RED FRONT is BACK! Version 1.1

[Captain Nemo]

Continued War Report from 2nd Post above.

The early spring of 1942 sees help arriving from the Allies through Iran. Those truck Convoys are used to create trade routes between the "oil-cities" of Maikop, Grosnyy and Baku. The resulting trade boost is incredible and finally puts my economy in the "black". I don't have to sell improvements anymore to stay afloat and keep the research in high gear.

The newly arrived refugees and many newly formed labor brigades are put to work by the Commissars to create industry squares around every city in the East... This in the middle of the winter! Those Commissars have no heart!

Research first focused on getting War Industry, then Mobile Warfare 2 (KV-1 tanks) then Aircraft (La-5s and Pe-2s).

The spring offensive is tough. Immediately Sevastopol is decimated by coordinated attacks by twin 60cm mortars and Wehrmacht SG squads. As soon as the weather clears 30 or more He-111 and wipe out the entire garrisson and the Black Sea Fleet. By the end of June Sevastopol falls. In Leningrad the defenders brace themselves against waves of "Hummels" streaming in from Narva, firing and retreating... No minefields to hold them back! The end is near...

And operation Blau starts rolling in the South...
More Later

[Mao]

Overdrive, my compliments on the innovative way you made your progress report. Great job!

[Overdrive]

Nemo:
I am playing on emperor level.
Southern Fronts
The Zaporozhye-Voroshilovgrad Line held tight although I lost Kherson, Perekop and Kerch. The last two, I liberated in Dec 42.
Due to this Line, the German Sixth army was forced to attack through a narrow corridor between Voroshilovgrad and Serafimovich. This vastly protected Rostov and Stalingrad. Nevertheless both cities were under constant attack and close to being overwhelmed quite often (Ger. troops coming off the pontoon??? By the way the bridge is still there, with frozen panzers that I cannot attack on it). Hedgehogs form an unbroken line along the west bank of the Don from Seraf. to Stalingrad.
À propos Karl: I got rid of it with my measly navy, especially kept for that purpose.
Central Fronts
German Army Group Centre was unbeatable till the end of Summer 42! Moscow was emptied off any units TWICE and I lost Demyansk and Kalinin which I never did in RF v.1.
But then the ennemy completely stopped his main Schwerpunkt and is now resolutely defending what he conquered (everything west of Moscow besides Kursk-Orel).
Leningrad Front
Leningrad was never under land attack (Feb 42) but suffered from naval and air attacks.
I lost Luga once but recaptured it (still under severe attack). German hedgehogs inside this circle of cities around Leningrad were most annoying (cost me 7 Katy. and numerous Naval Infantry). I never lost Narva neither Novgorod.
Arctic
I lost Kandalaksha, Kitela, Viipuri and Petsamo. Currently hoding Kanda. and Viipuri, besides Murmansk.
My tactic was to get Air Defenses up early (no KV heavies...), on emperor level I alsoget the time to do some trench working...

Thanx for the flowers, everyone. They are welcome.

[This message has been edited by Overdrive (edited December 12, 1999).]

[Captain Nemo]

Overdrive:
That's a very useful report. I wanted the game to go more or less along "Historical" lines until the end of 1942 when the Germans go into a defensive mode and it's up to the Human player to win the game by a good strategy.
I'll check on the pontoon bridge... It's weird, in my test game it was "broken up" by the freezing of the Don river but left an "Oilfield" terrain behind. Of course Germans coming off the bridge behind Soviet lines is a little weird but I was convinced no-one would hold on to the towns West of the Don by the spring of 1942.
Same with the Hedgehogs around Leningrad, the Germans should hold Narva, Luga and Novgorod when they set up the siege of Leningrad...

1) All my testplay was on Deity. Could it be that the Emperor level AI is less aggressive?

2) The siege of Leningrad hinges around the crucial capture of Tallinn by the 2nd or 3rd month of 1941 summer campaign. It was impossible for me to hold Tallinn and once Tallinn falls, the Luftwaffe hits the Leningrad perimeter relentlessly and Wehrmacht units quickly capture and fortify Narva and Luga. Novgorod may or may not fall in 1941, but all roads in an out of Leningrad are then blocked by Hedgehog fortified positions.

