Sixth Army Campaign AAR

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 0: The Sixth Army is Surrounded!

The situation looks grim, the Soviets are everywhere except around Gumrak, and they are sure to be coming from their as well. The Sixth Army can not sit still. As in Kharkov II, its best defensive shielding is constant, mobile tactical offense. Anytime the Sixth Army gets stuck in a position, it is opening itself to a battle of attrition that it is guaranteed to lose.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 1: Stalingrad Falls

IV Corps forms a bridghead aimed at pushing troops toward Kalach at the village of Karpovka.
The point about attrition is illustrated in this turn. To hold the shoulders of the bridgehead, the German army is taking a pounding from the Soviet artillery. If their formations can not be broken up in a turn or two, the entire IV corps will be wrecked.


XXVII Corps and IX Corps destroy the Soviets in Stalingrad, they are now free to put all their effort into holding the perimeter (IX Corps) or breaking out (XXVII Corps).

Soviet tanks are already coming out of the north. The XI Corps goes out to meet them. The further from Gumrak the battle can be taken, the longer air supplies will be able to arrive.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 2: The Squeezing of the Sixth Army

The Sixth Army is starting to be squeezed from both the north and the south. Both the XI and IX Corps are holding their own so far. The Sixth Army has expanded its bridgehead and is beginning to push further toward Kalach. The battle for every hex of territory is costly.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 3: The Sixth Army Pushes toward Kalach

The Soviet forces have found two weakspots in the line. In the center, the Soviets have hit an area between Corp boundaries. The location is on the South Edge of the XI Corps boundary, the primary defenders are Axis Minor troops. Within just a couple of turns, Gumrak is in danger.

In the South, the IX Corps suffers casualties and has to give ground. The Soviet forces are within a hex of capturing some of the southern suburbs of Stalingrad.

Unlike previous scenarios, the Germans are having their units pulverized beyond effectiveness. Both Germans and Axis Allied regiments are being reduced to remnants.

On the positive side, the drive to Kalach by the IV Corps is gaining momentum and the shoulders of the bridgehead have widened to three hexes on both sides of the river.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 4: The German Line Holds

Though the Soviets are still in range of Gumrak, their first attempt has been broken up by counterattacks by the XI Corps.

In the south, the fighting is costly, but the Soviets have been pushed back from Stalingrad. The Germans continue to have units reduced beyond usability.

The breakout continues to move slowly toward Kalach. The snow and cold is getting in the way of the Germans launching their typical mobile operations.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 5: The IV Corps Approach the Donets

The flanks are launching mobile defenses that try to keep the Soviets tied up.

The IV Corps scouts are at the edge of Kalach. The XI Corps breaks up the final elements of the first wave of the Soviet's northern assault. If another wave does not show up, the XI Corps will push the defense further into Soviet territory.

In the south, IX Corps pushes toward Tundotovo. Their offense ties up a couple of brigades of Soviet armor.

XXVII Corp is almost ready to come back into the fray in full. The goal of the XXVII Corps is to ensure that the southern flank of the IV Corp stays open. They will attempt to accomplish this by driving toward the Don crossing at Krasny Don.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 6: Crossing the Don (in Reverse)

The IV Corps takes Kalach and crosses the Don. The other three Corps are pressing forward ensuring that pressure is kept on the perimeter. Survival is starting to look like a possibility.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 7: The Soviets on the Defensive


The Soviets have completely shifted to the defensive. Their objective know is to hold some toeholds on the eastern side of the Don river.

The IV Corps has a clear path across the Steppes on their way to their supply lines.
In the north, XI Corps has pushed the Soviets back towards the Don.

In the south, IX Corps has taken Tundotovo, the southern most strategic position around Stalingrad.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turns 8 & 9: The Soviets are Driven Across the Don

Turns 8 & 9 are continuations of the German advance. The Germans continue pushing forward on all front limited in their speed primarily by the snow. The German supply center has almost been gained.

The Soviets have lost almost all their positions on the east side of the Don.

Elements of Soviet resistance remain in the south, but they are now isolated.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad Turn 10: Victory! The Sixth Army Survives and Stalingrad remains in German Hands

Soviet resistance has been broken and the Sixth Army survives to fight another campaign.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad: Post-mortem

The Sixth Army survives and does keeps Stalingrad open. Again, the screenshots don't show the intensity of the fighting that took place. Unlike any of the other scenarios, many German units were smashed beyond any effectiveness. If the Sixth Army does not have a refit, it will be significantly shrunken.

Yet, the end result is a good one. The army is smaller, but the survivors will not be spending the next 10 years in a GUlag. It's unlikely that the Germans will be winning this war. The breakout from Stalingrad is probably just a setback for the Soviets, and it is clear that they have have learned a lot from their combat with the Germans. But for now, the Sixth Army looks forward to some hot food and a couple hours of rest before the next campaign begins.

