RE: War in the East Q&A

RE: War in the East Q&A (Full Version)

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jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 2:01:04 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dlazov66 Follow up Questions 4. Are Soviet Guards Divisions/Corps/Armies available and if so how do they effect the game (thinking late war here) 5. Are German Korps Abtuilungs available and if so how can they be created? 6. Besides German SS divisions will their also be the SS Corps HQ assets available? 7. Have the play testers made to 1943 and beyond yet? I am more interested in the middle to late war when the Soviets have a better chance and crushing and killing German units. 8. How is the Command and Control (C3) aspect handled? For example during the early part of the war (41-42) Hitler stayed out of the OKH business for the most part (until the no retreat orders came about) and Stalin's meddling in 1941-42 cost him units and Generals. As the war in the east progress the axis shifted to the Germans being completely controlled by Hitler continuing interference and confusing orders and the Germans strict obedience to follow orders (sans individualism like Mainstein, Gudieran and Hoffman, until their dismissal or death) while at the other end as the war progress Stalin would listen and let his General Staff conduct the war and operational planning. So the long and the short should be in the early part of the war the Germans should run rough shod over the Russians but as the Russians gain more experience (by about 1943) they begin to not only hold their own, but ultimately defeat the Nazi invaders. One of the most fustrating aspects of war games (both board and PC) displayed on the eastern front is this lack of command and control and doctrinal shift of the Germans beginning mastering of doctrine and operations overtaken and then superseded by the Soviets doctrine and ultimatly the Soviet victory over Germany. 4. Guards units get at 15 point bonus in national morale which allows them to attain to a higher experience level resulting in greater combat effectiveness. 5. If not in the game at start, they come as reinforcements. Unlike the Russian player, the Axis player never creates any new units. 6. Yes but any support unit can be attached to any headquarters so non-SS units can support SS units and vise versa. 7. Later war scenarios are still under development but some testers have played the 1941 campaign game into at least 1943 and very early on in development I ran a computer vs. computer game into 1945 to reveal any problems with the later war TOEs. I also played the Russian side against the computer in an early version of the 1943 campaign game to see how well the Red Army played. It seemed okay but that was quite a while ago and many changes and improvements have been made to the game system since then. Maybe one of the regular playtesters can chime in with some more recent experience. 8. There are no "Hitler orders" rules in the game. Most players would object to such rules and I find that you make enough mistakes yourself that you don't need any addtional ones programmed into the game. I think you'll find the game does a very good job of modeling the strengths and weaknesses of each army and, if we get it right, explains why those doctrinal changes came about better than any history book could.

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 2:03:59 PM)
Plans are for the game to include an editor that would allow you to modify units but terrain would not be modifable. Unless you're God I don't know how you could justify wanting to change the terrain. This is after all an historical game.

Rhetor -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 2:14:03 PM)
It's great that this game is getting close to the release. Allow me to ask some questions: - would players be able to continue the game after having reached the victory conditions for the scenario? - are Polish units included in Soviet OOB?

Gresbeck -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 3:06:37 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jaw 3. The basic game mechanics are that everything ground units do is based on movement points. It takes movement points to attack as well as to move but individual units can attack more than once provided they have sufficient movement points to do so. The turn structure is IGOUGO but as the non-moving player you can have units set to reserve which can possibly allow them to add their strength to units under attack. There is NO plotting of moves (i.e. orders). And how is combat handeled when a hex gets attacked by different units which have spent different movement points? Suppose a unit is already in position to attack and another unit has moved during the turn; does the moving unit enter the battle later? Or does the unit that didn't move "wait" till the second arrives (so that both expend the same amount of MP)?

freeboy -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 5:27:28 PM)
can someone talk about FOW and if intellegence gathering, photo recon, contact reports etc play int othis? I saw in a post alot of enemy info being reported.. thanks

Silvanski -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 6:26:00 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jaw Plans are for the game to include an editor that would allow you to modify units but terrain would not be modifable. Unless you're God I don't know how you could justify wanting to change the terrain. This is after all an historical game. Maybe I didn't make myself clear... I was enquiring about modding the look of the graphics... are they bmp, png?

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:02:20 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Rhetor It's great that this game is getting close to the release. Allow me to ask some questions: - would players be able to continue the game after having reached the victory conditions for the scenario? - are Polish units included in Soviet OOB? The scenarios have a fixed length so the victory conditions would be assessed at the end of the scenario. Of course, you could stop playing the scenario at any time you think one side has obviously won. The scenarios in which there are Polish units that fight on the Russian side are just Russian units with Polish designations (i.e. there is no Polish nationality in the game).

