I wanted to get a sanity check on a game in progress. We've been speculating on the future direction this game and wanted to hear perspectives from others playing the ETO rules on the current board position. The question is: Which side has the advantage? How would you project the short-term (1941) outcome given the current position and disposition of forces?
Turn: just finished the German half of the July III turn.
Germans have 10PP, 13 EP, 13 FP, have 4 Armor steps destroyed (one remnant in a city ready for free stuff) and 1 Inf step eliminated, but otherwise have a full complement of units. Two HQs are moved forward (AGC, AGN), but still on 2 and 3 cooldowns respectively. The Germans still have their July card(s) unplayed.
Soviets sit at 115 1/2 MP, 82 PP, 32 1/2 EP, and 42 FP. They have 80 Infantry front-line steps (excludes isolated units), 12 Mech corps (mostly big ones as the 1's and 2's have been eliminated), and 7 divisions still on the board (2 Mtn, 4 Abn, 1 Cav). And remember, they have their builds upcoming for the July III turn. The Soviets have an empty hand (all cards played). For context, Typhoon scenario start (which is 9 turns in time away) has the Soviets at 75 MP, 74 PP, 35 EP, 44FP, 85 Inf steps, and 6 divisions.
After initial Blitzkrieg, the Soviets have been losing 5-8 steps per turn, so have had a net increase of 2-4 steps per turn. But they obviously haven't faced the first round of HQ refreshes yet.
Air mat:
Here's board positions:
Sorry to play catch up here ... Happy Holidays and all to everyone.
To answer Dave's question, I have vast gaming experience, including winning an ASL World Championship ... lol. Tons of research into real unit tactics and strategic actions. Favorite book is Maneuver Warfare by William Lind, and is applicable to both tactics and strategic operations. I'd have to say my experience with TitE is average. I spend over a year being indoctrinated by Christian (a play tester). He can vouch for me, as I routinely broke the game for him (although we played version 1.0). Most recently, took Leningrad and Stalingrad at the end of the summer in '41. So he can vouch for my style of play.
My philosophy in this match was one of maneuver and hammer blows. For the Axis in this game, I prefer to keep a high tempo of attack at all times, because it is clear the reinforcement ability of the Soviets can not be matched this early. And this is where the Axis will win or lose the vast majority of games.
So given the Axis HQ cool-down disability, my objective was to overcome that critical bottleneck. I knew Graham would exploit that high PP fact, and give ground to preserve ... because that was what I would do. Turn 1 went well .... but due to Enduring Deprivations, it became impossible to jump any HQs forward turn 1. Glad to see this card is getting nixed from a balance perspective. This was then compounded with the Mech Conversion to 4-5-4s. This was the real killer. Three overrun-able Corps were replaced with 4-5-4 units. So he was able to defend 9 more hexes along his front instead of just 3. Any gaps or holes that I could use to exploit were simply not there. Making large pockets was basically going through 8-4s with reserves behind them. And with the flood of Militia Mobilized, seeing GPW twice, and the normal 10PP per turn, the front solidified to fast.
I'm glad to see this "rule" removed as well. However, replacing it with an IDM and a mystery meat may still be to much (along with still getting the 0.5 EP). I thought the object was to make the conversion process weaker. Or at least it began as limiting the IDM Trench Warfare that I like using as the Soviet. Now I can envision a myriad of ways to exploit this new IDM (although not to the free for all extent I used previously).