Description:
The Smolensk strategic offensive was launched on the 7th of August 1943 in three phases with the intent to drive away the German army from the approaches to Moscow. The offensive was launched almost simultaneously with the Lower-Dnieper offensive.
(V2)
*Gave the objectives different scoring and victory point loss per turn.
*General buff of some Soviet units.
*Removed the Anti-Air specialist step on the German unit in Roslavl.
*Removed the Partisan ability.
*Added 1 Bridge Ability.
*Changed AI hints.
Comments:
Thank you for the excellent mission.
I captured all cities except Smolensk at 8 turn, and win at 10 turn.
So, I think it's better to reduce the time to brilliant victory.
And I no longer knew where to put reinforcments, there were too many of them.
Very nice scenario! In terms of balance, I was able to clear the map (nearly) and grab all objectives by turn 9. I'd suggest shifting the turn goals for a brilliant victory down to about turn 6 for Bryansk and between 7 and 8 for the rest. I suspect it's possible to take everything by turn 7 if lucky and very clever, or turn 8 as a realistic "brilliant victory" target.
The AI is part of the problem here, it squanders its strength attacking in the first 2 turns and then doesn't have enough units left to prevent breakthroughs. And it also sometimes doesn't pull back to defend objectives, letting units get cut off instead.
I'd also drop the replacement levels for the Russians. I never really felt like I was short on troops at all. Especially after Bryansk falls, there are lots of troops down there to disband and ensure endless troops for the harder northern 2 fronts.
Finally, 2 air strikes is really powerful for the Russians, I'd say reduce to 1 per turn, or perhaps 9 over the whole scenario (max 2 per turn)
sorry about long wait, my pc blue screened, and currently I am using my old one so i will need to buy a new one soon.. and with it I lost all my upcoming scenarios including a massive Unternehmen Sibirien which i put alot of time and effort into, and to make matters worse the phone which i used for my steam account is broken so i will not be able to make any updates to this scenario and upload new scenarios too for the time being however hopefully i will get a new pc within the following week and my phone will be fixed so i will update this scenario asap.
Perhaps the steps from the FR could end reinforce the rifle corps instead? It's just sort of odd from a historical standpoint to have FR (manpower light units with very defensive focus) to be stronger than the rifle corps which should be the main attack unit. I ended up with very strong FR attacking most of the time, which was kind of odd. Not really a balance complaint but just a plausibility one.
Hello everyone, thanks for the feedback and suggestions for changes. A update for the scenario should be up tonight before 11pm AEST. @kvnthr I made the field reserve units have seven manpower for balance reasons as thew scenario would be almost impossible to complete with a victory however I can change around the steps and test it out.
Agree with altimin, once the units east of Briansk are encircled (with even a bit of luck you can do it turn 1) I grabbed Briansk by turn 5 or 6. Basically my units smashed through Roslavi and could rather quickly sweep aside the German units.
Also, I wonder about some of these units from a historical perspective. Are the FR units fortified regions? They seem to have a lot of manpower, but if I recall correctly these were actually very defensive formations with less manpower, not for attacking. However these ended up actually being more important than the frontline rifle corps in this scenario due to having 7 steps.
Thanks, great scenario.
One balance suggestion: it's too easy to encircle German forces east of Briansk with simultaneous strike from south (6GCC) and north (33A). Supply source just north of Briansk can be easily captured by the 68th army, leaving German forces open for beating. I'd like to suggest adding veterancy and/or specialist step to 216ID for the sake of the balance.