Review of the Vistula Army General campaign (Soviet)

[Telephone]

I just finished the (very long) campaign on the Soviet side and thought I'd share a few thoughts about the expansion because I've not seen many posts about the campaign as a whole. (Obligatory note: I mention what might be called 'spoilers.') Overall, I enjoyed it and am thankful this exists. It's a big improvement for those of us who play mostly single player. I'm satisfied.

Did you finish the campaign as well? What did you think about it?

A few notes I've categorized in general 'good' and 'bad' sections:

THE GOOD:

First of all, I appreciated the massive scale. The campaign is several times larger than the four original campaigns. Thanks to Eugen for listening to those who wanted an epic campaign. This scratches that itch for a grand army group showdown. I destroyed 66 battalions and wracked up 20,000+ infantry casualties inflicted. Massive and epic.

Playing as the Soviets, the campaign is pretty challenging. I completed it on Turn 9 by relentlessly attacking. It is possible to seize Minsk Mazowiecki on Turn 1 unopposed. It is also possible to take Siedlice during Turn 1 or Turn 2. I could've pushed up unopposed to Radzymin as well but thought better of it due to the warning in the campaign briefing that German armor reinforcements were on their way. It ended up falling last in my campaign. Overall, the units you're up against are very challenging elite German battalions. The difficulty of this campaign seems a lot higher than other campaigns. A nice challenge.

The campaign mechanic of trickling in German formations at set times is a welcome addition. It makes the campaign a lot more engaging, especially in the center north of Minsk Mazowiecki, where it's a game of maneuver. The unit mix on the Soviet side is full of variety as well. For instance, I found it pretty difficult to push with the tiny motorized rifle battalions in the West, but appreciated the heft of the rifle regiments' ability to hold a line.

The German armored divisions are very challenging as well. Given the number of T34-85s and IS-2s you have, there are many opportunities for some truly epic engagements against Panthers and Tigers.

Gone are the city engagements that you have to autoresolve. This is a very welcome change.

THE BAD:
The AI is extremely passive on the campaign map. The Germans regularly did not attack in any meaningful way toward the objectives I'd taken apart from a few abortive efforts. The AI also failed to hold key chokepoints like the river crossing in the far east. I crossed this unopposed and eventually encircled every infantry and armored division East of Minsk Mazowiecki. German formations in the East hurried West to close the gap in the frontline, but they sure took their time. They rushed in haphazardly, and I just encircled or destroyed single units.

The Routed/Disorganized mechanic is pretty broken. The key to attacks are to line up 3 formations you can bring in during Phase A and use all the points you can to flood the field and use the Russian mass attack to overwhelm the enemy. Tough against armor or pesky 88s, but Smart Orders make arty management so easy that you can keep tough units "falling back" in perpetuity. The main point is this: If you get a Major or Total Victory, every enemy formation is Routed. If you achieve this type of victory across a sector via several attacks, you can forget about a coherent counterattack. Then you can destroy full enemy formations that never arrived by, say, Phase C just because they're now routed. Gamey, yes, but totally unrealistic. Seems like an easy fix to edit this mechanic out.

The game just ends when you seize all four objectives. This tracks with the other campaigns but doesn't fit for this one, given that you're told Germans will counterattack and you have to HOLD the objectives. I seized Radzymin last, but the three formations I pushed over the objective were surrounded by elite Panzer division units. No chance for counterattack.

This has been posted elsewhere, but the battle map AI is pretty passive. If you blunt the initial Phase A and Phase B waves, you typically win easily. On one map, my recon spotted six Panthers just hanging out in a field doing nothing. What gives?

The casualties report still does not display total number of battles. I fought nearly 100, but it'd be nice if this function finally worked.

A FEW NEUTRAL THOUGHTS:
Refreshing at the start of a turn to have 3 Action Points for every type of unit except Recon, which has 4, is nice and makes for more dynamic gameplay. But why wasn't this change announced? Is it a bug, perhaps?

Bunkers continue to be extremely over-powered. They're little wooden structures. They can get pinned, but it's totally unrealistic that they can withstand multiple HE shells and artillery bombardments. ...Alas, this may never change.

Also, since when do entrenched units that reinforce on the defensive get to port in their bunkers? Multiple times I attacked an unentrenched unit that was reinforced by an entrenched one and found, to my surprise, that I was up against bunkers. Is this working as intended?

[Scotters]

Thanks for the detailed and well though out review.

[BHunterSEAL]

Telephone の投稿を引用：

Also, since when do entrenched units that reinforce on the defensive get to port in their bunkers? Multiple times I attacked an unentrenched unit that was reinforced by an entrenched one and found, to my surprise, that I was up against bunkers. Is this working as intended?

I think this is as intended for fortified units reinforcing in Phase A--in other words, you're not allowed to just bypass fortifications by choosing to attack a battalion that isn't allowed to fortify. I think it makes sense, since generally these units are in close proximity (the exception being fortified Recon).

My own feedback: as Germany, the player gets dialogue notifications for several reinforcement groups that arrive, but in the case of both armored brigades in 4. Panzer-Division, the units were either present at the start or appeared on prior turns, resulting in duplicate units. Both Gruppe Christern and KG von Gaudecker get fresh copies of their entire force on July 31 and Aug 2 respectively--I think these are meant to appear when the dialogue fires but were mistakenly already present. These are high-quality battalions so the Germans wind up with much more strength than they should.

The Soviets appear to stop purchasing reinforcements in early August despite new battalions unlocking almost every turn. This may be because I cut off the deployment routes to the east (28- a Armia and 70-ya Armia) but as far as I can tell none of their Armies are getting new units.

In all, the Soviet AI seems to throw in the towel by August 1 or 2, with only Siedlce secure and plenty of forces to attack with.