TopEverest vs Admiral Kamikaze - the rematch

[topeverest]

One of the things I like to track is how successful my attacks are. Below is a tracker for this turn.

I succeed in about 88% of the important deliberate attacks. That ratio seems to hold pretty constant.

196 total attacks of all kinds

Air based casualties inflicted this turn
3098 men
270 guns
79 AFV - 17% of total losses (and I dumped much of my airpower this turn / it was small)

This also helps me better understand when I need to soften up a defensive position with a preliminary attack.

[topeverest]

CROSS OF IRON

That takes me back!

ORIGINAL: AlexSF

Great AAr, thx for the work and thumb up to your Axis opponent who keeps playing that far. I know by experience that unfortunately it's rare!

[topeverest]

Here is that information with some commentary. Note Russian units are all voluntary disbands this combat season

85 total Axis divisions destroyed or surrendered since start of game.

ORIGINAL: xhoel

Looking forward to your next update topeverest. Could you please post a screenshot of the destroyed unit for the while campaign so far?

Cheers!

[topeverest]

here are the losses - I am encouraged by these stats.

[topeverest]

This is an important measure for me. to keep any hope of getting to Berlin by the last turn, I am actively attacking all enemy armor units I can find to deliver 500 AFV losses target per turn without killing my own AFV's. I am targeting cutting the enemy AFV in half to 5K in ten combat turns.

[topeverest]

As cited at the top of the turn, I had to do a major shuffling of the Red air force

88 of 381 air units in airbases / on map ad to be recirculated to the national reserve, as their morale was below 50, where I draw the line for a refit. I beat another 52 units below 50 this turn in my air war against the Enemy. I do not have sufficient reserves for this batch of refits and will have to hold some lower morale units until the end of the combat season.

A few more notes
1. I hadn't yet removed the bulk of my night supply missions, which I did this turn
2. I also cycled out half of the recon units, as I had to many
3. I pushed all fighters bombers to bombing roles if they weren't already
4. As neither of us have done much strategic bombing or night bombing, I reduced the total number of units in night combat missions

By my count I increased my air ground combat power by 53 squadrons, which was my goal. I will continue to closely monitor air losses to determine if I need to do more changes.

[Telemecus]

Are your fatigue levels high? If not it might be an idea to decrease the percentage needed to fly?

[topeverest]

As per our game victory conditions, we agreed that Russia had to get to Berlin by historical date to have tactical victory.

As this isn't possible, I am working to capture Berlin and knock out Hungary, the last axis minor, by the last turn. I will claim a Pyrrhic victory if I can do that.

With this being my first play through late war, I did some math to help me decide tactics
1. I expect 19 clear turns in the summer season / until the end of the game
2. Germany has about 250 units
3. In Hungary, Russian forces are 2-3 hexes from breaking out onto the Hungarian plains. from there it is 8 hexes to the easternmost surrender city and 1 hexes to either Budapest or the other victory city, keeping in mind the Reds have less strength in the 2 southernmost exits. With this in mind, the existing force pool in the south is sufficient to knockout Hungary by the end of the game.
4. It is an average of 35 hexes from where I expect the MLR to be at the start of the summer season to taking the Berlin hex. that is an average of 2 hexes gained per turn required from anywhere from the Carpathians to the Baltic. This is an advantage in that the enemy will have to defend 30 hexes for most of the season. This shrinks to 17 hexes once Berlin is close
5. So how to attack...

[topeverest]

I have played around, I had them at 25 for a while, but I had my air force poorly designed as noted above. I will try 25 in ensuing turn to sew what I get

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Are your fatigue levels high? If not it might be an idea to decrease the percentage needed to fly?

[M60A3TTS]

This front looks like an organizational horror story. Why are there so many STAVKA units? You have three Baltic and three Belorussian fronts and four Ukrainian fronts, not to mention a Caucasus and Transcaucasus Front. That's twelve in total. Surely with the admin points you have, you should be able to get the organization where it needs to be.

Soviet historical deployments around the current front lines give a pretty clear picture of what you can model the force around. Quantities are really the main variable.

3rd Belorussian Front is tasked with subduing East Prussia. If you need more forces than the CP will allow in this area, 3rd Baltic Front should by itself be adequate.

2nd Belorussian Front should push on towards the northern Vistula and Bromberg. It also needs to work in conjunction with 1st Belorussian Front to flank Warsaw from the north if there are any weaknesses in the Vistula River positions in this area.

1st Belorussian Front covers the front east of Warsaw and spreads out enough for 1st Ukrainian Front to move on the Krakow-Breslau axis.

2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts you can manage as you see fit, although one of them typically is heading in the direction of Dresden-Prague.

4th Ukrainian Front focuses on Rumania and on to Hungary.

