A tale from '42 - AlbertN vs MSAG

[Joel Billings]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

T82 - SU to Disband?

I admit here I am not very knowledgeable - but at this stage, considering no new Karl-Franz can be produced, should I just disband the SU?
1 Admin Point to recycle some support units is a honest trade off.

Or are there other 'weapon systems' that can fill it?

Check your production screen. There are 4 types of super-heavy arty and no substitutions and no production. If you don't have any in the pool, than disbanding is the thing to do.

[AlbertN]

@Joel: Thanks, suspected disband is the way to go already.

T82 - Romanian Tanks

Factually more a curiosity than a relevant bit - but the Romanian Cavalry divisions demand Recon Tanks, that are not anymore produced. And they change ToE in '44.

On the other hand there is plenty of Light Tanks, including 'Foreign' ones that are sitting there.
Given the Romanian Armoured Division could use them but needs to be brought on a spot where it can receive them. (Which is about to be done now before I forget!)

[AlbertN]

T83 - Don River Bend

As predicted the Germans got smacked back, and hard as well.

The second line behind is far from being ready even.

It is definitely not a sector where I can risk further grand pushes. There is only a Cavalry Corps that seems attackable; and some divisions at the side where the Romanian Guards have endured the Soviet aggression.

Almost 200 German AFVs saw destruction in these 3 combats, for how many are Panzerjager of this or that type.

[AlbertN]

T83 - Moscow - Tambov sector

Here the Soviet tide has been stemmed for now.

The flow and ebb of the Brown and Red squares has crashed into the relevant German emplacement, only a regiment of the LW-Feld forces has been suffered its first defeat as its first blood was spilled as well.

Soviet massive assaults on the 'corners' with 3 divisions in have been met with a fierce resistance and the Germans kept their grounds there.

The single division that would have been way more vulnerable has been attacked in a lighter way - 1 corps and 2 divisions - and thus kept its grounds too.

I expect some battering somewhere each turn by now til mud arrives.

[AlbertN]

T83 - Leningrad Sector

Here the Russians are retreating and deflating their own front by the looks.

With the fall of the former Tzarist capital and no desire (I believe) to mount an offensive in the sector the Soviets are thinning their forces or hopping back some.

These woodlands are not exactly precious either - there are barely any manpower centers and the like, and I suspect MSAG has readied infiltration assets consisting of the weak Cavalry divisions that are just waiting for some gap to be left open.

[Stamb]

I like that lvl 1 export port with more freight than lvl 4 depots [:D]

[AlbertN]

T83 - Air Supply ... brings fuel to Infantry?

I admit I rarely check about what type of freight is shipped - and I even placed some infantry divisions there as 'Refit' to see if 'Air Supply' can bring freight in the guise of some replacements on the go.

But with grand surprise one of the divisions got 300% of its needs of Fuel.
Now probably that is still not much out of an infantry division but I question the way the type of needed freight-conversion is specified and requested.

As probably the adjacent Panzers may have well used the Fuel (I assume they failed some admin test though)

[AlbertN]

T84 - Panzer Defeat!

Ruinous losses in panzers there - but my fault and a learning lesson!
These panzer divisions repelled an attack previously but were left loaded with damaged AFVs, I was not deeming the Soviets ready to hammer then again and I've not even bothered to cycle them around (not to damage more panzers by moving in blizzard).

But a good 90-100ish of the panzers there are retreat losses so pratically damaged equipment from previous and current fight that could not be salvaged.

Considering the Rostov / Don zone seems already struggling with supplies, the 'Leningrad' Army will be slowly relocated in the sector between here and south of Moscow.

[Stamb]

I wonder if it might be a viable strategy to send panzers to some quite TB and take ID from it for a winter. And after a winter make a swap again. It will cost a lot of rail capacity to move panzers by rail but maybe it is still worth it...

[AlbertN]

Been short of time so made the turn without AAR - but the Panzers had successes in the southern sector.

It can be viable as possibility, yes, to withdraw some Panzer divisions to the Reserve for.

