Trappenjagd, Keunert(sov) vs. alex0809(axis)

[Keunert]

16. May 1942
Turn Three

South Front
57A, 9A, 37A, 56A, 12A, 18A, Caucasus 46A, added newly created 1st Keunert Army!
Defend Millerowo, Rostow, secure 6th A southern flank.

The army reorganization got one step further with the creation of my very own 1K A! The newly formed HQ takes over the units under direct South Front command. Childish as i am i made me my own Leibstandarte. After all Hitler has his own too and i am no less a man than he is. and i do have one ball more. We keep railing in more Caucasus troops.

It is planned to bring up both Caucasus commands. All of the southern map will be completely stripped off any units. and instead we hope to shorten the South Front's line and install instead both Caucasus Fronts around Rostov.

[Keunert]

16. May 1942
Turn Three

Crimean Front
47A, 51A, 44A
Defend Kerch and Sevastopol

The Axis pushes one hex back, threatening to cut off several of our regiments. We build another fortress and pull all units back, reinforcing our fortress line. Some units are loaded upon transports. the transports are escorted by aa heavy cruisers. Sevastopol stays quiet and the Navy is conducting patrols.

[Keunert]

16. May 1942
Turn Three

Overall we are confident to have prepared for the imminent Axis attack. We suffer heavy command & control penalties but besides that we did what we could to improve our organization. What we lack is reserves. 5TA is non existant and there is a general shortage of mobile units.

the german attacks are only few. they mostly use airstrikes or shelling to kill off some of our men. losses are extremely low for both sides. the axis gains the edge but at the moment losses are ignorable for both sides.

Below are two replay screens of the more enjoyable sort:

[Keunert]

16. May 1942
Turn Three

The airwar is going well so far. our units slowly add experience and morale. each turn sees a few interdiction with some german losses. most of the times all our fighter return home safe.

[marion61]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

16. May 1942
Turn Three

South Front
57A, 9A, 37A, 56A, 12A, 18A, Caucasus 46A, added newly created 1st Keunert Army!
Defend Millerowo, Rostow, secure 6th A southern flank.

I lmao when I saw you'd named a whole army after yourself. They'll be the army that sits behind the lines bitching about how bad they have it, while they drink vodka, and chase the single women!

[Keunert]

18. May 1942
Turn Four

Mud hit us and all movement is slowed down. The Axis was counterattacking our spearheads, isolating a few regiments. apart from this not much happened. We will post the entire map without much comment.

[rominet]

What a map!! [:)]

[Keunert]

18. May 1942
Turn Four

Looking at the statistics we are glad to see that the Axis is still low on medium tanks. we hope this will give us some more rounds to build more forts, dig in deeper and maybe to change another commander. Both factions total troops went down about 20'000 men. we took more losses but we also have a higher replacement rate.

After four turns we have on regret: we should have reorganized the Kharkow offensive by railing in as many TC as possible. i feel like we could have achieved more there. on the other side we also think that the Axis is slow with it's push north. it doesn't look like they try to cut off our 6A south of Kharkow.

[krupp_88mm]

Looks like your tank numbers are dropping fast! Is he bombing your tanks, cant let him do that if you are not attack, did you try launching some concentrated air raids on the towns behind his lines, with fighters you might get lucky and bag some airfields, usually it seems players put their planes right on the front line aifields easy targets.

[Keunert]

he isolated and destroyed four or five of my tank units but mostly he is bombing my tanks. some of my attacks were a little too naive maybe and my tanks ended up encircled the next turn. it's hard to predict if my army will be fully mobile next turn or if they get a command & control penalty.
at least once i would have been able to open up an encirclement with enough arty and units ready, but the army lost around 50 AP this very turn...

i am trying to provide aircover and it does work to some extend. but most of the times when i do an airmission (an escorted bombing run on tanks) i run into interception and will lose lot's of planes. even though i only do airmissions with units that have 100% readiness.
maybe i could position my tank units better, like in woods and cities. but this will sometimes put them out of counterattack range. i also try to put my tanks around HQ, because they have some AA weapons. i was thinking to do a recon mission to find the base of the italian air unit. i feel like they would be the easiest target. but if it goes wrong i will pay a high price.

i appreciate any advice you got.

