Directive 21 playtesters thread

[sPzAbt653]

Does freeezing happen that far south?

I believe it does, when it gets cold enough. The Kerch straits would freeze, therefore any shallow hexes north of there would also freeze.

[fogger]

[font="times new roman"]I am on turn 79. I captured Leningrad on turn 42 and destroyed all the Russian naval units. Since then one naval unit has reconstructed. Also HQ for 35th Div has reconstructed twice at Narvik (70, 14) and will not be transported by air. May need to make a port there so that units can be transported by sea.[/font]

[sPzAbt653]

Ok, I guess I should withdraw the Baltic/Red Banner fleet when Leningrad falls, unless someone can think of a situation where they might have operated from another base. I still don't know why some units gravitate all the way to Narvik for reconstruction, but a HQ unit should be able to 'fly' back to civilization. Why do you say it will not be transported by air? A port in Narvik wouldn't do any good as the area is land locked, but it may be possible to open up a route so that these types of units could be shipped back to Konigsberg.

[fogger]

[font="times new roman"]I am not complaining just giving feed back. I think what you have done to date is great. [&o] As far as the HQ unit goes I do not know why it would not board aircraft. I left it sitting on the airfield marker for a couple of turns but it would just not board. I suppose that they where having a good time and had one hell of a hangover from what ever they drink in that neck of the woods. [>:] However as punishment they are on a slow walk home.  [:-] That is what happens when you join the infantry.[:D] I also had one rail repair unit reform in the middle of nowhere. Maybe you should give them a movement allowance of one hex per turn?[/font]

[SMK-at-work]

I've just had the Baltic fleet regenerate again at Leningrad, so yeah - looks like an event is required to withdraw them.

I can't see them fighting on - perhaps making a suicidal sortie to attack a German port or something....but more likely blown up and the crews given rifles and told they've been "retasked"....

[sPzAbt653]

I am not complaining just giving feed back.

Understood and appreciated, we're all trying to iron out the little annoyances that will make this huge scenario more enjoyable. Keep on feeding back!

I don't know why the HQ won't airlift, it's weight is around 225, and the Axis have an 1,100 capacity. Maybe it has something to do with being eliminated and losing it's airborne capability, but I'm not sure about that. You can always send me a save file and I can take a look to see what's going on.

The rail repair units reconstituting off rail has been looked into, so in the final file this may not happen. The bigger issue here is that they really don't need to be getting involved in combat, they only have to be 'near' the areas that you would like repaired. From my experience, 2-3 hexes back from the front line is close enough. Any closer and it's a good idea to stack them with some protection.

[SMK-at-work]

And if rail units do appear somewhere particularly useless I guess you can always disband them and hope they appear somewhere better next time!

Mostly my dead units have been appearing nearby where they were killed - not that there's been that many!!

[Silvanski]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work

I've just had the Baltic fleet regenerate again at Leningrad, so yeah - looks like an event is required to withdraw them.

I can't see them fighting on - perhaps making a suicidal sortie to attack a German port or something....but more likely blown up and the crews given rifles and told they've been "retasked"....

Or you can set reconstitution to "no"

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: SMK-at-work

And if rail units do appear somewhere particularly useless I guess you can always disband them and hope they appear somewhere better next time!

Mostly my dead units have been appearing nearby where they were killed - not that there's been that many!!

I've got a rail unit dude that keeps appearing at the same spot no matter how many times I disband him. And the spot doesn't happen to be on a rail so I can't use him when he does appear. I guess I'll just have to live with him instead of disbanding him all the time. Sigh......

[sPzAbt653]

I've got a rail unit dude that keeps appearing at the same spot no matter how many times I disband him.

Just for giggles, if you want to, try and stack 9 units in that hex after you disband him next time. Not that you have 9 useless units, but maybe corps or army HQ's. Then we can see if that changes his idea on where to reconstruct.

As I said in an earlier post, we have since set them to 'fixed' at Berlin, so maybe in your next game you won't have to deal with this situation. Of course, in your next game you will probably then never have one of thos units get eliminated or retreated. It has something to do with Murphy, I think.

