Korsun Pocket Campaign AAR

[Fred98]

In the first screen shot, the German supply truck is right up on the front line. Why is it there – its so vulnerable.

The air interdiction markers – is their effect on supply the same as TAO2, or more so or less so?

In TAO2 it was difficult to determine, which rivers could be crossed by armour without a bridge and which could not. I notice that some rivers are much larger than others. Are these points related?

“The amount of deformation on the terrain is awful due to the amount of artillery”. Hmm could be used as a tactic.

[BrubakerII]

Originally posted by Joe 98
In the first screen shot, the German supply truck is right up on the front line. Why is it there – its so vulnerable.

Hi Joe - good wuestions. Keep em coming. Remember though, I have never claimed to be an expert player, but do have an insight into what is in the manual

In these screenshots you can see all of my units as they are taken from my perspective. If you were the german player, you wouldn't be aware they are supply trucks in most cases. That said, I will anser your question

As you would know Joe, attacks are nearly always best made with a road in support. This is becasue if a supply truck is on a road its 'reach' is that much more. A supply truck of course has to be able to trace back to a supply head.

In the thrust from the East, the point I am at only has one or maybe two decent roads that link back to a supply head. This is severaly limiting the reach of my supply trucks. On top of that Josan has left behind detachments (very light blue armed men icons in the first screenshot) on one of my roads in his retreat, as well as put air interdiction on a major intersection in the area as well. This is having the effect of choking the supply to my trucks (and thereofre combat units). On top of that I just noticed a downed bridge as well .

So what this is forcing me to do is move my trucks closer to the front line than I would like. The one to the south you are speaking of is actually on the only clear road I own at present. I will try and change that this turn.

The air interdiction markers – is their effect on supply the same as TAO2, or more so or less so?

Hmm, can't quite remember what they do in TAO2 but in Korsun what they do is place a movement penalty in any given hex. This movement penalty slows both movement (duh!) and more importantly supply. By placing his interdiction where he did he is choking off the supply to my point units

Out of interest the reason I placed mine where I did was to try and stop him forming a decent defence in Shpola.

Another quick point. An interdiction marker is placed in a single hex. If the hex is a road hex the interdiction will 'creep' to other road hexes which is what you are seeing in the picture referred to. You can see on 'his side' where I have placed my interdiction how it has covered nearly the whole of Shpola.

In TAO2 it was difficult to determine, which rivers could be crossed by armour without a bridge and which could not. I notice that some rivers are much larger than others. Are these points related?

In TAO2 it is true the original map was a little unclear. Peter Fisla's mod fixed this though. In Korsun, the rivers are much better defined. You are correct in saying that tracked and mechaised forces cannot cross a large river without a bridge. Having said that,there is no shortage of bridges. But definately blowing specific structures will cause the enemy a severe problem.

If this sounds a little generalised, the fact is that to know exactly what unit can cross any given terrain you would need to study its movement ability, factors that would slow it down, terrain costs etc. No one actually would do this during a game. Armed with the knowledge that armour can only cross a major river via a brdge, you would keep that in mind whilst advancing.

Personally when I move units I simply select them and then study the shading that occurs to infdicate where they can go and where they can't.

“The amount of deformation on the terrain is awful due to the amount of artillery”. Hmm could be used as a tactic.

This is no doubt true. Trouble is though, there are expert players out there that can perform a devastating attack without leaving too many craters (I am looking at you Matthew!) so you can't rely on deformation to slow them down. Against player like Matthew you have to pick up your bags and run for your life

[Von Dodenburg]

Great thread and very interesting to read. Can´t wait for this game to be released

A couple of questions though. I noticed that the pop-up dialogue when you right click on units has been vastly improved, and from that screenshot you provided it seems that several changes has been done.

Firstly, it seems that units now can have 4 steps in strength, is this only for the germans? To reflect the fact that the german units is more experienced and disciplined, or is it somehing only Elite units can have?

Secondly, I noticed that the pop-up dialogue now shows if the unit has artillery support, shown by the little cannon, and I guess that the little tank right besides the cannon must mean that a new shift bonus has been introduced, namely the armor shift bonus. Am I right about this one? If so, how does it work?
Does one get the armor bonus in all sort of terrains?
Will anti-tank regiments have a special anti-tank shift? And if so, will infantry then be more effective against an anti-tank unit?
And since a new shift bonus has been introduced, is there any more new shift bonuses that are introduced?

