Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: chaos45

gain ground on the flanks of moscow .....
Also just to prep for spring 1942 .....until you can start doing rifle corps with attached sapper regiments.

Thanks for the plan looks very good, logical and i will use it.

I still have to figure out if i will fully commit to moscow in 1942. (I mean, sending guard divisions and elite armies inside and very close to the city).

I have also Voronev, Stalingrad and Baku to defend and if moscow is going to be a meatgrinder, i may prefer to have regular armies inside it.

I have 2 months to think about it.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
At the completion of turn 24, the cav divisions should be triple stacked and close to if not right behind the front lines. They should all be ready for corps conversions, SU fit out and commitment from the very start of blizzard. Every blizzard turn is crucial as you won't have another opportunity to do something like this until late 42-early 43.

I did not plan in advance the conversion of cavalry corps. Maybe i should have [8|]

yes the admin point useage for the Soviet you have to be very careful on how you use them up until about 1943.

Before blizzard you should have all your cav divisions stacks and either in the same army or stavka so they can combine the very first week of december. As well all the support units for those cav corps should be ready to transfer to the new corps right off in december. If you are building the support units now its really to late. They will have no experience nor time to train up and be in general garbage most of the winter.

Also motorcycle regiments should just be disbanded to save trucks for the soviet army. Better to use heavy tanks, sappers, and tank battalion/regiments to support the cav corps.

If you have guard cav divisions they should be stacks 2x guards, and 1 regular cav division as this will create a guard cav corps right off instead of a normal one.

Turn 26 : December 11 1941 :

It is upgrade time for the rifle division, with additions of new light anti tank weapons. Not sûre if 14.5 anti tank rifle is very efficient.
Too bad i have no more armement point left to buy them [:D]



The german go on with its blizzard strategy of light retreat in weak points.



But around moscow i will probably be able to try some attacks this turn thanks to my elite armies.

Pelton will slowly give ground south of moscow until stalino line area. Its his standarad tactic.

Teutonkof division cannot hold against the best soviet troops !!!

Wow.
Very good battle, I mean only 3:1 numerical superiority against elite German troops in fortifications with an elite commander. Congratulations to Vatutin.

Turn 27 : 18 december 1941 !!!

The blizzard is going on !!

For the first time in the war, looses for german is equal to soviet a turn.



I attack when i can but the german try to avoid being attacked by slowly retreating.

South of moscow, i'am engaging cavalry corps in order to try to reach Tula, and if possible, try to flank the ennemy troops in front of moscow. It is my only hope to gain ground here.

you need to move up all those BDEs in the rear to occupy your old forts. If you keep units in them they wont degrade. You will want those forts on the north and south flanks of moscow come summer.

ORIGINAL: chaos45

you need to move up all those BDEs in the rear to occupy your old forts. If you keep units in them they wont degrade. You will want those forts on the north and south flanks of moscow come summer.

Good advice thanks.

Propaganda newsflash : My 50 and 51st elite army are so good !!!
They never fail the great soviet union !!!

For the second, it is an offensive reserve activation of a guard rifle division that give me victory !!!





Elsewhere in the front, i have one of my last armored division that lost 100 tanks in one failed attack, but i will not show it because i try to forget that armored division actually exist.... They never had any success in the entire war !!!

Turn 28 : 25 december 1941.

Nothing new as the turn looks like the previous turn. But it is the last turn of 1941 !!

I will do a review of my army situations&numbers next turn.



I'am also trying to make some sence in armies positions according to front, as there was a lot of mixing due to battle.

First shock army with new cavalry corps advance south of moscow !!

Very nice AAR,
How looks like your OOB? [:)]

I have great OOB !!! I have the best OOB !! [:D]

Next turn will be the first turn of 1942 and i will provide more OOB/looses/equipment screen.
I think it is not bad but i do not have something to compare.

Turn 29 : 01 January 1942 : WHAT A YEAR !!!

Happy new year for everyone.

What a year it has been.

My strategy this year was to defend strongly north and Leningrad, but i failed in an horrible way as rapid panzer advance completely bypass my defenses there.
2 renforced fronts were being put out of balance by german troops, while the too lightly defended (consequence of my bad starting strategy) south crumble.

Leningrad was lost very quickly. Still i managed to evacuate the troops there and they arrived at the last moment to defend the gate of moscow.
The battle for moscow was epic, as my opponent really wanted it and put all motorized troops in the attack.
It is only the concentration of an enormous blob of 2/3 of all soviet fronts that managed to barely hold the position until winter. Just in time.

The ennemy was one hexagon to cut to railroad to moscow (with all the industries still inside). But never reached it. It was sooooo close.

What happened this turn ?

In the north, my legendary 50 army got some progress and managed to repel two german counter attack. This not yet guard 32st siberian (high morale) rifle division are truly heroes of the soviet union !!!



