Stalingrad to Berlin (No Hfarrish)

[smokindave34]

February 1944

Current armaments and production status:

[loki100]

nice collection of captured Soviet kit there. Recall reading somewhere that a captured KV1 ending up taking part of the defense of the West Wall in late 1944-5.

[SigUp]

Your lines are pretty good compared to history. If you can hold the Dnepr line till summer / autumn you are in a very good shape. Pools look good and the OOB is also quite sizeable.

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: SigUp

Your lines are pretty good compared to history. If you can hold the Dnepr line till summer / autumn you are in a very good shape. Pools look good and the OOB is also quite sizeable.

I feel good about where my front lines are at. One concern I have is that I have NO fortifications to fall back on in the south. In the full campaigns I have played I always had time to build some defensive positions to the west although not having any forts is probably more realistic. This has been an enjoyable scenario so far.....

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

A summer update on my Stalingrad to Berlin scenario with Hfarrish. This continues to be a very enjoyable game (if you don't mind playing defense!) and I expect Berlin to fall close to the historical date. We are playing with random weather - I did receive a bad break in that the May/early June turns saw only 1 week of mud. That was a tough break which allowed the Soviets to continue to punish me especially in the south. Here is the OOB for 7/13/44. My army is still in decent shape and I continue to keep around 3.5 million men at the front.

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

The production numbers. I still have quiet a few armaments points and have made a point in pulling back 2-3 divisions out of harms away each turn to refit and get troops to the front line.

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

Finns

Hfarrish has recently (the last 4-5 turns) started pounding away at the Finns to force them to the negotiating table. My personnel opinion is that this is a mistake - I'd rather use those forces as the Soviet to hammer AGN and bleed German reinforcements. The Finns have been hanging tough but I expect they will only last another month or so. Any extra turns I can get out of them is a bonus.

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

AGN

A fairly stable situation for AGN. I get pushed back on average one hex per turn but I'll take that as a small victory. Hfarrish has very few mobile units in this area so I don't risk any breakthroughs. I've moved most of my armor out of this area as well to the two "hot spots" I'm currently dealing with.

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

AGC

A very interesting development in this area. Instead of forcing a crossing of the Dnepr, Hfarrish massed cavalry corps in the marshes to force his way through to Minsk. He has a rail line running through the marshes and has now backed up the Cavalry with Mechanized, Tank, and Guards rifle corps. Ferdinand Schorners 2nd Army (particularly the XXXXVIII Pz corps) has been taking a beating here but I am only slowly giving ground and overall I'm happy with the results. I've backed up the 2nd Army with a Luftwaffe field corps digging forts. A few more turns and Hfarrish is going to be into favorable terrain and the pace will pick up. Once the summer is over I'll ask Hfarrish is he thought it was a wise move going through the marshes....

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

AGS Ukraine

Hfarrish main effort has been in the direction of the 17th army. He has massed all his mobile forces in this area and each turn I've had to use the XL and III panzer corps to extract some hapless infantry divisions out of possible encirclement. It appears the Hfarrish is going to bypass Rumania and is heading straight for Lvov and then on to the Reich. I've had a Luftwaffe field corps and the Hungarians diggings furiously in the Lvov area all summer and have a solid line of forts here. With that said I still think the best I can hope for is to delay him a few weeks in this area. In the next turn or two I'll have to split my forces to defend the Lvov area and Hungary/Rumania, the line will be too long to hold it with a continuous force.

I fallen back two hexes per turn (at least) here all summer but have decided this turn to hold the line since I have good terrain (rough) and forts behind the Dnestr. I'm sure Hfarrish will blast it open but I'm betting his mobile units are heading northwest and not into Rumania.