Thirdly, In the screenshot it also shows that one now can stack up to four units in one hex (indicated by the four boxes in the vertical column), but what are the boxes in the Horizontal column for? It seems that the first box shows the terrain the unit(s) are in, but what about the empty boxes?

Fourthly, I guess that the 50% marker that shows up besides the divisional symbol indicates the units divisional bonus? If so, that is good news for all of us who have all that info on paper in the TAO2 game. :rolleyes:

And lastly, the icon in the middle of the pop-up dialogue (the red circle with the detonator in it), what exactly does it mean? Does it mean that every unit has only one charge to blow up bridges with? Or does it implicate that it is only certain units that can blow up bridges, and if so which units?

A lot of questions, but I hope you can find the time to answer at least a few of them

[BrubakerII]

Hi Peter - thanks for the interest.

I think much of what you want to know I have explained in the next AAR but here is a bit more.

Firstly, it seems that units now can have 4 steps in strength, is this only for the germans? To reflect the fact that the german units is more experienced and disciplined, or is it somehing only Elite units can have?

Both sides have units of 4 steps - in fact this is now the new basic unit. It doesn't represent an elite unit but I think more the size of a unit. There are still plenty of 3's, 2's, and 1's.

Elite units are signified slightly differently and get a bonus in attack and defence.

Secondly, I noticed that the pop-up dialogue now shows if the unit has artillery support, shown by the little cannon, and I guess that the little tank right besides the cannon must mean that a new shift bonus has been introduced, namely the armor shift bonus. Am I right about this one? If so, how does it work?
Does one get the armor bonus in all sort of terrains?
Will anti-tank regiments have a special anti-tank shift? And if so, will infantry then be more effective against an anti-tank unit?

I think you are referring to the new shock/anti-shock bonus which I have discussed in the next AAR.

And since a new shift bonus has been introduced, is there any more new shift bonuses that are introduced?

Not that I can think of but if I do I'll let you know

Thirdly, In the screenshot it also shows that one now can stack up to four units in one hex (indicated by the four boxes in the vertical column), but what are the boxes in the Horizontal column for? It seems that the first box shows the terrain the unit(s) are in, but what about the empty boxes?

4 units per hex yes, plus a fort if any. Units stack on the left hand side of the pop-up and moving the mouse over them brings up their info. ALong the bottom is for forts, objectives, mines, reinforcement etc and moving the mouse over them does the same. There is room there for other stuff if wanted I guess.

I guess that the 50% marker that shows up besides the divisional symbol indicates the units divisional bonus? If so, that is good news for all of us who have all that info on paper in the TAO2 game. :rolleyes:

I have discussed this too in the next AAR.

And lastly, the icon in the middle of the pop-up dialogue (the red circle with the detonator in it), what exactly does it mean? Does it mean that every unit has only one charge to blow up bridges with? Or does it implicate that it is only certain units that can blow up bridges, and if so which units?

The red icon indicates a bridge hex that may be blown by an appropriate unit. Which units can? Most. In the pop up dialogue we have been speaking about there is a little symbol of an engineer if the unit is capable.

regards

Brubaker

[BrubakerII]

Turn 6 of the campaign and things are hotting up. My armoured units in the south, though wedged into a small area by Josan's panzers, are destroying on average two panzer units per turn. This was no exception and a Wiking unit was eradicated in this turn.

I am nearly at Shpola I am probably 1/2 way to making a link up at Zven.... but thanks to Josan's defence this is taking me far longer than I would like. If you study the screenshot you will see I have some serious artillery in support of my tanks and this if nothing else will break his line (how long have I been saying that? :rolleyes: )



The area north of this action is finally opening up as well. I didn't take a suitable screenshot unfortunately though the rant on Divisional Integrity that follows does contain one that may show you what is happening.

In the west Josan is counterattacking strongly in the south but I have followed this up with a stronger attack of my own. I have succeeded in breaking the line but not with enough strength to panic him, yet...

I have placed a type of interdiction called partisans behind some of his units to try and trap them. This type of interdiction is far more localised than air interdiction and acts much the same way.



The next two pictures show you the new divisional integrity feature. If you study the first pic you will see I have a regiment of the 11th cavalry division selected. There are three other brigades in this division and they have a green outline around them.

To receive a divisional integrity bonus ALL units of a division must be within 5 hexes of each other. Note in the picture they are not. The yellow arrow on the right shows the normal strengths of 8 attack, 9 defence and below that a little divisional symbol in red. This is red because my units are not within 5 hexes of each other. The +3 indicates the bonues I can receive if I have integrity.



