War Reports from the Eastern Front: Carnage vs Redmarkus

[CarnageINC]

Here is the front line map. I'm getting most sectors stabilized. Mostly thanks to my panzer's. As reinforcement come and allow me to redeploy them I will pull my panzer's off line first then work on getting the Mountain boys off the line for emergency fire brigades again.

[Klydon]

Seems fairly historical at this point, except instead of the front threatening to crumble in front of Moscow, your crisis was in the north and I think your crisis was a bit shorter than what the Germans faced historically.

You still have a ways to go for the weather change, but any thoughts you care to share on where you may look to resume the offensive? It will obviously take a bit to get it all set up, but in order to be ready to get the most out of good weather, the ground work will have to be laid so the troops can roll when the weather becomes favorable and you could even make some gains during the snow turns before mud hits.

*Edit* It appears to me part of the reason you got hurt as bad as you did was you were not as strongly dug in as you probably would have liked to have been and did not have entrenchments to fall back on once he kicked you off your good entrenchments at the front.

[CarnageINC]

I'm short on time this week so i didn't do a okh report...bummer huh. [:'(]

I'm getting close to having to withdraw from Novgorod soon, Red is massing for a pincer offensive centered around Lake Ilmen. I need to shorten my lines in the south and I could use the extra divisions I have stacked in Leningrad to help accomplish that. But so far everything is stable here.

[CarnageINC]

HA! I managed to counter attack for the first time in the winter offensive and I did it twice in the same area. Reinforcements are arriving but the situation is still in doubt if I can hold him for long. I'm going to make 3rd Panzer Armee's 5th infantry corps a OKH reserve corps starting next week. I'm shifting these troops to the south to help stop a big envelopment that is forming.

[CarnageINC]

Here is where the 5th Reserve Corps is being sent. I'm also throwing in my last strategic reserve corps, the 2nd Panzer Armee, 47th Panzer Corps to assist in stopping the envelopment. If things get progressively worse I may break off 4th Mnt. Div. in the south and see if it helps, but probably be to late by then and I may have to loose 2-3 divisions.

[CarnageINC]

More damage control going on here because of the ruckus up north is drawing everything to it. Attacks all across the front here.

[CarnageINC]

This front has become very strangely quite, Red launched no attacks here at all. I wonder if his forces are burnt up here or if he is moving his heavy hitters to other areas of the front. I have 225th ID comming and I will have them take the place of 4th Mnt. Div. so they can be sent up north to help in stopping the pocket....if I only have enough time.

[CarnageINC]

Once again, mostly quite here. Only 6 assaults across this sector. Thats okay with me, this is the area I have the most unready divisions at right now. Once they come on line I'll probably replace them with the 1st Mnt. Div. so it to can go north if needed.

[CarnageINC]

The only place I have a reserve unit left is here. I may have to send it north as well if the pocket starts to grow in size. Yes, I'm fanatical about saving my divisions. My digital troopers know that I will move everything to save 1 division from the greasy clutches of Reds gulag camps. Only a few attacks made here and one that failed. I need to get my divisions here back on line so I can free up some of my reserve troopers again.

The Crimean front is stable, he keeps trying to do his massive assault there but he's butting his head up against the wall. Hopefully he won't move all the 100,000 plus troops sitting down there northward. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I invaded the area earlier.

[CarnageINC]

This turn was a close one, Red actually surrounded 5 divisions at the Vyazma Front. Luckily those panzers from 47th Panzer Corps made short work of the 2 Soviet tank brigades that managed to push there way in there. Along with those, I made several other successful counter attacks along the front. I hope this is a good sign to things to come. A new critical point is developing north of the last one....lets call it CP Bravo. I need to avoid pocketing and reform the line to make better use of my troops there.

I still plan on pulling out 5th Corps and making it a reserve corps. These new reserve corps I have been starting will hold the poorest shaped divisions in the local areas. I plan on having 1 reserve corps for each Armee Group...maybe more if I can get away with it. This will allow time for the most battered divisions time to refit off the front. I'm not sure if I should have these on refit mode or just let them slowly rebuild on their own. I plan on having certain Armee's go to a certain refit percentage depending on where my summer offensive's will be during that time. Maybe I'll refit the reserve corps to 100% and when they achieve that, rotate the next worst 4 divisions into the reserve corps and start working on them. Does it work better for refitting if their closer to Berlin or not? I haven't thought so, just as long as their on a rail head.

No thoughts yet on offensives for when the snow comes. If I can it will be a general all along the theater assault to buy back some lost ground. I'm hoping I can cut off some divisions if he makes any good salients. But I've been good about not letting that happen to badly.

[Flaviusx]

You are almost past the worst of it. Just hang on till Feb.

Doesn't look like he's getting a lot of guards conversions.

[Klydon]

Going to be interested in seeing where you decide to strike. Unfortunately anything north of Veliki Luki is going to be through some really nasty terrain the way the front line is shaping up. 

[CarnageINC]

ORIGINAL: Klydon

Going to be interested in seeing where you decide to strike. Unfortunately anything north of Veliki Luki is going to be through some really nasty terrain the way the front line is shaping up. 

Honestly I don't think Leningrad is on my 'to do' list. It was a total fluke that I got as far as I did during my offensive. It just was never a target to take right from the get go. I really would of liked to used those panzers around Kursk and Kharkov but it was always just tooooo good going to move them yet. If he planned it like that then he gets a academy award for best tease IMO. [:D]

[randallw]

You realize an 'unready' state for a unit doesn't mean it cannot defend itself; it's a situation that limits it's ability to attack.

[CarnageINC]

ORIGINAL: randallw

You realize an 'unready' state for a unit doesn't mean it cannot defend itself; it's a situation that limits it's ability to attack.

Yes I realized that, but I draw them off line to help them get to a rail head or some distance from the front to get back in a ready state. What I'm doing seems to work rather quickly then just leaving them out on the line. What I don't know is if there is any modifier for 'unready' state for defense. It seems like there should be...and no I haven't bothered to look it up in the e-manual...LOL [:D]

[Flaviusx]

It's good practice to rotate the unready divisions back to rail lines and rest 'em up. They can recover quickly doing this and you'll minimize the hit to your morale and experience. Leaving them on the line until they totally burn out is asking for problems down the road. A Soviet can get away with that, but not the German.

[Joel Billings]

There is no penalty that I know of for unready units on defense, however often you'll find these units have lost a large amount of their infantry and are weaker than their raw manpower would indicate. That means it's a good idea to rest them and get replacements and/or let them convert some support if they need to in order to bring their combat power back up.

[Klydon]

Another way to look at "unready" is to remember what defines it and that is current % of ToE + moral < 100, so either they are pretty sad and/or have taken very heavy losses and need a break.&nbsp;

[CarnageINC]

Here is some thoughts of what I'm planning and whats going on.

[CarnageINC]

Same situation just a different place. The far south is starting to fall apart. I'm quite afraid of loosing a division down here, I just don't really have anything to help out the situation. In the center Red's not making any attacks or not many of them. I wonder if this means he doesn't have the strength anymore to attack there or not. This may be where I launch a major offensive when I probe his lines come March. His efforts to get Lake Ilmen is slowly grinding to a halt. Thanks to the reserves and the panzer's I've thrown in there.