Trippen the Trappen Two

[LiquidSky]

I play the ambition cards early, when the Russians are more interested in retreat then losing their army.

You get 1 prestige for playing the card. It gives you a minor objective. For me, it was usually in the path of my attack, so it was an extra 1, 2 or 3 prestige when I took it. Occasionally it will give you one you cant get, like Azov in the Caucaus before the fall of Rostov.

I guess I would rather rack up the prestige in the early game as a sort of battery. It will be drained when my offensive peters out, and I am no longer able to move forward, but will still be getting minor objectives.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 41: August 2, 1942.

My goal over the next few turns is to cross the Don towards Stalingrad, and build up a southern/northern perimeter.

With the arrival of the panzer korp from the 1st PzA....I immediately threw it across the river against a weakly held bank. He reacted by bringing in a few tank corps, but my bridgehead has expanded too far for him to push me back. When my infantry get there, I will be able to push further east until I reach the Volga.

The air war has so far favoured me in fighters, but my Stuka force is a shambles. Down to around 200 planes. Flak will attrit your divebombers faster then you can recover it. The level bombers seem to grow faster then Flak can shoot down. My levelbombers do most of the bombing.

I had a 1 pt objective, and a 2 point one right near each other, which I took...bringing my prestige up to 54. It will drop back to 52, though in a couple of turns.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 45: August 8,1942.

After another turn of rain. The Russians are starting to 'litter' the front lines with single units. While a single unit is not a defense (it is easy to take out), if the unit is dug in, you do lose some troops taking it out. I probably average 1-2 strength points of infantry per attack. (but only get 3 strength points of replacement infantry a turn) I play the Infantry card for the third time of the game and get 4500 replacements.

I decided that I will take a bit of short term pain to reach Stalingrad, so both the 11th army and the 18th army play Freedom on the two corps side by side in front of Stalingrad. As a result, I am able to bulldoze 3 hexes closer to the city, and I am only 2 hexes away now.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 46: August 10, 1942.

I have been thinking about the difference between the Case Blue scenario, and the Trappenjagd one. The big advantage in Case Blue for the Germans is that the Russians start in a rather precarious position in the North...and are thinly spread throughout the front. The Germans are also at peak strength...

Trappenjagd starts the Germans off weaker. But it does give them much more time to push east....and without too much trouble, you can be farther east then the Case Blue starting line.....come July.

But the Russians have a much larger force. So you will take more casualties, and have to be careful of suffering a disaster at the hands of the Russian Tank force.

I think, over all..I prefer the Trappenjagd start for the germans.

Ah well..back to the game. My forces push the remaining couple of hexes and are now adjacent to the city of Stalingrad. Last turn was very bloody for me, as I launched an awful lot of assaults, and this turn wasn't too pretty either. But I have secured the line I want to hold along the Don, and I am pushing SE with the 1st Panzer Army in the Caucaus to cut off Stalingrad from the south.

So far I have played Avoid Krasnador, and Avoid Astrakahn, so there is no reason to move down the Caucaus (yet). Not sure if I want to try for an auto victory and take Baku....I will see what shape my infantry is in after assaulting Stalingrad.



EDIT: I am having difficulty uploading a picture, so I will come back later and add it.

[LiquidSky]

Okay...it all seems to be working now..here is the picture:




EDIT: apparently not..maybe I have exceeded some posting memory limit.



EDIT EDIT: Yay! Picture Posting is back!

[LiquidSky]

Well..the last 5 turns have been rather painful. I am determined to take the Stalingrad VP hex in the middle directly. My plan is to use 100 stacking points of artillery every turn and rotate with three other stacks of artillery so that they are at/near full supply.

I have 2 divisions from 3 different corps in the two hexes adjacent to the hex. I assault every turn (except the last one) with 2 divisions from 2 hexes...usually around 150-160 stacking points (out of 100).

