Sov Campaign CS1 - Recon Battle

[IronMikeGolf]

When I read the scenario and saw "Territorial Units" I thought, "Hey, how about trying this as the reconnaissance phase of an attack?"

I left the tank bns in their assembly areas and first pushed the recce to the high ground overlooking the Zulda river. AT5 BRDMs took out some M48s and then the called arty.

Recce pushed west across the Fulda River, using covered and concealed routes. I found the BW main body in the forest southeast of Neuenbrunslar. I lost the recce element there, but not before effective targeting by arty.

By scenario end, I had a good picture of the BW disposition and recce elements had crossed the Ems River near Neuenbrunslar, the Sommerbach River near dissen, and would be in Alterburg within the hour.

Marginal victory with no depot time and 71 VPs needed for refit. Had I been more aggressive in scouting, this would likely have been a Tactical Victory.

Soviets lost 11 recce vehicles.

BW lost 11 x tanks, 14 x inf, 3 Jaguar x AT, 9 x 40mm AD. KG and Bde HQs were rendered severely degraded (no HQ sqds at KG and a single HQ sqd at Bde).

It would be nice if scenarios were long enough to do a recon/counter-recon phase before an attack.

[Mad Russian]

Unfortunately, the scenarios can't be all things to all people. When I made these scenarios the game was still mostly fresh for us and nobody knew how to play it all that well. It's taken you guys this long to even getting around to thinking about doing recon battles. What would happen in the case of turning this into a recon battle for you is that I would remove the tanks, which would drop the point value on the Soviet side and make it easier to get a higher level of victory. That would have to be worked out.

I thought of them for you by giving most of the battles at least 2 extra hours. Here is the issue with playtime, who else on this planet plays the game the way I do, or Charles does, or you do? There is no way to balance a scenario for each of our play styles. So, my job, lucky me, is to try to hit that spot in the middle that they play well for most of us, most of the time.

We unlocked the scenarios so that you could modify them for primarily that reason.

There are some 'extended' time scenarios in the upcoming campaign. We'll see how they do for you. I can tell you that now that we all have more experience with the game system they will play tighter. You will have to bring your A game to win some of them. There is a scenario in the campaign that, while I've gotten a good result, I haven't taken all the objectives. Not yet. I came close but we'll see how you guys do. [&o]

And just so you know, small recon engagements are some of my favorite ones to do. So you will see me trying to add them to the mix whenever possible. There are A LOT of WG recon assets in the new campaign. A LOT OF THEM!! That should tell you something. [:D]

Good Hunting.

MR

[IronMikeGolf]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, MR. I do feel for you as scenario designer. I guess a few of us are approaching this like something running at the Sim Center for a CPX instead of a game.