AAR vs Opponent Nr.2

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

That's the status I got the City in. So without any combat, due to the ZoC, the % are there.
Ultimately it is okay to assume that the departing Soviets mined portual facilities, etc - it's not total destruction but neither seizing the stuff integer.

I am puzzled as well to have got Talinn and Odessa empty - which I reiterate, is not what I get commonly from my games.
I even got 100k+ soldiers in Odessa in a few games, stalling the Axis advance an amount of turns!

Yes - there it is right in front of me and I agree the damage seems realistic. I forgot about Talinn.....another gift! Take it while you can

[AlbertN]

T4 - Cold Showers

There we go! I opened the save and litterally got a cold shower.

I deliberately left the GS on - having fighters also upfront thinking to be able to fend off the Soviets.

NEIN!

It's July '41, and the Soviets begin already to play bowling with the German armoured formations.

I'll have to be more cautious, but right now 4 Panzer formations got shanked (2 here - 2 to come in the next screenshot).

The Soviets have an amazing capability of ammassing their troops, sweeping around the German forces with nimble armoured formations and obliterate them. (A 25-35% destruction of Panzers for these divisions)
The Luftwaffe too seemed to just take a beating - it seems to leave Ground Support on for the enemy turn is pratically suicidal and it can reveal to be as it is now ... a tool just for your own turn (Feel wrong as it is).

The real issue is that Panzers are non replaceable with the current logistic system.
I can see as well top tier Soviet leaders thereby deployed.

[AlbertN]

T4 - Combat Detail, Luftwaffe who and what?

There - here supposedly an amount of bombers passed through. Some got shot down.
But 50ish got through to unload their cargo, maybe some damaged!

Now what is the effect of the German quality pilot bombers there?
It seems quite insignificant to me effect wise.

Extra reason to not really use GS in enemy turns (Which I reiterate, seems silly.)

Just posting one but the numbers are the same for all combats.

[AlbertN]

T4 - More Shanking

This time Germans even -held- the ground!

Still massive panzer losses. Or at least to me that amount is massive.
Luftwaffe intervention as you can see nets a collection of 0s except Disrupted ones.

Air losses here are ... due to flak as the planes pass over Smolensk ... more reasons to think that GS is bad in enemy turn.

[AlbertN]

T4 - Further spanking!

With this upload, I'll close the game and open the turn again tomorrow.

It has just depressed me and put me deeply off, as I feel the narrative of the Barbarossa entirely bogus. And what bugs me is that this is the 'music' the Soviets will play onward each turn - snipe whatever Germans expose. And we're speaking here of -start of July panzer divisions! Not mid october or november exhausted, far from logistical assets and thus undersupplied German troops.

Germans must advance mighty cautious in '41 and dreading the Soviets with their concerted and concentrated super counterattacks.
Alas due to the VP business, Germans cannot just be overly cautious.

[Rosencrantus]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

T4 - Cold Showers

There we go! I opened the save and litterally got a cold shower.

I deliberately left the GS on - having fighters also upfront thinking to be able to fend off the Soviets.

NEIN!

It's July '41, and the Soviets begin already to play bowling with the German armoured formations.

I'll have to be more cautious, but right now 4 Panzer formations got shanked (2 here - 2 to come in the next screenshot).

The Soviets have an amazing capability of ammassing their troops, sweeping around the German forces with nimble armoured formations and obliterate them. (A 25-35% destruction of Panzers for these divisions)
The Luftwaffe too seemed to just take a beating - it seems to leave Ground Support on for the enemy turn is pratically suicidal and it can reveal to be as it is now ... a tool just for your own turn (Feel wrong as it is).

The real issue is that Panzers are non replaceable with the current logistic system.
I can see as well top tier Soviet leaders thereby deployed.

If you're playing on the latest public beta, I think the fighter escort system is bugged. Check the air combat tab when you use GS, I'm assuming you've directly assigned fighters to the GS directive but I'm willing to bet that you only get patrolling aircraft, which is probably why you only got 13 fighters helping out 152 bombers.

[AlbertN]

Yes I am on the latest Beta.

But what I am also underlining is the string of AIR Destroyed, AIR Damaged, and AIR Disrupted.

The Air Support seems entirely non effective!
I deliberately shown the Ground Losses in combats, as it seems the planes are just missing or so.

I am on 9k Altitude for all I remember atm and the 'Load' setting is on AUTO.

[Rosencrantus]

Try rolling back to 01.01.07 and testing the game in a different campaign, I did it and my GS started working again perfectly fine.

EDIT: Make sure to ask Seminole to rollback as well, a server game shouldn't be played with two different game versions.

EDIT 2: Oops, this game is not the one against Seminole [:(].

[AlbertN]

This is not the one against Seminole! But .07 has other issues.

Tbh at this stage I'd just wait for a patch to fix the Assault HQ and a few other bits that from my perspective screw the balance. I'll prolly lose both games at the Victory Points at the first check and that's it.

[Rosencrantus]

The only real issue with the previous public beta was the fact that escort fighters were sometimes charged more miles and suffered more op losses.

I don't really think there are that many balance issues in the GC 41 aside from the assault HQs and the capability for units to attack and still use admin movement, which is getting patched out I believe. Even then, I believe the axis are still capable of more or less achieving historical levels of success (in terms of territory).

