jchello wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 1:54 am
Quick question for a newbie and forgive me if this has been covered before. In the description for Operation Barbarossa on the grand campaign it suggests not to take any russian victory cities if you plan on doing operation Sea Lion for risk of "angering the Russian bear too much". Can anyone tell me what this actually means in practice? If I am going to forgo all the prestige that could be gained from those cities I would like to know that it is worth it in some tangible sense. Does this mean that the russians will not get as many reinforcements or some such? Thanks!
As far as I remember in the early versions of the mod there was such a mechanic (i.e. the SU got less units attacking early on if the Axis was more passive), but it may have been removed at some point in the past. I think now it mostly means that if the Axis player focuses on Sea Lion at the start and stays on the defense in the east then the historical Soviet offensives of 41-42 will not be as damaging and would be easier to stop. Mainly because of the distance between the area of those operations and the Soviet border. Additionally, the unit strength damages of the first winter can be avoided if the Axis army does not advance to the east.
Intenso82 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 6:06 pm
Locarnus wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 5:55 pm
What difficulty setting would you recommend for goose_2 to make the game interesting beyond turn ~50?
BE 2.4, General+, normal random, -Undo, w/o pre-scenarios.
I agree. In addition, I think Goose made great use of the pre-scenarios, mainly by selling a core unit and replacing it with another SdKfz 232 (8 rad), if I remember well. Thereby he could attack with two of these highly mobile 8-wheeled recon units in 1941 instead of just one. I think it was also exacerbated by his use of the recon-undo "trick", as he calls it. Basically whenever he moves recon type units, he leaves them a few movement points and then presses the "Undo" button, which allows him to resupply them in the same turn (after moving them). In this way his recon units never run out of fuel and never have to spend a whole turn resupplying, unlike any other ground unit. This is clearly a game bug, which should have been fixed by the developer at some point, but never was. Now, since the race for Moscow in 1941 is so crucial, this exploitation of a game bug (which was unknown to me until I saw him doing it) can break the balance quite significantly and there is not much I can do about it, unless suggesting players not to use it or play the game with the "Undo" option unchecked.
As for a second SdKfz 232 being present in 1941, I have decided to give this unit the "nopurchase" trait in the next verison of the mod. In reality the Germans had only 186 SdKfz 231/232 8-rads in June 1941, with 162 of these in the East. Which makes up a single understrength unit. (That's why this unit starts with strength 8 in turn 1, given that a full strength "vehicle" type unit represents 200 actual vehicles in the mod.)
In reality, the SdKfz 232 was quite expensive and complicated to produce, hence the rather limited production run. I have the information that some 47 more of these were produced between June-Dec 1941, followed by 154 in 1942 and 200 in 1943, when its production ended. Therefore, given the historical production numbers, the player should not be able to purchase a second one of this until mid/late 1942, even if we assume that none of the newly produced vehicles are used to replace losses.
Besides being historically more accurate, it would also ensure that players cannot use two of these highly mobile units in 1941 which makes it rather easy to reach and capture Moscow before the Soviet reinfocement units would appear there. Something that players can currently do so, even if they start the scenario in 1941, since all they have to do is to upgrade an existing recon unit to this type.
So all in all, until a new version comes, I would suggest players looking for a historically more accurate and challenging experience to play BE 2.4 on FM (or Rommel, or perhaps even on a combination of these two), starting in June 1941, on real+, normal random dice, using only one SdKfz 232 until mid 1942, and not using the recon-undo "trick" or save-reload at all. I hope it makes sense.
Locarnus wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 7:46 pm
Are you saying that the SU is considerably harder to defeat in BE 2.4 than in BE 2.3?
It is somewhat harder. As to what it means "considerably" may be subject to debate. Perhaps Uhu, and others who played both versions can share more of their experiences in this matter.
Intenso82 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 27, 2023 2:28 pm
Locarnus wrote: ↑Wed Apr 26, 2023 12:01 pm
Hm, I do not believe those things to make a great enough difference against the SU when it counts the most.
Needs to be tested in practice)
In my vision, the player has a small window to capture Moscow in 1941, if this does not happen, the Soviets will be stronger.
Yes, that's the original idea since v1.0.
Locarnus wrote: ↑Wed Apr 26, 2023 12:01 pm
Imho something more is necessary.
Once the Axis crushes the dynamic SU frontline, SU reinforcements can be defeated piecemeal when they trickle in.
And taking crucial objectives like Moscow, Leningrad and Baku makes that even easier.
The AI is just too inept to reestablish a critical mass, even locally.
Perhaps it would make sense to "bunch up" reinforcements a bit more to compensate that AI restriction.
Resulting in at least some credible counterattacks, rather than a steady stream of easily defeated "finger food".
Yes, that may be correct. However, I think it is fair to assume that had the Axis captured Moscow (and/or Leningrad, etc.), Soviet resistance would have become less organised and more chaotic after that.
