War in the East - Update & Restart

I played a few more turns of Gary Grigsby's War in the East, and then I had to bag it. I was basically getting destroyed along most fronts.

I was holding Moscow, but getting pushed back on both flanks despite fortifications and solid units in reasonable supply.

I was getting destroyed basically from Tula to Rostov, rolled back and units were getting trashed.

I'd lost so many trucks trying to supply the troops that I couldn't sustain another 2-3 turns before my entire supply system was going to break down. I hadn't even hit peak Ice levels in some theaters.

Meanwhile, my Finnish ski troops got a massive jump in firepower and started destroying dug-in Soviets with impunity.

Now I get why people say that "Reduced Blizzard Mode" is better for the campaign game and "Historical" blizzard for the individual scenarios.

I've seen AARs that say otherwise . . . but I keep seeing those folks making massive gains I couldn't manage, taking huge hunks of the USSR beyond what I was able to . . . and not listing their difficulty level. I suspect that on "Easy" difficulty the issues I've had with fuel and casualties wouldn't be so much. I'm on Normal, which is already pretty hard.

So I had to wuss out and drop the weather down.

It's not easier, per se, but it does drop the automatic bonuses to winter troops a bit, and it changes some of the punishing effects to a flat effect instead of a random one. So maybe I won't get attacked by the Soviets and repel them with heavy casualties and then crumple under a smaller, second attack.

I went back to the first turn before the blizzard hit, so I couldn't take advantage of the mud turns to move more panzers by train down south. I'd live with my post-mud early-winter decisions.

I don't have screenshots but I will say . . . it's still hard. I'm still getting pushed back in the South (expected) and south-center (expected as well.) I'm still losing trucks. I'm still able to make some headway with the winter-ready Finns. But it's less of a total hellscape of units getting smashed back under a torrent of Soviet troops seemingly unhindered by the Winter while my units crumble to pieces. I'm not longer running way ahead of historical German casualties in later November and early December. Heck, in the real world the Germans were trying to complete Typhoon and take Moscow in December. In my previous game I was getting torn apart across the front by US Thanksgiving.

All of that is to say I wussed out and set it on a different setting. We'll see how I do.