January has ended (thank god) and February has begun. The Soviets are launching their last push against a recovering Axis. The turned opens with a double envelopement of Orel with about 6/8 divisions isolated most of them panzers. Luckily the ring is loose and made up of 1cv tank brigades (even after the blizzard doubling). Even better are SNOW conditions in the middle soviet zone. This allows a fresh 25cv panzer corp to hit the southern prong of the soviet orel offensive and scatter many units. As the soviet is mostly tank brigades and cavalry divisions these panzers are able to launch 5 hasty attacks against stacks of 3 that all have cv's of 1 or 2. The bad news is that a large 5/6 division axis counter attack fails in the tula area leaving them vulnerable for next turn.
February sees a nice increase in average axis cv. Attacks are launched throughout the snow zone (Kursk to Stalino) and many stacks are retreated with heavy casualties for our soviet friends. The soviet south zone is still blizzard and we can only steady the line. Soviet is pushing us back and we only hold the stalino city hex now, the other 2 city hexes have fallen. We need the weather god to strike in the south zone too. Can't wait for blizzard to finally end. The axis army is ragged and we need to bring it back in shape.
Soviets are recovering strength. Blizzard started on turn 25 with 4.1mm in units and 4mm dead. At turn 34 I see 4.7mm in units and 4.4 dead. I assume the spring mud turns will see alot of soviet reinforcements flooding into the army. Random weather is interesting. This snow in Fenruary needs to be balanced with 2 turns of mud during the summer (turns 4 and 11). Probably a net loss for the axis but it does spice things up and add some uncertainity.
vandev
Axis view of blizzard
Moderators: Joel Billings, Sabre21
RE: Axis view of blizzard
We are at turn 36 and it seems the blizard offensive is winding down. Unfortunatley, on a successful not for the soviets. Despite snow in middle russia turn 34 and 36, Orel is now isolated with 3 axis infantry divisions trapped. Added to the prior 7, looks like we will end the blizzard 10 inf divisions down. Strong pressure straight ahead pushed back and then broke my defenses. I made a mistake here in not trying to have Orel and the forest hexes fortified when I took them in the Fall. My fall back line was at Bryansk.
The snow turns have allowed very strong attacks from Kharkov to Stalino to be launched by the axis. Other then a very strong concentration of soviet infantry in the stalino area, much of the front line has been routed. There are 2 more soviet turns before march and with this one snow, this area is secure. The south soviet zone which is crimea and south of stalino to the sea of azov is fairly calm. All blizzard turns so far but the odds are good for snow or mud so I figure the soviet has reach his high water mark here.
The north and center are now quite, though the soviet captured Kaluga/Kalinin (the one on the Oka) from a very strong 86 morale infantry unit in a level 2 fort. Bomazz does this 10+ attack thing thing that seems to set up a victory on the last attacked launched. Expensive for the soviet, but I have seen in work alot when he really wants to take a hex.
Axis turn 36 is in and only 2 more soviet attack turns till this nightmare is over. Soviet OOB has reached 5mm now, alot of reinforcements seems to be coming in. Luckily the german got 9 inf divisions in early february that are now all in the line. One bit of good news is that axis holds both sides of the Oka for 5 or 6 hexes, which should help for the summer.
vandev
The snow turns have allowed very strong attacks from Kharkov to Stalino to be launched by the axis. Other then a very strong concentration of soviet infantry in the stalino area, much of the front line has been routed. There are 2 more soviet turns before march and with this one snow, this area is secure. The south soviet zone which is crimea and south of stalino to the sea of azov is fairly calm. All blizzard turns so far but the odds are good for snow or mud so I figure the soviet has reach his high water mark here.
The north and center are now quite, though the soviet captured Kaluga/Kalinin (the one on the Oka) from a very strong 86 morale infantry unit in a level 2 fort. Bomazz does this 10+ attack thing thing that seems to set up a victory on the last attacked launched. Expensive for the soviet, but I have seen in work alot when he really wants to take a hex.
Axis turn 36 is in and only 2 more soviet attack turns till this nightmare is over. Soviet OOB has reached 5mm now, alot of reinforcements seems to be coming in. Luckily the german got 9 inf divisions in early february that are now all in the line. One bit of good news is that axis holds both sides of the Oka for 5 or 6 hexes, which should help for the summer.
vandev
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Axis turn 37. The last turn of blizzard and only one more turn of enhanced soviet attack power. Action slowed down this turn with attacks concentrated near Orel and Stalino. The surrounded corp at Orel fell and were sent to siberia. Part of the front here is lightly held but with march around the corner any further soviet advance is pointless. I suspect the soviets will realign for defense rather then continue attacking at this point. The weather gods have blizzard in all zones.
4th army (tula to Orel) and 6th army Orel to north of Kharkov are badly shaken. Many infantry divisions show a 1 or 2 cv. Quieter sections of the front have cv's in the 3 to 5 area (blizzard calculation). All 10 divisions that I have lost have been in the 4th or 6th army. All died as a result of tank bridage zoc lock that eventually caused a surrounded unit. 4th army ended up needing 3 to 4 panzer corp committed to stabilize. Stalino has seen some heavy fighting, but stalino itself will remain axis. Kharkov also held. The fort line in the woods hexes were critical to creating the cv to hold off the soviets. Unfortunately, the panzers also needed to deploy heavily in the south to maintain the line.
Now the axis army needs to recover and launch snow attacks to breach river lines to aid the summer campaign. Since all reserves were committeed, this will take some time. How fast will a panzer division recover once it is off the line and on a rail? What have I learned. Main lesson is that fighting out of a fort line really hurts. I did not really focus on C&C to maximize in building forts and paid for that lapse. You can fight on a fallback line, but if the soviet can mass it will hurt. The soviet in this blizzard was unable to field infantry stacks that had a cv of 14 to 18. Most infantry stacks started at 10 and quickly fell to 7/9 cv. This meant forts with 2 stacks of germans was a hard nut to crack. However, single axis divisions were soviet target practice.
4th army (tula to Orel) and 6th army Orel to north of Kharkov are badly shaken. Many infantry divisions show a 1 or 2 cv. Quieter sections of the front have cv's in the 3 to 5 area (blizzard calculation). All 10 divisions that I have lost have been in the 4th or 6th army. All died as a result of tank bridage zoc lock that eventually caused a surrounded unit. 4th army ended up needing 3 to 4 panzer corp committed to stabilize. Stalino has seen some heavy fighting, but stalino itself will remain axis. Kharkov also held. The fort line in the woods hexes were critical to creating the cv to hold off the soviets. Unfortunately, the panzers also needed to deploy heavily in the south to maintain the line.
Now the axis army needs to recover and launch snow attacks to breach river lines to aid the summer campaign. Since all reserves were committeed, this will take some time. How fast will a panzer division recover once it is off the line and on a rail? What have I learned. Main lesson is that fighting out of a fort line really hurts. I did not really focus on C&C to maximize in building forts and paid for that lapse. You can fight on a fallback line, but if the soviet can mass it will hurt. The soviet in this blizzard was unable to field infantry stacks that had a cv of 14 to 18. Most infantry stacks started at 10 and quickly fell to 7/9 cv. This meant forts with 2 stacks of germans was a hard nut to crack. However, single axis divisions were soviet target practice.
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Also remember TOWNS, towns of size 4 fully shelter a division from blizzard effects. Around Stalino and Moscow there are many such towns so make sure your fort lines make good use of the towns (look at towns when building blizzard defense lines and not rivers).
Also the Mountain divisions fully shelter SUs. So load them up with your best ones and they will become monsters in blizzard that can easily stabilize a front sector of their own.
Also the Mountain divisions fully shelter SUs. So load them up with your best ones and they will become monsters in blizzard that can easily stabilize a front sector of their own.
RE: Axis view of blizzard
time for recovery about your Panzer div will vary
if needed much is infantry can be quick
if you need a lot of AFV this will take longer as there is not so much producted
if needed much is infantry can be quick
if you need a lot of AFV this will take longer as there is not so much producted
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Waiting for the last soviet turn of blizzard so nothing more to report. Thanks for the info Cpt Flam and Molchomor. I really made 2 large mistakes this blizzard. First I was not at all strategic with my mountain units. I attacked to the last snow turn in November and the mountain units started the blizzard wherever they ended the fall offensive. I should have pulled them off the line earlier, rested them and loaded up with su's and then deployed them where I wanted. Instead it all happened by accident and I eventually got one isolated and destroyed 40 or 50 miles northeast of Kursk, clearly useless terrain that I was never going to hold. Secondly, I really needed a reserve fortline in realistic places Orel and South. I built one at briansk but it was too far in the rear. I eventually got one Kharkov to stalino but it was mostly naturally formed by stacked units. Better planning would really have helped.
vandev
vandev
RE: Axis view of blizzard
The blizzard is now over and we are on the 2nd turn of march. The soviets ended blizzard on a high note by surrounding an exhausted panzer corp near Orel and then forcing it to retreat. This routed these units and forced them off the line to refit to recover. The Axis combat penalties shift from horrible in blizzard to just bad in march/april 42. Many large counterattacks were launced and many succeeded. I doubt we will have any smashing snow success (one can hope) but we are playing chess to gain good position come summer. For example, we did take back Kaluga with a 8 division counterattack and advanced toward moscow through some lightly defended terrain. Blizzard ended with too many german divisions in the north and too few in the south. We will need to shift alot of force which will reduce any real counterattack ability in the north.
