Generalrisky (Axis) vs Seminole (Soviet) - Bitter End

[Seminole]

Turn 13
September 11, 1941

AGN continues to work the left and right wings of the Luga River Line.



STAVKA isn't content with simply absorbing the offensive at this point. Both Fronts are ordered to make attacks and push back the German line of advance. All the attacks succeed, forcing back 3rd Mot Div but more ground is gained in the south, pushing back some infantry regiments trying to hold the swamps south of Novgorod.



Leningrad defenses are arranged in depth to force a grind forward by AGN.



South of Lake Ilmen Reserve Front is pushed back west of the Valdaii Hills. Trying everything we can to keep the enemy off this terrain before the winter takes place. I don't want them to have automatic rough defense bonuses during the Winter Offensive.
East of the Volga river, where it bends north around Rzhev, the Wehrmacht blasts an armored salient 60 miles deep and 30 miles wide.
STAVKA orders the disbandment of the Moskva-Volga Canal fortified zones. Guards rifle divisions will be committed to maintaining the northern flank of the Kremlin Line (fortified zones flanking Moscow) until December.



It's clear that Rzhev must be evacuated as their flank has been turned and they will surely be captured next turn if left in place.
STAVKA orders a series of successful counterattacks along the broad salient facing Moscow:



Germans continue to slowly press against the screen in the Bryansk sector.



STAVKA orders Bryansk Front to not remain idle, and they organize successful counterattacks to regain space south of Kaluga on the axis toward Tula.



AGS liquidates the Poltava pocket and creates a new pocket around forces at Kharkov. The effort to help what would become 3rd Guards Rifle Division has cost us a lot more units. Lesson I already knew re-taught the hard way.



A heavy attack against 13th PD was too weak to break this pocket and make more delay, but we can merge some units inside and put up a defense longer than one week.



Axis Allied armies of AGS continue pushing toward Stalino.



Southern Army organizes a cavalry response to chase Axis Allies, but they then fall back to create a screen instead of a solid line.



Lastly, the Germans continue their push toward Crimea with a single attack.



Overall strategic map at the end of turn 13:

[BrianG]

question

i see forts in all the south ports:

Your thinking is?

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: BrianG

question

i see forts in all the south ports:

Your thinking is?

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=4896755

[vvs007]

thanks again for your interesting game, always looking forward to every update

it is interesting to learn more general statistics, pool numbers, etc., how is the air war going, when Stalin's falcons are ready to destroy the Goering chicks?

good game!

[Seminole]

Update on factory moves:

A little panicked on the Moscow moves, which cost us some MiG-3 production, but otherwise going well and staying ahead of the curve.



Soviet losses:



Axis losses:



Two things I'm trying to do in this game that I've generally ignored. Active SU management and active air war. In the past I've generally ignored SUs aside from making sappers, and left the air war to automatic ground support and interdiction.
The Red Air Force was redeployed on turn 5 (July 17, 1941) and aside from ground support has been used to bomb mechanized formations once or twice per turn.
The Luftwaffe is still fighting, their losses above.
I have the event logs and stats files, so I should be able to pull other info if you're interested in something in particular, let me know. Not sure what all I might want to be keeping an eye on with this supply model and my SU plans anyway.

[Seminole]

Turn 14

AGN emphasizes attacking from their left wing, but broad attacks south of Lake Ilmen are pushing back Reserve Front.



STAVKA orders NW Front to redeploy 8th Army to back up 30th Army by taking positions along the Pola River.
This necessitates pulling back from the growing salient in the center. We don't want to undo our success here with a few lucky rolls by the German generals.
STAVKA shifts rifle brigades into the frontline fortifications. With the rear lines largely devoted to reserve the Germans may lose a fight or two if they're not overpowering in taking these hexes.
I want next turn to make another consolidation and redeploy some of the most experienced units to reinforce the Moscow defenses.



AGC pushes their NE salient east while the infantry push through the abandoned positions that defended Rzhev.
German attacks falter, and the Germans are stopped 30 miles south of Kalinin in their advance.



STAVKA orders several counter attacks, highlighted below are two on either side of the Kalinin salient.



East of Vyazma the broad advance renews against Kaluga, the enemy only 10 miles from the city.
Bryansk falls this turn.



Kharkov Pocket is holding out.



Farther south the Germans and their allies push toward Stalino. Russian cavalry raid the Rumanians holding the right wing of the advance and free some units from a ZOC lock.
A new screen is set up and we prepare to fall back even further. I don't have unit density down here anymore with the Poltava and Kharkov pockets and the railing of units to Moscow.



Strategic overview at the end of the turn 14

[Seminole]

Turn 15

Forgot to move factories!

