Alpha AAR - A year at the front with Field Marshal Noob

[karonagames]

Thanks Stuart, you'll be doing this yourself soon! I asked the question, because I thought people might think she left Kiev exposed. Who is GAPO? She is GAIA!

The 4th PZ Group breakthrough has put me ahead at Leningrad - sending the extra PZ Korps there helped me. The centre is now a question of trying to prise open a crack in the defences, but the terrain is in the SU favour. In the south the screening forces did their job and stopped my dash for the Crimea.

Once you get into the game you start to see that there is a consequence to EVERY decision you make, some you don't see until several weeks or months after to made the original decision. I hope to illustrate this later in the AAR

[Zovs]

To me the German AI is Herman and the Soviet AI is Ivan. I really hate Herman and Ivan at times...[:'(]

[karonagames]

I just realised I forgot to post the Month end report for July. Sorry this is out of sequence.

Front Line North:

[karonagames]

Front Line South,

[karonagames]

End of July Casualties:

[karonagames]

End of July OOB:

[karonagames]

And with that, I leave you for 7 days for a business/pleasure trip. SWMBO, who is a co-director of our company has threatened me with divorce if I take the laptop with me, so I am incommunicado for the next 7 days. Have fun, and I will continue the the Drive Eastwards in seven days time.

[Josh]

You can leave your laptop at home, but you probably can't get the game out of your mind. [:)]

Have a nice trip!

[Pipewrench]

thanks for the AAR's , you have sold me so far

[ComradeP]

Those failing attacks at 7:1 odds in men and 14:1 in artillery make it difficult to imagine how the Soviets are ever going to counterattack successfully. Maybe the AFV's were the main reason the attack failed, but an attack at those odds would probably have a comfortable chance of success in real life.

Also: why are fort levels of 0 indicated on the map in some cases, wouldn't every hex have a fort level of 0 if it doesn't have any kind of fort?

[Helpless]

Also: why are fort levels of 0 indicated on the map in some cases, wouldn't every hex have a fort level of 0 if it doesn't have any kind of fort?

There is a fraction between 0-1.

[jaw]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Those failing attacks at 7:1 odds in men and 14:1 in artillery make it difficult to imagine how the Soviets are ever going to counterattack successfully. Maybe the AFV's were the main reason the attack failed, but an attack at those odds would probably have a comfortable chance of success in real life.

Before Winter successful Soviet counterattacks are far and few between but they can happen. I was once able to rout a panzer division that had pushed too far forward alone but it took a mess of tank divisions to do it.

[ComradeP]

It would seem, based on the AAR's thus far, that the chance that the Soviets are less likely to be able to temporarily halt the Germans in WitE than what they were historically capable of. Perhaps the developers could find some way to give the Soviets a damage bonus and penalty for attacking in large numbers (above certain odds, say above 6:1). The bonus being that more German units would die, the penalty being that more Soviet units would die as they would basically not stop attacking until either they would be too exhausted to continue, or the Germans would retreat.

The casualty depicted in screenshots thus far give me some reason to say that the combat system might need some further finetuning, as the Germans can be a lot more powerful than they were in real life on the defensive. The superior German doctrine mostly paid off with offensive actions, its effect being increased by poor Soviet tactics. German defensive doctrine in the first few months was by no means as solid, as they were still getting used to dealing with the Soviet style of attacking (a huge barrage followed by a large mob of infantry and possibly tanks). German guns would be outranged and outnumbered on the defense, and the advantage in direct firepower could be neutralised by liberal application of artillery (14:1 odds in artillery should certainly qualify as such). It's one thing to deal with a mob of infantry running into a machine gun kill zone, but dealing with an artillery barrage in mostly unprepared positions (after all, the Germans would be advancing) followed by a determined attack was something that could result in fairly heavy losses for the Germans, heavy losses compared to offensive operations.

With the current results, the Soviet losses when attacked are high, but fairly low when attacking, and the German losses tend to be low in both cases. As such, there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for the Soviets to attack at all: there seems to be a much higher chance to inflict losses by letting the Germans deal with dug in troops than by attacking, as no matter how many guys you bring, the results seem to be disappointing.

[Helpless]

Recently (in coming patch) we raised experience of squads of arriving Soviet units. It should have some impact on inflicting damage.

[karonagames]

I am back, and about to recommence advancing on all fronts. I think Stuart and Ron's AAR's have helped fill in some of the detail of how I have (or haven't) been progressing. Looking at the development forum, there have been some HUGE changes to the game in all areas - combat resolution, production, logistics , and I've only been away for 6 days!.

[karonagames]

End of Turn 9: 4th Panzer Group is tasked with capturing the ports which are now the only source of supply for Leningrad. The bridgehead across the Volkhov should help. 18th Army moves forward to assault the city.

[karonagames]

End of Turn 9: Rzhev and Vyazma are surrounded. Defences in front of Moscow look fragmented. GAIA will have to pull units from other fronts to defend the capital.

[karonagames]

End of turn 9: Bryansk is threatened. Orel and Tula are added to the objective list for the SS breakthrough Korps.

[karonagames]

End of Turn 9: Instead of forming the Kiev Pocket, 1st Panzer Group has formed a huge pocket at Cherkassy which should take over 30 divisions and brigades out of the Soviet OOB.

[karonagames]

End of Turn 9: Odessa is besieged and the Hungarian Mobile corps continues its dash towards the Crimea.