Arstavidios Vs Pelton Soviet perspective

[Arstavidios]

Just a little post here to say I've been fairly busy over the last couple of weeks, and no time for wite.
hopefully, i should be able to resume the game sometime next week though probably at a slow pace.

i want to see how things turn out in 42

[Arstavidios]

turn 39
Snow offensive was launched by the Germans in the South.
Two panzer armies supported by minor mobile units broke my lines from the Stalino are to the coast creating a pocket.

one full army is trapped with elements of a second. all in all about 100 000 men and around 150 AP worth of units.

second line forces counterattacked with some success. Several of the minor allies units were routed, and some german divisions retreated but I could not reached the pocket. i'm still two hexes away, so I think they're dommed. I inflicted 10 000 casualties for a loss of 10 000 men

Some reinforcements have been sent. A shock army, the naval brigades army and a cavalry army. Several more reserve armies are available but I don't want to commit too many reserve armies at once.

there are two panzer armies left; although those are likely to be somewhat diminished as I hit quite a few mobile divisions during the blizzard, so they should be in quite bad shape by now and would need some rest.

I suspect the ones that attacked were those that spent the winter drinking schnapps well behind the front. There are 1700 german AFV now.

However the Germans also recieve a lot of fresh infantry, so other attacks along the front are a possibility. hopefully mud will soon be there.

I'm building a few rifle brigades every turn as replacement units as I'm likely to lose some units. for the moment rifle brigades are more coste effective than divisions to build. I should soon be able to merge some into divisions.

Along the front I'm reorganising everything shifting from offensive posture to a defensive one and also reorganising frontline armies and organising reserve armies.

I have 56 guards rifle divisions by now, but nothing else. Some guards cavalry could be nice. a lot of pionner units and other turned to guards. I suppose this won't hurt

[Q-Ball]

RE: Guards, that is weird you have no Guards other than Infantry.

I didn't try on the Cavalry, it just happened from Cav Corps making lots and lots of attacks

I did start to manage the Tank Bdes a bit; I went to the unit screen, sorted by "Wins", and made sure the High-win units joined easy attacks. I didn't start this until toward the end, and made 8 Guards Tank Bdes total, but that's enough for 4 Gds. Tank Corps.

I have 23 Guards Cavalry Divisions in my game vs. Tarhunnas.

[Arstavidios]

Turn 40
The Germans clean the pocket. they launch a few attacks along the line with mixed success.
In my turn I launch a few counterattacks. I manage to get some retreat results but a couple of blooddy repulses in the south spoil the turn. I suffer 20 000 casualties against around 7 000.  It looks that almost the whole Luftwaffe has been concentrated in the south in one giant airbase blob. There are two missing Panzer armies so far. no sign of Italians and hungarians either. I spot some Rumanians.

wit their reinforcements the Germans should get about 8 * 16 infantry divisions army 4 * 12 divisions panzer armies and some minor allies which male for 2 rumanian armies 1 Italian 1 hungarian and 1 finnish.enough to pack the front with 2 or 3 units stacks. with 1 500 000 losses the Axis will be in position to launch a strong summer offensive.

Meanwhile a lot of reorganisation along the whole front. I'm rotating units in the front line ang organising reserve armies. I keep buiding a few rifle brigades every turn to replace the losses.

During the mud my army should grow to almost 7 million men. However by that time axis should have between 5 and 5.5 million men. so winter 42 is likely to be harsh. my aim is to avoid major disasters. However I'll probably lose a lot of units .

[Arstavidios]

TURN 42

Mud has arrived.
I launched a couple of attacks against some weak spots in the line. Otherwise the massive reoganisation that was started late february goes on.

The German snow offensive has caused me some losses. On full army boblled with parts of two other armies. Crimea front is a total mess. Volga mD is disrupted and some reserve armies have joined the fray. the rest of the front remained quiet.

The whole of the German armoured forces are deployed there.

