1.04 The Wolf and the Bear (no Gids)

[Q-Ball]

I agree the Luftwaffe is too weak right now, but I think the 1940 defeats, that was not the primary factor.

In game terms, I would model the French Army with a low national morale (mabye 50), and absolutely terrible leadership. The French Army had a relatively poor military proficiency, the French themselves were still recovering from a really poisonous political climate in the 30s, the byproduct of which is that not all Frenchmen had their hearts in the war. And the leadership was absolutely criminally bad at almost all levels. They squandered whatever advantages they had (like AFVs)

The Third Republic was rotten and dysfunctional.

I think the BEF was fairly solid; they performed pretty well, but were overwhelmed by events. I would give the Brits a higher national morale in 1940, maybe 65 or so.

[Flaviusx]

The Third Republic's problems have been somewhat exaggerated, and probably no worse in 1939 than in 1914. (Civil-military relations immediately prior to WWI in France were awful, among other things.)

The real issue was the allied plan sucked, their mobility sucked, and the Germans surprised them utterly with their panzer concentration by the Ardennes. Once they raced to the channel and pocketed everything north of there, it was game over, with no chance of recovery for metropolitan France. France didn't have room for errors of this sort. (Unlike the Soviet Union.)

But for the English Channel, the British would have gone under as well, and no doubt we'd be reading about how rotten Great Britain was, etc. Churchillian heroism couldn't have flourished without the cooperation of geography, and we'd be stuck with a tale of British timidity a la Neville Chamberlain.

(Yes, I have a soft spot for the French. People rag on them way too much.)

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

It's like Bob says. The historical artillery parks as shown in the 43 and 44 scenarios are a good basis to work from. Which means, roughly, two dozen tube artillery divisions and a half dozen rocket artillery divisions. I would consider even building more than that, but that's the basic blueprint.

Near as I can tell, nobody is building anywhere near that much artillery. They've been forgotten in the rush to pump out rifle and mobile corps. But the Red Army is a stool that cannot stand on two legs alone. True combined arms operations will include all three elements in generous amounts.

According to my research, by 1945 the Soviets were fielding 37 Artillery Divisions, 7 Rocket Divisions, and 47 Artillery Brigades. About 2/3rds of that was built before Kursk. I doubt any Russians players are building anything near to that.

[randallw]

Oh great now we get some of this Stuka Uber Alles stuff.

[Tarhunnas]

And the third republic is the longest lasting French republic to date. A little OT maybe...
 
The important thing is that German combat efficiency was better than everyone elses during the entire war. See for example books like Crevelds "Fighting power" or Dupuy. Dupuy has the Germans consistently causing 50% higher casualties than they took against the US and British. I am not a German or Nazi fanboy, but it simply seems to have been that way. And I have e feeling this is not reflected in the way combat casualties is inflicted in WITE post 1941 or so.

[janh]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
The real issue was the allied plan sucked, their mobility sucked, and the Germans surprised them utterly with their panzer concentration by the Ardennes. Once they raced to the channel and pocketed everything north of there, it was game over, with no chance of recovery for metropolitan France. France didn't have room for errors of this sort. (Unlike the Soviet Union.)

Hindsight could be at least equally advantageous for playing the French as it is for playing Russian in WiTE. There are much bigger errors to be corrected on these sides, while Axis has in both cases performing very impressive feats that might be hard to improve on. Yes, it is contradicted by how easy Moscow and Leningrad are to catch nowadays, but I still think Wehrmacht's historical performance was impressive in itself; it could have gotten stuck in Belgian plains if the French had proper leadership and had realized that static trench-warfare was a phenomenon of the past.

I guess we might see MP limitations for the French, either through poor leadership rolls, or by mimicking an extended "surprise effect" over the new blitz tactics? It might be hard to find a concept for preventing the French to switch in an instant from huddling behind the Maginot line to mobile warfare.


