1. MP game vs. Miller41 (SOV) - really no Miller! ;)

[TulliusDetritus]

In his defense: "Miller" and "Miller41" are different things. The owner of this AAR should be more concrete

[cookie monster]

He could at least have the decency to log off before reading....[:D]

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Regarding Riga:

You can bomb the port in the hew just to the west of the lone Soviet airbase NW of Riga across the gulf. It has a port cap of 3 and that allows it to cover the entrance to the gulf.
Since range is rounded down, a 1% hit will allow sea movement into Riga, but the port will repair so for Riga to be used as a supply conduit on turn 2, it must be brought down to 96% (assuming the rules state repair % correct, p 282). This would decrease bombers available for T1 airbase attacks, but could very well be worth it - a PZ XXX HQ in a supplied Riga has a very good supply state.

Timeout: This is how you open Riga?

BTW if that works Turn 1, that would also allow you to get an Infantry Corps there by ship. In fact, you might want to hold back a few more units to ship them in Turn 2. I think they get to Pskov faster that way.

Someone needs to test and verify this!

PS: I just tried, and I can't get Riga open. Anyone else?

CHARON: BTW, good AAR, and excellent opening, particularly in the South. I like diverting the extra Pz Corps to AGN with the new swamp rules, that makes Leningrad more attractive as a #1 objective. Nice job so far.

[CharonJr]

Thank you guys for the praise of the southern opening, I feel it is very strong, too, but the center does suffer.

Due to continued penetrations of OKH's security it was decided that meeting notes will only be allowed to be written down with a delay of 2 weeks

[CharonJr]

T4 - just the basic facts:

Pskov was taken after some heavy fighting (needed 1 hasty attack by 3 divisions plus 1 deliberate attack by 1).

15 units were destroyed in all the pockets, costing the Red Army another 90k men and about 1k guns and tanks.

The Wehrmacht is getting closer to Novgorod, but has not reached it yet.

A small pocket was formed to the esat of Minsk.

2 brigeheads across the Dnepr/Desna have been established to the north of Kiev and the east of Cherkassy (no defenders on the other side of the river, but had to overcome moderate defenses on my way there).

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: CharonJr


Due to continued penetrations of OKH's security it was decided that meeting notes will only be allowed to be written down with a delay of 2 weeks

Sad but I completely understand and would do the same.

Hopefully Joel will solve Riga mystery on the other thread

[jjdenver]

It's really sad when opponents read AAR's - that's so low. It's not a joke at all. Sportsmanship and enjoying the game with your opponents is part of the fun. Why would you want to play a game with someone you can't respect as a fair sport?

Anyway - this is a really good German south and north opening imo - as has already been mentioned. So I'd like to pat you on the back for that, and thank you for writing the AAR.

G'luck.

[DivePac88]

ORIGINAL: CharonJr

Thank you guys for the praise of the southern opening, I feel it is very strong, too, but the center does suffer.

Due to continued penetrations of OKH's security it was decided that meeting notes will only be allowed to be written down with a delay of 2 weeks

The praise is deserved as this is a well thoughtout and exacuted plan, you definitely are the master of the operational art of war. Over the years I have read literary thousands of AAR's, but I find this one in a class of it's own.

But the pity is that you now have tone-down the amount of information that you are giving us, because of your opponates unbelevable bad-form. [:(]

[CharonJr]

Thank you Actually I am starting to to think about giving full screenshots anyway since it is fairly boring this way - essentially turning it into a no FOW game for the Soviets

But I think I will refrain from posting too much about my future plans.

[CharonJr]

T4:

With Pskov in my hands I only try to open a small lane towards Novgorod this turn with 2 Panzerkorps. The thrid is resting for now and I want to use it to push hard towards Leningrad on the next turn, the defenses seem fairly feeble for now, but I expect a lot of Soviet reinforcements showing up soon.

The Panzerkorps heading for Smolensk and Gomel are resting, too, I even thought about using HQ supply for them, but decided against it in the end since I know how bad my transport situation will become in the winter, especially considering the large gains in the south.

After having established the 2 bridgeheads Heeresgruppe Süd's Panzer are fairly exhausted and I will be unable to do anything other than trying to hold those bridgeheads during the next turn.

During the next turn my infantry should arrive at the large gap that has been created by the fast advance of the Panzer and being unwilling to keep some Panzer back to hold the southern flank, but considering the state the Soviet southern front should be in I am not overly worried.

