Power Hour - Combat Mission: Black Sea

I played this scenario on the Russian side and it was no fun to play.

1.) At the biginning your setup zone is totally limited to some fixed positions in trenches and strangely shaped earthen pits for tanks, (which have proven to be very impractical) and can hardly be changed.

2.) The Americans are attacking with helicopters but on the Russian side you have only FIVE anti-air SAM rockets, which is absolutely not enough. The Russians are exposed to the helicopters like sitting ducks with no ability to fend off the air raid.

3.) The forces are extremely unbalanced. The American side is clearly in the advantage because it has eight (!) Abrams M1 super tanks, which ward off everything in advance and always track down the enemy immediately and everywhere. The Russians, on the other hand, only have five T-90s and a pile of scrap metal.

This scenario is fun to play on the U.S. side vs. the AI in single player but in multiplayer mode I strongly dissuade, because it is designed much too rigid.

Hi Shorker, sorry you didn't enjoy the map - thank you for taking the time to play it, however.

Scoring system needs to align better with briefing. No points are awarded for exiting the map but rather for avoiding casualties, killing Russians and conserving ammo. I think it would be challenging to achieve a US victory even with superiority of equipment

I played this as a mirror game with Widukind. We disagreed on balancing. He felt it was balanced I felt it moderately pro Russian. On the face of it there is a huge weapon superiority for the US in both our games the US forces almost wiped the board of Russian defenders but the result was still a Russian tactical victory. There is no doubt that the scenario would benefit from the defender having more flexibility in positioning their forces including trenches and mine fields. I personally think the scoring needs to be re-thought, though Widukind would disagree (and I may be influenced by bad luck on my part - I lost seven(!) M-1's to bogging when I played the offensive.)

For Both player an challenge

Thanks and glad you enjoyed you two; Tumatauenga I agree with your frustration re: points for exiting. That would be ideal; sadly you cannot give points for exiting. "Exit" objectives are tied intrinsically to "destroy" objectives.

It was fun but pretty hard for the Russian side.

The scenario seems well-balanced, but the victory conditions for each side are very different.

The US have a definite superiority of equipment, but they must go slowly and carefully due to their victory conditions (re minimal losses, reduced ammo usage etc).

It was an exciting battle!