AAR Hermann (ger) v Kelblau (sov)

[Kel]

Here is an AAR of a campaign game that I'm currently playing vs Hermann. He is a good german player and I consider myself a still learning soviet player. I'll try to give an update every 10 turns or so, with some delay - Hermann is welcome to view and comment. The rules are : non-random weather, reduced blizzard, no soviet +1 bonus.


A Hot Summer (turns 1-18)
The opening was classical. However Hermann choose not to go for the grand Lvov pocket, which allowed me to redeploy large parts of Southwest Front. Apart from that, the summer operations were by the book blitzkrieg - the usual soviet nightmare, with a steady german push on Leningrad via Pskov/Luga and several rather catastrophic encirclements in Ukraine.

Leningrad and Northwestern Front
Leningrad is properly surrounded, exept that a trickle of supply keeps going through the Kobona harbour. I could exfiltrate parts of the garrison and several high level HQ. They take command of the forces that are deployed along the Volkhov. Leningrad is defended by one army with a mission to buy some time. All industries (except part of the KV1 lines) were properly evacuated before the cutting of the railroad.The two initial panzerkorps of AGN seem to be still active and take part in the investment of the city.
Northwest Front could setup a quite strong defensive line anchored to the north on the banks of Lake Ilmen and to the south on the Valdaj Hills.

[Kel]

Kalinin and Western Front
Huge pressure on these two fronts, who managed to avoid too catastrophic losses. Just before the mud sets in, the German tried to break through the northwestern avenue to Moscow. One panzerkorps is identified near Rzhev - the city was lost due to the pressure. However minimal retreats could be achieved and backup armies setup without overloading the existing commands.

[Kel]

Bryansk and Southwestern Front
Several army-sized pockets were achieved by the enemy in this area and the two fronts barely escaped annihilation in september. Bryansk, Orel, Kursk had to be evacuated. One large panzer concentration is operating around Orel, obviously targeting Moscow from the southwest via Tula. It wrecked the defenses pretty much and there was much counter shuffling around here. Mud put a welcome halt to the operations and prevented a total collapse of these fronts.

[Kel]

Southwestern and Southern Front
The second concentration of panzers in the south has been active in the Kharkov area and was instrumental in the late summer pockets battle. Sumy, Poltava, Belgorod, and finally Kharkov had to be evacuated - factories could all be saved - and the depleted frontline armies rebuilt with fresh divisions. Obviously, the coming of rain season was very much a relief in this area as well.

[Kel]

North Caucasus Front
During the last turns before mud, one panzerkorps was dispatched to help breakthrough the lower Dnepr defenses. Two armies, under the command of North Caucasus Front, had to be setup - one to protect Sevastopol and one to prevent a crossing of the strait of Kerch.

[Kel]

Industry
Overall, most evacuations could be conducted properly.

Air War
All Fronts have 6 to 7 airbases with 4-5 regiments. I kept the 4 initial strategic bombers directions and allocated each of them to a front sector. Air war is (for now) limited to systematic pounding of every detected mobile formation, with (hopefully) some effect on the units fatigue. Attrition is quite severe however and air regiments rotation is mandatory. Each turn, the most demoralized air groups are sent back to the National Reserve and the best regiments are equipped with new models. This way a semidecent airforce is slowly being rebuilt. As an experiment, I created 2 NBAP airbases to put to some use the huge fleet of U2VS. I do not have the patience for more.

Leadership
Zhukov took care of the Stavka from the first turn on. Then, the leadership has been gradually improved during the course of the summer-autumn war. The worst Army commanders are fired as well as those in critical sectors. Finally I promoted new Air commanders.

