ORIGINAL: Klydon
@saygame: Thank you and a lot of good questions.
1. I have been watching my pool and have not done anything special so far since it seems to be in good shape. I have avoided putting infantry on refit. Just the motorized/tanks at this point. Not sure if that is helping or not, but I am trying to go a bit easy on it. I have not disbanded any support units (like flak companies) but that is coming soon. I checked a couple of Tarhunnas AAR and one I found the same turn, etc and we were really close.
2. True on the attrition from being next to each other. I have screened my tanks at times to cut down on the attrition since a favorite Russian tactic is to keep someone on the panzers for attrition and also to cut down on the number of repaired elements they get back in between turns. For 1941 Germany, I think they have to accept being next to the Russians. What works for the Russians also works against them. Their units that are in contact with the Germans don't do so hot in terms of getting elements repaired, moral going up, etc. In addition, the Germans typically want to advance as much as possible each turn, especially with their infantry. The Russians have every right to fear the panzers for big encirclements, but it is when the German infantry gets on the scene the real line cracking start.
3. My tank strength is indeed hurting, but I don't really care about any tanks I have outside of Panzer III and IV's. Light tanks get shot up with ease in this game. The other issue with the Czech tanks is their reliability sucks, so even if you have replacements, they have a tendency to be "damaged" a lot. To see how things were shaking out, I again looked at two of Tarhunnas AARs that had turn 10 losses up and compared. My tank losses are in the middle of his (He has one with more and one with less). I found that remarkable to a point as I feel I am hurting on tanks, but will see how it all shakes out.
4. The way I typically reduce a normal pocket is in one of two ways. (Not talking a huge pocket here, but some of the 10 unit pockets I have hit). In one case, I have several divisions that do one attack each and send them off to the front after that to keep the momentum of the drive going and leave a couple of units behind to finish up. My goal when attacking is to make the pocket smaller if I am not going to wipe it out. Along with that, I try to attack in such a way that I don't have a unit potentially retreat into a heavily fortified hex. Sometimes that isn't the most efficient way to do it, but it helps conserve my losses and force needed to get the job done imo. The second case I use fewer divisions, but they stay behind while everyone else continues the advance. In some cases (like the pocket around Novogorod) I just don't have enough troops handy to wipe it out in one shot because I need stuff elsewhere (in this case, part of 16th army was dealing with the pocket while the other part headed for the Volkhov so I could free up the panzers and let 18th army concentrate on Leningrad).
I do need to work on my 17th army opening in the south. I had always thought it would be more prudent to have them plow SE to help reduce the size of the Lvov pocket (and also speed up destroying it). This game has shown that at the very least, I need to send a corps around the end behind 6th army and make a beeline for Kiev. The type of defense my opponent had on the river was going to make it very difficult for my panzers not only to crack the line but also to stay there, etc. 6th Army has too much crap to get through on its own to get there, so they need some help.
One of the things I have tried to do in this game is to stay concentrated, especially the panzers. For the Germans, this can really be tough. Normally, I don't break divisions down, but I think there are times and places to do it. One such example was when I hit the river defense in the center. Instead of staying somewhat spread out, I used regiment pickets and sent a mass of infantry to the land bridge and also towards Mogalev to make the breaches. I did the same with 16th army up by Leningrad as well. You can see perhaps another example in the south with the pile of Rumanians along the river for a good stretch while the German infantry stays relatively concentrated. Russian players generally won't fear a single corps of panzers. Start massing together 2-3 of them, then its a different story.. [;)]
Hopefully I can get to Kharkov (and many other Russian sites as well). [:D]
1. Your response may have isolated a deficiency in my German play. While I don't use infantry refit either, I have been bloodying my infantry divisions alot (and winning most battles) as well to increase leader ratings, morale and experience. That may account for my lower pool levels on Armaments production as well as my low panzer levels. Or maybe it's just a beta change. Not sure.
2. I've noticed in most German AARs the soviet hugging is common. I try very diligently to abstain from that when possible without sacrificing tactical gains. Its obviously not always possible. But my losses, despite my frequent infantry attacking above, are about 30 K less than yours at similar turns. Again, not sure if its beta changes or style, but it may be significant to keeping losses low. Some Russian opponents (and I know you to be a skilled one from your comments out here) simply will not permit Germans to distance themselves. And I think that is wise Russian play given the German manpower issues.
3. Around turn four I resolved to use my panzers almost exclusively for pocketing. While my panzer losses took a big decrease, there is still a seepage of losses that continue to exceed production. It feels almost like a "use it of lose it" proposition early for the pansers. Still, I hate wasting panzers unnessarily. Like you, I am staying glued (albeit lurking) to the TD Stalin Gulag AAR and learning from many skilled Russians like yourself. A this stage of my German game development I'd hate to be facing himnor them. I admire both your counsel there alongside his skill. I think I'd like to see more sharing of skilled Germans here in your AAR (I'm still a noob yet improving swiftly). Emir, for example, seems quite adept at German play and I've learned a good deal from his sharings. Tarhannas and Q-Ball too.
4. The 17th, nay, the entire AGS is pretty poorly led at the corps levels. Tucked way back in that corner of Silesia (?) the 17th has a hard time gettin out of the gate and to the east. Not sure how much you can improve their situation.
5 I like your concentrating of panzers. You have obviously learned much from facing them so often. It is a constant trade-off early on, it seems to me, in using panzers to threaten, pocket and attack vs flipping land for the infantry to speed their advances. Just being aware of this tension between choices has enhanced my infantry catching up from game to game at the price of a small bit of fuel. Although unrealistic in my experience, just moving panzers only fatigues them, it doesn't seem to result in damaged panzers just from use. But the inter-turn losses seem to be an ample compensator for that.
6. Didn't mean to hijack nor divert you from your AAR nor game with philosophicals, but with your permission, I'll try to slip in and act as contributor/cheering section to share and help you keep the charge rollin. The Germans can't afford too many missed opps. And maybe more eyes may assist in finding them.
saygame
