Aditia vs. Darbymcd

[Aditia]

Below the list of battles when I open the turn (sorry for the missing column titles).

Soviet casualties are very high, especially when they don't win.

[Aditia]

As I feared, the Red Army broke out of the Crimea. The general in command is Zhukov.

[Aditia]

During my turn I counter attack where possible. Yes this costs me, but I think it hurts the soviet player much more. And it also makes future counter attacks easier to execute as the hex in question will be denied forts building up.

I try to only counter attack if I have 5:1 initial CV value at the minimum, preferably 7:1, and only with deliberate attacks. If possible, I avoid counter attacking with units that have lower fort levels than the units around them.

Here the results of my biggest counter attack this turn. 1k panzers demolish a freshly committed Cavalry Corps:

[Aditia]

Following screenies are again an overview of the crucial sectors. North of Moscow is not interesting; not enough force committed by the Soviet Union to be a real threat.

Moscow AO:

The hex with red cross is the only one where my line broke. I have a Pz division waiting behind it to pummel any unit that ventures into it. We counter attacked this turn there.
One unit that was occupying a redundant forward edge of the line is pulled back (blue arrow) to make sure it doesn't get cut off if a break occurs elsewhere.

[Aditia]

At Tula I rout out a couple units that occupied the hexes won last turn, but there are a few stacks that I wont attack as I cannot muster anywhere close to 5:1 odds. The line is holding thus far and I really want to hold for as long as possible while I have level 2 forts.

[Aditia]

At Voronezh, multiple breaks trigger my withdrawal towards my prepped fortified line. I kind of mess it up by executing a counter attack for no good reason (hex with red exclamation marks), resulting in 1 division of 6th Army not having the MP to withdraw more than 1 hex.

I wanted to withdraw 1 more hex (hinging on the hex that now has the Hungarian mobile brigade in it), but because I do not want to leave a unit behind I end up with what you see.

The 3 panzer regiments rear guarding will probably be causing their orders.

[Icier]

The winter attrition for the Axis is a lot more sever than earlier patches...dont be surprised that you will only be able to launch limited
attacks in 42.Your armour strength will be severely degraded, what with TOE upgrades & winter losses.
I know that the great census of opinion is that you will knock him over in 42, but if he is careful & selective with his attacks,he can
cause you a lot of problems in 42.
The other thing I found with the new Airforce rules, just soley Russian air attacks on German forces severely degrade there personnel & reduce there moral.

[Aditia]

At Stalino the arrival of fresh infantry divisions from the North is very welcome. The mobile forces that I wanted to put in reserve when they arrived are now committed towards the Crimea as I am worried that the break out of Zhukov is going to create complication if left unchecked.

[Aditia]

The situation at the Crimea.

If both the infantry stack and the PzDiv. get defeated I will activate I Corps that is being kept in strategic reserve.

It is really unfortunate that I have to commit such strength here, but the rest of the line is holding fine and I believe my opponent is not holding any secret strength in reserve.

[Aditia]

Finally the reserve manpower.

As it is too hard to reach the front, all manpower pools are growing, except for the Finnish one.

I have one question: does putting units in refit mode increase truck attrition during blizzard?

More turns tomorrow [8D]

[Aditia]

Oh one thing to add when you are on the defensive:

I advise to at the start of the turn Turn Off reserve mode, as to not have units committed unneededly during counter attacks.

In the screenshot above, with the 1k panzer counter attack, a panzer division was committed without me wanting it to.

[Aditia]

ORIGINAL: Ice

The winter attrition for the Axis is a lot more sever than earlier patches...dont be surprised that you will only be able to launch limited
attacks in 42.Your armour strength will be severely degraded, what with TOE upgrades & winter losses.
I know that the great census of opinion is that you will knock him over in 42, but if he is careful & selective with his attacks,he can
cause you a lot of problems in 42.
The other thing I found with the new Airforce rules, just soley Russian air attacks on German forces severely degrade there personnel & reduce there moral.

