Russian Steel 1.4 Now Available at Tankhead's!!

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 2:44 am

6 more battles!!!!

Tankhead just posted these new battles.

Rick, thanks for the quick turnaround and continued support!

We are now up to Battle 31 - only 2 more left of the original set of 33! The last two will be out in a few weeks plus a few extras.

Snapshots of these latest 6 are:

27: Serafimovich Assault: breakthrough the Romanian trenches and drive deep! You are the spearhead for Operation Saturn.

28: Kalach 1: seize the bridge at Kalach and seal the fate of 6th Army

29: Kalach 2: easier version of 28

30: Tsjir bridgehead: 11th Panzer is cleansing the western bank of the Don of Soviet forces - you must save the bridgeheads.

31: Myshkovka bridgehead: Ever closer to Rostov, you now face a Panzer fist composed of elements of 56th Panzercorps - we need this bridgehead, comrade - stand and defend. To the last man if necessary....

In RS 1.5:

32: Donets River crossing - support a Rifle battalion in grabbing a foothold across the Donets

33: Rostov - Hasty: your success has created a chance to seize Rostov from the march and cut off 1st Pz Army's escape from the Caucasus - move out now before the enemy digs in...

34: Rostov - Hard: the nemey has dug in - you'll face bunkers and minefields and deadly 88s - STAVKA has sent the 2nd Air Army to support you but this will get nasty....

35: Kuma pursuit: you have been transferred to the Caucasus to chase the Germans back to the Crimea - move out!! The Germans are reported to have strange new tanks with large cannon - be wary....

Cheers!

As always I will be happy to try and help any way I can.

Brad

Supervisor · Post by **Supervisor** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 3:09 am

I didn't get a chance to take on 1.3 yet. Not enough hours in my day:D

Tankhead · Post by **Tankhead** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 10:16 am

My pleasure Brad

I am honored to host this great Masterpeice

Keep up the good work.

Jim1954 · Post by **Jim1954** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 2:37 pm

Brad, when you drag these files across should the campaign name change to 1.4 like it did when you go from 1.2 to 1.3? Mine didn't. Did I leave a step out?

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 4:02 pm

Jim1954:

The title is stuck on Russian Steel 1.3 due to an oversight.

The Quality Control staff here at Russian Steel Inc. have all been sacked and replaced with earnest and sincere staff who promise to do better in the future.

I tend to get overeager in releasing the new batch of battles and miss some details...sorry about the confusion.

I'll clear this up with RS 1.5's release in a week or two.

Thanks for checking RS 1.4 out.

And, GMENFAN: Russian Steel is very patient - it waits for you....

Jim1954 · Post by **Jim1954** » Thu Sep 26, 2002 4:23 pm

I think that I too, have gmenfan's problem. I know I won't even get into 1.4 before you let out 1.5. Question then, since these addtitional upgrades seem to deal with the latter end of the campaign, is it necessary to restart the campaign after each update or will what I already have going just carry forward?

Guess I'm too used to megacampaigns.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Sat Sep 28, 2002 3:08 am

Jim,

these games simply add on to your ongoing campaign...

As long as you have saved the second-to-last turn for the last battle, you will be able to add more battles....

Once you reach the black screen with the battle summary, the game has already advanced the next battle into position...

So just get in the habit of saving late in the game and you can just add these battles as they come out...

I plan to make a save game file that will allow player's to start later in the war but that is unecessary if you already have played through battles..

Brad

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 9:50 pm

GASP !!!

I still have to play 1.3.....

***cough***cough****

Why is that there is only 24h in a day ????
Why must I have to waste 8h a day to sleep ????

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 11:16 pm

you are designing faster than i can play

i think the days are much too short....

anyway much thanks for this good camp.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 6:53 am

Frank/Unknown:

Things will slow down....

These latest battles were completed quite awhile ago - most by Penetrator - he is a very capable designer and his battles playtest quickly and cleanly...

Hence the high output...

Plus, MATRIX sets a high standard for productivity....

Remember when they were cranking out SPWAW editions left and right....?

I still have 2.0 on my disk somewhere...MCNA was 5.0..

We're playing at 7.1 at the moment...

Big shoes to fill!!:D

With luck I can keep a few battles ahead of you guys...see you at Kursk!

B

Behemoth · Post by **Behemoth** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 8:39 am

darroch,
Rest assured, I and others I'm sure, will wait as long as is needed. If I should even come close to the end I'll just chalk it up as a little Rest & Reorginazation. Again take your time, it's a hobby after all. Thx for the hard work, you and all others!
-b
ps I posted earlier as a new topic Doh!... Hmmm let's see here how can I delete the previous one...hmmm...

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 8:06 pm

Originally posted by darroch
Frank/Unknown:

With luck I can keep a few battles ahead of you guys...see you at Kursk!

B

KURSK!

the grave of the german panzer weapon.......

after this battle the german tankers were not
anymore that sharp sword like before..

hitler wasted his weapons and sacrificed his
soldiers for his mad ideas.

what a tragic battle this was.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 6:47 am

Frank W:

Having read David Glantz's book on Kursk, I absolutely agree that Kursk was madness and sacrifice....on a scale almost unbelievable....for both sides...

I am finding in playtesting 1943 scenarios that the German Panzers are awesomely powerful in terms of firepower at long range....

