German 1941 GC - normal - Finished (DV - T56)

[CharonJr]

T17 south:

The frontline around Rostov is pulled back towards my lines of supply, using double stacks here with a tripple stack in Voroshilograd since it will be exposed to attacks from 3+ sides.

Due to lack of units I can only use single divisions on the frontline to the west of Kharkov, but those units will be bolstered by the Romanian MTNs.

The Italians head back towards the Krim.

The second (now isolated) fortified stack at the Krim is eliminated.

The 2 German mountain divisions are send on their long railway travel to the north and end right next to Brest-Litovsk for now.

Around Voronezh and Rostov my units will be out of supply/isolated for some turns, lets see if the Soviets have enough of a punch left to do anything about it.

[CharonJr]

T17 results/misc:

I started to disband some AAA units here (read about it in another thread), but then decided to stop until I more fully understood the use/problems of this and the reasoning behind it.

With another 50 units and 130k men and 2.3k guns lost this turn the Soviets still seem to be headed down, but it looks like they got a large number of AFVs this turn (+500) - factories coming online again, lend-lease, reinforcements? - no idea here. German manpower is slightly up, but it looks like a fair number of my AVFs broke down after the fairly heavy strain they have been through during the last turns (maybe the Soviets stole them, this might explain their positive jump, too ).

I am very anxious about he next few turns since I never have face any mud/snow/blizzards here before. That it will take me 2-3 turns before getting at least minimal supplies to my units does not help me to feel better, too.

My main comfort at the moment is that the Soviets are serverly hurt.

[randallw]

The Soviet side does not get a lot of lend lease tanks early in the game; the tank increase is probably a combo of factories and a few repaired ones.

[CharonJr]

Just took a look at the turn results and I am a bit puzzled. Am I seeing this correctly that units need to be both in range of their HQs and the general supply grid?

I was under the impression that the units will draw supplies from their HQs, but I see HQs inside the supply grid range with their units in range of them (show up blue), but they are isolated anyway.

So they have to be in range of both, correct?

CharonJr

[randallw]

You may have killed enough units to leave the computer without enough units to form a filled out line.  Haven't seen another current AAR doing so well ( though other people may have harder game settings, who knows ).

[CharonJr]

T18 general:

My armor still tries to get to the raillines, but at the current speed it will take some of them a bit longer, with the situation in the south being worst.

Sinec not much is happening at the moment this will be 1 big report (if the screenshot's filesize will not turn out to be too large).

T18 north:

With the supply situation in the north being bearable I send FBD4 towards Smolensk, I need some support towards Moscow.

Due to the fairly good supply levels I will keep on bumping Soviet units at my frontline. In addition to costing them manpower which they are fairly short of at the moment it will prevent them from digging in deeply.

T18 center:

My MTNs arrive at Smolensk, now for the long walk to Moscow...

My first line of defense in front of Moscow is out of supplies due to the Soviet ZOCs, it will take some turns before FBD4 is in range to do something about this. But at least the automated repair units are working around Smolensk.

I am still debating with myself if I should try to "bump" the Soviets with my low supply units, too, but in the end I thikn I will just try to hold the line with them for now.


T18 south:

Due to obviously both the HQs AND their units having to be in range of the supply grid I am seeing far more red here than anticipated. But likely due to the low overall Soviet force levels he is not in contact with most of my troops at the moment and the supply situation should improve with my railheads getting closer to the front.


T18 results/misc:

I think I finally understood about disbanding the AAA, only the companies should be disbanded since they are too small and their place could be taken by more useful support units. And it seems like we can't disband support units from HQs that are not fully integrated into the supply grid.

My armor still far away from the supply grid get some air drops and the unsupplied units in key areas (Moscow, Rostov) get supplies.

450t were dropped on Rostov, bringing their supply levels up to 63%. Well, we are doing better than Göring here who only was able to drop about 300t (at first, and of 600t needed) at Stalingrad - but then again, those were daily drops

With barely any battles (the casualties are from by "bump" attacks) the Soviets start to rebound.

[Magnum88]

I had similiar problems down south with being too successful before the mud hit. I have decided it is better to slow the drive east to Rostov and send more forces into the Crimea quickly to try to take Sevastopol before the mud. If you can, I think the Black Sea ports there will provide port supplies and allow you not to go isolated on the peninsula. Otherwise, Sevastopol's port will prevent you from using any port within 15 hexes and as you have found out your forces will be isolated there completely stopping their advance for 4 turns. I'll wait for the snow and the railheads to move up to do the drive to Rostov.

