The Oder must hold! VtB: xhoel (Axis) vs Gunnulf (Soviet)

[xhoel]

Last Turn

Berlin fell during the Soviet T19 which means the game ended after 19 turns. This update covers the last fighting in the Reich before the capitulation was signed.

What is left of the 16th Army surrenders in Schwerin. In the Berlin sector, Rathenow and Brandenburg have fallen after heavy fighting. The garrison of Berlin repulses one Soviet attack but is forced to surrender after having used up all their ammunition. The garrison, 170k men strong (10 divisions, 2 Corps HQs and numerous SUs) have been lost. West Berlin still in our hands.

Battles North and Berlin sector:



Berlin:



Battle of Berlin:



In the Leipzig sector the Soviets are making small gains and have destroyed a number of divisions in direct combat. Heavy tank combat in Boehlen, just outside Leipzig. The enemy spearheads are now in the outskirts of the city. The 12th Army defending Plauen and Pilsen has been destroyed and the Soviets have overrun the entire area.

Soviet forces have made only small gains in the Gratz sector. The city is still in our hands.

Leipzig sector:



Battles, Leipzig sector:



Pilsen sector:



Battle of Pilsen:



Gratz sector:



Final Front Overview:

[xhoel]

Battle of Berlin

Like has been standard in the AAR with all major Urban battles, here is the losses breakdown for the Battle of Berlin. This includes combat from all 3 hexes (Berlin, NE Berlin and W Berlin). At the end of the game, only W Berlin remains in our hands. The battle stretched for three weeks.

Total German Losses: 259.111 men, 4.274 guns and 767 AFVs.
Total Soviet Losses: 137.197 men, 5.183 guns and 806 AFVs.

14 divisions, numerous HQs and SUs destroyed in the battles for Berlin, which have been the bloodiest of the campaign so far.

[xhoel]

Total Campaign Losses Breakdown

Irrecoverable losses for the Axis stand at almost 2 million men of which 547k are KIA and 1.414k are POWs. Adding to that are around 811k disabled men. Since the campaign starts with 500k in the pool, during the campaign a net 311k wounded men were recorded. Total Axis net losses: 2.3 million men.

Irrecoverable losses for the Soviets stand at 917k men, almost all of them are KIA. In addition to that a net of 500k WIA are recorded. Total Soviet net losses: 1.4 million men.

In terms of equipment, 51.353 guns have been lost from the Axis side and 37.169 from the Soviet side.
In terms of AFVs, the Axis have lost 12.343 and the Soviets 15.331. The Axis have lost a total of 135k trucks while the Soviets have lost 22.430 trucks.







Breakdown of key AFV losses by class:

Medium Tanks:

-2.008 Panzer IV lost (206 Panzer IV.H and 1.802 Panzer IV.J)
-2.178 Panthers lost (351 Panther A and 1.827 Panther G)

-1.985 T-34 (1.305 M1942 version and 680 M1943 version)
- 4.130 T-34/85 M1944 lost
-919 M4A2 Shermans (all types)

Heavy Tanks:

-152 Tigers lost
-305 King Tigers lost

-616 IS-2 lost (240 IS-2 M1943 and 376 IS-2 M1944)

Tank Destroyers/SP Guns:

-2.085 Stug IIIG lost
-2.750 Jagdpanzers lost (2.030 Jagdpanzer 38 Hetzer and 720 Jangdpanzer IV/70(V))

-4.832 SU-76M lost
-451 SU-85 (all types) lost
-780 SU-100 lost

Air Losses

Total Axis air losses are at 7.233 aircraft (4.055 pilots) while the Soviets have lost 15.893 aircraft and 11.180 pilots. 1:2.2l ratio of aircraft losses in the air in our favor and 1:2.7 in terms of pilots. Equipment breakdown shown below.





OOB

As the unconditional surrender is signed, the Wehrmacht still fields 814k men. The Soviet forces have bleed heavily and now only muster 5.1 million men.





Still using data from last turn.

[Hardradi]

Awesome job on the AAR. Its looks strange to see you pressed up against the "green wall". The statistics show just how brutal and intense the fighting was in your game.

[Zebtucker12]

Yeah Great AAR as always Xhoel

[xhoel]

Thank you gents, I am glad you enjoyed the journey!

