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

[notenome]

Fun with numbers time:

Through two weeks of blizzard:
Axis strength has dipped by 137,148 men total and 152,242 effective strength.
Axis lost 1652 guns and have 1387 less guns operational.
Axis lost 37 tanks and have 95 less tanks operational.
Axis lost 5 aircraft (?) and have 255 less aircraft operational.

Soviets have lost 66,557 men total and have 118367 effective strength.
Soviets have GAINED 1355 guns and have 527 MORE guns operational. (??? I need rifle squads not guns dammit)
Soviets have 226 less tanks and 418 less tanks operational.
Soviets have 156 less aircraft and have 291 less aircraft operational.

Whilst Axis tank losses are less than hoped, there simply aren't that many tanks to push around, and many Axis mobile divisions are garrisoned in Moscow, Tula and other cities. What needs to happen urgently is prioritization of equipping rifle squads over guns, which means I need to disband more artillery regiments.

[Flaviusx]

I think you are spreading your cav out too much. Having one corps here and there isn't going to catch him in his runaway. If you took all of them and planted them in one Front, then you could overtake the infantry and crush them. You need to identify one portion of the front to do this and go hell for leather. I really don't think you need cavalry north of Rostov, for example.

If you had 10 such corps barreling down the Orel Axis, you'd get the landsers before they can reach those forts.

Everybody seems to want to spread the cav out and go for this little tactical encirclements or whatever, but if the German runs, that doesn't do much.

[M60A3TTS]

ORIGINAL: notenome
Whilst Axis tank losses are less than hoped, there simply aren't that many tanks to push around, and many Axis mobile divisions are garrisoned in Moscow, Tula and other cities. What needs to happen urgently is prioritization of equipping rifle squads over guns, which means I need to disband more artillery regiments.

no no no

Don't disband them. That's wasted APs to disband and you'll want those guys for later which costs more APs if you re-buy them, Set their TO%E levels low if you want rifles over guns. Some folks recommend 50%. The losses in arty won't be replaced as the unit moves to the lower TO&E levels and you can build them back up later.

[notenome]

M60, I bow before your wisdom. You are a damn genius, that had never occurred to me.

[notenome]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

I think you are spreading your cav out too much. Having one corps here and there isn't going to catch him in his runaway. If you took all of them and planted them in one Front, then you could overtake the infantry and crush them. You need to identify one portion of the front to do this and go hell for leather. I really don't think you need cavalry north of Rostov, for example.

If you had 10 such corps barreling down the Orel Axis, you'd get the landsers before they can reach those forts.

Everybody seems to want to spread the cav out and go for this little tactical encirclements or whatever, but if the German runs, that doesn't do much.

I'm actually inclined to agree with you, but partially this is due to a mistake on my part. I forgot that when you build up a corps and one of the divisions is attached to a front/army, then the corps will be as well, so morale of the story two cav corps became attached to armys/front I didn't want them to, and I'm in no mood to spend those AP points to get them back. Basically we have two real concentrations of cavalry, one dealing with the far south and then a very large concentration in the Bryansk sector. But my cav isnt that mobile thanks to poor morale/mps. I dropped a ton of supplies on them in the hopes of getting them to move faster next turn.


That said, making the most of the situation, if it doesn't get counterattacked, Volkhov Front's cav corps is close to breaking out.

[randallw]

If you are going to disband or merge rifle brigades you may want to use the Naval ones in merging and regular brigades to disband; the Naval ones arrive as better quality ( higher experience ).

[gingerbread]

Adding one more to the cacophony of voices offering well intended advice. [;)]

Do note that a Cavalry squad costs aprox 8½ Rifle squad in ARMAMENT points (69 vs 8) so a very cost effective trick to boost the CV strength of a Cav Corps is to assign Sapper Regiments (preferred) and/or Battalions. A Cav Corps costs 35 AP (3x10+5) so spending 3 AP more in assign costs to get this boost is a good investment. (After the blizzard offensive, the Cav Corps+Sapper package is an expedient way to have control of exactly where the Sapper's construction abilities are used - you choose the hex, not the computer.) I recommend that you use the '42 or '43 scenario in sandbox mode to familiarize yourself with the undocumented quirks and limitations of the SU-to-Corps assignment mechanics, unless you are very experienced with them.

You also really need to set TOE% and refit status based on ARMAMENT point priority. All Art, AA & Mortar Support units to 50% is a good start - they do not add any CV to an attack, and CV is what pushes the Germans out of the hex. The TOE% of a sapper boosted Cav Corps can be set so that Morale+TOE = 120 or even 110 - this level has a reasonable margin over the unready threshold (Mor+TOE >=90%) and will reduce the demand for those expensive Cav Squads. The Sappers assigned to the Corps are the only ones for which 100% TOE is mandatory. Beyond that, you will have to choose where not to be strong.

I seriously doubt that you will be able to equip any new Cavalry Divisions any time soon.

[notenome]

ORIGINAL: gingerbread

Adding one more to the cacophony of voices offering well intended advice. [;)]

Do note that a Cavalry squad costs aprox 8½ Rifle squad in ARMAMENT points (69 vs 8) so a very cost effective trick to boost the CV strength of a Cav Corps is to assign Sapper Regiments (preferred) and/or Battalions. A Cav Corps costs 35 AP (3x10+5) so spending 3 AP more in assign costs to get this boost is a good investment. (After the blizzard offensive, the Cav Corps+Sapper package is an expedient way to have control of exactly where the Sapper's construction abilities are used - you choose the hex, not the computer.) I recommend that you use the '42 or '43 scenario in sandbox mode to familiarize yourself with the undocumented quirks and limitations of the SU-to-Corps assignment mechanics, unless you are very experienced with them.

