Fighting Typhoon: Before, During and After Action Thoughts

[Bavre]

Since Umeu specifically asked me to, here are a few thoughts on the game:

(@Umeu)

The "Axis units roll over very sound defensive positions" thing you mentioned several times is actually completely normal, at least at the height of their power and with their A-team. High rating max xp HQ + experienced units + some air/arty support crack every static defense, especially in Russia. It gets even worse when the Axis player has been doing a lot of xp hoarding before.

An Axis unit count of 150 is not that scary in this very specific situation. It's very late in the game, Germany is deep in Russia and Italy is gone, so a big chunk of those 150 are garrisons on partisan duty. I mean just look at the screenshots: the Wehrmacht gets swarmed practically everywhere in the end.

Imho the game confirmes that as Axis player you either kill Russia fast or you die eventually. I would even go so far as to say that other theatres are fairly meaningless if Barbarossa doesn't bring down the bear.

The really unusual thing about this game is that it lasted so long with both sides staying competitive. That is in my experience super super rare. So thanks to both players for the AAR, it was a really exciting read!

[Umeu]

Since Umeu specifically asked me to, here are a few thoughts on the game:

Thanks for the post!

The "Axis units roll over very sound defensive positions" thing you mentioned several times is actually completely normal, at least at the height of their power and with their A-team. High rating max xp HQ + experienced units + some air/arty support crack every static defense, especially in Russia. It gets even worse when the Axis player has been doing a lot of xp hoarding before.

I suppose you are right and are used to it as well, but for me it was the first time playing someone of that skill level so it was quite shocking for me to see. But also, I made these notes usually right after watching the replay, and they were quite unfiltered. I mostly just took out the swearing and left the rest as is for this AAR.

Imho the game confirmes that as Axis player you either kill Russia fast or you die eventually. I would even go so far as to say that other theatres are fairly meaningless if Barbarossa doesn't bring down the bear.

I still think this is an interesting discussion, though you probably had it many times. What did you think of the idea to fall back constantly but keeping the army in tact? I feel like it would be very hard and time consuming for Germany to force a surrender on Russia that way, but perhaps I am wrong. I did get quite fortunate with several things, but also think that Taifun outmatched me tactically in combat. So perhaps a better player could have a better result with such a strategy. I'm curious to see what you will do when I play you, looking forward to it already

An Axis unit count of 150 is not that scary in this very specific situation. It's very late in the game, Germany is deep in Russia and Italy is gone, so a big chunk of those 150 are garrisons on partisan duty. I mean just look at the screenshots: the Wehrmacht gets swarmed practically everywhere in the end.

I agree that in a way it wasn't scary, and had I had infinite time, or even just until like 48, I would have been very confident in victory. But time was running out, I only had 1 summer left, and still quite a way to march to get to my objectives. Paris would be sufficient, but it was the best protected out of all objectives. It would have been interesting to see how it plays out, and yes, it was cool to see it go down the wire on a razor's edge for so long.

so thank you for reading!

[firsteds]

I really enjoyed this AAR. I will miss it! I am not worried that it finished in unusual circumstances - I play a lot of PBEM games where real life intervenes for one or both players, so that was actually realistic. I enjoyed the detailed notes and screen shots. One thing I couldn't see was NM for USA and the other allies - that is usually a key factor towards the end.

Thanks for all the hard work in sharing a brilliant AAR.

[Umeu]

I really enjoyed this AAR. I will miss it! I am not worried that it finished in unusual circumstances - I play a lot of PBEM games where real life intervenes for one or both players, so that was actually realistic. I enjoyed the detailed notes and screen shots. One thing I couldn't see was NM for USA and the other allies - that is usually a key factor towards the end.

Thanks for all the hard work in sharing a brilliant AAR.

thanks for the kind feedback! It was fun to do

I didn't take screenshots of the NM, but iirc, Germany was at 95-100%, Russia between 80 and 90%. Both UK and US were around 70%. India was 80%, and China like 40-50%.

[Bavre]

...
I still think this is an interesting discussion, though you probably had it many times. What did you think of the idea to fall back constantly but keeping the army in tact? I feel like it would be very hard and time consuming for Germany to force a surrender on Russia that way, but perhaps I am wrong.
...

That is definitely the way to go in War in Europe, in World at War however Perm is much easier to reach, so you can and probably should do it for a while, but you can't do it forever. What I would totally advise against is a forward defense to try and save some of the spawning units. There appear to be massive scripted morale effects at the beginning of Barbarossa, so any encounters in the first 1-2 turns are usually decidedly unhealthy for the Red Army.