Kinda cheesy but I attacked some lone soviet tank brigades with 4 to 5 division stacks just to farm morale. The axis is exhausted. Many infantry toe's are below 70% and morale below 70. I can see that 42 will have the landsers much weaker then 41. My guess is that the panzers will recover nicely and we will need to plan well to make 42 a german success. Now is the time to help the german recover.
What have I learned? First lesson is that double stacks in forest or better terrain is actually hard for the soviet to attack if there is any kind of fort. In some very limited parts of the front, the german can stand if he has enough troops. Second lesson is that to establish a no retreat line in Febuary, requires a very high percentage of reserve committment. You cannot force the soviet blizzard offensive to stop prior to its scheduled end in march without a fort line and double stacked units. I had to fight to retain my intended 42 start line. A question might be, is it worth it to fight at all, give up an additional 10 hexes along the front and save much more of your army by never releasing reserves. May be good game play, but less fun. Not sure what the right choice is.
In this game, the axis retained Stalino and contact with the sea of azov. The axis also retained a line on both sides of the oka from Kaluga almost to Orel. Much hard fightiing here and many reserves committeed. I like the start position for 42, but this position was paid for with blood. Hopefully the soviet is as or more exhausted. Soviet OOB increased over 1.6 to 1.7mm over the blizzard turns. Soviets started with 4.1mm and ended with 5.2mm. Casualties went from 4.0mm to 4.65mm. Soviet looks battered, but I do not know how much. Love for Bomazz to comment on the state of his army if he is reading this. Looks to me that the basis of Soviet Army 2.0 is there. It will be up to the panzers to prevent its growth in 42.
vandev
Kinda cheesy but I attacked some lone soviet tank brigades with 4 to 5 division stacks just to farm morale. The axis is exhausted. Many infantry toe's are below 70% and morale below 70. I can see that 42 will have the landsers much weaker then 41. My guess is that the panzers will recover nicely and we will need to plan well to make 42 a german success. Now is the time to help the german recover.
What have I learned? First lesson is that double stacks in forest or better terrain is actually hard for the soviet to attack if there is any kind of fort. In some very limited parts of the front, the german can stand if he has enough troops. Second lesson is that to establish a no retreat line in Febuary, requires a very high percentage of reserve committment. You cannot force the soviet blizzard offensive to stop prior to its scheduled end in march without a fort line and double stacked units. I had to fight to retain my intended 42 start line. A question might be, is it worth it to fight at all, give up an additional 10 hexes along the front and save much more of your army by never releasing reserves. May be good game play, but less fun. Not sure what the right choice is.
In this game, the axis retained Stalino and contact with the sea of azov. The axis also retained a line on both sides of the oka from Kaluga almost to Orel. Much hard fightiing here and many reserves committeed. I like the start position for 42, but this position was paid for with blood. Hopefully the soviet is as or more exhausted. Soviet OOB increased over 1.6 to 1.7mm over the blizzard turns. Soviets started with 4.1mm and ended with 5.2mm. Casualties went from 4.0mm to 4.65mm. Soviet looks battered, but I do not know how much. Love for Bomazz to comment on the state of his army if he is reading this. Looks to me that the basis of Soviet Army 2.0 is there. It will be up to the panzers to prevent its growth in 42.
vandev
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Message for Bomazz. My computer has taken a bad hit and I need to repair and/or get a new one. I will not be able to process turns till it is fixed. Send me a pm (I cannot seem to send you one) and I will respond from work.
vandev
vandev
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Is it proved?Also the Mountain divisions fully shelter SUs.
And what about SU attached to mount.corps HQ do they get all those necessary winter stuff and don't suffer any penalty?
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Just sent turn back Vandev, Get it back when you can.
We had a good slug fest there didnt we. Well the ball is back in your court, and Im hopping to give you a good game through 42. Overall my forces are tired(well those that fought) Looking forward to the muddy vacation, It will be interesting to see how fast your Mech forces, more pointedly your tank div bounce back. I was really working on hammering them. Over all you had a splendid 41. Now I just need to work on not giving you a splendid 42. Though I do not have that much experience as soviet past this point. I do as German, so I have an idea what is possible.
