NOW I'M OUT TO GET HIM! -- DC1:Blitz JRP vs Barthheart [Completed]

Started by JasonPratt, March 19, 2017, 03:04:42 PM

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Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

Imagine if we were teaming up together in a co-op game! Like in SD44!

^-^
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#47
I haven't been able to prove it yet, but this could be Turn 5 of our game (from my side)!


(It was uploading this morning, but my current browser at work doesn't like this format for no good reason. So I haven't verified it works yet, or that I haven't gibbed the upload somehow.)

(Edited to add: verified!  O0 )
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Sir Slash

Hey Jason. Some quick points. Regarding who controls which hex, the little picture thing at the top of the screen has listed who controls which hex when you click on a hex. It will say Germany or Poland in the box. That's who controls that hex. It's possible to control a hex by having your ZOC around your unit extend into the adjacent hex and it will be listed as such at the top. You will control the hex unless Barth re-captures it physically and you don't need to park a unit on it. An easy way to cut enemy's supply.

Also remember to use your HQ's Leader cards when you have them. They will boost movement, combat and defense as well as recon abilities and can be VERY helpful.

I like to use my Airpower to cut enemy supply lines when I can by dropping bridges. Any air attack on a hex with a bridge next to it will damage or destroy the bridge. If it's down, it will have to be repaired by an Engineer unit before it can be used. Sometimes you can cut an enemy supply line or escape route this way. Of course, you may also be cutting your own line of advance and or supply if you can't repair it yourself later. Mouse-over the picture thing at the top of the screen and a pop-up will tell you how much damage a hex has incurred and how much will be repaired automatically each turn. Hope this helps.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

I've been using the general cards religiously; I just haven't talked about them much, because even I get bored talking about them.  :buck2: They don't make a very significant plot contribution, so to speak (except the Haste II cards occasionally), and they aren't something I can visually shortcut easily.

Also, I have often failed at properly using the cards, because I try to use them too widely -- but that's because they give me the option to use them on the 'top level' of the organizational structure, and it seemed dumb for me not to use, let's say, Haste 2 on EVERYONE IN THE 8TH ARMY or EVERYTHING IN ARMY GROUP NORTH rather than only on this corps, much less only on that division. But then... there would be no effect when I did that. I might have gotten an effect on a corps (multiple divisions)? Occasionally? Maybe? Or I'm misremembering that? But eventually I decided all the cards should be played only on divisions, because that was the only time I consistently saw results that matched what the game told me the results should be. (Marshal Fritz has visited Army Group North and inspired them to get the hell on the road pronto, so everyone in Army Group North receives +20 movement! Except no one does, at all; they've all got 100, or less. Whereas if I give that to a division, all the pieces of the division will get +40 and so some will in fact get 140 points or whatever.)


Re bombing the bridges -- holy bleep, am I going to try using that to mess with Barth's supply!!  :D Bridge loss in this game doesn't really seem to block movement though. Just adds a few points in expense. Maybe there are large rivers somewhere on the map that that's important about. I know one of the wizard cards or pre-game options makes the rain rain harder and so makes the rivers all one size larger, and creates more marsh areas, so there must be functionality about this.


Re controlling the hex: yeah, I know the picture thing at the top of the screen tells in parenthesis who (currently) controls the clicked hex; and far more visually obvious as an aid, there was actually a patch/update to the game right before we started (I think I even did Ep0 before it!) which among other things provided an option to color the enemy controlled territory, in a light burnt orange for Poland -- and I've got that turned on. By those standards, I should already control significantly more than 5 large cities.

But according to the game's VP scoring, I don't. I only control 5. Maybe this is a new bug introduced in the update?? It's weirdly specific if so, since I did eventually pick up 5 points. I just verified that I started with 19 VP -- I wondered if maybe my memory was faulty and I had started with 14, but it was 19. In fact, on turn 2 or 3 I remember thinking (and commenting maybe in the ep) that I must have started with 14 points because surely I had gotten more VPs than what it looked like by then.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

A close study suggests Katowice is bugged, either marked as an orange dot when it isn't a VP city, or the code to transfer VPs is broken. The VP situation isn't as bad as I thought.

Well.... .... it's bad, but not in the way I thought. Mostly in a different way: a "crap I'm already at Turn 5 and I've only captured how many large cities?!?!" way.  :P


Okay, the orange dot cities I have captured since Turn 1 so far:

Katowice (turn 1, 8th infantry units ended turn in city)

VPs starting Turn 2 (should be 20, actually still 19 -- this confused me so much I thought I had actually picked up and kept 5 VPs starting from 14. I lost Marienburg and Marienwerder, but those weren't orange. I didn't lose Katowice either -- all four units including infantry still parked there.)

