German side of a mirror match

[CapAndGown]

Now that the campaigning season has come to an end, these are the stats at the beginning of turn 18.

[CapAndGown]

I just noticed my opponent has moved all his Lagg-3 factories; moving just 1 point each. Why do you suppose that is? Trying to save on supply? Is the plane really that bad? I haven't been super impressed with it, but neither have I been super disappointed. At any rate, it gave me an idea about moving my U-2VS factory to Voroshilovgrad in my Soviet game.

[update] My opponent confirmed that he moved these factories to save on supply.

[CapAndGown]

Been a while since I reported on anything in this game. That's because of mud; nothing is happening. I thought I would share a picture of the overall map.

One thing of note is that our vehicle pool has now fallen below our required number of vehicles. An artifact, no doubt, of our over stretched supply lines.

[CapAndGown]

Winter has arrived in Russia. The ground is frozen, restoring movement to our forces. We used this opportunity to eliminate the two small pockets around Leningrad and Tula. We also captured the Stalino-Gorlovka complex in order to deprive the Russians of manpower, resources, and rail capacity, while allowing our forces to establish strong defensive positions in these built up centers. Finally, we advanced on the choke point in the Crimea to further solidify our winter defenses.

[CapAndGown]

I have not reported on this game in a while because nothing has been happening. I have mostly been preparing my winter defenses, though there has been a push in the Crimea to secure the choke point west of Kerch. (I may decide to push all the way to Kerch itself.)

I figure there are two way one could arrange the defense.
1) create some corps size fire brigades of mobile units that can rush in to fortify threatened sectors.
2) have tactical reserves of mobile units divided up among your various corps.

For this winter I went with option 2: each corps was given a mobile division to act as the corps reserve. My thinking here was that I wanted the divisions to avoid the worst effect of winter by having them in positions that would mitigate weather related attrition. That meant garrisoning cities and towns, or simply digging in. Either way, I did not want them wandering about the steppes and forests of winter time Russia taking damage simply by being out in the cold.

I am fairly sure this will not work out, but its my first time playing, so I will get to find out just how wrong I was. [:)]

I am particularly worried about the area around Velikiye Luki and Rzhev. I need more infantry in that sector. I could get some by thinning out the forces in front of Leningrad and straightening the front there, but I am loathe to give up that ground. I may try to take Leningrad next summer and I don't want to have to fight for that territory again.

Below is a map showing the entire front.

[CapAndGown]

I got my first test of my defensive ideas this turn. The results were mixed. Panzer divisions seemed to activate just fine, while motorized divisions did not. I went through my corps leaders who had failed to activate their reserves and changed two with new commanders. In both cases I chose an up-and-comer as a replacement even though this cost quite a bit of AP points (generally 21-23 AP points vs 1-3 AP points for rank-qualified commanders).

In the Stalino sector the Russians only launched two attacks, one of which failed due to panzer activation. We, on the other hand, launched a number of successful counter attacks.

[CapAndGown]

Only two Soviet attacks were launched in the Tula sector, both of which failed due to reserve activation.

[CapAndGown]

Things did not go as well in the Rzhev-Velikiye Luki sector. That was to be expected considering our weakness here. I brought in a motorized division from the Leningrad sector to help stiffen the defenses. We did achieve a shatter result on a Soviet tank brigade in one of our counter attacks. Perhaps the Soviets did not expect to us to counter attack weak units? Whatever the case, I hope that our counter attacks discourage the Soviets from pressing home their advances. Further retreats in this sector are likely.

On a side note: I noticed that my troops are suffering supply issues due to the reduced rail modifier. Although this is bad for me, I am happy to see this included since the German logistical situation historically disintegrated due to their locomotives not being equipped for such cold weather.

[CapAndGown]

1) Around Leningrad the Soviets were able to achieve a small victory. I am not pulling back the divisions in the far northeast corner of the salient because I believe we can hold on. I am also not sending anyone in to occupy the hex we were forced out of because they would just be slaughtered. OTOH, any Soviets that move into the hex will themselves be slaughtered.

2) The Soviets launch a number of successful attacks around Rzhev. The Germans were unable to launch any counter attacks in this area, though we did reoccupy a couple of hexes we were forced out of. We are pulling back towards Velikiye Luki, though slowly. This is a deliberate withdrawal, not a route!

3) Around Tula the Soviets launched 5 attacks, 2 of which fail due to reserve activation. Meanwhile, we launch two counter attacks of our own.

Two more leaders were changed out this turn in favor of up and coming General Majors.

[CapAndGown]

The main Soviet thrust seems to be aimed at recapturing Stalino. All the Cavalry Corps we have spotted have been in this area.

The Soviets closed the gap separating our front lines west and north of Kharkov. In those places where light/mountain divisions were manning the line they launched counter attacks against the lone Soviet divisions. No reason not to stress the Soviet manpower/armament situation as much as possible right now, plus make it harder for those divisions to reach guard status by adding to their number of defeats.

Just north of Gorlovka the Soviets punched a 10 mile hole in our line and moved in with three cavalry corps. These corps were repelled with heavy casualties: the Soviets lost 209 cavalry squads this week, an entire week's worth of production.

The Soviets also continued to make progress south of Stalino.

[CapAndGown]

I had some screen shots of turn 28, but apparently I overwrote them, so I will move straight on to turn 29.

The Soviets celebrated the new year by launching the first partisan attacks of the game so far.

Elsewhere, they continued their efforts to encircle Stalino-Gorlovka. We continue to hold the cities, trying to push back their forward elements. Things are deteriorating, however, so we have put together two panzer corps to act as a fire brigade. The mobile units were pulled from sections of the front where the Soviets are not pressing an attack.

