Scenario: The Destruction of Southwestern Front vs Sov AI (Completed)

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - Action Phase (Part 2)

In the centre, efforts were concentrated in consolidating and reducing the Stanislav and Podolia pockets –

1. Infantry units were brought forward to strengthen the eastern side of the Podolia pocket (re: red line).

2. Disappointment - the northern half of the Podolia pocket had no enemy units (re: blue circle).

A total of 13 Soviet divisions (smaller units not counted) were destroyed in the two pockets this turn.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - Action Phase (Part 3)

Nearby the Rumanian border south of the city Kishinev, the Rumanian 4th Army (4A) and elements of German 11A advanced without any resistance.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 - End of the Turn Report

(a) Originally I thought I had not made any attack using panzer/armored units this turn. However, checking the Commander Report revealed that a panzer regiment was unintentionally included in a deliberate attack by a co-locating motorized regiment on a Soviet Rifle Division. Luckily the panzer regiment lost no AFVs in the battle.

(b) The losses of/upto Turn 3 were shown in the screenshot.

[jlbhung]

Turn 3 – Depots, Rail Repair Plan

Screenshot shows the current depots and illustrates my rail repair plan -

1. The main rail repair job will be the responsibility of the German unit “FBD1” (at centre). The plan is to follow 1PzG and carry out repair along the double track rail leading from Lvov towards Vinnitsa, Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk and Stalino. At the end of Turn 3, FBD1 already repaired past the city Tarnopol. I found that FBD1 can repair up to 8 hexes of damaged rail in friendly hexes if terrain and weather are good. With that speed it will have no problem in keeping up with 1PzG.

2. As auxiliary, the 34 Corps HQ (in the north) was spared to command the only two rail repair support units (SUs) – the K12 RAD Labor Detachment and V RAD Labor Group. The short term plan is to repair a rail link to the town Kovel so that I can create a depot there, to improve supply in the Pripyat Marches area.

3. In the south, the short term target for 1st RUM Rail Command is to repair the rail through Kishinev to the town Tiraspol (black arrow), so that a depot could be created there to support the assault on Odessa. Afterwards, the RUM Rail Command will repair the rail along the blue arrows.

[jlbhung]

Turn 4 - Recon Results and Action Planning

I had a very good Air Phase this turn, losing only 1 aircraft while flying 8 Recon Air Directives.

Screenshot shows the frontline situation after air recon. The air recon areas covered are where I intend to take actions. With the intelligence gathered on ground and from air, plans for Action Phase were drawn up –

1. 1PzG will strike north towards the map edge (blue arrow). The goal is to cut off all Soviet units to the west of 1PzG’s path. There was a cluster of Soviet units to the east of the striking path near the map edge. They will not be included in the pocket because if I shift the striking path to the east, 1PzG will have to face the difficult terrains circled in blue (with swamps, heavy woods and a major river).

2. In the Centre, infantry will advance to seemingly undefended areas. There is no intention to initiate any combat.

3. In the South, east of Kishinev, troops will attempt to cross the major river.

4. Efforts will also be spent in reducing the three pockets circled in red.

[jlbhung]

Turn 4 - Action Phase (Part 1)

As shown in the screenshot, a pocket was formed in the Volhynia area with elements of 6A in the west and south, elements of 1PzG in the east, and the map edge in the north. Axis troops were just one hex away from completely closing the pocket (the red circle).

The pocket was formed without many combats - only four substantive battles (battle sites circled in blue). The other two surrender flag sites involved removal of just very weak fort battalions.

[jlbhung]

Turn 4 - Action Phase (Part 2)

Reducing the three pockets formed in Turn 2 and Turn 3 destroyed 16 Soviet Divisions (smaller units not counted).

[jlbhung]

Turn 4 - Action Phase (Part 3)

Screenshot shows the end of turn position. Some highlights –

1. In the north, within the area between Kiev and Vinnisa (the red circle), there were 3 panzer divisions and 3 motorized brigades with infantry support. Next turn, they have the potential to launch a breakthrough somewhere, preferably in the direction of the dual track rail leading east. Support can also be expected from mobile units forming the eastern wall of the Volhynia pocket, as I plan to use infantry to replace them (the broken red arrow).

2. In the centre (the blue circle), Rumanian mobile units were assembled (1 armored division and 4 cavalry brigades). With support from infantry of German 11A, these mobile units could either move north or south (the blue arrows) with the potential of forming new pockets.

