Axis strategy questions (reserves & front-wide offensives)

[fcam1387]

Hi guys,


Just wondering whether you guys retain a strategic reserve as the Axis (i.e. keeping some divisions attached to OKH or different Army Groups)? Is this even possible? I find myself basically putting all my units on the frontlines and rotating units out to refit...

Also, is it possible to launch another front-wide offensive as the Axis post-Barbarossa? It's April 1942 in my game and I am faced with three issues. 1) I need to push the Soviets away from Moscow in order to give my captured city some breathing room 2) I think that Leningrad is on the precipice of falling, but I need to conduct a savage attack once the mud dries 3) Army Group South has been shredded and I was pushed back to just West of Crimea. I am hoping to capture a large swath of the Ukraine.

Is a front-wide offensive for the Axis even feasible at this point (Germany has around 3.1 million men vs 5.6 Soviet). Or will it inevitably falter due to lack of manpower and supplies?


Thanks,

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: fcam1387

Hi guys,


Just wondering whether you guys retain a strategic reserve as the Axis (i.e. keeping some divisions attached to OKH or different Army Groups)? Is this even possible? I find myself basically putting all my units on the frontlines and rotating units out to refit...

Also, is it possible to launch another front-wide offensive as the Axis post-Barbarossa? It's April 1942 in my game and I am faced with three issues. 1) I need to push the Soviets away from Moscow in order to give my captured city some breathing room 2) I think that Leningrad is on the precipice of falling, but I need to conduct a savage attack once the mud dries 3) Army Group South has been shredded and I was pushed back to just West of Crimea. I am hoping to capture a large swath of the Ukraine.

Is a front-wide offensive for the Axis even feasible at this point (Germany has around 3.1 million men vs 5.6 Soviet). Or will it inevitably falter due to lack of manpower and supplies?


Thanks,

Hitler kept a mechanised 'fire brigade' usually in the form of an SS corps and otherwise rotated units out to refit/rebuild.

[karonagames]

You need to be thinking about the areas you want to attack, and adjust you TOE% accordingly. You should be able to get your panzers and about 40% of your infantry divisions up to 80% TOE, the rest will have to survive at 50% - this follows the historical path.

The 1942 Offensive is run on a bit of a shoe string, and the Soviet may be able to build defences that look quite daunting, but if you plan correctly for an echeloned attack, and are patient for about 3 turns, you may achieve a strategic breakthrough. It is not easy, but it can and has been done.

[coolts]

I am in a similar boat in spring/mud ’42. Once mud clears I may do a front wide attack for 1 or two turns just to punt the sovs from their comfy entrenchments and make my opponent worry, (or I may not, in order to save men), then, as I have Leningrad and the Finns protecting my northern flank, place all the 16th army on static with reduced TOE as there are no worthwhile strategic objectives north of Moscow, (unless I am missing something).

AGC/AGS and the open country they face give me much greater opportunities. Georgia looks tempting but i don’t fancy fighting across the Caucasus to outflank the Kerchenskiy Straight defences.
I am looking forward however to being able to sort out the bloated shambles that is AGS once the Rostov suburbs are mine (and AGS splits into two armies).

I am not going to be sucked into a ‘Stalingrad’ situation however, and attacking Georgia from the north would leave me open to a sucker punch from that area.

Decisions decisions….

[Peltonx]

I have had to generally focus one the south.

42 should be about pocketing as many Russian units as possible. You can striaghten the lines some every wheres, but simply digging in 3 rows deep during the summer of 42 along most of your lines will make it very very hard for Ivan to push you more then a few hexes during late 42 throught late 43.

Most poeple focus on pocketting units unless you have your enemy on the ropes, which doesn't happen very often.

Pelton

[coolts]

I am going to go hell for leather when mud ends to puncture his lines in a few key spots down south then my panzers can run riot. They have been getting polished and tuned all winter. [8D]

I will set a deadline for ending the summer offensives and beginning winter prep. 3rd week in September w/ 3 lines of forts? Or should I start digging earlier/later?

[Aolain327]

This is an interesting discussion. I am finding that playing as the German against a human, the question of "what to do in 1942," and the operations of 1942 are quite fun; much more so than the desperate dash in 1941 and the doom that hangs in the air in 1943.

[molchomor]

Against a human Soviet opponent (limited command points!) it might be possible to keep a reserve, but against the Soviet AI you would definitely need all those mechanized troops basically in the same place for every major offensive as you will be spammed with carpets of opposing units when you break through. I think I made a post in the past where I posted a pic of me falling into a totally empty Caucasus with 10 pz. divisions as spearhead, only to be facing 100+ units surrounding my troops the next turn. 

[Remmes]

ORIGINAL: Aolain327

This is an interesting discussion. I am finding that playing as the German against a human, the question of "what to do in 1942," and the operations of 1942 are quite fun; much more so than the desperate dash in 1941 and the doom that hangs in the air in 1943.

1942 is the year of decisions for the axis. Goes for all theaters. They went from high tide to serious ebb '42. Case Blue might have been decisive blow for the Axis had it succeeded. Turns out it was decisive the other way around. (I think Blue could have been a succes if the Germans would have managed to trap the Russians in the Don bend. They managed to flee because German armor was held up near Voronezh. Second mistake the redirection of the panzers to Army Group A....they could have reached Stalingrad and taken it if it weren't for the interference of the GROFAZ )