VERNICHTUNGSKRIEG!!!!! (War of Extermination) HLYA (AXIS) vs M60 (Soviet) (M60 welcome)

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5 (real time turn, no delay)

Recon South


Soviets continue to hug the River with no crossing by me at all.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5 (real time turn, no delay)

Recon North

Soviets have retreated a few hexes and have set up in advantageous terrain conducive for defense. I intensify search to make sure I see all Soviet units since this area seems very weak.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5 (real time turn, no delay)

Finish Front

Beginning of turn on the Finish front. Extra Soviet units on this front has released all the Finns. This front looks very promising. Excellent movement points and high combat value with great leaders. Cant go wrong with that when all the Finns are released early. Also Hango was vacated which allowed use of another Division and a brigade which came in handy this turn.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5 (real time turn, no delay)

Based on the information I have gathered from recon & what I see on the Finnish border I decide to do my first called objective, Leningrad.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

This is the view I had after recon. German recon is so good I'm 98% sure there are no other units until past Novgorod.

Orange circles are more than likely combat units with a combat str of 4-8+ in open terrain for single stack units since no entrenchments and higher value for coverage in woods and swamp accordingly

Yellow are HQ units and normally designate the ending of combat units and there were no other HQ's behind them. So what we see in orange is it

Red are airfields. Only 2 airfields had aircraft on them.

I decide to take the Pskov highway (what I call it the BLUE line arrow) the area between Pskov and the swamps to the east of it. I hope to open this highway up to let the vehicles through. But first a look at the airfields.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

I did find this interesting. But maybe I'm missing something.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

The airfields NE of Pskov. I call this airbase, "The Airbase that keeps on giving" as you will see shortly.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of Pskov highway


1. 1st bring up a 90 exp unit in I Corps from the back (not in any of the pictures). Will hasty attack the 4 defense unit. Before that can be done need to replace "Both" with someone worthy of 90 exp units.

***Note SEC unit routed here from another combat earlier in the turn

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov highway

2. Changed leader worthy of 90 exp units. He will do since I want a good mech rating too.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov highway

3. Hasty attacked succeeded and I now bring the German 20-16 to the yellow circle. This will force the Soviet 20 defense unit to the west to retreat to the NW when attacked.

[EwaldvonKleist]

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov highway

3. Hasty attacked succeeded and I now bring the German 20-16 to the yellow circle. This will force the Soviet 20 defense unit to the west to retreat to the NW when attacked.

3. Hasty attacked succeeded and I now bring the German 20-16 to the yellow circle. This will force the Soviet 20 defense unit to the west to retreat to the NW when attacked.

I really like your detailed report and graphical representation.
One question regarding this though: Will the 20 def unit no retreat NW anyway, no matter whether there is a German unit in the yellow circle or not?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway

4. I bring up my first airpower to the front both fighters and bombers. I turn 2 sets of fighters to day mode and a set of 2 bomber squadrons to day mode. All other squadrons are on night mode. You don't need to overdo the airpower imho. I also bring up two division for the attack on the 20 point Soviet stack and calculate this could go either way. But I have plenty of units for more attacks if needed. The unit will retreat to the rail NW for sure.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov highway

3. Hasty attacked succeeded and I now bring the German 20-16 to the yellow circle. This will force the Soviet 20 defense unit to the west to retreat to the NW when attacked.

3. Hasty attacked succeeded and I now bring the German 20-16 to the yellow circle. This will force the Soviet 20 defense unit to the west to retreat to the NW when attacked.

I really like your detailed report and graphical representation.
One question regarding this though: Will the 20 def unit no retreat NW anyway, no matter whether there is a German unit in the yellow circle or not?

Yes, it will 100% retreat to the NW because I moved that 20-16 (17-0 after move) German inf unit to the yellow circle. If you look at step 4 which I just posted you will see that 20-16 German unit in that hex. This 100% forces that Soviet 12=20 to the NW.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway


5. Units retreated NW after a successful Deliberate attack by two Divisions, one a 90 exp.

[EwaldvonKleist]

As far as I know, moving the white centered 20-16 infantry unit to the yellow circled hexagon was not necessary to achieve the retreat direction you desired, it would do so anyway.
But my intuition regarding unit retreat paths might be just wrong.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway

6. I bring up the Airborne Division under Model for some hasty attacks. The 1st hasty attack is against the 3=2 Soviet Division. The division will 98%(I have seen rare cases in other games where it wont) of the time retreat to the railroad to the east. I have no doubt it will do so this time too. Ground Support is still turned on for this hasty attack.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

ORIGINAL: EwaldvonKleist

As far as I know, moving the white centered 20-16 infantry unit to the yellow circled hexagon was not necessary to achieve the retreat direction you desired, it would do so anyway.
But my intuition regarding unit retreat paths might be just wrong.

No you are correct. I just didn't want any doubt and placed the unit there. Normally a combat suffices but sometimes it does not. weird cases I have seen.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway

7. Attack successful and now I need a unit to displace the HQ's which could be for the units I'm hasty attacking next.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway

8. Bring up a nice shiny new SS Division & displace the HQ's

9 & 10 The airborne Division under Model hasty attacks the Soviet 5=9 Division in the swamp 1st then the 4=17 division in Pskov. BUT before I do that I turn off ground support. I know this is going to draw a ton of questions & I can't give you the answer but I know from experience to turn ground support off for hasty attacks like this. I leave it off for the hasty attack on the Pskov division too. All my test back in the day showed that attacks such as these had a higher % of success without air support when opposed by the opposite sides air and M60 is flying Interception missions. So ground support is turned off for the next two hasty attacks.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Turn 5

Opening of the Pskov Highway

11. both attacks succeed and units retreat as planned. I now break down the SS division into regiments and attack with just ONE regiment the unit to the east (Soviet 2=1 Division) to finalize the opening of the Pskov Highway.