Further experiences and summary of v 1.6:
- I played historical until Kursk. After that, I got free hands. Except Sicily, which I let captured (although, with all my saved Italian forces and ships, I could easy hold out). Kursk was mostly an easy task, because I let the town captured before and the trench circles built, but still I weakened the attacking force in the meantime, that there was about 40% of the Soviet forces, as there has to be in historical situation.
1., I did not pay enough attention to build up at least a minimal defense force in France, so the Allied advanced like knife in the butter. Plus Market Garden succeed also partly, while I'm im panic created some defense forces, which where then quickly defeated and I just took heavy losses in prestige for almost nothing. I took Lipetsk too, and tried to defend with Voronezh together, but it was again a huge fault, because the Soviets sent there strong forces, which than made big losses to my defenders. At the and, these forces were defeated, but it is much more useful to hold Voronezh and guard the rest of the bridges with some AT assets ant just destroy most units, which dare to com trough the river.
So, while I could defeat the Soviet Union, and hold the Gothic line in Italy, I could not retake all of the German objectives, and therefore the end result was a LOSS.
Summary: we have to build at least a mediocre defense power in France, because there is not enough time, while you defeat the Soviets, to hold out long enough in France. Plus if you cannot hold out, you cannot use any of the V1, V2's, as in my cause was.
2., This time I built a stronger defense force in France, but made a lot of faults in Russia, therefore her defeat lasted longer and there was some catastrophic results after the second battle of Stalingrad, which drained also many powers, which has been used other way in France, or Italy. In Italy, things were good, until some stupid offensive action, which resulted in several losses and therefore a retreat from the Rome-line. Overall, if you can somehow spare some extra forces, or prestige to make the Italian Axis forces stronger, I would say, after weakening the Allied forces, later even a counter-attack is possible. Still, I lost France, where I made also several - little looking, but strategic - faults, so, again, the Ruhr-towns where the main front line. It was hard contested, both side suffered heavy losses. Even, several time, these cities changed hands. But than, the units, shipped, flied from the East, already before the defeat of the Soviets, could make the difference and finally, these towns could be firmly held.
Summary: nice VICTORY, with the Soviets defeated, Italy partly held and Germany and rest of Europe also under Axis rule. Still, I need to make another attempt from the Sicily save point to see, if it is possible to hold France and maybe recapture Italy.
Design summary:
Except the Fort-range-1 change, everything else works fine. It shows, that it is already v1.6 - the much work, we put it in, pays out, as the gameplay is really smooth and mostly historical. Stalin's bunker was also a nice addition, McGuba!
I did like all the new late war assets: the extra prestige, the King Tiger (which is a powerful weapon, but alone, still cannot make a difference), the V1-2's, which would be nice assets, if I just could hold the ground in France.
Minor suggestions, bug fixes:
- I saw a single Soviet partisan unit in South England, since middle '43.
- Strongpoints should be changed back to normal melee fightning mode.
- The armored forces in Italy after the armistice should be in German insignia and flags, because, as I have read, they were taken and used by the Germans. So, a special upgrade tree should be implemented for these units, as Germans and of course icons, with the German insignia. Maybe I will made them.
When I finished again the mod, I will upload the whole version of mine (little changes in the stats of units to McGuba's version), so anybody, who is so mazochist, as I, can try out from several saving points in Rommel difficulty.
- casualties too, so in some far, the weakening of the Axis power is also simulated.
