Blondi's Tail, a '41 GC. JB v HLYA Soviets

[jasonbroomer]

T4 AGC

The Soviet mischief around VL may open up an opportunity for a grand encirclement around Vitebsk. The general staff drew up a plan

T4 AGC Smolensk pocket.png (3.14 MiB) Viewed 1904 times

Step 1 was the break through to our cut off units

Step 2 is to put in place the southern pincer

T4 AGC Smolensk pocket step 2.png (2.75 MiB) Viewed 1904 times

T4 AGC Smolensk pocket step 2, shattered again.png (3.25 MiB) Viewed 1904 times

Again demonstrating the vulnerability of Soviet formations at this stage in the war

[jasonbroomer]

T4 AGC cont

Unfortunately step 3 is poorly executed

T4 AGC Smolensk pocket step 3, unwelcome delay.png (2.41 MiB) Viewed 1899 times

as not enough troops were used to ensure a 10:1 victory, thus the hasty resulted in a combat delay

However, not that it really mattered as we discover that the triple stack in Viteskb is predominately HQs, with a scarcely a brigade sized garrison

T4 AGC Smolensk pocket step 4, arghh nothing in Viteskb.png (1.65 MiB) Viewed 1899 times

Adding to the injury, the triple stack in the rough hexes to the NW of Vitebsk is more HQs which are just displaced away. And them we blunder a move and displace the routed armoured division away - arggh.


So after such an elaborate plan, the resulting pocket is sadly very minor. I think we might have been played here!

T4 AGN EoT.png (807.9 KiB) Viewed 1899 times

[jasonbroomer]

T4 AGS

In the south we discover that it is largely abandoned, so we gather up territory and storm Nikolev, bypassing Odessa for the moment

T4 AGS Taking advantage of undended territory while minimising supply constraints.png (2.53 MiB) Viewed 1897 times

As we are confident that they are few Soviets in the area, we can take liberties with our advances. Speed is not essential as our supply lines are lagging but sending our smaller units to capture territory will ease the supply burden of the following troops and capturing Soviet airfields will hamper their air war and enhance our own. We are expecting the GD brigade to get cut off in Kirovograd next turn but they have already been supplied by air this turn. Note also that we 'pocket' terrain, so that this land can be captured without being traversed over the following turns. Again, this is only possible as we know the Soviets are not contesting the region.

We are targeting the southern part of the Ukraine as the ports there can help our supply situation. The advance toward Kiev is being much more measured. Again, as with elsewhere in the map, some fresh infantry divisions are being forced marched in an attempt to keep pace with the panzers. While divisions that were previously involved in combat are being kept behind, closer to supply depots, where they can take on ammunition and rebuild CPP.

During our tidying up phase we assign huge quantities of AA to troops on the banks of the Narva

T4 AGN EoT a flak army ready and waiting to help with AS.png (1021.34 KiB) Viewed 1891 times

The XXXXI corps HQ based there, literally has an entire AA army assigned to it. This is of course ridiculous but so is the concentration of Soviet bombers flying interdiction missions. As we had anticipated taking the Narva we have also assigned AS over the region, though this is at the extremities of the range for the nearest serviceable air field at Tallinn. We can't prevent Soviet interdiction prior to our attempt at forcing a Narva crossing next turn, but we can at least make it very costly.


We continue to take a healthy harvest of Soviet manpower

T4 AGC EoT Losses.png (422.38 KiB) Viewed 1897 times

And an update on the EoT air situation

T4 AGC EoT Air Losses.png (532.82 KiB) Viewed 1897 times

[M60A3TTS]

It is a rather dubious proposition that HLYA will let you get over the Narva.

But stranger things have happened.

[jasonbroomer]

It is a rather dubious proposition that HLYA will let you get over the Narva.

But stranger things have happened.

I agree it's a bit of an ask but I'm hoping that the speed of my advance will limit his opportunity to prepare sufficiently. He has had no time to dig in. I don't have much that could attack, just two infantry divisions that have around 40-50 CPP

[jasonbroomer]

T4 AGS



The XXXXI corps HQ based there, literally has an entire AA army assigned to it.

