Russia! Why not? (Morvael welcome)

[morvael]

It's only a minor bug. I can live with it.

The Hungarians actually surrendered for the second time here, but previously we decided to repeat logistics phase and give them a chance.

[morvael]

Turn 176 (October 26th, 1944)

As autumn begins, fighting along the front almost ceases, with occasional superiority used to capture a bit of ground here and there:

[morvael]

Cracow is assaulted, but bad weather prevents timely arrival of reinforcements, to support the initial push, and the attack fails:

[morvael]

Tank armies are brought closer to the front. In central Poland rail repair units have still a lot of ground to cover, with railheads being located in Warsaw at the moment:

[morvael]

Supply situation in the north improves, as third NKPS unit reaches Mlawa:

[morvael]

10th Tank Army is ready and redeploys to Wyszkow. 11th Tank Army is still assembling near Kiev, and since the 1st Polish Tank Corps is not yet ready, a decision is made to form a completely new tank corps. It will be a multi-national unit, formed from a Soviet, Polish and Czech tank brigades.

North Caucasus Front commander, Ivan Konev, is promoted to the rank of General-Polkovnik. 8th Tank Army commander, Kirill Moskalenko, is promoted to the rank of General-Armii. 63rd Army commander, Ivan Sovetnikov, is promoted to the rank of General-Polkovnik. 54th Army commander, Nikolai Gusev, improves his morale skill (7). 8th Army commander, Pyotr Pshennikov, improves his infantry skill (6). 49th Army commander, Zigmund Berling, is dismissed and replaced by Konstantin Neverov.

Strength:
men: 11 167 273 vs 3 364 317
guns: 197 330 vs 35 262
AFVs: 13 303 vs 5 928
aircraft: 21 596 vs 1 370

Trucks:
in units: 292 949 / 292 949 (100.00%)
in the pool: 288 834 / 208 571 (138.48%)
in repair: 108 619

Losses:
killed: 7 331 vs 6 534
captured: 422 vs 107
disabled: -2 012 vs -6 085
guns: 399 vs 246
AFVs: 70 vs 35
aircraft: 152 vs 86

Including:
in combat: 68 vs 16
from AA: 30 vs 2
on the ground: 0 vs 22
operational: 54 vs 46

[morvael]

Turn 177 (November 2nd, 1944)

Almost no fighting. Cavalry corps are slowly withdrawn, in order to be assigned to shock armies, and supplement the mobile tank forces during the attack towards Berlin:

Disclaimer: screens taken on 1.08.01 after game ended, but a number of turns were still played on 1.07.15.

[morvael]

Enemy gives up Cracow, but the Red Army fails to disrupt his withdrawal:

[morvael]

Tank armies from Hungary arrive to Poland and detrain in Deblin:

[morvael]

With one exception near Bydgoszcz, east bank of the Vistula is now in Soviet hands:

[morvael]

Two airbases and two airborne brigades were detached from 10th Airborne Corps in Hungary and sent to central Poland, subordinated to 2nd Belorussian Front. Perhaps they will be used in an airborne assault during surprise opening attack, that will mark the start of the Berlin operation.

5th Air Army commander, Nikolai Naumenko, is promoted to the rank of General-Polkovnik. STAVKA chief-of-staff, Boris Shaposhnikov, improves his mech skill (6). 3rd Ukrainian Front commander, Grigory Kulik, improves his initiative (4). 1st Shock Army commander, Ivan Chistyakov, improves his mech skill (5).

