Stock FitE Karri vs Larry

[Telumar]

ORIGINAL: Zort

[...] I also separated the Spanish out too.

Btw, the spanish 250.Div (Blue division) never had any replacement problems, afaik 50,000 spanish volunteers served in this unit over the course of its participation in the eastern campaign

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like in a tiny corner of Finland in Soviet turn 65:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some more Finland action in turn 65:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like just north of Leningrad ( still ):

[duckenf]

With your ongoing success in the north, what is the possibility of an airborne operation to help along your advance?

Also, it occurs to me that the scenario would benefit if successful Soviet action in the north/Finland/Norway increased the flow of supplies available to the USSR to reflect easier shipments to Murmansk. That might accompany a German theatre option to reallocate some resources/units to Scandinavia (at a VP cost).

[SMK-at-work]

ORIGINAL: Karri
Now the problem with Soviets concentrating in Finland is not that it's ahistorical. It's the fact that the Axis player canno't reinforce the area. It's easy for the Soviets to move 10-20 division/brigades/regiments there, or even 30-40. It makes no big difference elsewhere...but to counter this the Axis can do nothing. The finns have no reserves...something needs to be done to that.

Probably needs to be a house rule that the Soviets are only allowed a single army in Lappland - the 14th was all that was up there IIRC. Plus units from any one front, and some NKVD (don't want those illegal immigrants.....)

However this would need to be matched by the number of Axis units there - the Axis has problems reinforcing up there for sure, but they would be able to outnumber the 14th army without too much bother!

[Zort]

ORIGINAL: Telumar
Btw, the spanish 250.Div (Blue division) never had any replacement problems, afaik 50,000 spanish volunteers served in this unit over the course of its participation in the eastern campaign

Unfortunately because of the game mechanics you can get the div reduced to 40% in no time with limited fighting, where historically they always had troops rotating in. So I gave the spanish a daily supply of replacements, the german has to take him off the line to rebuild.

The more I play the more I am leaning (now SMK will smack me back) that offensive casualties are way high. I see about 1/3 of the personnel casualties taken to non-surrounded troops going back into the pool. I think the game engine trys to make equipment and personnel equal when it comes to losses. I think the ratio for killed to wounded was on average for WW2 around 1 to 4 (pls correct me if I am wrong).

[larryfulkerson]

As you can see in this Soviet turn 65 minimap moves movie most of the Soviet progress was in the far north:

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses so far:

[SMK-at-work]

What's happeneing with those partisans to the rear?  Is anyone attacking anyone??

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work
What's happeneing with those partisans to the rear?  Is anyone attacking anyone??

Every once in a while Karri will attack and kill one of them, but for the most part he's satisfied with just surrounding them I guess. I'm satisfied that I'm tying up a bunch of German troops with just that one guy that could be more usefull attacking Soviet troops somewhere. Lots of them are surrounded by 6 or more German dudes and that ain't bad for just one Soviet unit to tye up for a while.

I guess Karri will wake up and kill them all one turn here soon. Problemo is that if he kills them they will just re-appear somewhere else and he'll have to go chase them down and surround them again. Maybe that's why we're spending the war just looking over the hill at each other's campfires.

[freeboy]

I find the inclusion of the partisans a pain.. and a waste of valuable space in the roster

[Karri]

I find it boring to move around those units trying to find the guerilla bastard and then kill him only to start it all over again few turns later. So I surround them and leave them be, as long as they are not threathening any railroads.

I was thinking that maybe it would be better to have some theather options for the Soviet player, so that when he would choose to activate guerillas, a certain number of Hexes would change hands(should be possible through the events).

[sPzAbt653]

I agree with all that from a playability standpoint the partisans don't help. They did have a significant effect historically but I think that the withdrawal of security and mp units that spent most of their time not involved in front line activities would allow the partisans to be left out of the oob with no change to the overall effect. Supply and rail capacity was affected by these units but can't that be reflected with changes to the events? Or maybe it already is. If those figures are based on historical ones, they would reflect drops due to partisan activity. I'm more interested in playing a game of chess than whack-a-mole!

[larryfulkerson]

The Germans shipped some reinforcements to the far north to hold back the barbarian hordes.

[Karri]

The frontlines are pretty much stable. Some action going on, but nothing major...a few hexes change hands each turn.

During the Winter Offensive I had to use most of my panzer and panzergrenadier division for limited counter-attacks. They did pretty good in that role, but however caused 'some' losses. Not to mention that taking Caucaus and Stalingrad saw pretty intense action on their part as well. My tactic was to let the infantry divisions take a beating for a few turns, depending on how long they could last, usually 2-3 turns, then move in some artillery and the recon units. These would then attack the contested hexes, wearing down the stacks of Soviet units. After that the panzer regiments and panzergreandier regiments would step in and attack those hexes, and usually take them. It then changed into attritional battle, but most of the time I was able to advance back to the original line. I also always made sure there was 1 infantry regiment in full health and strenght to hold the hex so as to make sure Larry wouldn't drive back the counter-attacking forces.

Exception to this was Smolensk area, where I did only a few counter-attacks, mainly due to the fact that I could afford to lose ground there.

I think I have a 3-4 pz and pzg division that didn't see any action. But anyways, now that the offensives are over I have withdrew most of those units from the frontline to rest and refit, building up for my Summer offensive.

Regarding Case Blau, I think I have 3 main directions where I can attack.
1) Leningrad. Obviously an important goal if I want to save the finns. However the ground there is pretty poor for maneuvering. And even if I take the city it does not decide the war in my favor...only another 10% reduction in Larry's replacements, also a longer frontline for me. But on the other hand, it would make Larry's offensives in the area harder.
2)Moscow. This would obviously decide the game in my favor, but as intelligence has revealed most of Larry's units are here. It would be hard, if not impossible, to break his lines here, and would no doubt come at great cost.
3)Stalingrad area. I dunno what I can gain with this offensive, other than destroy some of his units and gain some ground. Shorther lines for me possibly...and Larry seems to have the weakest line in this area...NKVD regiments and such.

Whatever it will be, I am still trying to figure where all the forces are supposed to come from.

[Karri]

Nice profiency...but I think it started with that. Not sure though, I checked to turn 31 and it already had 99% profiency then. However quite a few units seem to have gained loads of profiecny.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's some of the Soviet losses so far ( before any combat takes place in turn 66):

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviet forces crossed the river...I guess that means I invaded Sweden. Anyway, I'm on my way to surrounding the Axis forces in the far north.

[larryfulkerson]

The Soviet Union continues their attacks in this area whatever you want to call it. Lapland ??