GC (V1.03 Beta 3 patch) Bwheatley sov vs Abulbulian Axis (Ara no cheating/peek..) Take 2!

[bwheatley]

Stavka leap into action calling on it's western command units to try to relieve the 10th army. Somehow the divisions assigned managed to find a weak spot in the german line and reopen communications with 10th army.
Also they managed to cut off and estimated 7 german panzer divisions.

Granted they would be back in supply shortly. But at least we know next week they won't have full supply/fuel.

Though 10th army was under no illusion that it's fate was still grim. There was not much that will be able to keep the army from being destroyed now that the german infantry has caught up.

[bwheatley]

Once the 10th army received word that they had 2 very slim chances to escape the army commander ordered all units to hightail it out of their asap. The commander knew though that there was not much hope. Stavka ordered the units to at least slow the germans down if possible. To allow for reinforcements to get into the 2nd echelon.

[Oleg Mastruko]

I just jumped into this thread and I have couple questions:

a) The title appears to be wrong? You BW play as Sov, and Ara as Axis?

b) Are there any other AARs of your and Ara's previous battles?

[bwheatley]

In the north we had 10th army and some tank units freed.


In the south we had a lot of units freed for this week at least.

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

I just jumped into this thread and I have couple questions:

a) The title appears to be wrong? You BW play as Sov, and Ara as Axis?

b) Are there any other AARs of your and Ara's previous battles?

This started as me as the axis but then after 1 turn we got the new patch so ara decided we'd take another crack at it. So it's now our 2nd game where i am the soviets again.
Though with further disadvantages:

Axis/Sov
100/80 Morale
75/50 Fort

I'm a little worried i won't be able to build forts fast enough but ara assures me if i can't have a proper defensive line he'd hold up before things got too overboard.

[PeeDeeAitch]

Looks like he tried to bite off too much,2 of the AGC panzer corps to the south?  Lots of initial pockets, but too weak to hold in the center and the south. The real problem for the Soviets is that when communication gets re-established in the center, the panzers there should still have fairly good movement due to the very high stocks of fuel turn 1.
 
You are facing long odds with that morale, that is what the Soviets have when the germans play on "easy."

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: PeeDeeAitch

Looks like he tried to bite off too much,2 of the AGC panzer corps to the south?  Lots of initial pockets, but too weak to hold in the center and the south. The real problem for the Soviets is that when communication gets re-established in the center, the panzers there should still have fairly good movement due to the very high stocks of fuel turn 1.

You are facing long odds with that morale, that is what the Soviets have when the germans play on "easy."

Yea i'm sure he'll have plenty of movement but knowing ara he'll be a little more conservative and might slow down his panzers a bit. I agree the morale is probably a pita. But he thinks i'll be too powerful in 42 without it. So i'll take one for the team so he would stfu and play

[bwheatley]

Where i plan to lay down lines.


Leningrad - this is very different then my first game i defended too heavily on the left of lake ilmen. Then i got hit with a right hook and lost leningrad. This time i'll defend much much more heavily to the east of ilmen and hold those ports at all costs.


Moscow - I'll try to build the line that i've heard other soviets preach rzhev to vyazma to bryansk.
Last game i held smolensk and lost a big 750k pocket of troops. With isolation as jacked as it is this time i'll retreat rather then be encircled. I somehow thought my reserves last game were going to be enough to stop the germans dead in their tracks. I was wrong. This time i'll be more careful.



Bryansk - I might actually hold the line closer to the nerussa river but i don't think i'll have the morale to be able to hold especially since swamps are no longer super defense.



Kiev - I'm going to hold the dneper and kiev for as long as possible but i won't fall for a kiev pocket. I'll also have a 2nd line by kharkov i can not lose it again this game. Though last game i was able to take kharkov back in the winter and bleed a few SS panzer divisions.


Southern Plan - Last game i didn't defense odessa since i was unclear on the rout from port rule. This time i will defend it much more heavily and hopefully can hold it long enough to be a thorn. I also plan to try to use the southern bug as a slow down point. Though if it's anything like last game he'll swoop in from the north.
I am already working on trying to fortify the entrance to the crimea though i think i won't be able to manage it due to my fort building restrictions.

[PeeDeeAitch]

Yeah, a light slap (in the form of cut off panzers) can make an opponant a bit gun shy.  You may well have helped your ultimate defense just by making him think twice about wild advances.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: bwheatley
This started as me as the axis but then after 1 turn we got the new patch so ara decided we'd take another crack at it. So it's now our 2nd game where i am the soviets again.
Though with further disadvantages:

Axis/Sov
100/80 Morale
75/50 Fort

WHAT THE.....????

Why you accepted these ridicolous rules? I mean, morale... can it get any lower for Sovs than it already is? I predict this game will end in a ridicolously unhistoric defeat of your forces. Morale is very important - expect to lose every battle against an opponent with half a brain (it's simple as that).

(Now I almost inserted some joke abot Ara not having half a brain but I restrained LOL [:D] )

Forts, logistics, admin... I think the game is pretty balanced as it is, but I could ALMOST understand giving a weaker player some advantages in those aspects, but MORALE?

Do you have an AAR or screenshots from your previous battle with Ara? It ended in his defeat/giving up, right?

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: PeeDeeAitch

Yeah, a light slap (in the form of cut off panzers) can make an opponant a bit gun shy.  You may well have helped your ultimate defense just by making him think twice about wild advances.

