Towards the edge of destruction with hooooper and Blubel

[hooooper_slith]

And the losses

[Manstein63]

A little bit of advice. The Mosow hexes, put fort units on them with toe set at 50% it will stop degredation & may even increase the fort size. You should be getting or have got the Moscow Defense zone & you can attatch the forts to it. also attatch your reserve army HQ's to military districts this will allow transfer to fronts to be done without waisting any AP's.
Manstein63

[Mike29]

Why Shaposhnikov is front commander? and Zhukov is in Stavka? Shaposhnikov has admin rating 9, and historically he has to be in HC. Ar you sure Zhukov's 9 in infantry will affect normally from such level?

[Flaviusx]

I prefer Zhukov for STAVKA myself on account of his initiative rating. You make a lot more reserve rolls with him around than Boris.

[hooooper_slith]

That's interesting. I have no idea what the quantitative effect is of having different leaders at different levels. For example, how many defensive reserves are triggered by an initiative 5 front commander compared with an initiative 6? I just take all this on trust, although it can be important if you're facing an AP crunch and you have to decide whether to form corps, raise new divisions or kick Kulik out of the Vorenezh Front HQ. Also, if all the fighting is in the south, does it make sense to move Stavka to, say, Stalino?

Regarding Stavka leaders, that's really a job for Vasilevsky, I'd have thought, if he can be preserved and promoted to a sufficiently high rank.

[Flaviusx]

Vasilevsky is good if you are on the offense and admin is at a premium.

But for defensive warfare there is nothing like Zhukov running the show. He is the ultimate backstop for the Soviets due to his amazing initiative rating. Soviet initiative ratings generally are horrible and having him there will dramatically increase your chances of defensive reaction. Note these rolls go all the way up the chain of command and more often than not they will fail at the army and front levels thanks to poor initiative all around. You only have a bare handful of leaders with good initiative, nowhere near enough to address this concern at the army level. This critical deficiency must be addressed at the very top.

Note this very same rule applies to the Germans when they are on the defense: they want an initiative superstar in OKH. On the offense, they want a strong admin leader. And their initiative situation is much better than the Soviets.

When you are defending reserve activations matter more than admin, your supply situation more than sufficient for Zhukov to handle, his 7 admin rating is pretty decent in of itself. You have to keep the German guessing, and reserves are a major force multiplier. They introduce a major level of uncertainty in his attacks, and force him to be more conservative lest reserve activations start turning combats into holds. Fewer attacks means slower operational tempo and that's what you need on the defense: to slow the enemy down.

[hooooper_slith]

Well that all makes a lot of sense. I'll incorporate it into my doctrine.

[Scook_99]

Never forget reserves can activate for offensive operations also. That can be very handy in certain spots, like cracking the river next to Leningrad using 1st Corps, and have the entire 4th Pz Army sitting right behind them in reserve. Use for the Soviets 1943+ cracking river lines, and have a lot of beefy infantry corps that can reserve into a fight can make a difference. It makes more sense for usage on defense, but keep the offensive nature of reserves in mind.

[Peltonx]

Looks like you got this on Hoooper.

[hooooper_slith]

Turn 47

The first clear turn of 1942 and the Germans launch a stunning surprise attack.

[hooooper_slith]

I had a number of reactions to this. One was surprise: I've never seen a move quite like this before. In fact, I assumed there was a rule prohibiting the Germans from going onto Finnish territory. Another reaction was relief: the envelopment would have succeeded if I hadn't happened to move 4th Shock Army into reserve behind 7th Army - its the one assigned to South Urals in the diagram above. A third reaction was that this looks wrong - surely the pincers will be cut off in the mud turns to come?

After a Stavka conference, it is decided to leave the semi-encircled divisions where they are and try to snap off the German pincers. This is done with some ease ...

