janh
Posts: 1141
Joined: 6/12/2007
Status: offline
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Hi Greyjoy,
yes, AE is a much "greater" time hog. I enjoy your AAR btw! I envy everyone who has enough free time on a regular basis to do such PBEM matches and write good AARs. Playing or modding three monster games... thankfully AI doesn't complain if it is being ignored for a week or two.
I'd recommend giving WitE another try if you can scrape together the time. Much has changed since, and the balance is pretty much in a competitive middle-ground for AI and PBEM games. The logistics and HQ-build-up rules have received some do-overs, rendering the latter less powerful and logistics tighter in general. They may still be rather forgiving for the attacker, though, but it's acceptable now.
The blizzard rules have been significantly relaxed, the penalties and dangers for the Wehrmacht are not near as bad anymore as in the days of BigAnork's blizzard guide. Still most Axis players do the wise thing and conduct a fighting withdrawal during the worst period (December-January) to get to more defensible ground, or to conserve forces for spring. Perfectly in accordance with theory, so to speak. Assuming an average successful 41 summer offensive with >= 4M Soviet casualties, people have been able to succeed with limited forward fighting during blizzard in the AGN and part of AGC zones, losses typically being only a few regiments or division now. Unfortunately the penalties are still severe enough to hinder Wehrmacht counterattacks. Anything like a Demyansk pocket holding for months and Germans counterattacking is unlikely even against AI, so the big-picture results are believable on average but not for the right reasons yet. That won't change until WitE 2, though, when hopefully the change of initiative and advantages of the Soviets during blizzard will naturally arise from the German logistic breakdown rather than from a somewhat arbitrary rule. After a less than average 41 summer offensive, Soviet casualties being way less than 4M, fighting it out remains suicidal for Wehrmacht. Yet come spring the Soviets again turn soft and generally now a summer offensive is always in the cards, sometimes even an early and limited spring offensive. No longer trench affairs after spring.
Check out a few AARs and you'll see how Soviet or Axis Sir Robins are being proven to fail, much as too forward focused defense during Barbarossa for one or for Wehrmacht for the other seem to be rendered crude mistakes and neglect of military teachings. You will also see very successful Axis players coming close to 1942 victories, or Soviet players how read the Axis intentions correctly and managed to stop him cold. And also players, who after a mediocre 41 summer offensive recovered momentum in 42 again to create huge pockets. Against AI all that is of course another story, but generally it seems the balance now allows a lot more to happen in a competitive middle-ground.
There is also another patch and addon in the making apparently which will likely allow to modify a lot of the special rules (yet to be confirmed). More reason to jump in again.
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