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heliodorus04 -> RE: Hetzer (1/2/2012 10:28:29 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: 2ndACR
Here you have the age old simulation versus history argument. This has been in every WW2 game I can think of.
Fixed withdrawls, fixed upgrade paths etc.
I would love to have the freedom to choose which of my div withdraw. The 10th Panzer may have withdrawn in real life for rebuild, but in my game it might be my strongest Div or the one holding a critical junction.
This is as poignantly noted in strategic terms as I could hope to tell it.
THIS is a key part of the many-faceted "Germany gets screwed because it's Germany" aspect that goes so oft-unnoticed or unremarked upon.
Flavius once noted somewhere to skip the 42a and 42b Rifle Corps (forgive me if it was 43, or mech or tank or cav or some such, but it was Flavius sharing efficiency pointers with a new Soviet player). The notion was that you're better off keeping your divisions as is until the 42c corps comes on line later in the year, because it's far more effective in the field.
Well, Germany doesn't get that benefit, because it's Germany, and it is sunk into the stovepipe TOE changes. Germany doesn't even have the OPTION to improve over history here.
To reiterate a point I want all German-playing players to understand, Germans pay at a rough minimum, 350% (three-hundred-fifty-percent) to 700% (seven-hundred percent) the AP cost (averaged) to move a division to a new HQ than does Soviet. The cost for moving a Soviet combat corps is 10-15 times as much as a Soviet division (converting to German perspective, corps cost about 75% to 150% more to re-assign as German divisions cost).
So where historically, the Soviets were fielding less effective corps because they hadn't realized it could be improved on yet (or they had no ability to improve on it). The real Soviet army was paying 3-5 times as much 'theoretical AP' (since there was no such currency in the real war) to move combat corps around (compared to the 3 component divisions/brigades). Soviet PLAYERS know to wait for the 42c Corps coming on line; this conversion will save them in combat effectiveness and a veritable fortune over what their historic predecessors would have paid in AP.
Here we have a simple TOE change mechanic that is, when viewed from German perspective, punishing you twice simply for being German. Soviets gain effectiveness by skipping bad TOEs, and the resultant cost savings benefits their army in AP accumulations as well.
Now, just the related note on withdrawing divisions: As 2nd ACR notes, maybe 10th Panzer is the unit in position to attack Moscow; maybe it's defied the odds and risen from 70 morale to 86, god forbid. If it's on the withdrawl schedule, there is no room to debate. Soviets, meanwhile, have the luxury of knowing how to qualify a unit for guard status, and can withdraw qualifying units from the line, pay the far cheaper cost to re-assign to a reserve area HQ (where they can go on refit and gain morale up to about 60, which I'm not going into here...) to wait until they convert to guard.
German players don't even have the OPTION of selecting a unit to withdraw themselves; even if the paremeters were restrictive (must be morale 80+, TOE 90+, etc.) it would be preferable to the current system.
Regardless of the problems with the current system favoring the attack, there are competitive imbalances in game mechanics that are only going to get worse once Soviet players know fully how to exploit them, because there are no counters to gameplay constraint.
This is well before we factor in the fact that the Soviets can create units and the German cannot.
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