Thrashing Around in Russia - Again. RKhan (S) vs Strategator (A)

[RKhan]

Lots of excitement here.

This is the opening of turn 10 and my plan for the Smolensk area.

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In the course of moving I make unexpected progress. Is Smolensk really open?

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Goodness gracious!

t10 smolensk yes.jpg (533.66 KiB) Viewed 1177 times

Soviet mech units can really move. Axis beware.

I win 2 out of 3 of the battles nearby. The result is a small pocket.

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[RKhan]

The Red Banner Suicide Cavalry Charge is still underway on turn 10. Readers may recall the entrained unit in Minsk. Here is the end of turn situation.

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Having completely wrecked the Minsk railyard, the suicide charge has reached its zenith.

This is the end of turn 11. The brave "volunteers" are all killed on the next turn and medals are given to the families on their behalf.

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I lost about 10 cavalry divisions. Was it worth it? I think it has made Moscow safe in 1941 so Papa Stalin says yes.

[RKhan]

Returning to Smolensk, we manage to keep the Axis in pockets as they try to deal with the suicide charge. This is the end of turn 11.

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Turn 12 and the s**** hits the fan as the Red Army surges forward. Well, at least a bit...

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Situation is dire for the Army Group center. Something has to give, and on turn 13 it does.

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[RKhan]

The end of the Smolensk offensive. It reminds me of the RL Soviet offensive fought in the same place and time, but this time the southern flank gave way. Would it have gone the same way in RL if the Germans had not held the Gomel - Mogilev area? An interesting discussion topic and I suggest it would have.

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[RKhan]

In the south I decided on turn 9 to be brave and hold the Dnepr. This is turn 10 start.

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It cost me a break through, but I think it is one I can manage. I'm going to continue to stick to the river. I'm recalling the mobile units that are probably still near the Pripyat marshes and so his punch will lack strength for another turn.

Turn 11 start.

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DTown is captured. Time to run.

Here is the end of turn 13. The battle of Stalino begins. Or will it be Kharkov? Stay tuned.

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[RKhan]

Let's end with a look at Crimea.

At the start of turn 10...

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I figure I have one turn before they break through the level 3 fort. How wrong I was...

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I'm a turn behind being ready here. I scramble to get more units into the area and buy time for the forts. This is the final position on turn 13. Will it hold up?

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I know the key is to hold the ports open so I have prepped three AOGs of my best fighters to fly into the area next turn.
(I like to build the AOGs out of range and then fly up. I suspect they are sitting targets on the first turn in from reserve. Am I right?)

[RKhan]

Updating the AAR takes a bit of work and I was curious if folks are actually following these things here on the Matrix forum, or perhaps this sort of thing has all moved to Discord? I don't see much activity on any of the threads here.

Thank you for any feedback!

[Nirosi]

I read. Hopefully, more do as well.

And thanks for your work.

[TallBlondJohn]

Reading this and enjoying it very much.

[Xareon63]

I'm following this game

[tm1]

Updating the AAR takes a bit of work and I was curious if folks are actually following these things here on the Matrix forum, or perhaps this sort of thing has all moved to Discord? I don't see much activity on any of the threads here.

Thank you for any feedback!

Very impressed that you have launched Operation Bagration 3 years early, we shall have to see if The Axis can swing this game around.

[RKhan]

Updating the AAR takes a bit of work and I was curious if folks are actually following these things here on the Matrix forum, or perhaps this sort of thing has all moved to Discord? I don't see much activity on any of the threads here.

Thank you for any feedback!

Very impressed that you have launched Operation Bagration 3 years early, we shall have to see if The Axis can swing this game around.

I was thinking about it more as the battle of Yelnya with better luck on the flank attack. The Axis have definitely stopped the suicide charge and are starting to get traction in the center again. I think the fun is all in the south now, but I'm waiting for Strategator to have a chance to make an update before I post more turns. He's been very busy this week with work.

