quote:

We are pleased to release the latest RTW3 beta, v1.00.24 ; this beta includes the following feature(s):

This version has an improved interface and sequence for battle generation. The player will get a more detailed assessment of enemy forces and a possibility of rearranging his own force before deciding to accept or decline battle.
There will also be a role for admirals, as area commanders. Before battle, the commanding admiral will do a command check to determine the extent to which the force can be modified. On a very good roll, he may even be able to add a ship.
Note that the enemy gets a vote too. There is a corresponding check to see if the enemy can add a ship to his force.

Due to significant changes in the battle generator, we would very much appreciate it if as many of you who can/are willing give this beta a try, let us know how you like it, but especially if you note any issues/errors/etc.

Thanks!


To opt into the beta on Steam: You can switch to this beta by going to RTW3 in your Steam Library, right-clicking on it, choosing Properties -> Betas -> then choosing the latest beta branch from the drop-down list and allowing Steam to update your game. If it updates correctly, you should see the latest beta version listed as your version in-game on the bottom right.

John Charity Spring posted:

Kaiserreich has a lot of baggage from its earliest versions which were very clearly made by people more interested in literature than history or politics, which is why people like Orwell and TE Lawrence got weirdly prominent roles and there's ancient events about Tolkien and so on. It was also very clearly done by people who bought into horseshoe theory and the historical 'syndicalists become fascists' stuff was mixed up with 'communists are the same as fascists'. From what I've seen the more recent developments have rowed back on this to some degree but there's a lot of inertia there

Frosted Flake posted:

If I have time, I'll see if this applies to the PE as well because lol if the military can't use satellite imaging in their combat simulation

quote:

Without going into detail on the individual Kriegsspiele, it is important to note that they all were conducted within the framework of traditional operational thinking.94 The director’s solutions always posited attacks or counterattacks into an open flank after a successful delaying defensive battle. What was emphasized was the importance of establishing through one’s own conduct of the operations opportunities for envelopment, and then exploiting those opportunities. This implied deliberately assuming high risk to turn inferiority into a local superiority by concentrating all forces. The standard solutions repeatedly were based on rapid movement, striking power, envelopment operations, and clear concentrations of effort. A delaying resistance was conducted only at the beginning of the operation, after which a deliberately executed counterattack was driven into the flank. The war games continually exercised the connection between area and time, the courage to execute quick decisions under uncertainty, rapid maneuver, and command and control.

gradenko_2000 posted:

as some of you will have seen from the Ukraine thread, I've been reading "The Myth and Reality of German Warfare" of late, and something went off in my head when I read this passage:

so I booted up War in the East [1] and started up the "Road to Moscow" scenario to try and put theory into practice: pick a spot for a breakthrough, concentrate all your forces on it (maximum stacking), smash through with infantry and use them to hold-open the shoulders of the breakthrough, then drive the mobile forces through. Don't even touch the parts of the front that aren't involved in the breakthrough and exploitation, except where to seize completely unoccupied territory.



this is the map state at the start of turn 2; those units under the teal line did not move at all in turn 1

after that, the AI likes to run away, all the way back to the Dvina/Dnepr line and the Vitebsk-Orsha land bridge, so the next four or so turns were just marching forward, seizing unoccupied territory, and waiting for the infantry and the rail conversion to catch up.



this is the map state at the start of turn 6. If you notice, I have my panzer corps stacked up against the thinnest identifiable points of the line, and we are about to lunge



this is the map state at the start of turn 7. We broke through at two points along the front, and drove hard to seal it just west of Smolensk



Turn 10: it takes us three turns to liquidate the pocket around Vitebsk and to advance to a new line, and we pull off a smaller encirclement to take Smolensk without much of a fight



Turn 12: two turns to refuel the panzers, and then to try and make another breakthrough. This is where you can feel the campaign going off the rails: there are so many Soviet units that you can't make a small encirclement because it would require using the panzers to grind through Red Army troops directly, but a deep encirclement needs more than one turn to complete, which gives the Soviet player time to evacuate the developing pocket. There are so few units between the two pincers because I didn't seal the encirclement at the end of Turn 11, so by Turn 12 it's like I'm punching into thin air.



Turn 13: we slam the door shut on the Vyazma pocket, but despite the area of the pocket being bigger, the number of units caught inside isn't proportionally larger.



Turn 14: we liquidate the Vyazma pocket, but actually have to draw back a couple of hexes from the forward edge of battle in order to reconstitute a solid line

The orange arrows illustrate a completely obvious route for another penetration, because there are barely any defenders in the way - it's just an empty sector. If only we had enough gas...



And that brings us to the start of Turn 15, where we'll probably call the scenario. I have two turns left, and it's not going to be enough.

