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 Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa, from now known as DC:B is a WW2 hex-based strategy game covering Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The basic unit is the division, each turn is 4 days, and the hexes are 30km. The game begins in June 1941 and ends at the beginning of February ‘42. It's the third game in the well-regarded Decisive Campaigns series, and the most ambitious. All of the above 'wonderful' grognardy crap is true, but secretly, DC:B is really a game about pretending to be the man in charge of one of the two sides of the Eastern Front, the massive shitshow that it was. Alikchi has/had a LP about playing as the German side.The German player takes the role historically occupied by Franz Halder, Chief of the OKH General Staff and his existence as the most stressed man on planet earth.  Howeverwe are having none of that, only absolute power will sate us so we are playing the other side, our position is Joseph Stalin, feared Dictator of the Soviet Union and very literally one of the worst human beings to have ever lived. Lets see what the game has to say about him.  Oh wait nobel peace prize nominee, I must have the wrong Stalin or something.  As supreme ruler of the Soviet Union our power is basically unchecked, nobody above us gives us orders and our word is law. Unfortunately this is 1941 Russia we are talking about so giving an order and actually having something come of it are two very very different things. While a German player has to struggle with the operational realities of the Eastern front we take a higher view, sorting all the small details is a job for our many (often very incompetent) subordinates. We must merely issue commands and try make sure the right people are in the right places while fighting our own insanely paranoid nature (is it paranoia when they really are out to get you?). Life is hard at the top. This LP is a PBEM game against Chump Farts playing as the Germans, I have no experience whatsoever with the Soviet side and he is fairly new to the game as well so you get to see a pair of total idiots flail at each other with only some idea of how things are supposed to work. I will try explain mechanics as they come up but I am definitely still learning as I go (as of writing the game is at turn 10). Without further ado, the Eastern front, 22 June 1941.  Our armies are deployed forward, ready to take the fight to the Axis if necessary as tensions continue to increase between the two mighty powers. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
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Aug 20, 2016 05:48
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I've never played the Soviets myself so I look forward to seeing this play out. Good luck!
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Aug 20, 2016 13:11
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This game is a miracle in that it makes Barbarossa fun to play as the Soviets.
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Aug 20, 2016 17:58
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Awesome. I have two wins as Germany but haven't tried the Soviets yet, I'm curious to see how it goes and will likely follow along.
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Aug 20, 2016 18:21
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Basic game mechanics I quite like DC:B because it tries to do away with unneeded complexity, something many Grognard games lavish on with no regard for whether it actually makes a good game or not. Units are pretty standardised but it still tries to be realistic with regards to historical capabilities. Unit Basics  Here we have the Soviet 33rd Rifle division subordinate to the 11th army. Units have a number of stats associated them that effect how they perform and what actions they can take.  First the yellow box on the left:  Action Points. This is used for actions (moving, attacking). Supply consumption. Out of 100 with 100 being that in the last turn it received and consumed 100% of the supply needed to maintain normal operations. Cohesion. Basically a command and control value. Losing battles or moving long distances reduces this. A value out of 100 if it drops below 40 the unit has a chance to break and disperse in combat. It's also the stat shown on the left hand side bar of the unit counter. Generally this tracks how hosed a unit is, you will be seeing this on our units a lot more than the Germans. Readiness. A value out of 100, basically how good a shape the unit is in. Low readiness badly effects combat ability and reduces the amount of Action points (AP) that you have to use in a turn. It drops when out of supply or when fighting. Experience. Effects combat ability quite a lot. Gained by fighting or training. It's out of 100 and 25 is about where you would expect green but trained units to be. Morale. Minor effect on fighting ability but high morale reduces unity loss when fighting and helps keep a unit together. Winning battle increases it and losing decreases. Entrenchment. If left alone in a hex a unit will dig in and gain significant defensive bonuses. Terrain and on-map fortifications greatly increase this. And the green box on the right: This is basically what is in the unit or its ToE. WE can see we have 10,000 infantry and various artillery pieces. The Red/blue numbers wth percentages are the modifiers the unit currently has. Red being offensive modifiers and blue being defensive. The 11th army is currently configured for an offensive posture so receives +40% attack and -20% defence (small blue arrow above the yellow box) with further defensive penalties from early blitzkreig shock and other factors. At the start of Barbarossa the Red Army is configured largely in offensive mode so beating your generals into line and getting them onto a defensive footing is an important part of the Soviet early game. Saros fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Aug 21, 2016 |
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Aug 20, 2016 18:27
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 Command basics We are Joseph Stalin, aforementioned really really loving awful guy and nobel peace prize nominee. I am going to assume everyone is familiar with the history here. We have consolidated absolute control over the Soviet Union and now rule its entirety with an iron fist. During this we may or may not have purged a significant portion of the officer corps of the Red Army and replaced them with men loyal to us. Their replacements are largely appointed for loyalty to the new regieme over merit and trust me, it shows. Wikipedia posted:The purge of the Red Army and Military Maritime Fleet removed three of five marshals (then equivalent to five-star generals), 13 of 15 army commanders (then equivalent to three- and four-star generals), eight of nine admirals (the purge fell heavily on the Navy, who were suspected of exploiting their opportunities for foreign contacts),[30] 50 of 57 army corps commanders, 154 out of 186 division commanders, 16 of 16 army commissars, and 25 of 28 army corps commissars.[31] We exist in a state of constant paranoia, literally everone is/could be out to get us and I am very sure that *they* are plotting against us as we speak.  In game this appears in a few ways. Here we have the basic Soviet command screen. First is Stalin's (us/you) level of paranoia, I'll get back to that later. There are three fronts to the 'eastern front', North, South and Central. Each is commanded by a marshal and these marshals are functionally our direct subordinates in game terms. It's up to them to implement the orders we give. In addition to the three front commanders ther are our two most loyal deputies, Georgy Zhukov and Nikita Khrushchev. Zhukov is our most able commander and will be sent to intervene in the command structure of the Red army when everything turns to poo poo and Khrushchev is our commissar, sent to punish and correct (and execute) our possibly rebellious army commanders. The people we have to deal with are the three front commanders and their subordinates, the army commanders.  This guy above has just been ordered to have his army assume a defensive posture. A difficult order to give as it requires admitting that poo poo has gone horribly wrong for the mighty Soviet Union.  Every Front and Army commander has three stats in DC:B. Initiative (the blue flag) which is a generalised value of how competent a commander is and increases the chances of his subordinates activating (more on this later), threat (red hand) which his how threatening Stalin (us) feels they are and a combat bonus (% number) which means all units under command of that HQ in command range (5 hexes) fight that much better. Initiative gives bonuses to army activations and threat increases Stalin's paranoia. Unfortunately the competent commanders are usually the threatening ones and commanders performing well in the field will increase their threat so good commanders have a bad habit of disappearing into a Gulag or being marched out the back and shot. Awkward. Next up, Paranoia and Activations.
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Aug 21, 2016 04:46
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Stalin also loved show tunes. Makes you think.
