Soviet players profiles

[Bruce]

It would be handy for those of us who have experience of playing the Soviet players to jot down some notes. Knowing whether the enemy is defensive to offensive minded and whether they have any little quirks can sometimes help!

I'll kick the ball off with some notes on the ones I've played:

Southern Dandy: Very solid defensive player. Blocks routes to objectives. Is willing to counter-attack, but doesn't press hard (although he was playing the Germans in a Normandy scenario!). A quality opponent.

JoeBob: Another good player. On the defence he tries to block everything - and ends up not defending in the key sectors. As the American in the Bastogne scenarion he got away with a lot because of the quality of the US troops. If he defends in the same way with Russians he won't do so well. As an attacker he tends to come straight at you - he gets fixated with a particular objective and forgets that he can flank. Relatively prone to spooking.

Tiberius: The least strong player of the three. Not great at attacking troops in defensive positions (hasn't mastered the art of milking combat rounds). Tends to be very static on the defence and doesn't try to distrupt attacks.

[tigersqn]

:) Here is my 2 cents. :D

Heinz 57: Defensively--A high skill player. Tends to give up non-essential territory in batches, splitting one unit into three to stay back as rear-guards; saving the rest to build a line a few hexes back. You will advance against him, but in a slow linear fashion with few penetrations of his main defense line. If you do manage to penetrate his line(especially in a critical area), a vicious and effective counter-attack can usually be expected.
Offensively--I have less experience against him here(he's German in our GiO game), but as mentioned above, his counter-attacks have been very effective. Manages his combat rounds well. Very effective with his airpower, but tends to sometimes stick his neck out with it.

Foggy: Played Market-Garden against him as Germans. Much easier to attack against; but as the Allies in Market-Garden, I could probably do a good job against anybody :) . Not really a good scenario with which to judge the opposition.

Keef: I know I've played him, but for the life of me, I can't remember which scenario nor can I find it on my ladder records.


Once our opposites are chosen, I would suggest that we all check out their ladder records and read any battle reports they've submitted.

[MikeJ]

I've only played a few so I'll comment on who I can:

JoeBob: can squeeze out a good number of rounds per turn. In my games with him, his primary tactic, both defensively and offensively, was supply-drain attacks. Be ready to deal with it - it can be difficult to do so, especially with all the Soviet artillery in this scenario. Did not strike me as a "big picture" guy so much as a tactical player.

Keef: I played him in MG44 (I was Allies) for the other tourney, so it's difficult to judge as there really isn't much for the German player to do. Offensively, he just probed my paratroopers so there wasn't much to glean from that.. defensively he had a clear understanding of what he had to do to defeat me in MG44 so don't expect to pull a Case Yellow on him ;). Tactically he was fair, but not likely to get a lot of rounds per turn.

JLBetin: Quite aggressive. I haven't played him in a high-intensity scenario for several months, but I know he's come a long way from when I first played him.In my Tunisia 42-43 games, he often attacks with an insufficient force... exposing his troops to tactical encirclements. Despite constant tactical encirclements he kept pressing on until he had no choice but to stop for a lack of troops. So I think JLBetin can be fairly dangerous, unless you throw him off his game and make him play yours. Take every opportunity to punish him for lacking flank support when he attacks.

Laszlo.Nemedi: I've played him quite a bit, but he's since changed his playstyle. When he played me, he was about supply-drain attacks 99% of the time. He's changed his playstyle since to focus more on the violent breakthrough -> encirclements style of play (rather than the "supply-drain a section of the line for 5 turns until the enemyhas nothing left to put in front of me" style of play), but I haven't had a chance to play against him since that time. You can expect a good number of rounds out of him, but one thing he has a habit of doing is shoving units into a breach made in your line, even if it's one hex wide. Vulnerable to counter-attacks and defensive encirclement traps. In Kharkov 42, he would put 1 hex dents into my line everywhere then push armor through my ZOCs. They woudn't get far, get cut off then destroyed.. but like JLBetin he would persist in doing this. Might be able to take advantage of that.

[Becker]

polynike : i played against him : scenario : the great war t klemme

he follows the historical way : for exemple in this scenario he will pick northern TO and tries to play it like it was 60 years ago; I feel that this is his most weak point

Also , he seems to be quite lazy on the defensive, and too cautious on offence

he gets encircled quite easily (i managed to destroy his 10 million army after a 6 turn encirclement, he reacts after he recognizes his fault,but always too late and too cautious)
He also tends to play without dividing units,maximazing airpower,artillery,but he knows how to milk combat phases

Overall : very weak opponent, nothing to be scared off: you will probably overrun him with tactical moves ,fighting towards objectives,encirclement tactical decisions,

hes not very operational, he knows two phases : attack/dig in and move without any finesses

I would try to use the southern deployment against him with fast para in his back, he will react without detail

[laszlo.nemedi]

...
Laszlo.Nemedi: I've played him quite a bit, but he's since changed his playstyle. When he played me, he was about supply-drain attacks 99% of the time. He's changed his playstyle since to focus more on the violent breakthrough -> encirclements style of play (rather than the "supply-drain a section of the line for 5 turns until the enemyhas nothing left to put in front of me" style of play), but I haven't had a chance to play against him since that time. You can expect a good number of rounds out of him, but one thing he has a habit of doing is shoving units into a breach made in your line, even if it's one hex wide. Vulnerable to counter-attacks and defensive encirclement traps. In Kharkov 42, he would put 1 hex dents into my line everywhere then push armor through my ZOCs. They woudn't get far, get cut off then destroyed.. but like JLBetin he would persist in doing this. Might be able to take advantage of that.


Huh, he recognized my bad habit :OHNO: I have to change again...