Detailed combat reporting

[Great_Ajax]

They did with Army Group North bottled up in Courland a year later in 1944. Two cruisers even provided desparately needed fire support for the Germans. Actually, Army Group North (Courland) was the last intact German Army Group of the war and it relied entirely on oversea supplies from the Kriegsmarine.

Trey

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

-The Kriegsmarine has little to no experience with amphibious operations, aside from operations in Norway and the invasion of islands in the Baltic Sea. In both cases, limited forces were used.

There are up to 28 divisions in that pocket, depending on the size of the stacked units we can't see.

-As a result of the minimal experience with amphibious operations, the Kriegsmarine also has only a small amount of specialized landing craft for operations on a beach and those are only suitable for a small amount of forces. Artificial harbours which were supposed to be used during Sealion never left prototype stage.

-No access to most of the ports in the area, as Paldiski and Tallinn are in Soviet hands.

-The capture of the southern bank of the Gulf of Finland allows Baltic Fleet sub activity to expand significantly.

-All ports/supply zones on beaches would be in range of the VVS.

During Overlord, the Allies, with specialized landing craft, Mulberry harbours and near total air supremacy were hard pressed to keep the 19 divisions that landed in the first week, including airbourne divisions, supplied on beaches that were more or less right next to several of the major ports in the UK.

I really doubt the Kriegsmarine could've pulled off an operation like supplying the trapped units in Hard Sarge's game.

[ComradeP]

They did with Army Group North bottled up in Courland a year later in 1944. Two cruisers even provided desparately needed fire support for the Germans. Actually, Army Group North (Courland) was the last intact German Army Group of the war and it relied entirely on oversea supplies from the Kriegsmarine.

The Courland pocket included a number of ice-free ports and was about 250-350 kilometres closer to the German ports (and thus further away from Baltic Fleet submarines) as the pocket in the screenshot.

Regardless of the numerous offensives, the Courland area was a secondary theatre of operations for the Soviets compared to the war in Poland/Germany and Central Europe.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

-The Kriegsmarine has little to no experience with amphibious operations, aside from operations in Norway and the invasion of islands in the Baltic Sea. In both cases, limited forces were used.

There are up to 28 divisions in that pocket, depending on the size of the stacked units we can't see.

-As a result of the minimal experience with amphibious operations, the Kriegsmarine also has only a small amount of specialized landing craft for operations on a beach and those are only suitable for a small amount of forces. Artificial harbours which were supposed to be used during Sealion never left prototype stage.

-No access to most of the ports in the area, as Paldiski and Tallinn are in Soviet hands.

-The capture of the southern bank of the Gulf of Finland allows Baltic Fleet sub activity to expand significantly.

-All ports/supply zones on beaches would be in range of the VVS.

During Overlord, the Allies, with specialized landing craft, Mulberry harbours and near total air supremacy were hard pressed to keep the 19 divisions that landed in the first week, including airbourne divisions, supplied on beaches that were more or less right next to several of the major ports in the UK.

I really doubt the Kriegsmarine could've pulled off an operation like supplying the trapped units in Hard Sarge's game.

with a port in hand, they could get supply in, but it would then be beachhead supply, not good, but some, with the ports in my hands, the best they can do is, air supply, which is not as good as beach head supply

they in trouble, if they can't take one of the ports back

(as I said, bad move, they reinforced defeat, instead of pulling back when they could/should(

[Hard Sarge]

trying to take pressure off the north and center, plus most of my numbers are in the south, and I do need to get a rail line to the deep south, so, time to move

[Hard Sarge]

in the center the Ge is getting frisky, don't know why it does this hassle attacks, I think it could break my line if it tried (if it hadn't of shifted all those troops to the north)

[Hard Sarge]

just in case, you seeing after I reacted, it looked much nastier, before I reacted, my line got a lot weaker, to close those off

the Pocket

the Ge didn't have enough supplies to get close enough to free the port, or the Strength to break into the other one, pocket/trap is set, now to close it down

[Hard Sarge]

here is a closer view, before I start the attack, lots of units, but wonder how much numbers are there ?

[Hard Sarge]

as I thought, those are pretty burned out combat Divs, they should be pulled out for refit, instead of standing in the line, they are toast

that had to hurt, almost 82,000 men, 1250 guns and 158 AFV, 19 Inf Divs and 1 PZ Div (a few are left to mop up, next week)

[Hard Sarge]

the Ge Reacts in the south, to my pressure

[Hard Sarge]

not sure it managed this trick, he landed at a Port i thought I owned, oh well, need to pay attention I may of left a gap

[Hard Sarge]

oh well, needed to do a restart, so was waiting on the next release, wanted to do a simi AAR of the same battle as Jon, with out doing the same tactics

but, need to do a new restart after the restart

I think I was losing, I was kicking, but didn't like the way the battle was unfolding

here is a loss page screen, and I thought I wasn't doing too well

(AHHHH, capture program crashed out, ahhhhhhhh)

[Hard Sarge]

okay, since I play the game with FOW off, so I can watch and see what the AI is doing, my maps will look different then Jon's will

want to see where the Russian Reserves are ? (at least in my game)


looks like the SU has reacted to my move in the south (wasn't intended, just were the troops, were, so wanted to take Rostov on the fly, before shifting my focus north)

[Hard Sarge]

of course, once my attacks in the north started to pay off

[Hard Sarge]

Comrade

looks like the AI been reading some of your posts, it has been attacking across the Fin no attack line, and gaining some exp at my inforced peacefulness

[Hard Sarge]

here are some of the losses after 6 weeks of battle

and I am not making much headway

[Hard Sarge]

greeesh, 26 Corps, 28 Divs, 20 Brigs all gone, and the Russian line is stronger then it was when I started !

(of course, the trick there is, I was shortening my lines, so that means the Russian line is also shorter)

to the good, that is a lot of Corps out of action, in the past, the AI has been slow to build his Divs into Corps (lucky me)

we got a new, new release, so a new campaign will be restarted

[ComradeP]

Comrade

looks like the AI been reading some of your posts, it has been attacking across the Fin no attack line, and gaining some exp at my inforced peacefulness

I guess that when the Soviets form corps instead of divisions, they can take more losses and still gain experience, which would make the tactic more worthwhile.

There doesn't really seem to be an easy way to fix the issue, as "freezing" the front would be unrealistic and not allowing the Soviets to attack across the line would mean they can't invade Finland again.

[Hard Sarge]

agree, they just don't want to chase across the border, until they are strong enough, across the line, the Fin's will snap back HARD

[Hard Sarge]

okay main goal here is to try out the victory set up (don't want to talk much about that yet, until we get it working the way they want)

so, for me, my main goal, for now, is to try and link up with the Fins, free the Fins for action, and take Leningrad

free my trapped troops

cut off any pockets of Su Troops

shorten my lines were I can, and Hurt the Russian

take Rostov

try to cross the Kersh

and see if I can push the Victory condictions

so

Leningrad area

[Hard Sarge]

my trapped troops (well, not trapped, but they going to be under a lot of pressure and they have a small gap for supplies,