How to Survive the Blizzard .. Help !!!

[Generalrisky]

Hi All,

After receiving a serve mauling by Seminole (Great AAR by the way). I am currently playing another 2 games one where I am again receiving a serve battering and one front has collapsed,and no units to stop a complete breakout. The other I have managed to survive the winter just.

I thought it was time to put pen to paper and ask the questions how do you prepare for the Blizzard? I am happy to share my poor preparation or is it all down the strategy and knowing what to look for in the soviet preparation ? any tips would be great as I want to improve so the winter is not a complete disaster and I can fight my opponent into 42 and beyond.

I have read many AARs since and got some ideas, but do the Germans spend Admin points on better leaders building forts or reducing the command over heads or splitting units into Regiments to form defense in depth ?
Thanks GR

[Bozo_the_Clown]

For starters, have a house rule to disallow paratroopers. That part of the game is simply broken. I used it a lot in my early games but came to the conclusion that it just destroys games.

[Generalrisky]

Hi Bozo,

Yes lesson learnt there,will always ask for that house rule going forward, in my other game where my front has collapsed my opponent has skillfully used the same tactic to aided by my poor playing. Am learning fast, might master it one day !

GR

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: Generalrisky

Hi All,

After receiving a serve mauling by Seminole (Great AAR by the way). I am currently playing another 2 games one where I am again receiving a serve battering and one front has collapsed,and no units to stop a complete breakout. The other I have managed to survive the winter just.

I thought it was time to put pen to paper and ask the questions how do you prepare for the Blizzard? I am happy to share my poor preparation or is it all down the strategy and knowing what to look for in the soviet preparation ? any tips would be great as I want to improve so the winter is not a complete disaster and I can fight my opponent into 42 and beyond.

I have read many AARs since and got some ideas, but do the Germans spend Admin points on better leaders building forts or reducing the command over heads or splitting units into Regiments to form defense in depth ?
Thanks GR

Your situational awareness of the other side needs to be addressed. That in my opinion is your biggest hurdle. I watched Soviet build-ups that should have been noticed and reacted to in the AAR.

I concur with Bozo on Paras and have NEVER advocated use of Para's in any game. They are gamey at best, coupled with +1 Soviet Attack will lead to a one sided sh*t show.

[eskuche]

HLYA shows his face again perhaps he is santa?

Here is some bloviating ideas for blizzard as Germans:
1. What is the Soviet goal? Destroying German manpower and, secondarily, gaining back some land. The most important land gains are in the Moscow and perhaps Leningrad regions, depending on how far Germany penetrated by T17. Land gain in the south is less consequential due to easier pocketing in '42.
2. Organization of TOE: you get both reparable and permanently damaged ground elements during blizzard, so many players completely limit TOE usage at these times. Depending on your arms/AFV pools (pretty nuanced here), it can be worth it to keep those elite motorized units out. Their morale drop isn't as important, especially for the SS or leaving divisions, because they can be built up to high base line for the former, and the latter don't matter (Das Reich, 10th panzer, etc.). They also will contribute outsized CV compared to your other units. High TOE non-elite tanks should stay in winter lodgings as close to the front line as possible.
3. You get morale loss for losing a battle (including attacks during your turn!) for eligible units. This suggests that you want to take the fewest number of BATTLES.
4. (3) suggests you run. Many players just run two hexes a turn and call it a day. In my games I try the a variant of the hedgehog defense, whereby I highly stack ever other (sometimes every third, depending on the situation) hex with three strong units. Soviets cannot attack these head-on easily without large setup, and by that time you can shift them back. This represents 0.8-1.5 hexes retreat per turn in my hands, generally. Not as easily doable when cavalry corps are nearby, obviously.
5. Air force most people keep away, but level bombers can be used for resupply. Fighters can still intercept albeit at a lower effectiveness.
6. Pre-preparation: getting those non-CV penalized mountain divisions to Moscow for the winter can be pretty important. A good time to do it is after they clear Lvov pocket, since their contribution to attacks in AGS will be limited.

Edit:
7. leadership: I take mud and blizzard to majorly overhaul German CC. GOOD army commanders (heinrici, model, guderian, manstein), get DIRECT control of 24 CV (27 in march), so their good stat rolls aren't diluted by bad (or even equal) subcommanders. Good corps commanders go under Finnish high command (in Leningrad region) or under average army commanders who ideally complement the corps commanders' weaknesses. Kesselring can take an army group at this time (perhaps an army too, I forget). From the command structure saved from the good army commanders, corps are removed (leaving 0-1 per army), placed under OKH or AGA/B if split, and wherever possible, minor allies are given to them. Later on during defense, weak german divisions can be split up to give to minor ally corps to trigger their SU usage.

[hugh04]

The most important secret to a good german blizzard defense is to kill a lot of soviets during the Barbarossa offensive. A lot of German players do not know how to really turn the screws. An overly healthy soviet is going to be able to do horrible things.

The blizzard itself comes in stages. Remember that it takes 3 turns in the snow for german units to take full blizzard attrition (1/3 per turn). If you have a fort line of level 2 or 3, you can stop the soviet cold in the forest or better terrain. Judicious counterattacks can work very well in certain situations.

Hedgehog defense. A strong point (fort level 2) on the front line can be held and counter-attack soviet units that try and infiltrate past it. A nearby city to protect a panzer can keep cv's higher as those units can be protected from blizzard attrition. Level 2 forts with 2 divisions (especially if a city can shelter one of them) is very hard to shift. Level 3 forts are hard to come by and need planning but are very very hard to shift.

For example, if Moscow has fallen, there are many city/urban hexes for the german to protect units from blizzard attrition. German units can shelter for 3 turns and then return to battle while an exhausted units shelters. This allows for many fresh infantry and panzer formations to fight at much higher cv's.

December and January are bad. If you do not have forts and forest terrain your only choice is retreat. In the south, advancing as deep into russia as possible is a good idea. The reason is hedgehop defense needs forest and urban hexes to work. Kharkov can be made defensible. Stalino can be made defensible. Put forts in city/urban areas and counterattack. But it is best to advance as far past these areas as possible so that you can retreat into them in february. In February the soviet begins to lose steam and the german is recoverying cv and attack penalties are lower.

Knowing when to fight and when to retreat are key. Knowing how to set up a hedgehog, how to shelter and defend city hexes is key. Being aggressive is key, preparing defense lines during summer is key, gaining ground that you can give up is key. You must fight the summer offensive preparing for the blizzard defensive. An active mindset can make blizzard defense alot of fun. It will hurt and it will be stressful but playing at the edge and surviving is good gaming.