1.05 PBEM AAR: Another Year at the Front with Field Marshal Noob

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:25 pm

T34: Production. Plenty of Manpower ready to head back to the front.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:28 am

Sitrep end of February 1941 and blizzard campaign overview

Stéphane eased up his attacks during February, with 16 attacks in the first week of February, dropping down to just 8 in Turn 37.

Blizzard defence is the one area where I am not a noob, and I believe that my theory that a successful blizzard defence is based on causing maximum damage and disruption to Red Army prior to T25 remains one that I will adhere to.

In this game I got the Red Army below 4.0m by high casualty ratio attacks and pockets. In my game against Trey I got him below 4.0m by causing some large pockets (2.2m captured vs. 1.8m captured v Stéphane). In both games I attacked in the mud and snow to prevent the Red Army from getting their winter offensive organised. I still do not understand the "dig in in September" or the "Run away in December" strategies, as they both hand the initiative over to the Red Army without a fight, but then I have not experienced a blizzard facing a Red Army 5-6m+ strong, so I don't know how much ground my linebacker defence would be forced to give up. I started this blizzard with zero entrenchment levels, but gave up the least territory and suffered the least casualties of all the blizzards I have faced.

I lost or gave up a total of 220hexes, which is about half of what the Axis lost historically (I calculated this as 450 hexes in testing and used this number as my benchmarch. This is of course before the March recovery phase. In previous tests I would lose 600-800 hexes in December to February, and take back 200-300 in March (see original Field Marshal Noob AAR). I know many Axis players still struggle with the first winter, but for me this blizzard was pretty easy to deal with.

edit: PS the only FZs I built were in cities to help garrison numbers or where I wanted to turn Lvl3s to Lvl4s

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:29 am

T37 Leningrad

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:31 am

T37: The Red Army advanced 7-8 hexes in this sector, but this was the only area where they achieved anything like the historical rate of advance. Note Panzer Division strengths.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:32 am

T37: Bryansk and Orel are still Held.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:34 am

T37: As are Belgorod and Kharkov.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:37 am

T37: Stephane must have read my original AAR or got wind of my plans, as he starts pulling back. 16th Army was OKH reserve during the Blizzard and suffered no attrition Losses. It now moves into position for the March counterstroke.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:39 am

T37: In the far south, the SS take advantage of the snow conditions to cross the Kerch straits into the Taman, to start laying the groundwork for my 1942 offensive plans.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:40 am

T37 OOB:

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:43 am

T37 Losses:

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 9:44 am

T37 Rifle squad strength:

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 7:59 pm

Sitrep T41: 26th March - March Madness Time

Sorry for the hiatus - busy at work and then off for a Christmas holiday in a log cabin in Wales with no internet access.

Well at least the March madness thread has calmed down, but these posts might well fan the flames again. In March I pocketed 60 units and gained more territory than I lost during the whole of the blizzard, due to a whole lot of factors: Defensive naivety on the part of my opponent, excellent planning and preparation on my part, 1.05 rules changes being too generous etc. etc.

I really can't decide how much of the success is down to each factor, as my whole strategy up to date had been aimed at weakening the Red Army and hoping the Red Army would overextend during the blizzard to allow a successful March counter stroke. The Soviets did seem much more fragile than my Alpha test. Part of me feels I earned the right to have a succesful March but the other part feels that causing as much damage and gaining as much territory as I did was not right or fair to my opponent, but in the end I could only use the tools I was given and apply them to the defences my opponent could produce.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:01 pm

T41 Far North.

I wasted many virtual Finnish lives for very little return in this area.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:03 pm

T41: I get back to the Valdai foothills.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:04 pm

T41: In front of Smolensk, I push back the 3-4 hexes I would normally expect to achieve.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:06 pm

T41: But from Orel I am able to push past the December start line towards Tula.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:07 pm

T41: And after forming a large pocket at Kursk I am able to push to Voronezh.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:09 pm

T41: and as with my Field marshal Noob alpha AAR I trap a large number of units against the Sea of Azov, but in this game I am also able to pocket the Donbas cities.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:11 pm

T41: the Rumanians Hungarians and the SS expand the Taman bridgehead to form the jumping off point for my 1942 campaign.

karonagames · Post by **karonagames** » Thu Jan 05, 2012 8:13 pm

T41 OOB. Axis strength is recovering nicely, and the Red Army is a manageable 4.25m

1.05 PBEM AAR: Another Year at the Front with Field Marshal Noob

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RE: 1.05 PBEM AAR: Another Year at the Front with Field Marshal Noob

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