The "What am I doing wrong AAR" for 2nd Kharkov

[heyhellowhatsnew]

Germany Turn 6:

When we last left Colonel Wilhelm Klink and the gang, this was the map:




The major problem lied here:



With the 44th encircled.

After taking a couple of days off to clear my mind, I realize the overall situation isn't so bad. The only group that stands in the way between the 44th and my units are




So, we're going to soften them up a bit with an Air bombardment meant to hurt infantry (See i'm learning y'all!)

Now to remember which one kills all their mans



For future reference and for people newer to the game myself and for future reference to myself:

Fighters are best used for recon, attacking enemy airfields and escorting bombers and dive bombers. Aka these guys, their icon is JG:

http://i.imgur.com/gERWh8S.jpg

Dive bombers are for artillery and tanks. Aka these guys, their icons are StG and SchG:
http://i.imgur.com/WAcZJwA.jpg

Level bombers are for infantry and other soft targets. Aka these guys, their icons are KG:



What do StG, SchG, JG, and KG stand for? Don't ask me, i'm an American, I was taught that only the US beat the Nazis! And we did in the battle of Pearl Harbor too!

Anyway, since this is an important mission, we'll have fighter escort our level bombers, aka KGs (Do wait I do, use mnemonics.. KG stands for Kill Guys, because thats what they do, get it?!) and JGs (Jumping Grapes... I couldn't think of anything better).



Lets hope this works



So it kinda did? Maybe? There is an airfield somewhere I don't know where but as soon as I find it I am going to make it into a crater.

These jerks still have a high level of entrenchment so i'm going to arty them too. I hope all artillery is the same unlike planes. I mean it would make sense right? Giant explosion boom, no more cover.

Then again, I used to think that fighter planes could mow down infantry because all my education came from hollywood movies.

Prepare the bombardment!


Yahooo! Entrenchment is down to single digits and its time to liberate our boys in the 44th



Godspeed, gentlemen:



Success!



Sorry i couldn't capture the battlescreen, I was too excited. This DC:CB is tense (and good.

Ok, now for Operation Get the Eff out of that spearhead.

Unfortunately, Operation GTFO is stymied by a disease called lack of movement points. I do strategic transfers for some of the 44th. We're not out of the woods yet as this spearhead is still surrounded by nasty Russians just waiting to kill us.



As so we must think of a good defensive plan that combines making sure the 44th still has an exit route, but a way to give the soviets a punch in the nose so they think twice about attacking that lone unit... hmm

I decide that i will take out the 270th and the AT unit, and then move my 297th to secure the area around Chugulev, since they have very big angry stacks there and we need to form up some sort of line again to protect the city.

Arty the 270th:



Airstrike:



Attack:



There was a tank division that was near the town (the 24th) that bothered me. I decided to punch their nose a bit.



But they had flak

Anywho, after a bunch of movements, this is what we end up with:



Note that I think this line is shaky at best. I even tried to blow the bridge to town. I failed. *shakes fist at Schultz*

Now onto the south, or what I like to call, feel good time for me because I get to attack and kill and drink out of soviet skulls for what they did to me in the middle



The first attack I make is against the 335th. The idea being that I want to encircle Izium and take the Donetz.

The 384th does its job and we move up. What I really WANTED to do was block that railline, but alas, movement points.

Next up we're going to tighten these lines up.. Dear god what was I thinking when i first started this scenario.



Anyway, we're now going to attack the 3/3 regiment of the 333rd. That was the 2/3 regiment or whatever is encircled and can be ignored.

Arty party! (not shown, took the wrong pic)

Attack:
They panic because they see my bulging muscles Everything is going according to plan (I make these plans up on the fly, which is why i'm the worst general.)

Lets move up a bit:




And then attack some more.

I am going to attack the 106 because it provides favorable panzer ground as opposed to their 333rd since its mountainous.



We end up with something like this in the South. This is fine. Izium will soon be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.




Now up north. I don't even know what the Soviets are doing up North.. which probably means I should recon next turn.




They abandoned their positions, to help with the middle and south.. I think. All i'm going to do here is move around a bit

And with that, the movement is done.


Here is the map at the end of my turn



Here is the map at the end of the Soviets turn:




Fun fact: I don't think i've ever had a turn atfter the soviets have gone when I don't say "Goddammit"

Stay tune for tomorrow! Same bat time, same bat channel

[heyhellowhatsnew]

I once read that Vic said he reads these AARs. I wonder if he's laughing at how terrible I am. Haha. I would laugh at me too.

[Bonners]

I'd be looking at stopping the Soviet 23rd tank corps in its tracks by using my divebombers on it this turn, you have nothing there that can stop it amongst your ground forces. Maybe move up the Hungarian regiment and the Security regiment to close the gap and encircle it, although both those units will probably die the next turn.

You should be bale to release the 44th regiment again, but I wouldnt do any more attacks in the north of the salient. In the south of the salient I reckon you should only do 2-3 attacks maximum, aimed at cutting the road to disrupt the supply of the westernmost Soviet forces. One tactic you could also try would be to bomb the last remaining bridge over the Bereka (if you manage to cut the other road with your southern forces) as that will put all of the western Soviet forces in danger. To blow a bridge just use level bombers. To virtually guarantee success you need about 200 points worth of bombers. I very much doubt you have that left, so you would probably be attacking with something like 100 points with only a 50/50 chance of success. Possibly too big a risk, but something to consider.

[wodin]

You where taught the USA beat the Nazis and also beat them at pearl Harbour!!!![X(][X(][X(][X(][X(][X(]

Wrong on so many fronts..

[heyhellowhatsnew]

ORIGINAL: wodin

You where taught the USA beat the Nazis and also beat them at pearl Harbour!!!![X(][X(][X(][X(][X(][X(]

Wrong on so many fronts..

Some guy named Cotton Hill killed fiddy men with his barehands

[heyhellowhatsnew]

ORIGINAL: Bonners

I'd be looking at stopping the Soviet 23rd tank corps in its tracks by using my divebombers on it this turn, you have nothing there that can stop it amongst your ground forces. Maybe move up the Hungarian regiment and the Security regiment to close the gap and encircle it, although both those units will probably die the next turn.

You should be bale to release the 44th regiment again, but I wouldnt do any more attacks in the north of the salient. In the south of the salient I reckon you should only do 2-3 attacks maximum, aimed at cutting the road to disrupt the supply of the westernmost Soviet forces. One tactic you could also try would be to bomb the last remaining bridge over the Bereka (if you manage to cut the other road with your southern forces) as that will put all of the western Soviet forces in danger. To blow a bridge just use level bombers. To virtually guarantee success you need about 200 points worth of bombers. I very much doubt you have that left, so you would probably be attacking with something like 100 points with only a 50/50 chance of success. Possibly too big a risk, but something to consider.

I'll have to admit something. I cheated. I played through the rest of the scenario and it ended up as a draw because of my previous battleplan. I'm going to get a minor victory in my new battle plan. My VP points were 63 with the current one. I got caught up in killing units like an idiot instead of focusing on capturing towns., but yeah, that 44th is gonna die.

Anyway, i'll do the last couple of turns now so I can start doing video AARs since writing and capturing pics takes so much time I get exhausted at the end of the turn.

[heyhellowhatsnew]

Also i'm really sad none of you noticed my Star Trek and Hogan's Heroes jokes... at least tell me you're entertained by this AAR

[wodin]

Great AAR..AAR's are very important for games..far more so than reviews..keep it up.

[heyhellowhatsnew]

Germany: Turn 7

When we last left our inept German army, this was the map:




Oberst Heyhellowhatsnew had a dream last night... he was visited by the ghost of Hitler (who was not dead at the time) who told him that it's about the VPs, stupid. And then Hitler took out a device he called an iPad and showed Oberest HHW a motivational "youtube video"

MOTIVATION

And thus, the current plan has changed. For you see, when I woke up, I looked at the battlemap once more and saw this:





And then I looked at this:



I then realized I was one VP away from a minor victory. I have 2 days to capture Losowaya, something I should have done a long time ago.

We'll worry about the middle later, they're not important anymore. Lets go to the south first.

Losowaya is protected by two poorly entrenched troops.



So lets take it

http://i.imgur.com/7v4grbz.jpg

In my excitement I only got the bombing. Sorry, anyway as you can see, we win the battle



Thank you Romania! We now have our 64th VP point. Now we must hold it for 2 turns. So lets make some moves to secure that.

I apply some pressure west of the town by attacking the 317th. The attack succeeds and we encircle any units that may cause any trouble in the south. No supply for you guys!



Right away you can see that my main trouble will come from the 411th, 317th, and the 6th army who will of course try to liberate that town. I need to bloody their nose a bit.

I had a screen cap of a very bloody battle for the 6th, but I lost it. Sorry But I got the punch I needed to make sure they wouldn't mess around with the town.

There is nothing I can do about the 317th right now, but lets see what I can do with the 411th



Not a good battle, but it was necessary to hurt them. This is what I end up with



It's the best I could do with what I have left unfortunately. I've played terrible all game. And as Donald Rumsfield once say, you "You go to war with the army you have---not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

Okay, still in the south, I want to pressure the right side of it too, just in case the AI gets coy. This is what is known as a "feint". I think. I just made it up, it's probably not really a feint.

I harass the 335th



I want the AI to think i'm still going for Izium. Is that possible? I wonder. Lets hope so.

Holy crap they hold. Note to self. YOU HAVE CARDS, USE THEM.



After some movements, the South now looks like this



Now about that middle



I don't know how to tell you this 1/3 44th... but you're going to have to sacrifice yourself for the reich. We will tell stories about your bravery.

As you can see, the issue is that I need to close that gap the Russians opened and play defense. I am satisfied with my points. Now we defend.

So, last night after I posted my last AAR post, I stared at the pictures for 15 minutes
and knew what I had to do.



Cut off the 44th and bomb the tanks to hell.



"…to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." (Please note this clever call back from a few AAR posts earlier

Thats it for those tanks. I want to weaken them so they stay out of supply and not attack

Now my plan is to weaken any unit that might try to save them. I want to stop their advance and make them stay put. I bloody some noses some more



Our attacks have not been perfect (sorry I got too amped up playing the game and forgot to take screen caps), but they were necessary to throw off the soviets and make them think less about attacking.

Now onto the north:


I really don't care about the north. I make some arty attacks and thats it, just to throw them off. They aren't going to push. I do make note however that the next time I play this game, I should think about taking Woltschasnk.

I attack the 84th just to shrug them away.

Yes I attacked with Engineers. We are desperate at this point.



And this is how the north ends up.



I double check my defenses and get ready to pass the turn. This is how the board looks:




I take a deep breath, and hope it plays out how I want it to.

This is what the map looks like after the Soviets move:



They do exactly what I want them to do. They only commit to one battle. The pocket blobs up. The next turn is the last turn and we're going to play prevent defense on this one.

[heyhellowhatsnew]

Here it is... the last turn.

Germany: Turn 8

When we last left our Germany Army Soccer team playing the 5-4-1 defense, well.. Look up.

This is the south


Losowaya must be protected at all cost, and honestly, it will be. The soviets didn't make any good moves to fortify it and i'm going to break their backs here for my minor victory.

But first, lets look at the causalities.



This is what I like about grognard games. When you're playing an RTS or normal strategy game, they're just units. I don't know if its just me, but I really do get frustrated when I lose a unit. It really does put the idea of war in perspective for me. Because of my incompetence, 34600+ men are dead under my command. It also makes you think about the other side. Under my orders, I have killed 41900 men.

And i'm going to kill more. Like I said, this is presents a different perspective on video games for me, which is why I became such a grognard addict. It made me read a lot of history, and I sorta do care about my little digital dudes.

Anyway, rant over. Lets finish this up.

I put more units in the town and set up to take out that stack that really wants to connect for supplies. It's not happening. under my watch.




There's not much left to do in the South. I make attacks to push them away from the town. It is secured. I am sure of it. I'm a little sad that I was so close to Izium. Oh well. Next time.

In the middle I bomb the cut off tanks just in case, and move around more units for defense.



Up north I let the men rest. No more deaths. They entrench and relax. We have won. It was bloody but we have won. Oberst Heyhellowhatsnew has seen enough bloodshed this past week.



This is the map at the end of the turn:



This is the map of the end of the Soviets turn:




They throw everything they can at me... all in vain.




This is our death toll. Rest in Piece, friends and foes.

[Bonners]

Well done enjoyed reading the AAR, hope it was a decent and fun learning experience. If I were you I would try the linked campaign next, it introduces quite a few more concepts into the game and the AI is again really good. There is an excellent AAR on it which you MUST read before playing each scenario. It is the very last AAR on this page IIRC. He really goes into a lot of detail about how he attacks and how he uses the cards, one of the best AARs on here.

EDIT: 1st Panzer AAR by ComradeP, third from bottom.

[heyhellowhatsnew]

ORIGINAL: Bonners

Well done enjoyed reading the AAR, hope it was a decent and fun learning experience. If I were you I would try the linked campaign next, it introduces quite a few more concepts into the game and the AI is again really good. There is an excellent AAR on it which you MUST read before playing each scenario. It is the very last AAR on this page IIRC. He really goes into a lot of detail about how he attacks and how he uses the cards, one of the best AARs on here.

EDIT: 1st Panzer AAR by ComradeP, third from bottom.

Thank you very much. It was my First AAR. I hope it helps others learn from my mistakes. I certainly did learn a lot. I think new players should really do AARs, hell, everyone should do them. It was tough, but I as I wrote out my thoughts It really helped me grasp the game concept. I may not know everything now, but I know alot more. Vic, you've made an excellent game. Please provide more scenarios ;p and encourage AARs.

I can't thank everyone enough for their tips. Thank you.