Smolensk: Barbarossa Derailed. July 22 - August 1

[@terry7907]

Great review of the action. It seems as if the entire game revolves around the logistics, which, of course, is a very realistic thing.

[@NormAppleton]

So reality?

[@usapatriot4163]

Those stacks remind me of GDW's Europa series! Entertaining!

[@john-lenin]

Another OCS game (like Baltic Gap) where they need to split supply into combat supply and fuel to show the balance between fuel for armored operations and infantry combat.

[@jeffcapuano3380]

Yes, those chits magically turn into food, fuel, or bullets at your precise moment of need! But it is the operational Combat system after all so it's basically ok by me that a greater degree of abstraction is used for logistics.

[@john-lenin]

Jeff Capuano The problem is it encourages players to starve their infantry formations to feed their armor formations. You end up with an obvious imbalance where the infantry is sitting around not doing anything, which isn’t historical. It would actually be a very easy fix. It would just require a little bit play of testing to get the right balance and that would be pretty easy to gauge by looking at the historical situation. And there are few other little things that need to be fixed, like the way withdrawals are handled and the way pocketed units can be rebuilt magically in the rear, etc.

[@jeffcapuano3380]

I do understand your point; it does look strange seeing the infantry rarely fighting. But, later in the game they will have more chances to fight than they would wish for! Maybe the game is modelling the choices by the front leaders to defy the high command and push hard with the mobile forces while they can. From that perspective, I'm ok with what the game is showing me so far. I generally lean towards "game" over "history" for these kinds of things, so I guess that makes me an OCS dilettante.

[@SHAMUS991]

@@john-lenin Hear this a lot from gamers about rules and games and whilst I agree with your point about optimizing the design for realism I do think as gamers we have a responsibility to play the intent of the game rather than seek to break it or bend it out of shape which is what I see in competitive ftf gaming.

[@wsclulin]

Great video, as usual. But it's "Smolensk", not "Smolyensk"...

[@pm71241]

At least ... it's not as bad as how English speaking wargamers pronounce "Totaler Krieg" :)

[@jeffwesevich1239]

Little heavy on the ye, but it's not bad. Next week: MahgilYOF! :)

[@pm71241]

Hmm... this "remove counters from map" thing seems like a too simplistic modelling.

[@oldsoldier9132]

Great video. Hitler's not gonna be happy when you start pulling those mech units of the dead pile and sending them down to Kiev.

[@jeffcapuano3380]

Ah, they're not dead, just combat ineffective! Buff out those dents and they'll ready to go.