ORIGINAL: BigAnorak
I still say the auto slash of CV is the big culprit. Let the attrition do the work, and it will, but at least then the German has a couple turns to bloody the nose of the attacking Russians while in forts.
It is definitely another area that needs looking at. In the game with Trey, my forts in the AGN sector definitely stymied him for a couple of turns, but I went through Speedy's like a knife through butter, but we still have to figure out the chicken and egg of the low TOEs and and high unreadiness levels. At turn 27 in my Game with Trey, I had 3 unready GE units, Speedy had over 30, and his TOEs were incredibly low compared to mine.
There is definitely something at the root of this and every turn will get us closer to figuring out what it is.
I agree but with a different angle.
I think there should be a drastic CV slash in '41 blizzards due to difficulty to operate german weapons in the cold. But as the germans find ways to lubricate their weapons and otherwise resolve other similar problems with their hardware, the slashing of the CV should lessen. As an example, come 1.1.42 the CV slashing could be less. I would rather prefer a gradual lessening, a little each turn over time, to avoid gamey tactics where people hide away until a magic date is reached, but a monthly change is better than nothing.
So I'm kinda voting for what I get the impression happened historically: The initial shock from harsh weather which impacts greatly and hands the iniative to the russians.
However the Germans adapted and found solutions so the effects lessened over time.
I get the impression this was the 'standard' all over the line in history:
- Lack of winter uniform but impact lessened over time by troops picking up clothing from dead or when winter equipment start to trickle to the front.
- Supply devastated by non-operational vehicles and German horses not standing up to the cold. However the Germans introduce the panje horse in their divisions in great numbers which alliviate supply problems.
- German lubricants don't work in the cold. They find substitutes and are able to operate their weapons, maybe at a reduced efficiency until the engineers come up with more permanent solutions.
- German locomotives struggle in the cold, but by removing delicate precision parts they are made operable throughout the winter.
So, many of the modifiers in game seems to reflect upon a historical event, however I advocate that perhaps what seems to be out of whack is that most of them do not lessen over time (I only know of attrition that actually lessens during the winter). By gradually lessening all the effects then I get the impression you get a model that better reflects reality.
That the effects do not lessen also give sense to that if a German try to hold, suffer heavy casualties, and then experience a further CV slashing due to casualties, on top of the other modifiers .. a german rout is inevitable in january/february '42. Too many things just add up together over time.
However if you were to give the initial shock effect on the troops and lessen the effects over time, then I postulate that the heavy casualties will balance out the lessening of the effects. In the end winter '41/'42 hopefully it should lead to a beaten up German Army, but even though beaten up it should be more resilient, effective with higher CVs ratios to manpower than what you saw in blizzard '41.