But the Soviet Union is so big! Magicmissile (Axis) vs Marco70 (SU) No Marco for now.

[MagicMissile]

Hello everyone,

Ok throwing myself into this beast of a game. First just a small background so you know where I come from.
I think I have bought more than 40 games at Matrix but I rarely ever played them since I did not find it very exciting to play against the AI. So when I bought Warplan I started to play PBEM immediately I did not even conquer Poland vs the AI first and I had barely read the manual. It was so much fun and so much more exciting so I only play PBEM now and this will be my first PBEM in this game.

I don’t really care about winning much but because wargames tend to take a lot of time it is not so fun to play the side that might be destined to lose because of some in game imbalances and because as I like to say “not even chess is balanced and requires two games” we will play a mirror game so I will make 2 aars one as Axis and one as Soviet. The games will probably progress pretty slowly almost same as the game with 1 turn per game per week but there might be more when the turns start to not take that long.

My history with Grigsby games is I own WitP but I haven’t played 1 minute of it. I bought WitE on day one but very quickly felt the game had huge balance problems and I followed every patch but the balance just changed from one side to the other it seemed like so I never really got into it. I played maybe 100-200 hours against the AI. WitW I also bought on day one and that game I probably played the most so I am not completely new to the air and supply system. I bought WitE2 on day one as well. I have played one campaign as Soviets vs Axis AI with AI having 115 on everything. I won, the AI didn´t even take Smolensk. As the Axis I have played the first 5 turns maybe 5 times. I have skimmed the rulebook a couple of times. But I have no clue really how to best use the supply system or replacements or the air or anything really 😉.

Here I will gripe about the game a little bit. I think I know why I don´t like Grigsbys games as much as they deserve. We have this very detailed system that tracks every soldier, tank and airplane. But the system is pretty opaque and the feeling is that if you want to be really good at it and also if you want to figure out exploits and imbalances you need to sit on your chamber and try out everything spending a lot of time doing so. This is not in itself wrong. If you want to be good at sport you have to train so it makes sense. It is just that I feel I don´t really have the patience to “train” in Wite2. Which makes me feel I can never be “good” in Wite2. I guess what I want to say is I wish the game design was different. Maybe make the game more as a board game like the old Fire in the East/Scorched Earth but of course using the computer to make the game more granular and calculate things. I am absolutely not convinced that making the system so detailed will lead to a more realistic outcome compared to the more classic boardgame approach. Perhaps the opposite with such an advanced system the chance for built in imbalances is probably greater.

So it might just be that these games are not quite for me but I am not giving up yet, who doesn’t want to play the most epic war in world history on a divisional level I most certainly do 😊.

2 House rules.
* No paradrops
* This is a bit special. This assumption might be wrong but the feeling is that the Germans cant afford to many mistakes and since we are both beginners we have said that the Soviets wont try to open any pockets on turn 1 to give the German a decent start. Of course the Germans has to play Gentlemanly and should do their best to secure the pockets.

I played vs Marco70 3 times in Warplan and we decided to try Wite 2 together. So here you will see two novices having a go at each other. I expect Soviet sudden death win on turn 29 😊.

I am doing these AARs because I think they are fun to do and maybe some beginner will learn what and what not to do. Enjoy the AAR. Any advice is appreciated of course. You are also allowed to mock and critique my strategy as much as you like no problem [:)].

Good luck to Marco70!!

/MM

[MagicMissile]

June 22 Airphase

First I go to the airdoctrine setting. Here is one example. Through all the years of playing with these games I still dont quite understand the % to fly setting. I dont have the energy to try out the difference between 20 or 25% or 50 for that matter so I just copied Carlkays setting in his nice AAR "Another march to the east" and I hope that it will be ok for the rest of the war.

[MagicMissile]

I bomb approximately 35-40 bases and I try to reroute the strikes so they dont go through too much AA. At least one strike unescorted got slaughtered. Here is the result.

My losses are higher than my earlier tries and I think I know why I forgot to change some strikes from 2 to 1 probably leading too higher operational losses. But I dont care so much I doubt the game outcome will hinge on losing 100 or 200 airplanes.

[MagicMissile]

In the North I capture the baltic ports and I try to surround the forces on the border rather than destroy them on turn 1 wether this is good or bad I really have no idea [:)]. Here I think most attacks went ok no holds if I recall correctly.

[MagicMissile]

In the center I form the usual pocket. I also try to infiltrate and make small pockets again wether this is good or bad i have no clue but it looks nice.

I diverted one motorised and one panzer division to AGN and AGS got a motorised divison, the cavalry division and the GD regiment.

I feel I should have some kind of plan but I for the moment dont. I just want a decent start and we will see how it plays out. I am probably as divided as Hitler and the Germna GHQ about the aims of the campaign [:)].

[MagicMissile]

Hm I see resolution on the screen shots not amazing. I guess they are too big. Might have to take more screenshots on smaller areas.

Vs the computer I just went for Rovno and on turn 3 at Vinnitsa I made a big pocket as the AI did not retreat much. I think a human will run more in the south so I made some kind of mix. I took Rovno but also diverted some motorised units towards Tarnopol. Might make both thrusts too weak I dont know I guess we will see.

[MagicMissile]

Cleaning up.

I sent some fighters and scouting planes to captured forward bases. Specifically Riga, Daugapils, Minsk and Rovno.

Made some airlifts with supplies but a fair amount got shot down by soviet fighters.

I set the HQ to 0 support level and 9 on okh and will return the support units next turn.

I sent the Me110 that are set to bombers to the reserve to retrain as fighters.

I build depots in Daugapils, Kaunas, Vilnius, Minsk; Rovno and Lvov. My plan is to build a lot of depots and keep the once closest to the front at level 4 and then lower the levels on the depots futher away from the front. Again if that is good or not I dont really have a clue but I will go with it for now.

Had 5 holds on my attacks 2 of them were mistake right clicks. So many clicks in this game some are bound to be bad [:)].

In general decently happy with the turn 1 but I played it pretty quick because Marco had finished his turn so I felt a bit in a hurry to finish mine and some minor mistakes were made.

Finally losses after turn German turn 1.