1.04.11 Klydon (Axis) vs Hfarrish (Soviet) No Hfarrish please

[Klydon]

Going back to look at how the German units next to Koningsburg and also XIV Panzer's impact.

First, here is a shot of the Odessa area. Hfarrish left just a few troops behind in Odessa, so XIV Panzer was able to get to the gates of the city and also cut the rail line to the east. As you can see, the industry in Odessa has not been moved out, so this will get written off. The Russian rifle division in the rough was a nice move on his part. I didn't really want to push such a strong defender out of the way with the panzers (they needed their movement to get as far as they did) and 11th Army infantry didn't have enough to gang up on it and I wanted them headed east in support of XIV anyway. Likely he will be pulled back, but you never know. If he is still there next turn, he will likely get cut off. Odessa may or may not fall next turn. Part of it will depend on what Hfarrish decides to do with the remaining troops in the area. He could sea evac them and leave a crappy rearguard or try to beef the city up for 1 more turn of resistance. Either way, 11th Army will be chugging into the area, courtesy of XIV panzers. The Nikolaev industry has not been moved yet either.

There are going to be several cities under pressure to move industry this next turn, which is exactly what I want. Kiev, Nikolaev, and even Kirovograd and Gomel (although these are a reach probably) are in potential danger along with Leningrad. While Leningrad industry won't likely get cut off this next turn, it takes more than 1 turn to move it. On top of all this, Hfarrish will also have to decide how much more in the way of troops to send to the defense of Leningrad.

[Klydon]

Here is a shot of the AGN area. The panzers were just too low on gas around Pskov to really get any place (talking mostly in the low 20's for movement) and fatigue was very high. I elected to expand my bridgehead a bit around Pskov while trying to minimize panzer moves. This also allowed me to get some advance elements of the 16th army into the area. More will follow and 18th army is not very far behind with a good amount of infantry as well. Not to be outdone by LVI panzer, XXXXI panzer not only captures Tallinn, but advances right up to Narva. Our friends near Koningsburg wind up taking a nice boat ride up to Tallinn and XXXXI Panzer will have some infantry support for a push to the east, although I suspect my motorized units up there are sniffing fumes. Either way, the Leningrad defenders must pay attention to this threat and hopefully thin their defenses accordingly. Next turn will hopefully see a good lunge from the Pskov area. Which direction they go remains open with either a drive straight over the Luga, or moving to push the Russians out of Novgorod and start working up the Volkhov with the idea of cutting Leningrad off.

[Klydon]

Axis turn 4 before movement, but after recon. Changing things up a bit.

I have moved my rail road repair guys, so if you see them, they have moved.

I think I really need a good turn this turn to get the ball rolling again. The Russians are building up behind some good defensive lines and also are seeing a increase in units. Hfarrish has been working hard to keep me from encircling much and also has kept me at arms length, making my armor do most of the work. I will be trying to encircle what I can to a point, clear lanes for my infantry to continue forward and also look to pierce his defensive lines along the rivers. He should hopefully feel a lot of pressure next turn in decisions about what to move industry wise, etc.

This shot is of the AGN area. LIV panzer was gassed last turn, so has 4 units ready to roll. XXXXI panzer is in better shape than I thought it would be, but not sure how much will get done with 2 divisions. The Russians have dug in to the east and behind the river, although they don't have fortifications across the front yet. Recon usually doesn't do very well with units in a urban hex and also in swamps, so I suspect there are more than what are showing. As far as I can tell, nothing has been evacuated from Leningrad yet.

[Klydon]

Axis turn 4 start AGC area, north side. Not a lot of pressure here, but he does have a solid line well back from the front. The mech units of AGC are more towards the south.

[Klydon]

Turn 4 AGC south side. XXXXVII panzer corps (4 units) also got gassed and is ready to roll. It may have been a mistake, but they were set up perfect to do it and I have infantry in the area that can support along with LVII panzer corps to the north, although they don't have a lot of mobility due to supply issues.

[Klydon]

Turn 4 AGS Northern half. None of the panzers here did buildup, but they have ok movement rates so far. XXIV Panzer corps will be looking to try to drive in towards Kiev, who has their full industry yet, but has fortified units out front to keep the Axis units away. Will try to make him pay for not moving the industry. Looks like the cav division found some Russians running around in the swamps, so we will look to reestablish contact and also shrink the pocket around those units and look to knock them off when we get the isolated. I don't need Russian units bothering my flank out of the swamps. There are several small pockets to mop up as I move 6th army up towards Kiev.

