George vs. Seille - A Russia 1941 AAR over 60 turns

[seille]

I´ll start here to write a AAR for Russia 1941 vs. George i finished not long ago.
Scenario is russia 1941 with standard settings.
This AAR will cover the full 60 turns we played with all ups and downs we both had.
The interesting about this AAR will be that it doesn´t end in 1942 or maybe 1943
with one side simply surrendering. This is a true fight, in my eyes the mother of all battles.

I´ll try to be detailled were it´s necessary and less detailled when it was quiet (did not happen too often...)
I´ll inform about losses, production and my overall strategy and i think George will do the same for his
Germans.
Do not expect high speed for this AAR, but we´ll deliver some interesting stuff to read step by step.

We had already some of these battles (Ladder) where i overrolled George.
BUT: He learned his lesson, so this game was one of the best and most challenging i had so far in my AT career.
And i´m sure it was the bloodiest.....

And now let the party start.
George, come and tell us how you started your invasion of mother Russia [:)]

[british exil]

A new AAR!!

Looking forward already, hoping to learn a few things.

Just going to sit back and watch the show.

[george1972]

As Seille already mentioned, he handed me my head on a platter in our first two ladder games of this scenario. I learned several important lessons from those defeats on effective unit composition, the importance of air superiority and maneuvering so as to gain high attack bonuses. In our first game with me as the Germans I was defeated within a year because I let too many of his front-line troops escape. How to take them out effectively, Seille showed me when he played the Germans in our second game.

And since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, that's exactly how I started out my campaign: by copying his opening move almost 100%. Although that didn't get me any points for originality, it did wipe out or cut off nearly all of his initial border armies and got me off to a good start.

The only place I deviated was on the Finnish front. After reading several AAR's where Leningrad fell very soon, I went ahead and took the first fortress, thinking I could repeat such a feat. Unfortunately, Herman's excellent guide on how to handle this properly wasn't written yet and this would become the first area of trouble for me.

The first shot shows the disposition after my opening blow at the Finnish, Northern and Center fronts. Nearly all air and artillery units have been destroyed or cut off. It turned out the Germans deal out a lot more damage than can be expected by purely looking at the number of troops in the units. The readiness penalty and low experience of the Red Army makes this possible.

I upgraded to Rifle II and Artillery II on the first turn and set my production to cover my losses and build an additional 50 PP. The plan is to upgrade to Fighter II soon, so I can keep air superiority and use my dive-bombers to support my forward troops.

[TheArchduke]

I can´t wait to read the rest. Somehow my Barbarossa 41 games end too quickly, either as a quick win or as a quick loss.

[seille]

Starting my first turn i got the first (usual) shock.

[seille]

The following screens show the situation on the important fronts after my turn one.
First shows the Leningrad area.

[seille]

Due to a technical problem (a second russia game overwrote some of my screenshots made from the game against George)
i had to remove the screenshot. It showed obviously a shot from an other game.

Since George already posted all screenshots of importance for turn 1 i´ll not show more yet.

From now i´ll take my screenshots direct out of the game to make sure to show the right screens.

My production setup in turn one:
After upgrading to Rifle II i ordered to produce lots of various infantry including engineers to blow up bridges.
And i produced lots of political points which might be a risk, but i need them for fighter II upgrade.

[george1972]

My second turn consisted mostly of mopping up trapped Russian units and advancing towards the cities of Riga and Minsk. I knew the "happy times" would be over after this and the going would get increasingly tough.

One thing I set out to do from the start, was to increase the infantry component in my armored corps. Without them, the tanks are sitting ducks for dive-bombers and anti-tank guns during the enemy's turns. I was also not planning on building tank-heavy units. Seille had combated me in the past very successfully with mostly infantry units that had one or two tanks thrown in and I was planning to copy some of his tactics.

The screen shot shows my production this turn and the results of a few attacks Seille did. Nothing to be worried about.

[george1972]

2 important things happened in this turn:

The first was a failed attack on Leningrad by the Finns. The low combat power of the troops after their first attack, and the lack of air or artillery support, made taking Leningrad a hopeless undertaking. Little did I know that Seille was sending major reinforcements to this part of the front, while I wasn't.

The second issue was one of operational targets. As you can see in the first turn screen shot, a big part of the Romanian force was located on the road to Uman. The other half on the road to Odessa. I made the choice to direct the bulk of the Romanian army group towards Dnepropetrovsk via Uman and have the few units that passed Odessa take care of Sevastopol in the future.

In my opinion it was better to keep Seille from forming a stable front anywhere and keep pushing on. This would be a decision I would come to regret by the end of the year.

I upgraded to Fighter II and started cranking out Messerschmidts at a rate of 5 per turn. I also kept a production of 10 PP going on to pay for future fortifications I knew I would need during the winter. Instead of motorization, I started purchasing horses. In earlier games I noticed how mobile these were during winter turns.

[seille]

Ok, russian turn two.
First the production and losses screen.

[seille]

Near Leningrad i showed a bit of agressivity and attacked the fins sitting in "my" Mannerheim line.
Attack was supported by artillery and attack planes.

[seille]

I start to build up my defense in the center.
I plan to have a few mobile units in the center and behind Kiev.
Want to keep them hidden behind the front for the case german units break thru and i need them
for a counterattack.

The red fog shows on both screens where i placed /will place my defense int he next two turns.
Speed is the key and to delay the germans a bit to win some time. Blowing up bridges is VERY
important here.

[seille]

Same for the southern part of the front.....

Technical information: The last two screens show the situation at the START of my turn.
You can´t see new units etc. yet. We played with activated screenshots, but i lost them for the first 8
turns due to overwriting, so i have to work with ingame screenshots now.
George´s pics will show my new units on the next turn.

[george1972]

In my third turn I take both Riga and Minsk, the first Russian production centers. In the North, the battered Finnish units are pulled back to recover, leaving the third Corps to hold off the Russians. Surely they cannot reinforce this front heavily without jeopardizing other areas.

A big chunk of AG North crosses the Dvina at Dvinsk and I decide to turn them East instead of North towards Leningrad. Seille will be busy constructing a defensive line West of Smolensk, and I need to crack is asap, if I want to have any chance of taking Moscow this year. I also decide to divert the remainder of Panzer Group 4 towards that sector as well in the coming turns.

Minsk is taken without problems, but those pesky Russian engineers have blown the Berezina bridge, which will cause me at least a turn of delay. Additional engineers arrive to restore Minsk to its former glory, and have it start adding to my production capacity.

In the South de Dniepr is reached at 3 points, but Seille already blew 2 bridges, including the one at Dnepropetrovsk, so I decide to send the weakest Romanian Panzer unit south towards the Crimea.

My production this turn sends 5 artillery and 5 fighters to the Finnish front. The experienced Finnish fighter group is transferred to AG North, since I expect the Red Air Force to show up in force soon in the Smolensk area.

[george1972]

The situation on the front lines shows I will have to fight my way through a defensive line Seille erected on the Dniepr.

[seille]

Russian turn 3.

The turn i was still busy with building up my defense.
Hard enough against fast advancing german troops.
I did another attack in Leningrad area to drive the finnish forces back.

[seille]

Situation in North and center.
Always remember: This is the situation at START of the turn.
Some of these areas look naked and bad defended, but i placed some units
this turn which i can´t show yet since i lost the turn end screenshots
for the first turns.

[seille]

Kiev and Sevastopol area.

Kiev looks "normal". I destroyed the bridges and sent some more troops to defend the city.
I know i can´t hold, but i want some kills and i want to delay Germany.

Sevastopol looks not good. I have only a thin defense there and i was not able to destroy a single bridge.
Very critical situation not only for Sevastopol. Germany can to easy advance in the east and maybe cross the
Kerch straight before the winter comes...
A thing i have to prevent.

[seille]

AT least my soldiers have enough to eat [:D]

[rickier65]

Very nice AAR -

George I also like the way you've done your screenshots. Care to digress a little and share your technique?

Thanks -
Rick