Russian Front? Make it so

[Invader_Canuck]

Bold statement, so tell me how many T-34's or any other Soviet equipment did the USA and her little buddies use to defeat the Nazi’s? None but I do know that the Soviets used equipment the USA and the UK gave them such as tanks, trucks etc…… Plus I do know Stalin was begging the Allies to start an offensive push so as to relieve pressure on his forces.

The Allies were also fighting in the Pacific, something the Soviets weren’t. The Russians only had one front while the US/UK had multiple fronts to contend with.

I do agree though, the Soviets had to endure the greater part of the German military machine due to poor decisions Stalin made before the war and it is a shame more people aren’t well versed on the east front because it is a very interesting study. For a war game it is far more interesting and diverse in my opinion. I truly don’t understand how anyone would consider it boring.

The USSR defeated the Nazi's, we sped the process up, although Bagration in late June 1944 had more to do with the collapse of German resistance than Overlord. They didn't need to send us anything because they took care of business on their own for most of the war.

Of course Stalin would beg for a second front. I don't think anything more needs be said about that, it's obvious why he would.

Germany was stopped on two axis' of advance before any Lend Lease arrived. The third axis was stopped ~8 months later when Lend Lease was still barely trickling into circulation. For all intents and purposes, the German impetus stopped between December '41 and August '42 before much if any war changing materials arrived to aid them. The Soviets took the impetus of the war in December '41 - November '42.

If you look at Lend Lease figures, the majority of all goods shipped to the Soviet Union arrived in 1944 and 1945. By the time Kursk rolled around and with it the German failure, the ultimate winner was no longer in question.

I'm fairly certain that if you combine every other front the Allies fought in, into one singular front, it still isn't even half as large as the Eastern. In terms of military deaths, the Eastern Front claimed 15-16 million lives, the Allies suffered less than 1 million between them.

I don't think being accurate is a disservice to the men who served for the Allies in WW2, I personally had two grand fathers who served and 8 or 9 great Uncles who served, four of whom were killed. I'm proud as can be of those guys, however, the allies did not defeat Germany we accelerated the process but without the air campaign, without lend lease, Germany would have lost anyways.

I would argue the single largest contribution the allies made to defeating Germany was the strategic air campaign which actually shifted its primary focus of disrupting German production to an ancillary goal, with the primary goal being to attrition German pilots which is was quite successful at.

Finally, don't take me as a Western Front hater. I'm not and I enjoy the theater as much as the next guy. I just dislike the avoidance of the Eastern Front that tends to plague mainstream media. wanting moar Russia doesn't mean I hate the West ;p

[RockinHarry]

Personally I´d surely skip any desert TOW CMX2 module, for my lack of interest in the matter (for similar reason I puchased CMSF, but actually never played it). Before switching to the eastern front, I´d even crown the western front module series, with some the most neglected major early war fighting powers, the french in 1940! That should also include the Brits off course and ideally have the dutch and belgian forces included as well.

I´d also be very interested in CM Pacific. 8)

Starting any eastern front module with Bagration 1944, seems a bit odd to me. What would be the marketing strategy behind it??

[Vanir Ausf B]

More convenience than marketing. They could reuse the German models and artwork from the Bulge and Normandy games since they cover the same time period.

[gunnergoz]

I'll be curious to see what changes they bring to C2 in the Russian Front. I'd guess the artillery won't be as freely on call but the pre-planned stuff will probably be awesome. Also look forward to the Russian SP guns, which were my favorites in many respects.

[Vark]

Lend lease really helped with logistics and communications, didn't the Russians call the US canned food the tinned front. Trucks allowed the Russians to concentrate on producing weapons and coupled with radios allowed the new aggressive doctrines (both in attack and defense) to be carried out more efficiently. I do think that the revisionist Lend Lease argument that it was essential, is just another attempt to steal the Soviet victory away from them, rather like the hordes of Kursk books claiming the Germans could have won, nearly won.

Russians themselves are very grateful for the help, witness the reception the convoy veterans receive in Murmansk, but was it a game changer? I think without it the Soviet victory would still have been achieved, though at a greater cost in blood, treasure and crucially, for the Western Allies, time.