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Aug 21, 2016 04:58
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Paranoia Because we are Stalin, everyone is out to get us. Whether this is true or not our belief in it has real world consequences.  Paranoia is a global value that represents how much Stalin (we) are freaked out. It's increased by Red army commanders with high threat values (aka competent commanders who arent total rear end-kissers) , cities falling (if they weren't out to get us would they have given up so easily?) and a few other actions, i'm a bit unclear as to the specifics here but ther are some cards you can play which have increased paranoia as a side effect. Destroying german division and HQ's decreases Paranoia and give you more PP to work with. Generally the better you are doing the more paranoid Stalin will become with various negative consequences which will hopefully become clear as the game progresses.  An example of a paranoid attack from comrade Stalin. a commander (usually a competent one) is summarily executed, the executed commanders armies are thrown into disarray with negative bonuses and no ability to recieve orders, we lose the ability to play 'cards' for a turn which are our primary of effecting change in the Soviet union and finally we lose all stored Political points (cards cost PP). This by the way is a fairly minor paranoid attack and it is extremely devastating. Who would have thought that having a paranoid crazyman as head of state had negative consequences, noway. Activations  In 1941 the Soviet Unions command and control structure could kindly be described as an absolute shitshow. Kindly. Activation is basically whether your armies will actually recieve the orders you give them. It's effected by the competence of your Front/Army commanders and every turn there is a random roll to see if your armies 'fully', 'partially' or 'fail' to ativate.  Fully means C&C links are clear, the units in the army get 100% of their Action points (AP) and are able to function as normal. This is an outstanding result for the Soviets but the default for the Germans. Partially means orders may get through but they are iffy at best and the units take a -30 penalty to your normal AP allowance for that army. For reference a normal infantry unit will have 100 AP and to move a clear hex costs 25 AP so in best case you can move 4 hexes, if it only partially activates you will get 1-2 hexes of movement and are almost unable to attack. Finally 'failing' to activate means an army receives -60 AP and functionally cannot do anything at all that turn. Often any unit that is damaged will reduce the units AP below the amount required to move even a single hex so it is immobile for a turn. As you can imagine this is really really loving bad news especially when a bunch of Nazi's are blitzkreiging around your flanks and cutting you off. Every time an army activates the commander and the front commander have a chance to increase their initiative value (become more competent), unfortunately this also increases their threat value which has a bad effect on comrade Stalin's paranoia. 
Saros fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Aug 21, 2016 |
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Aug 21, 2016 05:00
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dtkozl posted:Stalin also loved show tunes. Makes you think.  drat son, im trying to run a LP here.
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Aug 21, 2016 05:20
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You've got activations a bit backwards, failing to activate gets you 60 AP penalty, enough to retreat 1-2 hexes or completely immobilizing you if your readiness is low. Partial nets you -30 which is enough for a limited offensive, namely for you to attack units you're already in contact with high readiness. Fully activating gives you your full 100% and then you can do whatever you want. Also Stalin is totally a bro and giving you bonus PP for hanging onto freebies like Kiev and Odessa is great.
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Aug 21, 2016 07:17
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uPen posted:I'm not sure if this is documented anywhere but Zhukov gives an innate activation bonus (large bonus to army, smaller to whole front) wherever he is present even if you're not spending PP. Kruschev gives an activation penalty that grows larger the more you use him. Using Kruschev to purge your lovely commanders is a cheap way of cleaning up your army but you need to park him somewhere and wherever you do it that army commander will happily not activate ever again until Kruschev leaves. 
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Aug 21, 2016 08:21
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...someone said it's "fun" as the Russians? it sounds very painful and unfun so far. Unless you count for the hilarity of Stalin's actions? (That being said, I am glad for this LP. I was thinking about getting it, so this will be rewarding to read).
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Aug 21, 2016 09:28
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Its a different style of game than playing the Germans. You are on the backfoot for significant chunk of the game but trying to cobble together a defence while punishing German units that get too frisky and then transitioning over to a winter offensive is definitely enjoyable. It's not like some Eastern front games where the Soviet units are worthless speedbumps, once you are over the initial shock your individual units perform fairly well but you are plagued with C&C difficulties the whole game. Like the German side it's a game about trying to make do with limited resources while also fighting a war.
