Leningrad: the open door defence

[Hoooper]

Thanks for that Hermann, you make a lot of good points. I'd be interested in seeing your defence of Leningrad, if you have any screenshots.

Regarding your specific criticisms ...

1. I'm not suggesting you do defend the Luga, that's the whole point of my strategy.
2. Yes, as Jackson says. I will certainly do that in future. I just forget they're an option, but I have built some now.
3. Wouldn't that have been nice heh heh. But as Apollo said earlier, you just can't stop the Germans from achieving a breakthrough if they want it badly enough, since they can always out-concentrate the Red Army; it's what happens after that counts. Btw the breakthrough was actually at Neblochi.
4. Not sure I get this one - I put quite a lot of forces on the Krasno hills.
5. Interesting. What could I have done with them, apart from fend off the Finn?
6. I had a carpet along the Neblochi-Tikhvin axis, but it's a moot point whether it will be enough to hold the Germans. The present situation is given below, and as you can see it's touch and go. The Axis have reached the MLR in front of Volkhov, but it will be difficult to make further progress, in my opinion. The situation at Moscow is favourable to the Soviets, so I have the option of moving reserves east of likely Axis targets.

[Hoooper]

Turn 16

[Jakerson]

Black line is line that you must hold at all cost. You have to build it so strong defencive CV that germans need to delibarete attack with 2 full stacks of troops to break it. This should help you to hold it until mud comes.

Dashed black line is where you can afford to lose ground you can pull troops there to support flank of black line.

Redline show where you can pull back to shorten line but leave units behind to delay germans.

[Hoooper]

I agree with all of that! I could have liquidated my position in the red zone last go, mainly to get divisions out of the pocket, if one does form. In the end I kept them there to cramp AGN and slow down reinforcements. The black line is reasonably strong, or at least as strong as I can make it with three divisional stacks. I can't wait to see what happens next ...

[Klydon]

Now is when you bring the kitchen sink from other theaters. The Germans have one more turn of clear weather and he is crazy to be in that salient. I would not withdraw the red arrow guys at all. Keep the neck of that base as tight as you can because the German logistics are about to turn into real crap. I would be shoving as many troops as you can on the east side of the salient, hope he tries to do something during snow other than withdraw and then crush him in December. He has at least two armies of troops in there.

The three open spots in the Leningrad line? Shove some troops in them and get rid of those German forts. You got some cav divisions over by the salient. Run one over and I bet the Germans get real concerned real quick as you push west and south from the Leningrad area.

[Hoooper]

That's really good advice, and I'll follow it if he doesn't get a pocket next turn. I should add that we're playing random weather, so there's no guarantee that turn 18 will bring the rasputitsa (as far as I know).

[Hoooper]

Turn 17 before Soviet movement. The MLRs have held and the panzers have squirted off to the east. I am now pretty confident Leningrad will not be isolated.

[Nikolaj]

This is great stuff! I'm only now learning how to play this game, even though I bought it last year, but I've learned enough that I can at least follow most of the discussions in this thread. You approach is very interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. It looks like it's working pretty well, though, so kudos to you.

I can't wait to try some of this stuff out myself. Thanks for posting it.