The Anti Bolshevik Crusade - Tarhunnas vs Q-Ball (no Q-Ball please)

[Peltonx]

Not much reason for him to fight in the front, as long as he are pulling back production units from every city other then Leningrad. The Russian player simply needs to fall back not letting you capture anyone, because of the short 20 mp hq build up. Hes fallen back to just over your limits and should be able to counter attack allot. Your MP's will be low so you can't do anything major other then pound out a few hexs with tanks.

Citys are window dressing, really meanless objectives as long as the russain player evacs production he be fine. Citys seem to be political in this game, only meaning something to the players.

You can bag Leningrad/Moscow/Kursk/Kharkov to Rostov kill 3 to 4 million Russians and he still have 5 to 6 million come winter and geared up just fine, IF he moved his production. Which he should be able to with all the rail points he gets. Seems to be no penilty for moving production unlike Fire in the East 12 months lost production.

AGN:Nice moves on your part so far in the North, I thk hes testing 1.04.22 to see what he can get away with. Leningrad is a must and tthe only city on the map that really means something.

AGC: I dont see why you have so much armor in the center? You can get to the river with allot less armor and there is nothing in the center other then Moscow, which if hes smart you never destory any of the production units.

AGS: There is not enough armor down here I beleive. The majority of production you can effect is in the south. Also the terrain is great for pockets, so you should be able to drop some production and drop some troops.

Your openings were really good, I learnt allot.

Pelton

[Mynok]

Still whinging I see. [8|]

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 6.

Leningrad front after German moves. Rail connections to Leningrad cut, and some of the industry is still there...

[Tarhunnas]

Cop fight! In a brilliant bout of truncheon fencing, our sec unit beats their sec unit! Our security beats their security - any time! [;)]

[Tarhunnas]

Central part of front after German moves. A new mid-size pocket formed south of Smolensk. I don't think it can be broken.

[Tarhunnas]

An the South after Axis moves turn 6. Panzers rolling on towards Dnepropetrovsk. The Reds appear to be defending the river in force. With their center crumbling and panzers at Dnepropetrovsk, that position will soon be irrelevant. But if they stay, so much the better...

[Aussiematto]

Very helpful AAR -- am playing a game against a similar defensive strategy -- what I call the Dnepr Deathline . Is actually giving me some interesting ideas for a radical new strategy.

Where is your 11th Army FBD>? (eg what route is it taking)

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: majeloz

Very helpful AAR -- am playing a game against a similar defensive strategy -- what I call the Dnepr Deathline . Is actually giving me some interesting ideas for a radical new strategy.

Where is your 11th Army FBD>? (eg what route is it taking)

Thanks! See my previous German AAR, the Wolf and the Bear, the Soviets tried something similar in the South (though not in the North and Centre) and that didn't work out too well for them in the end.

The FBD is near Odessa. I usually take the Kishinev - Odessa - Nikolaev - Zaporozhye route.

[Aussiematto]

The interesting alternative is to use the more northerly route. Having to get through Odessa can be a pain if the Russian really wants to keep you out; and, if you go northerly, you can help supply the middle panzers. But, the downside is you give away a realistic shot at the Crimea if you do it the other way.

Keep up the pressure! You are going to bust him in the centre soon I think...it feels he has committed more to the south.

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 7. A rather uneventful turn.

In the north, completed the severing of communications to Leningrad, but his defenses are strong, good fort levels both in the City and along the Volchov. This will not be easy.

In the center I eliminated the pocket south of Smolensk, and I sense that I am now coming up against his main line of resistance, apparently running roughly along the line Rzhev, Vyazma, Bryansk.

Down South, rolling along eastwards towards the Dnepr bend. Odessa fell.

Overview after German moves.

[Tarhunnas]

Losses turn 7. Soviet losses somewhat on the light side, no doubt due to the robinsky-like defense.

[Tarhunnas]

And destroyed units, same here.

[Flaviusx]

Q-ball is a good player, but as always, I think that Soviet runaways are a bad idea. Particularly now that factory evacuation costs have increased.

