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Hello Vic and all,

I just ran through Voronezh real quick and got my booty kicked! Man! The AI was much more aggressive. It did make some moves that seemed odd, but it just kept piling up units and hitting back as often as it could. I barely got out of the blocks, and while I killed a lot of Russian units, I never got near my goal.

Well done![&o]

What I noted playing the same scenario:
- The Soviet AI actually broke out of pockets twice. Each time, it moved the pocketed forces East, then moved relief forces towards the breakout point, fired artillery, broke out and extracted the pocketed troops. Wonderful programming. Take note, Gary G. It CAN be done.
- The AI is able to spot potential pockets before they form and it pulls back accordingly.
- AI air and artillery attacks are employed prior to most ground attacks. Nice.
- The AI makes a traditional linear defense - no AI carpets so some semblance of historical operations appears possible.

Very impressed so far.

I played the "2. Kharkov" as german. Wow! The Russians broke out the pocket and it was quite hard to gain initiative again.

The atmosphere is just great. Dont know why, but i feel the tension of operational warfare.

Great game! [&o][&o][&o]

This sounds great! I can't wait to try it.

Well on my third try at Voronezh I managed to hold the AI to a minor win! Sheesh!

If I could have moved some my troops to some openings it left I might have done better, but the way it hammered my center and upper part of my line, I couldn't spare anyone. Will try it again soon - great game so far.

Well..after getting my butt kicked (actually another draw) I noticed something very interesting. You can do free setup as an option. And by free, they really mean free...your units anywhere behind your line.

Yes, I saw that too. I tried it once but I failed to look at the terrain closely enough and I setup behind a river that didn't have a bridge LOL

Lesson learned

Und stratz mit ze uldensackt. Und stratz mit sei öldensackt, il der, der flutens... , der... , der... , und strippensackt!

Grammatikalisch nicht ganz auf der Höhe, aber die Nüsse müssen knacken und die Ösen müssen düdeln.

Played my first game of Voronezh scen and had the same experience VS the AI. Your not alone.

The Voronezh scenario is pretty tough on the Axis, imo. Having played it as the Sovs, it's easy to see why: 5. Tank Army. It's big, has a good commander, and can be made even better with some TLC from STAVKA and Braynsk Front. (You can get it over 70% quality in a couple of turns, which for the Sovs, is quite good. The most played Soviet command card is surely the one that increases command quality, with entrenchments being the next best.)

It's probably better than it should be, in truth, these tank armies weren't really up to speed at this point, and the in game 5 Tank Army commands a large number of tank corps without any seeming penalty. In a meeting engagement it should be getting shot to pieces, as happened in real life, but in this game you can really punish the German spearheads.

It sure knows how to punish you. In the first mission of the 1 PzA-campaign I pushed my spearhead panzer regiment a bit too hard, and it was promptly surrounded and forced to surrender to overwhelming odds. I seems even leaving a single hex gap can really upset your plans.

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
It's probably better than it should be, in truth, these tank armies weren't really up to speed at this point, and the in game 5 Tank Army commands a large number of tank corps without any seeming penalty. In a meeting engagement it should be getting shot to pieces, as happened in real life, but in this game you can really punish the German spearheads.

IIRC, in the scenario notes, is stated that the 5TA was deliberately beefed up (compared to its historical counterpart) to be more of a challenge for a human German player.

I lost my first try on 2nd Kharkov.
No more myth of German Super Soldiers. 
Noticed some changes compared to ATG.  Combined arms is a must.  Pure tank units will not be able to push back full strength infantry units despite having a large combat value advantage.
Need to get used to the icons.  I keep confusing ARTY components as front line units.  This is because the NATO icons show they are armored/infantry.  Then I figured out that on the side there's a little icon that says they are the arty component of the Inf/ARM Division.  Why not change the NATO icon instead?