Grognard1812 (Soviet) vs Pitaman

[Grognard1812]

This is my second attempt at writing an After Action Report as the Soviet player.

The settings for this game are,

1941 - 1945 Campaign Game
Server game
Using the latest Beta - 1.12.05
Full Fog of War
Locked HQ support
Random weather (adds more variability to the game)
Full blizzard
No Soviet combat bonus
Default CV mode

The agreed house rules are

No airborne drops
No amphibious naval landings before Dec 41
No airfield bombings after turn 1 (Airfield bombing mechanics presently favor the Soviet player after turn 1 - I think this will allow for a more historical and playable game)

As we are about 2 to 4 turns ahead in playing the game, Pitaman is welcome to the AAR.

[Grognard1812]

The Soviet air losses for Turn 1 were 6,167

[Grognard1812]

In the North the Axis captured Riga with a few panzer units crossing the Daugava river.

[Grognard1812]

In the Center the Axis units got as far as Minsk, also creating a couple pockets.

[Grognard1812]

In the South, a large Lvov pocket was formed, as a German panzer division is next to the Romanian border it will be probably be difficult to open up the pocket during the Soviet Turn 1.

[Grognard1812]

I was able to open up both pockets in the North. But at the end of turn 1 the defenses around Pskov are not as strong as they should be, missing a few units to cover the defenses behind the river - I ran out of railroad capacity to transport units, I should have planned better.

[Grognard1812]

I was able to open up both pockets in the Center and set up defenses behind the Berezina river.

[Grognard1812]

In the South the only thing that kept me from opening up the Lvov pockets was a sole German Cavalry Regiment - it didn't succeed due a failed deliberate attack by 3 Soviet rifle divisions - this will a be a long difficult summer for the Soviet army.

[chaos45]

Needed to drum up some soviet bombers for that attack in the south, may have got you the win if you had done 2 decent sized bombing raids on it first.

[Grognard1812]

ORIGINAL: chaos45

Needed to drum up some soviet bombers for that attack in the south, may have got you the win if you had done 2 decent sized bombing raids on it first.

Agreed, thank you for your advise. I should have done a couple unit bombing missions before the attack.

[Grognard1812]

In the south I did a general retreat of units setting up a defensive line just west of Zhitomir, I was trying to avoid getting more Soviet units encircled the following turn.

[Telemecus]

Good to see you back for more action!

[Grognard1812]

Thank you. Looking forward to doing another AAR, should be an interesting game.

[Grognard1812]

Summary of Soviet Turn 1

Against an experienced Axis player I think the best a Soviet player can hope for is to open a few pockets the first turn - Since I was able to open the pockets in the North and Center I was then able to reassign 9 Art Reg and 7 sapper Bn from the pocket HQs to STAVKA - saving them from being captured the following turns. I also moved out any HQ units that had enough MPs.

All the air units that were severely affected by the Axis Turn 1 Airfield bombing were transferred to the National Reserve.

Other than the units needed to open the pockets I think the best first turn strategy for the Soviets is to run, as the German panzer units will still have a lot of fuel left for their second turn and would just encircle more Soviet units on turn 2.

Any advise, comments, or criticisms would be appreciated - I think the Soviet long term strategic goal is to try to defend the Leningrad - Moscow - Rostov line - but against an experienced Axis player it will be very difficult.

[chaos45]

if you had anything better to do than save the sapper BNs that would have been a better choice...or just disband them with that AP. They IMO are about worthless since they no longer convert to regiments. The manpower is better used in other units.

Just an FYI in case you are used to the old sapper regiment strategy.

[CapAndGown]

Why are you leaving fortified regions in place and not disbanding? They don't make much of a speed bump.

[redrum68]

Looks like a pretty good start.

Other uses for AP in early turns are:
1. Disbanding fort units (saves a decent amount of manpower)
2. Reassigning AA from cities within 5 hexes of enemies (especially regiments)
3. Disbanding inf corp HQs that have really poor leaders and good army HQ leaders (these eventually disband anyways but takes a while)
4. Assigning a few of your best leaders to important army HQs (Pskov, land bridge, etc)

[eskuche]

Forts I think are a toss-up to disband. Yes they are 4,000 arms points, but on turn 2 if the 3 MP used to destroy them saves a good division of 10,000 men that is clearly worth the trade.
In my last Soviet game I fell into the trap of reassigning too many un-pocketed SUs with most of my AP turn 1, leaving none available to figure out C&C for dire regions.

It is clearly too late, but you should consider bombing Axis airbases turn 1. They look very forward and might even be able to be displaced after attacking spearhead units.

The Pskov defense is no longer reliable against an Axis opponent who crosses the Dvina in any strength due to lack of rail transport.

[Ridgeway]

ORIGINAL: redrum68


3. Disbanding inf corp HQs that have really poor leaders and good army HQ leaders (these eventually disband anyways but takes a while)

Is this right? I didn't think having a bad Corps commander had any effect on the Army commander dice rolls. IOW, if you have a crappy Corps commander, you still have some chance to pass that initial roll, and even if you fail, you have the same odds at the Army level as you would have if there were no Corps commander at all. Is that wrong?

I do see that there could be an effect in combat if the Corps commander were the overall commander, as opposed to the superior Army commander.

[Shupov]

Section 11.3.2. Chain of Command Rating Checks

Leader rating checks go up the chain of command (7.7). There can be up to four headquarter units in the chain but the first is always the IHQ and the last the High Command headquarters unit. At its simplest the IHQ carries out an initial Die(10) roll range check. If it fails the leader of the next higher headquarters in the chain of command conducts a check with the roll range doubled (to 20, 40, 80) for each successive check up the chain of command.

The range doubling modification makes each successive check less likely to succeed. This makes the immediate commander (the IHQ, in this case the Corps commander) the most important.