A tale from '42 - AlbertN vs MSAG

[AlbertN]

T92 - Battle for Khimki

The Germans attack for the 3rd time, and the Soviets will occupy it again I feel as the Germans leave the hex vacant.

But the 'ratio' of the losses is ever getting less and less favorable.
In fact to be a German victory, the Germans lost more than the Russians.

Ideally it is a 'distraction' from other fronts for the Russians. But the Germans appear unable to mount pressure.

[AlbertN]

T92 - Northrend Distractions...

There was a feeling that the local Soviet forces were not exactly well manned and mighty, and the local panzerkorp kept as reserve was used offensively instead but alas it has not achieved any strategic result of the sort and probably the local Soviet forces will fiercely counterattack.

Two panzer divisions traded tanks 3:1 with a Soviet armoured corps that activated by reserve as they were pounding hastily the Guard Airborne unit that infantry dislodged previously from its fortified positions.
The Motorized division, bolstered up by many panzer battallions, got stalled on its feet by the Soviets, hindering another plan to come true.

Further north the I A.K. continued its fights in the remote north, with success but the inflicted losses at the Soviets were very lousy if not insignificant.

All is all it was an attempt that quickly converted into what is a strategic defeat within my own turn lapse.

[EwaldvonKleist]

ORIGINAL: Rosseau

Very nice AAR. Regarding the Panzer-Infantry, I am looking forward to the update that allows us to modify "devices" to our choosing. It has been a long wait, but I know Mr. Helpless on this forum works very hard on everything he does! Best wishes to him. Sorry to interrupt. [;)]

There already is an editor where you can change the data of all equipment and campaigns.

[AlbertN]

T93 - Mud begins to arrive

At the northern front the mud descends and pratically stalls military operations.

Only the 1st AK pounds a single rifle division.

The German 1st AK has pratically the best non elite troops around, with 4 divisions being 77-78 morale and 1 division being 83.

Locally the SS Polizei division turns into a mechanized one.
I am evaluating if to issue it elsewhere as the present terrain do not really favor ... armoured operations here and in general the sector whole seems non relevant in strategic terms.

[AlbertN]

T93 - 3rd Panzer / 9th Army Sector

Here there is a perceived weakness of the Russians and there are velleities to seize the railroad, it may well hinder their supply further north.

Why? Ideally the less the Soviets can push the more I could regiment down divisions and relocate some elsewhere.

But I also keep thinking that and at the same time feel my line extremely vulnerable.
Would a single regiment withstand in a hex against ... let's say 4 infantry corps - my answer is no.

On the other hand the Russians do not seem to have the forces, locally, to mount an offensive. Here and into the 18th Army sector (Previous screenshot).

On the other hand right there, the Soviets may as well hop backward and lose little to nothing too.

[AlbertN]

T93 - South Moscow sector

Here I am definitely packed - with the 4th Panzer, 4th Army, 16th Army and elements of the 2nd Panzer.

Reorder of OOB is needed but I am still on 4 Assault Armies.

The Assault Armies have a single big limit, they do not dig. But pratically I can keep an Army Corp to a non assault army til it dug in to lvl 3 Fort, and then swap it back.

The CCP buildup and other support test rolls come in handy so ... I believe it's just better to keep 4 Assault Army through the game whole at the cost of some juggling around or overloading non Assault Armies.

Moscow sector I tend to keep quite heavily manned as I saw it as a primary venue for a grand assault from the Soviets, they've infinite supply there.
But it seems there Soviet problems right now are not supply related but more so manpower related.

[AlbertN]

T93 - 2nd Army / 2nd Panzer Sector

Not much to say here, the 2nd Army has a line of regiments keeping a riverline that soon won't be frozen anymore graciously.

And with the backup of the 2nd Panzer Army in general the Soviet onslaught has been stalled in this sector without grand losses.

But snow is still present.

[AlbertN]

T93 - Taking a risk

I feel that I may gain if this gamble succeeds.
There is a minor river ahead and may try to establish it as line once again there, at the cost of departing my own fortifications for the turn for a subsequent gain later.

If I get the mud I ought to be safe, I feel - since weather changes at Soviet turn.

