Looking for German opponent

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Morphy

The war has begun.

Losses for the first week:
Axis/Soviets
inf. 310/2769
AFVs: 83/647
Guns: 13/1132
Planes: 177/6409

I'm still a long way from you guys. I can't get above about 3800 planes in my first turn as GER. How you get +6000?

[Morphy]

ORIGINAL: kingtiger_501

Its a nice change reading AAR's instead of writing them.

Why didn't 2 pro's like yourselfs play the possum mod?

I've tried my possum mode once and I found out it was bug ridden - almost half of hexes had supply level 0. I don't know why but basically southern half was cut of supply at all.

We decided with TDV to play using traditional version of WIR.

[Morphy]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo



I'm still a long way from you guys. I can't get above about 3800 planes in my first turn as GER. How you get +6000?

You have to resort to everything you can put in the air. Even BF-110 (you can switch them to attack airfields mode).

Additionaly you can shatter Western Front HQ.

That's all. I didn't attack Stavka and there you can also score nice hits

[Morphy]

July 20th 1941.

Latest news:
Heeresgruppe Nord: armored corps reached Pskov but did not attack the city.

Heeresgruppe Mitte: reached strong Soviet armored forces western to Vitebsk-Mogilev line. Did not attack them, just some aerial recognition.

Heeresgruppe Sud: attacked Kiev with 4 armored corps. Soviets withstood attacks.

Lufwaffe has bombed Leningrad, Moscow, Gorki, Voronezh, Kharkov, Stalino, Dnepropetrovsk, Stalingrad.

[DavidFaust]

ORIGINAL: Morphy

ORIGINAL: kingtiger_501

Its a nice change reading AAR's instead of writing them.

Why didn't 2 pro's like yourselfs play the possum mod?

I've tried my possum mode once and I found out it was bug ridden - almost half of hexes had supply level 0. I don't know why but basically southern half was cut of supply at all.

We decided with TDV to play using traditional version of WIR.

I believe this happens when you try play a camp other than the 41 camp. Saving Possum and WiR game files in there counterparts directory could be a problem also. I dont recall what happens when that is done.

[TDV]

The battle of fourteen German Panzercorps against all RKKA is about to start.

North: Three PanzerCorps are around Pskov. Their opponents are two oversized Armies (88th and 89th). Stavka ordered to evacuate Pskov despite the good defense (3 PzCorps is too much against any single Army)

Center: Five PanzerCorps in west of Vitebsk and Mogilev. Their opponents are 3 Shock Armies integrated in a defence belt along the rivers.

South: Six PanzerCorps around Kiev. The Shock Army defended Kiev defeated all attacks of Germans and only after that retreated across Dniepr in good order.

[Josans]

ORIGINAL: Morphy

Any comments and suggestions are welcomed...

Just my IMHO :

TDV will be a tough soviet player. Their skill have been improved a lot!!!
Just He knows that the only can stop the panzer forces is cutting their supply and delay the supply rail advance. And he got it!
Right now I think Pskov and Kiev should be in germand hands a couple of turns before...
With some Pz Korps out of supply, Germany will not able to get a fast Victory in 1941. So the challenge will be in 1942.
Germany perfomance in the rest of this summer and Soviet strategy in Blizzard will give us the winner of this game...

[asa]

Also IMHO Morphy seems to have found his match...

[Josans]

ORIGINAL: asa

Also IMHO Morphy seems to have found his match...

Surely if he wanted to win in 1942. But for an experienced player german player the goal is to win in 1941... I dont see many players try it!

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: Morphy


You have to resort to everything you can put in the air. Even BF-110 (you can switch them to attack airfields mode).

Additionaly you can shatter Western Front HQ.

That's all. I didn't attack Stavka and there you can also score nice hits

Ahh. Thanks for the tip. I note that the manual says that fighter can attack airfields, and the mission will appear, but I never actually see them making air field attacks. Do I have an error in my install, or is this feature not implemented, or is it just not reported in the action reports?

