The Road to Smolensk, Diary of a Noob

[JWW]

Hi. This isn't much of an AAR, but I thought other Noobs trying out the "road to" scenarios and learning the game might be interested. Over the last week I was on spring break (I'm a high school teacher.) and tried to Road to Smolensk scenario after doing Road to Leningrad twice, once following the boot camp instructions and once on my own. Here is how it went.

1. I moved far to slowly and never got close to Smolensk and was stopped cold at the Dnepr river. Among other things I learned that I did not know how to do an opposed river crossing (Hint: you really need some infantry.) and think someone should do a thread on that. If it has been done, I've missed it. The Soviets won a major victory. I was also learning things like airdropping supplies and the such.

2. This time I move my panzers much faster and captured Smolensk but didn't capture enough other victory cities to win. Soviet minor victory.

3. This time I threw caution to the wind and threw my panzer groups out at full speed. I assumed the Soviets would retreat before the oncoming panzers. I open up a big hole and blew all the way through to Vitebsk and even Velikie Luki UNOPPOSED. I walked right in. I have this game in the bag, I thought. So in the Soviet turn they simply cut off those two panzer groups (The rest were closing pockets and the such.) and I spent the rest of the game trying to reach the isolated panzer groups. Now I know why some of those German general were always concerned about the flanks of the panzer spearheads. I did reach them and took Smolensk but was stopped just short of Gomel and lost again. Soviet minor victory.

4. This time I threw caution to the wind but peeled off units to protect my flanks. I quickly captured Vitebsk and Mogilev, brought up the infantry, and then powered my way around Smolensk. I also moved south faster, captured Gomel, and headed toward Bryansk, and moved north on Velikie Luki mainly with infantry. But it was still a near run thing. I encircled Smolensk on turn 8 but it didn't fall until turn 10, the last turn. I came up short against Vilikie Luki, too, on turn 10. I couldn't get enough offensive power to the river in front of the city, and fell just short. So the way the point system works, it all came down to Bryansk. I powered forward and finally on the last turn, my very last usable offensive unit, the 10th Motorized Division of the XXIV Panzer Corps reached the edge of Bryansk with enough points left to launch a hasty attack (actually two) and still occupy the city. It kicked out the defending Soviet division on the second attack and moved in with no movement points to spare. And that was it, except for letting the AI have its turn, but it didn't have anything around to attempt to retake Bryansk. Thus I won a marginal victory, 1229 to 1098 points. Bryansk is worth 150 points, so that was the difference.

I've had a tremendous time playing this scenario for a week. In fact I have to get up a 5 in the morning and it is 2310 local time as I right this while partaking in a glass of a good Australian wine to celebrate.

I've tried to post a screen shot. I've never done that before so don't know if it will work. Thought that might be instructive to some folks newer than me, and maybe some of you can tell how badly I botched up some things, too. Any criticism is welcome. Just realize I left things kind of messy on the final turn and would not have done it quite the same way in a campaign game. If I can't get the screen posted tonight I'll try again tomorrow.

And some questions arise. Like what is the very best way to launch an opposed river crossing operation? And what about moving forward my airfields? Did I position them well?

[Klydon]

Welcome!

Sounds like you have been gaining experience and learning as you go along, which is good.

Just some quick observations.

First, have you learned about refueling your panzers with transports and also do you know about HQ buildup to gas them up?

From your screen shot, it looks like you have a infantry corps marching around in the swamp. That is really too much force to waste in there. Especially with a "Road to" short scenario, you can afford to use your security forces (and not really worry about garrison duty) as a screen along the swamp. You need to get your infantry to the front as quickly as possible. The other thing is the cav division is far more mobile in the swamp, so if you want to "comb" the swamp out, the cav unit is generally your best bet.

Airbases I have a tendency to spread out in the woods. Two reasons for this. First, they are harder to spot if you are playing with fog of war. Second, by not having them stacked, they don't present as juicy of a target to the Red air force. Air units will also "stage" to other air bases to launch attacks, so having them spread out a bit actually helps with range, etc (watch the first turn air attacks as Luftwaffe units stage to various bases before launching attacks).

Major river defense is a major pain to breach, especially if the enemy is dug in and all you have is your mech units. Pretty much you need infantry to breach most of the time if you are trying a frontal assault. The other option with your tanks is to unhinge the line by moving. For the Germans, the land bridge between Dvina and Dnepr is a strategic spot they need to get to in a hurry before the Russians can dig in there. By holding that, you can outflank either river line although typically the Dvina is already breached from the north west.

I am still learning as well, but these are my opinions anyway. [;)]

[JWW]

Thanks for the response.  Yes, I had read about HQ buildup a few days ago and used that the last two times I played the scenario.  Airbases.  I thought I had read they could not be set up in woods, but I re-read the rules and found out you can indeed set them up in light woods.  I'll remember that. 

I am still unsure though of how close to the front lines to place my bases.  How far forward do I need to move them to keep them effective?

And, yes, I imagine a corps in the swamp is too much.  I had trouble in one scenario with bypassed Soviet unions advancing from the south, so I wanted to make sure I cleared them out.  I guess that was overkill though.

And if anyone is wondering about the huge gap I left on the southern flank between Gomel and Bryansk, I did that deliberately on turn 10.  I pulled several units out because I needed them to make initial attacks at the head of the penetration to reach Bryansk.  I used every movement point on every unit in the penetration I think to make it happen.  I know it left me vulnerable to those units being isolated by the Soviets, but it didn't matter because it was the last turn and I had to take Bryansk.  I would not have played it that way in a campaign game.

Fascinating game.  I learn more each time I play.  I think I'm going to run through every one of the shorter scenarios before I play a campaign game.

[mst3k]

Nice to see a short AAR from a fellow noob. I've learned a bunch from the forums, but a lot of the posts are too long, detailed, or advanced to be useful to me yet. Any chance of getting just a bit more? Two or three screenshots during the scenario with a bit of commentary about key decisions would be outstanding.