Leningrad Fort

[AdmiralSarek]

Does anyone know why we have a fort their in GS? I wasn't aware of any major fortifications in Leningrad, compared to say Sevastopol.
It makes it rather hard to take which although in the real war the Germans had trouble doing it, in the game it seems to require a bit more resource than seems reasonable for a minimal Russian investment. IT was hard to take as it was a defended large city, so maybe it should just be a capital?

Thoughts?

[zechi]

Does anyone know why we have a fort their in GS? I wasn't aware of any major fortifications in Leningrad, compared to say Sevastopol.
It makes it rather hard to take which although in the real war the Germans had trouble doing it, in the game it seems to require a bit more resource than seems reasonable for a minimal Russian investment. IT was hard to take as it was a defended large city, so maybe it should just be a capital?

Thoughts?

I think the "fort" does not necessarily represent major existing fortification construction, but can also represent fortification measures taken quickly during the war. According to wikipedia the Soviets did a lot to fortify Leningrad:

Leningrad fortified regionOn 27 June 1941 the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organized "First response groups" of civilians. In the next days the entire civilian population of Leningrad was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilized for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defenses were built along the perimeter of the city, in order to repulse hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance.[2][5]

One of the fortifications ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo and then through the Neva River. The other defense passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino and Koltushy. Another defense line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in the northern suburbs of Leningrad since the 1930s, and was now returned to service. A total of 190 km of timber barricades, 635 km of wire entanglements, 700 km of anti-tank ditches, 5,000 earth-and-timber emplacements and reinforced concrete weapon emplacements and 25,000 km[citation needed] of open trenches were constructed or excavated by civilians. Even the guns from the cruiser Aurora were moved inland to the Pulkovo Heights to the south of Leningrad.

[AdmiralSarek]

Yes but aren't these fortifications you mention just what is meant by the steps of entrenchment in the game?

Wooden spikes and ditches are not forts it is world war one style trenches etc and a lot of what you mention sounds like this. An impressive feat but not a fortification as the game represents.

A capital city would be more what I would expect, and if the Germans can rush it before the full 8 levels of entrenchment then good on you.

[PionUrpo]

Agreed. Apparently there was a chance that Germans might have actually taken the city off the march but blew that opportunity. (Don't quote me on that though... Can't even remember where I heard that.) After that it couldn't be taken without heavy support which they didn't have when AGN was stripped of much of their offensive power for Typhoon.

However there's also the fact that Finns wouldn't cut the vital lake supplylines to the city, or attack it, for political reasons. Since everyone who wants to take Leningrad ingame will attack from Finland, without a fort it would be way too easy even with 8 entrenchment.

Another thought occured. Would it be possible to change a hex into a fort later in the game? If possible, then change Leningrad to a fort after X amounts of turns has passed from German DoW? This would allow taking the city easier if you manage to advance fast enough. Could be applied on other places as well, btw. For example Moscow had significant defenses built around it during 41-(42?). Then again, so did quite a few places, so this might not be very feasible or there'd be a fort in half the map

[StevenCarleton]

Not sure how forts are defined by the modders now. I always have thought them to be installations like Maginot, with thick armoured gun emplacements, underground bunkers several stories deep, and huge stockpiles of supplies. It seems the GS modders included lesser defenses for game balance. I think some of the fort hexes would have actually been built during the war, like the fort hexes in central Italy representing the Monte Cassino line.

It seems there are some things on the GS map that can't be modified with the map editor. I would very much like to experiment with removing some of the fort hexes, but they don't show up in the editor.

Yes, it would be great to be able to actually construct forts and airfields but I think someone said this would require a change to the game engine.

[StevenCarleton]

Does anyone know why we have a fort their in GS? I wasn't aware of any major fortifications in Leningrad, compared to say Sevastopol

I believe both Leningrad and Sevastopol had tradtional type forts with gun emplacements and deep bunkers to defend against enemy seaward threats since both were very important naval installations dating back to the time of the Czars. The Soviets had to quickly throw up defenses to stop an invasion from the landward side.