Case Blue Olivier(Axis) vs Keunert

[olivier34]

Sept 20
Krasnodar has to be taken in a week. In four days the 50th infantry division has been abble to cross the Kuban river west of the town, resist to an attack an move 10 more kms. The 22nd cross behind.

[olivier34]

Sept 20
Between Maikop and Armavir
The XXIV face a wall of soviets (they have taken this position 4 days ago) but I don't launch an attack. Let's wait to have the Artillery at full and some cards available.

[olivier34]

Sept 20th
From Pyatigorsk to Atschikuvak
The soviet 24th army has been reinforce by the first mechanised corps...but I am optimistic in this sector. A strong attack (3000 soviets died for only 200 german men, thanks to the Artillery) has been conducted. The Kuba river is crossed. A little south some motorised elements cross without a fight too.

[olivier34]

Sept 20 Last screenshot. Sector between Bulmkta and Samtani.
Kleist 1st panzer was reduce to one corps with only one panzer division, the 16th. The 16th has launch a counter attack (panzer drive). The goal was to scare the soviet forces that were beginning to surround the III corps. It works, they withdraw.
I attach the IV corps to the 1st panzer. This sector is finally very important. The IVth is reinforce by a motorised division. All the JU52 are now on the direct command of Von Kleist. It seems that the forces in front of us are not so organise. Some are from the 57A, others from the 24th or the 40th or under the command of the southern front HQ.
The IV corps should be abble to reach the rail line 50 kms east by the end of the month.

[Bonners]

I think you need to get your ju52s back under control of OKH. From my understanding they need to draw supply from the command they are under to deliver it. Kleist will not have much excess supply so the max the jus can deliver will not be enough. OKH will have more excess so they will be able to deliver more. Experimented in my game with putting the jus under army command and was wondering why the level of supply they were delivering was so rubbish.

[olivier34]

right Bonners. But they will have no HQs bonus...maybe this is not so important. I will attach them to OKH the very next turn.

[LiquidSky]

They won't deliver any supply if the units they are trying to supply are not isolated. Basically, if you try it will just put the supply back under the OKH.

[olivier34]

you can check the details and see the amount of supply delivered. I think that I was abble to deliver something to my units that are not isolated but in the yellow zone...I will report that the next turn.

[Bonners]

ORIGINAL: olivier34

right Bonners. But they will have no HQs bonus...maybe this is not so important. I will attach them to OKH the very next turn.

Yeah, dont think there is any way around that for the transports as they wont have enough range (especially in bad weather conditions I think!) if you keep them within HQ range of OKH.

[olivier34]

September 22
We attack again the 5TA. 10 days ago I was pessimistic in this sector. I had forgotten how powerful the german army is. This offensive could be accomplish under the command of Erhard Raus. With Von Paulus, the 6A would have defend (better?) but slowly would have lost the attrition war that the soviets wanted here.

[olivier34]

September 24th (turn 45) Clear
I open the turn and I feel good [:D]. Only good news. Red arrows on the above picture, a counter attack of the 40A but it failed.
Much better news, the soviets have withdraw from Frolowo. It seems that the 5TA can't counter attack [:D]. My artillery is ready...I may kill or capture a lot of those soviets this turn.
A great news, Krasnodar is an open city now. The 50th infantry division had began to surround the city and resisted to an attack. Keunert had to decide to evacuate or not. Maybe he has won some prestige pts and he had not to hold the city anymore ?? Anyway, I was not sure to take the city in time and I would have lost a lot of men. Let's grab those 8 prestige pts without a fight [;)]
Sceenshot before my moves : The weather is clear. we see that the IV corps had advance the previous turn with the 1st romanian armor division leading the attack. The soviets could only retreat...don't think that they will be abble to stop the IV corps to reach the rail line.
Little south, LII corps. The 3rd panzer has been attack (one rgt had to withdraw, 500 men lost, 50 trucks some guns). Von Manstein is in command of this corps and he has 48 pps now.

[olivier34]

September 24th after my moves
Maikop is taken [:D]. By the Wiking division (The SS panzers are really strong. I have played a few cards to ask some SS reinforcement).
The soviets are in trouble here. They will escape but I have cut the roads. They will have to hide in the woods and mountains.

[olivier34]

September 24th
3th and 23th panzers rush toward Mozdok (Von Manstein freedom of action card played). They kill or capture 1 500 soviets and suffer very little losses.

