1) Rebuilding Lines with Wooden Overhead Cover
I guess we both agree that one line could be built if most of the German Army worked on it for 1 week. Once this line is broken (+1 to odds modifier), it is unrelialistic to expect the Wehrmact had the capability under attack to generate a second or third line. If the American Army could not do it in the Battle of the Bulge with a large component of specialized engineers and a huge number of operational trucks, the German Army could not have done it over a much bigger front. Both armies suffered a large number of frost bite cases, interestingly enough! Thus it does not appear to solve the problem if realism is to be preserved.
2) Why Didn't Russian Army Built Plethora of Fortifications in 1941-1942?
Regarding the end of the German offensive capability in 1941 due to Russian fortification pileup in the game, why was this not the historical Russian tactic? Any (non-Maginot) fortification line without strong reserves can be easily penetrated. Classic examples are the D-Day attacks (even Omaha Beach), the Gustav line in May 1944, and the Stalin Line in 1941. Even the imfamous West Wall, which had taken years to build, was quickly breached in several places. In this latter case it was the attacking force which lacked the needed reserves. One a line in penetrated in a few places, available attacking reserves will move in and defeat the whole line. Thus placing half (or more) of ones army in the rear building and occupying massive fortifications was not effective. It was better to use reserves on the front, especially if the tactical ability of the troops were grossly inferior to the enemy.
3) Are the effective of game fortifications too great?
Normally a fortification line is attacked along a few choice spots. The rest of the line, say inside the game hex, would not be attacked. Thus only a small part of the defense gets the combat benefit of the fortification and most of the defensive force does not participate. Perhaps the game does not address this properly. Also, the Germans did create psuedo fortifications out of villages. The following link is excellent for explaining how the German Army survivied in late 1941.
http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/resources/csi/ ... asp#winter
4) How to Make German Players Happy
If the actual German Army lost Berlin in May 1945, it is unreasonable to expect a Russian player from doing worse in the current game. Does it really matter if Berlin falls in November 1944 or February 1945? Germany still ends up destroyed, and the German Army will be annihilated. This is true due to the overwhelming manpower and equipment, regardless in Stalingrad had previously been captured or not, as modeled in the game. I understand that there currently is a major inaccuracy in winter 1941 modeling (show stopper), but the next obstacle remaining is in summer 1942 with massive Russian fortications, and I expect this to be a show stopper as well. Then the fortifications will be tweaked, and the German players will dislike ending offensive operations completely by winter 1942. This is properly an accurate simulation of expected capabilities. It seems like a German win should still be possible in 1943+. This is why I recommend looking at both Russian casualties and German strength factors in determing victory, with various time-changing thresholds. These are not that unrealistic, but assume Hitler had been deposed, German attrocities had stopped, and the Western Allies had suffered more severe setbacks. I apologize if you felt I was trivilizing your winter 1941 frustrations.
Reginald E. Bednar
