1119_01c: Op Uranus (19 Nov - 19 Dec)[HTH]_Alt_Nev by Von Nev

[Mr Grumpy]

1119_01c: Op Uranus (19 Nov - 19 Dec)[HTH]_Alt_Nev

As many of you may remember, I started adjusting the S42 Alt campaign based on my experience playing the campaign against a very tough Russian player. The attached campaign has all my changes. Hopefully you will like it. All files to play the campaign are included in the .ZIP file. Simply download it and unzip it in the folder that your S42 game is installed.

Marty

P.S Below is the description of the campaign and the changes I made as reflected in the designer notes which are included in the .ZIP file.


PzC Stalingrad '42 Scenario Adjustment Notes



Files Needed:

• Scenario Filename: 1119_01b: Op Uranus (19 Nov - 19 Dec) - [HTH]_Alt_Nev
• MAP Filename: Stalingrad.map (this comes with the game)
• OOB Filename: Stalingrad '42 Nov_Alt_McNamara_Nev.oob
• PDT Filename: Stalingrad_Winter_Alt_Nev.pdt

Optional Rules:

Arty Setup, Recon Spotting, Virtual Supply Trucks, Low Vis Air Effects, Quality Fatigue Modifier, Counter Battery Fire, Night Fatigue, Programmed Weather and Limited Air Recon


Observations:

When I played this campaign I noticed that the German could not achieve a historical outcome when two evenly matched advanced players played each other. A historical outcome was one where if a pocket is formed it could hold for a historic period of time. In my campaign a pocket along roughly the historic lines was formed but the combined Russian power of the artillery and concentrated stacks of Russian infantry and tanks completely overwhelmed the Germans. Within 2 weeks of the start of the campaign on Nov 19, the German airfields were taken and the pocket collapsed. All the while, the German counterattack forces sat fixed.

Why did this happen?

1. Russian player knows when the German counterattack begins and therefore turns all forces against the pocket including the powerful 5th Tank Army prior to when the counterattack can start. Historically this did not happen.

2. The Germans have little to stop stacks of Russian tanks. With stacking limits well above 1,000 the Russians could create over a dozen stacks of 100+ T-34 and KV-1 tanks and wipe out whatever Germans cross their path. German artillery, air and panzers are largely ineffective against these powerful stacks.

3. The significant and very numerous Russian artillery destroyed German units (even dug-in units) preventing the Germans from being able to create credible and survivable defensive lines.

Additionally, it has come to my attention that there are several very a-historic German offensive strategies that can be employed to defeat the Russians. This should not happen and should not be feasible and this scenario should help address this issue. Historical evidence shows that the Germans were in no position to go on the offensive. The German strategies were:

1. Pull all the German motorized and panzer divisions out of Stalingrad and attack north into the Russian 66th Army. These forces can quickly destroy a large part of the Russian army because most of these Russian units are fixed without armor. The original scenario does not fix the German divisions in Stalingrad and therefore the same hour of the start of the Russian offense the Germans can immediately move to concentrate their counterattack. Historically the German 6th Army and the 4th Panzer Army were short on fuel for such a large movement, those units were already engaged in combat in the streets of Stalingrad and were largely burnt out and the German high command was confused as to the Russian intentions and could not react so quickly.

2. Pull all the German motorized and panzer divisions out of Stalingrad and attack the southern pincer. You can see how this was effective as it included the 16th, 14th and 24th Panzer Divisions along with the 29th Motorized Infantry Division. This again is not historically feasible (see point 1 above).

Scenario changes:

1. Increased the hard and soft attack values of the Luftwaffe to make the Luftwaffe relevant. The Stuka's attack goes to 50/30, yes 50 hard attack, and the HE-111's and Ju-88's attack values goes up to 15/50 and 10/40 respectively. In play testing, these changes allows the Luftwaffe to deal more effectively with Russian tank stacks (1 to 2 destroyed per strike in my numerous tests of 9 Stukas vs 20 KV-1's) and mass Russian infantry stacks but it does not alter game play as there are too few German air units compared to the whole map. Now to be clear, where the German apply the airpower it will damage the Russians (as happened historically).

2. Lowered max stacking to 1,000. This reduces the ability of the Russian (or German) player to make uber-stacks and also lowers the overall density of units allowed in the game in any one location.

3. Lowered Russian recovery to 2% and increased German recovery to 3%. This better allows for the game to last the 306 turns of the scenario. Without this, the Russian player simply could recover way too much men and materially over the course of the game. In short, the scenario becomes unbalanced after about 80 turns because of the Borg reproductive possibilities of a Russian army that is 225,000 strong that very seldom gets a unit eliminated while the Germans typically lose actual units.

4. Two Axis supply sources are added in the city of Stalingrad proper. These supply sources allow the Germans to mount some sort of defense in the event that the airfields are taken. The PzC game engine is unforgiving to units that are "Isolated" and typically once in this status they collapse quickly. This prevents this and allows pockets of resistance in the city to resist fanatically. The sources are roughly in the same place where the historical northern and southern pockets were. They start at 30 each but because the Germans have 4 reductions of 5 points each by game's end these supply points are 10 in reality.

5. I alternately fixed and unfixed the German IV, LI, XIV and VIII corps for a period of time at the start of the campaign. This prevents the a-historic movement of masses of German panzer divisions to do a-historic counterattacks and also represents the confusion and uncertainty that gripped the German high command. The German player is forewarned: If they pull all the German panzers out of Stalingrad and try to run them all over the map they risk having them fixed in bad places at bad times for a long time. This change hopefully gives the German player some defensive flexibility but that flexibility stays within historic norms of the confines of the historic pocket.

6. To prevent the Russian from massing all Russian forces on the pocket before the German counterattack starts, I began fixing and unfixing the 5th Tank Army and the 21st and 65th Armies. The fixing and unfixing starts just after the historic closing of the pocket (Nov 24th). The effect of this should be that the Russian player needs to hurry and take chances to close the pocket within historic timelines but once closed they can't turn immediately on the pocket. If the Russian player can't close the pocket by Nov 24th then this will have significant consequences for the Russians (as it should).

7. I added a boatload of bunkers and trenches along the historic German pocket lines. The bunkers are needed to offset the Russian arty advantage and overall high soft attack advantages. If you remember, bunkers only can be attacked with Hard Attack values. The reason there are so many bunkers is to make the pocket survivable for at least a month (306 turns). Remember that historically this pocket lasted until Jan 13th which is nearly another 270 turns after the end of this scenario! It was on this date the Russians launched "Operation Ring". Without the bunkers the Russian's stream roll the defenses in late November '42. To be clear, the Russians should NOT have an easy time breaking the pocket or even materially changing the front lines. Attacking the pocket should be very time consuming, VERY costly and most times unsuccessful. The Germans should have a fighting chance to hold the original bunker line for long enough for the German counterattack to start. The German player also has an incentive to fanatically hold this line as once this original bunker line is taken the defenses revert back to trenches (except in villages) which can be more easily taken as they are more susceptible to being pounded to disruption by Russian arty.

8. I added bunkers and minefields to help the Russian 24th Rifle Division of the 65th Army. Because the Russian line here is not very deep, the German 384th Inf Division may be inclined to go on offense (which people have done). This helps prevent this a-historic strategy from being effective.

9. To assist in getting a defensive pocket that is defendable for a long period of time I adjusted the defensive value of some terrain features. I won't list all of them here but there are many. For example, there is a 5% PENALTY for units in the CLEAR. If units are wandering about in the snow and can be seen for miles with no defensive cover they should be able to be mowed down by defensive fire (as happened historically). This mostly helps the Germans since they are usually on defense but anybody in the open (even units that are dug in) are affected. As a result of these defensive adjustments, villages, cities, bunkers and pillboxes are strong defensive positions (as happened historically). The Russians will have to figure out a way to outflank them or take enormous casualties trying to take them (which both happened historically).

10. Some other small changes including some OOB changes with the 6th Panzer Division.

I play tested these changes and they seem to help a great deal. The Russian can still break through the Romanians and form a pocket and yet they can't just steamroll the Germans in the pocket.

Large scenario 306 turns, Designer Von Nev

Any comments you would like to leave about this scenario can be posted in this thread.