A great deal of the Soviet setup-in particular, the deployment of the operational reserve forces (those which set up 6 or more hexes from any German unit)-depends on your opening strategy. Several possibilities exist. You must choose between them, since you do not have enough supply to pursue all of them at once. (You can, if you want to, attack all-out on every front. Try it. You will run out of supply about half-way through your Exploit Phase on Turn 1, and the German counterattack will turn you into mincemeat.)

First, you can continue your pre-game offensive up north, hoping to break through to Proskurov and the main German rail line. This is not feasible unless the Germans leave some weak spots in their defenses. If you can surround the majority of their static forces (the infantry and the remnants of 7th and 19th Panzer) and deal with (usually by at least DGing) their mobile forces (1 st and 2nd SS, 1 st and 16th Panzer, and maybe one of the panzer divisions from the center) all in your opening offensive-if, and only if, you can do all this, do you have a reasonable chance of breaking through and cutting the rail line around Proskurov. Furthermore, you will have to hold the rail line for two or three turns to produce dramatic effects on the southern German deployment-not easy, when the GD Division and recovering German panzer units will be hammering you in a mobile armor battle, your least favorite type of operation, by Turn 2 at the latest.

Also, keep in mind that severing the rail line is not an automatic victory. Supply points can show up on the south map edge roads and rail lines even if they aren't trace supply sources. A clever deployment of extenders may allow the German south wing to stay in trace supply by routing around a break-and you will have to deal with the German counterattack. Even if you can brush by or break through the starting German forces, you will have a hard time holding onto your gains. Most of your good units are on the east edge of the map and will not be able to reinforce and consolidate successes. Overall, this course is not recommended, but you need to at least consider the possibility after examining the German setup. It can be a real fright to a German player who's not prepared for it, and threatening it will hold forces up north, away from the battle in the south.

This dilemma for the Germans, by the way, ties into one of your main operational goals, which should be to stretch out German lines and get them to deploy units in areas you don't intend to attack ... yet. The thinner the lines in front of your main offensive, the greater the odds you can break through and do serious damage. Infantry lines, for instance, can march forward, expending little supply while threatening major offensives if armor suddenly moves to reinforce them and supply arrives.

The second possibility is to try a deep drive south, toward Uman and the main rail line south of Vinnitsa, with the goal of severing the supply line to the Korsun pocket and attacking the German southern wing and its supply lines from the rear. The problem here is that you are extremely short of forces. You can commit four mobile divisions to the operation (6th and 11th Guards, 8th Guards Mech, and 9th Mech) plus a few miscellaneous units (the operational reserve tank corps), but the armor will have to do everything as most of the operation is far out of range of your infantry and not too easy for your artillery to keep up with. The difficulty is that the Germans have at least three mobile formations to oppose you on Turn 1 (6th and 17th Panzer, plus the GD Division when it arrives), and they are still much better than you at mobile operations; you may hold on for a turn or two, but it is likely that everything you commit far forward of your infantry support will be dead in short order. The 1st and 2nd SS, if they start moving in the German reserve phase on Turn 1, can hit you very hard on Turn 2 anywhere between Uman and Beltsy. And if you drain all the armor from the north, and the Germans counterattack in force up there, it won't be pretty.

Historically, the Soviets had units on the Lvov-Shepetovka rail line on Turn 2. Historically, they were blasted back beyond the Bug very quickly and didn't get onto the rail line again for quite some time (look at the Turn 18 set-up!) Learn from their experience.

This is not to say that deep attacks, going 10+ hexes into the German rear, are not worthwhile, only that you must carefully plan and execute them if you are not to be wiped out by the German counteroffensive before accomplishing anything worthwhile. In particular, you must make sure that German armor in the penetration area cannot effectively counterattack during its turn. See the section on conducting the battle in part 2 of this article.

Then there's the weak spot in this whole approach: you can'tjust cut the pocket off from supply by severing the rail line north of Uman. A wagon extender at Korsun can reach to the railhead at Novomirgorod and supply the pocket that way, so you still have to cut off at least the south edge of the Korsun pocket.