Yea this game he was a lot more aggressive. He took minsk which i told him would be dumb. I told him taking minsk would probably leave him too exposed but he was worried about me holding the city. The isolation rules really neuter any sort of city defense so i told him i wouldn't count on it

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

ORIGINAL: bwheatley
This started as me as the axis but then after 1 turn we got the new patch so ara decided we'd take another crack at it. So it's now our 2nd game where i am the soviets again.
Though with further disadvantages:

Axis/Sov
100/80 Morale
75/50 Fort

WHAT THE.....????

Why you accepted these ridicolous rules? I mean, morale... can it get any lower for Sovs than it already is? I predict this game will end in a ridicolously unhistoric defeat of your forces. Morale is very important - expect to lose every battle against an opponent with half a brain (it's simple as that).

(Now I almost inserted some joke abot Ara not having half a brain but I restrained LOL [:D] )

Forts, logistics, admin... I think the game is pretty balanced as it is, but I could ALMOST understand giving a weaker player some advantages in those aspects, but MORALE?

Do you have an AAR or screenshots from your previous battle with Ara? It ended in his defeat/giving up, right?

Well the last game ended up with my soviets being super over powered and smacking him around. But the romania surrender bug caused the game to end since we used the server and couldn't go back a few turns.

Well forts i think are both a little over powered i wanted 75/75 instead of 75/50 but i think i agree this game will end with him steam rolling me. He wouldn't play with morale even because he felt like the axis wouldn't have a chance still. I personally think the axis will do much better because of the new rules and bugs being squashed.
But i'm going to give it the old college try and do my best. But yea if turn 17 comes around and he's past rostov we might have to restart with fair rules again. But either way it should be fun.

[Oleg Mastruko]

IMO, this morale nerf completely ruined your game. Of all the parameters morale is most important one, and I would dare say most finely tuned.

I think Joel was explaining in one post how 5% change of some parameter (can't remember whether he was talking about morale to be honest, but nevermind) may completely turn the game upside down.

Slashing whole 20 points of morale for Soviets who already have atrocious morale.... you might as well sign the surrender papers already. I see Ara is slowly getting to his ideal Axis game: "click start and Axis Victory screen appears" [:D]

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

IMO, this morale nerf completely ruined your game. Of all the parameters morale is most important one, and I would dare say most finely tuned.

I think Joel was explaining in one post how 5% change of some parameter (can't remember whether he was talking about morale to be honest, but nevermind) may completely turn the game upside down.

Slashing whole 20 points of morale for Soviets who already have atrocious morale.... you might as well sign the surrender papers already. I see Ara is slowly getting to his ideal Axis game: "click start and Axis Victory screen appears" [:D]

Hehe well i'll never know unless i try. Hoping if this game goes sideways he'll realize we need to try it at 100/100 with the new patch and see how it is.

Man the new rail is nice used all my rail points in 1 turn by evacing the industry from kiev. Lordy. going to be a lot of tough choices!

[randallw]

Good choice to dig in at the Crimea early; level 5 chokepoints. [:)]

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: randallw

Good choice to dig in at the Crimea early; level 5 chokepoints. [:)]

Ya in my last game he never attempted to get to the crimea i had it locked down too much. This game i'm not so sure i'll get away as easily but we shall see.

[bwheatley]

Well T2 starts out with snafu as usual. 10th Army is re-encircled in the north. In the south those units were re-encircled along with a 2nd grouping of units. Pskov has fallen.
Ara says his tanks are at the end of their rope but we shall see if he's full of it or not.

Losses - Another 378k men are irrevocable losses. With only 70 german tanks destroyed it's going to be a long game.


Air losses - This game instead of pulling all my units out to reserve on T2 i have just left them out in the front. It's a weird way things work i am not used to pilots being unified with a plane. A natural instinct is to get pilots out of harms way until you get them into better equipment. But in this game they are bonded to the seat of their plane with industrial glue.
The main reason i'm letting my crap planes stay out and fly mostly though is so that come 42 ara doesn't see 15k soviet planes and cry. I repeatedly told him 10k of those were old and busted I models.


Destroyed units - The stats speak for themselves. I am being smack around like a red headed step child.

[bwheatley]

Northern situation - As you can see 10th army is again encircled with little hope of them being rescued.Riga is only holding barely with 2 infantry brigades and a nkvd regiment. Pskov has fallen. I ran out of rail at the start of the turn because i sent all of kievs factories east (4 HI, 4 ARM). Thankfully i was not overloaded with reinforcements at the east end of the map this turn. It's going to be a even more intense this game as i have to make tough choices about where to reinforce and where to wait while i get factories out. In this game as well i've already got my defenses on the east side of lake ilmen starting. Only 2 divisions so far but by god i need to hold those lake ladoga ports this time.






Southern Situation - Again units encircled. Then to the right you see i had a 2nd army encircled. Which i'm pretty sure it exactly what happened last game. I always underestimate how many MP those damn panzers have at games start.

[bwheatley]

I did test out pavil saying they fixed/improved strat bombing. I feel like it's a little better. This game i launched 50 bombers against ploesti and only hit the oil industry for 1% damage. Last game the same issue happened and it was like 50% or something like that.

[bwheatley]

In the center i caught a panzer division a alittle exposed and encircled them. The last game when this happened it was t6 so i actually got a big portion of my units cut off. It looks like this turn though the unit is actually exposed. I'll probably get some units cut off next turn but slowing down even 1 panzer division hopefully helps in the long run.




Northern exposed panzer regiments. In this game as well i've noted a good portion of the panzer units have been broken down into regiments. If i only had the striking power to hit them i would take a advantage. [:(]