What?! Seriously?! You are back for more??? Now allowed for Oloren!

[terje439]

Mere North

[terje439]

Center-ish

[terje439]

South

[Disgruntled Veteran]

You take Riga by using the 2 panzer divs from XXXXI Corps, attach engineers to them, then drive north and do a hasty from both. Works everytime. In the outlandish case you get a hold,the higher morale tank div can fit in another hasty. If you dont take it the Russians can dig in and slow you tremendously.

[bigbaba]

aye, you can get riga from east by the 2 panzerdivisions of the PG 4 after mot+ SS division clear a path and a river crossing for them. they will have enough MP for 3-4 hasty attacks and that should do it in turn 1.

and i see that you are not driving to pskov in the north? a mistake if you ask me. leningrad is taken out best via a direct assault with infantry of 16+18 army blowing holes for the PG 4. except your name is pelton. then you can do the right hook.[:)]

when compared with your first game you did a better job in turn 2 repairing a lot of self caused damage from turn 1. but you should concentrate your forces. they are spread throuout the map.

you should concentrate your infantry and armor more or my mentalo says me that he will be in berlin again in mid 44.[:D]

good luck terje.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Disgruntled Veteran

You take Riga by using the 2 panzer divs from XXXXI Corps, attach engineers to them, then drive north and do a hasty from both. Works everytime. In the outlandish case you get a hold,the higher morale tank div can fit in another hasty. If you dont take it the Russians can dig in and slow you tremendously.

Guess it has to do with how I arrange my attacks, and thus which way the enemy retreats. I never seen to have the MP. Will have to play a few turn 1s against the AI I guess.
Thanks for the explanation [&o]


Terje

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

aye, you can get riga from east by the 2 panzerdivisions of the PG 4 after mot+ SS division clear a path and a river crossing for them. they will have enough MP for 3-4 hasty attacks and that should do it in turn 1.

and i see that you are not driving to pskov in the north? a mistake if you ask me. leningrad is taken out best via a direct assault with infantry of 16+18 army blowing holes for the PG 4. except your name is pelton. then you can do the right hook.[:)]

when compared with your first game you did a better job in turn 2 repairing a lot of self caused damage from turn 1. but you should concentrate your forces. they are spread throuout the map.

you should concentrate your infantry and armor more or my mentalo says me that he will be in berlin again in mid 44.[:D]

good luck terje.

I agree with what you say, yet when I had the chance to surround another unit, I decided to go for it north of Riga. The Panzers are being turned next turn. Well if (well, see below...)
Forces will be gathered as well, just me going all over the place in turns 1 and 2 to cause as much havoc as possible.
Well, I too think he will be in Berlin in -44 [:D]
Expect the Blizzard to kill me once more hehe.

Terje

[terje439]

Turn 3 aka AAARGH!!!

Overall
MUD.
Yes, I know I was warned about it, and yes, I did expect it, yet...ARGH!
With the mud arriving, and Brad placing his pocketed units just far enough east (mostly), the reduction of pockets did not go as quickly as desireable. Nevertheless we launched 87 attacks, scoring 2 helds, 37 retreats and 48 surrenders this turn.
The mud also prevented us from forming more pockets, so our panzers/mechs mostly remained more or less stationary.

USSR units pocketed at start of turn
97 including HQs/Airfields

USSR units pocketed at end of turn
39, of which one is likely to escape.

Losses
USSR : 368.000 troops, 5.061 guns, 3.102 AFVs, 91 AC.
Axis : 21.000 troops, 78 guns, 94 AFVs, 51 AC.

USSR units destroyed
10 tank divisions, 1 motorized division, 26 rifle divisions, 2 cavalry divisions, 3 mountain divisions, 3 AT artillery brigades, 3 motorcycle regiments, 1 corps artillery regiment, 3 PVO AA regiments, 5 NKVD border regiments, 5 fortified zones.

