Scenario: Road to Leningrad – Playing as Axis (Completed)

[jlbhung]

Background

This is my first AAR.

I had experience with WitE1 but never played the smaller scenarios. With the new WitE2, I proceeded to the Road to Leningrad (RtL) Scenario after the two introductory scenarios.

My first attempt on RtL was unsuccessful. I made pockets when the opportunities were spotted, incurring delay in the process. I was also undecided on whether to focus on Leningrad or on the other VP locations, eventually achieved neither.

I decided to start again with the focus on capturing all VP locations apart from four -- Leningrad, NW Leningrad, Oranienbaum and Osinovets. My guess was that with the introduction of city forts in WitE2, it would be much more difficult to take Leningrad.

While proceeding with my second attempt at Turn 10, I was a bit uncertain on the way forward. I wanted to draw inspirations from fellow players’ AAR, but cannot find an RtL AAR that reached the later stage. Hence, I decided to write an AAR on my second attempt.

Since the decision to write an AAR was not made in the beginning, I did not kept “end of turn saves” before Turn 10. So before Turn 10, please excuse me for relying on autosave files (which are as at beginning of a turn) to make screenshots to illustrate actions carried out in the past turn. There are of course drawbacks including –
(a) newly occupied area and Axis initiated battled in the past turn cannot be shown; and
(b) Soviet units in touch with Axis units in the past turn may move away. So in some cases readers may wonder why the Axis units did not advance further.

Lastly, English is not my mother-tongue. I use English only occasionally in my daily life. I often had difficulties in fully expressing myself in English. There will sometimes be awkward choice of words and grammatical errors. Please bear with me on these.

Let us proceed to the AAR. It was played with Fog of War and at Normal Difficulty. I did not use the Air and Depot AI Assist.


Turn 1 Air setting

On airbase bombing, I adopted a broad bush approach instead of creating many bombing directives, each targeting only a few airbases. The main change to the original Air Directive was to specify an escort requirement of min 10. The aim was to reduce the chance of unescorted bombers being slaughtered by Soviet fighters.
On the Recon for the first turn, I set to fly on Day 1 only to minimize operational loss. The priority was set to normal (compared to Very High for airbase bombing). In this way Recon will fly after the airbase bombing and hopefully will not encounter enemy fighters. After the first turn, Recon was generally flown two days a week.

[jlbhung]

The air setting screenshot.

[jlbhung]

I was happy with the result of the air phase. There were only two combat loss.

[jlbhung]

Turn 1 Ground Phase

1. I cut off the Soviets by using the six panzer and motorized divisions.

2. I think it is important to take Riga in Turn 1. It will provide a supply hub before railways are repaired.

3. I motorized one infantry division for one turn only to take Ventspils. This will prevent the Soviet from using this port to escape or to supply any pockets in the Kurland.

4. The dual-track railway on the Southeastern area was still largely owned by the Soviet. Hence initially I focused the railway repair work along the coast, linking the ports and the railyards there.

[Richard III]

Subscribed. Thanks very much from a newbie for showing _ How To Set Things Up_ rather then just results[;)]

[jlbhung]

Turn 2

1. Velkie Luki was occupied. Opportunity was also taken to isolate more Soviet territories.

2. Recons and fighters moved foward to the level 2 airbases along the Daugava River, at Riga, Jekabpils and Daugavapils.
(Level 2 airbases are preferred because flights are less likely to be cancelled in light-mud/mud and there are lesser chance for operational damage compared to level 1 airbases - Manual 16.6.7).

3. KG76 level bombers moved to Ventspils. I think it might be easier to supply bombers in airbases that are co-located with ports.

[jlbhung]

Riga Port functioned in T3

A screenshot with the supply line showing the port in Riga supporting units in the North. This screenshot was as at beginning of Turn 3. The port was taken in Turn 1 and started functioning in Turn 3.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3

1. Parnu was taken, providing another port to support the advance in the North.

2. It was a bit wasteful to use panzer and motorized units to guard the surroundings of Velkie Luki. However, the 16 Army was lagging behind, possibly taking too much time clearing the pockets. With hindsight, may be I could use the SEC divisions more effectively so that 1 or 2 infantry divisions from the 16 Army could march north earlier.

3. The dual-track railway heading towards Pskov was largely cleared so that repairs could start soon. It took my infantry divisions 3 turns to reach and clear Vilnius, a city close to the border and along the dual-track railway. An alternative would be to advance faster along the dual-track railway using motorized units. Repair work would then focus on the dual-track railway from the very beginning. However, I needed the panzer/motorized divisions to create the big pocket in the first turn.

4. A panzer division marched north and took Tartu. This is a very well located level 2 airbase.

5. The motorized corps did not push towards Pskov because recon found that the area was already well defended with many Sov units behind river, likely fortified as well. I did not want to attack with motorized corps without infantry backup.

[After completed the scenario and when preparing this AAR, I wondered if I was too conservative in not attacking Pskov this turn. I took the save file and tried an assault on Pskov using all my motorized assets. There were actually 7 Soviet divisions and 2 airborne brigades in the area, without counting AT brigades, security regiments and forts. Nevertheless, Pskov was taken and several Soviet units encircled in this trial. I had under-estimated the might of the German motorized units and was too conservative.]

[carlkay58]

Be careful with your eastern flank. Not all of those areas will automatically become isolated as the ownership of the edge changes during the game. Notably that big block of enemy hexes south of Velikie Luki. This is very important because Soviet reinforcements may appear there!

[jlbhung]

Thank you carlkay58 for your alert. I like your 41 Campaign AAR very much and have downloaded your save games.