[xhoel]

Thoughts on the game

First of all I want to thank Gunnulf (Chris) for the great game we had. It was our first time playing the scenario and it is a tough one but very fun and a lot different than the standard CG 41 or StB.
I also would like to thank everyone that read the AAR and added their thoughts and comments, it is always appreciated.

I want to mention a few key things from the game before diving into what I see as issues with this scenario:

-Gunnulf did a good opening with the two pockets. Even though he didn’t move as far east as he could, trapping the 4th Army in Poland is what probably ensured that East Prussia would fall quickly. In one stroke, 8 infantry divisions were cut off and I had to fall back quickly to Koenigsberg which eventually the Soviets took way ahead of schedule.

-The biggest help for the Axis was no doubt Kurland. After fighting some heavy air battles in Kurland, Gunnulf stopped trying to cut off the naval lines that were keeping AGN in supply. This was a big mistake in my opinion. Especially once East Prussia was secured, there should have been NP running towards the Swedish coast. If the Soviets had tried that, I couldn’t have prevented it as I didn’t have the fighters or bombers in range. Also the ground offensive in the area should have been reinforced to tie up more German formations. As things were quite stable I was able to slowly give ground and evacuate units to mainland Germany. Without them, Berlin would have probably fallen by the end of April. For any Soviet players playing this scenario in the future: Putting pressure on Kurland is vital to ensuring a quick advance West!

-Gunnulf did a good job with the Prague offensive. I was caught off Guard and Prague almost fell. While I was able to stabilize the situation there and eventually stall the Soviet offensive, it was a close call and was executed well by my opponent. He was also able to time and time again smash whatever divisions I threw at him. Holding the Soviets away from Berlin for so long came at a very high cost in blood.

-I tried to counterattack as much as possible and would advise all Axis players playing from 1943 and after to make good use of counterattacks. They can completely halt a Soviet offensive if done correctly.

Moving on to the issues:

-Replacements, replacements, replacements. I think I have said it enough times here and in the separate thread about this issue: The replacement system for the late war is just not working right and pulls you out of the game completely. I was forced to pull formations from the West just so I could prevent my front from collapsing. This is the number one issue I have with the late war game and needs to be fixed ASAP.

-The Soviets got a lot of bad luck with the weather and we had a lot of weather fronts bringing in heavy rain which meant heavy mud. It played a big role in our game and is one of the reasons I did so well. I don’t know if there is a way to tone down how often weather fronts appear, but I would like to see them reduced a bit.

-Fort limits were an issue for me. The Axis are capped at 40 forts and each fort zone costs 4 AP (same as in 1941). I think this is wrong and that once the initiative switches the cost should go down to 2 while the limit goes up. This scenario also has 22 Fortified Zones in Italy that the player cant disband, but which count toward the limit which messes up any attempt at forming a fortified zone.

-The air game was a slog for the Axis due to the pilot issues and that affected the first 10 turns or so. I used the LW sporadically anyway but am glad the issue was fixed. With that being said, I believe the LW needs to be doing a lot less sorties to account for the horrible fuel situation Germany was in at this point in the war. Maybe we can add some checks that reduce the number of planes that fly?

-Similar to the above point, I found the German supply system to be a bit too good. A lot of the depots were filled to the brim with everything (but no replacements ofc!) and the Wehrmacht was running quite smoothly. I think this is one of those areas of the games that gives the defender too much advantage. You will see the same thing with Soviets in 1941-1944 when they are fighting in their own territory.

-Transport planes are overpowered. They are just too good at delivering supply exactly where you need them, and you can pull everything from the TBs without any cost. The new patches have increased OP and interception losses of Transport planes but by the time we were using those patches the game was almost over, so I didn’t have a chance to test them, but I think we are heading in the right direction here. Would be nice to have Transport plane requirements for the TBs though.

-Urban combat was quite frustrating. It isn’t “right” for either side. The Soviets will take too heavy casualties when they fail attacks but at the same time they can grind full strength German formations to unready status just due to how intense the combat is. I am currently testing the new beta patch that has changes to urban combat and things are looking better so I am optimistic.

With all of that being said: The scenario is a lot of fun and really pulls you in to the carnage that was the push for Berlin. The combat and losses feel "right". It is unique and worth exploring and the scenario guys really did a good job with the OOBs and research. I hope to revisit it one day when the issues mentioned above are fixed.

Thank you to everyone that followed the AAR. I have let Gunnulf know he can read it now and also chip in with his thoughts.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

As others have said above I really enjoyed the AAR - great job!