[CharonJr]

Yes, had I known that the situation would be this bad I would have focused more on keeping my lines of supply much shorter - including taking Sevastopol.

My supply trucks are getting massacred here and I doubt I will be able to advance at all during this winter season, so for any further progress will be stopped till after the mud hits again during next spring. Unless my railheads are able to dramatiaclly improve my motor pool situation by then, but I doubt it and will most likely rather try to build up a small surplus pool there.

But this is a valueable learning experience.

Now to see if the Soviets are able to punish me for this or if their earlier loses in manpower, material and production capability (most likely mainly manpower) will keep them in line.

CharonJr

[kevini1000]

I know there is a thread concerning the Crimea. It might be a good idea to secure the Crimea if you can pre Blizzard. If this will help improve supply in the area. Plus the Crimea should be a fairly safe resting place/diffcult for the Russian to conduct operation if Sevastopol is also captured. I kind of wonder if the Weather in the Crimea was as historically bad as the rest of Russian in December 1941 through Feburary 1942.

Sath

[CharonJr]

T18 follow-up:

To ease the burden on my line of supply I am moving a number of divisions back towards the west along the whole front - no more double stacks except for really crucial positions. If the Soviets do attack those units are close enough to rush to the defense, but should use up less of my precious motor pool.

Whereever possible mobile forces will sit right on the raillines and I set my security divisions (and all other units guarding cities far behind the front) to static mode.

The northern front will be held completely by Finnish forces.


T19:

Despite trying to shorten my lines of supply I lost 4.2k trucks this turn (over the previous 18 turns I only lost 21.2k).

FBD4 arrives to the east of Smolensk and is even able to repair 1 hex towards Moscow.

260t of supply are dropped at Voronezh, another 200t at the units to the east of Moscow and 414t at Rostov. In addition about 400t of fuel are dropped at the 2 armored divisions to the west of Moscow that are still struggeling to reach their units.

At the Krim 2 Soviet divisions were forced to retreat, but I cant follow them since this would put my units completly out of supply and would isolate them. But there is a bunch of automated repair units around Nikolaev which should hopefully improve the situation soon.

Other than a few bump attacks costing 2.9k Soviets and 110 Germans there life nothing else happened during this turn.

[CharonJr]

I only have about 1 German, 1 Romanian and 1 Italian corps at the Krim and doubt that I will be able to take it, but I will surely try.

Supply down there is my main problem at the moment, preventing me from taking Simferopol at the moment.

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

T20:

420t of supplies are dropped at the units at the Krim, in addition the units are set to refit mode.

2 deliberate attacks on the Krim by 2 divisions each manage to force the Soviet defenders to retreat again. While 1 battle lost 51 men while taking out 1.3k Soviets the other one was fairly bad, 0.8k men lost for 1.4k Soviets. Sadly one of my German divisions here is set to withdraw soon.

Overall 16.6k Soviets and 1.4k Germans died due to small scale attacks along the fairly well supplied parts of the front and at the Krim (the Krim accounts for about 60% of German casualties).

[CharonJr]

T21:

All mobile units are now sitting on the raillines waiting if/when/where they will be needed to stop Soviet attacks.

I am disbanding a couple of my fairly empty airbases, no need to have them drain my motor pool.

The German division at the Krim is done, this will not make things easier down here...

800t of supplies were dropped at the Krim this turn. Again 2 divisions were forced to retreat and this time I am able to advance one hex towards Sevastopol since my railhead come closer.

2k vs. 29k loses this turn and the Soviets are back at 3.1 million men, this might become an interesting winter...

My motor pool is at 124k (129k) and my truck loses are down to 3.6k this turn, lets see if disbanding the airbases helps, too.

[CharonJr]

T21 follow-up:

Since XXXXVIII Panzer is fully rested and I need help in taking Sevastopol they are railed to Nikolaev and will rush to the Krim during the snow turns, hopefully being able to take Sevastopol before the blizzards hit.

