Nach Moskau und zurück - Gunnulf (A) AtAtack (S) GC-No early end

[Gunnulf]

T100 Ryazan sector

A dangerous looking buildup of Guard rocket divisions and Mech corps breaks the line but once again we are able to deploy the local fire brigade to plug the line. We had to send a couple of divisions to Italy though so things are marginally thinner up here right now though.

[Gunnulf]

T100 Stalingrad sector

Having noticed that the fighting in the Caucasus has certainly thinned out the lines at Stalingrad we roll the dice with a small offensive here of ourselves. Will be wildly optimistic to take the city but certainly we can start a few bushfires to add to the strategic pressure... Mostly just rifle divisions swept aside by 17 Armee, while 1 Panzer and Detachment Kempf do ok against Rifle Corps themselves and we sense an opportunity of further mischief. Cutting either one of the railtracks will also put pressure on the northern flank of the Caucasus I think... Again, probably a pipe-dream but fortune favours the brave! Or recklessly stupid.

[Gunnulf]

ORIGINAL: Stamb

Can you post your supply map with depot priorities?

Depot overview from T101, I've highlighted where the priority 4 and 3 depots are, everything else mostly 2 with some 1 & 0 in places but thats rare. Too lazy to change most lower than 2 and seems to work ok. Total truck losses at 190k it seems or just under 1.9k average per turn, but last turn looks like only 0.7k so running well below average losses. As you can see most units are pulling supply from local depots and not too much strain on the trucks right now as far as my monkey brain can establish. Even 4 Panzer seems to be getting the supplies it requests and only 3 Panzer is falling short, but hardly starving or running out of shells.

At the far end of the chain in the super depot in Ordzhonikidze 12k is reaching here for further distribution (generally 20-25% of capacity), but all the other level 4 depots in the sector are directly receiving between 0.5 and 1k each week too. Also each week we fly supplies from Rostov bases, they can't reach the front line depots, but takes some pressure off the rail (although thats not close to capacity).

[Stamb]

Awesome. Thanks. Your average truck losses are 1.8k per turn. Very good.

[Gunnulf]

Yes and certainly running well below average losses last few turns. We've put a lot of effort into reducing the strain on the truck fleet all through the campaign. A lot of AGN first line units are static, but the 2nd line reserves regiments are fully mobile to be able to respond. Also of note over winter the FDBs made good progress filling in the odd rail gaps, including some previously overlooked links through the mountains to Hungary. There are not virtually no damaged rail lines except a few dead ends that go nowhere anyway.

[Stamb]

Do you use any background depots like Warsaw/Minsk/Lvov/Kiev to accumulate freight with priority 4 and then drop it to 2 or 3 to release this freight?

[Gunnulf]

I know the theory and was planning to do it at Rostov but then the offensive started earlier when we found no resistance and was kinda nervous to even try to hold anything back once everything was moving. It would certainly make sense if had a pause in the action before an offensive but so far I havent found the time/opportunity to do it.

[Gunnulf]

T01 Caucausus

More skirmishing on the northern flank. Certainly a solid force building up here that we need to be respectful of. At a rough count we are facing about 26 corps in the sector so maybe at least 1.3million if we guess 20k each, but probably more in reality. So the Soviets certainly chosing to make a stand here which is what we expected of course. We still make progress to the east and may be in a position to make a first assault on Grozny.

[Gunnulf]

T101 Stalingrad

17 Armee makes progress clearing out the river bend, but the assaults on the main line fail basically because we didn't check if we had pioneers. Schoolboy error. Must do better. But again, mostly we aim to set a bushfire here to put pressure on strategic choices now its clear that the sector has been stripped for parts.

[Gunnulf]

T102 Caucasus Soviet raid

Bit of a disappointment as we find two marauding Tank Corp - actually virtually no actual tanks, in reality a motor rifle brigade at a stretch, sneak through and cause havoc in the rear scaring a few corps HQ to relocate. Thankfully a couple of rear area forts we had the forethought to build to preserve a fall-back position are enough to prevent further damage. Still a bi of a nightmare to deal with, but could have been very annoying if these 2 understrength battlegroups unravelled the whole army group! My bad for not having a division in reserve here. As Atatack gleefully remarked in chat - "Groznygrad!" which was very much a risk for sure!

[Gunnulf]

T102 Groznygrad - cleanup on aisle south

The response, thankfully, leaves us in an Ok position, the rail is repaired and a new depot in place. Took a few battles to chase the 2 raiders around the rear but ultimately they routed into oblivion. Needless to say the rear is more secure now.
In other more important news, despite this critical distraction, XI Corps leads the attack into Grozny supported from multiple directions and the city falls. We also make further inroads to cut the north-south rail line and that bridgehead looks secure for now. This puts the Axis HWM at a comfortable 807vp which of course is cause for celebration at the end of a scary turn.

