Eastern Front 1941: Expert mode

The second edition of Eastern Front 1941 does waste your time with an intro/options screen.

Operation Barbarossa was a massive success, achieving Lebensraum by the end of winter. The red army scattered and useless, every major population center from Warsaw to the Urals fell under German occupation.

Not so fast! With Eastern Front 1941 far surpassing their modest sales expectations for a mail-order wargame, Atari would re-release it as a professionally published retail product. For this new edition, designer Chris Crawford would make some improvements, including a rebalanced difficulty setting to ensure that nobody wins too easily. The Wargaming Scribe attempted this years ago - now it's my turn.

This new edition includes a much nicer looking manual, decorated with vintage photos and war anecdotes, and a folding game area map with geographic annotations. There is a now a provision for saving an in-progress game to disk or cassette, something sorely lacking from the original. But most importantly, and the whole reason that I'm revisiting this version, are five new scenarios. Three of them (learner, beginner, and intermediate) are designed to gradually show you the ropes, and are followed by "advanced" which corresponds to the original 1981 version's scenario. The next, "expert 1941," is designed to kick your butt.

Negative 128 points and we haven't started yet!

Two gameplay features are introduced here. First, your army is complemented with five Fliegerkorps units who do not attack directly, but may support ground units within a radius of home base, enhancing their combat strength. The home bases may also be moved like regular units, but provide no air support during movement, and will be weaker the following turn.

Second is the introduction of unit tactics. We can march, which trades defense and attack power for mobility, entrench, which trades total mobility for defense, and assault, which trades defense and mobility for attack power.

Uses for march and entrench seem straightforward enough. If a unit is far from the front (e.g. reinforcements) and needs to cross a lot of terrain to get there, we march. Otherwise, we don't. As for entrenchment, this seems more useful to the Soviets than to myself, as they need to delay and wear me down in order to win, but I need to move and gain ground in order to win. But it could still be useful to me in situations where isolated units need to hold ground until help arrives, especially if they can't retreat.

But assault is ambivalent. I'm certainly going to be using a lot of attack power, and the option to enhance it is nice, but at what cost? We need our units to last, and damage done to German units is permanent.

I did some tests, and the results are surprising and difficult to quantify. Overall, my units inflicted about triple the muster damage and double the combat damage when in assault, and suffered only 12% more muster damage in return, but much of this is because the Soviets broke faster and more easily, and therefore took additional damage and only fought back passively. When one factors out the assaults that outright destroyed Soviet units, the numbers are all over the place, and overall we did not inflict significantly more damage to the well-entrenched divisions, but also suffered a bit less damage in return; it seems that the Soviet divisions on the receiving end of a heavy assault had less of an opportunity to "break" ours in retaliation.

Furthermore, infantry in assault mode can move a maximum of three spaces per week, down from five. Armor in assault moves up to five spaces, down from eight.

So it seems assault is worth using, but I'll need to be mindful of attrition losses, especially as this is what defeated Scribe. Standard attacks, it seems, are better to use against weakened units who will fall either way.

 

I play out the first three turns with my usual methods - simulate day-by-day play using GIMP, assume the Soviets will not move, assume every push will be successful. Assault is to be used only by armor, only when the unit begins its turn adjacent to a weaker unit, never against enemies entrenched in defensive terrain, and never against enemies that are already at the breaking point. Fliegerkorps will support the nearest armor unit in assault mode - by the end of the month I need to start moving them closer.

June 22 - July 12

 

A decent push, and I think I did a better job of avoiding gridlock than I did last time, but I'm about a week behind my progress on original difficulty. An over-aggressive push on the north perimeter left two units stranded for a turn, and this cost them some muster strength. The Romanian troops in particular are struggling; their morale breaks much more easily than Germans do, and they're also placed in unfavorable river terrain with no easy way around the Soviet cavalry guarding the banks.

Time for some numbers.

