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Here's what's going on near Kharkov right now. I'm sneaking up on the city with a token force that will probably prompt Elmer to rail some more troops to this area. The rails aren't repaired very close yet and the supply level is 11 at the location of the Axis units closest to the city. At least the terrain isn't terrible but rather is ideal for my Panzers to operate there.

Here's what's going on near Vyazma right now. I've managed to partially surrouond a small group of Soviet units and I'm hopeing to be able to destroy them sometime in the next few turns. The rails are repaired all the way to the front so the supply level is great. This is T20 round 5.

larryfulkerson wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:42 am It's now mid-movement-phase_T9 and this is the Orsha area as it's happening right now. I have 7 Panzer divisions actively chewing their way through the Soviet defenders and I'm in the process of trying to get a surround on various Soviet units, and / or stacks of units. I'd like to clear out this area before I try some serious assaults on Smolensk unless a better solution presents itself in a more obvious manner. The rail has been repaired all the way to Orsha so now we have one-day express rail service from Berlin to Orsha. I've got about a dozen units that are red and I'd like to rail them to Berlin to rest. Just because I can.

Just catching up, so this is an older update. Why would you rail them to Berlin? That seems a huge waste of RR lift capacity. Any railhead will provide the same level of supply.

Graymane wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 3:49 pm

larryfulkerson wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:42 am It's now mid-movement-phase_T9 and this is the Orsha area as it's happening right now. I have 7 Panzer divisions actively chewing their way through the Soviet defenders and I'm in the process of trying to get a surround on various Soviet units, and / or stacks of units. I'd like to clear out this area before I try some serious assaults on Smolensk unless a better solution presents itself in a more obvious manner. The rail has been repaired all the way to Orsha so now we have one-day express rail service from Berlin to Orsha. I've got about a dozen units that are red and I'd like to rail them to Berlin to rest. Just because I can.

Just catching up, so this is an older update. Why would you rail them to Berlin? That seems a huge waste of RR lift capacity. Any railhead will provide the same level of supply.

You are of course correct. I just had a brain fart and came up with that idea off the top of my head. If I had any rail cap. left over that might make sense but you're right, it's a waste of rail cap. And I don't mind how old your update(s) are, I appreciate your question(s). How am I doing with this AAR on the whole?

larryfulkerson wrote: Fri Apr 22, 2022 2:34 am It looks like my record is three turns in one day.

Sheesh, takes me like 2 days per turn I can't face it after so many rounds.

Just caught up, looks like chaos across your front It is interesting seeing different playstyles. You take a lot more thought and care in looking at your losses and equipment. I don't spend much time doing that, I probably need too. I couldn't tell you how I'm doing on losses right now. Same goes for my air, I should probably care about it more. I just put everything superiority or CS and leave it. I don't even really plan out combats, although I should.

I see you take out bridges so they can't rail in. I don't do that much, maybe I should? I would rather have them rail their whole army during the early turns when I'm closer to my supply lines and they are weaker. Then I can surround and capture more. What I do, rather, is cut the rail lines with my recon so they can't escape once they've railed in

If I think of my play style, I spend most of my turn thinking about the big picture, strategy or operational concerns, and what I want the map to look like in a few turns. I spend the least amount on tactics (executing/optimizing attacks and the like or worrying about game mechanics). That leaves me in the state of my attacks not always working well cause I'm impatient for the next turn

Noticeably ahead of the historical advance at this moment and practically fully supplied.

Du bist Schnelle Heinz.

My operational tempo is probably too high or I need to spend more time on tactics (or just fight less battles ). This is my game start of Turn 11. Sorry, I can't figure out how to post an image I guess.


https://ibb.co/5RPk0zB

Here's how to embed your picture in your post.

Graymane wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:18 pm Just caught up, looks like chaos across your front.

I've gotten into the habit of dispatching discrite formations to each specific target and sometimes they get spread out quite a bit. Also, I've gotten into the habit of sending my recon units into the Soviet backfield to try to drive around all of them so that they are cut off from their supply source. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. A lot of my recon units get ambushed and I have to go rescue them real quick. But for those times when it works out it really helps the take down process.

