Disaster in the making. Oloren (axis) vs Terje (USSR)

[Q-Ball]

Gorky is a massively tempting target, but also really tough to take. Don't think I have seen anyone ever do it. Besides being really deep in Russia accross lots of difficult terrain, the immediate terrain around Gorky doesn't help the Germans a great deal. I mean, you're 4 hexes from Vyazma, Gorky may as well be on the moon at this point for him.

I would also hold-off any evacs until places are threatened.

[terje439]

Turn 38

Mistakes made
I was too perplexed to write down some German general names [:(]

Overall
We ran out of steam. This turn most of our CV was reduced drastically all along the line. As a result we only found room for 4 attacks, which all resulted in the attacker holding the line. The Axis however launhed 4 attacks on partisans, as well as 2 on our proper forces. The latter two resulted in a rout and a shatter.
We did however bleed the Axis in a couple of other ways. First of all we eliminated some 30 bombers and 20 fighters from the German OOB this turn. Then our bomber crews decided to wage a bottle of vodka on who could kill the highest ranking officer. This resulted in the general of the XXXXVII Panzer Corps being killed. Further south, the VII Corps had a really confusing day. The first air raid killed their general. Then the second raid killed their new general, then their new new general, followed by their new new new general before killing the new new new new general, for a total general loss of 5!! generals in this corps during the turn.
Losses were reported at 61.000 Axis troops to 91.000 Soviet.

Industry
Being outvoted 2:1 (which when calculated for know-how and experience becomes a 20:1), we did not evacuate anything this turn with one exception. We moved 2 armaments factories and 2 Heavy Industries from Kerch. The reason for emptying this city is that the Axis does not have to push far to cut the rail line into the peninsula.

Units
We lose one armored brigade this turn, but recieve 3 divisions. We also order the formation of one infantry division and three cavalry divisions. Three cavalry divisions are also ordered to form yet another cavalry corps.
Due to the low ammount of losses this turn, we gained a net total of 195.000 troops in our units this turn.
Also, even better news is the creation of 5 Rifle Guards divisions this turn, bringing our grand total up to 7 Rifle Guards Divisions and 1 Guards Airfield.
Another airfield was disbanded this turn. Hopefully this will soon stop.

Worries
The CV reduction. Have to really look into that if things are not better next turn.

[terje439]

Turn 39

Overall
Well, I realized why our CV values dropped. The blizzard ended, we are now down to "snow". With that, it seems we are also at the end of our offensive capabilities. No attacks where conducted as the best we could hope for was a 14:17 CV attack in our disfavour. The Axis only attacked our partisans this turn, so it seems we are down to a staring contest for the time being. Losses are stated at 37.000 Axis and 78.000 Soviet troops.

Units
2 divisions arrive, and we have no losses. Our strength increae by 196.000 troops this turn.

Worries
A few comes to mind, shall we remain at the front untill mud before finding our defensive positions? Also, and this is a bigger concern, we are down to a mere 52 labour squads...

[terje439]

Turn 40

Overall
Well, the time period where we could launch attacks is definitively over, so no attacks are made with the usual exception of aerial bombardments, and our lone artillery regiment trying to do some damage (with no success might be added).
We take some time to readjust some HQs in terms of positioning, units attached and regiments under their command.
The Axis launch 5 attacks on partisans, but this is merely keeping up with the formation of new partisan units. All his attacks resulted in retreats. The losses were light this turn with a mere 30.000 Axis troops and 75.000 of ours.

Units
2 new rifle divisions are promoted to guard status, we are on our way to really become the RED Army. 1 new division arrive this turn. Total strength increase is 168.000 troops this turn.

Worries
Our troops are not really doing a good job in terms of digging in.
Also the strength increase ratio shows some disturbing trends. If we cannot field better planes than the Axis, we need more in terms of numbers, but the winter shows the opposite trend.

[TulliusDetritus]

I think you see the glass half empty. You have a Red Army of 6.5 million soldiers [:)] By june you should have minimum 7 million. Before 1.05 you could safely say the Axis would be in trouble. Now we will have to see. I am about to start the Blizzard Massacres on my game as well (turn 22). I almost hit the 5 million soldiers. I would love to finish the offensive with your numbers!

