A Glimpse into the Future: C41

[carlkay58]

T02 Production:

The vehicle status is looking good as well as the supply situation in the units.

[carlkay58]

T02 Freight:

The front line units are well supplied which is no surprise this early in the war.

[carlkay58]

T02 Trucks:

A lot of unit trucks were used for supply which lowered my MPs in the panzer groups.

[carlkay58]

T02 Soviet Attacks:

The only Soviet aggression this turn was an attempt to bomb Hanover. This is LW performance at the highest level!

[carlkay58]

T02 Air Phase:

I go into the Commander Reports screen and set all air groups to automatically upgrade. I then delete all of the air directives from turn 1 (all Ground Attack:Airfields) and set up Recon air directives.

[carlkay58]

T02 AGN:

16th and 18th Armies clean up the pockets as well as they can. PG 4 continues to advance in the Baltic States. No new pockets but a lot of rail hexes flipped without combat.

[carlkay58]

T02 AGC:

4th Army and the portions of the 2nd Army already present in the front work on reducing the Balystok Pocket. 9th Army helps with that while sending two corps towards Polotsk to relieve PG 3 from the front lines. PG 3 continue to advance with one panzer division reaching the outskirts of Vitebsk before pulling back a bit to stay safe. PG 2 continues its drive and actually gets a panzer division over the Dnepr between Mogilev and Orsha.

[carlkay58]

T02 Motorized Corps:

The XII Corps is holding the southern flank of PG 2. Their mobility had allowed me to keep a normal Panzer Corps in the front line instead of protecting flanks where infantry are not fast enough to reach.

[carlkay58]

T02 AGS:

6th Army is able to collapse the northern pocket and advance to connect the flanks between PG 2 and PG 1. 17th Army is able to reduce the frontier and Lvov pockets and advancing to hold the western flank of the next pocket. There are still a few trapped Soviet units near the Hungarian border. PG 1 is able to pull back and around to form a new pocket. The 11th Army starts to push eastward with help from the Rumanians.

[carlkay58]

T02 Cleanup:

I move the Kolufts (Recon AOGs) forward. I also move the Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee to Rumania and reassign the AOG to Luftflotte 4.

I go through the Theater Boxes. I do transfer two AAA regiments from the Reserve to try and bolster Norway's AIR DAY rating (currently at 57%). Numbers in the section are Air Day 2.86 (5):57%. Night Fighter at 0, Flak (low) 0.16, and Flak (high) 1.10. It will take two turns for the regiments to reach Norway so I will keep an eye open for the results.

T02 Files:

[GibsonPete]

"I then define Ground Attack-Airfield air directives for every Soviet occupied airbase within fighter range. I make sure that the target priorities are Airfield HIGH and the rest to ignore. I also change the schedule to only D1."

This is the tactic I use on Turn one with success. I have less than a hundred losses and eliminate nearly 3000 airframes. Majority of my losses are operational. No airfield bombed beyond escort. Fighters equipped with drop tanks.

[IanW]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

T02 Trucks:

A lot of unit trucks were used for supply which lowered my MPs in the panzer groups.

This is one of the areas where the buff to the historical German truck capacity that is baked in to the game has a massive impact.

Note as well that after thousands of trucks are supporting panzer groups several hundred kilometers from their bases, the number of trucks breaking down is ... ten.

[IanW]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

T02 Motorized Corps:

The XII Corps is holding the southern flank of PG 2. Their mobility had allowed me to keep a normal Panzer Corps in the front line instead of protecting flanks where infantry are not fast enough to reach.

This, in a nutshell, is why Temporary Motorisation is playing the game on Easy mode.

In exchange for an unimportant number of APs and an unimportant amount of trucks, the Germans get another panzer corps during the advance.

When the Infantry catch up to the front, motorisation will be cancelled and the trucks will get returned to supply duty for the autumn and winter.

Temporary motorisation answers the question of 'What if we magic'd up another Panzer Corps or two for the German army in 1941, and the fuel and supplies to run it ?'.

[GibsonPete]

I am interested in the admin point loss and the number of trucks that were damaged because the player could not create depots or repair railyards. The player is losing ten + AP's a turn. The player is using around 5400 + trucks to motorize those Divisions. A big trade off. The results will be interesting.

[IanW]

ORIGINAL: GibsonPete
The player is using around 5400 + trucks to motorize those Divisions. A big trade off. The results will be interesting.

No. It's not a big tradeoff.

What are they giving up ? The panzers are still at maximum movement. The leaders in the Axis formations are good enough, and no APs *need* to be spent replacing them. AGN can use sea supply and get far enough. AGS isn't important if Moscow falls. The APs left over mean AGC can get the depots it needs to take Moscow.

Then result is going to be an easy Axis win, as they get to keep the cutting edge and flank support, because the combination of a massive increase in truck and fuel numbers over what the Heer had historically added to the ability to click your fingers and turn that into motorised infantry wins the war for the Germans.

[carlkay58]

IanW - actually my panzers are roughly -5 MPs each over my normal non-motorized games. I took out roughly 4500 trucks out of the pool to motorized that infantry corps. That is roughly how many more unit trucks I had to use for supply on turn 2. For that I lost 5 MPs in each of my motorized units. So far that is the cost I am seeing at this time. I will look into Turn 5 detail further and compare it with my past AARs to see what the differences have been in vehicle usage, repair pool, etc.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

IanW - actually my panzers are roughly -5 MPs each over my normal non-motorized games. I took out roughly 4500 trucks out of the pool to motorized that infantry corps. That is roughly how many more unit trucks I had to use for supply on turn 2. For that I lost 5 MPs in each of my motorized units. So far that is the cost I am seeing at this time. I will look into Turn 5 detail further and compare it with my past AARs to see what the differences have been in vehicle usage, repair pool, etc.

I'd also say I'm seeing a steady degradation of unit MP for the infantry divisions (with just 2 motorised divisions), reckon I have far more <12 than I am used to seeing and that hampers the scope to move up and deliver a full attack in the same turn

[GibsonPete]

My thanks to loki100 and carlkay58. I suspected that temporary motorization was a two edged sword. The developers are not fools. They would not hand out silver bullets that would unbalance the game. I look forward to what you discover in future turns.

[IanW]

ORIGINAL: GibsonPete

would not hand out silver bullets that would unbalance the game. I look forward to what you discover in future turns.

"Their mobility had allowed me to keep a normal Panzer Corps in the front line instead of protecting flanks where infantry are not fast enough to reach. "

[jubjub]

ORIGINAL: IanW

ORIGINAL: GibsonPete

would not hand out silver bullets that would unbalance the game. I look forward to what you discover in future turns.

"Their mobility had allowed me to keep a normal Panzer Corps in the front line instead of protecting flanks where infantry are not fast enough to reach. "

It's not like you really need to protect your flanks against the AI anyway. You can get away with murder...