[AlbertN]

Personally I feel more is needed than just that - and the 'Assault HQ' change depends on how it is made since it can have an amount of variegation.
But right now everything is blanketed by 'Assault HQ' it seems. The excess of AP that Soviets have, the free disbanding, etc ... (Given I'd not mind a return to WITE1 level of AP Costing to switch stuff from this Army / Corp unless they're Stavka or OKH located / assigned - that works both ends).

[Rosencrantus]

I can understand your viewpoint. There are certainly more things to be tackled in this game, but assault HQ is clearly the most important one.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Rosencrantus

The only real issue with the previous public beta was the fact that escort fighters were sometimes charged more miles and suffered more op losses.

I don't really think there are that many balance issues in the GC 41 aside from the assault HQs and the capability for units to attack and still use admin movement, which is getting patched out I believe. Even then, I believe the axis are still capable of more or less achieving historical levels of success (in terms of territory).

Once the Assault HQ is addressed(for both sides) I think more games should see historical levels. As it is right now I would say, "not possible at all" on equal opponents. On unequal opponents yes.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

This is not the one against Seminole! But .07 has other issues.

Tbh at this stage I'd just wait for a patch to fix the Assault HQ and a few other bits that from my perspective screw the balance. I'll prolly lose both games at the Victory Points at the first check and that's it.

Ya, I talked about the VP's in the Beta. It won't be changed even though I believe it may help in the run-away strategy. So I really don't converse much on it since it falls on death ears.

Really the real problem is that Germany is short 1 FBD from me studying it. I wish we could split an FBD down and work slower than the Corps There is just so much rail to convert and if you take a great deal of territory your trucks get eaten up like candy on clearance.

[Rosencrantus]

What I usually do with the FBDs is after repairing up enough in the North where Axis gains is going to be a few hexes a turn, i send the FBD 4 to do repair to Velikie Luki then either gomel-bryansk or gomel-kursk. With the slower pace of advance in the north T6+ using the support repair units is sufficient for getting rail repair done in a timely fashion.

[Rosencrantus]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Rosencrantus

The only real issue with the previous public beta was the fact that escort fighters were sometimes charged more miles and suffered more op losses.

I don't really think there are that many balance issues in the GC 41 aside from the assault HQs and the capability for units to attack and still use admin movement, which is getting patched out I believe. Even then, I believe the axis are still capable of more or less achieving historical levels of success (in terms of territory).

Once the Assault HQ is addressed(for both sides) I think more games should see historical levels. As it is right now I would say, "not possible at all" on equal opponents. On unequal opponents yes.

Actually the more I think about it, yeah, for equal opponents the Axis might still get Orel, Kursk, Kharkov but not Kalinin or nearly Tula like historical.

And definitely not Khimki.

[AlbertN]

The question is 'can also they keep these places through the Winter'?

Because Orel, Kursk and Kharkov were all kept.

I concur the rail conversion is far too small for Axis as well. There is just one single track in general around. RAD units are far too few. And there are bazillion of Construction Units sitting in the HQs doing ... pratically nothing or if kept in Corps HQ digging trenches to be abandoned as one moves on.

[AlbertN]

T5 - AGS longs for Vengeance but...

Air Recon will soon need to be toned down, losses due to OPs are still extremely taxing for air recon.

But right now an increased effort was made in intensity trying to discover the Soviet formations that may still linger in the zone.

Given, with slow infantries, most of the armoured units 'cut off' by the Soviet maneuver capability - the Axis is already short of punishing capability in the sector.

What the Axis can conjure up is to be seen but right now it seems the 'majestic' pocket guarded by a whole Panzergruppe revealed itself to be a grand trap for the Germans.

[AlbertN]

T5 - Odessa Sector

This is a post movement image. I think the Soviets do not have grand assets there, just a screening force to ZoC the river.

But the Germans lack the movement points to do anything.
As experienced by other players already, this is the agreed march to the East where Soviets leave space, exploit German movement and logistic constraints til the Soviets can just build up nicely and merrily.

Til now the Army Group Antonescu pratically had picnics, with barely any fight past T2.

Presently the grand narrative of Barbarossa is 'Soviets fight when and where they want, they dictate the grand strategy the Axis has to follow'.
My opponent obviously play well there (I do not agree on leaving Objective Cities empty but otherwise all is good!). With nothing to lose on Soviet end, and pratically nothing to gain on German end besides a handful of VPs that ruling out an automatic Victory, it will just be a virtual pool of score serving nothing to stem out the later Soviet tidal wave (in War in the Pacific at least Japan could use facilities and resources captured and needed them).

[Beethoven1]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

T5 - Odessa Sector

My opponent obviously play well there (I do not agree on leaving Objective Cities empty but otherwise all is good!).

You say objective "cities" ...

Well, that is actually probably the biggest problem with Odessa. Odessa is not a city... It is clear terrain. Clear terrain is pretty much indefensible given the combat engine against a sufficiently large enemy attack.

If Soviets are supposed to meaningfully be able to defend Odessa, then it needs to not be clear terrain. It should be urban, or at least a city. If that means the fort level has to be over, then it should be. But any defense of Odessa is basically instant death from the Soviet perspective currently.