BrianG v. HYLA (no hard luck)

[BrianG]

last battle down south

[BrianG]

near Moscow I improve my bridgehead.

[BrianG]

Then heavy German losses in a win. Many kia compared to russians

[BrianG]

Back up north one more push

[BrianG]

Final north positions.

A good week.

I leave empty the clear hex south of Leningrad as any unit there would get smooshed during the Russian turn.

I am now in 2 locations only twenty miles from cutting off Leningrad train supply.

[BrianG]

final west Moscow.

I am being cautious

[BrianG]

West Tula. While waiting I do approach closer to Russian lines

[BrianG]

south final

[BrianG]

kia report for the week

[BrianG]

And with some trepidation I open to view the weekly the air kia report.
I believe these results are for the German turn only

[Dinglir]

Well done with the attacks in the north. You even managed to dislodge a hex of the first Soviet line of serious defenses. Now, I am very curious to see how (and where) the Soviets will react.

As for the air, I can give you only one advice: Stop flying during the Soviet phase except to protect your own airfields. You need to preserve your airraft as best you can, and the Soviets can easily exploit whatever settings you have for the Soviet phase.

But all in all well done!

[Crackaces]

One thing I am not seeing in battle reports is flak. It might behoove the Germans to load up HQ’s in the fray with mixed LW flak SU’s. One can get detailed and note the direction the Soviets are coming from and set up a web of flak . Flak is deadly in this version and can make the Soviets pay for committing ground support. I also stuff LW heavy flak where I am noting Soviet armor. Granted the randomness of the firepower phases of combat does not guarantee a match up, but if an 88mm gets a shot at a KV1 or T34 .. call it a kill. The 8MP AAR shows this match up in action.

[TheLysander]

ORIGINAL: Crackaces

One thing I am not seeing in battle reports is flak. It might behoove the Germans to load up HQ’s in the fray with mixed LW flak SU’s. One can get detailed and note the direction the Soviets are coming from and set up a web of flak . Flak is deadly in this version and can make the Soviets pay for committing ground support. I also stuff LW heavy flak where I am noting Soviet armor. Granted the randomness of the firepower phases of combat does not guarantee a match up, but if an 88mm gets a shot at a KV1 or T34 .. call it a kill. The 8MP AAR shows this match up in action.

I agree, there is a flak regiment you can re-assign, i believe it arrives in danzig. The 9th Flak regiment and you can assign it to individual divisions. I would assume the enormous amounts of 88's in that regiment might make for some effective tank killing.

[Fanstar1]

Leningrad should be in german hands by November. Moscow could go either way.

[Crackaces]

ORIGINAL: Fanstar1

Leningrad should be in german hands by November. Moscow could go either way.

HLYA is not your average Soviet ..so I am not sure “Leningrad should be in the German Hands” if ever applies in this game.HLYA has one of the most technical defenses of Leningrad that begins with a very strong Pskov defense. Probably easier to take Moscow but we have yet to see a pure Moscow push.

[BrianG]

Moscow could go either way.

btw he is still producing with his factories IN Moscow. airplanes, armaments, industry etc. All pumping away.
Would be juicy 42 target. highly unlikely to fall.

[BrianG]

One thing I am not seeing in battle reports is flak.

I freeze the picture frame and usually the flak totals in the hidden area. I've noticed flak being detailed.
Not sure what levels would be good for an area.


100 guns 200 guns etc. I seem to get 80 to 90.

What is a 'good' number for flak defense. versus air only, and in ground combat?

[Crackaces]

It all depends on the make up of the Soviet Air Force.
88mm good vs I’ll-4’s 37 and 20mm good vs IL-2’s.

With an environment of mostly tactical aircraft and IL-4’s conducting unit bombing my General SU assignment per HQ active in combat is 3 mixed LW for about 80 tubes and 3 LW light for another 90 light tubes. In hot areas I will assign an SP flak unit directly to a unit. Just a FYI I assigned 20mm quad flak vs cavalry units which caused quite a controversy <smile>

One thing about flak. Kills are nice but disruption is the typical “good” result that you will only see at high message levels.”XYZ unit turns away “ after facing either a fighter or flak unit is a nice result. Although you do not see this on the combat result at the very end. A derived metric is less than expected disruptions of your units. Remember air takes place before any ground combat takes places in the firepower phase. So keeping your devices from disruption while your air disrupts is decisively an advantage. It turn a held into a rout on the attack or a “sure rout” into an unexpected held on the defense,

Also remember that the SU’s move up to the next HQ during the logistics phase. This is good because hauling around SU’s is hard on trucks. It also means that army and army group commands are plumb full sometimes with SU’s. Strategically placing these units between the Soviets and their targets can add hundreds If not thousands of flak tubes. I have seen an entire Soviet bombing run destroyed by the OKH unit being nearby an airbase that was attacked.

One thing I do is use my recon to draw lines from my airbases to my targets and estimate flak. Each recon run will report flak for that mission . The next step is to do the kabuki dance with recon bases , figure out the optimum flak lanes for attack, kabuki your airbases so your flights minimize flak exposure. This along with maximizing supply, protection of forces, etc ... it is not the extra bombers shot done but minimizing turn always that I have the most concern.

[BrianG]

Heavy red activity. recon all aligned and spaced.

And German units on wrong side of the front awaiting a long mud turn. Can they survive?

[BrianG]

Up north Russian counter attacks on my flank. I lose a valuable rough hex.