Gnikam eht ni retsasid - Oloren USSR, Terje Axis. Oloren now permitted.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: smokindave34

One thing that I find useful in determining when to use a hasty attack is to set your soft factors to "morale". If the Soviet units have low morale then I'm more inclined to use a hasty attack and the Soviet unit is more likely to rout.

Ah! Great tip!! [&o]


Terje

[timmyab]

Yes you have to use some intuition on CVs.Don't just take them at face value.Even so there's bound to be the odd setback and other occasions when you'll waste time and men hitting something too hard when a small nudge would have done just as well.Just make sure the morale of your mobile units is heading upwards for the first month or so of the war.The time wasted on hitting defenders too hard will be more than made up in the long run with increased mobility, plus the defenders are more likely to rout or shatter if hit hard.

[randallw]

The average German division may have about twice the experience rating of the average Soviet division, in 1941. One German division has a decent chance of knocking back a Soviet division, and two German divisions on a hasty attack will do it unless the defending division is good, with a decent fort level.

[terje439]

Turn 3

Overall
Hmm not sure I like the development of the game so far. I am overly aggressive in some of my units and this turn I had to spend precious fuel on reopening the path to two units. My crazed plan of a quick crossing of the Dnepr failed I guess.
We keep mopping up surrounded USSR units, but the main focus now is to reorganize the various corps' and to bring up the infantry. Only 46 attacks were made, scoring 7 held, 23 retreat, 6 rout, 1 shatter and 9 surrenders.

Losses
USSR : 89.000 troops, 989 guns, 1.277 AFVs, 171 aircraft.
Axis : 20.000 troops, 76 guns, 98 AFVs, 96 aircrafts.
One thing I know from my previous game, I need to kill more than 89.000 USSR troops per turn at this time.

Cities Captured
The cities of Kaunas, Rovno, Tarnopol, Chernovtsy and Kishinev all fly the swastika.

Units destroyed
We destroy 3 tank divisions, 2 motorized divisions, 2 rifle divisions, 1 AT artillery brigade, 1 PVO AA regiment and 2 NKVD border regiment this turn.

Pools
Manpower : 14.293.
Vehicle : 210.017
Armaments : 88.494.
Hiwi : 31.565.

Plans for the next turns
-Finish mopping up
-Get the infantry ready to aid the panzer and mechanized untis
-Breach the first USSR line
-Broaden the captured area in the Baltic and advance further north.

Concerns
The manpower and vehicle pools show only a slight growth, and armaments actually took a small dip. Not good, will have to keep an eye on these numbers.

[terje439]

Turn 4

Overall
AGN and AGC is doing ok, AGS is moving slowly. I can live with that if I can break the lines further north I suppose. At the moment our soldiers complain that this is more a manouver exercise than battle. The USSR is falling back to better positions in alot of places, but finally our infantry is catching up and our units are assembling in correct order again.
The only annoyance this turn was that the pocket around Stanislav was temporarily reopened by the USSR, but we resealed it, and am in no real rush to kill of the units there, so we keep only a few divisions behind to deal with this.
40 attacks were made, resulting in 3 held, 22 retreats, 7 rout, 1 shatter and 7 surrender.

Losses
USSR : 71.000 troops, 1.362 guns, 467 AFVs and 232 aircraft.
Axis : 20.000 troops, 87 guns, 128 AFVs and 35 aircraft (AC from now on).

Cities Captured
We take the cities of Tallinn and Stanislav.

Units destroyed
1 motorized division, 2 rifle divisions, 1 NKVD border regiment and 3 fortifed regions are destroyed as out troops march on east.

Pools
Manpower : 22.805.
Vehicle : 203.703.
Armaments 76.153.
Hiwi : 37.682.
We are bleeding vehicles and armaments [:(]

Concerns
The dwindling vehicle and armaments pools.

[gingerbread]

Your units start the scenario short on vehicles (see below), so it's not a trend (yet!).

ARM is another matter - what TOE settings do you have for your Art SU:s?

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Your units start the scenario short on vehicles (see below), so it's not a trend (yet!).

ARM is another matter - what TOE settings do you have for your Art SU:s?

ARGH! Knew I forgot something. That is it, they are still at 100% [8|]

Terje

[terje439]

Turn 5

Overall
The infantry finally arrives at the front, which will allow us to attempt to force a crossing of the major rivers north of the Pripjet. If we manage this in force, this should take some pressure off AGS as well as the USSR will have to either stand his ground in the south and risk losing about half his army or fall back. We manage 59 attacks this turn, scoring 2 held, 34 retreat, 7 rout, 2 shatter and 14 surrender. We also remembered to lower the TOE of our arty units this turn, let us hope this will reduce the drain in our armaments pool.

Losses
USSR : 102.000 troops, 1.511 guns, 661 AFVs and 66 AC.
Axis : 23.000 troops, 124 guns, 111 AFVs, 27 planes.

Cities Captures
Proskurov and Viborg were taken by our forces, although Viborg might be retaken by the USSR next turn as we did not have the MP to move any units into the city.