• Pink - New divisions
• Green - Minor muster damage
• Yellow - Major, irrecoverable muster damage
• Orange - Supplies blocked, combat strength halved
• Red - Destroyed
  

 

Poland/Slovakia:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
			55	115	7 Tank Army
38 Infantry Corps	120	75	73	128	8 Infantry Army
41 Panzer Corps	198	88		140	11 Infantry Army
			77		10 Tank Army
28 Infantry Corps	112	82	46	54	1 Tank Army
56 Panzer Corps	194	155	98	108	4 Infantry Army
10 Infantry Corps	101	101	91		6 Tank Army
26 Infantry Corps	104	100	169		13 Infantry Army
1 Infantry Corps	129	113		65	8 Tank Army
2 Infantry Corps	123	123
24 Panzer Corps	223	198		157	3 Infantry Army
5 Infantry Corps	136	120	55	92	3 Cavalry Army
1 Flieger Corps	219	154
40 Panzer Corps		143
6 Infantry Corps	127	122		115	6 Cavalry Army
46 Panzer Corps	192	175	118	116	10 Infantry Army
7 Infantry Corps	150	143
2 Flieger Corps	183	132
47 Panzer Corps	199	184	58	46	5 Tank Army
8 Infantry Corps	129	129
3 Flieger Corps	206	206
57 Panzer Corps	184	167		105	5 Infantry Army
9 Infantry Corps	136	136
4 Flieger Corps	237	162	118		18 Infantry Army
3 Panzer Corps	202	187	96	134	6 Infantry Army
29 Infantry Corps	111	102	52		1 Cavalry Army
14 Panzer Corps	195	158		178	12 Infantry Army
49 Infantry Corps	140	140
5 Flieger Corps	191	137
48 Panzer Corps	191	161		138	26 Infantry Army
17 Infantry Corps	119	119
4 Infantry Corps	142	97		99	3 Tank Army
				31	4 Tank Army

 

And here we can see the sobering reality of expert mode. Damage is much more severe this time around! The numbers here are combat strength, which does recover on its own, but never exceeds muster strength, which only recovers for the Soviets, not for us!

Note that four of the Fliegerkorps lost considerable combat strength, but no muster strength. Moving the airbase costs a lot of combat strength, but is not damaging.

Like before, a little over half of this army is going north around the swamp, and the rest south to meet up with the Hungarian group.

 

Hungary:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
54 Infantry Corps	106	78		40	11 Tank Army
			46	158	12 Tank Army
30 Infantry Corps	131	116	46	52	5 Cavalry Army
11 Infantry Corps	125	93	111	127	9 Infantry Army
1 Hungarian Panzer		98

This group began as three fairly strong infantry corps fighting against a strong infantry, a strong tank unit, and two feeble tank and cavalry units. That initial defense force is shattered now, though, and support is coming from around the swamps.

 

Romania:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
			75		2 Infantry Army
4 Rumanian Infantry	92	80	64	101	4 Cavalry Army
2 Rumanian Infantry	96	86
1 Rumanian Infantry	97	83	78	53	2 Cavalry Army

These guys aren't doing amazingly. Their attacks faltered, and the 4th infantry in particular got pushed around a lot. I wound up moving them away from Odessa and am trying to pincer-attack any Soviets foolish enough to try to fight in the river.

 

July 13 - August 2

The main group continues to push around the swamp, but more slowly than before. Assault mode slows us down some, and I take every opportunity I can to surround Soviet units before attacking. This creates some traffic jams, but a four-way pincer isn't often slipped out of!

