This page was never really completed, so it is not 100% accurate. It was copied over from a similar Krieg! article, but was never completely updated to Totaler Krieg! Some of the situations, therefore, might not correlate exactly, but their approximations are still valid.

Fighting the Great Patriotic War

Playing the Soviets in Totaler Krieg!

Pre Game Options

Before you get carried away with the Soviet Union's potential, there are a few fences that need mending and some repair work to do. The Red Army (Navy and Air Force, too, for that matter) are in a shambles after Stalin's little temper tantrum called The Great Purges of the '30s. While, of course, the initial course of the war will be decided by the Axis player opting to go either East or West first, there's still a game-within-the-game for selecting the very first Soviet Option card at the beginning of the campaign game.

This initial Soviet Option card selection usually centers around Poland, historically the flashpoint of WW2. Often, this is the moment that the Soviets strategic plan of western defense is decided. What you're looking at are three choices: 1) play the Polish Border Dispute to best ensure you get your piece of Poland; 2) play the Stalin Line card and assume that you'll be giving up most of Eastern Poland to the Axis but get a lot of fortress units in exchange; or 3) table the matter for a later Season. Each of these options must be examined carefully.

1) Play the Polish Border Dispute: This is the historical option. It defines a path of aggressive westward territorial expansion. You will probably want that expansion to include not only Eastern Poland, but also the Baltic States (and, of necessity, the Finnish Frontier). Assuming the Axis go West First, this will mend your two most important fences with Germany (Eastern Poland and the Baltic States) and provide you either a forward launching point for a Stalin Challenges Germany play or a territorial buffer to help you survive Barbarossa.

2) Play the Stalin Line: The Stalin Line gambit is what you make of it. What you're getting is the "ulcer factor" to the Axis of a bunch of Soviet forts that you can place in a variety of ways (along the Minsk-Moscow highway, at every rail junction, in cities to make them harder "toothbreakers," around Moscow, Leningrad, or the neck of the Crimea to provide "no retreat" lines of defense in front of those major fortresses, etc.). Canny use of these fortress units is really up to you, but they'll serve you through every Axis offensive in the Soviet Union, not just the first one!

What you're giving up is most (if not all) of Eastern Poland. That's because the Axis are likely to "seize" this area when they deal with Poland. In addition to Eastern Poland, there is a domino effect that will probably put your Baltic Settlement and Balkan Pact cards out of commission, which means that the Axis will probably have an easy drive through the Baltic States into Russia if he plans it right (unless you make some serious moves to intervene in the Baltic States the hard way via Soviet Expansionism or Soviet Initiative). In effect, you're making The Russian Campaign probably easier and harder for the Axis player and trying to work it so that you come out on the better end of the deal. This option requires some considerable player skill to use effectively.

3) Table the matter for a later Season: Generally, this will mean opening the Campaign Game with a regular Soviet Mobilization card and observing what the Axis do on the first turn. If they hit Poland first and keep driving into Eastern Poland, you might consider your decision made for you and, when you do get around to playing one of your #1 cards, the Stalin Line is going to look pretty tempting. (All you get from your Polish Border Dispute is the HQ, but without a Border War to fight to get it!) If the Axis avoid seizing Eastern Poland, then quickly grab Eastern Poland and then both of your #1 cards remain viable. If the Axis leave Poland alone, then you can just keep putting off this decision or take independent action based on your own strategic plans along your western frontiers.

Limited War: General Notes

There are things you can accomplish with your Limited War cards short of a shooting war with Germany: grab border regions and leverage HQs, mobilize to put some steps on the board and improve the quality of the Red Army, and dink around (i.e., deal with the Japanese or make some serious moves against neighboring minor countries). How you prioritize these things will define Russia's chances of success once Red Army and Whermacht start doing the dance together. If the Germans come straight at you, you have exactly two good cards to stop them with – the rest will be up to your player skill.

Limited War: Axis Go West First

Whew! Here's the breathing space you need to execute your Limited War plans unhindered (for a while). How much you can get done before the Axis come after you remains to be seen. If you can convince Germany to pursue the West throughout all of 1941, you may find yourself sitting pretty when the next shoe drops and Total War begins (which will never be later than Summer of 1942, as that's when the Germans run out of Limited War Option cards). Be warned, though, that every minor ally you make or conquer is almost certain to be handed back to the Axis once Total War breaks out if they make any effort at all to liberate it. You can only spare so much of the Red Army to defend areas outside of the motherland, after all, when the Axis are busily driving east toward Moscow and across the Ukraine.