Units destroyed
2 Tank divisions, 3 rifle divisions, 4 mountain divisions, 1 AT artillery brigade, 1 motorcycle regiment, 2 NKVD border regiments, 3 PVO AA battalions, 6 fortified regions were destroyed this turn.

Pools
Manpower : 25.759.
Vehicle : 194.101.
Armaments : 75.837.
Hiwi : 42.611.

Concerns
I am loosing momentum a little faster than I would want. Oh well, nothing to do about that now.

Immediate goals
-Cross the major rivers north of the Pripjet.
-Close in on Leningrad.
-Keep pushing and probing in the south.

[Tophat1815]

Can we get some better closeup pics of:

1) AGN and its drive on Leningrad

2) AGC and its drive to Smolensk corridor.

3) AGC and its positions north of pripet marshes

4) AGS

5) Rumanian front and AG:ANT

My aged eyes can't make out enough detail on those broad big picture maps to see if your in Moscow or Berlin. Thanks.......[:D]

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Tophat1812


Can we get some better closeup pics of:

1) AGN and its drive on Leningrad

2) AGC and its drive to Smolensk corridor.

3) AGC and its positions north of pripet marshes

4) AGS

5) Rumanian front and AG:ANT

My aged eyes can't make out enough detail on those broad big picture maps to see if your in Moscow or Berlin. Thanks.......[:D]

You give me no option but to try to figure out Gimp I see [:D]
Will see what I can conjure up.


Terje

[Tophat1815]

Ty.......[:D]

Kinda concerned about your lack of progress down south around Odessa. he's defending so far forward if you can turn the flank you bag a large amount of Reds.

[Blubel]

You seem to have way to many units in the Pripyat Marshes. There is really no reason to have more than a weak corps in there.

[Flaviusx]

You need to keep driving SE, this is how you dislocate the Sovs in the south, stretch their line. Once the Axis has mobile units in or around Bessarabia it becomes very difficult for the Soviet to maintain unit density. Pushing straight east from the start line to Kiev isn't going to do it. The front is too narrow. Threaten places like Kirovograd and ultimately the Cherkassy-Kremenchug portion of the Dnepr. That also puts Odessa in striking range. And it also puts Dnepr bend in play. In short, you'll simply overload the Red Army's defensive capabilities. They won't be able to cover all those places adequately early on and something will give. Your mobility is much superior.

[Tophat1815]

ORIGINAL: Blubel

You seem to have way to many units in the Pripyat Marshes. There is really no reason to have more than a weak corps in there.

There even seems to be an SS unit in the marshes,not a good place for mobile forces to traverse,let alone fight in.

[terje439]

Wow alot to reply to, but I guess we can boil it down somewhat [:D]

1. You do not push hard enough towards the south.
A. I know. I did a piss poor job at eliminating the pockets, and as a result I've spent too much time close to the border, furthermore I had units all over the place. Things are now looking up.

2. You have too many units in the Pripjet.
A. Also true. All I can say is. Do NOT complete a turn after a bottle of Cpt.Morgan. I did some stupid/idiotic/moronic moves there in an attempt to bring units back to their HQ, and went with the approach that the fastest route is the way the crow flies... Not a good choice.

Terje

[terje439]

Turn 6

Disclaimer
Since I cannot seem to find "an idiots approach to Gimp", I will have to make alot of screenshots instead of one large one.

Overall
More manouvering through empty terrain, but atleast the enemy units in the rear are finally all gone. That took way too long. Next turn we MUST cross the rivers. This should be doable, but we are way behind schedule. No more than 40 attacks are made, resulting in 1 scouted (darned Fins!), 4 held (seriously Mannerhiem?!), 23 retreat, 7 rout, 1 shatter and 4 surrender.

Losses
USSR : 51.000 troops, 812 guns, 319 AFVs, 89 planes.
Axis : 22.000 troops, 87 guns, 117 AFVs, 48 planes.

Cities Captured
Both sides captured Viborg this turn. Atleast now it is firmly in our hands.

Units destroyed
We destroyed 1 rifle division, 2 mountain divisions, 1 NKVD border regiment and 1 fortified region this turn.

Pools
Manpower : 28.645.
Vehicle : 182.963.
Armaments : 75.295.
Hiwi : 50.145.

Concerns
Lack of speed. This MIGHT turn into an advantage of I can make use of it, but I doubt it.
I suffer heavily in attempts to target USSR airfields, so I am not making alot of these at the moment.

Player interaction
Oloren pointed out that I have killed about 25 more units at turn 5 than he did but that I had taken less ground. He was of the oppinion (spelling???) that my approach was better, but I cannot agree as the USSR can always build new units, they cannot however increase their manpower when they lose cities. Also, lack of speed means more time for the USSR to evacuate factories. That is going to come back and bite me for sure.

[terje439]

Map

[terje439]

More maps

[terje439]

Yet more maps

[terje439]

Yup another map