Talk:Ut sementem feceris, ita metes/@comment-50.53.148.121-20170309082517/@comment-50.185.157.122-20170514100456

"Thinking Army" means that the army values initative and not just mindlessly following orders. In WWII, the Soviets had very little initative in their company and field officers. This made them pretty inflexible to changing situations on the battlefield and reliant on instruction from higher echelons. This enforces a 'lag time' between something happening, higher headquarters getting word, deciding on a course of action, and sending out orders.

Here, the notSoviets started showing that units were willing and able to operate without orders from above to get the mission done. This is, well, not a very good thing from the perspective of someone fighting them. A lot of warfare depends on the enemy not being able to immediately react to your moves and taking ruthless advantage of the lag built into the command loop, but lower level officers exercising initiative will end up blunting the effects of basically any manuever you use. Assuming of course, that they're competent.