Chaos(SHC) vs Pelton-T131- Game Over-Soviet victory.

[ericv]

Wasn't aware that Pelton was temp banned. Such a shame..

[chaos45]

Clear the Axis from South of DZ and approaches to the Crimea operations---against misses locking everything by 1 MP...still got 90% of his forces there. He escaped with the farthest West stack everything was trapped and will be destroyed.

[chaos45]

North DZ encirclement of a small additional German army that tried to stand in place instead of retreat last turn.

[chaos45]

Leningrad sector- Luga line pretty much cleared and 1 German divisions encircled to be destroyed T119.

[chaos45]

Overall OOB at the end of T118

[chaos45]

Forgot to picture the units....but over 30+ total destroyed axis units. As you can see almost a quarter million losses in one week mostly POWs

[chaos45]

Well Personally I think Pelton greatly underestimated Soviet mobility on T119 and it caused a second great disaster for the German Army in less than 4 weeks.

After losing 16+ divisions his best bet would have been to retreat and buy time for his army and his battered units to recover. Instead he tried to form a new line not far in front of where my furthest tank units had gotten on the initial Kharkov Encirclement. I guess in past he figured I wouldnt have fuel/MPs quickly enough to launch a second offensive- this was grave miscalculation for the Axis.

My rail head was basically following right behind the the penetrations- so fuel was no issue in short order- basically 1 weeks rest mainly to fix equipment and rest off Fatigue got almost every Soviet mobile unit back to over 40 MP. Even my southern group which on T117 moved south for about 20 of its MP still had 40+ MP on pretty much every Corps. Know where my railhead is should be easy for him to track to know how good my supply situation is.

Anyway- him not backing up much at all, and in fact attempting to counterattack one of my best shock armies left him in a very bad position come T118 as he was still right up against my lines basically, except this time he was weak enough I was able to split my armor into two completely seperate offensives- one north of DZ and the other South of DZ with my infantry corps storming over the Dnepr right in front of DZ. Looking at his CV attempting to hold me like he did was a pointless waste of good units really---even over a major river 1 division at 6 CV wont stop several Soviet corps from assaulting across. Esp after its been bombed by like 500 attack aircraft and shelled by several divisions of artillery in the assault.

In turn my assaults on the norther front were able to drive his best units into overstacked retreats over the Dnepr resulting in heavier losses on them than normal and encircle a small German army north of DZ---this really wasnt planned for but his forces were so weak and he had stayed right next to me it was really a gimme. Alittle selective attacking and herding easily made the pocket. Not to mention that his forces were so defeated I was able to cross 2 river lines in one week as the second crossing was pretty much un-opposed. Massive defeat part for AG south in T118. This involved my secondary tank front and was supported by 2 shock armies with some infantry corps from normal fronts.

Part 2 was my planned offensive with my main tank front---as I have a front with 6 tank armies and some artillery support this front also has pretty much some of the best soviet mech commanders. Its goal was clear all axis forces from DZ to the Crimea in a massive encirclement. For this goal I had 2 artillery BDEs, 18 tank/mech corps and about a weak supporting front of infantry, plus the crimea army to assist with mop up on T119. His front line was alittle harder to crack and slowed me abit more than I had wanted but still got some good herding going on and complete exploit with at least 3 tank armies. Sadly my best tank units only had 47 MP and I needed 48 MP to lock all of his forces up so I think 3 Total axis divisions actually escaped, hid farthest western defenses basically....as for my Guard tank corps its 3 MP per hex 47 MP only gets me 15 hexes...needed 48 for that 16th hex and complete doom. Either way the attack went as planned and was a massive defeat- encircling basically an entire romanian army and about a corps or so of German units.

So in 3 turns German Army Group south has lost basically 40 full divisions from its OOB when u count various support units lost as well plus the massive straight combat losses from all of the assaults on various units not trapped.

T118--also led to massive retreat of the German army in T119 which in turn has led to further small encirclement's of units that due to Zoc's an such couldnt get away. Basically Pelton Ran 5+ hexes away from me all along the line T119- luckily my Cav shock armies were able to keep up in many places and effectively clear zocs and zoc his units from about Tula south so my infantry can quickly catch him through cleared hexes.

At the end of T119- I still have/newly encircled 3 German inf divs, 1 panzer reg, and 1 Rom Cav div to add to the pile of POWs on T120. His OOB should be diving sub 3M soon...mud will give him some respite and chance for me to re-organize and refit for my winter offensives if he decides to stand somewhere.

As to Soviet Army management- well T119 I disbanded 41 various units, and have alot more disbanding to do and re-organizing of SU/Armies as usual AP is the shortage to get the most mileage of the soviet army. Also vastly underestimated the need for rail engineers based on my rate of advance so for the last 4 weeks have added probably 20+ more rail BDEs to get all of the rail fixed as fast as possible on top of the ones I already had sitting around. Good thing is all the junk units im disbanding have easily fed the manpower requirement for rail labor lol.

