Unentscheiden - PBEM Russia 41 (Russian AAR)

[jjdenver]

Hi Seille,

I plan to defend the Dniepr crossing points but not in great force or with a lot of determination. There are 3 basic crossing opportunities: Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, and Parakop. I honestly don't expect to be able to hold any of them. I think Parakop might hold the longest just because there is another crossing in front of it.

JJ

[seille]

We´ll see if your opponent uses this to cross the dnjepr where he want using his engineers and cut the russian supply lines.
That way he can have a easy attack to Charkov. Imho it´s a must to delay him as much as possible at Kiev whatever it costs.
No "cheap" Dnjepr bridgeheads for the attackers !
In my last russia games i lost each time Kiev, but i always forced them to direct attack Kiev with high losses.
The germans never crossed the Dnjepr and moved into my flanks.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
Turn 3 begins and losses are much lighter than the first 2 turns' losses. Most of the pocketed forces have been destroyed.

On turn 2 I produced 160 PP and some extra supplies which I will use this turn to upgrade to Lt Tank II and Fighter II. I think this might not be a good idea but I wanted to give it a try. The Fighter II upgrade I definitely like as I have to contest the air....but the Light Tank II I wasn't so sure about. However I had 67 light tank brigades so upgrading them all should be a significant boost to combat power. Also upgrading to Fighter II will be nice since I am starting to produce fighters as of this turn and I'd rather produce Fighter II than produce Fighters and have to then produce extra supply in order to upgrade them.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
The Leningrad Front suffered some attacks from the trapped Finns but the Finns were unable to break out. Here is the situation at the beginning of my turn 3 there.

[jjdenver]

The Soviet Fleet sails to bombard forces along the highway supplemented by the fire of 5 artillery brigades. This allows the tank spearheads to easily smash through the highway defense. No attacks are made on the trapped forces. The advance is now only 3 hexes from Helsinki but speed is important since these forces will be needed to defend Leningrad from the advancing AGN.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
In the north, Riga was assaulted vigorously but managed to hold. The Kriegsmarine was suspiciously absent so I assume that the German fleet has sailed north to assist Mannerheim.

Minsk is pounded by air and then smashed by AGC.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
The Valdai Front continues its retreat, reaching Novgorod and the heroic defenders of Riga are trucked out, abandoning the city to the advancing Huns.


The Moskva Front blows a bridge near Minsk, leaving a blocking force on the other side of the river. Hopefully this will hold AGC for a turn while defenses are prepared around Orsha and Vitebsk.

The Central Front blows a bridge and falls back to the next bridge near Gomel.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
In the south combat is limited as the Germans advance toward Kiev and are stymied by the Maikop Front's (formerly the Odessa Front) resistance north of Parakop.

Heavy German air attacks cause casualties on the retreating Soviet forces.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
Soviet forces fall back around Parakop, blow a bridge north of Kiev. Not a lot of activity in the south this turn, just reorganizing and forming new units.

Soviet air units based out of Parakop and Dnepropetrovsk launch air strikes on the lead Panzers north of Parakop and knock out a few.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 3]
Soviet production is now turned to pumping out massive quantities of infantry. It's important to get them in the line , entrenching and training before they have to fight the Germans.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
My turn 4 losses don't look awful although they are a little more than I expected to see when I opened the turn because I am running away pretty fast.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
In the center it looks like the Germans have brushed aside my blocking force at the blown river bridge but were not able to repair the blown bridge. They have however moved up some panzer corps to engage the Orsha gap defenses.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
A large airstrike is ordered on the lead panzers near Orsha. I'm hoping that the German fights are not caught up to the front since they've been bombing around Minsk for 2 turns.....but alas I'm wrong and the Luftwaffe tears up my air strike.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
In the south part of this picture Central Front fails a bridge blowing attempt - whoops. This could be trouble because I did not plan to commit a lot of forces to this area and was hoping the bridges would slow the Germans.

Around Orsha I move up some artillery to bombard the Germans in Vitebsk and begin to build a fort line east of Smolensk.

To the north of Vitebsk it appears that a couple of German corps are moving cross-country. I'm puzzled about their objective as they seem to be headed straight for a large marsh - maybe they mean to flank me?

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
In the north my tank corps advance to the outskirts of Helsinki but there are a LOT of Finns holed up in the city. Elements of the Kriegsmarine (2 BB's) are sunk south of Helsinki by Soviet air, and the pocket of Finns near Leningrad is assaulted and surrenders.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
In the south the Germans made a lot more progress at Kiev than I expected. I had deployed defense in depth with a corp in Kiev and 2 more across the river west of Kiev. One bridge was blown but I was waiting to blow the 2nd bridge (I should have blow it already). The Germans not only assaulted Kiev but also blew across the intact bridge east of the city.

Elsewhere in the south the Germans have some advances but no combat other than air strikes.

[jjdenver]

[TURN 4]
Voronezh Front falls back quickly to Kharkov and prepares to defend that city. Farther south the Don Front still holds the crossing at Dnepropetrovsk.

Around Parakop the Crimean and Maikop Fronts engage the Wermacht spearheads with artillery and air. The air battles are roughly even (I think that I lost 3 fighters and the Luftwaffe lost 2 fighters), and the lead German korps - which are across the river but have no repaired bridge - take significant actual and readiness losses.

My main concern in the south is the very rapid and unchecked advance of AGS toward Kharkov. They look unstoppable.

Based on the way the situation is developing I have conceived a plan for the 41 winter offensive. I don't want to talk about it yet in case word gets back to the German commander. Next turn I'm going to start pre-positioning assets (namely mortars, infantry guns, and tanks/planes from Stavka) to prepare for the winter offensive.

[seille]

Your defense is not deep enough, JJ.
Especially in front of Leningrad, Moscow and Charkov.
You make it too easy for the germans to move forward.
They can win too much terrain without any fights.
And with the few units you use you make it easy for the germans to cut you off.

[jjdenver]

ORIGINAL: seille

Your defense is not deep enough, JJ.
Especially in front of Leningrad, Moscow and Charkov.
You make it too easy for the germans to move forward.
They can win too much terrain without any fights.
And with the few units you use you make it easy for the germans to cut you off.

Hm - ok thanks for the advice.

I don't like to fight with low readiness or experience which is why I'm just delaying and not fighting hard. I don't care greatly about anything west of Kharkov other than Minsk and Kiev since they are production cities but I don't expect to hold either.

As for not enough units - I have a lot of units moving west from Moskva and also in Smolensk that have just been created. They'll be used to fill my fort line.

Around Kharkov I'm just plain weak - that front does not have many troops at all.

Around Leningrad I'm weak because I have so much comitted to take out Finland quickly - perhaps the Finns will fall next turn so I can redeploy into the line around Leningrad.

The Germans haven't been able to create any encirclements so far other than those created on the first turn - perhaps because I run away so fast.

I'm working on making more units as fast as I can. Hopefully it'll be enough to stop them - although he is really really strong and every time I fight he just obliterates me.

JJ

[seille]

Sent you some pics by PM, JJ.