[TulliusDetritus]

Perhaps the big difference: pre 1.05 you could see the Germans had most of the time (by the end of Blizzard) 2.7, 2.8 or 2.9 million soldiers. Here they have 3.3. A big difference: between 400.000 and 600.000 men [8D]

[terje439]

I think the big issue is me not really knowing what to expect since this is my first game hehe.
But still, I do find the aerial numbers somewhat troubling.

Terje

[terje439]

Turn 41

Overall
The good times are over. The Germans launch 3 atatcks on partisan units, causing 3 retreats. That we can live with, however they also launch no less than 35 attacks on our line, causing 1 scouted, 2 held, 2 scatter, 8 rout and 25 retreats. THAT is not good. Orders are given to leave brigades in the front and retreating our divisions, once more adapting the "carpet"-tactic on those places where we have a low CV value and no or low level forts. It is estimated that the Germans will now once more push east, and there is nothing we can do to stop them with our 1CV units.
Losses however were not high, the report claims 0 Axis losses (we decided to rest our airforce this turn) to our 67.000.

Units
We lost one division and 1 armoured brigade. Since we did nto recieve any reinforcements this turn, we decided to make alot of units ourself. We order the creation of 9 rifle brigades. These will act as cannonfodder and will only recieve minimal reinforcements. Furthermore to prepare for the next month of April, we create 12 armoured brigades. These will be combined into 4 armoured corps in time. We will also start to gather our armoured brigades from around the maps and reform these too into corps. Hopefully that will give us a slightly higher CV than 1...
With such low casualties, we gain a net increase in our divisions of 199.000 troops.

Worries
Are we running low on fuel??

[terje439]

Turn 42

Overall
April 1942 [&o]
Gotta love mud [&o]
No Axis attacks on our line, but 6 partisan units are forced to retreat. We use our airforce for all it is worth. Our losses are about 1.5 times that of the Axis, which I consider a very good result. Our aerial bombardments cause quite a bit of damage. When the scores are added up, the tally comes out at 11.195 troops, 55 guns and roughly 360 enemy planes killed/destroyed. Since we do not launch any attacks, losses are low on both sides with 34.000 casualties on the Axis side and 59.000 on our side.

Units
1 division arrive, but three Cavalry Corps disband this turn. That is not good.
We create a total of 9 armoured corps this turn, and are now all out of CPs with yet another 30 or so armoured brigades on the map.
Although our losses are low, the reinforcement rate this turn is somewhat lower too, so we end up with a strength increase of 165.000 troops.

Worries
We ARE running out of fuel [X(]

[terje439]

Turn 43

Overall
Another quiet turn. We tried something different with our airforce this turn, in that we targeted the BF109 airfields instead of the bomber airfields. I do not think I will do that again. Also it seems that adding more fighters to the attack only increases my losses, so it seems better to fly with a 1:1 ratio between fighters and bombers than a 2 or 3:1. Bomber losses are the same no matter which setup I chose, but the more fighters, the more fighters I lose.
No attacks by us, and the Axis only attacked two partisan units causingthem both to retreat. Losses are reported at 2.000 Axis to our 58.000, so guess that is another turn where something is askew with the losses screen.
Good thing is that our fuel is back up to 9526 this turn, the numbers looked scary, but I also noted that all refinery are working at 100%, and that we do in fact have excess oil, so not much I can do to bolster that number it seems.

Units
We create 3 armoured corps this turn, increasing the grand total to twelve. No units arrive, nor do we create anyone this turn. 199.000 men arrive, but the casualties of 58.000 leaves us with a net gain of 141.000 troops this turn.
I also took a look at what our units are short on, and the list is long. Support, light flak, AT guns, mortars, light mortars, machineguns, infantry-AT, rifle squads, smg squads, engineer squads, artillery, aamg, sp flak are those usually lacking in our units. Well, we have quite a lot of those in stock, it just seems we are not able to get them to our units fast enough.
The only thing I am lacking, is for my armoured corps, and that is the scout vehicles, this is most likely due to the somewhat low ammounts of factories we were able to evacuate, I only hope they will expand as I was told.

