41-45 GC AAR notenome (sov) vs 821Bobo (axis) no 821 past first page.

[notenome]

Turn 11- A not great turn. Leningrad has all but fallen, which saddens me. I did not want to loose the city. In the center 821 sends the panzers to encircle some of the remnants of SW front, who have basically spent the entire war fighting themselves out of encirclement. I thought he was going to try to flank the Oka. He didn't, and time will tell if that was a mistake. In the South a rather strong assault on the Crimean peninsula, which puzzles me greatly, surely those troops can be better used elsewhere? Regardless, a thrust is made towards Kharkov. The Axis are down to 1k operational tanks, and I intend to drop that number further. The average panzer divison has a CV between 5 and 8 now. I am contemplating triple stacking the hexes in front of Moscow. There isn't much space to give anymore and the Axis are having trouble breaking strong lines. Opinions?

[notenome]

We counterattack a full panzerstack and succeed, with heavy losses on both sides. 87 afvs lost for the Axis.

[notenome]

Turn 12:

Leningrad fell, though brave defenders continue resisiting in the NW part of the city. The Northern front shall conduct a fighting retreat.

In the center the fascists continue to inch towards Moscow. There our first Guards division has formed, with a record of 9 wins and 2 losses. It is in the center that my greatest dilema presents itself, do I evacuate the Orel bulge? Or reinforce it?

In the South some mobile units have broken through but an opportunity presents itself for a counterattack and isolation of those elements. 821 has sent a very strong force to take Sevastopol, something I consider to be a grave mistake.

I am at a crossroads in all three sectors. Should I just pull back northern front and sent them wholesale to Moscow? Should I start stacking in front of Moscow, something I have so far avoided doing? And how should I best defend the Bryansk-Orel-Kursk Area?

[notenome]

Well we manage to isolate the southern spearhead, though it was a close run thing. Since I couldn't muster up enough divisions to get an advantage in CV terms, I had to revert to my Zukhov tactics. Four ground bombardments, followed by 3 suicidal hasty attacks, followed by the main assault. By the end the defending stack were all in the red in terms of supply, and since they are isolated now, they'll stay that way.

[notenome]

End of turn report.

Trying to do a better job reporting the trials and tribulations of this AAR. Aside from the major counterattack that isolated the panzers down south, it's been mostly realignment. Since most troops get sent to Moscow, we have a real shortage in the Kharkov-Kursk-Orel area, which has forced me to improvise. Our new defensive set up for SW and Bryansk fronts is a picket line, a main line and a blocking detachment line. The hope is that the picket line will delay offensives, the main line will absorb attacks and the blocking line will prevent exploitation (as well as shooting cowardly deserters. Theoretically it looks like this:

P ML B

II x
x II
II x
x II
II x

It's the rich man's economy of force measure (the checkerboard being the poor man's economy of force measure).

In other news, casualty analysis results in this:

Loss ratio:
Men- 6:1
Guns- 12:1
Armor- 5:1
Planes- 3:1

Both sides are taking very heavy casualties, and it should only intensify now. In the center 821 has resorted to deliberate attacks with panzer divisions, which has slowed down advance to a crawl and is burning them down to a husk. For my part I have enough divisions that I am rotating armies in and out of the frontline. This leads to less reserves (more unready units recuperating in secondary and tertiary lines) but also less routs.

[notenome]

Turn 13:

Our defenses are holding. No major new encirclements. The north has begun a sideshow and our slow retreat continues. In the center, the Axis advance has slowed further. First panzercorp, fresh from the conquest of Leningrad, began making an apearance, but only with Totenkompf. These troops are fresh and rested, but I think 821 made a mistake, he should have inserted the entire corps all at once, to maximize shock. Instead I have a chance to throw them back across the river, and bolster reserve front's defenses. To the south of Moscow, third panzercorps has begun its attack in the corridor between Tula and the Oka.

In the south the most troublesome situation has arisen. A panzer division is adjacent to Stalino, but there's 16 armament points that I need to evacuate from the city. I have to retreat that division, come what may.

In other news, the readiness of the Soviet army has slowly improved. Less than a third of divisions are unready, for the first time in the war. We also had more holds than routs, again for the first time in the war. German armour strength jumped by 400 tanks this week, so I assume some new panzer divisions have arrived.