The winter attrition is real yes.
I am actually most worried about:

- Trucks.
- Trucks.
- Panzer production
- Trucks

The attrition in Men and guns I calculate I can make up for (It is now end of January 1942 for me and I have almost 300k Germans in the pool; using TOE settings I can direct them to where they are needed). But trucks and panzers is a different question. As this is my first blizzard I have had to learn through trial and error:
- The counter attacks I have been doing have been very effective in degrading Soviet offensive power and effectively stopping his blizzard offensive in its tracks, but it has come at a cost in panzers and trucks from fighting, moving and not being in cities. It really is a blessing that I haven't had to withdraw much as the withdrawal at Voronezh was painful, not from the losses or anything, but from the movement my mobile forces had to do to put up a line.
- I have done too many counter attacks on non-crucial hexes, costing me panzers and trucks while only causing some losses or routs on low strength infantry divisions. The real targets should be cavalry Corps and armored units.
- I have withdrawn the Luftwaffe piecemeal. I should have just withdrawn the bomber arm and excess recon squadrons en masse in 2 stages: light level bombers and excess recon squadrons as soon as mud hit and most bombers as soon as snow hit. During blizzard I have left all fighters and 1 He-111 group per Flieger Corps at the front. Withdrawing in multiple stages has cost me trucks unnecessarily.
- I have not been the best at resupply by air during mud, which probably also cost a bunch of trucks.
- Truck management was not on my radar from the start, only after Pelton pointed it out and with the AAR delayed 1 to 8 turns I was too late with correcting my mistakes.

Darbymcd is now indeed sacrificing a lot of bombers to bomb me where he can. Although he is now focusing on HQs mostly. I have been very dilligent in massing 88mm FlAK units where he has a lot of strength in the air, so that helps with breaking up attacks and inflicting some losses.

With regards to panzer strength, in 1941 80% of the value of Pz. Divisions comes from their mobility (Mot. Inf.), not the tanks, but I don't know if that holds true in 1942.

[Icier]

I found @ the beginning of spring 42 my armour was about 50% & motorized ranging between 30-60%...
now one thing that is not taken into account is the TOE upgrades, just as you think that your armour
are ready to fight again, they start swapping tanks.
constantly check your fighters/bombers, they can have a quick moral drop & if he starts directing his airforce on your infantry, they can also loose moral.

[Aditia]

You triggered my interest Ice.

I did a review of the strength of my Panzer forces, see the results below. This is from start of Feb 1942. I trust that any shortcomings in motorised infantry can be made good with Refit settings after blizzard ends.

You can see that the majority of divisions are in fine shape (a testament to the weak blizzard offensive STAVKA was able to organise).
Judging from these numbers, there are way more Czech machines produced. Maybe because that model didn't need upgrading all the time?

This begs the question, how hard should I push during Snow? I guess I should keep objectives limited to ensure my forces are in good shape after spring mud season.

Also, I highlighted the 203 Pz Rgt. in blue: since that unit has no TOE upgrade planned, should it eventually be merged into another unit?

Are most of these divisions forced to retire their compliment of Pz IIIs with older model than 'L' in April 1942?

[Stelteck]

Hi.
Sorry to interrupt for a little noob question. There are a lots of talk about "winter's attrition" in previous posts but as described in the first post of this AAR, the winter option is "mild winter" rules.

I thought the first winter attrition was a special rules for "real winter", with little effect in mild winter scenario.

Do i miss something ?

[Aditia]

You're most welcome to ask!

I am a noob on this too, but I think the 'mild' rules only apply to combat; frost attrition is still there.

Basically, mild blizzard allows for better mitigation of adverse combat effects by using forts/terrain. Whereas normal blizzard will hit you with full negative effects, even if your troops are occupying a line of concrete bunkers in lvl4 forts in the heart of Moscow. (someone can correct me if I am wrong on this)

From the condensed rules that can be found on the forum:

[Icier]

Hi Aditia, 203rd Pz disbands Jan 43.
Your panzers are in fine shape, I take back words of warning, put yourself in position to launch
your attacks in spring of 42. My totals for the Panzers were much lower & a lot of my divisions
refilled with Pz 38.

[Aditia]

Back to the AAR while listening to the Gundam SEED OST

Turn 28

When I open the turn I again see a bunch of holds and retreats, about 60/40.
Again heavy losses for the Soviets. Where I have no forts my losses are quite high as well.

[Aditia]

At the Crimea reinforcements are arriving to deal with his break out. I am doing this in strength and have activated I Corps up North to come down here, as I have no clue how many units he is able to commit to this.

[Aditia]

An overview of the critical sectors:

Tula AO

Fort line is holding fine, so I hold off on counter attacks as his units must have sustained a hit to their attack capability trying to break through here and I don't want to waste the fuel/panzers/trucks to attack with Pz Div.'s here.