The Screams of the deceased Soldiers, HLYA(G) vs Gunnulf(S)

[John B.]

My that is a lot of planes for minimal damage!

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Riga Bombed!!!

Here are the stats for Riga and you can make your decision. To me the Naval interdiction should be enough but that is just me. Let me know.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: John B.

My that is a lot of planes for minimal damage!

Yes, my sentiments exactly. They were all operational losses too.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

North

TIP!!! If you think Germans are going North & they could be doing a rail line to Riga. I would advise setting units on the rail line I circled in Orange. This way when the Soviet units are attacked the rail is damaged too as an end result.

Edit here. Really any defense on a rail line is good. That way requires more cycles to fix for the Germans.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

I will be going North on this single track to link up the ports and some LV 2 rail yards to help with Supplying this huge Army to Leningrad. 2 FBD's will be tasked for awhile to make this happen. The FBD in the picture just got back from helping with the Double track line first and ended its move seen in the picture ready for the conversion north. The track looks good except in one place and where the Soviet units are blocking. Hope they turn yellow for a speedy trip North

Those coastal ports have some very nice LV 2 rail yards

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Center

Center is well, Center. Pockets held.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

South


In the South the Soviets seem to have stayed pretty close. Will have to recon pretty thoroughly here to get a good picture. With all the extra units not gotten from my normal move in the South I am afraid this is going to be rough going down here for awhile Maybe I could be wrong, I hope.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of turn

Soviets Counterattack in the South!!!!

The damage was minor for both sides but it did knock out some very important movement point compared to my other units. To me the Soviets should be doing this often but that is just me.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

AIR RAID over PLOESTI, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!!!

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Soviet Air Raid over Ploesti Night 2nd day

Flak took its toll here and has restored some of my confidence that there is hope in flak 51 planes total for "zero" damage. Dodged a bullet here.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Soviet Air Raid over Ploesti Night 4th day

Flak seems to be taking its toll here. 40 more losses for "zero" damage. Man, opening the turn and seeing that had my rear end puckering. But seems I got real lucky here with "zero" damage. Handing out medals to the flak crews on this one.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Air losses since Turn 1 before German Air phase

Finally the Air losses incurred up to this point.

(looks to be over 10 weeks of trained pilots for the Soviets in turn 1 alone. Germans had a net positive for trained pilots the week)

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

North

TIP!!! If you think Germans are going North & they could be doing a rail line to Riga. I would advise setting units on the rail line I circled in Orange. This way when the Soviet units are attacked the rail is damaged too as an end result.

Interesting. So you are saying that by putting a unit on rails, if attacked it negates the 70% rail auto-repair rule for the Baltic States.

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Soviet Air Raid over Ploesti Night 4th day

Flak seems to be taking its toll here. 40 more losses for "zero" damage. Man, opening the turn and seeing that had my rear end puckering. But seems I got real lucky here with "zero" damage. Handing out medals to the flak crews on this one.

In an MP game, I was repeatedly asked about doing this, but said no. There just isn't any real return on investment.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

North

TIP!!! If you think Germans are going North & they could be doing a rail line to Riga. I would advise setting units on the rail line I circled in Orange. This way when the Soviet units are attacked the rail is damaged too as an end result.

Interesting. So you are saying that by putting a unit on rails, if attacked it negates the 70% rail auto-repair rule for the Baltic States.

Yes, 11.4 rule on the last sentence says,"Note that any hex that is captured in a combat will be damaged." So best to use those Soviets to just put them on rail hexes so 100% incur damage on the rail hex.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 2 Beginning of Turn

Soviet Air Raid over Ploesti Night 4th day

Flak seems to be taking its toll here. 40 more losses for "zero" damage. Man, opening the turn and seeing that had my rear end puckering. But seems I got real lucky here with "zero" damage. Handing out medals to the flak crews on this one.

In an MP game, I was repeatedly asked about doing this, but said no. There just isn't any real return on investment.

You Sir are 100% correct!

The Soviets can't keep up the loss ratio on their bombers at this rate in both of my games. Yes, they can do it for awhile but what is the return on the damage they are getting? I have my answer already seeing the data, but they will have to make that determination for the Soviets

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Been grocery shopping with the wife, yeah I can hear what you all are thinking, and been thinking that I really like the pilot loss on the Soviets. Think this is going to be my thing to do in my next GC game

[M60A3TTS]

Won't lie, your method is clearly yielding superior results to the conventional opening. Whether that triggers a future patch or not remains to be seen.

Now the comment of 10 weeks of experienced pilots taken out might benefit from some context. With the conventional approach, you're still killing pilots. The question is that with this method, how many fewer losses do you take and how many more do you inflict? In my own HvH game, I suffered 1,795 pilots KIA with the conventional opening and considerably more Axis air losses. You had 2,383 Soviet KIA. That's +588 which is a little over two weeks worth of experienced pilots in the early training cycle.

The losses from turn 2 are interesting, but your opponent clearly is bold enough that the I-I53 biplanes along with their pilots are being thrown into the furnace. You may not see future opponents quite so eager to hurl these planes into battle.

Bottom line, no reason not to keep doing what you're doing until someone says you can't or they develop the more perfect mousetrap.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Won't lie, your method is clearly yielding superior results to the conventional opening. Whether that triggers a future patch or not remains to be seen.

Now the comment of 10 weeks of experienced pilots taken out might benefit from some context. With the conventional approach, you're still killing pilots. The question is that with this method, how many fewer losses do you take and how many more do you inflict? In my own HvH game, I suffered 1,795 pilots KIA with the conventional opening and considerably more Axis air losses. You had 2,383 Soviet KIA. That's +588 which is a little over two weeks worth of experienced pilots in the early training cycle.

The losses from turn 2 are interesting, but your opponent clearly is bold enough that the I-I53 biplanes along with their pilots are being thrown into the furnace. You may not see future opponents quite so eager to hurl these planes into battle.

Bottom line, no reason not to keep doing what you're doing until someone says you can't or they develop the more perfect mousetrap.

Thank you for the nice write up I just don't know how much of a difference this will make over the long term game. A few extra turns worth of trained pilots on the first turn may end up being just a spit in the bucket over 200+ turns. I guess it all boils down to how the Soviet reacts to this. Time will tell.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 2 End of German Turn

North

Tallinn taken turn two.