GC41 Exalted tests the axis allies

[exalted]

This AAR is for fun and learning new stuff. I'll run it against the AI as the soviets at normal for 41 and increase to 120 moral and manpower after first winter. The campaign is slightly modified +10NM for Hungarians, +15NM for Rumanians and for the Italians +20NM, the goal is getting as many axis allies onto the battlefield and use them as much as possible for everything from offensives to holding the line. Seeing if they are really only missing some NM or if the problem is larger such as equipment and the game engine screwing them through TOE and other factors such as leaders. The Axis allies will be run both under their own leaders and german leaders as I'll have less germans on the MAP with some more than normal for me at least will go to Soviet Garrisson and other TB's. I'll also run 150-200% on ground/air/navy in North Africa to see if I can delay the allies a bit.

I've played the first ten turns rapidly as they look much the same as normal and will run the AAR from turn 11 onwards.

Turn11 OOB.jpg (29.05 KiB) Viewed 3286 times

Looking at the forces on the MAP I've got a lot of axis allies on map that I don't usually possibly twice as much as I had the last campaign and slightly less germans. I've got the soviets outnumbered by 1.2millions that should be good right

Turn 11 NorthernSector.jpg (191.43 KiB) Viewed 3286 times

The northern sector looks good but I'll probably not push for leningrad, its just not worth it. I'm also thinking about sending PzGrp 4's panzers to poland before the first snow. Will probably bleed the soviets here and get a few more hexes of space for the winter.

Turn 11 CentralSector.jpg (150.63 KiB) Viewed 3286 times

The central sector before the turn surprised me as Smolensk got two hold results on critical turns 4-5? and with no early capture bonus left I waited to re-organize the two PzGR 2 and 3 in the area before taking the city on turn 11. The 9 combat delay for attacking urban hexes with deliberate attacks made a great deal of difference here and I should have considered a more overwhelming attack from the start. Central sector will turn south focusing on small pockets and linking up with forces from southern army group. Hitler may belive in the pipe dream of Moscow 41 the general staff probably deliver him highly edited rapports about their progress and actual goals in this reality, with Moscow being a potential goal in 42 or more likely even 43.

Turn 11 Southern Sector.jpg (129.22 KiB) Viewed 3286 times

Southern sector of the front is where the interesting stuff happens, a great number of italians divisions are arriving as they can gradually be freed up from Balkans and Italy itself. Currently about two and some change armies of Mussolini best are on the map and will gradually become the main support of PzGrp 1's advance towards Stalino. While the Romanian 3rd and 4th army will shift place with the 11th army as the later attempts a quick march offensive towards Sevastropol which I hope to capture in 41 exceeding the historical advance at least here.

While being rather conservative with the rest of my 41 goals not the least because waiting for the Italians to arrive have made me a bit slow on the advance and I'm missing German divisions that usually bolster my Northern and Central Army Groups.

[exalted]

The Italians and Hungarians did some mopping up of the front but fighting was not that interesting so for Turn 11 we will have only a taste of the might of the Italian warmachine seeing some armored combat from 133rd Littorio and friends.

Turn 11 80 Moral Italians.jpg (166.89 KiB) Viewed 3283 times

As we see this mighty division has a potential for 80 moral maybe one day.

Turn 11 Italians on the Offensive.jpg (44.05 KiB) Viewed 3283 times

Two armored divisions and a motorized division pretty much gain German results under these circumstances, perhaps they only need to get above 60 moral to perform somewhat decently. This seems at least slightly promising, perhaps the axis allies are less broken than I thought and the NM moral boosts I put in even sligthly exessive

[Stamb]

That is going to be an interesting test for the Axis allies. Thanks for doing it and gl

[exalted]

Actually I found thinking about how to set it up so fun that I had to do it.

Will probably play a turn every day or two depending on how real life work out, as I will basically ignore the air war for 41 running mostly fighter support (all level bombers except some naval are already sent to the west as I've never gotten any worthwhile use of them), play somewhat defensively in the north turns will probably be rather quick.

