Barbarossa to the Volga or Berlin? ComradeP vs notenome

[ComradeP]

The official word is that the defensive characteristics of difficult terrain are identical for both sides, but there are a few problems as I see it: 1) Soviet modified CV's compared to original CV's tend to be (a lot) higher than the Axis 2) For the Soviets anything above 1:1 is a victory that causes my units to retreat. The majority of the attacks I make in swamps end up between 1:1 and 2:1, so the Soviets would win those battles whilst the Axis don't. Difficult terrain is one part of the game where the odd bonus can be the deciding factor in theoretically making it easier for the Soviets to take than it would be for the Axis.

[ComradeP]

Panzers turn south in the AGN area, I was surprised he seems to have lacked to force to counterattack one of the motorized divisions. Oddly, the most exposed motorized division did seem to draw a short straw in the logistics phase of turn 7 as somehow it has only 4 MP's even though it's in range of its HQ and the HQ had plenty of dumps (the other units are fine in terms of fuel). Some of the supply mechanisms can still be a bit confusing as they seem random.

My infantry also has pretty low MP's in some turns, even though they're in range of their HQ and have done little fighting that could cause fatique or lack of supplies.

[ComradeP]

Limited progress in the AGC area. I must've had some error in my fort recon, as many forts that appeared as level 1 are level 2+ in turn 7, whilst I believe they should at best be level 2 (can't gain more than a fort level/turn) maybe it's FOW.

Obviously, notenome reinforced his most exposed crossing sites, but the defensive strengths don't look too scary. I'm hoping the modification dice will roll in my favour for a change on turn 7. If the Soviets get inflated modified CV's again, crossing the Dnepr isn't going to happen on turn 7.

[ComradeP]

Some progress in the AGS area. notenome attacked a Romanian stack with cavalry, but suffered higher losses than me even though he won the battle.

I'm really surprised by his lack of counterattacks. He's really running away as quickly as he can and hides behind the Dnepr. It spares some of his forces, but it makes advancing in other areas easier. On turn 7, the Soviet OOB is about 500k above its starting point in manpower. Not much I can do against that as long as he keeps running. 1942 and 1943 are better years to reduce Soviet manpower as he won't get the units back and running becomes more difficult for him.

[ComradeP]

Limited progress for the Romanians, they're not facing anyone.

I told him that with or without resistance, the Romanians can't move more than 2 or 3 hexes due to their morale. He's exploiting that in a very effective way.

I could've moved (literally, not move+repair) the FBD unit one more hex, but thought it was too risky with the cavalry in the area.

[ComradeP]

Losses are still OK.

The turn was fairly bloody for me, though.

[ComradeP]

The main setback remains lack of progress in the AGN area. My opponent is cleverly using the fact that, with or without significant resistance, my logistics will break down. He's preserving his forces and there's little to nothing I can do catch them. There's always some natural barrier or extremely good defensive terrain to hide in/behind.

My advance thus far is more or less what I had planned for aside from in the AGN area.

My opponent's doing a fine job in using the Axis disadvantages to his advantage, but is thus far not really taking advantage of the main Soviet strength: having lots of completely expendable men and units, which come back for free. I'd be inclined to stage a much more forward and aggressive defence. 2 real counterattacks in 6 turns don't really slow me down. The Romanian casualties can be covered by their own manpower production and the routing of the Panzer division actually brough it close enough to the supply grid to have decent MP's, not to mention that I'm not intending to head directly east over the "land bridge" in any case.

His army will be huge in the winter, though, so it will be challenging to try and stop it. I'm more of a defender than an attacker in most games, so I'm hoping I can put past experiences to good use in later years and hope to finally be able to pocket some reasonable amount of units in the 1942 summer campaign (running in that campaign will generally push the frontline too far east for comfort).

Turns are thus far not too interesting: I advance a bit in the north, find some units in swamps I can't possibly remove without isolating them, isolate them, remove the isolated forces from last turn, move a bit in the center and south, run into a checkerboard/major river, no units to isolate, end turn.

The thing that currently puzzles me is why many of my infantry units have 10 or less MP's. Their supply states are looking pretty good mostly and their fatique isn't too high. It varies a lot between turns, but I wasn't expecting the low MP's I'm seeing on turn 7. I was hoping for 12 or more MP's for most units.

