Tres Amigos Trey's! JAM v el hefe (aqui, no el hefe!)

[JAMiAM]

Before I had joined the beta testing team, I had picked up a game against Trey Marshall (el hefe). Trey has been around the block in the world of wargaming, having been a scenario designer and tester for TOAW, and other games, including WitE, as well as a member of the US Army. To top it off, he's a great guy to just chew the fat with.

We started with v1.02, if I recall correctly, and truth be told, his opening turn in that first game was a bit on the weak side. He was a bit rusty, after prioritizing his pre-release efforts with his scenario design duties in WitE, rather than playing. After about three turns, after I surrounded and routed a whole Pz Korps, and with the new impending beta release (now public beta v1.03 Beta 3) needing testing, we decided to restart the game.

Let me tell you, this second time around, his opening turn was a hell of a lot tighter. Where I was able to reopen LOC to most of my pocketed troops in our first game, in the second I was left watching impotently as he very adeptly pocketed about 2 dozen divisions.

Fortunately, for me, he did leave me something to work with. Losses shown here, include my first turn's attrition losses, but not his. Therefore, it is difficult to compare directly with first turn ending loss totals from my own Axis games.

[JAMiAM]

Trey has freely admitted to being interested primarily in the ground slogging, and does not give much thought to the air portion of the game. He's posted before that he lets the AI do the Airbase attacks on Turn one, and then pretty much just runs with the default air settings. Though this generally leaves his air units rather fresh and troublesome during my ground movement, due to interdiction, it also means that he isn't likely to micromanage the first turn's airbase attacks to their maximum potential. As seen here...

[JAMiAM]

At this stage of the game, when facing an opponent of any competence at all, will need to do a lot of housecleaning, and decision-making. This game is certainly no exception. I do not know where Trey's strategic focus will be. He has pretty much gone with the OKH force distributions, much as I do in my Axis opening moves. Thus, at this stage, I need to be prepared, as much as I can, that is, for just about anything.

This screenshot shows the zoomed out view of the situation from about the Axis minors line, to just north of Pskov, and eastward just past Smolensk. As you can see, re-establishing C&C, drawing skirmishing lines, and prepping my main defensive lines is going to be a handful.

[JAMiAM]

This screenshot shows the end turn dispositions of my forces in the area covered by the previous screenshot.

Since Riga was still in my hands, but Daugavpils was threatened by two Pz Korps (one from 3rd Pz GP), I pulled my Airborne Corps back as far as I could, setting a line along Sinyaya River anchoring on Polotsk on the Dvina. Unfortunately, I did not feel that I could reinforce the rest of the Dvina River sufficiently and fell back to start digging in around Pskov. Hopefully, Riga's defenders will tie down the German infantry, and the Dvina obstruct his supplies to 4th Pz Gp, long enough to get decently dug in along the Velkaya River so that I can stall any advance on Leningrad. Of course, he could just run his rail line through Daugavpils, instead of Riga, but we'll see how it goes...

Near Minsk, I have some problems. I am able to form a screen about 50 miles north and south of the city, along with another screen on the Berezina River. However, I am worried about the huge gap between the northern flank of my Minsk screen and the Dvina River. I have relatively strong forces digging in at the Dvina/Dnepr landbridge, but the road to them is almost completely wide open. I'd like to claim that I am deliberately channeling his forces in that direction, but the truth of the matter is that I'm taking a calculated risk that his commitment of the Pz Korps of 3rd Pz Gp toward the Dvina at Daugavpils is indicative of a northern strategic focus, and that he intends on going along the northern bank of the Dvina, threatening Leningrad, Velikie Luki, or simply to approach Vitebsk from the north. If he does that, then he will have only one other Pz Korps of the 3rd Pz Gp in support, since the dual screens at Minsk and the Berezina should keep 2nd Pz Gp occupied for a turn or two.

The Dvina/Dnepr landbridge has three Rifle Corps digging in, having been railed from the Ukraine, and from the Moscow MD. Western Front has railed over to Krichev and I'm struggling to pull over as many of the shattered armies that it once commanded to cover the Dnepr River line. C&C in this area is a nightmare this turn, since I spent much of my available APs on two army leader dismissals in the south. Much of the rest was spent in disbanding fortified regions that were threatened, and selective disbanding of some Corps HQs, so that the rebuilding armies have some centralized and fully distributable support assets.

