Russian Morale Gains

[AFV]

There has been a substantial amount of changes since I last played 5 years ago. One appears to be Russian morale. I am playing the AI, Normal Difficulty, I am the Russian. The moral gains are huge (at least they seem huge to me). Nearly every turn, units gain about 4 morale points (at least till they get back to 45). I have seen units gain 7 points (rare). I do not remember the gains being this large way back when on v 1.03 or whatever it was.
Also, it seems quite often units that are closer than 10 hexes from enemy units are gaining morale. I am not saying they should not, it just seems the average morale gain is quite high.
Perhaps I am remembering inaccurately- is this just they way it should be?

[AFV]

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

I am about to go offline for 4 days. Just wanted to ask where your German game stands in the context of these discussions. Are you just too good, so your experience must be thrown out and your techniques cannot be learned from, or have even you been slowed down with latest versions? I suppose you think that if you played both sides your Russian player would easily win?

Our schedule is terrible until the end of July with critical WitW work and everyone taking vacations (at 2by3 and Matrix) and Historicon coming up, so I would not expect any changes for at least a month. But first some consensus of what is needed must be determined.

If I follow the rule changes correctly, the following morale gain rule has been changed as noted:

If a units morale is below 50, and is in refit mode --> If a units morale is below 50, and is in refit mode and more than 10 hexes from an enemy unit

So both items Pelton suggests to elminate are if over 10 hexes from enemy. Yes, they were by design in order to allow units in the rear to quickly improve to a minimum morale level (50). I don't think we'd ever want to eliminate these rules entirely, but perhaps they could be changed to a different minimum morale level (45, or NM not to exceed 45 if you want to keep the Axis Allies down).

Michael, your idea for a change has a different impact in it does reduce the impact of some NM gains, but still allows a Soviet player that keeps units in the rear refitting to get units to 50. I'm not saying one is better, just that they are two different changes.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone. I'll try to take a look at this thread when I return next week and before I leave for my 25th marriage anniversary vacation.

I was hoping for more interest on this question. I found this thread ("Please fix Soviet morale in 1941, its broken.") by Michael T, and a reply post by Joel, but it is quite old but it never really came to a conclusion, and I don't really know how relevant it is, and if a fix was implemented. I still find it odd that its pretty easy to have a Russian division recover 8 points of morale in two turns back up to 45 (37 to 41 to 45). Maybe there were other threads after this and I simply did not find them. In any event- does anyone know offhand, is this WAD?

Thanks guys, it will take me a while to get back up to speed on this beast!

[thedoctorking]

It seems reasonable to me that a week or two out of the line would replenish morale at least to some degree. I'd say that the increase probably should be greater the lower the starting point.

I make a habit of pulling front-line divisions back into reserve positions if I notice that their morale is lower than about 10 points below the national average. Also if fatigue levels are high or TOE levels are low, naturally.

[AFV]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking

It seems reasonable to me that a week or two out of the line would replenish morale at least to some degree. I'd say that the increase probably should be greater the lower the starting point.

I make a habit of pulling front-line divisions back into reserve positions if I notice that their morale is lower than about 10 points below the national average. Also if fatigue levels are high or TOE levels are low, naturally.

I of course also pull units back, I agree with that- its not whether they *should* recover morale- they should of course- but does 8 points in 2 weeks, which they do recover more often than not- sound a tad high?

[56ajax]

Well it does seem somewhat excessive but rest assured they still rout at the drop of a hat, cannot get much past morale of 45, takes 6 months to build up experience, which is just in time to get surrounded in the '42 offensive. (Don't I know it).

[thedoctorking]

Eight points is reasonable for a two-week spell out of the line, IMHO.

A very interesting book about the mental attitude of a front-line soldier (though referring to World War 1) is "Goodbye to All That" by Robert Graves. He discusses the British practice of rotating guys out of the line and shows the remarkable effect on even cynical and war-weary troops like himself. The fact that the USSR didn't have much of this sort of thing in WW2 was a constraint on their effectiveness that you as a player can remedy though better management than the historical actors. This is good.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking
A very interesting book about the mental attitude of a front-line soldier Goodbye to All That" by Robert Graves.

Could I also recommend The Pity of War by Niall Ferguson. I do not rate much of what he has commercially published since - but The Pity of War made his name originally and is brilliant. Basically explains the entire First World War without mentioning battles but just calculating the odds of things like percentage chance you will live if you surrender etc. Makes it really clear statistically why the German army morale collapsed suddenly in 1918 and surrenders suddenly shot up. When it comes to pyschology of the conscripted soldier - and the money causes behind it - it is the best I have read.

One of the early disasters on the western front was blamed on the small Portuguese element. But given they never had a chance to go home or rest and recuperate it was not too surprising.