Front organization and conclusion
Each army has 18-21 points. Each Front has 3 to 4 armies. Each army is reinforced by 3-4 arty rgts, 2 sapper rgts and 2 AA bns. Those directly targeted by panzers receive 1-2 AT regiment (for some reason a huge load of 76mm AT guns is waiting in the warehouses). I generally select the best morale divisions for these armies, and put these at 96% TOE. The remaining STAVKA stuff stays at 50% or 60% TOE and prepares a 3rd line of defence for the frontline units to fall back on or mans a few strongpoints in the rear. This emphasis on frontline armies has a weakness since there are almost no rear areas defenses and few forts around critical cities. This lack of defense in depth is a nogo against a very aggressive german commander. However, facing Hermann balanced playstyle, it works out quite well and the soviet armies managed to retreat in an almost orderly fashion. (That is, except in the south where each turn saw crisis after crisis).

The question is : will this deployment hold in front of what the OKH throws at us come winter blitzkrieg time?

[RKhan]

ORIGINAL: Kelblau


The question is : will this deployment hold in front of what the OKH throws at us come winter blitzkrieg time?

Yes.

And you should work on getting some Guards out there Comrade. Let's see more red guys!

Power to the people's party of Soviet Socialists!

[HardLuckYetAgain]

What does your OOB look like? Should be pretty good holding a lot of key cities.

[sillyflower]

This is a very poor German performance. I don't know why Hermann does not do the Lvov pocket, but this does make it virtually impossible for him to do well, or even adequately. This will be a very easy Russian win even if the blizzard is being played under .08.

[Kel]

Right Rkhan! Lets crush the fascists.
Bud zdorov!

[Kel]

Winter 41 I
Turns 18-28
So, ten turns after the previous AAR, we are in december with a full blizzard blowing over Russia. The Wehrmacht bunkers down. All german offensive operations are stopped, except in Crimea where a german-romanian group keeps plodding towards Sevastopol. On the soviet side, the time of guard-generating attacks has started.

Volkhov and Leningrad Front
After the fall of Leningrad, the Leningrad Front armies redeploy along the Volkhov.
The Volkhov Front armies deploy across the Svir river against finnish forces. A fortified backup line is built from lake Onega to Valdaj hills to protect the northern railroads from finnish incursions. Then the armies of Volkhov front start attacking across the Svir.

[Kel]

NorthWest and Kalinin Front
The two Fronts receive reinforcements. NorthWest Front conducts limited attacks all along the frontline. They push back the german forces one hex.
Kalinin Front, reinforced by 1st and 2nd Shock Armies (in black) makes a concentric assault to try and create some crisis around Rzhev.

[Kel]

Western and Bryansk Front
Limited offensive operations start all along the frontline. German forces must retrat one or two hexes. Orel is still in german control.

[Kel]

Southwestern Front
Southern Front armies push back german forces. 3rd and 4th Shock Armies make their final preparations before joining the operations on the Voronej-Kursk axis.

[Kel]

Southern Front
Soviet assaults along the Dnepr give some results and ground is reconquered by the cavalry south of Zaporozhye.

[Kel]

Caucasus Front
In Crimea, the 51st army fights defensively around Sevastopol and the 43rd Army blocks the access to the strait of Kerch.
Novorossiysk harbor is the rear base for Sevastopol ops.

[Kel]

Production
Almost all critical factories are evacuated. Manpower is still high (4,1 M). Measure are taken to keep frontline units filled up. STAVKA Division and brigade cadres are deployed around cities and along river lines.
The red airforce steadily gains experience. Not many guard units created yet, but that should improve with the offensive ops underway.

Now this is not the beginning of the end. It is not even the end of the beginning. But it is, perhaps, the beginning of the end of the beginning.

[RKhan]

It's going very well for you. Time to push the fascists back! That will build up Guards quickly.

[Kel]

ORIGINAL: RKhan

It's going very well for you. Time to push the fascists back! That will build up Guards quickly.

And I'd love to read more of Anna's diary to see how things are a turning!

[obssesednuker]

Don't get overconfident. Your goal here is to build up a guard force and secure defense lines that you'll have to use to bleed the Germans and gain time for the summer campaign of 1942. The Germans are still going to have the initiative then.