Tyrone (Axis) vs Sparkley-T.

[BrianG]

To me the difference is ST is better with his north and middle defense routines.

And down south, the breaking pocket on turn 1 just brought additional pain and losses. Plus i blew the defense of Odessa.

I see here TYronec trapped a mech divisions. they cant even get away fast enough.

[tyronec]

I see here TYronec trapped a mech divisions. they cant even get away fast enough.

Yes I think he made a mistake with them. If you look back to T6 they were in the swamp behind the river and got ZOC locked. He would have been just as well to put infantry there.

[tyronec]

T8.
AGN. Continue the left hook and pocket a couple of stacks, had to rout out a couple of divisions that I would have liked to pocket after last turn.
2nd Army get up to the river.

AGC. There is mod in the top corner of the map, so the attack swings down south. Soviets had pocketed a couple of units with Cav. last turn, my counter is to threaten to pocket them with a link up to 6th Army next move. If it hadn’t been for the mud might just have been able to manage it this turn.

AGS. 6th Army continue the advance.
Clear the pockets from last turn and pocket Z’town.
Soviets have retreated in the Crimea. Send a Motorised unit down to Sevastapol and two infantry Corps follow up for the assault.
Not sure if this is good play or not but I think the supply logic leans towards taking Sevastapol before mud and then moving those troops towards Rostov.

[eskuche]

How are your AP doing? I recently discovered you can garrison in AGS with a fort plus 1-2 large flak SU and a smaller SU instead of using a whole rumanian division. Might be worth considering.

[thedoctorking]

I'm really interested to see how the Soviet air force develops. My hypothesis is that if they don't fly, they'll remain really crappy and not play a role going forward but I'm interested to see what the outcome is.

[tyronec]

How are your AP doing? I recently discovered you can garrison in AGS with a fort plus 1-2 large flak SU and a smaller SU instead of using a whole rumanian division. Might be worth considering.

Might consider after the winter, want to save all my APs for HQBs now. Also I think it is possible to leave the ones on the border ungarrisoned once you get far enough East.

I'm really interested to see how the Soviet air force develops. My hypothesis is that if they don't fly, they'll remain really crappy and not play a role going forward but I'm interested to see what the outcome is.

Our rules are allowing for bombing Panzers, so he is building up experience that way.


T9.
AGN. Soviets broke my pocket with a fortunate attack, quite a setback as it costs a hex and had to rout them out. Continue to try and push forwards.

AGC. Both sides have weaker forces here with much being concentrated around Leningrad. Make a slightly risky penetration, will see what happens next turn.

AGS. Mostly mud so not much happening. Had a partisan attack that took out three rail hexes which will likely set me back 3 turns of rail conversion.

[eskuche]

You may have too much of second army banging against the right hook that can’t happen. Is it possible to loop around Valdai with armor?

[tyronec]

You may have too much of second army banging against the right hook that can’t happen. Is it possible to loop around Valdai with armor?

Yes have lost a couple of battles here, was hoping that 2nd Army would have been able to make it across the river by now. S-T has stacked such strong forces in the North that it is really slow going both sides of lake Ilmen.
The AAR is running 1 turn behind, next move there is a bit of an opening South of Valdai but it is just going to help 2nd Army to advance, I don't think there is any prospect of threatening Lenningrad with a right hook.

I probably have as many infantry as I can use battering the front door to Lenningrad

[chaos45]

the advantage to you of all those soviets being at leningrad though, is they are not at Moscow.

[tyronec]

T10.
AGN. Reasonable progress, take 5 hexes by heavy assault in front of Leningrad.

AGC. Find a gap in the Soviet line and advance through. It is not the direct route but does make another threat on Moscow.

AGS. Continue to push towards Stalino.
The Soviets had managed to infiltrate two units last turn and cut off my lead units around Sevastapol, not sure how that happened. Anyway, they get pocketed and will start the assault on Sevastapol next turn.

Have to say I think S-T is playing a good game. He has massed nearly all his troops where the combat is; Lenningrad, Moscow and some at Stalino and Sevastapol. The whole area in front of Kusrk/Orel/Tula has almost nothing but Axis don't have the supplies to take the ground anyway.