Strength:
men: 11 157 435 vs 3 394 180
guns: 197 221 vs 35 501
AFVs: 14 113 vs 6 062
aircraft: 21 719 vs 1 447

Trucks:
in units: 298 539 / 298 547 (100.00%)
in the pool: 275 439 / 223 968 (122.98%)
in repair: 117 404

Losses:
killed: 9 231 vs 7 813
captured: 534 vs 101
disabled: -979 vs -6 346
guns: 484 vs 330
AFVs: 54 vs 34
aircraft: 179 vs 81

Including:
in combat: 84 vs 25
from AA: 41 vs 0
on the ground: 0 vs 21
operational: 54 vs 35

[loki100]

so the calm before the final storm [;)]

was surprised to see you had Kulik in charge of a front, but then remembered your horrendous early game losses of military leaders

[morvael]

I was also short of APs all the time and I don't remember changing front leaders during entire game... So they came and went only if the AI decided to do so. And it was before 1.08 changed things a bit in this department, but for the last few turns I just used HQBU and made no other AP expenses.

[morvael]

Turn 178 (November 9th, 1944)

A sudden freeze allows the Red Army to attack simultaneously in three places: near Szekesfehervar west of Budapest, directly into the Hungarian capital as well as north of it, and be successful everywhere. Meanwhile German infantry pushes back Rumanian cavalry near Lake Balaton, but the ground is soon retaken by arriving reinforcements from the Transcaucasus Front:

[morvael]

Soviet forces are really close to Katowice now, and as generals stare into maps, a bold plan is formed...

[morvael]

River Warta is forded in force, opening the way to Breslau:

[morvael]

Despite heavy enemy fire and thousands of casualties, 7th Independent Army creates a bridgehead over Vistula river near Grudziadz, while another appears in Tczew (south-east of Danzing), thanks to the combined efforts of 4th Shock and 43rd armies:

[morvael]

Low numbers of medium tanks and medium SUs force STAVKA to order replacing all separate tank regiments attached to cavalry corps and medium SU regiments attached to tank corps by heavy tank and heavy SU regiments, respectively. The operation starts with forming of 12 heavy SU regiments and 9 heavy tank regiments. Freeing equipment from the disbanded units will allow to fill tank, mechanized and cavalry corps organic units.

Two airbases, designated for airborne operations, get 128 Li-2 transports each. This is the first line deployment of transport aircraft since 1942.

2nd Belorussian Front commander, Semyon Budyonny, is dismissed and replaced by Vladimir Kurdyumov. STAVKA chief-of-staff, Boris Shaposhnikov, improves his infantry skill (6). Two guards rifle corps are formed.

Strength:
men: 11 195 695 vs 3 417 732
guns: 197 594 vs 35 732
AFVs: 14 798 vs 6 139
aircraft: 21 732 vs 1 487

Trucks:
in units: 304 299 / 304 339 (99.99%)
in the pool: 276 244 / 214 256 (128.93%)
in repair: 114 568

Losses:
killed: 21 946 vs 12 071
captured: 362 vs 44
disabled: -2 494 vs -2 310
guns: 724 vs 650
AFVs: 142 vs 124
aircraft: 208 vs 107

Including:
in combat: 112 vs 32
from AA: 48 vs 1
on the ground: 0 vs 32
operational: 48 vs 42

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: morvael

Low numbers of medium tanks and medium SUs force STAVKA to order replacing all separate tank regiments attached to cavalry corps and medium SU regiments attached to tank corps by heavy tank and heavy SU regiments, respectively. The operation starts with forming of 12 heavy SU regiments and 9 heavy tank regiments. Freeing equipment from the disbanded units will allow to fill tank, mechanized and cavalry corps organic units.

Two airbases, designated for airborne operations, get 128 Li-2 transports each. This is the first line deployment of transport aircraft since 1942.

you really have had to re-organise your support units to get the best out of your pools.

256 transport planes is a lot of airlift ... interesting to see what you intend to drop and where

[morvael]

Yeah, the whole game was a constant battle of matching available TOEs against available equipment. Too bad it's impossible to transform units into another type retaining experience (like they did IRL). I had to disband some units and build new fresh ones.

The whole airdrop issue was a disappointment. As usual, I had other uses for the transport planes (emergency delivery of fuel to the tanks) and then the returning truck problem kicked me straight in the face.