AAR for SSG's Across the Dnepr 2

[Nefaro]

I love the mechanics in these games.  The specific unit patches are nice additional touch.  Yes, I just praised some WW2 wargames despite having been so sick of the WW2 overload for years.  :o

My problem is that the supported screen resolution(s) are so low and fixed.  If I'm playing on a decent sized modern monitor, everything looks so tiny.  :(   I'm guessing even these latest versions are still low-res?

[ComradeP]

sandman: The problem with Kharkov:DotD with AtD2 installed is that some of the changes introduced in the 1.2 patch/AtD2 sort of ruined the original Kharkov scenario, as Soviet movement ranges are now quite a bit better than they were initially. So I'd say playing Kharkov:DotD's stock scenario is not advised if you're using the final patch.

Although I like SSG's games quite a bit, each game system has problem with how shifts relate to difficult terrain.

Good units in difficult terrain can literally be impossible to attack. That's why scenarios where the defending units are worse than those of the attacker, but where the defender has more units like AtD2 work well whilst something like The Ardennes Offensive 5 for BiI doesn't. Scenarios with difficult terrain tend to involve "grinding" which means attacking a hex at 7:1 or so odds a few times during a turn to see if you can kill the defender.

In Operation Konrad, a fan-made scenario included in AtD2, I wiped out most of the Axis units when playing it against the designer. When playing it afterwards, when both sides dug in, I couldn't launch good attacks against entrenched stacks. By that time, both sides have many units that kill something at a 2 to 4 roll with Direct Fire, so it can be a real bloodbath.

As to the other scenarios included in AtD2: Kirovograd is a nice slugfest. Husky 2 has issues with difficult terrain, making most Allied artillery pretty useless. You have a lot of it, but you need to roll double 5's with most of them at the least to hit anything.

The SSG games and scenarios are overall quite interesting, but there are only a handful that really work well all the time and the various systems all have their issues that might annoy you after a while. The transition from boardgame to PC using more or less the same rules isn't always smooth. Still, I'd say Kharkov:DotD and AtD2 are worth buying.

As to fan-made scenarios for Kharkov: there are two battle of Soltsy scenarios, Operation Iskra and Guadalajara (Spanish Civil War). An unfinished Gothic Line scenario is also available, as is a remake of Rommel: Master of Battle/Kalach Bridge for BiI, but that also has some issues with the Soviets having more mobility than they should and being able to use special attacks to Kamikaze German units to death.

It's a pity Battlefront wasn't really liked by many, as it has some excellent scenarios.

If you haven't purchased the games yet, I'll update this AAR to at least turn 10 this week, so you can see how things go and if you like the system.

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Nefaro: I've never had any issues with the screen resolution. The screenshots I've taken thus far were copied to Paint and thus lost most of their quality. I'll try to use Paint.net for the actual AAR to keep the resolution intact (I'll set quality to 50% or so to keep the screenshots from being larger than 100 kb each).

As an example, BiI and AtD2 look like this on my 24 inch monitor at 1280x1024 (the highest the games support). The AtD 2 screenshot was decreased to 50% quality, but I'm not seeing much of a difference. Not tiny at all in my opinion.

[Nefaro]

Nefaro: I've never had any issues with the screen resolution. The screenshots I've taken thus far were copied to Paint and thus lost most of their quality. I'll try to use Paint.net for the actual AAR to keep the resolution intact (I'll set quality to 50% or so to keep the screenshots from being larger than 100 kb each).

As an example, BiI and AtD2 look like this on my 24 inch monitor at 1280x1024 (the highest the games support). The AtD 2 screenshot was decreased to 50% quality, but I'm not seeing much of a difference. Not tiny at all in my opinion.

If it supports 1280x1024 then it can't be too bad.  Although the counters in those screenshots do look a bit smaller than I recall from the original title of the series.  I must be getting old.  Or I had the original running at 1024x768 oh so long ago.

The Eastern front shot looks nice but the Battles in Italy one is painful.  The background terrain blends in with the counters too much.  Luckily the ones on sale this week are the better looking one.  :)

[ComradeP]

It probably just looks like that because the US counter background is a sort of yellow-brown-green camouflage print, which happens to be similar to the background colour for hill hexes. The other counters stand out just fine.

In AtD2, at 1024 the screen covers 27 hexes on the X axis, at 1280 it covers 35, so it zooms out a bit but everything is still visible.

[Nefaro]

It probably won't look too small using the smaller resolution on my notebook.  Now to figure out if I want to drop $40 on the whole AtD setup.  ???

[Boggit]

I have both Korsun Pocket, and BiN, but both games give me eyestrain as the hexes are so small. Anyway, ComradeP :) You've made a nice start on your AAR, and I'm looking forward to following it. Thanks for sharing it.

[JasonPratt]

It probably won't look too small using the smaller resolution on my notebook.  Now to figure out if I want to drop $40 on the whole AtD setup.  ???

Better hurry, it's already Thursday!  ;)

In effect, the sale would mean you're getting AtD2 for free.