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Aug 21, 2016 21:38
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 Special pre-start turn In this turn the war is yet to start and the Eastern font looks like this: We are presented with a handful of decisions in similar fashion to the German player. The only major ones I took are to chose the 'must hold' As Rostov in the Southern front and to release a few commanders from the Gulags (slight actication bonus for more threat). I did this because I elected to not choose the option of threatening the Finns to make them stay out of the war and the German Army group south (AGS) is probably the weakest of the three formations with a lot of Axis allied troops in the ranks and only one Panzergruppe. I should be able to hold them away from Rostov especially as the starting position is fairly favorable for me (start positions for troops are somwhat randomised). Turn 1, 22 June 1941 I missed a bunch of screenshots for turn 1 but here's the basics.    I play a lot of action cards this turn (many start off free) and send out my two troubleshooters. Khruschev goes north as the Marshal there is threatening and Zhukov goes Center as it is the biggest threat at the moment.   In the far north the Finns attack and we retreat back toward the pre-war border, the Leningrad garrison force is also sent south to reinfirce the front line with the 23rd Army staying to guard against the Finns. Unless the Finns fully commit they cannot advance past the pre-war border without significant political point penalties to the German player.  NF before moves.  And after. His infantry break my line with ease and the 4th PzG dashes northwest to attempt to encircle my troops. I pull back as much as possible. Very few activations this turn as the Luftwaffe is disrupting my C&C links. I order 27 army, holding the riverline to assume a neutral posture to reduce its defensive penalties and form a large garrison at Riga to hold the city to the last man.   Central front before moves.  A similar story in the Central front, he pulls off a devastating encirclement of 10th army, they are doomed. I fall back and try take a blocking position in front of Minsk. Activations are good across the board so my troops really move this turn. Not much I can do except run away.   Southern front before moves.  After moves. He smashes our front line and charges in a tight group. Where we can we run east but our divisions are shattered and reeling and activations are very low. An inauspicious start for our must hold front. SW army takes positions on the riverline and begins to dig in, we also start to construct major fortifications in the two hexes where there is no river defence. The Romanians are not active this turn so there is nothing to report.
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Aug 21, 2016 23:14
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Driving on Riga vs Daugavpils seems like the former cuts off a few extra divisions west of the Dvina R, would you consider that significant or not?
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Aug 21, 2016 23:56
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It depends if you want to try grab those few divisions or try force 11th army back against the edge of the front. If you send one of Central Front's PzG on a northerly route you instead of after Minsk you can pull of quite a significant encirclement and still get over the river. I think the Riga route is faster but the Daugvpils route can have a bigger payoff. After that you can use the central PzG to drive directly on the landbridge in central with only a little forest in the way.
Saros fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Aug 22, 2016 |
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Aug 22, 2016 00:15
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How the everyloving hell is Rokosovsky a Tsarist? IIRC he got accused as a Trotzkist (because Stalin), a Polish spy (due to being Polish and having family in Pilsudski Poland which was not mistreated by Polish authorities) and a Japanese Spy , but never as a Czarist. The Japanese spy accusation is perhaps amongst the most retarded accusations of the entire show trials. Basically, he talked with a Japanese Coloner once concerning issues with Chinese POW (strike one), he also encouraged his signal interception officers to learn Japanese themselfs, so if they intercept communications from the Japanese they would not have to wait for headquarters getting around translating it (could easily take days, if you factor in travel time). To the NKVD, this was clear proof he must be a Japanese spy! We kind of need a gif where a downscommissar shoots himself instead of his target... He is also notable for surviving NKVD prison without either confessing himself or denouncing someone else, which takes major balls, morals and a high pain threshold.
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Aug 22, 2016 00:49
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He was a tsarist officer?
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Aug 22, 2016 02:10
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dtkozl posted:He was a tsarist officer? He did serve in the Imperial Russian (like the majority of the Red armies command corps did) army during WW1, as a non comissioned officer, and got some decorations. This is something he shares with Malinovsky and Zhukov. Koniev was also a non commissioned officer in the Tsars army, but with much less St. Georges Crosses to brag (rather be very silent) about. As for people in the Red army who actually were Tsarist officers, well Shaposhnikov was a Colonel. Tolbukhin was iirc a Captain in the Tsars army, but this was wartime quick rise. Malinovsky is unsual because he got a bunch of French decorations for serving in the Russian expeditionary force on the western front during WW1. Tukhachevsky was a Lietuenant as well, but is already pretty dead in 1941. IIRC Sokolovskiy and Meretskov did not do military service under the Tsar in WW1, but other then that beasically every officer would have to be "Tsarist" if you go by that benchmark.
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Aug 22, 2016 15:12
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I interpreted "Tsarist" as being relative to Stalin's subjective paranoia, meaning he's really talented and experienced (he's been around since before the Civil War), but also viewed as a huge threat by Stalin.