3) If Rostov doesn't fall the Caucasus is never threatened.

4) The German appearing on the bridge are just a "spearhead" for the main force that should move from Kharkov/Voroshilovgrad but of course if the main force isn't there, it's not going to happen.

5) For now, I will just assume that either you are better than the average Civ 2 player or the Emperor level AI is a wimp!

[Overdrive]

I must be a wimp. Honestly, on deity, I'm never getting anywhere...

[Captain Nemo]

Overdrive:
Have you played THIS scenario on Deity?
It didn't seem impossible to me, though I always play regular games on King or Emperor... The German AI has so many units that he doesn't build any AT ALL until 1943 or 44. His strategy isn't any better on Deity, he just cheats more on the unit cost and economic production numbers. If he achieves the "Historical" targets his attack becomes more dilute, so my defense of Moscow was never as tough as the one you described (All the units destined for Tallinn-Narva must have been redirected to Army Group Center in your game)

On the pontoon bridge issue it appears that changing a terrain to anything but ocean destroys all the units and improvements on the square but with ocean terrain the units survive the "changeterrain" command. Could that be?

My game on deity went very much like history in 1941-1942, maybe because I "anticipate" what is going to happen and inadvertently help it happen. For example I know a main push on Tallinn is coming... I'm not going to let 2 NKVD troopers and a motorized infantry be slaughtered for nothing so I pull them back to Leningrad/Narva... Consequently Tallinn falls because it is poorly defended? That's why your (And other testplayer's) input is invaluable.

I lost all cities to the Leningrad-Kalinin-Moscow-Voronezh-Stalingrad-Maikop line by the end of the summer of 1942. I also lost Demyansk, Leningrad, Tikhvin, Voronezh and Saransk for a few months each at various time in 1942-1943. The winter counter-offensive of 1942 (Stalingrad) totally fizzled, being able to recapture only Orel and Kursk but neither Rostov nor achieving the destruction of the 6th army (Paulus' main force is hiding behind the "Hedgehogs" that line the West bank of the Don in the winter of 1942).

The summer of 1943 saw a major German offensive (Citadel) that actually made headway into the Voronezh-Saransk sector. Only the development of IL-2 aircraft and Su-152 Assault artillery allowed me to stop them just before winter. The winter of 1943-44 was the beginning of the turning point with Rostov, Kursk, Narva, Luga, Vipurii, Demyansk, Kholm, Daugapils, Velikeye Luki recaptured.

Spring 1944 is an explosion as the Soviets have reached "critical" mass (June 1944: 41 T-34/85, 8 KV-1s, 37 Katyusha, 36 Su-152, 39 Armored infantry, 65 Red Guards, 17 IL-2, 21 Yak-9 and more) and produce 20-30 more of the expensive attack units per month. Historically, the greatest offensive on the Eastern Front started exactly 3 years after Barbarossa, June 22, 1944... This coincided with the timing of the Soviet build-up in the game. In 3 turns I moved from Voloshirograd to Kirovgrad in the South, isolating Sevastopol and Kharkov. On the North front the Red Army advanced to Danzig and triggers the "Volksturm" technology. Only Tallinn remained in German hands, but completely isolated. The center offensive reached the outskirts of Minsk and Kiev. Partisans seized Bialostok behind enemy lines.
The next month Kiev, Tallinn and Minsk were taken. At this time the momentum shifts enough to "alarm" the AI and he builds Panzergrenadiers, Tigers and JagdPanthers everywhere. The city defenses now get real tough but I still managed to capture Warsaw, Lvov, Brest and the Baltic States are completely clear. I have 89 T34s, 90 Katyushas, 60 Su-152 and 37 JS-II tanks + tons of infantry. Now a strange obstacle gets in my way: WINTER!
It is amazing how annoying winter becomes once the Soviets get the upper hand... The Germans get extra time to build many defensive units and the Katyusha-launchers (Main city clearing weapon) seem to crawl forward.