[Nefaro]

It probably won't look too small using the smaller resolution on my notebook.  Now to figure out if I want to drop $40 on the whole AtD setup.  ???

Better hurry, it's already Thursday!  ;)

In effect, the sale would mean you're getting AtD2 for free.

Argh!

Sometimes I hate all these sales.  Now, if I get it, I still probably won't even load it up for a long time. 

I suppose that's why they have these sales in the first place.. to get you to buy stuff you won't even use in awhile.  I feel like a woman seeing 'Sale!' signs in a store.  Don't need it, but it's "on sale" so I must have it!  ;D

Meh.  I have way too much yet to play.  My willpower has held.  Besides, I never quite finished playing all the Korsun Pocket scenarios so if I have the itch, I'll just finish that one first and wait for another sale.

[Tuna]

It probably won't look too small using the smaller resolution on my notebook.  Now to figure out if I want to drop $40 on the whole AtD setup.  ???

Better hurry, it's already Thursday!  ;)

In effect, the sale would mean you're getting AtD2 for free.

Argh!

Sometimes I hate all these sales.  Now, if I get it, I still probably won't even load it up for a long time. 

I suppose that's why they have these sales in the first place.. to get you to buy stuff you won't even use in awhile.  I feel like a woman seeing 'Sale!' signs in a store.  Don't need it, but it's "on sale" so I must have it!  ;D

Meh.  I have way too much yet to play.  My willpower has held.  Besides, I never quite finished playing all the Korsun Pocket scenarios so if I have the itch, I'll just finish that one first and wait for another sale.

<sniff sniff> I'm so proud of you right now! :'(

[JasonPratt]

I would say I'm proud, except I'm pretty sure I bought "...Disaster" and maybe Dnepr2 during a puny Christmas sale a while back. ;)

[Nefaro]

It was tempting me a few times yesterday, but I knew there was other stuff coming up that I'd be getting so that kept me honest.  :D

Damn addict.

[Tuna]

My eye is on CCW2.. I'm safe from Command due to the price.. .GTX Graphics for FSX is another temptation, even with it's very high price (because I do enjoy flying)!

[ComradeP]

Apologies for the delays, UoC DLC 2 betatesting is taking up a lot of my time.

Initial Soviet dispositions at the frontline, so you have an idea what I'm facing. I can't close in with most of these units on turn 1, so knowing where they are doesn't feel like cheating to me: they'll be somewhere else when I get to their starting locations.

We're playing a variant where the Soviets have a higher refit rating (20% instead of 10%), and better C&C and supply bursts at the cost of a lower OP penalty reduction (I only just discovered that, I thought the variant had only benefits for the Soviets). I think the higher refit rating and the better C&C are worth the lower OP penalty reduction aside from situations where lots of my units end up next to his (that explains why some of his stacks didn't withdraw when threatened with encirclement by adjacent units) when defending, but I prefer counterattacking so should we switch sides after this, I'll play the normal version.

His OP penalty reduction is now just 10%, but his C&C is quite a bit better: Rifle Corps now have 35/14, Mechanized Corps 40/20 (better than my corps!), at least one Army has 30/9, the rest seem to have 40/12. Fronts have 50/10. All rating are stationary/mobile.

As you can see, Soviet HQ's are quite far to the rear, maybe even unrealistically so considering the map scale. That means that Luftwaffe interdiction can work like an on/off switch for Soviet C&C early on, which is why having better command radii helps.

North:

Fairly weak forces in the difficult terrain north of the Dvina, which will still be difficult to dislodge. Strong forces east of Vitebsk (and a cavalry division at Demidov further east). 22nd Army HQ is in Nevel, an inconveniently located (for both defender and attacker) objective.



Center:

Strong forces between Vitebsk and Orsha, particularly directly north of Orsha.



South:

(Numerically) Weak forces west of the Dnepr and between Orsha and Mogilev. Strong forces south and east of Mogilev, including a half strength mechanized corps east of Mstislavl (where 21st Army HQ is at the eastern edge of the screenshot).

4th Army units are the unentrenched remnants west of the Dnepr.



My starting positions:

North:

Various Panzer and motorized divisions have just arrived on the scene on the road network in the area. They're full strength as they've had time to rest and recover whilst waiting for the infantry to get closer after the opening encirclement battles. There's just one regular infantry division on the map at the moment. The first infantry divisions to arrive have mostly been walking after the motorized units and have seen only limited combat thus far, the units arriving later were the units that actually cleaned up the pockets and some of those are not full strength.



South:

[JasonPratt]

Apologies for the delays, UoC DLC 2 betatesting is taking up a lot of my time.

Whoa! Can you reveal what the campaign will be?!

[ComradeP]

Barbarossa, the summer/fall 1941 campaign and a few winter scenarios. Not as many scenarios as the Red Turn DLC due to having fewer battles to work with, but still enough to make it a solid DLC. The DLC's close to completion, so a release in the next few months (November-December) seems very likely.

Work on UoC 2 has already begun as well.