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

[seille]

First as usual the russian production for turn 6

[seille]

Oha, that doesn´t look good for Russia.
I´m under terrible pressure at all fronts. Only
in the North in Leningrad area itßs quiet.

My focus is the same as George´s.....SMOLENSK.

I feel like a dancer on a razors edge....

[seille]

I was able to launch two powerful counterattacks against the german northen arm
in the center. Luckily i was prepared against these breakthroughs.
Because of this i had enough troops for the attacks available.

Even the attacks look good, i just reduced the german bridgehead in size.
There are still enough german units ready to attack. Some of them coming from
AG North. Noticed that...and remembered my tank units waiting in the north for their chance.

[george1972]

Turn 07 - October 20, 1941

Seille's counter-attacks hurt, but nevertheless I decide to continue my attempts to close the pocket. I noticed he withdrew his air force to Rzhev and the Smolensk HQ also started to withdraw to the East, so in some way he is conceding defeat.

However, my forces' strength is being sapped away as I keep sending reinforcements towards other fronts such as Finland (who don't really need them now), AG North (who do need them) and the Romanian Army Group (who don't need them either, since the real focal point of the action is near Smolensk).

The reason for this is the fact that I keep expecting some mobile Russian group to pop up from the area of Bryansk and cut off my Southern pincer, or have a go at Kiev as AG South moves away from the river without covering the Northern flank.

With access to the Russian positions now, it is easy to see how silly those thoughts where and how a concentrated effort around Smolensk could have either broken the line there or at least give a free ride to my Southern Army Groups.

But let's start with my production for this turn.

[george1972]

Although my infantry losses are easily replaced, more than half of those go to other HQ's than AG Center.

On to the attack:

I withdraw the units that were hit last turn and decide to throw my air forces against the counter-attacking force Seille has prepared. My main objective with the Luftwaffe is still to retain air superiority and striking Smolensk, which is out of range of Seille's fighters, will give the Red Air Force a turn breathing space, which I don't want them to have considering their build up rate.

In subsequent attacks I capture Vitebsk, the airfield North of Smolensk, the fortifications West of it and then launch my big attack on the city. Having already spent my air and artillery power in the preceding attacks, I still think I can take the city.

I was wrong however... My reconnaissance at the start of the turn told me the city was defended by 35 Rifle, 9 MG's and 8 bazooka's, who would have surely been squashed. It turned out there were a lot more troops than that, and since the Russian engineers had blown the bridge to the South, my strongest battle group in this battle was severely handicapped.

[george1972]

Surveying the battlefield I see my forward troops exposed to attacks from multiple directions and with a heavy heart I decide to transfer them out of harm's way. With that the first battle of Smolensk ends with a Russian victory and I start preparing a defensive line for the coming winter.

In the South the offensive continues and I manage to capture Kharkov, but with both AG North and Center halted, I'm not very confident for the future.

[TheArchduke]

A great AAR, just wanted you guys to know, so you continue posting.

Seille whipped the floor with me in a Barbarossa 41 game this week as Russia, so I know how a nasty opponent he is.

[seille]

Russian turn 7.

First the production and losses.

[seille]

The situation.

Critical as usual, but it looks better than last turn.

Against AG North we started a offensive to take some pressure from the center.
In the center we got the initiative now after the successful battles in the last turns.
Germany has to retreat the first time !!

A nightmare is the situation around Kharkov, better said the whole south. We´re nearly
without defense here since most of our new troops were sent to Smolensk area.
Fortunately the attackers on the Crimea are not strong enough to capture Sevastopol
or break thru the Kerch straight without fresh troops....

[seille]

Now let´s look at the attacks.

We had two battles last turn plus the attack on the german Battleships close to Leningrad.
These ships we sunk losing one own battleship after a artillery attack. So Leningrad is not
longer blocked.

If you look at the screens you´ll notice winter weather, but that was not the case. It´s a bug in history function
which shows the actual weather for battles fought in last turn. We had still summer.

The main land attacks we did near Novgorod against AG center using fast armored troops and south of
Smolensk to fight back the southern arm of the former operation "we cut off the russian center defense".
Both attacks were prepared by air attacks. And both were successful.

[seille]

And the attack south of Smolensk.
Another German attack unit dead....