Turn 47: Artillery doesn't make much of a dent. Freedom and Initiative cards are played. Losses are none to air/artillery and 2400 german infantry to 1000 Russian infantry.

Turn 48: Artillery suppresses a lot of the units, and does around 200 infantry damage. Air does nothing. I play Freedom and attack cards. Losses 3000 german infantry to 2600 Russian infantry.

Turn 49: Weather is Rain. I attack anyways, as I don't want the entrenchment level to climb. Artillery kills 800 Russian infantry, Air is non-existant. Losses are 2300 german infantry to 2500 Russian infantry. (half is militia). Some of the Russians broke.

Turn 50: I am starting over with the original two divisions that attacked 3 turns ago. The Russians evacuate the southern light urban hex and moves the division into the center of Stalingrad to beef it up. My artillery kills 400 Russian infantry, and losses are favouring me at 2200 German infantry loss to 3900 Russian infantry lost.

I use my Luftwaffe to bomb the bridge (and destroy it) behind Stalingrad...leading to the Ferry. No Russian engineer in sight.

Turn 51: North of Stalingrad I have 5 panzer divisions and 4 infantry divisions sitting somewhat idle. The Russians attack one of my panzer divisions stacked with the paratroop division and cause it to retreat, causing around 1000 casualties.

My counterattack with 5 panzer divisions kills around 10k Russians and takes the northern road hex, thus cutting Stalingrad off from easy supply. Since I continually bomb the city behind Stalingrad, and the bridge is cut, he will be on low supply. In my excitement, I forget to attack the city..thus only causing 500 casualties from artillery. [:o] [:@][:@]

I do attack the other Stalingrad hexes to make them use up supply, probably doing around 4000 german infantry losses to myself for little gain.

[olivier34]

Great to follow your attempt to take Stalingrad. Seems that you have very well organise your waves of attacks and the city should fall.
Some questions :
Before attacking the main Stalingrad hexe from two hexes, maybe you could have fight to gain the control of the south or north hexe and then attack from three hexes the center of Stalingrad...no?
Have you tried the artillery cards to improve the result ?
Have you think to use a gamble card ? (Manstein's one ?)
The soviet can't do much to stop you. In my last game with Bonners, I had to defend Stalingrad for the first time...what I could do is playing cards to boost the morale or the defense of my troops and reinforce Stalingrad with fresh divisions...
Good luck and thanks for the reports

[LiquidSky]

Two more turns and Stalingrad falls...

Turn 52: With the city cut off I expect it to fall, but because I *forgot* to attack it last turn, the entrenchment level is too high...but I lose 2200 infantry to kill 2500, with another 600 losses to aircraft/artillery.

Turn 53: With Freedom and attack played by Manstein/Corp Guy, the center of Stalingrad falls. Losses: only 1000 germans to 4800 Russians with another 1000 Russians to artillery. He had moved up a bunch of rifle divisions behind Stalingrad, so if it didn't fall now, it was probably going to be another few turns.

To answer your question....Wallas fortified the hex above and below the center of Stalingrad. Which means I would have lost a lot of infantry to take them....for no real purpose other then allowing more stacking points to attack the center of the city. Since I was hitting it with 150ish stacking points anyways...it would have only saved me some pain later, for greater pain now.

Now that I have the center, I can work on the hex north and south. I am hoping that I own the Ferry, so his supply for those hexes is crossing the Volga.

I don't use the gamble card. Freedom gives another 2-3 attacks which I think is much better then a higher percentage.

My independent artillery is attached directly to 11th Army so I can't play the artillery card to increase it. And if it was attached to a corp, then the corp can only increase one of the units.

What finally did Stalingrad in was lack of supply. I cut the road off to the north, and the rail line in the south. Not sure if it had an effect, but the Ferry port hex behind Stalingrad was continually bombarded. And I blew the bridge, and when he repaired it, blew it again....that crosses the major river behind Stalingrad.

That meant that supply has to cross a major river, then cross the Volga to get into Stalingrad. (if the Ferry is out) or at least cross a major river if the ferry still works.

And with the bridge out, the units that could reinforce the city would also be low supply..and I would bomb/bombard them as well...so they would have low readiness when they enter the city.

I think the best card to play would be Entrenchment on your best defensive division in the city. It is hard for artillery to reduce entrenchment...it gets reduced from attacking it.

[LiquidSky]

Just finished the August 30th turn which was rain. Last turn I cleaned out Stalingrad. The rest of the city fell fairly easily (although still at cost) due to his lack of supply and my artillery blasting the fortifications away.

I got a mission to hold Stalingrad until the end of the game for 20 prestige. No doubt, if I lose it, I will be ordered to retake it....so I may have to play the avoid Stalingrad card afterall for late game. Since I already played the Avoid Astrakahn card, there will be no more Major offensive missions for me...unless I take Krasnador.

I am now at a cross roads. I can push an army north along the Volga to force the Russians to retreat back, or be cut off....and hold the Volga line for end game Major Victory.

I can push south for Baku. Take it and win. And try and hold the Don river in the North while doing so.

I can stay right where I am...spread my armour out as a reserve behind my lines to punish any Russian aggression. Try and hold until the end...for a minor Victory.

My prestige is at 63. I have played the infantry card so many times that the last time it was 86 points. So I am pretty much at the peak of my strength. My fighter force has taken a beating around Stalingrad, but I can still bomb where I want to. My Stuka's are almost non-existant...it takes all of them to equal 100 stacking points. My tanks are in pretty good shape...the SS are at full strength. My Axis minors are in the 90's for spirit level except the Italians who are at 85.

Not sure yet which direction to take...going to have to spend a bit of time thinking of a plan.


To Recap losses for August: I lost around 70,000 infantry to kill 100,000 Russians. Not a very good ratio. I played the Infantry card about 6 times. For around 40-50k infantry which helps mitigate the losses somewhat. I did kill an awful lot of Russian armour though...

[wallas]

You forgot to mention your fighter losses I know I mauled them. [:D]

[LiquidSky]

Turn 68: September 23, 1942.

Well...I spent the first week of September trying to push North from Stalingrad, using the Volga to cover my right flank. But it seemed like I was running into every Rifle Division the Russians owned..most of them at full strength. Finally, I noticed that the Russians were massing tanks at several different parts of the front, and I was forced to pull back to a line.

The Russians attacked south of Stalingrad, and caused some pretty massive casualites, as much as 25% of the strength of a division. However, I counterattacked on my turn causing even greater losses on his attackers (due to lower readiness/entrenchment). Along the Don, where I had 4 hexsides (or 3 and he crossed the river), I would attack his concentrations, with large loss of Russians.

But it is like putting your fingers in a dike...I know I cannot maintain a defence for long before something would give...

Enter THE SS.

Secretly I railed the 1st Panzer army with all the artillery to Voronezh. And stacked it underneath existing units so that a casual glance at the map would not reveal their presence.

(NOTE: it is a good idea to use the zoomed in mode to quickly scan a front. It will reveal troop concentrations very easily)

Two turns ago, with the Russians massed for several attacks along my front, I unleashed the SS and 4 panzer divisions, after a fierce artillery bombardment. The LAH division pushed 5 hexes behind his lines, with the Wiking, the Slovaks Fast division, and 2 panzer divisions following.

Last turn, I isolated 5 rifle divisions, and mopped them up this turn.

The front now looks like this:



I have also noticed that all the tank corps that were massing on the front have disappeared..no doubt being railed to cause me some grief in the North.

[LiquidSky]

The Stalingrad front is not so rosy. During the battle for Stalingrad, and after, I have played the Infantry card as many times as I can....it now costs 185 points. As a result, my divisions are still fairly strong, with only a few less then 75% strength.

I thought to push north along the Volga, but as I got farther and farther north, I realized I could never hold the left flank..and I doubted if I could make it all the way up to Saratov.

Plus, the Russians had gotten uppity in the Caucaus, so I pulled back to a line north of the city.

On a whim, I attacked over the Volga with my parachute division and took the port city Rachinka next to Dubowka. I wanted to see if supply would move over the Volga. The supply cost to move into the port city is 75 AP. For the Stalingrad ferry, it is 66 AP ( I guess because of the logistics bonus for Stalingrad).

It is enough supply for me to be yellow on the road, and blue if I move off it...which against his weak screen of Russians, is enough for me to try and isolate some units.

On another note, the Russians have noticed that supply is fed into Stalingrad by one rail line from Germany. And has started to systematically blow the bridges. However, he hasn't realized that supply will still flow from the railheads along the roads, so the effect is not as strong as he might like.

On the other hand, the effect is strong enough to drop me into the blue over the Volga..





The end result is I will have to evacuate the eastern bank of the Volga before my supply level gets too low to move back over the river.

[LiquidSky]

When I look at my losses and strengths, my Fighter force is at about 50%. Divebombers are at around 33%. My Level bombers are at about 90% strength. (I even had some Ju88a's in my pool for a while).

The Panzers are still pretty strong...a couple at 75%, most above 90. I had 2 panzer divisions in reserve for most of the summer doing nothing. And my 1st Panzer Army sat for a long time before being railed north. I have only really used 4 panzer divisions heavily.

My infantry are strong in the quiet fronts, and weaker where I have been pushing around Stalingrad...probably around 75% there, and 90% along the Don.


My oil is a non issue..but then, I hardly move my panzers around, only using them in spurts. And I doubt I have ever moved all of them on the same turn, ever. My airforce I use heavily on some turns, and very little on others as well...

Supply as well seems to be a non issue..just distance affecting my levels, rather then quantity.

Things I have noticed:

As I noted before..it is good to hit the zoomed in button to spread the units out in the hex. And just scroll along the front. You will easily pick out troop concentrations.

The Germans are an attack army. Not so good at defence. The best way to kill Russians is to attack their units that have attacked you.

Quantity is not a defence. Entrenchment/readiness is your only defence. In fact, it seems to me that too much quantity makes the hex easier to take.

Double-tap units as much as possible..even if they retreat onto another stack. The first attack will greatly reduce their readiness, and they will have no entrenchment level. The second attack will panic/break them..even if fresh units in the hex hold.

The air war cannot be won by the Germans...but you can reach a 'stalemate' where you can at least still fly your bombers escorted. Or bomb other areas of the front...where his fighters aren't.

[Bismarck2761]

LiquidSky - how on earth do you make such progress without using your Panzers? Tactical tips would be appreciated!

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Bismarck2761

LiquidSky - how on earth do you make such progress without using your Panzers? Tactical tips would be appreciated!

infantry are strong in the quiet fronts, and weaker where I have been pushing around Stalingrad...probably around 75% there, and 90% along the Don.

He only makes progress because of his panzers I think you already answered your question.

[LiquidSky]

I (usually) only attack with my infantry when I have three hexsides. Also, if all the divisions attacking belong to the same corp, then the concentric bonus is doubled...so I usually have 40% bonus for concentric and 40% for divisions attacking. I always use as much artillery (up to 100 stacking points) as possible first. Then I follow up with a 100 points of bombers. This usually drops the entrenchments and readiness to below 50. (if it is a plains hex).

As for card play, I usually save them for defence. Usually for entrenchment on the division that advances forward after combat.

Turn 91: November 8, 1942. Weather: Clear everywhere.

Seems strange to me that we had some snow/mud mixed up on the map earlier in October, but the weather seems to have cleared up and is has been consistently been clear the last few turns. Not sure if it is a bug, or just a fluky die roll that is giving me clear weather.