[exalted]

Turn 12 Plan 1941 Autumn.jpg (144.89 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

So lets look at the plan for 1941. VP's in the north are tough so the 3rd PzGrp (mostly infantry) is going to be a pivot around Smolensk with the lines north of Smolensk only extending as opportunity permits and eventually reducing forces there to the bare minimum (4th pz grp is retiring to Poland for rest and refit before the snow for reassignment for the 42 offensive). PzGrp 2 is going to make a run towards Kharkov or possibly Kursk depending on the weather but I'm not going to be sad if the offensive stops before that point but meeting up with 17th and 16th (Italian Divisions, German Corps/Army) somewhere around Kharkov seems reasonable. 4th, 6th and 9th army are going to form a line from Smolensk and south pushing as far as they get without over extending too much. 1st PzGrp is striking for Zaprozhye and Dnepropetrovsk within the next turns and may go for Kharkov or Stalino after that depending on the circumstances it will be backed up by the 2nd Army (Italians, German Corps/Army), 3rd and 4th Rumanian Army as well as various german corps still building up with italian divisions behind the lines who will probably be late to the party. 11th Army with XXXIX Mot Corps (3x Italian Motorized) will strike for Sevastropol while the 5th Rumanian Corps tries for Kerch.

Turn 12 Perfect Performance 8th Rum. Infantry (54moral).png (262.01 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

The fighting starts with a real rumanian division showing just how a phyrric victory is won. Taking twice the losses in a 7.8:1 does seems a bit execessive doesnt it.

Turn 12 Struggles of the 4th Rumanian Army.png (272.48 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

The 4th Rumanian Army doesn't perform much better but clears most of the obstructing soviets to link up with elements of the 1st PzGrp. It "only" requires support from the 10th and 16th PzDiv to complete the pocket.

Turn 12 A good days work in the south.jpg (190.13 KiB) Viewed 3223 times

All in all not a bad days work in the south with 11th army making progress and the 1st PzGrp more than half way to its first objectives while pocketing about 17 soviet divisions. Mostly miserable but not entirely unexpected failure from the rest of the axis allies.

[exalted]

Turn 12 V Rum Corps does the god work.jpg (45.82 KiB) Viewed 3222 times

In the south the V Rum. Corps should get a commendation for over performing in its support of the 11th Army clearing the bridgehead. But overwhelming numbers usually tell and the 1st Guard Rum Infantry Division is at 60 Moral.

Turn 12 Slow advance of the center.jpg (133.45 KiB) Viewed 3222 times

Not much news on the center mopping up some pockets for the Panzers and slow advance with the 17th army being the only army besides the PzGrp which has decent CCP. Not much to tell.

[exalted]

So for turn 13, mostly going according to plan thought I had to re-play the two Pz.Grp movements after doing a really stupid mistake with each ending a few hexes worse of this time so no PzGrp1 at Dnepropetrovsk and the salient in the center has a large exit than it had the first time

Turn 13 Northern Reorganization.jpg (167.44 KiB) Viewed 3188 times

North continues to be rather unexiting the motorized elements are leaving behind the infantry for rest and refit, orginal plan was to place all mobile elements of PzGrp 4 in Poland for the winter since it has been revised somewhat, both corps and their motorized divisions will make best possible time for PzGrp 2 by rail where they will support that offensive leaving only the 4 pz.divs. in Poland possibly joint by some PzGrp 2 divs that need refit or to shed their glorified tin cans. Thinking among the german generals of pzGrp4 and pzGrp3 read something like.