[george1972]

Turn 8 - November 9, 1941

The first snow of what I expect to be a long winter starts falling. I am more hindered by it than the Russians as the Luftwaffe cannot fight another round with the Red Air Force and my forces rampaging through the Ukraine are slowed down in their advance.

Although I lost the initiative in the North and Center, Seille doesn't yet have the power to engage in any kind of mobile engagement, so he will probably welcome the relative calm of first snow.

My production sees an increase in Infantry and a batch of Infantry guns to help fortify my winter positions.

[george1972]

My losses this turn were heavy and the replacements are enough to replenish them, but there is no real surplus for building up battered units or creating new ones. I need to make do with what I have.

My attacks in the North and Center are most crucial, since there is where I'm in the most danger. I decided to "clean up" a Soviet fortified position just East of Vitebsk/Orsha after artillery blasts the fortifications to bits and the Luftwaffe takes some target practice. Of about 70 Infantry, just 1 survives the attacks.

AG North uses its artillery to pound on two Russian units. The Infantry unit to the North of my position is then hit by a ground attack and forced to withdraw. The Tank unit is stripped of most of its supporting infantry. Although the situation still looks grim, Seille will not dare storm my fortified line with tanks alone, he will need to wait for additional infantry, so AG North stays put.

[george1972]

The overview picture shows that AG South managed to push a bit beyond Kharkov, but is hampered by the weather. The Romanians cross the Donetz at Voroshilovgrad, but this is more intended to scare Seille into sending many reinforcements that way, than a serious offensive effort.

Rostov looks weak, but I cannot get past that single Red Army unit guarding the way along the Sea of Azov. This was a phase where my supply production was always a few percent below requirements due to my reliance on the supply overview screen. This caused some units to not get back up to full readiness, which cuts strongly into their mobility during the winter turns.

My main goal now is to survive the Soviet Winter Offensive with as few losses as possible, so I can rebound with my own Summer offensive next year. I expect strong Russian pressure on Army Groups North and Center even before the Winter Offensive starts, but it turns out Seille has other plans...

[seille]

Turn 8, winter is there and we got a little break and time
to prepare a own little winter offensive.

During the summer turns we were able to prevent the Germans from getting
Leningrad and/or Moscow. We also are still on the Crimea (growing defense lines).
The bad thing is that we hav ea BIG hole in our lines between Smolensk and Rostov.
There we have no or only very small forces left.
But we already prepare to change this after we stopped the advance of the german AG North and Center.

In front of Stalingrad we´l set up a new defense. And we plan to attack AG south´s northern flank
with our siberians to prevent them from marching to Stalingrad. At least we want to slow them down.

The production for this turn:

[seille]

The situation in turn 8. It was a quiet turn. We both prepare for the winter.

[TheArchduke]

A great AAR. I hope you don´t mind me posting my support. But I am used to an audience posting frequent motivations, questions and encouragements.

Though as the AAR is finished, I can´t comment on the situation productively.

Anyway, Kerch is a classic, the Germans didn´t notice the soviet weakness and the soviets not the german hesitance. Both could have played better in this theatre. Was there no reconnaisance by both sides?

[seille]

I noticed the germans beeing careful. But i had not the power to use it for own attacks.
I had no troops except the pure defense. And these troops i would never waste to open the gates
to Sevastopol. At least not at this time....
Don´t forget that i had deep entrenched troops in Kerch and behind and the bridges has been destroyed.
 
I´m glad to hear you like the AAR. Some feedback is always nice so we know we don´t do all the work for nothing [:)]

[Manus von Olie]

In my opinion it's an excellent AAR, Seille and George, both in content, style and lay out, the last being explained too. It reads like exciting real history. Very cool that it covers the entire period of the Eastern Front. It's very good for people to learn the ins and outs of operational thinking and 'what to produce'.
We should actually collect pieces like this and ask them to be put on the AT website: 'The best articles on AT by players'. Like that it's easy to spot the best material and it's easy for beginners as well as would be buyers to become encouraged and for all to become inspired.

[british exil]

Playing GPW myself love the way the campaign was described.The tactics used, why certain decissions were made. Easy to make mistakes with the fog of war. I'm only hoping that my opponenant has not read the AAR. He might get the idea that he can stop my german units from capturing his beloved Moscow.

I really enjoy the AAR's - in fact reading them made me buy the game in the first place.

Keep them coming. What programm do you use to do the screenies?

Mat