First Game, First Impressions

[Blackhorse]

After years of toying with PacWar I finally downloaded WiR (v3.3) and decided to give it a whirl. After reading all the advice I could on the forum, I played as the Russians against the A.I. German.

Your collective advice was *too* good. I rolled into Berlin in early October of '42, and took an (undefended!) Hamburg two weeks later.

Having done that, it was still readily apparent during the game that a competent German player could easily cut off great swaths of the Russian army in the early months and take Moscow and Leningrad despite my best efforts.

A couple of observations:

* With supply lines tied exclusively to railroads it is much easier for the Germans to cut-off Russian forces in the game than it was in real life. For the Russians to have a fighting chance against the Germans in a PBEM game, it is probably necessary to eliminate the "plot penalty" against the Russians in the opening months. Has anyone tried a game without plot penalties?

* The "blizzard bug" is still a factor against the Russians in the opening month or two. Russian defenders shattered whenever they were attacked with a readiness above 70%. As long as I kept readiness in the 20% - 60% range, defending Russians invariably retreated (when retreat paths were available).