My first Operational AAR (Leningrad)

[heliodorus04]

I’ve decided to conduct my first full scenario while making my first AAR. My purpose is to learn in public, hopefully more from tips readers give me than from mistakes I make. To date I’ve played the tutorial and a few turns of Road to Leningrad prior to this game (while reading Dlazov66’s outstanding walkthrough guide).

I’m not experienced with operational games, and so the supply/re-organization stuff is what I’m immediately concerned about. My secondary concerns are 1) getting into good winter positions and 2) bagging as much soviet manpower as I can while trying to preserve as much of my own as I can.

My scenario goals are to hold a line from Lodeynoe Pole to Novgorod (i.e., a mass-Leningrad Encirclement) by scenario end.

Since all I know of the First Winter experience is basically that it’s going to kill more men than all combat operations to that point, I know I have to take more than that, or at a minimum take it early enough and in strong enough condition to dig in hard before blizzards. I think in my own mind my objectives are unattainable realistically, but welcome to Hitler’s war machine, right?

Game Setup:
I have given the Axis Logistics, Transport, and Admin levels of 110. All other levels, both Soviet and Axis, are set to 100. I don’t want to develop tactics from the start that over-rely on assistance from an algorithm. But those three should help me a lot in cushioning my learning curve of operational tactics. I can tell already from this game that crisp supply and smart attacks are necessary for Axis victory. Still, I have frankly no clue how one would actually TAKE Leningrad in this scenario, at any normal difficulty setting.

[heliodorus04]

Turn 1: Air Bases Attacks.
I dunno much about anything, but I read the “Axis Turn 1 guide” thread by ComradeP and followed his advice for AGN, downing 1,000 aircraft, which was about 3 times better than I did on my own the first time. Did I use too much aircraft for the combat segment? I dunno. My land combats never showed blue or green lines… Must’ve used it all on airbase attacks. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

Turn 1 Movement:
God where do you start? And this is just AGN…
Well, I stared at the screen a while and started with XXVI Corps in the North. Each div. attacks outward, 2 deliberate attacks and one hasty (against the fortified zone), all routes/surrenders. Subsequent attack against the NKVD went poorly. I guess those guys’ morale matters? After a combination of hasty attacks by one and then two (stacked) divisions, the NKVD managed to retreat in good order. Not sure what to do about them, but felt it more important to move onward than focus on their immediate demise.

[heliodorus04]

Now I’m moving on to the center of my line: I Corps. The plan for I Corps is simply to open the railway line for turn 2, and keep zones of control against the forming pocket. Attacks as far eastward as can be made… It turned out okay. More NKVD resistance. II Corps likewise pushed eastward as far as it could after first ensuring the fortified defenders were taken out. I and II Corps movement (along with my rail unit) moves ended like this:

[heliodorus04]

My thoughts turn to my motorized force and what exactly is “good” to try to accomplish. Turn 1 is when attacking is as cheap as it’s ever going to be, but long term, I want to avoid casualties (for a hypothetical Summer 42 offensive, and because of victory conditions). I want zero bad attacks! (though maybe it’s already too late, LOL). Going in to this, here is my 1-turn-ahead thinking: I want to ensure the 2 pockets form and avenues of retreat are hindered (i.e., I can keep isolation pressure easily enough again next turn) or unavailable (i.e., isolated this turn).

I want the rail-line over the Daugava at Jakobpils for my own rail advance (it appears to be the best route for German rail). I decided to stage my armored formations forward, while seeing what I could make develop with the remaining infantry divisions. I did a dumb thing: I moved up a single INF division and attacked Kaunas, which held. Then I brought up another one I found and did a deliberate, and the defenders routed, so maybe that was alright. Who knows. Not sure it was necessary to attack them given how badly I want to encircle them.

