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

[seille]

I´m glad you guy´s like the AAR. It is a lot of work, but for both of us it is also fun to "play"
the game again and go thru all the happiness and pain again. We both had our moments of
pain in this game....
 
I´m using "SimpleScreenshot" for my screenshots. Easy to use and it can save in different graphic formats
direct out of the game like a camera. Hehe, i try to copy George´s graphic style a bit since i like it a lot.
Personally i don´t like AAR without graphics. I want to follow the thinking of the players and this is only possible
with enough pics. That´s why we try to post enough screens to keep the readers up to date.
And yes, such a AAR can make players buying a game like AT. But we both decided to do it cause it was such a monster of
a battle. What you see actually is nothing serious compared to the action later in this game.....
 
Btw, even i won most of the times playing my strategy as russian player it doesn´t mean you can´t fight it (and beat it).
Some players (XboronX, Manus von Olie, Tweber) kicked my ass. It´s not the ultimate always winning strategy.
And for saving Moscow i paid a high price. Just take a look at my southern front....but it was a question of setting priorities [:)]
 
Back to the AAR style. I plan to add some screenshots for overall power and losses every 10 turns.
I hope George will do the same so we can compare our troops strength. Most of the time George feared my "reserves"
while i had nothing and fought for my life [:D]
 
Actually this AAR will make a little break since George is on a business trip. We will probably continue next week.
But since this is a long term project and not to finish in a few days this shouldn´t matter.
 
Juergen

[Vic]

Maybee if the Wargamer.com ever comes up again you could try to submit this AAR as a feature article?
 
its good enough if you ask me. just some text formatting and probably a spell check.
 
keep up the interesting read!

[rickier65]

Seille and George

Just wanted top add my compliments on your AAR. Nicely done! Looking forward to it's resumption.

Rick

[tweber]

I am really looking forward to seeing this go for 60 turns.  It is good to see a campaign last that long.  I hope you guys keep up the AAR.

[seille]

Yes, we will continue as soon as George is back.

[british exil]

Saw the new thread and thought "great George is back, the AAR continues."
Ah well I need to have more patience not only in the forum but also on the battlefields of AT.

[george1972]

The story continues...!

Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but sometimes work interferes in a very time-consuming fashion.

Turn 9 - November 29, 1941

As an icy winter takes hold of the Russian country-side, my production switches to defensive weaponry. Infantry, Machine Guns, Infantry Guns, AT Guns and Fighters form the mainstay of my production. And of course a load of horses to keep my forces mobile enough to run away from the Russian Winter Offensive... [8|]

The bulk of the reinforcements go to AG North and Center as I expect a Russian attack is imminent. Much to my astonishment, Seille pulls back in front of AG North [&:]. In the Center he straightens his lines, but I expect a push here soon.

In hindsight, reinforcing success in the South would have been a much better strategy as the Russian defenders there would have been green recruits and very vulnerable.

[george1972]

A limited view of the front this time, as nothing happens on the Finnish and Northern fronts. In the Crimea I advance as far as the Kerch straight, but I don't expect to be there long.

Next turn will see the start of the Russian Winter Offensive and I plan to withdraw from any strong Russian unit I encounter. That might seem overdone, but after experiencing what Seille did to me in a previous game, I plan to err on the cautious side this time.

[seille]

Russian turn 9.

First a grand overview showing the whole front end of November 1941.
Leningrad and Moscow looks pretty safe for nowand this is a good sign for me.
The flank threat to AG South and the new defense in front of Stalingrad seems to be effective
in slowing down that army group. Not to forget my friend "General Winter" [:D]

[seille]

my production and losses for the actual turn.

[seille]

Another interesting overview. I like those statistics.

[seille]

The situation in detail:

[seille]

As you probably see working out these turns is a lot of work.
So please be patient in case we can´t post new turns every day.
Playing the turns is MUCH faster than making a AAR from [;)]

[Manus von Olie]

Nice George: the tactic you described with transferring artillery after bombardment to a safe spot is a new Key Point on Defense [&o]! I'll put it in the new version for the AT Academy.

And Seille, don't worry about the time between the AAR moves: we know that it costs a lot of time to edit and lay out the stuff, the latter becomes better all the time I noticed [:)] and it's worth waiting for.

[seille]

ORIGINAL: Manus von Olie

Nice George: the tactic you described with transferring artillery after bombardment to a safe spot is a new Key Point on Defense [&o]! I'll put it in the new version for the AT Academy.

Later you can add how i handled that problem [:D]

[all5n]

Nice work guys.  This is fun to read.
 
Makes me want to play this scenario.

[george1972]

Turn 10 - December 19, 1941

As Christmas approaches, so does the Russian Winter penalty for the Wehrmacht. A good time to reflect on the previous year. First let's start with losses and kills. As the opening turns give the German player a "free ride", I decided to separate the number of kills for the first two turns and after that.

This is the loss overview on the start of my 3rd turn, August 1, 1941. All in all, an encouraging start.

[george1972]

In the following 7 turns, the Wehrmacht continued its onslaught against the Red Army and their casualties remained high throughout the summer. These are the losses for turns 3 - 10:

Code: Select all

                  Russian   German   Approx. Ratio
 Truck              19        18      1 :  1
 Light Tank         36        17      2 :  1
 Artillery           8         -      8 :  -
 Engineer          123        18      7 :  1
 Infantry Gun        4         -      4 :  -
 AT Gun              1         -      1 :  -
 Horses             10        11      1 :  1
 Flak                1        15      1 : 15
 Machinegun        105        63      2 :  1
 Mortar             12        15      1 :  1
 Staff              76         -     76 :  -
 Battleship          2         2      1 :  1
 Divebomber          7         3      2 :  1
 Rifle II         1520       564      3 :  1
 SMG II             31         -     31 :  -
 Fighter II         47        14      3 :  1
 

The screenshot shows my strength at the start of turn 10 and compares it to Seille's strength reported in his last post. Overall, the picture looks much more rosy than I thought at the time...

[george1972]

So in accordance with the prevalent mood at OKH at the time, the Wehrmacht issues orders for a systematic withdrawal on all fronts so as to prevent any serious losses during the winter. Only around Kursk are some minor offensive operations conducted in heavy snow drifts. The initiative has now definitely passed to the Russians.

[george1972]

Almost forgot my production for turn 10. Again mostly defensive in nature and a steady stream of new Fighter II to keep my air force at strength. Losing air superiority against an opponent with a serious production advantage is lethal, so I have to keep a steady stream of Messerschmidts flowing into my air units.