Balance discussion/suggestions

[ComradeP]

I agree that you shouldn't be able to get a guaranteed result from an assault in the game. However, comparing it directly to real world results in terms of how long a position was held is problematic because we're not facing area of operation restrictions and can bring more men, tanks and artillery than were historically used. By design, units will also remain in combat longer than they would in real life and will take more casualties.

An attack on a radar station is difficult to model on a 1 km scale map, but it might be possible in PzB. One of the main challenges in a wargame is recreating historical results. An isolated position holding out for almost two weeks is very difficult to recreate, because you're using a numerical system that can be beaten by increasing odds or by attacking more often.

The various French ports that were encircled by the Allies would not be likely to be besieged in a wargame, they would probably be attacked as you know that it will free up troops in the end even though you take higher losses on the short term. Often, a position held out for a long time because it wasn't deliberately attacked by larger units, but was slowly being reduced by follow-up units as the spearhead containing the best units moved on.

It's sort of a paradox in wargames: breakthroughs are not often as shattering as they were in real life because the defending player has full control and can often instantly respond (either directly after the breakthrough started in WEGO or in his part of the turn in IGOUGO), but at the same time units take (substantially) more losses than they would in a comparable operation in the actual war. For assaults, that means units are over time likely to be either completely destroyed if they hold out until the last man or will no longer be combat capable. However, destroying them or removing them from the fight takes a long time.

With only 1 assault mechanic, balancing assaults on positions that were strongly held or not so strongly held but held by determined troops and which still resisted for a long time, with balancing assaults that turned into overruns within 1-2 game turns is a challenge. Making the stronger positions pillboxes helps, but it will always be a difficult balancing act. That's also why I'd favour small changes to the assault mechanic to bring it closer to direct fire, but no serious changes to how an assault works (possibly aside from an assault strength percentage bonus if you attack across multiple hexsides).