I have enjoyed playtesting against Jeff Nyquist, with council from Alan and Jay, for about a year. I have had luck favor me consistently, which can be vexing frustration for others. Jeff has often turned to Alan when his luck ran low, and last night was a special situation. It was July 3, 1942. Jeff and Alan's Germans played the Generals, which gave their extra Shift to ten battles! But they still had to roll...This time Alan delivered six "6"'s out of twelve.
And yet, all those Soviets, and there are a LOT of them (as you can see) remain only shaken and not stirred...
Almost every battle obtained a superior result due to the extra Shift. This isn't always the case with the CRT, of course. Getting ten Shifts was an excellent use of the Generals, and the luck was well above average, but not outrageous, as I have sometimes had. The Generals can disrupt a strongly held position, or devastate a weaker one. I love this card.
12 battles ... six of them were die rolls of 6 ... that is why I hate Vassal's random number generator (RNG).
In order to add another layer of randomness to the random number generator ... I added the human element. It goes like this:
"Okay, odds are 3-1."
"Let me clear the RNG."
Hit the roll button a random number of times ...
6
6
6
1
1
3
"Okay, ready?"
"The result is on the 5th roll."
Click and read the 5th roll ...
3
3
5
2
4
I feel adding a human variable that changes each roll when the die roll "counts" will get the variability that the RNG doesn't seem to produce. This result was the 5th roll ... the next result will be the 4th roll, the next result will be the 2nd roll ... and so on.
You can thank me later. ;-) lol
I am amused by our different ideas about dice. It took me a while to feel good about clicking vs rolling; I can't stand the idea of rolling with other than my left hand (being left-handed); I prefer pushing down emphatically on my keyboard, rather than gently clicking my mouse, etc. Then there is my preference not to roll on battles that don't matter, disliking to "waste" good rolls, which is so much nonsense. Long, ago, even before Brian was a world champ, I had a critical German attack at 3:1 to make in The Russian Campaign. My friends and I went to dinner at my dorm before the roll. I talked about how I would nail that stack by rolling a DE with a 6. I went on about it, and then got that 6. I have never done anything like that before or since, afraid I would spoil my perfect record of one for one.
I can't say as I blame vassel for my bad luck with dice. It has been around for years and doesn't matter how it is done. I keep trying to think of it as the reason, I am a better gamer. You know it's bad when the opponent is getting mad at you about it. On the bright side, they tend to build their strategy around my bad luck and can't deal with it if I roll well for a turn and they roll poorly. I actually much prefer a 2d6 system for this reason but it really doesn't matter. The weather table is a good example. As the Germans last game, I got 7 out of 9 bad weather rolls to start the game and this one was the exact opposite. Even the forced bad mud turns were clear skies for the Axis 3:4 of the time. As my opponent said, I make for a bad playtest game because of the luck factor distorting the results.
Please share your game actions. Where is the line Dec 1941? Thanks
We stopped because I had got a breakthrough east of the Valdi Hills and had cut off the main rail line to Leningrad east of it. We didn't realize that the rail line running north was out of play for supply purposes too. The line ran south from there about 4 hexes from Moscow. I had not taken Kharkov but it was likely to fall soon. Odessa had been taken as he didn't get the improved 3-pt garrison into it before I could attack.
The current game is the one with wonderful Axis weather, except for the 4 turns of bad mud. I'm still holding Smolensk because he ran five panzer corp into the swamps by Leningrad after a "6" roll on Narva. While he got next to Leningrad, I decided to continue to hold the Pskov line and filled in the empty spaces with mystery meat. It was enough and wasted a huge amount of his punch for a few turns while I built up and gradually counterattacked him out of the area. I'm finding that holding Odessa with two guards and the 3-pt IDM is enough to stop him from taking it though I'm bleeding PPs constantly as he rolls reasonable well on it. It has committed two 12-10-4's, HQs, and air, for most of the fall and we are still debating if it is worth it. Unless I am missing something, it is the one unescorted air mission he had do. One 4-4 was enough in the mud. Until he moves a 24-6 down there, it won't fall. New naval rules may change this. We have just hit Mid December and he took the cold weather gear card on Oct 1 so he has not suffered from it. It was a good choice as it turned out but boy do you have a tough time attacking without the HQ shifts. I'm sure it is the only reason I'm still holding Smolensk.
Shift Values are huge. Both side have to have EP and FP to make OPs.
Leningrad falls more often from the Valdi Hills attack than the more direct route.
Odessa is a prize but, you need a few rolls or maybe Brandenburgers gives you two chances with one combat. Are you playing with Rasputitsa?
Defending Leningrad from getting cut off in late '41/early '42 is a defensive challenge. If the Axis make a push that way, it's necessary to have a lot of units, though not strong ones, to prevent pervasive infiltration. If too much is committed near L'd, they risk getting trapped. The Axis can waste time if they don't pursue it the right way, and/or run into too much poor weather. I'm still trying to figure this all out.
We are playing with Rasputa in the current game with myself as the Soviets and just finished January 2. I got lucky and had two turns of it above the automatic two. I just made about 10 attacks across the front using Zhukov, There are no invincible armies , and the Shock/Guards card. Some surrounded and some not. I think I caused 3 casualties and took three myself and occupied a bunch of useless ground because he can't use air next turn. I didn't think I was quite ready for it but felt I was running out of winter to try it. I think some of those cards need clarification as to what is meant by their wording but I'm too tired to add more about it. He took the Ukraine card on Jan 1 and we decided to spend half this turn and then half on the next replacement cycle as it seemed like a reasonable solution. The only other large card he had available was the airborne one. I must say that the German Intelligence card seems a lot better than the Soviet one but perhaps I am missing something.
"Marshal Zhukov" is unique in that it gives a Red Bolt that can earn a Shift in any weather (if you roll it, it is not blanked out by weather), and on defense as well. An interesting choice is whether to use it before mid '42, since it is powerful and does not return until a year later. "I Believe In One Thing Only: The Power Of Human Will" has been simplified to just confer a White Bolt to all attacks. It nearly guaranteed Shifts to all CS before, which was too strong, especially in poor weather. I like saving this card for use in 1943+, since it is then Removed. "There Are No Invincible Armies" is quite nice in good weather in '42+, giving a 3rd Bolt to Soviet Attacks--especially in 1943 when there are plenty of Red-Bolt Fighters. The German "Foreign Intelligence" is probably more fun than effective. "Soviet Spies" allows a glimpse of the Axis hand, but also the very handy ability to switch a card any time of equal or smaller size with one in your hand. We are testing tweaks of these cards. I only mentioned the big one above.
Play testing currently have some of the bigger attack Soviet cards delayed a year or so. The Soviets have been awarded an addition Intelligence card. They get to use both. Some of the Partisan cards are delayed but Diversionist Efforts can be use early to bring on some Partisan Divisions.
My results were probably unaffected from the changes then since I rolled a lot of air unit damage's (with no air in the sky due to the blizzards) . We assumed these were not classed as blank results.
Soviet Card changes Arrival Date
Nationalists Stir Spring '43
Air Offensive Spring '44
Katyusha Rockets Spring 42 Now a shift and a white bolt
Local Air Superiority Autumn 42
Major Airdrop Spring '43
Major Landing Winter '43
Marshal Zhukov Autumn 41 Now just 2 turns
Gordon, you seem to have the bolts understood. The new play test game had OVERCAST rolled July I 1941. Trumpets is on the map but no Air Bolts so no auto shifts. You have the bolt count before the roll to see how many CAS dice you get the throw. Once they are rolled, some of the faces on the die are blanked. Never planes but you need a plane to be damaged to yield a full shift. A recent change was to allow the plane needing to be damaged does NOT have to target 8-Balls.
Please send me an email to hobbitjay@aol.com and I can more easily share treats. You must be playing on the 5.5 module.
Dave pointed out I misremembered the new Katyusha Rockets. I was working from a spreadsheet. Here is the new card.
We all have different playing styles. I like to plan well ahead, and find the cards to be an enjoyable part of this. Katyusha Rockets has a return time of +3 S, so it can be used in the Winter of '42, the Autumn of '42, and then in the Summer of '43, etc. This, like Zhukov, can give the Soviets a Red Bolt before all those great Air that become available in Autumn, '42. Note that with Diversionist Efforts, a Partisan Detachment that was placed in a prior turn can be Organized into a Division, which might block a LOC to a key German HQ. The Axis can try to eliminate such a threat by using a Free Stuff Anti-Partisan Sweep, or more certainly by garrisoning critical rail hexes to prevent such placement of Partisan Detachments (they cannot be placed adjacent to enemy units).