So here it stands, March 1945: One isolated German pocket in Sevastopol. The Northern offensive has reached Berlin and Rostock but has been weakened by MANY Tiger II tanks striking back. Two successive assaults on Berlin have failed and cost the Soviets 20 Katyusha Launchers lost to fierce SS-Panzer counter attacks. The Southern advance stands at the Romanian border. The central front at Warsaw/Lublin. I now await spring so shiploads of new weapons can reach the front (I have established a shipping line from Novvy Port to Tobolsk that carries the production of Vorkuta down to a road connection point) There are at least 8 cities producing over 100 shields in the Ural region (Kirov is No.1 with 156, Uralsk No.2 with 137) the whole area is one big mess of factories!

[MagyarCrusader]

Wow,

This scenario is absolutely amazing, best ever! I'm just now getting into it.

I've been putting off playing the scenario until version 1.2. I originally downloaded version 1, and stopped the German advance cold. By the beginning of the winter, I had successfully neutralized the German advance on Odessa, Kiev, Minsk, and Tallinn. This kinda upsetted me. I loved all the artwork, but because the scenario was too easy I didn't think it was that great (I'm the kind of guy who likes scenarios to be as close to history as possible). I was going to post something about it, but I read you were making another version. So I quit playing and decided to patiently await the next version.

I downloaded version 1.2 last night, and just started playing it. I think the scenario is amazing now! This seems to be the first scenario where I'm actually in danger of losing my capital city. Right now it is the beginning of the winter. Last turn, the Germans took Narva and made some considerable gains in the south. There is a major armor force outside of Rostov, 2 Karls are on the lose and advancing towards Sevastapol (i cheated and saw that they had the goto command on and thats where they were headed). Although Smolensk remains free, it is completely encircled by armor. It would have fallen last turn but I had a couple AA batteries inside and several T-34s. Here is the amazing part. Every single city under my control to the west of the Don river, has German units 1 square away! Even cities behind Smolensk like Tula and Kaluga are threatend by Panzer divisions. I say this is amazing because the German armies are actually advancing, and not retreating in every direction. How did you do this? Did you actually get the goto command to work? Also, excellent work on the sounds. What movie did you take them from? One of your tanks sounds like it's from saving private ryan.

Are you going to make a German version? Please do!

Well anyways, there goes my hope of winning anything in the next HAC awards.

------------------
Canada sucks
France is worse.

[Captain Nemo]

Michael:
Glad to hear you like it. I am again surprised by someone's ability to stop the Germans in 1941. Smolensk should have been chopped up by August. Are you playing Deity level?
OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATION TO ANYONE PLAYING RED FRONT: THE GAME IS DESIGNED TO BE PLAYED ON DEITY LEVEL! Anything less may make the German AI's performance in 1941 sub-par.
The game can be played an won on Deity level!
The moveunit command works if you follow some basic rules:
Repeat commands frequently (Trigger them by technology=each turn, or unitkilled=several times per turn) Units are not always "free" to accept the command so repeating it often will "catch" more units.
Make sure the destination is NOT inside the unit selection area otherwise those units are permanently frozen at the destination and can't go on to the next point (If the move command is repeated on a unit that has reached it's destination, it will make the unit unavailable to receive another command until it has "moved" even though it doesn't actually move)
I think that there is a limit to the number of units that can receive move commands (Not sure?) so I give my highest priority commands first in the events file.
Make several small hops A>B>C>D rather than {ABC}>D seems to work better and "focus" the units on the targets.
Give the units the paradrop + all terrain + ign. ZOC when you want them to make quick gains.
Correct: Many sounds are from "Private Ryan". Rifles, "Schweinehunde!" + MG, Tank tracks + fire etc...

[MagyarCrusader]

Of course I'm playing on Deity.

Its now summer of 1942, beginning of Operation Blau. Sevastopol still holds out, Leningrad got devasted last turn and is still holding on by a thread. I have several T-34s in Smolensk and there seems to be no Germans in the area. I'll give you more of an update later.

Anyways, are you planning on making a German version?

------------------
Canada sucks
France is worse.

[Captain Nemo]

Michael:
German version: I wasn't intending to... It would be almost a completely new game since even the messages in the game.txt files are modified to fit a Soviet human player.
A soviet AI would never in a thousand years know how to build up the Ural region, move Convoys to Murmansk etc...
I will think about it but I liken it to making a Roman version of Spartacus...

