Russia Move 1

[Focus1984]

Hey all, I was looking for some informed feedback no R1. For as long as I've played, attacking west russia and ukraine was standard first move. More and more I've noticed players only taking west russia.

I'd love some feedback on the rationale and resulting gameplay from true veterans. Thanks

[Quintin]

It has the upside of being less volatile than ukraine and keeping the R tanks on the board. There are downsides however:
G gets income from cauc G1.
The G battleship survives either by trading Cauc or trading egypt with the bomber.
G starts with more planes and can deny a UK1 navy.

The way I see it if Russia wins ukraine (91%) doing ukr is better, if Russia loses ukraine(9%) w-russia only would have been better.

[Focus1984]

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any sense for a consensus on best first move? Is it generally accepted by top players that hitting Ukraine R1 is best play?

[Archie Hicox]

You can try strafing Ukraine for as many rolls as possible without occupying it to save your tanks.

[Quintin]

Best is to do a 4 inf 2 tank buy with 4 inf deployed in cauc and 2 tanks in russia. 12 to w-russia 9 to ukr. 1 inf to szechwan. 1 aa to ukr. If 5 or more inf survive in w-russia this will deadzone karelia and allow R to do a triple trade of belo, ukr and karelia R2.

Strafing is interesting but allows a G1 ukr stack which is the best square for a G stack in the earlygame. I pretty much always capture.

[Axel]

I always go for both Ukr and W-Russia, all in (abandoning Karelia). If I'm not successful in taking Ukraine with my 2 fighters still alive (and at least one tank in Ukraine), I forfeit the game lol. Pretty simple :)

[nicewolf64]

i only attack w-russia en masse because russia's sole goal is to survive. so i dont want to take unnecessary losses. plus i like to send 1 russian fighter to egypt on turn 1 to prevent it from fallig.

[Sam]

I attack W-Russia & the Ukraine most of the time I occupy it some times I pull back depending on losses. I have had games where the attack losses were so bad I just forfeit also. Two games I attacked the German fleet in Baltic before they attack the British. It still didn't save the British Battleship.

[homem_de_ovo]

Is the 4 Infantry 2 Armor buy still the best though if you decide to W. Russia only?

[Quintin]

Originally posted by homem_de_ovo:

Is the 4 Infantry 2 Armor buy still the best though if you decide to W. Russia only?

No since the point of the buy is to deadzone all neighbouring provinces of w-russia. With w-russia only G can stack ukraine no matter what you buy, which is why its rare at high levels of play.

I dont play that opener so I dont know what the best buy would be. Maybe 4 inf 3 art.

[shmity72]

i've found there are two options for russia maybe 3 opening

all ukraine rest wrussia...buy EITHER 3 art or 2 tanks rest inf and depending on how poorly your opening dice are you may want to move kazah inf west instead of east. PERIOD

[shmity72]

and start marching your east asia inf west

[Kitty Meow Meow]

I purchase 8 inf. & I always try and take W.R. and Ukraine. If rolls go bad you definitely need the inf. and if rolls go good you can double up on the offensive units second round. I see so many Russian players try and purchase offensive units 1st round. Get it thru your skulls in 1942 Russia was not a power house! It is so frustrating watching your team die because they think 4/3 or 4/0/2 is the magic #. It isn't. Do that stuff on me when I play Germany and I will roll you 90% of the time.

[Kitty Meow Meow]

Originally posted by Axel:

I always go for both Ukr and W-Russia, all in (abandoning Karelia). If I'm not successful in taking Ukraine with my 2 fighters still alive (and at least one tank in Ukraine), I forfeit the game lol. Pretty simple :)

Pretty much if you have worse results game is done. I do the same.

[Kitty Meow Meow]

Originally posted by Archie Hicox:

You can try strafing Ukraine for as many rolls as possible without occupying it to save your tanks.

I've seen that but isn't the goal to get a minimum of 1 of the planes? In order to do that it is so hard to predict the rolls to allow that and still get to retreat.

[SurferGuy2000]

Originally posted by KittyMeowMeow:

I purchase 8 inf. & I always try and take W.R. and Ukraine. If rolls go bad you definitely need the inf. and if rolls go good you can double up on the offensive units second round. I see so many Russian players try and purchase offensive units 1st round. Get it thru your skulls in 1942 Russia was not a power house! It is so frustrating watching your team die because they think 4/3 or 4/0/2 is the magic #. It isn't. Do that stuff on me when I play Germany and I will roll you 90% of the time.

When a player buys all inf then I know they will be passive and have limited counter attack options. This really invites the German player to easily send stacks of troops towards Russia and not worry about a serious counter. This then allows the axis to expand a IPC difference and coordinate attacks with both axis countries landing the opposite partners air on the stacks. Basically I prefer it when a Russian player buys only inf the first round, it will allows me to stack uk or ker the first turn easily.