Clankers East!! Baelfiin(ger) v Qball(sov) (no Q)

[TulliusDetritus]

My opponent (Marquo) did exactly the same strategy: he was strong near Moscow. It worked. Good defensive terrain and then he had in most places 2-units stacks (German DIVISIONS). They proved to be basically invulnerable, correct.

And yes, no matter what, you can't be strong everywhere. It's simply impossible. Outside of this key area (Moscow), Q-Ball should be finding loooooots of nice victims, which should be trashed with mere hasty attacks. I don't think you can 100% avoid that, but... [:)]

Also don't forget Q-Ball is some sort of e-psycho [:D] vs Tarhunnas he had managed +100 attacks per turn... he is a hasty attacks fan, apparently.

As I have said, this strategy makes more sense under 1.05. Before that patch, you could really hurt the Germans (via losses ergo deliberate attacks) and thus weaken the spring, summer offensive. As I see it, it's all about harvesting nice guards.

[Baelfiin]

Lots of victims for sure

Sheer incompetence on my part I left the entire line adjacent to teh russians last turn. For all of my grand plans for defense, I serve up half the german army on a silver platter by just forgetting to pull back last turn like I was supposed to. My incredible lack of talent should make this game a quick russian victory.

[Baelfiin]

TD I appreciate all of your comments 8)

[Baelfiin]

Turn 25

First turn of the blizzard, I try to back up up wherever I can.

Due to Communications Difficulties Half of the Army did not execute the proper orders last turn, leaving some serious problems to deal with this turn. An investigation into the matter discovered that the orders that were to be transmitted were garbled from the original "Execute Retrograde Order" to "Execute Lemonade Order". This order caused the effected units to spend the week creating snow flowers while russian troops were surrounding them. The communications tech in charge of the order transmissions has not been heard from since.

Not so bad this turn, just the usual russian nastiness. I am upset that I still lose morale somehow even though I am in a city, on a rail, in range of HQ, in full supply via buildup. 5th panzer morale=90. next turn it will drop to 89 8(

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Baelfiin

I am upset that I still lose morale somehow even though I am in a city, on a rail, in range of HQ, in full supply via buildup. 5th panzer morale=90. next turn it will drop to 89 8(

I don't know where your 5th Panzer is, but I do notice that you have three units stacked in some of the city hexes. Keep in mind that only the Light and Heavy *Urban* hexes will give full protection to all three units. The *City* hexes will only protect the two largest units (in terms of number of men), while the towns only allow the die(4) protection roll for the one largest unit.

[Baelfiin]

Turn 26

Cav corps are showing up on the line, my guys are running for the vistula.

In the moscow area, we thicken the defenses and the mountian units come up within striking distance.

My inability to deal with odessa has allowed it to fester into a cancer that is going to hurt over the winter.

Im hoping to get through the next 3 or 4 turns without any more pockets.

[2ndACR]

That Tula south sure looks like it could get really ugly.

Odessa is a must take in my games. Even if I have to pile all of 11th Army on her. No leaving Russians to my rear. Hopefully he will not place some cav there go nuts.

Not a lot of forts so I am guessing your winter strategy is just a constant 2-3 hex withdraw?

[Baelfiin]

Yeah pretty much going to try to stay away from the russians until mid january.
Going to fight it out in the trees around moscow, but it looks like there is a lot of reds lining up on me there, so I may not stick around.

I had planned on clearing odessa after clearing the dnepr pocket, but it didnt work out because Qball really did a great job with air resupply and hanging tough in the pocket.

[Klydon]

Run Hermann Run!

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Baelfiin

I am upset that I still lose morale somehow even though I am in a city, on a rail, in range of HQ, in full supply via buildup. 5th panzer morale=90. next turn it will drop to 89 8(

I don't know where your 5th Panzer is, but I do notice that you have three units stacked in some of the city hexes. Keep in mind that only the Light and Heavy *Urban* hexes will give full protection to all three units. The *City* hexes will only protect the two largest units (in terms of number of men), while the towns only allow the die(4) protection roll for the one largest unit.

Ah ok

Never knew that particular part. Thats what happend, an FBD with 20k men ended up in the same hex.

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: Klydon

Run Hermann Run!

hehe yeah its all I can do now. Errrr I mean its part of my grand plan to lure the russians out and smash them in the summer .. Yep thats my story and Im sticking to it 8)

[Baelfiin]

I swear that supply is broken

In a city on the rail line doing NOTHING and running below 20percent supply. I could see 40 miles out on the steppe having some problems, but with the tracks dropping off your food right in front of you?

Supposed to be safe from blizzard in a city ...

[sillyflower]

presumably less fortunate units send their trucks into the city to get their share

[Klydon]

ORIGINAL: Baelfiin

I swear that supply is broken

In a city on the rail line doing NOTHING and running below 20percent supply. I could see 40 miles out on the steppe having some problems, but with the tracks dropping off your food right in front of you?

Supposed to be safe from blizzard in a city ...

To a point, but that doesn't mean there are not issues getting supply to the city in the first place, especially during the first part of the blizzard when all the German locomotives froze up and would not run. That the Germans have any rail cap to speak of in Russia during December is something that would be nice to fix (they should have very little, with it increasing as the winter goes along and German countermeasures begin to take effect).

Don't expect replacements either, even in cities in Russia. It just doesn't happen from what I have seen until the weather gets better. Get units in Poland, then it is a different matter as they will fill out nicely very quickly like you expect they would.

[Baelfiin]

Turn 27

Everything going according to plan other than the logistics problems that were more intense than expected/remembered. It will never make sense to me how units farther away from the supply heads are getting over 100percent of needed while units in cities right on top of the supply line get nothing. Supply officers drinking all the schnapps in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands no doubt.
Some heavy fighting around Kharkov was unavoidable, and we punished several russian attacks with hold results.

Heavy attacks around moscow as well, several of which were broken up by panzer reserves operating from moscow itself.

XIV panzer corp smashes down some russian looters at Odessa, hopefully this little problem will be contained for a while.

[Baelfiin]

Turn 28

More running away, got caught at Kharkov. Thats probably going to cause some dead cardboard.

Not sure for how long I am going to hold on at moscow, he cant take it from the front, but the sides (esp the northern one) are breaking down quickly.

Next turn CV's get a little better so will be a little easier to defend.

[M60A3TTS]

Excellent mapwork. [&o] It must take you as long to do them as play the game.

[Baelfiin]

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

Excellent mapwork. [&o] It must take you as long to do them as play the game.

Yeah they can take me a while, I'm behind two turns now 8)

Sometimes I go nuts with the line tool (cause its fun =p) and it takes even longer.

[Peltonx]

I would be putting all units in citys as in Germany also I beleive your morale will drop if your in open hexes as there is a blizzard in germany also.

Aleast before 1.05 morale still dropped when units were in Germany when not in a city.

Thats a good core of units for snow.

You can retake Moscow, but you have to weaken him south of that for a few months.

Small pockets during spring will help allot as it cost ap to rebuild units. The key will be destorying units to suck up his ap pool, which will slow the corp he can build for later in war.

Start small and work your way up in pocket size. Look to cut across rivers during snow turns as they are froozen. This will make for possible flanking moves come summer.

Pelton

[Baelfiin]

Turn 29

Inspired to creativity I found an image of a pantherG to use to illustrate attacks!!

Losses and stuff indicated.

First guards unit detected at Kharkov, going to lose two italian divisions and another jaeger regiment.

MP's start to dwindle as the Blizzard wears on and units disintegrate. Some guys just can't run fast enough.

I'm getting nervous at moscow, but I dont want to give it up too soon.
Maybe hold on another two turns, if the flanks hold up somewhat.