2 frogs in mild blizzard (frogmarc welcome)

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Wuffer

as always, the side with the fewer and less important failures win.

don't get me wrong, it's impossible to play without mistakes, but hopefully they don't become decisive
... and 'never interrupt your opponent while he is making mistakes', said Big Winston C.
Perhaps you encouraged Stavka?

I was successfull at the beginning of summer 1942 when frogmarc strongly reinforced the sector of Boguchar. I wanted him to do such mistake and gave him all reasons to believe that I would attack in this area.

good news for the nazis,
bad news for the poor guys at the coming desaster of Ohama beach,
very bad news for the people of nuremberg and berlin on August 6, 1945,
and yeah, you changed history.

Hopefully, it's only a game. We have a poll tomorrow and far right is stronger than ever in France. Nothing new under the sun.

"We survived the Nazis, we beat Communism", as De Gaulles said the day before he was shot in 1947, "but after Free French Forces had liberate the Ukraine, the Hydra just emerges another ugly head..."

De Gaulle left the head of government in 1946.

Not sure that the Free french went to Ukraine... french pacifists already said in 1939 that there was no need to die for Danzig

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Balou

ORIGINAL: STEF78


I was also surprised with the ability of the Pzd/Mot to keep MP's but:
- in 1942 almost all my moves were close from my railhead.
- in 1943, I only advanced in the Caucasus with 3 or 4 of my FBD's in this area. It's a great difference with 1941

And what about he "mild blizzard" I thought was one of the objectives to look after ?

As I said above mild blizzard is a very fun experience. With the old blizzard, german player had the choice between fleeing fast or fleeing very fast.

Now he can fight and counterattack efficiently in some areas.

In our game fights were so intense during the blizzard that we were exhausted at the end of february ... and march was a relatively quiet month.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: loki100



I'd suggest that this is the launch pad to what we are seeing. The mild blizzard produces a much more realistic winter giving the Soviets the chance to inflict damage but not really to close the game down. What matters, I now think, is how the Soviet player manages their gains (in particular in units with high experience) and hopefully leaves the Germans strong enough to only make one major effort in 1942.

To me, frogmarc left too much of the good units you can build up in the winter in very vulnerable positions and, as above, lost them in the opening set of pockets that STEF78 generated.

I agree

On this basis, a good Soviet strategy has to be to pull the really good units into reserve, and try to trade space for time till the German offensive wears itself down. Easier said than done, but overall we are starting to see a number of gains were, quite rightly, 1942 is the decisive year.

Trading space for time is a good idea but I also think that rifle corps should be used to keep pressure on the german player.

SHC should never let him free to organise calmly his offensives.

I will try SHC for my next game. 1942 is a challenging year now!

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: janh

The key for 42 then seem to be the close railheads, and how the German side enters the mud period. If the winter offensive was not sufficient, i.e. if the Soviet had not had the means to extract a toll, or the German skillfully traded the ground (with his hindsight of what will follow in summer), the German side can inflict huge pockets on the Red Army. The latter must create depth to his lines before mud and withdraw/form reserves in the rear, else... I guess a short "Blue" kind of German rush is inevitable in the wide open terrain of the South, so better be prepared.

Managing the southern part of the front will now be a real challenge for SHC in 1942.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Balou

Has a mild blizzard per se (w/o fighting) less impact on morale and on attrition losses ? Resulting in high-morale-case-blue-troops armed to the teeth to an early date ?

It's only my first game with mild blizzard (I played 5 old blizzards as GHC against human).
- morale for german units is better than with the old rule
- attrition and losses are at least more important as fights are more intense. I finshed the winter with only 700 AFV and less than 25k rifle squads available.

[STEF78]

Game over!

frogmarc has given up.

Thanks to him, he has been a fair and reliable player.

He recognized having done big mistakes during spring and summer 1942 while trying to hold the ground.

I hope you enjoyed this AAR, personnaly I found this first "mild blizzard" very fun. Thank you Morvael.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: STEF78

Game over!

frogmarc has given up.

Thanks to him, he has been a fair and reliable player.

He recognized having done big mistakes during spring and summer 1942 while trying to hold the ground.

I hope you enjoyed this AAR, personnaly I found this first "mild blizzard" very fun. Thank you Morvael.

can't blame him, he is in a very difficult position given your successes.

thanks to both of you for this game and the AAR. its been incredibly useful and a real insight into how the mild blizzard impacts on the German options for 1942.

[timmyab]

Interesting game.
I agree the mild blizzard is a big improvement. I had more or less the same experience as you. Morale is better because of being able to counterattack in January and February but losses were higher for the same reason.
Where the Germans can double up in good terrain they're difficult to move which restricts the Soviet offensive to about half of the front, which is roughly historical.
December and early January were the only really difficult times where there was a real danger of losing divisions.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: timmyab

Interesting game.
I agree the mild blizzard is a big improvement. I had more or less the same experience as you. Morale is better because of being able to counterattack in January and February but losses were higher for the same reason.
Where the Germans can double up in good terrain they're difficult to move which restricts the Soviet offensive to about half of the front, which is roughly historical.
December and early January were the only really difficult times where there was a real danger of losing divisions.

+1
mild blizzard requires a better preparation for the SHC. He cannot only push his counters forward in december and win.

Now he needs to focuse on some decisive sectors and find the way to bleed german infantry.