Moscow '42 balance opinions thus far?

[ComradeP]

I'm guessing at least some of us here have some reasonable amount of experience with the game by now, so I'm curious what the verdict is on the balance of the main December-February winter campaign.

I haven't played the campaign to the end against the AI or human, but my limited experience with the game has shown some (theoretical) problems (that are in some cases also seemingly present in PzC/OC titles).

The biggest problem I'm encountering as the Soviets is that the Germans can trade space for time much more freely than they could in real life. The campaign notes and several posts on this forum refer to "forcing the Germans to stick to the roads" and "exploiting gaps in the front with cavalry", but there seems to be a very simple German counter to that: simply withdrawing 1 hex per daylight turn for the first few weeks in areas without bunkers, until forces have recovered some strength.

Now, that might sound like a crazy idea, but take a look at the map first. When the Germans retreat roughly 150-180 hexes (just as an example), fighting a rearguard action for a couple of turns now and then, the Soviets can still lose because the value of the objectives they can capture isn't that high and a lot of their victory potential depends on inflicting losses on AGC.

Without many assaults and with artillery having to move each day, German losses are not going to be all that severe and can be countered by a favourable casualty ratio in the 9. Armee sector and with artillery barrages at advancing Soviet units. You can use horse recon units in T mode to spot the Soviets and fire at them without the Soviets being able to do all that much about it. The Soviets can do the same thing to you, but usually less efficiently because unit-for-unit Soviet units can spot for fewer artillery units than their German counterparts.

Meanwhile, whilst your infantry is slowly retreating, your mobile units can take 2-3 weeks rest (you can race them down a major road in their sector after a couple of days, a bit longer for 2. Panzergruppe) and recover a significant chunk of their strength. Even though German initial replacement rates are not all that high, you have plenty of time before the Soviets get close to the hexrows that tip the objective point total in their favour. Slowly retreating also means that the Soviets will usually not be able to encircle or destroy units and that divisional cohesion can be maintained.

As I noted a while ago, German motorized infantry units move twice as fast as Soviet Rifle units, and in terms of terrain covered compared to the Soviets are thus faster than they would be in summer. Likewise, even though German vehicle unit MP's have been cut during Frozen turns, they're not terrible and Panzer divisions can recover strength normally over time.

The Soviets have no units aside from Tank brigades that can assault up to a distance of two hexes in clear terrain without being in T mode, which is a huge problem considering that you're supposed to be attacking and making breakthroughs. Soviet Tank brigades are also weak initially and they will be severely outmatched by the time the 13 German Panzer divisions recover some of their strength (particularly in snow weather, when the Germans also lose their Frozen vehicle MP penalty). The Soviets also lose (I believe) 5 Tank brigades over time to withdrawals, including some of their better ones (with KV's and T-34's).

The problem of the Germans being able to recover their tank strength at a seriously ahistorical rate is also seemingly present in scenarios like Normandy '44 and Kharkov '43, judging by AAR's and screenshots showing casualty overviews. The Soviets in Moscow '42 have no counter to 13 combat effective Panzer divisions and because their infantry units are so slow, they will have even more problem with getting away from the Panzers than they would have in summer (where you can at least leave a rearguard to keep the Panzers busy for a short while).

The Soviets have a large number of cavalry divisions, but those can't really be employed with good effect if you can't break the enemy line, something which isn't going to happen if the Germans simply withdraw 1 hex as soon as they see a large stack appearing next to them, thus preventing an assault.

Ski units, which are supposed to be your best units for assaulting, can't assault a target 2 hexes away either and are thus equally useless if the Germans withdraw, particularly keeping in mind that firing at German units is not efficient due to the significant German superiority in soft attack values.

On the other hand, if the Germans want to make a stand, the Soviets can grind them into a pulp at an ahistorical rate as well, so the scenario sort of has two extremes from my perspective.

Now, I have some ideas as to how to counter a German withdrawal, but the fact remains that not being able to counter it through applying pressure is a big problem. Pressure only works if the enemy can't withdraw without exposing some part of its frontline or a crucial objective, after all.

Not allowing tank units of both sides to draw replacements, or possibly the German units none and the Soviets at a lower rate than normal, would reduce the chance of an armoured backhand blow move by the Germans and a large tank attack by the Soviets, but that wouldn't solve the problem of the Soviet infantry, cavalry and ski troops having to essentially fight on German terms because they're so slow.

German rail movement also doesn't feel right at their initial frontline, but I'm not sure what could be done about that without it harming supply.

I'm interested in hearing your opinions, and perhaps balance suggestions if you feel something doesn't work well.