[Keunert]

20. May 1942
Turn Five

Sirens were howling across southern Russia when the Axis finally started the airwar. Our fighter squadrons were busy intercepting what seemed to be never ending waves of Luftwaffen airmissions. Some of their squadrons were doing recon missions deep behind our lines. although they were intercepted Generalfeldmarschall Milch got what he wanted: the position of one of our fightergroups. Three attacks later our airfield was completely bombed and burning Yaks and Migs were lying besides the runways. This brave airgroup ceased to exist.

Even though our fighter squadrons suffered horrendous losses, the Luftwaffe lost their share too. 25 fighters and 25 bombers did not return. Our side mourned the loss of 75 pilots during the interception and another 65 pilots while flying CAS in the next two days.

After seeing the ennemy ordering that many airrides our staff decided that this will be goodes Flugwetter! the Luftwaffe was expected to refill it's planes and therefore we ordered our IL-2 to fly attacks on the Wiking tanks. this resultet in the loss of another 20 fighters and 45 Sturmoviks. 5 Luftwaffe pilots were shot down, 5 aa guns destroyed and 20 tanks are now burning wracks. Our four squadrons were fully rested (100% readiness) and judging from the combat reports they quite easily managed to fight off the Luftwaffe interceptors.

But the huge stacks of tanks had also huge stacks of AA guns with them and it looks like the AA was responsible for most of the losses.

[Keunert]

20. May 1942
Turn Five

Brianks Front
13A, 40A
Defend Voronezh

Both Armies make limited attacks. The arrival of 9th PZ makes Briansk Front request more tanks. Stavka agrees to send the next tank units to our northern Abschnitt

[Keunert]

20. May 1942
Turn Five

South Western Front
21A, 28A, 38A, 6A
Free Kharkow

21A and 38A again successfully attack german lines. 57th Inf Div loses a regiment. 6A and 38A push back regiments of the 71 and 44 inf div, isolating one regiment of the 44th. The following attack fails to clear the pocket. the encirclement will most likely not hold. Nevertheless this part of the german front now faces low morale, readiness and some losses. all other units disengage from the front. This is the official stop of the Kharkow offensive. a tactical defeat but a strategical stalemate.

[Keunert]

20. May 1942
Turn Five

South Front
57A, 9A, 37A, 56A, 12A, 18A, Caucasus 46A, 1KA
Defend Millerowo, Rostow, secure 6th A southern flank.

Worker battalions manage to build another two forts. 9A together with 18A shell the Italian 9th inf div. the following assault instantly kills the 2nd regiment. units of the 9A follow up and hit the 1st reg of It 9th again. this unit breaks and surrenders. loud cheers were heard in the HQ when this news arrived. the Italians losing an entire division will make the live of the Germans a lot more complicated.

Our front HQ start to raise morale of well dug in units. we hope that this will cause the attacker high losses in the upcoming offensive. two air raids on 13th PZ and Wiking SS fail miserably.

[Keunert]

20. May 1942
Turn Five

Crimean Front
47A, 51A, 44A
Defend Kerch and Sevastopol

Most of the effort here goes into digging. Our capital ships start to shell axis units. the romanians suffer quite a bit and with the resulting low entrenchment we are tempted to counterattack. the HQ spends some command points and plays a card to improve morale, an artillery units empties its ammo stack, a tank unit moves forward and then all but one unit (to keep at least one defender fully dug in) attack. the Romanian 18th inf div suffer considerable losses and falls back.

While sailing more ships to Sevastopol we detect Italian navy units. we cannot attack them now. but we hope to have them trapped here. frankly we are surprised to see them here. next turn our subs will go after them.

[Keunert]

22. May 1942
Turn Six

Brianks Front
13A, 40A
Defend Voronezh

13A pulls back in front of the german 9th PZ. Two new tank units arrived and take position to counterattack. Hungarian units are shelled but due to c%c AP penalties we do not attack.

[Keunert]

22. May 1942
Turn Six

South Western Front
21A, 28A, 38A, 6A
Take position behind Donetzk

The Axis counterattacked and freed their regiment. But they lost Chuhuiv in the process. 6A suffers from AP penalties and only slowly moves back. their new goal is to man a line behind the Donetzk.

[Keunert]

22. May 1942
Turn Six

South Front
57A, 9A, 37A, 56A, 12A, 18A, Caucasus 46A, 1KA
Defend Millerowo, Rostow, secure 6th A southern flank.

In front of Rostov we work hard to build a new fortification line in north eastern direction. we aim to protect not only Rostov but also want to give the Axis a hard time to bypass Rostow. The line will try to connect the city with the hilly region further north. Another attack is aimed at the Italians, dealing both side some losses. Over the entire lenght of Southern Front command we try to bolster morale in the critical spots. we hope this will improve the bombat effectiveness of our troops.

[Keunert]

22. May 1942
Turn Six

Crimean Front
47A, 51A, 44A
Defend Kerch and Sevastopol

Von Manstein attacks! The Axis finally attacks with all it's might. AND THEY FAIL! our well entrenched units are dug to the max and do not retreat. artillery and bombers rain death on us but our well dug in units only take few losses. we then count four or five waves of attacks on the center of our fortificated line. The Axis first sends their German infantry units and they are stalled. a next attack is done by their allies, failing again, then tanks try to break through with no success neither and in a final attack everything else is ordered to storm the area. THe Soviet losses are high, but our units bravely decide to rather die defending their forts than to retreat. not a single retreat is reported. But the attacks left thousands of young Germans lying before our trenches. We count around 10k losses on the Axis side. All three army commanders in place are promoted to 'Heroes of the Soviet Union'!

We shell the northern Axis attack stack with a naval bombardment. We plan to counterattack them next turn. fresh infantry units move into the fortifications, taking up positions from depleted units.
We are rather amazed how well we did. the fortifications definately payed off. but with Manstein leading the attack and with his cards we didn't believe we could actually repell the attack.

Near Sevastopol we sink the two Italian naval units. In front of Sevastopol the Romanian units did not learn from last turn and moved up to our line again. after an artillery and naval shelling our attack manages to kill one regiment of the Romanian 18th inf div and badly mauls the two remaining. Some more unpleasantly discussions in the 11A HQ we imagine.

[bwheatley]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

20. May 1942
Turn Five

Crimean Front
47A, 51A, 44A
Defend Kerch and Sevastopol

Von Manstein attacks! The Axis finally attacks with all it's might. AND THEY FAIL! our well entrenched units are dug to the max and do not retreat. artillery and bombers rain death on us but our well dug in units only take few losses. we then count four or five waves of attacks on the center of our fortificated line. The Axis first sends their German infantry units and they are stalled. a next attack is done by their allies, failing again, then tanks try to break through with no success neither and in a final attack everything else is ordered to storm the area. THe Soviet losses are high, but our units bravely decide to rather die defending their forts than to retreat. not a single retreat is reported. But the attacks left thousands of young Germans lying before our trenches. We count around 10k losses on the Axis side. All three army commanders in place are promoted to 'Heroes of the Soviet Union'!

We shell the northern Axis attack stack with a naval bombardment. We plan to counterattack them next turn. fresh infantry units move into the fortifications, taking up positions from depleted units.
We are rather amazed how well we did. the fortifications definately payed off. but with Manstein leading the attack and with his cards we didn't believe we could actually repell the attack.

Near Sevastopol we sink the two Italian naval units. In front of Sevastopol the Romanian units did not learn from last turn and moved up to our line again. after an artillery and naval shelling our attack manages to kill one regiment of the Romanian 18th inf div and badly mauls the two remaining. Some more unpleasantly discussions in the 11A HQ we imagine.

That was a terrible idea. Axis should have bombed the hex for a few turns until he destroyed the fort. Then attacked.

Also if you attack over the battlestack limit (100,1-2sides,etc) the attacker takes way more casualties. It's generally a really bad idea and a way to quickly burn out your troops.
Also if your hex has more then 100PP of defenders you will suffer more casualties defending due to being overstacked.

Well played on your defense though. 11th Army is big enough to finish off the job. The german player has to be a little more tactful though. I'm aggressive as hell but you don't see me sending waves of folks into a fort hex unless i can avoid it. I wonder if time was running out on his objective of kerch.