Checker Board defense in Winter GC 41

[rtb1017]

Someone mentioned adopted this defense and doing it 2-3 deep. How do you get this depth of defense at least infront of Moscow as the Germans without breaking up divisions into regiments.

I am preparing for the blizzard Red Stom in 3-4 turns.

[karonagames]

I think you will probably need to see a screenshot - a picture speaks a thousand words etc. to see whether he used double hex or single hex spacing.

I am sure many different tactics will evolve, and I'd certainly be interested in seeing a German "Checker board"

[notenome]

As attrition is my worse enemy in winter 41, Im planning on my German GC to adopt a village checkerboard.

[karonagames]

There is merit in that, but it will depend on whether the AI can work out a way to isolate the villages/towns, and then rout the defenders. Routing is not good. It sounds like the AI may not have figured out how to deal with an Axis checkerboard, but as a human I would use cavalry and tank brigades to get through/behind the checkerboard.

I'll be interested to see how it pans out.

[rtb1017]

How about the Heinrici approach during Seelow 45. He anticipated the attack and fell back a fefw miles to prepared dug in positions so the Soviets artillery baragge and assault hit an empty pillow. I was wondering of doing this with fortified regions to saok up Soviet MP's and lessen the impact of the wave on the main line.

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: rtb1017

How about the Heinrici approach during Seelow 45. He anticipated the attack and fell back a fefw miles to prepared dug in positions so the Soviets artillery baragge and assault hit an empty pillow. I was wondering of doing this with fortified regions to saok up Soviet MP's and lessen the impact of the wave on the main line.

Bad idea; you'll lose piles of manpower as the fortified regions are destroyed. The AI kills all Fortified Regions that aren't covered, and some that are.

[ComradeP]

Pulling back a hex each turn into a hex you fortified might be a good strategy. I'm going to try some thus far untried strategies in my game with notenome. Bob's linebacker strategy has its merits, but in my opinion it results in too many battles being lost as holding a line with in many cases weak divisions naturally results in both more losses and more lost battles.

[Davekhps]

I'm the one who wrote about a 2-to-3 unit deep line in Winter 41. I don't want to oversell it: it wasn't a COMPLETE double/triple line along the entire front, and in most cases, that third line was just fortified regions building up defenses to fall back to.

The following posts will include my screengrabs of Turn 24 (the first winter turn in 41) and Turn 42 (the first mud turn in 42) to show where my line started, and where it ended.

[Davekhps]

Here is AGN on Turn 24.

Note the salient along the Volkhov-- I actually pulled back from further north to more defensible positions maximizing my interior lines. My hope was to keep enough of this to launch an offensive to the Finnish border in 1942 (which I did, successfully, after redeploying 2nd Panzer Army to support).

Note the backup forts when you get to the south. Single line here, but the forts build up reserve locations for retreats.

Note that a number of units are already set to static.

[Davekhps]

Northern half of AGC on Turn 24. You'll begin to see the double line with 9th and 4th Armies, backed up by forces from 2nd Panzer Army and fortified regions. Since the start of the mud turns my panzers are further than 10 hexes from the front set on refit to build back up to act as a mobile reserve during the Soviet winter attacks.

[Davekhps]

Southern half of AGC and northern half of AGS, turn 24.

Not as rigid a set up as up north-- I have weaker Italian and Hungarian forces here, so I've set up so strong points with multiple units to dig in faster. If my first lines are forced to retreat, they'll have some hedgehogs to fall back on.

Note also that my most of my panzers are deeper behind the line acting as mobile reserves.

[Davekhps]

Southern half of AGS, turn 24.

Here I'm a little greedy, and hence bolder. I didn't do as well in the south in 1941 as I had hoped, so I'd really like to hold onto Dnepreopotrovsk. I don't expect the Romanians to be worth the pixels their CVs are printed on, but I figure that if the Soviets advance too deeply, I'll be able to flank them from the north come spring, bagging a lot of forces.

As you will see, I was a little optimistic here. [:)]

[Flaviusx]

Interesting. Dunno how this would play out in PBEM context. I'd be throwing cav at all those gaps.

[Davekhps]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Interesting. Dunno how this would play out in PBEM context. I'd be throwing cav at all those gaps.

It wouldn't. This is clearly a "bad habit" defense for the AI. It'd slow down the cav at best-- ideally, I think the only thing going for me is keeping the panzers deep enough to counter infiltrations.

[Davekhps]

Alright, Turn 42. Winter is over, this is the first spring mud turn. (At the end, I'll post the strengths and losses for turns 24 and 42)

AGN situation. I've been pushed back hard around Leningrad. I've kept the fort in Novgorod, even assigning it arty SU and making it part of 18th Army. (Ditto Velikie Luki in the 9th Army sector). My salient along the Volkhov was much reduced, but some of it held.

I've pulled back 4th Panzer Army to refit during the mud turns. Later, I'll redirect 2nd Panzer Army up north. I'll eventually succeed in reaching the Finnish border and isolating Leningrad-- but not before September 1942! [X(]

[Davekhps]

North half of AGC, Turn 42.

*Here* is where the lines have been pressed hard-- and my defensive plan paid off. I lost ground around Vyazma and Bryansk, but suffered no breakthroughs. With my lines shortened and reinforcements arriving, I've been able to form solid lines.

Again, a human player would eat me alive. Against the AI, it was a near-run thing, but it worked.

[Davekhps]

Southern half of AGC and north half of AGS, Turn 42.

I gave ground around Sumy, kept Poltava and Dnepepotrovsk. But, in the last turns of winter, the Soviets moved north, creating a penetration around Cherkasy. They didn't breakthrough, however, and in the first turns of spring, I was able to cut that salient off at the base and pocket quite a few Soviet units.

[Davekhps]

Last map-- southern half of AGS, first spring mud turn, Turn 42.

As expected, the Romanians suffered badly. This map actually represents a better situation then after the blizzard turns-- I had lost both Odessa and Kirovgrad during the blizzard, only to retake them in the "second round" of snow turns.

Note that I've already pulled back 1st Panzer Army to refit for the spring offensive. Since I've already decided to focus (successfully) on capturing Leningrad in 1942, there won't be a repeat of Case Blue this year, but I'm able to use 1st Panzer Army to capture all the territory seen here, including Zaporozhye. Alas, the Crimea and Sevastapol won't fall until 1943, as an afterthought long after I've taken Moscow up north in my 1943 campaign.

[Davekhps]

The losses, Turn 24, beginning of December 1941.

[Davekhps]

And, finally... the losses by Turn 42, April 1942.

You can see how costly Winter 1941 is for the Axis. But, thankfully, it hurts the Soviets too, and resulted in some overextensions of their lines that I will exploit in my 1942 offensives.