[JAMiAM]

This screenshot shows the start of the turn in the southern half of the active map areas, ranging from Brest-Litovsk, down to the northern portion of Bessarabia.

There is something to note here, that I have discovered after having played a few turns against Trey. He is not very likely to assault cities, even when they block his supply lines or otherwise most efficient axes of advance. In many cases, this may be a prudent course of action. However, in the first turn of the game, there are a few cities that I find are imperative to take quickly, despite the elevated costs of assaulting them. Riga in the north, Kaunus and Brest-Litovsk in the center, and Lvov in the south. This is because of the movement cost penalties for moving in enemy territory, and the rail lines that generally need to go through these cities. Waiting until turn two to take them means that your rail repair will be behind by a full turn, and possibly more. Given the precarious state of Axis supply in the crucial Summer campaigning months, every little hex helps with the Drang nach Osten.

Further, knowing that your opponent will do things a particular way, can prove useful later on, when you can hopefully take advantage of this knowledge. At a minimum, Trey's hesitance at assaulting cities will allow me to garrison them with fewer forces, leaving more to strengthen my lines in the field. If he never strikes at the hingepins, I can better plan to counter his attempts to kick in the rest of the door...

Since Trey did not penetrate past Tarnopol I am in pretty good shape in the south. Other than some few forces stuck in the Carpathians, and the routed units (which can no longer use rail movement in v1.03) I should be able to extricate the bulk of 6th and 12th Armies, since the rail line south of Tarnopol remains intact.

[JAMiAM]

In the Pripyet Marshes, my mostly routed forces are trying to fall back fast enough and far enough to be able to rally, and/or rail out of there to more useful and threatened locations. I don't really place too much credence in the Pripyets being of much utility as a supply line raiding base in the early game, since it is relatively easy to cut off. Given that the game engine displaces so many routed units there in the first turn, I am more concerned with rescuing what I can out of there, before they get cut off by 2nd Pz Gp from the north, or more rarely, 1st Pz Gp from the south. I like to use the southern half of the Pripyets to anchor my 5th Army lines as it withdraws back toward Kiev, but that is usually the extent of my early game commitments to this little chunk of real estate.

Even though the latest build disallows the railing of Soviet factories on turn one, I still used all but about 250 points of my rail cap this turn. Due, in large part, to the mass exodus of 6th and 12th armies the Stalin Line along the Zbruch and Goryn Rivers. The forces near Kovel sidestepped to screen Rovno while small rearguards were left to screen the German mobile forces approaching Tarnopol.

The 6th Army anchoring the center of the landbridge between the Zbruch and Goryn rivers. It is in good shape, with strong compliments of both infantry and mechanized forces, so I've sent one of my best generals to lead this army, Fyodor Tolbukhin. He's got strong ratings all around and a high enough political strength to weather the inevitable defeats that the Axis will hand to him. However, it will allow me to better contest the south, slow the drive to the Lower Dnepr, and bloody the German mobile units in the meantime.

The 12th Army, also gets a new leader, since it still has a good number of invaluable mountain infantry divisions, as well as some mechanized forces. I've put Kiril Moskalenko in charge here. He's not spectacular, but he should be ideal for this army and its current location. His 5 rating in infantry and mech leaves room for improvement, which he might be able to get if he wins against 11th Army and Rumanian attacks. His morale and political ratings are high, which should allow him to remaing in command long enough to take some lumps, and yet survive long enough to improve his 5 ratings up to 6.

I've already begun evacuating northern Bessarabia, and pulling back to the better fortified line of the Dnestr. The slow pace of the Axis through the enemy territory between the Prut and Dnestr rivers should give me a couple of turns to dig in, resupply and suck up replacements, before he can mount any attacks against me.

One last general note concerning rail cap. I've read a lot of posts on the forum about people thinking that it is a "waste" to use rail cap on HQs and Airbases. However, I stongly disagree with this point of view. Especially, in the early turns as the Soviets. Every time HQs and Airbases move they need to use a lot of trucks to move their supplies, and this causes a lot of wear and tear on this vital, and overwhelmed asset - the motor pool. The more I can move my units by rail, the faster my motor pool will build up to the levels necessary to run out full supply and my units gain enough vehicles to have full mobility. The faster my army gets its act together, the faster I can return those Fascist devils back to the pits of hell that they clambered up from...