That leaves the historical course of action: attacking on the southern flank. There are two possibilities: attack and encircle the Korsun pocket, or attack the Germans around Kirovograd. It is usually best not to try both of these at once, since you will rapidly run out of supply trying to support both drives at full throttle. On the other hand, you can work them for mutual support: if you attack the pocket first, the Germans will doubtlessly move a lot of units to its support, weakening the Kirovograd defense, while if you attack near Kirovograd, you can tie up the units that would otherwise be able to relieve the pocket once you start there. You need to have a long-term operational plan, or you may get sucked into attacking where it looks good, and discover too late that you dissipated your effort.

As an example, my usual operational plan as the Russians would look something like this:

1) Attack very heavily east and north of Kirovograd, over the land bridge where the Germans are unshielded by the rivers. (If the rivers freeze, more space opens up). Attract German reserves, suck in their armor, and attrit their forces. Intent: tie up mobile forces so that they will be unable to interfere with step 3. Taking Kirovograd is unnecessary and in fact counterproductive: I want to tie down defending German forces as far forward as possible. Try to maintain as long a line as possible. This threatens to either come around the flanks of the German line or force them to extend further to prevent that from happening, which sucks in more units or else thins out the center and allows a breakthrough.

2) Simultaneously with (1), probe around the edges of the Korsun pocket. Try to pocket German units if possible (particularly infantry around Mironokva/Boguslav), but mostly this operation is intended to secure Smela and either Mironokva or Boguslav as jump-off locations for the step 3 offensive. When you've secured them (and picked up any easy plums the German left lying around), shut down and wait.

3) Once the German mobile reserves are unable to interfere, launch a long envelopment of the Korsun pocket, driving south along the west edge of the pocket, and westwards south of the Ross River, attempting to seal as many units as possible inside. (The more units, the faster they'll eat any supply dumps.) 8th Guards Mech and 11 Guards Tank may be needed to help seal the western flank and interfere with any German armor in position to attack in and rescue the trapped troops. Do not attack into the pocket directly: attack into the void on each side of it. It's an interesting study to see how little supply is actually necessary.

4) Once you have sealed the pocket, ignore it (unless you are in dire need of the victory points) and keep advancing. Let it starve. Rush most of the infantry southwest towards Zvenigorodka and Buki to threaten Uman. You won't get there quickly since there are two rivers in the way. The goal is to force the Germans to put someone in front of you to stop the advance. With Kirovograd-area forces tied up, most likely the necessary forces will come from the north. (If the Germans do withdraw forces from in front of Kirovograd and NovoUkrainka, laugh maniacally and replace step 5 with a renewed offensive in the south.)

5) While these operations are proceeding, build up supply stockpiles in the north. About 10 SP of your starting allotment, and 2 SP per turn, should go to the north flank. Resist the temptation to tap it for operations down south. All your quality reinforcements (4 AR infantry, 5th Guards Cavalry, and 20th Tank) should go north as well. I usually use 5th Mech, 16th Tank, and any 13-3-3 and 122-2 infantry divisions to replace losses down south. (Still, one should always be open to the situation. Sometimes throwing the new reserves into the southern battle can make a decisive difference there. Never be a slave to your plan.)

6) Once the southern offensive has run out of steam, or when you detect significant forces being pulled out of the north, strike hard. Tie up German armor with infantry and air power north of the Bug while your mobile forces scythe across the Bug south of Vinnitsa to sever the rail lines supplying the German southern wing. An alternative operation, if the Germans are strong around and south of Vinnitsa, might try to pocket German units around Lyubar and then drive toward Ternopol and perhaps Shepetova.

7) Subsequent operations would be directed by the course of events, but would follow the same basic plan: heavy attack in one area to attract reserves and tie up or grind away the panzers. Then, and only then, unleash your armor, either to pocket German forces left vulnerable by the absence of armored reserves, or to drive deep for undefended targets in the rear.

Two caveats

First, never hesitate to alter or advance the timetable in one area if you can safely pocket a significant number of German forces, or if a vulnerability opens up that allows you to deal a major blow. But it must be a significant blow, not merely a passing tactical advantage. (Completely destroying a panzer division, without risking a major counterattack, is about the right temptation to fall for.)

Second, carefully examine the entire situation before deciding on your operational plan. The most effective attack is the one that the other player isn't prepared for. One of these days I intend to try opening with a major drive towards Uman just to see if it can be made to work.

More Setup and Strategy in Hube's Pocket Part 1

Introduction
The German Setup
Soviet Opening: North, South, or Deep?
The Soviet Setup

Part 2