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:22:48 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Gresbeck quote: ORIGINAL: jaw 3. The basic game mechanics are that everything ground units do is based on movement points. It takes movement points to attack as well as to move but individual units can attack more than once provided they have sufficient movement points to do so. The turn structure is IGOUGO but as the non-moving player you can have units set to reserve which can possibly allow them to add their strength to units under attack. There is NO plotting of moves (i.e. orders). And how is combat handeled when a hex gets attacked by different units which have spent different movement points? Suppose a unit is already in position to attack and another unit has moved during the turn; does the moving unit enter the battle later? Or does the unit that didn't move "wait" till the second arrives (so that both expend the same amount of MP)? Units expend movement points to attack individually so the relative number of available movement points between units doesn't matter. There are two types of attack: hasty attack and normal attack. Units must be stacked in the same hex to combine in a hasty attack; all units adjacent to the hex being attacked may combine in a normal attack provide each attacking unit has sufficient movement points. It requires more movement points to conduct a normal attack than a hasty attack so units not stacked together may have to conduct multiple hasty attacks sequentially if they lack sufficient movement points for a normal attack. My experience has been that one large attack (hasty or normal) is preferrable to multiple attacks. Normal attacks are considerably more effective than hasty attacks all other things being equal.

Rhetor -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:29:06 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: jaw The scenarios in which there are Polish units that fight on the Russian side are just Russian units with Polish designations (i.e. there is no Polish nationality in the game). Thank you. I hope that you have taken into account the fact that all ten Polish infantry (not rifle!) divisions formed under Soviet patronage were organized according to TO&E of a Soviet guards rifle division.

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:35:16 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: freeboy can someone talk about FOW and if intellegence gathering, photo recon, contact reports etc play int othis? I saw in a post alot of enemy info being reported.. thanks Quality of information varies by the detection level which can be increased by moving adjacent to a unit, conducting air recon, and (if Russian) partisans.

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:37:17 PM)
Sorry, but one of the programming types will have to answer you on that. I'm strictly a data base guy.

Helpless -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 7:45:48 PM)
quote: Maybe I didn't make myself clear... I was enquiring about modding the look of the graphics... are they bmp, png? Yes, you can edit in game art - these are mostly bmp and tga files.

Helpless -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/7/2009 8:30:26 PM)
quote: quote: ORIGINAL: jaw The scenarios in which there are Polish units that fight on the Russian side are just Russian units with Polish designations (i.e. there is no Polish nationality in the game). Thank you. I hope that you have taken into account the fact that all ten Polish infantry (not rifle!) divisions formed under Soviet patronage were organized according to TO&E of a Soviet guards rifle division. Actually there is a Polish nationality as such in the game. But it is used only for accounting the population/manpower. But as Jim said no combat units of Polish nationalities currently supported by engine. Who knows what could happen later on ... [:)]

Rhetor -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/8/2009 5:33:54 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Helpless Actually there is a Polish nationality as such in the game. But it is used only for accounting the population/manpower. But as Jim said no combat units of Polish nationalities currently supported by engine. Who knows what could happen later on ... [:)] I can well live with Polish units being differentiated only by their name. There weren't so many of them, when compared to the size of the Soviet army. In 1945 there were two Polish army commands, ten infantry divisions, an independent tank brigade, heavy tank regiment, a few artillery brigades, and a tank corps. How would that manpower calculation work? Does it mean that the Germans actually draw replacements from the occupied territories as if it was their own? And one more question - Guard status. In War in Russia Soviet divisions, brigades etc. were being given a "Guard" status when their experience exceeded a given level. It wasn't so with army commands though. How would that work in War in the East?

Hard Sarge -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/8/2009 2:38:12 PM)
for what it is worth, I have taken the Russians into 43 twice from a 41 start Guard Mech Units are the bomb :)

Zovs -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/8/2009 4:22:09 PM)
Hard sgt, Sounds good my fav time is latish 43 and 44 when the Russians get to hammer back.

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/8/2009 9:55:44 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Rhetor quote: ORIGINAL: Helpless Actually there is a Polish nationality as such in the game. But it is used only for accounting the population/manpower. But as Jim said no combat units of Polish nationalities currently supported by engine. Who knows what could happen later on ... [:)] I can well live with Polish units being differentiated only by their name. There weren't so many of them, when compared to the size of the Soviet army. In 1945 there were two Polish army commands, ten infantry divisions, an independent tank brigade, heavy tank regiment, a few artillery brigades, and a tank corps. How would that manpower calculation work? Does it mean that the Germans actually draw replacements from the occupied territories as if it was their own? And one more question - Guard status. In War in Russia Soviet divisions, brigades etc. were being given a "Guard" status when their experience exceeded a given level. It wasn't so with army commands though. How would that work in War in the East? No, the German can only get production not manpower from occupied territories. Combat and support units attain Guards status based on a combination of factors (experience, morale, battlefield performance) but I'm a bit vague here as nothing is in the rules and what I know comes from random conversations with Gary. HQs are neither combat nor support units so I don't think they can earn guards status; again nothing is in the rules about it.

