Mad Russian

I'm sorry about the demise of The Scenario Depot as well. On a lot of different levels. For you, because it was your baby and was done as a labor of love. For me, because I spent many an hour there. For the CM community, for all the support you gave them and a place to put their own labors of love. And while I will miss The Scenario Depot if you never get it back up and running I have been enriched far beyond what the Scenario Depot alone could have done. I have met friends on TSD that will be with me for a lifetime. For that I am eternally grateful. [ July 20, 2005, 07:25 PM: Message edited by: Panther Commander ]

The armor wsa moved north just in time for the Soviets to launch their attack against AGNU and knock them back too. Lack of armor was a problem for the Germans, after Kursk, on any and every front.

This scenario has SS Panthers, takes place on the open steppes of the Ukraine and is another of my Knight's Cross series. You think you are tough? That you have what it takes to win the Knight's Cross? This scenario is brutal on the open steppes near Khar'kov. We'll see if you can earn the Knight's Cross and live to tell about it. What more is there? :confused: 9 August 1943, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev is well under way. The bid to liberate Khar'kov, once and for all, is threatening to do just that. The Soviet High Command were learning the lessons of armored warfare at high cost. But they were learning them. This time the Soviets moved their forces around Khar'kov. They would bypass the city and not take it with a frontal assault this time. To accomplish this the 1st Tank Army under the leadership of the famous Lt. General M.E. Katukov had driven a wedge past Khar'kov to the north. The 1st Tank Army passed between Belgorod and Khar'kov and intended to meet up to the east of the city with the southern attack pincer. There was severe fighting around the Bogodukhov area as Katukov tried repeatedly to drive the 6th Tank Corps through the SS lines. FM Manstein moved to stop the Soviet intention by placing the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" and 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" into blocking positions along the Poltava-Khar'kov rail line and main road. Then he unleashed them in a savage counterattack. Here, on the steppes of the Ukraine, just 12km west of Khar'kov, Untersturmfuhrer Karl Muehleck, of 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich", would earn the Knight's Cross on 23 August 1943. This scenario is currently at The Proving Grounds for playtesting. http://the-proving-grounds.com

Omaha, Utah, Gold, Juno, Sword. And I have a feeling I'm forgetting one. Plus the airborne drops on the night of June 5th/6th </font>

There are plenty of D-Day scenarios on the Scenario Depot. June 6th was D-Day. Which beach are you talking about? My guess would be Omaha, since Utah was taken fairly easily. Omaha beach came within minutes of being abandoned by US forces because the resistance was so tough. For the attack on Utah beach check out HSG W5 on the Scenario Depot. There are no assualt boats though since the US infantry had to walk over 800 meters of sand. The attack came in at low tide. W5 was the name of the German defensive position at Utah beach where the Americans came ashore. The German strongpoint in the scenario is to scale and as accurate as I could make it with CMAK. I guess it doesn't matter since the Allies eventually took ALL of the beaches. There were far more than one beach involved in the D-Day landings. At the moment I am too lazy too look up the names.(Somebody will I'm sure) But there are American beaches, British Beaches and Canadian beaches. Some more contested than others. So, you were right, some designers have made scenarios for D-Day and even some of the beaches. I'm sure that others will point you to more D-Day and beach scenarios.

Normally far more important than the flags are the points for casualties. Check the AAR page when you are finished for a breakdown of the points you got during the game.

What orders are you giving them? Are you moving them in 50-80 meter leaps and then taking them to ground and hiding? Or even using the run command and then having them hit the ground and hide? You might try those two options. We'll see how long this goes unchallenged...

I ran a test on a regular T-34. The tank was worth 130 points and the crew was worth 12. There is no way that I can tell what the TC is worth since he is not differentiated in any way from the rest of the crew.

Depends on who he is. If he is elite SS tank commander, Michael Wittmann, plenty. If he is green US tank commander, Joe Smith, who is newly arrived in Normandy, not much.

It isn't a hard situation to remedy. The designer just needs to put in obstacles belonging to both sides. They get setup one on top of the other. That way they show up during setup for both players. At The Proving Grounds there is a scenario design section that includes this very subject. You guys really should take yourselves over to The Proving Grounds with your complaints. That is where a lot of the scenarios that you play are playtested. That is where designers try to learn to make their scenarios better. If you have observations, comments or complaints they will get addressed there.

That is the fault of the designer. All that information should be in your personal briefing. If it isn't blame the designer...

I don't understand. You say a tight time frame is a good idea to balance a QB but not a scenario or operation? I don't know about other designers, but I don't use the time frame to balance the scenario, I sometimes use it to add a bit of stress and realism. You need to "feel" a bit pushed like the real commander would. It is just something I do. We all have different playing styles anyway and what may seem tight to me may be alright for you. Or what may seem tight for you I will have finished the battle 3 full turns earlier. I think it is just a matter of preference in the end.

I think you hit the nail right on the head. I think reviews are done for the most part on scenarios that are exceptional in one way or another. They grab your attention. They are either way above average or way below average. I think those are the scenarios that normally get reviews. The ones that gamers talk about giving for other reasons...lack of a review, I played it so I am writing a review, are all the exception I think.

