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I made the decision sometime in '43 that that the plan for '44 was to retreat back to Germany and make a stand there. It is difficult for Axis to stand up against 3-stacks of Infantry Corps even in 3 level forts, unless there is also good terrain or a big river and and even with those only for a short time. So my thinking is rather than fight the Soviets throughout the Summer would waste the first half of the Summer turns by running away and then just fighting for the second half of the Summer.
There was a slight change to that strategy when the Soviets came charging down from Pskov and I have been holding the river line from Riga for a short time, but overall the plan is still the same - delay them reaching my intended 'combat' area in Germany.
The idea is that once they get there the front line will be shorter, they will be experiencing some supply shortages at least for a while and there is at least some terrain. It does mean giving up on Romania.

I have not played this period of the game before and I don't know how viable a more forward defence would have been.
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I do agree with your plan, if your opponent creates those Cav / Mech Groups that were devastating historically you are in real trouble also being back inside Axis territory frees you from Partisan activity which will be very helpful.
Giving up Rumania could be a worry, wont that flip Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece leaving you vulnerable to attack through Austria, you may get Army Groups E and F but I don't if there will be enough troops in both Army Groups.
The Carpathian Mountains are a strong barrier for defence along with a lot of big rivers.

Someone wiser than me might be able to shed better light on The Balkans map if Rumania surrenders.

regards

Giving up Rumania could be a worry, wont that flip Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece leaving you vulnerable to attack through Austria

As far as I know the locked areas of the map don't open up apart from Bulgaria, and it is a long way around to get to Germany from the far South.

T155.
In the North the river gets stormed in two places. Concerning to see how a triple stack loses even behind the river line. However we can cope with this for now and will continue to hang on. The weakest part of the line is too the East but am not so concerned if he crosses here.
Center – the retreat continues. A couple of counterattacks .
South. Will try and hold the river line for one more turn. Am a bit exposed if he advances in two places and could pin a stack from retreating.

The good news is my fighter are up to over 60 aircraft per unit, can deploy some of the 1000’s of spare aircraft ! Not so good is that the AI has been swapping out some of my better aircraft even when there are 100’s of spares in the pool. Am not motivated enough to micromanage it, probably doesn’t matter too much at this stage of the game.

T156.
Things hot up in the North. Soviets storm the river in 3 places and follow up crossing in in two of them. We counter attack with Panzers and push them back where they have crossed and reoccupy all three hexes. Even losses for the turn at around 30k for these heavy battles. However they are working their way past the river to the East so am going to have to start giving up the river defence from next turn as I cannot hold the open end.
Elsewhere nothing from the Soviets, we make one expensive counterattack. Usual 3 hex retreat. Am getting towards the stage where they are the same distance from Germany across the whole front so the defence at the Riga line has almost done it’s job.
Lost a good Panzer general this turn even though he wasn’t engaged in combat.

tyronec wrote: Tue Oct 01, 2024 8:37 am T156.
Things hot up in the North. Soviets storm the river in 3 places and follow up crossing in in two of them. We counter attack with Panzers and push them back where they have crossed and reoccupy all three hexes. Even losses for the turn at around 30k for these heavy battles. However they are working their way past the river to the East so am going to have to start giving up the river defence from next turn as I cannot hold the open end.
Elsewhere nothing from the Soviets, we make one expensive counterattack. Usual 3 hex retreat. Am getting towards the stage where they are the same distance from Germany across the whole front so the defence at the Riga line has almost done it’s job.
Lost a good Panzer general this turn even though he wasn’t engaged in combat.
T156a.jpgT156b.jpgT156c.jpgT156d.jpg

Operation Doppelkopf (‹See Tfd›German: Unternehmen Doppelkopf) and the following Operation Cäsar

Well its not exactly the same but your spirited counterattack is in the same tradition as this historical battle.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Doppelkopf

Operation Doppelkopf (‹See Tfd›German: Unternehmen Doppelkopf) and the following Operation Cäsar

Yes, there is a good Youtube about this campaign by TIK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJsjxSfB7Ls&t=5900s

T157.
North. They storm the river in 6 places, but except in the East do not cross. Can’t hold the line any longer, will flip back the combat hexes but not fill them as it is just more units getting trashed. Next turn I expect the Soviets to get across in force and I will retreat, hopefully have done enough to restrict any breakout.
Elsewhere the retreat continues. My garrison in Sevastapol gets routed out – where did they come from, I never put them there ! Must have arrived as a reinforcement last couple of turns and I didn’t notice… The Romanian air force gets moved forward for their first combat since T1. I have plans for the Romanian army which they won’t like either.

T158.
North. To my surprise the Soviets didn’t cross the river, just trashed a couple of sacrificial regiments. So we just send them both back again. At the Eastern of the river line do something of a counterattack and pull back to safety. So if they don’t cross in force, which could happen any time, will just concede a few hexes at the Eastern end every turn. Risky, but time is everything at this stage of the game.
Elsewhere the steady retreat continues, no battles.

T159.
North. Nothing from the Soviets, we continue to pull back where the river line is turned.
South. Soviets do a couple of hasties, one of which wins. We do one costly counter attack but it will slow down the advance a fraction. Trying to hold the river line East of Odessa for a turn.
Maybe 15 turns or so before Mud and about 7 till they reach Germany.

T160.
No Soviet attacks. They cross the River near Riga to an empty hex but we push them back. Elsewhere the retreat continues, Kiev abandoned.

T161.
Quiet turn, the Soviets are closing in.

tyronec wrote: Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:49 am T161.
Quiet turn, the Soviets are closing in.T161a.jpgT161b.jpg

As you plan to make your stand inside Axis Territory will that encompass German occupied Poland and East Prussia or defend from the Polish corridor which shortens the line and frees up troops for reserve actions.

As you plan to make your stand inside Axis Territory will that encompass German occupied Poland and East Prussia or defend from the Polish corridor which shortens the line and frees up troops for reserve actions.

The shorter line. Game is running a few turns ahead of the AAR.

T162.
Soviets have made a breakthrough by massing motorized and cavalry units and getting a few deliberate attacks on my retreating line. I should have been doing more recon. Nothing pocketed, just a few infantry divisions trashed. We rush Panzers to the area and push back one stack to break the ZOC. Sacrifice a couple of Romanian cav divisions to make a pocket and some combat delay.
Elsewhere all quiet. Not long to go before the battle for Germany begins. Have left 3 Romanian divisions in Odessa, unfortunately can’t do city forts there (only in the original German area I think).

T163.
Soviets trash my three Romanian Cav divisions but don’t do much else. What is really odd is that during the admin phase one of them gets converted to Armor and so doesn’t have the MPs to escape far enough, even though they still have no tanks !
The don’t manage to cut off the German infantry in the swamp which was what I was more worried about, hopefully can continue to extract them next turn.
I counterattack against two Mech Corps, it goes really badly and I lose the first two battles before eventually routing them.
The retreat continues, Run Run Run.
Odessa surrounded , expect they can just assault it but will see what they do next turn. If they push my line further away will lose the Corps command and all of the support units for the battle.
Had two generals killed the last couple of turns, think one was random and the other maybe an HQ overrun. That is all my APs used up for two turns.
Won’t be long now before the Soviets reach the main defence line.

Hi Just curious in that last battle report you have in combat the 10th Panzer Div, that unit was destroyed in North Africa ?
I would have to check my game I am currently playing, I haven't got the game going at this time but I am certain
The unit was never reformed.

All the Romanian HQ staff and supply personnel are like we are now officially a Tank division....now to actually requisition tanks and motorized infantry lol

Always funny in this game its like ahh all the combat elements are dead but all the support personnel are just fine and thats actually most the manpower of the unit in most Axis units----one of the bigger flaws with the games manpower utilization---as combat power is attrited/destroyed most armies would send support troops to replace them and the game doesnt model this well even when the German units start doing it in 1942.

Hi Just curious in that last battle report you have in combat the 10th Panzer Div, that unit was destroyed in North Africa ?
I would have to check my game I am currently playing, I haven't got the game going at this time but I am certain
The unit was never reformed.

We are playing Closed TBs, I haven't been trying to keep track of what comes and goes.
There was that bug that I got a load of Italian units as reinforcements into the AR that were destroyed in N. Africa, perhaps it came from there.

Always funny in this game its like ahh all the combat elements are dead but all the support personnel are just fine and thats actually most the manpower of the unit in most Axis units----one of the bigger flaws with the games manpower utilization---as combat power is attrited/destroyed most armies would send support troops to replace them and the game doesnt model this well even when the German units start doing it in 1942.

Am not actually running short of manpower yet so most of the army is still at over 90% or so, except the Mech and Panzers. It is interesting that the Mot divisions seem to be more useful than Mech because they would fill up with REFIT while the Mech are presumably short of APCs. I guess once you start running low of manpower the best thing is to start disbanding units.
I think Model was keen at making cooks fight as infantry, but the latest analysis I have seen was that it didn't work great and other generals performed just as well in defence as he did. Unless they were Finnish cooks of course who apparently did fight very well !

T164.
Odessa fell to the first attack. Nothing else from the Soviets.
We make a few counter attacks, costly as has become the norm when attacking good units in ’44 though I can still wreck random infantry divisions. King Tigers in action.
And the retreat continues. Will pull out of Riga next turn, Romania should go in a few moves and am busy rushing units down to prepare for the mass hex flip.

Quantas must have a true horde of trucks to support all these motorized support units.