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Turn 14: 18th September 1941 - 24th September 1941

Army Group North



Around mid-late September von Leeb's Army Group began to reach its absolute limits of advance in the northernmost part of the front. In the vicinity of Lake Ilmen, however, the force concentration was still strong enough to beat back heavily dug-in Soviet divisions and push them away from Msta and Pola. At a conference in Smolensk between Halder and von Leeb the two generals agreed to turn 4th Panzer Group north as soon as the situation allowed it. The Panzer Group was asked to capture Kalinin and Torzhok while forcing a Soviet evacuation of the Valdai Hills - an area von Leeb considered of utmost importance for an effective defence.

Army Group Centre


A little mistake there "Juzhnyj" Front should read "Zapadnyj" of course.

A day after the Rzhev pocket was opened by a Soviet counterattack Hoth assembled Model's elite I. AK to push the Soviet forces back. In seven days of hard battles the corps restored the pocket while clearing a corridor of 30 miles width. By 24th September the three divisions stood in the Lama - Moskva gap, determined to drive the Red Army further towards Moscow. A decisive push, however, was still out of reach with the majority of 9th Army bound by the Rzhev pocket, which it hope to eliminate by the end of the month.

A concern to the commanders of Army Group Centre was the bulge of Kaluga which severely restricted German mobility in the Kaluga - Tula region. With the Soviets fortifying the Moskva-Volga Canal von Bock and his staff began to discuss the possibility of rerouting 3rd Panzer Group's mobile forces, as well as significant portions of 9th Army to the Temkino sector, in order to push the Soviets out. [Note 1]

Meanwhile to the south Orel and Kursk became heavily fortified frontline cities. With the Germans lacking the infantry strength for frontal assaults Guderian's panzers were driven south with the intention to bypass and encircle the cities.

Army Group South



In the South the German advance still couldn't generate enough steam with logistics and urban areas playing the role of stumbling blocks. Still, in the week from 18th to 24th September 1st Panzer Group managed to push six Soviet divisions into a pocket around the Donets east of Kharkov. The Ukrainian metropole itself was captured in a combined effort on the 22nd, with Belgorod falling a day later. Thus the road towards Kursk - Oskol lay open and the Red Army responded by pulling back, leaving only a few divisions as roadblocks.

On the Crimea LIV. AK continued to work its way towards Sevastopol with resistance increasing with every day. Adding to that, torrent-like rainfalls commenced on the evening of the 24th, turning the ground into severe mud.

Partisan War

Continuing the trend from the early September weeks, partisans began to attack the German rail net in all parts of the country. In the North a partisan battallion managed to break Army Group North's sole rail line between Vore and Petseri. Meanwhile south of Vitebsk the secondary rail line towards Gomel was attacked at Bogushevsk. But luckily for the Germans construction troops managed to repair the damage by the end of the week. Last but not least two seperate partisan units blew up rails near Zatishye and Bessarabskaya with no consequence to Army Group South's second West-East line from Ungeny to Apostolovo.

[Note 1: AGC's northern flank begins to stretch to a breaking point. I don't have the infantry forces to cover it while attacking towards Moscow the same time. So by default I already have to send out 4th Panzer Group north. The issue, however, is what to do once November hits. I have no desire of leaving an entire Panzer Group out in the blizzard.]

AGC's northern flank begins to stretch to a breaking point.

Disappointing, but it seems realistic.  You can't drive seriously against Moscow without more infantry -- or a much weakened Russian army -- neither of which you have.  But if you are successful with your Valdai operation, is it possible you could still threaten Moscow during November?

Kaluga seems to be a really critical position that is difficult to root out unless you have taken Tula and can threaten the Russian rear if they stay in Kaluga.

Good luck on the rest of your campaign.  I really appreciate your great maps and commentary.

Prob a dumb question, but how did you (or where did you) get those big icons that show the position of the Army display?

I got them from Callistrid. [:)]

His AAR

I wouldn't get too frustrated yet...I am playing as the Soviets in a game that was in a remarkably similar point in late September, and I am not feeling all that confident heading into the Spring of '42. The reduced blizzard effects are meaningful (although it may not feel that way at first) and the Red Army should look pretty weak by even mid-February and begin offering opportunities. I think your gains in '42 may surprise you...

