What's coming next

[Joel Billings]

With the release of the 1.02.21 official version, I wanted to update you on a few things. First, we’ve seen some posts discussing the relative effectiveness of ground support and/or flak in the game. There have been a number of changes in these areas since release. A number of changes were made in 1.02.13, and a couple important changes were made after 1.02.13. In the past, we felt that ground support was probably not as effective as it should have been, while aircraft losses to flak (as opposed to just damage to aircraft) was too high. At times, some players felt that it wasn’t worth the logistical strain to use the air force. If you’ve been using the most recent betas, and for those that will now be using the 1.02.21 version, we’d like to see and hear of your experience with ground support and flak (good and bad). Now any given battle can have odd results, but if you feel your seeing a trend that you think isn’t right, let us know. In this case, what we need is a save that allows us to run one or more specific battles where you feel the ground support results and/or the aircraft shot down by flak aren’t right. Showing screenshots of results doesn’t help us look into whether there’s a valid reason for the results, an outlier, or indicative of a problem.

Now one item that was brought up that was indicative of a problem was German AFV losses in 1941. When we dove into this, we found that one routine (of many) in combat was missing experience and morale checks that are in all the other routines. Lacking these checks, lower experience/morale AFVs were getting to fire more than they should. This was fundamentally the cause of low quality Soviet tank and mech divisions being able to shoot up large numbers of German AFVs in 1941. We’re now testing a beta version with a fix for that and we hope to be able to release it next week. The changes do make a big difference in the AFV combat losses in the early years, but not a lot of difference later on.

Another issue that we’ve worked on is the high intensity combat in heavy urban/urban/port hexes. We’re testing out some rule changes and combat tweaks for this combat that we think will lead to more accurate results. We also expect to have these changes in the beta next week. This shouldn’t keep you from enjoying the 1.02.21 version, which we think is much improved over earlier versions, but gives you an idea of the improvements that will be coming in the near future. Also, while we don’t have an ETA yet on improvements to the editor, the work is ongoing and is a high priority. Happy gaming.

[Jango32]

This is very encouraging to see.

[exalted]

Running a GC right now and air seems improved greatly from my last run. Massive Russian airforce certainly seem to make my attacks harder. At the same time why are mostly soviet airforce sometimes losing more planes then participates? Good to hear about German armour is getting a fix. Would be nice if they didn't go from 30 to 5 CV in a turn of normal operations. A slightly less radical drop would be nice.

[dgrimes]

I think the new beta is working very well. A couple of minor issues based upon playing Germans against AI in campaign game. The German 7.92mm anti-tank teams fire against infantry and other soft targets and they never hit any of these targets (no disruption, damage or destruction). They do successfully fire against Soviet armored units. I can only guess that they are firing the anti-tank weapon, with a value of 3 against "man", but never use the rifle or pistol which have a higher combat value against "man", they should be able to hit a soft target sometimes. Second the German armored cars never seem to fire when they are operating with infantry units. They do not fire very much even when operating with armored units. These have been long-standing issues

But with respect to your main question I think the air war is generally doing well. Although one possible change would be for the AI to use a more variable number of bombers in a ground attack. Right now it seems to throw the kitchen sink in the first ground attacks, and continue doing so until the planes have exhausted their miles available. Maybe the AI should modify the number of attacking planes involved based upon the CV of the defending force.

[Stamb]

...
But with respect to your main question I think the air war is generally doing well. Although one possible change would be for the AI to use a more variable number of bombers in a ground attack. Right now it seems to throw the kitchen sink in the first ground attacks, and continue doing so until the planes have exhausted their miles available. Maybe the AI should modify the number of attacking planes involved based upon the CV of the defending force.

Agree. Good example is first AI Axis turn. GS is always present. Even in situations where it is not required. Like attacking FZ.

[Hardradi]

Appreciate the update.

[Lurberri]

With the release of the 1.02.21 official version, I wanted to update you on a few things. ...

The team's follow-up of game inconsistencies or bugs found is superb, I greatly appreciate their work.

But with respect to your main question I think the air war is generally doing well. Although one possible change would be for the AI to use a more variable number of bombers in a ground attack. Right now it seems to throw the kitchen sink in the first ground attacks, and continue doing so until the planes have exhausted their miles available. Maybe the AI should modify the number of attacking planes involved based upon the CV of the defending force.

One can always turn GS on or off in ground combat where GS is not needed, however, there is no way to determine the intensity (size) of GS in any given ground combat (at least without continually tweaking, in each individual combat, the air directives themselves, something that is very cumbersome and requires excessive micromanagement).

The player should be able to determine, in each ground combat he performs, what level of aerial intensity (high, medium or low, which the player could choose via some tab) he wants to provide (then, to make it unpredictable, the game mechanics can modify it, by up or down, through multiple random variables: CV involved, number of planes available, leadership, ... etc) but at least some player influence should be on that field. Currently everything in that area is excessively random and completely out of the player's control.

[Stamb]

You can put some air units on rest in ground phase to prevent them from flying. But that's all what I can suggest in terms of GS.

[AlbertN]

For the Ground Support business, it does not really require -any- save.
Turn 1 will reveal plenty of Su2 action around Minsk unless the Germans risk long range bombing. These Su2 will otherwise bomb the hell of German units attacking / making way to Minsk.

Good news for German AFV losses - I assume it will impact as well '42, losses there were still pretty nifty as well.

Urban Combat modifiers will be peculiar to be seen - and how it unfolds!

+1 for the work in progress

[Zovs]

Riga on turn one takes more effort.

[AlbertN]

I do not believe Riga-T1 is the problem in general though.

Also - would do good to review performance of Panzergrenadier type of ground elements.
They were awful in terms of combat efficiency. I do not mean the Panzergrenadier type of division. Just the litteraly Panzergrenadier / Squad / MG / Pionere etc.

[Teo41_ITA]

Great! Looking forward to the new betas to adjust AFV losses!

[homer82]

Riga on turn one takes more effort.

Thanks Zovs, good to know.

[DeletedUser1769703214]

Riga on turn one takes more effort.

Thanks Zovs, good to know.

Riga on turn 1 will still fall as it always does on that turn with the same effort. Why? Because the NKVD division defending Riga is very low TOE. If that TOE was higher I would agree.

[loki100]

Riga on turn one takes more effort.

Thanks Zovs, good to know.

Riga on turn 1 will still fall as it always does on that turn with the same effort. Why? Because the NKVD division defending Riga is very low TOE. If that TOE was higher I would agree.

Its actually quite variable, roll up enough T1 and you'll get a decent morale/experience formation there, certainly enough to offset the TOE and with the new urban combat rules

in other words, most times you'll take it as before with a single division, hasty attack but if you can't afford a hold result then you know need to use 2 formations