[Morphy]

OK, new reports from the front. I'm sorry for lack of screenshots - should be tomorrow.
 
Heeresgruppe Nord: Pskov has been given away without fight. Nobody knows why... Anyhow, the gift has been accepted, the city taken and... my armored units have encircled 3 powerful Soviet armies. 2 have already been destroyed - over 1700 inf. squads but hardly any tanks... 1 more is encirled - maybe there are tanks? Also railroad lines have been secured.
 
Heeresgruppe Mitte: I tried to cross Dnepr NE to Vitebsk and failed loosing 90 tanks... sad But on the other hand Mogilev has been taken after a short fight. There are also huge Soviet forces in vicinity - NW to Mogilev. I didn't even try to attack them with my weakly armored tanks.
 
Heeresgruppe Sud: Kiev has been given without fight. Also 1 unit southern to Gomel was attacked and I tried to cross Dnepr in the south. It seems Soviets have deeply entrenched the Dnepr Line...
 
True: I didn't expect such strong resistance. TDV is so far the best Soviet player I've played against. It will be a tough war. I'm personally amazed by how slow my units move forward but I always think destuction of Soviet army is much more important than territorial gains. Suffice if Lenigrad, Moscow and Rostov will be taken. It will cripple Soviets so much they will not be able to rebuild a strong army and then I can easily destroy them in summer '42. I've never played a winter campaign against a Soviet player so maybe it's the right time?

[Morphy]

Report from the front.

There was a debate in OKW what to do next. I cannot reaveal you what was the conclusion since it is top secret. Anyhow, a change in tactics has been proposed as a response to Soviet strong defensive lines.

What's new on Aug. 3rd?

AGN: the last Soviet army encircled NE to Pskov has surrendered! There were the tanks!!! Over 450 AFVs captured, 1200 squads as POW. Huge success!!! Also one Panzerkorps performed a fast raid toward Leningrad. We expect it will be cut but it managed to destroy strong Soviet defensive positions before there were manned by numerous enemy soldiers. Eventually the road to Leningrad is wide open.

AGC: heavy battles: Soviets managed to cut off 2 German panzerkorps and their units were easily destroyed. Also garrison of Vitebsk has been besieged. Eastern to Mogilev 2 another Soviet armies have been besieged and solid footholds behind Dnepr line have been seized.

AGS: nothing much has happened - plenty of German troops reached Dnepr line and they will attack it now. We decided to spare tanks for later battles.

No bombing of Soviet industry this week.

[Morphy]

unfortunately all screenshots are gone. It seems dosbox cannot save any screenshots under windows vista. I hate vista. It was preinstalled on my new laptop and there is no way I can change it to anything else unless I want to loose warranty...

Vista is sucks...

Edit: when I run dosbox on another platform I'll enclose screenshots.

[Morphy]

After a few days spent in OKW where plans for the war were being discussed Germans resumed their offensive.
 
WHAT A SURPRISE!!!
 
Aerial recon over Leningrad revealed massive evacuation of everything: troops, factories, people... Germans rushed, the Finns moved south since Soviet positions were abandoned and... only 24 infantry squads defended the city!!! On August 13th the city was seized by the Germans!!! Thus Heeresgruppe Nord has met its primary objective. OKW plans to divide armored forces of 4th Panzerarmee into 3 groups: 1 will go for Tikhvin supported by the Finns, and later toward Arkhangielsk, 2nd will support Heeresgruppe Mitte and 3rd will help Rommel in Africa.
 
Heeresgruppe Mitte: another success!!! Velikye Luki taken - also only ghost garrison, the city was abandoned but much more important thing southern to VL: Smolensk taken and 3 strong Soviet armies have been encircled! Smolensk hidden behind strong defense lines had weak garrison which was easily defeated. We lost a lot of tanks, but the success was worth it. It seems Soviet positions near Velikye Luki are very weak - maybe this is the place where tanks from 4. Panzerarmee should attack?
 
