Another March to the East

[carlkay58]

T02 Final Clean Up:

I now go through and rail up the three divisions reinforcing AGN and AGC. Army and higher level HQs are now moved towards the front onto forward depots to help improve the supply flow. I then fly more supplies into Daugavpils, Minsk, and Tarnopol. This does not affect the AI Air Assist other than using up transport miles. The AI Air Assist will still fly supply missions at the end of the turn.

[carlkay58]

T02 Supply Discussion:

The last game and AAR I did my usual supply depot in every dot along the rails with priority 4 until I tuned the network later in the war (about the time the rains came). This generated a lot of discussions with additional discussions on the logistics system from other sources because it is a difficult but very important portion of the game. Last game was, quite frankly, the first time since WitW that I really concentrated and thought a lot on how the logistics works. I found that the system of a priority 4 depot in every dot along the repaired rails worked great in WitW. But the transition to the east brings up a few differences along with small changes in how the logisitics is done. So I am trying some different ideas.

1) Building a depot where there is no existing one costs resources - not only the supplies necessary but also the committing of construction units. Neither of these are in great quantities for the Axis.

2) I will be building depots on any existing railyard this game. I will not start by building railyards on such a scale as I have in previous games.

3) This is countered by how the AI builds depots - basically in every dot on a rail line on the map. So as I advance I will have Soviet railyards in every dot on the rail. I will share what criteria I will use for depots when I come up with it.

4) I started to use a 'pulse' system of supply transferring in my last AAR. This looked like it worked pretty well. I will be using a similar system in this game while trying to refine the theory. Essentially this is taking a system of large railyard depots and using the Supply Priorities to 'pulse' supplies down the line. Switching depots between 4 (to fill it up) and then down to 1 (to pulse the supplies down the line). With using the high level HQs on these depots I was able to fill some of them up to almost full in one turn and then draw it all down the line the next. We shall see how it works overall.

[carlkay58]

T02 Files:

[carlkay58]

Just an additional note. I will not be going into this much detail from here on out. I will continue to post the shots as I go through the turn process but the unit detail will be at the Army level. I try and do a turn a day but this detail is tiring.

[tm1]

I'm interested in seeing how you do your depot set up as my current game I seem to be losing supplies more and more as I play each turn.

regards

[tm1]

sorry double post

[carlkay58]

T03 OOB:

I have reduced the Soviet manpower to under 3M. There are 171K in reserves that will probably be on the map at the start of his turn. A large jump in on-map aircraft this turn. I shall have to watch out for the VVS.

[carlkay58]

T03 Ground Losses:

A good job of eliminating the pockets last turn as the Soviets have lost another 370K, over 300K were prisoners.

[carlkay58]

T03 Air Losses:

At first glance it seems that 36 Air Combat Losses would be bombers out flying their escorts but only 8 level bombers were lost last turn. So I am losing fighters to the Soviets in air combat. Looking to the left part of the report we see that they were all German planes. This is an effect of the Soviets at 110%.

[carlkay58]

T03 Production:

My combat units are getting low in ammo and the vehicle pool is only 8.1K. These are worrying trends at only turn 3. But then again, I have the panzers deep in AGN and AGC without much supply support as of yet. Another worrying factor is the pool of German fighters. They are pretty low given the losses I am seeing.

[carlkay58]

T03 Freight:

The supply situation is +12K but the Production screen says I have lower levels of ammo than desired.

[carlkay58]

T03 Trucks:

The number of trucks used from units is high. While it is expected, it will slow down my panzers.

[carlkay58]

T03 Supply Net North:

Some of the new depots are starting to supply the fronts. As before, I go in and make sure that all depots supplying the front lines is set to priority 4. Any depot that is behind these are lowered to 3 and those behind that are down to 1.

[carlkay58]

T03 Supply Net South:

The only new supply depot is working hard (blue circle). Both the north and south sectors need to eliminate those large pockets to improve the supply situation.

[carlkay58]

T03 Air Phase:

I let loose the dogs of AI! The Recon directives are with my new Recon Air Doctrine so we shall see if that has helped the intel situation. It did not cause more air losses so that part is good.

[carlkay58]

T03 AGN 18th Army:

While the other corps march to the front, I Corps is able to open a hole in the Soviet defenses near Smilten.

[carlkay58]

T03 AGN 16th Army:

X Corps eliminates the last of the pocket near Ukmerge. XXIII Corps concentrates at Daugavpils. XXVIII Corps crosses the Daugava River heading to the front line and flipping the enemy hexes on the way. II Corps also crosses the Daugava River beyond Daugavpils.

[carlkay58]

T03 AGN 2nd Army:

2nd Army is now activated and comes under AGN command (due to command limits in AGC). They will eliminate the Bialystok Pocket and fit into the front lines between the AGN 16th Army and the AGC 9th Army. They cooperate with the 102nd RHG Cmd to collapse the pocket as well as they can in the southern portion of the pocket.

[carlkay58]

T03 AGC 4th Army:

The 4th Army keeps the Bialystok Pocket sealed to the east and north.

[carlkay58]

T03 AGC 9th Army:

VI Corps is marching to the front adding the 93rd ID to its command. XX Corps marches to the front stopping to eliminate another pocket. V Corps marches up to Polotsk. VIII Corps makes it to the front line and forces a rifle division to retreat.