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Just finished Heart of the Dying Sun scenario


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Just finished @George MC 's Heart of the Dying Sun scenario and it's one of the wildest I've ever played, it auto ended with 43 minutes to go. For one look at the Soviet Casualties! Some parts of the battlefield you'd have a hard time not stepping on any bodies. The amount of Soviet artillery was amazing, there were very few turns where artillery wasn't falling. The Soviets must have literally fired over 5,000 shells, a lot of times the noise was just incredible, massive artillery, tanks, AA guns, machine guns firing, and Soviet planes flying around at the same time. The planes may not be too effective but after seeing them in here it adds a lot to the battlefield noise. 

At times it seemed like things were winding down but it was just a pause as the next human wave of infantry was coming through the smoke and dust. It's not that easy but a very fun scenario.

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Edited by Commanderski
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1 hour ago, Commanderski said:

For one look at the Soviet Casualties!

I can't quite make out the numbers, and zoom just blurs them.  They look big though 🤪.

Did you play this single player or PBEM?  If single, do you think it would make a good H2H?  Of course @George MC might have advice on this.

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I couldn't post the picture any better but the Soviets had lost 60 tanks, 16 other AFV's lost, 971 KIA, 474 wounded I lost 14 tanks, 12 AFV's, 255 KIA 118 wounded.

26 minutes ago, Vacillator said:

Did you play this single player or PBEM? 

I played against the AI and that's what George recommends in the briefing. It would be very difficult to win against a human Soviet player with that kind of army. The Soviets still had at least 10 tanks left. I only had 7 left, 1 lost it's main gun and some were very low on ammo and I had no artillery left. Also quite a few of my remaining AFV's were out of ammo.

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1 minute ago, Commanderski said:

60 tanks, 16 other AFV's lost, 971 KIA, 474 wounded I lost 14 tanks, 12 AFV's, 255 KIA 118 wounded

You did well it seems 👍.

2 minutes ago, Commanderski said:

It would be very difficult to win against a human Soviet player with that kind of army

Yes, it sounds like it.  Maybe I'll suggest it to someone and offer to play as the Soviets 😉.

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On 1/14/2024 at 8:56 PM, Commanderski said:

Just finished @George MC 's Heart of the Dying Sun scenario and it's one of the wildest I've ever played, it auto ended with 43 minutes to go. For one look at the Soviet Casualties! Some parts of the battlefield you'd have a hard time not stepping on any bodies. The amount of Soviet artillery was amazing, there were very few turns where artillery wasn't falling. The Soviets must have literally fired over 5,000 shells, a lot of times the noise was just incredible, massive artillery, tanks, AA guns, machine guns firing, and Soviet planes flying around at the same time. The planes may not be too effective but after seeing them in here it adds a lot to the battlefield noise. 

At times it seemed like things were winding down but it was just a pause as the next human wave of infantry was coming through the smoke and dust. It's not that easy but a very fun scenario.

image.jpeg

Ah thank you! This is I think is one of these scenarios I enjoyed making the most. Getting the Soviet AI plan to provide soemthing that resembled a Soviet echeloned attack took some fettling. Though I think the scenario is harder for the Soviets than it was in real life!

Yeah the noise of battle when i took this for its first tests was impressive! But artillery was a feature in this action and was remarked upon by all the eye witness accounts i referenced. Yeah the aircraft add another sound dimension and again were soemthing remarked upon by witnesses.

The Soviets were really understrength at this point especially the armoured units - so you pretty much have the whole of 8th Guards Tank Corps on the map by the end. Sounds impressive but they'd not many tanks left by then. I only had the first infantry from 76th Guard Rifle div from the first few echelons mainly cos the game would have choked and I ran out of AI slots! I am pleased that the sense of being attacked by waves works though as again that's how it felt to the German defenders.

In the actual action Fluegal's group ended up being pinned in the woods on the German right flank whilst Soviet infantry advanced past them. They ended up sitting doggo fending off some Soviet infantry close assaults till they could pull out during the night (this is covered in the Panzergruppe Flugel scenario - though the map used in that one is representative).

Anyways thanks for taking this for spin its a large scenario but good to hear it delivers the experience I was after! :)

Many thanks.

Tioraidh!

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23 hours ago, Vacillator said:

You did well it seems 👍.

Yes, it sounds like it.  Maybe I'll suggest it to someone and offer to play as the Soviets 😉.

 I did try playing this H2H - me as the Soviets but the turns became massive and eventually we got the game crashing as our PCs ran out of memory. Think something to with virtual address space (CM is a 32 bit game). We've saved the files. Maybe at some point we might be able to resume it.

So I'd advise caution if you try to play this as PBEM as I think all the effort might be in vain pretty early on (we just got to some interesting tank engagements when our game started crashing...).

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Thanks for the advice George @George MC  my friend, and thanks again for your great work.  In the years I've been playing this great game, your scenarios have always been something special.

And you make me think I should suggest Heart of the Dying Sun as a PBEM with @Ultradave.  We've had to stop games because of crashes before, but perseverance paid off. 

Dave you can be Axis, sounds like it would be fun? 

Before that though I'm aware I need to get my teeth into the current challenge (CMBN In the shadow of the hill 0830)...

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On 1/15/2024 at 12:12 AM, Commanderski said:

I played against the AI and that's what George recommends in the briefing. It would be very difficult to win against a human Soviet player with that kind of army.

I guess you'd have to agree beforehand that your opponent would have to put on his Soviet general's cap and get into the Russian Army mindset.. not trying too much to be clever. A bit of vodka might also help even the odds. Maybe also a houserule that all artillery had to be pre-planned and scheduled.

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58 minutes ago, Bulletpoint said:

Maybe also a houserule that all artillery had to be pre-planned and scheduled.

A lot of artillery comes in as reinforcements as there are around three phases in this action. Soviets have TRPs to facilitate this. A lot of the stuff is heavy arty so call in times are long even with TRPs. 

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1 hour ago, George MC said:

A lot of artillery comes in as reinforcements as there are around three phases in this action. Soviets have TRPs to facilitate this. A lot of the stuff is heavy arty so call in times are long even with TRPs. 

Ok, I haven't played the scenario. Just thinking about how it could be made into an interesting H2H game. I guess the Soviet player could agree to schedule all artillery as soon as it becomes available then, to represent rigid artillery doctrine and planning and to give the opponent a fighting chance.

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On 1/16/2024 at 12:37 PM, Bulletpoint said:

Ok, I haven't played the scenario. Just thinking about how it could be made into an interesting H2H game. I guess the Soviet player could agree to schedule all artillery as soon as it becomes available then, to represent rigid artillery doctrine and planning and to give the opponent a fighting chance.

I mentioned up above I don't think this is playable H2H not due to the scenario but the PBEM file sizes are pretty hefty - when trying to play it we ran into OOM issues.

If anyone does manage to play I'd be keen to hear how they managed it. 

FYI in our PBEM (I was Soviets) we'd no house rules but I did have to plan my artillery to support my attacks - so even with TRPs I was still using rolling barrages or at least what I could approximate to given game engine constraints etc.

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