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Aug 22, 2016 16:15
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disjoe posted:I interpreted "Tsarist" as being relative to Stalin's subjective paranoia, meaning he's really talented and experienced (he's been around since before the Civil War), but also viewed as a huge threat by Stalin. This is probably the most accurate. Sometimes you're incredibly lucky and get a starting Marshall who's a Tsarist (Budenny being my personal favorite,) but normally you get a smattering of useless idiots and whoever you tell the NKVD to release gets flagged as a 'Tsarist.'
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Aug 22, 2016 17:08
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Tsarist just means the officer is an experienced officer (the titles all have different randomised threat and initiative values to go with them and they are rolled when the officer is generated every game), often 'rehabilitated' from the Gulags. Tsarist's for example has 2d10 Init and 2d10 threat.
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Aug 22, 2016 17:09
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If the game was accurate it would give a malus for being polish and a bonus for being cavalry, Stalin hated and loved those people respectively.
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Aug 22, 2016 17:55
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  This seems bad, it's uhm, right at the bottom of central front I believe.  Cards played this turn.   First things first, the useless sack of poo poo currently in charge of Central front is fired and replaced with a compent officer recently back from his Siberian holiday. I also play the change deployment card thinking it gets me reinforcements faster, oops, it just lets you shoose which front they arrive at.  A rousing speech is also given to increase activation values across the board.  Up north the lines don't move but we try an attack on two Finnish divisions. Nope, bad idea. Red = lost and white in the column away from the center means retreated.  The germans push forward, the 4 PzG smashes across the river at Daugavpils brushing aside my defensive line like its nothing. The 11 Army is now cut off from its own theater but can still draw supplies. unfortuantely moving them across the dotted red line means big PP penalties. The bridge is also fully intact, gently caress! I do get an astounding 5 actications however so...  11 Army picks itself up and runs the gently caress away sending tanks to cut the axis supply lines and isolating the advance units. 27 Army tries to maintain a defensive line but its looking shaky.  Hey remember that defensive line I places on the Minsk approach? Yeah not so much anymore. The German 3 PzG has smashed right through my lines and isolated a small pocket. Most of the units outside the pocket are in bad shape and there is literally nothing between 3 PzG and Moscow. Fffuuuucccck!  I order 21 Army to deploy on the Landbridge NE of Minsk, hopefully the remaining defenders can hold out while they arrive. I gamble everything on a desperate breakout manouver, those three divisions in the pocket are full strength...  IT WORKS! I hurt both the German divisions a little and they fall back, my troops are free and move into the taken hex. One more turn of life. I seem to have missed the after screenshot but things hardly moved. Central front runs east where it can but only West army actvated and they used all their mojo in this attack. Next turn could be bad.  He pushes forward through my line of defense. Low activations this turn so not much to do other than try stagger back.  16 Panzer (circled left) is on its own and in contact so gets beaten back for its temerity and hurt badly.  Likewise 25 Mot is forced back and we cut off his advance troops. SW army settles in along the river and more fortifications are built.  The Romanians and German 9th army activate and come swarming all over us.  I kick the poo poo out of a Romanian Inf division but otherwise fall back along the line.  Statistics  Total casualties/troops  Hopefully a new Marshal in central will help me sort things out.
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Aug 22, 2016 18:15
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Really happy someone is doing an LP of this. I picked it up in the summer sale but my groggiest experience is like Unity of Command and Paradox games, so I've deflected right off it. I think at some point I'll have to shell out for the hardcover rulebook if I want to actually get into it.
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Aug 22, 2016 19:00
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dtkozl posted:If the game was accurate it would give a malus for being polish and a bonus for being cavalry, Stalin hated and loved those people respectively. Unusual fact about Rokosovsky, after he did Operation Bagration, Stalin called him "my Felix" referring to none other then Felix Dzershinsky (founder of the Cheka), the "irony" of that was richer then Dagobert Duck. I have no idea how Rokosovsky reportedly managed to look totally nonplussed about this. Before I derail this further, would you mind Spergposts about certain battles as they come up?
