Red Fury: a red Army campaign (update:demo 30/04)

[bebro]

Unbelievable, sends us into war and goes on vacation...

Nah....thx for these scns, I'll try them out.

[airbornemongo101]

Unbelievable, sends us into war and goes on vacation...

Well hell, look at his forum rank...Captain.

See what happens when you get promoted to ofc.

Pretty soon he'll be telling us to fix bayonets and charge a machine gun nest

That's why I wanna stay an E-8.

[flakfernrohr]

Well, it's an old saying, but very appropriate in this situation. R....H....I...P...

[airbornemongo101]

Well, it's an old saying, but very appropriate in this situation. R....H....I...P...

[ivanov]

Ok, I have completed the demo and here's my feedback. Overall very nice scenarios to begin with. I have some issues with the equipement availabe in the first two scenarios.

Firstly tanks:



Basically out of the three models available here, there are two possible choices: BT-2 or T-26 and T-28. If you go for the second option, it is no brainer because the T-28 is much stonger and equally slow as T-26. So I would suggest either to make the T-28 much more expensive ( up to 500 or more ) - it would reflect the fact that it wasn't really mass produced tank as per Soviet standards, or make the T-26 more mobile - what would be maybe incorrect because the tank was slow, but it would give it some advantage over the T-28. I think the better solution would be to make the T-28 very expensive.

Secondly the artillery:



This arty selection seems a bit werid to me. Why there are no medium arty pieces available from the very beginning? Plus the 203mm howitzer can move four hexes without any transport. I suppose these are only the demo issues but I just wanted to point this out.




What's next?! Poland, Finland??? Keep up good work!

Ps. Tomorrow I will come back with a scenario suggestion.

[flakfernrohr]

Good observations ivanov! You mean you have never heard of or seen a 17,700 kg non-motorized howitzer move on its own (excluding recoil) about 20-30 km?

[ivanov]

Good observations ivanov! You mean you have never heard of or seen a 17,700 kg non-motorized howitzer move on its own (excluding recoil) about 20-30 km?

No, I haven't seen such a wonder yet But we shouldn't underestimate the Soviet technology which as we know, is well ahead of the imperialist crap

[Chris10]

Good observations ivanov! You mean you have never heard of or seen a 17,700 kg non-motorized howitzer move on its own (excluding recoil) about 20-30 km?

they just wrought the damn thing...now you may ask..and who da heck could pull this thingi..

well...I have a little hunch ...soviet high tech tractors..mass build and always available

[flakfernrohr]

Yeah, they probably hitched the guys up before they spent too long a time in the Gulag, otherwise it would take two or three times as many for the same pulling power.

[bebro]

Plus the 203mm howitzer can move four hexes without any transport. I suppose these are only the demo issues but I just wanted to point this out.

Wondered about that too first.

Nico, can it be you copied some unit entries for the Japanese from USMC? No prob of course, but in the first release I had lots of entries in the eqp already to see if all the gfx show up, but esp. those that were not used in those first scns had totally wrong stats by then (actually just those of the entries I copied again and again).

It seems to me that some of these were carried over to Red Fury. I noticed it esp. with Ki-43 fighters that have hardly a chance when attacked. I also had not made correct entry years for some of those units back then, since everything before 1942 was secondary to me. Some units like HoNi sp guns or those Ki-43s IIRC were not in service by 1938/39.



That aside, I played the first two scns and liked them. The first briefing gave me a little giggle when the guy wanted to see "my documents" - nice touch

Game-wise it was quite challenging. I bought initially some regulars, cav, a couple more tanks and two of those 203mm guns. I lost a cav in a "training accident" Some of the others got quite mauled. Had to settle for an MV in the first scn.

In the second I had a DV in the end, though it was not easy. Another I-16 served me well.

[ivanov]

Oh yes - I forgot to mention the breefings - they are really cool and set the atmosphere and historical context for the game. I hope that there will be more of it - something about the traitors and saboteurs who "opened" the front for Germans in 1941, not a step back in 1942 and such. Dealing with the HQ, was for the Soviet generals sometimes more dangerous than the enemy

[nikivdd]

I am sobering up after a polish wedding - i'm not going to mention how much vodka i drank

Thanks all of you guys for the great feedback. I'm going to change a few things.
- I will change the availability date of the medium artillery, so the choice will be slightly bigger
- I will raise the prise of the T-28 somewhat but not by much. There are two different T-28's in the game, and updating them to another tank class later in the game will not be so cheap.

About the Japanese planes, i just copied the lines from Bebro's campaign and checked a few of the availability dates of other units and made a crossreference with wikipedia. I did have to add a few "early" infantry units. And if there is still a Ki-43 out there, than i forgot to remove it. I will check.

The 203mm is self propelled...i did it, to have some "early" kind of SPA and also to read the reactions about it. It does give a bigger pounding then a StuGIIIB or Sturmpz I but is more vulnerable.

I have tried to raise the level of the briefings although i am not an expert. I am really glad that Ceek is helping me out with the GTPG briefings.
I have also tried to bring more variation in the maps. You will notice a distinct difference between Khasan and Khalkin-Gol for example. Further scenario's (till 1941) include "old" and "new" maps.

