End of AAR 76mm welcome

[Ketza]

AGC

[Ketza]

AGN

[karonagames]

I have my fingers crossed, because you have followed my survival guide suggestion to push through the snow to disrupt the sovs attack plans for the blizzard. With luck you may reduce his attack capacity to below 30 attacks per turn for the first 3-4 turns, which means you are "winning". If you can get your mountain troops down south you may be able to ring fence the units at the mouth of the Crimea.

You should also note that the 32 units you have destroyed in November will cost him APs, as anything lost after 1st november is not automatically replaced for free. It looks like you can build a stable N-S line apart from the Crimea area which could get messy.

[Klydon]

Yes, it will be interesting to see what happens in the Crimea area. That is a lot of area still under his control and a high mix of Rumanians vs Germans in the area there. Surprised you have not bought the Finns down a bit more from the north, but that could be moral issues too. 

[Ketza]

Quick update...

Well I just sent my opponent the 1st week of January turn and my baptism of blizzard has been underway for some time. (I had never even played the AI in blizzard) We have been exchanging turns at a rather rapid pace so I have not have time to do any updates. I have seen this tendency in other games of my opponents churning out turns (especially WITPAE) as things begin to look up for their situation and I am quite happy for the activity.

I believe the blizzard ends around turn 37 and we are on turn 29. Although things are bad they are not as bad as I had thought they would be. My losses just topped 1.1 million but I have around 700k disabled so I am assuming thats not too bad. I have 6k rifle squads in reserve and even with everyone on refit that number continues to rise. I so far have only had one division collapse (7th Para) but I have no idea why. The combat report showed the result was a retreat yet it showed up in Germany being rebuilt. I have no divisions show as unready across the entire front. So far the army is holding and I owe much of that success to the "surviving the blizzard" sticky which showed the importance of managing the behind the scenes aspect of your army.

This last turn showed 7 divisions of 17th army become surrounded by tank brigades but I was able to reconnect for at least a turn. There is a large force enroute to help their situation. So far I have only commited 2 divisions from strategic reserve to throw in his path. (Both of them mountain divisions). My initial plan for 17th army was to just retreat every turn but I had some early "held" results and got a bit cocky.

I had expected and hoped he would come across the Dnepr where I had the Rumanians. Its one of the reasons I manned the line the way I did to try and lure him. He instead has pushed other areas but in the end I am pretty much where I expected to be at this juncture. I actually held the Stalino line 2 turns longer then I thought I would.

All in all its been an interesting learning experience. My next long term game and the 4.0 blizzard fixes will no doubt play out better for the Axis cause.

One thing is fort levels dont seem to make a difference thats for sure!

[karonagames]

Just seen the screen shots from the other side - I have to say that your defence looked like it had no depth - stacking units is a bad for the Axis as it is for the sovs - even a 2 deep "carpet" of 1-1 ants is better than a 2 high stack.

7 para is being withdrawn - it will stay until it's TOE reaches 80% then it will vanish.

[Ketza]

Well I was trying to really cover too much with too few in the center. Like I said my original plan was to just run but I have held a lot of his attacks and it gave me a bit of false security. The issue has been his own tank brigade ants leaking along the creases. They are moving a little faster then I thought they would.

I am sure this upcoming turn will be nasty in the middle but the rest of the front is holding pretty well. Even so its nasty where I want it to be, albeit a bit nastier then my overconfidence has allowed it to be.

[PeeDeeAitch]

Tank brigades that had a month or so to build up can be dangerous, especially if they are in a Shock Army.

[Ketza]

I am on a business trip to Sacremento this week and my connection is to slow to play a server game so no turn until Saturday.

[Ketza]

Upon opening the game the perilous situation of the 17th army had become dire. Some 12 divisions have been cut off. 17th army had started the winter weak and it had not covered its front well. Was it time to run or be bold? If you dont stand for something you will fall for anything....

Operation Mercury was ordered to be launched. The rescue of 17th army.

[Ketza]

The first action was to fix the situation of the northern pocket of 17th army:




Things are bleak but he has a rather weak wall of tank brigades blocking the way. A total reorg of 2nd PZ was ordered and counterattacks launched along the corridor crushing his tank brigades.

[Ketza]

The pocket is opened and the weary troops of 17th army are transferred to 2nd PZ.

[Ketza]

The more southern pocket is a bigger challenge. Many divisions sourrounded by a wall of tank brigades. Elements of 3rd PZ were in position along with a few rag tag divisions for the counterattack.



Once the pocket was breached the survivors would be escorted to safer ground and more elements of 3rd PZ as well as a fresh infantry Corp from Germany would shore up the lines.

[Ketza]

His wall of steel turned out to be rather weak. The pocket was broken rather easily and the survivors headed west.

[Ketza]

At the end of the turn 2nd PZ was reorganized and the situation somewhat stabilized. For the most part a gap was left between the lines to slow down and deliberate attacks and severl divisions pulled out for rest. Most of the attacks that were made were a success as his probing units and tank brigades were very weak.

[Ketza]

The large pocket was broken and things somewhat stabilized in the southern pocket as well. More troops are on the way and recon shows he has a ton of stuff inbound so the situation is still critical but at this point a few turns respite has been achieved.

[Ketza]

Kharkov front - pressure here was mounting but once again his tank brigades are weak and they were attacked where possible with his cav. Several attacks were made against his weak troops near Kharkov and he was pushed back.

[Ketza]

Kharkov final - 1 PZ corp from 4th PZ heads to Poltava that had been resting and forms a wall near his spearhead that had its tank brigades beat up and 6th army falls back one hex after a few punishing counterattacks.

[Ketza]

Far south shows more of the same of local counterattacks against weak units and falling back. Hopefully these tactics will buy a little time as its turn 30 and the blizzard is going to be winding down.

[Ketza]

South final:

Lines are realigned and a few adjustments made with commands.