Changes in the value of units that we use when levying troops

As I have repeatedly mentioned, I have a lot of complaints about the official costs of many Art-of-Tactic units. Therefore, it has long been itching for me to fix up the costs so it would be easier to find the right balance of forces when recruiting armies
If truth be told, it would do no harm to have the entire value system overhauled, but I am not ready for this yet :) So far, I have limited myself to correcting the most glaring injustices, in my opinion. Namely:
1) Soviet anti-tank rifle team (6135) — 15 >>> 12 points
German anti-tank rifle team (6216) — 16 >>> 13 points
   Reason: Too expensive price for two piece units without suppression fire and assault. While there should be a lot of them in an army to really make a difference on the battlefield. If you take two platoons of German anti-tank riflemen, you spend 32 points ... It’d be better to take two Pak-35s for thirty points, or two elite infantry companies.

2) Soviet 76mm regimental guns (6145) — 23 >>> 20 points
German 75mm infantry gun (6156) — 25 >>> 22 points
    Reason: a light artillery battery should not cost more than a platoon of light tanks, even Pz II or T-26. So we synchronously took 3 points off the Germans and the Soviets.

3) Soviet 76mm ZiS-3 guns — 26 >>> 23 points
German 75mm PaK-40 guns — 28 >>> 25 points
    Reason: I’ve written before about my misunderstanding why ZIS-3 costs only a point less than the SU-76. The same applies to PaK-40: an anti-tank battery at the price of a Pz III platoon? Oh, come on!
I reduced the cost of both guns by three points. Thus, for 81 points you can take either three self-propelled guns, or three ZIS-3 plus a machine-gun platoon. And for 84 points—three platoons of Pz III or three PaK-40 batteries plus Romanian infantry (and two more points will remain "for ice cream").

4) T-26 tank platoon — 19 >>> 21 points
Pz II tank platoon — 22 >>> 23 points
Pz 38(t) tank platoon — 25 >>> 26 points
T-34 tank platoon — 35 >>> 36 points

   I added one point to each of these four tanks. This, of course, will not save the overall situation of the total underestimation of tanks in the game, but better less than nothing...

5) I-16 fighter — 22 >>> 20 points
LaGG-3 fighter — 25 >>> 23 points
   Reason: There is much room for improvement of the airplanes cost system as well. But I limited myself to reducing the cost of these two comrades, that can’t attack ground targets and are not “kings of birds” in air battles. So why “pay” so much for them?

Official changes in aircraft firepower

I’ve recently acquired my second Me 109 (a used one) and noticed discrepancies on the unit cards:

I investigated the matter and found the post from the game publisher. The thing is players complained that fighters in most cases simply eliminated each other in one turn. That’s why the publisher decreased the firepower against light aircraft.

So, the right stats against light aircraft are:

6116 German fighter Me-109 — 7 ; 4
6118 Soviet fighter LAGG-3 — 6 ; 3
6123 Dive bomber Ju-87 — 2 ; 1
6125 Shturmovik IL-2 — 1 ; 0

Game video: wiping out 8.8cm Flak

Small video from our Art of Tactic World War II game session on Feb 19, 2019:

German player (my son) had a battery of 8.8cm Flak, which was destroyed by Red Army cavalry (two hits) and Po-2 (wiped out the last gun). The video shows the final stage—bombardment by Po-2.

Experimental combat: testing the capabilities of German Mechanized Infantry Battalion

Recently I’ve played an experimental game session with my son to check what elite mechanized infantry on armored personnel carriers is capable of in combat.

Usually, I’m not eager to use Hanomags in our games as their combat capabilities in the Art of Tactic system seem to me to be too massive. Judge for yourself: five units of armored vehicles in a company, roll 10 dice on infantry with accuracy 1,2,3 in close combat and on the first hex, only -1 dice when firing while moving—all this makes it an assault unit. Almost a breakthrough tank, and not just an armored personnel carrier.

So, on March 2, 2019, we conducted a game experiment—played an offensive of an elite infantry battalion on APCs against two Soviet infantry battalions, in order to test whether Hanomag is capable of easily breaking through defenses, or their stats are more or less realistic, after all.

So, the German commander (my 14-year old son) got an elite mechanized battalion from the Großdeutschland regiment:

- 1 elite infantry company

- 2 paratrooper companies (just as elite infantry, not airborne)

- 3 Hanomag units

- 1 mortar platoon + 1 machine-gun platoon on a motor transport column (Opel Blitz)

   169 points according to official unit costs

This troops were opposed by two Red Army infantry battalions commanded by me:

- HQ

- 6 rifle companies

- 2 machine-gun platoons

- 2 mortar platoons

   114 points according to official unit costs

The balance of combat power is 1.5 to 1 for the Germans. Notice the absence of anti-tank weapons on the Soviet side.

According to the game scenario, the Germans had two tasks: capture the village (20 victory points) and reach the last field hex (10 points). Also, the cost of every unit fully eliminated will be added to the victory points of each side.

TURNS 1-2

So, here we go. Here’s the order of battle and German movement for turns 1&2:

At the end of Turn 1, all Soviet units who could lie in ambush did that. But the 26th company in the village never got a chance to: on the very first turn two Hanomag units opened fire on it while moving, rolled 18 dice on 1,2 and had 9 hits! The entire infantry company was wiped out, even the +2 village defensive bonus didn’t help...

At the end of turn 2 the Germans reached their assault positions.

TURNS 3-4

Mortars and machine-guns disembarked from the trucks, while all the elite infantry is still in their personnel carriers.

On Turn 4, two Hanomags fired while moving on 1,2,3, and fully eliminated another infantry company that was on an open defensive position.

In the meantime, the German machine-gun platoon marched to the vicinity of the village to come into firing position, but ran into Soviet machine-gun ambush and was wiped out (the distance was three hexes, but the Soviets were shooting on 1,2 due to the ambush).

TURN 5

One of the Hanomag units (with paratroopers still inside) entered the village and ran into an ambush. Soviet infantrymen rolled 6 dice on 1,2,3,4 due to the bonuses for ambush and village, but managed to destroy only one Hanomag, and it was the one without infantry (as paratroopers have the quantity of 4, not 5). In return, the APCs wiped out 2/5 of the infantry and suppressed it.

29th company tried to come closer to the village, was fired at by one of the Hanomag companies, lost 2/5 of its men and was suppressed.

The camouflaged Hanomags with elite infantry still inside moved and fired on the 5th mortar platoon, destroyed half of it and suppressed the rest.

TURN 6

German mortars and two Hanomag units shoot at the hex with light woods, wipe out the entire machine-gun platoon, destroy another 2/5 of the already suppressed 29th company, and take off 1 defense point from the still ambushed 28th company.

After that, the 28th company joins the close combat in the village, but without luck. The Hanomags in the village finish off the suppressed 27th company.

Meanwhile, Soviet commander starts a bold sortie on the left flank—24th company comes out of ambush and is clearly aiming to reach the firing positions of German mortars.

TURN 7

The suppressed 29th company in light woods endured suppressive fire from German mortars without new losses!

Close combat in the village continues. Soviet infantry destroys one more Hanomag (plus 1/4 of the paratroopers inside), and suffers no losses itself—thanks to the +2 defensive bonus. Moreover, the Hanomags are suppressed, so they can’t disembark the infantry!

The camouflaged Hanomags are moving further to the Soviet rear finishing off the 5th mortar platoon on their way.

At least one German infantry company finally disembarks from personnel carriers.

And the 24th company on the Soviet left flank comes close to German mortars without entering their kill zone.

TURN 8

The 2nd Soviet machine-gun platoon finally has a suitable target. So it comes out of ambush and destroys 2/5 of the German elite infantry. HQ joins the feast and opens suppressive fire on the elite Germans too, having three hits on “1” and finishing them off!

24th company destroys 1/2 of German mortars, re-throws stray shots on the trucks and eliminates the entire motor transport column.

In the village, the second Hanomag unit joins the close combat. The defending Soviet infantrymen lose another 2/5 of personnel while destroying two more Hanomags from the suppressed unit (with paratroopers inside!) Moreover, Soviet infantry isn’t suppressed itself—it passes fortitude test, having only “4” of fortitude!

Meanwhile, the camouflaged Hanomags reach the last hex on the Red Army rear and earn 10 victory points for breaching Soviet defenses.

So, eight turns are over. The Soviet defense is obviously overrun, but the German commander didn’t manage to capture the village and suffered heavy casualties: entire elite company, 3/4 of a paratrooper company, four Hanomags, 1/2 of the mortar platoon, and the whole motor transport column.

All totaled, the German won on points 82:63.

But we wanted to see, how many turns would Germans need to finally mop up the village. So we continued playing.

TURN 9

The 29th company passed the fortitude test at the end of the previous turn and joined the close combat in the village. Together with the 28th they finish off the suppressed Hanomags, while the 28th loses 1/5 of its men.

On the southern flank, suppressed German mortars are holding their position in close combat! (we forgot that in the 3rd edition of the Game Rules suppressed units should retreat if being assaulted…)

The camouflaged Hanomags rejoin the battle.

