Razing the Reich

[sillyflower]

I don't think this is boring at all. I would love to be in your shoes Michael, grinding him slowly but inexorably into the dust. Happy to take over if you ever get fed up [;)]

Ther again, I really liked the Avalon Hill board game called 1914 or guns of august or something. corps/division level game and almost every combat resulted in equal losses on both sides, and capturing 6 hexes in a single turn was not to be sneezed at.

I wonder why I became a lawyer[&:]

[KamilS]

Michael T

Its a fantasy scenario that should be optional for those wishing to try it out. I will not play another game as Soviet without some house rules for an auto victory level as above.

I guess introducing "sudden death option" for Axis in '41, option that is not connected to VP would require balancing act in introducing similar rule guaranteeing Red side will try to fight.

[janh]

ORIGINAL: horza66
I realise that Pelton's strategic mistake makes for a very boring game, and I honour MT for not letting him get an undeserved draw out of it. However there can still be points of strategic interest in a tactically boring game.

Yes, there still interesting things to be seen here -- Micheals perhaps means boring in the sense that first for a long interlude little will actually occur, and then in the end the result can likely be considered known already since May 42.

I'd leaning to using the Arty Divs, and then use a few smaller elements to cause disruption before the main attack. Just like using sequential probing attacks as a German before the main assault e.g. if you open LG's back door. I never tried, because I prefer restricting myself to more realism, aka. make every life count and not seeing the game as a game with just counters and numbers -- thought ultimately the struggle was probably nothing else than a numbers game.

[juret]

agree with silly. MT got 3 years of offensive operations ahead of him. Pelton had his gun for 15 turns in 41

[Michael T]

This turn (52) Pelton has withdrawn all his troops East of the Dniepr in front of Kiev to the West of the river. This guy loves retreating. He just won't fight me.

Anyway I launched a series of "Stalin" attacks resulting in 20K of German losses for 33K Soviet. The worst of these involved 5 waves of attackers set against 2 German XX in a level 3 fort. He managed some reserve activations. But who cares. After the 5th attack I won the hex. My attacks generally involved 6 ID attacking from 2 hexes. Total losses for the battle, 15K Soviet to 6K German, perfectly acceptable.

Full maps at end of T54 (Start of Summer).

[randallw]

Maybe he's planning another one of his "this is historically inaccurate" complaints.

[Michael T]

Well he is already whining about INF Corp being to strong.

[Flaviusx]

Be careful about making too many infantry corps. They are not that amazing in 42 without arty divisions backing them up, and you kind of need rifle divisions for defensive depth at this stage. You aren't even making guards rifle corps. The 20 AP expense is ugly, too, although it sounds like APs aren't an issue in this game.

I really think you should make at least some tank corps to get them trained up. They need a lot of wins to flip over to guards. Yeah, I know trucks are scarce, but you should have enough to raise some. They aren't too horrible on your truck pool, 1500 or so trucks per corps.

Now would be a good time to start smacking the Finns around, imo, since he has turtled up everywhere.

[Michael T]

All good points Flavius. But I am trying to keep this German OOB steady. So the Finns can wait a while yet. BTW I have 2 Gd XXX with another on the cards soon.

I am very wary that I need to maintain a solid defence lest he pounce on me.

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Michael T
IMO this strategy employed by Pelton should be outlawed by a Auto Victory Level in March 42.

That

ORIGINAL: Michael T
Sure it one I will win but thats no substitue for FUN. This is not fun. I honestly do not know why someone playing German would wish to do this. To play out 200 plus turns hoping to merely survive.... its nuts.

You've got remarkable stamina, Michael. I'd have ditched the game long ago.

[Michael T]

It has tested my patience for sure. But he does not deserve a draw or any ammo that says this is a viable strategy. I have been let down badly thru very poor VC.

How is the weather in Victoria? I will be down the beach this arvo

[Michael T]

End Soviet T54 (25th June 1942) Clear.