Your Own Private Idaho

While the wolf's away, you must clean up the mess you begin with. There are fences to mend along your western borders and the Red Army begins in a sorry state. It takes a combination of Border Disputes, Mobilization cards, and the Baltic Settlement to whip things back into shape. If you'd like to see how this was done, just study the historical card play sequence for the Soviets and that's how you get prepared to face your destiny by the Summer of 1941.

You'll notice the Red Army has added three HQs, traded in most of its 2-2-2 armies for 3-3-2s, and grown in total number of steps by about 40% from where it started. You'll also see the addition of the Finnish Frontier, the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, and Bessarabia to the Soviet scalp pole. The Allied war effort is more often than not won by the Red Army, so good conservative play is to focus this kind of energy on preparing it for war.

Now, the alternative to this conservative play consist of either slight or major variations (there is seldom anything in-between). An example of a slight variation (one that involves altering play of one or possibly two cards from the "historical path") might be to forgo the Rumanian Border Dispute and play the Manchurian Settlement card instead. When that myriad of new Soviet pieces go flooding into the Delay Box from Emergency Mobilization and The Great Patriotic War, that -1 Soviet Delay die roll modifier will come in very handy.

Another slight (albeit larger impacting) variation would be to simply substitute play of your #1 cards from Polish Border Dispute to Stalin Line – but to fully consider this variation requires articles of its own. The changes it makes are deep and put quite a spin on Axis-Soviet relations and the nature of their ultimate conflict. Although discussed above, this subject is examined in greater detail in the Totaler Krieg! Players Guide published by Decision Games.

Pact Busters

There are three cards in your Limited War hand that allow you to break the Nazi-Soviet Pact on your own volition. Two of them, the Baltic Settlement and Balkan Pact cards, require the Axis player to more-or-less allow you to break The Pact. That is because they require the presence of Bad Guys in those areas in order for you to use it as an excuse for breaking The Pact. This is "a gift" from the Axis that you can't really count on exploiting. Chances are, if there are Axis forces there, it's probably just prior to their planned invasion of Russia so they really don't care if you break The Pact or not.

The third card is your big one, the Axis Nightmare itself, Stalin Challenges Germany. While you might naturally tend to see this card from your own (Soviet player) perspective, try to see if from the Axis point of view. This card rears a specter to the Axis of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good for the Axis is if you hit that one-in-six chance to wiff your die roll and come up with an Unsuccessful Challenge. This gives the Axis a chance to activate a Minor Country whose Border Region you've stolen (sort of an early Barbarossa present), flip a Command/Supply Failure on you, or force you into a position to either accept or reject a Axis "settlement" proposal (and that could do anything from ruin your ambitions for conquest to reassert a peaceful status quo).

The Bad for the Axis is if you hit that one-in-six chance and get a partial success with a Stalin Pressures Neutrals result. This allows you to either put the wheels in motion for a definite war with Germany on some future turn that you can likely control (after the Reassess Policy Marker that comes between you burns off), or wimp out (and hope for a Successful Challenge result). If you wimp out, you're looking at either a roll on the Aggression Table or placing a Neutrality Marker on a neighboring neutral Minor Country. Neither of these is any great shakes for the Axis, but they probably beat a certain war with the Soviet Union in the foreseeable future.

The Ugly for the Axis is if you nail a Successful Challenge result (and you have a one-third chance per roll if time the play of this card such that the Axis Tide is at 1). This allows you to immediately rip up the Nazi-Soviet Pact and start wailing on the Axis lines. If Germany is too big to take on, you can declare war on some neighboring neutral Minor Country and gobble them up. If you've already got a shooting war on your hands, or don't wish to start or expand one, you can make this turn a Blitz turn for the Red Army. No matter how you slice it, you've got the power the Axis have got big problem.

The timing of Stalin Challenge Germany

In addition to the three main types of Limited War options you have (land grabbing, mobilizing, and dinking around), you have "the big one," Stalin Challenges Germany. This is your opportunity to rid yourself of the Nazi-Soviet Pact marker (although it might end up quickly replaced by an Armistice marker during Limited War), but it's a tough die roll to make while there's still an Allied Crusade. If the Germans go West to start the game, this card makes for an interesting show in the Summer of 1940. The Axis will be very, very nervous about their efforts against France upon this card's appearance and it will almost certainly negate any German plans for a quick Operation Sealion.