Well, to be honest it does not really matter anyway as even with a 100% TOE our units hardly shows higher CV values than 2 (in good weather conditions, in mud they are almost all at 1). That is why I will order some brigades to cover the front lines, since these are low on everything anyway. This is due to only my corps and divisions being set to refit, while my brigades are left on ready.

Worries
I might have overdone the creation of armoured brigades it seems. I still have 18 stacks to convert to armoured corps, or 6 turns worth of CPs.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

I think you see the glass half empty. You have a Red Army of 6.5 million soldiers [:)] By june you should have minimum 7 million. Before 1.05 you could safely say the Axis would be in trouble. Now we will have to see. I am about to start the Blizzard Massacres on my game as well (turn 22). I almost hit the 5 million soldiers. I would love to finish the offensive with your numbers!

This is the noraml trend in most of the games.

3.3 million Germans.
5 million Russians during Blizzard and 7+ million by June
The 7 million is generally stronger then per 1.05 because of the huge gain in saved armament pts. poeple are railing out stuff and not ignoring arm pts as before.

The German army by June has more men but is weaker because of a lack of units to attack during 41 so moral is lower. This is because of a general change in tactics on the red side of things. Retreat east and only defend in good terrian.
The number is bigger, but watered down with a few 100,000 Hiwis so the number is misleading in terms of firer power.

[TulliusDetritus]

Pelton, but in theory the Red Army should be weaker in 1942, as opposed to pre 1.05, when I had a massive, dangerous and therefore ahistorical Red Army. If I well understood, lower national morale (1.05 change) = more unready and less experienced Soviet units? And the end of the 1:1 = 2:1

I really want to get to this summer 1942 offensive. Because I will do exactly the same kind of defence I did on my other game (the Germans were done by june 1942). And then compare. I really hope a German offensive (not a Blitzkrieg) IS possible. If it isn't, then yes, the game has to be tweaked until they get that right [:)]

After all, your game vs Kamil -in which a summer 42 offensive is NOT possible- is a pure 1.05 game or you started before the big changes?

Sorry to sort of hijack your AAR, Terje [:)]

[terje439]

No no, by all means feel free to hijack. I learn alot from such discussions (well that is not too hard considering my current xp level I suppose [;)])


Terje

[M60A3TTS]

How do you intend to employ these 18 tank corps once you have them? Remember that the first rifle corps will be available in June, then better ones come in October and you will want APs for them too.

[terje439]

Turn 44

Overall
The air raids continue, and this time we even manage to destory an entire AFV. We will continue attacking Panzer and Mech divisions whenever I can. Unfortunately the losses in enemy AFVs are low. Where we do excel however is airfield bombings, the enemy is really low on recon planes. That has got to cause him some concern about the upcoming campaign as he is not able to gather proper intel about what I have available behind the front.
I also bomb his fighter and bomber bases when I can, and I always try to destroy all aircrafts on the Axis minors airfields as it seems they are pulling out the aircrafts from the Axis factories before the German airfields. This reduces the available aircrafts in the German airfields. That must be good..... I think..... No, I hope.

Units
3 more armoured corps are formed, bringing us down to 1 CP as usual. 5 more turns like this does not leave me alot of time to readjust the contents of my various armies and fronts. Also I could use some more HQs. However all my fronts are overloaded, so I do not know how much point there is in reshuffling alot, whatever I do, I will end up with alot of HQs in the red.
Our increase in troops this turn ammount to 143.000.

Worries
I need to weigh the wanting to cause attrition to the Axis, against timing when to start to fall back somewhat to free up units to be able to defend in depth.

Overlook
I see I am still inable to shake off the tendency to use rather long sentences... Well if 15 years of school could not change that, I doubt nothing ever will.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

How do you intend to employ these 18 tank corps once you have them? Remember that the first rifle corps will be available in June, then better ones come in October and you will want APs for them too.