But if it remains frozen... I may be well prone and ripe for a slamdown attack from the ponderous and imposing local Soviet forces

[AlbertN]

T93 - Southern Reaches

Here the Dor River Bend saw a disengaging from the Germans, and the Soviets have not pursued during their turn.
Probably they fear a counterattack if they advance?

The Axis line is pretty much attached together with spittle and paperglue though, where the regular panzer division operating here has on the paper 40-60 panzers, and a good 50% of them are damaged. (Though the Germans have the fluctuating amount of SUs with panzers and the like to shuffle around).

Probably the Russians plan to reorganize rthemselves as well as the mud arrives.

[AlbertN]

T93 - Caucasus

In the Caucasus too the Axis has held the line and positions.

All in all through the '42 to '43 Winter I consider the Axis pretty successful.

Had a small exchange of mails with MSAG and he told me has another game ongoing where the Germans in that game have less territorial gains, have 100k more trucks than I (That is a lot!), and that he feels that the German units in that game are way stronger than my Germans here.

It is definitely a curious insight.

From my perspective the Russians are missing out on a bucket of manpower all across the board, from Leningrad to Rhyazan and Tula and many other locations.

That prevents their army to bloat up massively I feel, since each manpower point is 20 men per turn in '43 if I remember correctly the table. (Besides being 3 HIWIs for me)

[AlbertN]

T93 - Production Mismatches?

Easy to detect - somehow the Romanian Tank Division is not getting Light Tanks despite an amount being in the Active Pool.

The Romanian Tank Division has been retreated from activty duty to undergo refit all along other Panzer Divisions.
It just seems that an amount of AFVs in the Romanian inventory / arsenal are of the undesired type and remain lingering there.

[AlbertN]

T93 - German Artillery Production

Further issues I can see is in terms of production here - on which I've no control.

From the already exposed Nebelwelfer issue to these 10 massive guns of 240 that would well make use somewhere, if only I could fit them in a unit.
That's about the firepower of a cruiser (more than a light and less than a heavy cruiser) that is being kept parked in the arsenal!

There is a massive problem with the Infantry Guns but at the same time I've an overflow of AT Guns in the order of thousands.

Armour wise anything that is produced is immediately fitted into service with the exception of the Tiger tanks, that by now sit in over two hundred in the arsenal, with nowhere to fit in line units...

I've also 50 PzII Flame that cannot fit anywhere.
There are some Italian sourced Semoventes that are not being fitted in the unit supposed to welcome them in the Balkans either, and that remains at 0 TOE.

This turn also some of the 'Stug Companies' across the board changed TOE to welcome Nashorns or the like ... so I've to hound them across the board now and place them where they can be refitted.

It would have been somehow handy if I could have 'clicked' them via the Logistic Report instead of having to hunt for them!

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN

...

It would have been somehow handy if I could have 'clicked' them via the Logistic Report instead of having to hunt for them!

....

you can, either search on unit size and SP or on 'company' under unit name

[AlbertN]

T94 - Of 'not filling' units

Here an example of a unit that does not fill up.

This may be a bit extreme though - a clear mismatch.
But in general I find it odd that where there could be potential type of assets, for some reason they're not assigned or allocated.

The game truly need some TOE flexibility and / or to allow Axis to create more units.

Here I've an empty one - and to me this is a case of mismatch as I feel the Italian imported semoventes should get in there.
But then if I'd use that unit (assuming it gets filled) in combat, I'd be short of replacements quickly!

On the other hand with the 200+ Tigers sitting in the arsenal - why cannot just add a few extra Heavy Panzer battallions or integrate Tigers in the Panzer Divisions mundane TOE?

Some added flexibility could be nice to have.

The difference between 'foreign' and 'national' should easily go. Nations are at war, and grab what they can in general.

From a side player control is nice but excess of micro puts people off.

[AlbertN]

T94 - Morale Drops

The difference between regiments, one of them spent some turns further off from the rail and have not got enough supplies due to the logistic system.

As you can see despite the having won the same amount of fights (and they so did as divisional asset and not regimented down) all of that division was higher up in morale.

Now there is a gap of 5 Morale Points.

Morale here seems to pool an amount of factors though - not just troop morale.

Low supplies bringing more attrition? Sure. A lower CV for the duration of low supply? Granted.
But that troops somehow 'demoralizes' to lose permanently combat capability - that's silly and stupid and non logical.

