Multiplayer... has any German player taken Stalingrad?

[jonny211]

Hi all,

In my current game my German army is grinding itself to dust trying to take Stalingrad. If I start at the southern end (plains hex) then take the next northerly urban hex I then have two more hexes to take before I get the city hex... and it's killed off many a regiment doing so.

We're playing a semi-historical northern front rule so completely isolating the city on the northern side hasn't been done. Dismissal rule is off otherwise the game would've been over long ago.

In any other multiplayer game has anyone taken Stalingrad?

In another gripe I'm still at situation level 10 event though the forces are now equal and I haven't advanced for many turns. I feel that the German situation level does not go down and the dismissal rule will always end the game before the Russians can launch their offensive.

Cheers.

Jon

[Bonners]

I've lost Stalingrad twice as Soviets against human opponents and both games were with a rule against advancing in the north. I also came within one pesky unit failing to retreat of taking Stalingrad against Olivier.

In that game though I had to stop as the Soviets were about to launch their winter offensive; however it didnt happen as my strategic stance stayed at 10 and I ended up getting dismissed. I know Vic was looking at changing the way the strategic situation switched over from offensive to defensive.

[Keunert]

the game is really well balanced. a good axis player will make you run. a mediocre axis player against a capable soviet defender will stall soon. the game is absolutely winnable for the axis

[Hugolin]

Seems you have a case of a Soviet player who knew what to do.
I guess a well prepared position will be really hard to break - how you get to Stalingrad, i.e. how fast, and after having killed how many units - will influence. but if Russia has plenty of time to entrench and reinforce and is ready... You're into deep doodoo.

[Vic]

ORIGINAL: Bonners

I've lost Stalingrad twice as Soviets against human opponents and both games were with a rule against advancing in the north. I also came within one pesky unit failing to retreat of taking Stalingrad against Olivier.

In that game though I had to stop as the Soviets were about to launch their winter offensive; however it didnt happen as my strategic stance stayed at 10 and I ended up getting dismissed. I know Vic was looking at changing the way the strategic situation switched over from offensive to defensive.

Yes i am still on this. Hope to have a new beta up within 2 weeks MAX.

best,
Vic

[Keunert]

Hugolin: the thing is that there are no troops in Stalingrad. And as a soviet commander you are constantly dealing with fronts that are about to collapse. so it is a tough question when to start sending precious units to build a front at Stalingrad.
Playing the Soviets really is a nerve wrecking experience.

If you compare this with playing the french in DC1: if you put some french armored units together, you will easily be able to punish a non cautious axis player for some rounds. you have to watch the air and the Panzers, but with a little luck the Somua's will deal a lot of pain to the Krauts.
The soviets on the other hand have all kind of problems here: Command & Control problems in the beginning, sometimes supply problems and no terain to hide tanks from the Luftwaffe. my 5TA was almost completely inefficient in my current fight against Olivier.

[jonny211]

Then it's my strategy that's not up to scratch! How did others take Stalingrad?

Vic what I've also been finding is that the game set's you minor objectives that are some way behind the major objective and would be very hard to take for example Rostov is a major and Metchetinskaya SE of it is a minor and the same with Krasnodar being a major and both Klutsj and Gelendzihk being minors at the same time. This really eats into VP.