That is a good question [:)]
And to be precise, it will be closer to 30 tank corps by the time I have them all formed [X(]
But as I see it, I need bigger and better units down the line, so I have to start somewhere. However I am realizing by now that I might have overdone the ammount of armored brigades I created.
But then again....They are tanks.... Steel Monsters....

But all jokes aside, I want to have something capable of atleast maybe only retreating instead of routing somewhere down the line. And I think/believe/hope that if my opponent sees alot of armoured corps appearing on his flanks that will force him to redeploy and/or adjust his offensives.

These are the best replies I can give, not having played the USSR before, I have really not that big a clue as to what I am doing. In my gaming experience(from other games) however, it is always better to do something than nothing.


Terje

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: terje439

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

How do you intend to employ these 18 tank corps once you have them? Remember that the first rifle corps will be available in June, then better ones come in October and you will want APs for them too.

That is a good question [:)]
And to be precise, it will be closer to 30 tank corps by the time I have them all formed [X(]
But as I see it, I need bigger and better units down the line, so I have to start somewhere. However I am realizing by now that I might have overdone the ammount of armored brigades I created.
But then again....They are tanks.... Steel Monsters....

But all jokes aside, I want to have something capable of atleast maybe only retreating instead of routing somewhere down the line. And I think/believe/hope that if my opponent sees alot of armoured corps appearing on his flanks that will force him to redeploy and/or adjust his offensives.

These are the best replies I can give, not having played the USSR before, I have really not that big a clue as to what I am doing. In my gaming experience(from other games) however, it is always better to do something than nothing.


Terje

Terje, simply think these Tank Corps are units with an offensive value of around 4 or 5 (not too bad when you compare that with the regular Red Army ants). Then they are HIGHLY mobile, which means they can easily make deliberate attacks even if they are 3 or 4 hexes behind the frontline, WHERE you should keep them. That also means they can occupy more enemy hexes. The last thing about them: they are very fragile. That's why I said you should NEVER keep them in the frontline. Hit and run, hit and run, and let them think you're a coward [:D]

And then the two options: spread or concentrate them. Given that I ALWAYS concentrate forces my answer is obvious. Come the summer the Germans should be attacking maximum in two places, I suspect. If you already have 30 Tank Corps, you might send 15 to each threatened area... They should make a big difference, along with the Cavalry Corps and Guards Rifle Divisions, if you have them. Feel free to experiment [:)]

In case you didn't know, you MUST attach the maximum number of support units to these corps. That will make them much more efficient. I use (per Flavius suggestion) 2 x Tank Bn + 1 x Sapper Regiment for both the Tank and Cavalry Corps. So don't forget to fill them with these 3 support units allowed!

[terje439]

Yes, that had been my intention all the way, granted though that I had no idea which SUs to attach, but now I do. Thank you [:)]
And that also seemed like a very good reason for me to create those corps, that I could attach SUs.


Terje

[terje439]

Turn 45

Overall
Ok, I will regret saying this, but I almost wish the mud season could be done with, as it is pretty dull. Ok, ok, I agree that for the USSR, dull is good, but nevertheless. As usual we sent our the airforce, but their results this turn was somewhat disappointing. I also hope I am close to the end of my SAD airfields. Getting kind of dull rearranging my squadrons every turn. The only ground action this turn, was 4 Axis partisan attacks, which resulted in 4 retreats. As has been for all the mud turns, losses are light. Axis losses are reported at 24.000 and our losses at 55.000.

Units
We form another 3 armoured corps this turn, and that is pretty much it. Our overall strength grew by 140.000 this turn.

Worries
None at the moment.
Maybe I could have killed more Axis troops, but I have no idea how.

[Q-Ball]

Careful how many Tank Corps you create. The major limitation is the number of VEHICLES you have, and until you get lend lease, you almost certainly are short on vehicles. Plenty of tanks, not enough trucks; this is the problem.

You can go crazy in 1944, when the US of A is providing 6000 trucks a week, but until then, you have to be careful