43 Campaign Flavio vs Bob, Soviet Viewpoint

[Sabre21]

Looking pretty good so far Flavio,

[Flaviusx]

Andy, it's going to be a tough one. He's doing the whole linebacker thing and planting fort lines in rapid succession one behind the other. There are very few exploitation opportunities here with the way his panzers are set up, too. Any hasty attacks are met by a hail of fire from panzer reserves. I was lucky to find a hole in the south. I'm thinking now about taking a shot around the Smolensk area now, too, where he is also rather thin in the ground. His defenses in the center are very solid.

However, his infantry is getting ground to bits. He's losing close to 200k in casualties a month, and that's all coming from the landser. How long can he keep that up? It's naked, ugly attrition. Eventually the panzers are going to have to take the line and stop hiding behind beat up and threadbare infantry regiments.

[Flaviusx]

Turn 5, I'm liking the Smolensk idea more and more and start activating Kalinin Front. I'm in the process of massively reinforcing this area: STAVKA reserves, 4. Tank Army, various other independent mobile corps, and Bagramyan's powerful 11. Guards Army are on the way (this is my best combined arms outfit.) Near as I can tell from my air recon he doesn't have any kind of reserve here. Once I punch through the front line it's wide open. I probably should send another tank army here, in truth. But I don't entirely trust my recon and want to see if it's as weak as it looks before I send more stuff in this area.

[Flaviusx]

The Bryansk grind continues and doesn't really merit a screenshot. I'm stripping this area of assets for other drives.

Near Karkhov the SS disappears and this allows me to finally pocket it, with 3 regiments trapped in the city proper. He declined to counterattack my probes near Sumy, somewhat to my surprise. He could've really popped me there, although it might have cost him some tank losses. I guess the business in the south took priority. I continue to gradually stretch his line here.

[Flaviusx]

3. Guards Tank drives to the Sea of Azov, clearing a path for the rifle formations to Stalino and pocketing 5 German infantry regiments. The 3 regiments pocketed last turn surrender. 5. Guards Tank is trying to flank the northern end of his next line. All my artillery and infantry will be next to it on turn 6, and if I can bounce this his next line past that isn't complete and we can finally break this out into the open.

3 tank armies are on the line here at present, and Katukov's 1. Tank remains in reserve. I'm undecided on keeping it here or sending it to Smolensk and will await developments. Many rifle corps from the Kuban are on the way to this area since we have both tacitly decided to ignore it; he's falling back to Kerch and sending the forces from there elsewhere. It's become a source of reserves for both of us.

[Flaviusx]

OB for turn 5. The Wehrmacht is shrinking and down roughly 200k from it's starting strength. I'm making it a point to smash his infantry at this point and executing small pockets wherever possible. Losing one to two divisional equivalents a turn in addition to combat losses from heavy deliberate assaults is adding up. My artillery is truly awesome and if I'm willing to mass it and stick to deliberate assaults, no fort line can stop me, although it can slow my advance to a crawl. The linebacker defense is effective where he has the forces to make it happen -- so remove those forces.

The Red Army is slowly growing, my losses have been heavy but still offset by reinforcements.

[Flaviusx]

Ground losses.

[Flaviusx]

Air losses. Thank goodness for this latest patch, I'm actually semi competitive in the air now.

[Flaviusx]

On turn 6 I open up my Smolensk offensive and punch clean through. There is indeed nothing here, no mobile reserves, no linebacker fort spam. I narrowly miss taking Smolensk itself in a coup de main. A defeated German regiment retreated into it and proved impossible to dislodge with hasty attacks from the rather second rate 4. Tank Army. I regret not sending a second tank army here now.

[Flaviusx]

The Karkhov garrison dies. Between that and the pockets in the Mius, that's another 8 infantry regiments in the dead pile this turn.

Bob pulls back and gives up Sumy. I lack the forces to make any real headway in the center; the action has shifted decisively to the flanks. All 5 tank armies have been committed elsewhere and I'm short of artillery here to boot.

[Flaviusx]

All hell breaks loose in the Donbas. My combined arms forces crack open the second German fort line and 4 tank armies pour through and wreak havoc in the German rear. His attempt at a third fort line is preempted by this massive breakthrough and I am finally clear of this fort spam. I even take the opportunity to slap around some of his panzer regiments -- 3 of them are routed when surrounded and forced to retreat. 4 German infantry divisions get pocketed. Stalino also gets pocketed along the way.

The SS is nearby; we'll see if they are supermen enough to fix this mess.

[Flaviusx]

With the front aflame from Smolensk to Stalino losses have picked up markedly on both sides. 100k/turn is about the threshold for me before losses exceed my replacement ability and I zoomed well past that this turn. But the German losses are equally grave.

[ComradeP]

You're doing a great job of exploiting the primary weakness of Bob's defensive strategy: he's forcing himself to be attacked on your terms, he doesn't get that forts are useless against the firepower you're bringing when he can only place a few regiments in them.

Moreover, the way he's using his mobile formations (by placing them in reserve) is quickly draining them of combat strength for little to no gains (he isn't stopping you). His defensive plan has undone the entire recovery of German mobile formations in just 6 turns. SS strength has dropped by around 10 points for most units, for example. In situations where you just know you're going to be hit by a vastly superior force, placing your good mobile units on reserve is the best way to have their strength reduced to nothing in a short amount of time. I'd only use reserve mode in situations where I'm expecting the battle to be a close one, where reserves can matter decisively.

[Flaviusx]

I dunno, I think Bob's strategy is pretty good in certain respects. He's totally stymied me in the center. If he could be as strong there everywhere, it'd be a pain to grind my way through this fort spam.

But he can't be that strong everywhere.

It is true that if I want to concentrate enough artillery on any given point, I can destroy just about any fort line. The artillery concentration I had in Bryansk Front for awhile was disgusting. Close to a dozen artillery divisions, including 3 rocket artillery. I had over 3000 guns pouring fire in some assaults. Notwithstanding the fact that I've been fighting fort after fort after fort from Orel to Bryansk, they could knock out a hexrow a turn and grind the infantry to bits. But I can't achieve those kind of concentrations everywhere.

His armor is actually in pretty good shape, far better than historical. I think the greater weakness of the strategy is the burden being placed on the landsers, not the panzers. I am indeed going out of my way to hammer his infantry. Once he runs out of grunts, no more fort spam. It almost doesn't matter where I do this so long as it gets done, I'm not very concerned with particular geographical objectives, my true objective is the German army.

[SGHunt]

The old quantity has a quality all of its own, eh?   My own Russian army from '42 can only stare in shock and awe!   The change in offensive muscle is extraordinary in such a short time.

It's difficult to work out from the screen shots - what's his remaining fort strength?   Perhaps a shot with that graphic turned on, please?

[ComradeP]

I dunno, I think Bob's strategy is pretty good in certain respects. He's totally stymied me in the center.

Isn't that also due to how many AP's/turns you had to spend on activating units?

Losing 100 AFV's/week and especially losing PzG and motorized infantry squads will quickly cripple German Panzer/PzG division strength.

I'm also not too sure how much he can continue to slow you down in the center: you're launching the Smolensk operation a month before the historical operation, and if his guys are still static, he'll be in some trouble soon. As you say, the goal is the destruction of the German army, and Bob's defensive setup is thus far allowing you to do just that.

[Flaviusx]

On turn 7 I continue to develop the Smolensk offensive. It is pocketed with one infantry division inside. Army Group Center runs away between Smolensk and Bryansk and I rush to activate the rest of Western Front to maintain contact. There is no armor here, alas, to take advantage of this withdrawal.

Bryansk Front liberates Bryansk.

[Flaviusx]

Meanwhile, down south, I eliminate the four pocketed infantry divisions. My infantry and artillery struggles to advance to the new German line before it can entrench but won't reach it until next turn. The 4 tank armies try to maintain the momentum of this drive on their own and trade blows with Wiking and Totenkopf, now both on the line. Luftwaffe field divisons are starting to show up. Stalino is liberated.

[Flaviusx]

Losses. My tank losses are reaching critical proportions, I can't really sustain 1k per turn like this for long. That's what happens when you push 5 tank armies to the limit. My manpower losses are lighter this time. German losses continue to be high. The four pocketed infantry divisions alone amounted to around 40k men.

[Flaviusx]

Turn 8, Smolensk is liberated and another German infantry division goes to the deadpile.

Kalinin, Western, and Bryansk Fronts launch attritional attacks along the line.