AAR -> reinforcing feedback plz

[Gryphonrider]

This evening, I replayed Race for Rostov (3rd attempt).
In Turn 9, I achieved a Decisive Victory.
A Brilliant Victory seemed possible to me during the game.
But somehow, things turned out otherwise.

I would love to learn from the community!
Plz relive my battle by viewing the attached save, and tell me how to improve my skills.

Things I had trouble with during the scenario:
- supply routes (capturing a supply depot didn't seem to help me much)
- distributing specialist-skills
- moving the frontline in a tactical way

Also, I had difficulty understanding some of the moves of the AI.
Would like to have some comment on that too, plz.

[Spooner]

I felt you did pretty well overall. Losing your supply, as you did for a couple of turns in the middle and then at the end is often quite devastating, so not bad that you managed to complete in 9. Rostov is one of the easier ones and it is possible to do it in 6 if you are really going for it!

Few pointers (though a lot of them aren't significant issues for you, they are things that popped into my head while watching the replay and are probably good general tips):
* Soviet units are generally weaker than German, so it can be best to bolster the stronger units to make them actually dangerous, rather than to take weaker units and make them...less weak (e.g. you added tank pips to 4-step regular tanks, when you could have put those on larger/veteran/mechanised units)
* If you've cut off a unit that is tough, don't attack it, but let it starve. By pinning it with just two units on opposite sides, it can't escape unless it can destroy one of the pinning units in one turn (assuming you control the surrounding hexes, of course).
* Remember that if you aren't attacking, you can use the action as a bonus move. It can be better to use extra movement to cut off supplies than it can be to attack with that unit (especially true of cavalry).
* Move your back units into attack first, then your units that started closer to the enemy can move through them behind the enemy lines. If you move the closest ones first, then the ones at the back can't manage that.
* Just as the AI is mad for taking the Chir bridges to cut you off, you can cripple his assault by taking the Donets bridges.
* Although you cut off the German supplies in the Northwest (Turn 5), there were no units actually using them by then; you'd killed them all by then! That could have been very useful if you'd placed men on the other bridges over that Donets. In turn 5 I probably would have tried to move something to the Southern of the 3 bridges over the Donets, to cut the remaining troops off. As I said before, once you've cut people off, you don't have to attack them any more, so you can just defend with infantry there and let the tanks rush forward.
* If you can, cross a river before you attack defenders over the river. Plan the previous turn so your strongest pieces are able to attack while your weakest can stop the defenders from attacking back over the river. Intentionally going one turn without supply (such as when crossing a river), when you know you can open the supply again next turn, is something you need to get used to since it allows you a lot more tactical options.
* In turn 6 you retreat a 1-step tank with a tank specialist. Should have reorganised the steps to your force pool, since it would never be useful again. I do that with all 2-step (weak) units and often with 3s, and even sometimes 4s, depending on the circumstances (sometimes having more units can be better than having a few stronger ones).
* Remember that even a completely starved unit can capture an enemy supply base (and is safe if the enemy has nothing to use to counterattack!).
* The AI adding a heavy tank to the infantry defending the objective city was unlucky. On the other hand, the AI did throw away a tank, coming over the river to attack when river defence was more sensible! Sometimes the AI randomly chooses to put a significantly strong unit in an objective rather than using it in the main battle in the open (particularly annoying is elite mechanised SS, which are pretty much bullet-proof when defending in a city ). Maybe next time they'll defend with green troops instead. Ah, the joys of luck ;P
* On Rostov, always remember to capture that little corner of the supply railway, down at the South-east, before you cross the river, otherwise you'll be doomed (Your rail supplies can then fill up the rest of the map that your Northern supplies can't reach). I've been caught out by that before myself!

[willgamer]

Spooner pretty much covered all the issues (well done!).

One other thing would be to remember that otherwise unsupplied units on a river can be supplied from the opposite bank (IIRC you need 4 or greater supply opposite them).

Don't know if you wanted to see a possible approach to BV, so don't feel compeled to look. But if it would be helpful, I've attached mine. It includes plenty of mistakes on my part, especially putting all that supply on the rail that I could have used elsewhere. It does highlight how to take advantage of out of supply units whilst managing your out of supply units to your advantage.

@Spooner- please feel free to critique my effort as well.

[Spooner]

Yeah, adding supply to the rail line is pretty pointless (I did it first time though, since I'd got into the habit of always adding to the rail supply when I had one).

One other thing I found useful was to push a unit or two from the front that I wanted to really kick hard (either the North or the South). In the North you really just need to keep the enemy busy, but in the South you want to hit them as hard as you possibly can as fast as you can! I think I have won in the other direction (pushing hard in the North), but the big problem is that you can't advance your supply fast enough to take the objective unless you can connect to the Southern railway.

I think I've taken Rostov in 6 turns. Think it is the only scenario I managed better than a BV in

[Tomislav Uzelac]

* On Rostov, always remember to capture that little corner of the supply railway, down at the South-east, before you cross the river, otherwise you'll be doomed (Your rail supplies can then fill up the rest of the map that your Northern supplies can't reach). I've been caught out by that before myself!

I got caught by this one so many times that I thought of editing the map just to get rid of that corner

Otherwise I agree with Spooner on everything.

[Gryphonrider]

Wow, lots of good pointers!
Thank you all for contributing.

You're absolutely right, Spooner: a better tactic for cut off units is starvation, didn't realize that.

I'll try the scenario once more before replaying your BV, willgamer.
But thank you for adding it

The mentioned corner of the supply railway doesn't immediately ring a bell, but I'll probably recognise it once I've started another Race for Rostov!
And afterwards, Mother Russia will go down in 'Edelweiss'

[Gryphonrider]

Scored my 1st Brilliant Victory today!
Close call (Turn 7) but still I'm quite proud of it.

[sambruzs]

Cheers,
How do you load the attached .usg file into Unity of Command?
Thanks

[2xPelin]

Cheers,
How do you load the attached .usg file into Unity of Command?
Thanks

I've answered your question here

[sedan]

Here is my 6 turn BV on Race to Rostov -- got it on my second attempt.