When I finally moved forward, here is what it looked like:

[heliodorus04]

There are a couple units at Kaunas not on map. An AT btn and something. I’m not wild about this ‘encirclement’. Only forces west of Riga are near being cut off, but they have ports I’d bet. I’m not sure what ancillary moves to conduct from the rear area. I have 3 divisions and some support troops left to move, and no idea how they can factor into the next 2-3 turns… I attached Totenkopf to I Corps for 1 AP… Will take some basic guesses there. Looks like it’s on to Turn 2, more or less.

Noticed before turn ended that I had some units out of command, so I pulled them back/moved HQs around. I did not move any Army level HQs at all Turn 1… Figured stockpiles should be burned before I put the motor pool under such heavy pressure. Did not move any airbases, either.

My advance forces have low MPs due to low(er) fuel values overall compared to Turn 1. I knew my supply arrangement wasn’t optimal; the question is always whether the sacrifices are worth it, and sustainable for operations. I didn’t really check my fuel percentages on T1, so I can’t make a very good projection ahead at what my start of T3 would look like for movement allowances… Worrying…

I want to mess with trying to air resupply fuel to something. 3rd Motorized (closest to bottom) is at 72% fuel. Let’s see if I can figure out this interface… I flew a transport missions to 3rd Mot. with Ju-52s 3rd Mot is back over 88 percent fuel. I guess it will only count next turn.

I’ve no idea yet the ROI for air resupply of forward units. I know the Germans did it pretty effectively in the early war. Oh well, good news, no interceptions by the Red Air Force yet. I hope they’re all dead!

I spent a lot of time looking at the map, and actually moving my motorized units to see what I might do with them in terms of further envelopments. But in the end, I just re-loaded and now I’m going to do what I do and let the calls fall where they may. After recon and the air resupply o 3rd Mot., here is the western map (soft factor=supply):






Western Goals:
Red circles are the hexes I want to own at turn’s end. Yellow are forces I want to ensure are isolated at start of T3. I made a boo-boo in T1 in that I attacked units I was planning to isolate. Some of them routed east, but a good number apparently routed to the northwest. If that assessment is accurate, and my scouting reasonable, I have to assume that the Reds west of Riga are being supplied by port. There appears to be 3 ports able to supply that stuff out there. Nope, only two, and Mersrags and Tukums are NOT ports. This makes my life operationally easier. Relief.

I had thought I was going to have to move Totenkopf into Mersrags and perhaps even break it down. Instead, only need to take 2 Forts. It’ll be an interesting insight into differences between T1 combat and non-T1…

Operationally I need to hold Riga and Jelgava (SW from Riga, rail junction) between T2/T3. That looks like the job of the Mot. Division currently in Jelgava (36th Mot/XXXI Corps HQ). That means the whole of the corps holds back, or I burn AP to re-assign 36th Mot. (harrumph). Meanwhile Totenkopf and 269th Inf. Are similarly stretching away from their respective Corps HQs. I’m going to have to make a decision about command hierarchies THIS turn, and burn some admin doing it. Heck, even Himmler had ONE operational victory. Hope I don’t do worse.

I can see what’s developed in the west and I think I have plenty of force to mop that up as a pocket over several turns subsequent to T2.
The East is another matter.

[heliodorus04]

Already, my armor is spread out, and T3 supply is seriously hampered by local soviet forces that I probably should have encircled, rather than attacked, during T1. I attacked more than 3 hexes wide, and it seems 3 hexes wide is probably a kick-ass breakthrough jump-off point. T1 is done… Frankly, I think I’d better resolve the west before I plan for the east, so onward the guns…

My first requirement is to plan my attacks at the corps level. Avoid dispersion/command problems, and try not to have to re-assign any more divisions than is absolutely necessary. Do so only when its benefiting operational considerations. I talk funny.

The only Inf. Division available to attack the port at Ventspils is 58th Inf. (also, the entirety of XXXVIII Corps, with which it’s stacked, which is good news). It can only conduct 1 hasty attack… Both of those port attacks are all-in, and I’m going all-in. 58th Inf. Is going to teach me how the naval supply system works…

Here’s how it looked after the first maneuver: Both ports fall and get occupied by 18th Army. The Soviet Inf routed when probed by 3/86th Inf. Surprised me, that. The NKVD are encircled.