As for the Luftwaffe, I believe someone posted this link earlier: "Great Myths of WWII: Combat Aircraft Versus Armour in WWII"
http://operationbarbarossa.net/Myth-Bus ... ters4.html
I am not sure where the mistake lies, my feel would also be that Luftwaffe should be more destructive in terms of squads and vehicles. But perhaps this expectation is based more on skewed books or Hollywood movies than it bears and relation to reality. The numbers in the analysis above would certainly suggest so. Maybe the major factor the Luftwaffe contributed to air-land doctrine and blitzkrieg was indeed disruption of forces, C&C and infrastructure; i.e. close to the way it is modeled presently? Perhaps the effects on disruption should be worse?

If you set up a thought experiment on Kursk, assuming the claims of Luftwaffe reports to be real (Rudel claimed to have destroyed 12 tanks o July 5; his squadron reported something like 40-50 tanks destroyed and a similar number damaged per day; and numerous Stuka and He 129 squadrons were deployed), and consider that the Luftwaffe there had for the last time true air superiority, why didn't they keep pounding the Russian Armor for another week or two into obliteration?

[Tarhunnas]

What air power will do is primarily put a great dampener on all operations and especially the movement of supplies, as if one side has air superiority and a great advantage in ground attack capability, essentially half of each calendar day (the daytime part) is closed down to movement for the other side. Supply services and truck columns will be much more severly hit than AFVs, but that in turn will impact the AFVs ability to operate, as fuel, amo and spare parts will not reach them. More tanks were lost in WW2 through being captured when broken down or out of fuel than those destroyed by direct weapon effects!

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 187. January 11 1945.

Nothing dramatic this turn. Red Army attacks are picking up, so I pull back a hex or two and hope supply difficulties will dampen their ardor. A shot from Rumania, where a delaying action is taking place on the Rumanian plain. The Rumanians are apparently too stupid to change sides. I do have two German divisions in Bucarest (the most I can cram in, as the Rumanian High Command is there and cannot be moved), but I didn't expect that would make all that much of a difference.

[Tarhunnas]

A picture showing the final defense lines being prepared east of Berlin. The Fuhrer has assured us they will not be necessary, but one never knows...

[TulliusDetritus]

Make sure the Führerbunker is reinforced, just in case [8D]

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 188. January 18 1945. Not much interesting happening. A sample of the defensive lines in the Ukraine. A motley collection of wrecked units..

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 189. January 25 1945.

A Soviet assult manages to cross the Neva at Leningrad.

[Tarhunnas]

Meanwhile, German forces have withdrawn from all of Estonia.

[Tarhunnas]

In the South the Red hordes are approaching Lvov, but intelligence reports that the Soviets have severe supply difficulties. The Rumanians have finally changed sides, but we were well prepared for that, and there were very few Rumanian units left anyway. On the plus side, that sure energized the Hungarians, so several CV 5 Hungarian infantry divisions became released for the front. Those are now among the strongest units on the Axis side.

[Baelfiin]

ARM still empty Tarhunnas?

[Tarhunnas]

ORIGINAL: Baelfiin

ARM still empty Tarhunnas?

Yep. Last time I looked I had over 200k men in the manpower pool. I will post a screenshot of production next turn.

[Q-Ball]

That is an interesting side-benefit of Romanian Surrender. The Hungarian units must have activated, because of Soviet-controlled hex along Hungarian border.

After 3+ years of playing cards and guarding the homeland, they should be maxed-out on everything

[Tarhunnas]

There are no Soviet controlled hexes in Hungary, though a lot of hexes on the Rumanian side of the border switched control, but that shouldn't trigger the Hungarians AFAIK. But I think it is ok that the Rumanins defecting will activate the Hungarians, they hated each other.

[Baelfiin]

when any of the trigger cities go to russian control, rumania, hungary and frozen italians activate.

At this point only the hungarians are left it looks like.

[Tarhunnas]

Turn 190. February 2 1945.

I made a mistake in my preparations for Rumanian side switch. I missed that the railroad to southestern Hungary goes through Rumania for a couple of hexes, so all that part of the railnet is unusable. Well, not a disaster, but annoying! Otherwise, the Soviet advance has stalled on the mountains, and on the Rumanian plains the steamroller has petered out due to supply difficulties.