ORIGINAL: hfarrish


I wouldn't get too frustrated yet...I am playing as the Soviets in a game that was in a remarkably similar point in late September, and I am not feeling all that confident heading into the Spring of '42. The reduced blizzard effects are meaningful (although it may not feel that way at first) and the Red Army should look pretty weak by even mid-February and begin offering opportunities. I think your gains in '42 may surprise you...

Funny thing, loki in our email exchanges has been looking quite bleak (well, not for this turn, but the one before). He expressed his fear that Moscow's probably lost, while I have the feeling that my advance is coming to a halt. Guess the grass on the other side is always greener. Well, I have no real experience in 1942 nor with the reduced blizzard, so a lot of unknown right now. I'm already looking for suitable holding lines for the blizzard. If the Moscow 41-42 game against loki (under the old blizzard rules) has taught me anything, it's that a fortified line is quite impregnable in good terrain come January 42. But the wide open terrain from Tula southwards is another matter.

ORIGINAL: SigUp



Funny thing, loki in our email exchanges has been looking quite bleak (well, not for this turn, but the one before). He expressed his fear that Moscow's probably lost, while I have the feeling that my advance is coming to a halt. Guess the grass on the other side is always greener. Well, I have no real experience in 1942 nor with the reduced blizzard, so a lot of unknown right now. I'm already looking for suitable holding lines for the blizzard. If the Moscow 41-42 game against loki (under the old blizzard rules) has taught me anything, it's that a fortified line is quite impregnable in good terrain come January 42. But the wide open terrain from Tula southwards is another matter.

My opponent was aggressive right up to blizzard, so he was not dug in heavily in a lot of spots...as such I was able to make some good gains in these areas, less so in others. Overall though he should run out of steam starting in mid- to late-Jan (earlier if you are going to dig in during snow rather than fight, although this is a mixed bag...my blizzard was weaker than it would have been precisely b/c my forces were in disarray following a lot of snow battles). I guess to me the biggest difference is he is able to make meaningful counterattacks starting in late Jan and definitely in February, which would not at all have been the case under the old rules.

In the battle scenario against loki I pushed right up to Moscow's gates with parts of my forces while leaving a couple of infantry divisions broken up in regiments to dig some 4 hexes behind. So by the time he reached these in early January it was fortified to level two, which in light woods were a hard nut to crack, even under the old rules. But I doubt I can repeat it this time as he has far too many divisions for me to split the duties. Furthermore I can't utilize another aspect of my previous blizzard defence. That was throwing around the panzer divisions as mobile reserves in order to hold the lines. Can't allow the morale of those divisions to go down the drain. But to be honest, I am not too worried about the centre. It is about the areas from the Oka southwards where I wonder if I should construct fort zones. Not visible on the screens are the couple of forts I erected along the Volkhov. Perhaps they will be a waste, but I didn't want to see these forts decay away in case I need them, which could be the case if I can't drive him out of the Valdai Hills.

A losses screen shot would be interesting after the AGC pocket is eliminated. Please scroll down so that the Soviet vehicle losses are visible.

Will do after this turn is complete. It's time for the monthly report anyway. As for the vehicle losses, I just tell you that now. Before any moves on my part it's at 82.044, can't say whether this is few, average or many due to lack of experience with that.

82k Soviet vehicle losses by turn 15, without a full Lwov is a lot, but not dramatically so. I take it that quite a few Armour & Mot have been made to surrender even after the border battles

I think you are stronger than you realize. The 95 morale is a big give. That means the the Soviet NM during '42 will be 43 or possibly 42. That means that the units will be brittle. Attrition will be a killer...

Is AGB during '41 in your plans (Azov, Bataysk, and Manych)?

I'll try but I don't think the chances are very good. First Rostov still has to be cleared, then loki already has units across the Don digging forts. If I counted right only 10 tank and motorized divisions were eliminated after turn 3. However, some others were utilized in the late July counterattacks, so that could be a contributing factor.