I used to wonder how so few Panzers could hold back so many Soviets but these 1943 battles make it quite clear how devastating the Panzers were when they were employed properly....

But Hilter's insistence on hold-at-all-costs and other key errors enabled the Soviets to wear down the Panzers steadily...

once they were gone...

The other thing that is clear is how powerful Russian armor/mech forces are when faced by just infantry without significant armored support of their own...

and in both cases, a well deployed combined arms defense is a deadly thing to try and crack...

We'll try hard to do the Soviet perspective of Kursk justice while giving the Panzers their due respect....

Let us know how we do!

Cheers,

B

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 7:46 pm

Originally posted by darroch
Frank W:

Having read David Glantz's book on Kursk, I absolutely agree that Kursk was madness and sacrifice....on a scale almost unbelievable....for both sides...

I am finding in playtesting 1943 scenarios that the German Panzers are awesomely powerful in terms of firepower at long range....

I used to wonder how so few Panzers could hold back so many Soviets but these 1943 battles make it quite clear how devastating the Panzers were when they were employed properly....

But Hilter's insistence on hold-at-all-costs and other key errors enabled the Soviets to wear down the Panzers steadily...

once they were gone...

The other thing that is clear is how powerful Russian armor/mech forces are when faced by just infantry without significant armored support of their own...

and in both cases, a well deployed combined arms defense is a deadly thing to try and crack...

We'll try hard to do the Soviet perspective of Kursk justice while giving the Panzers their due respect....

Let us know how we do!

Cheers,

B

hello

the russians know almost all details of the german plans.
because of a spy in the german high command (name??)

soon the more capable german generals figured out that
the ruski is preparing with heavy defenses in the whole
kursk area and they oposed the plan from hitler.....
but as mostly of course hitler didn´t want to hear from
them who know it better.

same thing like stalingrad or the ardennes offensive.
in the last case most germans wanted the forces on the
eastern front that participated in the ardennes to halt
the russian steamroller......and there the partly very
good tank units could have made a big impact. that´s my
opinion. but kingtiger and jagdpanther´s on the narrow roads
in the ardennes wasted their strenghts....as one roadblock halted german advance for long time, because in the woods there was no way to bypass them.

Frank W. · Post by **Frank W.** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 7:53 pm

another remark: at kursk the best german panzer like tiger1 and panther´s were in mechanical not very good state. because they were rushed in production and sent to the front without defining them and train the crews proper for the new tanks.

and the ferdinants were sent to battle without self defense weapon (mg) against inf.

all this tactical errors made kursk a catastrophe for the germans even with russian higher losses, but they could replace them.

Unknown_Enemy · Post by **Unknown_Enemy** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 1:58 pm

All that has been written by Frank W is right, but Kursk became a legend because it proved to the world that the Panzers were not invincible after all.

I am eager to play it on the soviet side : it would be a first time....

But yet I am just beginning the 1.3 battles.....

BTW Penetrator is really missing in the art of wargaming forums. But when I look at this particular forum, I can't say I blame him for withdrawing.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Fri Oct 04, 2002 6:04 am

FrankW:

There are lots of interesting aspects of Kursk...

First combat use of SU-85s and SU-152s...

One Tiger company was credited with destroying 111 Soviet tanks....

But I wonder if not attacking would have done the Germans any good in the long run....

All those Russians would have assaulted prepared German defense lines - but the Russians would have had the initiative and their command structure and the abilities of their armored troops had increased enormously (see von Mellenthin)....

I don't know if even Manstein could have kept them in check...

It would be a fascinating what-if to play out on an operational level (e.g. regiment/brigade) - I wonder if there are any good computer games at this scale for the Eastern Front?

Brad

Jim1954 · Post by **Jim1954** » Fri Oct 04, 2002 3:09 pm

Brad there is an excellent divisional , regimental level game out on this subject, it's Russo-German War 41-44. Covers the Eastern Front from invasion to mid 1944. This simulation is huge with over 860 victory cities and a map that covers an un-godly amount of territory. Here is a link:

http://www.ghg.net/schwerpt/index.htm

SittingDuck · Post by **SittingDuck** » Sat Oct 05, 2002 4:58 am

.. in A_B's 1st battle of the RS campaign, the KV2 and T-28s (both auxilary) are actually FOOT units. They march, have foot mp's, cannot change arc after finishing moving. Then, after about 5 turns the KVs turned into actual armored units. The T-28s won't last long enough to see if they turn into armored units, though.

Now I am of the mind that is a bug. I don't see any type of benefit to it at all nor do I see what it could be simulating. Except to let the panzers just wank on my T-28's. And I should think that FOURTEEN sorties should do that fair enough, wouldn't ya think?

So, Brad, you say later battles have been scaled down? I hope so. This is painful just to get through with this many units. My preference, I know...

Anyhow, I am happy to have the campaign - thanks!

SittingDuck · Post by **SittingDuck** » Sat Oct 05, 2002 5:17 am

I didn't mean for that to sound negative. Was just a report on something I was seeing.

Russian Steel 1.4 Now Available at Tankhead's!!

Russian Steel 1.4 Now Available at Tankhead's!!

take your time!

WHAT is the deal...

Sorry, Brad