[Klydon]

Just wow. I have a ton of respect for all the testers and how much time they have spent on the boards answering questions, providing insight, etc but I am really underwhelmed by Trey's opening here. IMO, this game is done and that is hard to say after just 1 turn, but it would take some huge mistakes by JAmiAM in order for Trey to get back into this.

I think Trey would have done well to check the discussions in the war room on the opening moves as he has made several cardinal mistakes that have by and large been discussed and easy tactics have been come up with to fix them. One primary issue is allowing the ports to remain in Russian hands in the Courland area. The Russians got several units out of there by sea movement on the first turn and those units will haunt the Germans trying to advance in Estonia/Leningrad area later. The huge issue is in the south. Even without committing a lot of AGC forces, I don't understand how he doesn't at least pocket the good Russian forces around Kovel. Letting almost all of 6th and 12th armies escape by rail means he will face a wall of some of the best early Russian army. The last curious thing to me is how many divisions does he have watching the Brest-Litovosk garrison? By leaving it, he stunted the reach of PG2 on the first turn not to mention how far the infantry could have advanced to support the panzers.

[ComradeP]

Not pocketing anything in the south as the Axis is pretty much the best way to make sure your advance will run into serious problems in just a few turns.

Not capturing Kaunas and Brest-Litovsk means rail conversion is already a turn behind schedule.

Capturing Ventspils isn't really necessary if there's basically nothing in the area, but this time there are units there and they could escape. No units across the Daugava is also a problem.

I'm really at a loss why James has pulled everything back when there are no German units on the "Soviet side" of the Daugava. You can fairly easily turn the crossing into a nightmare if he doesn't get across, like I did in a game with Don. It was one of the reasons why we agreed on a restart on turn 3.

[Ketza]

Hmmm what a strange start for the Axis.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

Capturing Ventspils isn't really necessary if there's basically nothing in the area, but this time there are units there and they could escape. No units across the Daugava is also a problem.

I'm really at a loss why James has pulled everything back when there are no German units on the "Soviet side" of the Daugava. You can fairly easily turn the crossing into a nightmare if he doesn't get across, like I did in a game with Don. It was one of the reasons why we agreed on a restart on turn 3.

In my first game with Trey, I did try a more forward defense at the Daugava(Dvina) River. The defenders got chewed up for little real gain. Like this game, he did not take Riga on turn one, so it wasn't until 18th Army reached Riga in force, on turn three, that it fell. I expect the same tie down of his infantry again. This leaves 4th Pz Gp with nothing better to do than to attack, or encircle, anything they can reach

In my opinion, against any reasonably competent opening move by the Axis, an early forward defense at the Daugava is fraught with more peril than reward. Especially, if you don't cover all the hexes on the North-east bank with ZOC or units. Trey pocketed a lot of my troops in Lithuania, and though he didn't physically cross the Daugava, he converted enough hexes on the other side with his ZOCs to prevent any railed units from being able to both disembark and move into position. Due to the lack of local forces with sufficient MPs to move into the contested hexes to adequately screen the river, I chose to fall back.

I've chewed up enough forward defenses in this area with 4th Pz Gp to figure Trey could do the same, if I left him meat on the table. By sticking around, I have a porous front, with minimal depth trying to hold against 3 Pz Korps, who are still in good fuel/ammo supply. By falling back, I entice him to overextend, run out his fuel, and not be able to strike at my forces with any concentration until turn 3 at the earliest, and depending on the infantry advance, maybe turn 5.

There are times and places where I offer screens or make a strong forward stand, but in this game, this turn, with my available forces, the Daugava did not fit my criteria for either.

[JAMiAM]

Second turn ground losses, after the elimination of my pocketed troops, and attrition. I won't be posting any end of turn loss reports for this turn, since other than a counterattack (which will get its own post) my turn was spent mostly setting up new screens, and prepping my defensive lines - both in the rear, as well as on the front.

