CB: Bonners (axis) vs Isokron (Soviet)

[Bonners]

July 18th

I also noticed a few gaps on the central front and have managed to play a movement card on 3rd Pz Div to get them across the river.

..and so onto Voronezh. I'm afraid noob play has come back to the fore. Looking at his units he was obviously suffering from command and control penalties so I thought it was time to strike. the basic plan was to get a bridgehead two hexes wide either side of Voronezh so I have a chance of defending it next turn. Well blow me down with a feather, it would appear that my units do actually want to cross the Don after all. I have used up all my card points for my HQs and played a mixture of movement cards and attack cards to get across the river in force. Despite some heavy losses (although the Soviet losses were worse) We are across on all planned bridgeheads, now to see if we can hold them despite the inevitable counter-attacks from 5th Tank Army. I have done everything I can to stop them as every Stuka unit not involved in the attacks across the river has been off loading everything they have on the armoured units. Again bad losses for me, but if I was ever going to sacrifice my bombers, this felt like the turn to do it.

I am slightly scared to see what Isokron comes up with next turn as I know he is fully prepared for this assault.

Overview of Voronezh Front:

[Keunert]

that one airstrike was pretty impressive!

[Bonners]

July 20th

I'm beginning to think I should be putting a health warning on this thread for Axis players....the following report is not going to be pretty, I think my limitations as a player are being shown up big style.

I opened my turn up so see another mud turn.....I thought this was bad news.....I was wrong.

The bad news was anywhere across the front I cared to mention. All the way along the front there were little nibbling attacks wherever I had put a unit slightly in danger. By themselves they are not dangerous, but they all add to my ever mounting losses.

I then looked at Voronezh. Luckily for my sanity I didnt take a screen shot, but it was not a pretty sight. Both bridgeheads thrown back across the river with ease. Minimal Soviet losses, but my total losses for the offensive amounted to almost 20,000 troops in one turn and approximately 100 tanks. These losses are not sustainable for long. Yet OKH says I have to take these objectives, so take them I will.

The battle carries on. I crumble a bit further north of Voronezh and in a very costly offensive retake the Southern bridgeheads. This is not looking good though. I used my last card to get some more units across the river, but I am still going to be thrown back again. The lack of supply is also a bit of an issue in places wit hthe mud turns. I took a gamble in trying to bypass towns, but it is beginning to backfire. Despite my fighters struggling to get off the ground some fighters managed to intercept my air transport and I suffered my first Ju-52 losses. This is not looking pretty. Full marks to Isokron, I thought my play was improving, but he is still managing to be ready to find the weak spots and also to know exactly when to counterattack in force with everything that vaguely looks like it a pick up a rifle.

The overall picture on Voronezh Front at the end of my turn:

[Bonners]

July 20th

..and just to complete the picture here are some stats showing casualties inflicted. This is not pretty, I've included the tank breakdown just to show how badly I am doing.



When I asked for this game I asked for a learning experience. I'm certainly getting it! Isokron is a perfect gentleman as an opponent and has been kind enough to offer me a few tips through the game as well. So I am hopefully picking things up for future games.

[Bonners]

July 24th

I didnt bother to update for July 22nd as it was much the same as the previous turn, more horrific German losses for no gain. However, there is a little glimmer of light across the Don, only a little one, but we are starting to make a little progress both North and South of Voronezh and the 6th Army Panzers are also pushing forward to help from the South. I am beginning to get the feeling that mine are not the only forces suffering in this battle of attrition. Still massive advantage to the Soviets, but maybe I'm not quite dead and buried just yet.

Overall view on the Voronezh Front:

[Bonners]

July 24th


....and I have a feeling that this here could be the game. Let's be honest through extreme ineptitude my offensive forces are almost spent. My only decent reserves are 1st Panzer. Well they are going for Millerowo. I have played the more time card and if he keeps retreating I'm just going to follow, play the more time card again if necessary and make sure this offensive bursts over him in full force. It is not going to make up for my earlier mistakes and dispersal of force, but I'm hoping I can at least get some kind of breakthrough and give him a bit of a game.

Preparations for operation **** or bust!

[Bonners]

July 24th


Finally a quick look at some stats. I think they tell their own tale[:(] Included the aircraft as this is the only area where I am at least holding my own.

[olivier34]

I can compare with my two previous games and your losses are really high !
The soviets are abble to push back the german bridgeheads south of Voronezh but the axis player can then counter attack and finally keep the position. Always costly. I never tried to cross the Don north of Voronezh in the same time. I prefer to concentrate south all the artillery but I am sure that we (axis players) could improve this.
Try to get those prestige pts and save them to get more and more pps per turn.
Great to follow this !

