Emu for breakfast, Divepac88 (Axis) vs. Jim Burns (Soviet)

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
But the point is academic, the Axis here is doing rather poorly.

Also looks like the Rumanians and 11th Army forgot that there's a war on!

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Schmart
You'd be better off plunking down a couple well place forts so that adjacent hexes can make it to level 3

Symptom of being away from the game for so long. I didn't even realize forts allowed adjacent hexes to dig level 3+.

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
I was hoping the mountain units could be trained up vs. the Fins before the winter offensive. I'm not sure when the Fins see the big unit withdrawals, but I figured I could get at least one good attack in per turn with all the mountain divisions once that had occurred. The goal not being to advance into Finland though, simply to train them up.

Don't quite see the reasoning of this...The Mountain Divs are pretty good as is, and the Finns are far too stout at this point to effect any offensive success against them whatsoever.

[Schmart]

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
Symptom of being away from the game for so long. I didn't even realize forts allowed adjacent hexes to dig level 3+.

Not automatically, just that they allow adjacent units to dig to level three. Alone, units can only get to level 2. Adjacent to an urban city, fort unit, or enemy unit allows them to get to level 3. So to dig a level 3 line behind the front needs a fort unit every 3 hexes with other units in between.

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Schmart
Don't quite see the reasoning of this...The Mountain Divs are pretty good as is, and the Finns are far too stout at this point to effect any offensive success against them whatsoever.

This is an example of one of the mountain units that fought south of Tarnopol. At only about 60-70% of its TO&E, I assume it'll be even worse once it fleshes out. I thought 5-6 mountain divisions vs a Finish regiment or two might see some success, but I don't know, perhaps not.

[Klydon]

Part of the issue is what do the Finns show up with at the bottleneck? If they show up with divisions, your troops won't be doing anything except failing. The issue is if the Finns see a bottleneck force, they may not even bother to show up at all since they don't like taking attrition.

IMO, the mountain units are better off digging someplace as they build up experience/moral. Is it as fast as being in successful combat? No, but by the time you want to use them, they will be ready to roll. Attach them to the Shock army for more fun and games.

If you want to try to use them in combat someplace, I would recommend the deep south where the chances of encirclement are less and you have a better shot of smacking around some unwary Romanian unit.

I pretty much agree with some of the other posters as I think the German here is in some serious trouble in the long haul. Simply too many Russians on the map for this time frame of the game, but perhaps he will get it going a bit better over the next couple of turns.

As you mention, some of the changes to the game from one patch to the next can take you by surprise if you have been away for awhile, especially if you have not had a chance to keep up with the boards. All good tho. Good to see AAR's posted regardless.

[Flaviusx]

The best thing you can do with the mountain units is save them as shock troops on the main portion of the front for the blizzard, the Finns are a side show. Mountain troops have the movement to keep up with your mobile troops in winter, and can thus aid penetrations made by the cav and armor units. The Finns, once bottled up, can be ignored until 1944.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 5 - 7/17/41

8 Armament factories evacuated from Vsevolzhsky. 7 Armament factories and 4 Yak-6 factories evacuated from Leningrad.

In the far north after reading some forum threads regarding the gaminess of using the map edge, I've decided not to try and defend the choke point. This turn will be my last turn holding the choke point as his units hadn't reached mine yet, so I felt justified staying put for one more turn.

Next turn I'll start to fall back and eventually I'll try and hold an area that does not border a map edge to keep things real. The rail net is rather unusual, so I'll have to study things a bit before I choose a defensive line as I don't want my HQs sitting off of the rail lines if possible.

South of Pskov saw a deep penetration by the panzers, but my opponent didn't widen the shoulders of the initial breach he made through my lines. So I've decided to sit tight for a turn and force him to spend time widening the breach. This risks a pocket at Pskov, but it's worth it if I can keep his momentum towards Leningrad stalled for a turn.

Given the depth of the penetration I sent all available reinforcements to the Leningrad area. Cavalry divisions went to the city area and are under the forts at Leningrad and the infantry formed a new army and can be seen in the screenshot arriving to the area south of Lake Ilmen via rail.