Re the replacements issue - my understanding is that units in the SR set to refit will get priority over the map and the other TBs. So in theory that is the lever you can use to direct replacements to the map as you redeploy those units from the reserve. As a 'big picture' game design decision that feel about right to me? For me the issues could perhaps be addressed with some fine tuning to the mechanics of the SR - of the top of my head some suggestions would be

1) Units in the SR take on replacements/supply/fuel/ammo/vehicles to their maxTOE setting and keep these when they get deployed back on map
2) Units in the SR only send vehicles back to the pool to go down to the maxTOE or if set to static status in the SR
3) Units set to refit on a NSS treated as if they are in the SR for the purpose of replacement priority
4) A 'first turn' rule for this scenario (and other similar late war ones) that allows the Axis player to move units directly to the reserve and out again in the first two turns - so a unit goes straight into the SR on T1, picks up replacements in the T2 logistics phase and can then be redeployed in the movement phase of the same turn (albeit with 0CPPs).

[EwaldvonKleist]

Congrats. In some way the replacement issue was your equivalent of the Führer meddling in operations IRL.

[loki100]

As others have said above I really enjoyed the AAR - great job!

Re the replacements issue - my understanding is that units in the SR set to refit will get priority over the map and the other TBs. ....

The problem in this scenario (& maybe more generally late war - harder to say) is its not the SR as such that is claiming the assets.

I forget the actual numbers but broadly there is a fixed routine where units in the active theatres below x% TOE flip to refit and the replacement allocation system seems to be refit-SR, refit-theatre, then map. So for most of the time that mid iteration gets lost in the noise, even after the big hits in the West (the Falaise event) my guess is that in a campaign its not really noticeable but in the specifics of VtB it means the system prioritises reinforcing the West over the Soviet front.

[tm1]

Thank you gents, I am glad you enjoyed the journey!

Thanks to both of you for the great game, I play PVE I have WITE 1 and played back in the day of it was mainly the 41 however I did play both the 42 and Stal to Berlin, I even played the 43 campaign but I never dared the 44 or 45 even against the AI.

Just not that good yet, but to see someone actually play as Germany in P v P 45 match, inspiring and tempting to see if I can hold Berlin, give me 12 months of practice I might even take on the AI.

On a semi off subject, may I ask who the Officer is in your Avatar, I cant place the face not that would I would know them all anyway but I assume its a general staff officer though I cant make out the rank.

regards

[xhoel]

Thank you all for the nice comments! I am glad you enjoyed the AAR and the game.

@Sammy5IsAlive: The problem is that you are forced to use the SR to bring your "on map" forces up to strength. If you dont use the SR, the replacements go to the other TBs. I think the devs are working on changes in these areas.

@EvK: Really killed the immersion for me and added to the frustration though. But hey, what can you do?

@loki100: Yeah its very noticable in VtB, and from what I saw during beta in late war StB too. Dont know how much it would affect the GC 41 late war.

@tm1: Thank you for the nice words. Give VtB a try, it is a lot of fun. The Officer is General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck. I chose him due to the impressive performance of his division (11th Panzer Division) for their operations around Chir river at the end of 1942. He held various other commands during the war and by the end of it was commanding the 6th Army in Hungary.

[tm1]

@tm1: Thank you for the nice words. Give VtB a try, it is a lot of fun. The Officer is General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck. I chose him due to the impressive performance of his division (11th Panzer Division) for their operations around Chir river at the end of 1942. He held various other commands during the war and by the end of it was commanding the 6th Army in Hungary.

AH yes Start Farm 79, well that was the name of the scenario and one of the historical areas it was tasked to hold.

Back in another life a computer gaming company Strategic studies group SSG had a game ( 1 of many ) called Battlefront a corps level game, one of the many scenarios produced for said game was called State Farm 79.

Based on 11th Pz ( 48 Korps ) battle against 1st Tank Corps ( 5th Tank Army ), 1st Tank was about to strike at the German 336 Inf covering the river when the 1st Tank itself was caught off guard by the 11th Pz and smashed.

The 11th was used as a fire brigade along the Chir river and held the Rostov gap open for Army Group A, the 11th Pz was wrecked doing so but but most of the Army Group slipped away.

I liked that scenario, cant play it now that was back in the commodore 64 / MS DOS days.

regards

[John B.]

Just saw the final report! Thanks for all of the work you did on the AAR. As always it was very interesting and something to look forward to reading at the end of a long day.