You also really need to set TOE% and refit status based on ARMAMENT point priority. All Art, AA & Mortar Support units to 50% is a good start - they do not add any CV to an attack, and CV is what pushes the Germans out of the hex. The TOE% of a sapper boosted Cav Corps can be set so that Morale+TOE = 120 or even 110 - this level has a reasonable margin over the unready threshold (Mor+TOE >=90%) and will reduce the demand for those expensive Cav Squads. The Sappers assigned to the Corps are the only ones for which 100% TOE is mandatory. Beyond that, you will have to choose where not to be strong.

I seriously doubt that you will be able to equip any new Cavalry Divisions any time soon.

Good advice! In regards to Cav divisions, we right now have a surplus of Cav squads in the pool (but it won't last long). Right now I'm toying with having my cav squads loaded with 2 sapper regiments and 1 separate tank batallion. I have a lot of surplus tanks (as I do not put unready tank brigades on refit). The tank batallion gives them a nice CV boost. What I'm also toying with is setting rifle brigades to lower TOE since I've promised myself to not merge anymore of them and they aren't doing much of anything right now.

As for familiarizing myself, I actually set up an operation Typhoon game to mirror my current game (both sides human) to try to work out what helps and what doesn't.

[gingerbread]

Ha! The screen shot from Turn 26 shows 0 (zero) points in the ARMAMENT pool, so adjusting your Rifle Brigades is but a drop in the ocean. What you can do is decide where your weekly production of ARMs points go, but it does mean that you have to decide where they do not. Some ARM are also used for ammo - see event log.

A Tank Battalion assignment is a good idea, cheap in ARM.

[notenome]

That is something I'm curious about. I lost very little Arm during the campaign (at most 20, I'd say). Is it normal to flatline the Arm pool so quickly? Or is this a consequence of my not setting TOEs lower sooner?

EDIT: Right now I have 344 Arm Points (with some more damaged) whilst (firing up the 42 scenario) the Soviets have only 339 points, yet they have 190275 points in the pool and I have notta-thing.

[Flaviusx]

It's fairly standard for the armament pool to flatline by around by late autumn, yes. Even with stringent economies.

It will recover come spring, once you can push out 100k armament points a turn or so a surplus will accumulate quickly, at least until mid summer when the new rifle division TOE change will eat them up. You are pretty good shape in the long run.

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: notenome
Also, should I build cav divisions to get more Cav corps in play?

No real need to. There's plenty of Cav Divs that arrive via scheduled reinforcements. Most games maintain significantly more Cav Corps than the Soviets did historically (mind you they also lost a bunch and didn't rebuild them). There should be roughly 13 Cav Corps by the end of January 1942.

[Seminole]

Disagree with this. He needs to save at least one of those 6 divisions to march into the hex. Preferably 2. Farming guards matters, yes, but so does killing Germans, and to do that you need to zoc them.

My thinking is you have a golden window of 8-12 weeks where you are trying to get 8+ wins for as many divisions as possible. You're not just setting up the Guards available in early 42, but also for the allotment increase in July of '42.
I'd use units from behind the front line (even brigades) to try and get the ZOC friction you seek. If the Germans want to burn their MPs attacking brigades instead of retreating, they can be made to pay.
What you don't want are reserve commitments creating failed attacks, and squandering your window to get those wins.

If by the summer of the '42 you have 70+ Gds divisions I think that will more than compensate for a little extra territory or dead Germans.

[notenome]

I was looking at Tulius's AAR (where he attacks everything in sight) and my rate of guards conversion is significantly higher (or at least has been so far). I have 6 guards divisions (Tulius had 1 at this point IIRC). Due to the very high number of Axis attacks (and my own counterattacks) in 41 a lot of divs were already on the cusp of Guard status (about 20ish). Also, my use of attacking echelons means that frequently a div will pick up more than 1 win a turn (thus the guards stack I have N of Moscow, wonder if 821 will try to attack them). My mindset is that I have to ram the Axis and I have to ram them hard, the guards will come as a natural result of this.

[notenome]

Before Soviet Moves:

Well, what a surprise: Tula, Rostov and Vishini-Vorsomething up north are all abandoned without a fight. Perfectly happy with that. Particularly Tula was the only real roadblock in Bryansk Fronts sector.

Axis counterattacks were not at nearly as succesful this turn. Special mention to 60th Tank Division that witheld 3 attacks (one from a mountain division) before routing. 2 more guards divisions, keeping the rate of 2 per turn that we've been having in December. Also an upswing in Rifle squad production (finally). I'm setting Artillery TOEs lower this turn, so hopefully even more Rifle squads will come into play.

Other milestones include German strength falling below 3 million and operational tanks plumeting to 650. Hopefully we can drop this even further this turn.

[gingerbread]

An observation:

It seems that at least some of your Guards Art did not have to make the check against condition 2 (win > def) or has for example 1st Gds BM Hwz Rgt accrued a lot of defeats after attaining Guards status?

[notenome]

probably after it attained guards status. Those howitzers were my first guards and were very heavily engaged in the North of Moscow.

[Flaviusx]

Not surprised, he's in full on runaway mode. He'll keep running until late January, is my bet.

I wonder how much longer he'll try to hang on to Moscow.

Has he sent any panzers away to Germany? They still seem like they are all in the east.

[notenome]

A lot of armor has vanished from the Front this past turn, some of it can be seen behind, but I think some also got sent back to Germany. 821 is mostly using his armor as a counterattacking firebrigade, coming out of their winter quarters in Moscow and trying to punk nearby units, but I'm not sure its such a hot strategy. Its actually causing more armor losses to the Germans than my attacks are (as there is almost no armor on the Front.

[notenome]

Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Thank you Romania, thank you.