Clash of steel continued Smokindave (Sov) vs. Qball (Axis)

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

I think you are being unduly cautious here. These rivers aren't going to stay frozen forever, you need to get some attacks going. Those Romanians are as tasty a target as any, I doubt you'll find something better.

You've already waited until January and lost a good month of winter campaigning. (I would have started attacking in December with whatever I had in hand and done my corps conversions on the fly.) Those reserves need to get into the action and trained up ASAP.

As for getting them cut off, just advance cautiously, and only with rifle units. Don't let your mobile forces ever end the turn next to enemy lines. Not for a while, anyways. They should scoot to the rear at the end of the Soviet turn and be in a position to break up any Axis attacks.

The biggest mistake a lot of Soviet players are making in this mid war period is prematurely introducing mobile forces into breakthrough operations. They haven't got the chops to do this against a good German defense. As unexciting as this may be, the Soviet has to settle with gradual crumbling attacks for quite some time.

Good advice.

You need to be attacking on a wide front during 43, basicly weakening the German army. Your not going to be able to get pockets during 43, grind down German morale and build yours. Attack where ever possible. If you do as Flaviusx advises keeping mech units 4 to 8 hexes from front and a few rifle corps you will not have an issue breaking a pocket.

German player might get a few small pockets during 43 , but they are not game changers.

Start grinding asap.

[Seminole]

I continue to have a LOT of men in the pool - over 1 million. I've been cycling units in and out of the front line and putting them on refit and this has slowed the rate of rise of men in the pool a bit but this still seems like way too many men to be sitting around in the pool....

6 million men in the ranks and 1 million in the pool my first thought is how many unit counters (div, bde) do you have on the map? It seems like not enough to soak up your recruits/returning disabled...

[comsolut]

It may sound obvious but you may want to make sure your max toe is 100%.

[gingerbread]

I would recommend that you watch the ammo re-supply. Your vehicle pool is rather low (even though LL has increased), so check the ammo of your units before you commit them to a battle. Thankfully, the Soviet ammo modifier disappears in '43, but even so you could have some problems here.

[smokindave34]

Thanks for the advice - it's unanimous that I need to attack more. Taking this advice I launch 4 succesfull attacks this turn (I know its not much but I'm still getting troops in position and will be able to support more attacks next turn). I was able to push back 3 axis rifle divisions and 2 hungarian divisions this turn. Q-ball appears to have his panzers in reserve behind his axis minor allies so I'm trying to pick out the axis units with the lowest CV to try and target.

My manpower pool continues to hover just over 1 million (I did check that all my TOE was at 100%). Before the start of this turn I had 37 rifle corps, 268 rifle divisions, and 17 rifle brigades (I subtracted out the naval brigades already). Some of you with more experience will know if this is too low - I suspect it is. I check all my infantry TOE at the start of each turn and the lowest I had this turn was 65% - I think this is also telling me that I need more units.

Also - thanks for the tip about checking my ammo before I commit!

[smokindave34]

Here is the pool

[smokindave34]

And the current OOB

[Flaviusx]

Every attack helps.

Bear in mind if the initial odds you get are high enough, it will cancel reserve commitment.

Your unit count is lowish but not horribly so, I'm still scratching my head a bit over your pools.

Rough and ready rule: try to keep a minimum 400 rifle division equivalents on the map, counting each corps as 3 and brigades as .5.

450 is even better and a good point to stop building

[JAMiAM]

I'd start building some Rifle Brigades in the rear Military Districts, to soak up some manpower and armaments. Build about 4 per turn, for a few turns and leave them on rails, in the rear, and on refit. Since the Military Districts get AP free unit transfers, you should stock them with newly built and training brigades - right up to their 36 point command unit. Don't attach them to armies in the MDs, since the free transfer doesn't work its way down the command chain. Leave them directly attached to the MDs. With Zhukov in Stavka, the normally mediocre REMF generals will have a decent two stage check on all leaders rolls that will be pretty good for training purposes.

The new morale benefits for the brigades will allow their morale to quickly get to 50-55, and then you just need to watch their experience levels slowly come up afterwards. When they are 45-50, then you can start combining them into divisions, and the divisions up to corps, if wanted. Although it is AP intensive, you can even merge them into chewed up formations to maintain a higher optempo during your own offensives. I do this fairly regularly, but then again, I spend APs like a drunken sailor on shore leave...[:D]

[Flaviusx]

James, that's very clever about the new brigade morale boost. I hadn't noticed that.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

James, that's very clever about the new brigade morale boost. I hadn't noticed that.

I beleive that was one of BG last posts about how that is an easy little morale exploit.

tm.asp?m=3028919&mpage=2&key=&

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

Not to mention that bit of tweaking Rifle Bdes so they have Morale level similar to that of early Guards. The Rifle Bdes the Red Army deployed in the Autumn 1941 - Spring 1942 have more to do with the need to mobilize fresh forces quickly than anything else.

That's pouring gasoline on the Axis/Soviet fanboy flame wars. It will indeed provide the Soviet player with a too easy to exploit mechanism to ensure one can have a too high quality Red Army in 1942 (what happens when you merge two 50 Morale Rifle Bdes? You get a 50 Morale Rifle Division. It will probably lose that edge as soon as it "sees the elephant". But that only will happen when they lose).

The Rifle Bde in the Red Army was either a "special purpose" unit or a training cadre. As the situation deteriorated so badly after the Smolensk and Kiev battles, the STAVKA had no other option than field the training cadre organizations directly. Not because it was a more efficient or flexible unit...

This morale exploit as been around for a full month, I find it hard to beleive this is "new" to you seeing you posted shortly after BG.

I personally am surpised that 2by3 has dropped the ball again and not as BG put it, "seen the elephant" in the room.

How and why does stuff like this get put in game in the first place is my only question.

[smokindave34]

Turn 89:

I haven't posted in a few turns as I've been busy with work and the turns have been fairly repetitive. It is now the last week of February '43. I'm averaging about 6 to 7 attacks per turn. This turn I had 9 attacks of which 8 were succesfull. In fact I think I've only had 2 unsuccesfull attacks in the month of February so maybe I am overcommiting in an attempt to get a win.

I now have 52 rifle corps of which 49 have 3 attached support units. I also have 18 tanks corps and 5 mechanized corps. I continue to keep the armor in reserve and run them up to the front to join in attacks to get credit for a victory. Q-ball's lines are strong with fort level 3 in most places (although the sappers and artillery seem to make quick work of the forts) and he is using armor to support his weaker axis allies. I imagine this same routine will continue to play out unitl mud hit - although I keep recon searching for his panzers in case they show up unexpectadly. This turn Q-balls OOB finally started to drop in every area other than in panzers. He seems to be keeping them back refitting and digging????

Here is the Voronezh and SW front area where I have made some advances around Tamboy.

[smokindave34]

And Moscow where the 52nd and 1st Shock army of Bryansk front have been making gains. The Western front armies are fairly new corps and this turn was their first turn at the front. Hoping for a win or two with them next turn.

[smokindave34]

In the Crimea I was able to push the Rumanians back at Kerch. I was surprised Q-ball did not pull them out of their level 3 fort last turn. Recon didn't show any reserves here and I may be able to encircle these three Rumanian divisions in the next turn or two. The hex due west of the current Rumanian location doesn't have any forts in it.

[smokindave34]

Here are my production numbers. I continue to struggle with getting men out of the pool. My lowest infantry TOE is 69%. I considered spending my AP's last turn on building divisions and brigades but decided instead to build corps near the front to continue launching attacks. I'm planning on building the new divisions/brigades when the mud hits.

[smokindave34]

And the OOB.

[Seminole]

(what happens when you merge two 50 Morale Rifle Bdes? You get a 50 Morale Rifle Division. It will probably lose that edge as soon as it "sees the elephant". But that only will happen when they lose).

I personally am surpised that 2by3 has dropped the ball again and not as BG put it, "seen the elephant" in the room.

During the Civil War soldiers would speak about "Seeing the elephant." The "elephant" was battle, combat, being under enemy fire. The phrase goes back farther than that, but that's what he was talking about.

This 'exploit' seems to me to simply be people finally making use of the far eastern M.D.s as they were originally intended, training up forces before committing them to the front. The AP 'penalty' suffered for re-assigning units under them prior to this latest patch I think resulted in them not being used. I know I wasn't.

[gingerbread]

How is your supply stock? There is a thread about HI and you have even less HI left than Baelfiin in said thread. 6M men could be just about your limit.

Don't know how to adapt to that - maybe favour many battles with casualties where your man power pool will give you an edge. Easier said than done, I know, but I predict you will have difficulties supplying a much larger army than you have.

Could be an idea to make an inventory of just how many air bases and other non-combat units that you really need.

[Flaviusx]

Hey, this brigade thing came out of the blue, don't look at me. I think they are trying to encourage us to use brigades more, but yeah, mostly this will just result in them being combined into higher (slightly) morale rifle divisions. But in order to get the most out of it, you'll probably have to wait a while for them to get trained up, instead of instantly combining them in May (as I have done prior to this.) These brigades tend to spend most of the winter as shells, so their morale won't be amazing early in the summer.

So...shrug.

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

How is your supply stock? There is a thread about HI and you have even less HI left than Baelfiin in said thread. 6M men could be just about your limit.

Don't know how to adapt to that - maybe favour many battles with casualties where your man power pool will give you an edge. Easier said than done, I know, but I predict you will have difficulties supplying a much larger army than you have.

Could be an idea to make an inventory of just how many air bases and other non-combat units that you really need.

Here is my event log. Based on what I see here I don't think I have a problem with supply. No unit is short of armaments or supplies. However I could be wrong as I don't normally dig into the details of the supply development....What do you think?