1.05 PBEM AAR: Another Year at the Front with Field Marshal Noob

[karonagames]

T7 Losses: About 400k added to the captured list. The Panzer II looks to be completely obsolete - being a prime target for 14.5mm anti-tank rifles. PzIII and IV losses are also scary.

[ComradeP]

Not sure how representative this is going to be if your mobile units kept getting isolated like that for several turns.

[karonagames]

T7 production: another noob mistake - I did not adjust Artillery OOBs until T5 so armaments points were wasted.

[karonagames]

T7 Combats: My deliberate attack policy generally produces the loss ratio I am looking for. One of Stephane's attacks costs me 95 AFV's but he loses 447!

[karonagames]

Not sure how representative this is going to be if your mobile units kept getting isolated like that for several turns.

Representative of what?

This is the diary of a "noob" - I did not try to get them isolated on purpose, although I have done so in the past if it meant my opponent would move from areas I wanted him to move from - as I did in my game with Trey. For some reason my opponent would not run away from my mighty panzers.

[ComradeP]

Representative of the current state of the game, and Axis capabilities in 1941.

[karonagames]

Let's wait and see what turn 52 looks like before we start making judgements on the current state of the game.

I apologise to all Axis players for allowing Panzer spearheads to get isolated - I will try harder.

[Flaviusx]

Bob, you can achieve better than a 5:1 kill ratio in 41 with either hasty or deliberate attacks. Of course, you'll kill lots more stuff in absolute terms with deliberate attacks, but the disparity in kill ratios will be there either way. If anything, hasty attacks may have higher kill ratios. (Simply because they tend to be so cheap for the Germans. Losses in single digits are completely possible.)

I'm tempted to say that attrition kills as much during 1941 for the Germans as raw combat results. That drops the overall ratio.

[karonagames]

One of the other differences I noticed since last playing was that the number of reserve activations increased - I hardly remember any when playing Trey. I found that in deliberate attacks if a reserve unit came in, it too could be routed, but with hasty attacks the reserve would produce a hold, so overall I felt Deliberates to be more effective.

[karonagames]

SitRep 28th August 1941

T11 Far North. On the Finnish Front Stephane has not withdrawn to the Svir Line but is making me fight for every hex, which ssums up his attitude across the whole front. I have yet to force him to make major withdrawals - until now.

[karonagames]

T11 North.

4PZG reaches the outskirts of Leningrad as an 8 unit pocket near Orienbaum is cleared up:

[karonagames]

T11 Centre:

Without Armoured support 9th Army is still struggling to make head way towards Smolensk.

[karonagames]

T11. However, further South PZG 2 and 3 have a chance to link up to form a mega pocket; at the very least Stephane will have to pull back.

[karonagames]

T11. In the Far south, one Korps from 11th Army supports the Rumanians at Odessa, and the SS motorised cross the Dnepr on their way to the Crimea.

[karonagames]

T11 OOB. 868 running tanks - incredible.

[karonagames]

T11 production: My earlier mistake means I have run out of APs, so my my Rifle squad numbers take a nose dive.

[karonagames]

T11 Losses. Only 200k added to the captured list.

[karonagames]

T11: And 40 units added to the undead pile.

[gingerbread]

My earlier mistake means I have run out of APs, so my my Rifle squad numbers take a nose dive.

That's not necessarily bad. Some Axis players dial down TOE to keep Manpower in the pool until after blizzard. In my view, the logic is impeccable - if you can hold during blizzard with what you have already, it makes sense to avoid having more men than necessary exposed to blizzard attrition. In the last turn of February, you dial up TOE and set to refit for the units where you want the new men to go, in smaller steps to lessen experience loss. You do need a pool of ARM as well to pull this of.

[randallw]

Did you reverse the numbers about the tanks? I think the number inside the parens is the available total ( 1232 ) and 868 is the disabled number.