3. Further south (the black circle), only two German infantry divisions managed to cross the major river to the east of Kishinev this turn. Crossing the major river was more difficult than I envisaged. A lot of movement points were required because the Soviet had the river bank covered by zone of control of its units.

Separately, this turn I adhered to my adopted approach of not using any panzer/armored units to make attack.

[Hardradi]

Nicely presented AAR Looking forward to see how your map mod stacks up in the light and heavy mud.

[jlbhung]

Thank you Hardradi for your compliment. Light mud will appear starting from Turn 9. However, there will be no heavy mud to be seen in this game.

I am now playing WitE2 for scenarios only and playing WitE1 for campaign game (pending a more refined WitE2 before committing the time). I can only find the following image showing both light mud (light brown hexes) and heavy mud (brown hexes in red circle at top right hand corner) from my saves for a Road to Leningrad game playing the Soviet side.

[jlbhung]

Turn 5 - Recon Results and Action Planning

This turn started with another good Air Phase, losing only 2 aircrafts while flying 9 Recon Air Directives.

Screenshot shows the frontline situation after air recon. Based on intel from ground contact and air recon, some initial ideas on actions to be taken this turn –

1. The 3 Soviet divisions circled in red in the enlarged windows are very weak. Here should be a good place for 1PzG to breakthrough.

2. There may be a gap in the centre of the Soviet line, where the Rumanian mobile units could explore and help form a pocket if 1PzG move south (the blue arrow).

3. In the southern part of the frontline, it appears that Soviet troops retreated, leaving only some fort battalions behind. Axis troops will just claim the undefended area. No attack is envisaged in this area other than clearing of forts.

4. An important task is to close the Volhynia pocket (4a in screenshot). Separately, I also want to completely clear the two pockets formed earlier in Turn 2 (4b in screenshot).

[jlbhung]

Turn 5 - Action Phase (Part 1)

Screenshot shows the map’s northern half at the end of the Action Phase –

1. The Volhynia pocket sealed (black dotted circle). The pocket is now held mainly by the infantry of 6A, with assistance of Slovakian and Hungarian troops. Elements of 1PzG moved out totally from this sector.

2. Breakthrough south of Kiev was smooth, allowing 1PzG units to –

(a) cross the Dnepr River;

(b) take the undefended city Cherkassy;

(c) isolate a pocket of 17 soviet units south of Kiev.

3. For the 2 hexes circled in red, the Soviet line actually did not have a gap (contrary to air recon – see point 2 of my last post). A hole had to be punctured to complete the pocket.

[jlbhung]

Turn 5 - Action Phase (Part 2)

Highlights for the screenshot showing southern part of the map at the end of the Action Phase –

1. Remnant of the pockets (red circles) formed in Turn 2 was completely eliminated this turn, with 4 Soviet divisions destroyed (smaller units not counted). Together with a tank division destroyed in the north, 5 Soviet divisions were destroyed this turn.

2. Four fort battalions left from Soviet’s retreat were eliminated (blue circle).

3. These two corps (black circles in broken line) of the German 11A will be used for the assault on Odessa.

[jlbhung]

Turn 5 - Use of Panzer/Armor Units in Attacks

While panzer/armored units were involved in 3 attacks this turn (battles (a) to (c) in the screenshot), they were confined to already weakened units. These attacks were initiated to secure the bottom edge of the pocket south of Kiev.

The two enemy units attacked (25th NKVD Border Guard Detachment in battles (a) to (b), and 30th Cavalry Division in battle(c)) were weakened in an earlier battle (battle (d)).

Possibly due to the weakened status of the enemy units, the German panzer regiment suffered no ground loss in its two battles, and the ground losses for the Rumanian armored were very light. Actually no single AFV was lost.

[jlbhung]

Turn 6 – Naval Patrol

As Axis troops were approaching Odessa, it is time to start Naval Patrol air mission with a view to block the port of Odessa. Screenshot shows the setup for the Air Directive. Some highlights –

(a) the flying path (green hexes highlighted) covers all the two water hexes next to Odessa;

(b) regarding the red box - the scenario’s default schedule and strike num. for naval patrol were flying on 5 days and “auto(2)” strikes each day equivalent to a total of 10 raids each player turn. I wanted to start with 50% more raids (i.e. 15 raids), translating to flying on 3 days and 5 strikes a day. I also arbitrarily set 15 for minimum mission aircraft/escort [Min AC(Esc)] just to ensure escorts are flying. Others are default settings.

