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Turn 13 17-September-1941 North

Finally Leningrad falls!

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
The Axis lost 33 men in capturing Leningrad on week 13. We don't need to talk about victory conditions until silliness like these kinds of results are fixed.

4th Panzer Group breaks through almost to Vyshny Volchek almost encircling the Valdai heights.

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Centre

Stelteck
The time for subtle manoeuvre is over and now it is time for frontal assaut unfortunately.
Moscow is in sight.

Here's historical frontline at the end of september:

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Centre

Stelteck
The time for subtle manoeuvre is over and now it is time for frontal assaut unfortunately.
Moscow is in sight.

By comparison, Napoleon entered Moscow on September 14, 1812.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Centre

Stelteck
The time for subtle manoeuvre is over and now it is time for frontal assaut unfortunately.
Moscow is in sight.

By comparison, Napoleon entered Moscow on September 14, 1812.

and in WITE game you don't have all the RED Soviet Counter attack lines coming to life either in the previous photo!

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS
The Axis lost 33 men in capturing Leningrad on week 13. We don't need to talk about victory conditions until silliness like these kinds of results are fixed.

OMG! M60 you are too kind calling this "silliness". I can think of a great deal of better words to say which are border line if not flat out obscenities. The causality rate given to the Germans is pure fantasy. I know what Chaos45 wrote about is true & it is true in this game and in the games I have been playing. This is beyond silliness.

Well, I see there is a new patch that just came out today. Hope it helps the Soviets some, they need some loving. Bleh, false alarm, only the notes to the patch we already have lol.

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Centre

By comparison, Napoleon entered Moscow on September 14, 1812.

and in WITE game you don't have all the RED Soviet Counter attack lines coming to life either in the previous photo!

That's because I can't afford to lose 20,000 men to kill 12 Germans.

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: M60A3TTS




By comparison, Napoleon entered Moscow on September 14, 1812.

and in WITE game you don't have all the RED Soviet Counter attack lines coming to life either in the previous photo!

That's because I can't afford to lose 20,000 men to kill 12 Germans.

Ya! I agree with you. It is beyond silliness.

Army Group South Turn 13

Orel and Kursk were abandoned and are now under the control of the 6th Army. The infantry moves east as fast as possible to maintain contact with the Red Army. Near Rostov the infantry catches up to 1st PzG.

Stalino has fallen with all its industry and the pocket is now just 3 Soviet divisions left holed up in Makeevka. In other news the Italian Expeditionary Corps has finally made an appearance! They were bogged down by the logistics of all that tomato sauce and bottles of wine. One Italian soldier could be heard grumbling about "These a hands are for a lovin, not for a fightin" or something like that. Maybe it was a translation issue.

The real action this turn occurred in the rear with all the garrisons now required for all these former Soviet cities. Maybe one day now the toilets will finally work. Uncle Joe was certainly not a plumber.

Last, the Crimea has been fully broken into with plenty of sunshine left. Axis infantry are beginning to pour into vacation territory in a hope to relax and "get a good spot" on the beach while the weather is still fine. Hopefully the range to rail is close enough to bring up enough umbrellas for everyone. And everyone knows what the Romanians are bringing forward...

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Air War AKA SparkleyTit's Dishonourable Carnage Report

Turn 13 finds no Soviet air activity in the North or South at all, and just a few recon and one ground bombing mission in the centre. No interdictions are being flown during our turn either.

Last turn we again "gifted" a few Luftwaffe airgoups that were just about to withdraw in the hope they could take a few Red Air Force aircraft with them as a parting gift. The following screenshot shows them on airbases right at the front last turn.



But instead of bombing the airgroups that we had gifted to our opponents before they withdrew, they simply incurred losses by being displaced by a ground attack. So they are lost without even taking anyone with them.



We find a completely new air situation for the Soviet Union this turn. Only nine hexes contain airbases which are not frozen with aircraft in them. Three contain only interceptors near Gorky. East of Moscow there are three two of which include aircraft other than interceptors. And in the far North East a further three one of which includes aircraft other than interceptors - and the only one to have very long range bombers. This one is situated at the very last hex in that direction before terrain makes it impossible to fly aircraft from airbases. This last airbase is placed very obliquely for ground support so it presumably is there solely to supply partisans to the rear. Other than that no other airbases contain airgroups. This means there are absolutely no aircraft at all south of Moscow. In these cases airbases instead of being stacked are now dispersed each on their own.

Reconnaisance prior to the bombing of factories at Saratov picks up a large number of tank brigades in the area. And when reconnaisance is sent to evaluate the scale of the tank forces there yet another newly created airbase is picked up at Engels. But again without any aircraft on it.

The three airbase hexes at Gorky are too distant to attack effectively. This means the entire Luftwaffe air offensive is directed at just 3 hexes behind Moscow and 3 more to the far North East. Given the restrictions the game makes on commitments of aircraft and airgroups to any one attack the constraints we face this turn are not ammunition but the code base. Throwing the whole Luftwaffe against these airbases will still leave much of it unused.

As has been the case for several turns now no Soviet interceptors attempt to defend these airbases. However air losses are lower simply because they have so little aircraft on the map.



They could now have been producing 207 interceptors a turn, but instead can only produce 169 at most and have an expected average production of 134 - every turn we would expect one or two of their interceptor factories to stop production. Given their losses, even with so many aircraft in the national reserve, this means the Red Air Force is still diminishing.

ORIGINAL: The artist formerly known as HardLuckYetAgain
The Soviets could stop this cold if they wanted too pretty easy, question is will they do it.

That may once have been the question but it might not be any longer. With losses of interceptors in production outstripping their production, and the fighters they have not being able to defend the factories that produce them, the Red Air Force effectively will be locked out of contesting the air indefinitely. The question is now we know they want to stop it but can they?



The lack of interceptor cover also means effectively hundreds of stukas and other tactical bombers are providing high levels of ground support unopposed. Some of the lack of air support in earlier turns for the ground forces is now being repaid many times over.

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Economic War

This turn the advance of Axis forces meant the factories at Leningrad, Stalino and Gorlovka which were previously impossible to evacuate have been lost by the Soviet Union. No new factories have been placed on the lost or impossible to evacuate list this turn - but with West Moscow now in our Zone of Control evacuating the Pe-2, 5 vehicle or 8 arms factories there would cost double the rail cap if this remains the case.

Strategic Bombing

Displayed in the post for the air war in turn 12 are the current damage levels caused by our bombing campaign - the results of damage from previous turns which have not been added to this turn, such as Muron or Tambov, are displayed in bold. Others such as Yaroslavl have been fully repaired, have been evacuated such as Voronezh, or overun such as Voroshilovgrad. The damage to the arms factories at Gorky boxed in yellow however is due to evacuation rather than bombing. Further factories such as Novorossiysk this turn are reaching the 50% guaranteed shut down level. The tank, rocket launcher and Yak-1 factories have all had their expansion arrested for many turns.

So it is turn 13 so time for a more detailed view at the end of the turn.

First the army group north.
Leningrad has fallen so now it is only some cleaning operation. The soviets still have an entire and strong army in extreme north facing the Fins.



In the southern part of this region, capturing soviet troops is always good sport, and of course troops get clooser to the center area and moscow.



Now the most contested part currently, the moscow Area and army group center.

Previous turns, my beloved army group was facing multiple lines of defenses, but with sometimes an important gap between each line, which allowed me to isolate and detroy them by swinging north, then south, then north.
(It also slow me, but i always prefer capturing ennemy troops than gaining ground).

Unfortunately it is no more the case as i'am getting close to moscow and the place is getting crowded. So it is time for frontal assault.

Fortunately, at this point of the game, no soviet 3 division stack can really hold a deliberate german offensive. Of course, it cost some time.

It is a really difficult situation for the soviet, especially without the soviet attack bonus that prevent them from counter attacking. They may still be able to do it, but it is really difficult.

The multiplayer setup prevent me for extreme concentration of troops in the center, as we need to let some troops to my teammate, but it probably have the same effect soviet side, as you cannot completely removed all troops from one commander.

It do not know if moscow will fall. We will see.



South of moscow, my troops is getting close to Tula.



Then we have army group south already described previously.

Turn 13 Allocations
For information only - turn 13 Axis team allocations

Hmmmmm, Can the Soviets pull this off?

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Hmmmmm, Can the Soviets pull this off?

In which sense?

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Hmmmmm, Can the Soviets pull this off?

In which sense?

Find a good spot on the beach of course.

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

Hmmmmm, Can the Soviets pull this off?

In which sense?

They aren't out for the count yet but it is starting to look not so good.

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

Turn 13 17-September-1941 Economic War

This turn the advance of Axis forces meant the factories at Leningrad, Stalino and Gorlovka which were previously impossible to evacuate have been lost by the Soviet Union. No new factories have been placed on the lost or impossible to evacuate list this turn - but with West Moscow now in our Zone of Control evacuating the Pe-2, 5 vehicle or 8 arms factories there would cost double the rail cap if this remains the case.

No, it did not remain the case.

Thank you for opening the AAR for Soviet spectators.
I have myself asked many times why so few axis players use strategic bombing against the Soviet union, at least I have never read of this in any AARs before. I personally would not do this as much as you, but the IL 2s at Voronesh are an excellent target. Spam bombing with Tac Bos will cause massive losses to the German player and the later it starts en masse, the better.
Excellent AAR!