Russia! Why not? (Morvael welcome)

[morvael]

Hot summer approaches

[cpt flam]

5-27 one more turn with mud

pool
197 260 men (+ 10K)
184 100 VEH (+ 3K)
500 657 ARM (+ 31K)
8 Hiwis

[morvael]

And the next one should be with fixed squad upgrade paths...

[cpt flam]

turn 103 sole activity for me is anti-partisan warfare
infantry div gone back to 100% TOE

pool
163 840 men (- 24K)
191 500 VEH (+ 7K)
514 106 ARM (+ 14K)
407 Hiwis

[morvael]

Little change in the manpower pool, was it on the next turn?

[cpt flam]

6-10 come back from action
losses are heavy as some attacks failed
7 870 men, 155 Art, 34 AFV & 113 AC
8 980 " ", 220 " ", 19 " " & 71 ""

pool
33 930 men (- 129 K)
198 900 VEH (+ 7K)
442 289 ARM (- 58K)
4 760 Hiwis [&:]

[loki100]

that Soviet front line looks, defensively, rather scarily strong

[morvael]

I'm not a follower of "1=1 per hex, 20 hexes deep" doctrine, I always thought it's waste of forts which build soo slow, and allowing to be destroyed piecemeal. Of course it's important not to get encircled, but a 3-hexes deep defensive line (3 divs, 1 div, 1 brigade) line was ok in 1942 - I was pushed back of course, but it was because of overall lack of strength of Soviet divisions and lack of ability to concentrate more troops per hex. In 1943 it's a line of 1 corp + 2 divs or 2 corps + 1 div, one empty hex and 1 div or brigade in second (actually third) line. I have to make this empty space, because otherwise units rout and this costs a lot of troops, more than combat. Now my stack is just pushed back. Strong stacks force Germans to use deliberate attacks by 6 to 9 panzer/inf divisions and this costs them a lot of movement points plus they have to mix forces from 2 or more corps, losing CV in the process. That way they cannot utilize their greatest strength - high number of fast good quality units that can deeply penetrate due to lower MP penalty. It's just that finding balance between depth and strength at front that is hard to do, you cannot go full depth or full front.

[morvael]

My best unit (as of turn 108, but earlier it was the same):

[morvael]

Boys from the infantry are not far behind (best division is 1st Gds Mtn Div with 5CV):

[cpt flam]

turn 105 keeping in action but losses become too high

butcher bill
30 630 men, 580 Art, 96 AFV & 247 AC
51 680 " ", 1250 "",286 " " & 298 ""

pool
14 140 men (- 19K)
205 400 VEH (+ 7K)
388 709 ARM (- 54K)
590 Hiwis

[morvael]

So I need 7 more turns of this slaughter to drain your arm pool... Looks doable, mine is dropping slower.

[loki100]

do like a nice attritional war ...

[morvael]

With level 3 forts everywhere nothing more clever and/or spectacular is possible. Lack of trucks hampers my movement, and due to <80 morale it's hard to take ground as the costs are prohibitive.

[cpt flam]

6-24 counter-attacking to keep him advancing 1 hex/turn

losses
27 910 men, 495 Art, 98 AFV & 221 AC poor Hermann
38 860 " ", 870 " ", 216 "" & 216

pool
12 420 men (- 2K)
210 700 VEH (+ 5K)
343 713 ARM (- 45K)
1 402 Hiwis

[morvael]

I advance one hex per turn, but when you attack your turn losses almost double, so it helps me either way I hope when your pool will empty that the situation will become more dynamic, as with this speed I won't make it to Warsaw before the end.

[juret]

only action in the southern part of the front?

the rest is static with no mobile forces ?

[morvael]

South is open terrain, so it always had a priority from 1942 onwards for corps and mobile units, that's where the Axis focus was in '42. I didn't finish making 2 corps per each army in the north, so it enters the fray partially, as I build the corps at a rate of 2-3 per turn. As of now (turn 109) Kalinin Front made a good progress finally leaving it's late '41 positions, North Caucasus (in front of Moscow) is about to retake Wyazma (first larger city to recapture). Northwest Front is 80% ready and slowly pushes the Germans from extremely strong defensive positions in the Valdai Hills. Leningrad front has just a single corps so it's static. Also, it cannot advance before the other fronts shorten the frontline, as it is westernmost front. Finland is passive all the time, I built a fort belt and ignore them.

[mktours]

wow, you must be heart broken,lost ZHukov in T1!!!!

ORIGINAL: morvael

No, it's true story, I'm afraid

[morvael]

But that was because of my stupidity. I tried to relocate an army HQ to bring it out of encirclement in Pripyat Marshes, and with every relocate a general was dying, Zhukov was third in line and I clicked too fast without realizing who was in charge. I miss the rest of the best, which died later due to recon planes circling above their positions 30 miles behind the front:
Bobkin
Chuikov
Golovanov
Meretskov
Reiter (23 victories, 4 defeats)
Rokossovsky
Vatutin