Alternative Rules

[Sturm41]

I have been playing war games with counter for over 40 years. War in the East is a super game that reminds me of Avalon Hills "The Russian Campaign". I have some alternate rules that I use when playing against the computer that I think make this great game even more fun. When playing on the German side, I give myself the following bonuses upon taking these objectives. I feel that the taking of Moscow would have been a major turning point if it was accomplished. These changes are made under the Administation tab and can be changed mid game.

If you take Moscow: Increase your Morale and Administation values by 20 and decrease the Soviet Morale, Logistics and Administation values by 20.
If you take Leningrad: Increase your Morale Level by 10 and decrease the Soviet Morale Level by 10.
If you take Stalingrad: Increase your Morale Level by 10 and decrease the Soviet Morale Level by 10.

[heliodorus04]

As long as you're having fun, I certainly won't get in your way.

I've been lead to believe, though, that when Morale goes over 100, that's side leader checks are automatically successful (barring negative modifiers for things like exceeding command capacity).

Doing both of these in a 10 point margin would seem large.  Doing Moscow in a 20 point margin would, I think, create an imbalance that cannot be recovered from.

These kinds of things might be interesting house rules for PvP, but you can't adjust these settings once a game has been created.

[carnifex]

Just to be fair:

If you FAIL to take Moscow in 1941: Decrease your Morale and Administation values by 20 and increase the Soviet Morale, Logistics and Administation values by 20.
If you FAIL to take Leningrad in 1941: Decrease your Morale Level by 10 and increase the Soviet Morale Level by 10.
If you FAIL to take Stalingrad 1942: Decrease your Morale Level by 10 and increase the Soviet Morale Level by 10.

lol

Anyway, you won't need to take Stalingrad or Leningrad because the game will be over as soon as you capture Moscow. Raising your morale by 20 and lowering the USSR by 20 is pretty much like clicking on the "exit game" icon.


EDIT:

Someone else thought that capturing Moscow would be a major turning point in the war. It was a turning point, but probably not the way he imagined, considering the amount of frozen horseflesh eaten on the way back. If anything, capturing Moscow would be a net null event. Your Germans would get a morale bonus for capturing it, then that morale bonus would evaporate when the Soviets would show no signs of surrendering

[carnifex]

ORIGINAL: heliodorus04

I've been lead to believe, though, that when Morale goes over 100, that's side leader checks are automatically successful (barring negative modifiers for things like exceeding command capacity).

I believe it's 110.

[Klydon]

I have posted in the past about tying some national moral modifiers to some geographic locations, but not with those big of modifiers. (My take was 5 each for Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad would be plenty). While it is fairly evident that the Russians would not have bowed out of the war if Moscow was captured, I also don't think there is any question it would have shaken the nation and made them doubt the outcome of the war, etc. Right now these locations are just about like any other city although in the case of Moscow and Leningrad, there is a fair amount of manufacturing there at start of game (which is then moved). In addition, I think the capture of Moscow should cause a hefty drop in the Russian rail cap given its importance to the Russian rail net. 

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Klydon
In addition, I think the capture of Moscow should cause a hefty drop in the Russian rail cap given its importance to the Russian rail net. 

Isn't rail capacity connected somehow with the railyard capacity of the cities you own?

Anyway, after the evacuation of factories in 1941, you could cut soviet rail cap by half and nobody would even notice.

[Klydon]

Russian rail cap is another can of worms (way too high, although adjusting how much it takes to move industry around has helped). Moscow has 40 of 289 rail cap in the game (whatever that means, although if losing Moscow means the Russian rail cap goes down by roughly 14% then I am better with that, although I think it should be higher while I don't know that losing Leningrad should be as much as it is but perhaps so). My point is that Moscow is the rail center hub of the country and its loss should have a significant impact on rail cap. I would be saying the same thing for Berlin and probably the Ruhr as well if it was in game.  

[Sturm41]

Alternative Rules are simply an alternative. However, if you have not played the 1941 Campaign to its ending more than once against the computer then I think you would find these alternative rules much more playable. It simply speeds up the inevitable as opposed to spending an extra 15-20 hours playing time to reach the same outcome.
Also, you can use similar rules when playing the Soviet side for capturing Warsaw, Vienna etc.

Regardless of what anyones opinion is, the reality is that nobody knows what would have happened if Moscow fell in 1941 or 1942.