ORIGINAL: Carolus Rex
Dont know if Götterdammung is is a special case, but here the defenders are realy hard to throw back. As for the suggestions to weaken up the defender with arty, on the 30 turns i played, I have only managed to get the defender unfortified once! If someone who does more scenetific testes wants an save file where testing could bee done i could send it. Here whole Russian Armies, supported by the whole Front arty, Flank attacks Reg sized defenders. the only result beeing hard losses for the Attacker.
I fully agre that in a game like TOAW, you must bee able to plan your actions. And the the result should be fairly as expected if you know your self and the enemy ("know your tools") , unless the opponent doesent act as you had expected.
As fore the Bastonge example, the germans had not expected it to be defended by a elit airborne division, who when surrounded and outnumbered answered a call for surrender with the famous word, "Nuts"
Then of course as in Götterdammung, this isent enough. After 30 turn I start to know myself and the enemy. And the knowledge says that it doesent matter what i throw in, I cant move the defender.
Thanks for the save file. Indeed defenders are hard to dislodge, but they're for the most part in well fortified and prepared positions and have a slightly higher unit proficiency. The thing is, just as in history, you'll have to get through at just one point. Don't expect to roll over the front on its length. Once you're through there are no more fortified and prepared positions for a while. At least for some hexes if we look at East Prussia..[8|]
You know that more than half of a Soviet artillery division's tubes have a range of 1? The 120mm Mortars, the 76mm and 152mm guns. Only the 122mm, 152mm ER and 203mm Guns have a range of two. The same with the artillery in the HQs. You will have to move it adjacent to the enemy unit to be attacked to get the entire artillery strength added to the combat. Either put it in T then it will add 50% of its strength to all adjacent battles (provided good cooperation) or order it to attack (it will bombard, not assault).
So, i ordered some assaults. It seems to be a weird thing that i am told by the attack planer to have a low chance for success and will probably suffer heavy losses with an assault ratio of 800+. As i understand it the attack ratio calculation doesn't take into account support units and attacker's
passive defender equipment. Nor combat density or deployment...though the What's New .pdf states "there is a great deal of complexity behind the scenes that has been omitted from this description".
Whatever the combat planer tells us... we have to take into account a)the strong enemy positions (F), and b)combat density penalties. If you look at those hexes that contain only one of your Rifle Corps you won't see a density indicator. But if you move only one additional unit, say one support unit like an AT Bde, into that same hex it pops up. Yellow. Even red in some cases (hex 121/16 i.e. - One Gds Rifle Corps plus one small ferry unit). The bad thing is, the combat density indicator not showing up in a 'single unit hex' doesn't mean there is no combat density penalty. The good thing is, the more your troops get depleted the less you suffer from this penalty..[:D].
It seems not to be an engine problem, rather it looks like an issue of 'not optimal' scenario design.
I did some attacks and it seems to me the results have been in the realm of the reasonable and the to be expected. Some succeeded, some however went terribly wrong. After all we're the Soviets, so a certain degree of slaughter is to be expected. Here the link to download the .sal:
Götterdämmerung 31_1.sal (file is too big to attach it directly to the post) with several attacks ordered. Just open, take a tour along the East Prussian and Polish front and hit resolve all attacks. I took care to minimize combat density penalty, get maximum cooperation and ensured as much artillery support as possible.