T22:

Motor pool: 127k (133k)

Only 1.9k trucks lost due to moving supplies, but I have to keep in mind that the mud is replaced by snow, so it is hard to say how much of an influence disbanding the airbases had.

With deliberate attacks pretty much along the complete front I see a lot of understrength Soviet units which is promissing for the coming turns. Especially if the Soviets keep moving up right to my frontline and me being able to push them back again for some turns.

I think the attacks are very esay this turn since the Soviets are still at mud supply levels, right? But whatever the reason, I even attack across rivers here.

2 Soviets divisions north of Sevastopol are being pushed back again and my leading infantry divisions is only 3 hexes away from Sevastopol now, but I can already see a lvl4 fortress to the NE of it, this will most likely get very ugly.

About 400t of fuel were dropped at XXXXVIII Panzer's HQ.

In the end the Soviets lost about 108k men, 1.5k guns and 0.1k AFVs and 18 units were destroyed. The Germans lost 8k men and 0.2k guns - overall just about 5% of the battles were lost.

I am thinking about railing my mobile forces back to Poland/Germany since I doubt they will be useful during the blizzards. This would free up some towns/cities for my infantry to use during the blizzards, too. What do you think about moving the Panzer back home?

[karonagames]

What do you think about moving the Panzer back home?

I really struggle when I see ahistorical strategies being proposed.

There is nothing in the rules to prevent this being done so who I am to say do otherwise.

I do think it is a slippery slope though - I stopped playing WIR when I realised how stupid it was to be garrisoning France with the Rumanian Army, and manipulated the collapse of the Italian front, and manipulating production to get Me262s early etc..etc.............

[CharonJr]

K, one chalked up for "gamey"

CharonJr

[CharonJr]

T23:

The motor pool is at 129k (132k)

Well, first things first, lets head to the Krim.

2 armored and 1 mot division of XXXXVIII attack the Soviet lvl 4 fort blocking access to Sevastopol with heavy bomber support and are able to rout the 3 defending Soviet divisions, but losses are fairly high. The second mot division rushes in to secure the hex.

The level 5 fortress in Sevastopol doen not looks very good either, but at least at the moment I can see 1 brigade in addition to 1 rifle division and 1 guards cav division.

In the northern part of the Krim the Italians try to force their way towards the port of Kerch in the east, but are only able to force a single Soviet brigade to retreat.

Except at about 10 places the Soviet brigades having returned to the frontline are pushed back again, about 5% of the battles were lost - this should help with the win:loss ratios of my leaders

Way less casualties for the Soviets than on the previous turn, about 60k and 0.7k guns vs. 7.2k and 0.1k guns for Germany.

[CharonJr]

T24:

The motor pool is at 129k (132k)

XXXXVIII Panzer's attack on Sevastopol is successfull and even less costly than the previous assault, but the odds were much closer here.

The Romanians are able to create a hole in the Soviet line and 25th Mot rushes through and isolates the units around Sevastopol and capture the port of Feodosiya - I just hope that the isolated brigades in the NW lack to MPs to isolate 25th Mot (but 25th Mot will need airdrops anyway since they have moved to far from their HQ).

Kerch and Ak-Manay seem to be fairly well defended, but for now the main objective of capturing Sevastopol has been reached - motorpool goes down to 129k (122k).

The attacks along the frontline yielded 50k men and 0.6k guns while losing 5.1k and 0.1 guns and 6 units were destroyed.

I am starting to disperse my units to cities and towns for the coming blizzard, but have no idea if I should try to keep my forces concentrated or try to cover as many towns as possible to avoid the effects of the blizzard.

I am moderately confident in the ability of my MTN to hold their parts of the line, especially in front of Moscow where the 2 German mountain divisions are stationed.

At other parts of the front I have mobile reserves, but around Kursk I basically lack anything. I think I should have moved XXXXVI or XXXXVII Panzer towards there instead of simply sending them this far to the west (will have to see what I can do at the end of this turns movement without exposing them too much to the blizzard).

My most likely last attacks for the season gave me another 50k lost men for the Soviets in addition to 600 guns, now most likely the picture will turn around and I will be pressed hard.

The Soviets are back at reasonable strength again, too, and the winter is far from over.

[CharonJr]

Any tips on how to best get through the blizzards or any other ideas?

CharonJr

[kevini1000]

are most of the Soviet in the Crimea OOS/Isolated now