[CapAndGown]

We have pulled back to Tula and the woods south of the Oka. Our morale is starting to go down so I have launched several counter attacks to raise it.

[CapAndGown]

We continue falling back in the Rzhev-Velikiye Luki region. Reinforcements are on the way from OKH reserves.

[CapAndGown]

You know, Stalin has too many cities named after him. There is always some namesake city of his we are fighting over: Stalnigrad, Stalingorsk, Stalino, etc. This time it is Stalino that has become the focus of both German and Soviet attention. Along the rest of the front the Soviets were fairly quite, in some cases not even advancing into the voids we left behind our retreating troops. Stalino, on the other hand, is turning into a real cock fight: blood, guts and feathers everywhere. Most of the original all-panzer PzG 1 has been reformed now with three panzer corps loaded up with mobile troops. Meanwhile, the OKH reserves that were originally meant to help shore up the Rzhev-Velikiye Luki area were diverted south to Stalino. As far as I can tell, the Soviets have all their cavalry corps in this region.

[CapAndGown]

The battle of Stalino continues as ferociously as before. The front along the Sea of Azov has completely collapsed. Nothing but delaying actions there. Elsewhere we continue to put up a fight.

The rest of the front sees little change. Some Soviet attacks around Tula, but we continue to hold the city. The Soviets may be massing for an attack around Vyazma, but there is little I can do about that.

[CapAndGown]

Jan. 22 - Feb. 5, 1942

The game has been moving right along. Much of the front is stable with an occasional opportunistic attack by the Soviets here and there. The main action continues around Stalino where the Soviet's main goal seems to be causing casualties. Territorialy, they have made little progress.

[CapAndGown]

March 5, 1942

The blizzard is over. Below is a map of the post-blizzard positions. The Soviets made the most progress in the Rzhev sector, recapturing the city and pushing us back from the Volga. Around Tula they made little progress. In the south they recaptured Stalino and pushed about 30 miles beyond. I have not seen any guards cavalry corps and only 3 guards rifle divisions. My opponent has pulled his guard units back to rest and refit. In his accounting, our counter attacks drove up the number of losses for his units, preventing them from achieving guards status.

This turn I made a painful decision to pull back in front of Leningrad to shorten and thin the line there, freeing up 10 divisions for use elsewhere. Holding onto the dream of taking Leningrad this year will only weaken up for our summer offensive.

In the Crimea we are pushing towards Sevastapol one hex per turn. I would like to take the city in order to free up forces from the Crimea for use elsewhere.

Since last turn the Wehrmacht has been undergoing a massive reorganization as we gather all our scattered mobile divisions and bring them back together under the command of our Panzer Armies. The infantry corps are on their own when it comes to reserve forces.

[CapAndGown]

May 7, 1942

The snow has melted. The rivers are almost ice free. The first signs of spring are visible in the buds sprouting from the trees. It is also audible from the loud explosions heard up and down the front line.

Our forces began clearing out Russian fortified positions around Tula and Stalino. These attacks were mostly confined to the infantry. I am keeping the panzers fresh until the end of June. For now it is the job of the infantry to clear out Russian entrenchments, clearing a path for the panzers when we launch our Summer offensive.

I did decide to employ one panzer and one motorized division from 3rd PA to attack a lone tank brigade sitting in a level three fort on the north side of the Oka. Not only was it a tempting target, but by causing it to retreat and eliminate the fortification there, I can force the Soviets to commit some troops hear to prevent us from establishing a bridgehead that threatens Moscow.

Meanwhile, in the Crimea the Soviets evacuated the level 4 fortification next to Sevastapol. Those divisions would have had nowhere to retreat to and so would have surrendered when we defeated them. Now it is just down to Sevastapol itself with 3 rifle divisions. All our divisions participating in the assault on Sevastapol have two pioneer battalions each and the corps they report to have my really big guns in support. Nevertheless, it looks like this will take a while. Our first assault resulted in 2.46:1 odds and took the fort down from 5.1 to 4.9. That was with 7 rested rifle divisions (one division was in reserve). A second attack with only 4 divisions (the cost of moving into the evacuated rough hex prevented all divisions from making 2 attacks) resulted in 1:1.37 odds and only took down the fort another .04. I launched that second attack hoping the engineers and artillery would continue to whittle away the forts, but they did not. So the question is: when we are able to attack again do we launch 2 big attacks, or 4 smaller attacks?

[CapAndGown]

May 21, 1942

We continue to knock down forts and launch attacks against Sevastapol. Around Stalino I brought in one corps from 1 PA in order to launch a number of hasty attacks on weak Russian positions then pulled it back. I still would rather not commit my panzers until campaigning season begins at the end of June.

[CapAndGown]

June 11, 1942

After two consecutive turns of mud, turn 52 saw a good deal of action. From South to North:

Sevastapol was evacuated. We had brought the forts down to 3.8, at which point the Soviets decided retreat was the better part of valor. We did get two interdiction attacks in against he seaborne troops causing thousands of casualties. Other items of note: the three divisions defensing the port all achieved guards status due to their heroic stand. Their unit numbers indicate, however, that the Soviets only have 20 guards rifle divisions right now. (Compare that to my Soviet turn 51 where I have 43 guards rifle divisions.)

1st Panzer Army came out of hibernation and formed a pocket around Stalino. We were not able to close the pocket. Nevertheless, the Soviets are likely to lose a large number of the pocketed divisions. This represents our first objective in phase 1 of our planned summer offensive.

West of Tula the infantry continue to knock down forts.