Alpha AAR - A year at the front with Field Marshal Noob

[karonagames]

End of Turn 39: Rumanian 4th Army does it stuff:

[karonagames]

End of turn 40: AGN.

[karonagames]

End of turn 40: Guards units spouting up everywhere.

[karonagames]

End of Turn 40: Kursk and Belgorod are mine... all mine!

[karonagames]

End of turn 40: I wonder who will win this race to the sea?

[karonagames]

End of turn 41: And the winner is 14th Panzer Division. 30 units pocketed, just in time.

[karonagames]

End of March front line North:

[karonagames]

End of March front line south:

[karonagames]

Any Questions? I will finish the AAR off tomorrow so I can have a clear run at my next test of 1941.

[Pipewrench]

might have to change your name to pool boy with all those pockets..

wink,wink,nudge,nudge....[:D]

great read and I and many others appreciate the effort it took to bring this little soap opera to life.

[karonagames]

My Anorak has big pockets too.[:)]

Like Jon (Pyledriver) says quite often. "I love this game". I hope you are starting to see why.

[karonagames]

The next 12 turns are mud, so there is is very little combat or manoeuvring apart from reducing pockets and minor line straightening, so I am going to fast forward to Turn 53, to look at the 1942 summer campaign start line and then do a quick analysis of what is being fine tuned as a result of this test, and what I will be focusing on in the next test.

[ComradeP]

Nice recovery, although the state of your ammunition depots seems to be appalling.

Flaviusx: it's indeed confusing to have clones of Kesselring running around.

[karonagames]

Front line North. Abroad comparison with the historical start line would suggest that AGN, where I made maximum effort, probably over-allocating resources, are 10 hexes ahead of the start line. AGC is pretty close to the historical start line except for the weird salients and pockets that they formed historically.

[karonagames]

Front Line South: AGS, who got less than historical levels of support and effort on my part is approximately 10 hexes behind the historical start line. GAIA seems to struggle at the northern and southern extremities of her line as she has allowed the Rumanians into the Taman.

[karonagames]

If I was able to continue this campaign into 1942, I would have undertaken "Fall Blau" in 2 phases. The first phase designed to pull all soviet reserves away from the defence of Moscow. Once this has been achieved Moscow will be captured in a massive encirclement (i.e. what Jon did), unfortunately the accumulated bugs and the relative strengths of the forces means ongoing testing would not be worthwhile:

Fall Blau: 3rd and 4th Panzer army sectors (mis-named by bug). 3rd and 4th panzer is tasked with re-capturing Tula to establish the jumping of point for the southern prong of the phase 2 attack. 4th Panzer with move to Rzhev to refit and form the Northern prong of the phase 2 attack.

[karonagames]

Fall Blau: 1st Panzer army sector (mis-named). 1st Panzer will encircle soviet forces in front of Belgorod then capture Voronezh, then provide support to north or south, depending on the operational situation.

[karonagames]

Fall Blau: 5th Panzer (mis-named) sector. 5th Panzer will encircle the Donbas cities, then advance on Stalingrad, stretching the SU line and drawing reserves further and further from the Mosocow front. Once phase 2 commences 5th panzer is tasked with tying down the maximum number of SU forces.

[karonagames]

1st Year ground losses. Axis losses are low, but as noted in the AAR, attritional losses are being increased for the next test. It is difficult to make direct comparisons for SU losses, but I think they are a reasonable reflection of how the campaign unfolded.

[karonagames]

1st Year Air losses. I am no expert here so I will make no comment: