V-1 & V-2?

[Diplomaticus]

I wonder, has there been any discussion of trying to add the V-1 buzz-bomb and the V-2 missle to this game? Unlike planes, these devices would be 100% expended upon use, but on the other hand once Germany had created the infrastructure to churn them out, they appeared to be (??) cost-effective (maybe because no cost for training/maintaining/replacing pilots?).

Like most strat bombing in WWII, these were very imprecise weapons, which had to be aimed at cities to have a chance of hitting their targets. I've often thought that Hitler probably wasted precious resources on these "wonder weapons" (e.g. if he'd put the same resources into earlier perfection of the jet fighter, it might have made a genuine difference in the air war). OTOH, the Allies were certainly very motivated to stop the deadly V-missiles, and you can see how this motivation altered their strategy in France.

This may be pie-in-the-sky, since trying to introduce such a thing would be tricky and might have unpredictable effects on balance. But it's nice to dream.

[Cybvep]

Unnecessary. They were mostly experimental terror weapons. V2s could be quite frightening, because there was no direct countermeasure against them. The Allies had to destroy their launch sites and use deception. Still, the cost of the rockets was enormous and they weren't accurate. All in all, not sth which can be properly represented (and balanced, i.e. neither useless nor overpowered) in CEAW.

[gsmart04]

I don't think they had a big enough impact or potential impact to put them in the game. They were strictly a terror weapon...I don't think they were refined enough to warrant a 'strategic' weapon label.

Just my 2 cents.

[Diplomaticus]

I don't think they had a big enough impact or potential impact to put them in the game. They were strictly a terror weapon...I don't think they were refined enough to warrant a 'strategic' weapon label.

Just my 2 cents.

I hear what you're saying, and I'm certainly not an expert, but I do know that a) a lot of V-2's were dropped on London & Antwerp in the war's later years, and b) there doesn't seem to be any real difference between dropping bombs indiscriminately from planes and doing the same thing with rockets, when what you're hitting is a city. I guess the decisive factor would be a comparision of the equivalent tons of TNT between Luftwaffe bombing of London vs. the V-2 blitz. I have no idea how they compare in terms of overall destruction.

[DDave]

I think all such units are pretty cool. One thing I enjoyed with the old board game World in Flames, which very much resemble CEAW, was the ability to build V-rockets and also... italian frogmen! I think the brits could build mini-subs as well, like the ones that raided Tirpitz etc. But those are units on a smaller scale, CEAW deal with army corps and divisions, not brigades or less.

[Rasputitsa]

The only measurable effect was the diversion of allied tactical air power to suppress and destroy the launching sites. The Allies had the spare capacity to commit these forces, it's debatable whether the German capacity could have been better spent on other weapons. It was, after all, just an act of vengeance with little strategic value, it may have even motivated the Allies ground forces to advance at a faster rate than otherwise.

[gsmart04]

According to Wikipedia, the Allies dropped about 1.5 million tons of bombs on Germany in WWII. The V-1's produced carried 15,000 total tons of explosive and only about 25% hit their targets. The V-2s produced carried about 6000 tons of explosives. I couldn't quickly find out how many V-2s actually hit their targets but from these figures, if accurate, it would seem like the German rocket program was infinitesimal compared to the tonnage dropped by the Allies on them.

Still, it is an interesting viewpoint to think of including them in the game.

[Rasputitsa]

According to Wikipedia, the Allies dropped about 1.5 million tons of bombs on Germany in WWII. The V-1's produced carried 15,000 total tons of explosive and only about 25% hit their targets. The V-2s produced carried about 6000 tons of explosives. I couldn't quickly find out how many V-2s actually hit their targets but from these figures, if accurate, it would seem like the German rocket program was infinitesimal compared to the tonnage dropped by the Allies on them.

Still, it is an interesting viewpoint to think of including them in the game.

V1 and V2 were not targeted weapons in the military sense, so militarily they were effectively useless (except for the diversion of TAC effort), as was a significant proportion of the Allied strategic bombing effort and as such has little significance to a game such as CEaW.

[Rasputitsa]

According to Wikipedia, the Allies dropped about 1.5 million tons of bombs on Germany in WWII. The V-1's produced carried 15,000 total tons of explosive and only about 25% hit their targets. The V-2s produced carried about 6000 tons of explosives. I couldn't quickly find out how many V-2s actually hit their targets but from these figures, if accurate, it would seem like the German rocket program was infinitesimal compared to the tonnage dropped by the Allies on them.

Still, it is an interesting viewpoint to think of including them in the game.

V1 and V2 were not targeted weapons in the military sense, so militarily they were effectively useless (except for the diversion of TAC effort), as was a significant proportion of the Allied strategic bombing effort and as such has little significance to a game such as CEaW.

In Grand Strategy terms, the effect would be the need for the Allies to capture certain hex areas, within a time frame, after a certain date.