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

[george1972]

In the North, resistance is stiffening. The end of my bonus rounds of course has something to do with that, but the terrain isn't favorable for offensive operations either. Despite this, AG North manages to take Demyansk and push towards the East, but most of AG North is deployed in a defensive line in front of Leningrad.

AG Center has lost all attacking spirit when looking at the enemy strength in front of it. The little attack launched against the left flank of the Smolensk front is aborted and the units involved deploy into a loose line between the upper Dniepr and Orel.

[george1972]

In the South things couldn't be more different from the North. There is hardly a Russian soldier to be seen and I continue my advance. As the Luftwaffe is transferring to airfields closer to the front, their support this turn is limited and so two of my attacks are repulsed with heavy losses despite numerical superiority. Not a good omen.

Nevertheless I manage to push across the Don east of Rostov and throw a bridgehead across the Kuban, putting me just 2 hexes from Maikop. My unit density is low however and my usual fear of mobile enemy units cutting off my spearheads is slowly getting stronger. For now, I'm prevented from covering my flanks due to a lack of units on the ground. So instead I just keep pushing towards my objective: Maikop and ultimately, Baku/Grozny.

[george1972]

The Crimea has become a sideshow of little relevance. If I had taken Sevastopol first during the Summer offensive, I would not have been able to advance as far as I have now and I cannot spare additional troops to clean out the Crimea. I feel a bit like Rommel who had to bypass Tobruk in '41 since he lacked the strength to take it.

If I manage to get Maikop, Baku and Stalingrad, I will have sufficient production to continue fighting the Red Army in 1943 and sending a detachment to finally clean out the Crimea.

[Shambling Strider]

This AAR is great! Very well detailed and visually impressive.[&o]
 
Thank you for this good work Sir!

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, the soviet front breaks apart but George seems way to spread up.

Some are going north, some are taking Voronezh, some don´t manage to break through the road to Stalingrad, some east of Rostov and some to Maikop.

Imo a good big push to Maikop or Stalingrad with covering forces holding the other fronts would have been better. I don´t see George having enough forces to exploit each front.

[seille]

Russian turn 22.
Finally the german bonus is gone. Time to think about the
current situation and the coming month´s.

In the north and center we look stable now. Especially in Leningrad i stabilized
the situation by placing a lot of infantry in the heavy forest where it can gain XP
for the upcoming attacks.
Yes, attacks are planned there !

They turn step by step from "Murmansk defenders" to "Leningrad attackers"

The good situation in these area will hopefully allow us to focus more down south
where in larger areas we have no existing front.

[seille]

The north/center

[seille]

The south, not funny to look at from my point of view....

[george1972]

ORIGINAL: TheArchduke

Hmm, the soviet front breaks apart but George seems way to spread up.

Some are going north, some are taking Voronezh, some don´t manage to break through the road to Stalingrad, some east of Rostov and some to Maikop.

Imo a good big push to Maikop or Stalingrad with covering forces holding the other fronts would have been better. I don´t see George having enough forces to exploit each front.

You're probably right. Before the Summer offensive, I should have picked a main objective and thrown my full weight into it. I would either have succeeded gloriously or failed miserably. The most obvious mistake I made throughout this game was getting "carried away" by tactical successes in certain areas. I must say that I have learned a lot from this game, especially about long-term thinking.

[george1972]

Turn 23, September 5, 1942

Last turn I looked at my spare PP count (well over 80) and decided to spend some of it. Fighter III was a long way away and I needed an offensive boost now. So I decided to upgrade to Mortar II. As long as I could protect them properly, they would survive (being second-line troops) and gain experience, making them excellent killers in attacks.

Seille's attacks showed his air force was back at the front again and it still was bigger than mine. What could I do against it? Earlier in this AAR, Seille mentioned that I should have concentrated my Fighters into a single big group. This has obvious benefits when intercepting incoming attacks, but also leaves you with less options for providing air support to your ground troops. Looking at how AT models air combat however, leads me to believe the strategy of keeping your air force split up in the face of larger enemy fighter groups is a quick way to lose your air force...

My production for this turn:

[george1972]

Of course, my frustration over the bogged down attacks along the bank of the Donetz was high. So this turn I would teach those Russian SOB's they should have run for the awesome might of the Wehrmacht last turn.

The screenshots show how that operation went:

[george1972]

This defeat had serious repercussions as I had to abort my drive East of Rostov and pull back those units to set up another attack for the next turn. AG South was effectively halted in its drive for Stalingrad.

Next to this, some of my air strikes had run into strong Russian Fighter opposition coming from Stalingrad and Novorosk. I had already chosen to go for the Caucasus, but now I really had to throw everything I could make available into that drive to succeed. So this turn saw the last offensive operations of AG South in the Northern sector of its front.

[george1972]

The North is turning into a sideshow for me now, as my focus is on the Southern area of the Front. AG North has to pull units out of their drive towards Moscow since they are facing annihilation by Red Air Force attacks. In the middle of the line it performs another deliberate attack but overall it looks as if AG North has reached its apex.

[seille]

Russian turn 23.

The production and routing:

[seille]

The north.

Time to fight back.
While George focusses on the south my focus is in the north.
Here is actually my only chance for effective attacks.

[seille]

The south.

Critical as always. We still do not have the troops available we need for good defense
especially in Maikop area. Maybe i´ll regret the decision not to send more troops
to Maikop.

[seille]

As a little extra for this turn i created another forces overview
showing my main armies seperated and a total overview.

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, the loss of air superiority towards the Soviets will spell the doom of the northern front. Stalingrad is safe and Maikop can not be taken by 2-3 lone units.

I think George´s push in the south should have been more vigorous and especially the Sevastopol area should have been attacked after the winter.

[george1972]

ORIGINAL: TheArchduke
Hmm, the loss of air superiority towards the Soviets will spell the doom of the northern front. Stalingrad is safe and Maikop can not be taken by 2-3 lone units.

All true. The situation before Stalingrad seems to be bogging down into positional warfare and the push towards Maikop is much too light to succeed. It will be won be the side that manages to press more reinforcements into the fight than the other... But production-wise, the Germans don't have an edge here.

Similar to Seille's last post, I also compiled a list of strengths of my various AG HQ's and the results are less gloomy than I thought at the time. The Wehrmacht still retains an edge in supporting weaponry, be it a little edge. But in the infantry department, the gap with the Red Army is widening steadily but surely.

One thing I had not expected was the edge in tanks and the fact that the Luftwaffe fighters were almost up to par with the Red Air Force.

[george1972]

A look at the various sectors of the front.

Code: Select all

Northern Sector: Finland + AG North vs Leningrad Front
 
               Germany   Russia    Ratio (approx.)
 Truck            10       25       1 : 2
 Light Tank        6        5       1 : 1
 Engineer         47       51       1 : 1
 Inf. Gun          5        -       5 : 0
 AT Gun            2        3       1 : 1
 Level Bomber      3        -       3 : 0
 Horses           64        2      32 : 1
 Flak              9       13       1 : 1
 Machinegun       25        -      25 : 0
 Scout             1        -       1 : 0
 Mortar (I + II)  33       57       1 : 2
 Bazooka          11        -      11 : 0
 Staff           100      211       1 : 2
 Divebomber        6        6       1 : 1  (Supported by 11 Divebombers from the Smolensk Front)
 Rifle II        565      125       4 : 1
 SMG II          162      704       1 : 5
 Fighter II       27       18       2 : 1  (Supported by 53 Fighters from the Smolensk Front)
 Artillery II     23       12       2 : 1
 

The situation in the North seems to be balanced, were it not for the support the Russians receive from the Smolensk air group.

Code: Select all

Central Sector: OKW + AG Center vs Smolensk Front
 
               Germany   Russia    Ratio (approx.)
 Truck            31        5       6 :  1
 Light Tank        9        5       2 :  1
 Engineer         94        -      94 :  0
 Inf. Gun         13        -      13 :  0
 Horses           78        -      78 :  0
 Flak             20        9       2 :  1
 Machinegun       24       51       1 :  2
 Scout             2        -       2 :  0
 Mortar (I + II)  48       26       2 :  1
 Bazooka           -       34       0 : 34
 Staff           180      241       1 :  1
 Divebomber        -       11       0 : 11  (Supporting Leningrad Front)
 Rifle II        515     1038       1 :  2
 Fighter II        -       53       0 : 53  (Supporting Leningrad Front)
 Artillery II     12        -      12 :  0
 

In the Center, the bad infantry ratio is hardly offset by the advantages in tanks and artillery. A determined push by the Russians could cause me a lot of trouble.

Code: Select all

Northern Ukraine: AG South vs Stalingrad + Orel Fronts
 
 (Orel Front was missing from Seille's overview)
 
               Germany   Russia    Ratio (approx.)
 Truck            25       20       1 :  1
 Light Tank       14       11       1 :  1
 Medium Tank       -        1       0 :  1
 Engineer         38        -      38 :  0
 Inf. Gun          7        -       7 :  0
 Horses           56        -      56 :  0
 Flak              9        8       1 :  1
 Machinegun       19       11       2 :  1
 Scout            15        -      15 :  0
 Mortar (I + II)  21        -      21 :  0
 Bazooka          32        9       3 :  1
 Staff           148      176       1 :  1
 Divebomber        9        9       1 :  1
 Rifle II        610      563       1 :  1
 Fighter II       44       15       3 :  1
 Artillery II     15        4       4 :  1
 

Here the situation is evening out, with only the German advantage resting mostly in air and artillery assets.

Code: Select all

Southern Ukraine: Romania vs Maikop + Sevastopol Fronts
 
 (Sevastopol Front was missing from Seille's overview)
 
               Germany   Russia    Ratio (approx.)
 Truck            23        9       2 :  1
 Light Tank       13        3       4 :  1
 Engineer         48       17       3 :  1
 Inf. Gun          3        -       3 :  0
 AT Gun            -        3       0 :  3
 Horses           50        3      16 :  1
 Flak              9        6       2 :  1
 Machinegun       20       12       2 :  1
 Mortar (I + II)  26       19       1 :  1
 Bazooka           3        -       3 :  0
 Staff           114      107       1 :  1
 Divebomber        5        4       1 :  1
 Rifle II        522      436       1 :  1
 Fighter II       21       10       2 :  1
 Artillery II     16        1      16 :  1
 

In this sector, we still have air superiority, and overwhelming artillery support. But in grunts, the situation is evening out very quickly now. The only thing going for me here is the fact Seille has to send his green troops straight into battle against my more experienced forces. This should enable me to maintain a high kill ratio and perhaps make some progress.