German 1941 GC - normal - Finished (DV - T56)

[CharonJr]

T4 results:

Supply is my main concern at the moment, part of it due to mistakes I made, part of it due to the decent progress of my forces (especially in the north).

The pocket in the south looks promissing, but I am a bit worried about the Soviets being able to crack it from the east (but consider it unlikely due to the Dnepr).

While Soviet losses are still fairly low the new pocket in the south and mopping up the remaining forces in the smaller pocket should help with this during the next turn.

In the north the focus will stay on isolating Leningrad.

In the center expanding the bridgehead at Gomel and trying to create a pocket between Gomel and Smolensk will be the main objectives.

I will still try to bring back the armored corps lend from AGC to AGS back to AGC, trying to form a new pocket with this move, but this will happen on turn 6 at best due the armor having to rest up first.

[CharonJr]

And thank you for the input, I am still busy reshuffeling airbases and HQs (and looking for units I missed moving before), but think I should be able to get in another turn later today.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

T4 follow-up:

8 additional units surrendered with 78k men, 700 guns and 600 AFVs.


T5 north:

The 2 Soviet units in Hanko are attacked and surrender, leaving Finnland clear of Soviet forces.

Another 2 Soviet divisions are isolated and the Finns should take Vyborg next turn, maybe trapping another Soviet division there.

Tallinn is taken without any opposition.

The first infantry divisions are crossing to Pskov and provide a screen to the north displacing some routed Soviet divisions with additional infantry providing cover at the southern part of the small coridor.

I run into some pretty heavy defenses to the south of lake Ilmen, due to this LVII Panzer tried to go around it on the norhtern route via Novgorod. Novogorod is defended by a 2 CV 14 (total) infantry division, but a hasty attack from 2 armored divisions forces them to rout/retreat.

LVI keeps resting after its earlier push, hopefully being able in helping with cutting off the defenders around lake Ilmen on the next turn.

[CharonJr]

T5 center:

My infantry starts to slowly grind its way towards Smolensk with deliberate attacks, supported by air vs. stronger/more entrenched units.

The defenders of Vitebsk are forced to retreat and XXXIX Panzer starts its run to Smolensk. Smolensk is reached, but seems to be fairly well defended stopping the drive for now.

The push towards Gomel is started as well. The bridgehead is broadened and 2 infantry corps are put across the Dnepr. Due to the supply situation the armor will have to stay in place for another turn.

[CharonJr]

T5 south:

Good news, the pocket held, together with the earlier encirclements this might provide me with more limited resistance in the south and together with 2 bridgeheads across the Dnepr still in place (Cherkassy/Kiev) reaching Rostov might be possible.

The pockets are reduced, forcing 32 units with 179k troops, 1.7k guns and 1.2k AFVs to surrender with about 10 additional units still trapped.

I occupy Odessa, despite having to do it by "wasting" the fuel of 16. Panzer this turn, since it is a port I think that it will serve as a line of supply for my forces.

edit: was the T4 screenshot before

[CharonJr]

T5 results:

The heavy defense around lake Ilmen came as a surprise, but with 3 armored corps in the north I am still fairly confident that I should be able to reach the Finns.

In the center will will be interesting to see if the AI smells the start of a pocket and pull back from the Dnepr or stand fast.

The south stays the most interesting area and with the armor mostly resting up I might try to create a new pocket by heading to Gomel from the south with XXIV and XXXVI Panzer.

Despite the losses overall Soviet troopslevels are still on the rise, but at least the number of AFVs and planes is coming down.

BTW, are plane losses from overruning airbases only shown in the total numbers? I only destroyed 308 planes this turn, but the Soviet numbers declined a lot more than this...

[randallw]

There's a certain amount of planes destroyed by flying accidents.

[CharonJr]

I know that the Soviets have rookie pilots, but 1300 planes less than the turn before and I only destroyed 300 of those. Even without considering production 1000 destroyed planes via training/flying accidents seem excessive

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

First of all: Happy New Year! (for Europe at least;) )

T5 follow-up:

The Soviets lost an additional 2 units, 28k men, 300 guns and 100 AFVs.

