karonagames
Posts: 4712
Joined: 7/10/2006 From: The Duchy of Cornwall, nr England Status: offline
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Trey and I feel we have reached the end of the road with this test. It has raised more than enough issues that are being discussed in other threads. For me the main purpose was to see how the blizzard experience differed between AI and PBEM, and it is a shame that the various bugs, replacements issues, leader musical chairs etc., is still not giving a "true" blizzard experience, but at least we found the bugs and have generated enough comparative data to make the next game better. My main fear about the soviet "double attack/double retreat" has almost been put to rest, but it still remains a major concern for Challenging AI games. I think the AAR shows that generally the game is pretty well balanced. The mistakes Trey made at Leningrad and the Crimea probably gave me a front line 3-4 hexes further East and may have freed up the forces I needed to get Moscow and Rostov. I have a concern that HQ build up may be overpowered - the GE can risk using it in the turns just before the mud arrives, as the trucks will recover from the damage during the mud, so the last push I did on Moscow could have been done sooner, and my March blizzard recovery would have been really nasty, but I was way over strength in terms of AFVs and Men. I think the vehicle pools/req'd needs careful examination - since the supply fix that was done after Trey and I's RtM test, the game seems to be flooded with vehicles in all the scenarios - the Typhoon and Case Blue figures have been adjusted, and I know 1943 is being worked on, but both sides have 150k more vehicles compared to the June version Don and I played. The game was/is fun, but it is clear the "spike" of the Blizzard is straining the engine to its limits and it is still not clear that the correct force balance will be achieved for the 1942 summer campaign season.
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