ORIGINAL:
leehunt27@bloomberg.net
I am playing the 1942 GC against a PBEM Russian opponent. As the Axis i am discovering that my best option seems to be wiping out as many Russian units as possible. It is mud, October 1942, and my summer offensive has bagged about 1.2 million Russians, including a large number of Tank Corps. I've lost about 200k Germans. I took Rostov and Voronzeh but backed away from the Caucausus and Stalingrad, instead focusing on the center. I waited a while before launching massive Panzer attacks SE of Moscow (seems a bit gamey to try a Kaluga pocket first few turns, Russian player doesn't have enough AP's to react realistically)-- attacks all focused on destroying the Russian army and not holding any space. The line is generally straight and consolidated.
I'm not sure how good a strategy this is, but the "Clausewitz" option of bagging Russians seems the most promising. Its not impossible I could take Moscow, but only if can lure the Russian 1943 offensive into a trap I think. My PBEM opponent and I agreed that trench warfare, with 5 lines of Fortification 4 or 5 hexes behind each front is gamey and not a choice for us. So the map be a jumbled swirl of offensives and counteroffensives until one side breaks...
Results from one of my PBEM Games. It’s a GC 1941-45.
Just a little background regarding the 1941 portion of this GC41-45 game: I was severally schwacked in the fall of 1941 by the Partisan errors in one of the patches a couple months back. The massed partisan rail destruction totally threw my Army Group Center supplies out of whack during the critical push on Moscow during late summer-early fall. This continued through much of the blizzard – i.e. not only were my units suffering the blizzard effects but most units were also out of supply for the first half of the blizzard due to the destruction of my rail net by Partisans. However I still managed to destroy about 3.8-million Russians by the time the blizzard hit. I only managed to grab one hex of Moscow due to lack of supplies. I also easily nabbed Leningrad early in the summer of 1941 and most of the Donbass. I promptly lost Moscow and the Donbass during the blizzard. I was basically pushed back to the Dnepr -- Minsk -- Vitebsk -- Rzhev -- to lake Onega in the far north.
We are currently on turn 69 and about to enter the second fall\winter cycle of the GC. I have literally managed to encircle and destroy some 4-million men between Jun and Oct of 1942. Yet the Soviet Army is still enormous. Even with extremely mediocre operational level play during the summer of 1942, my opponent is still going into fall\winter of 1942 with a relatively huge army.
Destroyed Soviet Units as of Oct 8, 1942.
http://s590.photobucket.com/albums/ss34 ... dunits.jpg
Ground Losses:
http://s590.photobucket.com/albums/ss34 ... losses.jpg
Comparison of Overall Strength as of Oct 8 1942:
http://s590.photobucket.com/albums/ss34 ... ct1942.jpg
The point being – even if you manage to break the level 4 fort stalemate that seems to inevitably follow the first winter\spring – and get some fluidity back into Axis Summer of 1942 operations, the amount of destruction the Axis seem to have to inflict upon the in-game Red Army during the Summer of 1942 in order to have any sort of effect is nothing less than staggering.
I have literally destroy via a series of large encirclements every Soviet Corps, Division and Brigade from about Kursk southward – aside from 20-odd divisions that were hunkered down west of Kuban. This to include numerous formations railed southward from the Moscow and Torzhok-Vyshny Volochek areas.
This all has me wondering if in-game Soviet Man power production and integration of conscripts into formations and the creation of new Soviet formations within the game is completely out of wack.
On a different note…don’t forget the air war.
Air Losses. My opponent has been doing the click-fest approach to Luftwaffe airbase attacks. As you can see from the figure below, having a strong wrist and the patience to click on the airbase attack button over and over will pay great dividends in terms of gaining air superiority. The overall kill ratio is only about 2.6:1. This in spite of the vast majority of air combat occurring over Axis Territory – i.e. read here his pilots & air crews get shot down over Axis controlled territory. They should in theory suffer a higher rate of attrition in terms of pilots and air crews bailing out of damaged aircraft over enemy territory and subsequently getting captured. Conversely my pilots and aircrews that bail out over friendly controlled areas during airbase attack click-fests should be surviving at a higher rate to fight another day.
Most of my axis operations during 1942 have had to suffer through massive soviet interdiction and ground support as the Luftwaffe just cant keep up with the huge glut of Soviet aircraft and the inability to effectively intercept and attrite Soviet Airbase attack click fests.
http://s590.photobucket.com/albums/ss34 ... losses.jpg
