Adjusted S42 Alt Campaign - v1 - von Nev

[Krak]

Have you done anything with the victory conditions? In the stock game I think Russia needs 24000pts for a minor win. There are only about 15600pts available in objectives. This means for Russia to win he must pretty much capture the whole map PLUS get a very favourable kill rate.

So the point is if you are trying to force the game into an historical outcome or direction then you will need to adjust the victory conditions accordingly.

I must say even tho the unrealistic mobility the Germans have changes the nature of the battle its still a fabulous scenario. I love it. Thats why I have played it so often :)

[Jazman]

Anyone who has played the Operational Combat Series by The Gamers (its a boardgame) will know just what I mean, as in how fuel supplies determine how many panzer div's and PzG div's one can get moving in the Uranus scenarios.

That was an elegant solution. The OCS was instrumental in my education in what operational mobility and mobile warfare were all about. I feel that PzC is a bit lacking on the supply front, but I know it's easier to gripe than to come up with a good working solution that doesn't turn you into a quartermaster.

[Bidermann]

well done for all your work, I will give it a play when I get a chance.

[von Nev]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Keep it coming. I have already made some changes to the campaign I posted based on the feedback.

I am fixing the German infantry divisions that I listed and moving both the 24th PzD and the 16th PzD to fixed status for 1/2 the day on Nov 19th. Both of these changes will help slow down or reduce the effectiveness of the "Southern Gambit."

Additionally, to improve the pace that the Russians can break through the Romanian defenses on both the southern and northern attacks I have changed most of the Romanian defenses to trenches instead of bunkers. Bunkers remain although in forests and in villages but the bulk of the Romanian defensive lines is trenches in the open. I did this because play testing about 10 turns of the northern attack last night I found that the pace of the Russian breakthrough was too slow. This gave the German commander time to rush the 22nd PzD and the Romanian 1st Armored Division north with enough time to actually contain the breakthrough. Down south the breakthrough was also a little slower than I liked and gave the Germans the opportunity to pull infantry divisions and the two Panzer divisions out of the front lines in Stalingrad itself to reinforce the southern front.

I thought long and hard about just changing the Victory Point levels to solve this issue, but changing the VP levels never really addressed the fact that by 140 turns into the game the German pocket was eliminated. I am still looking at the VP's to make sure it makes sense with all my changes.

Regarding the question on the Luftwaffe, the hard attack numbers may seem high but the effect in game play is rather limited. In testing (and I have tested this about 25 times) I found that on average a Stuka strike of 10 Stukas with a hard attack of 50 destroyed 1 to 2 tanks in a 20 vehicle T-34 company and destroyed 3 to 4 when the 20 vehicle company was in travel mode. That doesn't seem high to me. What I was finding testing at the stock hard attack values of 16 that about 85% of the time the result was "fatigue" or "no effect."

[Mr Grumpy]

Additionally, to improve the pace that the Russians can break through the Romanian defenses on both the southern and northern attacks I have changed most of the Romanian defenses to trenches instead of bunkers. Bunkers remain although in forests and in villages but the bulk of the Romanian defensive lines is trenches in the open. I did this because play testing about 10 turns of the northern attack last night I found that the pace of the Russian breakthrough was too slow. This gave the German commander time to rush the 22nd PzD and the Romanian 1st Armored Division north with enough time to actually contain the breakthrough.

This is a good idea i feel, when i played the Russians in a multiplayer game we had to add extra Russian armour to this part of the line to ensure a quicker breakthrough and just a while ago i played the Rumanians in the small 16 turn scenario that covers this part of the line and my Russian opponent struggled to breakthrough again with just the historical Russian forces, so i think the loss of the bunkers is justified in game terms. ;)

[Jazman]

I'm thinking about a way to simulate fuel shortages. Take the motorized units of 6th Army, and give them a percentage chance of being fixed every turn. Also, give them a percentage chance of being unfixed every turn. This way, every turn, some may become fixed (low on fuel), and some of the low-on-fuel units may be unfixed (get fuel).

The trick is: can the same unit be fixed and unfixed, or unfixed and fixed, on the same turn? If so, alternate turns.

So, for 24th Panzer, you give them a X% chance every turn of being fixed, and an Y% chance of being unfixed. I think Y > X, because if there is a unit not moving, there is more chance of fuel becoming available.

Maybe you vary X and Y based on general supply level (you know that at the start of the scenario). Things get worse as you go.

Of course, the immediate drawback is for the units that could go on foot. Even on foot, they may get fixed.

Or you could just reduce the movement rating of the units, to reflect general fuel problems.


This leads to a thought for a game code change: could motorized units, when they go through their "fuel check" every morning, could a modifier be applied based on how much they moved the previous day? Yeah, that modifier would need to be tracked for a unit through all the turns...but the fuel check is already being done. You'd just need to take the modifier into account for that check, and then figure out how to track that modifier as the unit moves through the day. Just a thought...obviously anything could be done in the code, given enough time and resource (what, the guys at HPS are limited??).

Or maybe there could just be an "out of fuel" state in addition to "low fuel", with severe movement penalties.