Edwin P. Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 Knowing how the Russian troops are deployed for war allows one to devise the optimal strategy for elminating the maximum number of Russian troops in the first two turns of war with Russia. It would be interesting if the initial Russian deployment along the USSR-German border was selected at random from a set of 2 or 3 or 4 preset troop scenarios. Perhaps: 1 - Current Historical Layout (70%) 2 - Modified Historical Layout (10%) 3 - Reinforced Historical Layout (10%) 4 - Defense in Depth Layout with more corps upfront and the Armies to the rear. (5%) 5 - Prepared Russian Defenders (5%) - Each Russian unit on the German border has a 25%% to start with entrenchment level 1 and a 5% to start with entrenchment level 2. [ April 13, 2003, 05:24 PM: Message edited by: Edwin P. ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted April 13, 2003 Share Posted April 13, 2003 Good Post and a fine suggestion. I think all neutrals with many units ought to have their troops randomly placed with each game, the strongest army being located in the capital. The two Greek armies start off far from their supply base and out of supply, easily destroyed by a prepared enemy. Most players don't even bother with a land campaign, hitting Athens by air and sea, taking it on the first turn by an amphibious attack. The Finnish Isthmus Army and two of it's corps also start off far from it's capital, Helsinki, very weak and out of supplies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edwin P. Posted April 14, 2003 Author Share Posted April 14, 2003 JerseyJohn What you said about Greece is absolutely true. Taking Greece in one turn is the prefered strategy (although the AI never does it this way). In the case of Greece a random deployment would make things much more unpredicatable. I would like to see a random deployment with a chance for the army unit being based in the capital (as you suggested) and for another Greek unit (either the army or the corps) being positioned adjacent to the capital. Perhaps: Deloyment #1 - Current Setup. Corps in Capital and two Army units on border. Deployment #2 - Army in capital. Corps and Army unit on border. Deployment #3 - Army in Capital and Army Adjcent to Capital. Corps on border. Deployment #4 - Army in Capital and Corps adjacent to capital. Army unit on Border. Deployment #5 - Army in Capital, three corps adjacent to Capital. Deployment #6 - If Yugoslavia falls to Axis invasion as above but Greek units enter game with entrenchment level 1. Deployment #7 - Greece starts with 5 Corps units. (each army unit is exchanged for 2 corps units) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaka of Carthage Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Random deployments for the neutrals would add a different twist to the replay. In the meantime, try playing the Axis without any amphib assaults other than SeaLion. Neutral deployments make alot more sense then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerseyJohn Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Edwin & Shaka We've arrived at the starting point of a Thread that was running a while back, I believe it was begun by Liam , concerning the way Axis amphibious capabilities in SC lead to play that is distorted beyond what they could actually have done in WW II. The Greeks, for example wouldn't have been concerned about an amphibious operation near Athens because they knew the Italians could not have carried it out! The crux of that Topic was the lack of Axis transports in real history and Allied limitations to the number of their available transports. What you're saying is to compensate for the lack of Axis transports with a house rule. Not a bad idea and certainly one that can be easily adhered to when playing against the AI. Good suggestion. It's interesting how these topics have a way of spiraling back into each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santabear Posted April 14, 2003 Share Posted April 14, 2003 Hopefully, we'll eventually spiral back to the "ultimate truth""--the issues that are at the core of the problem. As someone who has to play only against AI, I would welcome all of Edwin's suggestions for randomizing starting positions. And the points about Axis amphib. capabilites are well taken; in addition the Italian navy seems to always dominate the Med., which a) didn't happen, and is difficult to see how it could have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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