The enemy hexes south of Velikie Luki was really a concern. They were later cleared using the security divisions. Some elements of the 16 Army fell behind a lot in the rear. While marching up to the front, they can also act as backup in case the security divisions meet with strong resistance.

[carlkay58]

Good plan and thank you for the compliment.

[jlbhung]

Turn 4

1. A swift attack by the 41 Motorized Corps, commanding 2 motorized divisions, captured Tallinn.

2. 56 Motorized Corps, with the 4 remaining panzer and motorized divisions, was resting south of the Sorot River to gain CPP, at the same time waiting for the infantry to catch up. My bet was that advancing north from this direction may meet with less resistance compared to approaching Pskov from the West across the Velikaya River.

3. If there was the opportunity, I might take Adreapol with a fast attack.

4. JG53 moved to the level 2 airbase at Tartu, providing air cover to the frontline.

5. Instead of going South to repair the dual-track railway, the FBD was in Latvia. I wanted to have a railway depot closer to Pskov to support the operation in the North as soon as possible.

[jlbhung]

Near the original Sov border, I spared a Corps HQ and put two RAD construction units under it to assist in repairing the dual-track railway. While a player cannot control which hexes to repair through this auto-repair arrangement, the range for the auto-repair is confined by the 5-hex range of the Corps HQ. Moreover, the auto-repair will always choose a hex next to the working railway network. So I still have some degree of control on what will be repaired by positioning the Corps HQ appropriately.

[jlbhung]

As at start of Turn 5, my supply depended heavily on the ports. Later actions would move units further away from the ports. This was why I wanted to have railway depot soon.

[neuromancer]

I decided to start a new Leningrad scenario and emulate your tactics here, especially with sending the Motorized Corps haring off all over. It has certainly made a difference to how the VPs add up compared to my usual more cautious play style.

I do wonder though, how would this tactic work against a human opponent? Would you get punished for sending those units so far afield, or would any attempt to do so just mean more Soviet units get surrounded and destroyed?

[carlkay58]

Depends on how aggressive your human opponent is. You do have to be a bit more careful against Human play than the AI in some circumstances but it is usually worth the risk in the early turns because you will always be able to relieve isolated units (or at least if you don't REALLY spread yourself thin).

[jlbhung]

ORIGINAL: neuromancer

I decided to start a new Leningrad scenario and emulate your tactics here, especially with sending the Motorized Corps haring off all over. It has certainly made a difference to how the VPs add up compared to my usual more cautious play style.

I do wonder though, how would this tactic work against a human opponent? Would you get punished for sending those units so far afield, or would any attempt to do so just mean more Soviet units get surrounded and destroyed?

In the other Road to Leningrad AAR by Beethoven which was an HvH game, I saw the Totenkopf SS Mot Div surrounded in Estonia in T7 and attacked by more than 120k men and 1400 guns with very little loss and rescued in the following German turn. Hence, my assessment was that the risk would be manageable for motorized units, especially in early turns when the Soviets were still recovering from the initial shock.

[Hardradi]

Nice work to get to Velikiye Luki on T2. After T1, the Soviets often get a high/full movement rate and in the hands of a human player can temporarily cut off your Panzers. You need to make sure you screen your the flanks of the penetration to Pskov.

In the three RtL games I have played/playing the weather has been atrocious, incessant rain and light mud everywhere. I like the randomness of the weather but wonder if this can be a bit harsh in a smaller scenarios.

[neuromancer]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58
Depends on how aggressive your human opponent is. You do have to be a bit more careful against Human play than the AI in some circumstances but it is usually worth the risk in the early turns because you will always be able to relieve isolated units (or at least if you don't REALLY spread yourself thin).

ORIGINAL: jlbhung
In the other Road to Leningrad AAR by Beethoven which was an HvH game, I saw the Totenkopf SS Mot Div surrounded in Estonia in T7 and attacked by more than 120k men and 1400 guns with very little loss and rescued in the following German turn. Hence, my assessment was that the risk would be manageable for motorized units, especially in early turns when the Soviets were still recovering from the initial shock.

Makes sense.

I was thinking there is one key advantage in this game that retreat when isolated isn't automatic death on the first turn, only on the second. In most games if they surround your unit and make it retreat - even if it takes no casualties - it's dead, so even if the Soviets take a lot of casualties in the process to wipe out a panzer/ motor division like that would be worth it. But in this game that would either accomplish little - as jibhung's example shows - or at worst just cause them to retreat out of the pocket with moderate losses.

As carlkay says, you probably don't want to get TOO carried away against a human, but it sounds like this is still a viable strategy in the early game, and sounds like even somewhat in the mid-game as well (in the short scenarios, not the campaign, probably until August would be a better way of putting it, which is when the supply shortage started to be really felt among German units).


Back to the situation at hand, I am wondering where all the Soviet units have gone. In my game (T4) they formed a line just in front of Pskov, right across the map from the Baltic to the east edge of the map. Not a strong line to be sure - I have the 4th Panzer Group poking at Pskov while the infantry moves up having finished the mop-up and relieved the panzerkorps at VL - but a line nonetheless.

Thanks again for this, it showed me that I don't need to be so cautious in the early game.
[&o]

[jlbhung]

ORIGINAL: Hardradi

In the three RtL games I have played/playing the weather has been atrocious, incessant rain and light mud everywhere. I like the randomness of the weather but wonder if this can be a bit harsh in a smaller scenarios.

I concur with you that random weather can be harsh for a small scenario. WitE1 allows the choice of random or historic weather. It is unfortunate that this nice feature in WitE1 is not included in WitE2.