I favor an initial Soviet attack using the 5 Tk and pretty much every mobile unit available to strike due south and take Morozovsk the first turn. Put all your mobile troops on reserve, use your katy's and inf. to blow open a 2-3 hex wide hole, keep your mobile arty on reserve for the exploitation phase (all your planes too if you're unlucky enough to role flight). In the exploitation phase, use your junk armor units to overrun nuisance units and any and every wagon/truck unit/airport you can reach. If you're careful, you can maul the Rum. lPz and 22Pz + support units real well (particularly if the German puts them in reserve!) and you should be able to clear Morozovsk with a Tank corps.

And of course, execute every headquarter unit you can reach this turn, particularly any German ones and all the Rumanian ones (overruns work nicely for this). The goal here is not to kill units by combat (except for mobile units and HQ's), but to cut off the German supply and watch them starve to death. No gratuitous attacks allowed! You'll have to figure out Which units you need to kill and which you can leave alone. Remember that arty units don't have ZOC's (such as they are) so you can pretty much leave them alone.

There are a few other locations on the front that allow you to punch a single hole that armor can exploit. I encourage this, with the goal of overrunning all wagons, HQ's and airfields.

This puts you in pretty good shape. Hopefully you've captured enough wagons to extend your supply line. You're threatening Tatsinskian, which would move you from 3 VP to 6 VP. Now the Germans really can't afford to release any mobile units or make any alert rolls, or they could lose on turn 1 or 2. The Rumanians should pretty much evaporate since there will be no supply. The rail is cut at Moro., and wagons and HQ's will be in short supply.

In the south, I simply try to cut the rail line, kill any HQ's and stick the German reserves if you get an opportunity. Again put all your mobile stuff on reserve to use in the exploitation phase. The cav. can sneak around the southern flank in expl. phase and cut off retreats for anyone you're attacking.

The Germans will have to use their trucks to reconnect the rail line on their turn, or everyone in Stalingrad is out of supply. The main advantage to this is that they can't move much more supply into Stalingrad with the rail line out (just whatever they try to truck in). If you can then use the southern soviet forces to envelop Stalingrad, he's in deep trouble. If you can keep the rail line cut for another turn (not too hard, since there is really nothing that can react to this attack the first turn, particularly if you've done your job and DG'd/mauled whatever reserves you can reach), the Germans will be REAL depressed.

BTW, I suggest considering committing all your reinforcements against the Hungarians. If you play your cards right there, you have a real good chance of taking Ostrogozshk the first turn (commit all the ind. tk units from 40th army and 18th rifle corps, again on reserve). He'll have to respond there, keeping his puny Hg tanks and whatever can reach that area (some mobile Italians probably) because one breakout and you could reach Belgorod, Kharkov or Starobelsk, which would end the game. The rail line to this sector is great, so you can quickly commit all your reinforcements there. Another idea is to rail all your units sitting across from Stalingrad to this sector too, since the river will be impassible for quite a while. Send a small guard for the HQ and airfield once the Volga freezes. This extra man- power will come in handy on the far northern front.

I ignore the Italians at first, because they're too slow to really do anything. Expect them to run for the rear. If your drive turns west and you capture/cut off Millerovo, the entire Italian army goes out of supply (particularly if they try to hold their front).

With respect to questions raised since my first post, I don't do any overrunning in the first movement phase in order to freeze all the German reserves (special rule: if the Soviet does not conduct any overruns in their movement phase, the Germans LOSE their reserve movement phase, which knocks out their planes too). Every soviet armored unit is stacked and on reserve. In the first phase they move up (at 1/4 movement) as close to the line as they can get, while all the guard inf and fodder inf opens holes (with extensive and in supply terms expensive arty preps by Katys). In the exploitation phase, any lucky guards inf secure the holes, weak armored units clear out German arty and HQ's by overrun, reserve arty units march up and support attacks against the German mech formations in the rear, and the 3 or 4 mech corps in the 5 Tk area (with the cav) clear the road to Moro. I got one tank corps there with no problem.

Supply at this point wasn't too bad, because I move a HQ unit through the hole. Wagons that you capture in the exploitation phase get full movement, so move them half and flip them to extenders if you're lucky enough to capture a full 5. Many of my attacks at the far edges had to use internal supply, but the result was worth it. The rail line cut and no German units prepared to counterattack my vulnerable forward units. Supply will sort itself out the 2nd turn as long as you've been watching the placement of your HQ units.

I haven't played the game a lot yet, but I think there is a lot to be said for ignoring Stalingrad for the first few turns. If you can get an edge on VP's and come real close to sudden death victory, the German cannot release mech units from Stalingrad or use Alert units to plug holes. Then you can release a few tank corps to capture another 5VP town, leaving you with more troops and the same situation. There's probably some German play that will stop this, but I haven't figured it out yet.

BTW, use your Soviet fighters to cover your forward units, since hipshoots on your forward mech corps can be real effective. Keep the fighers within 4 hexes of each other (stacked in 2's) so you can counter any attacking, German fighters with greater numbers (otherwise you'll simply lose your fighters).

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