[JAMiAM]

Second turn air losses. It should be noted that these totals include the results from the Pilot Training missions for the turn, as well. They were:

6003 training missions flown.
867 AC damaged
316 AC destroyed

My pilots are clearly more a danger to themselves, than to their enemy...[:D]

[JAMiAM]

If the first turn of the game does not give any strong clues as to the strategic plan that the Axis player is pursuing, the second turn often does. Besides the usual elimination of the Soviets pocketed in turn one, the Axis player will generally telegraph something of his intent by where his Pz Korps lead off.

This screenshot shows the state of my forces in the North-Center area of the map, at the start of the turn. In the Baltics, 18th Army has reached Riga, but has not yet attacked. Trey's 4th Pz Gp has fanned out past the Daugava/Dvina, far ahead of his infantry. It will still be another two turns before his infantry reaches my line on the Velkaya River, so Pskov may be safe, for now. As it stands, this is the area that worries me the most, since my forces will be more heavily committed further south, in front of Vitebsk and Smolensk, where it seems that his focus is being turned.

[JAMiAM]

This screenshot shows the same area, at the end of my turn. Most of my APs for the turn were spent trying to get the C&C straightened out for the units in Northwest Front's area of operations. The Soviet 27th, 8th and 11th Armies were pretty banged up, and mixed up with stragglers from all over the north and center. Though no leader changes were performed this turn, many APs were spent reassigning units to nearby Army HQs, disbanding Rifle Corps to consolidate the support assets, and disbanding threatened Fortified Zones.

The Dvina/Dnepr landbridge is heavily guarded by the 20th and 24th Armies, while the 22nd Army is guarding the Dvina line to Vitebsk. There is still some cleanup to be done in this area, but that will have to await next turn's AP allotment. Or, perhaps when the Reserve Front comes in and I get the big dump of APs on turn 4.

Behind the Dnepr are the disorganized pieces of Western Front that have escaped the Axis onslaught, as well as a hodgepodge of units from the Orel and Kharkov MDs. To give this line a little more time to solidify, I've left a screen along the Berezina River. I don't expect many of these units to survive unrouted through Trey's turn three, but maybe they'll give his Panzers something to do, other than reach my main lines.

[JAMiAM]

This screenshot shows the disposition of my forces at the start of the turn, in the southern portion of the map.

Not much has happened here. Trey engaged my screens, took Tarnopol, and has probed my forces in the Goryn/Zbruch landbridge. Hmmn...look, a lone Panzer division has advanced into the hex he just took...

[JAMiAM]

For the Motherland!

Sure I took more losses, and he retreated in good order, but every loss for his units, is another ding on his virtually irreplaceable morale. Besides, often in war, what you can do, and what your opponent *thinks* you can do are often two different things. As long as I can keep him thinking that I can pull these off on a regular basis, I might be able to get him playing more timidly than he should.

[JAMiAM]

Since Trey did not penetrate close enough to the Rumanian border on the first turn, he did not have the use of the 11th Army and Rumanians on turn two. This allowed me to withdraw to the Dnestr River line in good order. I've left a screen around Kishinev to give him something to focus on while my lines solidify here. It will take two more turns, at best, before his Rumanians and Germans can engage this line in any strength, and even then, his forces in the area do not have much of any advantage over my own.

This screenshot shows the area above, after all movement and combat was finished.

[JAMiAM]

This screenshot shows the area around the Black Sea, and Moldavia. I've shipped some units from the North Caucasus MD to defend the Crimea. Also, I have started to move some of my LRB airbases down there. In a few turns, after my LRB air groups have been able to get somewhat repaired in the National Reserve, and my bases are set up in the area, I intend on launching a bombing campaign against the Rumanian oilfields and refineries in Ploesti and Bucharest.

[Klydon]

Overall, looking good, but surprised you gave up Moldavia so easily. Granted, the Rumanians are not going to advance very fast, but you could have forced them to a miserable crawl with your border regiments. Also, digging in on Kishinev and the rough to the north and south of it will delay his rail repair efforts and any thrust towards the Dniester river line while you dig there.

I will be interested to see how the bombing campaign works out.

[randallw]

Surprising that the modified CV for his panzer defense took a bit hit.