In the south, the ennemy tried to counter attack the advance of my cavalry corps, and this time succeeded !!! The 1st shock army will have work to do to earn my trust. Looses are heavy.

Let's do some resume as we start a new year !!!

I think i managed to keep the looses under control this year.

Unfortunately german looses are not very heavy too.



The air force suffer a lot. Still i think i'am able to bear it as i have many replacements.
I would gladly convert some planes factory to guns factory.



The glorious army of the people reached 6 millions men for christmas !!!
The army managed to keep some guns and tanks too. Although i have no efficient tanks unit at the moment and my prefered support units is the cheap 120mm mortar bataillon.



Equipment stock :
As we can see below, i have a good stocks of fighters. What i lack is good tactical bombers.

For the tanks, i lack everything.
My production of goods tank (T-34 and KV1) due to factory transfert and the destruction of karkov T-34 plant is not very good.
The T-60 tank is awfull.
I have to rely to land lease tanks and they are not very numerous. I need thousands of tanks to do something with my tanks brigades and support tanks units.
Good news, my plant of BM rocket launcher just started production. But only one point was evacuated so the production will take time to be efficient. I really need this equipment as rocket regiment are awesome support artillery units with automatic guard status. And if i use rocket truck instead of guns, it will save me armement points



My production so far :

It is interesting that now i have spare manpower. It is because i have not enough rifle to give them.

Production of Armement points is increase by 30% in 1942. I hope it will help. Transfered factories will be repaired too.



And last the victory point panel :



Reading this panel, i take the decision to defend moscow in force. I was guessing if i really wanted to commit to this objective, but looking at the victory point table, i really need to do it.

I will so really fight for it in 1942, with my best troops.

However, unlike in 1941 where i used a big blob with whatever i could, i will try this time a "quality" approach, and be sure that only the best and well trained units will be here to face the threat.

No front will have guard troops except this one, as example.

You can live at 298 arms, as this is the toughest stretch while the evacuated factories are all recovering. The HI count is troublesome. At 160. you are going to have troops starving later this year. That will mean lower CV. While you have the rail points, this is the time to evacuate the Caucasus of all industry. At some point the T-34 factory at Stalingrad needs to go, and you may want to commit as much of a single turns worth of railcap to evacuate as much of it as possible.

The state of your air force is hard to read from just the filtered production screenie. I'm going to guess that your SU-2 regiments are well under strength. You probably didn't upgrade a lot of I-16 and similar aircraft given your low count of Yak-1 and LaGG3 regiments with high pool counts. You need more recon regiments come Spring to look for his buildups. If you can build more now, try to add 8 more regiments. If you aren't going to build U2-VS regiments, move a factory for each appropriate location. That will save you supplies that you will need later.

As you gain hexes near Moscow, consider building FZs in the 3rd row along the front and packing them with sappers. Although the weather slows build rate, you do have the civil population of Moscow that will assist in construction as long as he remains close to the city. If you can get some Level 3 forts up, that will complicate things for Pelton.

You need to keep prying the north and southern flanks of moscow from what I can see of your troops you have the raw factors to get more hexes even though Pelton is trying to stop you.

Key thing is get those rear troops moving up behind the new frontlines---by March you need a 3 hex deep fort zone to the immediate north and south of moscow if you want to hold it.

You must take Tula to use it as a fortress in spring/summer....also those 2 woods hexes to the NW of tula are critical to be fortified if you get them.

Judging from a game I played (no AAR for it), 1942 is a very dangerous year for the Soviets. Expect to find that your units are next to worthless on defense, that supply is short, and that morale is just pitiful.

How to avoid total defeat? Be pessimistic and cautious. Realize that uncommitted German armor can be deadly 15 combat, 50 movement, rapiers. You can hardly grasp how deep the defenses need to be to prevent a lunge that secures a big pocket. Don't put valuable units into potential pockets. Don't expect to win counterattacks. Keep careful count of what spells defeat. You don't have to hold Moscow, not absolutely. You do have to hold Rostov, because beyond Rostov it's Katy bar the door, and you can't compete in mobile warfare in 1942.

Also, be pessimistic about industry. I just barely held Gorky, and I lost some industry by tardy evacuations in 1942.

Be an active defender in this sense: you will need to react on a very large scale to his offensive moves. Whole Fronts will have to shift. You cannot expect the forces at hand, pieced out with bits and dribs of newly constructed units, to be able to contain a major thrust. You have to resolutely give up terrain here, or weaken an passive front on a quiet sector, to get the kind of mass that alone can delay and stall a major German thrust.

And finally, take heart. You can come close to losing geographically, and maybe build a wall of guards rifle corps and stop him just short. Goal line stands are possible. And then, with good management of counterattacks, your late-game mass and quality will at least yield a draw. The game I refer to was played before the latest nerfing of the late-war Soviets so it doesn't really mean much that I won a decisive victory in the end; your late-game units will be at lower morale than mine were, and his will be stronger.