[Strategator]

Hey folks, I am back from a long, exhausting business trip, ready to give my update report for turn 10-13.

First, thank you all for your encouraging feedback and your interest in our game.

Turn 10-13 were exciting times indeed, with most substantial happenings in the center.
I will go on with our theme based approach starting with the most exiting/relevant in the center.

The most annoing mistake, to let smolensk open was very well explained by RKhan.
My problem here was, that I already feared to loose divisions, due to the ongoing supply shortage and some Units already being encircled at start of T10 as you can see here.

T10 center before.png (2.15 MiB) Viewed 907 times

In this turn it became very clear to me, that I was not in the condition to do any further offensive actions in center, but had to do everything to minimize the damage.

This led to the vital mistake leaving smolenks and the "norther flank" open enough for the sovjiets to fill the gap.
At least I managed to retreat the endangered Diviosion - for now.

t10 center after.png (1.77 MiB) Viewed 907 times

Also I was finally sure to have the Minsk region secured and only left some CAV spreading around, that could be pushed back easily in the folowing turns.

Minsk line secured t10.png (5.2 MiB) Viewed 907 times

Turn 11 I could still punch my divisions out of a full encirclement, but it's increasingly harder to get them back to the secure lines near smolenks.

Center after t11.png (3.05 MiB) Viewed 907 times

Supply is still not coming trough at this point, leaving many divisions in an pretty bad status already.

[Strategator]

The supply in AGC was fully reliant on air-supply at this point, which I guess made the difference to not fully loose the whole frontline at this early point.
I was able to hold the bad position and re-take smolenks at turn 13.
The supply re-opened at turn 13, taking the northern RR over Vitbesk.

Supply re-opened t13.png (6.71 MiB) Viewed 904 times

Also I whiped the assaulting CAV units after they were encircled themselfes. So I took a little, satisfieng revange there at least.
Anyway, as you saw in the report of RKhan, finally I had to leave two ID behind, unable to break the pocket a fourth time in turn 13.
(Wrong screenshot here, will fix that later)

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At this point center came to an hold. All in all I was happy to hold the line, loosing "only" two ID's.

So OKH came to the decision to shift priorities. Due to the situation in center we shut down the supply priorities there and startet bringing way more resources to the north, where I made good advance in turn 10-13.
One major Impact had the brave Luftwaffe, as OKL redirected many AOG to Luftflotte 1 in the north, leaving center only with the bare minimum of fighters and some bomber group (+recon of course).

Luftwaffe deployed north t11.png (7.19 MiB) Viewed 904 times

From turn 12 onwards I continued the offensive after a short halt to regroup/refit and waiting for the supply lines to fully reach the front.

AGN end turn 12.png (4.81 MiB) Viewed 904 times

[Strategator]

Also at AGN I managed to destoy his front depot on my eastern flank, which should cause him not to be able to bring much supply to this section of the front.
Maybe I overestimated this facor, but with no RR nearby I could not imagine him to have any source of good supply in this region.
In the following turns my thoughts were approached so far, as there were no offensive actions from sovjet side in this region. If the depot was a relevant point for this, who knows, maybe RKhan will tell us.

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All in all this part of the front was under good supply the whole time, the flanks are secured on both sides and air support is overwhelming.

[Strategator]

Interesting developments also in the south with the generals of OKH to decide this front to be top 2 priority from now on there was also a decent amount of air-support and air-supply available.
The spearhead was able to take D'town at turn 11 and decided to seek the battle wherever possible.

Dtown taken.png (3.25 MiB) Viewed 898 times

Anyway the intense advance, some bigger battles PzGrp 1 came to a little halt at turn 13 starting a well deserved and needed resupply.
The supply was overall good here, with Air-supply assisting the RR supply, but the fast Divisions really overextended here and were way to dispersed to concentrate enough force for decicive breakthrough.
Also the sovjets decided to do a pretty effective slow retreat, making encirclements almost impossible.
Due to the open terrain and good air-support there were many advantagous battles fought, unfortunately I do not have too many screenshots here.

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t13 south after.png (5.48 MiB) Viewed 898 times

My general thoughts here are to wait for the far-behind infantry to close-up and start re-start the advance towards stalino ASAP.
The infantry was lagging behind due to flank-securing and hex-flipping task in the rear, for which I should have used the Axis Allies earlier, but now I have to take it as it is.

[Strategator]

Another very successful "front" was again the Crimea-region where I was able to do the breakthroughs as RKhan described.
11th army used brute force here, with many pioniers, heavy werfers, much artillery and air-support and managed to take half of the crimea, including the valuable port in a single flowing advance.

This was the breakthrough battle in turn 11.

Crimea turn 11 break.png (2.95 MiB) Viewed 894 times

And here the situation after turn 13.

turn 13 after crimea.png (3.16 MiB) Viewed 894 times

Again, I am happy with the results here, the re-assignment of many SU made a fast advance possible and supply is now coming from the port.
Unfortunately the Rumanian RR was lagging behind (and will withdraw in T14), so it became clear that the crimea will only be supplied by air-drops and the port for quite some time.


Thanks for reading so far.
If you have any feedback, or you are interested in any detail- let us know. I/we will be glad to anwers

[Strategator]

I will continue with my summary of turn 14 - 16, which was not as full of exciting events as our last turns.
Actually, center can be handled very briefly here, as not much happened. Priority was to regroup, refit and resupply units, there were almost no offensive actions in this area.
This is the situation at the end of turn 16:

situation center t16.png (5.97 MiB) Viewed 827 times

Due to the new priorities OKH degraded PzGruppe 2 and dismissed the status of an assault army.

PzGrp 2 no Assault.png (6.68 MiB) Viewed 827 times

The title of an assault army was promoted to the north to 18th army, leading the charge towards leningrad.
Any new ID were send there and again, good progress was made in turn 14 and 15, crossing the luga and get a foodhold on the northern side of the river.

crossing luga t14.png (3.45 MiB) Viewed 827 times

Also there was additional air-support in form if the 1st Rum.Fighter Flotilla, which are certainly not the best equipped fighters, but the ~100 mashines did a good job side by side of the german JG.

RM fighter Flotilla north.png (3.97 MiB) Viewed 827 times

[Strategator]

In turn 15 the sky was cleared again, and in the north the army can still count on good air-support.

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At turn 16 the advance came to an halt due to increasingly bad weather, turning the ground into mud and gave 18th army and PzGrp 4 a well deserved rest.

advance north t15.png (3.73 MiB) Viewed 824 times

Here is the situation at the end of t16:

situation north end t16.png (6.09 MiB) Viewed 824 times

[Strategator]

IN the south, things turned out to be a little confusing.
At turn 14 stalino was reached, which was indeed my target before winter. Unfortunatly there was almost no infantry nearby and I did not dare to do the assault on the town with Panzers + ModDiv.

reaching stalino t15.png (4.99 MiB) Viewed 822 times

I planned to do an encirlement of the town first, which proofed to be way more complicated than I expected and finally failed in turn 16, due to the shift to my now endangered northern flank here (see below).

encirclement stalino (failed).png (4.14 MiB) Viewed 822 times

In the retrospective this the pause seems to be a mistake, I should have taken the town when I had the possibility, although I would have lost valuable tanks in this attack for sure.

But the new thread came again in form of massive CAV attacks from the Kharkov region, encirling several spreaded ID + Mountain Divisions.

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I could easily break this encirclements and managed to stop this CAV suicide much earlier this time. In the end here was no RR damaged and no Division lost.

brak encirclement.png (6.94 MiB) Viewed 822 times

But the unexpected Counter-Attack and the still lacking behind Infantry forced me to retreat my tanks and secure my progress, as weather was becoming bad already.