Scorched Earth - 1.05 GC 1941-45 sj80 (Axis) vs. glvaca (Sovjet) - no glvaca

[sj80]

Here is the complete overview of Axis turn 17 including the both major battle spots Moscow and Voronesh. Also included are staticial details (strength, losses, conditions of my Pz/Mot divs) and my blizzard preparations. It would be nice if someone can comment my results.

[sj80]

During mud not much happened, we had only some small battles at unimportant locations. I used the time to transform the 4. Panzer to the Moscow assault force. The Wehrmacht will go for a direct assault because 3 winter turns are too short for an encirclement. This is the first game where I try a direct assault on Moscow.
Unfortunatly I had to give up my attack on Voronesh, the spearheads of 1. Panzer were out of supply during mud and the defense value of this city was just too high. [:(]

Here is the planning of "Unternehmen Typhoon".

[sj80]

With turn 22 the "Unternehmen Typhoon" has started and both light urban hexes of Moscow were conquered! See the picture ...

[Remmes]

Very nice AAR, makes me wanna play WITE right now. Thanks for sharing.

[sj80]

Hey Ramses,
thanks for your comments. I will try to add some semi-historic pictures because this will be much more interesting I think.

At week 23 the combined forces of AGN and AGC launched the final attack against Moscow and it wsa finaly captured! Here is the picture.

[sj80]

The game progresses fast, unfortuntly I had no time to update the AAR. Here is an overview of the complete map with Axis strategy at first blizzard turn.

The Wehrmacht will defend Moscow! The OKH has ordered "Kämpfen und Siegen oder Untergehen" (fight and prevail or perish). I know he will give everything to recapture Moscow and if I can prevent that this will have a high psychological impact! Now glvaca is the attacker and I'm the defender.
2., 3. and 4. Panzer including elite Inf/Mountain divs will remain at Moscow area and will try to stabilize the front when necessary.
This strategy will have a large negative impact on the morale of my best units, but I will try to do counter attacks and place them in Level 2+ towns and cities whenever possible.

Short edit: I reduced TOE levels during the winter turns to:
Airbase: 50%
Constuction Units: 50%
All Support Units: 50% (Arty was 75% till campaign start)
Corps HQ: 75%
Support Units are always refiting and I want to prevent them from eating too many replacements.

Question: Does the reduced Corps Max TOE influence the supply/fuel that the units receive from their Corps HQ?

[karonagames]

You really don't have to run away in the blizzard. Allowing the Sovs to recover fatigue and gather supply out of a ZOC just makes them stronger, while you gain fatigue and lose supply by moving. He cant attack everywhere and the potential breakthroughs by cavalry and tank brigades are even fewer. He will take casualties for every hex he fights for, you will take casualties whether the hex is fought for or not. You may not be able to set up for a full linebacker defence as seen in my AARs, but you should be able to put a ZOC down behind your front line to prevent cavalry and tank brigade breakthroughs.

Also, keep a careful eye on the Crimea - the Rumanians and Italians are very fragile and you could find hordes of cossacks pouring out of the Crimea.

[Q-Ball]

I have to disagree a bit with Bob; retreating is a valid tactic, though you probably don't need to surrender ground quite that much.

2 hexes in Blizzard constitutes an attack-proof buffer, because most Soviet Rifle units will expend 6 MPs a hex.

If you are going to retreat, make sure you stack units up. Because it's possible for CAV to reach out and attack you past 2 hexes, but not if you are stacked. And they won't have the MPs to infiltrate at all if you have pulled back.

Once Jan hits, you can stack 2-3 deep, and leave a hex in between, provided you pull back to leave a 1-hex barrier between yourself and the Soviets. This will greatly limit their ability to arrange enough units to get a Deliberate attack. If there is a 1-hex buffer, Soviet cav won't have the MPs to infiltrate unless they have high morale and make alot of rolls. Even then, you can deal with a single unit.

[sj80]

Hey BigA and QBall, sorry for the late answer but I was really busy the last days.
BigA: I'm really afraid of being ZOC locked and losing my divs. I've counted 13 Cav Corps and over 60 Cav Divs. I will stand and fight everywhere I have enough troops, good terrain or fortifications. But I can't be strong everywhere. My strategy for the open space in the south is to retreat until he is having a long supply path (e.g. 30) and then stop him or slow him down. I try to attack his forward forces where possible.
I the retreating areas I try to put a ZOC to him with placing security regiments or week allied units next to his units.