[CharonJr]

Just finished my next turn and my plan keeps largely working as intended, but close to the end I got a crash and had to redo the turn with worse results. Is there no autosave for server based games?

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: CharonJr

Just finished my next turn and my plan keeps largely working as intended, but close to the end I got a crash and had to redo the turn with worse results. Is there no autosave for server based games?

After a couple of those, I learned to save frequently during long turns, and re-login. During mud or whatever I play straight through, but it takes me a couple hours to finish an early Axis turn--too much time to lose like that.

[CharonJr]

T5:

Had to learn the hard way that the server will not autosave in between, had a very nice turn here (4. Rum. Armee assigned to Antonescu for 49 AP instead of the 98, created a nice Pripyet pocket, got close to Leningrad and broke the fortifications at the Smolensk landbridge), but crashed.

Oh well, lets see if I can repeat it.

Drat, neeed the full 98AP to reassign the Romanians now...

XXXXI Panzer makes it across the Luga and past the swamps to the light woods and plains in front of Leningrad (again). LVI and LVII Panzer keep resting since I lack the MP to pose any real threat on Novgoroad and with the infantry having caught up I might be able to either creaet a pocket or simply send the mobile forces towards Leningrad and let the infantry deal with Novgorod - agreeing with my maxim of staying as flexible as possible.

The Finns manage to isolate 3 Soviet units, but the pocket around Vyborg can be opened easily.

This time I fail to take out the 2nd fortification on the landbridge and thus fail to isolate Vitebsk as well, grrr....

And I made the Gomel/Pripyet pocket, but since I needed a second hasty attack vs. Gomel it is much less secure now than it was earlier. I am very sure that this one WILL be broken, but at least all of the Pripyet Marshes where there is no Soviet unit will convert to my control and the units inside the pocket should be weak enough to allow me to close the pocket again.

It seems like I have used up all my luck on my previous attempt. While I had above average luck then I had below average luck now, oh well, overall it still looks ok, but keeping the Pripyet pocket closed would have been great.

Dang, send the game before getting any stat screenshots, looks like this is not really my day...

[BletchleyGeek]

Very nice maneuvers Charon [:)]

Miller41 in his other games has been shown to be a very good Polkovodets Robinovich, but you're doing an excellent work keeping him off-balance. He'll have to take quite a few hard decisions in the next turns, if he doesn't cover well industrial centers in the Dnepr basin and Khar'kov, his tank, armament and vehicle production will be severely gimped.

[CharonJr]

Thank you and yes, it already looks like my psy-ops are having some success, he seems to have decided to run rather than fight for now, but this means he has fairly strong defenses where he decides to make a stand.

BTW, I think I found the culprit, was running W.o.T. here while playing the current turn and have been crashing left and right, so it seems that there are some problems with my machine when I run both of them at the same time.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: CharonJr

he seems to have decided to run rather than fight for now, but this means he has fairly strong defenses where he decides to make a stand.

Hmm, the German players should try playing the Soviets... It's only turn T5. Too early to say "he's running away". What most of the German players tend to forget is that if you manage to do two competent first turns the Soviet does NOT, repeat, does NOT have anything left... [;)]

So the "running away" thing makes little sense... The front is "empty" because the competent German players have pocketed the Frontier District forces... Until the arrival of the STAVKA reserves the front will be more or less empty. And that's what German players INCORRECTLY call "running away" [8D]

[CharonJr]

Nah, that's what I would call progress without any opposition, only pulling back forces is running away

[TulliusDetritus]

But does he have "forces"? [;)] Really, you should try playing as the Soviets... then you would see almost N O T H I N G between the enemy Panzers and Moscow and Leningrad...

And by the way, he is not "running away" in the Western... He is waiting for you along the Dnper [;)]

[Flaviusx]

The Soviet lost 3 fronts here in the first few turns. His unit count is very low. Losing most of NW and West Fronts early on is par for the course, but adding SW Front to that...

So, yeah. Not a runaway. He's simply getting steamrolled. The German is already across the Dnepr in the South. I've never seen that happen so early.

The deadpile right now must be pretty huge; wouldn't mind seeing a display of that, as a matter of fact.

[TulliusDetritus]

Yes, these Soviet forces in the Western Front along the Dnper have nothing to do now... Two panzer armies north and south of them. Scary [:)] They were contained this turn in the north but it's a pure illusion [8D]