Graudenz (turn 2, infantry unit ended in city)
Czestochowa (turn 2, light panzer unit ended in city)
Beuthen (turn 2, HQ and arty ended in city)

VPs starting Turn 3 (should be 23, actually 22 -- didn't lose any orange dot cities; this confirms that HQ and arty naturally have enough infantry troops to capture cities, as well as to fight with)

Bromberg (turn 3, mech infantry ended in city)
Sosnowice (turn 3, panzers and infantry end in city)

VPs starting Turn 4 (should be 25, actually 24 -- didn't lose any orange dot cities, including Elbing despite Barth's taunt. YOU GO, SECURITY TRAINS! ...I MEAN STAY. YOU SHOULD STAY THERE.)

No orange dots captured this turn. None lost on Barth's turn.

VPs starting Turn 5 (should be 25, actually 24)

Thorn (turn 5, troops in city)
Kalisch (turn 5, HQ in city)

Unless Barth takes back an orange dot (even his counterblitzes aren't near that yet), I should start Turn 6 with 26 (but should be 27 due to broken dot).

I've dropped a topic on the Steam forum asking about this.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Pseudo-update-but-not-really: looking back through my thread notes, I thought I had found the problem. The new 1.6 patch dropped after I had played Turn 1. However, Barth and I agreed to restart the campaign from scratch just to be safe, so although I used video of 1.56 Turn 1 to recreate my first Turn as closely as possible, the whole game has been played by both of us on version 1.6
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Sir Slash

When I played against the AI/Poland, it was very hard to try to find a spot to bomb to disrupt their supply, there's a lot of roads and RR's to channel it around dropped bridges. I considered bombing Warsaw itself to try to destroy it being that it's a Supply Source for Poland, in fact the primary Supply Source, but never actually tried it. In Case Blue using your Airpower this way is a little easier.
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

JasonPratt

My southern front is a textbook example of cutting off ludicrous amounts of supply with only two units in well-chosen places (by Barth!)  :clap:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#54


I'm trying a new format that takes a little less time to play, and somewhat less time for me to edit and compile etc. Basically it's an audio version of my written AARs with annotated maps. Also, a little Woodstock 2012!  :D

If you'd rather see the more action-y videos, let me know. I'm not overly married to doing it this way yet, which has its own sloppinesses.  :buck2:
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

I don't know that there will be a Turn 7 this weekend, what with Origins happening -- which as usual I can't attend. But I did want to announce two pertinent updates. (They aren't bad news don't worry.)


First, Vic himself (the game's designer) helped me figure out why I'm running a point behind my count: the short answer is that Barth counter-blitzed some cavalry behind my back on his first turn, to take Beuthen, after I took Katowice the first turn.

I took Beuthen back on Turn 2; you can see it in my conquest list. But because Poland did hold at least a few German cities (like Danzig) thanks to the post-WWI settlement treaties, which was the pretext for starting war against them in the first place, I simply thought I had inadvertently zipped past Beuthen on my first turn. This was glaringly stupid of me, and could have been figured out fairly quickly.  :uglystupid2:

Anyway, because I was always counting Beuthen as being Polish originally, I was expecting one more point than I actually had won. Thus the persistence of the phantom lost point is explained.



Second: VR complimented my AAR as one of the best he has seen, which I also wanted to squee about.  :D


Third: I'll have a special upload this weekend about the strategic issues leading up to, and between, Fall Weiss and Barbarossa, which happens to be thematically appropriate to my DC games with Barth!  :bd: I'll post the video here.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

#56
In lieu of turn 7 this weekend, I hereby present my edit-compilation of two lectures given in 2009 by Soviet GRU defector Viktor Suvorov on his Icebreaker thesis: Stalin's intentions and actions to promote, trigger, and support the Nazi's invasion of Poland and Europe more generally -- only to be stymied by Hitler's surprise pre-emptive strike into Russia itself shortly before Stalin could launch his own invasion of Germany and the Axis satellite nations.

Obviously this topic has some connections to DC:Blitz and also to DC:Barbie, where the Soviet gameplay early in the operation is based heavily on part of Suvorov's thesis that the Red Army was caught in such a vulnerable position due to deployment for offensive invasion.


