Frozen North (with Kerensky)
Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 8:18 pm
Frozen North AAR (with Kerensky)
Fun game, I played Germans and he played Soviets. I’ll report in the form of a list of bullet points of the battle/observations/commentary.
-I temporarily possessed 4 VH but was soon cut down to 3. Some bitter fighting occurred in the center near Junction City, which I was able to hold on to for about twenty turns. Still, the strategic situation turned more and more against me ever since I abandoned the northwestern most VH. Even though at times I could win some small-scale tactical victories, eventually my positions got overrun. My troops were encircled in the middle three cities and were eventually destroyed, but it did take a while. I surrendered once it became clear that all I could hold onto one last VH, and this was like turn 25/27. Still, if I didn’t lose that one King Tiger, I would at least have the possibility of holding out in the middle.
-Lots and lots of snow. Air power is nigh useless on this map, as are antiair units. However, the most important things about the weather are the limit to resupply and visibility. Hence, high fuel/ammunition units may be more useful than low fuel/ammunition units that have better attack values.
-The limit to visibility makes recon units somewhat less valuable, and makes spreading your units out quite good if you want to interdict enemy movement. For the Soviets this seems especially easy, due to their high mobility units and their cheap conscripts. Good positioning should severely limit German movement, while massing up a good size attack force to seize a city.
-For instance, the StuIV assault gun now looks to me to be reasonably useful, although I did not get any during the game. A Jagdtiger may take forever to kill, but with 4 ammunition a few attacks by conscripts and it is useless. In bad weather it supplies only 2(!) ammunition, and if next to enemies it gets less. King Tigers, Jagdpanthers, and Panthers seem to have a reasonable quantity of ammunition, and the latter two are plenty mobile.
-Soviet tank hunters and JS2 are durable and potent against hard targets, but they have few ammunition. Hence, securing a viable retreat route is absolutely important, so once they are low on ammunition they can run away and resupply while conscripts delay any German pursuers. I temporarily succeeded in boxing in a small fraction of Kerensky’s Soviet armored forces and bagged me a JS2, a ISU-152, and possibly one or two other armored units (although I cannot remember) at minimal cost. Like in history, however, a temporary tactical victory did not alter the strategic situation.
-The German player should probably secure a good supply line too and have a clear direction of retreat. Run out injured units, even some infantry, as the situation dictates.
-Swamps, even frozen, are close terrain. On one turn, I accidentally stumbled my King Tiger onto a swamp, even though at that point I knew it was close terrain, and a quick Soviet attack finished it off. Putting armor units on close terrain can work if you can get a high soft attack artillery to cover it, one with plenty of ammunition. Make sure the artillery can’t be flanked. I noticed Kerensky doing this on multiple occasions. Similarly, tanks work fine attacking into close terrain as long as the infantry is suppressed.
-I bled too many units too early, putting them in positions vulnerable to counterattack. The PzIV especially shouldn’t have been thrown away so readily, they are very good against Soviet infantry. I also lost a good number of infantry out in the open, the infantry are probably best protected by armor on the flanks, so even if I lose one I may possibly counterattack and withdraw. It’s interesting that the Germans can’t really afford the loss of too many infantry, since theirs are much more expensive than conscripts or regulars, and even guards aren’t that expensive. Not long into the game I ran low on core slots, and soon enough the effect snowballed. Panthers can also be vulnerable, they should be used carefully. Jagdpanthers are cheaper and quite useful, but still shouldn’t be thrown away either.
-In general, it seems German armor and German infantry are both superior to their Soviet counterparts, but the Soviets have good soft-attack artillery. I probably should’ve used a Wurfrahmen or two. The Germans seem more sensitive to losses, especially infantry, while the Soviets can lose as many conscripts as they want. Soviet tanks are probably the most worthwhile targets, kill enough of those and then bypass the conscripts for victory. It also seems the Germans are better suited to actually get 4 VH immediately, and the onus is more on the Soviet player to attack and try to wrest at least one of the VH away.
-I’m not really ever sure attacking and destroying conscripts is worthwhile, because they are so cheap. The only thing I can think of is if you can easily force a surrender, or better yet, to force one out of the way to get access to a backtier unit. Or if one is interdicting a road, that needs to be forced away. In fact, the only weakness of conscripts that I can think of is that they take a slot and are useless if not backed up with armor/artillery. All I have to say is, I dearly wished for Volksstrum.
-I got in my fair share of ambushes, and got ambushed myself on multiple occasions. However, that undo button seem a bit silly, because in theory if you trace out every square of your target, you can at least prevent an ambush, although your unit will be stopped by ZOC, perhaps not in a direction you wanted. I feel quite strongly that this is silly, and I propose that a change that makes things simpler. Your move with a unit only executes after you unclick a unit. You can still move your unit up, and examine what a possible effect of an attack would be assuming you got your unit to where you want it, but nothing is executed until you unclick the unit. That way, you can’t game the ambush system. The only exception to this should be recon units, which are never ambushed, but instead always stop in a hex just before entering the enemy unit. This would make recon units much more useful, especially on a snowy map. Or you can make recon units obey the same rules as the others, but with the recon move ability a player may opt to use it more cautiously. I don’t know, but I feel a small tweak in this area is vital for multiplayer.
-Similarly, I dearly wish for a “manual movement” option, where I can dictate the exact path one of my units should take to move as opposed to what the game calculates, since often I remember where an enemy unit in the fog is, and by the game rules there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to move my unit by whatever path I choose. This may potentially allow me to avoid ZoC issues. This can recreate new opportunities, for both successful, sneaky moves and spectacular, horrible failures. Now if I did that, and combined with my previous recommendation and I get ambushed, then nuts to my own stupidity if I move poorly.