So it turns out 18th Army had some plan to take Riga, and I haven’t gotten in the way too much yet.

[heliodorus04]

16th Army is another matter. I honestly don’t know what to do with this tandem of Inf Corps and Panzer Group (complete with Panzer 35(t)’s – you invade Russia with this junk?). I spent a lot of time looking at the possible distances my panzer corps could move, and ultimately I went conservative. I did manage a small scale encirclement to the south (I think).





I still hadn’t moved Totenkopf, nor airfields/HQs/new units. I moved airfields forward a LOT and most Army HQs a good bit (into the region of I corps). I didn’t move Corps HQs more than absolutely necessary. Trying to keep my motor pool from driving off cliffs…
End T2!

[heliodorus04]

At the start of Turn 3, I fly fuel to 3rd Mot. Again, and I conduct recon, which reveals the following:




The red units are set for elimination this turn. The yellow is the weak line of defense I can see forming, and blue is something I think I really want to encircle and possibly destroy. To start, IV Panzer elements cannot do much but make contact with the line near Pskov. Some could go all the way north to the outskirts of Talinn, but that’s operational limbo for my plan. I figure an experienced player would be hitting Pskov in some measure this turn, but I’ve played a supply-conservative game (or so I think! No one has reviewed this AAR yet).

Given that maneuver won’t net me Pskov or even threaten it this turn, the only ‘prize’ to be scored this turn are those units in the blue circle, which at the end of T2 were isolated (or nearly) just west of the Daugauva. It’s not much of a prize, but it’s motorized and that’s slightly better than otherwise in this situation. But ultimately, it’s the only thing I can really do with IV Panzer Group this turn. As I make the move forward, I don’t know whether to attack this turn or isolate this turn. Isolation looks difficult; there’s a good southeastern escape route. But combat this turn means lesser supply next. Given this debate in my head, I’ve decided to really let supply catch up as best it can during T3 where armor is concerned. I will isolate only. T4 we’ll do differently.

[heliodorus04]

I proceeded with the combats and they all went pretty well. The large formation west of Riga took 2 hasty and 1 deliberate attack, chewing up some movement of my infantry. What followed was about 3 hours of staring at the screen and trying to organize corps-level movements, plus encircling the ‘blue’ units from above. It turned out like this, which is PRIOR to either of the panzer corps moving (much).





Here is another “Now what?!?!” moment. Frankly, I imagine that’s what a lot of German commanders were thinking those first few days.

What I’m thinking is this: Infantry move a helluva lot faster when they’re moving into completely friendly-converted hexes. Neither of my infantry armies is going to be making deliberate attacks on the Pskov line during T4. Can these two rag-tag panzer corps do anything to that line during T4 that dramatically improves breakthrough opportunities: I’m thinking not.

[heliodorus04]

After I moved up the panzer corps, here is what it looked like (Totenkopf re-assigned from I Corps to LVI Panzer).




Soft factor is (wait for it): fuel.

I don’t feel I had any choice about the somewhat large number of unspent movement points…

[heliodorus04]

Moved forward HQs and air bases, and moved on to T4…Which, after recon, looked like this:




Did my recon get very poor this turn, or did a whole lot of Russians just disappear from around Pskov? I did a massive recon, too. Every plane available from the southern-most region to Leningrad (and you’ll note that I finally detect a mass at Leningrad). What I don’t see this turn that I did last is a source of concern for me. I can’t just write them off as disappeared to defend Leningrad.

I’m very happy with my fuel/supply situation. Everyone got good re-supply between turns. My morale is high! Perhaps I played last turn well, despite the dearth of combat operations.

Operationally, I want to see what 16 Army can do about Pskov and the gap toward Novgorod. I want 9th Army thinking about Velikie Luki, and I want 18 Army closing the gap on the left flank. Oh, and by the way, “Crap the Fins are active! Now what?!?” Well, where Finland is concerned, it looks like World War 1 right now, so just a few attacks directly against prepared positions  No pictures this turn.

Turning back to the post-recon picture, I’ve decided that the Inf. Div. blocking the gap south of Pskov must be destroyed (at least routed).
But I also notice that the entirety of LVI Panzer Corps can occupy (an apparently vacant) Novgorod THIS turn. I can fit all counters into a 5-hex command radius that can have solid supply at T5 start, I think. I’m not sure; I’ve got to play around with my movement radii, contemplate supply lines, and debate killing the army vs. taking operationally important cities. It’s not the VPs I need right now from Novgorod, it’s the movement options if I can take it in force. A shorter perimeter Leningrad encirclement is possible if you hold Novgorod early.

But I cannot imagine that my recon is accurate and nothing is defending Novgorod. I scouted a lot, and I’m almost positive I scouted Novgorod proper. I’ve got to figure out how to move forces up there in such a way that should I find an unknown enemy, my forces aren’t stopped entirely by them.

[heliodorus04]

To start, 6th Panzer conducts a hasty attack against the blocking NKVD Rifle Div., and routes it (sweet! Panzers do their dirty work!). Then I did a little creep move with it, and then I decided to flat out move the rear elements forward (what I call “Phase 1” of the movement of the turn). It turned out like this, which I’m happy with.



Soft factor is fuel, and I’ve selected 1st Panzer (circled in blue) along with a border in the NE of its highlighted movement possibility. I’m not sure what I SHOULD do here, but since I set my objective as Lodeynoe Pole, I’m going to consider maneuver more important than encirclement. If I encircle Leningrad by end of game, then AGN would have done a fine job with it’s overall objective. Leningrad would fall by Spring 42, one would hope.

[heliodorus04]

The problem is that I’m pretty sure there are enemy units on the path to Novgorod… Well, as it turned out, nyet. No Russians. This is how my maneuver element moved, and how basically the turn ended.





It's now the start of T5.

[heliodorus04]

Turn 5 started, and this is how things looked after Recon.




I'm not at all sure what to do, and I've spent 3 days (of real life time) to get to this turn, and I'd like some feedback, so I'm posting. Expect more tomorrow.

[alfonso]

Hello Heliodorus,
if you are playing the Leningrad scenario, you dont have to worry much about Winter, because it ends in October, unless you are looking at it as a training tool for the whole campaign. I think there could be subtle differences between both approaches.

My only previous experience with any wargame is WIR, so I do not want to be fool enough to think I can provide very useful advices, but I do want to offer some thoughts I have had when playing the Leningrad Scenario.

1) Tallin is an objective, and you get points if you capture it. Besides, it is a port, and therefore it is a supply source. If you capture it you can consider extending the railway in such a way it arrives at Pskov from the SE, not from the West.

2) If your rail network is therefore "east-oriented" you can supply a thrust towards Velikiye Luki and Rzhev, which are objectives too. I think that is a mission for 9th Army.
Where is your manual railway unit?

3) The terrain between Leningrad and the Volkhov River is horrid (the blue zone at your first post) and you can bleed yourself. Have you considered the posibility of advancing by the east side of the river?

4) As I posted elsewhere, you do not need to take the ports in Ladoga Lake to isolate Leningrad. You can isolate the ports themselves, by linking with the Finns east of the Ladoga. Tivhkin is the key rail junction, if I remember correctly. One mission for the Finns would therefore be to go all the way around the Ladoga to reach the frontier and wait for the Germans to arrive. One important thing is that the Finns can move into the Soviet Union, if they do not have to attack soviet units. They could be useful to create ZOCs in the region to the east of the Volkhov.

[Mynok]

Just send one small corp to clean up in the northwest area.

Get the light purple (18th?) army up with your panzers as fast as you can. You'll need them to screen the panzers flanks if you are doing the right hook move.

Dark purple should take Pskov and then move on Leningrad. Green should move on Velikye Luki and the further objectives to the east.

My next try at this one I'm going to do the same thing. I got a minor victory last time but only because I took all the objectives from Novgorod south. I never got to Lake Ladoga because my panzers got caught up in the swamps of the Volkov. You need to stick to the woods east of these for sure with these guys.

