Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: malfid

Hi all!

Bought the game last night; downloaded it; installed it; played it until the early hours of the morning.

Currently, I'm up to Turn 10 with the Soviet Grand Campaign ('41-'45), having not tried the tutorial or read much of the manual (I know, I know...).

Being a complete newbie, however, I decided to change some of the game options to make my first experience with the game a little less - how shall we put it - 'foreboding'. So, rather than playing around with the Axis options, I gave the Soviets lots of Admin points, extra transport (150%), better logistics (120%) and slightly increased morale (110%.

Now, I've barely used the Admin points and only once have I stretched my increased rail capacity to its limit (during the very first turn). But the 10% and 20% increases, respectively, to morale and logistics (all German settings at 100%) gave me some interesting results.

The first turn went by much as you'd expect, with the Germans absolutely gutting me in the north, reaching the outskirts of Riga and basically taking Kaunas and Vilnius. Minsk came under direct threat by 26/6/1941, so I began consolidating a line there and relocating the city's industry.

However, outside of the Baltic and Belarus, the campaign has not gone historically. I'm actually still holding the Axis about seven hexes east of the Ukrainian border. They've barely penetrated Pripyat. In fact, as of mid August they have not yet even reached the outskirts of Odessa. And the Finns are a total shambles - they've lost tens of thousands of men trying to storm my northernmost frontiers, with little success. It's not like the Axis is using its forces stupidly - several times, I noticed the AI make a conscious effort to pocket my divisions, to my delight and consternation (of course).

But it's almost like they've committed too much to Belarus. They just don't have the 'oomph' to smash through the multiple lines I put in front of their forces, anywhere else.

It's mid August, now, and I've suffered 300,000 KIA and just over 500,000 POW losses. The Axis has suffered very bitterly, too. They've lost some 160,000 KIA.

Looking at others' progress, though, it doesn't seem uncommon for the Axis to manage 1:5-1:7 KIA ratios. Has the 10%/20% game option modifier had that much of an effect? Or is my hapless floundering just that effective?

Also, I cannot describe the enormous relief of seeing 'Ready' on two dozen new Rifle Divisions around Turn 8-9, as my northern flank buckles. I'm still defending Moghilev, but damn if those units don't give me hope that I may get through the rasputitsa without having to relocate any more industry.