Sorry, I this should read 'AA units in sufficient strength to constitute an entire division'

[jasonbroomer]

T5

The boss and I enjoyed a wonderful early morning walk in the forests as the morning mists were just lifting and reassuringly away from the barbed wire and minefields. Thankfully this put him in a relaxed frame of mind, a good thing as there was not good news waiting for him at the office

T5 SoT Pain.png (279.2 KiB) Viewed 1572 times

The boss seemed resigned to this. The Finnish TB starts the game in deficit and there is precious little that can be done. Some bombers were sent on turn 3, in hindsight more than 100 could have been spared.

Also there was news about a Soviet airfield bombing raid at Tallinn, where 30 of our fighter were destroyed on the ground. While AS missions were being flown, our settings were not ideal. For those interested, details and a solution can be found here https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=391407 and here https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 7&t=391405
I thought this was as welcome as a dose of Parvo but the boss justified it as trivial losses in exchange of a learning experience.

Our attempt at crossing the Narva on turn 5 got off to a good start and the west bank were cleared without issue

T5 AGN Narva, no activations but GS on.png (2.44 MiB) Viewed 1572 times

Note that the excellent General Rendulic has been employed in this important sector

T5 AGN Narva,important clearance.png (2.28 MiB) Viewed 1572 times

These were important to trigger any activations and also revealed VVS presence

The northern end of the eastern bank appears weakly defended. We seem to have caught the Soviets on the hop, their fortifications are only at level 1 despite the FZ and the motorised division defending it seems weak with a CV of 7...

[jasonbroomer]

T5 AGN

Clearly we were going to have a pop at that. Getting across the Narva so quickly would be a huge prize, especially as scooping up the Baltics as quickly as we did

T5 AGN Narva,encountering strong resistance.png (2.03 MiB) Viewed 1569 times

Unfortunately, resistance was stronger than expected. The falling rain was exacerbating the difficulties as we contemplated a second attack but elected instead to focus on the weak motorised unit to the south.

T5 AGN Narva,breached but not enough MPs to cross.png (1.49 MiB) Viewed 1569 times

A breach was made! Sadly we miscalculated the MPs to cross and our motorised unit with 35MPs was insufficient to make the crossing.

Our troops in this sector are now pretty tired and in need of reinforcements. The weather forecast next week suggests rain and more mud. A crossing next week will be considered but frankly doubtful. A brief pause in operations may be required.

Manstein took Pskov but crunching through the blizzard of spam Soviet units is time consuming

T5 AGN clearing way through spam defence.png (2.66 MiB) Viewed 1569 times

Again, note that General Hube has been brought in the strengthen 4th Panzer's roster of generals.

[jasonbroomer]

T5 AGC

In the centre, we were eyeing up the valuable prize of Smolensk. However, it appeared to be disconcertingly heavily defended

T5 AGC Weird CV Calculations 2.png (1.67 MiB) Viewed 1561 times

This appears weird as only 1 division is defending it. So we elect to scout attack it

T5 AGC Weird CV Calculations.png (1.58 MiB) Viewed 1561 times

For a long time we have avoided scouting attacks in case it accelerates Soviet guard status. We have finally worked out that it doesn't. So this scouting was very useful although again the displayed CV is alarmingly high. We concluded that 6,000 militia shouldn't be much opposition so we should just storm it and sure enough we comfortably captured the city [it transpires that there was a bug in the CV calculator for this version of the beta testing. This has subsequently been corrected]

we are forced to clear spam in the area, sometimes just by the skin of our teeth

T5 AGC Luck on our side.png (2 MiB) Viewed 1561 times

and by the end of the turn, slow but steady progress is made through the thickets of Soviets.

T5 AGC EoT.png (2.75 MiB) Viewed 1561 times

[jasonbroomer]

T5 AGC/S

Rapid progress is being made through the marshes as there is no opposition

T5 AGS Kiev abandoned and good progress through the marsh.png (2.83 MiB) Viewed 1560 times

Kiev too was abandoned so we eagerly seize it well ahead of schedule.