Qball: Your strategy with stacking units and leaving a space hex between sounds interesting, I will try it.

Glvaca and I arrived at 31 (15 January 1942) and until that date the blizzard was a real success for the Sovjets. [:(] The Wehrmacht has suffered high losses (40-50 Sovjet attacks every turn) and lost 3 Inf divs until now. I've never seen such a strong and effective Sovjet army in my multi player games before.

Until turn 30 I was convinced that I can hold Moscow. But last turn he breaked through my defense lines everywhere around Moscow. I'm really "happy" with the 2.0, 2.1 or 2.2 combat results at the most important locations. He also breakes my crimera landbridge with a 2.0 result. [:(]
I decided to retreat from Moscow because I have to sent my Panzer, Mot Inf and elite Inf divs backwards into reserve to protect their morale value. Otherwise their morale will be really ruined. Furthermore I need more inf divs to strengthen the defense at the Moscow flanks to prevent him from capturing Brjansk/Vyazma and to slow down my retreat in the area west of Kursk.

The Wehrmacht has lost until now three Inf divs (7., 62., 293.) and one regiment of 134. Inf div because of massive ZOC locking attempts. At the beginng I was really shocked about that strategy because I've never seen that before but the last turns he was not able to ZOC lock anything.

[Q-Ball]

60 Cav Divisions?!? That can't be, unless he purchased ALOT.

Don't worry too much about the Morale of your Panzers. I used to, but I have come around on this. You will recover morale quickly when the weather turns; that's one of the main purposes of attacking in 1942, recovering morale. In fact, you should plan to rotate Infantry units into sectors you are attacking, for the sole purpose of pumping up morale. I did this extensively in my game vs. Smokingdave, and launched attacks in many sectors for the sole purpose of building morale, even when the loss ratios weren't really great. It's worth it for the long term.

One unit I would stash in Germany though for sure: GD Mot Regt. It doesn't provide alot of combat value, but you want it's morale to stay sky-high for when it expands to a division. You should finish the '41 campaign with this unit having a morale of 99; keep it there. Once it fills out at that morale, it's a monster.

That is unfortunate on Moscow. It is likely lost forever, if he focuses on holding it in '42, which he probably will. You will still have opportunities in the south for sure; if you lose Stalino, you will easily get it back.

PS: You didn't really inflict alot of casualties in your '41 campaign, so the Red Army was pretty large for Blizzard. This was why his offensive was nasty, I think.

[821Bobo]

ORIGINAL: Q-Ball

60 Cav Divisions?!? That can't be, unless he purchased ALOT.

If he didnt lost any Cav divisions it is possible. Once I had 17-18 Cavalry corpses in December 41 w/o purchasing any division.

[sj80]

Hey Q-Ball,
that's a really quick response from you. [:)]
I did a fast check on the map and found the 17. Cav Corps. I'm very sure that I've seen some turns ago in a combat result the 62. or 63. Cav Div. 17 or more Cav Corps means that he is having at least 51 Cav Divs.
What you described is exactly my plan for 1942. Lauching a massive Panzer offensive in the south. Creating good defense lines in the north and doing many attacks to rebuild the morale level. 1 plan to use 1 Inf Corps for AGN/AGC as army group reserve and to rotate other units out of the front line. Especially some divs of the 18. Army are currently very week because they were fighting outside of railhead range in the Vladai hills and received only low replacements until now.
The Grossdeutschland Regiment with 96 morale is placed together with 13. Panzer and 25. Mot in Kharkov and is ready to do some counter attacks.
I'm now really under pressure to perform successful offensive actions in 1942 to weaken the red monster.

Edit: I have seen 821Bobo's posting too late. Glvaca lost 12 Cav divs until now.

[Scook_99]

Just keep prepared for March Madness! If you can grab a nice bundle of Soviets in March, it is a great place to build morale on troopers that aren't too low and you want to build back up to good levels. Your opponent will have stronger formations than 1941, but you are in control, as Soviet power really doesn't ramp up until 1943 (with massive amounts of corps). If March sees you not too far from Moscow, that might be your target. However, most times Moscow is lost to you and the south is your killing grounds, with vast clear land hexes.