Rommel (XXXXI Mot Corps): Hey my tanks worked fine in the heat after some modifications, how do you expect they will work in winter? Manstein (LVI Corps): I read a rapport that most of them will break down if we move more than ten or twenty kilometers, someone tested it in the alps last winter. Hoepner (4thPzGrp): Why are we driving our tanks north for no possible real gain, into difficult ground in mid september? Halder (OKH) You want to pull half the pzGrp south before taking Lenningrad, Hitler won't be happy you know? Rommel (XXXXI Mot Corps): Just tell the doctor to up his dosage and tell him we are upgrading to new invincible wonder waffen tanks in poland and that we will be past the Urals by next summer but not if we are counting broken down tanks around Lenningrad. Halder (OKH): Sure pull back. A week later with the tanks and trucks rolling for past Riga. Guderian (2nd PzGrp): MY TANKS ARE GOING TO BREAK DOWN!!!! during the winter and your going to make six mot. divisions stay in Poland while my troops fight on. Send me Manstein and Rommel with their infantry so I can fire my two corps commanders and I'll use up the tanks I got so they need a refit before they get here. Hans Hube (XXXXVII Mot Corps) & von Schweppenburg (XXIV Mot Corps): What did we do? Guderian (2nd PzGrp): Not you the other two.

Turn 13 So Close in the Center.jpg (147.37 KiB) Viewed 3188 times

Attempted a really big pocked and nearly got it, will be interesting to see what gets pulled out of the pocked and what stays in next turn. All in all good progress but it was SO CLOSE !!!!

Turn 13 Slow but steady south center.jpg (103.19 KiB) Viewed 3188 times

Around Kiev the rest of the central part of the front advance slowly but steadily, next turn the fury of the 16th Army filled with italians and slovaks is unleashed and will give them some more mobile elements. Not much of interest here however.

Turn 13 Southern Front Advances.jpg (220.65 KiB) Viewed 3188 times

The two pockets in the south continue to get reduced and after ridiculously hard fighting on the approach to Dnepropetrovsk the 1st PzGrp is stalled the town will likely fall on the next turn but really it was FoW which decided it with recon consequently overjudging the soviet strength forcing me to gamble or take the sure deliberate attack and I did the later and lost a lot of movement on it.

XXXIX Mot Corps did a solid using it Italian Mot divisions to cut of Sevastropol and possibly I'll get the city before the blizzard but it is probably a toss up. For safeties sake I started navy patrols hoping to at least reduce its resources it is a cheap way to attempt to improve the odds when the 11th army gets there.

Most of the rest is nothing special but we have a special dispatch that IV Rum Corps is going to match the unmatched Italian fighting spirit with the peerless brilliance of Romanian leadership mostly because I've run out of german HQ units. No clue what this corps is going to end up doing but since it is part of the 3rd Romanian army it will likely se action in a turn or two.

[exalted]

Turn 13 Rumanians and 10th PzDiv gets a win!.jpg (46.48 KiB) Viewed 3185 times

Few big attacks using axis allies but here is one using the 10th PzDiv as support but against a decently strong soviet hex. At the same time the expected CV goes from 413 -> 164 and we are only saved by the soviets being even worse going from 98 -> 5.

Also I will start post some data on the divisions on the map currently and the axis allies formations on the map and in active operations at the start of turn 14. CV is of course rather vague but as it is at the start of the turn it should be at least an indication even thought CCP and attached support varies widely.

Italian Forces (16 Inf, 3 Cav,12 Mountain, 5 Motorized, 2 Armored)
Rumanians (16 Inf, 1 Armored, 1 Inf Brigade, 6 Cav Brigade, 3 Mountain Brigade)
Slovak Forces (1 Mot, 1 Inf)
Hungarians (4 Brigades)

