Pelton vrs Dinglir, CG 41-45 Bitter End (No Pelton)

[Dinglir]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

There is no surprise at all that Pelton is willing to let you attack weak Axis troops from the Crimea. He will allow you to overextend yourself over the winter and then when good weather returns he can rail in whatever he needs to slice up and annihilate your defenders.

Without giving to much of a spoiler alert, I can reveal that I have no intention of being north of the Crimean crossings when the spring arrives. My current plan is to simply inflict casualties on the Axis and tie down German units that Pelton could use elsewhere. Come late february or so, I will simply extract my divisions from this area, and defend the crossings instead.

So, if this is a German trap, I intend to steal the bait without springing the trap.

On the other hand, should Pelton decide not to keep sufficient troops in the area, I will send my own cavalry roaming into the German hinterland.

[Dinglir]

Turn twentysix.

[Stelteck]

Good job in surrounding some facist invaders comrade !!! Point them the way of the prisoners' camp.

[Dinglir]

Turn twentyseven.

[Dinglir]

Turn twentyeight.

[Mamluke]

this AAR is awesome Dinglir! your pdfs are well done and organized, also pratical to read.

every day I came to this site to see if you post another one, wish you could post faster

it will be a hard, unpredictable battle come 1942, many other's AAR have lost Leningrad, but both Leningrad and Moscow? came 1942 your Manpower will start to hurt as you will get a lower manpower modifier.
could you please tell us how much manpower you gain per week before and after 1942?

I mostly play the Axis, But I would like to offer some advice
you can place Fortress region in your cities/ urban centers- closes to the front line, maybe you don't know all the fort rules so I will explaine just in case:

when not in contact with a enemy hex, Divisions and brigades will only build forts up to level 2, however with a fortress region you can build up to level 3 where ever you want (with exception to marshland, Maximun fort level for that hex is always level 2).

with a fortress region in cities / urban hexes, you can build up to level 4!! I Imagine, a single rifle division could muster 60-80 defensive CV in such a hex.

with Port provinces you could build up to level 5!! even in plains, that is one though nut to crack.

PS: I want to make a comment on your strategy on the 1st turns, (better late the never).

"I belive in the preservation of forces to be my optimal strategy..."

How Un-Soviet of you Comrade!

[Dinglir]

Hi Mamluke.

It's great that you like this type of AAR. I actually enjoy writing it, and I do believe I play better (or less badly, if you prefer) by writing it. Writing an AAR like this forces me to consider what I do and why I do it.

About game speed, I am divorced and having my four year old daughter home every other week on top of a full time job. That does limit the amount of time I can spend on WitE. But I promise you this, if I win the Eurojackpot lottery next week, I will spend some more time playing in the future.....

Actually, I do not feel my population modifier suffer much because of the loss of Moscow. I still hold some 2500+ population factories by turn 27, and I produce 100.000+ men every turn. Moscow itself is only 90 population points (or 3600 men pr turn), as the Germans have taken no land behind it. The real hit is the 50 VP the Germans get every turn they hold on to the city (Bitter End Scenario).

My army is weak, because of a series of early war blunders on my part. I am only gaining strength slowly because I focus a lot on forcing attrition on the Germans - at this point in time I inflict as many AFV losses on the Germans as they are able to build, meaning that their Panzer forces are not currently gaining strength for the summer. They also have about 1500 guns less than at game start.

I have been very close to building a series of fortified zones already, but time has never really been right. Their fortification bonus is only really relevant once your other forces has built up to level two. During the summer and fall of 1941, I never felt I got there before my troops were overrun or outflanked. Now, in winter, I find that my limited reserves must go to my frontline divisions, meaning that the "STAVKA diggers" are very low on manpower and construction points. Becuase of this, I never really have gotten to level two except in the north. I probably should start building forts along the line here to ensure a better defense in the unlikely event that the Germans attack here come summer.

I did write about "preservation of force", I recall. Problem was that with running away fast early war, I soon ran out of terrain to run away from and this effectively caused the loss of both Leningrad and Moscow. If I were to start the game again today, I would certainly have made some changes to my early war strategy in the north and been more willing to trade manpower for time.

I know it sounds crasy but I like reading these AAR's as well. The game is now three turns ahead of the AAR's and I ususally read every report before posting it. My general feeling is "Wow that was a long time ago I wrote this."

But keep on enjoying the read.

[Dinglir]

Turn twentynine.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirty.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtyone.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtytwo.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtythree.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtyfour.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtyfive.

[Mamluke]

Ah Camrade, you are putting out reports in a timely fashion, Good job!

acording to the Excel file, the Red army has a size of 5.82 Million men and over 60K art. the Red airforce is also over 8000 planes!

I think you have a Strong army for 1942, came summer it should reach 6.4 or maybe even 6.5 Million, you also say your are starting to acumulate Armament points? that is very good news.

the red airforce is also cumming along nicely, and with the good care you have been giving it, it should soon reak terror from the skies!
maybe you have notice, but pelto doesn't seam to care much for the airforce at all. from previous AAR he used to treat the Air force with such contempt. ( a waste of manpower and trucks)
he should value it more by recent updates, but that kind of attitude is to your advantege, in 1942, maybe the airforce won't give you results that you would be proud of, but came 1943 say, I think it could be capable of great things.

I want to give some advice for the Crimea, at the main Entrence, you have a stack of 30 Defensive CV with just a level 1 fort, (all guards riffle divisions I assume?) with a level 2 or 3 fort, it could reach to +50CV, while that is Impresive, 2 panzer divisions and a Elite Infantry (over 80 Morale ) Division could break through, recon will show you don't have stacks behind the river, I recommand putting at least level 2 forts in those areas, so to have a fall back line, so Pelton doens't simply hasty attack the retreated divisions and to decrease the risk of encirclement on the 1st turn.

BTW what do you think of putting a fortress region on Rostov and Tula? (among other strategic hexes) its likely those cities will became front line cities. heaving a level 4 light Urban hex to defend wouldn't hurt

also, when the fort reaches level 4, it no longer decays, so you can disband the fort region to save the guns, and just put a rifle brigade to defend it, I think it will at least protect the hex from hasty attacks.

[Dinglir]

I have certainly noticed that Pelton did not seem to care much for his airforces in 1941. For instance, I think I shot down about 1000 level bombers flying unescorted bombing attacks at Leningrad. In 1942, Pelton has only done those unescorted attacks with his low quality bombers (such as the Ju86E) but instead saved his new aircraft for later use.

I actually feel my airforce did pretty well already in 1941. Peltons Air strategy often left me with virtual control in the air in several places. I could use this to do a lot of bombing attacks by U-2VS and such. If each such attack did 50 casualties and 5 guns lost and I did 20+ pr turn, that adds up over the course of the game.

At the end of turn 35, I was pulling the last of my units back to Crimea. The effective end of the blizzard took me by surprise, and when I realized the urgency of pulling back, I hadn't started the buildup of fortifications yet. The result was the weak fortification you see at the image. Suffice to say, that this was one of the lessons I learned: Playing reduced blizzard, it will actually be the Germans who hold the initiative in February.

I have begun placing fortifications in those hexes where I have a fortification level of three or I need to build the fortification level from two to three. I haven't been 100% sharp on that though.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Mamluke

the red airforce is also cumming along nicely, and with the good care you have been giving it

Funniest thing I have read all day, I give it two thumbs up! [8D]

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtysix.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtyseven.

[Dinglir]

Turn thirtyeight.