Connect Four Team Game

[Telemecus]

Neogodhobo
Thanks Telemecus for doing the turn AAR. Could you shed some light on 2nd army for Dr.King ? Or else Il do it by next week.

When 2nd army was unfrozen on turn 2 it was being railed to the North side of AGC to be its northern most army - it arrives several turns at the front earlier that way. When Neogodhobo took over they decided it should instead be a reserve around Vilnius. A corps from 4th and 9th army each were also reassigned to 2nd army.

[thedoctorking]

Thanks, guys.

You could have let me go on fantasizing about this terrible army waiting to crush me...[&o]

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: thedoctorking

Thanks, guys.
You could have let me go on fantasizing about this terrible army waiting to crush me...[&o]

being in reserve at Vilnius does not stop it waiting to crush you?

[Telemecus]

Team Turn 6

Perhaps we could have picked up on those subtle clues that Erzac did not see his future with the Wehrmacht

Belgavox
Could the 22 airlanding division be dropped by air?

Erzac
I'm not letting no filthy Wehrmacht on my pristine planes with their muddy boots!

But cupids arrow can strike any one of us

Erzac
Just popped by to say,... looking for a North commander replacement.
I've, sadly enough, fallen in love with the air war

So Erzac has given up his North command to concentrate on the dark arts of Kabuki and will concentrate exclusively on the air role from now on.

So from this turn we welcome a new member to our team as our new North commander - welcome weinsoldner!

[weinsoldner]

Time to clean up the marshes

[weinsoldner]

As far as the Southern front is concerned, we just destroyed 300 tanks

[weinsoldner]

And besides destroying armour we alsp capture it

[thedoctorking]

Great, you now have more BT-7's than we do. Congratulations!

If you've ever played Advanced Squad Leader, you know all about the BT series tanks.

[thedoctorking]

ORIGINAL: weinsoldner

As far as the Southern front is concerned, we just destroyed 300 tanks

More of those BT series tanks. And T-26's. You're welcome to them.

[thedoctorking]

Turn 6 Soviet AAR

Turn 6 was relatively quiet with no mad dash moves for the Axis. Their armor in the center replenished its supplies and perhaps got headquarters buildups, while in both north and south, Axis armored forces attacked along expected lines and made some progress.

This turn, I enhanced the tracking sheet to include German infantry divisions. This makes it way too big to put in this AAR. I have posted the tracking sheet as an attachment to the last post in this series for those who are interested. The maps reflect the tracking sheet’s best guesses about the location of German armies and Panzer Corps.

In the north, German 4th Panzer Group took the bait we offered and drove straight east towards the Lovat swamps, lightly pocketing two divisions in the hills. German I Corps, part of 18th Army, under the command of Model, the best German infantry commander, attempted a direct frontal assault on the Pskov line, but was unable to clear the hex to the south of the city against heavy resistance from our 11th Army.

[thedoctorking]

In the center, German 9th Army dislodged us from our defensive line in front of Polotsk and routed the units of our 3rd and 10th Armies that had isolated their armor. The armor forces themselves made a minor move into the land bridge region. We did not expect them to move very far given that they received no fuel deliveries on turn 6, but such a short move suggests that they are saving up – perhaps with an HQBU – for a big push next turn.

[thedoctorking]

To the south, the swamp sector has opened up as a possible focus for German attacks in the coming turns. Elements of 2nd Panzer Group have appeared at both ends of the swamp. In the north, on the rail line to Gomel, 18th panzer division put in an appearance. This unit began the game as part of XXXXVII Panzer Corps in 2nd Group. The rest of the corps was invisible, either because Soviet recon planes were unable to spot it or because it is somewhere else. South of the swamps, between Chernobyl and Kiev, the remainder of 2nd Panzer Group closed up to the Dnepr River. The two groups between them threaten to open a big hole in a weakly-defended sector of our front.

