The D21 Road Not Taken....

[larryfulkerson]

The supply net has collapsed and the winter storms have moved into the area so that my MP's are less than 5 for the units and a LOT of the Axis units are in reorg and most of them are overextended in supply so pestilence has set in. Either the supply will have to get a lot better or I'll have to pull all these units back to better supply areas.

[larryfulkerson]

It's the same story about the supply in the Bryansk area as well. As I recall the supply situation does get better when the ground freezes in a turn or two, so I'm going to risk leaving the troops where they are instead of pulling back.

[larryfulkerson]

It's T35 and this is the supply situation SE of Leningrad about 30 hexes. I'm counting on the freezing of the ground to give a little better supply levels. Otherwise I may have to pull back a lot of troops because they are all suffering pestilence and I can't let them do that for very long.

[cpt flam]

Mud will run till turn 40 (at least)

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: cpt flam
Mud will run till turn 40 (at least)

That's bad news. I'm not planning on attacking very much since the supply levels won't permit it right now. And movement needs to be curtailed as well. There are sections of the front lines where I CAN move and shoot but it's small and doesn't go very far. Not worth persuing. The Soviet Winter Offensive happens in T49 I think. They get a shock value of 120 and mine gets decreased to 80 for about 30 turns. That's long enough to blow a hole in my lines and pour a lot of troops through it. I'm not looking forward to that time period. I've lost more than one game because of that.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's what it looks like down south right now ( T35 ) and you can see how my units are operating in a very low supply situation and I'm going to have to call a halt to the advance here so that the units can keep at least 50% supply to be able to either move or shoot. I hate to call a halt because there's been a lot of progress in this area. If I had the supply to be able to do it I would keep going. My goal for this group in the south is Stalingrad and the sooner I capture it the better. I doubt that I'll be able to capture it this year.

[Lobster]

Wow Larry your supply has really gone in the crapper.

[larryfulkerson]

ORIGINAL: Lobster
Wow Larry your supply has really gone in the crapper.

Yes indeed. Here's another look at a different area. It's T37 now and I'm still waiting for the supply situation to get better before I do a bunch of serious attacks. I figure that I can afford to wait several turns. Not that I have much choice.

[larryfulkerson]

I did a mod of D21 to give the Axis HQ's some RR engineers so that they could help out repairing the rails. It makes it easier to get the rail to stay almost even with the front lines. And then I restarted. I'm on T6 right now and this is how far I've gotten toward Leningrad. I've got the Panzers out front zooming down those Russian roads. Resistance is light so far. I'd like to grab the bottleneck port so that I can possibly trap all the Soviet units to the west of Narva. The supply levels are adequate for operations to continue so far.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm approaching Orsha where there's no river for the Soviets to hide behind. I'm hoping I can push them aside and keep going east. I'd rather not get into a pi$$ing match over the river crossings. I usually get high losses when I try that. I'm going to try to find spots where I can use the engineers to get across the river and get in behind the Soviet defenders and destroy them.

[larryfulkerson]

I just now did a save game event and I'm attaching the file here below just in case you want to go into detail about what's going on all over the map. And maybe try your hand at playing D21 that gives Axis HQ's RR engineers. It's a different experience than the vanilla version.

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: larryfulkerson
I did a mod of D21 to give the Axis HQ's some RR engineers so that they could help out repairing the rails. It makes it easier to get the rail to stay almost even with the front lines.

Larry

Maybe you should consider toning down the automatic “Rail Damage” from 100% to something less destructive, say 70%. I’ve never heard a good answer as to why it was 100% guaranteed that the advancing force would trigger automatic destruction of the rails, but that’s usually what I see in scenarios. Maybe the defenders didn’t have time, maybe the advancing force prevented them or maybe they just didn’t do a good job. Multiple events can be used to model the probability of rail destruction as the scenario evolves. Each side can have independent rail destruction events.

Just a thought.

Regards

[larryfulkerson]

Larry

Maybe you should consider toning down the automatic “Rail Damage” from 100% to something less destructive, say 70%. I’ve never heard a good answer as to why it was 100% guaranteed that the advancing force would trigger automatic destruction of the rails, but that’s usually what I see in scenarios. Maybe the defenders didn’t have time, maybe the advancing force prevented them or maybe they just didn’t do a good job. Multiple events can be used to model the probability of rail destruction as the scenario evolves. Each side can have independent rail destruction events.

Just a thought.

Regards

Hey, that's a really good idea. I'll look into it and see what I can do about that. I'm wondering what a good figure would be for the setting: 70% damage? I'll try that and see what difference it makes. That means I'll have to restart again and I've only just now gotten to T7.

[rhinobones]

Well, I’m not a big-time player of the East Front scenarios, but if I were, I would make events as follows:

German (Soviets destroying rails as Germans advance)
Barbarossa – 20% chance
As the Soviet defense stiffens – 50%
Winter and beyond – 80%

Soviets (Germans destroying rails as Soviets advance)
Initial value – 70%
After Soviets capture Riga-Minsk-Kyiv (somewhere along that line) 90%

I would build ranges into the events in order to make the scenario more variable. Also, the events would probably be best if they are based on “Hex Occupation” triggers rather than as timed events.

Regards, RhinoBones

[larryfulkerson]

Well, I’m not a big-time player of the East Front scenarios, but if I were, I would make events as follows:

German (Soviets destroying rails as Germans advance)
Barbarossa – 20% chance
As the Soviet defense stiffens – 50%
Winter and beyond – 80%

Soviets (Germans destroying rails as Soviets advance)
Initial value – 70%
After Soviets capture Riga-Minsk-Kyiv (somewhere along that line) 90%

I would build ranges into the events in order to make the scenario more variable. Also, the events would probably be best if they are based on “Hex Occupation” triggers rather than as timed events.

Regards, RhinoBones

Wow. You've been giving this some thought. It all sounds good. I'll get busy.

[sPzAbt653]

Hey you dumb asses, the reason it is 100% in scenarios like this is because they had different rail gauges !!

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653

Hey you dumb asses, the reason it is 100% in scenarios like this is because they had different rail gauges !!

Beat me to it. (Except for the dumb asses thingy. I was going to be much nicer about it).

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
Hey you dumb asses, the reason it is 100% in scenarios like this is because they had different rail gauges !!

As mom liked to say, “it takes one to know one”.

Kid, you need to do two things. One, get control of yourself and two, show a little respect for other people’s opinions. I’ve seen you throw little tantrums like this before. Get a life, it’s a game.

I expect to see you post an apology to Larry.

Best Regards, RhinoBones

[sPzAbt653]

Lightne up, its Saturady night here in virus shutdown mode !! No apologies needed, you guys can make any dumb ass changes you feel you need so that you can beat a scenario! Damn the designer all to hell, right?

[rhinobones]

ORIGINAL: sPzAbt653
... make any dumb ass changes you feel you need so that you can beat a scenario! Damn the designer all to hell, right?

Wrong again.

First you insult people and when they take exception you want them to “lighten” up. To top it off, you hide behind the virus shutdown as a defense for being insolent. Yes, an apology is needed.

Best Regards, RhinoBones