[Klydon]

AGS South half.

Looks like he loaded up the Odessa troop count, so I doubt I can get Odessa this turn. He did move Nikolaev's industry out and also moved the armaments out of Kirovograd. That is 60k worth of rail cap. Objective here is to have XIV panzer corps try to get over the Bug and pave the way for 11th Army. 11th Army will have to likely make a deliberate attack on Odessa next turn, but will try to send some infantry support along with XIV panzer. XIV panzer is in a good threat spot to drive north and link up with some of the other 1st Panzer army units to flip a big chunk of Russian territory and possibly pocket some Russians, but we shall see. The other two panzer corps are in ok shape, but the issue is 17th army is being some slackers about moving units up. They should be able to finish up and at least make good march progress towards the front this turn.

[Tarhunnas]

It is interesting to follow this. I am comparing your progress to my own in my 41 campaign as the Axis, though I am 2 turns further along. You are making good progress I would say. As far as I can judge, you are somewhat ahead of me in the south, and somewhat behind in the center, but I suppose that's natural given that you reinforced AGS at the expense of AGC.

[Klydon]

I have been following yours as well and for much the same reasons: to see where you are at when, etc. Also of interest is to see what our opponents do and how the losses are going. I am afraid I may be behind in that area of where I need to be. Way too many Russians up and down the line for my tastes. [;)]

I don't have a strong force of armor at all with AGC, so their progress is going to be slow until I get the infantry back up in contact with his line and then it will be meat grinder time for the most part unless he pulls back a bit.

[Klydon]

Turn 4 finish. AGN area.

Well, the Luga line is a brick wall. Hfarrish did a great job getting this position stocked with really strong units. He has shown a great knack in putting a very strong Russian unit in a spot you need. In this case, 3rd tank division was blocking the middle and there was no way I could blow it out with the status of XXXIX panzer (not enough movement to get there and do a deliberate). I instead settled for pushing up to the Luga river line and trying to cut off the area to the north with LVI and XXXXI panzer. As you can see, I didn't get the line breached very well, but do have a bridgehead across the river and I am threatening to cut off the Narva area.

Infantry is moving up this turn and should be in position to close up to the Luga line next turn and we will see about a bigger breach in multiple spots, but it is clear Hfarrish is making the defense of Leningrad a priority. This will be a great test to see if a German who has placed Leningrad as a priority to capture can actually take it from a Russian who is very determined to hold it. Nothing evacuated out of Leningrad yet.

[Klydon]

AGC north side: Not much going on here as infantry moves up. Second army is coming up to the line, so I can concentrate more forces towards Leningrad.

[Klydon]

AGC south. Panzers are concentrated down towards the bottom to threaten Gomel and I have a breach over the Dnepr with quite a bit of infantry close enough to support the advance next turn if he doesn't try to toss me back across the river. Gomel still has their industry in place, so this should be close enough to threaten him into moving it.

[Klydon]

AGS map: All the rear area pockets have been mopped up. 6th Army has moved up and will have a lot of force at the front next turn. 17th army is still lagging behind a bit. 11th army takes out Odessa as I found 3 divisions that had enough movement to get there and launch a deliberate attack to take the place. Rumanian units were given the task of advancing into the city itself.

He had a big carpet in the river bend with a lot of mech/armor in it, so I decided to go for a big encirclement, knowing it would get broken and probably some of my panzers getting isolated, but I am trying to accomplish two things here. First, it will make him pull back his units. Secondly, if I can continue to reestablish the pocket, I will put most of his armor down here out of action. Now, while the tanks are generally crap, the thing I am after long term is the trucks. I put that many trucks out of action, it will hurt him down the road because it will take forever to replace them. The Russians can never have enough trucks and how many they have determines how many tank corps and especially mech corps they can afford to build in the future. This will also allow me to threaten multiple cities with industry at once, which is my goal.

As you can see, Kirovograd's rail line has been cut, so the remaining heavy industry there is not going any place. None of the other industry in the area has been moved, so he will have some decisions to make next turn on what to move where. XIV panzer is over the Bug in force and 11th army will be following up to put pressure in the area. I really need to move 11th Army's corps that I have up north back down to keep 11th Army concentrated.

To hit the pocket, I had to burn a fair amount of points reassigning mech units to HQ's so they would not be hopelessly out of supply.

