Blitz staff academy - AGR turn 1

[tweber]

I did the first turn for AG Romania and here is what I got

[tweber]

Here is what I did,

In the far south, the artillery and infantry unit opened up the path for the armor unit to advance to the river.  The air unit then softened the target.  The air unit still had 30 ap after the strike so I can reuse.  The armor unit then got across the river.  The advance after combat allowed me to paint the hex North of Odessa will slow any escape to the interior. 

In the center, my armor and engineer units sat tight while the other units in the area cleared a path to the river.  The air unit was able to strike the artillery on the other side of the river and the tank was able to get across.  I then used my engineer to start making a road towards Odessa.  Strategically, this AG will work towards the Caucausas via the Crimea.  I will only use light screening forces West of the Dneiper. 

In the north part of the sector, I assault the unit and cut the road and then both units assault the unit to get to the other side of the river. 

After the combat, I do R&D upgrades to eat some of the excess supply.  I also create a supply HQ on the hex where the AG R HQ started to unload some of AGR's excess supply.  AGR will drain this HQ in the coming 2 turns.

I do not about the air unit and ground units a few hexes NW of Odessa.  They are hopelessly cut off.  From a production standpoint, I will direct Bucharest production to AGR and make a few mobile units to clear the supply pathes near these units.  The only unit West of the river that can move is the tank to the far south.  It will only be able to move a hex.  I put a weak blocking cavalry unit in place.

I put a mechnized unit in front of the middle spearhead.  I also put a calavry unit north of Odessa.  It can be dislodged but will eat into the AP of units in Odessa.  Odessa is in sea supply.  My goals is to get across the rivers near the Crimea as quickly as possible.

I not even both to mop up the Soviet units further north. They cannot move and I will let the Soviet player harvest the pps.

[british exil]

Tweber wasn't as good as you were. Copied some of your tactics.[&o]

Used all the units that were available, How did you manage to move your Arty so far forward? Mine had no AP's left to move.

[Daniel_machinegun]

x

[Manus von Olie]

I'm flabbergasted Tom: how did you manage to conquer the hex directly North of Odessa, thereby making almost all units of HQ Odessa Front immobile? It happened once I think when I was trying before, but after that not any more: are you sure you can repeat this move all the time? I tried everything: building a road to connect the panzer with the main road and bringing the artillery to shoot the other side of the bridge, but all to no avail...

The painting you talk about is strategic movement to a hex conquered by ZOC?

[Manus von Olie]

Good move Exil, I like the forward position of the engineers opening a second route of attack! And a good attacking/advancing position for the HQ, maybe going straight East, instead of Southeast?

About the forward artillery, it's simple: first move, then shoot!

[Manus von Olie]

Exil: if you skip to the Russian turn you will notice that they can separate your HQ from the bulk of its units, so they won't get supply next turn, which might become dangerous! Note also that the Russians can move their planes to a saver spot, which might cost you dear in the future.

[british exil]

Thanks Herman.
But I can't take the credit. If you look closly I've more or less mirrored the move Tweber made.
So the credit belongs to Tweber.


Mat

[seille]

Very good first turn, Tom. Absolutely deadly and VERY clever you do not waste firepower on things you can destroy later
like the planes nw of Odessa.
Lol, í´m usually happy when i cross the three bridges in the south as Matt did.
And mostly this is enough.
 
@Tom and Herman
You guy´s should play a game and make a AAR of it.
That would be awesome stuff to read !

[Ccr]

I'd like to see that game too. Being destroyed by Herman at the mo; am playing Axis and the Soviets will enter Warsaw in early Autumn '42!!! ...so much to learn!

[tweber]

are you sure you can repeat this move all the time? I tried everything: building a road to connect the panzer with the main road and bringing the artillery to shoot the other side of the bridge, but all to no avail...

The painting you talk about is strategic movement to a hex conquered by ZOC

I am not sure that I the move is repeatable every time. I painted the hex north of Odessa after advancing from the hex to the SW after an assault.

Also, the unit to the extreme east was newly created and strategically filled by the HQ. In the early rounds, I like put weak units up front to get an extra hex painted at the start of my next turn. They are vulnerable to counterattack, however that is not much of issue in the early rounds as the Soviets are focussed on retreating.

Also, happy to play a game if you have time.

[seille]

YES, we want to see you guy´s playing.
Herman vs Tom MIRRORED with AAR in Russia 1941 !
 
Ohhh, that would be wonderful. Pls guy´s, do it.
 

[Manus von Olie]

OK, Seille, there are two possibilities for a game between Tom and me, 1941 Russia scenario: a mirrorred game on the casual ladder or a friendly game, just one time playing the scenario. For both options I would like you to write the AARs, Seille, since you want the game to happen so badly [;)] and since I'm also writing for the AT Academy. You can have my password for the game so you can open the moves afterwards. For both options I would like to start as Soviet player (it takes so much time German first move...)