[smokindave34]

July 13, 1944

AGN Ukraine (I know my north-south are backwards! At one point this made sense)

As stated earlier I'm going to hold the line on the Dnestr river this turn with 1st Panzer and 6th armies. I'll get pushed back for sure and will have to resume my retreat next turn but I don't see any major breakthroughs occurring. If Hfarrish sends his armor south next turn I could find myself in real trouble. I have not had any units captured yet this summer but the time is coming soon where it will be hard to prevent encirclements.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: smokindave34

July 13, 1944

Finns

Hfarrish has recently (the last 4-5 turns) started pounding away at the Finns to force them to the negotiating table. My personnel opinion is that this is a mistake - I'd rather use those forces as the Soviet to hammer AGN and bleed German reinforcements. The Finns have been hanging tough but I expect they will only last another month or so. Any extra turns I can get out of them is a bonus.

Hi there Smokin. I see you've learned to put a unit in Helsinki

[sillyflower]

duplicate

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

Not looking bad. You could find yourself beating history.

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

ORIGINAL: smokindave34

July 13, 1944

Finns

Hfarrish has recently (the last 4-5 turns) started pounding away at the Finns to force them to the negotiating table. My personnel opinion is that this is a mistake - I'd rather use those forces as the Soviet to hammer AGN and bleed German reinforcements. The Finns have been hanging tough but I expect they will only last another month or so. Any extra turns I can get out of them is a bonus.

Hi there Smokin. I see you've learned to put a unit in Helsinki

Yes - ever since you dropped five vodka soaked Spetznas units into Helsinki and brought the whole Finnish government to it's knees I've learned my lesson and always keep a garrison there.

[loki100]

this remains a fascinating read - it is so different to what appears in the usual late game AARs.

Does look an interesting start point, but I guess the German player, as you say, really needs to be prepared for a long defense

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: loki100

this remains a fascinating read - it is so different to what appears in the usual late game AARs.

Does look an interesting start point, but I guess the German player, as you say, really needs to be prepared for a long defense

Thanks Loki100. Hfarrish and I picked this scenario since it appeared to be well balanced and took the 1941 seasons warts out of the equation. At the time I was frustrated by the fact that if I didn't have a near perfect turn 1 and 2 as the axis and use the Luftwaffe as a flying gas station that I would end up in a "no win" situation. Although I've come back to the grand campaign now that the reduced blizzard rules are optional I would still recommend this scenario to WITE players. It's been very competitive from the start but as I said earlier you have to enjoy playing defensively if your going to play as the axis in this one (which I do immensely!). There are no panzer drives in this scenario however it's still enjoyable to smash any Soviets who get a bit too far ahead of the infantry!

[swkuh]

Enjoy this AAR and happy to see its still active (or, maybe I've missed some posts.) Versus AI, Axis must play the best defensive strat & tactic as you do. AI has taught me that gambles with Axis mobile troops are punished. And most gambles aren't worth the distraction. For me its all about terrain, forts, reserves.

A question, are you sure that using Manstein at OKW is best? (I usually leave Zeitzler assigned, as I like the best commanders at AG and Armee levels.) Great game for defensive play.

[smokindave34]

ORIGINAL: rrbill

Enjoy this AAR and happy to see its still active (or, maybe I've missed some posts.) Versus AI, Axis must play the best defensive strat & tactic as you do. AI has taught me that gambles with Axis mobile troops are punished. And most gambles aren't worth the distraction. For me its all about terrain, forts, reserves.

A question, are you sure that using Manstein at OKW is best? (I usually leave Zeitzler assigned, as I like the best commanders at AG and Armee levels.) Great game for defensive play.

I placed Von Manstein in OKH early on so I could use his high initiative to get the most activations out of my reserves. I've been on the wrong side of countless reserve activations by the Soviets with Zhukov in STAVKA so I thought I'd try the same strategy on the Soviets (although I have a lot fewer units than my Russian opponents).

A question for you rrbill - I was always skeptical of playing on defense against the AI as I wasn't sure how well the AI was at attacking - what has been your experience?

[swkuh]

AI misses mistakes I make. It gets to exposed pieces but doesn't close the deal; I can recover. It allows some of my weak encirclements. But not always, it seems. I trim Axis "balance" factors for forts, logistics, and transportation to 90 to get interesting games. One thing about AI is that one doesn't wait for the next turn, and alternative tactics are easy to test. Lower Axis morale enough (90) and AI is brutal on attack.