South of this area the lines remained pretty much static. I flew countless recon missions in an attempt to find his panzers, but only managed to spot a few divisions. I emailed DivePac about the withdrawal of the panzers as I found it alarming to think they needed to be withdrawn from the line by turn 5 of the game. I wasn't trying to gain any knowledge of his operational plans, I was simply worried about the withdraw of his offensive units across 2/3rds of the front and asked him if he needed a restart.

He stated he has real problems with keeping enough tanks in operational order and needed the withdrawal for a short refit. I guess all the changes to the game over the last year+ really punishes the Germans if they push their panzers hard now. Hopefully he can recover quickly and not lose too much momentum as he stated he wishes to continue on.

Given that infantry faces me along most of the line, I didn't withdraw any further down south and stayed on my lines. The cavalry divisions near Chernigov last turn moved out into the Pripet Marshes to take up defenses along the rail line that runs north/south through the entire marsh.

Since most of the hexes have reached level 2 now, I built a couple of forts behind the Dnepr to allow fort construction in the clear hexes to continue.

Still haven't been able to locate my retail image software, but I did figure out how to reduce file size without reducing image size in PAINT.net, so this turns image should be easier to read.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 6 - 7/24/41

32 x KV - 1, 7 x T-50 and 6 x vehicle factories evacuated from Leningrad. The only thing left to evacuate now from Leningrad are the 8 heavy industry factories. I know people will question pulling out the KV's this early, but I wanted to get it done while I had the extra rail points to get all 32 out.

In the far north I've pulled back to the area I plan to try and hold at. My lines are set on the west, and will eventually get 2 divisions per hex. Then the line will run east , but the row of hexes directly east of lake Suojarvi will be left unoccupied. So basically the entire north hex row will not be occupied by me.

So what does everyone think, is this more of a natural choke point without unfairly taking the map edge into account, or should I fall back even further and concede the rail line to him all the way east to Lake Onega?

North of Leningrad I've got my final defense put in place now with 2 divisions in each forward hex and a couple armor divisions in reserve. If he can break this line I'll probably end up being pushed back to the no-attack line eventually.

At Pskov I managed to keep the pocket open this turn, but just barely. The fact the Germans only left regiments defending the west side of the pocket told me he was not going to try and slug his way through the forts in the area, so I decided it was my last chance to get the units out and pulled everyone back to the forest to the north.

This means Germany will have good supply in the area soon, so the drive on Leningrad will get much harder to stop. Supplies for the units digging at Leningrad is very low. I need to get an HQ or two up to take command of the divisions and get supplies distributed as the digging is less than 10% still for most hexes. I just don't have any HQ's to spare at the moment.

The central area west of the Dnepr saw the loss of about 1 hex row to his infantry assaults. Except for one attack near Vitebsk they were all single division attacks, so he hasn't starting pushing very hard yet. I guess he's waiting for supplies to build up.

The south was a lot more active, with the hotspots being west of Zhitomir and southwest of Vinnitsa. I lost at least two hexes and in some areas three. Given the strength of his push through the mountains southwest of Vinnitsa, I decided to redeploy a lot of units to the south from the area around Zhitomir.

Unfortunately German interdiction played havoc with my moves and as you can see a lot of units ended up stuck in the area just west of Vinnitsa instead of getting further south as intended. Hopefully I can prevent a breakthrough in the area dividing the Southwestern Front and Southern Front for one more turn.

[Klydon]

Your Leningrad front seems to be really dangerous to me. You have a main line and then very, very little between that and Leningrad itself. This would seem to invite a raid by PG 4 to rip up rail lines, cut off part of the front and generally push right up to the gates of Leningrad with ease. I would suggest you get some troops on the Luga quick and generally get a defense in depth going in the area if you plan on trying to make him fight for Leningrad.

The troops in front of the Finns are sort of a waste to me and could better be deployed on the Luga for now. If you object to the bottleneck, you are still using a board edge for an anchor.

