Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: sealclubber

It certainly feels desperate. Every time I open a new turn I feel like all hope is lost, but by the time the turn is over I generally feel full of confidence... only to have that confidence shattered when I open the next turn :).

It does look pretty grim on turn 1, but for the first couple of months there is a steady stream of fresh reinforcements that seem to arrive just in time to turn the tide in critical sectors.

I'd imagine it's similar to General Model's experience defending against Op. Mars. The trick for Model was figuring out where to dole out his piecemeal reinforcements. He needed to put out the fires in those sectors that were crucial to the overall campaign while letting other fires burn.

That basically summarizes the first 8 weeks of this scenario, at least the way I opted to play it. Rather than a massed withdrawal as fast as possible I'm refusing to abandon anything if I can help it and forcing the Red Army to fight its way to Germany. It's been very costly in terms of manpower/equipment losses, so only time will tell if I chose the right strategy.

As far as initial feedback for the scenario:

1. Take everything off Local Reserve on turn 1. If someone asked me to name the most useless feature in TOAW I would tell them Local Reserve.
2. I don't know about the Allied air units, but the Axis have fighter groups that are mixed Me-109 and Ju-87s. I'd personally prefer to see air units broken out into more logical groupings along both range and function lines, especially in a scenario where the Axis are basically always massively outnumbered in fighters... I really don't need Ju-87s flying air superiority missions, but that's what they're doing.
3. Maybe some kind of garrison in Pola at the start of the scenario? The Russian Liberation Army starts nearby, so that could be a candidate. Seems a bit odd that it's an Allied supply point in the farthest north section of Yugoslavia and has no starting garrison. Of course, maybe that was intentional to spice things up :).
4. I'm not sure if the scenario was designed with the new turn rules and new supply rules in mind or not. Knowing the designer intent would be helpful to get the intended experience, although folks could still choose to play with whatever rules they prefer.

EDIT: On point #1... I actually just realized that maybe the intention was to play the scenario with the new turn order rules, which means local reserve might provide some benefit because you'd get units moving towards a front under attack and then reset to their full MP allotment at the start of the Axis turn. Mark and I are playing with the old turn order and supply rules, so in this case Local Reserve is a complete detriment to the Axis player.