Gamesaurus Rex plays the Germans!

[charlie0311]

difficult, sure. very difficult, sure again. Impossible, not so sure. I wonder what the sov tank and mech corp are capable of once they are fully loaded up. I'm wondering if all that artillery and constant air attacks (bomb unit) pretty much everywhere, that has to weaken the axis and maybe get to the breaking point by summer or winter 44. Not to deny any of your points.

The aars of stef v osh and morvael seem to be good indicators if they keep them coming. Neither seem to be doing the "carpet bombing" but maybe I'm just missing it.

[GamesaurusRex]

I have to say I agree with hfarrish's assessment. In the last game with Wheat, I played the Russians and although I managed to survive '41 and '42 and get a 9 million man counter attack going in '43... it soon devolved into WWI with the one hex per turn advances hfarrish talks about and then even less than that... despite the fact that I was assaulting single hexes with 9 Corps fully stuffed with 3 sappers each and 6 to 9 heavy rocket artillery divisions backing them up. Getting above a 1:1 was near impossible. Hitting them sequentially with followup armor, although it would eventually break the line, could not exploit it. I might have reached the Polish border by the end of '45, but that was all. Berlin was out the question.

This is why we started using logistics settings of 90/100, fortress settings of 75/75, and HR that limit units of both sides to 1 sapper/pioneer for both sides. We are still experimenting with the mix and are tinkering by turning the fortress down and AP up to allow both the German and Russian more AP to build fortifications. That way the fortresses are slow to build but can be expedited with AP fortress zones, making it an affordable choice (which it is not with the default settings). The default setting just sprouts too much fortification too fast everywhere.

Looking forward to Morvael's 1.08 patch so we can tweak the morale levels and make the Rumanians a bit stronger.

[hfarrish]

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[GamesaurusRex]

ORIGINAL: hfarrish


I am going to cherish this moment of agreement Gamer - good luck as the hun!

[:)] I try to be objective (in a hobby rife with passions ? [:D])

I'll need the luck you offer. It's Turn 15, Sept 25, 1941, and the Wehrmacht has just broken through the line just south of Leningrad and isolated the city (he still has supply through the lake)... and broken through several wide sections of the front between Moskow and Leningrad in an effort to pocket the entire Northern Russian Front. With the Germans within 40 miles of the gates of Moskow, will the Soviets be able to avoid a general northern collapse before winter ? Will bad weather intervene and stall the advance ? Time is running out and winter is coming... We shall see.

[Champagne]

Sounds like a very exciting game !

Please keep us posted.

[charlie0311]

thinking, (me!), that maybe GR should know how far from the railhead he can be come mud. It's 100 motorized MP's or less, otherwise he's isolated. Psst, Wheat, now I'm keeping secrets.

[Wheat]

Turn 15 and GR has cut off Leningrad by land, but not by sea. However, 200,000 hail and hearty Russian volunteers will defend it to the last. Did I mention the NKVD prepared the volunteer rolls.

Moscow is threatened, but it still stands proud. Stalin has evacuated, seeing the writing on the proverbial wall.

We are playing random weather, and so far, GR's sacrifices to the weather gods have been powerful. I always get mud as the Germans, but he hasn't. I suspect another Morvael bug to help GR. Just you watch at all the fawning posts he gives Morvael when the 1.08 patch comes out!

In the south he is up to Kharkov and not yet to Stalino. Sevastopol is also cut off, but I am assured by its defenders that it will hold against all assaults.

That's the general gist of things.

And charlie0311, forts are too strong! In the previous game in spring 44, I had a fort line of 3's that when GR attacked 18 spots, 16 held. That was with artillery, all corps, good commanders, everything he could do. He would have never made it to Berlin.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: Wheat

Did I mention the NKVD prepared the volunteer rolls.

Your channeling of Stalin is eerily accurate.

[charlie0311]

Hi Wheat, et al

You already knew what I would say but anyway. In my game (t77 now), mostly cold in Nov, I have attacked close to 20 lvl 3 forts in recent turns, all successful, my opponent has 6 games "in the books" as axis player. I have a substantial air force and have sometimes done some "warm up" bombing but it doesn't seem to make much difference. I have four tricked out shock armies (all cav), i keep them "involved", maybe that's the difference. Artillery divisions will be coming along soon and some mech. My lvl 3 sov forts earlier in the game didn't stand up at all.