AGS

Further south we intend to bypass Odessa and seize the ports to the east, we make a polite scouting attack on Kherson

T5 AGS Hopefully we can storm this.png (1.77 MiB) Viewed 1560 times

confirming that the south is very lightly defended, so we storm this important city for our strategy

T5 AGS Kherson stormed.png (1.67 MiB) Viewed 1560 times

Our blood is up and Odessa too appears lightly defended. We didn't bother running a full NP to isolate it this turn but we attack it anyway. The NP interdiction that we have should cause additional retreat losses

T5 AGS Odessa fully defended.png (1.94 MiB) Viewed 1560 times

Opps 133,000 defenders were not expected. I wish I had done a scout attack. I should have suspected something odd with those two FZ adjacent to the city. No problem, I am happy to lock up 130k Soviets so immediately I prepare 11th Army to siege and storm it. This will take a couple of turns but frankly, I don't have a use for the 11th at the moment so I'm delighted to find something productive for them to do.

I am intrigued by the Soviet defence of this city. We are playing with amphibious landings within 5 hexes of the front, so perhaps this is some sort of devious Soviet plan to tie us down.

[jasonbroomer]

T5 EoT

While we didn't get across the Narva and the boo-boo at Odessa, we are not unhappy with progress overall. Progress around Pskov and Smolensk are slow, although both cities have now been taken. Progress elsewhere has been electric.

Once again we take a toll on the Soviet manpower

T5 EoT Losses.png (567.01 KiB) Viewed 1557 times

our air losses were heavier than we would wish but this is an area that we will work hard upon over the coming weeks

T5 EoT Air Losses.png (503.65 KiB) Viewed 1557 times

[K62]

T5 AGC/S
Our blood is up and Odessa too appears lightly defended. We didn't bother running a full NP to isolate it this turn but we attack it anyway. The NP interdiction that we have should cause additional retreat losses

T5 AGS Odessa fully defended.png

Opps 133,000 defenders were not expected. I wish I had done a scout attack. I should have suspected something odd with those two FZ adjacent to the city. No problem, I am happy to lock up 130k Soviets so immediately I prepare 11th Army to siege and storm it. This will take a couple of turns but frankly, I don't have a use for the 11th at the moment so I'm delighted to find something productive for them to do.

I am intrigued by the Soviet defence of this city. We are playing with amphibious landings within 5 hexes of the front, so perhaps this is some sort of devious Soviet plan to tie us down.

Defending Odessa is high risk/high reward for the Soviets so huge props to HLYA for such a gutsy move. 11th Army is usually needed by most players for breaking into the Crimea and assaulting Sevastopol. If they get delayed and/or suffer significant losses it may well shave 36 VPs off the '41 HWM.

[Hardradi]

Well it looks like HLYA is/was planning on holding it. Apart from the extra forts, he has his Division's in Odessa stacked with AA and has also built extra air bases to defend the NP in the Gulf itself.

[Champagne]

I appreciate the entertaining writing featured in this AAR.

What is the end of the story?

Have recent patches to the game rendered the move sequences in this AAR unusable as a guide for today?

[chaos45]

So just wanted to throw a kuddos to HYLA in this for russian tactics....completely able to replicate his attack on the Romanians to clear the southern rail line.

Costs alot of Russian planes, but works and once that rail line is clear you are actually able to save a fair amount of Russians units that are otherwise wiped out without a chance due to the way the games mechanics work compared to what happened historically.

I would say the Romanians blocking the rail line at all before officially in the war is also pretty unrealistic.

The key to making it work is lots of Russian bombing and also using 17th rifle corps for the attack as it has Galinin I think his name is who is actually a competent Russian general at 7 infantry rating so the attack goes in with a good chance of success.

Does mean that you have to leave behind the high quality mountain division at least 1-2 other divisions depending on how risky you want to make the attack but once that rail line is free you should be able to save at least a couple other mountain divisions and a a corps or so worth of tank/mech divisions....as well will allow you to rail a couple HQs out that might have low MPs from combat overruns from the initial attacks.