March Madness '42

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: The German-Soviet War 1941-1945 is a turn-based World War II strategy game stretching across the entire Eastern Front. Gamers can engage in an epic campaign, including division-sized battles with realistic and historical terrain, weather, orders of battle, logistics and combat results.

The critically and fan-acclaimed Eastern Front mega-game Gary Grigsby’s War in the East just got bigger and better with Gary Grigsby’s War in the East: Don to the Danube! This expansion to the award-winning War in the East comes with a wide array of later war scenarios ranging from short but intense 6 turn bouts like the Battle for Kharkov (1942) to immense 37-turn engagements taking place across multiple nations like Drama on the Danube (Summer 1944 – Spring 1945).

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RE: March Madness '42

Post by BletchleyGeek »

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM
I agree with the concept, and argued for something (admittedly, not very forcefully) months ago in the dev forum when there was talk about doing away with HQ Buildups entirely.

That would have been a terrible mistake.
ORIGINAL: JAMiAM
IMO, the logistics model for the game is too cookie-cutter, and the differentiation between offensively capable forces, and 'merely' defensively capable forces should be made through a game device similar to HQ Buildup. Of course, the game is way too far along in development to be retrofitted in its current iteration for that model. However, if enough wheels squeek long enough, then maybe in the next few utilizations of the game engine (through the WitW/WiE series), they might consider overhauling the supply model to include this level of (need for) control.

I completely and wholeheartedly agree. It's not the first time I missed the very simple and very clear notion of HQ Logistic Levels (Attack/Normal/Defence/Minimal) in Atomic Games operational war games.

I just need time - which I don't really have - to test it (and somebody to play with me).
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by karonagames »

If you inflict enough pain on the German army during blizzard which can be done still, you will not have to worry so much during 42 summer.

This is exactly my point - The axis can weaken the Red Army enough to have a below average Blizzard offensive, likewise the Red Army can weaken the Axis enough in the blizzard so they can't rebound in March.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

Pelton, you're conflating two different issues that are both problems in their own right, and shouldn't be lumped together as somehow offsetting each other.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by JAMiAM »

ORIGINAL: Pelton
before you go screwing things up, ask TDV20 for a game.

Your ideas about Blizzard will change quicky or play Flaviusx, hes got same idea that TDV has been doing.

You winter will not be so boring and your ideas on how gimp Blizzard is will change.

Pelton
My Blizzards are never boring. I defend forward and make the Soviets fight for every freaking inch of Russia that they get. Then, when the Blizzard ends, both players are worn out, and sitting around with a bunch of burnt out shells of crappy units. This plays into the Axis hands since the March-May period will allow the Axis to rebuild their low morale units with attacks of opportunity, and keeps the Soviet Army too low on armaments/manpower to field the 6.5-7.0 million man armies that everyone seems to complain about in mid 1942.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by BletchleyGeek »

ORIGINAL: Pelton
before you go screwing things up, ask TDV20 for a game.

Your ideas about Blizzard will change quicky or play Flaviusx, hes got same idea that TDV has been doing.

And I see any Cavalry Division on the map being designated a key target by the OKH during summer. I don't feel like keeping those in the Urals, safe from the Panzers. And sacrificing everything in order to guarantee I have 72 Cavalry divisions (so I can build 24 Cav Corps to max my Shock Armies) is so one-dimensional it reminds me of Eve On-line. Where, periodically, there was a "flavor of the patch" combo of ships and modules that was - in Eve-O community parlance "teh pwn" - and making the rest of ships and stuff completely irrelevant in PvP. In the next patch, it got nerfed, and things went one-dimensional again, with a different set of ships and modules. Rinse and repeat. Until the thermodynamical death of the Universe.

Because devs couldn't invest the time (money) to start from a blank slate.

It's a story that gets really old with me, man.

I stopped playing Eve On-Line 3 years ago, and I've only gone back to say hi to the many friends I had there. I had no interest whatsoever in playing that kind of game, Pelton. I think you've got also a past in MMORPG's and will understand what I mean.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

James has this fondness for bizarro salients.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Peltonx »

ORIGINAL: BigAnorak
If you inflict enough pain on the German army during blizzard which can be done still, you will not have to worry so much during 42 summer.

This is exactly my point - The axis can weaken the Red Army enough to have a below average Blizzard offensive, likewise the Red Army can weaken the Axis enough in the blizzard so they can't rebound in March.

Thats does not always happen.

Vs Good or very good russian players they do not get gimped by German player and kick ass during blizzard.

Your skill or lack of skill during 41 summer has an effect on the blizzard, which in turn has an effect on 42 summer.

Before 1.05 that was not true.

Now if you suck during 41 your blizzard will suck and so will 42 summer.

That goes for both sides.

Again this thread is asking devs to save sorry russian game play with a patch that will make up for an over all lack of skills during 41.

If you suck during 41 then why should the German player get nerfed for your lack of game play?

Same old sht different thread.