Not a great deal to report. The red arrows on the map indicate the huns latest retreat. They willingly gave up all their snow O gains. They now are cowering behind the Dniepr. The inset map is shown so you can see some typical CV's for the front.

The 'Stalin' attacks continue. Things around Minsk look a little messy as I am in the process of rotating a front out of the line and replacing it with a fresh one. I have another entire Front forming in the rear. My 1942 goals remain the same. Just keep banging away to maintain a loss rate that keeps the German OOB under control. I am losing a lot of guys but I can replace them. Soviet OOB is approaching 9 million. It will not be until 1943 that I expect to make any real headway. 1942 is the year of blood.

Next report at the end of July, unless events warrant an earlier issue. I doubt it. The hun are a bunch of chicken asses 'buckharch buk buk buk buckharch'

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

It has tested my patience for sure. But he does not deserve a draw or any ammo that says this is a viable strategy. I have been let down badly thru very poor VC.

I'm currently playing a GC testing the alternate VC I wrote about a couple months ago. We're about to reach October 1941, and then we'll be assessing how well it's working. I'll be writing a short report to let people know how well these VC's are working. And we're playing with Logistics reduced to 50% for both sides.

ORIGINAL: Michael T
How is the weather in Victoria? I will be down the beach this arvo

Well, weather in Melbourne is totally balls, man I was walking to work and a gentle shower was falling. As soon as I got to the edge of the CBD, the gentle shower turned into a massive downpour that turned streets into streams. I think we'll be enjoying a humid, hot afternoon here... it will be hard to do my moves, I'd rather be in a beer garden enjoying a jug of cool cider [:)]

[Michael T]

Well the beach was great yesterday. Be down again today.

Move to the Gold Coast man.

We still eat cardboard

[Michael T]

The VC need work. Lots.

[Aurelian]

ORIGINAL: randallw

Maybe he's planning another one of his "this is historically inaccurate" complaints.

No maybe about it

[randallw]

Hope you are bringing lots of sappers; those defensive CVs look ugly to attack...need to drop the fort levels with those soaking attacks. Attack, withdraw the tired guys to refit back to 50 morale, send in fresh goons, rinse, repeat.

[janh]

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek
I'm currently playing a GC testing the alternate VC I wrote about a couple months ago. We're about to reach October 1941, and then we'll be assessing how well it's working. I'll be writing a short report to let people know how well these VC's are working. And we're playing with Logistics reduced to 50% for both sides.

Curious about that...

[carlkay58]

I tried a game with Logistics set to 50% and it does not do what you would think it does. From the manual:

Logistics Level: Impacts the formulas that determine the amount of supply and replacements a unit receives based on its supply trace, the amount of attrition a unit suffers due to movement, the amount of fatigue added or removed from a unit during a turn, and the amount of fuel expended by generic vehicles. This level also affects the ability of leaders to conduct successful admin checks.

We were looking to test something with lower supply production and the Logistics setting changed much more than that. Also note that if you reduce the supply production, it shorts the production side of the equation before the combat units see less supply. So we were unable to find a way to reduce the amount of supplies going to the troops without decimating the production system.

[Michael T]

Hope you are bringing lots of sappers; those defensive CVs look ugly to attack...need to drop the fort levels with those soaking attacks. Attack, withdraw the tired guys to refit back to 50 morale, send in fresh goons, rinse, repeat.

Exactly. I have so many guys I will happily send 2 million over the next 25 turns to their electronic graves ( I will get 2.5 million replacements). Even at a 5 to 1 loss ratio thats 400K Axis losses. At the moment the ratio is running at about 2.5 to 1. Attrition alone takes care of his replacements now. So that 400K will be coming off his OOB and his saved manpower, if he has any left.

Pelton, being a numbers man should see this. It will only get worse in 1943 and beyond. Who cares if his morale is 99, they all die the same. It is a futile and pointless exercise. But I am learning some new tricks