Rule 2:1

[Chris21wen]

I keep reading about this or something like it, most appear to hate it. Could someone tell me what it is as I can't find anything in the manual.

[Aurelian]

Russian attacks at 1:1 become 2:1

With the current patch, you can have it be that, or 2:1 becomes 1:1 (Russian defense), or turn it off altogether

[jwolf]

Also the 2:1 rule lasts only through February 1942.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

Russian attacks at 1:1 become 2:1

With the current patch, you can have it be that, or 2:1 becomes 1:1 (Russian defense), or turn it off altogether

Are! the Soviet attack bonus. Having played the game for a while not sure why it is needed but from the threads I've read neither do most people.

[heliodorus04]

So originally it was intended to give the Soviet side the ability to conduct limited offensives in the 1941 period leading up to the Blizzard. It was especially awful in the Blizzard turns of 41 as the original Winter rules were godawful for the German, and there was no option for "limited winter" (limited winter rules also evolved as part of this 1:1>shift>2:1, but that's another tale).

I never played a lot of games versus people, especially after 1.06 series patches. I'm not the most familiar person with the exploits human Soviet players were doing, but it boiled down to this, as I understood it:
1) Some smart Soviet players figured out a way to load up a few Army-level HQs with good leadership, proper SUs, and a good mix of divisions such that they could routinely achieve 1:1 odds (before shift) on any German division that was not stacked, especially motorized divisions, which defend for crap, and which tend to be the furthest advancing German units by virtue of the fuel use.

2) By achieving this perfect Army mix and leveraging thee 1:1 Soviet odds shift, a couple other things happened that leveraged the game further toward the Soviet side. The first of these was the ability to generate a ridiculous number of Guards cavalry divisions for the winter of 41. There may have been some bug that factored into this in favor of the Soviet odds to become guards units. I can't recall.

3) Soviet morale went up very rapidly in the divisions that succeeded in attacks. Proper rotation of new divisions in and veteran divisions out of these "perfect Army-HQs" meant they were little Guards/morale-monster generators.

4) German morale in the defeated divisions went down, and this is a particular problem for the German side - to keep morale as high as possible into 1942.

So the original intention of the 1:1 odds shift became a huge stress point for the game that the Soviets could exploit, and the exploitation only accelerated the leverage that could be gained. It created a feedback loop of awesome Soviet/Suck Axis that was making players stop playing the German side (a recurrent problem in this community). For player versus player play to occur at the highest level of competitiveness, that rule had to be removed or no one could beat the best Soviet players - it was mechanically impossible.

Now it exists as an option to turn off or leave (and for the first time, to give the Soviet an odds shift for defense rather than attack).

Versus the AI, it's probably still a good rule to leave in place until at least February 42. But that's my experience, and memory of the issue.

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: heliodorus04


Now it exists as an option to turn off or leave (and for the first time, to give the Soviet an odds shift for defense rather than attack).

Versus the AI, it's probably still a good rule to leave in place until at least February 42. But that's my experience, and memory of the issue.

Thanks for the explanation.

Against the AI it's probably a good idea.