Adjusted S42 Alt Campaign - v1 - von Nev

[von Nev]

As a result of these issues I have adjusted Volcano Man’s _Alt campaign with the following changes:

• Increased German air availability to 50% from 20%
• Decreased Russian replacement rate to 2% from 4%
• Increased German replacement rate to 3% from 2%
• Added German bunkers in most villages within the historical pocket including adding bunkers along the Marinovka “nose” as well as along the Rassashka and Cherelenaya rivers. This is to try to give the Germans a defendable line of defense that can survive the Russian artillery. I expect the Germans will defend bitterly this defensive line (as they did historically). Once this line is pierced although the German will have some bunkers in villages but these will not constitute a connected line of defense.
• Russian supply is reduced:
o (0, 3) 75 instead of 80
o (87, 0) 75 instead of 90
o (249, 136) 85 instead of 95
o (249, 165) 85 instead of 90
• Added German supply points in Stalingrad proper. These are small supply points in the “historical” northern and southern pockets. With these supply points the German defense will not simply collapse to the nearly ineffective isolated status if Pitomik and Gumrak fall.
o (201, 143) 10 supply points (southern pocket)
o (211, 130) 10 supply points (northern pocket)
• Max stacking reduced to 1,000 from 1,300
• Clear terrain combat modifier of 2% instead of 0%. This means that units that are out in the clear are more vulnerable to fire. They should be since historically they were walking across snow covered fields. This impacts both Germans and Russians and even units that are in defensive position dug-in in clear terrain.
• In an effort to make defensive positions more impactful I generally increased the defensive bonuses of all defensive positions to near 40% and then used the “other” bonus for bunkers and pillboxes to improve it from there. My thoughts are that a trench, a bunker and a pillbox all start out as a trench with a bunker and a pillbox an improvement on a trench. These changes will give the German infantry survivability while waiting for the relief attack to start.
o Bunker defense increased to -40% +20 from -30% +10.
o Pillbox defense increased to -40% +30 from -40% +20.
o Trench increased to -40% from -25%.
o Improved increased to -30% from -20%.
• Instead of increasing wholesale the attack values of German panzers I decided to increase panzer survivability through increased replacements and dramatically increase the attack values of German airpower.
o Stuka hard attack increased to 50 from 15 (now in testing they consistently destroy 1 or 2 tanks per attack)
o Stuka soft attack increased to 30 from 8
o Ju-88 hard attack increased to 10 from 5
o Ju-88 soft attack increased to 40 from 18
o He-111 hard attack increased to 15 from 7
o He-111 soft attack increased to 50 from 28
• In reading Gen Raus’ book “Panzer Operations” it was clear that the German units outside the pocket conducting the relief operations were highly effective in inflicting massive casualties on the Russians. As a result, to improve these units’ ability to constantly be in the attack over a week of hard combat, I added a specific reinforcement rate for the 6th, 11th, 17th, 22nd and 23rd Panzer divisions.
o The panzer regiments received 2% replacement (1% for the 11th & 22nd and the 203 Stug Battalion)
o Infantry regiments and the panzerjager companies received 1% replacements
• Within the pocket to increase the survivability of German panzer units I added a 1% replacement rate to the panzer regiments of those units (14th & 24th PzD and Stug battalions 177, 243, 244, 245).
• In reading Gen Raus’ book on the relief attacks he indicated that he had a very effective 42 vehicle Stug unit under the command of Maj Koch at his disposal. While it is unclear exactly which unit this is, in order to improve the punch of the relief force I added this unit at (62, 260). This addition may not be historic but I see it as a small point in the grand scheme of things.
• Reduced the Russian artillery setup to 55 instead of 75. This reduces the ease of Russians setting up and moving artillery units.
• Reduced the amount of movement points a tracked vehicle has to move in clear from 6 to 5. This helps the Russians but also helps the very mobile German relief attack.
• My opponent questioned why very few bridges were destroyed. Therefore:
o Small bridge wired increased to 85 from 80
o Big bridge wired increased to 75 from 65
• Increased the command radius of the 6th Panzer Division to 20 from 15 based on its historical effectiveness.

In implementing these changes I found in testing that it does not at all prevent the Russian forces from breaking through the Romanian lines in both the north and south in the historic timeline. Therefore, these changes do not prevent the closing of the pocket it simply enhances the German ability to survive until at least the German relief attack starts.