Towards the edge of destruction with hooooper and Blubel

[Peltonx]

True, but same 42 blunders as Sapper and Bomazz.

[hooooper_slith]

Turn 49
After my attempts to force the encircled panzer divisions to surrender all fail, with heavy losses, Blubel resumes the offensive in the next clear turn. Showing astonishing resilience, the Germans manage to close the pocket, thereby cutting off the whole of the Red Army north of the Valdai Hills.

Soviet complacency gives way, in a suitably historical fashion, to blind panic. Are we going to lose the war in the most unlikely sector imaginable? Moscow Defence Zone reserves, of which there are about three armies worth, are sent north on rails to try and break the German fingers that are tightening around our windpipe. Meanwhile, North-west Front takes advantage of the fact that the the centre of the encircling line is being held by Panzer regiments to punch a ten mile wide lifeline to the best part of two fronts.

Meanwhile the whole of the VVS's transport fleet is made ready to airlift supplies to the trapped troops - who do have one airbase to draw supply from, if necessary.

Here is the picture after Soviet moves.

[hooooper_slith]

In the south, I can take advantage of the northern deployment of the best panzer divisions to make ground in the centre, but the Red Army doesn't have enough poke to really worry the Germans. Meanwhile my offensive on the Black Sea Coast is nipped painfully in the bud.

[hooooper_slith]

I have to take my hat off to Blubel: he has pulled off a move that I didn't think possible. The mark of a great player. However I can still win the race to open the pocket .. there are reserves available, and I can shortly start forming infantry corps, which are, of course, the best antidote to a panzer division.

There is still everything to play for.

[hugh04]

Another really exciting AAR. You are starting off summer of 42 where you left off in 41, playing right on the edge. Does not look to me that you will win the battle of encirlement in the north. I think Bludbell will have that group isolated on your next turn. That terrain is very bad and some rivers to deal with. I thought your 41 was a massive and interesting battle. Your counterattacks inflicted real losses and you retained some very important ground. And the Soviet fought very hard and took very nasty losses for his geographical success.

A very easy blizzard it looked like. I just went through one with Bomazz and it seems we had more fighting. Your army looks worn down. I see alot of 1 cv infantry divisions. Is that why you did not attack alot in blizzard? Good luck here. Gonna be excitiing to see how much you can extricate. I never would have seen that coming. How did he supply those panzers way up there int he north.

vandev.

p.s. I see you are having a rematch with Bomazz in a response you made in an Arty CV thread. How offensive are you in that blizzard?

[loki100]

I'd agree - great to see an AAR where the two sides are trading blows, but that northern gambit looks downright dangerous

[sillyflower]

Is Blubel Terje's evil twin?

we should be told.

Early '42 can be a problem for the Russians. March snow is always risky and it's easy to underestimate German bounceback - I know because I've done it twice.

The other 'problem' is TOE changes which suck up all manpower replacements for many turns. 42a inf div TOE is really good for defence esp. vs tanks . It also essential to rotate units out for morale growth/restoration so all the infantry divs (apart from recent arrivals) are ideally 3 or 4 CV with morale of 50 and 90%+ TOE, . Much harder to chomp through than 1s and 2s. Russian army should be transformed in combat power between march and may. Even in the 5 mud turns the army OB should go up by 500K.

Same goes for mud and snow turns in '41 too. You need to get most other than the newbies to morale 45-50 and full CV. TOE unhelpfully goes up as blizzard starts so if don't start at max you can get to unready status rather quickly.

Frankly that rotation/rebuild 10+ hexes away needs doing continuously but these are the 2 key times. May be less essential with national morale bug fix, but rotation out is a lot quicker.

[hooooper_slith]

Does not look to me that you will win the battle of encirlement in the north.

Well, I have to try, of course. I will shortly have the ability to form rifle corps and the AP boost from the activation of the Vorenezh Front to form them with. Also, the Germans will have difficulty supplying and reinforcing those thin pincers. And I may have time to deploy more armour and cavalry. So, the situation is critical, but it's not quite time to give in to despair.

