Stalingrad II (AAR)

[Obsolete]

Stalingrad II

Axis:: German & Croatian
Allies:: Take one Big Red Guess

Playing the same Satalingrad scenario again from ::
tm.asp?m=2388501

But this time I’m going with the Communist perspective. Unfortunately for me, I’m even more worried than I was with axis. It seems I am quite outnumbered here at the start, and everything from the quality differential to the extra off-board support the axis has worries me greatly.

I’d be tempted to move everything into the safety of the city(s), but trying to do that now may be too late since I’d have to disengage from the enemy. TOAW players know what I mean, but things can be even worse here.

I have not much choice but to try and use the foliage for best defense, but some areas will be clear & open ground which compounds my problems. If anyone has any great ideas/suggestions I am willing to listen. Currently we are at my direct fire (DEFENDER) phase, since the Axis is still in the middle of their turn. I’m a bit worried how things will look before I even get to my movement phase. At least I killed 2 platoons worth when the axis crept up to me, but that isn’t going to do much when it seems they have a hundred at least.

[Obsolete]

6 AM – Sept 14

The axis raped and butchered up my units pretty bad on the fronts (at least I thought so).  During our turn I only executed two assaults, while trying to keep the rest of the lines purely defensive.  One problem I have is causing disruptions isn’t good enough, I need to get actual hits/kills on those units before the axis simply rotates them around with fresh troops, vs my out-numbered army.

I am also realizing pretty quick that having lower quality troops (even by just a little) can cause an explosion of retreating units.  Hmm, that doesn’t sound quite right.... Russian units retreating from the Eastern Front?  They got executed by the thousand folds for that.  Good thing the execution-rolls-for –cowardice are left out of the battle-mechanics for this game then Here’s what the battlefield looks like during our Defender’s Direct Fire phase a couple hours later.

[Obsolete]

8 AM – Sept 14

Again, things didn’t go so hot.  In fact, I got so smashed up by artillery that I didn’t even have half of my entire forces in command.  So I wouldn’t have been able to do any assaults even if I had the strength to.

I just don’t know what to do right now, I sense I’m going to end up in a bad war of attrition now until I can finally get a little bit of help come in. 

 

[Obsolete]

10 AM -- Sept 14

I plugged a small gap with a Division HQ in the North-East.  Yes, I’m getting that desperate now.  Unfortunately the seam is long broken now in the mid-West, and I fear my army is quickly going to become two isolated groups, and then cut down piece-meal.  A repeat of the first game.
I may lose my units even faster if I try to dis-engage and make a run for it, so maybe I”ll just try to fight down to the last man here, and later use my other re-inforcements to build a very strong defensive line at a key point down south.  It won’t hurt to blow up a few bridges too.  

Also, I’m not happy about the AI CHEATING and over-stacking the Croatian units on top of the Germans. 
NEVER TRUST AN AXIS NATION!

[Obsolete]

Operation Chicken-Sh!t

I definitely need to change things or risk losing the whole army here.  After some thinking, I devised a DEFENSIVE plan.. “Operation Chicken Sh*t”, which I will explain shortly.

Looking specifically at the West/South part of Stalingrad, the terrain looks like it could be possible to hold.  I have the nice in-passable Volga river behind me.  Then I have another river that extends half way across, adding some extra protection from the North/West.

There is an imaginary chicken-wire fence to the West of this area (outlined in yellow).  Due to the contrast between the defensive cover terrain, and the clear fields beside it.  So, it MAY be possible to reverse the current situation of attrition if we play our cards right.  

I’m not TOO optimistic here, but it is a plan, and I’m going to have to do something drastic here.  Perhaps I will pull out all artillery from the North that I can save to help place a full barrage against the chicken-wire fence while I try to hold those lines and dig in. I have a few tanks, and maybe AT guns I can also rush down before the northern pocket closes.  Of course, this will only result in that Northern pocket closing even faster, but what can I do.

Around 8 pm today I’ll be getting the 13-Guards Infantry Division as reinforcements, which come with a couple engineers and four more artillery pieces included.  I already marked in blue where I need to place an engineer.  From that hex he can blow both bridges.  I guess I had better rush my own tank companies down there now, since they’ll not be able to cross that river once the bridges go.


I still have a lot more thinking to do on this…

[bairdlander2]

From the screenshots it looks like something from 1992 or earlier.[:D]

[junk2drive]

Yep, looks good, doesn't it? Or would you put a backwards ball cap on the Mona Lisa just to bring her up to date?

[bairdlander2]

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

Yep, looks good, doesn't it? Or would you put a backwards ball cap on the Mona Lisa just to bring her up to date?

No I would not,but realley the graphics are a little dated.I wouldnt pay more than $20 for something like this.On the plus side at least they use NATO counters as opposed to "sprites".Wasnt this released in 2001?Is this another Matrix "reissue" of an old game costing 2010 prices?What new features are in this game to make me want to buy it?

[Obsolete]

About the graphics you are right, there are no fancy-smancy & slow rate scrolling 3D graphics here.  The game moves fast and simple.  Even at it inception the only mark against the title was the graphics, which is the reason why it was rated so highly amongst the grog nards, but unknown amoungst the masses.  It was the #1 under-rated wargame in the 90’s, and it probably will still be so in its re-release.

I thought I’d give you a quick shot of a clip from the older versions, and super-imposed it onto the current re-release.  As you can see there are some changes to tiles like supply depots and cities, etc.  Also the counters themselves have changed.  Again, it’s nothing that demands a state of the art graphics card, it just does it job.

In fact, the counters have been expanded so now a tank destroyer actually looks like a tank destroyer, instead of using the same old generic classification as a tank.  I really HATE that when people refer to Hellcats as tanks for example.