Conversely, if the Axis open up their Limited War by coming at you, a high die roll with this card will buy you an Armistice – something that will probably screw up Axis dreams very nicely for you. In either case, this card is the joker up your sleeve and a constant worry for the Axis. If you're into non-conservative play, you'll be fingering this card every Season and debating whether or not now is the time....

On the down side, of course, you'll be burning up a Blitz card with no guarantee that you'll be able to effectively strike the Germans. Also, since you must discard the original card #10 (Counteroffensive), there will be nine infantry steps that you'll never see when selecting the Stalin Challenges Germany card. But hey, that's the price you pay to watch the Führer sweat.

While tearing up the Nazi-Soviet Pact is an interesting option (discussed later), there is another fascinating Limited War option that you might consider playing – the Great Patriotic War card. While a no-brainer for the Summer of 1940 if the Axis go East (see below), playing it while the Nazi-Soviet Pact is in place has some possibilities, too. Some players will gamble on trying to reveal it on the turn that the Axis break the Pact. Even if this plan backfires and you lose the plethora of Conditional Replacements, you'll still get all of those good Soviet units into the game.

If this gambit succeeds, though, there is still a problem if you're suddenly in a shooting war with the Axis. That is, you have to discard the Release Strategic Reserves card. While the amount of steps you'll receive from either card is about the same (if you reveal the Great Patriotic War card during the Summer), there is a big difference in timing – and in Krieg! (and comedy), timing is everything. The Great Patriotic War card gets you these steps spread out over three game turns (and at the end of your turn, no less, with no chance to deploy them properly!) while the Release Strategic Reserves card provides these replacement steps all at once (at the beginning of your turn, when you can place them for a proper defense along the line).

The Dumbest Things You Can Do

General Mobilization, Turkish Border Dispute, Shooting War with Turkey, War with Rumania

Limited War: Axis Go East First

Uh oh. Now you must bear the brunt of the Axis burden until the Western Allies can come to play, rather than the other way around. The real "war" tools in your toolbox during Limited War are, well, limited. You have only two Blitz cards (Stalin Challenges Germany and Soviet Initiative), both of which have inherent disadvantages. Your four Mobilization cards can keep your front line fed during seasons affected ("blessed," in the pre-Communist vernacular) by inclement weather, but what will you do during the long Summers? You have only two aces, your Great Patriotic War card, and space. The former allows you plenty of replacements that are, unfortunately, spread out over time. Almost as desperately needed will be the Air Support unit, Moscow Fortress, Guards Armies, and HQs that The Great Patriotic War card provides.

Your other ace is space. During your first Summer turn, you can always back up the survivors on your front line, combine them with your rear area reserves, fresh replacements, and emergency mobilization forces, and build a new line 4-5 hexes away from the German army. Just make sure you place it back far enough so that no German, multi-step units can reach you during their next Operational Movement Phase. (You'll probably be out of the German's effective Air Support range, at that distance, too.) That will keep their ability to hit you next turn way down, and buy you a turn's respite from serious casualties. Of course, you can only do this trick once in the Smolensk region or the Germans will get to Moscow (and Leningrad) too easily. In the Ukraine (the area between Lvov and Rostov), you might be able to pull this stunt off a couple of times and still hold on to your objectives at Rostov and Sevastopol.

A second Summer (i.e., 1941) without the West to keep the pressure off you, though, could be devastating. If the Axis Tide marker is up on the Victory Point track, consider the Stalin Challenges Germany card as an emergency stopgap measure (see below). Otherwise, you may well find yourself bled off the map as you desperately play Soviet Initiative cards because the only other alternative is to start Border Disputes that you're in no position to finish (or is that Finnish?).

Russian Winters

Although there are no special Soviet Winter rules, snow turns are something special to the Russians. The war against the Axis must be won by the Soviets. This is where 80% of all attacks will be made (by both sides) during the game, so play it smart. In Krieg!, think of tanks as your sword and infantry as your shield. In other words, while on offense, you'll lose tanks; on defense, you'll lose infantry (as a rule of thumb).

What the Russians need to do is bleed the Axis off the map, thus taking advantage of the superior Soviet replacement rate – and to get rid of the Axis, you've got to grind down their infantry forces (i.e., their shield). The best way to do this is to make sure that the German army in Russia bleeds year 'round and never gets a chance to completely lick its wounds. During the first couple of Summers, the German army will be taking its lumps in self-inflicted attrition while they try to blitz you into submission (costing them several panzer steps, no doubt). But in the Winter, it's up to you to see that there is no rest for the Axis.

