Matrix Games Forums

GC 22 June 1941
Both sides set for Human player

Simply advancing the German turn without initiating any combat (I wanted to see the Soviet disposition prior to invasion) and already there are significant losses (>61k) shown for the Soviets after the Logistics phase has completed.

IIRC I had read that scenarios can start with losses to represent earlier stages in the war but what do these losses represent on the first turn of the GC if no combat has yet occurred? During the German phase all the German losses are at zero so are all the Soviet losses seen a result of the logistics phase?

Thanks for any info.

Interesting,why is this?

Those are attrition losses, each side has those, it's just the turn order that's only showing you the attrition losses for one side at this point in the turn.

Regards,

- Erik

So 58012 men wounded and 2920 killed by atrition?What does this mean they deserted or shot themselves?

When opposing infantry are in contact but NOT actively engaged in any sort of offensive activity, the rule-of-thumb that dates all the way back to WW I was that you will lose 0.5% to 1.0% of your infantry strength PER DAY. Some of this is due to patroling but that was really minor compared with random H&I artillery. Almost as large a factor as artillery was just plain sickness; living in a hole in the ground in the middle of a field or forest is not the healthiest lifestyle your can lead. Note the large number of disabled as compared to killed. Also, from the manual, most of those disabled will return to action, some as soon as the end of the turn,

For more info, read "The Sharp End" by John Ellis.

EDIT: I really need a spell checker[&:]

Great explanation. Thanks pompack.