More scenarios have been added in and there’s been some other touchups like expanding the text panel length, etc.  Some more hotkeys are due to come which will make things even faster than they already are.  Even still, some of these scenarios can take many hours, even days to play out.  But that’s not due to the GUI, more due to all the thinking if you want to do things right.

Of course, on-line playability will be there, because it always had it.  Which in my books was another reason I preferred this over TOAW.   In fact, that was probably the biggest strike against TOAW that I remember and why the clubs couldn’t get much bigger.

And don’t forget, there was not a more realistic wargame around for paradrop units.  Even a decade later I don’t think there is anything out there that improved CC2’s game mechanics.

[Obsolete]

Lunch Break…  Sept. 14

I’ve played past lunch now, and our situation has deteriorated into a total route now.  What was left of the north got absolutely shattered last turn by the axis.  And to make things worse, units I tried sending south got butchered and raped pretty bad by opportunity fire.  It seems I’ve definitely lost the battle at this point, and I don’t see how the hell I can make a come-back.

Not unless, the AI does something stupid at this point, but since we’re playing Combat Command 2 here, and NOT Civilization IV, the chances of that happening are not very likely.  But at least I will try to go down in flames.  If anyone is a strategic genius, feel free to help me out here.

As you can see, I still need to plug gaps in this Chicken-Wire fence.  I may not be able to do so, but I’m trying.  You can notice the new companies that arrived South, they look pretty beat up indeed, and are barely hanging on by a single platoon.  In fact, my three companies of my fully healthy tank regiment almost became non-existent as you can see.  I am tempted to say there’s nothing I could do about it, but I suppose I could have had them march down safer areas, but then I risk them not being able to help down south in time.  So many problems to worry about.

To make things worse, that damn AI is getting sneaky on me and trying to over-stack more hexes, for which I do not have a counter to.  It seems like a no-no win for me.  If I tried to defend the north I die, but if I group in the south I will probably die too.  But what can an officer do here?  I was open for suggestions but it looks like no one else had a sure-win plan either.

So…. I had enough of an ass-kicking for now.  Tomorrow we resume for the 2 pm phases.

[Bamilus]

I don't think the graphics look dated. I mean, it is a hex wargame. It is hard to have much differentiation in graphics.

I don't know much about this game but the screenshots look really well done. I'll be following this one.

[Obsolete]

Bamilus, spoken like a true Grognard

I may be getting a "get-out-of-jail" card free from my butchering of this scenario soon though.  Mike Cooney has been doing some more work on Horse & Musket I believe, but he also is doing some more tweaks on this title.  One little problem we've had is that Engineers were not being able to build assigned bridges.  The save format has been patched up which is great, since this problem can really hurt the axis nations (barring Japan?).  The only problem is that it looks like the fixes save format wont be compatible with the current build.  So, I may be able to save myself from going down in flames and getting butchered here by an AI. 

One thing I have learned from these scenarios, is I can see now how europeans learned their lessons hard regarding heavy hardware and the river terrain of Europe, spanning from the far West all the way to Sicily.  At one time I used to think the modern day Leapards with their fully submersible (by snorkeling) routine was mostly an extra gimmick to sell the tank to buyers.  But I see now there is a very good reason for this. 

[JudgeDredd]

I think the graphics have a charm to them...like old stylie with modern look

[OnTheContrary]

ORIGINAL: Obsolete

About the graphics you are right, there are no fancy-smancy & slow rate scrolling 3D graphics here.  The game moves fast and simple.  Even at it inception the only mark against the title was the graphics, which is the reason why it was rated so highly amongst the grog nards, but unknown amoungst the masses.  It was the #1 under-rated wargame in the 90’s, and it probably will still be so in its re-release.

Actually, I find the graphics perfect. Just discovered this game and it looks really, really good. I will be keeping an eye on this one.

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: Bamilus

I don't think the graphics look dated. I mean, it is a hex wargame. It is hard to have much differentiation in graphics.

I don't know much about this game but the screenshots look really well done. I'll be following this one.

I beg to differ. Take a look at the WiTE map/graphics for an example of how a game can be enhanced visually for greater immersion without going down the 3D route...

[Fred98]

ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

I beg to differ. Take a look at the WiTE map/graphics for an example of how a game can be enhanced visually for greater immersion without going down the 3D route...

I agree with you.

But this game is really simple and as a result I am really enjoying it!

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[Magpius]

Appears to be a thread hijack.[:'(]
The graphics rock!
JMass' mod brings this game well and truly into line with equivalent current games.
It should also act as a strong reminder to current developers as to why this genre has such longevity with gamers such as us.
Graphic simplicity and clarity of U.I., maps and counters.
Game turns that remind all of the mechanics played when it was all paper and cardboard.
An A.I. that plays effectively.
A scenario editor that requires no programming knowledge.
This game is a hidden gem.

---

Good luck getting back to Stalingrad Obsolete. [:D]

[jiadongpeng]

I am very interested in this topic for you, do not know if you can share with me

[Bamilus]

ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

ORIGINAL: Bamilus

I don't think the graphics look dated. I mean, it is a hex wargame. It is hard to have much differentiation in graphics.

I don't know much about this game but the screenshots look really well done. I'll be following this one.

I beg to differ. Take a look at the WiTE map/graphics for an example of how a game can be enhanced visually for greater immersion without going down the 3D route...

I think you misinterpreted what I said.

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: bairdlander

From the screenshots it looks like something from 1992 or earlier.[:D]

The map has stopped me even considering buying. I have seen that there's a map mod out there. Can someone who is using that post some screenies please?