16th Army (Busch)
Expeditionary Ital. Corps (Messe)
1st Slovak Mobile Div (8k men, 78 moral, CV 6,93)
9th Pasubio Ital. Inf. Div (10.7k men, 51 moral, CV 3,8)
3rd Prin. Am. Celere Div (7k men, 53 moral, CV3,47)
II Ital. Corps (Bitossi)
1st Savoia Celere Div. (7.4k men, 61 moral, CV 3,8)
2nd Ferro Celere Div. (7,4k men, 53 moral, CV 2,16)
33rd Acqui. Mountain Div. (9,7k men, 55 moral, CV 2,2)
36th Forli. Mountain Div. (9,7k men, 60 moral, CV 2,74)
Celere Cavalry Corps (Ferrari-Orsi)
52nd Torino Infantry Div. (10,8k men, 53 moral, CV 4,13)
7th Toscana Infantry Div. (7,3k men, 53 moral, CV 2,6)
3rd Julia Alpini MOuntain Div. (9,7k men, 82 moral, CV 7,88)
59 Caglari Mountain Div. (9,7k men, 51 moral, CV 1,97)

2nd Army (von Weichs)
LVII Motorized Corps (Fretter-Pico)
131st Centauro Armored Div. (4,6k men, 151 tanks, 76 moral, CV 4,9)
133rd Littorio Armored Div. (4,8k men, 179 tanks, 68 moral, CV 6,65)
101st Trieste Mot. Div (7,2k men, 78 Moral, CV 5,4)
XXXV Corps (Kaempfe)
10th Piave Mot. Div. (6,6k men, 64 moral, CV 3,14)
2nd Slovak Inf Div. (12,5k men, 64 moral, CV 3,27)
5th Pusteria Alpini Mountain Div. (9,3k men, 79 moral, CV 3,58)
LI Corps (Reinhard)
2nd Tridentia Alpini Mountain Div (9,3k men, 80 moral, CV 4,37)
1st Taurinese Alpini Mountain Div (9,2k men, 80 moral, CV 5,6)
4th Cuneese Alpini Mountain Div (9,2k men, 83 moral, CV 4,45)

XXXIX Motorized Corps (Schmidt)
16th Pistoia Mot. Div. (7,2k men, 64 moral, CV 3,19)
103rd Piacenza Mot. Div. (7,2k men, 65 moral, CV 3,4)
104th Mantova Mot. Div. (7,2k men, 65 moral, CV 3,35)

LIII (Weisenberger)
113th Re Inf. Div. (6,6k men, 55 moral, CV 1,44)
14th Isonzo Inf. Div. (6,6k men, 55 moral, CV 1,64)
21st Sardegna Inf. Div. (13,2k men, 60 moral, CV 4,6)

XXXXII Corps (Kuntze)
6th Cuneo Inf Div (6,8k men, 52 moral, CV 1,51)
11th Brennero Inf Div (6,7k men, 51 moral, CV 1,45)
1st Superga Mountain Div (9,5k men, 67 moral, CV 2,82)

XXXIV Corps (Stemmermann)
12th Sassari Infantry Div (5,9k men, 56 moral, CV 1.29)
3rd Ravenna Mountain Div (7,9k men, 66 moral, CV 1,91)
2nd Sforzesca Mountain Div (7,9k men, 60 moral, CV 1,7)

L Corps (Lindermann)
54th Napoli Inf Div (7,1k men, 63 moral, CV 2.55)
58th Leganano Inf Div (7k men, 62 moral, CV 2,48)
26th Assietta Mountain Div (9,5kmen, 67 moral, CV 3,79)

XXIII (Schubert)
18th Messina Inf Div (7,2k men, 60 moral, CV 3,88)
19th Venezia Inf Div (14,1k men, 53 moral, CV 4,54)
49th Parma Inf Div (7,1k men, 59 moral, CV 3,68)

Mobile Hun. Corps (Miklos)
1st Hun. Mot. Brigade (10,4k men, 82 moral, CV 7.2)
2nd Hun. Mot. Brigade (10,4k men, 81 moral, CV 7,8)
1st Hun. Cav. Brigade (8,4k men, 81 moral, CV 5,49)
1st Hun. Mountain Brigade (8k men, 67 moral, CV 2.27)

4th Rumanian Army (Ciuperca)
III Rum Corps (Atanasiu)
5th Rum Inf Div. (13.6k men, 59 moral, CV 3.46)
11th Rum Inf Div. (14,4k men, 64 moral, CV 4.57)
13th Rum Inf Div. (14.4k men, 63 moral, CV 5.5)
5th Rum Cav. Brigade (5.8k men, 78 moral, CV 2.13)
7th Rum Cav. Brigade (4,9k men, 80 moral, CV 1.71)
V Rum Corps (Leventi)
1st Guard Rum Inf Div (15k men, 64 moral, CV 6,66)
10th Rum Inf Div (13.6k men, 54 moral, CV 5,71)
21st Rum Inf Div (14k men, 59 moral, CV 3.27)
35th Reserve Rum Inf Div (12.7k men, 56 moral, CV 4,4)
8th Rum Cav. Brigade (5,5k men, 73 moral, CV 2.26)
XI Rum Corps (Constantinescu-Claps)
8th Rum Inf Div (14k men, 53 moral, CV 4.16)
9th Rum Inf Div (14,5k men, 62 moral, CV 3.27)
15th Rum Inf Div (14.6k men, 52 moral, CV 4.43)
Frontier Rum Inf Div (13k men, 56 moral, CV 3.29)
2nd Fortress Rum Inf Brigade (11.2k men, 54 moral, CV 4,84)

3rd Rumanian Army (Dumitrescu)
IV Rum Corps (Sanatescu)
22nd Alpi Ital. Inf Div (7,2k men, 60 moral, CV 2.82)
41st Firenze Ital. Inf Div (7,2k men, 59 moral, CV 2,63)
Cavalry Rum Corps (Racovita)
1st Rum Inf Div (16,9k men, 56 moral, CV 1.5) (On rail so much higher CV for real)
3rd Rum Inf Div (15k men, 61 moral, CV 4,72)
6th Rum Inf Div (14.4k men, 63 moral, CV 5,96)
1st Rum Cav. Brigade (5.5k men, 71 moral, CV 6.12)
6th Rum Cav. Brigade (5.6k men, 73 moral, CV 3.57)
Mountain Rum Corps (Avramescu)
7th Rum Inf Div (11k men, 55 moral, CV 3.82)
14th Rum Inf Div (12.9k men, 53 moral, CV 3,7)
9th Rum Cav Brigade (6,5k men, 70 moral, CV 5.61)
1st Rum Mountain Brigade (9,5k men, 75 moral, CV 3.93)
2nd Rum Mountain Brigade (10,8k men, 62 moral, CV 3,81)
4th Rum Mountain Brigade (10,5k men, 65 moral, CV 5.44)

1st Rumanian Arm. Div (8,7k men, 78 tanks, 80 moral, CV 14.25) (Detached to LIV Corps, 11th Army under Model)

[Stamb]

lol
that is just terrible CVs even with a much higher morale...

for a tanks in a winter
i played non modified game and in 1 turn in a clear hex in lvl 1 fortification all of them were damaged
you want to keep them in lvl 2 fortification or in an urban hexes
i would not move motorized divisions out from a front, they are fine in a blizzard

i also wonder if you modified Italian and Romanian production
otherwise i have doubts that you will be able to refit damaged units

[exalted]

Yepp its quite horrible most of them are very low CCP but still. Some of those Italian divisions are so bad I don't really know what to do with them perhaps 3 stacked in good forts. We'll see what time brings. I know pairing them up with german divisions would likely work but thats not a test of their ability

For the tanks I don't really see the point of having any east of poland under the current rules during the winter. PzGrp 1 will keep theirs hopefully in safe places but the rest will get sent to reserve or poland for the winter. I'll try to get rid of all PcII's at the very least.

Production might become a problem eventually, I'm a bit worried about tanks and such but for the rest it will probably be managable. Might have been a better test to run it with 200% production or something so I could run more high TOE divisions into the meat grinder. Maybe something for next time As is I guess disbinding the poorest divisions will eventually be necessary. Didn't want to unbalance the game too much and having to increase Soviet stuff to much as compensation.

[Stamb]

if you are playing with TB control - you can send PZ to the west and bring ID.
this is the best usage, imho

[exalted]

Turn 14
Makes for uninteresting update, pockets are closed, surrounded soviets reduced and a general soviet pull back in south-central means a lot of advancing without real fighting.

Turn 14 Central Sector, Pocket is Closed, Kursk-Kharkov-Orel is visible in the east!.jpg (113.57 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

PzGrp 2 closes its pocket getting a significant soviet force even thought it is only a remnant of the forces in the salient last turn. At last the central sector has the forces to push and will do so until soviet opposition gets to hard.

Turn 14 Southern Front, Dnepropetrovsk Falls!.jpg (204.22 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

Barely any fighting in the south but PzGrp 1 clears the way into Dnepropetrovsk and Italian Armored units occupy the city without having fired a shot.

Turn 14 Rush of the 11th Army.jpg (84.69 KiB) Viewed 3097 times

11th Army rushes into Krim and is remarkably unopposed the attachment of 1st Rum Armored and Italian Motorized makes the advance swift and possibly quick enough to be successful before mud gets to bad. 11th Army is also set to Assault status as it is no longer necessary for PzGrp 4. I was kind of thinking of making an Rumanian or Italian Army assault but that will have to wait until 42 spring I think.

Next turn looks more exiting and will try to get it done soonest

[exalted]

Turn 15
As expected turn 15 was barely a problem to play through few attacks and some steady advancement where it mattered, as well as some reorganization in the central army-group. We also got a few abject failures pretty much 2 out of 2 serious battles involving the axis allies who would have guessed thought each was a bit of a chance rather than a sure thing.

Turn 15 Central Sector, reorganized pzgrp1 and steady advance..jpg (165 KiB) Viewed 3079 times

Manstein and Rommel is a single turn from reaching PzGRP2 with their motorized divisions while their armored ones are resting in Poland (one), in Reserve (one), in Italy next turn (one) and in the West (one). Linking up with PzGrp 2 the 6th Army gains its full strength from two inf corps that used to belong to the pzgrp. Rest of the pzgrp rests for the next thrust south.

As pzgrp3 will be static over the winter it looses assult status to the 17th Army which will continue pushing eastwards.

Turn 15 Southern Sector, abject failure for the Italians..jpg (236.71 KiB) Viewed 3079 times

Southern sector sees little action as I choose to pocked some soviet divisions over a tough push for a few extra VP at Zaporozhye. First attack by the Italians under Fretter-Pico is a hold before pzGrp 1 gets involved in the action and clear away the pesky soviet infantry. Otherwise not much news but the pockets are mostly cleared and the italians and rumanians can now advance hopefully to support pzGrp 1.

Turn 15 Crimea, a single battle!.jpg (140.77 KiB) Viewed 3079 times

Crimea is interesting but only a single battle is fought as 11th army doesn't want to loose resources rather build it up hopefully we can assault Sevastropol in a turn or at worst two. Otherwise only thing good you can say about the romanians and italians is that at least they flip hexes better than german infantry. Levanti tried an attack but it is a rather miserable experience for a very near loss.

[exalted]

Turn 16
So on turn 16 we at last get some real combat with elements of 16th Army boosting the progress towards Kharkov which may possibly be reached during the winter while PzGrp2 makes a dash for Kursk at a probably entirely unsustainable pace.

Turn 16 Reinforced PzGrp 2 makes a breakout for Kursk while 16th and 17th Army go for Kharkov..jpg (145.45 KiB) Viewed 3053 times

With the additions of Mansteins and Rommels motorized corps a breakthrough is easily accomplished by PzGrp2 and I'm surprised how far we actually get. Only halfway into the maneuver do I start thinking of the potential huge pocket which will probably be next turns job. 16th Army makes decent progress with some support from the Italians.