German pools
Manpower : 58
Vehicles : 206.346
Armaments : 100.217
Hiwi : 12.399

Generals
Guderian takes command over OKH, and for once I was quite pleased with the replacement brought to Guderians old unit (2nd Panzer Group), as Model arrived to take over command there.
I am now contemplating if Kesselring, von Kluge and Mannstein are the ones I should place at AGN/AGS/AGC. Thoughts?

[hfarrish]

I am a pure SHC guy so I don't know the various leader ratings for the Germans (I would imagine the guys you mention have extremely high ratings across the board), but I think you want high initiative/admin guys at the Army/Sov Front level whereas combat ratings are more important at the Korps/Sov Army level...

[bigbaba]

just for you to remember that you should fly fuel to panzer formations before you move them terje. this way you get as much fuel as possible to the units. if you ask me one should use his level bombers only to fly fuel from turn 2 on with 0% AF attack, city attack, and ground attack and massivly reduced interdiction and ground support settings to get more bombers flying fuel around.

and keep your HQ and air bases directly on the repaired railroad to reduce usage of supply trucks.

one last point: i prefer to set ART, AT, rocket, AA, security units at 60% TOE right in turn 1 to save armament. i also set only moot. and armor formations at "refit" and everything else at "ready".

good luck.

[randallw]

You seemed to have some delay in capturing Ventspils and Leipaja; these can be used by the Soviet side to evacuate units surrounded SW of Riga. If you get these towns/ports that helps to secure that little area better.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba

just for you to remember that you should fly fuel to panzer formations before you move them terje. this way you get as much fuel as possible to the units. if you ask me one should use his level bombers only to fly fuel from turn 2 on with 0% AF attack, city attack, and ground attack and massivly reduced interdiction and ground support settings to get more bombers flying fuel around.

and keep your HQ and air bases directly on the repaired railroad to reduce usage of supply trucks.

one last point: i prefer to set ART, AT, rocket, AA, security units at 60% TOE right in turn 1 to save armament. i also set only moot. and armor formations at "refit" and everything else at "ready".

good luck.

Pretty much what I have been doing, although this turn I had to move some HQs off the rails unfortunately.
Oh, and I set the art,AT, rocket to 50% TOE and the AA to 75%. Sec I did not do anything about, will they still be able to turn a city "green" in terms of Partisans at 60%?


Terje

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: hfarrish

I am a pure SHC guy so I don't know the various leader ratings for the Germans (I would imagine the guys you mention have extremely high ratings across the board), but I think you want high initiative/admin guys at the Army/Sov Front level whereas combat ratings are more important at the Korps/Sov Army level...

Yup, but there seems I am always overlooking something [:D]
Anyway, some changes have been made this turn as well, and it is eating my points really fast....


Terje

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: randallw

You seemed to have some delay in capturing Ventspils and Leipaja; these can be used by the Soviet side to evacuate units surrounded SW of Riga. If you get these towns/ports that helps to secure that little area better.

Yeah, they were allowed to remain, but it was not that vital in the end as I noticed that the USSR did not have more than a few units in the area, so deemed it a tertiary goal, and when I could not even meet all the primary ones... [:D]


Terje

[terje439]

Turn 4

Overall
Not a "big turn" in any way, it is more of a continue mopping up + relocating turn. I had hoped to be at this point last turn, but the mud prevented that...
Also some slight worry about my armaments (guess last game got me overly scared), as the pool took a big hit this turn...
52 attacks were made, with 2 helds (Rumanians, what else), 24 retreats, 25 surrenders and 1 rout as the results.

USSR units in pockets at start of turn
40 units including some AF/HQs

USSR units in pockets at end of turn
Only 7, hope to bag some more next turn, but might be another turn before we achieve anything major again.

Losses
USSR : 190.000 troops, 1.851 guns, 2.751 AFVs, ??? AC.
Axis : 17.000 troops, 65 guns, 91 AFVs, ??? AC.
AC was listed at 0 USSR and 8 Axis, seems wrong...

USSR units destroyed
10 tank divisions (makes me wonder if I should just keep these guys surrounded to prevent them from respawning...), 5 motorized divisions, 5 rifle divisions, 1 mountain division, 3 AT artillery brigades, 1 PVO AA regiment, 1 NKVD border regiments, 4 Fortified zones.