Overall a very fun game, a very different map than usual, for campaign play does not prepare you for this map.
Fun game, I played Germans and he played Soviets. I’ll report in the form of a list of bullet points of the battle/observations/commentary.
-I temporarily possessed 4 VH but was soon cut down to 3. Some bitter fighting occurred in the center near Junction City, which I was able to hold on to for about twenty turns. Still, the strategic situation turned more and more against me ever since I abandoned the northwestern most VH. Even though at times I could win some small-scale tactical victories, eventually my positions got overrun. My troops were encircled in the middle three cities and were eventually destroyed, but it did take a while. I surrendered once it became clear that all I could hold onto one last VH, and this was like turn 25/27. Still, if I didn’t lose that one King Tiger, I would at least have the possibility of holding out in the middle.
-Lots and lots of snow. Air power is nigh useless on this map, as are antiair units. However, the most important things about the weather are the limit to resupply and visibility. Hence, high fuel/ammunition units may be more useful than low fuel/ammunition units that have better attack values.
-The limit to visibility makes recon units somewhat less valuable, and makes spreading your units out quite good if you want to interdict enemy movement. For the Soviets this seems especially easy, due to their high mobility units and their cheap conscripts. Good positioning should severely limit German movement, while massing up a good size attack force to seize a city.
-For instance, the StuIV assault gun now looks to me to be reasonably useful, although I did not get any during the game. A Jagdtiger may take forever to kill, but with 4 ammunition a few attacks by conscripts and it is useless. In bad weather it supplies only 2(!) ammunition, and if next to enemies it gets less. King Tigers, Jagdpanthers, and Panthers seem to have a reasonable quantity of ammunition, and the latter two are plenty mobile.
-Soviet tank hunters and JS2 are durable and potent against hard targets, but they have few ammunition. Hence, securing a viable retreat route is absolutely important, so once they are low on ammunition they can run away and resupply while conscripts delay any German pursuers. I temporarily succeeded in boxing in a small fraction of Kerensky’s Soviet armored forces and bagged me a JS2, a ISU-152, and possibly one or two other armored units (although I cannot remember) at minimal cost. Like in history, however, a temporary tactical victory did not alter the strategic situation.
-The German player should probably secure a good supply line too and have a clear direction of retreat. Run out injured units, even some infantry, as the situation dictates.
-Swamps, even frozen, are close terrain. On one turn, I accidentally stumbled my King Tiger onto a swamp, even though at that point I knew it was close terrain, and a quick Soviet attack finished it off. Putting armor units on close terrain can work if you can get a high soft attack artillery to cover it, one with plenty of ammunition. Make sure the artillery can’t be flanked. I noticed Kerensky doing this on multiple occasions. Similarly, tanks work fine attacking into close terrain as long as the infantry is suppressed.
-I bled too many units too early, putting them in positions vulnerable to counterattack. The PzIV especially shouldn’t have been thrown away so readily, they are very good against Soviet infantry. I also lost a good number of infantry out in the open, the infantry are probably best protected by armor on the flanks, so even if I lose one I may possibly counterattack and withdraw. It’s interesting that the Germans can’t really afford the loss of too many infantry, since theirs are much more expensive than conscripts or regulars, and even guards aren’t that expensive. Not long into the game I ran low on core slots, and soon enough the effect snowballed. Panthers can also be vulnerable, they should be used carefully. Jagdpanthers are cheaper and quite useful, but still shouldn’t be thrown away either.
-In general, it seems German armor and German infantry are both superior to their Soviet counterparts, but the Soviets have good soft-attack artillery. I probably should’ve used a Wurfrahmen or two. The Germans seem more sensitive to losses, especially infantry, while the Soviets can lose as many conscripts as they want. Soviet tanks are probably the most worthwhile targets, kill enough of those and then bypass the conscripts for victory. It also seems the Germans are better suited to actually get 4 VH immediately, and the onus is more on the Soviet player to attack and try to wrest at least one of the VH away.
-I’m not really ever sure attacking and destroying conscripts is worthwhile, because they are so cheap. The only thing I can think of is if you can easily force a surrender, or better yet, to force one out of the way to get access to a backtier unit. Or if one is interdicting a road, that needs to be forced away. In fact, the only weakness of conscripts that I can think of is that they take a slot and are useless if not backed up with armor/artillery. All I have to say is, I dearly wished for Volksstrum.
-I got in my fair share of ambushes, and got ambushed myself on multiple occasions. However, that undo button seem a bit silly, because in theory if you trace out every square of your target, you can at least prevent an ambush, although your unit will be stopped by ZOC, perhaps not in a direction you wanted. I feel quite strongly that this is silly, and I propose that a change that makes things simpler. Your move with a unit only executes after you unclick a unit. You can still move your unit up, and examine what a possible effect of an attack would be assuming you got your unit to where you want it, but nothing is executed until you unclick the unit. That way, you can’t game the ambush system. The only exception to this should be recon units, which are never ambushed, but instead always stop in a hex just before entering the enemy unit. This would make recon units much more useful, especially on a snowy map. Or you can make recon units obey the same rules as the others, but with the recon move ability a player may opt to use it more cautiously. I don’t know, but I feel a small tweak in this area is vital for multiplayer.
-Similarly, I dearly wish for a “manual movement” option, where I can dictate the exact path one of my units should take to move as opposed to what the game calculates, since often I remember where an enemy unit in the fog is, and by the game rules there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to move my unit by whatever path I choose. This may potentially allow me to avoid ZoC issues. This can recreate new opportunities, for both successful, sneaky moves and spectacular, horrible failures. Now if I did that, and combined with my previous recommendation and I get ambushed, then nuts to my own stupidity if I move poorly.
Overall a very fun game, a very different map than usual, for campaign play does not prepare you for this map.
