My First AAR - Russia 41

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AGS turn 5

The southern drive seems to me to be the most effective at this moment pushing against Kiev and Odessa.

The pocket at Stanislav is finally destroyed taking almost one third of AGS force over two or three turns and basically rendering them needing rest and refit urgently.

Its all well and good to create these big pockets destroying them quickly and moving forward is another thing altogether, as it takes time away from pushing further East.

The pocket at Vinnitsa is still there though I managed to destroy about a quarter of the Soviets trapped there.

6th Armee and 1st Pz pushed onto Kiev which was good but the wall of troops the AI put up stopped me from coming behind Kiev to encircle it, so I chose to break through the wall and trap more troops.

Better news was the fact that I captured Odessa with two strong assaults, so now I can drive along The Black Sea Coast and try to capture Sevastopol as well as Zaporozhye.

Though the Odessa force could use a rest to, as the AI has thrown a lot of Tank and Mech Divs to block my way.

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Losses Turn 5

Not as many troops captured or killed this turn as the AI in the North kept falling back and my troops in the Centre and South suffer fatigue and there attacks are less effective.
The weather also played its part, still I am not unhappy with still a number of pockets to destroy with hopefully fresh troops.

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Supply turn 5

Since I am still trying to figure at how all this supply business works and and if I am in the red green or otherwise I have not bothered posting any of it, but i thought I would do so for this turn.

It looks to me if I am reading it correct that my Army's are all in the green at the moment more or less which is good.

I am going to leave here for now and do hopefully a couple of turns tomorrow.

Hopefully the weather comes good but if does not well it will be part of the learning curve.

Update on closer inspection of the final figures I think I am in the red in the total scale of things oh well.

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AGN Turn 6

Well things seem to be slowing down 18th Armee made the most gains, 4th Pz cut off 2 Divs but little else, I was hoping to take Novgorod but no luck just Luga.

16th Armee moved the least just consolidating the front line, despite good weather the momentum is slowing, lack of supplies and fatigue taking its toll.

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AGC Turn 6

The centre has come to a virtual halt as well with only the southern wing which is still trudging through the marshes and a small push at Korma which opened the front line and a pocket by 2nd Pz to give some more breathing space for 3rd Pz.

The 9th moved very little as well, this is my usual situation for the past 3 games, get to about and stall for 3 or 4 turns.

I just could not destroy the pocket at Mogilev it would have meant pulling Pz units out of the line, next turn hopefully I can clear them.

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AGS Turn 6

Well at least here in this sector I am moving more, the drive along the coast proceeds steadily.

In the centre 3rd Rom and 17th Armee move up as do the Hungarians, I nice percentage of the wall the AI put has been destroyed by 1st Pz only to be replaced by a much stronger one full Tank and Mech units.

This is not going to easy to encircle particularly since 1st Pz is strung out at regiment level.

However really good news is Kiev has been captured.

My German Korps are all over the place with no real cohesion need to get 17th Armee in the line and move a 11th Armee Inf korps back down with the rest of the 11th.

I even have a corp from 3rd Rom Army behind 1st Pz

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Losses Turn 6

The amount of trapped and captured Red Army troops starts to get less as my Armee's just don't have the legs to encircle the big pockets.

What I do find even more alarming is the fact that after looking at my actual field strength of my AFV the numbers show I have 3,619 AFV's however only 2,639 are operational, that is a full one third of the force damaged.

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Supply Turn 6

And here is one of the main reasons my offensive is faltering, lack of supply, I am down something like 6 k and its only turn 6.

After reviewing another AAR I realise I may have screwed up my supply chain, as I seem to have not put depots in the best places.

With the supply issues and AFV crisis and the all round general fatigue I have decided to halt the general offensive with a few exceptions, maybe conduct some local attacks, but just stay in a holding position till 6th, 4th and 2nd Armee's move up and also try to get a better supply line going.

I'm loathed to slow what momentum I still have but don't want to run my Army into the ground before winter hits.

[Bamilus]

Might nice Soviet bulge in AGS.... [X(]

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AGN Turn 7

Well the AI is doing some strange things in Estonia one turn they just fall back and abandon the country next turn they deploy for a fight, however turn 7 once again its abandoned almost and I take Tallinn.

18th Armee pushes towards the Narva river threatening to cut off a small pocket of troops.