You can thank Hooper for the "fatigue" soviet offensive theory. Which in some ways proves the game engine is too slanted in favor of offensive actions. If you actually go and look at those attacks add up all casualties it comes out pretty even. after the final push. It does not help in the win loss ratio..or moral I imagine, but I have yet to actually look at that overall.
salute,,see you in my cross hairs. [:'(]
We had a good slug fest there didnt we. Well the ball is back in your court, and Im hopping to give you a good game through 42. Overall my forces are tired(well those that fought) Looking forward to the muddy vacation, It will be interesting to see how fast your Mech forces, more pointedly your tank div bounce back. I was really working on hammering them. Over all you had a splendid 41. Now I just need to work on not giving you a splendid 42. Though I do not have that much experience as soviet past this point. I do as German, so I have an idea what is possible.
You can thank Hooper for the "fatigue" soviet offensive theory. Which in some ways proves the game engine is too slanted in favor of offensive actions. If you actually go and look at those attacks add up all casualties it comes out pretty even. after the final push. It does not help in the win loss ratio..or moral I imagine, but I have yet to actually look at that overall.
salute,,see you in my cross hairs. [:'(]
RE: Axis view of blizzard
One area of the front I have not talked alot about during the blizzard was Crimea. This has in fact been very interesting. Let me start by saying that the Rumanian's did pretty well, but that I handled them poorly strategically. A very good use for Rumanian units is to choke off crimea and also to contribute 10+ divisions to army group south to make a fort line in the stalino/azov area. This blizzard I was only able to get 3 rumanian divisions to the stalino area to help with fort building and defense. They did well but way too few. Why was this?
Odessa. The soviet held odessa very hard in this game. Not only did he garrison it very strongly, he slipped in 6 diiv/brigades during the end of summer/beginning of mud and had a small mini offensive. My plan was to see if he was just going to leave and if not, the axis would attack during snow. The end result of this is that all of the rumanian army was either at Odessa or trying to seal of Crimea before blizzard started. In a very exciting end of snow attack, a german panzer corp finally took the last of the 3 approaches to crimea (the rumainians had the other 2) isolating a small number of soviets in the process. 4 strong german infantry divisions were needed to reduce odessa, they were out of position for blizzard and did not enter the line till the end of december. One take away is to reduce Odessa early. Holding Odessa till snow cost the axis alot in turns of having unitis in the wrong place. For a modest cost in units, the soviets really hampered the rumanian army.
During Blizzard, 2 or the 3 approaches were held, but the soviet eventually broke out of the third one. This breakout cannot amount to0 much but I have noticed a few guards units created down there. Not that important an area to either of us I think, but kinda fun to see how it worked out.
vandev
p.s. thanks for the post Bomazz, it sure has been a slugfest. All and I mean all of my panzers got mauled on the front line during blizzard. My computer is really fried and i may need to reload windows to clear everything. Looking for the disk now not sure what to do if I cannot find it. Will keep you informed.
Odessa. The soviet held odessa very hard in this game. Not only did he garrison it very strongly, he slipped in 6 diiv/brigades during the end of summer/beginning of mud and had a small mini offensive. My plan was to see if he was just going to leave and if not, the axis would attack during snow. The end result of this is that all of the rumanian army was either at Odessa or trying to seal of Crimea before blizzard started. In a very exciting end of snow attack, a german panzer corp finally took the last of the 3 approaches to crimea (the rumainians had the other 2) isolating a small number of soviets in the process. 4 strong german infantry divisions were needed to reduce odessa, they were out of position for blizzard and did not enter the line till the end of december. One take away is to reduce Odessa early. Holding Odessa till snow cost the axis alot in turns of having unitis in the wrong place. For a modest cost in units, the soviets really hampered the rumanian army.
During Blizzard, 2 or the 3 approaches were held, but the soviet eventually broke out of the third one. This breakout cannot amount to0 much but I have noticed a few guards units created down there. Not that important an area to either of us I think, but kinda fun to see how it worked out.
vandev
p.s. thanks for the post Bomazz, it sure has been a slugfest. All and I mean all of my panzers got mauled on the front line during blizzard. My computer is really fried and i may need to reload windows to clear everything. Looking for the disk now not sure what to do if I cannot find it. Will keep you informed.
RE: Axis view of blizzard
Bomazz, my computer seems to now have a hardware problem. Tryiing to determine if I can replace something or simply have to buy a new one. This will take awhile to fix, so our game will have to continue to be on hold. I will get back to it, as I think we are having a really fun experience. Sorry for the delay.
vandev
vandev