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I make up my screenshots in Photoshop, using the screenshots taken by AT itself.

After cutting out the interesting parts of the front and putting them together into a single image (with some 5 pixels space between them for separation) I overlay text, in my case 14px Verdana. To make the text clearly readable I add a "stroke" effect of 4 pixels with a color I pick from the text's background (a sea pixel in case the text is written on sea, a ground pixel in the overland case).

I take care not to have a single piece of text overlap both land and sea, since you'll see the effect then (i.e. you'll see the borders around each character).

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To continue with my fourth turn, first a point I need to address where I find the engine a little bit lacking and even misleading in information: the supply overview screen.

This screen claims to be able to predict next turn's supply needs but I had to find out the hard way this overview does not take into account supplies needed by newly created units nor additional supplies needed by units low on readiness.

In my opinion, the game has all the data it needs to make those calculations but doesn't. As can be seen in the previous screenshots I suddenly was running low on supplies because my initial stockpiles where exhausted. But since the supply screen told me I still had enough to cover my needs for one more turn, I hadn't produced any.

This "feature" would continue to haunt me for a bigger part of this game, especially after large-scale assaults, where I would end up with assault units with less than 100 Readiness (and thus less than 100 AP) due to lack of supplies, limiting my operational range in subsequent turns.

I understand the game cannot predict the readiness loss due to enemy action of course, so asking the player to add a margin for that would be logical (would be nice though if this number was reported for the previous turn, so you can develop a "feel" for it), but that it cannot produce an accurate number for your own supply needs is something I'm less than happy with.

When playing I really don't feel like doing the number-crunching myself, especially not since I have this 3 GHz processor sitting idle

Here's the production delivered on turn 4:

Through proper guess-work I deduced Seille's main air base and decided to attack it with a big force. The longer I wait, the greater the numerical superiority of the Red Air Force. Attacking now should net me a nice kill ratio AND give me more experienced fighters as well, which should offset the future numerical superiority of the Red Air Force.

The first attack is a big success, the second is more costly. I did not concentrate the attacks in case my guess would find an empty airfield. Decisions, decisions... only afterwards you will know which ones were right and which were wrong.

The general sitatuation on the front clearly shows the growing number of Red Army units being raised and the lack of new German units. My production is still focussed a lot on expensive weaponry like Fighters and Artillery and less on masses of infantry.

Most Panzer units have received an 10 Inf II as reinforcements as planned in the first turn, but there are (still) a lot of them.

Nice AAR guys.[8D]

ORIGINAL: george1972

...
I understand the game cannot predict the readiness loss due to enemy action of course, so asking the player to add a margin for that would be logical (would be nice though if this number was reported for the previous turn, so you can develop a "feel" for it),
...

In the Supply screen it actually tells you the last amount of supply that your HQ required.... at least in the latest fulll updated version.

I indeed learned to take that number more serious than the predicted supply consumption, but still, why predict it, if it is never the right number (unless you don't move or build any units and all of them have 100% readiness). So in my eyes this is somehwat of a misleading feature. And if you have multiple top-level HQ's, then you still need to do the math yourself as to what your total supply consumption will probably be.

That said, once you understand this, you are less likely to make the same mistake in the future. Only I can understand newer players having difficulty here (well... I at least did [;)])

I never work with that suppyl statistic screen. It´s simply not needed.
Depending on your command chain you can simply check how much supply your main HQ requested.
I let usually all supply arrive at Stavka and all other HQ´s are assigned to Stavka (until North/South connection is broken)
So if i produce requested +10% i usually never run into any problems. Somer small reserves are also always nice to have (2000-3000)
 
On the german side are several tricks in the first turns to get some "unused" supply.
The HQ in Konigsberg is such a case. Some thousand of unused supply. Suck them out of the HQ by making it top level
for two turns (over OKW) . Same for the HQ in Helsinki.....

ORIGINAL: seille
On the german side are several tricks in the first turns to get some "unused" supply.
The HQ in Konigsberg is such a case. Some thousand of unused supply. Suck them out of the HQ by making it top level
for two turns (over OKW) . Same for the HQ in Helsinki.....

Nice tip there with the sucking the HQ's.So in my eyes this is somehwat of a misleading feature.

And if you have multiple top-level HQ's, then you still need to do the math yourself as to what your total supply consumption will probably be.

So I have to add all the supply requests from my HQ's to get a round about figure of what I need in terms of supplies?
I hope not.[&:] There must be an easier way. If yes please post it in the main forum as this is not the right place. Please with pics attached. Would be nice.

Enjoying the AAR great reading and great pics.[&o]

Mat

Russian turn 4

Tried to copy George´s style....
Not easy, but i like the look.

