2by3+

[Kratsch]

Hi all,

Sorry wasn’t clear. Not like major operational reserves, but the local ones I meant:
Units can be in ready, refit or reserve mode.
The first digs the best by far,
The second gets filled up first with new recruits,
And the last, dependant on leader rolls, can get added if other units of the same army get attacked within 3 hexes, which is a huge help. The more MPS the reserve marked unit has, the better.

So, in my humble view, frontline and anything crucial we mean to hold should be ready and digging, refit is really for the back areas for new units coming in which are understrength etc.
And reserve is for local chaps in second or third row, but need to be within 3 hexes of the battle, and in range of the HQ.

Para units are actually quite good in defence, as the little buggers don’t get routed easily, which is all we are asking them to do : being good speed bumps. So some cities a bit back, crucial river lines etc. Not cannon fodder in the first line, but they are very useful in side areas where they punch above their weight!

Another observation btw:
I noticed all the HQs being locked. Was that intentional?

I would suggest the following:
Armies at 3, then the higher HQs automatically send them the right number of stuff they can use at no AP cost!
Front at 0 or 1, but not locked, as otherwise SU can’t flow through them from STVKA to the armies. The 1 is for fronts which have a lot of units directly attached to them, and not to armies. Tough arguably, units not attached to fronts directly should be minimised.
Corps at 0- the armies should have them!
STAVKA at 0 - the stuff is needed at the front!
Every army should have at least 1 sapper regiment attached, important digging areas like Leningrad or Moscow even more! Worthwhile to spend APs on that ASAP if they don’t have them!
Air HQs should have a few AA units, also set to 3.
Otherwise just a mix of different artilleries.
No tank bats, AT stuff, or motorcycle troops. Not worth the trucks or APs.

No units meant to fight should be attached to STAVKA, as they get a hefty penalty in combat.

For air setting, could I suggest:
Little to no ground support, as apparently in 41 it is almost pointless via hard coded game settings
Full interception to burn our worthless fighters against their better ones
Full ground and airfield attack with escorts

Regarding the Finnish front:
Yes, not a problem, fight up there, but don’t get anything bagged. If your defence gets broken, best to stay at the no attack line. And yes, some of those things can get auto-disbanded, so we need two or three more up there at all times to plug holes should they open up.

Comrades, these are just some humble suggestions. I would not dare to tell my friends in this titanic struggle what they need to do, as I am by no means any form of expert. Just a similar scholar of the art of war who may or may not have read a bit more about the game mechanics, and read some AARs to improve his own skills.

I think role play will be much more a feature once we survive into the autumn mud. Then we have time, until then it is pure survival despite hefty losses, and using every tiny bit of help we can to try to cling on with our fingernails....

[Kratsch]

Comrades,

I have uploaded a further file for review which has a number of changes to the previous last file in it as per suggestions in the email above.

Mostly:
- some tweaking of positions in front of Leningrad
- widespread removal of unit status of refit to allow better digging
- some tweaking with locally set unit status of reserve
- starting to move airbases forward
- promoting 3 crucial leaders in front of Leningrad and Moscow to much higher quality
- disbanding the useless Finnish island forts
- starting to move some useless SEC units towards the north to create a second line in case the struggle of the 7th Ind Army in the far north cannot continue there
- tweaked some para unit positions in the area between north and centre to create at least one line of speedbumps
- tweaked some air doctrine settings
- repositioned (i.e. evaced) several HQs out of the pockets. This way they have a chance to keep their SUs, and hopefully, the HQs will not get pocketed again (note: a player has no influence as to where the HQ goes to when repositioned!)
- adjusted the HiCom/Front/ Army/ Corps support level to 0/0/3/0 to increase the flow of the assets to the front-line
- adjusting a number of TOE settings; the aim is more flow of men and supplies to the Inf Div, and less to SEC/AT/forts/mech/tank etc. They are largely not effective on the defence in 41


What I have not done:
- allocate any air units to the airbases
- used existing air units near the front to bomb the leading or most threatening mech/tank formations

I do not want to, nor want to be seen to take over the game. This is and remains a group effort. The changes are purely my suggestions, and it is up to you all, and the supreme leader if those suggestions are taken on board or not.

I noticed that we have piles of much better airplanes stocked, e.g. Yak-1s etc. I would suggest to replace the best formations with any I-type places to be replaced step by step with better airframes.

Several fronts have few to no airbases., but we have plenty of DBAD ones. These could be re-assigned to facilitate local tactical plane support.

We have a large number of leaders that should spend more time on their datcha instead of running combat affairs. I would suggest we systematically exchange them with better ones over the coming turns as per their priority.

Please have a look, and please tell me to shut up if you want as well!! I will cut back significantly on my mails again from now on, as I do not want to monopolise the discussion/running of the game.

[wallas]

Last 3 turns I have been converting air squadrons from 153 i16 to yak 1, lagg3, and mig 3 this does cost admin point and are not free. As for AA I have been adding it to the HQ but again this cost admin point that we all have to share and it limited. We cannot build new air squadrons yet and just because it says we have a 100 yak 1 for example in reserve does not mean we should build 5 more squadrons because there is replacements to think about. You are 100% correct air support is empty because I have focused most of it behind moscow in the moscow air command. Scattering air assets will be a later strategy but ftm it is not. Level bombers will never see deployment as long as I am in charge of air command or we have a luxury on vehicles and logistics as a whole. As for air close to the front heck no I do not need air bases be over run costing us more logistics. Actually the more I think about this I really do not feel like defending my decisions about air strategy, so I propose the Front commanders take over all air command.

[Neogodhobo]

"Actually the more I think about this I really do not feel like defending my decisions about air strategy, so I propose the Front commanders take over all air command. "

Alright so.... We have no more air commander then.

Doctorking and Kratsch, you are now in command of the air war. Divide the air into three parts.

I want 40% going to the central front. And 30% for the other fronts.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Neogodhobo

"Actually the more I think about this I really do not feel like defending my decisions about air strategy, so I propose the Front commanders take over all air command. "

Thanks Neo and have fun guys.

[Neogodhobo]

Have a good new year !

[Kratsch]

Oh no, sorry to hear that. Have a Happy New Year nonetheless.

To our supreme commander then:

Can I suggest that you send air units to the bases in a proportion as you see fit, and we use them then locally as part of our front activity?
Upgrading air units, exchanging or building new ones also probably should be done centrally. The same goes for air doctrine settings.

Para units: use them by whoever is running their parent front?

Personally, I will each turn send any air unit with a morale of 30 or less and/or a fatigue of 20 or more back to the national reserve, so once recovered our supreme leader ought to cycle units back to the front as or when he sees fit.

[Neogodhobo]

I dont mind doing that for the air , I just dont have any idea how to do it. As for the para, the ones in the central front, stay there, same with south and north, who ever is commander of that front, gets the para that are in his sector.

[Kratsch]

click on an airbase, then on the left-hand side, click 'assign'

you get a long list of all eligible air units that can be assigned, and that's it!

for upgrading units:
yes, it costs 1AP.

click on an air unit, then bottom right you can see the upgrade button, where it gives you the possible choices which plane this unit can be upgraded to, and in brackets it shows you how many we have in the pool of that plane type

building air units:
clicking on a city hex gives you at the top the button with the tank in it:
click that one, and you get the option of what can get built
air units have a max of 8 / turn; each costs 1AP

If you don't want to or not clear, am happy to take over role of air commander, as poor doctor has to deal with 2 fronts already; I am easy.
Then I will assign air units as per your general guidance, will rotate them to reserve etc.

Doctor will retain control of all air units in any bases assigned to his fronts, and he can do what he wants with them. All I would do is the cycling, upgrading, doctrine settings etc, and possibly keep long-range bombers in the backfield which are not assigned.
All paras belonging to his fronts are his to use as he sees fit as well.

Your choice, I am easy.

[Neogodhobo]

No its okay Il do it, might as well learn something

[Neogodhobo]

Okay guys, we will be able to do the turn by tomorrow most likely. Ledo is our new Central commander so no one touches the middle except him..
Airplanes were attributed evenly between all fronts, more or less. you should have a several hundreds bombers at your disposition.