[olivier34]

Sept 24,
The Italian cavalry division reach the rail line and cut it. IV corps advance 30 kms.

[olivier34]

Sept 24th,
The 5TA HQ has been attack. Part of the 40A is almost surrounded. A few more days and this could be a total victory here for the 6A.

[olivier34]

October 4th Cleat weather but snow has fallen.
North map. 6A has stop his offensive the 26th. 4th of october, a panzer corps moves west.
High command has given some new objectives, all in the south. This new offensive has the goal to shorten the front line a bit for the coming winter.

[olivier34]

October the 4th
South, a lot of soviets have been captured or killed. I try to understand what happen. The cut of the rail line south of Astrakan has isolated all the south soviet front from thier supply source. The consequences have been dramatic. Second thing, the Wiking division breakthrough the 25th has had a huge consequence too.
Looking at the stats, the soviets are around 500 000 men. We will see how the red army can recover and if she will be abble to launch a winter offensive...hope so.
I will have to reorganize my armys very soon. I spend 94 pps to get 20 FW 190...4,7 pps the plane [X(]

[olivier34]

October 10th
Seems that the game will be over soon. I have check but if Baku falls with Stalingrad in my hands, this will result in an instant win...I am pushing my units toward Baku and Poti...too bad that the soviet front did collapse in the south. It would have been very difficult and intesting to drive toward those goals with some soviet forces in front of me. That could be a very interesting scenario to build...
The previous turns were clear but we had some snow and now the snow is replace by mud. (The panzers can advance only 30 kms)
I am looking at a map right now to check how the germans did in the caucase. I see that they were unable to cut this rail line from Astrakan to Grozny but Rostov falls much early than in our game. Keunert has hold Rostov a long time. I had to do a huge move around it and I remember telling myself that if I was the soviet player, I may withdraw from Rostov before it's to late...
Let's do a what if :
What if some soviet forces had been on my way when I have cross the Steppes toward the Caspienne sea ? Only a few of them will have stop my advance. You have to take a town and wait 5 turns before the structural damage of the town are repair so that it can be work has a logistical center...I think that with two or three soviet divisions I will have lost two weeks before reaching the rail line..
When the soviet armys defending Rostov has began to retreat, they have been chase and could not fortified really on a new line, specially in the plains. The mountains area could have provide a natural line of defense.

[olivier34]

I follow the rail line from Krasnodar toward Poti to take this city. Same here, a few soviet forces could slow down my advance. Anyway, you have to wait to have the rail line repaired...and I ask Keunert if he thinks that the soviets could cut it when they want by debarking a unit along the coast. Again, it would have been very tough to take Poti in time...

[Keunert]

Looking back i found at least three huge mistakes, Rostow wasn't one of them. In fact i was pretty proud on how Rostow played out. It gave me a prestige boost and i hope it reduced yours. I bought trains before the evacuation to be sure that i had enough strategic movement to rail everything back once i left my positions. it was close but it played like i hoped for. The forces were sent behind the Kuban river and they got enough time to dig in properly.

My first mistake: i did not care about the supply center south. i chose not to save for it when i was swimming in pp. The consequences should have been to retreat most units to the rail line / tiblisi / baku / Mozdok area and not in front of Maikop.

My second mistake: the loss of 3 or 4 armies, including all HQ and fast units around end of July in the center. i could have prevented this if i had made a realistic assessment of the situation: no railroads, not enough troops, a fast ennemy with air superiority = save artillery, aa, tanks and HQ and let the infantry die. Those units could have been the backbone of a newly established front between Astrachan and Briansk (Rail connection). Instead i decided to do a fighting retreat and lost all.

Third mistake: around turn 38 i watched how your SS troops weren't able to push back my defenders, at the same time i was able to isolate and kill some units in front of the rail connection and counterattacks on your armor proved to be quite deadly to your spearheads in the south: i believed for the first time that you were running an exhausted army low on supply. i saw your Ju's bringing supply to forward positions and came to the conclusion that your units in front of the rail were too far away from your own rail net and would stay out of, therefore i only slowly reinforced this area. This confidence was further supported by the growing troop total. i felt i was getting stronger with every turn. this triggered a few mistakes: i did not check retreat routes down south. I wrote on turn 41 that your southern offensive felt weak... i should have reatreated 47 & 18 A that very turn towards Maikop

In the middle of all this came the no step back order. i didn't pay much attention first. but every small town you conquered reduced my prestige and made it drop to zero within a week.