[MSAG]

SOVIET COMMENTS CONTINUED (3)

FALL 42 and WINTER 42
Autumn has brought slowdown in the Axis offensive operations across the front. AlbertN kept attacking Leningrad (beyond reasonable hope to rescue by then) but in other sectors his actions become a little … opportunistic. He pounded to oblivion (in many ways he has been doing so till now) any weaker spots in the front but it seems that the “great offensive” mindset that was clear in his playing style is not there anymore. Probably it is unavoidable. We all suffer from “historical hindsight” (and WITE2 hindsight as well by now) – we know what to expect from our troops and from enemy’s.
I have my hindsight as well I admit – so I prepared the great Stalingrad offensive and a bunch of smaller ones in other sectors to make sure Axis reserves are engaged in other places as well. I decided for the frontal push without any fancy surrounding attempts because first, I believe that the balance of power is clearly in favour of Axis comparing to history (so they can break any kessel easily), and second, my supply situation in the south was not as good as I could wish. I also wanted to gain experience and morale for my troops and get some Guards upgrades (I have only about half as many Guards Rifle troops as I could have had had my army been more successful).
The URANUS offensive was, in general, the major disappointment. Only limited local successes were achieved. Plusses first. Going after Panzer and PzG Divisions (the latter are still called Mot Infantry but seem to have their own Armor units now) and causing them to retreat can to be really rewarding. In any panzer battle there seems to be a lot of damaged tanks and in case of retreat big portion of them is left on the battlefield and lost. So it is always (from T1) worth to make Pz Division retreat.
Negatives – almost all the rest. Axis skilful counterattacks pushed my forces back. The losses balance was like 3:1 or 4:1 against me. And my units started to go on “limited supply” in no time. My offensive lacked the power. And it should have had it! (power that is). I have Depots aplenty. And most of the action was happening not far from the National Supply Source in Saratov.
I slowly realized that something was wrong. I must have been mismanaging some aspects of my army. After 2-3 turns all my mighty Rifle Corps became the “10+” shadows of the former selves (fully rested and supplied, 60 morale GRC can have AV of 35). I tried to shuffle the SUs, beefing my GRSs up for a turn to AV of 15 lets say. But that does not work really. The transferred units have no CPP. And they require supply themselves. So supply situation becomes worse on the next turn. Something is clearly not right …

SUPPLY and VEHICLE (MIS)MANAGEMENT
I believe that Vehicles are my “Achilles heel”. The game does not report any “hard” limits of Vehicles needed in the Pool and in the Depots so it is a little difficult to formulate strong opinions. However, for the first time during my present game with AlbertN I stared to see units very close to the Depot with supply status of 50% and sometimes less (Soviets have the advantage of fighting on their own soil with developed rail network and the National Supply Sources close).
I am afraid I over-mechanized my army. While I refrained from building more than a dozen of Tank Corps I have created all possible Mech Corps + a lot of Artillery units. That has increased substantially the demand for Vehicles in the units. I was hoping that the increased lend-lease Vehicle allotment should help (from 800 in 1942 to 4500 in 1943), and it probably will, but most likely only in time.
During the last 2 turns I have performed the vehicle demand driven downsizing. Some Tank Brigades, 2 Mech Corps, lots of motorized artillery units have been disbanded. I went with “unit vehicle demand” from 220K to 190K. That should add up to 50% to my transport capacity for Depots.

I will see how it works in the next couple of turns.

[Jango32]

Set all armies on priority 4 and keep most depots at the front line on priority 4.

[Sardaukar]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

But at the same time I feel it wrong that the Russians can pretty much stack 3 corps per hex.

The stacking in the game is off. But that is the nature of the beast and just have to deal with it. I know it has been brought up on more than a few occasions and the reasons given and won't be changed I personally love it when you have 2 HQ's stacked with a regiment and another regiment can't retreat to the hex because of stacking.

In this sense WitP-AE (of course totally different came) stacking limits are better, since they are based on troop numbers, not number of units.

I think that'd have been better approach for WitE 2 also.

[AlbertN]

T85 - Calm over the front

Appreciated the comments above - I do agree stacking should work differently.

And ... I was very, very worried when the first Soviet attacks came and saw the big numbers. Especially as the German divisions in some zones were quite 'weak' in their nominal factor.

But after the first panicky attacks the momentum was lost from the Soviets, and I could even do counter-pushes; at least not the most convenient thing to do either.

In general my expectations were to have to face a sector of the front holed (somehow historically trained mind was thinking of the Hungarians or the Romanians). I do not know of the logistic situation on the Russian end there but I deliberately kept Romanians afar from sensitive spots and the Hungarias in the furthest spot from Soviet railways.

Trucks are a hard thing - I've read in other guides for Soviets to avoid the rocket artillery because it drains trucks, but I am far from expert. Germans are short of 50k trucks on units if I am to go by the Turn Report so I am not well off either!

Here a small bit to help me with the logistics - where I can afford to regiment down the defence and start to pool some strataegic reserves at sectors. But the Caucasus is also very tranquil!

[AlbertN]

T85 - Caucasus 'Lightweight'

As part of the 'reorganization' it was decided to shift assets away from the Caucasus.
The local logistics seem very ... aleatory and casual (and it was sufficiently debated previously) to make the situation here in general a nightmare for sensible forces.