And while moving my airbases I saw that I had missed attacking 2 divisions blocking my way from Tallinn towards Leningrad, both fights were won and the defenders were routed.

T6 north:

In Finnland the 2 isolated units are destroyed and another 2 units are isolated in Vyborg.

With the northern way around lake Ilmen blocked as well I will try a pocket to the west of Novgorod now.

XXXXI and LVII Panzer is pulled back from the frontline for some rest/supplies.

South of Pskov I am clearing the way for my railhead.

[CharonJr]

T6 center:

I go for another pocket south of Smolensk, but with just 2 armored corps available, which are fairly low on supply as well, this pocket is very flimsy. But at least I have been able to displace about a dozen airbases, destroying about 500 damaged planes on the ground.

The pocket's weakest point is in the area of the river Oster. But even if they are able to reopen the gap I am fairly confident that I can reseal it on the next turn.

[CharonJr]

T6 south:

Clearing the pocket forced another 8 units to surrender with 58k men, 0.6k guns and 0.3 AFVs.

Instead of pushing east I decided to take the opportunity to pocket some Soviet forces (15-20 units) between Cherkassy and Kiev along the Dnepr while still keeping a number of mobile units in reserve for the planned breakout towards Gomel (hopefully next turn).

[CharonJr]

T6 results:

3 new pockets were formed this turn, lets see how many of them will hold up. With the hole in the line of the Smolensk pocket and (at least 1) Soviet unit outside it close to the weakest spot I doubt tthat this one will hold. I am more optimistic about the other two.

Otherwise it has been a fairly bad turn with just 12 units destroyed, except for destroying about 550 Soviet planes, 315 of them being level bombers.

Progress feels OK so far and after my earlier mistakes my railheads are finally getting closer to the front.

The number of Soviet troops rose by 115k this turn, about 500 additional guns, AFVs went down by about 700 and planes are down about 400. At least this time the number of planes roughly matches what I overran

Finally I have some points left to reassign 2 panzer leaders, but since AGS is still over its command limit the next points will be spend on reassigning units again.

Any comments or ideas for improvement so far?

[stewartbragg]

Good AAR. Taking the 2 Panzer Corps from AGC may hurt you in your drive for Moscow. Otherwise...looking good.

[randallw]

Turn 6 and you've cleared the area up to Kiev; that's very nice.

[CharonJr]

Thank you, but my main worry at the moment is the Soviets getting more troops than I can destroy at the moment while my armor is slowly but surely ground to dust despite me mainly using them just for encirclements (and even then keeping about half of them as reserves for a future push), not for direct combat.

That's why I am looking for any ideas to improve here.

CharonJr

[randallw]

Nothing you can do about those new rifle divisions sprouting up each turn; they are in the pipeline no matter how much you drop the population base with the capture of those little towns here and there.

[CharonJr]

T6 follow-up:

Additional 8 units with 56k men, 600 guns and AFVs surrendered.


T7 north:

The Finns manage to rout/retreat 2 Soviet units, leaving 2 airfields and a rifle division in a dangerous position, but I think the AI will move them out of harms way next turn. But since there is a possibility that it does not I will not attack them this turn.

I Korps reaches the Narva on its push from Tallinn to Leningrad, hopefully forcing the Soviets to put some defenders in their way, making progress along lake Ilmen easier.

In the Pskov pocket 11 Soviet units surrender with 49k men, 03. guns and 0.1 AFVs.

For the upcoming battle for Leningrad I start to upgrade some planes, mainly Ju-87B to D, Bf110C-4B to Bf 110E-2 in its bomber role and Bf 109E-7 to Bf 109F-4 (especially since the E-7 is widely used, but not being produced anymore).

61. Infantry Division manages to force a crossing across the Luga south of Leningrad, hopefully pulling some Soviet units from lake Ilmen, too.

The area around Novgorod is cleared as well since I feel the most important thing is to keep the Soviets from digging in.

LVI is pulled back for some rest with the other 2 Panzerkorps resting up as well.