[STEF78]

Game, set, match! [&o]

[Bob12]

This has turned from stalingrad to bagration almost, he really should have retreated all of his army to the Dnepr after the first disaster and it would have given him time to reform the line.

[chaos45]

Mop up in the Crimea

[chaos45]

North of DZ further advance/mop up and a small new pocket.

[chaos45]

Overall frontline T119

[chaos45]

OOB T119

[chaos45]

Here is the T120 POW/destroyed unit count for Axis.

Almost 50k more POWs this turn....so in 1 month the axis has lost over 400k POWs. Also more will soon be on the way to the Gulags as I encircled yet another German army on T120---9-10 more divisions....he may get a supply line to them but they are effectively doomed.

Also a couple divisions are going to have a hard time continuing to retreat due to me reaching his lines and assaulting some abit north of DZ and seriously zocing up a stack of infantry....Im thinking they will be POWs before winter lol.

Also as you can see Im a disbanding fool---now that Im not desperate for every AP Im trashing every junk unit in the Soviet army I dont feel I need to conserve trucks and manpower...my army is actually getting close to full strength finally.

[chaos45]

Key events T120-

Soviet Forces re-enter Vyborg next to Finland- this combined would other events should trigger Finnish Surrender Rolls from my understanding.

Narva- stormed and occupied

Pskov- Stormed and Occupied

Smolensk- recaptured without a fight- German forces are running so fast Soviet units cannot maintain contact.

Soviet forces push roughly 5 hexes west of Bryansk as well barely maintaining contact with fleeing german forces.

Sula river line in front of Kiev is being flanked to the North which should force a retreat by German forces to the Uday if they decide to hold the southern Sula river. Soviet forces push the german bridgehead on the east side of the Sula over the river.

A German army defending Krioi Rog and its river line are encircled by a massive soviet tank assault. 9-10 axis divisions currently in the pocket. Rescue by outside German forces is unlikely.

Sums up T120- all in all an extremely successful Soviet summer offensive. Now mud is almost here but it looks like I should snag 10+ axis divisions in these final turns before mud sets in. Lots of re-organizing of the soviet army 80+ disbanded units over the last 2 weeks. Soviet army end strength for the final push to Berlin 8.5 Million or less is Stavka plan. Considering almost a quarter million men are working on the railroad as well...leaves less than 8M actual soviet combat troops to get there.

However Germany's axis allies are wavering in their support due to the writing being on the wall so less than 3M German combat troops will soon be facing those 8M soviets and Im confident in those odds.

[sillyflower]

How much difference has the new rule scrapping the limit on ground attack bombing making?

[chaos45]

Silly- I think the bombings per turn is very powerful esp since currently I have barely seen any axis fighter inceptions at all. If I didnt have complete air superiority it might not be that bad....with complete air superiority though its looking pretty brutal...as I can bomb/attack push them back...bomb again...attack again....and after all that those units dont put much of a fight and can easily be pushed with Soviet hasty attacks. Its wears units down very quickly if you are able to apply 6+ 100 bomber air attacks to them in one turn...and if u get them to a third hex for 3 more....its very quickly makes a german division drop about half its CV in one turn combined with ground attacks.

[chaos45]

Here was the next encirclement of a german army in the south on T120. Pelton manages to save like 1-2 mobile divisions by opening a small hole and them squeaking out...the infantry all the troops in the city are doomed though.

[chaos45]

T121- Continued pursuit of fleeing german units from the north to the south pretty much- the only place Im in contact with Germans really is Tula south and the only place Im in combat with them is Kiev area south more or less as Pelton is in full retreat.

I attack some hexes to the NE of Kiev pushing his new defensive line back in several hexes even after clearing his romanian/security unit screen meant to slow me.

The pocket mostly held, he managed to open a supply line as I figure...and 1 panzer division and 1 panzer regiment escaped. The romanians I rout out...and herd the 3 remaining german infantry divisions into a tight pocket. The units in Kirovi didnt get a supply line so I wipe them out. Also have 3 axis allied divisions pocketed on the southern dnepr again.

So all in all another Good turn- 1 pz div, 1 inf div, 1 pz reg all german off the gulags, with 3 axis allied and 4 german inf divisions in secure pockets going into mud.

Mud should be pretty uneventful as I need to get railheads moved up and dont want to burn a ton of trucks by pushing my entire army through the mud. Ive gained enough ground and taken enough axis POWs I should be sitting good come snow. Esp with 7 more axis divisions just waiting to be sent to Siberia lol.

[Mehring]

It's a mystery what he's done with his fighters, I'd laugh if he's found a way to disband them. Given that replacements are plentiful and the only brake on active forces is the number of combat units, which is low at this point. I can see no reason not to shred your bombers, at least at critical areas of the front. He c/should be shooting down 500-600 planes a week, maybe more.