[Gunnulf]

T102 Stalingrad

In other parts of the front, now we actually brought pioneers we start to at least drop fortification levels with the assaults here. 1 Panzer is now our third Assault HQ and we will see if we can cause some upsets here. Virtually zero chance of capturing the city of course, but we can focus enemy minds for sure as this sector is stripped of significant reserves right now for sure, but probably not for long.

Overall a solid 99k loss for the Soviets and 1.6k AFV, but not without Axis losses too of course and things are running hot in several places now as he continues to probe for weak spots around Ryazan, Tambov and Voronezh

[Gunnulf]

T103 Ryanzan & Voronezh sectors

Pressure points applied again and again along the Central sectors of the line, but each time reserves manage to plug the gaps, more or less... But its certainly getting tougher and at some point it will break I'm sure. We might still hold through summer though at this rate. Famous last words...

[Gunnulf]

T103 Stalingrad

Some solid breakthroughs by 1 Panzer armee, although disappointingly 17 Armee's attempt to cross the river and cut one of the rail lines into Stalingrad is held up. Certainly the flow will be interrupted directly to the city though and I think next week 1 Panzer should be able to complete the job.

[Gunnulf]

T103 Grozny

Grozny is solidified but not yet connected to rail. Once it is these extra train points will certainly help supplies, although plenty is already getting through anyway. The Soviets to the north continue to apply pressure but its possible already far from Astakhan they are starting to suffer from lower than optimum supplies, and if we can cut the flow directly into Stalingrad this will put more pressure on Astrakhan as a hub. More on this later I think... But essentially in their own turn the Soviets can amass enough combat power to defeat a German division but they cannot hold up to attacks themselves. We might not be able to get Makhachkala, certainly not before initiative switches, but I think we can dig in for winter here, unless we are forced to pull too much back to Italy across the whole front. I've not got this far before either time-wise or geographically so feeling our way though really...

[Stamb]

Is this supply tickers or softfactor or how do you name it on a screenshots?

If it is - how do you have so many supplies near Stalingrad?

Did you take any private lessons from a supply master (loki) ? [;)]

[Hardradi]

So you dont think cutting the rail line to Astrakhan will have much of an effect on the Soviets?

Of the top if my head I dont think there is an NSS in the south, so supply would have to come across the Caspian.

[Gunnulf]

I usually have soft factor set to supplies and I assumed it is here, but I'll have to double check next turn that Atatack hasnt changed it in his turn which I believe then changes it for both players. But certainly that fits the picture last time I specifically checked the Intel on soviet supplies down south.
As to how supplies are so good in stalingrad, not sure definitively but I've tried to do the right thing overall with the supply priority across the front, the whole rail network is repaired now so lots of multiple lines going east in parallel in the south, and none are railing troops. Combat in the sector was quiet for months allowing supplies in units to fill completely and while no depots built up stores there are 2 rail lines and multiple depots on 4 that seem to flow OK right now. Plus as supplies ok in the caucasus are OK so the Ju52s are sending maybe 300+ extra to the stalingrad sector each week now which helps a little. So yes the supplies look OK here. I can credit loki in general but no private lessons, just from public info

As to NSS in the south, I must admit I thought /assumed there was one down in Azerbaijan representing LL from Persia but maybe that's not the case from revisiting TBD manual. In which case maybe it is coming across the Caspian in which case that doesn't seem ideal for the Reds right now.

[loki100]

There is no NSS in the Caucasus so cutting that line will hurt (but then its a single line so not much in any case).

Looking at an old save, by the end of the game I had only 7 cargo ships in the Caspian (that was well into 1945) so thats not really going to make any real difference.

I've never really understood how the LL material enters, I assume it just gets dumped into the pools but there may be some routine to allocate an element to Baku if the rail is cut (but then I've never understood the production system). Also between Baku and Tblisi there are 40 HI and 20 odd arms pts so even as a disconnected economic unit that is a fair bit of potential production? Here its going to act like Leningrad when isolated and local production stays in the local network as opposed to being processed via NSS.

So he's not going to be in a great state there but equally should be ok.

More generally, well into 1943 and still setting the operational tempo ... chapeaux

[Gunnulf]

I'm glad to hear thats not going to completely cripple him then if he will get some local supplies, and a bit of caspian flow. Be a shame to be starved out purely due to design oversight as for sure I originally expected to be getting Allied LL coming from Baku area. But certainly doesn't sound like enough to do more than survive rather than thrive. I guess we'll see... Astakhan will be a busy railyard/port right now for sure.
Good to still be inside the OODA loop yes. I'm just not yet sure what will be able to achieve once Italy becomes more demanding as a TB, but there are places I can strip back a little and still be ok I think.