Case blue, Isokron(axis) vs Bonners

[Isokron]

Turn 9:

In the north he start pulling back from the don and next turn I might be able to encircle Voronezh. Since im not allowed to go further there I start shuffling corps to the south. I will probably rail some to the Rostow area so that the breakout from there can be fast when he decides to retreat.

Most of the rest of the front except Rostow he pulls back faster than I advance so not much fighting happens. Most notable gain is Millerowo which will give me some extra prestige.

[Isokron]

Turn 10:

Not much happening this turn, he pulls back from Voronezh which effectively ends the war in the north and i start moving more stuff south.

Other parts of the front I just continue moving forward grinding down some units in the process and waiting for an opening which should come now that I have soon passed the bad terrain and he has a big plain to cross.

Biggest events of the turn comes in his part of the turn where he counter attacks with his airforce but suffers more than 100 aircraft losses for a few tanks on mine.

[Isokron]

Turn 11:

The north is peaceful, feels weird leaving the front hanging in thin air like that, all mobile units moving south.

In the south (well middle of the area of active operations) my panzers starts what might be a breakthrough of his front.

Around Rostow there is some quite fierce fighting, luckily he moves troop into a hex and builds a fort in it in the wrong order, resulting in a free fort for me.

[Isokron]

Turn 12:

My first pz divisions from the north gains contact with the retreating soviets in the mid, hopefully they will be able to make something happens over the next few turns.

Further south the 5TA appears before my breakthrough making any plans for a fast attack there impossible, I try to form a good defensive formation and hope he is not able to run me over there.

Around Rostow I force the last of his troops away from the eastern railway so next turn I should be ready to start crossing the river to the east of the city.

In the air the luftwaffe seems to have reconsolidated their differences with the rng gods and shoot down 60 fighters for 10 losses. Total losses stand at 298k to 36k.

[Isokron]

Turn 13:

In the north I start scouting forward to try to find where his front is. I also take a town over the don to cause some losses and annoy him.

In the center my panzers is now on top of his retreating infantry, decimating about one division per turn hopefully.

As I feared his 5TA immediately attack my other spearhead however he seems to have driven them to hard resulting in low readiness and a failed attack. I do some limited counter attacking driving of a tankcorps. Hopefully I will be able to keep a readiness advantage and grind him down here.

Around Rostow I advance on a three hexes wide front to the east of the city crushing most of his forces there and hopefully giving me enough of an advantage that I can cut of the city if he doesn't retreat.

[Isokron]

Turn 14:

In the north the daring crossing of the don by 88 inf div sends his whole front into paniced flight, OKH has to send out a whole truckload of knights crosses. Since I stipulated at the start of the game that I would continue advancing in the north if he didn't put up some sort of credible front I start doing exactly that.

In the center my mobile units continue harassing his retreating infantry, we will see how long he can keep the integrity of the front like this.

After Stavka gets a quick refresher about readiness the 5TA beats a quick retreat.

The most interesting development happens in Rostow where one to many failed counterattacks by him leaves the eastend defenders with desperately low readiness. I grab the opportunity and attack with everything I have giving me the hex and a very convenient bridge. Now I can say for sure that Rostow will be encircled within 2-3 turns if he doesn't retreat.

[Isokron]

Turn 15:

Still now sign of a soviet front in the north, advance continues.

In the center my panzers press on and his front show clear signs of starting to crumble in front of them. Meanwhile some of my infantry divisions in the back train their drive by shooting skills on an unlucky cavalry division at the north side of the don.

Further south I somewhat more cautiously continue to follow the retreating 5TA.

He choose to let most of his troops remain inside Rostow leading to my bridgehead rapidly mushrooming. I will probably be able to encircle Rostow on the next turn while other troops rapidly drive into the Caucasus.

[Keunert]

really bad move to let the troops sit in Rostow. he should have pulled back on turn 13

[Isokron]

Turn 16:

He retreats almost everywhere leading to lot of running and little fighting. Only significant news is that I have now trapped 60k of his troops at Rostow.

As the front are rapidly expanding I have moved to a smaller zoom level.

[Isokron]

Turn 17: Rain

Due to the weather I decide to let almost all units rest and rebuild supply stockpiles. Only exceptions are in a few areas where I'm still in contact with the enemy and can attack instead of move (where the weather high move ap cost -> lost readiness connection is broken)

Due to the the stale frontline I will include some graphs instead. The only thing that look somewhat worrying is the oil but a few oilcards should hopefully tide me over until I can take over a few oilwells.

[Isokron]

Turn 18:

Fair weather and my offensive is back. I liquidate the Rostov pocket killing about 50k troops while he turn on full sir Robin mode along the rest of the front so not much to report really.

[Isokron]

Turn 19:

In the north I have been ordered to take two towns on the railroad northwest from stalingrad so I guess I can as well take the whole thing.

In the center he seems to be preparing to defend the don in front of Stalingrad so there might be one last big battle perhaps.

In the south there is still large undefended areas which might allow me to cut off some of his last defenders.

[Isokron]

Turn 29: Stavka capitulates

I didn't post the last turns since the game was already decided, check Bonners AAR if you want to see them.

I guess the major strategic mistake I did in this game was that I had a clearly formulated plan to try to encircle him either by route A or route B. But when it became time to decide I tried doing both and failed at both. The plan was probably not going to work anyway but that really put the nail in the coffin for it. Luckily he did some mistakes to and I managed to get at least some surrounded armies from it.

Other than that I don't think I did any huge blunders although I did lot of small tactical mistakes mostly to do with unit move ordering etc.

[Bonners]

Cheers for the game again Isokron, totally out played me, literally from turn two and as you said, I reckon the game was probably decided about turn four. I'd be interested in your opinion on the dismissal rule. I think in my next PBEM that I will play with the dismissal rule on, because that way once the game has reached its inevitable conclusion there is no option to carry on. In this game I was carrying on because I was trying to give you a game, and it sounds like you were doing the same for me; whereas in fact the game was effectively over as a contest.

Looking back at my AAR that would have been roughly about 7th August, so up to that point I would've had to defend my lines rather than carry on retreating as the no step back order was causing my prestige to fall.

I reckon for my next game I wouldnt play with any house rules apart from one. I would leave the German player with freedom to advance in the north of the map as long as they dont use the north edge of the map to complete any encirclements.

[Keunert]

Congratulations on your win Isokron!
and also thumbs up for Bonners to avoid the huge center pocket.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Bonners

I'd be interested in your opinion on the dismissal rule. I think in my next PBEM that I will play with the dismissal rule on, because that way once the game has reached its inevitable conclusion there is no option to carry on.

Best feature of the game imo, and your missing out much not using it.

[Bonners]

ORIGINAL: wallas

ORIGINAL: Bonners

I'd be interested in your opinion on the dismissal rule. I think in my next PBEM that I will play with the dismissal rule on, because that way once the game has reached its inevitable conclusion there is no option to carry on.

Best feature of the game imo, and your missing out much not using it.

I was thinking that, in my game with Olivier I'm fairly certain we've got it on, have to check with him as he set it up. However, in my game with Reconvert the Trappenthingy game it is off. If we'd had it on, unless I misunderstand the rule he would have been dismissed on 3rd June for having zero prestige for more than three turns. It is not like he turned tail either, he fought really hard on the offensive in the early turns and if anything he is having the better of the game.

So yes, I am in favour, but it may need some fine tuning for some scenarios?