[hooooper_slith]

Meanwhile, on the other end of the front, I try to distract the Axis with a little counter offensive. My newly formed tank corp give the Germans a taste of our Russian spunk, and we make a few pockets of our own. Note the Crimea Front, which was wiped out at the end of the Barbarossa fighting, slowly being nursed back to life.

[hooooper_slith]

In the centre, I at least know where the danger lies, and the usual defensive measures are taken.

[hooooper_slith]

Curiously, the Germans seem to have launched an infantry offensive north of Tula.

[hooooper_slith]

These are strange and troubling moves by Blubel. On the one hand, my instincts are that he has blundered - firstly by giving up the advantage of surprise, which, as Bomazz has shown, can be extremely effective; secondly by attacking so far to the north, where the going is hard and the only strategic prize already taken; thirdly, by failing to close the pocket. On the other hand, if the pocket were to close in the future, and those 40 or so divisions were to surrender, it would make Berlin a tough objective to take before April 45.

Whatever next?

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: hooooper

These are strange and troubling moves by Blubel. On the one hand, my instincts are that he has blundered - firstly by giving up the advantage of surprise, which, as Bomazz has shown, can be extremely effective; secondly by attacking so far to the north, where the going is hard and the only strategic prize already taken; thirdly, by failing to close the pocket. On the other hand, if the pocket were to close in the future, and those 40 or so divisions were to surrender, it would make Berlin a tough objective to take before April 45.

Whatever next?

Unlike Sapper, Bomazz did the right thing by attacking during spring clear turns

BUT

like Sapper, Bomazz made the blunder of spreading out his mobile divisions.

This has made it very easy to reopen pockets.

IF he would have put all his units in same area he could have easly cut off 10-15 divisions with a solid pocket 2 to 3 hexes wide or pushed you back in one wide 3-5/ deep 5-10 hexes area. This forsing a retreat and gaining space.

Just a plain lack of 42+ exp. Spreading out mobile units is ALWAYS an epic fail for GHC in 1942.

Why he attacked in north at all I have no idea, even if you are forsed to pull out this area is so easy to defend from 42-45 for GHC.

Bomazz weakest area is Tula south. D+Z town area is a 43 disaster waiting to happen.

from Oka north is very very easly defended by GHC from 42-mid to late 44, the hard area is Oka south as terrain sucks defending. The south is key for GHC getting a draw vs good SHC players. Getting a minor win is simply not going to happen.

[timmyab]

It looks like Blubel has jumped the gun here, Spring clear turn deep penetrations are always dangerous.With the benefit of hindsight a better strategy may have been to push just North of Moscow during the Spring clear turns to draw deep defenses from the North and then to launch the main attack on the first clear turn of the Summer campaign.

ORIGINAL: hooooper

These are strange and troubling moves by Blubel. On the one hand, my instincts are that he has blundered - firstly by giving up the advantage of surprise, which, as Bomazz has shown, can be extremely effective; secondly by attacking so far to the north, where the going is hard and the only strategic prize already taken; thirdly, by failing to close the pocket. On the other hand, if the pocket were to close in the future, and those 40 or so divisions were to surrender, it would make Berlin a tough objective to take before April 45.

I think there is some merit to 1942 Northern offensives, but as you say, surprise is the key.It has to be a quick smash and grab.The advantages are that it's not expected, the buildup can easily be hidden and counterattacks against the panzer cordon are less likely to succeed because of the good defensive terrain.Capturing swaths of good terrain in the North also makes the Axis player's job much easier from 43 onwards.

[Peltonx]

If Bomazz would have attacked in south with everything you would have been forsed to react to his strong openning and he could have stayed on offensive until October 42. But instead SHC is already countering moves and cutting off GHC spearheads.

Bomazz can still recover from this strategic blunder as it is spring, but its a big boon to SHC.

I do not beleive he can recover vs Hoops

[timmyab]

Pelton, to avoid too much confusion, this game is against Blubel, not Bomazz.

[hooooper_slith]

A small but important point.