Battle for Moscow- AAR

[Currahee]

I think the Road to Moscow series is Rob Kunz. Brian's initial inspiration, according to his designer's notes, came from a board game.

The fluctuating shock effects are not itemized in the news bulletins, but the bulletins do give a hint, because whenever the German shock gets worse, there's a message that "frigid temperatures further reduce German combat effectiveness" or something like that. You have to read the scenario dump to get the details. Likewise, fluctuations in supply level and supply radius and replacement rates are generally noted in the news bulletins, but without the specific percentages.

But the shock is bad, it's about the heaviest hammer a designer has in TOAW, and I've rarely seen it go that low for so many turns; and Fabio and I were both surprised at the amount of combat power the German Army retained. But as said, I was attacking Russian units which were generally not well dug-in (altho some were); and I was attacking with units that were rested and supplied, and had moved into the combat area by rail on the preceding turn. Of course, once the defending units are worn down, you can be a bit more casual, and attack with whatever is available.

In this game, the German needs to scan all his rail at the first of each turn; playing as we were with "no borders" and "fog of war", it's not always easy to detect a rail interruption. You have plenty of rail auto-repair points, that's not the problem; the problem is that auto repair won't work in a hex controlled by the enemy! So if at the end of your long rail, your supply has dropped off, there's a kink in your system somewhere, and you have to saddle up a small unit, and work back, and find the problem. If you're lucky, it's just an unconverted hex, and your recon unit can convert it back, and usually you can use the rail for rail movement same turn, altho it'll be next turn before it distributes supply. But if you're unlucky, it'll be a Russian regiment sitting happily on your rail, and you'll have to find a way to deal with him.