Operation Barbershop - Carnage(Ax) vs. Redmarkus(Sv)

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: rosseau

Stating the obvious, but wonderful AAR, redmarkus4. Thanks for your efforts, and good luck.

Many thanks, Comrade.

[Redmarkus5]

TURN 32 - CENTRE

Operations on the Moscow-Smolensk axis are progressing better than planned and there is a real possibility that I can spend the mud turns with Smolensk in my possession.

Axis armour is now holding the line all along the front and AFV losses this turn were 290 which represent a double of the rate per turn from the previous turn.

(Graphs follow on turn 33)

[Redmarkus5]

TURN 32 SOUTH

Operations have resumed in the south and the Dnepr is in sight. I have moved a reserve army up to reinforce the attack and also redeployed all of my armour from the Kuban to the area north of Rostov, in the event of a breakthrough there.

[Redmarkus5]

TURN 32 - FRONT

[raizer]

I have a serious question: why is it called operation barbershop?

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: raizer

I have a serious question: why is it called operation barbershop?

I guess he's making a joke about "shaving" Operation Barbarossa:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_ ... an_Emperor

[Redmarkus5]

You got it Not merely 'shaving' but hacking that damned red beard off with my rusty bayonet and stomping it into the mud of Mother Russia!

Advances to-date...

[BletchleyGeek]

redmarkus, I saw your picture and just checked my coffee to see if someone had poured some stuff into it [X(]

Besides that it's a very clever way to appreciate your gains. [:)]

[Q-Ball]

Red, your before/after maps are slick! Wish I could do that......

[CharonJr]

Yes, great maps.

Do you take a former map and add some transparancy to it, then superimpose it over the new one?

[randallw]

That last map is a little blurry.

[Zorch]

Hi,

Are you spreading your attacks too much? Do you think you might achieve more with 1 or 2 big, concentrated offensives (and a few diversionary attacks)?

[Redmarkus5]

Still experimenting with it - sorry it's blurry. I really need two map images of identical size to make it work, but I didn't know that when I started out so didn't grab the first screenie.

It's fairly easy. I have the original positions as a base image. I then paste the final positions in as a new layer and edit the layer properties to set it to opaque. Then I crop and size/move the transparent layer around to get the best fit possible and finally 'flatten' the image and save as a jpeg. Simples.

For the next campaign phase I will do a full screen cap at each stage and save those in a special folder for future use.

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

redmarkus, I saw your picture and just checked my coffee to see if someone had poured some stuff into it [X(]

Besides that it's a very clever way to appreciate your gains. [:)]

Nope. I've checked and it's as sharp an image as you could imagine. Better check your coffee again

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

In game losses (killed + captured - does not include wounded) versus historical losses for the period June to December 1941.

My stated goal was to fight a historically convincing campaign and to test whether this is both possible to do and whether it would produce a historical outcome.

So far, the results are very good, although the Soviets have arrived at December '41 with a combat effectiveness that feels about 30% too powerful. I am able to attack all along the front when I would really only expect to have been able to mount a limited offensive against AGC.

I would suggest that replacement levels be toned down about 20% and that all reinforcements should arrive requiring refit turns, whereas only some seem to do so today. I am missing the Soviet militia divisions that crumbled into dust before Moscow. I am missing the units that arrived at the front minus their training and minus their rifles.

Sources for the historical figures are Source: "Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg" by Rüdiger Overmans for the German losses and Evan Mawdsley's Thunder in the East which cites Poteri pp 267-72, 310.

90% of your initial reinforcements come as shells that take 2-3 turns to build out already. You get a few units that are already fleshed out to simulation reinforcements from the interior of the soviet union iirc.

I'm enjoying the new patch so far. Now in 42 it takes 20 AP to build a soviet rifle corp. That will keep me or other soviets from going crazy in 42 with offensive power. I like it. so far so good.

[bwheatley]

Nice counter offensive. You did many hexes better then i did on my winter attack. But i had lost 4 million by winter so i didn't have enough to form reserve armies to keep exploiting. By halfway through my guys were burned out and i just had to get them some rest so we went static.

I'd recommend waiting for the beta patch next week before building any rifle corps. it will raise the cost to 20AP per rifle corp. So it should help keep your russian army from getting too big and strong too fast w/o a big investment in AP. I had 60 rifle corps by 10 turns into the time when i could make rifle corps.
Just mentioning that since you like me realize the soviets are over juiced.

Still great job with everything so far. Glad to see i'm not the only one doing linear defense instead of checkerboard. I only checkboard when i don't have enough units to cover the front linearly. Something calming about having a nice solid line between you and the dirty nazi's.

[Redmarkus5]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

Hi,

Are you spreading your attacks too much? Do you think you might achieve more with 1 or 2 big, concentrated offensives (and a few diversionary attacks)?

I wanted to avoid having any major salients in the spring as the Axis will just pocket the lot.... My aim is to push him back in a uniform way and end up with a fairly straight line, as per my initial operational planning on turn 24.

[Redmarkus5]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I like it when a war-game screen shot looks like the maps in the history book.

Regarding the Corps buildups, I have volunteered to restrict these to max 5 Corps per turn, if I have the AP. My opponent has been informed.

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: redmarkus4

Thanks for the positive feedback. I like it when a war-game screen shot looks like the maps in the history book.

Regarding the Corps buildups, I have volunteered to restrict these to max 5 Corps per turn, if I have the AP. My opponent has been informed.

Yea you won't be able to do as many now anyway since the cost doubled to 20AP in this patch. So i am enjoying it more. It also gives you a little more depth in your line too.

[kfmiller41]

I guess what really amazes me about this AAR is you defended historically ans still kept your losses low enough to have a large numbers advantage for the winter. I want to try that very thing as I like your ideas for playing historically, but during my first 2 games i just was learning how to defend and as i saw my armies getting shredded I just naturally tried to use whatever tactics worked[:-]. Will have to be more true to history next time, like you sir[&o]. Great AAR and the maps are just sick, makes me feel my AAr was done by a 10 year old[:D]