Road to Oblivion GC Miller41 (R) vrs Belphigor (G)

[kfmiller41]

finding that when I attack his airbases I get shot up pretty bad, they seem to dislike me attack their bases:-)

[randallw]

Night attacks shouldn't be so bad, unless he has a lot of fighters on night duty....or is it flak hurting you?

[kfmiller41]

think it was flak, have to watch next time

[kfmiller41]

Turn 33 1/29/41

Smolensk, Kharkov, Kursk and Novograd fell to the red army in the last 2 weeks, and I have pushed his lines back over 100 miles in some sectors of the line. My front-line units are still taking heavy losses and i am getting stopped on some combats but not many. I have many reserves committed and I should be able to push 60 more miles and capture Velikie Luki and Dnepropetrovsk before winter ends.

Here is the turn 33 production

[kfmiller41]

Turn 33 Losses[:D]

[kfmiller41]

Leningrad Front, starting to think about Defenses now.

[kfmiller41]

Volkov front. Really did better than I expected up here but am not going to push my luck. Going to find good positions and dig in.

[kfmiller41]

Smolensk front, pushing it here[&o] Having this many men is probably breeding bad habits on my attacks[:@]

[kfmiller41]

Orel front, I may go past my stop line if i see enough reason to. I have not outdistanced my supply lines.

[kfmiller41]

Kharkov, losses taking the city were severe and some units are under 40% strength, running out of gas. Looks more impressive than it is.

[kfmiller41]

Crimean front, will reach the river at all points and expect to dig in there.

[randallw]

When trying an encirclement, perhaps pass up attacks on the front line enemy units to be encircled, and concentrate on the areas to advance; thin your lines in front of the enemy to be encircled, with units pulled out to help the attacks.

[Klydon]

I think you are wise on picking some stop points to dig in on and recover some strength from the winter offensive. You look really good from the Smolensk area up to the north on where you are looking to stop at. The Germans are going to have some hard slogging to come back through a lot of that nasty terrain. In the south, not so much, but still.

Actually, German tank losses are not that terrible, especially from a historical view point (they had 140 operational tanks by March 42 on the entire front). It is a little low compared to some of the other AAR's out there, but then the Soviets have lost a ton of tanks too, so it is somewhat relative. His overall strength looks like it may sink to 2 million and that is low.

[kfmiller41]

ORIGINAL: randallw

When trying an encirclement, perhaps pass up attacks on the front line enemy units to be encircled, and concentrate on the areas to advance; thin your lines in front of the enemy to be encircled, with units pulled out to help the attacks.

Ah but I am really more than anything trying to kill Germans and as i have limited mobility but a ton of troops, barging my way through them seems to make sense for now

Just sent off turn 34, will post update after turn 35 move probably tomorrow.

[randallw]

If you pick good spots to attack and reinforce, your opponent may be threatened with encirclement; he faces that or pulls back units, out of the best fort levels already dug.

For example near Belgorod/Kharkov you seem to be trying what I have in mind.  Go around the 3 unit stacks, advancing along the rail line.  Units holding the pocket can be 2 unit stacks.  Those Stavka units can follow the attacks, forming part of the pocket.

Best way to kill enemy forces is to encircle before attacks, then force surrender.

[hgilmer3]

Looks good for the coming years. Do you feel you are in a good position after the first winter? (Historically better than what the USSR did in WW2 at this point?)

[kfmiller41]

ORIGINAL: hgilmer3

Looks good for the coming years. Do you feel you are in a good position after the first winter? (Historically better than what the USSR did in WW2 at this point?)

Oh by far better than they were historically, I did not suffer near the losses in the retreat and have pushed him well back from danger spots. With the force I have I doubt he will be able to do damaging harm in the summer, although he may be able to hurt me in areas. Once I can form infantry and mechanized corps things will get much worse. Although the way defense works I think my larch westward will be much harder than it was historically, which means bloodier.

[kfmiller41]

Turn 35 is here and I thought I would post an interesting set of shots. They show my approximate start line at the beginning of the snow, before the blizzard turns, when I was prepping for the offensive, and my position now. It is quite revealing in that my opponent had 8 weeks to dig in and position and I still drove him back this far, and the winter is not over yet.

Belphigor has suffered 1,7 million casualties, although 1.25 million of these are disabled and alot will return, he is still badly outnumbered.

[kfmiller41]

Center, and all this is before my move this turn

[kfmiller41]

Crimea