Now look at the next pic. I have moved the other three units and they are close enough to each other now to get integrity. Note the divisional indicator is now green, and that both the attack and defence strengths have been upped by 3! Cool huh



This last picture shows the pop-up when you right click on a map hex. Everything about a hex can be seen on this pop-up. At present I have the mouse cursor over a tank unit. Some of the different things you can see are

a) what the different strengths will be as the unit loses steps (top line is 3, 2nd line is 2 and the bottom line is if there is only 1 step left,

b) The red circle with the plunger indicates the unit is capable of blowing bridges and the construction symbol means it can dig in,

c) Its movement capability and value (to the enemy) if destroyed

and other stuff.

A most interesting thing for me is the little tank and gun symbols. These are indicative of a new concept called shock (and anti-shock). Very basically, if a unit is capable of shock (the tank symbol) it will receive that bonus in attack. In the case below the full strength unit would receive a +2 bonus. The bonus is not a CRT shift, it is added directly onto a dice roll ! So you can see how important that unit then becomes in an attack.

Many units have an anti-shock capability. This is the small gun symbol. In the example below the tank unit at full strength has a +1 anti-shoch capability. This is use din defence to, you guessed it, counter shock.

On top of this many terrain elements also have an anti-shock capability which needs to be taken into account when palcing units.

This shock feature is an excllent addition which really makes some combats against weaker units on clear terrain absolutely devastating!



Till next time

Brubaker

[Tbone3336]

Great reading! All these enhancements (shock value and such) make an already great game even more anticipated. Thanks again for taking the time to whet our appetite for the game.

[BrubakerII]

Hi all. Thanks for the positive comments. I must say I absolutely love this game and cannot wait for you all to get it so we can have some email matches!

Turn 7

Josan is a clever swine :p He has so far frustrated all attempts to create a pocket and continues to do so

He is using a method of 'sliding' his best panzer units along the front to the tip of the spear each time (and blunting it ). Fortunately I have plenty of armour present so am able to rotate them through the tip and keep the pressure on. I am hoping to win an attritional battle at this place. Time will tell if this will work.

Meanwhile the constant shifting of units produces gaps to the north. The screenshot below shows where I have slipped uits of a cavalry division into a position where it may flank the northern line. My goal is to get to the bridges before he does and trap some of those grenadiers in the wastelands.

Note: You can just see Korsun on the other side of the river - so close but so far!



To the east and the enemy again has frustrated attempts to get through the front line. In the last turn I managed to force some armour through the front line but strong counterattacks cut this off. In this turn I reopened that whole and slipped the armour back into safety

I am working on flanking this area however.

In the north a similar situation is developing to the eastern front whereby the enemy is running out of men to defend. I have units ready to exploit in this place and intend to do so.



Till next time.

[Fred98]

Why do the objectives held by the Germans have Russian flags?

[BrubakerII]

Originally posted by Joe 98
Why do the objectives held by the Germans have Russian flags?

HI Joe

Sorry to take so ong to get back to you but I am clarifying a couple of points before I respond. I promise as soon as I know this info I will answer your question.

Brubaker

[BrubakerII]

Finally some tangible results!

To date Josan has done a brilliant job holding off the massive armoured forces allied against him in the south. These armoured forces were designed to thrust across his rear and cut off a huge salient based on Korsun. What Josan has achieved is to stop that salient closing, but this is having the effect of leaving the northern reaches open for exploitation.

The (large) screenshot below shows the eastern side of the conflict. As you can see the Germans contine to mass amrour to the south to hold back my tanks, but in the north I am moving very quickly now. The 11th Cavalry Brigade and other units have successfully got in behind the Germans northern wing and areset to attack across the bridges into the Korsun region. It appears as though many German units will be trapped on the wrong side of the river at this point.

To the south I have begun to withdraw the 20th Armoured Brigade from the front in order to move it either north or south (as yet undecided). It has taken me longer than it should to realise I am simply wasting my best units together in this are. If I spread the three armoured brigade across the front (still concentrating individual units together), I will force the German to break up his tank strengtha little. I hope.



The following picture is of the western wing. I continue to thrust holes in the line and Josan continues to close them up again. The real change is happenning o the north (just off screen) where my units are advancing virtually unopposed toward Korsun. I will concentrate my screenshots inthis area next turn.