Graymane wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:18 pm It is interesting seeing different playstyles. You take a lot more thought and care in looking at your losses and equipment. I don't spend much time doing that, I probably need too. I couldn't tell you how I'm doing on losses right now. Same goes for my air, I should probably care about it more. I just put everything superiority or CS and leave it. I don't even really plan out combats, although I should.

I like to keep track of my losses because there are several categories of equipment that I'm not building and if I lose all of that kind of equipment sometimes the entire unit disappears and I'd rather have a unit of lesser strength than no unit at all. So I move those kinds of equipment to the rear when they get critical just to save them for a later game turn sometime in the far future. Also, I like to keep track of my HRS's because I believe I need at least 30K of them to avoid a catastrophe during the Soviet Winter Offensive. I've been routed in a previous game and it was embarrasing to say the least. And about my aircraft: I'm using the red green yellow rules for this game and so when my aircraft units turn yellow or red I need to rest them until they are green again. The red green yellow rules are: green units can move and shoot. yellow units can move but not shoot. red units can't shoot but can move only to a destination hex with a better supply level than the origination hex. It makes my game more realistic I believe. I got that rule from Steve Sill, my mentor. And about planning my combats: I like to get as many combat rounds as I can each turn and that means that I postpone those attacks that take more rounds than the majority of the attacks. I've gotten 9 rounds before during this game. Sometimes it makes a difference.

Graymane wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:18 pm I see you take out bridges so they can't rail in. I don't do that much, maybe I should? I would rather have them rail their whole army during the early turns when I'm closer to my supply lines and they are weaker. Then I can surround and capture more. What I do, rather, is cut the rail lines with my recon so they can't escape once they've railed in.

There are two reasons that I take out the bridges in my enemy's backfield: (1) it tends to stiffle the introduction of reinforcements to the battlefield we're fighting over. (2) I've never seen Elmer repair a bridge. So once you destroy a bridge it stays destroyed pretty much. That's not to say Elmer never repairs a blown bridge, just that I've never seen it happen. I really like your idea of cutting off the escape routes from the pockets you form. That's pretty cool.

Graymane wrote: Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:18 pm If I think of my play style, I spend most of my turn thinking about the big picture, strategy or operational concerns, and what I want the map to look like in a few turns. I spend the least amount on tactics (executing/optimizing attacks and the like or worrying about game mechanics). That leaves me in the state of my attacks not always working well cause I'm impatient for the next turn

I like to play the entire game. Maybe that's because I have played WITP-AE before as the Japs and they have to run their economy and the war at the same time. And that game has an inordinate amount of decisions to make and clicks to do to make anything happen. The Allied side has abstracted the economy leaving you to run the war and not to worry about how many of each thing you're building. So most games you play against the AI are usually more fun played as the Allies. But if you want to get into the minutia of the game, play the Jap side. You get to control almost everything each turn. It's a paradice for someone who's OCD. Having said that I must make it clear that I consider it a classic, a great deal of fun, and definately worth the $80 I paid for it several years ago. It sat on my desk for about 6 months simply because I like TOAW a LOT and I wasn't sure I wanted to get into a game that's known worldwide for it's game mechanics being non-intuative and the number of mouse clicks you must make to ensure that what you want to happen happens. But I've grown to love it almost as much as TOAW.

It's now T21 round 4 and this is what the Kiev area looks like right now. I managed to complete the surround on a large group of Soviet units and I now have the task of destroying them as fast as I can. I have no idea how much Soviet equipment is in the pocket but my guess is that it's a lot. I'm thinking that it'll take me about 5 turns to clear out this area. Then I'm going to press toward Moscow to form the south pincer of a surround on the city of Moscow.

