End of AAR 76mm welcome

[Ketza]

In the 16th army sector another Panzer corp made its presence felt in what appears to be an area he is building up in. I really dont forsee him getting far in the area and there is a strong defensive position to fall back to if things get out of hand.

[Ketza]

A few items to mention:

1) All of the Panzers are off the line but still somewhat active. I am rotating Panzer armies between making local attacks and sitting on rails in refit mode. Almost every section of the front can have 1-2 full strength Panzer corps react to a situation.

2) 1/4 of the infantry divisions are on refit at any given time and there are some 12 infantry divisions in reserve and digging trench lines. Artillery toe is set at 50% across all infantry divisions to try and reduce losses from retreats. Average German infantry CV is between 7-8 with some units on the high end with 11 or 12.

3) His partisan activity has dropped way down since the patches and has been rather ineffective.

4) Fall back lines are being dug in various sections of the front.

I really enjoy the challenge of the Axis in defending. My main concern is the mechanics being such that even having a rather strong Axis army I will be hard pressed to be successful because of various issues that I cannot impact through quality game play.

We will see!

[Ketza]

Name changer!

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Ketza

My army is in excellent shape yet last turn 76 launched 5 attacks but I only held one hex because of the 1-1 to 2-1 rule. The more I think about that rule in 1942 the more it frustrates me. In all cases in these battles I suffered the same if not more in casualties and lost the hex in cases where he had even odds. This rule needs to be changed starting in 1942. At its core it just does not make sense that defending German troops suffer equal or more casualties in battles where the odds are essentially equal.

Ketza, out of curosity, of the 5 Russian attacks that succeeded, in how many did he have 1:1 or greater final odds but less than 2:1? In other words how many of the 5 would have failed if he had needed the same 2:1 odds as the German? If I am reading your post correctly I think you are saying all of them, but I'm not sure.

[Ketza]

I cant recall exactly but my cursory look at a few of them just confirmed what I had been seeing in all of his attacks in 1942. I will look more closely next turn and post some screenies.

[Peltonx]

Yes I am finding that tanks are usless in the front lines come 42. Great for counter attacks and breakthoughs, but thats it. The infantry rule the battle field.
If you are just attacking to take hexes its a waste of resourcses you will need later. Only attack if you can pocket Russians, this will put the losses in your favor. Other wise it be 1 dead german for every 1.75 dead Russians which is not good enough.

Let him grind away on your dug in infantry.

not sure if I asked , but what did you manage to bag for production units?

Pelton

[Ketza]

The problem with going for pockets as the Axis in 1942 currently (from my experience against 76mm) is the fact that it is very easy for the Soviets to counterattack your pocket walls in most cases as your Panzers are not in forts. With a few stacks of Soviet infantry divisions backed by a few hundred planes easily getting the 1-1 shift your Panzers will retreat and lose a lot of combat power when they do. I would rather cause casualties with my Panzer forces attacking then lose them in retreats. For the long haul to 1945 hanging anyone out to dry not in a fort is non productive.

I have found the best rate of return on casualties is being on the defensive in forts with infantry and attacking the Soviets in the open with Panzers whenever possible. This is not going to lead to massive pockets but for my game currently those days are gone anyway.

Granted if I see an opportunity I will take it but I do not see 76mm making those kind of mistakes. Most of my current attacks are to attack his stuff not in forts and cause him air casualties. Both strats are working pretty well.

As far as HI and Arm I have killed that is kinda fuzzy. I am pretty sure I killed everything in Leningrad, Kharkov and Stalino with a few smaller towns tossed in. Maybe 10 or 15% of his total? Not sure.

[Peltonx]

Your in the same boat I am in vs Hoooper. I thk we both did not do enough production damage or just enough, only one way for us to find out. I thk vs Arstavidous I did more then enough so I thk summer of 42 be ok.

I need this game vs Hoooper to go into 44 atleast so I know what needs to be done when to get atleast a draw. I am closly watching this AAR also.

I thk your doing better with air war which I need to do better at.

I set my AA to 75% for now so that should help.

Hmm putting air bases in citys with AA might help or with ground units with AA. I try that see what happens.

Pelton

[Ketza]

My cap (air intercept) is set at 160% atm. I am thinking of raising it higher actually.

[Tarhunnas]

No updates for a while?

[Ketza]

Turn 64 OOB

Keeping his army around 7 million while mine is pretty consistent with strength and growing a little.

[Ketza]

Turn 64 Axis offensive losses. Each turn I am mounting attacks where it looks like I will get victories. I have switched it up a little bit and I am hitting his higher CV areas as I have noticed my losses are pretty consistent no matter what I attack. This turn I once again hit the 3-1 casualty rate in my favor.

[Ketza]

Turn 64 air losses. Another big week for the Luftwaffe. Around 50% of his losses are IL2s and Laggs.

[Ketza]

Here is one of my fighter squadrons showing the immense number of aircraft kills it has.

[Ketza]

And these guys with 99 exp!

[Ketza]

Turn 64 production. I dont look at these screens very often. I was surprised at all the airframes I have sitting in warehouses.

[Ketza]

This turns fighting.

[Ketza]

64 North - He has pushed here a bit in the 16th army sector but local reserves and the 48th Panzer corp have pretty much shut him down with counterattacks. There are a few level 3 fort lines to fall back on if things get hairy. 9th army is in good shape as well in very strong forts many of which are level 4.

[Ketza]

Turn 64 AGC - Fairly quiet sector/ Level 4 forts and more fort lines being constructed in the rear. wnd Panzer army s very strong and has been rotating a few Panzer corps and using local attacks where the opportunity arises.

[Ketza]

Most Panzer CVs are in the 12-14 range but 7th and a few others are in very good shape: