Comrade Goofski - Barbarossa vs DicedT (No Diced T)

[warspite1]

DicedT and I are swapping sides for our next encounter.

I think it sensible to actually look at the manual this time and hopefully avoid the scale of the drubbing received at the hands of the Ormster in my first go as the Soviets.

I will try and make this as detailed as possible so that I can put what I've read into practice and hopefully remember it for the future.

[warspite1]

The Germans have made their preparations for the attack. I must now make mine.

[warspite1]

These are the options in play for this game. All standard stuff, except I see the Imperial Measurements is ON. That is very handy as if I lose I will simply declare that I could not understand what the stats were telling me....

[Orm]

No Geneva convention?! What is this? Barbarian pig wrestling? [:D]

[warspite1]

One thing I haven't kept track of - or even looked at - previously is this handy little graph. This will show the number of troops and casualties as the game progresses.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

No Geneva convention?! What is this? Barbarian pig wrestling? [:D]

Stalin

The Soviet Union is a civilised country and of course plays by the rules and laws agreed by the international community. If there is any shooting of prisoners and other such unpleasantness then it will be on the German side only.

[warspite1]

Who the hell wrote this rubbish? [:@] That has really upset my equalibrium and whoever it was, is quite vexacious to my spirit.

Get me Beria - I feel the need to execute some people.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1
Stalin

The Soviet Union is of course a civilised country and of course plays by the rules and laws agreed by the international community. If there is any shooting of prisoners and other such unpleasantness then it will be on the German side only.

Of course. What was I thinking.

[warspite1]

It appears that old woman Zhukov believes there will be war with my ol' chum Adolf Hitler and the Germans. As a result, in the event that he is right, he wants me to have made a decision on where to concentrate our defence.

I tell him this is all a waste of time - me and Adolf are BFF. But if it gets him off my back I'll make a decision...

Eeenie, meenie, mineeee [pretends to shut eyes and point randomly at a map] Moe!

Moscow it is. That's handy cos that's where I live [:)]

[warspite1]

All the 'What-if's' are set to maintain the status quo e.g. Finland, Purge, Stalin Line and Japan. No effect on Victory points.

[warspite1]

And that is the Soviet pre-turn done. I won't bother with a re-cap of the troops available because no doubt most of them are not long for this world anyway....

I will look at the survivors in more detail during the Soviet turn.

[willgamer]

Thank you very much for including the screen shot of the starting config. That helps greatly in understanding all the subsequent reports.

I think it's a best practice for any AAR and if I were Stalin, I make it mandatory or else!

[&o]

[warspite1]

Soviet Command Structure

Top Dog, Witty Raconteur, Numero Uno, No.1, Bon Viveur, The Big Cheese, International Lover, The Main Man, the…. Well you get the idea: ME! Allow me to introduce myself (although I need no introduction [8D]):

(Uncle) Josef Stalin

So what military genii have a gathered together to run the Red Army?

Northern Front

Front Commander: Marshal Voroshilov. Toadie – Initiative -5 : Threat -16

Toadie means he works the system to curry favour - but in this case, this military incompetent clearly has great loyalty to Stalin.

This lack of ability is reflected in the minus initiative number.

The fact he is a loyal party man means he is also not a great threat to me (or my paranoia). Lack of ability and lack of paranoia-inducing threat usually go hand in hand.

Summary:
I have a numpty to guard the Soviet Union’s second city….

What about Voroshilov’s subordinates?

- Baltic Military District (6 Divisions) LtGen V.A Frolov – Initiative 10: Threat -1
- 7th Army (6 Divisions) LtGen F.D Gorelenko – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- 23rd Army (10 Divisions) MajorGen P.S Pshennikov – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- 8th Army (8 Divisions) LtGen P.P Sobennikov – Initiative 15: Threat -1
- 11th Army (11 Divisions) LtGen V.I Morozov – Initiative 15: Threat -1
- 27th Army (7 Divisions) MajorGen M.E Berzarin – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- Leningrad Military District (6 Divisions) LtGen V.N Bespalov – Initiative 10: Threat -1

Summary: I do not know what constitutes a good score, but clearly those with ‘5’ for Initiative are candidates for replacement….if they survive. I assume none of these are great as all Generals have a minus threat rating. something tells me I am not going to have enough Political Points for the job in hand!

[warspite1]

Soviet Command Structure (continued)

Central Front

Front Commander: Marshal Timoshenko. War Buddy – Initiative - 1 : Threat -9

War Buddy means exactly that – they were together in the days of the civil war. Militarily he is not as useless as Voroshilov, but in a sea of uselessness, that does not say much.

Threat level is slightly worse than the Northern Front Commander

Summary:

I have a slightly lesser numpty, and a slightly more reliable ally to guard my house….

What about Timoshenko’s subordinates?

- 10th Army (13 Divisions) MajorGen K.D Golubev – Initiative 20: Threat 0
- Western HQ (17 Divisions) ColGen D.G Pavlov – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- 3rd Army (6 Divisions) LtGen V.I Kuznetsov – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- 4th Army (7 Divisions) MajorGen A.A Korobkov – Initiative 15: Threat -1

Summary: As before I do not know what constitutes a good score, but there are two ‘5's’ here that needs replacing if possible. Glad to see a 15 and a 20 here.

