Guns on the East Front! v3.3 Telumar vs Governato

[governato]

Here is the map showing the Don/Volga sectors in late Winter. My engineer and Reserve armies are busy digging. They will be slowly disbanded in Summer 1942.

[Cfant]

Will be intersting to see how Telumar reacts to this masses of Soviets [:)] Won't be easy to break your lines, governato. Thanks for the interesting update!

[Telumar]

There is not much to add to Fabio's analysis of the situation at the onset of winter.

I was a bit surprised by the location and objective of Fabio's offensive as i didn't estimate the railnet/junction in 17th Army's sector between Voronezh and Orel to be that important to him or me. This maybe with my plans for the summer in mind. Earlier i mentioned a Soviet build-up east of the Volchow river during and after the battle for Leningrad, so i rather expected an offensive in the North with the objective Leningrad.

Although Axis positions and unit conditions were much better than historically i really had trouble stopping his offensive. Luckily i had taken preparations in form of a rested armored/mechanized reserve right after the fall mud. When the Soviet winter offensive began most of my armor was well rested behind the front. I had three Panzerkorps in the frontline in the vicinity Orel - Voronezh (with the open terrain in mind, but not a possible Soviet offensive) when the Red Army attacked and had to rail in another four to somehow stabilize the frontline again. One of these, XIV. Panzerkorps was destroyed during the defensive operations.

The image shows the situation from the Axis perspective during the last week of January 1942 when the Soviet offensive petered out.

[Telumar]

ORIGINAL: governato


red army forces december 1st 1941/t23

1550 modern medium tanks (kv1+t34s)

2300 planes (modern frames)

22000 guns (above 50mm, excluding at and aa guns)


red army forces t32 (late february 1942)

2850 modern tanks

2550 planes

36000 guns

Let's compare:


Axis forces turn 24

2400 tanks (of which ~550 are obsolete models)

2000 planes

14000 guns (above 50mm, including rocket launchers, excluding mortars, at and aa guns)


Axis forces turn 32

2600 tanks (of which ~570 are obsolete models)

2160 planes

13800 guns

[Telumar]

And the infantry:

[Michael T]

Governato this scenario looks very interesting. I am trying to convince my PBEM partner to give it a go. If we start a game I will add a post every now and then with some commentary, perhaps a brief AAR. You have put a lot of effort in to this scenario. It is a credit to you. I wish, in hindsight I had taken up your offer long ago to give it a try. But back then I was sucked in to the black hole of WITE

Now, please cast your talents to a North African Campaign scenario

[governato]

ORIGINAL: Michael T

Governato this scenario looks very interesting. I am trying to convince my PBEM partner to give it a go. If we start a game I will add a post every now and then with some commentary, perhaps a brief AAR. You have put a lot of effort in to this scenario. It is a credit to you. I wish, in hindsight I had taken up your offer long ago to give it a try. But back then I was sucked in to the black hole of WITE

Now, please cast your talents to a North African Campaign scenario

Glad you like TOAW so far. Yes please post some info if you decide to play East Front! It'd be very useful. I have to acknowledge that WITE was a great source of information when I double checked sources, especially for man power. The AARs on the WITE forum and the challenges raised there helped shape `East Front'.

North Africa...probably not, but I will upgrade EF and my other scenario 'Europe 44', when the TOAW official patch comes up. I have been thinkering with a TOAW version of the Gettysburg campaign, but will see.


Btw, the AAR has restarted, Telumar and I are currently at turn 53 of EF so there will be more updates coming up.

[governato]

Here is the situation at the end of mud season, April 1942. The front has been quiet for a bit, but all Hell is going to break loose during the Spring/Summer campaign. At this point, after the spring levy, my troops are at peak numbers and tank production has started to pick up.

[governato]

Here is the front at the last turn Telumar and I exchanged. It was a hard and bloody fight for the Caucasus, and Red Army losses were terrible. Comes May Telumar overran my defenses along the Don and then the Volga, destroying several armies. Telumar has made more progress East than historical (remember he also got Leningrad up North). But the Red Army is still standing and Stalingrad and Baku should hold. Telumar also used the Summer Offensive bonus (which trades a small shock and recon bonus for a supply penalty later on). The number of tanks at my disposal has dropped and so the rifle squads, but this is hopefully the darkest hour. Production is picking up, I was able to preserve my tank armies (they were wiped out historically) and the first Army of the just formed the Stalingrad Front is now fortified the city of the same name. The front has stabilized overall. I am sure there would still be battles to lose, but the Soviet Union may survive Summer of '42. Moreover, the Axis losses have been very heavy in both men and tanks, his supply lines are long, the Rumanian forces are entrenched along the Volga ...and Winter will eventually come.


The biggest decision to make for this campaign was for Telumar to split is armored forces to continue BOTH South and East, and I wonder if he would have got Stalingrad had he kept is spearheads together targeting the city directly. Assigning different targets to the Panzer Groups (renamed as Armies actually, by that time) is exactly what happened historically! (at least seen from my side, remember that recon values are pretty low in EF '41-'45).

I will keep this AAR going if we continue the game, but this was a fun and positive test for East Front v3.3. Telumar was a great player and it was a pleasure to play with him for over a year!

[Hyding]

Nice to see an update thanks. He really took off in the summer drive didn't he.

[Ltfrench]

Any news from that titanic battle ???