Just Finished My First Campaign Totally Hooked on Red Thunder

[dbsapp]

On 9/17/2021 at 11:16 PM, Warts 'n' all said:

Is it? I would have thought that it might be a bit of a challenge, and it takes some thinking about. But compared to my government, it is far from being "notoriously awful".

I just finished Hammer's Flank and...it was really good! I mean very balanced, nuanced and historically accurate, but what is most important - fun to play.  

The campaign possesses one extremely rare and critically important quality - most of the missions could be done without reloading routine in one immersive walkthrough. 

I guess what repelled me from Hamer's Flank before was the scale of the first mission... Battalion in the swamp under rain that have to cross the river... Well, that's not that attractive start.

I definitely own the author an apology for trashing this brilliant campaign before. 

 

[Warts 'n' all]

Well done on your victory.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

7 hours ago, dbsapp said:

I guess what repelled me from Hamer's Flank before was the scale of the first mission... Battalion in the swamp under rain that have to cross the river... Well, that's not that attractive start.

That's exactly what put me off too.....It's a big and complex map, with limited avenues of advance and you have an enormous number of troops to deploy. 

[Erwin]

It helps if one enjoys large scenarios.  I don't recall having a problem playing it (back in 2014).  I do recall being a bit disappointed with the lack of decent Soviet armor or artillery at the start.  But, IIRC one gets T-34/85's later.  Seemed like all one had to do was focus on one flank and then roll up the Germans (which is pretty much the key to most CM2 scenarios).  

[dbsapp]

21 minutes ago, Erwin said:

It helps if one enjoys large scenarios.  I don't recall having a problem playing it (back in 2014).  I do recall being a bit disappointed with the lack of decent Soviet armor or artillery at the start.  But, IIRC one gets T-34/85's later.  Seemed like all one had to do was focus on one flank and then roll up the Germans (which is pretty much the key to most CM2 scenarios).  

The other issue is that it's not representative enough. 

In fact, across 6 mission (which is pretty small for  campaign) you have only 1 (yes, one) mission when you command tanks (namely IS-2s). The rest is pure infantry or the same mix of infantry and su-76 self propelled artillery. 

Once again, I enjoyed this campaign. 

But, in my humble opinion, campaign that represents the biggest Soviet assault on Eastern front (which literally mirrorred 1941 for Wehrmacht) could be more epic.

Hammer's Flank feels like a small episode.

Maybe they believed that single scenarious should compensate that. 

[chuckdyke]

37 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

That's exactly what put me off too.....It's a big and complex map, with limited avenues of advance and you have an enormous number of troops to deploy. 

It is not for a beginner, the administration is a game by itself. Then the Soviet C2 is a challenge to play the game with some sort of integrity. *SPOILERS* The right flank I found is the best way to reach line three. But you need to destroy 30% of the German forces. The briefing tells you to lead with the engineers and let the infantry do the breaking through. I don't know or it is realistic but I use the fire direction centre as a communication channel. Call out artillery and all HQ units can access artillery. Hypothetically it is done by field telephones. Once it is on 'Preparing' and you can adjust regimental HQ knows you made contact. In all Soviet games the Regimental HQ has radio not much use if all the others and that includes Company HQ's can't receive as they don't have a radio. As Soviet I lead with artillery or with armor as they have radio communication. Sorry for the long rant.  

[chuckdyke]

Using the Fire Direction Centre in the C2, it seems to work. Soviet Armored Infantry No Radio Infantry called a fire mission. The Engineer Battalion HQ newly arrived shares the contact icon also. He has Radio and the ISU152 also.

 

I will keep an eye on it and don't want to jump the gun. They could have spotted the evading German infantry independently. But I am skeptical about the coincidence.

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

2 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

It is not for a beginner, the administration is a game by itself.

Oh FFS! 

[chuckdyke]

What is wrong with that? It is a Campaign which has been here for how many years? It also depends on the level you play. Approach is where the SU76's can go. For the C2 I am curious how other players solve the problem. The Regiment HQ has radio but none of his Company HQ's don't. It is like having a mobile phone you have it but nobody in the family has one. So you have to wait till they get home to their landline.