loki100
Posts: 10920
Joined: 10/20/2012 From: Utlima Thule Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: Stamb One more question: quote:
I'm disbanding and repurposing my FZ formations on a regular basis. Once the front reaches them, I tend to disband unless they are hosting an assault army and are still < 2. If unit is in the same hex as FZ - it contributes its construction value to a fortification building even if it is in an assault army? yes, its why as the Soviets you can have say Western Front as an assault command and mix them with units of say Moscow District to increase fortification levels, what happens is the 'assault' unit doesn't dig over 1 but the other unit(s) can. If you get the FZ to around 60% TOE it has a lot of construction value, especially if you then have a stock of construction SU in OKH quote:
ORIGINAL: AlbertN I meant the trucks in Italian Units - not in the TB. In general I am unaware of what happens precisely to Italian units once Italy as nation surrenders. What happens to their equipment, etc! well I'm playing with locked theatres, so as historically, the Italians went off map early in 1943 - of course that has helped me in Italy and is one reason for a few VP and that theatre being to time. So no idea what would happen if Italy surrendered and I still had Italian formations on map. quote:
ORIGINAL: RedJohn How do you have so many on-map units? Is that just naturally what happens without enhanced TB on? Compared to turn 109 of the 43 game I'm in, I have 313 on-map units vs your 427 (albeit 10 turns later) on-map units. A mix of a lot of fortified zones/axis allies? Not sure, certainly using the FZ stock, I have most of the LW divisions broken into regiments - some working with the FZ for digging, some guarding a FZ line just in case the Soviets break out to stop it being dismantled by hasty attacks, some preparing my positions in Rumania for the inevitable surrender (being a natural pessimist, best to get this in place early) same with the Rumanians, quite a few broken out as regiments to give some rear area security, my idea is if the Soviets do really breach the line I want HQs, pre-dug lines etc with a minimal amount of protection. In a test game of StB I lost a defensive line I'd spent an age preparing simply as the Soviet player cleared it with hasty attacks as it was just FZ - so have become a bit skittish about that happening again. quote:
ORIGINAL: Lovenought I'm excited that we have multiple AARs that are making it into 1944. It'll be really interesting to see how the dynamics of the late-war are different in these "Alternate Histories" where both sides are competent, just like how Operation Barbarossa is always a lot different with pragmatic Soviet tactics. It'll be very interesting seeing an intact, co-ordinated German defence all the way through the frontier and Poland/The Balkans. What is your gut feeling about this at the moment? Do you feel like it will turn into a slow-motion rout like IRL? Or do you feel like you'll be falling back in good order line by line all the way to Seelow? The turn we've just played had the inevitable outcome to the recent battles - a major Soviet breakthrough in 3 places, at a time when my Pzrs are relatively run down by their recent attacks. I don't think that Steven can get an auto-win, at least not till something like April 45. Again for next turn the VP situation is that he already has an auto win target > HWM. So given the HWM requires either Rumania or every bonus pt the auto-win drifts out of reach till he can start grabbing the 30 VP cities such as Budapest, Vienna etc - now in the end game that gives the Soviets an alternative to Berlin but its not relevant here. I think my HWM is too low to give me a 1 Jan 45 win, if I had it up around say 630 I could see a route by trying to time out every location but its 30 too low and the USSR + 80% of the time gains or the USSR+Rumania matches it. So at the moment, my goal is to at least come out ahead on the time bonuses. This is for next turn (ie the one I've just sent back) key is neither of us will gain a bonus on Smolensk, we'll both get +6 for Sevastopol (I can't hold it for 30 odd turns), I'll get a net +6 on Kiev (the reverse, he's not going to reach it in a few turns), the two cities in the Dnepr bend I gained a net +8, they are worth +10 to the Soviets next turn but neither will fall then, so at worst I come out even, more likely with a small bonus (esp as this now coincides with the autumn rains). Beyond that, really hard to say. I think the scope to really hold a line for 4-6 turns is slipping away but I have the Red Army under 6m and not that well off for manpower reserves, so I think front wide pressure is beyond their capacity. My instinct is he'll pick up speed in the Ukraine - not least the VP system pretty much forces him to this, north of the Pripyet will remain constricted. He'll meet the HWM (I can't see how to deny this given the target value), so it goes to 1945 and Berlin? But it could all flip radically as 1944 progresses and the Western Allies finally start eating into my resources. I'm certainly not going to play passively, while it becomes harder to mass for a counter-attack they remain essential, in the end I've just taken a net 400k Soviets off the map mainly with the battles in the south over the last 5 turns. edit - the other bit is the mild winter rules for 43-45. In addition to StB I've now played this 3 times and have some idea of the broad impact. There are very few blizzard turns (even in AGN's sector), so that means that there are few imposed operational pauses and MP costs remain relatively low. Which can see sustained combat (ground and air). The flip side is that major rivers tend to reach ice #6-7 (ie the worst MP cost) so are near impossible to clear directly. Given map geography, they can always be turned, the Dnepr bend to the south or north, Kiev to the south, Orsha/Mogilev via the land bridge, but that channels options - and not all those channels run where the rail net allows sustained combat.
< Message edited by loki100 -- 2/8/2022 7:57:11 AM >
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