Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

Due to the amount of attacks having been done this turn, the Red Army has actually dwindled in size over the last turn. However, so has the Wehrmacht, losing more than 60.000 men to withdrawals and battle casualties.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Yes the Soviet OOB is stagnant as I'm using all replacements to fill divisions bleed on German guns.

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
To be honest the German OOB has "increased" during the blizzard EVEN with the amount of casualties I am inflicting on you.

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Granted you used to good effect the regiments on one section of the battlefront but no longer since my tank brigades are eating them up now. If it wasn't for my long supply line they would have a field day with those regiments.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
As of last turn it really isn't worth attacking any longer since the effects are negligible. To be honest my troops behind the line are suffering German like Blizzard effects as if they were German, weird I have made some notes this turn to see the stats the beginning of next turn.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

In my experience the Soviet offensive will grind to a halt by late January or early February. I experienced the same thing when playing the Soviets against Pelton. By February, it was the Axis who were on the offensive and not the Soviets.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grognard1812

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

In my experience the Soviet offensive will grind to a halt by late January or early February. I experienced the same thing when playing the Soviets against Pelton. By February, it was the Axis who were on the offensive and not the Soviets.

In your experience does this occur in both normal and reduced blizzard?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Yes the Soviet OOB is stagnant as I'm using all replacements to fill divisions bleed on German guns.

This, I believe, is the right way to do things. The Soviets do not win by having a huge Red Army, but rather by whittling away the German Wehrmacht. This is also where I would want those pesky little U-2VS bombing away at the retreating Germans. If I would have to point to the biggest thing I would have done different from you, that is still it. Of course, I have no idea how that works under recent patches. To give an indication of the scoope, I compared your current airforce to the one I fielded at turn 31 against Pelton. By that time, I was flying more than 2.000 more airframes than you are doing currently.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Granted you used to good effect the regiments on one section of the battlefront but no longer since my tank brigades are eating them up now. If it wasn't for my long supply line they would have a field day with those regiments.

I believe those long supply lines are a direct consequence of my attacks in 1941, specifically targetting your railheads in the area. For better or for worse, that "infantry regiment" strategy was a deliberate choice of mine.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir


In my experience the Soviet offensive will grind to a halt by late January or early February. I experienced the same thing when playing the Soviets against Pelton. By February, it was the Axis who were on the offensive and not the Soviets.

As much as I think game mechanics should not make "guards farming" so easy, I also think that mild blizzard is to much of a benefit for the Axis. I would prefer some option where guards spawning requires a number of wins based on the number of Guards you already have, combined with a "semireduced" blizzard with settings somewhere between our current options.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Yes, I'm suffering from moving all of my IL2 production. So I have "NO" tactical aircraft at all as replacements for some time in the future. It is the nature of the beast in this game.

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ORIGINAL: Telemecus

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Yes, I'm suffering from moving all of my IL2 production. So I have "NO" tactical aircraft at all as replacements for some time in the future. It is the nature of the beast in this game.

Exactly the point about bombing the Il-2 factories to constrain their expansion, or else by evacuating early. There will be gazillions of Il-2s in your pool by the end of the game, which is when you can least use them.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Yes, I'm suffering from moving all of my IL2 production. So I have "NO" tactical aircraft at all as replacements for some time in the future. It is the nature of the beast in this game.

Exactly the point about bombing the Il-2 factories to constrain their expansion, or else by evacuating early. There will be gazillions of Il-2s in your pool by the end of the game, which is when you can least use them.

Yup yup. Learned some lessons playing the Soviets that I won't repeat again. I have a bad tendency to become complacent. But yeah I need those IL2 Airframes late 42' & 43' and should roughly be about 60 turns before they are fully repaired. GAH I sux at playing Soviets. But I have a ton of squadrons made to use them training up(yes all the U-2's & R5's ;-P ).

quote:

ORIGINAL: Grognard1812

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

In my experience the Soviet offensive will grind to a halt by late January or early February. I experienced the same thing when playing the Soviets against Pelton. By February, it was the Axis who were on the offensive and not the Soviets.

In your experience does this occur in both normal and reduced blizzard?

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Just Dinglir's time is very limited now with roughly 1 turn every 1.5-2 weeks when he isn't busy. I have finally rested after all my marathon games and feel much better now. I even get the turn back to Dinglir in about 3-5 hours.

quote:

We are running the latest patch and updating as we go.

Does the TOE of units update with the patches - I remember thinking about that a lot seeing this turn. The amount of Support elements in a Soviet Army HQ might have a significant impact on making this many hasty attacks turn after turn.

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

I did over 400 attacks, OMG.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

quote:

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

I did over 400 attacks, OMG.

Did you get to 999 in the battles report? Remember ground bombings and recon count as separate battles there!

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Sorry, I couldn't believe I did over 400 "ground attacks" in a single turn until I read it in Dinglir's post

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ORIGINAL: Nix77

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ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
Sorry, I couldn't believe I did over 400 "ground attacks" in a single turn until I read it in Dinglir's post

What's up with all the hasty attacks? Soaking attacks are a well known method to soften up the defender, but 31 hasty attacks against a single division? Sounds almost like your trying to game the system somehow.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir
a few transport Air Groups unwilling to fly because they have more than half of their number in reserve

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus
I worry about the term "recon spamming" when it is meant as derogatory. Otherwise I would like to own it! There were significant parts of the war where large number of flights were flown historically specifically to wear down small numbers of pilots by keeping them awake 24 hours a day. Using numerous recon missions was specifically part of this in Malta and the north coast of France in 1942. So it is a historically valid tactic. You said you were worried that you had lost 8 recon aircraft doing this - in the EightMP game we found as many Soviet interceptors were being lost as our recon - which if only on aircraft terms seems to be a good exchange rate. Clearly though there is a danger you are just building up Soviet experience or morale if this is not combined with fighter sweeps or airbase bombing which leaves the Soviets in the local area overwhelmed. Did you abandon the tactic or follow it up? You can dual use the recon flights for other valuable information, and/or ensure the enemy interception occurs at the limits of their range while in the shortest range for you.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir
a few transport Air Groups unwilling to fly because they have more than half of their number in reserve

If only for this would it not be worth temporarily reducing your percentage required to fly to allow these missions to happen.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus
There was a much older post, which I cannot find anymore and would be very grateful if somebody could find and tell us, where they thoroughly tested ToE settings and the blizzard. By putting all other units which need arms points for replacements like artillery to 20% from as early as possible (turn 1?) all arms points were conserved to go into only infantry replacements. Doing this meant they ended the winter with a dozen unready infantry divisions rather than 40+. Surviving the blizzard - and having divisions ready for action - really is just about making as many infantry replacements as possible. By contrast in the good weather of 1941 many Axis artillery SUs barely fire a shot.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dinglir
I tested this during blizzard using Hs 126 recon aircraft. I found that the value of themethod by then was not particularly great, as the mileage flown soon prohibited me from making a lot of flights.

I do not do any airfield bombings any more, as I have found that once the airgroups targeted have low fatigue, the bombing is not really worth it. Anyways, in my current game, the Soviets are now up to some 4000+ non I-type figthters, so killing off a few seems to have no real value at all.

However, I think that the recon spam strategy may work a lot better if used in clear weather and with aircraft types better suited for dogfights than the Hs 126.