[Keunert]

wrong thread

[Bonners]

July 26th

I think it could be game over soon, the chances are that we'll be fighting in Kharkov not Stalingrad in November[:(]

Opened my turn to horrific losses. Approximately 30k total losses, I'm now well below the 700k mark for total troops and the Soviets are now in a strong position across the front. My forces are now spent North and South with the Soviets going over to the offensive in general, I suspect from this turn. No movement on the central front beyond a couple of hexes moved back again, so no offensive yet. Despite the clear weather I have supply problems in various places, I just cant airlift the supplies fast enough or get the bridges repaired quickly enough.

Here is the overall front as it now stands:

[Bonners]

July 28th

More bad news, this is the death throes of the Axis powers. This turn I opened the turn to the usual horrific losses, but also to find that Wiking and another PZ division were surrounded north of Rostov. I've managed to temporarily break the encirclement but I suspect it will be renewed shortly. My only slight solace is that Isokron has also admitted that he is struggling to keep up with the losses. The trouble is I cant play any replacement cards. I've played the more time card twice now and will probably have to play it again in two more turns, I have no choice, due to bad decisions at the start of the game I made to keep on with the attritional offences, I have to keep the pressure on Rostov and Voronezh. I gave the artillery the turn off to recharge (as do my troops need a breather) around Rostov, although I did take a couple of more pops at his battle ships. North and South of Voronezh I had to keep the pressure on, little ground gained and what I do gain Isokron takes straight back the next turn. As per usual the tattered remains of the Luftwaffe try and pound his tanks into submission. Not much going on from the Soviet airforce which as per usual is the only factor in my favour. My only Luftwaffe units still in decent shape are my fighters, so that is the one thing I have going for me.

I do realise that as a contest this game is over, but I'm going to carry on for as long as possible, just to see how badly it does pan out. On the central front I attacked with infantry either side of 1st Panzer Army and actually managed to get a couple of hexes. My main aim was to pin as much of the Soviet forces in place as possible though. 1st Panzer continue the steady advance to Millerowo; I refuse to continue with my earlier mistakes, so no attacks on their front. The infantry and tanks are now in range and he cant retreat any further. Could I actually take an objective?

Northern Front (I use the term 'front' loosely):

[Bonners]

July 28th

The central front, 1st Panzer continues to march up to its start lines:





EDIT: You can just see the remains of my surrounded PZ Divs on the bottom right.

[Bonners]

July 28th

...and finally the overall troops numbers

[Bonners]

July 30th

Just about game over. More moving over to the offensive from the Soviets, several of my units were surrounded and destroyed. I have no points to play and will soon be down to zero prestige. Lots more Soviet airstrikes against my airfields and also my armour this turn. German armour is now down to a 1000. North of Voronezh it is only a matter of time before he breaks through and I have nothing to plug the gap with.

My last great hope was 1st Panzer's offensive. This has failed miserably despite playing a good mixture of speed and offensive cards, I just couldnt get a breakthrough and Isokron has moved ample reserves into place to ensure that it will not happen. 1st Panzer will no doubt be played out in a couple of turns and will then suffer the same fate as 4th Panzer army.

I have been comprehensively outplayed from start to finish. He has exploited every weakness and has made me rush my attacks trying to get in before he entrenches. Isokron has successfully retreated at every opportunity, yet when he does stand and fight he has entrenched reserve forces in place to ensure that I am battering against a heavily armed brick wall, then he hits me with successful counterattacks which means I end up in a panic to try and get my objectives in time and end up in a horrible battle of attrition. He has also made sure that I havent been able to take one city hex, meaning both my supply and prestige have been suffering. I shouldnt have gone for Rostov head on, that was a waste of time and energy. He is now back up to full force and is back fully entrenched with all hexes at 200+ entrenchement. It is pointless carrying on the offensive. I just have a big hole in my lines north of Rostov which I am just waiting for him to exploit.

Not a lot more to add really, I shall be carrying on with the game and the AAR, but there is nowhere to go from here really, it is only a matter of time.

No maps this turn as no real movement, instead here is a load of stats breaking down where we are up to losses wise. Note the overall losses pass the 200k mark and that my fighters took some hefty losses this turn due to the Soviet air offensive.

[Bonners]

1st August

Case Blue has failed miserably and we have declared the game over as a contest, so you might see Isokron in this thread. Congratulations to him, really good opponent who has shown me I was perhaps a little premature in jumping in against an experienced opponent; out played from start to finish and spent the entire game chasing my tail. Anyway, as I've found it really interesting learning the game against him I have offered to carry on for a while, just to see where we end up, so there may be a few more turns yet.

Right then....opened the turn to see absolute bedlam. My airforce is now down to 200 fighters and a virtual lack of functioning bombers. After a few airstrikes in the last couple of turns Isokron picked the right moment to go in for the kill; loads of my planes were caught napping on airfields. I did have a couple of fighter units with good readiness who I thought my intercept, especially in the area he attacked, but they failed to do so. Dont think it would have materially affected the outcome, but I obviously need to work out how to make the chances of interception better.