Even if I could seal this encirclement somewhere between Maloyaroslavets and Mozhaisk (in orange), it'd take me at least one turn to clean up the pocket, then another two turns to make another lunge to encircle Moscow.

The other option is to go for broke and encircle Moscow with the current pincers, but that would be a deeper penetration than anything I've ever tried, and there's probably not enough gas (or infantry) for it, and I still wouldn't have the turns to formally occupy Moscow and score the points for it.

All that said, it's only Sep-25-1941 as of Turn 15, so even a hypothetical Turn 20 would only bring us to the end of October. It's been a good learning experience, and I think has built up my confidence enough to attempt a full campaign.

gradenko_2000 posted:

WISHLIST ALERT

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2591010/Silent_Depth_2_Pacific/

gradenko_2000 posted:

WISHLIST ALERT

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2591010/Silent_Depth_2_Pacific/

StashAugustine posted:

Anyone got the UoC2 Kursk dlc?

gradenko_2000 posted:

Workers & Resources: I love putting down an entire industrial complex in plans, then walking away while my construction offices build it up. I get so much housework and officework done while it ticks away but I still feel like I'm playing the game.

Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:

Ditto, except when I come back to the game everyone is dead.

Polikarpov posted:

Lysenko had a little whoopsie with the New Soviet Man genemodding and they fall over dead if they see a full garbage can or it gets too chilly.

Raskolnikov38 posted:

you get planning bonuses that give a boost to your attack. you dont actually need to press the launch plan button and can just manually launch attacks and get the bonus but you do need to draw an offensive line somewhere

gradenko_2000 posted:

third scenario of Kursk done; Izium-Mius - with all but one bonus objective achieved

I'm particularly proud of destroying the SS Totenkopf (literally a bonus objective to do this), SS Wiking and SS Das Reich divisions in this scenario

Megamissen posted:

you have to use a frontline to set up an offensive line, and using frontlines for your breakthrough divisions is not ideal
you can set one up, let the planning build up then delete it when you start the attack but i remember the planning draining very fast if you do
worth it for the start of an offensive i guess but after that better to just leave them un-frontlined and micro instead

gradenko_2000 posted:

third scenario of Kursk done; Izium-Mius - with all but one bonus objective achieved

I'm particularly proud of destroying the SS Totenkopf (literally a bonus objective to do this), SS Wiking and SS Das Reich divisions in this scenario

FirstnameLastname posted:

you can micro w planning by connecting sequential orders and selectively activating them (hit tab when drawing offensive arrows to change their point of origin, hold alt to move their path around, shift or ctrl click to activate individual orders)

you can have a billion diff orders painted at the division level & only assign certain divs to each it doesn't have to be a full army

gradenko_2000 posted:

StashAugustine posted:

Had you played the other UoC2 Soviet campaigns? I remember you had a severe lack of good infantry outside of cavalry and a few Guards units, but also easy access to artillery and engineer steps so you tried to soften the lines with suppressive fire and set piece attacks to force a breakthrough.

Lum_ posted:

also, wargaming in general has always had an ahistorical hardon for the SS as "elite troops in cool black uniforms, so let's make sure their counters are BLACK and give them HIGH NUMBERS"

in reality, the SS was never an elite force, its only advantages were two: they would be oversupplied with the best equipment because himmler played political games with procurement, and SS troops wouldn't surrender as often because they knew they'd be accountable for their many and copious warcrimes.

during the invasion of Poland the SS' first divisional combat outing was when they chased a Polish infantry division into the town of Pabaniece. They had the typical Nazi sneering dismissal of inferior slavs and assumed it would be an easy cleanup job. The Poles baited them into an encirclement and proceeded to kick their teeth in; the regular army had to send a few divisions to rescue them from their idiocy. After the invasion the Army tried to use the battle of Pabianece as justification for taking the SS' toys away, but Hitler overruled them.

any wargame that rates SS units as "better" for any reason other than having more tanks that day is delusional.

Lum_ posted:

also, wargaming in general has always had an ahistorical hardon for the SS as "elite troops in cool black uniforms, so let's make sure their counters are BLACK and give them HIGH NUMBERS"

in reality, the SS was never an elite force, its only advantages were two: they would be oversupplied with the best equipment because himmler played political games with procurement, and SS troops wouldn't surrender as often because they knew they'd be accountable for their many and copious warcrimes.

during the invasion of Poland the SS' first divisional combat outing was when they chased a Polish infantry division into the town of Pabaniece. They had the typical Nazi sneering dismissal of inferior slavs and assumed it would be an easy cleanup job. The Poles baited them into an encirclement and proceeded to kick their teeth in; the regular army had to send a few divisions to rescue them from their idiocy. After the invasion the Army tried to use the battle of Pabianece as justification for taking the SS' toys away, but Hitler overruled them.

any wargame that rates SS units as "better" for any reason other than having more tanks that day is delusional.