Still wondering about this hex Northwest of Odessa Tom conquered in his move: if we could repeat this all the time I'm sure it's a key point on ZOC or something, quite important. Like in this game: together with wiping out HQ Central (or whatever it is called for the Soviet troops around Lvov) and the sure capture of the famous hex, it's not necessary to conquer any other bridge, or attack any other Soviet unit with the units of AGR, which is always very good: just saving the German well experienced troops for the future. I'm going to look into that now.

[seille]

Sorry, i could not write the AAR for you since i plan to write a own AAR which will take a lot of time
since this game is already in turn 42.
I´ll have to reopen my own and my opponents turns to reconstruct what happened. Game is still running,
so i can´t write before it is over. But then i´ll be very busy with.
Beside this i have still 7 PBEM games running....
 
Writing a AAR not always takes so much time. Just write it less detailled, more the grand overview and we all would be happy.
 
Why you can´t do a friendly match mirrored btw ?

[mcv]

ORIGINAL: tweber

I am not sure that I the move is repeatable every time. I painted the hex north of Odessa after advancing from the hex to the SW after an assault.

Also, the unit to the extreme east was newly created and strategically filled by the HQ. In the early rounds, I like put weak units up front to get an extra hex painted at the start of my next turn. They are vulnerable to counterattack, however that is not much of issue in the early rounds as the Soviets are focussed on retreating.

I'm still trying to figure out how you did it. I'm new to this game and probably don't understand strategic transfers yet (neither the manual nor the tutorial explains this), but as far as I can tell, any transfer, strategic or not, costs you all your action points. So how do you attack or move to that hex north of Odessa?

Also, if I count correctly, you seem to have created a lot more new units here. How did you get those to move or attack after creation?

[Manus von Olie]

Tweber called it strategic transfers, but if I remember correctly it's called strategic movement in the handbook. If you select a unit you see in your screen a row of buttons, and transferring is the second button from the left and strategic movement is the third button. For strategic movement you have to assign a HQ that will provide transport capacity (landcap) on land (which is made possible by having trucks and/or horses inside the HQ.) In that way you can move whole units. Not also that with transfer (the second button) you can move subunits into other units if they have enough APs left to perform the transfer moving by themselves. Interestingly you can with transfer let a HQ 'suck in' subunits and 'spit' them somewhere else from the HQ: the effect is the same as strategic movement, but here you can move parts of units and it will have less loss in readiness for the units to be moved.

[mcv]

Thanks for the explanation, Manus. I didn't know subunits could transfer by themselves (I assume you mean without trucks from a HQ?). But with strategic movement (I thought the game itself called it strategic transfer, but I'm probably wrong), I had the impression that units being moved that way arrived without AP, and could only be moved to controlled hexes. So I still don't understand how Tweber got his riflemen unit to the hex north of Odessa.

Even so, his example seems to help me a lot. I'm currently playing this scenario, and the Romanian and Finland fronts are most successful. (Finland because of the staff academy tutorial, obviously. I took Leningrad in turn 2.)

[Manus von Olie]

OK, MCV, subunits can indeed transfer by themselves, by means of their own APs.
You're right about strategic transfer: you need to 'own' a hex in order to be able to transfer to it. The funny thing is that maybe there's a certain degree of randomness involved to decide who owns a hex: of course it's very important to have lots of powerpoints in the vicinity, but to me it seems that's not the only factor. In the next edition I'll show how to have a good chance to conquer this hex, by moving the HQ Rumania close to it, which involves building a road.
 
You're moving ahead with capturing Leningrad [;)]: did the Soviets really do their best to hold the city?
 
Good luck with your game!

[mcv]

ORIGINAL: Manus von Olie

You're moving ahead with capturing Leningrad [;)]: did the Soviets really do their best to hold the city?

I'm not sure. Not all units were actually inside the city, but at the start of the game, the soviet troops are apparently not in pristine shape. But I played against the lowest AI level, so it's quite possible they would have done better at a higher AI level.

In any case, I've finished the scenario (and won!). I noticed that the AI had a habit of abandoning very defensible positions like Dneptropetovsk (spelling?) -- a town behind a river. Sounds easy to defend, but as soon as I get close, he runs away. My biggest problem was that I neglected to defend towns in my rear area, so I had to recapture Riga, Minsk, Leningrad, Kiev and Kharkov from partisans a couple of times. You'd think I'd learn after the first time, wouldn't you? I reached the outskirts of Moscow just before winter, and decided to dig in in defensible positions: mostly rivers, and my engineers built a couple of fortifications, but my line of tanks directly west of Moscow got attacked several times. Even so, I survived the winter offensive quite well, and took Stalingrad on the first turn of my summer offensive. I kinda expected a heavy fight for Stalingrad, but its only real challenge was that it was simply very far away.

Fun scenario, but I think I need to play against better AI.

[Manus von Olie]

OK, nice going. I never played this scenario against the AI, so what you write is new for me. I think too that it's even more fun to play with all settings (at the beginning of the scenario) in favor of the AI opponent. Also playing against the German AI in this scenario could be quite a challenge, since the Soviet side is tough to play. And of course playing against people is also very challenging...