Tyronec & I played once before with sides switched now. The game didn't last long, but I can tell you Tyronec has progressed very nicely in his skill level. So we started one up with my "new" Russian screen name since that name is a good description of the Soviet side in 1941.
I wanted to try out another "CRAZY" idea I have with the Soviets before a patch goes in. I have no illusions of Grandeur that I will pull this off but wanted to give it a try.
Since I owed Tyronec a game from last year when we first met I decided why not. Will put to the test another one of my crazy ideas but this time I'm 98% sure it is destined to fail
This will lead to a very short game & what I was expecting to play since I really need a break soon. Should be fun experimenting here.
No ground attacks.
Serious bombing campaign, I have lost 59 (mostly fighters) for 586 and has inflicted 580 ground casualties.
Is this from Soviet bombing of Axis airfields? If you lose 59 fighters while bombing Soviet airfields gaining experience/ victories you can call it an investment. Losing them on the ground is quite a bit worse.
ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
I wanted to try out another "CRAZY" idea I have with the Soviets before a patch goes in. I have no illusions of Grandeur that I will pull this off but wanted to give it a try.
Can we ask what the crazy idea is? Or does it need to be confidential until the game is done?
ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
I wanted to try out another "CRAZY" idea I have with the Soviets before a patch goes in. I have no illusions of Grandeur that I will pull this off but wanted to give it a try.
Can we ask what the crazy idea is? Or does it need to be confidential until that game is done?
My air losses in his turn are from fighter cover defending my ground units and airbases. He has done almost no damage 'on the ground' so the bombers are barely getting through, if at all.
This is with my AA SU's well distributed and keeping airbases fairly well back.
The kill ratio over both our turns is around 7:1 but there is a question as to whether I can deplete his air force sufficiently before my fighters run out.
So here is how the air war has worked in my games. Have played as Soviet 4 times, but was very much learning the game and made lots of mistakes. From T3 onwards I would make extensive fighter sweeps to draw out the Axis fighters, then bomb their air bases all out - at night if the fighter cover was too strong. Made lots of mistakes, in one game didn't use the biplanes and in another built far too many LB's and ran out of air frames. I wasn't aware of the importance of experience and didn't track it, however would rotate all units with morale below 50 so that probably had much the same effect.
In every game by the end of '41 was dominating the battlefield. Finnish and Romanian air forces were usually wiped out. In two games the Axis were down to around 2k aircraft, in the other two they had around 3k but only by keeping them well back and were effectively out of the game.
By '42 was able to keep the Luftwaffe suppressed and double bomb every axis unit with Tac's or LBs over a large enough area of the front to cover where all the fighting was happening, AND have ground support ON.
In this game the tactics are as follows. The Soviets do extensive ground unit bombing with fighter cover each turn and any air bases within range, usually unescorted. My fighters have been intercepting and causing heavy losses but it pushes their fatigue up, in some cases am losing a lot of aircraft just intercepting bombers when they are bombing my airbases which are out of their fighter escort range.
In my turn I move my fighters forwards and do fighter sweeps with very high kill ratios. Have tried bombing his air bases but they have too much fighter cover. Then the fighters get pulled back. Am not able to do any ground unit bombing around his 'fighter swarm'. Have been monitoring my fighter fatigue from T1 and giving them rest turns when it gets up, though possibly not enough. They are effectively fighting his fighters in the Axis phase and his bombers in the Soviet phase.
Am not sure if other tactics would be more effective. Could switch off fighter intercept or night fighter intercept but that would give him free bombing of my air bases and from playing Soviets I know you can grind down the Luftwaffe even with just night bombing. I think if you stacked 2 bombers with 1 fighter in each hex the fighters do a little CAP to defend themselves but not enough.
I have ground support switched off, could use ground support on instead of fighter sweeps but from past experience you can lose a lot of bombers that way even if there are sometimes good results.
What I would like to do is have my fighters only intercept air base bombing and not ground unit bombing. Can sort of do that a little by where they are positioned at the end of the turn but have not been able to manage things to get that to work right.
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
Have been trying to understand what his strategy is and still cannot see what he is up to, any thoughts ?
The feature that stands out so far is he has done almost no ground attacks and has been keeping most of his army out of contact.
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGN. They are not making a stand at the Sortavala river line so the Finns can continue their advance. Still little defence being offered in front of Leningrad. I can push on North and East with PG4 and the two infantry armies. Am thinking to keep PG4 up here for at least another turn to help clear the terrain more quickly.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGC. The retreat continues, Pandaemonium has yet to use his '+1'. I will advance as far as possible with the corps that has done the HQBuildup, while making sure they end the turn on protective terrain and their flanks are covered. Perhaps an HQBuildup for another corp. Two infantry corps will push towards Gomel ready to link up with AGS, perhaps next turn. 5 units in the pocket to mop up.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGS. Pandaemonium has abandoned the Dnepr. Perhaps he can tell us if he always intended to do this or it was after seeing I had a full infantry army primed for the assault. If he had stayed am not at all sure how the river assault would have panned out as he had good defensive values and ample air support. He has inserted 3 cavalry divisions and cut off supplies to some of my armour, though fortunately not wrecked my HQBuildup. I want to get rid of the cavalry so will keep pushing them back until they rout, giving me a few wins and them some losses and casualties.
My HQBuildup corps will advance towards Gomel, flipping the route back to AGC. The second corps from AG2 can follow next turn. I may swap some divisions with PG1 to use more of the Pz divisions in AGC and motorised with AGS.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
Romanian. Odessa port is working so FBD 3 can start repairing the railway from there. The grey shows the hexes repaired this turn. He has cut off two of my advanced motorised divisions which is annoying, it is also slowing up the infantry. Need to guard my flanks better. Will push on East and aim for an HQBuildup next turn or the one when the infantry are further forward.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
The air war. Continues all out: 600 for 92 (all fighters) plus 300 ground troops. He also bombed my allied air forces but not too much damage. He has got his fighters into the game this turn and my fighter fatigue levels are rising. Using the Telemachus calculator, assuming I have got it right, this is what he started with on map and has he left now; so about 6k fighters and LBs. I want to start resting some fighters so will continue the airbase bombing but on a reduced scale.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGN. 16 & 18th Armies advance as far as they can, 18th gets 3 divisions across the last river line before Leningrad. Am reluctant to send PG4 further North so they assault the river south of lake Ilmen and can threaten the railway to Leningrad or turn South. My feeling is they would not be that valuable in the centre yet as the Soviets are still withdrawing.
Attachments
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The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGC. Continue the advance, the HQBuildup corps grab a few extra hexes and should still be fuelled up for next turn. HQBuildup the next corps. 2nd Army arrives by rail so we now have 3 Infantry armies and 3 Pz corps in the centre.
Attachments
T5Ce.jpg (361.89 KiB) Viewed 259 times
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
AGS. In the end I pocket all 5 divisions that were cutting off my supplies, is not really slowing down the advance to do so. PG2 heads north to be in place for the main drive on Moscow, having transferred in two Pz. Divisions from PG1. PG1 and 11th army cross the lower Dnepr and LAH does another loop behind enemy lines in the Crimea, his air force is not placed to stop air supply so they get another top up. Pandaemonium has large forces including good divisions around Poltava and D'town doing nothing, I guess a lot of Axis players go through there rather than along the coast, so will see what he does with them next turn. PG1 has good supply (corps 11/12 range from Odessa) though I used a lot of MP's crossing the river/swamp this turn. Am really waiting for the infantry to catch up.
One lone mountain division continues the invasion of Hungry, may have to let it die off on it's own.
Attachments
T5Se.jpg (302.79 KiB) Viewed 259 times
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
The air war. Not good this turn, I rested half of my fighters and a couple of my bombing runs went badly wrong and got jumped by 400+ soviet fighters. I lose 172 for 381 - would have been better to have done no attacks at all.
Administration. Just the one HQBuildup this turn. I still have Model and most of the SU's in reserve.
Attachments
T5Re.jpg (259.9 KiB) Viewed 259 times
The lark, signing its chirping hymn,
Soars high above the clouds;
Meanwhile, the nightingale intones
With sweet, mellifluous sounds.
Enough of Stalin, Freedom for the Ukraine !
ORIGINAL: tyronec
Using the Telemachus calculator, assuming I have got it right, this is what he started with on map and has he left now; so about 6k fighters and LBs.
Word of warning the one I distributed before was 1.10 bitter end data - if you have started on a different version and not changed the scenario data it may be incorrect. I suspect though there will be little difference or maybe even no difference. I have an updated 1.11 campaign game one - if wanted let me know (anyone!)
The +1 is nice but until the end of August the Soviets will take "MASSIVE" casualties whenever they attack. It is disheartening to lose 2,000 Soviet Patriots to damage 1 tank.
