GS v2.00 update sent to Slitherine for release

[schwerpunkt]

Russian defensive line in Moscow seems to be excessively thin: 12 inf corps for defending Moscow zone seems to be a rather weak force. In GS the allied player is able to build more than 30 russian inf corps between june 1941 and october 1941. This 30 infantry corps plus the initial inf corps and mechs should be enough to form a strong defensive army at the forests and preferably deployed close to Moscow. So IMO as the russians you cannot afford to pay much attention to labs at the very first moment to face such strong Axis Barbarossa.

On the other hand, Morris air support in this Barbarossa is rather precarious: so the russians can be at a maximum of 48% efficiency but the germans do not have the bomber units needed for lowering russian efficiency units before attacking them by land. This will result in increasing losses for the assaulting german forces.

I did actually go double line on my August 1st turn in the Moscow area but what you see is what was available to me. I didnt use much in the way of PPs up in the border areas and set my INF up where you see them. Morris smashed my INF away by going east around Moscow and crossing the river half way to Gorki... I'm assuming that he used one air unit to reduce my INF to entrench lvl 1 and then hit them.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I've now altered the code so Shock Armies will be designated as guards. I wonder if we should make the following change.

1. Downgrade the 2 Siberian Gds Tank Corps to regular corps and instead let all 4 Siberian corps become Shock Armies as Mech. That means they all perform the same. The mech means they have more artillery and some armored components. Later in the war the shock armies had quite a bit of armor units attached to them.

By doing this change we don't give the Russians guards tank corps because those actually showed up later in the war (Spring of 1942 after the reorganization of the tank forces). That means the tank units have slightly lower firepower, but the shock armies will all be mechs.

This means the Russians will get 1 tac bomber, 1 fighter, 2 armor, 4 mech and 1 leader. Do you agree to that change?

I will also update the 1942-1944 scenarios to rename the Siberian units to Shock armies.

[gerones]

I look forward to that data to see if the changes we made helped.

Do you think we should rename the Siberian mech and corps units so they instead are called the 1st Gds Shock Army, 2nd Gds Shock Army, 3rd Gds Shock Army and 4th Gds Shock Army?

This naming change will be good since such Siberian Tank Corps did not existed in the real war as an official unit name.

[gerones]

I've now altered the code so Shock Armies will be designated as guards. I wonder if we should make the following change.

1. Downgrade the 2 Siberian Gds Tank Corps to regular corps and instead let all 4 Siberian corps become Shock Armies as Mech. That means they all perform the same. The mech means they have more artillery and some armored components. Later in the war the shock armies had quite a bit of armor units attached to them.

By doing this change we don't give the Russians guards tank corps because those actually showed up later in the war (Spring of 1942 after the reorganization of the tank forces). That means the tank units have slightly lower firepower, but the shock armies will all be mechs.

This means the Russians will get 1 tac bomber, 1 fighter, 2 armor, 4 mech and 1 leader. Do you agree to that change?

I will also update the 1942-1944 scenarios to rename the Siberian units to Shock armies.

I agree to this changes.

Talking of changing names it would be also good to change naming in Luftwaffe air units: right now they are called Luftflotte 1, 2, 3, and so on. I think we should use the more accurate name of Fliegerkorps I II, III, IV and so on for Luftwaffe GS air units. Luftflotte name were huge Luftwaffe formations formed by 800-1000 aircrafts whilst Fliegerkorps were unit formations formed by 250-350 aircrafts number that matchs more with the one representing an air unit in GS. See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Luftwaffe_Corps

[gerones]

I did actually go double line on my August 1st turn in the Moscow area but what you see is what was available to me. I didnt use much in the way of PPs up in the border areas and set my INF up where you see them. Morris smashed my INF away by going east around Moscow and crossing the river half way to Gorki... I'm assuming that he used one air unit to reduce my INF to entrench lvl 1 and then hit them.

Anyway, there´s always the chance of retreating and to abandon Moscow saving the Red Army from an almost complete destruction. If the germans still pursuit the russian army, then the Wehrmacht will be soon crossing supply level 3 line and also soon will be suffering 35 effectiveness penalty of the first severe winter, then the things will seem to change for the germans...

[PionUrpo]

1. Downgrade the 2 Siberian Gds Tank Corps to regular corps and instead let all 4 Siberian corps become Shock Armies as Mech. That means they all perform the same. The mech means they have more artillery and some armored components. Later in the war the shock armies had quite a bit of armor units attached to them.

By doing this change we don't give the Russians guards tank corps because those actually showed up later in the war (Spring of 1942 after the reorganization of the tank forces). That means the tank units have slightly lower firepower, but the shock armies will all be mechs.

This means the Russians will get 1 tac bomber, 1 fighter, 2 armor, 4 mech and 1 leader. Do you agree to that change?

Although I don't see Shock Armies having the mobility of Mech corps, this does seem a good compromise. Btw, do the airunits get 35 exp as well?

[Peter Stauffenberg]

No the air units and the armor units will only get 17 XP (half). This way the air and armor units are weakened a bit to counter that 2 corps units are changed to mech.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I made the following updates and sent the updated files to Paul and Ronnie for distribution.

I made the following chrome changes to GS v2.00

• Renamed the Siberian corps and mech units to 1st ... 4th Shock Army
• Upgraded the 2 Siberian corps units to mech corps to make all 4 Shock Armies equal
• Altered the code so the word Shock, SHOCK, Shk or SHK is determined as Soviet guards units
• Downgraded the Siberian tank corps from Guards to regular corps (reason is that we upgraded 2 corps to mech so this will compensate a bit)
• Halved the start XP for the 2 siberian air and armor units. That means they start with 17 XP instead of 35. This way they won't be guards or have bonus to quality for being above 25
• Renamed all German Luftflotte units to Fliegerkorps units, thus all scenarios are updated.
• Fixed the 1942-1944 scenarios so the Siberian corps / mech corps units on the map are renamed to Shock Armies

Now I feel the Russian November 1941 reinforcements are more appropriate. I've always missed having the Shock Armies in the game and now they're in. These mech units will surely make a difference at the front section they're sent to. I just tried the 1944 scenario and noticed that the shock armies get 4:4 odds against German corps units before airstrikes. So they will surely not be killers. You're still dependent upon airstrikes to soften up the defenders. So the shock armies give you a fair chance to make an offensive winter 1941, but you better have air units to lower the efficiency so much so you have a chance to kill units with 2-3 attacks.

Let's hope we don't have to make more updates.

[Peter Stauffenberg]

I also added a bugfix where a convoy landing a turn adjacent to its destination hex refused to move and deliver it's cargo. This bug was reported by Plaid.