ORIGINAL: janh
ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek
Interesting carlkay58. Would you say that a GC with a 50% level reduction to each side does really constrain players in a significant way? Or is it just a relatively minor nuisance?
Yes, great to see you back here in the forums! It has been an interesting time, imagine that some of those formerly convinced of the rumored pro-Soviet bias have meanwhile switched sides and now are getting roughly handled... seems to be an eye-opener as well. Discussion here have gotten a lot more constructive and unbiased of late.
Thank you [:)] I have noticed that last part about constructiveness, hence that I felt it was about time to jump in again.
ORIGINAL: janh
Interesting thought, you mean to half HI for both sides? What do you plan to achieve with that? Make HI more of a factor in the GC, to be evacuated more often (i.e. an alternative history scenario?)? Not sure that HI is underestimated already as Pelton pointed out elsewhere. The second aim here could be getting the logistics rates down, i.e. the forward delivery, so that at times of increased consumption parts of your frontline will run dry and require a pause. If you manipulate anything that corresponds to the global pools instead, I think what you will get is a shortage across the whole front?
I don't have the manual with me, so I am speaking from memory. As far as I recall, Logistic level affects both production of supplies and the efficiency of its distribution. The basic idea - to have the game pace to resemble actual historical operations - is to reduce the production of Supplies and also make them harder to reach front line units. The problem is that it would have a global effect and the player doesn't have the tools to prioritize certain commands to receive supplies, fuel and replacements (as we could do with supplies in V4V/WAW).
ORIGINAL: janh
One thing to look at would be either the manpower pool or manpower centers, and possibly adding a number of empty shells to boost reinforcements from August to say November or so (I believe it was Klydon's suggestion). I think the recent reduction of the manpower multiplier was a bit too much. The best counter might be adding a constant of say 1M to the pools, or adding more "big" centers west of the Leningrad-Moscow-Rostov stop-line so that pretty much only the summer campaign is affected (however, even the destroyed centers could come back haunting Axis in 44/45). It would be fun to throw the kitchen sink at any Axis player, if you knew you'd loose most of those poor guys and yet increase your chances to win with that rather than too lose, as now.
Creating bogus brigade size 'cadres' with 0 MPs appearing on major Soviet population centers east of the Volga, that players can use by disbanding them (and spending AP's) might be something worth considering (and give something to do to those Military District HQs). Actually the Red Army training cadre unit organization was the Rifle Bde...
ORIGINAL: janh
With increased replacements, Lvov also may not be as serious anymore. Although any change that would turn it into a possibility, but not a given would be great. Someone suggested that initial MPs for the surprise turn can be modded.
Really? When I looked into it, I couldn't find any way of affecting surprise effects.
ORIGINAL: janh
Maybe reducing AGS Panzers MPs for the first turn by a bit ought to be one point, and may some Soviet counters should be repositioned to make a deep penetration less lightly/require more attacks -- even if it is not historically accurate, the result might be more plausible and fun still.
That's one possibility, indeed. However, the real problem would come after the first Soviet Logistics phase... after that SW units become useless crap and we can't tweak German armor MP's...
ORIGINAL: janh
The other thing I have no clue how it could be modded is the blizzard. How can you prevent a too huge disaster (assuming the other changes work, Soviets will likely be stronger commonly)?
That's gonna be the most difficult part. My take is that the only way to curb that is to impose severe constraints on the scope and - most critically - duration of Soviet offensive operations. Reducing Logistics levels somehow should keep the Red Army from engaging in simultaneous offensive operations from Leningrad to the Black Sea that go on for two months. That's just over the top.