Road to Smolensk (Axis) AAR - newbie

[jzedward]

I bought WitE a few months ago with excitement, but didn't really get going until last week, having found the and played through excellent Road to Leningrad tutorial/AAR from von Jaeger.

By way of intro, I was a keen boardgamer a long time ago, and have a copy of Avalon Hill's PanzerGruppe Guderian in the loft, but recent PC wargaming has been more beer'n'pretzels with Time of Wrath, rather than the WitE feast.

My next step was to play Road to Smolensk (as Axis) on Easy (sorry...) with Fog of War (FoW) off. Having finished my game I thought that it would be only right to return a little knowledge to the community, hoping to encourage another newbie to advance their experience, so I am working through my save games to prepare this AAR (with 20/20 hindsight).

The first few turns of Road to Smolensk are critical, and I had a couple of abortive attempts with badly mauled Panzers before this game. (I also tried out the 3 turn Minsk scenario first).

Turn 1 - Overview
Reviewing the dispositions and objectives, the first priority is to understand where your Panzer corps are located, and their objectives, and the constraints that the terrain puts on you. They can cover enormous distances, at the risk of isolation, and the desire to streak across the Steppe has to be balanced with the risk of leaving the infantry too far behind, or failing to seal a 'pocket' of Soviets and allowing them to escape.

The map below outlines the strategic position and location of the Panzers.

[jzedward]

For reference, here is a fascinating Soviet map from DevHub with the Russian version of the German forces. I don't know if this is contemporary - if the Russians did know this it didn't help the defence!

[jzedward]

and an easier to understand representation from OperationBarbarossa.net

[jzedward]

This scenario demonstrates the challenges of making an opposed river crossing, so siezing the land bridge between the Daugava and the Dnepr in the triangle formed by Vitebsk, Mogilev and Smolensk is critical to success.

My plan is:
North - send LVI Pz to Velike Luki, XXXIX Pz to Vitebsk (and on to Smolensk) and LVII Pz to Minsk and (and on to Mogilev)
South - In tryout scenarios I learned to avoid the Prypat Marshes, so the plan is for XXIV Pz to target Gomel, XXXXVII Pz to Mogilev and on to Smolensk, and XXXVI Pz to close the pocket in the salient and drive on to Minsk.

What happened when the reality of battle collided with the plan?

[jzedward]

Learnings from turn one, were that I didn't actually need the Panzers to crush the Soviets in the salient, the overwhelming strength of infantry made that easy in any case. With hindsight, I probably used too many infantry units for unnecessary attacks, as the Sovs could be mopped up later - I should have assigned some units for battle, and the majority to drive onwards to support the Panzers.
You'll see that I also over-extended in the drive to Minsk.
For any readers that haven't read the Leningrad Tutorial, spreading out motorized (or sometimes Pz) divisions to extend lines of supply (see NW of Minsk) is an essential tactic to keep in touch with supply lines.
The marshland to the south is also a great way to grind to a halt...

Below is an excellent graphic of the historical advance from OperationBarbarossa.net

[jzedward]

So, here's the Russian response, and the dispositions at the start of turn two at the centre of the southern theatre around Minsk. As expected, the Minsk Panzers are (briefly) cut off from supply, which will slow the advance. However, the drive for Vitebsk in the north (not in the shot) has maintained supply and will be key to success.

[jzedward]

At the end of turn two, Minsk has been taken, and the Panzers relieved, but at a slight cost to the campaign in the south.
Vitebsk has been evacuated in the North, and will be taken successfully in turn three. Off map to the north is a pocket of Sovs above the Daugava/Dvina which risk being cut off.

This graphic shows the battles and highlights my lack of use of air support - I should have moved the airbases forward at the end of T1

[jzedward]

and another nice graphic of the historic campaign.

My campaign has been more successful in the South, rather than driving quite so quickly across the Dnepr to Smolensk (SM in the pic), time will tell if this enables me to create an even bigger pocket of Sovs around Smolensk

[Helpless]

I don't know if this is contemporary - if the Russians did know this it didn't help the defence!

This is pure post war illustration (very modern, btw). And of cause they didn't know that. Pavlov assumed that main (panzer) assault will be from Suwalki and estimated the size of enemy forces around Brest up one motorize Corps.

[jzedward]

Before a break in posting, here's my strategic situation at the start of T3, note the inviting empty spaces between Vitebsk and Rzhev - it'd be different with FoW on (next time...)

[mst3k]

Very nice to see another AAR of a short scenario from the noob perspective. These are very helpful to beginners, I think. I'm looking forward to seeing how things go/went. I remember this being a hard scenario, and I didn't get a good result (medium difficulty with FoW). I think I had a minor defeat as the Germans.

I am now playing through Moscow, which is sort of the expanded version of this scenario. I'm getting close to Moscow and have just pocketed a *huge* chunk of Soviet forces just around and east of Smolensk. But, there are only a few turns left, I'm at the limits of supply, and aerial recon shows there are still forces in Moscow (of course). Very tense.