I thought your 41 was a massive and interesting battle. Your counterattacks inflicted real losses and you retained some very important ground.

I tried to fight in the south, and probably should have retreated a turn sooner than I did - a mistake that I can't seem to stop making. On the other hand, Blubel over-pressed once or twice and lost a couple of panzer divisions. After the disaster in the south I fought a very conservative blizzard and invested most of my APs in reconstituting the Crimea Front. I still think this was the right strategy, as the Red Army did have a certain solidity to it after the April mud was over.

I see you are having a rematch with Bomazz in a response you made in an Arty CV thread. How offensive are you in that blizzard?

As I expected, Bomazz played a much better game in the rematch and I played a worse one. In particular, and rather embarrassingly, I botched the defence of Leningrad by failing to reinforce it after he sent the AGC panzers north. So, they were available to be sent south in August, and he succeeded in making two huge encirclements before the mud, and took Rostov (although not Moscow/Tula/Vorenezh). This meant that I had to fight hard to take back the south, and an exciting struggle for Stalino resulted, which the Germans eventually held. We're half-way through the April mud now, and it's looking fairly even - the Soviets are about the pass the magic 6m men mark.

that northern gambit looks downright dangerous

Yes, it's not clear what the Germans could do next if it fails. It's likely that they'll lose the initiative, after which it would be long trip back to Berlin. Not sure it will fail, though.

The other 'problem' is TOE changes which suck up all manpower replacements for many turns.

Yes, I was impressed by Gingerbread's analysis of this, which doesn't make lots of sense. A bit like it taking the Soviets a week to produce and deploy 15 150mm artillery pieces. But the German's have their gripes with the production system too, of course.

Frankly that rotation/rebuild 10+ hexes away needs doing continuously but these are the 2 key times. May be less essential with national morale bug fix, but rotation out is a lot quicker.

Yes, I've never bothered doing that before - it does take a lot of looking under counters and fiddling around. But given the desperate state of my present games, and after reading this post, I've started doing it with some enthusiasm ....

[hooooper_slith]

Turn 52

During the mud turns, the enormous influx of Soviet reserves was able to punch a second hole through the wafer thin German encirclement and isolate a Panzer division and a half. Because the Germans were operating in a one-hex-wide corridor with exceedingly thick walls, it was impossible to bring up enough force to free the trapped units. So Blubel waved them an affectionate farewell and continued his summer offensive. It went something like this:

[hooooper_slith]

The other main effort was expended in the infantry offensive north of Tula (which I continue to find a bit odd), and the isolation of a good part of the Vorenezh Front, which I have no difficulty in understanding.

[hooooper_slith]

The south is a quiet sector for the Germans. In fact there is some signs of a prophylactic retreat in SW Front's sector ...

[hooooper_slith]

Once the Germans have revealed their intentions for the summer, the Soviet player is faced with an interesting dilemma: should they go onto the defensive, moving reserves from quiet sectors to keep laying a carpet in front of the Germans, hoping that the panzers can be reduced to below the 1.5k mark before encirclement and the AP crunch reduce the Soviets to less than 6 million troops. Or should they attack in sectors where there is a "favourable correlation of forces" in the hope of persuading the Germans to start looking for reserves to plug the line. In my experience, it's impossible to choose the first of these options, unless you believe you're staring defeat in the face, so the Red Army lumbers onto the offensive in the south, while trying desperately to untangle itself after the panicked rush to the north, which has mixed together four fronts. At least we manage to force the encircled panzer grenadiers to surrender .... This is the big picture.

[hooooper_slith]

What the effect of this decision will be is hard to say. It's clear now that the Germans have failed to land a knock-out blow, but it's also clear that they still have the initiative.

[Michael T]

What has happened?

[hooooper_slith]

We've taken a break for a few months, but the war should be continuing soon.