ThorHa wrote:Bonesoul, I am sorry to disagree again.
Just 3 points:
This scenario is clear as hell - bring 4 supply trains into safety to acheive a DV. Which means straying out for Soviet cities is a decision which SHOULD have consequences.
If I am not totally mistaken, it is possible to get all of the supply trains into safety before the brutal 5 KV 1 c make themselves known. Requiring to take notice of the arrival of a new one each turn and move them south as fast as possible. You don't have to fight the final Soviet attack.
If you stay strictly on the defense, counting the one city with the T34/41 as the only exception, you have more than enough forces to simply surround the KVs and force surrenders.
And as a last point - no, this ks not what you can expect further. Kharkov and Simferopol, the next 2 ones, are rather easy.
Regards,
Thorsten
We are all entitled to our own opinions, I do think however in some of your comments your being a little selective :-
"This scenario is clear as hell - bring 4 supply trains into safety to acheive a DV. Which means straying out for Soviet cities is a decision which SHOULD have consequences".
In getting to here you will have had to work through the thirty plus scenarios of G39-41 and if you have got here with the sort of prestige bank you can, in most of those scenarios you will have taken flags for prestige that weren't key to achieving a DV. Why would you suddenly stop now? All the other cities were easily capturable without getting units too far out of position to handle the next wave, especially if you use recon units for the captures.
"If you stay strictly on the defense, counting the one city with the T34/41 as the only exception"
If you stick strictly to the absolute scenario guidelines I would guess you wouldn't get half the captureable tanks, in general the cities that yield them aren't necessary for a DV. More than that, other than checking the forum's and finding the right thread, how would you ever find them or know about them. Many of them are in out of the way cities after all. even in the next scenario, the city that gives a tank isn't essential for a DV.
"And as a last point - no, this is not what you can expect further. Kharkov and Simferopol, the next 2 ones, are rather easy."
I have to agree after the build up from this thread I was worried but the next tow are a lot easier or should be. I had a serious issue on Simferopol due to a Spanish flu type issue, I don't think that was scripted (my pc caught a virus and I've spent the last two days reinstalling stuff: P).
I do stick to my guns on some issues, I thought the spam of 4 KV1-C a bit over the top, 4 T38/41's ok but KV1-C's is just taking the P a little bit, especially given that historically there were about 63,000 T-38s built in WWII and only about 8,500 heavy tanks with 4,500 of those being of the IS variety which first saw service about Jan44. Anther useless fact, pulled from an enthusiasts forum so unverified, the ratio of troops to tanks on the eastern front stayed between 700 and 1000 to 1 across the whole period, the mainstay of both armies throughout was infantry.
The other is the lack of effectiveness of both artillery and infantry against tanks, especially in close terrain. Tanks without infantry protection are always vulnerable, the harder it is to see the infantry getting close the more vulnerable they become. Their main armour is pretty much universally frontal, the sides back top and bottom, not to mention their tracks don't need 75mm long cannon. As to artillery suppression against tanks its not so much tank kills as stripping away their infantry support, creating terrain even in the clear that increases their vulnerability and hitting their mechanical support units in while they are preparing to deploy. In the latter stages of the eastern front the Russians used infantry to protect the flanks of their advance with a defence in depth strategy against German panzers which at its core halted the panzer advances by depriving them of their close infantry support, with continued unsupported advance being suicidal.
Cheers
Bone