The Italians will be taking over the hills or something somewhere around there - they're pretty much expandable dead meat that will surrender no matter what in not some months time even if they do not know of that yet.
Thus supposedly Italians can be mauled, or be in pristine conditions - it should not make a grand difference; that from a pure gameplay perspective. Considering historically they were pretty much obliterated... it's good to have them around and the real Alpini divisions are combat capable at least if not left in open plains.

I trust the Romanian regiments in the south (and the divisions on the coast) to keep the mountains.

But this whole sector - considering that Oil is non relevant and the VP will soon not hand out a bonus anymore to the Soviets out of Maikop and Krasnodar ... - is potentially a place where I can evacuate at my own convenience.

Not to be understimate is the manpower value of cities and towns but that's a 'long term' benefit.

But this turn 1 Romanian INF and the Armour divisions and 2 Panzer Divisions were issued to the Reserve from this sector.

Maikop repairs are at 19% but I've not seen a sensible oil incraese in my gains and it perdures around 260k stock, only recently having gone up to 290k.

[AlbertN]

T85 - Werfers...

On the map pratically nothing happened, just in the north some minor fights that pushed away some Soviet cavalries and some German infanteries getting a bloodied nose.

Ultimately my 'limit' is that I only want to devote some hours a turn and not an excess of time for each and every minutiae so even if I get to think 'Hmm I should do a major reordering of my frontline' I end up doing it only in part, etcetera.

A risk I want to avoid is to turn a game-turn into a chore.

On the other hand I realized that the Werfers have been entirely swapped out - the big ones.
I've 400+ sitting in the pool that no unit will ever take. It seems to me a forced waste of equipment.
Are they obsolete? I really do not think so. Some Panzer Divisions still have Panzer I in them. The Axis minors have WW1 guns or so...
And rarely in wartime one trashes things just because. (I understand some equipment goes to training schools as old tanks and biplanes etc)

But here I cannot wrap my head around the somehow historical rigidity of a few aspects of the game.

[AlbertN]

T87 ... All quiet on the Eastern Front

A full turn skip, and probably few notions here.

The Soviets have ceased pratically hostile activities of active type and only the 'hugging' where it happens produces attrition.

I am factually impressed the Soviet Army ... has not grown up.

Definitely I've realized that the 'Winter Offensive' of 42-43 went better than originally predicted for the Axis - and MSAG as per usual has been an ace in posting his own perspective there.

But by now I'd have expected the Soviets to have a well larger army. I recently discovered that via the graphs I can even see their manpower pool which is peculiar (but probably a right choice by the gameplay perspective, as ... the data graphs are what they're).

I admit I am not even sure where the AFVs on map are for my end, as my on map Panzer Divisions are quite mauled, some are not on map ... but I suspect a lot are Stugs and PzJagers in fact that can somehow get easy replacement by shifting back and forth into the OKH.

Now with Leningrad bagged before I lost other VP zones and a pretty high High Watermark Score I am quite hopeful.
But the Soviet Army is undergoing a severe reorganization I feel - 3rd turn in a row of non activity. And the German logistic problems are still perseverant and present.

Sooner or later the Italians will go - and they've nice air transports!!!

[AlbertN]

T87 - Caucasus

The Russians made an appearance across the mountains.

I am not sure that is something they truly want, as axis of advance. That logistic route appears a nightmare at first glance. But maybe it will be paired by a more severe attack from the west and a descent from the north, forcing a quick route from the Caucasus.

It can be a viable battleplan - but of limited scope and purpose. It certainly would be more relevant and impactful whereas the Maikop oil rigs were factually relevant instead of redundant - and each turn of prolonged possession of them to net more oil.

On that note - I feel that the oil should be able to be moved away via ship or the Kerch ferry too and not just train. (ONe can ferry the rolling stuck there too...)

[AlbertN]

T88 - Caucasus

Russian presence increases.

The 'Romanian Wedge' there can be easily erased via brute force and then the railroad coming from the East can supply the Russian forces better, even those that come from the mountain range in the south.

I assume thanks to the easy Russian logistics the Soviets are ammassing freight before to start an offensive, while the Axis forces despite being absolutely static seem to be oft famished with yellow and green tickers.

The freight just do not arrive there in adequate amount even if I am sure it could because all that needs to be done is to ferry it over turns in the wanted direction. But I've no control over that.

[AlbertN]

T88 - Moscow Sector Front 'Straightening'

This actually took place the previous turn, ideally the desire is to liberate a railroad from enemy zoc.

With a mass of Engineers free once Leningrad fell, the level 3 fort was a piece of joke (and able to attack from many hexes).
I expected an immediate counterattack here this turn but apparently it was not the case to be.

Now I just need to repair some rail hexes and I can have a depot right into Klin too.