I've played WITP and WITP-AE from Day 1. Still my favorite war game of all time. So many spreadsheets I made for that game. I could never play the Japs though. Think I'd shot myself going through all that

This is what the Leningrad area looks like right now. I've pushed up closer to the city itself and I expect to be able to start my serious assaults on the city in a few turns to come. I have flown two seperate bridge busting strikes on the bridge(s) at Volkhov and neither one worked out. So the Soviets still have a supply source [ besides Leningrad itself ]. I suppose I'll have to drive a recon unit into the city to cut off the supply permanently. Several of the units closest to the city are tired and I'll need to replace the tired ones to continue the push.

Graymane wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 3:00 am I've played WITP and WITP-AE from Day 1. Still my favorite war game of all time. So many spreadsheets I made for that game. I could never play the Japs though. Think I'd shot myself going through all that

One game I played as the Japs was so catestrophic that I had to quit. I ran the empire completely out of fuel by March of '43 and none of my ships could move and none of my transports could convey cargo and it became a huge Allied lake for the rest of the game. Good thing I was playing the AI because that was embarrasing to say the least.

It's now T22 round 2 and I thought you guys might like to see the results of an attack just south of Leningrad just now. I'm getting closer to the city but my attackers are getting tired and worn down and I'm thinking I ought to rotate a "fresh" division [ or two ] in there to replace the tired one(s). That would take three turns and I'm not sure I have enough warm bodies to hold a position for that long. I'm serious, the Soviets have been counterattacking seriously for the past half dozen turns or so. And their air force made 4 airfield strikes in their turn in the immediately recent past. They came at me with an Alpha Strike Package: bombers escorted by fighters both numbering in the hundreds. I'll have to split my AA units to give more guns to spread around so that as many airfields as possible has an AA unit of some size.

Just a quick question for Larry or anyone else: I notice lots of these coastal fortresses that can't move. For those that can be disbanded, do you guys do that to get some of the equipment back in the pools, or do they just reform and come back later?

It's now T23 round 2 and this is what it looks like around Moscow right now. I'm attacking everywhere I can get three hexes to impinge on one target hex to get the flanking bonus and kill more Soviets than I lose and so far it's working out okay pretty much. The Soviet are bombarding my troops with their arty and sometimes counterattacking and of course the airfield strikes that go on several times during the Soviet turn. I'm still busting bridges to stiffle the movement of the Soviet units from the Urals to the front line(s). Elmer has railed a lot of troops to the Moscow area so he's got a fairly solid front line now and the fighting has gotten savage and more than one Soviet unit has evaporated during the attack. The character of the game is changing again. It's a lot like WWI again.

Graymane wrote: Tue Apr 26, 2022 6:27 pm Just a quick question for Larry or anyone else: I notice lots of these coastal fortresses that can't move. For those that can be disbanded, do you guys do that to get some of the equipment back in the pools, or do they just reform and come back later?
disband.png

It's been my experience that they do NOT respawn. And yes, I too disband as many as I can UNLESS they protect an anchorage hex from enemy invasion. One spawned at Riga and I'm leaving it there for now. Good luck on your game.

It's now T24 round 1 and here's what Leningrad looks like right now and where all the busted bridges are that I dropped to isolate the Leningrad area. You can see how I've pushed up adjacent to the city and now starts the serious assaults. I'm planning on using what rocket units I can round up and of course the bombers and the HQ arty available. It's important that I capture it asd soon as possible because I need the Finns to pull some of the weight. The only way into the Leningrad area is via the Life Road that passes through Novaya Lodaga. I need to do something about that so I can trap all the Leningrad defenders before they can escape to the east. I've lost 25.6K HRS's, there's 24.4K HRS's assigned, and I have 530 HRS's on hand.

It's now T24 round 3 and here's what the Sevastopol area looks like right now. I've broken into the Crimea and I'm spreading out and driving for the port. I've also sent some troops toward the Kertch Straits to stop up that entry point into this area. And an addition reason: to keep the Soviets from escaping to the east through that exit. I need to garrison the ports to prevent Elmer from making any amphibious landings in my backfield. I have railed here every unit of the 11th Army that I can find.