4th Pz makes some pushes and pockets 9 Red Army Divs, still didn't take Novgorod and 16th Armee moves to take up the vacated 4th Pz positions.

I more or less did the total opposite of what I had Plan to do which was rest but when a opportunity arises I took it.

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AGC Turn 7

Here there was not much choice about moving, another check of the overall supply situation I found both 2nd and 3rd Pz Armee's have virtually no supply's and very little fuel.

This meant I could not do much in the way of clearing both pockets till the Armee's are better supplied,

The major movement came from both 4th and 2nd across the marshes, I am getting closer to Gomel and Chernigov but there is still a lot of Marshes even after that.

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AGS Turn 7

Unlike the Centre and North I had always intended to keep pushing along the coast but a unexpected gift from the AI pulling some troops away from 1st Pz gave me another chance to create a big pocket and I took it.

Coming behind a big force of Mech and Inf Divs and trapping 19 of them around Uman, trying only to use 1st Pz ( which is probable the Armee in worst shape here )and as little of any of the other Army's as possible

Despite the size of the pocket there is still lot of enemy troops including 4 Tank Divs close to Kiev which I would have loved to have trapped also.

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Losses turn 7

Didn't manage to eliminate as many as I wanted to due to movement shortages as mentioned before, hopefully next turn will be much better.

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OB both sides turn 7

Thought I would show one of these.
So far have keep the Red Army to just under 3 million but because of the light casualties from turn 7, I think this will certainly jump above the 3 mark next turn.

Did some more studies of other AAR's again to look into why my supply issues were bad and noticed something in them that I was doing wrong in my game concerning depots.

I started to rectify them this turn but it may take a while to fix up which involves my rail repair crews putting the foot down and getting the lines running.

Oh well its something I have learnt for the next game to do right.

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One thing that I am finding frustration with is the so few Admin points, well frustration might not be the right would but if this were WITE1 I would have by now gotten rid of half the Generals and replaced them with " My Team " ( so to speak ) of hand picked ones that can get the job done.

But the new game dives you less and I need my Admin points to create supply depots and forts for the coming winter, I doubt I will be able to replace any before the end of the year if I get past the sudden death.

looks like I'm stuck with Hadler and Goring and the rest of the cronies for the time being [:D]

[Jango32]

What were you doing wrong with the depots?

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ORIGINAL: Jango32

What were you doing wrong with the depots?

Well it was combination of few things from reading the manual wrong, reading what other players had written about setting up depots.

So basically I was setting up depots close to the front line wrongly thinking that I had to have them on a rail line within 5 hexes of the front to make certain my armies would get good supply which is all well and good if your rail line is operational and connected to the grid.

I also thought the air force would also just resupply enough as well, I was way wrong on that.

It was NOOB mistake on my part.


This is what happens when you take for granted the supply mechanics of WITE 1, this game is not the same as when it comes to supply its a whole different set up.


Live and learn, i will know better next time

cheers

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AGN Turn 7

At this time most of the advance is done by 18th Armee which cuts off a few Divs and pushes to the Narva river.

The weather defeats 4th Pz's efforts to destroy the pocket and the Russians are reinforcing Novgorod.

16th Armee edges closer to Staraya Russa but its slow going.

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AGC Turn 8

Very little movement around Smolensk, good news finally destroyed both pockets and made a small push towards Krasnaya Gora.

Further south the marsh slog continues with the 4th pocketing the 51st tank Div I expect it to slip away I was hoping to trap it but no luck, but not to worry if it forces a large part of the line to fall back I will be happy.

I'm hoping the weather is better next turn so I can reach Bryansk soon then hopefully Orel.

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AGS Turn 8

The South is where the first year could be won or lost in regards to the sudden death mark, 6th Armee crosses the river around Kiev well parts of the river.

I move 17th up as well as every other unit that was resting in the rear, once again a opportunity to trap even further Red Army forces shows its self and 1st Pz obliges cutting off another big force while at the same time reducing the original pocket by half with the help of 11th Armee.

This new pocket nabs a lot tank Divs and the HQ of the Southern Air Command of the Red Airforce.

I'm rushing as many Axis Allied troops to Nikolaev in preparation for a drive into The Crimea

I'm still a long way from those two key river cities and Sevastopol.