TURNS 10-11

24th company finally finishes off the mortar crews and comes closer to the village.

Paratrooper company disembarks from APCs.

And the village hasn’t still been captured! 1/5 of infantry company and 3/4 of HQ are continuing the closed combat with the full Hanomag unit.

TURN 12

The camouflaged Hanomags attack the village and wipe out the Soviet HQ. But the 28^th company is still there, having only 1/5 of its strength left!

TURN 13

It finally happened—the Germans have mopped up the village. The 24th company didn’t manage to go into combat there as it was fired at and suppressed by the paratroopers. End of game.

MY CONCLUSIONS

1) In Art of Tactic, Hanomags can really be used as assault vehicles against infantry defenses, and not only as personnel carriers. Especially, if the opponent is weak in anti-tank weapons.

2) Key to success when using Hanomags is in choosing the optimal time and place to disembark infantry.

My son had some troubles with the latter: one paratrooper company was just traveling inside Hanomags until the 11th turn, while another one was destroyed while sitting inside APCs and never got a chance to fight. On the other hand, his elite company had disembarked in the wrong place, at the wrong time—when the last machine-gun ambush wasn’t uncovered yet.  

The game lasted 1.5 hours, and we both enjoyed every minute of it!

Our grand battle this winter

This winter I and my son played the most large-scale Art-of-Tactic battle ever for us—a 5-day operation under the code name "Battle for Lutsk".
It lasted for 40 day turns and 16 night turns and included a massive German offensive and not less massive Soviet counter-offensive. We played it from January 25 till February 7, 2019. I hope to find time someday to write a game report about it...

Puzzled by the cost of ZIS-3 and SU-76

I was very glad to see the SU-76 self-propelled gun (6239) added to AoT game units. But once again, I’m puzzled on how Zvezda determines the cost of units ...

This time I kind of astounded by this couple: SU-76 costing 27 points and ZIS-3 (6253) for 26 points:

The self-propelled gun costs only one point more, although it is armed with the same ZIS-3 gun. But at the same time it is mobile, armored and can assault... Moreover, the self-propelled gun hits the target on 1 & 2 on the third hex as well, and it rolls 13 dice against infantry instead of ZIS-3’s 11…. Where does the almost equal cost come from then?!A typical game situation: at a distance of three hexes an infantry company sits in defense in a village (total defense=4). With suppression fire, SU-76 will throw 20 dice at “1, 2”! This is an average of 7 hits, so the infantry loses three items. On its turn, ZIS-3 will throw 17 dice hitting only on 1, which corresponds to approx. three hits; infantry will do without losses.

The towed gun has the advantage only in shooting at armored vehicles. ZIS-3 throws 8 dice on heavy tanks, 9 on medium tanks, 12 on light ones, and 13 on armored cars. SU-76, respectively, 7, 8, 10, and 11. How significant is this advantage? Let’s review more typical game examples.

Example 1. ZIS-3 and SU-76 are on defensive in a village. Pz. IV is approaching on 3 hexes towards each of them. On the next move, the gun throws 14 dice at 1, which means an average of 2 hits. The tank doesn't give a hoot, even all his defense points are not removed. In response, Pz. IV throws at the gun 17 dice for 1 suppressively, this is closer to three hits. Protection = 2 (own + village), so the tank destroys one gun.

SU-76, in turn, throws 12 dice at the panzer, but at “1, 2”, and these are 4 hits—the platoon of Pz. IV loses one vehicle. In response, the tankmen throw 15 dice for 1: three hits, and they just removed the defense of the self-propelled gun (2 own + village). As we see, in such a situation a larger number of dice did not help the towed gun.

Example 2. ZIS-3 and SU-76 are in ambush on the outskirts of the city. A Pz II platoon is approaching them by two hexes. The ambushed gun rolls 12 dice for “1, 2, 3” — 6 hits, all tanks destroyed. SU-76 throws 10 for the same “1,2,3” — five hits, all the tanks are destroyed as well. The same result.

That’s why I can’t see much logic in the official cost of these units. What shall I do: make ZIS-3 cheaper or the self-propelled gun more expensive?

By default, I tend to make artillery cheaper. For example, in our games we count the Soviet regimental gun to be worth 20 points instead of 23. So I would suggest reducing the cost of the ZIS-3 by three points too—down to 23. Thus, at 81 points, you can take either three self-propelled guns, or three ZIS-3 plus a machine-gun platoon. If the player has to defend, then the latter is more like a real alternative. Otherwise, it’s always more reasonable to choose SU-76…