Stalingrad Campaign ENH... You Pick for Me

[vahauser]

JEB,
 
Of course I can devise a core if I was playing this campaign on the privacy of my own PC.  But I wanted to playtest Alby's upgraded version and report the results in a AAR here. 
 
So, I wanted to make this a community effort.  And the idea is to come with a "compromise" community core that maybe nobody will be completely happy with, but at least I can playtest Alby's campaign and post the AAR with it.
 
Post your core suggestions here.  Or vote for one the two cores I posted above (post #53 and post #56). 
 
In fact, everybody vote!

[Alby]

You dont need all those motorized infantry, as transport is provided for you...
and my "upgraded' version, isnt totally 'upgraded" I think I redeployed some 'aux' units in the first battle, and removed the HE ammo from the molotovs in same battle....thats about the extent of the 'upgrading'...oh ya and edited 1 of the 3 formerly missing battles.

myself, I liked my core..some elite, some not, some good tanks, some older ones.

[:D]

[vahauser]

Alby,
 
From what I can tell, your core is just a random collection of platoons and sections.  Nothing necessarily wrong with that, but companies give the Abteilung a bit of organizational structure, eh?
 
Also, from the name of this campaign, I get the idea that there is going to be a lot of city fighting.  As Goblin pointed out with my first core, too many tanks and not enough infantry to be city fighting, eh?
 
And by this stage of the war, all independent abteilungs should have some flak, eh?
 
And motorcycles and armored cars are okay in the wide-open steppe, but they can't enter buildings.  So, in a city fight, where are your recon patrols that can enter buildings?
 
And two mortars might be enough to maybe sometimes possibly support a company, but supporting an independent abteilung should be several sections instead of just one, eh?
 
In my estimation:  too tank heavy and not enough infantry, need some flak, random collection of platoons and no companies, no city-capable recon troops, not enough mortar support for an entire abteilung.
 
But hey, if you guys want me to use Alby's hodge-podge core, then I will...
 
But somebody besides Alby is going to have to go on record and say, "Use Alby's core." 
 
 

[Alby]

Your first few battles are in the open, some with a long distance to travel, you can always change the motorcycles later..I try not to depend too much on arty when playing the AI, so I never get much of it... buy a tank platoon, and and infantry company then, and if anything left get your flak and arty.

and you dont need to buy transport!
[;)]

[vahauser]

Here is my latest concept for Abteilung 110
 
HQ and Abteilung support units (HQ, ammo crates, F.O., HQ vehicles)
Rifle Company
Engineer Company
Recon Company
Any remaining points go into AFVs (but a maximum of one platoon of 'Good' tanks)
 
How does this sound?

[Alby]

ORIGINAL: vahauser

Here is my latest concept for Abteilung 110

HQ and Abteilung support units (HQ, ammo crates, F.O., HQ vehicles)
Rifle Company
Engineer Company
Recon Company
Any remaining points go into AFVs (but a maximum of one platoon of 'Good' tanks)

How does this sound?

works for me

[vahauser]

Alby,

Yours is the tie-breaking (and only) vote. I've built a core following exactly the template I posted above (and repeated below).

[Abteilung 110
HQ and Abteilung support units (HQ, ammo crates, F.O., HQ vehicles)
Rifle Company
Engineer Company
Recon Company
Any remaining points go into AFVs (but a maximum of one platoon of 'Good' tanks)]

Here is what my core looks like. There will be no more re-designs of the core. This is final (see attached screenshot below):

I realize that this core will satisfy nobody. I assure you that it does not satisfy me! In fact, the more I think about it, the more I've come to the conclusion that that is the real value of this core--it makes nobody happy! I shall name it 'Abteilung 110: The Unhappy' and I'll restart the Stalingrad ENH campaign within the next 48 hours.

[FlashfyreSP]

Still can't figure out why all this "you pick my core force" crap...[8|]

[vahauser]

ORIGINAL: JEB Davis

Um... excuse me, but I have one question.
What exactly are you trying to prove here?

I just don't get why you want someone else
to pick your core force.  You have enough
experience to do that yourself, right?

"JEB,

Of course I can devise a core if I was playing this campaign on the privacy of my own PC. But I wanted to playtest Alby's upgraded version and report the results in a AAR here.

So, I wanted to make this a community effort. And the idea is to come with a 'compromise' community core that maybe nobody will be completely happy with, but at least I can playtest Alby's campaign and post the AAR with it."

FlashFyre,
Above is what I said to JEB about your question a few days ago. I've always enjoyed the idea of group participation when it comes to AARs on a public forum. AARs without group participation seems rather pointless to me. But, now I have a core and now I'll start the campaign over again within the next day or so and start posting AARs again.

[JEB Davis]

Thanks, now I understand... have fun playing it.

[vahauser]

AARRGGHH
 
Just when I said that my previous core was final.  I was wrong!
 
I think Goblin was onto something.  He mentioned that the old Stalingrad campaign allowed 2200 initial build points but that you couldn't buy as much stuff in the old campaign.  FlashFyre alluded to this when he said that the revised Stalingrad ENH campaign attempted to compensate for this since the Enhanced unit costs had changed so much from SPWaW 8.4.
 
However, SPWaW 8.4 had a base Troop Quality of 70 and Enhanced uses a Troop Quality of 69 for the Germans in 1942.  There is a 25% cost reduction associated with TQ69 instead of TQ70.  However, since FlashFyre is also correct in that Enhanced uses very different unit costs and TQ69 units are slightly inferior (roughly 3%-5% inferior), then it seems to me that Goblin's observation was a very accurate one.
 
So, if I deduct 20% from 2200, that yields 1760 build points.  I'll round that down to 1750 build points.
 
And this means that I'm going to design another Core one more time...  AARRGGHH
 
I'm going to compose a Core using 1750 build points instead of 2200.  This should address the observations of both Goblin and FlashFyre.

[vahauser]

Okay.  After fooling around for a little while here is my concept for a 1750pt core for Abteilung 110:
 
Abteilung 110
HQ and HQ troops
Weapons company
Armored Car company
Recon-Infantry company
Rifle company
Tank platoon
 
I hope to have the core purchased and the campaign re-started by Saturday.
 

[vahauser]

Well, I wanted to start this weekend...
 
I just installed the Mr. Fix campaign utility on my PC.  It looks like it works with any campaign (WW2 Long Campaign, Generated Campaign, and/or Designed Campaign) provided you follow the directions.
 
However, since Mr. Fix was created before Enhanced 2008 and Enhanced 2009 (it was created for Enhanced DVRN), it doesn't work perfectly.  I tried it on an old Enhanced 2008 campaign I had saved and there were a few glitches with the 'Retain Ability' function.  No biggie.  If the changes to Enhanced 2009 aren't huge (these mostly have to do with the unit special abilities I think), then Mr. Fix should work okay. 
 
I'm going to use it, anyway, even if my upgraded units won't retain their special abilities.  It should definitely make the campaign more challenging.
 
Hopefully, I can get started later today or tomorrow (I have some non-SPWaW issues to deal with first).