When i did the few changes, i'll update the demo, and might even throw in the 4th scenario. I'll post a scenario 4 preview later today.

So once again, thanks a lot for the feedback, but now i am going to take a nap. That's the advantage of being a Captain .

[ivanov]

I am sobering up after a polish wedding - i'm not going to mention how much vodka i drank

The 203mm is self propelled...i did it, to have some "early" kind of SPA and also to read the reactions about it. It does give a bigger pounding then a StuGIIIB or Sturmpz I but is more vulnerable.

But the Soviets didn't really have any self propelled artillery until 1943 and early in the war, Red Army was figthing differently than the Wehrmacht. It would be nice if the campaign was reflecting it somehow. From the other hand I recognize that we are not talking here about a strictly historical campaign. The thing is that the 203mm howitzer is the less mobile piece of arty from the Soviet arsenal I could think of. Maybe it woud be better if the KV-2 later on, was available for purchase as a gun, not as a tank. It was rather a giant self propelled howitzer, rather than a tank and was designed to give a close support to the infantry. It could neve give a good accout of itself in this role, due to the chaotic retreat of the Red Army in 1941, but hey - why won't give this piece of equipment a chance in your campaign?

I hope I am not giving you a headache like Polish vodka did - just something to think about

[nikivdd]

@ Ivanov
I have luckily no headache. Krupnik and Cytrynowka

I moved the KV-2 from tank to selfpropelled artillery/assault gun.
The first mission has been upped by one year for the 76.2mm 1936 gun.
Prizes for T-28 and T-28E have been raised somewhat.

@Bebro
Found few forgotten Ki-43's and replaced by something else.

[nikivdd]

Scenario 4: Lvov (17/09/39)







An updated demo should be later today.

[ivanov]

I moved the KV-2 from tank to selfpropelled artillery/assault gun.
The first mission has been upped by one year for the 76.2mm 1936 gun.
Prizes for T-28 and T-28E have been raised somewhat.

Great stuff

@ Ivanov
I have luckily no headache. Krupnik and Cytrynowka

They do give you headache when abused in great quantities The only vodka that didn't give me a hangover, was some stuff that my friend brought from Iceland. It had a distinct smell of potatoes and cost him probably 4 times more than a typical Polish vodka But the day after I was like a newborn

[nikivdd]

The updated demo is available here: http://www.gamefront.com/files/21595496 ... -04-12.rar

Changes:
The first scenario is moved up 1 year. The 76.2mm 1936 is another possible purchase.
The second scenario does no longer contain the Ki-43 planes.
The third scenario remained the same.
The fourth scenario Lvov has been added.

Also the 76.2mm 1938 Mtn gun is available since scenario 2.

You can continu your savegame with this demo on the condition that you are running the game under the v1.05b version!

[Kerloc]

i thought that we are working TOGETHER to create this mod .... I want to produce some new Units just for this mod and thats needs some time. Im kinda suprised that you already released a demo. Dont get me wrong - i like you effort but i feel overlooked right now. From the screens: There are a lot of extremely ugly looking units, they have to be replaced.

I'm working on japanese equipment right now ... i hope that you slow down the progress a little so that i get my chance to bring some stuff into it

EDIT: BTW here are some renders of jap. units

Type94 tk


Type38 75mm

[ivanov]

Because I see that you are moving with the speed of sound, I want to suggest the Operation Mars as one of the future scenarios:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mars

It was designed to encircle the forces of the Army Group Centre in the so called Rzhev Salient. Operation Mars, was supposed to take place at the same time as the famous Operation Uranus in the south, that lead to the encirclement of the 6th army in Stalingrad and was equally ambitious and big in it's scope.

Soviet Strategic Offensive Plan fall 1942:



Operation Mars as planned:



Unlike Uranus in the south, where Soviets easily smashed the weak Romanian forces, Operation Mars failed miserably, the attacking forces got encircled themselves and took very high loses. Due to that, this big and bloody battle got ereased from the official Soviet historiography and practically forgotten.

Operation Mars reality:



As much as I know, no wargame has ever featured this battle so I think it's worth trying for the sake of all the men fallen there ( about 350 000 casualties on both sides ).

So I think that Operation Mars could be an optional path to the Operation Uranus - harder scenario but rewarded with higher prestige or maybe with some captured equipment. Or mabe it could be a bonus, optional scenario after Stalingrad? It could feature some hard fighting in the snow conditions, where the Soviet player would need to smash through the well prepared German defences and fight off the panzer couter attacks.

The maps are taken from David Glantz's book "Zhukov's Geratest Defeat".

Ps. I am already deployed for the Lvov scenario and will try it out later on

[nikivdd]

i thought that we are working TOGETHER to create this mod .... I want to produce some new Units just for this mod and thats needs some time. Im kinda suprised that you already released a demo. Dont get me wrong - i like you effort but i feel overlooked right now. From the screens: There are a lot of extremely ugly looking units, they have to be replaced.

I'm working on japanese equipment right now ... i hope that you slow down the progress a little so that i get my chance to bring some stuff into it

My apologies, I had no intention to overlook you. The purpose of the previews and demo, as i pointed out, is to get more people involved in the whole creation of the campaign.So they can point out what could be improved in general, which units would make great additions, what players expect of the campaign (scenarios) and so on and so on.