Twig's War (Twigster Axis, thedoctorking Soviet)

[Twigster]

ORIGINAL: Zecke

ORIGINAL: Twigster

AGS.

Another area of intense activity as 1PG penetrates southward into the rear of the Soviet defense line south of Kiev. (Kiev itself is ringed for the moment, though a couple of attacks against it's outer defense line are conducted as 6 Army prepares to for the street-to-street fighting to come). 11 Army joins 1PG's attack from the west, leading to the collapse of part of the Soviet line. German armor rolls into and through Kirovograd but is needed elsewhere by the end of the week.

The Luftwaffe was held back from any kind of large-scale serious offensive action this week, reeling from the sustained, intense attacks by the Soviet air forces. Still, some ground support missions were conducted. The strain on the fighters is becoming all-too obvious.

NICE JOB¡..Herr FIELDMARSHALL¡

Kirovograd

Nice place to replace panzers and refit moral etc..after they charge again (always rest panzer divisions in citys); then became strongers (if not u knew)

If possible to destroy what panzers soviet units unsupplyyed did..[&o]..good break¡

'...a game is what transpires in the minds of the opponents'.

Hi, and thanks! I pulled out of Kirovograd because thedoctorking has this habit of isolating exposed units whenever he can. Not only is this annoying, I also wanted to do what I could to be able to best exploit the breakthrough on the following turn.

[thedoctorking]

German turn 11 featured a full-on armored breakthrough in the Southern Front area of operations. This is the first one in a couple of turns, perhaps representing the increased cost of HQBU moves in the new patch. Anyway, this was a classic German takedown of a Soviet Army, except that thanks to the suppression of our little Romanian buddies last turn, he didn’t have a second pincer to actually cut off the surrounded guys:

They were so nearly surrounded that I was only able to retreat them a few hexes and so their fate is pretty grim. But at least they will be able to fight effectively for another turn, slowing the advance of the German infantry towards the cities and river crossings of the Dnepr.

[thedoctorking]

Closeup of the German breakthrough

[thedoctorking]

I retreated to Odessa with one army, pulled the other guys back towards the Dnepr, and sent a good percentage of my reinforcements to this theater to try to improvise a line along the Dnepr and defenses for the cities. There’s not much left of Southern Front at this point. Luckily, we bounce back fast.

His central front advance shifted axis a bit, driving straight east from his former lodgment on the road to Bryansk. I was able to cut off his leading elements in this attack, which should slow him a bit. My units are getting quite high fatigue levels now and I can only hope that his are the same. I did notice that the defensive values of his motorized and panzer divisions were quite low when I went to strike back. I wonder if this attack was by the refitted corps from the Dnepr bend last turn, or if that blow is yet to fall?

I’m also wondering if the new activity of the army on the Reserve/Northwest Front boundary represents a new focus for his advance? I’m concerned that if there are undetected armored units in that area he could push through to Rzhev next turn.

[thedoctorking]

In the north, he pushed up to the Volkhov but couldn’t get across. There are powerful stacks of armor on the west bank, though. Next turn will show if he has the power to attack across in force. Major rivers are supposed to disrupt about two-thirds of armored and motorized elements, according to the manual, so I wonder if his tanks will be effective. He did manage to get across the river higher up, near Lake Ilmen, where it is a minor river, but that region is not his principal goal. I brought a few divisions across from Leningrad to garrison the port on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga. If it looks like the port is about to fall, I can hopefully evacuate most of the garrison of Leningrad across the lake.

In air combat, he began to interdict aggressively in the southern sector. I noticed a few occasions on which he inflicted serious casualties on me, both in the air and on the ground. My bombing attacks, on the other hand, looked to be producing about equal losses – which is entirely fine with me. Of course, I pushed the end turn button without looking at (or screen shotting) the losses screen, oops, so we will have to depend on Twigster.

[SparkleyTits]

Good job on holding control so well along your fronts for so long Doctor, I am way too scared about losing forces when it comes to fighting forward to hold as you have

And good job on retaking the initative Twigster if you focus on dissolving the southern front and Leningrad you could add around 30% to your total manpower kills which will have a huge knock on effect

Kudos to both of you I am finding this a brilliant AAR!

[thedoctorking]

If he takes Leningrad, the only thing I'm really concerned about is losing all those guys in there. I can evacuate about three divisions a turn over the lake. So if he manages to take the port in three turns I've saved one army, anyway. And everybody who gets killed before November comes back.

The south is an area of concern for sure. He is going to kill about 15 divisions down there, almost two armies. I needed the extra command span anyway. Just went from 24-point armies to 21-point this turn, annoyingly.

[SparkleyTits]

I personally think the best thing about Leningrad is the Finns as they are a much needed lifeline once the bad times hit come winter by effectively making a static front which has the knock on affect of giving another front a very nice injection of forces

I imagine overall it is the most optimal theatre by quite a margin if Axis wants bang for his buck in hex retention from 41 and beyond

[Twigster]

I'm ready to post but suddenly am having trouble logging on to server games... will get this moving again as soon as I can. [8D]

[Twigster]

ORIGINAL: SparkleyTits

I personally think the best thing about Leningrad is the Finns as they are a much needed lifeline once the bad times hit come winter by effectively making a static front which has the knock on affect of giving another front a very nice injection of forces

I imagine overall it is the most optimal theatre by quite a margin if Axis wants bang for his buck in hex retention from 41 and beyond

Agreed.

[thedoctorking]

ORIGINAL: Twigster

I'm ready to post but suddenly am having trouble logging on to server games... will get this moving again as soon as I can. [8D]

Oh oh, what's the problem? I hope our saved game isn't messed up.

[Twigster]

And now, back to our tale:

First, here are the loss reports as of the very beginning of Axis Turn 12-


Ground

[Twigster]

And Air

[Twigster]

AGN

AGN ending positions Axis Turn 12.

[Twigster]

Army Group North forces the Volkhov.

Do not be deceived! The terrain on the east bank of the Volkhov River is not conducive to effective mobile warfare tactics. First, rest assured that yes, the major river is the barrier it is advertised to be. Attacking across said major river into defended swamps and wooded terrain is, lets say, unpleasant and above all else costly in terms of MPs. That said, half of 4PG ends the turn sitting in Volkhov and much of the assaulting forces are across the river but do not gain much ground.

Given the horrendous fighter losses the Luftwaffe has recently suffered, Axis air activity across the Front has been severely curtailed until further notice pending assessment and reorganization. Even so, a few Axis airstrikes are conducted this week.

[Twigster]

Upper AGC area.

Such attacks as take place outside of the major axes of advance are mostly intended to stress defending units and/or to exploit advantageous situations as they arise.

[Twigster]

Lower AGC area.

[Twigster]

A mistake on my part. I had originally posted a Turn 13 screenshot here. Oopsie.

[Twigster]

The Smolensk-Gomel stretch of the front.

[Twigster]

The inner defenses of Kiev are tested, and saturation airstrikes are conducted against important enemy positions. The Luftwaffe was again most active in the AGS area this week.