Was hemming and hawing about whether or not to start evacuating Voronezh and decided to do it later, and then forgot to do it...

Germans continue to grind along the front, finding going particularly tough for AGN these days with Vasilevsky and Zhukov scoring some victories:





AGC also makes slow progress on a broad front. The Luftwaffe sends supplies to the panzers threatening Moscow's northern flank. The Guards rifle divisions are brought in to help defend this flank.
We don't want to allow Moscow to be encircled before the rains. If we can protect it a few more weeks it should be safe for the winter.



The line is incredibly thin between Bryansk and Southwestern Fronts. Without a panzer threat in the area we're still trying to slow the German advance with a screen of infantry.



Kharkov holds out for another week, but we've suffered another small pocket. This one was frustrating because somehow we overlooked 19th Army HQ and they were left on the line to be captured with their SUs. Dumb.



The Germans and their allies are closing in on the Stalino factory complex. Time to fall back again, we just don't have the formation density down here to defend, and attempting to make a stand will just lead to more pockets.



AGS has succeeded in pushing the Red Army into the Crimean peninsula.



After a successful counter attack in the Leningrad sector the line is straightened to free up some additional units to transfer to Moscow's defense. Soft factor is showing supplies.



In the Moscow sector STAVKA orders counterattacks near Kalinin and Kaluga.



OoB:



Losses:



Overall strategic map at the end of turn 15:

[CapAndGown]

Where is the German rail head in the Stalino/Kharkov area?

[Seminole]

I didn't keep track of it.
I didn't really look at rail again until the blizzard offensive time, and running through the end of turn screenshots I don't see any FBDs picked up by recon. I was usually only scouting close to the lines anyway to pick up mech formations off the line.

Waiting on turn 27 now, probably will wait another turn or two to resume posting so I can discuss prep for the Winter Offensive and maintain opsec.

[vvs007]

The Red Air Force was redeployed on turn 5 (July 17, 1941) and aside from ground support has been used to bomb mechanized formations once or twice per turn.

interesting strategy ... and what are the results? ... as I understand it, on the plus side, the Germans need to divide fighters into intercepting such bombings and covering their bombers that help in ground battles? and on the negative side - the Soviet ground forces are left without air support, and this could change the results of some battles, and also the low effectiveness of the bombing of German tank columns themselves (a few damaged elements just?)

good game!

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: GDHF

The Red Air Force was redeployed on turn 5 (July 17, 1941) and aside from ground support has been used to bomb mechanized formations once or twice per turn.

interesting strategy ... and what are the results? ... as I understand it, on the plus side, the Germans need to divide fighters into intercepting such bombings and covering their bombers that help in ground battles? and on the negative side - the Soviet ground forces are left without air support, and this could change the results of some battles, and also the low effectiveness of the bombing of German tank columns themselves (a few damaged elements just?)

good game!

Well, I’m getting some Guards airbases, which never happened before because I didn’t regularly attack units, just relied on ground support.

It will definitely get you kills, but one of the things I noticed is that several air attacks in an area will drain enemy unit supplies.
I’m guessing the AAA routines are shifting supplies to ammo.

Another observation, in another game I’m on turn 5, and the Luftwaffe doesn’t seem to be able to fight well in intercept. I’ll post the combat shots in another thread to not clutter this one, but it seemed ‘off’’.

[Shupov]

How did you save the great full map screen shot? Which screen capture utility did you use?

Thanks in advance!

[Seminole]

I just Print Screen to copy the image, and save it a folder with Irfanview.
I think Win10 has a gaming screen shot key, just haven't bothered to look into it because sometimes I crop what I save in Irfanview and custom name the file for creating the AAR later.

I use Paint.net to stich them together.
For the large map ones I start zoomed each time on a particular lake in Finland, back up the view, and then save the three images by scrolling to the same points each time.

I like Paint.net because of the layer features, and it's free.



Anyone have a preferred gif host anymore? Seems most sites translate them into video formats upon upload (at least beyond a certain size), and I haven't found one that plays nice with this board.

[Hanny]

ORIGINAL: CapAndGown

The Germans have airbases right up with the panzers. What is that all about? Won't they be out of supply? How does that effect German air operations? I've seen that in several AARs and I don't understand it. Franky, I'm not sure I understand the air game at all.

Could be that he is leap frogging air bases, by stacking to max on T1, giving him empty air basses to push forward, which he may or may not then transfer into, or just use as staging bases closer to the front but empty of assets.

[Hanny]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

Anyone have a preferred gif host anymore? Seems most sites translate them into video formats upon upload (at least beyond a certain size), and I haven't found one that plays nice with this board.

You could go another way and use OBS to record your turn, with comments, ( edit OBS for the portions you want to comment further on) and re post on you tube.