You´ll notice my center defense with supply problems.
Happened because i used the strategy i explained in one of the last postings.
That HQ was still attached to Minsk HQ which had bigger amounts of supply stored.
Unfortunately the HQ was destroyed in the last turn. So this HQ did not get enough
supply. No negative effects overall. Connected it again to Stavka.

The counter attack. I waited for such a chance....
Easy fight against the weak german spearhead.

Turn 05 - September 11, 1941

Let's start with my production:

Mostly rifle to counter-act the increasing weight of Russian infantry and a batch of machine guns to make my units less susceptible to massed infantry assaults.

Unfortunately, the MG's are front-line troops, so they get killed pretty easily when confronted with large masses of infantry. Perhaps they should get a combat round of "free firing" when attacked to simulate the effect of infantry having to cross the MG's lines of fire before being able to effectively engage them. As they are modeled currently, I don't see them being a real effective means of defending against infantry.

Reports from the front:

In Finland the Russians withdraw into the Mannerheim line while reinforcements stream into the Finnish HQ. I feel a bit tricked here, since it will take this front several turns to build up enough strength to have another go at Leningrad and I could have used the reinforcements more effectively elsewhere.

Already Seille is grabbing the initiative from me.

AG North advances just 2 hexes towards Novgorod and another recon mission costs me a fighter... The Russians have air support, several armored units and are positioned in a "horse-shoe" formation, which I cannot effectively engage without exposing myself to concentric counter-attacks or even outright encirclement. Without its air force and its right wing, AG North finds itself out of steam already...

AG Center tries to close its pincers and create the "Smolensk Pocket". Due to some bad moves, the Northern spearhead unit remains understrength and a juicy target for Seille's counter-attack which will surely come. A setback.
Orsha is bombarded and assaulted (shown in the screenshot) and after that I feel lucky and try to storm the fortification to the North of it without further preparations. This second attack costs me dearly and I resolve to only ever assault fortifications from at least 3 directions or after extensive bombardment.

Panzer Group 2 advances on Smolensk from the South unopposed but is it strong enough to take the city or at least close the ring?

AG South crosses the river but does not build a bridge at Kiev. Panzer Group 1 crosses at a newly constructed bridge, and the Romanians take Dnepropetrovsk. The Dniepr line is broken.

In the deep south, engineers throw another bridge across the river instead of creating a road North (had a change of heart again) and a sizable force now threatens to storm Sevastopol.

I don't remember what my motivation was at the time, but I decide to move the Romanian air force to Kiev(!), depriving the Romanians of their air support at a crucial moment. I think I didn't want to put them in a coastal city for fear of naval bombardment and it would take at least 1 more turn to construct a new airfield in the South, so I guess I sent them North to make themselves useful.

In this phase I had the feeling I was already losing the initiative in the battle and winter wasn't even close yet. My primary mindset became one of avoiding losses so as not to be overrun during the Soviet winter offensive. And I had to find a way to protect those forward troops against counter-attacks, but how?

A very good AAR, though I think I may copy your style to put more pictures into one instead of a broad overview like I do.

Keep it coming! Good thing that the game is over, though it looks like the Germans are having a rough time.

Turn 5 - Russia

The overview for the important places.
It doesn´t look good for my russians especially in the center,
Crimea and between Kiev and Kharkov.
At least 50% of my fresh troops go to the center which was a good decision.
I think i´ve set the priority right here at this time.

Turn 06 - September 30, 1941

Seille launched two attacks against my forces, one in the Crimea after cutting off my forward Panzer unit. Luckily the unit was able to fight off the attackers.

The other (expected) attack was against my exposed spearhead near Smolensk which was gutted...

West of Novgorod the Russians withdrew (?!) although the combined Red Army strength in that sector is at least equal to those of AG North and the Finnish army combined.

In the Center massive reinforcements appeared at tactically clever locations.

My production now includes some Light Tanks to replace the losses in recent battles, but with the Lend-Lease aid flowing into Russia, things don't look very good for the long term, as I'm being out-produced in all categories.

What I desperately need is to inflict a major military defeat on the Red Army before winter. That way the Russians won't have the power to hit me during the winter offensive and I can push forward again during the summer of '42.

Already I'm starting to think ahead to next year's campaign.

A major push is being made around Smolensk in an attempt to close the pincers and create a huge pocket. Panzer Group 2 moves towards Smolensk from the South while Panzer Group 3 fights its way through the Russian units in the North. An air strike shoots down a fair number of Red Air Force fighters but the city of Smolensk doesn't suffer a lot of damage. Also, I have no artillery in range of the city to reduce the defenders.

My large assault ends without the much needed victory because the units involved lack sufficient AP to finish off the Smolensk HQ and leaves them terribly exposed.

The overview of the front: