Providence Lost: A 42-45 multiplayer grand campaign game

[fiva55]

It seems that our intelligence was right. In the third week of May, the Soviets launch a major offensive in the southern sector. Unfortunately for us, they concentrated their attacks not on 17th Army, but on 2nd Army and 2nd Hun. Army. Taking advantage of the last days of clear weather before muds returns, the Soviets attack in force in this previously quiet sector of the front. Taken completely by surprise, 4 german division are now completely encircled, while their chance of rescue is made harder because of the mud.

[Klydon]

Ugh, but very nice job by the Russian in this case to take advantage of the weather. 

[Aditia]

A lot of turns played and finally some Soviet succes. Gotta hand it to Jajusha for tenacity

[Mynok]

You won't be relieving those guys with those CVs.

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


You won't be relieving those guys with those CVs.

True, that's why I committed my strategic reserve

[fiva55]

Feeling deadly tired atm with 2 early shifts this weekend and not enough hours of sleep.
So this will be a short update:
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The northern pocket (3 divisions) was freed by using one well refitted corps of 2nd army, but the southern pocket (1 div) forced us to commit one panzercorps of our strategic reserve.

Anyway, if Germany is really destined to lose in a slow attrition war with the Soviet Union, we might as well go out with one last bang. Hoping that the mud will force the Soviet recon planes on the ground, a trap has been set for the spearheads of the Soviets...

[fiva55]

The Soviet commander seems to be a cautious man, and reinforces his position rather then advancing further into the German lines. Still, instead of pulling back our reserves and wait for a new Soviet offensive, OKH authorizes a limited counter attack to raise the morale of the German Army. We may have been weakened, but we are still a force to be considered.

With a cv ranging from an average of 14 to 20, the divisions of 4th Panzer Army and 2nd Panzer Army strike into the flank of the Soviet spearhead. Though they encounter heavy resistance (stacks with a defensive value from 50 to 70), they manage to cut off the enemy most forward units. The question now remains whether the Soviets have enough forces to free their entrapped comrades


Tiger tanks leading the counter attack.
Not hindered by the terrain or bad weather,
these tanks would prove invaluable while
racking up an amazing number of enemy tank kills

[Mynok]

Ouch. That will put a hurt on him if it holds. Some valuable stuff in that pocket.

[DTurtle]

Hmm, looking at the CV values it seems quite possible to me that he could break out to the NW and E of the pocket and isolate a significant part of your forces there.

[Mynok]

Those CVs should drop significantly for the Soviet turn as they will be isolated. It is still possible that there is enough punch in the other Soviets to relieve the pocket though.

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


Those CVs should drop significantly for the Soviet turn as they will be isolated. It is still possible that there is enough punch in the other Soviets to relieve the pocket though.

I would say not likely he can punch through a 2 deep line. Any bets? [;)]

[Aditia]

Yeah, counter attacking in 1943 is costly. My opponent tells me that most of the units I rout are back in the frontline next turn

[Klydon]

Nice job there! At least 3 tank corps and some guards units. That should sting a bit. 

[Q-Ball]

I am closely following this AAR, to see if Fiva and team run into the same problem Tarhunnas did: Huge Armament shortage problem, followed by Wehrmacht collapse.

The stats from the post at the top look ominous; already 400K in the German Manpower pool. Your overall numbers are still OK, but let's see how that looks in July/August.

Fiva, if you haven't already, I would consider disbanding some Arillery and Flak units to conserve armaments. Limit construction of Fortified Zones.

Like Tarhunnas, you played a very good 1942, destroying nearly 200 Rifle Divisions, and piles of other formations. You are about to add more to the bag. Despite this, I predict a similar result:

A grinding early summer, with your Rifle strength dipping below 10,000 squads, followed by collapse in late 1943/early 1944

Hope I'm wrong, though.....

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Klydon

Nice job there! At least 3 tank corps and some guards units. That should sting a bit. 

There were 9 tank corps, most of them guards. Unfortunately, he had several more outside the encirclement.......
------------------------------------------
Trying to relieve their entrapped comrades, the Soviet throw in several more guard tank corps. A massive tank battle ensues. For the first time both side put their newest model tanks to the test. The first few days it seems that the quality of our men and tanks will prevail, but in the end their numbers overwhelm our panzers and we are forced to retreat. Within a week, we manage to cause at least 1300 tank kills, but at the loss of 500 of our own precious panzers.

Situation begin of turn 50



The Soviets, seemingly trying to demoralize our brave soldiers, have dropped pamphlets of the latest battle results over our frontlines. They also seem to have a grudge against our brave waffen SS divisions, for they seemed intent in pointing out that they managed to force back these elite divisions.

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

I am closely following this AAR, to see if Fiva and team run into the same problem Tarhunnas did: Huge Armament shortage problem, followed by Wehrmacht collapse.

The stats from the post at the top look ominous; already 400K in the German Manpower pool. Your overall numbers are still OK, but let's see how that looks in July/August.

Fiva, if you haven't already, I would consider disbanding some Arillery and Flak units to conserve armaments. Limit construction of Fortified Zones.

Like Tarhunnas, you played a very good 1942, destroying nearly 200 Rifle Divisions, and piles of other formations. You are about to add more to the bag. Despite this, I predict a similar result:

A grinding early summer, with your Rifle strength dipping below 10,000 squads, followed by collapse in late 1943/early 1944

Hope I'm wrong, though.....

Haven't bothered to disband anything yet except for the RHG HQ. I still get a steady amount of replacement (around 500k) each turn and I managed to grow my armanents pool to 13k. Though with the way the Soviets are pressuring me I'm pretty sure I will have to disband some things soon if I want to at last partly make up for my (tank)losses.

Edit: I was tempted to disband the artillery (Each inf HQ has 3 battallions), for most of the time they don't seem to get committed in defence anyway. In the end I decided against it, purely for historical flavour. I don't know whether there is really a SU commitment bug, but it evens out for me anyway, since it also means I don't get bothered too much by the Soviet defensive artillery when I attack. I will start thinking about disbanding stuff once my armaments hit under the 10k though.

[Q-Ball]

Looking at the stats, disbanding units to get the MANPOWER in them does you no good. You have plenty of men waiting for guns. Disbanding an HQ unit does nothing.

Disbanding the Artillery/Flak will mean that those units will stop requesting replacements, which will funnel more Armament points to replace lost Rifle and Divisional-level assets. That's the theory anyway.

You have an ARMAMENTS problem, not a Manpower problem

[fiva55]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

Looking at the stats, disbanding units to get the MANPOWER in them does you no good. You have plenty of men waiting for guns. Disbanding an HQ unit does nothing.

Disbanding the Artillery/Flak will mean that those units will stop requesting replacements, which will funnel more Armament points to replace lost Rifle and Divisional-level assets. That's the theory anyway.

You have an ARMAMENTS problem, not a Manpower problem

I know, I just automatically disband the RHG HQ in the first turn as a habit. Anyway, has anyone actually confirmed in practice that disbanding arty will raise armanents by a meaningful amount? Theoretically, lowering the TOE should also prevent SU units requesting too much replacements. I can confirm that lowering the TOE will raise your armanents, since I have been doing that once I noticed the drop during the summer of 1942.

[Aditia]

Lowering TOE seems a good way to go about it to me. Even disbanding a lowly arty Bn costs AP right?

[Ketza]

ORIGINAL: fiva55

ORIGINAL: Klydon

Nice job there! At least 3 tank corps and some guards units. That should sting a bit. 

There were 9 tank corps, most of them guards. Unfortunately, he had several more outside the encirclement.......
------------------------------------------
Trying to relieve their entrapped comrades, the Soviet throw in several more guard tank corps. A massive tank battle ensues. For the first time both side put their newest model tanks to the test. The first few days it seems that the quality of our men and tanks will prevail, but in the end their numbers overwhelm our panzers and we are forced to retreat. Within a week, we manage to cause at least 1300 tank kills, but at the loss of 500 of our own precious panzers.

Situation begin of turn 50



The Soviets, seemingly trying to demoralize our brave soldiers, have dropped pamphlets of the latest battle results over our frontlines. They also seem to have a grudge against our brave waffen SS divisions, for they seemed intent in pointing out that they managed to force back these elite divisions.

That sir is depressing. Essentially even odds looking at raw CV.