Good luck, and may Fortune favor the foolish!

[Q-Ball]

Now it makes sense. I thought you said he had 13 Cav Corps and over 60 Cav Divisions, which would be the equivalent of 99 Cavalry Divisions! No way without massive builds.

The Cav Corps are numbered consecutively, so if you see "17th Cav Corps", there are indeed at least 17.

Cav Divisions are NOT however; so, the fact you saw "62nd Cav Division" means nothing

In all liklihood, he has 17 Cav coprs and a division or two left over.

PS: Sorry about the ZOC locks, I told him to do that. But alot of players do! It's how you trap Germans; ZOC lock, and push the flanks so the unit can't withdraw quick enough

[sj80]

Hey Scook, unfortunatly the "march madness" is already fixed. I think the Axis attack value is halved during march. So I should only be able to launch some attacks with concentrated forces.
Q-Ball, ZOC locking is a great strategy. I would do the same as Sovjet. I thought the Cav divs are also numbered. But it seems only player created units are numbered?

Edit: It's really cool to get so many reactions, thank you! This really helps against "Blizzard Depression".
I'm afraid that my Wehrmacht will be after blizzard in a similar bad state and situation like Terje's forces. [&:]

[Scook_99]

Sorry, it is fixed, but I am always thinking attack when I can see my CV numbers anything besides a 1.

As for the numbering process, armies had historical numbers for units and those get used 1st. When corps units were created, they started with 1, and continued until however many are created.I would really like to understand the almost mystic process nations go through to come up with the numbers for divisions, as most of the time it isn't just a basic numerical sequence, as least it doesn't appear that way to me.

[krupp_88mm]

I would really like to understand the almost mystic process nations go through to come up with the numbers for divisions, as most of the time it isn't just a basic numerical sequence, as least it doesn't appear that way to me.

Just think about it form a military perspective for a moment like Sun Tzu all war is based on deception. IF it was a real life war and your enemy listed all his military divisions numerically in perfect order, you could rationalize the number of divisions he has based on the largest division number, this would be a nice intelligence coup for the other side, to know exactly how many divisions of each type the enemy has ect. To counter this, specialized elite divisions often lack numerals, and other divisions are occasionally renumbered at times to attempt to confuse the enemy. Or gaps in the number sequence are issued.

You may have also noticed this same thing with plane designation, especially russian mig's, the russians commonly skip several numbers in between mig's so the opposition has a harder time identifying how many new dsigns there are or even then reverse like the russian first skipped form mig-21 to mig-25.. then to try to fool the US they made there next mig called mig-23 then they went back to mig-27 to mig-31 then backtracked again to mig-29, remember all warfare is based on deception, and the russians seemed to use this alot, the americans i guess in ww2 seemed not to really care about it, either stupidity or just overwhelming force made it a non-issue. Also don't forget often divisions with historical history are retired and the name is preserved for later if they are reactivated, this is also a strategy used sometimes to confused the enemy shuffling division names around.

I have even used this strategy in some online games, i purposefully name my units in order and then skip some numbers and usually the other player just assumes the missing numbers are present somewhere heh.

[krupp_88mm]

the americans i guess in ww2 seemed not to really care about it,

I should point out that this was a bigoted and insensitive characterization, as the americans did use deception tactics such as d-day where they created numerous false divisions and army groups in a masterful application of deception

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude



US first army group symbol, fictional army group for landing on calis.

To be truthful the only reason i said that about the US could be characterized as trolling attempting to get a rise out of someone and i should probably be given a temporary ban for such behavior.

[randallw]

I do not recall the U.S. Army renumbering divisions to cause enemy confusion, though there were deception operations, such as you mention up there, and a notable one that led the Japanese to believe major forces had been collected in Alaska to land at those cold frosty Japanese islands like the Kurils.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: krupp_88mm

To be truthful the only reason i said that about the US could be characterized as trolling attempting to get a rise out of someone and i should probably be given a temporary ban for such behavior.

No ban: just made to visit France to eat a pony steak[;)]