The Bear and the Wolf - Keunert vs. Olivier

[Iñaki Harrizabalagatar]

ORIGINAL: rominet


An other point is the use of 11th German Army. It should have been removed from the map after the capture of Sevastopol.

Is the 11th army available for the German player for free or has the player to pay for it in PPs?

[Keunert]

It is stationed on the Crimea and there is no event that makes it withdraw afaik. Better ask Olivier.

[Bonners]

I've only played against the AI but have been reading both sides of this AAR with interest. I think that there should be some redress towards the Soviet player from about late August onwards.

If you look at the maps Olivier hasnt done that much better historically than reality and yet the Soviets are still struggling for numbers and certainly will not be able to get the build up they need, certainly not for any kind of Op Uranus. Is it still too early in the life of the game to start making changes though, i.e. will Russian defensive tactics start to improve as we all get used to the game?

From a personal perspective, and as somebody who does like to play as the Axis, I reckon that Soviet replacement levels need to be looked at. As mentioned above I reckon the replacement levels need to increase from late August onwards, I certainly wouldnt be doing it before that time as the balance could tilt too much towards the Soviet side. But I still think any changes need to be small at this stage, as I've alluded to and Keunert has mentioned above it could be that we are all still new to the game and there are other strategies.

Just to shove something else into the pot. Could it be that the initial Soviet objectives are a little too harsh and that is what is leading to the losses? Maybe a bit more leeway there to enable the Soviet player to have a bit more prestige?

Anyway, by the looks of these AARs it is still a fascinating game as it stands, so thanks for taking the time to put them up, I'm learning loads from this one and Olivier's from the Axis perspective.

[Keunert]

The biggest contribution to losses, besides personal blunders, are AP penalties by Command & Control and AP reduction by airstrikes and shelling and mobility reduction because airstrikes are really hard on trucks.
While my center was fleeing from Olivier his constant attacks made my armies really slow and my decision to keep them together eventually doomed all of them. i guess sacrificing some units and leave them behind on
good defensive terrain may have reduced my losses quite a bit.

More soviet prestige will not do that much. i played several troop buying cards. once i got 2'500 infantry, another time 25 fighter planes and once i got 30 tanks. maybe it would be easier to make Soviet cards a little more effective.
like soviet replacements are higher than german ones.

BTW it can be that Soviet replacments will go up once more. i will try to find out about this tonight. But if i remember correctly the Axis will get higher replacements at some time too.

Best thing would be if more guys would start pbem the long campaign and do some aar's i would enjoy reading them.

[LiquidSky]

He also gets a large number of divisions as reinforcements. At least 40 Rifle divisions during Sept/Oct/Nov with a lot of brigades, a few Tank Corps, and a couple Mech Corps. All of which can 'pop' on in a city near a weakly defended (ie axis minor) part of the front, if he wanted to save the cards.

[Keunert]

Turn 39
5TA attacks!

Bolstered by a gamble card form South West Front HQ (plus 19% on entire army) plus a tank drive card on 23 TankCorps we choose to attack. The army is well rested and the artillery softens the axis defense. the four sided attack on the 62nd Inf does well and pushes them back with low losses.

The German units fall back on another well defended hex. having more artillery available we shell them too with little effect. Attacking this hex will be costly but there is also a chance to rout the already retreated units of the 62nd. So we attack once more with less success.

At the end of the day the Axis mourn the loss of 2'900 men and 80 guns, while we lost 80 tanks and 700 men. Not a great result but we hope the attrition will slowly worn down the Axis positions north west of Stalingrad.

[Keunert]

Turn 39

To hold against a possible counterattack we bring up some infantry and 40A plays a hold card on them.

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

Obviously we got a little overconfident with our attacks on the Axis. OKH started a huge counterattack this day that left our tank forces shattered. It will take weeks to replenish our units and we even have lost our stalemate in the north. The balance of power clearly shifted back to the Axis in this part of the front.

The Axis opened up with air strikes. Even though the last turns clearly showed them the strong presence of both soviet air cover and AA units. The first two strikes left a lot of Axis planes burning in the fields with low soviet air and tank losses.

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

The second airstrike was even more bloody for the Luftwaffe. At the end of the day 95 axis planes went down with only 15 soviet fighters lost. Among the losses are 45 Stukas and 25 brand new Focke Wulf 190.

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

Next hundreds of guns open up fire and the follow up attacks crush our forces, killing hundreds of tanks!

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

And more pain....

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

Further in the south we take a small revenge: we attack the unsupplied 16th Panzer (Olivier tries to supply them with airunits but they get interdicted most of the times). We lose a hundred men but kille the entire German unit!

[Keunert]

Turn 40
The Axis on counterattack!

At the end of the day the Soviet tank force lost about 20% of it's power in a single turn! This was paid by the Luftwaffe with high losses, still this is a good day for the Germans and will have us think twice before our next attack. Here a list of the losses of the attacks i wrote down:

Axis planes downed: 95 [:'(]
Axis tanks lost: 50
Axis halftracks lost: 60
Axis guns lost: 10
Axis infantry lost: 800

Soviet planes downed: 15
Soviet tanks lost: 230 [X(]
Soviet trucks lost: 300 [X(]
Soviet guns lost: 25
Soviet infantry lost: 3'000

We will now have to see if this was the opening of an offensive effort towards Engels or just a punishment. We think that the Axis does not have the means to both strike north and south at the same time. But we may be wrong. 5TA still has a few fresh units left and 40A is almost fully refit. The destroyed elements of 5TA are rebuilt and a card for additional tank units is played.

The axis south campaign is surprisingly slow. Their attacks aren't very hurting and they get a few hold results with even more SS troops dying away. I don't know if he has supply problems or if he is shifting forces to the north?

[Vic]

Said the same to your opponent Oliver: really like this AAR and following it to quite closely. Some unasked advice: avoid concentrating your tanks in a single hex. If possible retreat them behind the frontline after doing battle. Tanks are quite vulnerable in defense and provide a less easy target for divebomber units if spread out over a lot of hexes. If you have to keep them in the frontline add infantry and AT formations if possible.

[Keunert]

your comment made me think: maybe it's not so smart to have an army with 90% of their units being tanks. When an attack is successfull i take the tanks back from the front line. this time my second attack got a hold and all ap were spent. where possible i moved some infantry units forward to assist agains counterattacks, but i had not enough infantry nearby to cover all hexes.

most likely the troop composition is wrong and i have to get closer to the germans with several mechanized infantry units. i think i will change that as soon as possible.

[James Ward]

Yes tanks are very brittle in this game. I find they last much longer hitting and then falling back. Let the infantry advance and bear the brunt of the counter attack.

[Keunert]

most of my attacks leave my units without AP. there is no more moving after the battle.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

most of my attacks leave my units without AP. there is no more moving after the battle.

Yes that is a problem. Playing the Soviets certainly a challenge.

Have you tried playing the speed card AFTER you attack to help you get away?

[Keunert]

no i haven't because i rather use command points to help the attack.
and compared to the axis side i get less command points on average
and really have to use them wisely.

the best thing would be not to force the attacks too much at this stage.
if i had just attacked on hex i could have moved all units back and
the counterattack would have been a lot less deadly.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

no i haven't because i rather use command points to help the attack.
and compared to the axis side i get less command points on average
and really have to use them wisely.

the best thing would be not to force the attacks too much at this stage.
if i had just attacked on hex i could have moved all units back and
the counterattack would have been a lot less deadly.

Yes but sometimes you just can help it, you have to bop them when you can and damn the counterattack.

Have you received any Mech Corps yet? I think you will like them.