A random blizzard AAR (no Traemyn please)

[Kronolog]

That's some insane battles. 18k russian casulties in one assault?  [X(]

By the way, how come your SS-pzgr divisions only have a offensive cv of two?

[olivier34]

they are in the mud... Yes, 18 OOO casualties...when my troops hold, those soviets suffer a lot but 18 000 men is just nothing for the red beast.

[bigbaba]

very nice AAR oliver. finaly someone manages to get to 43!

and you make him pay for every hex. the "vikings" preformance was indeed great.

[olivier34]

I am a little proud to get to 43 with this GC, started with the first patch but when I see other AARs with a soviet very far from Ukraine at the same date...Kiev have been lost by the germans in November 43...I would like to hold it until June...

[olivier34]

Turn 94 Snow, blizzard and a lot of attacks ! Look at the casualties...[:(],it is scary !

[olivier34]

It's not only the south which is threaten, here, north of Mogilev, my newline of forts is on the way to be bypassed. I need to counter attack this spearhead.

[olivier34]

I commit two corps in this operation. We push back the 3rd and 13th army but the price is heavy.

[olivier34]

Let's build back the line of defense which will be very weak.

[olivier34]

In the south, my best line of defense has been simply smashed...When I read AARs with the 1.5 beta version and see that the germans don't retreat so easily (rule change regarding 1/1 to 2/1 soviet attacks) I have the temptation to quit this GC, surrender to traemyn and start a new one ! My morale is low,...
But the french rugby team won against England ! They had played so poorly their pool games ! There is always hope [;)], never give up !

[olivier34]

I red that Manstein did use an elastic defense during 43. Withdraw so that the soviets supply lines will be stretched and then counter attack ! That is now my plan. First withdraw :

[olivier34]

When I started this GC, I did not know how to use the Command report window. Now I am an expect ! Let's turn the TOE of my low morale units to 50. I am very close to disband them ! Should I ? or should I use them to dig with the Italians new front lines ?

[olivier34]

Turn 95 MUD MUD MUD ![:D]
My 4th panzer did counter attack the past turn without reserves (I used the units which were at the front). The result is that I weakend most of the front and the soviets took advantage of it

[olivier34]

Strange...usually the lutwaffe does well but here...they did not fly any interception...

[olivier34]

CHERNIKOV is on the way to be surrounded...I have to reinforce there too.

[olivier34]

I don't have time to micromanage my SUs...but here is something to do if I am not wrong. Those corps are in the rear (Near the North Sea for a good rest, I know, they could dig somewhere but I want to give them a really cool rest) so they don't need all those SUs anymore...

[olivier34]

Turn 9§, 97 Mud everywhere.
Traemyn mailed me that because he had not a lot to do during the last turn, he decided to bomb my airfields to see what will happen.

[olivier34]

The fact is that because i don't have a lot of time to play, I have let the AI handle the air war and the SU things.
But here, I would like to have some comments of you guys about this result : I have lost 1106 planes ! 25 % of what I had ![X(]. "It is an air pearl harbor in the east"
I would say that at first I was a little furious ! It is 43, am I suppose to lose all my air fleet in the coming three turns ! Should I put them in reserve, save them for the final assault on Berlin ! It seems really that there is a problem here...
Let's understand :
Did I do some mistakes ? Yes, I found one : Up north, only 45 fighters and of course, when Traemyn did 30 attacks on my airfields there, after 5 of them, the sky was Russian and many axis bombers were destroyed on the field...But on the other part of the front, my fighters and fighter bombers were ready but in spite of that I lost a thousand planes.
Second thing : The soviets have around 32 000 planes....I had only 4000...
Third thing : Is that because of the default settings ? Should I change something ? The percent required to fly is to high now ?
If some of you could share with me there thoughts or even their knowledge of the air war in the east in 43, you would be very welcome ![&o]
traemyn ask me if we should stop the air field bombing thing...I said "YES" !

[olivier34]

Here is what Traemyn found . Here is the link http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=117575&p=1033888&hilit=+luftwaffe
The distribution of the Luftwaffe shows an even more striking shift from East to West from 1942 to 1944. This may be partly illustrated by the loss patterns. In general, they were as follows

Luftwaffe Losses (WF/EF):

1942
1-engine fighter 536/707
2-engine fighter 61/178
nightfighter 83/0
ground attack 169/457
bombers 690/957
total 1,539/2,299

1943
1-engine fighter 2,359/1,135
2-engine fighter 182/132
nightfighter 274/23
ground attack 518/905
bombers 1,164/3,128
total 4,497/3,128

1944
1-engine fighter 6,818/972
2-engine fighter 275/185
nightfighter 1,063/94
ground attack 345/1,237
bombers 1,217/425
total 9,718/2,913

An even more intriguing change may be seen if we look at just the three months May-July 1943 and witness the changes that occurred then. Looking at just single-engine fighters we find that the distribution of strength (as of the first of the month)/losses (during the month) were:

Luftwaffe Strengths (WF/EF)
May 1943
West 1,113/159
East 623/112

June 1943
West 1,361/173
East 533/58

July 1943
West 1,399/487
East 494/183

So over just a three-month period the fighter strength in the West increased by 20.4 percent, while that in the East decreased by 20.7 percent. At the same time losses in the West went from 14.29 percent of strength, to 12.71 percent, to 34.81 percent, while losses in the East went from 17.98 percent, to 10.88 percent, to 37.04 percent.

As of 1 June 1944 a rough breakdown of strength by type is (West/East):

1-engine fighter 1,400/560
2-engine fighter 220/137
nightfighter 834/101
ground attack 265/816
bombers 917/781
total 3,636/2,395

So we both agree that something is broken in the game here and that he won't do anymore airfield strikes. I will put some more fighters up north to be more "historical"

[olivier34]

Turn 98, Mud, turn 99, clear in the south weather zone.

[olivier34]

In the south, I decide to withdraw from Odessa...[:(]