Turn 16 16th Army on the Offensive, BItossi supports the IV corps with 1st Savoia and 2nd Ferro..jpg (50.58 KiB) Viewed 3053 times

The Celere divisions supporting germans and lead by Bitossi how does that actually work? Does Bitossi make all the rolls or only for his own troops? Either way it seems to have been okay mostly because the Soviets are not in the game and with acceptable loss ratios for the circumstances. 1st Savoia 70 moral, 2nd Ferra 55 moral.

Turn 16 16th Army on the Offensive, Ferrari-Orsi and the Alpini clear the way!.jpg (49.07 KiB) Viewed 3053 times

Near german victory from Ferrari-Orsi, decent starting odds but keeping the CV and the loss ratios where actually for once fairly decent for real combat with Italians. But 3rd Julia is pretty much elite by german standards at 80 moral, 59th was at 53 moral so rather substandard, with 36th at 61 being rather decent. If I where designing the game I'd probably have reduced the bonus for being Elite Italian and increased the national nm to at least 55. It seems to work at least sometimes.

Turn 16 16th Army on the Offensive, Bitossi wins the day!.jpg (49.78 KiB) Viewed 3053 times

Not a brilliant win but 33rd was at 63 moral, 37th at 57 moral and at least the Italians retained more of their original CV than the Soviets. At the same time if that Rout had been a retreat it had barely been a victory.

[exalted]

Turn 16 South Sector, Zaporozhye Surrounded!!!.jpg (304.28 KiB) Viewed 3048 times

In the south Zaporozhye is surrounded and elements of first PzGrp1 dashes for the Sea of Azov. The majority of rumanians and italians are still way behind the lines dealing with surrounded soviets and usually only then succeeding in stacks of 3 vs 1.

Turn 16 Crimea, Sevastropol Surrounded but not isolated!.jpg (129.84 KiB) Viewed 3048 times

Crimea is basically under german control but delayed the attack on Sevastropol another turn to build up strength and get a full 9 divisions in on the assault. Bad weather also screwed up the isolation but that might be to be expected at this point.

Turn 17 On Map Forces, outnumbering the soviets by close to 1.5million.jpg (28.64 KiB) Viewed 3047 times

Here we have the on map forces for Turn 17 which are quite impressive the Soviets are outnumbered this is going well or something. While the numbers are nice I think I'm way behind on capturing and killing soviets so winter will probably be tough

[exalted]

Turn 17 was a quick one extremely hard fighting with pzGrp2 to close the pocket but otherwise something of a lull in the fighting. Next turn however is promising hard fighting for all of southern sector and that includes a lot of italians if mud doesn't get in the way too much.

Turn 17 Central Sector, PzGrp 2 links up with infantry pocket created, Italians breakthrough.jpg (196.81 KiB) Viewed 3035 times

PzGrp2 closes the pocket after probably the hardest fighting so far of the war, so many attacks. Put it was probably worth it. The italians of 16th army exploits the opening left by 17th army infantry but does not participate in combat. We are actually not that far from Kursk and Kharkov so will attempt to take both during the winter even if I'm not sure I'll be able to match the historical dates. At the same time maybe stopping with a encirclement is preferable if there is even a hint that the soviets can recapture the cities during blizzard.

Turn 17 South Sector, Zaporozhye falls and PzGrp1 reaches the sea of Azov.jpg (147.28 KiB) Viewed 3035 times

We reach the sea of azov with pzGrp1 supported by italian mobile forces. No real fighting in the area as units relocate and the main assult on Zaporozhye takes up most of PzGrp1's attention. But a lot of italians have been moving up and will take part in combat next turn or the one after that

Sevastropol didn't fall since all movement of 3 divisions was consumed moving into the mountains but it will be assaulted next turn.

