Russia! Why not? (Morvael welcome)

[morvael]

For the fans of charts:

[morvael]

Part 2:

[morvael]

Part 3:

[morvael]

Part 4:

[cpt flam]

4/9 Hungary send 2nd army to help us
i tried an assault against Sevastopol result 4 250/1 590 men and some art losses

german pool
48 910 men
178 200 veh
238 270 arm
3 hi

[cpt flam]

turn 44 [>:]
Jaenecke did not awake this morning

reserves
53 420 men
180 300 veh
232 690 arm
6 hi

[morvael]

I was waiting for Apr'42 to build the Tank Corps. I thought it will be a war-reversing machine of death and destruction. Nobody told me, it will be a CV3 crap

[carlkay58]

Yeah 42 Tank Corps are not that great - I think the last version in 42 starts to be something. But you have to start training them up sometime. And gain some experience yourself as to what they may be useful for.

[randallw]

The moment you make the tank corps they'll have element slots that have to fill out, such as SMG guys and heavy artillery; once that happens you'll gain about 1 CV. The next TOE ( in July? ) increases the size/strength of the corps, gaining about 40-60 tanks and 2k in total manpower; that's another 1 or 1 1/2 CV.

[morvael]

Yeah, they were CV2 after buildup, CV3 after filling the TOE with new elements. In two months time, I hope that on upgrade they will reach CV 4 or 5. That would be good (highest CV I had until now was 4, not counting the Blizzard CV, so 5 would be new record). The problem is it's not enough to compete with the panzer divisions. After all, comparing the TOE results in a sad conclusion: the corps should be called a division, the division a corps Divisions that makes corpses of my corps...

[carlkay58]

Yes, the Soviets have everything one level higher than the Axis. The Soviet Division is roughly the same as the Axis Regiment, the Corps the same as a division, the Army the same as a Corps, and the Front the same as the Army. If you keep this in mind, it is much easier to organize and use the Soviet forces.

[smokindave34]

The best role for the early tank corps is for breaking into pockets formed by the axis. The high MP of the tank corps make them excellent for that. Keep them well behind the lines and use them to break open pockets and get cheap victories where possible to gain morale/experience. It will be a while until they achieve any significant offensive capability.

[morvael]

The problem I have at the moment, is not having enough Army HQs. And I can put 9 divisions with average 2.5CV under one HQ (22CV total) or just tank 4 corps (12CV total). I had to stop building new tank corps in order to make new Army HQs. When I will have enough of them, I will be back to making tank corps (that plan will probably fail, due to the need of rebuilding divisions destroyed in German summer offensive by then). I'm also waiting for the Tank Army HQs to be available, though their low command capacity (15) makes me worry. I think I will try to put 4 corps in each, with 1CP overload the tests will be about 9% harder for the commanders, which is not so much taking into account that there are several good tank leaders available.

The CP tradeoff of 3 rifle divisions (6CP) to 1 rifle corps (4CP) is good, reduces the command strain. But with mech units it's not good (3CP for 3 brigades, 4CP for the corps). How do you organize your armies by then? Just 6 Tank Armies give place for 18-24 tank/mech corps. So the rest must be assigned to regular armies. Is it better to make several tank/mech only armies or just give 1 to each infantry army, like I did with the cav corps?

[morvael]

Meanwhile, in the Luftwaffe HQ:

[Disgruntled Veteran]

Im pretty sure most of your losses are from flak though.

[morvael]

I wouldn't be so sure of that. One of my regiments (equpped with Hurricanes) scored 30 kills this turn, and it's morale went up 7 points or something like that.

[cpt flam]

turn 45 you are a bit "of time"
actually looking for better weather
having a failed assault against Sevastopol last week, russians leave the city as the port was badly damage

pool
58 830 men
185 900 veh
245 309 arm
10 hiwis

[morvael]

Yeah, I got angry on the game engine, how am I supposed to hold the fortress if two failed attacks not supported by heavy siege artillery are able to damage the port to 100%? I imagine they were stopped at the outskirts of the city, not roaming free inside the port, yet all "factories" in hex get damaged in combat. Besides the city didn't hold more German & Rumanian divisions, comparing to what I have invested (4 vs 4) and the city itself is not worth any additional VP, so it's a little loss. I'd prefer 4 good divisions elsewhere. But the major factor was the port damage (and assorted "isolation" penalty for my divisions).

[Walloc]

ORIGINAL: morvael

Meanwhile, in the Luftwaffe HQ:

Presumably u dont fly fighter sweeps to clear out the russian figthers first, right?

My bet would be if u had decimated the russian fighter force by sweeps before doing GS u wouldnt see that kinda losses among ur bomber force.

Kind regards,

Rasmus

[cpt flam]

you are right Rasmus, did not thought to that [&o]
turn 46 mud everywhere

reserves
72 110 men
189 600 veh
266 049 arm
18 hiwis