That stuff I was saying about axis being isolated come mud may have been a .11 bug. Not sure, in "Charlie talk" not sure means haven't a clue.

Saw recently in the Osh v Stef game something about guards morale bonus. What's going on here, I thought the morale bonus for guards was gone in .15.

Pretty sure that the fort lvls are being reduced by arty, have only watched a few, I have added 120 mm mortars to every army, early on.

[GamesaurusRex]

ORIGINAL: Wheat

I suspect another Morvael bug to help GR. Just you watch at all the fawning posts he gives Morvael when the 1.08 patch comes out!

Hey ! Don't knock Morvael ! His work has been absolutely essential.

If you remember, Wheat, my first game with you was under Patch 1.07.11 (the one with the morale bug, remember ?)... and you convinced me we had to give the Germans a morale boost of 103 because "according to the forum consensus the Russians were too strong"... I kept waiting to see the power of the so-called Red Army 2.0 ... Well,... after the Germans had slaughtered the whole Russian Army and were drinking tea in the Urals, I was still waiting... and as the Germans, you had lost what ?? maybe 3 trucks and a pair of boots ? [:D] (Yeah.. the morale bug was hilarious... If I recall correctly, it was the Italians that took Stalingrad singlehandedly.)

So I've got nothing but applause for Morvael. Without his efforts, we would still be playing "War In The Absurd".

[hfarrish]

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[charlie0311]

thx for response, 1) nothing on reserve activation as far as I can tell (don't really like to spend time watching the combats play out) 2) the pz and mot div have been used for strong points
3) the axis took a pretty huge beating winter 41-42. Neither myself or my opponent are anywhere near the skill level I have seen demonstrated in aars. My point is that the fort levels, not necessarily the combat results, are too easy to reduce. Not advocating for changes, I like the game very much. Considering your experience (v mine) I would have to agree with your remarks about a "slog". I am still wondering if reserve activations can be significantly reduced by bombing. Hope to get the chance to find out.

[hfarrish]

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[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: hfarrish

...if it were harder to build forts, I would have no objections to the ones that were built being stronger.

I think this is a great idea.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: hfarrish

ORIGINAL: charlie0311

thx for response, 1) nothing on reserve activation as far as I can tell (don't really like to spend time watching the combats play out) 2) the pz and mot div have been used for strong points
3) the axis took a pretty huge beating winter 41-42. Neither myself or my opponent are anywhere near the skill level I have seen demonstrated in aars. My point is that the fort levels, not necessarily the combat results, are too easy to reduce. Not advocating for changes, I like the game very much. Considering your experience (v mine) I would have to agree with your remarks about a "slog". I am still wondering if reserve activations can be significantly reduced by bombing. Hope to get the chance to find out.

We probably don't actually disagree - I think that forts are too quick to build less than I think they are "too strong" - if it were harder to build forts, I would have no objections to the ones that were built being stronger. This would definitely help the Germans in '41 (unlike past help like flying gas cans that was clearly ridiculous) while giving the Germans more of an incentive in '43+ to try to change the game through offense (since sitting in trenches would be less effective).

One of the difficulties in order to achieve breakthrough comes from the ability for both players to build in depth defence.

In my games as german entering 1943+, I was able to build a 3 hexes fort line in the South => it means a 30 miles in depth defence. It never occured during the war except perhaps for the russians at Kursk

And the forts are efficient whatever the direction of the attack. that's illogical. Forts are built to prevent an attack coming from a definite axe, they are pretty useless in the other cases.

[GamesaurusRex]

Just an update for those interested. Germans have managed to take Moskow and right hook around Leningrad has cut the rail supply and is 50 miles (5 hexes) from the Finish Troops at the no-attack-line. Maybe two moves until Blizzard... Who knows ? We'll probably all die of frostbite... LOL. (I love this game.)

[hfarrish]

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[Ketza]

Would have loved to see an AAR on him taking Moscow.

[Flaviusx]

This may be the first time I've ever heard of losing Moscow and keeping Leningrad. An AAR would indeed be interesting here.

But if Leningrad is cut off from even Lake Supply it too may fall in due course, so maybe not so weird.

[Wheat]

Maybe I can post some screenshots, but GR does not have Leningrad isolated. The last port by the Finns (Sivrsky?)still supplies it. Next turn is #25, first of Dec 41 and still blizzard I hope even with random weather.

We prepare to attack!