"Another one" - Plaid vs Morris

After action reports for Commander Europe at War.

Moderators: rkr1958, Happycat, Slitherine Core

PionUrpo
Staff Sergeant - StuG IIIF
Staff Sergeant - StuG IIIF
Posts: 265
Joined: Sun Oct 03, 2010 12:29 pm
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Post by PionUrpo »

If the RN blockades the ports they can't screen the invasion transports...
GPT55
Corporal - Strongpoint
Corporal - Strongpoint
Posts: 70
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:31 am

Morris Strategy and Game Balance

Post by GPT55 »

I would like to put in my two cents worth. I too think that GS2 is unbalanced in favor or the Allies, and I think that Morris’ strategy is a way to expose the problem early. I think the most fundamental problem is that the Germans just don’t get enough PPs to build the strength they had historically. Morris’s strategy take advantage of this by maximizing the bleeding of German PPs early at all costs with the aim of causing an early collapse (kudos to Supermax for doing so well so far). One way to see this is to take a look at the 1942, 1943, and 1944 scenarios. Has anyone been able to build German forces anywhere close to what these scenarios provide? I counted up all the German units on the map at the start of the 1942 scenario and calculated that they would cost 5,295 PPs to produce (I ignored leaders). In a recent GS2 game I counted my German forces on the same date and calculated that their PP cost was 3,865 PPs. That's quite a discrepancy. Of course maybe my losses were higher. However, my manpower was at 955, whereas in the 1942 scenario the German manpower was at 810, so it doesn’t seem like my losses were excessive. My opponent was playing fairly conservatively. Also, I had been avoiding much fighter combat with the Brits since it's just too costly for the Germans. I am curious what other players are seeing.

Another problem is that the Germans cannot even come close to duplicating their historical success in France where they captured Paris in 34 days—less than 2 turns—and this includes conquering Belgium and Netherlands as well. In any version of CEAW it’s a long hard slog in France, often with heavy casualties. Morris certainly exploits this situation. The new rule that reduces Allied effectiveness when Belgium falls tries to address this, but I don’t think it does enough. Maybe the Germans should start with a few more tech upgrades. Note that the French start with higher armor tech than the Germans (really!). Another change to consider that would make a difference in France and elsewhere: reduce the penalty for attacking across rivers. This would help the Axis early and the Allies later. At the scale of this game should the river penalty really be so large?

Another problem is that severe winter seems too severe. The Russian should certainly be ably to bloody up the Germans in winter, but the wholesale massacres we see (such as Plaid suffered) are just too much. Maybe the Russians should start with lower tech relative to the Germans.

Maybe that was four cents worth.

Pete
afk_nero
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Sergeant - 7.5 cm FK 16 nA
Posts: 204
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:28 pm

Post by afk_nero »

One problem that I have spotted is that Air techs are easy to get - so that by end '43 you can be fully upgraded in air attack - depending on how lucky your research is - the allies or axis can get there early '43. My suggestion is that air techs should be made similarly difficult to get as Infantry techs are. This should solve the problems of such early air upgrades.
Post Reply

Return to “Commander Europe at War : AAR's”