This turn I built my first tank corp. i'l group them with the cavalry corps into 5 mixed armies of 4 cavalry and two tank corps.
Guards will make 5 armies of 12 divisions and 6 brigades. that will turn into 6 guard corps startind in june. shock armies will follow the same model with regulars.

Those are my strategic mobile reserve. 9 big infantry armies 5 mixed mobile armies. All under Stavka command

frontline fronts are made of 3 armies each. 8 divisions and 4 rifle brigades.
From north to south:

Leningrad
NW
Kalinin
Volkov
Moscow MD
Bryansk
SW
Voga MD
Crimea

South front is in the crimea with 2 rifle armies holding the straits and the coastal army defending sebastopol with mountain divisions.

Local reserves are made of 2 rifle armies under stavka.
1 army of volkov front
1 army of Mocow MD
Western front with 3 rifle armies
Parachute army
Naval brigades that will make two armies

For the tank brigades, I think i will deploy some of them in the front line in static mode. They are quite cheap in manpower and armament, so they may help bolster the front line.also i have plenty of tanks piling in the pool. This way i may use some of those tanks while saving on trucks. Puting 5 brigades in static mode gives 15 APS enough to biuy an other 3 brigades.

However the units sorted out will take an other few turns. I'll need a lot of APs for corps, support units, replacements leaders......

By the end of the mud I should reach 7 million men with bout 5 million men in the rifle units. an other million would be fine

I have quite a few RR construction brigades and sapper regiments that were hijacked by front HQs. Now I'm locking the HQs.
will that prevent construction units from moving from one HQ to an other? will construction brigade in front HQs help with fortifications? Will the construction brigades in Army HQs help with repairing railroads?

I do not want to spend APs reassigning them to army HQs especially as they may move out again.

[Arstavidios]

In the South the german snow ofensive advanced several hexes.
Most of the Panzers are there. with mud giving me a respite i need to reorganise the Crimea front and my reserve armies.

I left most of my reserve uncommited as I knew mud would put an end to this offensive.
However his initial attack caught me with my pants down in that area as i was reorganising the front and the 2nd line forces were still to far away resulting in one full army cut off and anihilated. however this offensive necessitated the bulk of the panzers, leaving me with around 150 uncommited reserve divisions......

Meanwile I'm going to spend an other several hours on this turn moving units around.

[Arstavidios]

Turn  43 and 44
mud.
 
Organisation all along the front. hundreds of units moved each turn. reserve armies are getting set up. a lot of APs will have to be spent in organisation. It will take about one year before the new model red army emerges. meanwhile i'm spending points on support units and corps creation and reassignments. Several reserve armies have now been consolidated in the rear. i'll deploy them behind the front line in the coming turns.
 
The crimea front which was badly hit during the german snow offensive is slowly getting back to strengh. So the reserve armies that were comitted in the area get back behind the lines in support. reorganistaion is about 60% completed along the whole front. things should be almost complete next turn, except for support units which will take months to create.
 
so far the bulk of the German forces including almost the whole luftwaffe are still in the south.

[Arstavidios]

Ok july and august are gone. now is time to get back to serious things.
First clear turn of 1942 has turned and the Germans lauched a concentrated assault using almost all their mobile units.
this assault broke through the front line of the volga MD and ended up among my reserve armies, more specifically in the middle of the western front, with two guard armies and a regular army, under the command of Zukov.

3 guards divisions were isolated;

In the North the finns have withdrawn a few hexes. In the South some infantry attackswere lauched against the Crimea front which was pushed.

counterattacks were lauched againts the german armoured penetration. Only 3 attacks were launched but they were succesful, reopening the way to the 3 isolated guards units and isolating the tip of the german addvance with 8 mobile divisions and a ss mot brigade. My lines are fragile a only a couple of tank corps had enough movement to advance.

Meanwhile the reserve armies converged. There are now 5 guards armies, 3 shock armies, one regular army and 5 cavalry armies committed to the area. The whole of the Panzer forces are committed here.

Other areas have about one reserve army per front. Either from the front or a stavka army. I'm spending a lot a AP buiding support units.

