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

[notenome]

Well, 821 had been digging forts with regiments behind the lines. Our cavalry made contact this turn, and wasted no time and blowing a hole right through:

[notenome]

Reference Map for the first month of the Winter counteroffensives. Solviet soldiers have taken to calling the German fortified line the "Baba Yaga Line", as it only scares children. Dishonorable mention goes to Kalinin Front, who has been completely stalled in its advance. I actually contemplating disbanding all its divisions as punishment.

[notenome]

Our best divisions (in terms of W-L record). A lot of these could have turned guards last week but I guess we hit the cap.

[notenome]

Best Army generals, blue dot means Western Front. Notice a pattern?

[Peltonx]

Wow good game.

You lost Moscow, but you should be able to retake it and possibly have a good blizzard.

Your numbers look good and moral ok. Your manpower output will be low for 42, so if you can keep him from getting any major pockets you should be in good shape from 43-45.

Dispite Moscows loss I would say you still have a slight advantage. as of now.

[notenome]

It is a pretty hard fought game on both sides, though I suppose a lot will depend on how many (if any) panzer divisions get trapped in Mosocw). Due to supply interdiction from adjacent hexes, the mobile divisions there are all in the red supply wise.

Losses and OOB

[notenome]

Monthly fun with numbers time (December)


-- OOB figures --


-Axis (not counting Axis minors)-

Axis overall strength has dropped by 402,650 and effective strength has dropped by 554,747 men.
Axis have 3922 less guns total and have 3759 less guns operational.
Axis have 119 less tanks total and 99 less tanks operational. (Axis tank strength picked up last turn, reinforcement?)
Axis have GAINED 169 aircraft and have 18 MORE aircraft operational. (??)

-Soviet-

Soviet overall strength has INCREASED by 145,931 and effective strength has INCREASED by 95,304 men.
Soviets have 6903 MORE guns total and have 5735 MORE guns operational.
Soviets have 289 MORE tanks total and 96 MORE tanks operational.
Soviets have GAINED 685 aircraft and have 419 MORE aircraft operational.


-- Losses --


And now the weird part
Axis losses (including minors as there's no way to differentiate) total 265,980 men, with only 28,535 permanent losses (killed and captured) and 237,445 men disabled.

Soviet losses total 221,075 men, with 137,975 permanent losses and 83,100 men disabled.

Axis losses do not match up to the OOB reduction over the same period. Either this is the losses screen being wonky (probably) or a massive off map of Axis divisions (which I don't recall happening during the winter crisis).


--Superiority figures (inc. minors)--


Soviets have a 1.113:1 numerical superiority in manpower.
Axis have a 1.079:1 numerical superiority in guns
Soviets have 1.592:1 numerical superiority in tanks
Soviets have 1.897:1 numerical superiority in aircraft


--Equipment comparisons (on paper)--

Germany has 1 gun per 95 men on the front
Rumania has 1 gun per 116 men on the front
Hungary has 1 gun per 131 men on the front
Italy has 1 gun per 151 men on the front
Finland has 1 gun per 94 men on the front
Slovakia has 1 gun per 202 men on the front

Soviet Union has 1 gun per 114 men on the front

This really shows just how horribly ill equipped the Italians are for war in the eastern front and conversely how well equipped Finland's troop are (best on the Eastern Front!).

The Soviet Union already has a heavy weapon shortage, and this will only worsen as we prioritize the construction of Rifle squads over guns. There are 4 000 more rifle squads on the front then when December began, and this is the consequence of it.

Hope you enjoyed this rather large and cumbersome post.

[Flaviusx]

The blizzard does wonky things to the Axis OB and the drop in strength is to some extent an illusion. Much of it is just being disabled due to the weather and not enemy action. By February this starts bouncing back rather dramatically and going into March the OB will zoom past 3 million again, barring some kind of total Axis crack up.

[notenome]

True but I'm almost certain that I've killed/captured more than 28.5k men. That seems incredibly low.

[Flaviusx]

You probably have. The best way to count battle losses is to ignore the OB screen and track individual battle results. (The battle report screen in the Commander's Report is best for this.) Which is incredibly tedious. The OB is kind of flaky.

[notenome]

Well, since we have reached the end of 1941, let us reflect:

Its been quite a game so far. I made a lot of mistakes early on, a large part of this due to my rust and lack of familiarity with the game after a two year break. I lost Leningrad by my own mistake (not that the city can really be held in 41, at least no in any AAR I've seen so far) and gave a crossing along the Dnepr in the Smolensk area in turn 2 because of bad Soviet dispositions. I also wasted a lot AP points in stupid things and took too long to get leaders where they should have been.

On the other hand, though it cost me a lot of troops, my aggressive tarbaby, cavalry raids and pocket breaking gradually wore down the Wehrmacht, prolonging the battle of Smolensk to the point that the German advance (as the pocket was continuously opened) ended up matching roughly historical levels. This allowed me to build up the defense of Moscow and reorganize Western Front into the wrecking ball its become.

Ultimately the frontlines by mud were in a very good situation, but there ended up being no mud. The Germans gained 2 or even 3 more offensive turns in some areas. This ultimately led to the loss of Rostov and Moscow (still sore about those two) by frontal assault as Western Front and Transcaucassus Front ground the German advance around the flanks into a standstill.

This has been an AAR depicting a clash between two very aggressive minded players, as me and 821 have continuously slugged at each other with reckless abandon attempting to contest initiative. Much praise should be given to 821 for his play, despite the disagreements with some of this decisions. For the first 6 or so turns of the game he consistently outplayed and out maneuvered me. Yes, he got lucky with the weather in October, but he also took full advantage of it whereas a lot of German players would have played it safe.

Ultimately 821 achieved all of Barbarossa's territorial objectives (Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov, respectfully)- no mean feat. My achievements, on the other hand, have been to greatly wound the Wehrmacht (something a lot of Soviet players consider of secondary importance after force preservation) whilst not suffering any reverses that could cripple the Soviet war effort over the long term (a grand encirclement or large scale loss of industry). I have been able to replace my losses, 42 will decide whether the Wehrmacht will be able to do the same.

[Peltonx]

Nice game so far.

The lose of Moscow will hurt you in 42.

I would have to say so far this is one of the very few games that is a draw so far.

[notenome]

January 1st, 1942

Moscow is evacuated. We are now accepting suggestions for the first Soviet division to enter the capital. Without their shelters, Axis mobile divisions see a rather large upswing in AFV losses. Elsewhere a few counterattacks are made but nothing special. Our upswing in readiness continues, with 200 divisions now ready (it was 140 two turns ago). Lastly, a new guards division forms, though there are many other contenders. 21st Rifle Division, with a record of 11-0, must be wondering what else they have to do to get promoted.

[Peltonx]

Hes basicly pulling back to keep loses low. your retaking of Moscow is good and bad. If he retakes it next summer you will take another manpower hit.

Have you pocketed any units yet?

[notenome]

With the Axis evacuation, the battle for Moscow is now over. Special mention goes to Rokossovky's 13th Army, who held Moscow's right flank for 3 months and then went on the offensive, smashing the Germans back.

Yet there is a price to pay and 13th Army is exhausted. Rokossovky lost his first battle in a month and the prospect of encircling the Germans seems dim. Yet the primary goal was achieved, and Moscow liberated on the first of January.

A look at two of the Red Army's most victorious divisions, with a combined record of 27-1, the utterly exhausted 21st Rifle Division and 3rd Guards Rifle Division. If you combine both their TOEs it would not yield one full strength division.

They badly need a break, but I can't exactly pull the Soviet Union's best Army from the line if we are to ensure Moscow's security come summer.

[notenome]

Pelton- We pocketed one division on turn 25 and last turn pocketed 2 more.

[notenome]

Operation Europa:

In order to ensure Moscow's safety there is a ring of cities which must be held. These are Torzhok, Kalinin, Rzhev, Vyazma and Kaluga. This creates a 10 hex buffer in front of Moscow that I hope will be sufficient to dissuade or stop an Axis attack. Operational doctrine is to surround the cities through the fields (comrade Mao Tsetong's plan during the Chinese civil war). Timetable is for a 100-120 mile advance during January and February, consolidating the line in March. Main assault will fall to Western Front (Rokossovky's 13th, Malinovsky's 10th and Vasilevky's 4th armies) and Volkhov Front (Maslenikov's 49th, Kurochkin's 43rd, Khozin's 52nd) with support on the flanks from NW and Bryansk Front. Kalinin Front will... try not fail so much.

[notenome]

Two more Axis divisions surrender, bringing the total up to 3 for the Blizzard.

[glvaca]

You have time to take an army of the line and get it back up to strength, provided you can make some headway without them, they'll catch up and might just be the edge you need to get your final objectives.
If the RR aren't too far behind, I'd definitely rotate your prime divs to keep them in top fighting condition.

[notenome]

Operation Titan:

1st Shock Army in cooperation with Bryansk Front's 26th Army blows through two more lvl 2 forts, thus paving the way for operation Titan:

-1st, 2nd and 3rd Shock Armies (containing all of our cavalry corps except one, and all our remaining motorized and armor divisions along with a smattering of brigades) are to drive deep into enemy lines and destabilize the front. We'd call this deep penetration but since Mikhail Tukhachevsky was executed this has been regarded as a bourgeoisie term, so instead we're calling it the 'far-reaching-front-destabilization-doctrine' (quite a ring to it, eh?).

-26th Army (Bryansk Front's best army) will hold the neck of the advance and prevent the Axis from isolating the advancing mobile elements

-Bryansk Front's 20th Army along with Volkhov Front's 52nd Army will launch supporting attacks aimed at drawing off Axis reserves, and if successful, bypassing Kaluga southern flank.

Timetable is a 100-120 mile advance within the month of January, destabilizing all of AGC. 32nd (Bryansk), 21st (Bryansk), 37th Armies (STAVKA) in reserve as they recover their strength.