sburke Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Told you I'd be revisiting this George once I had a little time. Either I hit a different AI plan or you tweaked it since testing. Damned Russians just rolled over me in West Studienka and are headed for the bridge. Last time I held them at the town and never gave up possession of any of the bridges. Nice change..well not so nice for my guys who USED to hold that end of town. If you haven't taken this one for a spin I highly recommend it. I'd write more but don't want to spoil it for anyone. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aragorn2002 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 I'm planning to play this beauty during the Eastern weekend. Looking forward to it. George's scenarios are always a treat. Whenever I can find the time I'm studying the map, so I know what can be expected. I'm a bit worried about all those lovely, vulnerable SPW's everywhere. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Thanks guys @sburke - there is another Soviet AI Plan that is very different from the other, By the sound of things you've hit that. Or rather, been hit by that 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 Just in case anyone is wondering what this one is about a wee video clip: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sburke Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 Yeah this time was totally different than my first play through. The AI plan is a lot more aggressive. My forces are holding now that my reinforcements are here, but getting a counterattack rolling has been difficult. The Russians have good overwatch positions and any attempt to go downslope usually ends in a flaming wreck. No more spoilers, but a warning just so folks are not being misguided. This isn't just a major armor fight, the infantry close combat is every bit as if not more intense. In fact my first play through my favorite part was the hour I spent fighting through the East end of town house by house stalking the enemy tanks and SMG teams. great stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
76mm Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 *******SPOILER********* And I thought it was German for sledgehammer... Playing as Russians, things were going great until suddenly they weren't...probably 1/2 my tanks wiped out in a few turns, and as far as I can tell I've inflicted negligible losses on the arriving German tanks. I'm down in the river valley, with the German tanks up above, don't see much hope for success. Any pointers from the Russian side? The only thing I could see would be to revert to the defensive before descending down into the valley and wait for the Germans to come at me, but even that would be dicey since the Panthers could probably use their range advantage to wipe me out... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myles Keogh Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Unfortunately, I don't think this one is suitable for solo play at least as the Germans unless one is a sadist and enjoys slaughtering the AI. SPOILERS: Being a meeting engagement, I suspected the AI would struggle, but its beautiful map, its seemingly interesting tactical situation, and its being a GeorgeMC scenario led me to give a try. It was a lot of fun for about an hour, but then I got my Panthers into excellent positions and the Soviet AI kept pushing its armor into what had become a kill-zone. The AI is lousy at meeting engagements which is why I usually avoid them. Since this is a 3 hour long scenario, I ceased-fired after 90 minutes to put the AI out of its misery. The Panther is an excellent tank in CMx2! I lost just one and only had two others suffer any real damage (one lost its main gun and another had two crewmen killed), but the rest of the company absolutely destroyed their Soviet counterparts. However, the PzIV's didn't fare as well. Despite having them unbuttoned with mostly veteran crews, T-34/85s kept getting the first shot-off and one shot is all it takes for a PzIV. Still, the Panther company more than made-up the difference with individual tanks racking-up 7, 9, and even 10 kills. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
76mm Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 So I am the only one to play this as Russian?? *********SPOILER****************** While I don't claim to be a good player, this one doesn't seem very balanced to me for the Russians--the Panthers just mop the floor with the T34s. Despite the fact that I had most of my T34s deployed in a woodline, most of them were spotted and killed by the Panthers before they'd even fired. After the game, I was suprised by the number of German games on the board--looks like about ten Panthers and a dozen or so PIVs...that's a lot of panzers, almost as many tanks as I had. The Panthers, however, kept attacking and I was eventually able to kill almost all of them (which was immobilized in the middle of a field but which seemed invisible to my tanks--none of them could spot it). The PIVs, however, were deployed in overwatch on the heights and they picked off the remaining T34s one by one--generally the T34s couldn't even see them, other than the few that blundered down to cross the bridge. Not to mention the AT guns... If I were to replay this one as Russian (although I probably won't), I guess I would take the first couple of objectives and then sit on defense and let the German AI try to attack over the bridges and through the woods. But that wasn't the mission assigned to me... The other alternative, which would certainly be more fun, but which I don't think would end very well, would be to just push the Russian tanks forward, ignoring the objectives, and try to put them right on top of the entry point for the German tanks. But that sounds pretty gamey, and might not work anyway depending on the timing of the German tanks' arrival. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Terrain is key to this. You can win as the Russian player but you do need to a/ push hard and fast and not take the easy terrain options Interesting that in playtesting the results were a bit different. Also check the brief for the Russian/Soviet player your mission has several objectives and it's key to how you choose to play this. Off course the other option is just disregard the brief... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 *******SPOILER********* And I thought it was German for sledgehammer... Playing as Russians, things were going great until suddenly they weren't...probably 1/2 my tanks wiped out in a few turns, and as far as I can tell I've inflicted negligible losses on the arriving German tanks. I'm down in the river valley, with the German tanks up above, don't see much hope for success. Any pointers from the Russian side? The only thing I could see would be to revert to the defensive before descending down into the valley and wait for the Germans to come at me, but even that would be dicey since the Panthers could probably use their range advantage to wipe me out... Don't attack along the obvious axis. If you take a look at the terrain and pay attention to the mission brief there are several other options that will give you a far greater chance of success. It's tough for the Soviets as in RL 5th Pz came out on top and Von Plato was given a Knights Cross for this action. This was probably 5th pz's last tactical victory as in the next week or so losses in men and armour very quickly mounted up. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
76mm Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 Don't attack along the obvious axis. If you take a look at the terrain and pay attention to the mission brief there are several other options that will give you a far greater chance of success. hmmm, I'm curious which avenues of approach would be better...I had tanks on the left flank and the right flank, but the Panthers appeared on the high ground in front of my left flank and quickly wiped out that force, and then proceeded to destroy many of the tanks all the way over on the right flank (although I think the PIVs got a few of those). If anything, I would think that attacking up the center would be even worse, because it would be right into the PIV's and give the Panthers plenty of flank shots, and I don't recall any bridges or fords there anyway. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George MC Posted May 5, 2014 Share Posted May 5, 2014 I PM'd 76mm some top tips for fighting this as the Soviets. If anyone is interested PM me and I'll email you some tips. The easy non-spoiler answer for both sides is do your terrain recce carefully before the action. If playing the Germans vs Soviet AI there are three very distinct Soviet AI Plans. Also please note to win this the Germans do have to follow their orders - just blatting crap out of Soviet armour might not win you this... Oh also after 90 minutes stuff happens from the Soviet side... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.