October was an interesting month..I pulled back the Luftwaffe for a while, and played the fighter card about 5-6 times bringing it up to almost double strength (from what it was). As a result, I was able to wrest control of the skies back from the Russians.

My infantry card now costs 266 points. My fighters are 107 points. My infantry in the front line are averaging around 1500 men per regiment. My fighters are at around 75% strength.

The only place I am pushing forward is in the far north, to straighten the front...but I don't have much farther to go before I will stop. Other then that, the only attacks I do is to counterattack the Russians if they attack me....or if they push forward into hexes that are surrounded by 3 or 4 of my divisions.

On the map, I have 4 panzer divisions in the south and 2 in the north as a strategic reserve. I cannot back away from Stalingrad (as that would throw away the minor victory), so I have a rather large salient pushing east into Russia...guarded in the south by the Axis Minor armies along the Don....and German divisions in the open.

The Russians have been able to attack me, but suffer a fair number of losses from my counterattacks. He has wrecked a German infantry divisions though (only 1 inf and 1 arty regiment left).

Here is the map at the end of my turn:

[LiquidSky]

My prestige is down to 57..from a high of 65. I keep getting minor missions to take objectives..but since I am not pushing deeper into Russia, I am losing 1 or 2 points every few turns. And since the front is static, I will not be getting defensive missions either...so I suppose sooner or later, I will reach zero. But I hope I have a big enough cushion to survive until April 1943.

Oil reserves are a non issue. I hardly move my mechanized/airforce so I burn very little oil per turn.

Supply seems to be a non issue as well...I have plenty of supply for everyone.

The Axis minors are pretty much at full strength, with even some replacements building up at OKH. But then, they have done no fighting for the last couple of months.

[olivier34]

you have to hold Stalingrad until April 43 to get a minor victory !!
I suppose that your opponent is building a large offensive that should blow your minor allies and free Rostov. In the same time another offensive will of course threat the Stalingrad area...
Why have you not gone deeper into the Caucasus in this game ?
Good luck and thanks for the AAR !

[LiquidSky]

I doubt that I will be able to hang on all the way until April 1943 for a victory. However, if I pull back from my Stalingrad salient, I will severely shorten my line probably guaranteeing a draw.

I have no intention of doing that. I will hang onto Stalingrad for as long as I can. So far he is able to wreck an infantry division every couple of turns, but if he advances and takes the hex, I usually punish him by counterattacking with my panzer divisions. I suspect that I will reach a point where I can no longer hold a line with beat up infantry divisions.

My problem is I have run out of infantry replacements. I can no longer save enough political points to play infantry. I am in the process of playing my panzer card (three times now), and my panzer divisions are on priority, so they are doing okay...

As for the Caucaus. I was attacking south after I took Rostov (fairly quickly too). However, the Russians sent a large tank army down and it not only stopped my advance, but was actually starting to push me back. So I played Avoid Krasnador, and pulled the minor axis army back to guard the Don, and pushed all the Germans towards Stalingrad. Remember that we are playing Trappenjagd, so the Russians start with a lot more tank corps.

[LiquidSky]

Well..a couple turns later, and the world is a sea of white. Snow everywhere. The Russians are building up for what appears to be a major push north of Stalingrad. My reserve panzer korp is guarding the southern approaches so I feel safe there. My minor Axis are at full strength, and they have quite a few divisions in reserve. As well..the weather around Rostov usually doesn't stay cold, so there is a good chance the Don won't freeze over.

I finally finished my offensive in the far north..straightening out my line...and freeing up two panzer divisions. One of which is extrememly beat up (less then 50%). I have sent them to help out my Northern Stalingrad front.

Once the Russians start their big offensive, I will start posting maps again.

Oh...the Russians have lost almost 1.2 million infantry to my 300k... a 4-1 ratio. Last game I was only a 3-1 ratio, so I must be doing something right. My prestige is down to 56 now.