Heeresgruppe Sued: after strong aerial bombardment we gained foothold on Dnepr NE to Kiev. It seems their defensive lines were not so strong after all... 11. Armee attacked with 3 armored corps Dnepropetrovsk but its garrison withhold.
 
Losses so far:
Axis:
inf. 679/2341
AFVs: 240/830
Guns: 60/191
Planes: 147/864
 
Soviets:
inf. 4426/28131
AFVs: 332/7035
Guns: 1550/10882
Planes: 615/9546
 
VVS decided to help the Red Army and placed a lot of fighters along the front lines. We lost some bombers, they lost a lot of fighters...
 
 
BTW: it's my first game when Leningrad was taken before Tallinn...

[Morphy]

Screenshots!!!

All screenshots present German positions BEFORE moving!

North: pay attention on noticed strength of Leningrad garrison: 1...

[Morphy]

Heeresgruppe Mitte:

VL garrison strength 0, Smolensk: 2 while front units had 3-8.

The strong army, previously garrison of Vitebsk (SW to city) had over 1.700 squads... Obviously was destroyed.

[Morphy]

Nothing much was happening here...

[Morphy]

Heeresgruppe Sued:

Dnepropetrovsk withstood attacks, foothold SE to Kiev

[PaxMondo]

intriguing strategy to give up Leningrad.  be interesting to see how this plays out.

[TDV]

Russians must have 4 groups of Armies in July-August’1941:

1. Leningrad
2. First line of defense in the center
3. Second line of defense in the center
4. Ukraine – along Dniepr, from Gomel to Dnepropetrovsk

Each Army must be have at least 6 good full-sized divisions. The problem is RKKA doesn’t have enough divisions for four groups of Armies. Russians have divisions for 3 groups of Armies only.



The player has choices:

1. Defend everything (Leningrad – Mogilev- Gomel – Kiev- Dnepropetrovsk line) and doesn’t have the second reserved line in the center. Usual result in this case: The Russian front is broken in the center, 5-6 best Armies surrounded in July and no chance to restore the central front line because of no good troops. The way to Moscow is open.

2. the second choice is to sacrify something: Leningrad or the South. Usually I sacrify the South: that flank is wide open, German tanks there are slow anyway because of their supply lines. In this game I didn’t want to defend the Dniepr line except Kiev for a couple of turns. I won two railway hexes conversions near Odessa in June’1941 (two good motorized divisions have been paid). After that I was sure Germans would not be able to take Moscow and Stalingrad using the Southern railway.

Unfortunately I made mistake near Pskov (I didn’t see that one of the Shock Armies attached to HQs with zero OPs). I lost three Armies there. It was no enough troops to defend Leningrad and I withdrawn the rest of divisions from the North to the Center.
On the other hand, I got good positions along the Dniepr line (Germans couldn’t break through “from the wheels”,my troops became even stronger after that because of obtained experience. I hold railroad conversion for 2-3 turns near Kiev and because of that my Central group of Armies got a secured flank .
I might hold the Dniepr line until September but it had no sense: no strategic goals there anymore. At the same moment I got a crisis in the center: three Soviet Armies was encircled, German tanks crossed Dniepr near Mogilev. I could get a strategic encirclement in 2 turns on the South (exactly like in the real history in September’41).
So I weakened the Dniepr line and transferred one third of divisions to enforce the Smolensk position. Of course next turn the Dniepr line has been broken near Kiev. However, no encirclement, my Armies are relocating in a good shape from that area.

In the center three encircled armies (plus two “phantom” armies from Velikie Luki) jumped on the west. One Panzer is cut of, most likely 3-4 of the other Panzer Corps have supply level 1-3 and would not be able to advance. Railroad conversion stopped again just east of Vitebsk. The German railworkers will resume the conversion of the main artery Vitebsk-Moscow in the end of August only.