The number of operational tanks the Germans have will drop steeply fairly quickly. This is what happen in the actual campaign btw, so panzer management helps, but imo, I think he is being on the cautious side with his panzer forces. He needs to be encircling and destroying as many Russian troops as he can or he is going to face multiple dug in lines and those won't be nearly as easy to crack and will further delay his attack. The whole effect sort of snow balls and the next thing you know, it is mud and there are a pile of Russians everywhere.

Screen shot looks good. The only thing you may want to do is to turn on fortification levels so we can see what sort of digging is going on where.

I think you have every right to be satisfied with how the campaign is going so far.

[Seminole]

I see no point in having that line of cav in the swamps. The swamps simply aren't a good axis of advance, and you're wasting time digging a fort line that any German player with a pulse should just flank north and south.

Save every cavalry and Mtn unit you can from ever being surrounded. You'll want their mobility advantages in the winter when you get to hit back

[Jim D Burns]

Initially they were all going to be digging in behind the Dnepr, but the way things developed in the south it left the Southwestern Front exposed so they advanced to screen the northern flank of that front. As soon as the Southwestern Front falls back to the area near Kiev the cavalry line will fall back with them. But for now I don't want that north/south rail line left undefended lest he use it to flank my line down south.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Klydon
If you object to the bottleneck, you are still using a board edge for an anchor.

Yeah I agree, I'll be falling back even further next turn and creating a line that ends on either side at the two lakes. It's just not in my nature to fall back and simply rely on the game mechanic of the no-attack line without putting up a spirited fight first. If he pushes me out via force of arms then so be it, but I'm going to try and stay on his side of the line if I can.

Jim

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 7 - 7/31/41

2 x Armaments and 2 x heavy industry factories evacuated from Kremenchug. 3 x heavy industry factories evacuated from Krivoi Rog. 3 x armaments and 3 x heavy industry evacuated from Odessa. 3 x armaments factories evacuated from Nikolaev.

North of Leningrad saw my lines get crushed by the Fins. All my defensive CV's in every single battle dropped by hundreds of points, the largest drop saw a CV of 807 drop to 180. I'll keep up the defense, but it looks like I'll be pushed out of Finnish territory pretty quick.

Tallinn fell to a 5 division attack (3 regular infantry and 2 security) and was routed after first suffering two air strikes by Stukas.

Near Pskov the drive towards Leningrad only made one attack and recon shows the panzers were pulled back near the city of Pskov, obviously to resupply and refuel after their recent off-road jaunt to encircle Pskov probably drained their fuel reserves dry. The units evacuated last turn from the Pskov area continued to pull back this turn to the Luga River to begin digging in.

The big news in the north this turn was a deep and most unexpected penetration made by my opponent through the forest and swamp terrain west-southwest of Velikie Luki. The entire 29th Army that was defending the line saw most of its units route or shatter, and the Soviet front lines were pretty much obliterated in the area. The only thing that prevented a much deeper penetration by the panzers was probably the difficult terrain in the region he advanced through.

I managed to shore up the lines by withdrawing from the Dvina line west of Vitebsk and bringing up additional units of the 20th and 22nd Armies north from the area around the land bridge. I also made a weak attempt to isolate the panzers, but the best I could do was get a ZOC on the last two hexes, but it's through difficult terrain so perhaps a lot of German trucks will suffer from attrition trying to bring in the fuel next turn.

I should state I was sorely tempted to stay on my lines north and south of his breach for at least one more turn to try and slow his ability to exploit the breakthrough, but with the large group of panzers spotted at Pskov, the risk they would drive southeast and pocket a large chunk of my units next turn forced me to concede the area and retract my lines to the east.

The center saw the Germans continue to push my lines back towards the Dnepr, though no huge gains were made. They did however reach the Dnepr south of Mogilev and actually forced a retreat on one hex on the east bank of the river, though no German units managed to get cross. Three divisions were placed in the hex this turn, so hopefully it can hold him up for at least one more turn.

The worst news of the turn was a huge German breakthrough in the south that created a Lvov sized pocket of my units near Vinnitsa. I suspect my opponent was perhaps playing possum with me when he wrote in an email that he was having real difficulties keeping his panzers in operational order. Kudos to him for giving me the false sense of security.

Had I not had the impression his panzers were in real trouble down south, I would not have sat on my lines for so long and instead I would have continued my slow withdraw to the east. And I really would not have felt confident enough to try a redeployment of force in front of the German lines last turn, which resulted in a much larger pocket of units getting trapped this turn. So instead of a 50,000 - 70,000 man pocket, he managed to pocket perhaps twice that many men because of my boneheaded attempt at a redeployment last turn.

Luckily for me the majority of the Soviet airbases were not forced to rebase during his move, so there was enough airpower left in the area to allow for some small Soviet attacks to break the north arm of his pocket this turn which was only held open by regiment sized units. The hex with the Slovak brigade proved to be too tough to crack however as my available air power was used up by the time I tried to attack that hex, so ultimately I doubt I'll be able to save any of the units he's pocketed.

The south side of his pocket was broken via movement of units alone, though I did manage to retreat one small German regiment down south as well, it was not related to the breaking of the pocket.

Given the inability of my pocketed units to take the hex with the Slovak brigade, I decided to forgo any further attacks on the north side and instead spent the rest of the movement available getting most of the rest of the Southwestern Front units to the east to get them out in front of his panzers.

Had I managed to get the Slovak hex to retreat, I would have instead used the majority of the units to get the two previously battered SS regiments retreated and then stuffed the two hex gap with units to try and keep it open long enough to save some stuff, but my plan didn't pan out so as you can see my defense looks a little disjointed due to the fact my goals shifted mid-turn.

On the south side of the pocket I really didn't have much to work with due to the fact most of the units I tried to get down there last turn never made it. So I'm pretty much totally reliant on the lack of fuel deliveries to his panzers to give me some breathing space next turn. The displayed soft factors are set to fuel this turn, so as you can see, if my recon Intel is right, he's got very little fuel left.

What a difference a turn can make. This turn saw my attitude shift from calm satisfaction back to the more familiar desperate concern that typifies normal Soviet play in the early game.

[Klydon]

IMO, you are really leaving yourself open by not putting some units in your cities behind the front lines. You are just asking for a panzer raid to knock out your industry. Odessa has a level 4 fort in it, yet it is ungarrisioned. You are also running risks south of Leningrad because there is not anything substancial there. Your ports are also unguarded as well. I would consider pulling troops back from the Finns and setting up a inner circle of defense around Leningrad to prevent a surprise breakthrough from taking the city easily.

Overall, I think you are in good shape. Turn 8 is coming up and the clock is going to be a big factor for the Germans as far as how far they get into Russia.

[Jim D Burns]

Pretty much every single unit I have is seen on map in the screenshot, so unless I strip the lines I have no extra units to put into to the cities or ports. That said, every hex seen with a fort level of 3 or less at Leningrad has at least one division digging. Some have a brigade and a division.

Odessa will be defended next turn as I plan to strip the Southern Front away next turn and place it south of what's left of the Southwestern Front. Odessa will be defended by the Coastal Army and its units will fall back to occupy the level 3+ forts next turn. This turn I had planned to place that NKVD security unit just to the west in Odessa when I pulled it's defender out, I simply forgot to go back and make the move, so it was an oversight that I left it empty. That or I took the screenshot earlier in my turn and actually made the move I'm not sure.

Defending against the Fins is perhaps bad game play, but it's a principled reason I do it not a good game play reason. The Soviets wouldn't have simply left and in my opinion players shouldn't just leave either. The fact the game lets players do things like this is bad design in my opinion and I'm loath to get into the habit of using game mechanic gimmicks in my play style.

If I get soundly trounced in Finland and pushed out, then I'll feel more comfortable about hiding behind the no attack line, but I don't want to fatten my lines with the extra units without having been beaten first. After all it was by force of arms that Finland recaptured the ground lost in the Winter War, the Russians didn't just pack up and leave. I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here and trust me I don't mean to sound preachy. I just want to explain the apparent bad move I'm making by staying put in Finland.