I have edited out a few irrelevancies, and added in some title cards for parts of the main lecture (occasionally spelling his pseudonym Suvorov as "Suvarov" but it's a fake name so hopefully that won't be too awful ;) ), as well as porting two parts of the main lecture's Q&A to a prologue and epilogue portion. The full video runs just over 2 hours, with the main lecture compilation clocking about an hour ten minutes, and his autobiographical mini-lecture another 20 minutes (including a portion of his Naval Academy lecture on Soviet pre-Barbarossa propaganda which was unique to that lecture and which seemed to me to fit topically better in his autobiography portion than anywhere in the main lecture.) The remaining time involves answers (or non-answers occasionally!) to various audience questions, plus the prologue which is a statement of appreciation from a fellow author defector in the main lecture audience. (It doesn't bear on the lecture topic really, but was touching enough I wanted to include its five minutes or so.)


I hope my fellow Grogs will enjoy this material if you haven't seen it yet! I learned a number of new things from it myself.  O:-)


[Update: good grief, 12-1/2 upload and process time, really...  ::) :P ]

Tomorrow I'll probably add a new thread to the military history category for this lecture compilation, too (although I won't be surprised if one or both lectures are already linked there from where I found them! ;) )
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Crossroads

Quote from: JasonPratt on June 11, 2017, 11:36:26 AM


I'm trying a new format that takes a little less time to play, and somewhat less time for me to edit and compile etc. Basically it's an audio version of my written AARs with annotated maps. Also, a little Woodstock 2012!  :D

If you'd rather see the more action-y videos, let me know. I'm not overly married to doing it this way yet, which has its own sloppinesses.  :buck2:

Thanks Jason, just had the time to catch up with your latest, finally! Things are on a move, now, it seems  :knuppel2:

As for your question, yes I did like to watch the moves live, it is a video after all right. Having said that, I well appreciate the effort you're putting to these videos! Seeing those chits move about has it's charm  :)
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY

Crossroads

Quote from: JasonPratt on June 16, 2017, 11:28:14 PM
In lieu of turn 7 this weekend, I hereby present my edit-compilation of two lectures given in 2009 by Soviet GRU defector Viktor Suvorov on his Icebreaker thesis: Stalin's intentions and actions to promote, trigger, and support the Nazi's invasion of Poland and Europe more generally -- only to be stymied by Hitler's surprise pre-emptive strike into Russia itself shortly before Stalin could launch his own invasion of Germany and the Axis satellite nations.

Obviously this topic has some connections to DC:Blitz and also to DC:Barbie, where the Soviet gameplay early in the operation is based heavily on part of Suvorov's thesis that the Red Army was caught in such a vulnerable position due to deployment for offensive invasion.


I have edited out a few irrelevancies, and added in some title cards for parts of the main lecture (occasionally spelling his pseudonym Suvorov as "Suvarov" but it's a fake name so hopefully that won't be too awful ;) ), as well as porting two parts of the main lecture's Q&A to a prologue and epilogue portion. The full video runs just over 2 hours, with the main lecture compilation clocking about an hour ten minutes, and his autobiographical mini-lecture another 20 minutes (including a portion of his Naval Academy lecture on Soviet pre-Barbarossa propaganda which was unique to that lecture and which seemed to me to fit topically better in his autobiography portion than anywhere in the main lecture.) The remaining time involves answers (or non-answers occasionally!) to various audience questions, plus the prologue which is a statement of appreciation from a fellow author defector in the main lecture audience. (It doesn't bear on the lecture topic really, but was touching enough I wanted to include its five minutes or so.)


I hope my fellow Grogs will enjoy this material if you haven't seen it yet! I learned a number of new things from it myself.  O:-)

[Update: good grief, 12-1/2 upload and process time, really...  ::) :P ]

Tomorrow I'll probably add a new thread to the military history category for this lecture compilation, too (although I won't be surprised if one or both lectures are already linked there from where I found them! ;) )

Thanks for these as well! I have been (more than) suspicious about Icebreaker, it has its strong areas, but weak ones too. The thing is though that the good ole Soviets had two modes: defence which consist of attacks, pre-emptively and outside mother Russia where possible, and attack which consists of err... attacking. Not sure if Stalin was about to move in summer 1941 yet, though. At least the July 6 timeframe does not make sense to me. More likely, he would have mopped up the remaining issues including Finland, even with Adolf telling him not to do it December 1940.

It all is a curious question though, will try to have the 2,5 hrs to watch it at some point!
Campaign Series Legion | CS: Vietnam 1948-1967 | CS: Middle East 1948-1985

CS: Vietnam DAR: LZ Albany as NVA (South Vietnam 11/17/65)  
CS: Middle East AARs: High Water Mark (Syria 10/12/73) Me vs Berto | Riptide (Libya 8/6/85) Me vs Berto | The Crossroads (West Bank 6/5/67)  Me vs Berto

Boardgame AARs: AH D-Day | MMP PanzerBlitz2 Carentan | OSS Putin's Northern War | GMT Next War: Poland | LnL Against the Odds DIY