End of AAR 76mm welcome

[Ketza]

Most of 4th, 9th, 2nd and 16th armies things were slow. I made a few succesful tank brigade attacks and some minor adjustments. The troops that had been digging in the rear head to the front. He has not been very agressive here and he wont even make it to my fort lines before snow so things are fine here.

[Ketza]

Losses are way down now and the attrition seesm to be trailing off a bit. I hit his tank brigades pretty hard this turn and killed some 100+ T-34 and KVs. I think I routed a good 12 brigades and made several others retreat.

[Ketza]

Advice from the forum says to put the luftwaffe in the reserve but I have decided to use it. I think several of my attacks were a success because of that. I am also killing a lot of Soviet bombers who are flying unescorted on ground attack and interdiction.

[Ketza]

It was a stressful turn but a real challenge to try and save 17th army who for now live to fight another day:

[Ketza]

Things are still a bit stressed but the front is starting to take shape. I am giving ground but not in huge chunks. It does look like I will lose one infantry division this turn but it cannot be helped. He did lose another 300 or so tanks this turn from my counters. 300 tanks a turn in losses will hurt him the upcoming summer I think.

[Ketza]

The Kharkov salient was a big decision to make. I think I could have held the whole line another turn but he had some very big stacks in position to lay doen a hurting so I decided the prudent thing to do was fall back one hex after making some local attacks. The line is fairly strong and the organized withdrawal will prevent any major disasters. 4th PZ was redeployed near poltava and made sevceral counters that all succeeded.

1st PZ made a few counters and also fell back. 11th army and Rumanians are staring at a slight build up but he doest have any back up.

[Ketza]

17th army is getting closer to being out of the weeds. The last corp of 3rd PZ and another corp from Germany arrive. Many local attacks drive back his spearheads. He has a ton of stuff enroute but the stuff he has close to my lines is weak. It will be another 2 turns before he arrives in strength according to recon. By then I expect to have a solid line fresh troops. 2nd PZ and 4th army fell back one hex. One division from 2nd PZ was trapped and resupplied but is in no position to be saved.

[Ketza]

Losses are somewhat steady. I am not losing as much as I thought I would. My guess is the disabled are coming back. I have a consistent 5-6k squads in my pool. ANy comments on my casualty situation would be appreciated.

[Ketza]

Lastly the strategic screen.

He only has a 1.6 million man advantage. Compared to other AARs this seems to be a good number.

[Ketza]

I forgot to mention Sumy was recaptured. It was a bit exposed so in order to straighten the front it was abandoned.

[Ketza]

Finished turn 31 but I forgot to take screenshots.

I abandoned Bryansk this turn and finally 2nd PZ is in the total clear. All 3 PZ corps were moved back to raillines as reserves.

4th Army launched a few local counters routing several tank brigades.

3rd PZ launched a major counter and knocked back several of his seemingly impregnable stacks. 2 stacks of tank brigades were also routed and a solid line was formed. It is safe to say 17th army is now safe. He did recapture Sumy but it was not defended.

4th PZ is 5 hexes away from the 3rd PZ and 17th army sector. A few counters against his tank spearheads sent a half dozen of them packing. He is pushing hard here towards Poltava but its like water in a stream bed. A line is slowly started to form in front of him as well as the sides.

He didnt attack Kharkov and I left a token regiment there as I pulled back a hex for the whole southern front excpet along the Dnepr and near Zaporzhe where I have a line of mountain units. All of 1st PZ was withdrawn and placed in reserve.

This turn I noticed a major uptick in unit strength. Hopefully the worst is behind of the Blizzard and things will steadily improve the last 5 turns of Blizzard.

In a strategic sense I am pretty much where I had hoped to be with a somewhat intact army and still solidly on the east side of the Dnper with the Smolenst area still under my control as well as Leningrad. 18th army with 12 Divisions was not commited and 16th army is still in very good shape.

[Ketza]

Turn 33 - North is quiet and pulled several divisions out of the line and adjusted the finns a bit. Very little fighting.

[Ketza]

Center - He made a few attacks and left some tank brigades ripe for counters which was done and the breaks were sealed. No real pressure here and the Panzers are resting on railheads.

[Ketza]

South - 17th army and 3rd Pz launched several attacks and routed several stacks of Soviets. Lines were then adjusted.

4th Pz and 3rd Pz link up and rout some tank and cav units. Both PZ armies are showing 6-7 CV values and are in good shape.

6th army also launched a large attack on some brigades hung out to dry and routed a stack. 6th army strength is good so it was decided to not fall back this turn to see if it could take what his big stacks can dish out. There is no danger of a jailbreak or major disaster so its worth a shot.

11th Army countered his assault over the Dnepr and routed a cav/tank group rather easily with SS and mountain units. Most of 11th army is also holding its ground to see what he can do now that CVs are up quite a bit.

The 2 major cities are the new home of recovering PZ divisions who are seeing a nice bounce back.

[Ketza]

The focus on his tank brigades and weaker stacks contunued and he lost another 300 or so tanks. At this point Im actually attacking more then him which is odd but seems to work as long as I stick to easy attacks and get good odds. These attacks give me a good ratio of losses. In most cases after the attacks I have fell back one hex which leads to a nice buffer zone.


Rats forgot the losses screenshot!

At this point he is running out of time to make any strategic advances that may have severe consequences and the planning for the spring offensive and marshalling of forces has begun. AGC HQ is full of combat enginners and artillery and there are some 15 full strength infantry divisions in reserve.

I really expected to be back near Mogilev in the center so my "better then I tought it would be position" is allowing me to entertain some different ideas for the summer offensive.

[Ketza]

2 quick turns without a lot of change along the front. Contemplating an offensive in the North as his lines are fairly sparse here. A strike deep and a curl north or soith to create a pocket.

[Ketza]

In the center I gave a few hexes here and there and counterattacked his weaker stacks. He is weak here compared to the south as well. I initially did not intend to try for Moskva in 42 but if he continues to show weakness here the idea is on the table.

[Ketza]

In the south he still hasnt captured Kharkov - not sure why - his stalling tied down the front and I eventually managed to get out 2 regiments of the division I had left in the city. Also this left him open for several good counterattacks.

[Ketza]

Although his attacks were weathered pretty well it was decided to pull back a hex along most of the 6th and 17th army front. Most of the PZ divisions had pulled out of the line for rest to prepare for the upcooming better weather so it seemed prudent to drop back and consolidate. he once gain broke over the Dnepr in the Rumanian sector and was thrown back.

I looked at all his attacks and he had taken a beating even when he forced me to retreat. I then countered his weakened stacks and made a dozen divisions and brigades rout. There seems to be a good tradeoff as the units he "won" with have pretty much been routed every turn so I have yet to see any guards units unless of course he is pulling them out of the line.

[Ketza]

Casualty wise he lost almost 500 tanks in the last 2 turns. I am unclear what he gets from production each turn but his number of tanks on the OOB screen is remaining steady.

I repositioned 18th army in Germany and to my surprise all of its divsions were in the mid teens for CV. One was even a 17. I came very close to commiting those divisions during the 17th army crisis but rolled the dice on 3rd PZ coming to the rescue. The original plan was leave 3rd in germany the whole time but looking back on the blizzard that was a pipedream.

So far offensive ops the following is in good shape even during the Blizzard:

3rd PZ - 12 PZ and Mot divisions 6+ CV
1st PZ - 9 PZ and Mot divisions 6+ CV
4th PZ - 8 PZ and mot divisions 5+ CV
18th Army - currently 20 full strength (10-17cv) divisions

Im pretty sure the PZs will come in over 10 CV at a minimum when the weather turns.