While it is tempting to play your blitz cards in the Summer to get three turns of clear weather to attack the Axis with, if they're busy attacking you first every turn, you will probably be stunted in your ability to inflict a high amount of Axis casualties through your own offensive operations (particularly during their first couple of Summer offensives when the Axis are at their military peak). Instead, save your offensives for the Winter when only you can blitz and the Germans can't. That way, you'll keep Axis casualties as high as possible throughout the year. You've got to grind the Axis forces down to the point where their Summer offensives won't hurt you as much as yours will hurt them, and then take your offensives in the Summer (historically, this occurred in 1943).

Bear in mind that your Summer offensives won't get far unless you've chewed up enough Axis infantry steps in Russia. That is, until the Axis have been ground down to the point where they have a sufficient amount of weakly held areas along the Russian Front (you'll know this when you see several hexes with three or fewer defense strength points filling the gaps in the Axis line or anywhere where only Axis minors are defending as they can't be backed up by German HQs), take your offensives in the Winter. After you've bleed their infantry steps enough so that their stretched this thin, only then you can make the most of a Summer offensive.

Post Collapse

If you suffer a Soviet Collapse, that means that the Axis are in Moscow and probably have a line running from Leningrad to Rostov. Yikes! All those front line units gone... poof!

No doubt Turkey will become the Axis' free ally, and that play is both your worst nightmare and a possible dream come true. It's a nightmare in that the Axis can now have a new route to your back door in the Caucasus and Persia. Chance are, you'll have little to spare to stop them with, either, when the shooting starts again. If Germany rapidly throws away the post-collapse Armistice, there's a very real chance that they'll be dining in Siberia if they stay focused on that task.

On the other hand, taking Turkey can tempt the Axis to make hay out of your Armistice, strip troops out of Russia, and pour them into Turkey to clean the Allies out of the Middle East. That could provide the breather you need. Start planning next year's Total War offensive (probably in the Winter), build up all the forces you can prior to that, and time the removal of the Armistice marker so the Germans hit you first during the mud. Remember that a few of your cavalry units can form an effective screening force in the Middle East because the Axis can't enter their ZOCs while an Armistice is in effect.

Total War

Hurrah! This is the time you've been waiting for (we hope). Now you can build up 3-step HQs and create a potentially huge war machine. Okay, maybe the Axis played their Barbarossa card and threw their full weight against you to kick off Total War (as they did historically). If you can absorb that first Summer blitz, you'll only get harder and harder to knock out. Just make sure that you keep Moscow at all costs, lest you suffer a Soviet Collapse (see above).

About the biggest consideration you'll have is when to take your annual Total War offensive, either in the Winter (which is advisable early on, as previously discussed, particularly when you consider that the Axis still have a much larger air force than yours) or the Summer (after you've built up a large advantage on the ground). You might want to take a brief pause in your War Production to play the Manchurian Settlement card, though. This is true particularly after you have three Air Support units constantly cycling through the Delay box, along with all those HQs, or if the Axis have played their Anti-Comintern Pact card and, thus, are enjoying watching the increase in your delay rolls provided by the bad side of the Japanese marker.

One tip to help you hold a key hex in the face of a determined Axis blitz is to back it up with a pair of headquarters. By having the first one take all the step losses it possibly can during the Axis Blitz Combat Segment, you'll still have all the defense factors you can holding that hex when the Axis Regular Combat Segment follows (with a fresh headquarters up your sleeve backing it up!). This situation is a nightmare for the Axis, particularly if they are trying a frontal assault on a well defended objective hex (Kiev, Leningrad, Moscow, or Sevastopol).

The Turning Point

Bleed every Axis step you can get any kind of odds against. You don't need big breakthroughs and huge pockets of enemy troops. Just grind the Axis army down and let them give you back your country in order to preserve their precious strength for as long as possible. You can trade steps with them forever once your pieces are in place, so be relentless. Beware of Axis counterattacks against anything you dare leave overexposed, though (particularly your precious armor steps), but otherwise just grind, grind, grind!

Closing The Ring

Everything you learned from the Axis while you were their whipping boy you get to do back to them... and more. This is a good time for you to knock out Axis Minor Allies and convert them to the Communist cause (at gun point, of course, but why quibble about moral technicalities?). Cutting out Axis Minor Allies can take a lot of Axis steps off the board fairly quickly, and that's just an advanced form of what you need to keep on doing anyway, grinding! Be sure to make your reservations at the Berlin Hilton.