That's not gonna work out - AGS '41

[ITAKLinus]

Here we are.

First game in WITE-2 after many years of militancy in the Pacific (and sporadic WITE-1 and WITW playing).

With my valiant opponent we decided to start with the scenario 'The Destruction of Southwestern Front' for various reasons.


Now I am in the process of setting up the entire business, process which is not easy.


The target of my advance is to smash through Lviv area and push EAST along the double railway going to Vinnitsa.

I plan not to approach Rovno from WEST, rather from SOUTH. The very basic idea is to reach Vinnitsa and from there separate my thrust: one part in direction N-E (Kiev&co) and one other in direction E (Krivoi Rog axis more or less).

Does this seem reasonable?


AIR OPERATIONS

Thanks god there is the possibility to export CSV files, something I'd pay 100€ to have in WITPAE, so I start digging in the CR for air units.

Apparently, we have 89 groups available:

wite_1.JPG (236.51 KiB) Viewed 1383 times

Of these guys, 50 are Germans, while the rest is split fairly equally among our friends. In any case, there is a little bit of love for the Rumanian Air Command, but the bulk of groups are under the mighty Luftflotte 4.
Luftflotte 4 has 463 fighters, 521 bombers and 475 others unders its orders: a powerful force.


First thing, I delete every Air Directive present. I want to set them on my own.

Second thing, we go to Air Doctrines screen to start playing around.

Here I have a first doubt.

I think it's wise, for Ground Support, to have few planes doing the actual mission and many many escorts, so to make the russians fly to contest and shot their fighters/bombers down (which should have also an impact on enemy's pilots availability).

Is it a sound approach?

wite_2.JPG (41.39 KiB) Viewed 1383 times

My doubt is that putting the percentage of the bombers low, will also make less fighters fly to cover them, basically denying me the advantage I am looking for.

I have no answer for this.


Coming to the actual operations, I have the following idea.

wite_3.JPG (272.73 KiB) Viewed 1383 times

In BLUE the advance I intend to do on T1.
In the dotted BLUE area, the advance I might be able to do at most on T1 (I don't count on it though).

Now it comes to the air operations. My idea is to bomb many AFs on T1 to destroy SOV planes on the ground and then doing a second day of bombing on the AFs in the area that used to be WITE-1 Lviv Pocket.
The rationale is that I am going to destroy most of the planes by sheer advance of ground units rather than bombing per se, so my bombing is to maximise the amount of damaged aicraft rather than destroyed ones.

Is it a sound approach to T1 bombing?

Moreover, there are in the image above two RED areas. I would like to dedicate a couple of air groups (with appropriate payloads) to do interdiction over there in order to stop SOV escape from Lviv pocket.
Is it worth ? In this logic, should I also bomb some railway there ?

Now a couple of doubts regarding the Ground Support Air Directive. As mentioned, I want to lure SOV F/LB using it, but:
A) Should I assign the GS AD to a single Army HQ or split it doing more GS ADs? It is my understanding that it would be of little value if assigned to the 1st Panzer Group, since I don't plan to attack so much with PnzDivs. On the other side, our friends of 6th Army and 17th Army will be involved in some bloody business along the border.
B) I would like to setup a Air Superiority mission for the SOV phase in order to intercept eventual bombers sent to support eventual counterstrokes. Is it worth to assign a couple of fighters groups just for this AD?



Finally, I won't do any Strategic Bombing or Naval Interdiction ADs for the time being. I'd like to bomb some factories in the future and for sure I'll need naval interdiction for Odessa, but now we're just at T1.

[ITAKLinus]

I launched my missions, foregoing the interdiction ones (EDIT: in the end I did them but very moderately).


The results are mixed. I sent various bombing runs on D1 and D2 on enemy airfields and then went for some minor missions around.

Interestingly enough, I created some interdiction between Tarnopol and Romania, something which should slow down the retreat of the enemy I hope. He also has many, many units routed.

At the end of the ground phase I have these results in the air:

wite_9.JPG (137.76 KiB) Viewed 1355 times

GROUND PHASE

Initial positions with 17th Army highlighted:

wite_6.JPG (288.2 KiB) Viewed 1355 times

I decide to push in direction of Lviv from WEST with the 17th Army.

My attacks go fairly well and I penetrate the enemy lines with infantry, almost encircling Lviv. Then, I capture Lviv itself since many mech/tank enemy units routed and ran away.

My tanks/mots come into the business later on and they just do very minor attacks in the direction of Tarnopol.

At the end of the day, I decide to send a single PzDiv into Proskurov, occupying it. They're gonna be cutoff next turn, but I believe the Russian won't be able to rout them and I want to get Proskurov ASAP. The idea is to prevent the Russian from leaving behind forlorn hopes in the base slowing me down.

The situation at the end of the turn:

wite_7.JPG (323.77 KiB) Viewed 1355 times

The losses on the ground:

wite_8.JPG (146.87 KiB) Viewed 1355 times

I think they're quite ok, aren't they?