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Aug 22, 2016 19:37
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Mightypeon posted:Unusual fact about Rokosovsky, after he did Operation Bagration, Stalin called him "my Felix" referring to none other then Felix Dzershinsky (founder of the Cheka), the "irony" of that was richer then Dagobert Duck. 
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Aug 22, 2016 19:43
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Go nuts, I can't promise it will go anything like reality though. Anyone got a good map series of how Barbarossa actually went? Would love to be able to compare it to reality on a week to week basis.
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Aug 22, 2016 19:46
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Saros posted:Go nuts, I can't promise it will go anything like reality though. I've got a book devoted entirely to maps of the conflict, so I'll see what I can do (while also heavily plugging the book because its great)
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Aug 22, 2016 21:43
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  Taunts are dropped over Red Army positions.  Hmm unfortunate but not unexpected. Now to the tur.... Oh poo poo 11th army, you know the ones in the north who are this close to being totally cut off and hosed. Yeah guess whose commander just go an emergency retirement and now I cant give them orders this turn. Their commander was also really good but his replacement isnt total poo poo which is a relief. I can't play any cards but I can at least save the PP for next turn and I only had one PP stored which was lost. lovely timing but could definitely have been worse (some really powerful cards require you to save as much as 40PP so a paranoid attack while saving is a disaster).  Central front activates better this turn (whats left of it anyway) thanks to its new commander and Zhukov's overbearing presence.  Thanks to myself the only card I can play is 20th Army arriving to shore up the North.  In the north Kaunas falls with the bridges intact, gently caress gently caress gently caress gently caress gently caress.  He holds the bridges with Motorised units while his infantry moves up, smashing aside my defenders like they weren't even there. I expect they were also experiencing some fuel issues thanks to being cut off in my turn.  The far north settles down at the old border.  With 27 Army's position looking a tad shaky I drop in 20th behind the next terrain line. Troops should start arriving next turn.  Daugvpils must be retaken and the bridges destroyed!  Unfortunately the elite Totenkopf division holds firmly and the disorganised attack runs out of steam. For reference each point of infantry in this screen is about 250, artillery 5 pieces and tanks 5 AFV's.   11 Army is now well and truly hosed as their breakout attempt fails.   Nope.  27 Army grimly holds on while 11th fights desperately to be free but I am afraid both may be doomed.  There goes Bial-whatever.  My Minsk line in Central front.  It's broken and tossed aside, mobile units sprint forward.  attempt to Are miraculaously held after three hexes of running battles with extreme losses...  Then a second wave smashes into the line and they break, forced SE into the swamps the entire western army is finished as a coherent fighting force and the way lies open to Moscow. Only the still mobilising reserve army stands in their way.  3 Army breaks for the east, desperate to not be cut off by the German spearhead. 21 Army charges forward to attept to slow the Panzers while more reinforcements are desperately called for.  The Southern front situation becomes dire as activations fail and he pockets large numbers of troops and cuts the retreat lines of more.  A desperate breakout attempt against 13 Panzer succeeds but the situation remains dire. We are uable to occupy the hex due to low AP so the troops remain cut off.  Very little can be done, SW front digs in frantically.  The Romanians and Germans advance up to our lines and launch a handful of attacks, no disasters however. We prepare to hold the riverline. The entirety  
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Aug 23, 2016 01:21
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North: You're doing great. Deploying an extra army up there this early is really going to mess Jakse up. Losing the 11th instead of the Baltic Army sucks but you seem to have gotten the Baltic out largely intact, now you just need to make a fighting retreat into forested terrain and start bleeding him with the Soviet-forest-bonus thing. Central: The Western front dying at the gates of Minsk because the commander is too incompetent to move is kind of the MO here. You're kind of hosed but if you pop a garrison card in Mogilev you might stall Jakse long enough to deploy some armies on the East bank, he's going to run out of gas next turn unless he's extremely lucky and has an AV-Gas event card to blow or something. South: Losing every army on the border sucks, if you save one or two you can counter-attack with it and the south-western at Zhitomir and thrash some panzers right when they run out of fuel for the first time. Other than that your only real choice right now is whether to die for Odessa's PP or whether to give it up for free. e: Have you not given a front priority? e2: Alikchi play our game, show your shame! uPen fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 02:55
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I was going to prioritise a front this turn then Stalin happened. Baltic is 100℅ intact, unfortunately a bunch of them are lovely border or NKVD divisions. 11th still gets supply it just can't retreat into the central front which is really annoying. Saros fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 03:16
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I'm off on holiday for two weeks, your scheduled LP will return around 9th September.