(c) In addition to the two Rumanian Naval Recon airgroups (10 aircrafts each), two German bombers airgroups (30 bombers each) were assigned to this task. III./JG52’s 40 aircraft would escort the mission (see green box). German bombers also changed their Load Out to mines (see white box). [Alternatively, one can also trust the AI and select Auto, so there is no need to change the Load Out back to bombs when Naval Patrol is unnecessary.]

[jlbhung]

Turn 6 – Air Phase Results and Action Planning

I lost 12 recon aircrafts for general recon over the whole frontline using 10 Recon Air Directives. The Naval Patrol lost 1 mission aircraft and 1 escort.

Screenshot shows the situation after the Air Phase and my plan for the coming Action Phase. Highlights include –

1. I plan to clear the Volhynia pocket (black circle in MAIN pic) as far as possible.

2. The pocket south of Kiev (blue circle in MAIN pic) is also targeted for elimination.

3. If air recon is to be trusted, a gap exists in the Soviet defence surrounding Kiev and E.Kiev (red circle in the enlarged pic A). The terrain to the north of the cities is very unfavuorable – major rivers, swamp and moving through enemy zone of control. However, isolation of the two cities may still be achievable by 1PzG units.

4. A panzer regiment in the recently occupied city Cherkassy was isolated. Reinforcement to consolidate the grip on Cherkassy is required (black circle in the enlarged pic A).

5. A push towards Kirovograd is planned as air recon suggested that there is a gap in the frontline and the city is undefended (blue arrow in the enlarged pic A). I have to rely on panzer and motorized units for the push as infantry units are a bit far away.

6. Isolation of Odessa by land is planned (black arrow in the enlarged pic B).

7. Naval Patrol succeeded in blocking the Odessa port (green circle in the enlarged pic B). This is indicated by (a) the value in the lower left circle is greater than the value in the upper right circle by 2 or more in the two water hexes next to Odessa; and (b) the water hexes were in lighter shade [the air interdiction map info has to be turned on – shift-u].

On points 3 and 5 above, while the AI at 110 can teleport units to form defensive lines, I believe that some gaps may be unavoidable at this stage. So far, over 40 Soviet divisions (smaller units not counted) were destroyed and some 30 units isolated. Adding in possibly some 8-10 units in Odessa, the Soviet AI may not have sufficient units to fill every hex in the frontline (about 50 hexes wide).

[jlbhung]

Turn 6 – Action Phase (Part 1)

I started with reducing the two pockets. A total of 30 Soviet divisions destroyed (smaller units not counted), amounting to over 270k men, 3900 guns and 1250 AFVs (see the screenshot).

[Note: strictly speaking the statistics were very slightly polluted by an attack on an AT brigade outside the pockets. I forgot to take a screenshot immediately after reduction of the pockets.]

[jlbhung]

Turn 6 – Action Phase (Part 2)

Several highlights worth mentioning in the screenshot taken at the end of the Action Phase –

1. Kiev isolated.

2. Kirovograd taken.

3. Odessa isolated.

4. Large area was taken without resistance. Soviet troops appeared to keep on retreating in the South (blue circle).

[jlbhung]

Turn 6 – Use of Panzer/Armored Units in Combat

Panzer units were involved in two attacks this turn in the advance towards Kirovograd, since infantry units were unavailable.

One was a hasty attack by a panzer regiment on an already weakened rifle division defeated and retreated earlier in the turn (battle (a)). Axis losses in this battle were minimal.

The other was a deliberate attack on a rifle division by a panzer regiment supporting a Motorized Division (battle (b)). I bought the panzer regiment in so that the battle started with 3:1 CV ratio. No air support was called for because the area was beyond escort range. Since the enemy was not weak, I lost 9 (>10%) out of the 84 AFVs participated in the battle.

[loki100]

guess you could regard those tank losses as a bit of extra attrition in addition to the normal wear and tear of movement?

re the AI, if it runs out of enough units to fill the line I think it reverts to a combination of strategies.

It does seem to like a balanced front line (so will deploy with just ZoC coverage) but if it feels badly over-matched it will try to set its line well back (say 3-4 hexes0 as opposed to in contact. This is not a bad combination but sometimes it seems to decide to set up fairly close (so its estimate of relative front line strength is under-estimating what you have to hand), which gives you a decent chance at clean breakthroughs?