Focus on their Panzer groups for the moment being. If there is any way at all, we can send some troops behind their lines to cause chaos, or even to mess with their supply lines. it would be great. We are expecting lots of reinforcement coming in the next few months. I will decide who gets what as the situation develops, but the center lost so many divisions, we wont have any other choice than to send most over there.


APs will be distributed evenly as of now. But keep in mind that I will need some APs to upgrade airplanes.
If you want specific leaders be replaced and send to the gulags, just ask me and I will most likely oblige.
Good luck to everyone. If anyone has something to say, as always, say it.



Order of turns : Commander / Central / North / South / Commander.

[ledo]

Hi guys,

So i've just taken a look at the centre's completed turn on turn 8. And I have to say that the likelihood of us holding Moscow is quite low. The pockets are not only large but also contain some of our most experienced and highest morale units from the 20th and 13th armies. As such I just wanted to raise the possibility that we might need to evacuate some factories over the next few turns, in Moscow and Tula, depending how the German turn nine push goes. I know railcap will be a real chokepoint, but whenever we have any to spare, I'd like to start working on the below list.

Looking at what we currently have I've made a list of factories that need to be evacuated:

Pe-3: 1 Immediately.
Li-2: All
IL-10: 1 should be fine.
IL-4: At least 1
Pe-2R: All
Yak-7A: Just 1.
T-40: All
Pe-2: All

These are using Walloc's factory evacuation guide, but some of you might have a different opinion. On top of these, of course we need to gradually move our armaments and heavy industry. If we let them get in base contact with the factories, the costs will double, so I'd say the sooner we start evacuating the better. With our lines as they are they could potentially reach the outskirts of Moscow and Tula in the next month. Maybe sooner, I'm not that familiar with Soviets, but I've played Germany and broken through similar lines in this sort of timeframe.

[Kratsch]

Ok, great.

It might be worthwhile to do the shuffle to the national reserve, upgrading as the first thing, as once they have flown, you cannot do it anymore for that turn.

I am away skiing from tomorrow for a week, so will be out of comms. But I guess it will take the Axis a few days anyway, plus you can do all your stuff given I am last in the sequence, so shouldn't hold things up too much

Good luck!

[Neogodhobo]

Alright the turn is in.
I made my turn.

ALL REINFORCEMENT were sent to the central front by rail. They are all in the vicinity of the city of Moscow.

Central commander : Incorporate those into your armies and defend Moscow. The enemy is knocking. This is the ultimate battle that will decide the fate of Moscow. Keep in mind. Loosing Moscow is not a game breaker. We can always retreat and capture it back during the winter. One avenue we could go is retreat everything and leave the Germans fighting for supplies, but this will need to be talked over with everyone before we make a drastic decision like that.


All other fronts, do as best you can. Its not Ledo's turn.
Dont forget people that you now manage your own air units.

Ledo, If you want to take care of ALL factories. It will be your responsibility, for all fronts.

[Kratsch]

Do NOT give up Moscow for free without a fight!!!

There is quite good terrain in front of it, hold it with several lines deep- the Germans are at the end of their supply line. They might take it, yes, but makes them fight for it. The Oka is a nice defence from the south against pockets!
Otherwise they will have far more forces to use in other areas!!

I will in the south continue to fall back north of the river to conserve my forces, and thus have enough to move the entire line eastwards. That way I hopefully will have enough to guard Kharkov. I will try to hold the Stalino tricity area for a few turns.
Odessa will be evacuated as best as possible to rescue those good divisions there.

Entirely agree with you evacuation suggestions.

[Kratsch]

I have done my south as going away skiing tomorrow to avoid everyone having to wait for me.
I had to use a handful of APs to organise my troops.

One SEC on the way to the north to guard the Finnish no attack line.

No rail at all was used as we need to evac as much stuff as possible.

I assume Bryansk front is Centre?

I would be extremely grateful for a handful of divisions next turn to guard the area towards Rostov, but I know troops are scarce...

[ledo]

Operation Jaws

So far I have done movements on the Chernigov/Bryansk Sector. This front has been a bit overloaded, considering it does not provide a natural avenue of advance for the Wehrmacht. In this sector the plan is to retreat all mechanized and motorized units from this sector to help with the defense of Moscow. A token force of four infantry divisions from the 21st Army will be left behind along the Snov-Desna river line to force the supply-stretched German infantry there to spend fuel and MPs crossing the rivers.

Additional infantry forces will be placed around Bryansk and Tula early on. While token defences will be placed along the river lines further south to slow the German advance towards Kursk etc. A few cavalry units will be sent south if the Germans decide to push here, with job of disrupting their supply lines.

The job of this sector is to slowly create increasing lines of defense and slow down the infantry advance, with the hope of maintaining lines in front of Moscow come winter, providing us with a salient with which to counter-attack during the blizzard. THis will provide us either a pocketing opportunity or disrupt their Moscow lines in the hope that we might recapture it before spring '42. To avoid this becoming an additional pocket, lines will be maintained close to Moscow, and the situation in the South will be monitored to ensure AGS cannot encircle this area. However, troop numbers will be relatively small and dispersed to key areas, to minimize the damage if the lines break. Some cavalry units will be maintained in this sector and they will look for opportunities to disrupt the German supply along their southern flank.

The 10th Army is also retreating back towards Moscow. Depending on the situation over the next two weeks it will either reinforce the Bryansk-Tula line and support Operation Jaws (winter salient in Moscow) or help bolster the defence of Moscow if German troops do not push strongly south.



Some additional questions;

I noticed there are some airborne units attached to the Southwestern Front pretty far north (1st Airborne Corps). I assume these are still owned by the Southwestern commander, but wanted to make sure.

Also, I need to know if any other front is looking to use rail over this turn. If you are, I can perform the factory evacuations at the end of the turn, so as not to impede your plans. Additionally, if anyone needs factories evacuated please provide a list of which ones, how many and how urgent the evacuation is. You can refer to Walloc's factory evacuation guide if you are unsure, i find it very useful as a general guide.

I'm still very much new to the game, so let me know if you have any concerns with my plans thus far.

[Neogodhobo]

Alright all of that sounds great. Thats wonderful even.

Quick Question Ledo : What program do you use to make this image ?

[ledo]

Hi all,

I might do the factory evac at the end of the turn. I need to get a sense of what everyone wants gone, and want to make sure there is still railcap for those that need to use it during the turn.

I've done the moves for Moscow and the North. Currently I'm just focusing on making sure all fortified areas are equipped. Northwest of Tula i've retreated behind the river. I've also added new units to the decimated 4th and 13th Armies.

The reinforcements this turn were largely cavalry and AT brigades. I think the German Panzers are on the end of a HQ buildup so hopefully they won't be able to mount a push this turn. If they have full movement points, then I don't know what might happen, our fortification levels are too low, and many of our troops too inexperienced to stop them. I'm almost done my turn, I just have a few requests.

1. I request that all support units be transferred from the 21st Army to the 50th Army when possible. The 21st is positioned for a delaying action but has some decent support, while the 50th is in a key defensive position and has none.

2. I request that Tolbukhin be transferred from leadership of the depleted 13th Army, to the leadership of the crucial 30th Army which makes up the bulk of the line 50 miles outside of Moscow. General Khomenko is less than impressive, and Tolbukhin's skills are being wasted on the 13th Army which has become a dumping ground for miscellaneous reinforcements with nowhere yet to go.

Thanks,

Ledo

P.S. That's just powerpoint and a snipit tool. I just toggled units off on the map.

[Neogodhobo]

"I've done the moves for Moscow and the North"

What do you mean exactly by, the North ? Because the Northern Front is Doctorking's front. Unless you meant, the north side of your central front.

And yes you can transfer the support if you want, thats all up to you to do. If the armies are from your front. I will put Tolbukhin into the 30th army at the end of the turn, as you requested. The only control I have over units are those that are attributed to STAVKA. And the only thing I can do with them is move them to the front, and then assign them to an army ( or tell you guys to assign them to the armies of your choice ) And also, killing, sending to the gulag, and replacing generals.

Okay thanks for the info, I use paint to make things like that and it looks horrible, haha.