Mud in May/June - To Offensive or Not to Offensive?

[Chad Harrison]

Hi all

Am playing as Soviets in the GC against Normal AI. Its summer 1943. Im trying to make Berlin this year!

Anyways, I have quickly learned that while snow or blizzards are a hindrance, mud stops *everything*! As it should - I know how much the Germans enjoyed the mud in reality! So I write the 'Mud Months' off the books for anything but realigning my lines and moving troops up for the next big show.

But then theres May and most of June. Per the table in the manual, you have a chance of either clear or mud in these months (May 1st to Jun 19th). So you finally get a clear turn and you are itching for your summer offensive and you let it fly! Then the next turn is mud and your troops are all out of supply, stuck in the mud unable to attack and the defender has a great chance to react for a week to your moves. Its terrible! [:D]

So its easy to write off the months where mud is guranteed (non-random weather), but May and June it seems like a craps shoot whether to let it fly or to just wait until Jun 20th to launch your attacks.

So heres my questions:

1. Do you try anything during guranteed mud months? (Apr and Oct/Nov)
2. Do you try to launch an offensive during the potential mud months? (May/Jun)
3. This might have to be a dev question, but what determines is theres mud in May/Jun when you have non random weather? Does it use the Random weather table? If you had mud one turn, are you more/less likely to have it again? How does this work? Or is just simple a XX% chance of mud during this time?

Thanks in advance

Chad

[alaric318]

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison

Hi all

Am playing as Soviets in the GC against Normal AI. Its summer 1943. Im trying to make Berlin this year!

Anyways, I have quickly learned that while snow or blizzards are a hindrance, mud stops *everything*! As it should - I know how much the Germans enjoyed the mud in reality! So I write the 'Mud Months' off the books for anything but realigning my lines and moving troops up for the next big show.

But then theres May and most of June. Per the table in the manual, you have a chance of either clear or mud in these months (May 1st to Jun 19th). So you finally get a clear turn and you are itching for your summer offensive and you let it fly! Then the next turn is mud and your troops are all out of supply, stuck in the mud unable to attack and the defender has a great chance to react for a week to your moves. Its terrible! [:D]

So its easy to write off the months where mud is guranteed (non-random weather), but May and June it seems like a craps shoot whether to let it fly or to just wait until Jun 20th to launch your attacks.

So heres my questions:

1. Do you try anything during guranteed mud months? (Apr and Oct/Nov)
2. Do you try to launch an offensive during the potential mud months? (May/Jun)
3. This might have to be a dev question, but what determines is theres mud in May/Jun when you have non random weather? Does it use the Random weather table? If you had mud one turn, are you more/less likely to have it again? How does this work? Or is just simple a XX% chance of mud during this time?

Thanks in advance

Chad

best greetings, about - not random wheater - as per manual said, i should go to an example, days 1, 3, 7, 9 = Clear wheater, days 2, 4, 6, 8 = Mud Wheater,
given each week is 7 days, you will have one clear and one mud turn each two rounds, well, not allways, but most of the time,

hope it helps,

in scenario making, take in mind, you can set a former mud wheater turn in clear, as we are allowed to set the first day campaign's wheater, so you may set it to have 2 full clear turns in campaign begining,

best regards,

Murat30.

[MengJiao]

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison

Hi all

Am playing as Soviets in the GC against Normal AI. Its summer 1943. Im trying to make Berlin this year!

Anyways, I have quickly learned that while snow or blizzards are a hindrance, mud stops *everything*! As it should - I know how much the Germans enjoyed the mud in reality! So I write the 'Mud Months' off the books for anything but realigning my lines and moving troops up for the next big show.

But then theres May and most of June. Per the table in the manual, you have a chance of either clear or mud in these months (May 1st to Jun 19th). So you finally get a clear turn and you are itching for your summer offensive and you let it fly! Then the next turn is mud and your troops are all out of supply, stuck in the mud unable to attack and the defender has a great chance to react for a week to your moves. Its terrible! [:D]

So its easy to write off the months where mud is guranteed (non-random weather), but May and June it seems like a craps shoot whether to let it fly or to just wait until Jun 20th to launch your attacks.

So heres my questions:

1. Do you try anything during guranteed mud months? (Apr and Oct/Nov)
2. Do you try to launch an offensive during the potential mud months? (May/Jun)
3. This might have to be a dev question, but what determines is theres mud in May/Jun when you have non random weather? Does it use the Random weather table? If you had mud one turn, are you more/less likely to have it again? How does this work? Or is just simple a XX% chance of mud during this time?

Thanks in advance

Chad

My experience as a Russian doing small offensives in the mud is limited to April-May-June 1942. Several things are noticable:

1) Russians seem to do a little better in the mud
2) but they burn up a lot of their truck pool doing it
3) shutting down a lot of the fronts and attacking only the most
enticing opportunities can pay off if only because the Axis AI (on Normal) goes almost completely catatonic in Mud conditions.

So for the Soviets in mud, I would recommend only a limited number of limited offensives, but these can pay off with numerous small
encirclements and the usual last minute motorized-guards-infantry- clobbers-Luftwaffe-Jagers events that provide so many precious hours of
amusement for the normal player even in muddy weeks.

[Davekhps]

1. Do you try anything during guranteed mud months? (Apr and Oct/Nov)
 
I generally clean up my lines, rail over units to areas of importance, reassign support units, and transfer air units to (Fall) and from (Spring) the national reserve.

2. Do you try to launch an offensive during the potential mud months? (May/Jun)
 
Heh, I got surprised by that in my first game.  First clear turn, launch my grand attack... that second turn ends up being mud, d'oh! 
 
I'd recommend that if you launch any attacks at all, perhaps smaller pockets are wisest-- launching a giant pocket operation that requires at least two turns to come to fruition is too risky.
 
As an aside: after that 1941 winter, the other winters aren't so bad.  You can definitely attack in the winter turns, and even attack in the blizzard turns.  I learned this too late for 1942, but in 1943 as Axis I stayed fairly active in my winter turns.

[amatteucci]

BTW, does anyone think that the difference in "mud-season" between Soviet territory and Central Europe should be more pronounced?

[bairdlander2]

It put the brakes on my GC as Axis,is there supposed to be mud in turn 5?

[Zort]

You have random weather on, one mud turn per area max before oct... check the weather section of the manual.

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: amatteucci

BTW, does anyone think that the difference in "mud-season" between Soviet territory and Central Europe should be more pronounced?

Yes i think the central europe zone should be a little less severe then deep russian territory.

[Singleton Mosby]

ORIGINAL: bwheatley

ORIGINAL: amatteucci

BTW, does anyone think that the difference in "mud-season" between Soviet territory and Central Europe should be more pronounced?

Yes i think the central europe zone should be a little less severe then deep russian territory.

Completely agreed. And snow on the Adriatic in early October is a bit weird as well.