[Flaviusx]

Those are all terrible scores. The initiative rating represent chance for activating. 10% or 5%, it sucks either way.

These can be modified by:

1. Stalin giving a speech (+10ish, sometimes less if you do this too often.)
2. Focus card +25
3. Zhukov +20 if at the Front, +60 if at the army itself, +100 if he takes over the Front temporarily and commands it directly for a turn.
4. Marshal initiative rating, and this can actually be negative and lower the chances.

The vast majority of your armies will start in the range of 5-15 initiative. Garbage. A very few might for some reason exceed that. I've seen 10. Army start at 40 in my most recent PBEM game. Amazing...and rather useless, since that army is in the middle of the Bialystock pocket.

Each time an army activates, the commander improves his initiative by 4. Partial activations improve initiative by 2. So the more they activate, the better they get.

Early on, you have to throw the kitchen sink to reliably get anything to activate. That means piling on as many bonuses as possible somewhere. If you spread things around, it gets a lot chancier.

I generally think the Soviet has to go all in on the south from turn 1 in order to save the regulars down there against a good German. A good German can pocket everything but 9. Army and South Front within 3-4 turns, and that is pretty much game over right there. You're not going to save Rostov with conscript armies.

By all in I mean: focus card, Zhukov, new Marshal in the South. Zhukov might even give a backbone speech to the new marshal. Once things stabilize there, you can send Zhukov elsewhere (the North in all likelihood.) If you do all this the south will reliably activate from either turn 2 or 3 depending on when Zhukov arrives (he can be delayed, 29% chance.)

[warspite1]

Soviet Command Structure (continued)

Southern Front

Front Commander: Marshal Budenny. Apparatchik – Initiative -18 : Threat -8

As an Apparatchik Budenny has been promoted beyond his capability through being a loyal party member. The hardest front to defend and I get a -18 rating. I cannot be happy with that.

Threat level is okay though

Summary:

This is the most difficult territory to defend. The only thing to be said for Budenny is he is unlikely to feed Stalin’s paranoia… although his lack of ability means cities will fall and thus increase the chance of Stalin suffering a paranoia attack!

What about Budenny’s subordinates?

- Southwestern HQ (19 Divisions) LtGen M.P Kirponos – Initiative 5: Threat -2
- 5th Army (11 Divisions) MajorGen M.I Potapov – Initiative 10: Threat -1
- 6th Army (14 Divisions) LtGen I.N Muzychenko – Initiative 20: Threat 0
- 12th Army (9 Divisions) MajorGen P.G Ponedelin – Initiative 20: Threat 0
- 26th Army (6 Divisions) LtGen F.Y Kostenko – Initiative 15: Threat -1
- Southern HQ (8 Divisions) LtGen Tyulenev – Initiative 15: Threat -1
- 9th Army (15 Divisions) LtGen V.I Kuznetsov – Initiative 10: Threat -1

Summary: Right I see what sort of numbers are possible re the Initiative Rating. I have two commanders with 20 who clearly know one end of a rifle from another…which is nice (although their perceived threat to Stalin is accordingly neutral.

[Flaviusx]

You got a real break there with 12. Army clocking in at 40, btw. That might the single most important army on the map to activate early on. If you can save 12. Army and SW Front, then the south is in business.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

You got a real break there with 12. Army clocking in at 40, btw. That might the single most important army on the map to activate early on. If you can save 12. Army and SW Front, then the south is in business.

warspite1

Hi Flaviusx - please see edit to post 13. These values may not be those for this game, but I will update as soon as I know.

EDIT: Actual numbers added - sadly no 30 and no 40 [:(]

[warspite1]

22nd June 1941
Turn 1

Mmmm not sure what a good number of pp is on this turn, but 10 does not sound good at all...

So what does this tell me?

I can use the Zhukov and Khruschchev cards for free so that's a relief with the lack of pp.

I can choose a Front to prioritise - but that would take all ten points.

None of my armies activated - not a single one? Is that normal for the Soviets? This means every division loses 60AP. How am I supposed to run away with no AP?

All armies on Offensive Posture - again I need to change - but have no PP.

[warspite1]

22nd June 1941
Turn 1

These are the losses for that opening German turn...

Not too much happened in Finland. While further south, 18th Army have carved into the Latvian defences and mauling my 8th Army, while 16th Army and 4th Panzergruppe have headed for Dunaburg.

In the centre my 3rd Army is in danger of being surrounded as 3rd Panzergruppe have split; the northern arm are nearing Vilnius, the southern prong ensuring 3rd Army is going to struggle to survive.
2nd Panzergruppe have bypassed Brest-Litovsk and are headed straight for Minsk. A complete pocket around Bialystok has not been formed accordingly.

West of Lvov, 6th Army have been almost cut off by a strong panzer spearhead and both 26th Army and 5th Armies west and north of the city have taken heavy losses.