Helpless -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/8/2009 10:07:36 PM)
HQs can earn Guards status

KarlXII -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 11:28:29 AM)
I´ve only seen questions about the game features so far. I am more interested to know how much effort is going into the A.I ? I have no intention of playing this game by hotseat, pbem or whatever so for me the A.I. must ge good. In what ways will the A.I be better than for say Western Front or Eastern Front ? The huge amount of CPU power today should make the A.I able to do a lot more advanced calculations. Please don´t neglect the A.I. and think most will play it against another human. Commander - Europe at War was for example very unsuccessful in having a good A.I. It was done by another company, but anyway.

PyleDriver -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 11:42:01 AM)
Well I'm the main jockey of this game for AI testing. For a year and a half I've sent hundreds of saves to the boys upstairs. The Soviet AI is becoming good. In comparison to WIR, theres no comparison. WIR's AI was very poor. Garys agian spending this week just on the AI...So yes theres alot of focus on the AI in this game...

elmo3 -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 11:47:12 AM)
The AI will not be neglected. How good we can make it remains to be seen but there is a lot of time left before launch and it will be a priority. LOL - I see you beat me to it Pyle.

KarlXII -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 12:40:41 PM)
Good to hear! It would be interesting to read a developer diary or something about how the A.I works and what parts the development team are most proud of and what is the easiest vs most difficult aspects in this game to work with. And also if the A.I development has evolved since the SSI/SSG prime times... Thanks!

elmo3 -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 1:04:01 PM)
Right now we are focused on squashing bugs, checking every single hex on the map to make sure the artwork matches the database, creating and fine tuning scenarios, making improvements to the interface, building the manual, and improving the AI. There may be Designer Notes for the game but that is up to 2by3 and not something the testers would do. I'm sure once the game launches all the testers will be active here supporting it and commenting on all aspects of the game.

Arstavidios -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/14/2009 11:24:29 PM)
hello, A few questions: 1 - It seems the soviets can build some units in addition to the reinforcements they get. What kind of things can they build? 2 - Support units do not appear on the map how are they handled? I guess there's some kind of general pool......... 3 - what kind of support units are there, I suppose there are corps assets like artillery units, engineers, antitank units, assault gun units.......? 4 - how do airbases work? are there some airstrip or do you suppose it is preexisting wherever the airbase units moves to? Can you attach additional support units to airbase like AA units? 5 - stacking is three units. Do HQS count? Airbases? 6 - Germany cannot create any additional units. This means everything is recieved through production, including airbases, support units and corps army and army group HQ? No possibility to create an additional army HQ for exemple? 7 - Some units have to be withdrawn for vatious reasons. I suppose it's a specific unit at a specific time. what happens when a unit is supposed to withdraw for refit whereas it is in good shape? are the benefits of the rebuild lost? 8 - the german army used large numbers of soviets for various duties like garrison, construction work, cooks, drivers, anti partisan duties....... In all well over 1000000 men. Is this factored into the game and in the TOE of the units like osttruppen support or infantry squads for exemple? ar they just factored into the general replacement rates? 9 - does the production system adjust to produce what is most needed or is there a fixed production of each item like allied production in witp. For exemple I may be short of 105 mm guns whereas I may have a surplus of 150mm howitzers, or I may need some infantry squads whereas I have plenty of support squads in the pool, what happens then?

KarlXII -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/15/2009 7:27:10 AM)
Hi, another question which I´ve not found here so far (though I apologize if I have missed it) - Is the enourmous Allied supply to the Soviet modelled in the game ? Or is it just taken into account in the normal production/replacement pool and will the Soviet have American/British vehicles in their pool ? - Can you capture Murmansk or Archangelsk and deny part of that supply by sea ? Thanks!