[Seminole]

You could go another way and use OBS to record your turn, with comments, ( edit OBS for the portions you want to comment further on) and re post on you tube.

I'm afraid I'm a terribly slow player, and with frequent interruptions from a 4 and 7 year old it's even worse.
I've had success in the past saving screenshots, clipping them, and creating a gif, but the video editing would be way more involved.
It just seems that picture hosts have moved on from larger gifs, and these boards don't like to do inline video (unless there is something else I don't know).

e.g.

[Seminole]

Turn 16

Slow German grind in AGN sector continues, but Leningrad is safe. We've so far preserved Leningrad and tied up 4th Panzer Group for the entire summer offensive. Still trying to thin this area as much as possible by sliding forces south of Lake Ilmen



Cavalry brought in around Vyshny Volochek to help reclaim some of the terrain. Enemy is thin here on the northern flank of the Moscow salient, breaking down to regiments to try and cover the line, and the Red Army takes advantage.



Half a dozen successful counter attacks overall in the Moscow area, pushing back several infantry divisions and the 18th Panzer. Trying to keep pushing back around Kaluga as well.





With the autumn rains on the way, STAVKA begins to plan for a Winter Offensive.
Zhukov is tapped to draw up the details, but the overall theme will be a double pincer from the Kaluga and Vyshny Volochek areas to eliminate the Moscow salient.

Kursk and Orel are falling under threat, but both sides have little committed in this area.



1st Panzer Group has split their mechanized forces, making threats toward Voronezh as well as Rostov.



The Stalino complex is nearly encircled. Bobkin's 37th Army (STAVKA) of Russian cavalry help push back the Grossdeutschland Mot Rgt and isolate Das Reich Mot Div and another Mot Div.



Remaining forces pull back to establish a new cavalry screen, but at least 3 rifle divisions won't be able to escape.
Newly minted Guards cavalry divisions are being shipped out to refit for the Winter Offensive.



Trying to ship in reserves to keep Rostov safe from a snow offensive.
I don't expect much of a threat as he has split his panzer corps (I believe in a bid to gain as much territory as possible before blizzard to setup the '42 offensive).

Overall strategic picture at the end of turn 16:

[Seminole]

Turn 17

Zhukov begins planning by reviewing the available forces.
16 Guards rifle divisions on the map (3rd Guards RD expected to be replaced 12/25/41), with a further 22 currently qualified for Guards status.
6 Guards cavalry divisions, with a further 3 qualified.
1 Guards Mtn Inf Div, 2 more qualified with 1 only 1 win away.

All of the Soviet cavalry will be split between the north and south pincer.
One Front will be assigned to each pincer, with four Armies and a cavalry corps HQ attached.

This week the German attacks closest to Leningrad fail, but along the line 4 more hexes are captured by the Wehrmacht.






Defensive arrangement at Leningrad sector at the end of the turn:



German attacks continue along the northern flank of the Moscow salient.



The Red Army hits back, regaining some of the territory near Torzhok.



On the southern side of the Moscow salient more forces are brought in west of Tula.



Orel and Kursk find themselves on the front lines as the German infantry continue to push.



We have no intention of losing these manpower centers before winter.



The last of the Kharkov pocket is finally neutralized, and Panzer Group 1 makes a raid toward Voronezh.



The rifle divisions trapped near Stalino are liquidated, and several more attacks by AGS toward Rostov are made.



37th Army and the remainder of the cavalry in the south are put on rails and a new defensive screen is setup.



Finally, at the gates of Crimea the Red Army holds a port on the Sea of Azov against Axis Allies:



Losses:





OoB:



Overall strategic map at the end of turn 17:

[Seminole]

Turn 18

Time for another re-org of the Red Air Force.
Upgrading ShaP to make sure they're using IL-2s and swapping in Hurricanes to the remaining air battalions. These will be assigned to OSNAZ air base to support the Li-2 air drops.

Zhukov's cavalry are beginning to coalesce in the staging areas.



Overall strategic picture at the end of the turn:

[Seminole]

Turn 19

AGS makes two small attacks against infantry brigades, but are repulsed. Otherwise a very quiet week.

Recall all air units to reserve to make re-org simpler.
29th and 31st Army units re-assigned to shift Leningrad Front farther south.
Zhukov's 24th Army (NW Front) has it's units re-assigned to Leningrad Front and other NW Front armies so it can be relocated south at the end of the Valdaii Hills, the shoulder of the northern pincer.
NW Front continues to shift south, with 8th and 28th Armies assuming responsibility from Kalinin Front, freeing up 11th and 30th Armies to take over from 13th and 22nd Armies (Western Front) so that we can finally sort out the command delineation.


Overall strategic map at the end of turn 19: