Heading East into the Soviet Union

[carlkay58]

T11 Air Phase:

I change the Recon directives to better locations and move the Naval Patrol to cover Sevastopol and Yevpatoriya. Mostly trying to slow down the supplies to the Crimea as much as possible.

[carlkay58]

T11 Freight:

A major shift to supply the air command but the ground units still received more than needed. Part of the shift to the air command was the massive realignment of the AOGs last turn as you could see in the Supply Net screenshots.

[carlkay58]

T11 AGN:

18th Army continues to advance on Leningrad while taking control of the northern flank of the AG. 16th Army finishes off the pocket and is the eastern flank of the AG. 4th PG has pulled back from the front in order to gain some CPP and decide whether to continue the advance on Leningrad or help in other pursuits. The temptation is to keep driving but it may not be the wisest decision. If this was the situation against a human player I would continue pushing but the AI can bring in reinforcements and fresh troops automatically and is much harder to push against in this situation.

[carlkay58]

T11 AGC:

9th Army is following the retreating Soviets into the Valdai Hills. The Soviets are afraid of being pocketed. 4th Army is driving eastwards and keeping pressure on the Soviet defenses forcing them to continue defending in this area. 2nd Army is also driving east and keeping the pressure on the Soviet defenders. 3rd PG drives north to threaten Rzhev. It is also looking as though Kalinin may be a feasible target and cut the double rail from Moscow to Leningrad (as well as another VP city along with Rzhev). This may help make the decision about a push on Leningrad. 2nd PG is supporting the 3rd PG but also continuing the pressure on the Soviet defenders towards Moscow.

[carlkay58]

T11 AGS:

The Soviets did two attacks on Rumanian Cavalry Brigades last turn but that has been the scope of their counterattacks. 6th Army has rested and is driving to the northeast in conjunction with the AGC's 2nd Army. 17th Army is driving east and blew a hole in the Soviet defensive line for the 1st PG. 11th Army is driving towads the Dnepr River bend while forming the southern flank of the AG. The Rumanians are driving towards the Crimea. The 1st PG sends a corps to help the Rumanians along with a reserve German infantry corps. The 1st PG also forms a pocket with the 2nd and 6th Armies and exploits the hole formed by the 17th Army.

[carlkay58]

T11 Soviet Garrison:

The Hungarian Cavalry Brigade made it into the garrison this turn and brought the garrison up to 98%. Next turn the Hungarian Security Brigade will be there and that should bring it up past 100%. This turn I sent the Croatian Reinforcement Brigade there too. This should give a nice overage and reduce the Soviet Partisans with about three turns to go before the bad weather starts to hit.

[carlkay58]

T11 Files:

[Bamilus]

Thank you for this great AAR. Im going to look through some of your saves to continue to learn from you!

[carlkay58]

Thank you. I included the saves so people could go in and look things over themselves. It is easier to learn this way. Also consider playing from one of the saves from a previous turn and see if you can do better than me. It is possible to do so!

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: carlkay58

Thank you. I included the saves so people could go in and look things over themselves. It is easier to learn this way. Also consider playing from one of the saves from a previous turn and see if you can do better than me. It is possible to do so!

this is incredibly generous of you - it does create a really useful resource for anyone getting used to the game who just wants to test something out

[carlkay58]

Hey, what can I say? I have gotten so used to supplying the saves as a play tester it is just automatic now! But it is very important to this AAR as it is meant to help demystify the air and logistics game for new players. It is evident that these two areas are causing a lot of problems for people to wrap their arms (mind) around but they are not too bad after you get used to them. Logistics is really an art form - there are very few definitively bad ways to do it and I have yet to find a perfect solution.

[Bamilus]

I've been looking at your files and you have a lot of depots and theyre all level 4 priority....but seems like your supply network still works? Kinda confused on that. Seems like a lot of people say only have a few depots on priority 4. Would appreciate any more insight from you and also if you have any guidance on when/where to move AOG's.

I already picked up a neat trick from one of your saves: use a shell corp HQ (no units attached minus RR SU) to move around and guide RR units to repair in the areas you want to. Very nice!

[carlkay58]

This falls under "Logistics is an art not a science" tag. I find that keeping all of the depots at priority 4 means that you don't have a desert of no supplies on the map. If you make the priorities from low to high then the higher priority depots take from the first lower priority depot it can. This empties all of those depots that are doing things like supplying your air force, your support units (such as that Hungarian HQ and its RAR Labor units), etc. This also means that when your units send trucks back to your depots for supplies they don't have to go back to Berlin for them. So this is entirely a personal preference.

I will note, however, that once you get a healthy supply net it is beneficial to prioritize better. For the Soviets it starts at day one, for the Axis you need branching rails not a straight back to pre-war borders. So I probably should be playing around more with the Baltic area where the rail net is pretty well established. This is a topic I will get more into around turn 16 in my AAR.

[carlkay58]

T12 Supply Net North:

Just when things were looking good logistically the front line suddenly surges forward and *poof* there went all that hard work! One problem is that I sent the northern FBD down to help out AGS where it is badly needed so I will have to make do. This turn I will have to decide whether I am serious about Leningrad or not. It will depend on the Recon Intel I collect in the Air Phase.

[carlkay58]

T12 Supply Net South:

If you look closely in the top right corner you can see the advance of the northern FBD coming down the double line from Brest-Litovsk. The northern flank is looking good building on Kiev for the major supply depot while you can see the red FBD near the Koluft 17 coming across south the Dnepr River on the double line there. The Rumanian FBD is in the Nikolaev area and is due to be withdrawn in two turns. You can see the Hungarian Corps near Luftflotte 4 and the RAR Labor units repairing rail in that area. You can also see the supplies coming by sea into the front three ports. It is this type of supply that will be required for the Crimea operation.

[carlkay58]

T12 Air Phase:

I readjust the Recon directives and go with the Ground Support directives still disabled.

[carlkay58]

T12 Freight:

Good overall supply situation with the needs being overall met but some of the infantry armies (with supply priority of 2) are falling short.

[carlkay58]

T12 AGN:

This is the turn of decision as to my attempt at Leningrad. I waited until after my drive with the 2nd and 3rd PG from AGC before I decided. With AGC reaching the outskirts of Kalinin and cutting the double rail from Moscow to Leningrad, I decide to drive for Leningrad. 18th Army advances to the outskirts of Oranienbaum. 16th Army advances after the retreating Soviets. 4th PG sends one corps to the left flank of 18th Army and is at the outskirts of Leningrad proper. The other corps goes on the right flank of 18th Army and penetrates 30 miles from there. It will prove interesting. I don't know if I can take Leningrad but it is definitely worth the risk at this point.

[carlkay58]

T12 AGC:

9th Army is advancing after the retreating Soviets. 4th and 2nd Armies continue to press east and keep the Soviet forces tied down. 3rd PG takes Rzhev and opens the door for 2nd PG to advance to Kalinin along with forming yet another pocket. 2nd PG is now within 80 miles of Moscow. If the bad weather stays away for a few more turns then I may even be able to pressure Moscow.

[carlkay58]

T12 AGS:

6th Army eliminates the pocket and continues to advance to the east. 17th Army is also advancing east after the retreating Soviets. 11th Army is now an Assault army and advancing to the east with one corps heading to the Crimea. The Rumanians are screening the Crimea as other forces move towards it and attempting to regain CPP. The Rumanians are confident that Sevastopol will fall to them as Odessa did earlier in the war. 1st PG is dispersed with one corps in the north helping form pockets with 6th Army, another corps making a dagger-like penetration with 17th Army, and their third corps spearheading the drive into the Crimea against little to no resistance. The XXXX Mot. Corps enters as a reinforcement and is being sent down through Hungary and Rumania as a reinforcement for 1st PG to keep the rail net from being overloaded to the north.