ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek
ORIGINAL: RBednar
Instead of redesigning the entire combat mechanism, why not simply have another random roll to see if the defender retreats. The probability could be linearly extrapolated from the following points, for example:
Final Odds Probability of Defender Retreat
0.80 0%
1.00 25%
2.00 70%
3.00 95%
4.00 100%
This makes attacking at low odds acceptable if high casualties can be tolerated, and advances are required. The Germans and Russians could then use the same combat table, since the German player cannot afford the extra casualties in the long run.
Indeed, making the "defender retreats" trigger to be non-deterministic is something worth exploring. I'd say something similar was proposed a long time ago. It would make it harder to line up things so that outcomes of attacks become so predictable. But it wouldn't solve the problem with pursuit: I can see three rifle corps achieving those 4:1 final odds against a Panzer division, triggering retreat losses all the same. And tying it to the odds - which I think are basically measuring effective unit fire power - is a bit counter intuitive.
Superior fire power pins down the defender, encouraging troops to bunker down. That superiority enables maneuver - i.e. overrunning or outflanking - which is what actually makes troops to withdraw, or destroys the enemy when it becomes exposed, and that depends on mobility, command & control. The Red Army usually had more trouble executing maneuver than in achieving superior firepower, from my point of view.
The retreat losses can be adjusted independently of the combat computations. It seems some of the changes were to give the Russians more attack capability (or encourage more attacks) by lowering initial losses. If the main loss mechanism is to be based on the defender retreating, the combat mechanism gets downplayed. It seems low odd attacks should result in heavy attacker casualties, whether the defender retreats or not.
Postulating theoretically what would happen if 3 understrength Rifle Corps attacked 1 understrength Panzer Division, the infantry ratio for the attacker would be overwhelming! It looks like somewhere between 18 to 27 infantry battalions against 4 infantry battalions. If the German were 6:1 better at the beginning of the campaign, they certainly weren't that during the middle and last stages of the war. So I would expect the Panzer Division to retreat, more than not. Of course, using Uber-fortifications clouds up everything, since there is no historical precedence outside of the battles for major German cities. For the latter, dwindling supplies quickly eroded combat capability. I would expect the Russian infantry to take massive losses since the Panzer Division had so much firepower, especially in the tank and self-propelled artillery areas.
