Summer Offensive - Oshawott (Axis) vs Griefhead (Russia)

[Oshawott]

T18 - OOB

[Oshawott]

T19 - Overview

Griefhead continues to send weak unit my way and I pound them with everything I have including air attacks. A total of seven attacks. One unit routs and two units even shatter. Modified combat value is 0 which I find strange.

[Oshawott]

T19 - OOB

[Oshawott]

T20 - OOB

I believe he stopped sending units my way this turn.

[Oshawott]

T21

Forgot to take any screenshots but I am building my defensive lines now for the blizzard.

[Oshawott]

T22 - North

The Finish allies are taking up positions. It was not a good idea. Supply is simply too bad for them to launch any major operation in this sector. Also, the few Russian troops there are well entrenched.

[Oshawott]

T22 - Center

I continue my slow advance towards the encirclement of Moscow. There is a feeling of despair in the German army. Moscow is just one hex too far. Therefore I pull out Manstein's Corps to take up winter quarters in Rzhev and Vyazma.

Further north 2nd Corps takes Kalinin. Further south Kaluga is occupied.

Edit: I am writing this AAR from memory and this time I got confused. I pulled out Mansteins Corps during mud. On T22, however, I saw that Griefhead had actually weakened his position around Moscow so I moved the Panzer Corps out of Rzhev and Vyazma for the final attack on Moscow.

[Oshawott]

T22 - South

I screw up my MP calculations. I costs more MP to attack across major river during snow. Better read the manual before an important attack. I attack anyway with insufficient forces. I get pretty close but not enough.

[Oshawott]

T23 - North

I take back Torzho. My hope is that this part of the front will be quite. Boy am I wrong.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Center

I got way behind with this AAR. The actual game is on T34. The problem is that I am writing a lot of things from memory and my memory isn't what it used to be.

I had moved Manstein's Corps out of the front during mud and into Rzehv and Vyazma. But when I opened T22 I realized that Griefhead had actually weakened his defense around Moscow and I moved the Panzer Corps back to the front.

On T23 I was actually able to encircle Moscow because the defense was too weak. The attack with the southern prong succeeded right away. I had an additional 6 units available for two more deliberate attacks but I didn't need them. Instead I was able to simply move my Panzer and motorized divisions into the vacated hexes and form a strong encirclement. This was a gift for sure.

[Oshawott]

T23 - Russian Troop Concentrations

Recon before my move. Two major concentrations at Tula and south of Voronezh. I'm preparing a fort checkerboard.

[Wuffer]

surprise, surprise.

I had expected a much bigger pocket, to be honest, but next spring and definitely not in this area... These tactical weakness of the defender's side, @ Hitman, regarding this flippancy in preparing an attack, was the base of my comment earlier. now he had to fight. Let's see what his huge numbers are made off, @ Ginger.
Btw, having achieved all targets in the first season is one thing, Oshawott, but with pixeltruppen in an excellent shape as yours is remarkable.
You are a monster.

[loki100]

agree, this is another impressive performance ... but you really shouldn't have got Moscow, especially after putting your priority into clearing the flanks.

[Oshawott]

Moscow is a gift for sure. I should have never even gotten that close with my frontal attack. I think it would have been better to stack three units per hex in front of one unit followed again by three units. Who cares about some routed rile divisions. Every hex in front of Moscow counts.

[Flaviusx]

Very surprised you managed to encircle Moscow. This shouldn't have happened and indeed is evidence of tactical mismanagement. Worse yet, Moscow itself isn't even fully garrisoned.

This allergy to routing is causing all sorts of problems.

Did you manage to get the factories in there, or were they evacuated?

Under the old blizzard rules, the Soviet could probably count on retaking it. With mild blizzard? Not nearly as clear.

Taking Moscow is a potential game changer especially on top of everything else. The Red Army is reasonably strong, but its replacement situation down the line is becoming very sketchy.

[Oshawott]

If I remember correctly there were some armament points and HI in the city.

Any urban hex is a major problem with reduced blizzard especially with fortifications. You have to go around, frontal attack is not really an option. I will defend every urban hex to the last bullet. During blizzard I will try to hold the line Kalinin - Moscow - Kaluga - Orel - Kursk - Belgorod - Kharkov - Stalino - Rostov.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Very surprised you managed to encircle Moscow. This shouldn't have happened and indeed is evidence of tactical mismanagement. Worse yet, Moscow itself isn't even fully garrisoned.

This allergy to routing is causing all sorts of problems.

Did you manage to get the factories in there, or were they evacuated?

Under the old blizzard rules, the Soviet could probably count on retaking it. With mild blizzard? Not nearly as clear.

Taking Moscow is a potential game changer especially on top of everything else. The Red Army is reasonably strong, but its replacement situation down the line is becoming very sketchy.

agree, there are sectors where a 2-1-2 stacked defense is useful, you don't need to hold so you may as well avoid routs. In front of Moscow it has to be 3 in the front line (& just absorb the routs, you should have enough units to rotate)

From a fair bit of play now with the mild blizzard, including various iterations of the Moscow scenario, I don't think the Soviets can take back a non-surrounded city hex (in one game I utterly botched the German moves at the start of Typhoon, only managed to reach Rzhev-Vyazma and still held them to the end). The mismatch between plausible attack values and the defense the Germans can create is too much. You can take it back if you can surround and threaten to push deeper, but that is only likely if the Soviets are already well ahead in the long term flow of the game. as such this starts to call into doubt the old Axis orthodoxy of not bothering with offensive operations in the November snow turns.

This is one reason why I'm a little cautious about the combination mild blizzard and no +1 rule. I share the distaste of most for the latter, but while Pelton, MichaelT et al stress that +1 gives "WW1 in the East" in the first summer, my fear is mild blizzard and no +1 will produce no fear of a Soviet riposte. Other changes may well leave this fear invalid, but we have few instances in the recent AARs (apart from Oshawatt-Stef) of the Soviets taking back urban real estate. Problem is that from a play point of view, the mild winter is a huge gain, little was a tedious as moving counters 2 hexes forward to follow up a ritualistic German retreat.

[jwolf]

Very much agree with the more experienced commenters above.  I don't think the Soviets can recover Moscow during the blizzard unless they put absolutely their entire offensive potential right in this area, and even then the odds won't be good.  This was quite a coup by Oshawott.

[Michael T]

Mild Winter and the no 2-1 rule are both optional. So its up to the players what they want. FWIW my leaning is 2-1 gone, 75 fort level and I will probably be playing with the stock blizzard rules. I have always thought the mild winter goes to far. Personally I would be much happier with the stock winter rules if they would just remove the 1 pt morale loss each turn, make it 50% or something.

[Peltonx]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Mild Winter and the no 2-1 rule are both optional. So its up to the players what they want.
FWIW my leaning is 2-1 gone, 75 fort level and I will probably be playing with the stock blizzard rules.
I have always thought the mild winter goes to far.
Personally I would be much happier with the stock winter rules if they would just remove the 1 pt morale loss each turn,
make it 50% or something.

- 2v1 I be also willing to do the stock winter, but the -1 morale is a killer vs a top notch SHC player.

Still thinking about it, will have to play test.