Helping The Soviets

[Matt W]

Way too much prob and stats in school and then my kid had to take it and I had to learn it all over again...

[J6A]

Oh, and to out myself, this is Joshua Gottesman (for those who know me from CSW).

Also, War of the Equator, Scenario 1, I had 2 different Ecuadoran units recover on snake-eyes.

I know Josh, but I thought you were using the J6 on purpose. Its one of the avatars you had on CSW

In places I've been a while, I'm known as Joshuaaaaaa. This eventually became J6A or J6. And some places its JaySix or JaySixA.

[waynebaumber]

Vince, Here is my idea, if the Russkies need help in a scenario,

a) Add a KOM to the order of battle for, and if more than 18 units add 2

b) KOM activation is a plus to a normal activation ie they do not require a separate activation

c) Units Rally using the KOM morale as it stands, ie a 10-0-0 KOM will rally units who roll 10 or less. There are no addition or subtractions.

d) If there are demoralized units on board the KOM must be activated

These changes should mean more effective use of KOM, personally I would also let them effect officers from Major below specially in early war scenarios

[vince hughes]

Vince, Here is my idea, if the Russkies need help in a scenario,

a) Add a KOM to the order of battle for, and if more than 18 units add 2

b) KOM activation is a plus to a normal activation ie they do not require a separate activation

c) Units Rally using the KOM morale as it stands, ie a 10-0-0 KOM will rally units who roll 10 or less. There are no addition or subtractions.

d) If there are demoralized units on board the KOM must be activated

These changes should mean more effective use of KOM, personally I would also let them effect officers from Major below specially in early war scenarios

I'd like to see more KOM action BUT I think rallying at the numbers assigned are certainly generous enough already

But remember ALL this was about SSR's only and not standard rules, so its all fit to size as one will when developing them anyway

[upintheattic]

The reason the Soviets are often so damn hard to do anything with is because they're running around with 7/6 or 7/5 morale, making them very difficult to rally. It's hard to get my head around the idea of a soldier that continuously pisses himself and then jumps back up full of passion for the Motherland!

Maybe if the proposal only applied when rallying with the aid of a leader?

Shad has hit it on the head here. The best way to simulate passion for Mother Russia without causing cognitive dissonance over mediocre RKKA morale is through the existing Kommissar rules. The Kommissar's job is to instill that passion at the point of a gun, and they do it it very well, allowing the demoralized units to roll against the Kommissar's morale rather than their own.

I didn't develop Eastern Front, but my take on that game is that Soviet troops should be tough to control in that era due to Stalin's purges of the Red Army officer corps. So the dearth of Soviet leaders relative to Soviet troop numbers and the resulting difficulty in controlling Soviet troops is valid. However, if one finds that a scenario is just too heavily weighted against the Soviets due to a lack of leaders, then I'd suggest adding a Kommissar or two to the Soviet leader list (one in small scenarios, two in medium to large ones).

[upintheattic]

I actually think that the best simulation would be provided by using the Komissars more often. . .

Whoops, looks like I should have kept scrolling down before posting a response. Matt got it in one.

[upintheattic]

Morale checks is such a fundamental part of the casualty system for PG that fiddling with it isn't a good idea.

Another way to help the Soviets is to allow the Soviet player to inject 3 C&C leader characters into the scenario. That improves the efficiency of Soviet leadership without pushing the scenario out of balance very much.

Agreed on the former point. The latter is a good idea, but if you're playing an EFD scenario, I'd only go with a full three C&C LCs in a large scenario. Stalin wouldn't have allowed that many highly capable officers to remain together in the same formation back in '41, so one or two LCs per EFD scenario is probably best unless a scenario has elements from more than one RKKA formation.