Eastern Front AAR. governato vs SMK

[governato]

The animated map tells the story best. I have started to dig fortifications East of the Dnepr, as the Dvina line is untenable and I have a feeling that they will become useful soon. The front of AGC and AGN is still holding and 18th Army, dug in around Smolensk has been able to hold the line. However AGS and AGA are pressured by the Red Army and with armored reserves dwindling, a major breakthrough in the Kursk, Orel area is becoming a matter of time. In what perhaps will turn to be a costly mistake I decided to abandon the well dug in positions and pull back to the Dnepr just as the weather is about to change.

Is [like] one that taketh a dog by the ears...

[SMK-at-work]

Much as I hate to preempt Fabio, I did enjoy T125-130.....
It is only a Cavalry division adjacent to Kiev, but pretty much everything else consists of armies.

Note also Leningrad is finally recaptured!

[governato]

In January 1944 (T135) the front lines were rather pretty close to historical, with the Red Army maybe a couple months beyond schedule in front of AGS, but my reserves were all committed to the front line or rather spent. Maybe the Red Army will stop to regroup or pull some units back and wait until the railheads catch up, as I am pretty sure that its supply rate is dismal, but the future looks grim!

Around turn 145 we switched to the Opart3Xb version, which makes retreating when on 'Ignore Losses' a little easier. Accordingly we lifted the house rule to limit axis units to 'Limit Losses' when defending.

The withdrawal to the Dnepr line was indeed very costly as moving over snowy hexes is slow and supply dropped quickly. There were several small pockets with lots of casualties, although I was able to eventually entrench behind major rivers before Spring mud. In perspective I should have withdrawn the Axis before the Fall rains or in Spring 44, but who knows if that would have been possible without risking a major encirclement. Losses were too high, with German infantry squads dropping from 43k to 32k and then just 20k by turn 146! What was worse is that the constant use of HQs to help on the withdrawal cost 200 Support squads. That will considerably impact the supply rates of the Axis! Another decisive change in late '43 is the overwhelming amount of artillery that the Red Army can field, which causes large losses even to well dug in units. Some of the Infantry Korps have been pretty much pulverized. The images show the front for turn 146 and squad inventory between turns 125 and 146.

[Added 12/2/14] Designer's notes: the fact that the frontlines follow the major rivers is a good indication that the speed at which units can entrench is roughly historical (in scenarios where units can dig too fast the frontline is 'too straight' compared to historical). In EF 3.4 the german cavalry and recon squads will be reduced starting in Fall 1943, and replaced with more infantry and AT squads. That will better reflect the historical change in units TOEs and help the Axis a bit.

[governato]

The Red Army is now launching deep attacks in Ukraine, while AGN are well entrenched and AGC still hold. For the Axis is vital to keep armored reserves able to counterattack within the same turn, before the Red Army has time to take defensive positions and 'dig in'. The Red Army is not very careful at this point and some of the armored spearheads are pushed a little too far and outside the umbrella of fighters. In this turn we manage to isolate, encircle and destroy two tank armies. Permanent losses amount to more than a thousand Red Army tanks in a single turn! Mike is not impressed (we are still playing version 1...in further versions the Red Army has to be a bit more careful with tank losses...). Romania is lost and Hungary is next. With the fall of Buchurest and Budapest the Axis minor allies will withdraw from the war. The capture of the oil field in Ploesti causes a strong supply penalty for the Axis.

The game is starting to feel like those Wehrmacht generals memoirs..isolated episodes of operational success, but with an overall strategic picture that points to impeding doom. The Red Army simply can't be stopped.

[governato]

It is July 1944. Mike, takes a couple of turns to regroup his southern armies, the railheads must be far behind, and all his units are tired and low on supply. So he renews his offensive in the sector of AGN, which rapidly collapses...Army Group Center, including the battered remnants of two armies has to disengage fast, but at this point most Axis units are very slow...

But I have got my jet fighters, a unit of Me-262...all 64 of them. At this point the VVS is probably close to 10,000 airframes.

By the way, update to version 3.4 of Eastern Front will be released by the end of the week.

[governato]

AGC gets surrounded and its retreat turns into a 'moving cauldron'. I succeed to extricate the faster units but most infantry and the heavy artillery get destroyed before making it to the Vistula. After the destruction of AGC I decided to salvage what forces I have left and fortify behind the Oder. Koenigsberg and Danzig are abandoned and Hungary is now out of the war as well.

[governato]

This is the end! Strong tank forces of the Red Army crossed the Oder and broke through the German lines North, near Stettin, and then South, surrounding Berlin. A counterattack with weak SS reserves fails and the capital of the Thousand Year Reich falls on Turn 176, late November 1944. The gif animation shows the last 70 turns.


This was a great game! It took about one year from start to finish (yes it can be done [;)]) and Mike (SMK) has been a fun and reliable player. We used 'version 1' of Eastern Front 41-45 and this was an invaluable test, especially of the last parts of the campaign, which get rarely played human vs human. Mike provided me with lots of suggestions on how to improve the scenario and together with feedback from other players and some additional research I made several updates to it.

Speaking of which...I will post EF v3.4 tomorrow!