Against the AI, you can screen your panzers flanks with regiments most of the time, using up less of your force.

[mavraamides]

You might try sending 1 or 2 Corps north to the coast and go around that big lake that starts with a P.

The Ruskies will then try to block and your main force can cut in behind them, between them and Leningrad.

I almost always can trap 4-5 units that way. Also, there is a sneaky path between those two lakes. If you get there early enough, you can sometimes get a unit across and that causes some real prob's for the Russians. [;)]

[heliodorus04]

So here is the operational plan based on where I left off yesterday:





Now what?
Frankly, a human probably would have surrounded Novgorod and put me in a bad way. I think I’ll remember this as something I do not want to do again. I feel lucky. By this point in my AAR, I’ve posted it to the Matrix forum, and my two respondents (thanks guys!) say to be sure to advance EAST of the Volkhov river. Understood. That then, is the plan for the turn. This turn is very likely to be about movement and little else. The one thing I’d like to accomplish that I don’t think will happen is isolating Pskov. Without armor, I don’t think I can wrap up that area, and my armor simply must drive east, and north. I have very shitty decisions to make, and I’m already defaulting to “Move!” rather than “Fight”.

Having now seen screenshots from other people’s Road to Leningrad, I think there are simply WAY too few units in my recon results. East and North!
I retool my plans: 18th Army moves in to replace 16th Army, which itself moves to defend the supply path to Novgorod. Holding Novgorod itself will take some special help, either in the form of one of my motorized units, or perhaps I can temporarily motorize some infantry to hasten its path up there (that’s my first order of business to read the manual about).
Meanwhile 4 Panzer Gruppe is the East and North element, with good movement options east of the Volkhov (not shown in screenshot).

I have a small problem with my mobile elements: They’re fatigued. Fuel isn’t holding them back in MPs as much as being tired is. Infernal mortality, I tell ya. This issue, combined with the fact that it will take 28 (TWENTY-EIGHT!) AP to motorize my infantry units, leads me to wonder what I am to do about Novgorod.

I hate to sound like Der Fuehrer but giving it up isn’t ideal, not because it’s all THAT valuable to final victory (it is) or to present operational considerations (it isn’t). It’s that if I give it up, it becomes the defensive limit around Leningrad, and that seems like a worse proposition than making some sacrifices to hold it.

[heliodorus04]

Well, look, I don’t know what to do with AP anyway yet, newb that I am, and holding Novgorod seems like something I ought to commit to, or abandon, so I am going to motorize a unit to try to get into the city proper…
This is how that turned out.






That was half my APs saved for the game thus far… A true “command decision”. We’ll see if it amounts to anything, or if I was just over-zealous. The rest of X corps leaves contact with Pskov and moves NE.

[heliodorus04]

XXVI Corps (/18 Army) makes contact at Pskov, XXXVIII advances to Talinn with 2 Inf. Divisions (is that more than I ought to commit thataways?). That eastern bubble of units, SE of Pskov, those look like something I might be able to encircle, so I spend a lot of time making moves that turn out like this:





Note that I have Totenkopf highlighted, and it’s move is shown. I’ve decided, as I looked at my own screen shot, that I’m going to re-attach Totenkopf, probably to L Corps (I think it’s L), which also contains Polizei SS. More APs, but if you can’t tell, I’m not spending much in APs right now anyway. Letting the AI deal with it. No complaints yet. Might fiddle with it later. But that’s 3 armored and 2 motorized divisions, and it’s not far enough out of the way that it detracts from my operational offensive tempo (famous last words).

It’s all-in, and if you’re in Hitler’s War Machine, fortune favors the bold (until the strategic situation becomes hopeless, and then all you can hope for is a quiet retirement to the Reichschancellorie or better yet, Bavaria).
Oh, lest I forget, Totenkopf is tired. Very tired… And that right-most element of 16th Army might have to be re-assigned to 9th Army, but let’s see what develops.