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad: Casualties


The breakout to Stalingrad was primarily costly in armor. Unlike previous battles, the armor was used as a primary battle weapon (i.e., the battering ram of the Sixth Army). It's ironic that this was done in the snow when armor's mobility is minimal.

As a result of this battering ram, the Sixth army lost 4 medium tanks and 8 light tanks. This is the equivalent of 4 tank regiments, and matches the total number of tank casualties suffered in the first 9 scenarios!

Losses in mortars were also very high and approached nearly 50% of the total loss of this weapon throughout the campaign.

The Sixth Army has lost regiments and if there is no refit, is likely to lose even more. It remains highly experienced, but the experience is a chimera: The army's effectiveness have been spent in this breakout.


Here is summary of the Corps

Here are the regimental losses (INF denotes both Rifle IV units and MGs). Percentages are losses since the '42 refit. Parenthetical percentages are losses since beginning of the campaign in '40:

IV Corps (12 infantry regiments): 250 INF at 11% (46%) strength; 88 XP
IX Corps (9 infantry regiments): 117 INF at 31% (29%) strength; 91 XP
XXVII Corps (8 infantry regiments): 159 INF at 38% (40%) strength; 87 XP
XI Corps (9 infantry regiments): 171 INF at 37% (42%) strength; 88 XP
Total: (38 infantry regiments) 697 INF at 40% (40%) strength; 87 XP

The average infantry per regiment is down to 17. Without replacements, probably 5 or 6 more infantry regiments would be disbanded in addition to the two lost during the scenario by the XXVII Corps.

The army still has minor allies left, but they too have badly suffered.
The air squadrons are still in good shape and have played a vital role in helping the Germans survive the winter.

The combat losses for this scenario are given below (The Rifle I and Armored Cars are Axis Minor losses) :

[springer]

Breakout from Stalingrad: Summary

These are the German half of the turns without the Soviet response, so they are slightly different from the images posted above.

[springer]

End of the '42 campaign

Below is a chart of the campaign. Effectiveness is computed individually for each regiment as (Average Rifle/Reg * XP/Regiment* Level of Rifle)/100, then the results is averaged across the corp. Level I rifles are weighted as 1; Level IV rifles are weighted as 1.75.

As can be seen, the Sixth Army has lost its effectiveness. Given that the Soviets have become more powerful and more proficient, it's obvious that '43 is going to be a very difficult year for the Germans in the Ukraine, even if the Sixth Army has survived.

[springer]

Campaign Loss Summary

Here is a chart of losses suffered throughout the campaign. The last column is the percentage of the starting force lost (except for flak 88 units and halftracks, which is just % lost since there were none in the start forces). I think this last column gives a good sense of the kind of casualties that can be expected.

The chart should be pretty close to accurate, though it may not be 100%. (For instance, Axis Minor casualties had to be taken out, one or two infantry guns may be there.)

Because my upgrade strategy worked out (i.e., focusing solely on infantry upgrades) and I had played the campaign before, I did pretty well, but as tweber and I discussed in the thread elsewhere, 100%+ casualties is not unreasonable for a unit. Some American units suffered more than 200% losses in the period between D-day and the end of the war. I suspect that first time players will match the American rates.


I hope there will be more of these kind of scenarios. I think I may dabble with designing one.
It'd be fun to see a campaign with the Soviets or Americans.

Anyway, I recommend this campaign highly, and it has great replay value too!

(And thanks to Josh, Jeffrey H., and tweber for your comments, insights, and humor.)

[Josh]

Clobbered the Russkis did you? Well done.
Looking at the initial screenshots I thought you were a goner, no way he's gonna make it out of there, or so I thought. But you managed to do it splendidly.
Campaigning is indeed something I'd like to see in AT2...speaking of, Vic sure has been quite lately... [&:]

Thanks for the AAR Springer, it has been most entertaining.

[springer]

Thanks Josh,

I really appreciated your comments! (And you're right, it's been a while since we've heard any updates from Victor. I wonder how game development is going)

The last scenario is tough. Because I know what it is like to lose to the Soviets (the first time), I had a sense of the critical mass of troops I needed to survive the first three turns of pounding.

And the Soviets do pound: They even have 8 long range artillery guns [X(] and escape is still costly. The Germans lost 50% of their artillery and armor losses for the whole campaign in their last scenario.

The other problem is supply, of course, but the Germans had enough to make it through the winter.

I'm hoping the AAR might inspire others to talk about their strategies for getting through this campaign alive. I have no doubt there are many ways to get to the final point.