We had a long talk on Thursday concerning the future of our traditional Sunday Campaign (10 month now!).
Here's what we came up with:
As we all know, Moskow has its problems. However, before the last bug discussion popped up, you voted to keep on fighting.
So - especially with Hsfx 7.0 now ready - we decided to give Moscow 2 more weekends or 4 missions.
If victory for blue is not achieved in this time, than so be it.
After these 2 weekends we would like to switch to Bessarabia. I am sure that Hsfx 7.0 will provide the best ground for this campaign. Even more now because last Thursday we had trouble with a simple Coop Mission over Stalingrad with 4.12 vanilla. Apparently vanilla is unable to deal with lots of moving objects. Therefore it is more or less useless.
2 more weekends on the other hand should provide enough time for everybody to get Hsfx 7.0 up and running.
So I hope we'll see you guys over Moscow in the coming weeks and even more importantly over Bessarabia.
Of course it is more than possible that some bugs will persist even in the coming campaign. But please consider that this will affect both sides.
Even so DCG may not work perfectly, it is still the best and most interesting option we have. Coops are not very much liked by the majority of blue pilots for the obvious reasons (pilots joining too late, accidents and technical difficulties to name a few).
And of course Nephris invested quite a bit of his free time this campaign. I think it would be unfair to not even give it a try.
Please tell me what you guys think about it and where you can see a future for our common events.
Totally unrelated to this:
I took a look at your bug reports for the last 2 sessions and had little talk with some of the guys. Of course I am lacking deeper understanding of the big black box called DCG, but some things seemed kind of odd. So I'll freely state my ideas here - please do not take offense if it seems to be small minded. This is just my impression from my limited view on the course of this battle.
1. Destroying bridges in K6 and N7 on mission #1
At least the stats only show one bridge destroyed by Keben in the early moments of Mission 1.
A second bridge was destroyed in Mission 2 by Jumper.
2. Attacking Ugra to stop fuel supply
First you said '....especially when your forces are fuel-starved and only move every other mission or even less often...' and some sentences later you stated that attacking Ugra '...probably did not gain us much (if anything) in terms of weakening Blue's fuel supply or spawn rates...'.
I can understand the spawn rate issue, but the other points contradict each other in my humble opinion. If the tanks are stuck, there is no need for a further drain in fuel. If they were not, you apparently stopped them by attacking Ugra and all is fine.
Actually, I do not know if the blue tanks are really stuck at the moment (you are probably seeing more of them than I am...) but please consider that even if Ugra is completely destroyed, blue is now holding far more than half of this map. So even without Ugra there might be enough fuel left. And even if everything in terms of fuel supply would be destroyed, there is still a 20% chance for every tank column to move.
All in all, I would not say that attacking Ugra was bad decision. But it should have happened much earlier.
3. Retaking N7 if blue would stop at that bridge
I can't really see that. Of course there is always a chance. But while you spend your last 2 missions attacking the targets stated above, blue destroyed the airfield north of Balabanovo, followed the road from there to the north up to Naro, destroyed the bridge there and every moving tank or truck on the ground up to the crossing south of Kubinka.
Additionally, the bridge north-west of Kubinka Airfield was destroyed and every object at this field.
While red has reinforces east of Kubinka crossing, I do not see how those could reach and effect the frontline in a reasonable time while the roads are blocked in every direction and blue is also regularly attacking Naro and the remaining airfield to lower fuel supplies.
So all in all: Yes, there is a chance for red to retake this sector. But no, in my opinion it is not very likely - at least in the next 1 or 2 missions. This needs a very hard fight and a good shovel of luck! Far from impossible, but no safe bet!
Apparently Neph 'deactivated' destroying bridges by making them pop back up in the very next mission for the remainder of the Moscow campaign. This might aid your counterattack there.
Considering how close your fields are to the frontline, I do not see blue winning this campaign in 4 missions if you guys stand your ground. The Sturmos give you the unique ability to blast several tanks groups and uncounted columns with one pilot in one flight while blue needs multiple planes and / or many attacks for the same effect.
So if red tanks roll freely, I bet my 2 Cents on draw in 4 rounds!
Enough talking rubbish. I hope my post is understandable. If something seems rude, it was probably not intended this way!
Cheers!
GZ
P.S.: Should the worst case arise and you guys are seriously outnumbered next Sunday (because no one wants to fly buggy Moscow ever again), than type 'ROTER OKTOBER' into the chat channel.
...I've got a pair of red socks, my trusty ushanka and a polished I-16 hidden under my bed!
AAAHHHH MOTHERLAND!
