Another World : AAR Soviet Stelteck Vs German Pelton (No Pelton Zone)

[Stelteck]

My new toy :



I think i have enough spare truck now to afford to test these luxuries units, the mechanized corps.
Well rounded, fast, with good equipment, tanks and elite infantry.
Unfortunately they use tons of trucks. Even more than tank corps.

I'am building 3 of them to group in an elite tank army.

They will need month of training to be efficient though, and will not be very usefull until 1944.

[Stelteck]

Turn 114 : 19 August 1943

In the far east, my troops reach the volga, cutting an ennemi motorized brigade in the way !!!

I have more and more troops in the area as it currently produced the best results against not so strong german defenses.



The traitors surrenders !!! Good job. I salvaged 300 trucks in the process.



And my movement continue to the south, to force the ennemy to retreat behind the Volga.



The Volga will be my major coming obstacle. It is not sûre i will be able to cross it before the winter freeze the river. But i will certainly try.

[Stelteck]

Turn 115 : 26 August 1943

My offensive accelerate a little. German troops are pushed in this end of summer.

The solution seems is to attack everywhere, as the nazi cannot defend everywhere. (While it is possible for me to have all my fronts capable of offensive operation, with tank corps in the rear ready to move if something break.



Good news from my air force. Due to the multiple théâtre of battle, the luftwaffe cannot concentrate fighters, and so i'am able to fight.

[Stelteck]

Turn 116 : 02 September 1943 !!

Fighting escalate in this end of summer.

The deceitful nazi invader conducted a long range raid to cut the supply railroad used by my most eastern front.

In the same turn, he retreated to safety. A good hit&run operation. Fortunately, i also have a supply rail from north constructed.

He also put a little mahem in HQ and airfield.



But i do not fear, as a little north, my troops crossed the volga by force !!! (And i also apply pressure from north).

[Stelteck]

Turn 117 : 09 september 1943

The german mobile troops rushed this turn to push my troops over the volga. It was successfull.

My tank corps (unfortified as they did not had time to dig) did not hold. Total looser. Sad.



So this is the current front :



Of course, as the ennemy rushed to protect the volga, i sent my stalinist hordes of tanks a little north and managed to encercle 3 german divisions and capture a major city.

If i cannot perce the volga, i will come from north.

[Stelteck]

Turn 118 : 16 september 1943

In the east, the ennemy of true communism performed a tactical counter attack to free the 3 german divisions, and succeeded.

But they still have to retreat by foot, which could be not easy.



Now two important good news :

First, in the caucasus, as i was not able to pierce north, i decided to try west, and there is definitely not enough troops to stop me here.
I will be able to try to escape from my hole.



Second, north of moscow, 2 fronts were reconfigured to offensive operation (by creating good corps mostly) and now their attack begin !!! This will force ennemy to send renforcement to yet another part of the front.

[Stelteck]

Turn 119 23 september 1943 !!

The german still try to evacuate the late german divisions, but it do not really succeed. They cannot move fast enough on low supply.



So my cavalry rush in !! This time it will be more difficult to save them. (But only 2 divisions captured. One have escaped).

[Stelteck]

Turn 120 : 30 september 1943

First have a look at the victory point pannel. There is a lot to say in my opinion with the way the bitter end campaign count the victory points, but the german advance is enormous.
While in looses i have equal points than the german, towns like Leningrad (not the easiest town to defend for me) give him 8000 points and 40 more each turn.

And to get point for myself, i have to reach poland.



In the east, the 2 capture german divisions surrendered !! This time it is 2 good german divisions with heavy panzerJagger vehicule that are crushed. It is a good news. Not backward regiment that surrender this time.



In the north east, big effort of my tank corps, that barely managed to pierce for 2 hex. It is not a very great success.

[Stelteck]

Turn 121 : 07 October 1943

In the north est, heavy german resistance and slow progress. Soon, the rain will come freezing the frontline.



In the north west, i engage the new mechanized corps to perform a little field training. Troops are more focused when being shoot at. Good training.
But slow progress.



Good progress in the caucasus, where ennemy troops run for their life. (To the next moutain to ambush me of course [8|])



A little strategic consideration. My T-34 tanks (and in fact, all my tanks) are now obsolete and die like fly in contact with new german heavy panzers.
I only manage to damage them, while my T-34 explode on contact. (See a common battle result).

