Quote:
snake said:
Charles,
I just had to post this. My first mission against the Russians in 6/41 was an assault followed by a "special" delay.
My force value is 4420 and I still have 80 total units (20 infantry, 20 transports, 15 pzIII h, 12 pz IV e, 3 Stg IIIe, 3 Jgpz 41, 5 Pz IIf, and two 88's. I was allowed 500 pts for my buy which I used for 4 88's and 7 MG units.
The Russian force was 525 UNITS (almost 22 pages of units!) of which 247 were AFV's with 10 KV 2's and 20 KV1E's! OMG!
The end of that game is attached, thank god the visibility was great and the terrain flat AND I bought some extra AT!
I still say this 'trend' is crazy.....
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Well, your panzer 4s are worth 65 or so points each, and your halftracks are 22 or so. Your panzer 2s are worth 49 points at this experience.
You have a largely armoured core force, with a mech inf coy and absolutely no artillery that I could see, not even a mortar.
The Soviets are ADVANCING which means they get TWICE your points (9000 or so vs your 4500 or so). Note - POINTS and not NUMBERS.
At this point in the war, the Soviets are verging on GREEN status for the entire army. Some inits will be green, some will nudge into slightly better status. Rally will be about 40, morale 50. The points values reflect this. A rifle section that would cost 20 at "normal" exp 70 and morale, costs these green troops only 13 points. A t26 which has a standard cost of 41 points, is only 27 at this pathetic morale and experience.
poor experience = will not get as many shot opportunities, will lose a few more if they move etc. and will not hit as well.
Poor morale and rally ratings means they will have trouble when they get into difficulties. They will retreat and rout a lot.
They buy about 430 units, which is almost the maximum of 500 (current exe & OOBS with the revised armour costs). With the revised pick, in this period they use BT and T-26 a lot, plus T-26 lights with 2 MG turret and so you will see maybe 2-3 KV at this points level. They also buy infantry, which is cheap (2 platoons will cost about the same as your single P4).
(I hardle ever buy any mech infantry, infantry in this period walked and APCS were rare, and I find them a bit of a liability in the delay if part of the core. I limit myself to maybe 1 platoon of such for the advance giuard, and a mobile reserve in defence. If I need APCs I buy from the support points, in an advance or attack, or just move them on the tanks to a debussing area, and walk in from there. Core APCS will steadily improve, and so contribute to core points value growth. I would rather spend those points on another leg coy which is more use in the delay or defend)
I looked at your save game, and you had already broken the Russian attack with minimal losses to yourself. And without any artillery either!.
So - I fail to see the problem. The low experience and morale of the 41 Soviets (Stalins purges) means you will fight a horde of poor-quality and poorly motivated troops with poor quality leaders. This results in them having a numbers count of about 150% of a "default" 70 exp/morale force. About 11/12 of 41, Moscow and Leningrad, they start to get better, and you may also meet experienced Siberian companies and then Guards formations.
Cheers
Andy