North of the swamp:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
41 Panzer Corps	88	127		73	8 Infantry Army
38 Infantry Corps	75	47		55	7 Tank Army
			63	77	10 Tank Army
56 Panzer Corps	155	47	31		35 Infantry Army
26 Infantry Corps	100	93	96		27 Infantry Army
28 Infantry Corps	82	89	118		20 Infantry Army
10 Infantry Corps	101	32	92	98	4 Infantry Army
				46	1 Tank Army
1 Infantry Corps	113	85		91	6 Tank Army
2 Infantry Corps	123	110		169	13 Infantry Army
24 Panzer Corps	198	84	77		24 Infantry Army
40 Panzer Corps	143	198	81		14 Infantry Army
1 Flieger Corps	154	218	103		28 Infantry Army
5 Infantry Corps	120	115	70	55	3 Cavalry Army
46 Panzer Corps	175	164	129		40 Infantry Army
6 Infantry Corps	122	122
7 Infantry Corps	143	147	109	118	10 Infantry Army
2 Flieger Corps	132	132
4 Flieger Corps	162	187	73		22 Infantry Army
47 Panzer Corps	184	180	25	58	5 Tank Army
8 Infantry Corps	129	129
3 Flieger Corps	206	115

The fighting is heavy, the terrain difficult, air support has to spend much of this month catching up, and for each Soviet unit I destroy or cripple, another comes along! For now the advantage remains mine, and the Soviets can't really maintain a stable defense line, but my dwindling numbers do concern me.

 

South of the swamp:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
23 Infantry Corps		84	81	118	18 Infantry Army
3 Panzer Corps	187	188		96	6 Infantry Army
57 Panzer Corps	167	167	107		2 Militia Army
5 Flieger Corps	137	138
27 Infantry Corps		77
14 Panzer Corps	158	154	51	52	1 Cavalry Army
29 Infantry Corps	102	94	97		16 Infantry Army
49 Infantry Corps	140	140
9 Infantry Corps	136	127
48 Panzer Corps	161	161
17 Infantry Corps	119	119
4 Infantry Corps	97	97
11 Infantry Corps	93	117		46	12 Tank Army
30 Infantry Corps	116	116
54 Infantry Corps	78	78
1 Hungarian Panzer	98	90

The fighting here is comparably lighter, but Ukraine's rivers slow our march to relieve the Romanians to the southeast.

 

Moldova:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
			55	46	5 Cavalry Army
			93	75	2 Infantry Army
2 Rumanian Infantry	86	86	105	111	9 Infantry Army
1 Rumanian Infantry	83	29	69		4 Cavalry Army
4 Rumanian Infantry	80	52	57		7 Infantry Army
5 Rumanian Infantry		52	34	78	2 Cavalry Army

The foolish ones are us. Romanian infantry panic and break so much more easily on expert than they did in the original difficulty, to the point where I'd say they are now considerably worse than the Russians! Three units could barely injure a cavalry army from advantageous terrain, and are now reduced to taking defensive positions in their foxholes as they wait for relief from the north.

 

August begins with a few tricky situations. Up north, I have a strength advantage, but a lot of my units aren't in places where they can easily reach the action. Moving them without causing a logjam is going to be hard! We also have a few units including Panzers stuck in pincer traps, but if they hold long enough I can free them with pincer attacks of my own. South of the swamp, a few Soviet units are stuck in the mud, and while it's tempting to leave them there, they will dig their way out, and when they do, my Fliegerkorps will be sitting birds unless I pull a few of my own back from the front line. And Moldova is just a quagmire, but at least no Soviet support is coming any time soon.

 

August 3 - August 30

Riga to Rzhev:

QOL improvement - cities are now color-coded to show ownership.

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
10 Infantry Corps	32	55		63	10 Tank Army
41 Panzer Corps	127	148	74		41 Infantry Army
56 Panzer Corps	47	119		31	35 Infantry Army
28 Infantry Corps	89	85		92	4 Infantry Army
26 Infantry Corps	93	93		96	27 Infantry Army
38 Infantry Corps	47	47		118	20 Infantry Army
2 Infantry Corps	110	107		77	24 Infantry Army
1 Infantry Corps	85	74	100		34 Infantry Army
40 Panzer Corps	198	188	88		32 Infantry Army
			60		1 Guards Cavalry Army
			42		4 Guards Infantry Army

Excellent performance all-around here, with barely an ounce of strength wasted. The mediocre armies at Riga at the month's start were completely encircled and destroyed, at little cost to us. But more units are quick to replace them, and more still are on the way.

