Options 1.04

[XLVIII Pz. Korp]

Peter,

Since you asked... I don't think of myself as "Ladder Leader" but I've been here quite a while, and I've been gaming since the late 60's (is that my age showing?) This in mind I do have opinions.

Being an alumnus of the disrupt, surround, annihilate cabal you may find it surprising that after my initial shock with the 1.03, 1.04 asault changes I'm delighted with them! As you've noted many games were won by mastering that tactic and once you had it down... watch out opponents here comes the steamroller.

When 1.03 came out I patched in the middle of a very large Kursk scenario a few turns before I was about to hit a very large, very fortified, (bunkers and trenches) Soviet line. Reading all the assault horror stories at the time I was stunned by the seemingly insurmountable task in front of my landsers. More researching of posts on the boards by both sides of the argument seemed to point to correct prepping of the defender for an assault to carry. So I used that as my guide. I had plenty of nice stuff to "prep" with; lots of 105+ artillery and 9 sections of nebelwefers. Long story short it may have taken me a turn or two longer than in the past but I still rolled up the Sov line and still even managed a few annihilating assaults where disrupted units were herded into one hex for the final assault. I've since discovered that I was probably able to achieve those chain assaults because the defenders morales had been so busted up.

For myself I found it pretty satisfying because I didn't achieve it by "playing the system" (pre 1.03), I did it by some careful planning and preperation. This is not to say that I was not furious sometimes by the Sov positions that absolutely refused to fall by the end of the game even after being surrounded and assaulted continuously for 8-10 turns. But then aren't there always die hard pockets of resistance?

The new assault rules require me to think more, and perhaps play a sharper game. Where in the past I would shoot up and overrun defenders in a town I now manuever first in an effort to isolate the defenders (my first way to lower their morales) Where in the past I would dump my artillery all over the map I now co-ordinate the fire in more confined key areas (another effort at lowering defender morales). My style has changed but I think it has done so in a way that more closely approximates... dare I say the word... realism.

A final interesting anecdote for the stats people out there the only games I've lost since August have been to opponents that don't even own Matrix JTCS and still play the T/S version where I can surround and annihilate at will. Go figure?

Just my .02