Most people aren't going to like this thread, the Reason i posted this thread is that i think that the single most important Campaign of the entire war was Operation Barbarossa (Victory here would have led to German overall victory or at-least a Cold War type peace and defeat here meant defeat everywhere).
It consumed 95% or more of the Soviet War effort, 75-80% of the German war effort and 90% of the German allies/puppets war efforts (Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland etc, though Finland wasn't a puppet and wasn't even formally allied in the anti-Comintern pact).
It also partially covers some- What Ifs of the North Africa Campaign.
In War, Russian Rail and Euro Rail (read: German) was different and this caused a lot of problems.
So, to increase the complexity of the War, i propose some modifiers -
(this will not be applicable to Pre-War Polish Lands and the Baltics and thus mainly apply in the operational regions of Heersgruppe Mitte and Heersgruppe Sud)
As soon as you attack (either as Russia or as Germany) - infra becomes "0" (standard HOI rules).
If you have no engineers, then time taken should be 7-10 days depending on "Assets" of the province (smaller and less useful province taking lesser time and so on.. ).
If you have X engineers attachments (X being >1), time taken is reduced by 1 day. (no cumulative nonsense and Engineer charges).
If you have a "Railway Conversion Battalion" (only available to Germans) - "Eisenbahntruppen", then time taken reduced by further 2 days to convert the Railway.
Eisenbahntruppen should have nearly "0" offense/defense abilities but should be only good to convert railways in USSR, Asia, North Africa etc. (you can loan 1 Battalion to the Italians once Rommel lands to help the Mersa-Martuh to Alexandria Railways). You can start with 5 battalions and gain 1 Battalion per year of War, which will mean 8 battalions at start of Operation Barbarossa (not too less but not too much to gain instant conversion).
Why i propose these is, Nazi Germany lacked Trucks and thus was dependent on Railways, you can build a mountain of Trucks as USA and start a "Red Ball Express" but most countries except USA cannot do that.
Some more info of these troops is found here and in several books - https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/eisenbahntruppen-railway-troops/
If you have 1 Eisenbahntruppen battalion + 1 Engineer battalion, then time is cut to 4-7 days for each HEX to get converted, a saving of nearly 50% or more. Of course, if you lose a battalion, you incur costs and these should be limited in production and costly to reconstruct.
A trade-off between relentless advance and reckless conversion a la Guderian or take a cautious approach of von Bock or von Kluge is brought out with this tactic.
Another trade-off is that the USSR cannot advance fast in their counter-attacks as they will have to re-convert railways without such specialized equipment earning your armies "Breathing Space in between attacks".
Till the time Railway is converted, supply cannot pass and Supplies should run along the Railway lines and Major cities should be able to become "Forward Supply Bases (FSB)" like- Minsk, Smolensk, Kiev, Rostov etc. making them extremely essential to capture or defend.
Once an FSB is captured, supply in a 1 HEX region should be 100% but decline for every Hex by 10% and for more than 10 hexes, you get only 10% of total supply sent. (makes War in Pripyats very difficult). Thus it makes sense to keep the Panzers on the Railway lines or immediately adjacent at all times of the game and makes sense for the Russians to attack on a wide angle away from Railway lines. (if you have an excess of Trucks you will lose less supply).
Supply gets pushed forward and the Germans need to capture and hold the railway lines, each time a railway head/FSB or a Railway hex changes hands they lose supplies and thus holding Railways and converting them becomes very important.
Also, extra incentive to the USSR to keep launching the Counter-Attacks and cut of supply using Cavalry, Partisans etc.
It consumed 95% or more of the Soviet War effort, 75-80% of the German war effort and 90% of the German allies/puppets war efforts (Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland etc, though Finland wasn't a puppet and wasn't even formally allied in the anti-Comintern pact).
It also partially covers some- What Ifs of the North Africa Campaign.
In War, Russian Rail and Euro Rail (read: German) was different and this caused a lot of problems.
So, to increase the complexity of the War, i propose some modifiers -
(this will not be applicable to Pre-War Polish Lands and the Baltics and thus mainly apply in the operational regions of Heersgruppe Mitte and Heersgruppe Sud)
As soon as you attack (either as Russia or as Germany) - infra becomes "0" (standard HOI rules).
If you have no engineers, then time taken should be 7-10 days depending on "Assets" of the province (smaller and less useful province taking lesser time and so on.. ).
If you have X engineers attachments (X being >1), time taken is reduced by 1 day. (no cumulative nonsense and Engineer charges).
If you have a "Railway Conversion Battalion" (only available to Germans) - "Eisenbahntruppen", then time taken reduced by further 2 days to convert the Railway.
Eisenbahntruppen should have nearly "0" offense/defense abilities but should be only good to convert railways in USSR, Asia, North Africa etc. (you can loan 1 Battalion to the Italians once Rommel lands to help the Mersa-Martuh to Alexandria Railways). You can start with 5 battalions and gain 1 Battalion per year of War, which will mean 8 battalions at start of Operation Barbarossa (not too less but not too much to gain instant conversion).
Why i propose these is, Nazi Germany lacked Trucks and thus was dependent on Railways, you can build a mountain of Trucks as USA and start a "Red Ball Express" but most countries except USA cannot do that.
Some more info of these troops is found here and in several books - https://notquitemechanised.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/eisenbahntruppen-railway-troops/
If you have 1 Eisenbahntruppen battalion + 1 Engineer battalion, then time is cut to 4-7 days for each HEX to get converted, a saving of nearly 50% or more. Of course, if you lose a battalion, you incur costs and these should be limited in production and costly to reconstruct.
A trade-off between relentless advance and reckless conversion a la Guderian or take a cautious approach of von Bock or von Kluge is brought out with this tactic.
Another trade-off is that the USSR cannot advance fast in their counter-attacks as they will have to re-convert railways without such specialized equipment earning your armies "Breathing Space in between attacks".
Till the time Railway is converted, supply cannot pass and Supplies should run along the Railway lines and Major cities should be able to become "Forward Supply Bases (FSB)" like- Minsk, Smolensk, Kiev, Rostov etc. making them extremely essential to capture or defend.
Once an FSB is captured, supply in a 1 HEX region should be 100% but decline for every Hex by 10% and for more than 10 hexes, you get only 10% of total supply sent. (makes War in Pripyats very difficult). Thus it makes sense to keep the Panzers on the Railway lines or immediately adjacent at all times of the game and makes sense for the Russians to attack on a wide angle away from Railway lines. (if you have an excess of Trucks you will lose less supply).
Supply gets pushed forward and the Germans need to capture and hold the railway lines, each time a railway head/FSB or a Railway hex changes hands they lose supplies and thus holding Railways and converting them becomes very important.
Also, extra incentive to the USSR to keep launching the Counter-Attacks and cut of supply using Cavalry, Partisans etc.
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