When I make a scenario I let it tell me how long it needs to be. Rarely I will have a set time deteremined by the historical situation I based the scenario on. If you will playtest a scenario a few times it will soon become obvious for the designers style of play what the time limit should be. I often will make the time limit on the short end though to give the player a little anxiety. Sitting in your easy chair at home in front of a computer monitor has nothing like the stress of a combat commander in the field. So, making the scenario short on time is one of the ways I add just a bit more realism to the situation. Those guys make mistakes and lots of them. We get borg spotting and God view, etc... they have none of that. So I figure being a bit short on time evens out the historical balance a bit. Most commanders don't have all the time they want to do an attack either so it's not like it's only something that happens in CM.

Hide is very useful in CMBB and CMAK when you want your vehicles to remain hidden. Set them to hide and they won't generate sound contacts. This is supposedly because they have turned off their engines. Whatever or however...all I know is it works.

When I was with CSDT I released 14 scenarios on the 19th and 21st of August 2003. One of those was named CSDT SH12 A Soviet Hero. Of the 14 scenarios released on those 2 days guess which one has the lowest download rate? Yes, the Soviet Hero scenario. It has 18 less than the next closest one so that isn't too bad. But is has 441 less than the best one. It also doesn't have any reviews done it. In fairness though, some of the others don't either. It was obviously not the pick of the pack when it was released. In my own opinion that scenario is better than some of the higher downloaded scenarios. I learned from that though that the name you give a scenario can be crucial to it's success.

I just saw a new review done on a scenario with no other reviews done on it. A first for the author on that review. That scenario had 1224 downloads at the time. That's what I'm talking about!! Thanks for that kind of support!!

Try East Front Drama -1944 by Rolf Hinze Lots of maps. German prospective. Bagration 1944: Destruction of Army Group Centre by Steven Zaloga More overall information much less detailed.

Thanks for sharing.

Hans may have made a K-G scenario too. If not he might if you ask him.

I have 17 scenarios on the Scenario Depot that don't have a vehicle of any kind in them. Only 15 of my scenarios at the SD are for the 1941 time period. So actually what I like to see are battles around Kharkov 42 and 43 and the Destruction of Army Group Center. The Kharkov battles are pretty much ebb and flow and cover a wide range of weapons systems. Destruction of Army Group Center is 1944 combat at it's best. Red Army steamroller confronted by heavy German units in constricted battlefields. What most people consider the heart and soul of Eastern Front combat. The masses held back by the few. But as the Soviets were proud of saying, "quantity has a quality all it's own". The few don't always hold back the masses...go figure.

I liked the content on your site but the blue clashes a bit and makes it hard to read. For me at least. I need to add your books to my collection. Good job.

You are limited to 500 letters in both the review and spoiler sections. If they use the AAR function they could make it as long as they want. Many have complained that the 500 limit, is, well, too limiting. I too recieve a fair portion of direct emails. I like those as well. They give the designer feedback but that particular form of communicating with the designer doesn't allow other gamers to gain a perspective on the scenario. So, while I will gladly take any kind of feedback, the most bang for a reviewers buck is placing a public review OR AAR on the Scenario Depot.

Good prices. Thanks for the info. When I was buying books published in the USSR before the prices were less than half for a comparitive book printed in the west. Government subsidizing of the printing (read control of all printed matter) helped that along. The Soviets didn't want the west knowing how it fought. We had the German impression and they did nothing to change that. K-G was a VERY BIG VICTORY for the Soviets! It secured their Asian flank. The US intelligence service after the war went German General officer crazy. Interviewing everyone they could get their hands on. To a large extent, that is where the mighty masses held back by the superior efforts of the poor German soldiers, has come from. It didn't help that there was nothing coming out of the USSR that contradicted that story, other than wild tales of fantasy on how the Soviet soldier was vastly superior. Same tale except from the other side. Of course there is some truth to both claims they are not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. While it was recognized that the Soviet side of the story was mostly fanatsy, the German side wasn't so easily put forth as being suspect. After all, a good share of the US has European and German ancestry. Also, we were at odds with the USSR. As a side note of interest, to me, is the use of the terms Russian and Soviet. Today they are interchangeable. In WWII they really aren't. Russians are an ethnic group of the Soviet Union. You NEVER see the Soviets use the term Russians when talking about the USSR. Just like you wouldn't call them Ukrainians when referring to the USSR at that time. The Germans NEVER call them Soviets. In WWII they were always just Russians. No need to differentiate. Why worry about levels of subhumans anyway?! The Ukrainians called all the rest of them Russians as well and hated them possibly worse than the Germans did. There was an ongoing partisan movement in the Ukraine for years after the war. For these reasons, when doing my briefings, I use the term Soviet in my Allied Briefing and the term Russians in my Axis briefings.

Few times in human history have there been "magic" weapons. The imbalance is quickly changed. I think the use of Italian AC's in Africa makes the short list and is a good example. The Italians are fighting a force that has never seen armored vehicles before and are blown off the field. Hannibal and his elephants is an example of such a weapon that didn't pan out like it was supposed to. Rome had nothing to match the elephants, so they stayed away from them. Cannons against the Native American populations in the US also would qualify. This gave US troops absolute superiority over the battlefield when they had cannon. The series of modern tanks used by the coalition and US forces in the 2 Iraqi wars vs the old Soviet stuff. But rarely is there a "magic" answer. Usually it is the magician that is the answer. The man leading the army.