[TulliusDetritus]

Notenome, I am having a hard time trying to understand what is going on in your game... I can't see where there are thin corridors, flanks, etc. I am missing many things. You should toggle the controlled hexes on methinks. I would avoid the "darkest" version though (some of your screenshots): when you have clicked on one of your units or something like that [8D]

[notenome]

I know Tulius, its just that I really like the cleaner look, but I'll turn the controlled hexes on.

In other news I have to decide if I evacuate the salient between Moscow and Tula. On the one hand, the troops are in danger of being encirlced, on the other, it would significantly shorten the Axis front.

[notenome]

The first counterattack is successful, pushing the panzer division back. That's 15-16 Armament points saved. Atrocious losses for Southern Front however.

[notenome]

Again with horrendous losses we throw the Axis bridgehead back across the Tvertiza river. I don't understand why my divisions are taking such horrid losses. But North Moscow's Front is safe, for a turn anyways.

Now I have to decide whether to evacuate the salient or not, and how to defend the Donbass.

EDIT: And I could really use some advice here. The bulge keeps the two panzercorps aparts and spreads out the infantry. On the other hand, its a pocket waiting to happen and those troops could bolster defenses directly in front of Moscow and in the emptiness north of Tula. I'm not sure what to do.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: notenome
In other news I have to decide if I evacuate the salient between Moscow and Tula. On the one hand, the troops are in danger of being encirlced, on the other, it would significantly shorten the Axis front.

Whatever you do, do garrison Moscow [:)] You haven't got any fort level yet. I always send units to the 3 urban hexes on turn 1. It's Moscow! If I were Stalin, the NKVD thugs would be after you, tovarich [8D]

[hfarrish]

That's basically 2-1, not bad for a 41 Soviet counterattack...I've seen a lot of my "successes" do a lot worse than that, pushing 4-1 or even 5-1 territory. Losses are always bad attacking German infantry.

[Farfarer61]

You take high losses as a cost for a "win" as you get an upgrade of your 1-1 attacks to 2-1 and a victory. Absolutely worth it. You also move closer to Guards status if the unit survives.

[Flaviusx]

Hold the bulge (but don't put any stacks in there, single units like you have is fine.) You need to make him waste time and get to mud. Four turns to go. If he loses a turn consuming the bulge, it's all good. You might even make him waste more time than that if he pockets it and you bust it open for one turn.

Sometimes you just got to feed the beast.

What I'd be more worried about is him crossing the Oka south of Moscow. You look super weak there.

The reason your casualties are up is because the 41b rifle division is a piece of shit. By late autumn most of your rifle units have flipped over to this TOE, the worst in the whole war. They are incredibly brittle.

[notenome]

Wish you had posted that earlier Flav, I evacuated the bulge, might be my biggest mistake. I'm going to post a screen of my defense of Moscow soon.

[Flaviusx]

It might work out, don't sweat it. Tough choice either way, really. I'd rather lose an army than Moscow, though.

[notenome]

Here it is, the defensive disposition of Moscow.

[notenome]

I hope to loose neither Flav. Two siberian divisions coming through give me hope. I am now able to place stacks with defensive CVs of 20+

[Flaviusx]

I hope you are putting a lot of units in reserve mode and have Zhukov running STAVKA. You've got the unit density here to really bring reserves into play.

Don't count on any single stack, no matter how strong or well fortified stopping the Germans. They can crunch their way through anything in 1941. It's the reserves that spoil their attacks.

Quite honestly, I think the odds are in favor of the Axis taking Moscow here, possibly during the snow turns. Leningrad fell too quickly and freed up a lot of stuff. But worst case scenario, I think you can take it back during the blizzard.

[notenome]

My entire army is in reserve mode or refiting (I use the command info view thing to set them all to reserve), and Zukhov is in charge of STAVKA since turn 1. All the best leaders are defending Moscow, special consideration going to Malinovksy who has a winning record (and the first guard division). I ended the turn early so no pic of the Donbass, unfortunately. I also ended the trun with no units isolated, which must surely be a first.

I'm also not a big fan of stacks (and only started using them last turn) but unit density in the Moscow area is such that its either stacking at the front or adding depth 10 hexes behind the line, which is useless when you consider the Axis are 40 miles from Moscow. That said the stacks held beautifully last turn. One took 4 attacks before retreating, the other two didn't budge.

On the other hand, I also have no more room for error.