Now the logistics. I created three depots: 1 in Lviv; 1 in Tarnopol; 1 in Proskurov. The rail repair unit is going to repair straight after Lviv tomorrow I think.
In order to accelerate the repair of depots I need to do something? As far as I understand from the manual, creating a depot per se makes the hex priority for repairs and so there is no point in further inputs from the player, but I might be wrong.
Also, I don't think that putting HQs until it's repaired makes any difference, but who knows.
This is a big point, since I don't think I understand the logistics business enough.

Last, but not least, I have put Support Level = 0 to every HQ I have: I want to reorganize the distribution of support units on T2.

The idea for T2 is the following:
A) I should get the activation of Romanians and I will try to close the pocket Romania-Tarnopol;
B) 1st Panzer Group more or less regroups in the Tarnopol-Proskurov area with the unfrozen units coming from Poland;
C) INF advances towards Proskurov and secures the flanks;
D) if possible, I move in the direction of Vinnitsa for a T3 quick grab.

Basically, I plan to advance moderately not to strain my units and, especially, to unify my mobile units for T3, where I plan a major advance.

[ITAKLinus]

OOB at the end of T1:

OOB_EndT1.JPG (51.25 KiB) Viewed 1354 times

General movements for the future:

WITE_T23_planning.JPG (592.05 KiB) Viewed 1354 times

[ITAKLinus]

AXIS TURN 02


Nothing happens in the Russian T01, a part from an attempt to withdraw from the threatened Galicia.

I decide for various recon ADs, especially focussing on the area between Proskurov-Vinnitsa and Proskurov-Romania. The obvious idea is to check the enemy's forces disposition before moving to encircle Galicia and caputre Vinnitsa.

The ADs:

1.JPG (353.45 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

It turns out the enemy has well defended the area but nothing spectacular:

2.JPG (351.24 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

Various fights happen around the area, but I manage to seal the pocket. Rumanians, as usual, s@ck royally and get almost all of the axis' casualties of the turn:

3.JPG (345.9 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

In the northern part of the map very little happens, same for the Russo-Romanian border, which has been conveniently evacuated by the Russian.

The logistical landscape at the end of T02:

4.JPG (327.67 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

[ITAKLinus]

..... continuation from post above.....


Hexes which changed side during the turn:

5.JPG (90.51 KiB) Viewed 1222 times

And the ground losses:

6.JPG (127.09 KiB) Viewed 1222 times

It seems to me that the ground losses are going fairly ok, especially if we consider the fact that I do believe the Galician pocket will remain closed during enemy's T02.
In line of principle I should be able to clear the pocket with relative speed using a couple of AKs from 17.Armee, while the rest keeps pushing.

The big question is whether I will be able to continue my attacks next turn or I will need some rest. Some of my mobile divisions have decent CPPs, but most are extremely low. Fuel still acceptable, same goes with other logistical indicators.

If the enemy will try to present a defensive line between Vinnitsa area and Dnepr, I will pause. Otherwise, I'll send some mobile units NORTH-EAST in order to capture terrain over which my infrantry will be able to move quickly.


Basically, I plan to have half of the 6.Armee moving against Rovno and half supporting mobile units moves toward the Dnepr.
The 17.Armee has 2 AKs cleaning the Galician pocket, 1 AK holding the flank and the IV.Armee Korps resting.

7.JPG (220.09 KiB) Viewed 1222 times

The moves for the 6.Armee :

8.JPG (253.73 KiB) Viewed 1222 times

The yellow dot is where I do plan to cross the Dnepr.


For the southern part of the map, I still have to make up my mind.

The general principle is to have a couple of Rumanian corps helping against the Galician pocket, while the rest of the troops try to cross the Dnestr quite up north and then move south-east encircling Odessa and outmanouevring russian defences along the various rivers in the area.
11.Armee will try to keep its maximum amount of CPPs for a quick strike in Odessa streets.
Moreover, all the siege artillery and specialised urban SUs (such as flammpanzers and pioneers) will be allocated in sequence: first to 6.Armee's elements assaulting Kiev and then to 11.Armee's troops attacking Odessa (supported by a plethora of Rumanians).


Finally, Russian moves in T03 will define my next steps. I do believe I will be able to push to the Dnepr with my mobile spearheads and then rest while the infantry catches up and the panzer/motorized divisions regain CPPs.




I played T03 already, so the AAR is a little bit delayed. I'm making a simultaneous AAR in the Italian forum, also: ( https://www.netwargamingitalia.net/foru ... ost-505919 )

[Seminole]

In order to accelerate the repair of depots I need to do something? As far as I understand from the manual, creating a depot per se makes the hex priority for repairs and so there is no point in further inputs from the player, but I might be wrong.
Also, I don't think that putting HQs until it's repaired makes any difference, but who knows.
This is a big point, since I don't think I understand the logistics business enough.


Creating a depot in a hex without a railyard will create a level 1 railyard that must be repaired. The AI will dispatch construction units, but you could add to this if you wanted. I never bother to myself. AI will also repair captured railyards the same way.
An HQ unit present on the depot won't speed repairs, but they will increase the maximum stockpile the depot is capable of storing. I believe this is modified by the leader's Admin score, but definitely correlates to the level of HQ (e.g. a corps HQ provides a small bump, an Army Group HQ a large bump).

So, whenever possible (e.g. not putting units under command outside the 5 hex support range) I position HQs over depots.