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Q-ball is a good player, but as always, I think that Soviet runaways are a bad idea. Particularly now that factory evacuation costs have increased.

He has managed to time it very well! The only factories I have taken so far are Minsk and Mogilev, plus there is a remnant left in Leningrad. There are no ones within easy reach either, there was in Bryansk this turn, but there was no way I could reach them, and I am pretty sure they will be gone next turn. Overall, I think his strategy is working pretty well so far. I am a little forward of where I usually am at this time, especially in the South, but I don't think that is significant.

[Flaviusx]

Yeah, but crunch time is coming. Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye take several turns to evacuate and you are knocking at the door. I'm not sure he can get the stuff out of there in time, and there's a lot of it.

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Yeah, but crunch time is coming. Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye take several turns to evacuate and you are knocking at the door. I'm not sure he can get the stuff out of there in time, and there's a lot of it.

I wish that was the case, but Dnepropetrovsk is empty and Zaporozhye only has some HI left. Bryansk and Ordzhonikidzegrad are full and within reach next turn, but he will be able to evacuate both those and Zaporozhye I think. No, I don't see any easy pickings the next few turns unfortunately.

I cannot use HQ buildup (20-25) MP from railhead, but that is not the real limitation, a HQ buildup is wasted if there is no infantry to create a hole. So, no sudden breakthroughs that can snatch a city or two either, at least not for a couple of turns.

Leningrad is so well fortified I am not sure I will be able to take it, or at least it will take lots of time. The rest of the front, I will just have to close up on his line with the infantry and hope I can do a buildup and blast a hole for some pockets and catch some industry around turn 9 or 10. Not trying to sound gloomy here, but Q-Balls defense is working really well, and I can't see anything I could have done much differently that would have changed things.

Edit: This shot is from a mid turn save, I did not leave that HQ like that (I hope [;)]).

[Flaviusx]

Interesting. And somewhat surprising. He must really be skimping on railing units in order to do this. Dnepropetrovsk alone is 146k rail cap to get the factories out -- that's the entire Soviet rail cap for one turn right there.

Keep up the pressure, and you may yet catch him. Stalino and Kharkov are also big rail cap sinks. So is Tula.

[Tarhunnas]

For completeness, here is a composite pic showing what's left in Leningrad. He has managed to get most of it out there too.

The thing is, it's not very expensive in rail cap to rail shell inf divs, so there is not all that much to save even if all the eastern divisions walk to the front.

[Ketza]

In is pretty easy as the Soviet player to evac everything I am finding. Just plan a turn or so in advance and toss a couple of units in the Axis way and rail it out.

[Peltonx]

See Mynok based on observations and data not complaining ( open a dictonary and read the difference you seem very confused) Q-Ball has been able to evac close to 95% of his production and pull back his troops from the bog, dispite Tarhunnas great game play upto this turn.

The Russian rail system is way over powered. then coupled with patch 1.04.22 its kind of a joke.

As I have been stating from day one when 1.04.22 came out the HQ build-up of 20mp's is way to short and makes evacing prodution way to easy.

You can see the good gains Tarhunnas has made up to turn 2. Then hes out of HQ supply in the north and center an has to pound out a few hexs a turn until turn 6. This gives Q-ball basicly 4 free turns of evacing production and troops, because Tarhunnas is unable to put any real presure on q-ball other then in the south.

This AAR really points out if the Russian player understands the game mechanics as per IE patch 1.04.22 he can simply fall back beyond the HQ build up limits and evac everything and not even have to worry about large encirclments or many small ones for that matter.

There is nothing Tarhunnas can do about this dispite his good game play. I still can see Tarhunnas making some huge gains in the south if he turns his center attack south, which would prove me wrong as far as me disagreeing with his not putting more tanks in the southern spearhead. But at this point all the Russian production is evaced or to far out of reach for him to bag.

No whinning or complainning needed, just the simple oberservations of the data [8D]. Not sure how Mynok personal attacks IE whinning helps out the game?

Try to refute my observations based on data. I might be 100% wrong, but I am not seeing it in this AAR.

You could point out I need a little spell check love[;)]

Pelton