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

[Manus von Olie]

ORIGINAL: 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]

Sure, Seille, I'm looking forward to all such information!

[seille]

Russian turn 10 starting with the arrived production and a important event.
The start of russian winter with a combat penalty of 50% to the germans for 3 turns.
The first turn we can´t use since Germany moved back a lot....
But we´ll get back a lot of terrain without paying too much.

[seille]

We plan to follow the fleeing german as fast as possible using the bad weather.
All our fronts started to move.
In the center we plan the most important action. After concentrating about
60 fighter II we plan to attack the german artillery and probably HQ´s in the center
using the winter bonus. If the german fighters start to intercept we can hopefully
down as many as possible. If not we get the artillery and staff only.
To make sure that works we moved our biggest fighter force to Vitebsk. They are in close
range to the most forwarded germans and in range to the german artillery.
We moved the planes from the Leningrad front to the center to add some more power there.
And i built a fighter reserve pool near Smolensk to fill up my losses i´ll definitely have soon.
We need some more divebombers to add some more punch to the coming attacks.

[seille]

The only attack we did this turn:
After transferring a bigger air unit to Vitebsk we flew an attack to the most forwarded
german troops. But looking at the fact we showed the enemy our strength the effect was very small.
We simply had not enough action points left for effective attacks and most of the attacking planes
has been fighters. (Main task is to engage and destroy german fighters in the center)

[george1972]

Turn 11 - January 8, 1942

Having survived the first month of winter unscathed, moods where up at OKH. Fresh recruits continued to arrive at the various HQ's, boosting morale. This is my production, mostly infantry units and the "standard complement" of new Luftwaffe fighters.

[george1972]

In this turn I limited myself to artillery bombardements and air strikes. I had noticed the strong Russian fighter group in Vitebsk and saw that all my Luftwaffe units in the central sector where within striking range. The battle would be equal in numbers but the higher experience of my fighters should still give me the advantage, and the bombers might take out the airfield, rendering the Red Air Force ineffective next turn.

So without further ado I directed the air strike against Vitebsk into the air, only then realizing the Winter Offensive penalty ALSO APPLIES TO AIR FORCES.... This was the unfortunate result of my mistake:

[george1972]

The result: complete loss of air parity in the Center, with the Russians now having almost a 2 : 1 advantage in fighters. I was sure this mistake would cost me dearly in the future. I really thought it would only go downhill from here...

An overview of the various fronts:

[seille]

Turn 11 Russia.

First the production and little review of the german turn.

[seille]

My forces advance at the whole front.
Unfortunately without causing too much damage.
George gave a up a lot of terrain, but his troops (except the center Luftwaffe)
are in good shape.
My troops are stopped at the Isthmus of Perekop and between Leningrad and Helsinki.
More and more i feel the lack of artillery, but i can´t have it yet. Other weapons
have higher priority.

[george1972]

Turn 12 - January 28, 1942

The last turn with combat penalties and morale at an all-time low. Since I cannot just hand over air superiority to Seille, I switched as much production as I dared over to Fighters. I expected some major air struggle to unfold over the Belorussian steppe in the coming summer and I needed to be ready to deal out some major damage to the Red Air Force.

This all caused my offensive weapon production like tanks and artillery to all but cease. The remainder went to the ever-increasing supply needs of my units (already eating up one of my two major production centers completely). I manage to scrape together about 200 infantry units. A sneak peak shows me Seille in his turn building 400 infantry units, 6 tanks, 9 flak, 8 dive bombers, but strangely... no fighters.

Nevertheless, with our armies being about equal in early December, Seille is now out-producing me at a staggering rate, about a full major production center's worth. My idea at the time was, that this would turn out to be a short war.

[george1972]

2 overviews this time, showing the entire front from North to South, starting with the Northern half of the front.

[george1972]

And the second one showing the Southern half of the front. The gray arrow shows the direction of a new road being constructed. I had this vague plan of luring the Shock Armies South towards Kharkov and then bypassing them to the North with mechanized forces during the Summer.

For now it perhaps will give Seille the impression that my forces are converging on his, instead of the other way around. Some psychological warfare might help if the conventional one isn't working [:'(]

[seille]

Russian turn 12.

First of all i want to correct the possible impression that George has such a immense disadvantage in production.
Even he has he can actually use Minsk, Riga, Kiev and Kharkov as a own bonus.
And for the huge amount of supply he has to produce: Large attack armies (many tanks and artillery) and using
them a lot -> bigger supply need
Smaller and more defensive army with few tanks and no artillery -> smaller supply need [;)]

George simply missed to bring Sevastopol and Leningrad under his control yet. With both producing for him
things would be easier for Germany.

For the air losses in the center i noted another mistake in his play which was good for me.
He knew i have tons of fighters in the center and willing to use them in massive strikes. But instead of building a concentrated
interceptor force (he could have 50 fighter II there) he splitted the fighters and had some near Minsk and the other 20
in Dvinsk. Together they are a threat, but seperated they are helpless as my coming attacks show. Helpless especially
in this bad weather. One of the very rare mistakes George made in this game.
I say this since these battles are very important for the whole game.

Some more comments on the production screen as usual.

[seille]

The different fronts.

My plans for 1942 are simple:

Surviving the german summer bonus, reaching 1943 with the extra siberian factory
and maybe a few attacks where possible. Want to hold Leningrad and Murmansk.
Same for Kerch and Baku.
Looking at the actual situation these goals seems to be realistic.....

[seille]

Very stupid attacks using weak forces.
German defenders are way too strong.
The winter bonus is a help, but can´t bring any wonders [:)]

Lol, my way of psychological warfare. Wanted to show the germans
"hey, we have enough infantry to waste them into useless attacks" [:D]

[seille]

i forgot:
The german artillery and especially Georges way to use it became more and more annoying for me.
Because of this it is and will be the most important target for any future air attacks.
I just wait for a opportunity to strike them....

[Jeffrey H.]

ORIGINAL: seille

i forgot:
The german artillery and especially Georges way to use it became more and more annoying for me.
Because of this it is and will be the most important target for any future air attacks.
I just wait for a opportunity to strike them....

What about his way of using it is causing you to be annoyed ? He uses it differently/more effectively ?

[seille]

Yes, he moved it into position, sometimes direct into the frontline to let the artillery do their job and then he removed it
by strategic movement back into a safe position. Sometimes out of range for own artillery or planes and often hidden for my units
(too far away to identify).
He´s not the only player who is using this tactic. Sometimes i used it myself later in the game, but i don´t like that so much....
The artillery is very hard to catch this way.

[Appren]

One of you mentioned building from Leningrad once captured, do you have the option to help either side turned on?

[seille]

Not sure what you´re talking about. Can you explain ?