mini AAR: Russian production mod

[Chocolino]

Sorry, my overview picture does not do your mod justice since it is too late and Russia has collapsed already. On first glance it looks as always. But it is much later than usual. (I play hard Axis vs Easy Allies/COMINT and attacked Russia in summer 40. So it took over two years to get to where I am. Usually that takes less time. The following zoom shows some remnants of front line activity up north. It used to be like this everywhere.

(How do I post multiple picutres?)

[cpdeyoung]

I do have a save point from 19400816 which was just a bit before I started the campaign in the USSR.  I am going to start a new AAR based on this save point, and wait till the historical date.  The new AAR will be called "GaryHistBarbarossa".  This is based on the Gary Gardner 1939 Europe modifications.
 
Chuck

[gwgardner]

When you guys do an early attack on Russia, do you still undergo the winter weather penalty the first Winter after the attack?

In my game, the Russkies are hitting me as I suffer General Winter. Have destroyed two Romanian divisions, one Italian, one German, and a Hungarian.

[Chocolino]

If memory serves, there is no russian winter event for the winter 40/41. But there is partisan activity.

I also started a new campaign with same settings as before and will document it better this time I will also stick to historic dates. (Currently traveling, will have to wait until the weekend.)

[cpdeyoung]

No, the Russian Winter always comes in 1941.  If you are fast enough you can beat it.  I intended to do so in my first "production mod" game, and suspect I will, or nearly.
 
Chuck

[gwgardner]

Kewl Chocolino, lok forward to your reports.

Chuck, if you start on June 24, and beat Russia before General Winter, then the mod needs to be modded!

Of course, if you go through Turkey, that's a different story altogether. That indeed is a death knell for the Commintern.

[gwgardner]

It's April 16, '42

If I had nnot allowed the Russians to hold so many cities behind my lines, things would look better. Even so, it's apparent that the war will be over in '42.

Leningrad is going to fall soon.

[gwgardner]

The Center looks interesting, but then the center is no longer the critical front.

[gwgardner]

In the South, where Stalingrad and the Caucasus are the targets, it looks wide open.

When the Russians got their 500 PP infusion from Siberia, about three months ago, it should have spent those PPs on infantry. Instead, it apparently spent it on an air unit. That tells you something about the build algorithm for the AI: the number of PPs available is a factor, not just the build preferences. As soon as the USSR has enough PPs, it spends them on an air unit! Dang, developers, fix this please!

[gwgardner]

It's May '42 now, and just took Stalingrad and Leningrad.  There's no Russian front, per se, just some concentrations around a couple of cities.  So this little experiment is done.

Conclusion: While the mod makes for a bit more challenge, it's not enough to give the USSR AI a fighting chance.  Even with the mod, it wasted too many PPs on armor and air.  I'm guessing it spent 500 for the one air unit it built, and I saw around 6 armor divisions at level 3 - that would have cost roughly 1200 PP.   If it had bought infantry instead, and broadened out it's front lines, the challenge would have been even better.

For the next patch, I hope the developer works on making the AI use the build preferences even when the AI has loads of PPs. By that I mean, I don't want the AI to NEVER build armor or air, but NOT build them just because it has enough PPs to do so.

[Chocolino]

Hello all,

I tried out Gary Gardners Russian production mod and played all Axis Hard, All COMINT, ALLIES Easy against the AI using historic start dates for major campaigns. This and the next few posts are a very brief summary on what the effects of the mod are on the Russian front.

Summarizing it here upfront: especially in the combination with the historic start dates, the mod made it much more challenging for me. While it started promising until Nov 41, I wasn't able to weaken the Russian sufficiently before the winter event 41/42 and had to suffer through a counterattack. (Interestingly from an area west of Kursk that in my previous games was almost always void of Sovjet units.)When I saw the deluge of red units approaching, it looked quite dangerous.However, during summer of 42, the tides turned again....

June24 - October16: Situation before the attack and lines just before onset of winter.

[Chocolino]

Winter 41 /42:

Somewhat unexpected, my units encircling Kiev were attacked from quite a number of Russian units that must have deployed around Kursk. I had to pull back and still lost some units weakened by winter. This was initially quite tense and very enjoyable. It is rare that the humnan player against the AI is not fully in control. Luckily for me, the Russian AI was a bit over aggressive and was vulnerable after Axis units switched back to normal strength after the winter.

[Chocolino]

Just for completeness, the situation in summer 42. The offensive continues and will eventually succeed. But this was quite a bit more time consuming than against stock. As a result subsequent operations are delayed (I usually invade the UK afterwards), the opponent is better prepared there and I have accumulated less PPs at this point because of the delay in conquering Russia.

In my opinion a great Mod and highly recommended. Thank you Gary!

[gwgardner]

Awesome, chocolino. I'm actually pondering the AI 'strategy' in defense, so that I can withstand Chuck's assault in our PBEM game. If the AI weren't so overly aggressive it might last longer.

[Chocolino]

I will follow your new game closely in the AAR and see what your plan is for the USSR. It will be very entertaining since you two have always a surprise up your sleeves.