Matrix Games Forums

I have been giving some thought to this the last couple of days. I am currently playing as the Russians with the 1942 scenario until 1.04 comes out.

One of the issues I have with the 42 scenario is large sections of the front are locked down in static for both sides. It takes a lot of command points to get everything up and running along with trying to form corps units and also trying to "fix" a lot of the issues with the various armies (Western front is way overloaded and many of the fronts have their tank corps directly attached to the front HQ to name two examples). The Axis face some of the same issues as well, although probably not on the same scale as the Russians do.

In a regular player vs player game from 1941, a lot of the issues that are present would not exist. My thought is to try to come up with a scenario that uses the 1942 forces, but having them be a bit more organized along what a player would have done to a limited point. Certainly players would not have put as much stuff on static as is present in the current scenario.

I am looking to see what sort of interest there is in such a scenario before spending the amount of time that it would take to make it happen.

I can be fairly limited in what I do, but some of the changes that could happen are:

1. Reduce the amount of static units on both sides by a lot. If players want to put them back on static, then that is fine.

2. Get the forces for both sides a bit better organized. 6th Army has a panzer corps attached to it. Is that what a player would really do given the benefits of having motorized units attached to a panzer corps/army? I already mentioned the amount of tank corps the Russians have attached directly to front HQ's. The emphasis on both sides would be to cut down on the overloading of army group/front HQ's to a point.

3. Redress the front lines to a limited degree. This would include removing the worst of the salients for both sides. Overall force in given sectors would not change much (IE the Russians would be "weak" in the south while the Germans are stronger there) but especially in the center, both sides would likely have more reserves from getting their lines straightened out.

4. Give each side more CP's to start with and they can fix what they want within limits.

I am not looking to change the overall force for either side.

Comments/suggestions, etc welcome.

Don and I are testing a version of 1942 that gives the Axis more APs, so they can perform limited re-organistion of forces, such as the 6th army Panzer corps.

Neither side has the vehicles available to take units out of static mode.

not sure what could be done about the front lines that would be fair to both sides - would either dictator agree to withdrawals from the Demyansk anf Vyazma salients?

I think the challenge of 1942 is to run an offensive on a shoestring, but there are still plenty of strategies to try, as we are seeing in the recent 1942 AARs.

One idea (which I am working on) is to have the 1942 Campaign game start in March where neither side has quite settled down into a static front but it is at the end of the winter. The front line is definitely a mess and both sides are severely understrength but it allows both sides to plan their summer operations during the thaw and with 30+ German reinforcement divisions arriving it would allow for some more interesting 1942 options.

Trey

ORIGINAL: el hefe

One idea (which I am working on) is to have the 1942 Campaign game start in March where neither side has quite settled down into a static front but it is at the end of the winter. The front line is definitely a mess and both sides are severely understrength but it allows both sides to plan their summer operations during the thaw and with 30+ German reinforcement divisions arriving it would allow for some more interesting 1942 options.

Trey

That sounds really interesting! In the present 1942 campaign, things are a bit predetermined.