[thedoctorking]

Farther south, 1st Panzer Group made the move we expected, a turn north towards Cherkassy and the crossings of the lower Dnepr. The infantry armies supporting this sector are still far behind: 17th finished clearing the first-turn pockets in western Ukraine, 11th is moving up from Odessa, and 6th is near Kiev. German 2nd Army is still not visible; its presence can be inferred in the rear of 6th, or perhaps there has been some cross-attachment of divisions. One remarkable consequence of the lack of infantry support for 1st Panzer Group’s operations is apparent unsupported flanks on both sides of their salient – if you don’t count the Slovakian Motorized Brigade a few hexes to their west. It should be child’s play to isolate them and cut their movement for next turn considerably.

[thedoctorking]

And, in fact, that’s what we did. Four good units from our 6th Army pushed out and attacked the Slovakians, and then cavalry divisions from South and Southwest Fronts closed the pocket behind them. A little defensive displacement completed the picture, with some of our better units transferred north of Kiev to try to slow 2nd Panzer Group’s crossing of the rivers.

[thedoctorking]

The swamp sector is, I believe, the most imperiled on this coming turn. I gave 10th Army, defending the Gomel axis, a good general, Vasilevskiy. Backing them up with some newly-arrived conscripts in 33rd Army, they present a strong defense behind the major river. To the south, a scratch force of new reinforcements buttressed by a few good units transferred from the south hold the river SW of Chernigov. There is a small seam of decent terrain that 2nd Panzer Group could traverse to threaten isolation of part of our force, but the difficult terrain will hopefully prevent the worst here. Another possibility is that 2nd Group was planning to hook south and link up with 1st in a large pincer operation out of Cherkassy. Hopefully our isolation of 1st has scotched that plan. I still expect that Germans will be across the Dnepr next turn, in enough strength (given our weak forces in the area) that they cannot be driven back.

[thedoctorking]

In the land bridge area, we did a substantial retrograde movement to an intended main line of resistance along the line Velikie Luki/Upper Dnepr/Sozh river. Our 13th Army is in a somewhat exposed position around Smolensk, and a very aggressive German move with 3rd Panzer Group might succeed in isolating them. However, the back side of the pocket would be way too far away for infantry. Given the reluctance of the Axis players to launch extremely aggressive pocketing moves in this game so far, I don’t expect such a charge. More likely, I anticipate, is a push down the land bridge and against the “seam” leading northeast towards Rzhev, combined with a continuing movement by the infantry through Velikie Luki and along the rail line. Our 29th Army is the best force in Reserve Front, and I have placed it to hopefully stop this movement.

[thedoctorking]

In the north, we consolidated our positions and strengthened the line east of Pskov. In this area, we are courting a direct confrontation with the Germans. Being aggressive here, where there is relatively little Axis armor and good defensive terrain, is a way of distracting the enemy from potentially more fertile soil in the south and center. Hopefully, we can attract reinforcements from other sectors and yet save our troops when our position, inevitably, collapses. We declined to fortify the intermediate defensive line along the Plyussa River, preferring to strengthen our main line of resistance along the Luga.

[thedoctorking]

To the north, the Finns have broken through the line at Jansijarvi and we have begun fortifying the Svir River at the Finnish no attack line. It will ultimately cost us 44 AP, but on the other hand will liberate an entire army for service in the Leningrad area just about when more troops will be needed there.

Our air force is doing reasonably well. We have 65 regiments with experience 60 or higher. Nobody’s morale is below 35 and mostly we’re in the 40’s. We are not really paying attention to making Guards air bases, but we have a good lineup of squadrons with plenty of kills.

Casualties this turn were 153,972 for us to 21,171 for the Axis. Air losses were 434 to 138. Axis losses included 37 fighters. Total TOE is 3,900,920 for us to 5,001,954 Axis (3,393,385 German).

Oh, edit: I've attached the tracking spreadsheet for anybody who cares about our intelligence system.

[weinsoldner]

TURN 7 AXIS AAR

At the beginning we were surprised with the unexpected MUD showing up in the South

[weinsoldner]

Erzac did a good job with his recon of the Northern front