BJR Mod - Looking for Play Testers for Potential Updates

[rkr1958]

BJRmodVer1.05 submitted to Slitherine.

See viewtopic.php?p=94319#94319

[schwerpunkt]

Just completed (in 1941) a game of the previous mod version in which I (as the Russians) destroyed all German armour on turn 3 of the invasion (had 16 armoured units on the turn of the invasion). Have just upgraded to the new version and will report on how it goes....

[schwerpunkt]

Playing as the axis in a new game, my Russian opponent returned the favour by severely damaging my armour on the 4th turn of Barbarossa by an armoured counterattack. Looks like the Russians are still too strong in v1.06 (I didnt think that the freezing of the Siberian reserve units of one armour, 2 motorised, air, etc would make much difference).

Still looking for play testers for ver 2.00? I'm very happy to play the Russians......

Cheers,


Neil

[Peter Stauffenberg]

In v2.00 the Russians start with only 4 armor units and will receive 2 more when USA joins the Allies. The tech level is back to the vanilla level. In addition we've added a surprise morale loss to many countries when they're DoW'ed. E. g. Russia will lose 20 efficiency on the turn Germany launches Barbarossa. So Russia better save their front line units instead of attacking and rest the rear ones.

The Siberia reserve is 2 armor, 2 mech, 2 corps, 1 tac bomber and 1 fighter.

So Russia is not stronger than in the vanilla game.

How many labs and corps units did you build with this strategy? If you ignore labs then you need to win immediately or be so left behind tech wise later in the game that you can never recover. It's also important to know that the Germans don't need to get to Siberia to win the war. They only need to hold Berlin in May 1945 to win. So the Germans can get on the defense maybe as early as late 1942 and hold the Russians for a long time with clever play.

Every Russian player can build hordes of armor units instead of infantry. If he does that then he doesn't have a front line that can hold the Germans. He relies upon one card and that is to kill enough German units with his armor. Germany's main attack asset will be his air units. They're particularly dangerous to Russian armor units. I've often seen a tac bomber inflict 3 losses upon a Russian armor. So if you send air units against each armor unit you will attack then you can initiate your attacks with your infantry and kill them with your armor.

OK, the Russian armor can kill most of the German armor if they go all out and launch 10+ armor in a major attack using their airforce to make the attacks possible. But when the smoke has settled the Russian armor force will be in shambles and their airforce the same. Germany has lost most of his armor, but he can build one armor per turn to replace losses. When the Russian offensive firepower gone then the Russian infantry will be too weak to withstand the German future attack.

Remember that the key to German offensive success is NOT the armor, but the tac bombers. I usually kill 5+ Russian infantry units per turn in 1942 without using a single German armor unit. I use the Luftwaffe to soften up the targets and then release the infantry to kill these hexes. Usually the hexes are killed with few German losses. If you do this a few turns then second Russian defense line will disappear and you can release your armor to make a big hole in a front section.

A German player using the armor as spearheads against a strong Russian defense line will lose his armor. Armor can be spearheads when the Russians retrea, encircling the retreating units. That works well in 1941, but in 1942 you're faced with a stronger Russian line. Then you need to soften up the defense line over several turns so you can create a hole.

We surely need more betatesters and maybe today or tomorrow we will release a new beta version with major map changes. So if you want to help us testing then I suggest you send Ronnie a PM with your email address. He can then send you the link to download the latest version. You will receive some email messages being a part of the beta group and can offer to play against some other playtesters. Then you can see if Russia is really too strong as you believe.

We haven't tweaked the game balance yet because there have been so many changes. So far we've managed to conclude that the game is balanced till the Fall of France at least. Then we will see how the balance is in Russia and later. The main reason we haven't released v2.00 yet is because we need more data about game balance so we can tweak the unit setups.

[schwerpunkt]

How many labs and corps units did you build with this strategy? If you ignore labs then you need to win immediately or be so left behind tech wise later in the game that you can never recover. It's also important to know that the Germans don't need to get to Siberia to win the war. They only need to hold Berlin in May 1945 to win. So the Germans can get on the defense maybe as early as late 1942 and hold the Russians for a long time with clever play.

Every Russian player can build hordes of armor units instead of infantry. If he does that then he doesn't have a front line that can hold the Germans. He relies upon one card and that is to kill enough German units with his armor. Germany's main attack asset will be his air units. They're particularly dangerous to Russian armor units. I've often seen a tac bomber inflict 3 losses upon a Russian armor. So if you send air units against each armor unit you will attack then you can initiate your attacks with your infantry and kill them with your armor.

OK, the Russian armor can kill most of the German armor if they go all out and launch 10+ armor in a major attack using their airforce to make the attacks possible. But when the smoke has settled the Russian armor force will be in shambles and their airforce the same. Germany has lost most of his armor, but he can build one armor per turn to replace losses. When the Russian offensive firepower gone then the Russian infantry will be too weak to withstand the German future attack.

Remember that the key to German offensive success is NOT the armor, but the tac bombers. I usually kill 5+ Russian infantry units per turn in 1942 without using a single German armor unit. I use the Luftwaffe to soften up the targets and then release the infantry to kill these hexes. Usually the hexes are killed with few German losses. If you do this a few turns then second Russian defense line will disappear and you can release your armor to make a big hole in a front section.

Thanks for the reply.
The strategy employed was to go for 3 armour labs and 3 other labs (eg Inf or Air depending on your preference) and aim to hold the Dnepr river line until the winter arrived in November, which allowed plenty of scope to counterattack the German player if he got strung out. The Russian player has enough build points by late July 41 to buy 14 armoured units to add to the starting 4 for a total of 18 units (there are 14 hexes between Dneprepetrovsk and the forest hex south west of Smolensk leaving 4 armour units spare to plug holes or to counter attack a line breach). I usually buy 7 armour around April 41 to prepare for an early attack and then buy the rest on the turn of the attack. Depending on the timing of the attack, I may buy a few Inf units and drop off a couple of armour in order to get a bit more bulk.

I've played a few games as the german where I didnt push too far into russia in 1941 and ultimately adopted a strategic defensive in the east (husbanding oil to launch local attacks and to pound the russians from the air) and successfully made it to games end, so I've got a pretty good idea of what the German capabilities are if you play to their strengths.

I'll PM Ronnie as suggested as I'd like to work out the counter to the strategy (and the play testing should be interesting in other ways).
Cheers,

Neil