German pools
Manpower : 58
Vehicles : 204.501
Armaments : 83.146 [X(]
Hiwi : 38.477

Leadership changes
von Kluge takes command over AGN and Kesselring takes over AGC, von Rundstedt still in charge of AGS.

Happy news
the Fins have mobilized!

[randallw]

A tank division that dies is gone forever; it's only when a division routs or survives to a certain time period that it may convert to a brigade.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: randallw

A tank division that dies is gone forever; it's only when a division routs or survives to a certain time period that it may convert to a brigade.

[X(]
Another little tidbit of information I "remembered" wrong from playing the USSR then, good to know.


Terje

[terje439]

Turn 5

Overall
I keep telling myself that I am doing fine, but actually I am losing valuable time bringing my Infantry up on the line. I am using way too long to get them ready for action again, and this means alot more action is forces upon my armoured spearheads, not a good thing (no need to worry, things aren't DISASTROUS just yet [;)]). I realize with a 20/20 hindsight that the improper sealment of the pockets on turn 1 is what is now biting me in the ass. Well, atleast the pockets are cleared now, and the Infantry has more or less caught up with the armoured units, and the various armies have gotten to their proper place, so hopefully we shall see some more action next turn...I hope.
What is really bothering me, is that due to the delay on turn 2 and mud on turn 3, I am starting to fall behind with rail repair, and that can get serious I fear.
Anyway, enough worrying. The Fins moved out to retake lost territory, and the Germans marched as they always do, while the Rumanians...Well...Errr...Well they kinda moved.
40 attacks were made, scoring 3 helds (1 Finnish, 1 Rumanian and 1 German), 20 retreats, 3 routs, 1 shatter and 13 surrenders.


USSR units pocketed at the start of the turn
8, all combat units

USSR units pocketed at the end of the turn
9, 3 have the possibility to break out, and probably will (no big loss, NKVD units all 3).

Losses
USSR : 76.000 troops, 1.147 guns, 847 AFVs, 115 AC.
Axis : 20.000 troops, 118 guns, 110 AFVs, 65 AC.

USSR units destroyed
2 tank divisions, 1 motorized division, 2 rifle divisions, 2 mountain divisions, 1 NKVD border regiment, 3 PVO AA battaltions, 7 fortified zones.

German pools
Manpower : 33
Vehicles : 194.045 - as mentioned, had to park some HQs off the railroads last turn.
Armamants : 88.185 - up 5.000, Good!
Hiwi : 52.098

Leadership changes
Carl von Stulpnagel replaced as leader of the 17th Army by Friedrich Mieth (up all across the board in points).

Worries
AGN and its advance on Leningrad, not sure that advancd is strong enough with only 2 armies...

[Walloc]

ORIGINAL: terje439

ORIGINAL: randallw

A tank division that dies is gone forever; it's only when a division routs or survives to a certain time period that it may convert to a brigade.

[X(]
Another little tidbit of information I "remembered" wrong from playing the USSR then, good to know.


Terje

Hmmm,

Soviet units that shatter or surrender are permanently destroyed, with the exception of some types of Soviet combat units destroyed before November 1941 (18.1.1.1). Isolated combat units that shatter suffer the effects of surrendering instead of the effects of shattering.

Soviet Rifle, Motorized and Tank divisions that are destroyed prior to November 1941 will be added to the reinforcement schedule to re-enter as empty or nearly empty units after a certain number of turns with placement on the eastern part of the map per section 18.1.1 regarding previously destroyed units.
Soviet Rifle and Motorized divisions will return as Rifle divisions from 4 to 27 turns after being destroyed. Soviet Tank divisions will return as Soviet Tank brigades eleven turns after being destroyed. In addition, routed Soviet Tank Divisions that rally prior to September 1941 have a twenty percent chance of being automatically disbanded and returned as reinforcement Tank brigades eleven turns later.

Thats not how i read that about Tank divs, but i could be wrong.

Rasmus

[terje439]

That was what I thought happened as well...

Terje