Siberian HEAT
Member
Well, I found some of my old notes over this past weekend and it got me interested in re-starting this project. The first time I did it, I lost the entire thing in probably the only hard drive crash I've ever had where I didn't back it all up. This time I am backing it up as well as sending myself emails of the file so I have it sitting on an external server. 
Mark, with your blessing I'd like to use EA 3.4 as my starting point for this beasty.
Basically, this scenario will be a derivative of Mark's excellent work with EA 3.4, simply cutting the first 2 full years of the war out of the product cycle. OOB will essentially be the same foundation, although I may throw in some late-war units for colour, as well as elminate some units that might have been disbanded or destroyed for one reason or the other in the first 2 years of the war (French OOB). I don't want to extensively re-work the OOB as I have neither the time nor inclination to mess with something that is tested and working just fine (we all know its not perfect).
So far I have done a quick pass through the Axis and Allied OOBs and found those units which were on the Eastern Front in April 42. The remaining "free" units are going to probably be placed into a series of Grand Strategic reserves which I am tentatively planning for my "pre-game" cease-fire turns (similar to how EA currently starts with 3 housekeeping turns.
My intention is to give the Germans the option of pushing the bulk of their reserves towards Moscow in a desperate thrust northeast, or they can send them southwards in the historical push into the Caucasus. Likewise, the Soviet reserves can be held in front of Moscow, or sent southward...perhaps timed to correspond to how well the Axis does (eg. Release X reserve formation when Axis gets within 2 hexes of Stalingrad). Still a work in progress mind you.
There will be significant freedom with Events, as nearly half of 3.4's events will be removed because they relate to the first years of the war. The EC variant obviously will also be removed. This should allow a better modelling of the second half of the war, as well as give the ability to throw in a few new surprises.
Map will be almost identical...with perhaps the addition of some permanent fortified zones (around Rzhev for example) as well as around Leningrad. It will be extremely difficult to model this northern section of the front as it was essentially static for a great deal of time. At this scale you just can't reproduce this. There is always one more little unit you can throw in that will eventually budge that dug-in corps...
Current and future steps:
Trim OOB to cut out superflous formations and units (Polish Axis, Graf Zepplin, etc.)(in progress)
Deploy units which were active and fighting in April 42 (mostly in USSR) (in progress)
Create strategic reserves with remaining "free" units.(ongoing)
Trim event list, resetting turn 150 as turn 0 (spring 42) treading carefully not to break any important remaining events!
Begin re-building event list to include late war events and TO's
Begin playtesting Alpha version
Easy!
Mark, with your blessing I'd like to use EA 3.4 as my starting point for this beasty.
Basically, this scenario will be a derivative of Mark's excellent work with EA 3.4, simply cutting the first 2 full years of the war out of the product cycle. OOB will essentially be the same foundation, although I may throw in some late-war units for colour, as well as elminate some units that might have been disbanded or destroyed for one reason or the other in the first 2 years of the war (French OOB). I don't want to extensively re-work the OOB as I have neither the time nor inclination to mess with something that is tested and working just fine (we all know its not perfect).
So far I have done a quick pass through the Axis and Allied OOBs and found those units which were on the Eastern Front in April 42. The remaining "free" units are going to probably be placed into a series of Grand Strategic reserves which I am tentatively planning for my "pre-game" cease-fire turns (similar to how EA currently starts with 3 housekeeping turns.
My intention is to give the Germans the option of pushing the bulk of their reserves towards Moscow in a desperate thrust northeast, or they can send them southwards in the historical push into the Caucasus. Likewise, the Soviet reserves can be held in front of Moscow, or sent southward...perhaps timed to correspond to how well the Axis does (eg. Release X reserve formation when Axis gets within 2 hexes of Stalingrad). Still a work in progress mind you.
There will be significant freedom with Events, as nearly half of 3.4's events will be removed because they relate to the first years of the war. The EC variant obviously will also be removed. This should allow a better modelling of the second half of the war, as well as give the ability to throw in a few new surprises.
Map will be almost identical...with perhaps the addition of some permanent fortified zones (around Rzhev for example) as well as around Leningrad. It will be extremely difficult to model this northern section of the front as it was essentially static for a great deal of time. At this scale you just can't reproduce this. There is always one more little unit you can throw in that will eventually budge that dug-in corps...
Current and future steps:
Trim OOB to cut out superflous formations and units (Polish Axis, Graf Zepplin, etc.)(in progress)
Deploy units which were active and fighting in April 42 (mostly in USSR) (in progress)
Create strategic reserves with remaining "free" units.(ongoing)
Trim event list, resetting turn 150 as turn 0 (spring 42) treading carefully not to break any important remaining events!
Begin re-building event list to include late war events and TO's
Begin playtesting Alpha version
Easy!
