A clear win for Target Leningrad?
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Another fast game of Target Leningrad. I'm knocking these out solo in under two hours. Would be nice if I could knock OCS turns that fast.
I finally occupied Leningrad. I've concluded that Leningrad when defended
only by Soviet Navy and Worker's Militia requires 6:1 every time to get
2/3 of the necessary DE. The problem is that the Worker's Militia can
acquire replacements even in EZOC, so it always defends full strength.
If there are other units there, they can be whittled until the required
30 AF can be brought to bear.
It may be worthwhile risking an EX on the armor as those units can
retreat out of the Leningrad EZOC to get replacements, then move back in
for combat afterwards. No other unit can enter Leningrad if it's in a
German EZOC.
In this game, I did the same thing I did in yesterday's game: cut of the eastern edge to put the Soviets out of communication on the whole map.
Definitely have more opportunity to explore nuance.
Update: 2016-08-30
After playing this game a few more times, I've concluded that the above
game was probably a win, but that I also did not play the Soviets
perfectly. Had I put even one more unit in Leningrad to bolster the LWM,
there would have been no way to achieve 6:1 odds, even with a double
shift plane counter. The mistake I see looking back on what I wrote is
the assumption that other units can be "whittled away." This is false.
The LWM can take all the EX results and fully recover on the following
turn, regardless of line of communication for Leningrad.
The main blunder of any Soviet player is not getting at least a DF 3 unit in Leningrad as fast as possible.