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Aug 25, 2016 10:17
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Hey so how does this compare in complexity to some of the other Grognard games? Can this be accessible to non grognards?
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Aug 29, 2016 05:49
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I'm not a grog and I enjoyed this game a lot. I see it as the next logical step after Panzer Corps and its ilk. The unit nitty gritty is there in the background but (as Saros said) not all that important, and air power is fully abstracted behind decisions and cards. I haven't had a chance to play Warsaw or Case Blue yet, but I expect they're similar if less polished games.
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Aug 29, 2016 12:53
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It's an excellent way of simulating historical battles where the personalities and cultures of the time factored so heavily into the outcome. Eastern Front games always have to hand the German player absurd starting bonuses for the first few years to have any hope of simulating something like Barbarossa's historical outcome, and this game artfully works that into the mechanics without anything so crude as "+5 to all Panzers until 1942". I hope this game sold well, because it's a lovely concept and I really want to see it applied to other historical scenarios. The immediate one that comes to mind with all this air power chat is a Battle of Britain one.
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Aug 29, 2016 13:21
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Stalin purging the most successful generals is a bit strange. It definitely happened pre-war when all the officers who could think independently were sent to the gulag, but I thought after Barbarossa kicked off the guys who got purged were either legitimate idiots or unfortunates who were placed in a bad position because of the idiots and lost important battles, and competent generals gradually began to filter back in. I guess there is selection bias here since every 'famous' Red Army general had to be able to avoid being shot in 1941.
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Aug 29, 2016 16:28
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Velius posted:I'm not a grog and I enjoyed this game a lot. I see it as the next logical step after Panzer Corps and its ilk. The unit nitty gritty is there in the background but (as Saros said) not all that important, and air power is fully abstracted behind decisions and cards. I haven't had a chance to play Warsaw or Case Blue yet, but I expect they're similar if less polished games. Barbarossa is kind of its own thing. CB and WtP are both much closer to traditional wargames. Airpower is not abstracted, divisions are split into 3 infantry chits and 1 artillery chit, offensives involve assigning artillery, planes and mobile/infantry forces to the hex to be attacked. To break it down the Germans invade Russia in Barbarossa with 108 infantry and 30 mobile divisions for a total of 138 on-map chits not counting HQs. You invade Poland with 39 Infantry divisions, 14 mobile divisions and 32 assorted regiments (artillery, AA, engineers etc.) for a total of 254 on-map chits not counting HQs. France is invaded with 55 Infantry divisions, 15 mobile divisions and 35 assorted regiments for a total of 317 on-map chits not counting HQs. Case Blue kicks off with a mess of units I'm not going to bother counting for a grand total of 414 on-map chits not counting the now on-map chits for the airforce, dozens of HQs and the dozen or so naval units.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:25
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So looking at Robert Kirchubel's Atlas of the Eastern Front (A really awesome book, by the by) it seems that the Northern front seems to be going at a slightly slower pace than historically. For reference, the Germans captured 2 intact bridges at Daugavpils (Dunaburg) on the 26th and then held it against counter-attacks. Jekabpils (Jekelopils) and Livani should be, and are, in German hands at this point. Riga fell on the 30th but that doesn't appear to be the case here. Once I get further into the book I'll check the other fronts.
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Aug 30, 2016 18:52
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 03:49 |
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The good news is that the German player is behind schedule for Vilnius, although that won't matter as its vacated. Minsk should be encircled/captured by now. In the South, he seems to be on, or slightly ahead, of schedule. Tarnopol is either in the hands of the Germans at this time, or about to be.
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Aug 31, 2016 15:55
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