The Austrian Corporal is gone as well - SireChaos (Axis) vs Tullius (Soviets)

[SireChaos]

This is the sister AAR to TulliusDetritus´ "Stalin´s fired, I´m in charge" - hence the name.

No screenshots for the first turn, sorry. I forgot. The ones in TD´s thread show everything worth seeing, anyway.

With the exception of this opening post, my most esteemed opponent TulliusDetritus is NOT WELCOME.


Turn 1 (22nd of June, 1941): Like a Knife Through Butter

The usual opening moves took place; most of the forces on the front lines opposite Army Group North and Army Group Center are encircled and will be destroyed during the next turn.
I have cunningly left open a back door for those forces opposing Army Group South to be evacuated by rail, so they wouldn´t fight my advance. (Well, actually, I just overlooked the option for TD to get them out by rail; but then, there´s plenty of campaign left to crush them)
Ground losses are several thousand Axis to about 70,000 Soviet so far - but that will change when I crush the pockets I created this turn. A few units are destroyed, mainly Fortified Regions.

The war in the air went as was to be expected. Air losses for the whole turn, including close air support for the ground forces, were about 125 Axis to 4,700 Soviet. Except for about 600 MiG-3, 75 Il-2 and a few modern hundred bombers, they were all obsolete junk, but now that they are destroyed they are at least marginally less useful than before. Look at the bright side, TD, I helped unclutter your aircraft pools.

[SireChaos]

From this point TD is no longer allowed to read!

****

With the Austrian Corporal no longer around to give orders, I plan to conduct a more sensible campaign.

For Army Group South, the first goal is Kiev, plus a decent bridgehead across the Dnepr. Depending on the situation, I will then strike north to link up with Army Group Center east of the Pripyat Marshes, or east to take Kharkov; if I am lucky I can do first one, then the other. A secondary objective is to reach the Crimea and hopefully take it before winter. Right now I have no intention to strike towards the Caucasus any further than *at most* Rostov either in ´41 or ´42 - it´s too far, and it would leave too long an open flank.

Army Group North, will advance along the coast, to take the Baltic states and hopefully reach Leningrad before the Soviets can reinforce its defenses too far; at the least, I hope to be able to isolate Leningrad before the mud season, then perhaps take it before the blizzards begin.

Army Group Center will drive east, with Smolensk as its goal. Even without any distractions such as historically happened, I doubt that I can take Moscow before winter.

Along the way, of course, it is vital to encircle and destroy as many Soviet forces as possible, but my troops have a long way to go and I am not sure how much time I can afford to spend on encirclements.

[SireChaos]

Turn 2 (June 26, 1941): Like Lambs to the Slaughter
*** NOW WITH PICTURES***

Here´s the ground losses tab as it appeared at the beginning of the turn. I´m not too happy about the AFV losses.

[SireChaos]

Here´s the starting air losses tab, most of which is the result of the previous turn´s air attacks on Soviet air bases.

Of the Axis losses, maybe 80 were lost attacking air bases, 40 were lost doing close air support, and 10 were lost on training missions during the logistics phase. You´ll notice there is not a single air-to-air loss among my aircraft.

[SireChaos]

This is the situation in the South at the beginning of the turn. I had neglected to cut the rail line out of the almost-pocket west of my armored units, and except for two AT brigades and some NKVD regiments, the troops there moved out by rail.

[SireChaos]

And here´s the lesson I learned from that.

What you are seeing here is not another half-baked attempt at an encirclement... this is merely an operation to cut the rail lines leading into and out of this bulge. I am confident that, by next turn, I will be able to close this pocket, and that my opponent will not be able to extract most of the units inside, except those on the extreme eastern end.

[SireChaos]

The situation in the center at the beginning of the turn. You´ll notice the substantial pocket in the West - I am still not quite done reducing that.

[SireChaos]

The situation around Minsk at the end of the turn. I will probably not press the attack here too hard for a turn or two, until the infantry has caught up.

[SireChaos]

Army Group North´s area of operations at the beginning of the turn.

[SireChaos]

The same area, at the end of the turn. Note to self: attack an urban area across a major river is NOT an easy task, even against a single rifle division.

[Helpless]

even against a single rifle division

Btw, unit in Riga is NKVD division with some slight bonuses for the 1st turn surprise, plus forts and major river, so, it is better to cross the river and attack it from other side. Historically Germans did that way, and there was no one to attack after that, as soon as Soviet evacuated.

[SireChaos]

The ground losses tab at the end of the turn. I´m still not too happy with my own AFV losses.

On the bright side, notice that the Soviets have lost, among other things, about 350 T-34 and 110 KV-1. That, if nothing else, has to hurt.

About 60 Soviet units destroyed so far, about 35 or so of them divisions, among them 7 tank and 4 motorized divisions. I wish I could say that losing 3,000 tanks in two turns is as crippling to the Soviet player as it should be. Unfortunately there´s plenty more where those came from, although at least the production of modern tanks is quite low at the moment.

[rominet]

Hi

nice AAR with TD'ones.

A noob question:
concerning your failure to close the pocket of Lvov, you didn't have enough MP to perform it i suppose.
Is it possible to destroy railroad with plane for example at Stanislav to forbidd any evacuation or am i dreaming?

[SireChaos]

ORIGINAL: rominet

Hi

nice AAR with TD'ones.

A noob question:
concerning your failure to close the pocket of Lvov, you didn't have enough MP to perform it i suppose.
Is it possible to destroy railroad with plane for example at Stanislav to forbidd any evacuation or am i dreaming?

No, not possible. You need ground troops. Of course, as you can see at Proskurov, the ground troops don´t need to stay there.

[SireChaos]

Turn 3 (July 3rd, 1941): Running Like Rabbits

It seems my opponent has lost all taste for a large-scale engagement. His troops are retreating as fast as possible, with only enough rifle divisions remaining behind in defensible places to slow me down.

Here´s what the center looks like. I don´t know what my opponent is planning; the river looks like a good place to stand and fight for a few turns, but is vulnerable to being outflanked through the Vitebsk-Smolensk gap.

[SireChaos]

Same story in the north; he´s causing as much trouble as he can with limited means.

I will probably bypass Tallinn for now and go for Pskov instead, then turn north and cut off his forces in Estonia.

[SireChaos]

In the south, his mountain divisions in the rough terrain were proving difficult to dislodge. Most units got out of the Proskurov salient on foot and are now arranged west of Vinnitsa. I doubt that the gap north of Vinnitsa will still be there next turn for me to exploit and cut of these forces.

[SireChaos]

Casualties were pretty light this turn, about 4,000-odd Axis to 25,000 Soviet, although again I lost an uncomfortable number of AFVs.

Here´s the destroyed units tab instead. Not very much, as you can see, since my opponent is more a runner than a fighter.

[SireChaos]

Turn 4 (July 10th, 1941): The Calm Between Two Storms

This turn was relatively quiet. My Panzer Corps were exhausted and low on fuel, and the infantry needed time to catch up. The only place where much of anything happened was Army Group Center. Minsk and Vitebsk are captured, and in the North some infantry eliminated the Riga pocket. Also, the Finns made their first small breakthrough in the far north of the map.