The Caucasus and Transcaucasus Fronts can be developed as you see fit. Historically, they of course had no part to play as the battle lines were this far west.

[M60A3TTS]

[GPT55]

M60A3TTS--Since you don't advocate building so many tank corps, would you just disband excess tank brigades at some point (presumably after ZOC blockers no longer needed)?

[M60A3TTS]

It is simple math that you need 84 tank brigades for 28 corps. If you retain another half dozen tank brigades just in case you want an option for a couple extra corps, that's fine. So anything above 90 tank brigades I would eventually disband or in some early instances just let them sit in a depleted state to keep empty fort values from decaying.

[topeverest]

Thanks for the motivational swift kick in the organizational back side -

I spent two hours during my last turn to get far more organized. Still more to do but that is me being lazy for sure.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

This front looks like an organizational horror story. Why are there so many STAVKA units? You have three Baltic and three Belorussian fronts and four Ukrainian fronts, not to mention a Caucasus and Transcaucasus Front. That's twelve in total. Surely with the admin points you have, you should be able to get the organization where it needs to be.

Soviet historical deployments around the current front lines give a pretty clear picture of what you can model the force around. Quantities are really the main variable.

3rd Belorussian Front is tasked with subduing East Prussia. If you need more forces than the CP will allow in this area, 3rd Baltic Front should by itself be adequate.

2nd Belorussian Front should push on towards the northern Vistula and Bromberg. It also needs to work in conjunction with 1st Belorussian Front to flank Warsaw from the north if there are any weaknesses in the Vistula River positions in this area.

1st Belorussian Front covers the front east of Warsaw and spreads out enough for 1st Ukrainian Front to move on the Krakow-Breslau axis.

2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts you can manage as you see fit, although one of them typically is heading in the direction of Dresden-Prague.

4th Ukrainian Front focuses on Rumania and on to Hungary.

The Caucasus and Transcaucasus Fronts can be developed as you see fit. Historically, they of course had no part to play as the battle lines were this far west.

[topeverest]

this is very helpful

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

[topeverest]

One more campaign turn this season

VP 118 - no change
Trucks 138 (245) - this is bad. One more turn of pushing needed. reorganized
AP Usage - spent 300 points realigning Fronts, not completed, but things much better
Units Destroyed - 3 SS panzer divisions
AFV Losses - 500 a side
Air Losses

Germany begins what probably is a conversion to defense in depth and pulls most of her armor into a central pool around Warsaw

1. 4th Ukrainian front is perilously close to Zilau (44.99) and breaking onto the Hungarian plain between the Bihor and Carpathian mountains. Those forces are poised to knock out Hungary in the final season. Axis forces have held onto forward mountain positions at the Russian border north and east of there and are in grave danger of being cut off in the coming combat season. So far no indication he will retreat these forces.
2. Axis pulled all the armor out of the Lublin sector and pushed it up to Warsaw area. The remaining infantry defenders began retreating in good order to new positions a few hexes west. Red forces advanced 2-3 hexes and reached Lublin but could not take the city.
3. East of Warsaw, the enemy similarly pulled out what armor it could but lost those 3 SS panzer divisions caught in the Russian blitz that collapsed the pripyat marsh salient. The disorganized and weak units were pushed further along towards Warsaw an average of three hexes. It is now an average of 6 hexes to Warsaw, but he body of German armor is east of the city, ensuring that Warsaw will remain a German property through the final mud season.
4. The northernmost campaign to reach Koeinsuburg drove for the coast between the Pragel and Primanti rivers and technically cut the supply line to 16 stranded units still trying to retreat south and west of K. Note Germany no longer holds Memel and cannot evacuate units by sea from the pocket. Germany has massed a second set of armor south of the Pregel and 4-6 hexes east of Koenisburg just south of the tenuous cut that pockets 16 Axis units. The stage is set for an epic German armored counterattack to save as many units as possible, but it wont be easy for them. He can get 3 units out of the pocket without difficulty or expenditure of AFVs, but the remainder probably are lost.
5. Red forces spent about 330 APs to reorganize, which effectively cleaned up the area from the Carpathians to Brest Litovisk. a bit more reorganization is still needed, including filling out the remaining Fronts to right size the STAVKA command, which is leading the Koeinsburg campaign

[topeverest]

I blew up trucks this turn. Nearing Koeinsburg and Lublin and Romanian plains.

put much armor back in reserve

Reorganized to gain truck and attack bonus

German army worn down - 25 routed units visible on map

[topeverest]

Here is a detailed view. None of the combats were material this past turn, as he has pooled his armor across the river.

[topeverest]

Here is a detailed view of the combat zone and central armored reserve.

[topeverest]

NO big red warnings here.

Saved too many armament factories

We didn't do too much strategic bombing - look at supply fuel and oil.