[Klydon]

XXXXVI panzer is in fairly bad shape strength wise, especially 10th panzer. Guess I have been a bit hard on them, so I will be looking to pull them back and put them on refit on a rail line someplace and hope they get restocked back up. The amount of tanks actually working (compared to what the division says it has) is quite small and the infantry component is pretty ground down.

[Klydon]

Here are all the panzer divisions. Most are still in fair shape in terms of tanks, but they are worn down a bit and certainly fatigue is an issue.

[heliodorus04]

Your speed is amazing, particularly in the South, and I think the repositioning of the panzer corps to the far south throws 'traditional' Soviet expectations for a huge loop.  Nice job on that last encirclement.

I don't understand why he is going for defense in depth at the Dnepr.  The Soviet can afford a strong line at the Dnepr simply because to cross it requires a Deliberate plus a lot of extra MPs to cross the major in ZOCs.  I feel very strongly the Soviet position is also strengthened by keeping a pair of mobile, strong divisions (Cav and strong inf are great for this) in the "elbows" of the west side where the Rough is.  Keeping a couple units there enables you to reach out and smack some over-exposed units, and in particular if the German tries to cheat and use Romanians to defend vulnerable salients, you can hit the Romanians and threaten supply of panzer pincers.  I know you're not playing Soviet, but I'm throwing some stuff out there for people who do.

The same thing was true along the Luga: defend points along a river, because the combat modifier is one of the best you get in 1941.  Any elbows along rivers should be held with 2 strong units.  Now, maybe I'm wrong due to inexperience, but he gave you too much there, and I think it will cost him Leningrad.

That being said, the most powerful thing you did that would have made me cry was take Pskov on T2.  The units he tried to use in defense there were basically all that the Soviet has on T2, and I'm surprised (dismayed perhaps) that you could knock all those units off of rivers.  I can see losing Pskov on T3, but T2 is a big problem.  I'm starting to think it's better to defend that river with 2 units stacked every other hex, rather than holding everything (he who defends everything defends nothing).  Better to entice the German to cross in zones of control, as that slows him down more than a hasty attack (that succeeds) across a river.  Not sure though.  Again, you definitely emphasized with panzers your AGN and AGS moves.  In my game, I'm losing Moscow, but doing well enough in North and South.  This was the tradeoff he made with his panzers, I think.

[Klydon]

Actually, XXXIX Panzer coming in from the south is what did in the Pskov river defense line. I popped him with 2 panzer divisions and then crossed over to roll the line up behind the river.

I will have my work cut out for me in the south. He pretty much yanked those guys back and put most of 1st panzer army out of supply. Granted, I can get them back in, but trying to reestablish the pocket and catch anything worthwhile, now that will be the trick.

My opponent has done pretty well as the Russians so far as I will post screen shots here shortly for the start of turn 5. The only real mistake I think he has made so far was to leave nothing in Tallinn, allowing me easy capture and to get up on Narva last turn not to mention shipping in 5 infantry divisions by sea. I agree that the panzer corps in the deep south has knocked him off balance some. Hopefully it keeps going that way, but he is recovering. He has shown a really good knack to get a strong unit in a place you need as the Axis.

[Klydon]

AGN turn 5 start after recon. Looks like he pulled back from the Narva area. Lot of level 2 forts. Hopefully the infantry has enough movement to move up and start cracking his lines. He moved a ton of industry this turn, so not much got sent for help. Need to apply the pressure here as hard as I can now. I also need to give some thought on my course of action with the panzers over the next couple of turns. In one sense, they have done their job to get the infantry this far quickly. In another, it is hard to withdraw something like 10 units and move them elsewhere. That is a huge subtraction of force no matter how you slice it. One thought is to pull some back and set up for a hook to try to stretch his defenses out.

[Klydon]

AGC north side. Not much going on here, except 2nd army is coming into the area. I expect only to score moderate gains here and just slowly push the line east. If he wants to put this much in the way of troops here, fine with me.

[Klydon]

AGC south side. He left my bridgehead alone, but packed in a lot of troops. Will probably settle for snuggling up to the river here and enlarge the bridgehead and look to break out the next turn. The industry in Gomel is gone, so the next nearest is Bryansk and that is a long way away. I can either pull both panzer corps I have in the area into the bridgehead and make him sweat a drive to the north or south or I can look at busting some more on the land bridge up north and move the other panzer corps back up there and present a threat to the river from Smolensk to the south. The issue with this is I won't be across the river line up north, so it would be hard to pull off.