[SMK-at-work]

I'm just about finished the game I think - T46 and I have units adjacent to Moscow from the East & Stalingrad from north and south so it won't be long now......

A couple of points about Elmer's priority settings - not sure how much is changeable but it might be of use....

During hte mud turns Elmer heavily reinforced the Arctic and Leningrad areas to the extent of maybe a couple of dozen divisions - but put them in really bad positions - invading the Karelian Isthmus over Lake Lagoda with about 8 divisions/brigades, and a dozen more further north - these were pretty much suicide missions - the bridge by Belomorsk highlighted in this shot is broken and Elmer never seems to have even tried to fix it, and the Leningrad attack made it to the outskirts, but a massive stack was blown to pieces by naval artillery - losing up to 25% of 800+ rifle squads in one combat alone.

Meanwhile the approaches to stalingrad only had a handful of isolated units along the road/rail lines that were no problem at all.

The forces west of Moscow also got themselves isolated pretty easy - they kept trying to move forwards into contact with the Axis troops there, allowing them to be easily surrounded.

I don't know what can be done about setting offensive/defensive priorities for Elmer, but it was a bit too agressive in the wrong places in this game IMO.

Anyway - some shots from north to south....

The arctic - the highlighted bridge is blown & no effort made to repair it.

[SMK-at-work]

Leningrad - only the remnants of the counter attack are shown...along with a reconstituted battleship of course!

[SMK-at-work]

Moscow - the defensive unit in Moscow is pretty large & I don't have much artillery there, but I'm confident 3-4 Pz & Pz-Gren divisions will be enough to take it anyway....

[SMK-at-work]

And Stalingrad - the paratroopers landed just last turn to cut off the northern and southern rail lines, and SS Wiking hasn't moved yet this turn.

The Soviet units seen in these screen shots comprise about90% of all soviet units I can see at the moment - there is only a light scattering of occasional brigades & divisions visible across the entire remainder of the map - there is essentially nothing visible between Moscow & Stalingrad.

[sPzAbt653]

Thanks for the great info SMK, you hit on a lot of good points.

Turns 103-113. With units becoming available from the Leningrad area, I moved off to the east where about 40 hexes from Leningrad there is a line of lakes and rivers that can provide some sort of stop line. Case Blau is over so I'm back to normal supply and shock.

[sPzAbt653]

Turns 113-120. Leningrad has some strong artillery units supporting its' defense so I took some heavy casualties clearing the city. But now that is done with my lines have shortened up and some Finn divisions are looking for some place to go. Off to the east of Leningrad I've closed up on my stop line and Vologda and Yaraslavl (two production cities about 20 and 45 hexes north of Moscow) are close by, so I will go after them. It is August '42 and I know there is some mud coming in about 16 turns, so for now I am going to busy myself with reorganising my lines so I can get as many divisions free as possible. I have to start preparing for operations in the southern part of the map. Elmer has been left alone down there for a long time, and I'm curious to see what he's got.

[sPzAbt653]

South and south-east of Moscow. At one point I was several hexes forward of these postions, but while I've been busy up north, Elmer has been pushing me back. When you see stacks like the one in the inset, it gets a little scary, but Elmer is overall too weak at this point of the scenario to really be any threat. A one hex defensive line is usually good enough, but it's a good idea to have a few units hanging about behind the front. If Elmer does punch a hole he loves to send tank and cavalry brigades shooting thru.

Around turn 110 I noticed that Elmer was blowing bridges right near the front, and he has repaired ones that I have blown and left behind.

[Karri]

Would you happen to have any saves available? It's just that playing the first dozen turns are always so time consuming...

[sPzAbt653]

I've got each of my turns from this current game saved. You are welcome to have any of those if you like. However, I started this game on October 13, and there have been tons of changes since then. Some of the others have gotten later files, so maybe one of those has made it thru the opening phase.

[Karri]

I was hoping something before Moscow or Leningrad fell. I wanted to test if the Computer can push me away from the historical conquests.