Barbarossa Surprise Attack
Posted: Fri Oct 18, 2019 5:48 pm
As gamers know, the most critical and toughest campaign, as playing the Axis, is the successful invasion and conquest of the USSR.
In all ETO wargames, there are usually only two Axis-USSR scenarios:
1. The Axis does a surprise attack on the USSR - usually in 1941
2. The Axis does not attack in 1941, but instead, the USSR attacks the Axis- say in late 1942, with no surprise.
For the first scenario, most games have a surprise or unprepardness rule, where the Soviet air and land forces are temporarily penalized for a number of turns after the initial Axis attack, until they recover their readiness/combat values. This allows the Axis to (as historical) easily kill most of the front-line Soviet armies, and destroy much of the Soviet air units on the ground.
In Warplan, I understand that the Soviet land forces consist mainly of obsolete corps, which cannot be rebuilt and have less combat value than the buildable replacement armies.
In most ETO wargames I have played, any human Soviet player immediately relocates his whole airforce to the East to prevent it from being overrun. It is difficult in these games, for the Axis player, to destroy much of the Soviet airforce on the ground. Is the Axis player given intel about the location of Soviet front line air units, to allow surprise air strikes against these planes on the ground?
Is there a surprise or unprepardness rule in Warplan, which would further penalize the Soviet air and ground units, for a set number of turns, upon an Axis surprise attack?
This surprise rule would not apply to the scenario where the Soviets attack the Axis.
In all ETO wargames, there are usually only two Axis-USSR scenarios:
1. The Axis does a surprise attack on the USSR - usually in 1941
2. The Axis does not attack in 1941, but instead, the USSR attacks the Axis- say in late 1942, with no surprise.
For the first scenario, most games have a surprise or unprepardness rule, where the Soviet air and land forces are temporarily penalized for a number of turns after the initial Axis attack, until they recover their readiness/combat values. This allows the Axis to (as historical) easily kill most of the front-line Soviet armies, and destroy much of the Soviet air units on the ground.
In Warplan, I understand that the Soviet land forces consist mainly of obsolete corps, which cannot be rebuilt and have less combat value than the buildable replacement armies.
In most ETO wargames I have played, any human Soviet player immediately relocates his whole airforce to the East to prevent it from being overrun. It is difficult in these games, for the Axis player, to destroy much of the Soviet airforce on the ground. Is the Axis player given intel about the location of Soviet front line air units, to allow surprise air strikes against these planes on the ground?
Is there a surprise or unprepardness rule in Warplan, which would further penalize the Soviet air and ground units, for a set number of turns, upon an Axis surprise attack?
This surprise rule would not apply to the scenario where the Soviets attack the Axis.