The railhead gets within 2 hexes of Pskov hopefully improving the supply situation. Despite having rested for 2 turns now most of my armor is below 50% supply levels. The arrival of 1st and 8th SS should adds some additional punch to my mobile forces.

[CharonJr]

T7 center:

As expected the pocket was penetrated, but the location came as a surprise. While the AI put about 6 divisions in the area of the Oster river it did not press on, but penetrated the lines right to the north of Smolensk instead.

But with enough infantry close to the front and closing the gaps between the units I am fairly confident about the new pocket. Sadly it looks like at least some units were evactuated during the last turn, but there are still about 30 units left.

Around Gomel the infantry pushes right to the outskirts of Gomel, enableling a linkup with XXXXVI Panzer heading up north from Kiev.

[CharonJr]

T7 south:

With the area between Kiev and Gomel only fairly lightly defended and my armored forces somewhat rested I try to encircle the marshes, hopefully getting rid of large parts of this big red blob. It will be interesting to see how many Soviet units are still inside the pocket, but I suspect it will be largely those I am already able to see.

Grossdeutschland Regiment links up with the rest of AGC right to the east of Gomel and is the weakest link in the chain, but AGCs infantry with heavy bomber support manages to dislodge the defenders of Gomel and capture the town (actually I only wanted to weaken them, but it seems the RNG- gods were on my side).

The pocket is cleared down to one single airborne division. 13 units with 90k men, 0.6k guns and 0.4k AFVs surrender.

I move 2 Romanian divisions back to act as garrison forces since I start to run out of security units.

South of Nikolaev the dug in Soviets trying to prevent me from crossing the Dnepr are forced to retreat, unless they bring up additional troops I should be able to cross during the next turn.

I spend some time pondering if rushing towards Kharkov would be worth the additional abuse on my mobile units and in the end decided to go for it. Getting across 3 rivers unopposed and forcing the Soviets to either abandon additional positions or not having enough forces to deal with the attack being the main factors. III Panzer is 28 hex from a railhead (39 MP) now.

[CharonJr]

T7 results:

It looks like the Dnepr's days to play a leading role in this AAR are about over as it has been penetrated or will be even controlled my the Axis in most areas except for Dnepropetrovk and Zaporozhye.

Next I will try to cut off the Velikie Luki salient, but my mobil units will most likely need 1 additional turn to get back into shape for a drive like this. Hopefully nothing I do will frighten the Soviets into retreat before. This will bring back LVII Panzer to AGC, too, which should then have enough strength for a push towards Tula/Orel/Kursk.

Depending how the situation around Leningrad developed by then I might even get cocky and try to drive towards Moscow.

The Krim will be mainly left to the Romanians with German forces moving to Stalino/Rostov.

Changing my OOB is still eating up most of my APs, with AGC starting to get some attention now due to the fairly large gap (AGN: 71/96, AGC: 134:96, AGS: 117:96, OKH: 430/900).

Appointed Hans Hube as commander of LVII Panzer, sadly he lost a couple of rating points due to the promotion (any idea if this is random or a set amount? I think he lost 4 points, including lowering his MEC from 7 to 6, this seems quite a lot to me).

I just took a quick look at the won/loss ratios and (considering how I tend to my my mobile units this is no big surprise) there are mostly infantry divisions up there (somehow even 1 Romanian division managed to get 5:0, sadly those are the guys I am currently sending back to act as city gurads ).

Overall I think this has been a fairly successfull turn.

2 Pockets were essentially cleared and 2 new pockets were formed. After resting up for some turns the mobile forces were able to live up to their name by forming pockets and pushing towards Kharkov.

Loss rations are about 1:15 at the moment and unless for the operational losses my AFVs would be in great shape since I hardly lose any of them. My air losses are starting to mount, but with the rather large number of ground support missions this is hardly a surprise (like many other people I have some problems with the current air system - AI tends to overcommit - but IIRC something will be done about this soon).

With the exception of troops (-20k) German force levels styed roughly the same, but the Soviets have finally lost more men than they had replaced (-50k), guns are up by +0.7k, AFV down by -1k and planes up by 0.2k (available units, not ready units).