The Great Patriotic War (STE78 vs 821bobo)

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist
...for german player (who will most likely not allow a Stalingrad (unluckily)...

At this stage of the war, german army is very strong and OKH is well driven.

The typical line of defence is one german Inf Divs (or 2 at hot spots) with Pzd/mot in reserve.

I tried an attack on a single CV13 .... and got 2 reserve activations! Each with a full strength division.

I will have to better prepare my attacks....

[EwaldvonKleist]

Yes if you look at the army strength it is probably a big advantage for german player?
+he got some pockets. As far as i know there were no big pockets after charkow 1942 anymore for german side, instead it was a grind with a good loss ratio for german side (still not high enough)
+his army is not bleed and will grow further. I think losses were discussed a lot in the WITE forum (?) but german players maybe don't bleed his army like Hitler did to get stalingrad.

So if the game is a very good simulation, it should be very hard now to get to berlin in May 1945 Stef 78 if your opponent is not so nice to allow some pockets [:)]

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

So if the game is a very good simulation, it should be very hard now to get to berlin in May 1945 Stef 78 if your opponent is not so nice to allow some pockets [:)]

My bet is that Stef can do it. What I have found in WITE (and I believe this is the consensus opinion) is that the offensive side is favored. Basically, logistics are easier than they were in real life; while both sides benefit, this is more important for the attacker. It will take time for the Red Army to get going -- probably an entire season of painful grinding along the front -- but once they begin to make regular progress the pace will accelerate.

It's up to Stef, of coure, but I forecast a hard Soviet push toward Stalino that will force German withdrawal from essentially all that was gained in 1942.

[821Bobo]

Stef you have wrong intel info [:D]

The small pocket near Astrakhan was formed by 1. Pz Army that has been redeploying from Caucasus and not by 4. Pz Army operating near Stalingrad.

[chaos45]

you can always launch spoiling attacks to draw in the German reserves so your main attack gets through. Just need to make sure they arent super weak as I think they made the reserve activations take minimum odds into account.

Its still a way through attrition you can slowly start to drive the Germans back.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: 821Bobo

Stef you have wrong intel info [:D]

The small pocket near Astrakhan was formed by 1. Pz Army that has been redeploying from Caucasus and not by 4. Pz Army operating near Stalingrad.

Red Orchestra is no longer active.... we are curently working to crack Enigma...

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: chaos45

you can always launch spoiling attacks to draw in the German reserves so your main attack gets through. Just need to make sure they arent super weak as I think they made the reserve activations take minimum odds into account.

Its still a way through attrition you can slowly start to drive the Germans back.

Sure it will work later, but not end 1942.

[Farfarer61]

Either drive on Rostov aka repeat history, or, move everything to the big right hook, take Leningrad if you want, but just rotate down through the Baltics toward Berlin. Don't worry about any more Axis offensives, in fact tempt a lunge at Moscow for style points. Those Axis troops in Kazakhstan will feel a bit silly when the family Schloss in east Prussia is billeting Mongolian Armour.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Farfarer

Either drive on Rostov aka repeat history, or, move everything to the big right hook, take Leningrad if you want, but just rotate down through the Baltics toward Berlin. Don't worry about any more Axis offensives, in fact tempt a lunge at Moscow for style points. Those Axis troops in Kazakhstan will feel a bit silly when the family Schloss in east Prussia is billeting Mongolian Armour.

Good idea... but the first task will be to move german stacks...[;)]
At the moment german army is really very strong.

[STEF78]

Turn 74, 12th november 1942

Mud is over and snow is back. As usual, this period was very quiet. Of course both OOB were climbing but time is definitely on russian side.



And this result was achieved despite huge losses in units due to the great encirclements we suffered.



But my main surprise at the opening of the turn was that the germans were fully on the defensive. It's up to me!

[STEF78]

Turn 74, 12th november 1942

I did a try to check german resistance against weak Inf Div.

Offensive was not optimal (multiple font commnanding, no Art div on support), but the defence was! 2 divs reacted as reserve! I will have to do better during the next weeks...

[STEF78]

Turn 75, 19th november 1942

Second try against the german wall. Results are as bad as the first time despite better coordination (not perfect...) and increased artillery. I will gather art divs, optimize command structure and concentrate more rifle corps full of engineers. Unfortunatly, I have only 60 AP per week.



[:)] AP cost for creation of rifle corps will decrease to 10 in january 1943!!

And the OOB, I have more than 100K guns!

[STEF78]

Turn 77, 3rd december 1942

Week after week, russian army is getting stronger. We build art divs, tank corps, rifle corps all filled with sapper, heavy tanks... regiments.

Early december we got our first success against the german front line.

Leningrad

North of Novgorod, 227th fascist division is badly beaten by our brave soldiers!



Kursk

Very promissing victories here! Even the Pzd/Mot reserves couldn't hold our offensive.



Bryansk

Some german units aren't cooperative!

[STEF78]

Turn 78, 10th december 1942

The battle for Kursk is still going on. Nothing spectacular but 3000 arts show their efficiency.

[jwolf]

It looks like a long slow grind, with Stalinesque casualty levels needed. But at least the Germans are firmly on the defensive now.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

It looks like a long slow grind, with Stalinesque casualty levels needed. But at least the Germans are firmly on the defensive now.

At the beginning, it will be a slow grind but don't forget that WITE is a snowball game. The richer get richer!

[Dinglir]

Question: What does the color coding of your units show?

[RKhan]

I'm curious what you find to be the most efficient mix and number of support units in your armies, and how it has changed since June 1941 as new units become available.

[jwolf]

ORIGINAL: Dinglir

Question: What does the color coding of your units show?

The colors in the box show which front the unit belongs to. Soviet OOB, in broad terms, goes STAVKA >> Front >> Army >> Smaller units, with support units possible at all levels. The units with a red background are elite Guards units. There is a similar system for the Axis units.

[Dinglir]

ORIGINAL: jwolf
The colors in the box show which front the unit belongs to. Soviet OOB, in broad terms, goes STAVKA >> Front >> Army >> Smaller units, with support units possible at all levels. The units with a red background are elite Guards units. There is a similar system for the Axis units.

So, it's the color code I'm used to. This does surprise me, as it seems Stef doesn't really care to keep his units grouped together. Look at the image above: on a frontline stretch of 13 hexes, Stef has no less than five Fronts present. Doesn't this simply mean that his units will have a harder time allocating support units to battle due to being spread out and getting a large cohesion bonus when attacked.

Personally, I have always thought that the benefits of keeping units together is fairly obvious. As Stef doesn't really car, there must be some other explanation that I have overlooked.