Fortunately, my new generation of heavy tanks just started preliminary production. (And i can count of growing number of SU-152 and others SU too). I add SU regiment to all rifle corps.

[Stelteck]

Turn 122 : 14 October 1943.

It is raining on soviet russia, so the summer offensive come to an end.

Let's see the army Order of battle now.

I did not loose any unit this summer, which is good (but probably mostly due to the catiouness of my opponent).

This was my army at the start of the year 1943 :



This is my army now



Despite decreasing manpower production, i manage to grow +700K from 1942. I'am still 900K men short of my full OOB. (Without taking into account new units productions).

Fortunately, most missing men are support squads, which is not good for my administrative checks&supply, but do not have a direct effects on immediate fighting value. Fighting squads, artillery and tanks are OK.

I'am beginning to have spare political points here so i started building some cavalry corps (Good mobile units that do not use too much trucks).

The german army grows to 300K men and 5000 tanks in the same period too [:D]

I gained some grounds during my summer offensive, but german resistance is very heavy and i will have to speed so hard in winter if i want to reach Europe before 1949.

[MrBlizzard]

What have you planned for winter?
Looking at the map it seems favorable a strong push towards the axis Stalingrad - Rostov.
This could force an hasty retreat from Caucasus giving you back many useful manpower centers.

[Stelteck]

It is an interesting possibility, but the german is aware of it and have garrison all other the volga, even if it do not show in the picture because of lack of air recon.

It is also difficult to jump to stalingrad because of the lack of railroad from est to West crossing the steppe leading to the city.

The good news is that the volga will freeze soon and help me cross it. the Winter will also lessen the risk of german deep counter attack, so i will be able to commit more troops to hit the front with a hammer instead of staying in reserve for possible german counter move.

My currently doctrine is to attack everywhere at the same time and renforce where the defense crumble. He can stop me where he want to, but cannot be everywhere at the same time.
Even in front of moscow i keep trying to perce with good infantry, and my opponent have to keep some very good troops here to prevent me for going forward.

I heard also that the game will weaken the german end 1943 and i hope so because currently the german army is really strong and probably have plenty of reserves.

It will be a bloody and not very subtle winter.

[Stelteck]

Game pause due to crash at the opening of the german turn. Trying to overcome the issue.

[Stelteck]

Trying to fix the problem looks difficult. We are trying.
Rolling back the turn did not completely solved the problem.

[bigbaba]

wow, after beeing beaten up like a puppy be pelton in the first 2 years of the war you managed some kind of come back! although its a long road to berlin. peltons blitzkrieg (charkov in turn 5!) was amazing even for pelton.

will you go for land or will you try to bleed the german wehrmacht white in the winter?

in one AAR which i am reading actualy the soviet player was in a similar position but he managed to shift his mobile armies from weakspot to weakspot of the front while trying to hide his intentions by fake attacks and buid ups and managed to kill the german army slowly in his meat grinder.

maybe you should start to deceive pelton more and attack at unexpected areas (the finish army in the north for example)?

[chaos45]

Basically the German Army is over extended...Pelton will give ground in the south from on out.

As to your comment on Victory points.....well you lost much more than historical and are still behind historical land ownership.....so the German player should be winning VP wise.

[MrBlizzard]

Any chance to read again my favourite AAR? [:)]

[Stelteck]

The game just restarted and we managed to perform one more turn. I cross my finger to be able to do another one.

[Stelteck]

After some rollback we managed to workaround the issue and carry on the game. (Was not solved, cause of the problem not really identified).

turn 123 : 21 october 1943

Mud turn, nothing happened. The target, germany is in sight of my soviet army !!!

[Stelteck]

Turn 124 : 28 October 1943

Another mud turn with no movement, but a good time to display some data.

First, i won the air war around astrakhan in the South East, as my opponent give up trying to bomb to port to prevent me to get supply. So the slow repair begin.



Relative to air war, i have far better results now. This is my best squadron. This squadron is in the caucasus, where ennemy presence is low quality and a lot of kill is possible. (Without dying, like in front of moscow).



Looses of the war :



Orders of battle :
The ennemy is full stuff with more tanks than ever.
On my side, i'am slowly growing but i'am not sûre i will ever meet 8Millions men. But i notice it is not so important as my fighting troops are quite well staffed. Only support squads are lacking somewhere, which do not help my administration leader ratings but do not prevent too much my fighting capability.

Currently i use my political points to create new corps, especially cavalry ones, and some mechanized.