Aditia vs. Darbymcd

[Aditia]

2nd attempt at this after my previous game suffered an early end.

Important Edit, rules:
- Bitter End scenario
- Mild Blizzard
- No 1:1=2:1
- Non-Random Weather
- HQ Bombing allowed
- Pelton's limited naval assault rule, but with that I commit to having at least 2 bomber groups in the Crimean. We didn't specify nationality, but I will make it German ones.
- Oh I forgot: We have also agreed to tactical para drops being allowed

The objective of the AAR is:
- Collect feedback
- Provide insights as I get them, this is only my 2nd GC 41-45 and the previous one ended on T7. Hopefully this provides some useful reading to other newer Grand Campaigners.
- Hopefully entertain a bit

Feel free to give your feedback as you see it, no need to mince your words.
I do however respectfully ask that you refrain from any derogatory remarks on my opponent. He was a bit rusty and made some crucial early mistakes; he is now trying to deal with the consequences of those.

Darbymcd has turn 12 while I write this.

[Aditia]

AGN

[Aditia]

AGC

[Aditia]

AGS

I learned from my previous game to adjust my openings to make for a more secure northern and southern opening, including making the Kovel pocket tight.

I don't care about the Lvov pocket being tight or not it needs to be held for a long time anyway.

[Aditia]

Airlosses:

Automated bombing routine, starting furthest out to hit level bombers and then switch to the closeby bases and move outwards.

[Aditia]

I have no pictures of Turn 2, but I made some of the start of Turn 3

Start of AGN. Notice the Mot. Div from AGC that I moved north to pressure the woods north of Vitebsk

[Aditia]

AGCnorth start. Southern part of AGC is not interesting.

His forces look randomly spread. On turn 2 I moved panzers in position to flank Vitebsk

[Aditia]

AGS start

On his turn 1, Darbymcd underestimated how far I could get on turn 2 and allowed me to pocket a large number of units by being too far forward. He responded by cutting off a good chunk of my mobile forces, but the damage is done.

[Aditia]

AGN not too interesting, river crossings south of Pskov.

It took me until turn 8 or 9 to figure out how to properly do air supply drops, so that has diminished some forward movement in the early turns.

See AGC after my moves below. Note how I turn one of AGNs field armies towards the wood/marsh lands North of Vitebsk. I like to do this when the land bridge is firmly defended as this forces the Soviet player to make some choices.

[Aditia]

The big events are in the Ukraine.

Pockets reduced and secured and 2 more pockets made. I actually like that my opponent is maintaining his forward defence; it ensures the small disaster on turn 2 was not in vain and it also ensures that it will take my infantry considerable time to reach the Dnepr.

[Aditia]

Turn 4

Main event is that my opponent did not really respond to my weight of force north of Vitebsk and I find V-Luki unguarded.
This has serious implications as capturing V-Luki this early denies use of the Valdai Hills and provides an excellent spring board for the assault on Moscow.

In the North I outflank the Pskov defences and recon shows very light forces defending the Luga.

AGN

[Aditia]

V-Luki area,

Vitebsk and the forces there are now isolated. The one PzCorps in the back belonging to Guderian's panzer group did an HQBU to outflank his defences on the Dnepr next turn. It was probing the Berezina previous turn but recon shows the route to Gomel too strongly held for a PzCorps.

[Aditia]

AGC

Infantry advances on Gomel while I make sure there can be no surprises from the Pripyat.

[Aditia]

AGS

A lot of Red Army West of the Dnepr. Another small pocket formed but as you can see my infantry is being kept very busy in the rear.
Note that I have been advancing airbases with the pace of the general advance, I will pay for this later as my fighter bases become chronically short on fuel.

[Aditia]

Production:

I obviously need to do some more tinkering with Max. TOE values as my manpower is being used up.
Armament points are building nicely.

Edit: Lol, wrong screenshot, anyway, my manpower at this point is tiny...

During the summer of 1941 I can summarize the following with what I did with Max TOE:

- High Morale infantry Div. and Motorised forces; 100% + Refit
- <80 morale Infantry Div 76%
- FlAK 50%, except units equipped with 88mm, they get 88% as the gun is so good and loads are produced anyway.
- Airbases and Corps HQs 93%. Kept these high as the actual TOE affects the effectiveness of the HQ, especially for movement points. Also, I want the airbases to keep the Luftwaffe in the air while it is strong.
- Most tubes to 66%, with exception of 5cm PAK, as it is the only effective gun against soviet heavy armor next to the 88mm. 5cm PAK gets 88%

I will have some screenshots of TOE tinkering later I think. In turn 12 I am sitting on 70k manpower and ca. 100k+ Armaments.

[Aditia]

Airlosses:

In general my losses have been very light, this turn a bit of an exception. I think I launched an Airbase attack on a fighter base, which kind of back fired.

These first few turns I keep bombing the airbases of the BBC. Bombing the bomber bases (a gew hexes away from fighter bases) reduces their use against my ground forces and it also draws out the fighter groups in an uncoordinated manner. Bombing fighter bases is a bit more dangerous.

Absolutely crucial is to manually select forces for bombing missions, otherwise you will see your level bomber losses psiral out of control.

[Aditia]

Turn 5 is a very eventful Turn:

In the North I find the Luga line barely manned.
In the Centre HQBU results in the majority of forces on the Dnepr SW of Smolensk being toast.
In the South it's a slow slow grind.

AGN
(1 Pz Corp Held back for HQBU, I think it is the only Pz Corp I have left here)
You can see Weichs' 2nd Army is moved here to compensate for the reduction of strength of moving one Army to V-Luki

[Aditia]

Smolensk

HQBU in action. That the pocket is not closed matters not. Those troops are done.

I avoided having to assault over a major river this way, and by doing it with HQBU the advance is deep enough to prevent any withdrawals in my opponent's turn.

It really shows the need for the Soviet player to be very wary of strong defences that are not protected on the flanks.
The Pz Corps east of V-Luki is beyond the end of supply and because I did not fully grasp the supply rules at this point it will be around there for a while The situation a few turns later forces me to research the supply rules in depth.

[Aditia]

AGS

Since I am obsessed with avoiding assaults on strong positions, I move the borrowed PzCorps north of Kiev, for an 'easier' crossing of 2 major rivers... 6th Army is done mopping up and is force marching to catch up there. The brown Army (17th?) is still very busy in the rear.

The Southern wing is still grinding through forces deployed in front of D-Town.

I will continue posting turns later.

[Peltonx]

A opening other then you only need 2 PD to take Riga, which is why turn 2 you were not across Pskov.

Other then that A+.

you are slowed down in south, but once your done mopping up it be a nice summer drive to Rostov.

key in south is when to peel of 3-8 divisions and head for Tula. There is a no gas station area that can "trap" your units so HQBU before heading north or have JU-52s do drops on Panzer Corp HQ's.
It will take 3 turns no matter what you do.

Great job here is my opening just look at the northern thrust so u get that at A+ not A-.