[eskuche]

IMHO Sevastopol in '41 is a trap. You somehow need to shift all of your heavy artillery there to take out not only two level 4 forts but also a level 5 fort. I highly doubt this is doable even by turn 17 and with 2 full corps (not to mention the AP spent on transferring siege, or, even worse, waiting for them to auto shuffle up and split it between Leningrad and Sevastopol. They Soviet also will probably be able to (or at least threaten to) drive you back to the Ishun crossing in winter, at which point level 3 forts on the crossings will serve you well. You do get more time in this case to build them, but two full german corps could probably help the AGC or AGN push more.

[tyronec]

IMHO Sevastopol in '41 is a trap. You somehow need to shift all of your heavy artillery there to take out not only two level 4 forts but also a level 5 fort. I highly doubt this is doable even by turn 17 and with 2 full corps (not to mention the AP spent on transferring siege, or, even worse, waiting for them to auto shuffle up and split it between Leningrad and Sevastopol. They Soviet also will probably be able to (or at least threaten to) drive you back to the Ishun crossing in winter, at which point level 3 forts on the crossings will serve you well. You do get more time in this case to build them, but two full german corps could probably help the AGC or AGN push more.

Seeing more Soviets defending Sevastapol have sent another Corps down. Will try and take it before the blizzard. Would be a poor strategy to try and change direction now so will just try and see it through.
AGN has enough infantry, there is not enough space to get more fighting effectively. AGC could certainly do with more troops, both sides are thin on the ground.



T11.
AGN. Fair progress, the main force take 7 hexes and below L. Ilmen get across the river.

AGC. Soviets had surrounded a lot of my incursion from last turn. Have to rout a few of them away and just pocket a couple. Quiet turn, building up fuel for next move.

AGS. Panzers rest, Infantry push on another couple of hexes.
Take one hex in the Crimea.

I think S-T missed a trick last turn, there was a partisan unit that looks like it could have cut my main rail line but instead did one hex that wasn’t critical. Would have trashed AGS for a turn or two.
It is the one random factor that is HUGE, a couple of lucky partisans could swing a whole game if it were tight. Last game I had AGC out of supplies for three turns, cost a lot of impetus.

[Shupov]

It may be too early in your game to tell, but is the trucks bug in 1.12 affecting your game play? It looks like trucks are no longer a factor. Are you more likely to use HQBU in this version knowing truck supply won't be an issue?

[tyronec]

It may be too early in your game to tell, but is the trucks bug in 1.12 affecting your game play? It looks like trucks are no longer a factor. Are you more likely to use HQBU in this version knowing truck supply won't be an issue?

I have been using HQBU freely and have seen no truck problems.

T12.
AGN grinds forwards. Could get across the river next turn if I am lucky. Sending one Panzer Corps south. Missed out on my advance below the Ilmen thanks to a couple of lost battles.

AGC. Pocket two hexes of units and advance 3 hexes. Could be borderline for it to hold, am not optimistic.

AGS. Soviets left a gap in their line and make two pockets with Panzers without much combat. Am hoping they don’t have too much to counter attack with.

Sevastapol. Got a lucky attack and took down a ‘4’ fort in one go. Two more hexes left, think I should get them in the Snow or maybe by T17 if I get a few more attacks like this one !

15 units pocketed, by far my best turn since the beginning of the game.




This game is over. S-T reported that he was having problems with his PC and hoped to be able to continue in December. I don't have any other WITE1 games on the go and am not keen on picking up again after 3 months.

Clearly the result is by no means certain and either side could still win.
My goals for '41 were to take Lenningrad, Moscow, Rostov & river bend, Sevastapol. Moscow is still an open question, the others look safe.

Our house rules on the air war are IMO an improvement, it makes the game playable and certainly for '41 makes the air war feel more historical to me. How it would pan out into the later war is an open question and then there is the issue of play balance.

[redrum68]

Nice turn and pockets. Sad to see the game either over or long term break. What's the OOB at this point?

[tyronec]

Nice turn and pockets. Sad to see the game either over or long term break. What's the OOB at this point?

I haven't had access to it for a couple of weeks now. Soviet were a bit stronger than in the Brian game, Axis about the same. Mid war Axis are going to have no shortage manpower as was OK in the game with Brian and that was with losing 2.5k or so a turn to bombing which was not going to happen here due to our house rules on unit bombing.