[exalted]

So lets get into turn 18.
On the general front most every tactical, level bomber and transport plane is relocated to the reserve the transports may be returned to fly out supplies during winter but really why bother. Some of the luftwaffe may return in spring I have to think about it since the Air War was one of the things I wanted to learn better and experiment with in this run through the GC. Also Student replaced von Kluge in the 4th Army CO while von Kluge replaced Halder at OHK the thinking being that more poor troops and leaders are rapporting to OKH than ever before and possibly it would help with a leader with decent scores outside Administration. After this focus for all AP spending will be replacing the most incompetent of my corps commanders which are more than there usually are since I'm basically using all available german HQ's.

Turn 18 Model takes sevastropol, but he shouldn't have..jpg (51.21 KiB) Viewed 3007 times

Model takes sevastropol but should he really have or was I lucky?

Turn 18 Southern Sector consolidates, at last the Italians catch up!.jpg (122.28 KiB) Viewed 3007 times

Another slow week in the south but italians make contact but no combat against the soviet line and some of them XXXIV and LIII corps are rapporting to 4th PzGrp which has relocated to the area. I probably need to reorganize my army groups in some reasonable fashion since Center, South and Rumanians are all mixed up.

The big pockets are also finally entirely closed with 4th and 3rd Rumaians mostly taking some rest to recover before advancing towards the front.

11th Army will also join them if V Rum Corps can take Kerch by themselves otherwise a corps of Germans should clear Crimea of the last soviets.

Turn 18 Central Sector, Lots of Mud..jpg (92.04 KiB) Viewed 3007 times

Mud descends and not much is going to happen in the central sector until it clears, some localized attacks of opportunity just like I've been running in the north to rout soviets but we are waiting for winter and hoping for a window between cold and blizzard.

The 16th and 17th armies are steadily advancing in areas of a bit less mud but they will probably stall over the next few turns as well.

Pz Div from 2nd PzGrp are relocating west with those with decent tanks staying in poland and the rest going to the axis reserve.

Turn 19 soon to come.

[Stamb]

Sevastopol was not isolated, right?

[exalted]

Correct no isolation tried for it but weather delivered erradic naval patrol results but at least one hex free the last two turns.

Turn 19

Turn 19, Southern Sector, Another pocket by pzGrp1.jpg (96.23 KiB) Viewed 2996 times

With mud setting in along most of the front only the southern sector has anything interesting to rapport a small encirclement of about 10 soviet divisions which was helped by hungarian and italian mobility but not fighting spirit. This was the result when the italians tried to "help".

Turn 19, Not so successful Italian Infantry.jpg (89.72 KiB) Viewed 2996 times

Close to the sea of azov the italian armored does better but against puny foes

Turn 19, Italian Armored Victory.jpg (89.37 KiB) Viewed 2996 times

[exalted]

Turn 20
Lines move barely at all in the mud so lets focus on the fun stuff. At least there was some italian and rumanians on adventurs, clearing up the pockets. Lets just put it mildly it didn't go well

Turn 20, Italians on adventure!.jpg (93.27 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

They only outnumbered the enemy by 20k soldiers and about 100guns

Turn 20, Italians under Romanian bosses.jpg (86.67 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

We only outnumbered the enemy by 17k soldiers and about 250guns

Turn 20, Not so successful Italian Infantry.jpg (89.72 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

We only outnumbered the enemy by 40k soldiers and nearly 500guns.

In the end german high command face palmed at their Italian allies and called in the 1st PzGrp to clear out the pocket in a series of rapid attacks.

Turn 20,Thinking about North Africa.jpg (115.86 KiB) Viewed 2955 times

So I've been thinking about North Africa. It seems to be going fairly well while ground requirement has shifted from about 120-180% as I pull out valuable units and replace them with less critical ones I've gotten 4 results that move the campaign backwards and 3 which also push the Italian one back.

What does that mean?

Have I gained 4 turns = 1 month or is it something more substantial? Of course there are quite a few turns left to 43 and surrender North Africa so I'll probably get more but anyone know?