The first partisan attack blew up a single rail hex in a non-essential sector before the partisans were removed.

[jjdenver]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP
1942 and 1943 are better years to reduce Soviet manpower as he won't get the units back and running becomes more difficult for him.

and

Soviet strength: having lots of completely expendable men and units, which come back for free

What do you mean when you say he won't get the units back in 42?

And do men come back for free in 1941? Even if units do I thought manpower lost was gone for good?

[ComradeP]

Every non-airborne and I believe non-NKVD unit the Axis kill prior to November 1941 comes back in some way (Tank divisions as Tank brigades mostly, motorized divisions as Rifle divisions) without him having to pay AP's for it, after that he needs to manually create units using AP's.

[karonagames]

Just to clarify that they come back as empty containers that need new manpower to fill them out. The original troops in them are not resurrected.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: BigAnorak

Just to clarify that they come back as empty containers that need new manpower to fill them out. The original troops in them are not resurrected.

What? No legions of zombified Soviets to battle with chainsaws and panzerfausts? That's it! I'm quitting this game...forever!
[:D]

[karonagames]

I should have included JJdenver's question in my post - Pieter's answer did not address this specific point, but I am sure the Germans must have wondered where the manpower was coming from.

[Aurelian]

To quote General Halder, "We reckoned with 200 divisions; now we have already counted 360."

Around mid August 1941.

[ComradeP]

Some good news this turn, for a change, although Soviet counterattacks could minimize some of them.

Panzers are next to Velikie Luki. I expect at least 1 counterattack.

There are large amounts of Soviets in the area, I'm assuming he's still reinforcing Leningrad even though I'm not going there. He should soon send divisions elsewhere, if he's smart. Luckily for me, that will drain his rail capacity a bit.

A few corps from AGC are shifting north and more infantry will arrive in the next few turns.

[ComradeP]

AGC's across the Dnepr, at least for the moment. The stack is good, but might be beaten back. Ground support is set to 100/100. In one attack, the Luftwaffe showed up with 300 planes, disrupting the defenders so severely that my losses were minimal. I'm hoping for another good showing if he attacks.

Knowing the Soviet potential and impressive modifiers, a stack with a defensive value of 40 isn't invincible when attacked by enough men and I'm not sure what kind of value my stack will show to him.

GD and Lehr are resting.

As you can see, a large amount of Soviet units are holding the Dnepr line. There seems to be little to no depth along most of the line as far as I can see.

The infantry will try to break other stacks on the Dnepr next turn. Unless he pulls back, it's going to be a slow and methodical process.

[ComradeP]

In the AGS area, I seem to have caught him unprepared for a change. Kirovograd is isolated, but I couldn't properly encircle the city yet. The good news is that Southern Front HQ is in the hex. Resistance along the way was minimal, so I'm expecting him to rail in more forces unless he wants his defence in the area to implode and bet everything on holding the Dnepr.

The defensive values of the Soviet stacks along the Dnepr are not all impressive, but there are some "no way in hell you'll get across here" stacks. Fort levels are actually lower than I had expected.

He can't be strong everywhere, and holding the Dnepr along its entire length does mean he won't have significant reserves in the far south at this point.

[ComradeP]

The Romanians make some progress.

The FBD unit is 13 hexes from Kirovograd, so it's making good progress (it's in the hex with the Romanian mountain brigade).

I seem to have toggled hex control off by accident when taking the screenshot, but you should get the general idea of who controls what.

[ComradeP]

Losses were, again, acceptable.

I'm losing bombers for no reason as my fighter squadrons sometimes don't appear in the unit selection screen for air transport missions. As usual, the Romanians take most of the damage.

As you can see, I've disbanded all SPAA companies I could disband.

[ComradeP]

The line along the Dnepr is fairly impressive at the moment, but it should be breachable, especially with good air support.

I'm in the process of assigning a StuG battalion to my motorized divisions, pioneers to my Panzers and generally sorting out support units, which will take a while.

I've upgraded 2 air groups to the Ju 87D and 1 or 2 air groups to the Bf 109 F and will upgrade my fighters as soon as I have compiled a list of withdrawing units, so I don't give good planes to units that will disappear in a short while.

[CharonJr]

What is the reasoning behind disbanding the AA companies? Not worth to keep them up and running in your opinion - maybe because they always tend to be at 90%+ FAT?

CharonJr