elmo3 -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/15/2009 10:43:42 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Arstavidios hello, A few questions: 1 - It seems the soviets can build some units in addition to the reinforcements they get. What kind of things can they build? 2 - Support units do not appear on the map how are they handled? I guess there's some kind of general pool......... 3 - what kind of support units are there, I suppose there are corps assets like artillery units, engineers, antitank units, assault gun units.......? 4 - how do airbases work? are there some airstrip or do you suppose it is preexisting wherever the airbase units moves to? Can you attach additional support units to airbase like AA units? 5 - stacking is three units. Do HQS count? Airbases? 6 - Germany cannot create any additional units. This means everything is recieved through production, including airbases, support units and corps army and army group HQ? No possibility to create an additional army HQ for exemple? 7 - Some units have to be withdrawn for vatious reasons. I suppose it's a specific unit at a specific time. what happens when a unit is supposed to withdraw for refit whereas it is in good shape? are the benefits of the rebuild lost? 8 - the german army used large numbers of soviets for various duties like garrison, construction work, cooks, drivers, anti partisan duties....... In all well over 1000000 men. Is this factored into the game and in the TOE of the units like osttruppen support or infantry squads for exemple? ar they just factored into the general replacement rates? 9 - does the production system adjust to produce what is most needed or is there a fixed production of each item like allied production in witp. For exemple I may be short of 105 mm guns whereas I may have a surplus of 150mm howitzers, or I may need some infantry squads whereas I have plenty of support squads in the pool, what happens then? I'm relatively new to the team and can't answer all your questions yet but can help with a few: Airfields are part of an air unit so they count for stacking as do HQ's (due to support unit attachments). Support units are generally independent battalions (and Soviet arty regiments) attached to HQ's or division/corp combat units and include some of the types you mentioned. Units are withdrawn as happened historically. I believe you get some notice before a unit is withdrawn but I've not tested that yet. I haven't spent any time with production yet so can't answer those questions.

elmo3 -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/15/2009 10:50:25 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: karlxii Hi, another question which I´ve not found here so far (though I apologize if I have missed it) - Is the enourmous Allied supply to the Soviet modelled in the game ? Or is it just taken into account in the normal production/replacement pool and will the Soviet have American/British vehicles in their pool ? - Can you capture Murmansk or Archangelsk and deny part of that supply by sea ? Thanks! Lend Lease will be modeled. Neither Murmansk nor Arkangelsk are on the map.

jaw -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/15/2009 1:31:09 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Arstavidios hello, A few questions: 1 - It seems the soviets can build some units in addition to the reinforcements they get. What kind of things can they build? 2 - Support units do not appear on the map how are they handled? I guess there's some kind of general pool......... 3 - what kind of support units are there, I suppose there are corps assets like artillery units, engineers, antitank units, assault gun units.......? 4 - how do airbases work? are there some airstrip or do you suppose it is preexisting wherever the airbase units moves to? Can you attach additional support units to airbase like AA units? 5 - stacking is three units. Do HQS count? Airbases? 6 - Germany cannot create any additional units. This means everything is recieved through production, including airbases, support units and corps army and army group HQ? No possibility to create an additional army HQ for exemple? 7 - Some units have to be withdrawn for vatious reasons. I suppose it's a specific unit at a specific time. what happens when a unit is supposed to withdraw for refit whereas it is in good shape? are the benefits of the rebuild lost? 8 - the german army used large numbers of soviets for various duties like garrison, construction work, cooks, drivers, anti partisan duties....... In all well over 1000000 men. Is this factored into the game and in the TOE of the units like osttruppen support or infantry squads for exemple? ar they just factored into the general replacement rates? 9 - does the production system adjust to produce what is most needed or is there a fixed production of each item like allied production in witp. For exemple I may be short of 105 mm guns whereas I may have a surplus of 150mm howitzers, or I may need some infantry squads whereas I have plenty of support squads in the pool, what happens then? 1. They can build army headquarters, rifle & cavalry divisions, and a variety of brigades. Larger units like rifle, cavalry, tank, and mechanized corps (1942 & later) are built by combining on map units. For example, tank and motorized brigades can be combined to form a tank corps. 2. Support units not attached to on map units at the beginning of a scenario arrive as reinforcements in the OKH and STAVKA headquarters units or attached to headquarters arriving as reinforcements. 3. You got it. 4. Air bases are on map units which can be moved by normal movement or strategic movement (rail & naval). They contain organic anti-aircraft units. 5. Any on map unit counts against stacking. Support units, which are not on the map, do not count. 6. The Axis player only receives new units as reinforcements. He can re-build destroyed units from cadres. 7. Units required to withdraw must be at least a certain minimum strength or they will remain frozen until they re-build to that strength. There is no benefit to trying to "use them up" prior to withdrawal. 8. I cannot answer that question with certainty as those aspects of production have yet to be spelled out in detail in the rules. The TOEs do not make any allowance for "Ost Truppen" and no Russian volunteers exist as a separate nationality in the combat units. 9. Only AFVs and aircraft have fixed production. All other units are produced "on demand".

Iñaki Harrizabalagatar -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/16/2009 8:48:30 AM)
Some more questions 1. Are regions/cities sources of manpower/industrial production? 2. Are strategic resources, like Oil, Tungstene or Manganese, factored in the game?

Helpless -> RE: War in the East Q&A (12/16/2009 9:42:15 AM)
quote: 1. Are regions/cities sources of manpower/industrial production? Yes. There are no regions but cities. quote: 2. Are strategic resources, like Oil, Tungstene or Manganese, factored in the game? There is oil and generic resources. Industry works very similar as in WITP.

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