For those of you following the preparations and discussion here and at http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/661257/you-dont-have-time-for-conferences-but-you-have-ti . We have spent a bit of time on the Soviet strategy now its time to turn our thinking to the undermanned but superb German forces.
Here are my first thoughts on where the primary defenses should be for GD ’42’s campaign during World War II. The Jagd Battalion has 6 platoons an AT and a Mortar. but starts out of Travino!
Travino is apparently open to attack, unless I forward place II Bn from the GrossDeutschland closer than I would like to that bridge there. Hmm I may need to adjust the Op Sheet for IIBn.
3 Co and 1Co have 6 among units among them. They can cover a reasonable area. I’m second guessing now I am writing about their position also. The intent was to guide the Soviets into a crossfire on the approach to the Mill and Bridge to Vasil’tsova. Crushing them and crowdeding them for a powerdeul display of German Artillery accuracy.
This may not work if they can quickly cross river un impeded. The Travino bridge is blown but units could still wander across if its not at least in a Line of Sight (LOS) or bombardenable…..is that a word? 🙂
Similarly in the South the Germans will have to dig in in the city and be prepared to stage back as they are swarmed by the 3rd Mechanized Brigade of the Soviets.
The Ford is exposed, so we will likely mine it, and cover with MG‘s. Once pushed from the town the woods provide the next best cover and staging area to hit them in the open. The 252 has a tough job, essentially floating on a Hasty Defense looking for a problem. I’m considering a secondary Op Sheet that provides for a Counter Attack for them. but that may be too aggressive.
Well lots to think about I hope you take time to look at your maps, or think thru what you might do as the defender here!
Looking at the campaign game the Soviets need the main roads to advance east. The Fascists need to delay the Soviets. The Fascists need to deploy blocking forces that have time to digin. Why do they digin? Being dugin provides a nice benefit when calling for arty. Arty is the key to the Nazi defense. The longer game revolves around the Soviets bumping into Nazi positions and getting pounded by arty. Can the Soviets advance fast enough without huge losses from arty fire? Can the Fascists pull out of each blocking position before they get trapped?
Really good points, that are driving my thinking. suitable PD locations would make a difference. As I am experiencing in SEiH (Screaming Eagles in Holland), visibility range, spotting range and LOS are all very different things! Jsut ask the hulking burning wrecks of my precious 88mm.
the scenarios play a bit differently because you can “throw away” a nazi force if it delays the Soviets enough to win the scenario. but preservation of force is very important for the nazis.
also remember that every nazi formation can be on 2 op sheets. one implemented and one unimplemented or 2 unimplemented. it is trickier for the Soviets.
both sides need to be very active with op sheet preparation.
Hi PErry – I’m setting up under the Campaign mode so no throwing away men!
As you are playing the campaign game, be very honest with yourself and abandon your defensive positions as soon as you think you are in trouble. You want to get out and keep your various formations alive.
You can split off company sized formations and assign them to a key VP location or choke point (road junction or road in woods). Have the company sized force work on the op sheet. Before you roll to implement, make sure you are very familiar with the ability to add formations to an unimplemented op sheet.
I think the campaign game really rewards the player who understands the entire op sheet mechanisms.
Because the Soviets are limited to one VP location per atk op sheet and you get to know what all of them are, you can position a small force in the unlikely ones and a blocking force in all of them.
Even Soviet formations not on the map can have implemented op sheets with a VP location so they can try to mislead the nazis a bit.
I feel the nazi arty is ahistorical. a typical nazi FOO could only call for his battery. in the game you can have any formation call in any arty and it is overwhelming. i think the game would be more interesting if the nazis had to list arty by battery on each op sheet and each battery could only be on one op sheet. that would provide a much better model of the nazi arty.
allow the nazis to fire a bn shoot only via preplanning. my guess is let them use a 4 hour planning delay. without planning they can only fire one bty per assigned FOO. the nazi arty fire control was NEVER close to the awesome way the USA or the Empire handled it in 43-45.
i also think the soviet arty is screwed by being limited to only bn sized fires. it is the target ring that annoys me. let them fire using a bn ammo but use just one battery for a smaller target ring. my goal is not to allow every soviet battery to fire (although they could have) but to give the soviets an option to configure the target ring to better match the on map needs.
all of these options would change the game but i think make it a better model.
I just watched your 2 videos.. the one were you discuss some basic soviet op sheets plans failed to mention the KEY constraint placed on the Soviets by the road net. they require certain roads leading off the west map edge in order to draw up atk op sheets.
so i wish you had a better video camera so you could discuss the road net and the impact on your planning for the first day or so of attacks.
thanks for posting all this stuff. it is a very interesting but long game.
HOw many times have you played Perry?
What is your experience with TCS?
What is your background with Eastern Campaigns.? Where did you become so informed?
You sound very informed. Thanks for the input. Interestingly I am seeing your comments come to fruition.
1. Masse axis arty on exposed units = 4stop loss.
2. knowing likeyl roads is key.
3. Soviet arty restirctions are impossible….How can I realistically as Soviets plot more than a few hours out? Unless I refer to the reinforcement table. That seems fake and cheap at the same time. So a 6 hr window is my next choice? Insane.
This part of the game is very frustrating I must say.
Its 8.20am and already the Soviet attack is a mixed bag, and all the pre plot is going to be wasted (I’m doing random rolls of 3 sets of targets for each pre plot.)….playing solo here.
As far as Perry’s experience: There is no better player (imo) of TCS than Perry Andrus. He is amazing in his ability to make awesome attacks. I know, as I’ve been on the suffering side of his attacks in several TCS games… and in GD’42 also. (I am not absolutely sure, because we are playing a double-blind game of the full GD’42 game and I’m not positive who has been pounding on my “northern KG”. From the sequencing and clever maneuvering I’ve concluded that I’m suffering from Perry… He has been taking position after position from me: first the Travino area, then the Mill-Bridge area. I had awesomely strong defenses at both places, but had to run… luckily I chose the right bug-out paths in the Op sheets.
Perry has been playing TCS since it first came out; has playtested all the games, and is one very bright gamer. If you have any question at all, he is the answer man.
ahh indeed. That would be cool to experience….or not 🙂
I’d love to see a series of shot or comments on ‘ideal’ situations for tactics that leverage the game system here.
I’m really struggling to be offensively effective.
Seems like the Russians are virtually done, most units have serious damage. Which leads me to believe I rushed to combat.