Because as soon as the unit is back in supply (Now as per the screenshot) their morale has been obliterated anyhow and it's pratically beyond recovery.
It's like the personnel got replaced with less skilled folks, but it was not the case.

Frankly I hope it is a routine-check that goes, the Morale Loss due to being low on supply / fatigued.
Morale loss if isolated? Sure. If losing battles. Sure.

That's how I see it at least.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

With the Tigers, in June 43 the Heavy Pz battalions go from 20 to 45 Tigers. So that should eat up some of the pool.

[EwaldvonKleist]

Morale here seems to pool an amount of factors though - not just troop morale.

WitX morale is somewhat poorly named. Since it also acts as the upper bound of experience and experience gravitates towards the morale, it is even more encompassing.

It encompasses:
1) The will to fight (therefore the decline after defeats and if in poor supply or encircled)
2) The average quality of the recruits in terms of physical and mental capabilities (therefore the drop in national morale for Germany late-war when recruitment standards were lowered)
3) The quality of the country's (national morale) or unit's (unit morale) doctrine and higher leadership, since morale also acts as a limit for the experience a unit can gain.

I agree that the current naming is confusing. For more detail, there should be unit morale (and national morale), unit experience (and national experience) and recruit quality (and national recruit quality). Currently, recruit quality, national experience and national morale are all part of national morale, while unit recruit quality and unit morale are part of unit morale.

[AlbertN]

T96 - North Afrika management

This business would be widely different in a 'War in Europe' - as a gradual evacuation is to happen.

Here to boost up the % I've issued first a large batch of Italian infanteries of the variegated sort and whisked out an amount of other assets the hug the 90% limit.

Events are taking place 1 month earlier than schedule, as I've got an amount of 'defeats' here and there, but despite having had for the whole '42 a 120% ground percent, never a single ground victory to delay the event chain.

I expect the end of the theather to be imminent here - and on that note I do not know what is to happen to the Italian units in Italy for whenever Italy is to surrender.
Thus I will have a good investing of APs in disbanding any truck relevant Italian asset since trucks conflux in a generic truck pool for the Axis whole.

[Jango32]

I think you should move out the German units from North Africa around the time you expect it's going to fall so they aren't lost in the surrender.

[AlbertN]

T97 - Afrikan Disaster

As predicted the North Afrika TB collapsed.

Here I feel first of all there is a big problem. The collapse immediately triggers the Italian Campaign chain, and ups to a massive amount the ground requirements.

That MUST get changed as per there should be some turns of grace to sort the Italian TB requirement.
It is not a slim requirement change, and at least in my situation it means not even 5 Panzer Divisions will fill the gap. (nor the few Italian motorized division disbanded would).

It instantly brought forward Italian campaign events; as the Italian garrison dropped from 130% to 40% pretty much on the spot!

The solution is simple - when the North Afrika TB collapses and it's closed up, the 'What's Up Next?' triggers a new event in 3-4 turns, something that signals Allies may invade on after having well established their logistic network in Tunisia and all.

So that the Axis player has some time to organize and match the new TB requirements.
Because certainly it's not that the Allies just won in Tunisia and the week after they're ready to embark and invade mainland EU.

In general I feel all the 'TB changes' in requirements should be potentially announced in-game via a warning event. We've some notional events about this or that thing that are not really relevant at all but curiosities but we miss out on useful goodies.

Then we've problem nr.2 - which is objective.

Not all destroyed units reform.

That to me is worrysome as I could have lost a Panzer Division or the Herman Goering Elite division even, and not have it reform?

Here in the screenshot the fact some stuff is simply amiss while other units do reform with their 0 TOE.

The 999th Motorized Division is well gone (I think that one would have remained... while the motorized division that disbands at T116 has been rescued), and does not reform.
The Centauro division of Italy reforms.
The 5th Panzer Army is gone for good it seems. I am quite sure that large formation is present widely and broadly in the Western sector later on in the war but here it has been smoked and unless there is some renaming to come that I am missing, that unit is not returning on the map.
I've shown 2 more samples - returning werfers and the non returning flak regiment.

I've not checked unit by unit there but it is potentially quite frustrating.

One thing I can assume is that if a unit was booked for 'disbanding' later one does not reform - but I am far from sure here.