With more mud coming the panzers are going to be stuck there for a while, and i will soon soon start building infantry corps.

at the moment I have about 20 cavalry corps and 10 tank corps. when june comes I'll be able to add 20 guards corps.

[Arstavidios]

Turn 48
Mud comes back. The Germans managed to push the lone tank corps that was isolating their spearhead. Not much else to report except for some airfield attacks.

Most of the Panzers are engaged in the southern attack. however there are a few divisions left so some prudence is required.

During my turn a lot of reoganisation again.

in the North leningrad fronf advanced to occupy a few hexes vacated by the fins. A lot of front line divisions were exchanged against fresh units. Frontline units are melting away at an alarming rate due to attrition. I now have about 6 850 000 men. The germans are back to 3 200 000 men. almost 5 000 000 men with the allies.

The whole Luftwaffe is concentrated south. The only airbases identified in AGC and AGN areas are army airbases. I bombed a few of them destroying some recon aircraft with little loss to myself. I also bombed a few HQs and some units but with little success.

Most of the activity was in the south with reserve armies moving into position. Volga MD is cut in two with western front taking position between the two halves. Quite a few Stavka armies are there too to shore up the line. 3 guards armies 3 shock armies and 5 cavalry armies and the nal infantry. I have three fronts/MD engaged in the area. Volga, that needs to be put back together. Western front which is a bit mixed up with stavka armies and crimea front which has recovered from its heavy losses. Transcaucasus front is organising

The three guards divisions that were cut off by last turn's breakthrough are back into my lines. The penetration went through my fortifications however so my units are now in the clear.  I may have time to build some level one forts in some places. The good point is that the Germans are also out of their forts.

I've put a few good generals at the head of those armies. This has cost me quite a few APs. I have about 90 APs left. this turn I created a new cavalry corps and some support units. I'm also attaching some support units to cavalry ans tank corps, but that's a slow process.

Front air HQs are starting to convert into air armies. I have almost 3000 85mm AA guns in the pool. I'm building a few PVO AA regiments. I hope they will eat those guns insteast of eating up 76mm guns. Can 85mm aa gun function in the same way as German 88mm? In which case this could make a nice anti tank barrier as well.

[Arstavidios]

 turn of clear weather the Germans turned North and managed to cut off 14 divisions and 7 brigades;
About 110 000 men and 175 worth of APs.
 
A few attacks in the North. Two against NW front that had advanced in empty hexes. one against a weak hex of bryansk front. also some attacks against the Crimea front.
 
in my turn most of the action was concentrated on reopening a way to the pocketed units. I managed to open a one hex corridor, but attacks to enlarge it were not successful. with failed attacks giving 20 to 1  losses you have to be somewhat careful. it's fairly easy to ruin your forces with a few unlucky attacks.
 
I spent quite a few AP assigning the best disvisions with CVs of 4 or 5 to the attacking armies. I hope it will be worth it. It would be good to keep the pocket open during the next couple of mud turns but there's nothing sure about it. The units there will probably be cut off again when nice weather comes back. But i may be able to keep those units alive until late june.
 
Western front has taken the place of volga MD which is regrouping behind the lines.
A reserve guards army was assigned to SW front. other reserve armies are plugging the gaps in the front line. I had to withdraw a few hexes.
 
Frontline units are bleeding heavily with attrition every turn and are losing strength regularly. i'm trying to rotate them and replace them with fresh troops but they don't recover fast enough and this opens some opportunities for some German attacks. Meanwhile German units are too strong to be attacked at the moment. I just cannot gather enough strength for the moment.
 
so basically most of the axis infantry is turtling and fortifying while the panzer divisions are concentrated in a single giant battering ram which forces me to commit all my reserves.
 
Tank and cavalry corps are still weak with CVs of 3. Hopefully I have quite a few good guards divisions. i expect to lose many of them during the summer but I reached the cap anyway. so i'd better use them up as i will get new ones anyway. Better fight with good guards than low quality regulars.