ER_Chaser
18 Jun 03, 13:44
Here I just want to summarize some key points of play, instead of doing a detailed turn by turn description for the fun of reading. Well, I am not good at that maybe, but most importantly I feel maybe an abstract analysis can help the designer more in the sense the information is already sorted.
Rethel 40 is a short and small scenario, consists of 6 turns and a handful of units only.
The sides involved were the German and French (of course.. ;p) ---- here is the result of our playtest:
The mirrored games ended up both with a German victory: LaPalice achieved an OV with exceptional handling of offense. ER_Chaser's German troops however through hardfighting, only achieved an SV. The difference mainly came from two different attacking and defending strategies. And I'd like to discuss them one by one as following:
Offensive side: LaPalice's initial assault on the general french line was very successful. It utilized mainly frontal assault, which later again and again proved more efficient in this scenario. After the first turn of German attack, the French defense was left without much choice to do main because most of the forward elements were reorging. Also the insufficient number and strength of the French units rendered an effective line was not realistic. ER_Chaser's hope fell on delaying action. And the following turning was mostly a repeat of the first turn. i.e., the German player maintained the initiative perfectly and allowed no chance for any French turnover. On turn 4, the french reserve was released, but it was already way too late. ER_Chaser tried a last hope assault onto the key location of Le Chatelet but the panzer unit resided there was unmovable. Noticing that there is no air units at all in this scenario. Both the German and French armor became immortal more or less due to the lack of AT ability to the early war equipments. The battle finally concluded with the capture of another couple of location by LaPalice in the last round. THe French resistence ceased fire.
As a comparison, ER_Chaser applied the classic "chainsaw" action by intending to cut off frontal french elements, surround them and then evaporate them. Unfortunately, this action did not work well, or simply did not work at all in this scenario. The author did not fully understand the reason upto this point yet. But the experience of repeated such attempt in this scenario showed a surrounded french inf unit can last more than 2 turns under no supply and no outside assistent except limited artillery. Here these 2 turns each had more than 4 combat rounds with direct attack into that surrounded unit by far more superior German inf and mech inf units. Another mistake that ER_Chaser made during his first turn was to engage the french front line to the west (in the middle of the west edge of the map), which was inactive if left untouched. (I did not check the other side, thus made this mistake) As the combined result, the Germans partially lost its initiative after the first turn and allowed LaPalice's french force chances for counterattack. In the following turns, The German player had to spare quite some forces to keep the west flank safe for the advancing panzers. It was not until turn 3 when the german panzer units were released that the German regained the lost initiative and thrived into the key city of Le Chatelet and captured it later next turn to avoid the 20 VP bonus for France. The french reserve arrived on turn 4 but at this point the result was secured and the rest of the turns were largely irrelevant.
Defense: LaPalice seized the chance and effectively conducted many counterattacks to the German advance. At one point he even managed to surround and evaporate one whole inf. unit that was isolated. However that unit was located to the east of the map, in order to surround it, the French player also paid a price of moving quite a few of his units into the east which allowed a small window for the other German units to thrive into the west part where Le Chatelet was.
ER_Chaser did not have the luxury of counterattack due to the excellent control of situation by the german opponent. The main strategy as I said was delaying action in hope of the arrival of the reserves. However, the french line proved to be too fragile and incomplete. Here or there a hole must appear under the fierce german fire. When the key city fell in turn 4, the late arrival of the reserve force could nto do anything except a couple of suicidal counterattack with no positve rsult.
Pro: this scenario is short and not time consuming, yet still render some flexibility to the players (as you may see from teh different strategies the two players showed here.)
Cons: We believe the balance need some work. It seems that the German panzers were non-stoppable once released. There is no air support for either side and thus the armors are extremely strong. In general the inf units lack the AT abilities either to attack or defend vs an armor. The German not only outstrength, outnumber but also out-timed the French in the sense that the German panzer corps were released one turn earlier than the French. We believe this scenario under such condition is impossible for the French player to handle even for a draw.
Suggestions: We suggest a few changes which possibly could benefit the balance,
a. Make the west frontline French units mobile instead of garrison. So that the German advance cannot ignore and bypass them. THus buy mroe time for the french.
b. Release the french reserve a bit earlier (one turn?).
c. Award the bonus 20 VP to the French for holding Le Chatelet one turn earlier and thus making the German advancing speed mroe crucial and difficult.
d. possibly some air unit? To tackle the armor's superiority.
Xuebo (ER_Chaser)
Rethel 40 is a short and small scenario, consists of 6 turns and a handful of units only.
The sides involved were the German and French (of course.. ;p) ---- here is the result of our playtest:
The mirrored games ended up both with a German victory: LaPalice achieved an OV with exceptional handling of offense. ER_Chaser's German troops however through hardfighting, only achieved an SV. The difference mainly came from two different attacking and defending strategies. And I'd like to discuss them one by one as following:
Offensive side: LaPalice's initial assault on the general french line was very successful. It utilized mainly frontal assault, which later again and again proved more efficient in this scenario. After the first turn of German attack, the French defense was left without much choice to do main because most of the forward elements were reorging. Also the insufficient number and strength of the French units rendered an effective line was not realistic. ER_Chaser's hope fell on delaying action. And the following turning was mostly a repeat of the first turn. i.e., the German player maintained the initiative perfectly and allowed no chance for any French turnover. On turn 4, the french reserve was released, but it was already way too late. ER_Chaser tried a last hope assault onto the key location of Le Chatelet but the panzer unit resided there was unmovable. Noticing that there is no air units at all in this scenario. Both the German and French armor became immortal more or less due to the lack of AT ability to the early war equipments. The battle finally concluded with the capture of another couple of location by LaPalice in the last round. THe French resistence ceased fire.
As a comparison, ER_Chaser applied the classic "chainsaw" action by intending to cut off frontal french elements, surround them and then evaporate them. Unfortunately, this action did not work well, or simply did not work at all in this scenario. The author did not fully understand the reason upto this point yet. But the experience of repeated such attempt in this scenario showed a surrounded french inf unit can last more than 2 turns under no supply and no outside assistent except limited artillery. Here these 2 turns each had more than 4 combat rounds with direct attack into that surrounded unit by far more superior German inf and mech inf units. Another mistake that ER_Chaser made during his first turn was to engage the french front line to the west (in the middle of the west edge of the map), which was inactive if left untouched. (I did not check the other side, thus made this mistake) As the combined result, the Germans partially lost its initiative after the first turn and allowed LaPalice's french force chances for counterattack. In the following turns, The German player had to spare quite some forces to keep the west flank safe for the advancing panzers. It was not until turn 3 when the german panzer units were released that the German regained the lost initiative and thrived into the key city of Le Chatelet and captured it later next turn to avoid the 20 VP bonus for France. The french reserve arrived on turn 4 but at this point the result was secured and the rest of the turns were largely irrelevant.
Defense: LaPalice seized the chance and effectively conducted many counterattacks to the German advance. At one point he even managed to surround and evaporate one whole inf. unit that was isolated. However that unit was located to the east of the map, in order to surround it, the French player also paid a price of moving quite a few of his units into the east which allowed a small window for the other German units to thrive into the west part where Le Chatelet was.
ER_Chaser did not have the luxury of counterattack due to the excellent control of situation by the german opponent. The main strategy as I said was delaying action in hope of the arrival of the reserves. However, the french line proved to be too fragile and incomplete. Here or there a hole must appear under the fierce german fire. When the key city fell in turn 4, the late arrival of the reserve force could nto do anything except a couple of suicidal counterattack with no positve rsult.
Pro: this scenario is short and not time consuming, yet still render some flexibility to the players (as you may see from teh different strategies the two players showed here.)
Cons: We believe the balance need some work. It seems that the German panzers were non-stoppable once released. There is no air support for either side and thus the armors are extremely strong. In general the inf units lack the AT abilities either to attack or defend vs an armor. The German not only outstrength, outnumber but also out-timed the French in the sense that the German panzer corps were released one turn earlier than the French. We believe this scenario under such condition is impossible for the French player to handle even for a draw.
Suggestions: We suggest a few changes which possibly could benefit the balance,
a. Make the west frontline French units mobile instead of garrison. So that the German advance cannot ignore and bypass them. THus buy mroe time for the french.
b. Release the french reserve a bit earlier (one turn?).
c. Award the bonus 20 VP to the French for holding Le Chatelet one turn earlier and thus making the German advancing speed mroe crucial and difficult.
d. possibly some air unit? To tackle the armor's superiority.
Xuebo (ER_Chaser)