This is my second game vs Gam3r. Settings are all the basics plus enhanced TB off (super annoying). The 1941 campaign is pretty well covered, but there’s hardly any AAR’s that make it to ’42. The next 40 or so turns should prove to be very interesting to share, and I am also counting on some tips from the community that I might not know about.
In this game, I went for a pretty basic strategy, keeping all my units in the same OOB, since I wanted to see how much further I could get towards Leningrad by keeping PG1 with AGN instead of diverting them to the middle. It was definitely not worth it, and I would’ve been much better transferring them like I did in the first game. The lesson I learned is that if you want to capture Leningrad in ‘41, you need to make a big commitment. Otherwise, PG 1 should be transferred after getting close to your winter defensive line.
Despite a much-improved defense by my opponent, almost every ’41 city (besides Kalinin and Rostov) fell with the full bonus this game as well, but I was not able to destroy as much of the Soviet army because he retreated pretty rapidly in August/September. Keeping PG 1 in AGN didn’t help either. There was no Axis winter offensive outside of the Crimea, and I was able to dig in with level 3 forts along the entire front. I also sent 8-10 panzer divisions to the reserves because I thought I was in for an easy winter.
Around September, I was met with determined resistance in the Crimean peninsula, and fought a winter offensive through the western half of the peninsula. After finding 80,000 men commanded by Zhukov in Sevastopol’s city fort, 11th army laid siege to the port city. The Luftwaffe lost hundreds of planes trying to isolate the city, with Mig-3’s performing exceptionally well, but the city was finally isolated and taken on December 21st (turn 27) after reducing the fort level with 4 costly assaults on the city. 11th army then proceeded to evacuate the Crimea, leaving 6 divisions to garrison the city.
If I remember correctly, the Axis got through December pretty unscathed, winning most of the defensive battles, but the lack of supply and lack of ready reserves caught up to the Germany army. Repeated assaults by the Soviets around Orel in the clear terrain broke down 2nd army’s and 2nd PG’s defense, and I was too late to see the danger and retreat. The Red Army achieved significant breakthroughs in this area and the area west of Rzhev. Gam3r ended up encircling and destroying about 140,000 men around Orel – including a panzer division, Totenkopf, and a motorized division on the 8th of February (turn 34). During this time, Model and Weiss both ate the dust
However, it’s now March 1st (turn 37), and I have mostly contained the Soviet breakthroughs, the supply situation on the Eastern Front is improving, and Spring is right around the corner. Plans for the '42 campaign (March 1st)
The first order of business for March to contain the breakthroughs for good, and to reorganize my armies before thinking about an offensive. I have some more ideas for what I want to do, but those are secret 😉. You can look at the map and see for yourself what opportunities await. While the front is in shambles around Orel and Bryansk, and the Red Army is quite large, I have a couple of things going for me. First, the Soviets have achieved very few victories until February, and the Guards status is very poor. I only saw his first guards units last turn or the turn before. Second, the state of my panzer divisions is quite good, since most of them were hanging out in Germany. Lastly, the Red Army’s supply situation isn’t great, and it’s been losing steam. Even though the situation is less than ideal, I am still optimistic that the German Ostheer will continue its march unabated towards glorious conquest!
Some important steps I am taking:
• Bringing panzer divisions back to the map
• Reorganizing Support units
• Preparing motorized divisions to cut the salients
• We’ll bring back the Luftwaffe within a couple of turns.
