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A single mud turn has too big of an impact on the game. But the Rasputitsa was generally a spring time phenomena (heavy rains and winter meltdown), never occurred in the summer, and rarely in the autumn. The Rasputista's impact was largely do to weeks of rain. A single week of heavy rain would not produce the supply and movement penalty as seen in WITE. Random weather is one thing. Random weather, as it is presently, is the Soviet equivalent of Katrina.

The Rasputitsa was (and is) a biannual phenomenon and occurred with equal severity in spring and fall.

Some people focus way too much on the summer of 1941. Yes, a mud turn sucks for the Axis at that point. However, the Axis are also guarranteed a snow turn during the first blizzard. This can easily stall the Russian blizzard offensive. Many people have complained about the severe effects of mud and advocate a light mud effect, or smaller multiple weather zones. Perhaps something will be done for WitE 2.0/ For now, it is what it is, and personally I like the unpredictability of random weather. I played a game as the Russians where there was snow all through April 1942 (instead of mud), making for a much extended Axis spring counter-offensive.

I *personally* think that 'non random weather' severely distorts the game, as much as knowing your opponent forces to the last
tank/bullet/mars bar or the CIA quality air recon both sides currently enjoy. All these things are good for game grognards and perhaps for short scenarios, but not for fun/realistic GC games. Think of it, von Manstein and Zhukov would have kill..(yeah right...) paid a lot for the kind of information WITE gives the players for free.

I am not saying that the weather is done 'just right', it could be improved a lot, just that some uncertainty is vital.

The real campaign was far from a chess game, rather it was all about taking huge gambles about the coming weather and the enemy size and positions (Kursk anyone?). No surprise the game turns eventually into a WWI campaign..until somebody like Farfarer throws caution to the wind that is .

Long story short: I *personally* 'd not play either side of a GC with Non-random weather.

More important and perhaps more useful: does anybody have good tricks about hiding your own forces? Does placing a lot of fighter air groups next to your tank K(c)orps help to make recon less effective? Are mud/snow turns that much worse for recon?

I find that hiding forces in forests, cities, and swamp seems to work the best. Of course that is harder to do with your armored forces. I also find that you get more recon from the hexes you DID not target. Anyone else notice the same?

As to weather, I really have not noticed any true effect from that. I have tried the fighter bases to shoot down or disrupt the recon flights but I don't think it worked very well. I guess we need someone to do a human vs human game and find out what works and does not in recon.