[AFV]

That is certainly a lot of units you are handicapping yourself with. 14 defending Leningrad and another 13 west of Lake Ladoga (that could all be brigades instead).

I know you realize this, I'm just saying. However, I admire your stance, you see the no attack line as cheese (and as implemented, it is), and defend in front of it.
If the VC were more sophisticated, VP could be awarded for what your doing (or deducted if you didn't).

The road to Leningrad would be quite a bit harder with an additional 27 divisions to plop down in front of it.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 8 - 8/7/41

3 x heavy industries evacuated from Nikolaev. 8 x armaments factories evacuated from Poltava. 2 x heavy industry and 2 x armaments factories evacuated from Kerch. 1 x armaments factories evacuated from Mariupol.

After all the recent comments here, and the fact my opponent isn't even coming to the party in northeast Finland (no Finnish units even advanced towards my lines), I decided it was a waste of strength and have begun to withdraw the Independent Army south to take up positions along the Volkhov River. These units will also defend against a German push south of lake Ilmen should one develop.

North of Leningrad the Fins forced me out of the two critical marsh hexes east of Vyborg for good, which sealed my fate on the Karelian Isthmus. Without those two hexes, there is no chance I can hold him, so the withdraw into Leningrad has begun.

West of Leningrad the Germans have pushed me out of the Narva Isthmus and with the added arrival of the German units that took Tallinn I expect the pressure on my lines to increase. I shall probably have to withdraw towards Leningrad soon, but I decided to try and hold my lines northeast of Pskov for at least one more turn.

The panzers I had spotted around Pskov last turn drove southeast as I suspected and managed to cut off a large body of my troops. This time my opponent sealed his pocket tight using entire divisions, so there was no chance at a relief. The only mitigating circumstance is the fact he used his panzers in the marshes, so they'll be stuck in the swamps next turn.

I was able to dress my lines by pulling even more units from the Reserve Front north from the area of the land bridge. With so much force being pulled north recently, I expect he may be able to break open the land bridge soon. Though I haven't seen any panzers in the area for a while, so perhaps he's got everything up north right now.

Behind the Dnepr my first level 3 fort was completed this turn (sorry forgot to turn on fort levels for screenshot). I expect several more to be completed by next turn, so I'm very pleased with how the defense in the center has developed. That being said developments to the north and south may eventually force me to voluntarily evacuate the forts behind the Dnepr soon.

West of Kiev my opponent re-sealed the large pocket as expected, so combined with the units up north, next turn is going to see 200,000+ troops march off to the POW camps.

I dressed my lines around Kiev and pulled the Southern Front line far back in the deep south. Next turn the Southern Front will take up positions behind the Ingul River.

At Odessa the Coastal Army has withdrawn to the level 3 fort line and will try and keep that city from falling for as long as possible. With so many units defending the city it will be impossible to ignore and he'll be required to keep a sizable force in the rear.

[Klydon]

If you think about it, turn on fort levels next time you do a screen shot. It helps us watching to see how well you are (or are not) dug in.

[Jim D Burns]

Turn 9 - 8/14/41

16 x armaments factories evacuated from Dnepropetrovsk. 4 x armaments factories evacuated from Zaporozhye.

West of Leningrad my decision to remain on my lines near Pskov cost me as several divisions were cut off and isolated by a strong armored thrust in the area. So I decided to pull back my lines behind the Luga River and started doubling up the front line hexes to 2 divisions defending against a drive towards Leningrad.

Near Velikie Luki Recon spots German armor sitting just behind the lines on the rail net. I've moved even more strength into the area, but my guess is next turn will see a considerable armored breakthrough in this region and I'll probably have to contemplate abandoning my fortified positions on the land bridge next turn.

South of Kiev I withdrew the Southwestern Front units a bit more and the Southern Front units took up positions behind the Ingul River. With the loss of so many units down south recently, I don't expect anything to hold down there, I'll just be trying to slow his eastward movement as much as I can without losing too many more units if possible.

Near Moscow you can see the beginnings of my entrenchment line starting to develop. Almost all of the returning destroyed units that will be arriving over the next few months will be going to the Moscow area to act as diggers.