Tactics for Kanev

The new annual PG2 tourney began a few weeks ago thanks to PanzerStef who has choosen Kanev as the first scenario. I propose a tactics analysis.

The two forces are :
Germans: few units at the beginning of the game, just one Tiger. But, a lot of reinforcement are waited during turns 2 to 6 then at turn 11. The list of reinforcement is:

• turn2 : three artillery, one recon, six infantry, one anti-tank
• turn3 : one infantry, une artillery
• turn4 : two tanks , two artillery
• turn5 : one infantry, one tank, one anti-tank, one artillery
• turn6 : one artillery
• turn11 : one tank, two infantry, one artillery

The German player has few hopes to go and take his 3 northern targets. He suffers game and soviet attacks. On the other hand, he has a good force that are the 3 fighters. They can be used in an offensive way against Russian fligths (ground attacks are not very efficient) or in a defensive way: effectively, a flight may protect till 7 units that are concentrated under it. At last, it may be used as recon unit.
To summarize, the strong points are :

• good Luftwaffe,
• 2 hex range for tank units
• 3 recon units
• great reinforcement

weak points are :

• very few prestige points
• units everywhere on battlefield
• no aerial transport

Tactic : It's better to wait for reinforcements and avoid any fight during the two first turns. The first main target is to protect heavy tanks against aerial bomber or massive terrestrial attack. This protection may be "passive" I mean let a flight over units or "active" , this means actively look for russian bomber in order to destroy it.
The victory depends of the way to use south-east units that are controlled by a Tiger and north-west units driven by a PzIVJ and a PzIVH.
For south-east, I propose a strategic retreat and an aerial protection of ground units, this for two turns. Then, the counter-attack may happen at the rear of the Russian troops. The same method should be used for north-west units, even if flight units arrive with only one turn left. North-west reinforce units must stay together and not run through south to protect Russian targets.
Effectively, this drives directly Russian player onto his targets.

Russian: Every initial units are staying along the northern river. During second turn, many paratroops appear on the battlefield and will quickly be delivered to some cities and get prestige points. Reinforcements are choosen by the Russian player along the game according to prestige points won.
Strong points :

• many units
• fast units (T34 move = 6)
• one bomber
• three aerial transports

Weak points :

• not efficient flights
• one hex range fight,
• no recon units

Speed and number of units engaged are the stronger points that the Russian player must use. I propose to buy quickly one or two recon units then as many T34's as possible. It may be a good idea to send aerial troops to the rear of the German player . He cannot efficiently fight against several aerial transports and a simultaneous bomber attack. Take care, the bomber unit will certainly not do more than one mission so choose carefully your target : Tiger for example.
On the ground, attacks must be massive (combined artillery and lot of T34's), with simple target as destruction of only one German unit. Don't forget at the beginning of the game that motorised infantry may move quickly towards southern targets. And last, don't forget to have a unit control the east corridor : perhaps a German player will try to run through its targets .

Good luck to all players, have fun. If you want to correct something or have any comments send them to me.

Bahamut