So you are still holding Smolensk by the spring of 1942? Leningrad is under siege (GOOD!) Sevastopol also (GOOD!) How close are the Germans to the Don River? Kharkow? Voloshirograd? Rostov?

I look forward to hearing your next report. With you and Overdrive doing too well in 1941, there may be a version 1.3 soon to include a new idea I have for Stalingrad and an even tougher 1941 AI... (Maybe some "Wespe" and "Marder" units preceeding the "Hummels" and "Elephants"? One very significant German unit that I am missing is the "Hetzer")

[Overdrive]

Nemo:
How come doing too well? I sacrificed most of my build-up in the Ural to faster research Air Defenses and buy units to hold the german offensives. This had for result only few german planes surviving summer of 42.
I am achieving nothing even closely matching your production numbers though.
It is Sept 43 and I am only researching War Productivity now...Here are the Wonders I managed to build up to now:
-Civilian Donations
-Tankograd
-Naval Convoy System (most unsuccessful this game...)
-NKVD Intel. Agency

By the way, Stalingrad has my highest production rating: 82 shields....
[This message has been edited by Overdrive (edited December 13, 1999).]

[Captain Nemo]

I have nothing against you doing well...
I just want to make the game a real challenge so it's difficult to win on deity. With Michael being able to hold SMOLENSK until the winter on Deity either he is too good or the AI is not tough enough. There is only one big drive for Moscow and it's in 1941 so it needs to really threaten Moscow...

The trick to shield production numbers is to use all the Labor brigades and the laborers (Ex-refugees) to build industry in every plain square within city radius. Only after the cities have been industrialized do I "join" the laborers to increase the city sizes. Kirov has 7 industry squares + the "Kirov Tank works" wonder. Uralsk has 8, Orenburg 6, Aralsk 6, Guryev 6 etc... Also Vorkuta, Magnitogorsk, Orsk and Zlatoust with the Bauxite and iron mines have loads of shields, same for Saransk with a coal mine and 5 industry squares. My first research goal was actually the Goelro Agency to build the Electrification wonder(Hoover Dam!)

May 1945... Berlin ist Kaputt! The final assault was incredible. The AI cheats worse and worse as it gets more and more desperate but I was prepared! 70 units gathered in Poznan attacked together. The Katyushas did not score many hits after all the Panzergrenadiers were hammered down to yellow strength bands. It got worse when the bands got into the red; it took in average 2 units to just get one hit! And then the bands were black, no red visible...and they still managed to wipe out attacking JS-II tanks...Umpire! Umpire! He's cheating!
But there were just too many Soviets. It was an extremely expensive assault. Lost at least 15 Katyushas and 25 tanks before the last SS was buried. Even after the bloodbath I had 95 T-34s, 65 Katyushas, and about 100 JsII/Su152 combined.

The nice thing is that once Berlin falls the Germans should fall apart.
I recommend editing rules9.txt to make Panzergrenadiers obsolete with Exp (Same as Ju-88, Wehrmacht SG, He-111, battleships etc...) By the time I took Berlin the AI had a total of 180 Panzergrenadier units! Which is unrealistic and makes further conquest almost impossible. Exp is a technology called "Military collapse" which is triggered on capture of Berlin. Making any unit obsolete will cause the AI to disband them all over the next 2-3 turns. The reason for this is that once Berlin is taken, wiping out the rest of Germany is tedious at best, but with all those Panzergrenadiers it is really tough.

Historically, once German defeat was unavoidable many German units stopped fighting and surrendered. "Military collapse" should still allow some mop-up operations and bloody fights with the SS-Tiger II tanks (They are nasty) but the ultimate defeat of Germany would be assured!

BTW Sevastopol is still in German hands after Berlin was annihilated.
Score is currently a "Marginal German defeat".

[MagyarCrusader]

Comrade Michelovich reporting:

Date: Jan 1943

Leningrad has fallen, along with the cities around it, up to Cherepovets. During the summer, Stalingrad was hit pretty hard. So was Gomel, Bryansk, Kursk. All of them held against the attacks, except Gomel. Serafimovich also fell which created a potential disaster. This city on the Don gives the Germans the ability to flank Stalingrad or penetrate east. The city directly east was destroyed (I don't remember the name). Serafimovich was taken by a Karl, which then fortified itself in the city. This destroyed the main road from Voronezh (which is one of my major tank producing cities) to Stalingrad. Maikop was threatened by a stray panzer unit every now and then, but was usually destroyed by attacking a fortified aa battery. Smolensk was attacked by many Wehmarcht SG divisions, but were slaughtered by my defending T-34/75s. Stalingrad held out from a freshing KV-1 via airlift from the Urals every other turn. Stalingrad itself was also producing KV-1s. These units either fortified themselves in the city or were used making counterassualts to clear the area. The Germans would destroy most of the reinforcements the city would get each turn, but that means that slowly the force inside stalingrad grew while under siege. Sevastopol is hanging on, and probably will survive. Although Kerch has fallen and I see a Karl a few squares away, Sevastopol has several AA batteries inside plus some infantry and a navy. Towards the end of I begin massing my troops to attack in 2 directions:

One force was the move from Kalinin and retake Demyansk, and slowly move towards Leningrad. This was to be acomplished with several Il-2s that would annihilate whatever is in the city and a few T-34/75s to take the city and fortify themselves. However, by the time I had 3 Il-2s, winter had settled in so I've decided to wait for the summer to make my move.

The other assualt was to open the road from Voronezh to Stalingrad, by retaking Serafimovich. However, there was a Karl fortified inside, behind anti tank defenses. It was a little weakend, but still on green. I saved the tanks produced in Voronezh during the summer for this offenses. It was 5 T-34/75s. I also had 3 Siberian reigments nearby and 2 red guards that I scraped together in the assualt. When I decided to launch the assualt during winter. So in the first month of winter, I discovered that I had gotten several T-34/85 units from events! I did not know this was going to happen, so I felt victory over the Karl would be certain. I attacked and lost 5 T-34/75s, my 3 Siberian regiments and 2 red guards. But then I used the 85s and 2 of them were destroyed. The 3rd one attacked and killed the karl! I used the last 2 to try and take the city, but there were many stukas inside! What I did next was move the T-34/85s from Stalingrad to finish off Serafimovich. I only needed 2 to accomplish the mission. I killed my first Karl, opened the road to stalingrad, and got a lot of gold for destroying the karl. I used this gold to help out the Ural cities.

The unpredictable arrival of the 85s also lead me to conduct another offensive. This was to retake Gomel. It seems that my light tanks were upgraded to 85s. I had several light tanks inside Smolensk. I had partisans and red guards move out of the Pripet marshes to begin the initial assualt on gomel. They destroyed a unit or two, and weakened several others. Then I moved in with the 85s from Smolensk and crushed the defenders.

I plan on retaking Rostov this winter with my forces in Stalingrad. Other than that I'm going to reinforce the front lines at Gomel and Kursk, and wait for summer before I launch my northern offense (that way the Il-2s can help me out).

All this time I've been concentrating a lot of the Urals. During the summer they produce a lot of shields, but during the winter I move production off the mountain resources to the grasslands so the people don't starve. Most of the Ural cities are still building either power plants or ammunition plants. After that I plan on having them build barracks and airports and then my final offensive into the heart of Germany may beging. Until then I'm keeping my offensive ambitions low. My current research rate is 3 turns. I'm researching war productivity. I can build Il-2, bombers and Yaks. I can't build 85 tanks yet, and I'm going to wait a little longer before I research them.

Moscow hasn't been threatend, except for a stray Wehmarcht SG from Vitebsk every now and then.

Captain Nemo, if you want to see how my game is going, send me an email, michael@jeszenka.com . Sorry but I lost yours. This is going to be one of those very few scenarios that I will actually play to the end.

------------------
Canada sucks
France is worse

Assassin of the Anarchist Supreme of the Disgracefull PROT!

[Captain Nemo]

Continued great response to this scenario!!
Thank you all for being so enthusiastic!
I am considering making an upgrade to version 1.3 before I quit tinkering with this one... What do you think and what could be improved?

[Overdrive]

Maybe add several different start points (saved games) to the scenario:
-Barbarossa
-Taifun
-Blau
etc.