 

Minsk to Smolensk:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
47 Panzer Corps	180	45	95	73	22 Infantry Army
24 Panzer Corps	84	65	56	81	14 Infantry Army
46 Panzer Corps	164	79	108		31 Infantry Army
6 Infantry Corps	122	102	11		29 Infantry Army
7 Infantry Corps	147	145	112	103	28 Infantry Army
4 Flieger Corps	187	231	52		2 Tank Army
8 Infantry Corps	129	59	50	70	3 Cavalry Army
2 Flieger Corps	132	182	137	129	40 Infantry Army
1 Flieger Corps	218	218	57		21 Infantry Army
5 Infantry Corps	115	99	72	109	10 Infantry Army

Yikes, this is a situation. Just about everyone is either stuck in the swamp and cut off from supplies or far away from it. The only bright side - we have plenty of air support. But if we can't hold the lines here, we might not for long!

Kiev:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
			43	25	5 Tank Army
			59	81	18 Infantry Army
			80		19 Infantry Army
3 Panzer Corps	188	141		107	2 Militia Army
57 Panzer Corps	167	145	77		23 Infantry Army
23 Infantry Corps	84	83	134		18 Tank Army
49 Infantry Corps	140	91
29 Infantry Corps	94	39		97	16 Infantry Army
9 Infantry Corps	127	118
5 Flieger Corps	138	190
27 Infantry Corps	77	75
14 Panzer Corps	154	156	50	51	1 Cavalry Army
4 Infantry Corps	97	96
11 Infantry Corps	117	96
48 Panzer Corps	161	121
3 Flieger Corps	115	179
12 Infantry Corps		79

Kiev is taken, but the fighting around it has taken a toll on its besiegers. I have a few units staying behind to guard the fliegerkorps from any muddy surprises that might crawl out of the swamps.

 

Moldova:

Axis	Old strength	Current strength	Current strength	Old strength	USSR
17 Infantry Corps	119	45
30 Infantry Corps	116	95
1 Hungarian Panzer	90	29	24	55	5 Cavalry Army
54 Infantry Corps	78	53
			70	93	2 Infantry Army
			8	69	4 Cavalry Army
1 Rumanian Infantry	29	74	36	57	7 Infantry Army
2 Rumanian Infantry	86	62		105	9 Infantry Army
4 Rumanian Infantry	52	28		34	2 Cavalry Army
5 Rumanian Infantry	52	48

 

I am, at last, in control of the situation here. The Romanian's aren't great, and neither are the Hungarians, but they're trying, and with a bit of help from German infantry, the encircled Russians are breaking and will have to concede Odessa by the end of summer.

I thought that at this point, it might be interesting to compare my progress to the previous game's state at the same time, so I made a combination overlay. Transparent tokens represent my units in the August 30th state of the "advanced" game, solid tokens represent the current one.

 

Expert mode certainly slows things down! We're at least two weeks behind schedule, thanks to deadlier, more strength-depleting attrition, the Soviets' ability to entrench and stay put longer, and our own mobility-sacrificing assault mode. Suprisingly, Expert mode is also going by a bit faster for me than Advanced did - this is partly because I'm more experienced with planning out traffic, but the reduced mobility also means there's fewer moves for me to plan out each turn, and that more than offsets the added complexity of choosing tactical modes and managing the Fliegerkorps.

Discounting the Fliegerkorps and newly-arrived reinforcements, we have 3,067 units of combat strength at the front, out of 3,598 units of muster strength. In comparison, the same units at this point in advanced mode had a combined 4,353 units of combat strength, and slightly higher muster strength! The Fliegerkorps provide a maximum of about 1,000 extra combat strength, depending on how rested they are, and how close they are to the action, so I'm going to need them to make the difference if I want a chance at winning.

To be continued!