Banging off the rust

[mmarquo]

What are you playing??

[Flaviusx]

Civ5, but not even that much of that. Reading more than gaming nowadays.

[Priapus1]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

No, I've settled into a role as grumpy critic. Was going to do something with Pelton, but he went AWOL.

Been many months since I fired up the game, but following AARs is fun.

Heh, I thought I was the only lunatic who follows the AAR's but doesn't play the game.

[Peltonx]

I did WitW for a while as my idea of fun is not watching paint dry( WitE ) and WitE looked more historical based on Middle earth and not WW II.

When u can start digging in turn 1 as GHC and get better results then attacking something is fundamentally wrong with the game.

All things being equal of course.

[Michael T]

I am thinking Sudden death, No 1-1 to 2-1, Forts at 50%, No Para drops at all, limit all bombing to 3 attacks per hex except T1 Axis airfield attacks, no HQ bombing unless stacked with another unit, Mild Winter, might even go with random weather, not sure. Maybe that will be more like WWII than WWI.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I am thinking Sudden death, No 1-1 to 2-1, Forts at 50%, No Para drops at all, limit all bombing to 3 attacks per hex except T1 Axis airfield attacks, no HQ bombing unless stacked with another unit, Mild Winter, might even go with random weather, not sure. Maybe that will be more like WWII than WWI.

Forts at 50%?

I like the rest of your ideas. At one time I thought random weather was bad, but seeing its more then likely GHC is on defensive from October 1941 to 1945 it can only help.

But if I am playing a newbie ( could be 7-0) I don't want to waste my time killing him off in 42 or 43.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

I am thinking Sudden death, No 1-1 to 2-1, Forts at 50%, No Para drops at all, limit all bombing to 3 attacks per hex except T1 Axis airfield attacks, no HQ bombing unless stacked with another unit, Mild Winter, might even go with random weather, not sure. Maybe that will be more like WWII than WWI.

You may want to be careful about some of these options until you have some experience with the mild first winter. For what it's worth, Loki and I recently played the Typhoon scenario two times, switching sides. We used the mild winter option and neither of us as the Soviets had much success during the blizzard counterattack. Admittedly, the scenario runs only through the end of December (5 blizzard turns) and not the whole winter; further, in this scenario the Red Army starts by design in terrible shape, far worse than a competent Soviet player would have it at that point in the campaign.

Nevertheless, both of us found it very difficult to make much headway with the Soviets during December, and that was with the 1:1 rule. Speculating into the future when 1:1 will be an optional setting, if you have both mild blizzard and no 1:1 rule then I fear that may be too much disadvantage to the Soviet side. Once we have version 1.08 these two options, among others, will be valuable IMHO as a way to balance the game depending on the relative skills and styles of the two players.

[Michael T]

50% forts will encourage a mobile war. It should mean the Iron wall is weakened and the Axis can hold the initiative longer. But when they lose it the Soviets will be able gain ground more rapidly. So the end result should be a war more about movement than trenches.

[Michael T]

My experience tells me that the game is so pro Soviet that I doubt I could go too far with these rules. But one or two games will answer that. Don't forget that Sudden Death limits the runaways which forces both sides to actually fight, or lose.

[carlkay58]

The Soviets are getting powerful in late July - early August. The Axis player must pick areas for the four panzer groups to attack at this time. The Soviets then go into their 41 Reorg and are weakened quickly which allows the Axis to develop their panzer attacks before mud hits. By the time mud ends, the Soviets have finished their reorg and are now lucky to have divisions with CV > 1. The snow turns are now important for the Axis to do their final 41 push to get as much territory as possible. The mild winter allows the Soviets to push back some of the Axis advances in December and make a bit of headway in January but the Axis are able to start counter attacking or holding in January and even start some limited push backs in February and March. Which sets up the 42 season where it seems to be pretty competitive these days.

The Soviets have to use their period of 41 strength wisely. This is the true opportunity in 41 for producing Guards units - but it only works if the Soviet player is aware of this opportunity and does it wisely (i.e. attack and then remove the successful divisions from the front before they get counter smacked down by the Axis at the end of the offensive).

I strongly suggest playing a few games of Barbarossa before committing to a campaign game because 41 has been the largest change since you were playing last. The Axis cannot continue to just plunge ahead anymore, they have to stop and recover before continuing on when the Soviets become weak. If the Soviet player does not do some counter offensives in this time period, they will not see units become Guards very easily.

The above is just emphasized even more in version 1.8.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

The Soviets are getting powerful in late July - early August. The Axis player must pick areas for the four panzer groups to attack at this time. The Soviets then go into their 41 Reorg and are weakened quickly which allows the Axis to develop their panzer attacks before mud hits. By the time mud ends, the Soviets have finished their reorg and are now lucky to have divisions with CV > 1. The snow turns are now important for the Axis to do their final 41 push to get as much territory as possible. The mild winter allows the Soviets to push back some of the Axis advances in December and make a bit of headway in January but the Axis are able to start counter attacking or holding in January and even start some limited push backs in February and March. Which sets up the 42 season where it seems to be pretty competitive these days.

The Soviets have to use their period of 41 strength wisely. This is the true opportunity in 41 for producing Guards units - but it only works if the Soviet player is aware of this opportunity and does it wisely (i.e. attack and then remove the successful divisions from the front before they get counter smacked down by the Axis at the end of the offensive).

I strongly suggest playing a few games of Barbarossa before committing to a campaign game because 41 has been the largest change since you were playing last. The Axis cannot continue to just plunge ahead anymore, they have to stop and recover before continuing on when the Soviets become weak. If the Soviet player does not do some counter offensives in this time period, they will not see units become Guards very easily.

The above is just emphasized even more in version 1.8.

1.08 will finally kill the exploit, I clearly know some claim not to use the exploit, but it causes SHC to win more then 50% of wins as I tracked in my current game vs Sapper

Turn 12 GHC Armaments: 45,000 Manpower Pool: 137,000

Manpower Pts over run during 1942 =
Russian Units Destroyed after November 1st 1941
Corp:
Divisions:
Brigades:
SU:
AP total:
Total dead: 1,461,000 Russian losses this turn: 24,000
Russian OOB: 4,982,000
A net gain of: 136,000
Russian units currently in a pocket:
GHC OOB: 3,309,000 ��- Ready Rifle Squads:
GHC net OOB change: -13,000
Total dead: 341,000 German losses this turn: 34,000

Air War

Ratio last turn: 2 : 1

GHC loses: 297
SHC loses: 675

Total GHC loses: 1927
Total SHC loses: 7740

Attacks won lost this turn
SHC------ 14------1------ 7 of the wins were because of 1v1=2v1 9 vs infantry, 2 vs mixed stacks.
Total win ratio 94% win ratio.
SHC------81------5 ------45--- because of 1v1=2v1 or 52%


Again for the 10,000 time in 3 yrs 1v1=2v1 is an exploit by design.

Morale is the King of The Battle Field and removing The Middle Earth rule will make the game playable again.

remove 50+% of wins during the summer of 1941 for SHC and they will not be attacking 20+ times per turn as this would drop morale allot and not drop GHC morale as much.

The rule simply even when not exploited like the better player accounted for 45% of a SHC players wins as per tracked.

SHC players like sapper bomazz ect will have to up there attack forumales which will GREATLY lower attacks per turn and simply not stop the GHC advance, which as we know everything snowballs.

This should make 1941 and 42 historical

a 94% win ratio for SHC in summer of 1941 is simply Middle Earth with 52% caused by 1v1=2v1