Brubaker

[Rob Gjessing]

Josan needs to straighten out his line of defence.. remember the engine he is working with is not all that different to the TAO one, the best line of defence is a straight one..

He probably should be trying to delay your advance by dropping of strongpoints as he retreats slowly to bring all of his troops into line.. I also note he has several units that he has no entrenched..

He also needs to get back over that river towards the north and blow those bridges..

In the west, he will soon do away with those units of yours he has trapped behind lines.. once they are destroyed - if not this turn the next.. he will have a fair number of units which he can use to plug lines in his defence or use to blunt down your pointy end.. infact he should try and cycle the infantry units with his ARM that is currently holding the line..

Of course all of this is easier said then done.. This battle looks like an interesting one..

[BrubakerII]

Turn 9. I am beginning to feel my brave Soviet Comrades are finally making headway against the dreaded Hun invaders. Despite an extraordinarily good defence, sheer weight ofnumbers (and artillery) is giving me an advantage that can only have one conclusion.

The latter (artillery) is a huge factor here. Although I have many of the mobile rocket brigades, they have relatively low attack factors. The larger artillery units based well to the rear hoever have quite massive strengths. The cath is that they can only move by using advanced movement ie. use their combat power for a turn, to move. This makes for difficult decisions as in order to get them close enough to the front to use they have to sacrifice their power for that turn.

At any rate they are creeping closer and closer to the front and providing more support all the time. They will end up being a deciding factor I feel...

On the Eastern front I have made huge gains in the north. My cavalry units have successfully forced Josan to begin an almost panicked retreat toward the river that will be his saviour. HAving said that, he is still conducting a clever tactcial withdrawl inplaces, using detachments to slow me troops (detachments have no combat power but large movement penalties to e hex. They do however use a unit's combat power for the turn to create one.)

Here is a screenshot of the eastern front. I actually took this screenshot partway through they turn so some of the units are not where they ended up. Which brings up another point.



I have been wastfully flinging my troops against the armoured wall around Shpola for too many turns now, and this one was the final straw. In this turn I stacked massive strentgh and artillery against a single German Rocket unit tenuously holding a point in the line by iteself in front of the town. It required every bit of shock value and tactical advantage I could muster to get even a reasonable chance of success. The die roll was lucky and I succeeded, buit it made me wake up to some serious tactical errors I am making.

The screenshot below shows a closeup of the area straight after the die roll. At initial glance it looks ripe for a classic exploitation along the southern bank of the river by some of the many armoured units poised behind the battle awaiting such a chance.



But it was at this point I discoivered I couldn't get anyone through the gap. And here's why.

This screenshot shows the exact same are but with the units removed.



The German unit was defending behind a river! (Barely discernable amongst the flotsam and jetsam but there). This means that all units attacking it did not receive any Tactical shifts at all and actually have their attack strengths halved. I cannot believe I didn't check before committing. And it gets worse.

Both sides of this German unit are heavy stacks of armour. This means that there is a strong zone of control into the hex that slows movement. This in addition to the shocking ground damage the battle caused. All in all, a huge effort for absolutely nothing.

Well not nothing. This actually caused me a rethink. At this point I had already moved the 20th Tank Division from this area to the rear for a rest. I decided to recommit it in the clear terrain to the north of Shpola and the first screenshot shows that. What you cannot see is that after the said incident described above I removed both other aroured divisions from the front line and thrust one each north and south respectively (indicated by yellow arrows). From this point on I am not going to let them become stuck in any one place but constantly push them forward, and withdraw them, and push them forward again to keep Josan off balance and also to make best use of their power.

To the west.

This screenshot show the southern portion of the map where I have also been held up. This has mainly occurred because each time I break the line and move through it, Josan's strong armour units reclose the line often trapping my people on the wrong side.

This time I have taken precautions. The line broke easuily due to the massive artillery and strong mechanised forces available to me. I didn't use any armour in the battle and when the line broke I then shot the armour (yellow arrows).

Although I could have done same with the mechanised infantry, I decided to use them to 'thicken' the weakest point and left them to defend against counterattack (outlined in blue). Josan will have great trouble cutting off this spearhead now.



Finally this last screenhsot shows the very northern sector of the battle. Korsun looks ripe for the taking but don't be fooled into thinking there are no German defnders there. They have retreated from the line(leaving minefields) and are no doubt blowing bridges to the south as we speak. I am in no great hurry to close with them as yet ans you can see my forces in the north are very weak. Instead I am concentrating on clearing the minefields to ensure adequate supply.



Brubaker