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RE: March Madness '42

Post by ComradeP »

Again, people seem to have a very narrow perspective on things, mostly on their own situation.

The game's combat results depend on a number of factors, amongst the most prominent ones are experience, morale which result in CV.

If the Axis rest their mobile units during the blizzard, which most do, they'll have close to full strength mobile units with excellent CV's.

Could anyone give me a single historical reason why, purely from the perspective of time, German mobile units in 1942 should automatically, without any variability or exception, perform worse than in 1941?

To me, it's a perfectly logical 1+1=2. Good quality German mobile units+worn out Soviet units because players attack themselves to death during the blizzard=the Soviet army getting slapped around.

There is no reason why you can't have in depth level 2 forts or a deep defence in place during March. People just need to realize that when they play the Soviets, the Soviet army is not a real steamroller in the blizzard. Its CV's are artificially boosted, the Soviets get a pretty significant MP cost reduction for moving into enemy hexes and losses are generally so severe if they attack during the entire blizzard that there are too few credible formations at the frontline to hold the Axis.

I can agree with the statement that attacking in March is probably too easy for the Axis, but as a counter argument I point to the MP reductions the Soviets get in the blizzard, without which their offensive would probably get stuck in a hurry.

The Wehrmacht is not as good in March 1942 as it was in November 1941, as the infantry has generally spent the blizzard in the open and has lost morale. The mobile units, however, are normally in good shape. All of this is well known, if you don't prepare for that as the Soviets or just place 3 unit stacks at the frontline or some weak carpet, you're just asking for a pocket and a disaster.

As an aside: good to hear that you're thinking about what I talked about a while ago, Flavio, namely using cavalry armies. I wouldn't use actual cavalry shock armies, though, because cavalry gets no national morale bonus from being attached to a shock army I believe due to already getting the cavalry national morale bonus.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Peltonx »

Same old Russian bitching as before.

If the game is not 100% static in 42 and the russians are not marching west in 43 then the german side has to be nerfed.

They (russian players) were bitching last month we need to play the games into 44 atleast and now its 42 and the cring has begun.

Take your own dam advise and play until 44 and stop cring.

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RE: March Madness '42

Post by JAMiAM »

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

James has this fondness for bizarro salients.

They're not bizarre. What's bizarre are the artificially straightened lines that run 1000+ miles dead along a hex grid line. Now, THOSE are bizarre. The lines in my games look like lines on a historically based map of the war.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Peltonx »

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Again, people seem to have a very narrow perspective on things, mostly on their own situation.

The game's combat results depend on a number of factors, amongst the most prominent ones are experience, morale which result in CV.

If the Axis rest their mobile units during the blizzard, which most do, they'll have close to full strength mobile units with excellent CV's.

Could anyone give me a single historical reason why, purely from the perspective of time, German mobile units in 1942 should automatically, without any variability or exception, perform worse than in 1941?

To me, it's a perfectly logical 1+1=2. Good quality German mobile units+worn out Soviet units because players attack themselves to death during the blizzard=the Soviet army getting slapped around.

There is no reason why you can't have in depth level 2 forts or a deep defence in place during March. People just need to realize that when they play the Soviets, the Soviet army is not a real steamroller in the blizzard. Its CV's are artificially boosted, the Soviets get a pretty significant MP cost reduction for moving into enemy hexes and losses are generally so severe if they attack during the entire blizzard that there are too few credible formations at the frontline to hold the Axis.

I can agree with the statement that attacking in March is probably too easy for the Axis, but as a counter argument I point to the MP reductions the Soviets get in the blizzard, without which their offensive would probably get stuck in a hurry.

The Wehrmacht is not as good in March 1942 as it was in November 1941, as the infantry has generally spent the blizzard in the open and has lost morale. The mobile units, however, are normally in good shape. All of this is well known, if you don't prepare for that as the Soviets or just place 3 unit stacks at the frontline or some weak carpet, you're just asking for a pocket and a disaster.

As an aside: good to hear that you're thinking about what I talked about a while ago, Flavio, namely using cavalry armies. I wouldn't use actual cavalry shock armies, though, because cavalry gets no national morale bonus from being attached to a shock army I believe due to already getting the cavalry national morale bonus.


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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

Pieter, we both talked about it way back when and I tried it. It worked well except for one thing: it costs a fortune in APs to switch out the cavalry corps as you must eventually do. (Because in the long run, you need the shock armies to do what they are supposed to do, namely, rupture strongly held enemy lines. Not really a cavalry job -- it is, properly speaking, infantry work.)

So I dropped it in future games.

At any rate, Soviet cavalry is perhaps a little too good, between its mobility and ability to mostly ignore logistics (such as they are.)

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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

James has this fondness for bizarro salients.

They're not bizarre. What's bizarre are the artificially straightened lines that run 1000+ miles dead along a hex grid line. Now, THOSE are bizarre. The lines in my games look like lines on a historically based map of the war.

They're bizarre. [:D] What's even more bizarre, is that I wind up doing the same thing in response. I can't let you be strange all by yourself.


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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Peltonx »

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Pieter, we both talked about it way back when and I tried it. It worked well except for one thing: it costs a fortune in APs to switch out the cavalry corps as you must eventually do. (Because in the long run, you need the shock armies to do what they are supposed to do, namely, rupture strongly held enemy lines. Not really a cavalry job -- it is, properly speaking, infantry work.)

So I dropped it in future games.

At any rate, Soviet cavalry is perhaps a little too good, between its mobility and ability to mostly ignore logistics (such as they are.)



But 43 is static so you have 52 weeks to change out stuff.

I am thinking most russian tactics now are for building the Machine way to early. Crippling the German infantry is key and it can be done during 41/42 winter.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by ComradeP »

Flavio: As stated, I don't think there's any benefit to attaching them to shock armies anymore.

In my current vs. AI game, I've attached my cavalry to regular army HQ's with a good mech leader (it's pre-summer 1942, so I don't have Tank armies yet). Worked like a charm in the blizzard.

As cavalry already get a +5 national morale now, you can attach them to regular armies although their morale will generally be only about 50-ish in 1941/1942 for non-Guards units.

There are some tricks to save AP's when creating corps, as if you attach the unit on top of the stack to STAVKA, the corps will be attached to STAVKA too.

Maybe eventually you'll want to attach the corps to a Tank army, but I'm not entirely sure whether there's a lot of benefit in doing so as you don't really have fuel requirements to meet and probably fewer initiative problems either as all your cavalry can and probably will become Guards, whereas your Tank and mechanized corps won't be. That is: unless you keep all the brigades you start with until the point when you have ~15 Guards Tank corps after which you disband all the other Tank brigades.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

There was back when I tried this, Pieter. In beta. Yes, we were talking about this that long ago.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by heliodorus04 »

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

I tried it long ago and abandoned it because it was problematic under the old rules set for various reasons.

But it's perfect the present game.

We may nerf cavalry corps at some point btw. They are probably a bit too good.

Eventually the game will have to allow Germans to build units in order to clean out the pools from stuff that should be at the front fighting, OR restrict the Soviet OOB to its historical predecessor. Until then, the Soviets can min/max every unit type to suit a given Axis strategy, while the Axis is, meanwhile, stuck with the same armies, OOBs, and divisions each and every game.

Meanwhile, the fact that the Soviets get all units back for free through November 1941, and the fact that Soviet admin costs are much, much cheaper than German enable the Soviet player to employ in 1941 tactics that did not appear until winter 1943.

This is why I encourage all players with German gameplay interests to stop playing so long as we're forced to fight with 1 full hand, and 3 fingers of the other tied behind our backs.

Soviet C2 is far superior to German in 1941, and the hindsight advantage combined with design advantage create a game where the Soviet player effectively dictates the entire course of options to the Axis player throughout the entire war.

Don't get me wrong, Soviet offensive CVs are BS, but the game compensates for that by making the German gameplay experience arbitrarily constricted, which is, to most people with German gameplay sympathies, unfun and
unacceptable.

We could take the logistics system we have, which most people admit won't be changed any time soon, and pair it with more equanimity (even if not complete) between the two sides for C&C freedom (German division re-designation should cost the same as Soviet), and the game would be better, not worse.

Despite its lack of realism (I'm talking to you SMG squads!), game balance isn't too far from nominal. And I wish we could quit talking about 'realism' in a game where 120mm mortars outperform 155mm radio-directed field artillery. We must take it as a fact that our combat system rewards close-range weaponry over long-range, because it's not likely to be changed soon (or ever). We must take it as fact that the logistics system is too lenient on offense, because it's not likely to be changed soon. We should focus future change on making a better game, rather than a 'more realistic' one; we cannot create a more realistic one given the pig-with-lipstick (the tasty kind, mind you, that you have for Christmas dinner) combat and supply engine that we are currently saddled with.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by ComradeP »

There was back when I tried this, Pieter. In beta. Yes, we were talking about this that long ago.

I know, I was just referring to what you implied when you said that what didn't work before can work now, because now there's no longer a reason to use shock armies.

Armies with only cavalry: good idea.
Shock armies filled with cavalry: waste of the +5 national morale that 12 Rifle units could use.
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Encircled »

I'm not sure that any change will allow the German player to build 10 Tiger Panzer Divisions by Sept 1941, so unlucky there guys.

Still not quite sure though what the Russian players on here are bitching about, it should be tough for the Soviets in '42, and as a Soviet player, I welcome that.

It is the unrealistic logistics that are the problem (as has been said) but as they can't be changed, then the Soviets better get their thinking caps on and find a way to combat it.

Love the comment about German players "not whinging". I guess they do not have irony across the pond!
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RE: March Madness '42

Post by Flaviusx »

Hmmm. In that case attach them to any old STAVKA army and disband that sucker post blizzard. Although you'll take a command hit in combat doing it this way. But the corps revert to STAVKA and are freely reassignable.

Pretty gamey.

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