As I see in the latest screen shot, 11 (at least) out of 15 units in the far south are Cav. You really want to cause casualties to those as the cav squads cost a lot of ARM to replace. If he is using those to defend with, everything that can has gone to Moscow. So even an somewhat unsuccessful drive to release AGB will have a pay off.

If you and loki have gents agreement not to metagame, then it another thing.

Edit: The cav cost goes for the German as well. Be very careful with your Cav Div. It will withdraw and can cause a major hit to your ARM if it has to draw replacements.

Yes, I've been bouncing these cavalry divisions in the South for the last couple of turns now. Nothing too dramatic, just a few hasty attacks to keep the Mius divisions moving. As for my own, he managed to force it to retreat the last turn, that hurt and the cavalry squad percentage is down to 70 percent... Guess that was it for the cavalry division in terms of active duty.

ORIGINAL: SigUp

In the battle scenario against loki I pushed right up to Moscow's gates with parts of my forces while leaving a couple of infantry divisions broken up in regiments to dig some 4 hexes behind. So by the time he reached these in early January it was fortified to level two, which in light woods were a hard nut to crack, even under the old rules. But I doubt I can repeat it this time as he has far too many divisions for me to split the duties. Furthermore I can't utilize another aspect of my previous blizzard defence. That was throwing around the panzer divisions as mobile reserves in order to hold the lines. Can't allow the morale of those divisions to go down the drain. But to be honest, I am not too worried about the centre. It is about the areas from the Oka southwards where I wonder if I should construct fort zones. Not visible on the screens are the couple of forts I erected along the Volkhov. Perhaps they will be a waste, but I didn't want to see these forts decay away in case I need them, which could be the case if I can't drive him out of the Valdai Hills.

You could still send the motorised divisions in Germany during the blizard , in terms of defensive action they are no better than a infantry division with 10 points less morale , in 1942 you get tanks and that would put them in the 13-14 cv range where they belong
with the obvious high mobility advantage .

Got the turn back, before I post the update sometimes the next few days a little rant by me...

First of all, can somebody enlighten me why those units didn't benefit from the fort bonus on their base unadjusted CV?

Second, this battle is the perfect example of why I've come to detest the 1:1=2:1 rule. The Red Army attacks with not even 46% of my CV. In quite a surprise my units actually get a higher modified CV, but it is of no use as the Soviet one jumps by nearly 2.8 times, enough to push it over 1:1 to get the bonus. That's my main issue. With the rule in place base CV means pretty much nothing to the Soviets while attacking. Just get to about 50% of the German CV and you are close to certain victory unless the German side manages to get in a reserve activation.

Aside from your fort effectively disappearing, Loki's Russians got an offensive reserve activation which seems preposterous at this point of the war.  Sure it's consistent with normal game mechanics but it just sounds way off to me in September 1941.

Q:  Where was the Luftwaffe during this attack?  Out of range?

Oh, I can tell you, the Red Army gets lots of reserve activations on defence too. It is a matter of putting Zhukov into Stavka. With the amount of units the Soviets have they are bound to get activations. As for the Luftwaffe, no, not out of range, just that I need the Luftwaffe during my turn. Therefore once it gets to him the number of operational planes is down a lot, perhaps they don't even have the mileage to fly (don't know whether that is reset once I klick end turn).

Get rid of leaders with infantry skill les than 6 fast ,if you did not already have .

by 4th turn is posible for the soviets to eliminate all corps (and the idiots in charge ) and have half the force at 6 or 7.
guys with 5 combat ratings simply no longer have a edge .

Mostly done. Three remaining, all in relatively calm sectors. Intend to replace the one in front of Rostov to prepare for the strike against the city. The other two will also be replaced soon, the next turn perhaps.

Right now the sector between Kaluga and Tula is worrisome. Half of 4th Army was badly mauled by a counterattack (the one you saw above was part of it). Two divisions were encircled and most of them are 5-6 CV ants. It will be no problem to relieve them, but the offensive there is pretty much over. Can't do much more than dig in for the blizzard. I fear Tula will hold out. Does it make any sense to construct some fort zones right now?