More Soviet attacks across most of the front, none of them materially terrible but again added up to fairly high losses which I cant afford. 1st Panzer was thrown back in places and there was the usual carnage and units lost north of Voronezh. By Rostov he completed his encirclement of III PZ Corps, I have no offensive capability left in the South.

After the despair had lifted and I made the decision to carry on some hard choices had to be made. First choice was to forget about cards. We are not playing the dismissal rule so if my forces are played out I need to retreat. So I have withdrawn and tightened the line up around Rostov, there are still a couple of gaps, but I am in a better positions to hold on. I am officially on the defensive in the South:

[Bonners]

1st August

The one offensive area I really tried again with this turn was with 1st Panzer. The offensive toward Millerowo continued, I tried to engineer a strike on Millerowo itself, but despite managing to surround I found that I didnt quite have enough to take it. I do feel I have made a little bit of progress though, it just depends on what Isokron counterattacks with this turn. The offensive continues:

[Bonners]

1st August


...and finally Voronezh which shall be known ever after as the graveyard of 4th Panzer. Lots of accepting my fate and withdrawals. The only area I did try and hold onto was the ground north of the city. I have had some success, but again there are still Soviet forces there ready to counterattack.

Voronezh front:

[LiquidSky]

Your aar makes me very sad. I will do what I can in my game to finish off my opponent, so my forces can move into your's to help [;)]

What I notice is that attacking can be very very painful. As well, when you attack you lose your entrenchment level...so if you fail an assualt, you have lowered morale, lowered rediness, and you're entrenchment level is low. Ripe for a counter attack. So I only attack in areas I wish to advance in, and I only do it if I use air/artillery on the hex I am attacking....sometimes I use cards, but not necessary.

Even if you win an assault, the enemy can counterattack your now exposed units and push them back, although that can open him up to the above lowered readiness etc.

On any given turn, I may only attack maybe a dozen hexes at most. Maybe more after a mud turn, when I know he is suffering from lower supply in hard to supply area's...or is spread out. I would rather outflank (and lose the prestige) for a place like Rostov if it is too hard to take frontally, then to lose an army assualting it.

As well, I try to never spread my panzer units out, but keep them bunched in a bridgehead. Making a breach and spreading out behind the russian lines is just asking to have units cut off as he could pop reinforcements on any undamaged, rail-supplied city.

Your losses are so very very high....and I think come from you burning yourself out on attacking...then losses from those burnt out units being taken out.

[Bonners]

Cheers LiquidSky. Thanks for the advice, I would say you are 100% spot on, I think the main thing is I panicked early on thinking I had to get to the objectives and cut him off. Against a decent human opponent I now realise that it is not going to happen. So the other thing I need to learn for my next game is that when things dont go to plan I need to show a little patience when things go wrong and wait for the next chance to attack, doing like you say and making sure I am only attacking in the spot I needed. I also need to save points for more time cards. An interesting alternative to that is something you have done in your game, take a gamble and go for the ambition card, you may end up with some alternative objectives that the Soviet is not expecting which could give some easier prestige and maybe give the opportunity to avoid some of the main objectives for a while.

I think my initial attack around Voronezh wasnt necessarily a bad idea, but I should've quit instead of reinforcing failure. Ditto for Rostov, I've just wasted my forces there, again it is basically summing up what you are saying.

Lessons have been learnt for the next game. The only thing I'm not too sure where I went wrong is with the airforce, I think with my fighters I've been very conservative and I dont think my tactics have been too bad, yet I still havent got anywhere. I realise that lessons need to be learnt with how to use my air power I am not quite sure what the lessons are yet.

This is going to sound really strange, but I've actually really enjoyed the experience of this game, I know I've done everything wrong, but it really has been a fun learning experience.

Bonners, off to read LiquidSky's AAR and set up a shopping list of units[:D]

[Isokron]

Very nice thread Bonners. As have already been said I think your main problem might have been a bit unfocused attacks and also that you left your units in somewhat vulnerable positions rather that doing a tactical retreat when it was called for.

The fight around Voronezh was very very close at several points and I think it might actually have been decided (well you can probably still take it if we continue) by a bit of bad luck with the game mechanics on your side. I managed to do a 5 sided attack on your main force (forced march on those units stranded on the wrong side of the don did wonders) so they only had one hex to retreat to, unfortunally it seems like the game engine only allows 16 units per hex so when the forces retreated the last two regiments to retreat where killed outright because of that. And of course those two happened to be the panzer and infantry regiment of 23pz which was your strongest ones in the area. Before that your casulties from the counter attack was bad but that turned them catastrophic.

If we decided to do a second game I think I will try to create an AAR myself for it as well, really fun to see what your opponent was thinking after the game.