A small WW2: AAR Stelteck (USSR) Vs HardLuckYetAgain(Not USSR): (No HardLuckYetAgain please)

[bigbaba]

oh my god. turn 5 and he is 100 km away from moscoy. this guy is a nightmare. his mobility is amazing. propably better to run in the south and ship everything to moscow and leningrad.

[Stelteck]

At this point of the situation, i thought i have 3 viable strategies :

- Hard Defense of Moscow.
- Elastic Defense of Moscow & South strategy.
- Hard Defense of Leningrad.

Hard Defense of Moscow means evacuating troops from Leningrad and scrapping south front to regroup all troops to moscow for a desesperate but determined defense.
I discarded this option. First it is probably too late, all ennemy troops are in position to attack it, and my troops are not. Second, i already did this strategy in my last game and do not really want to do it again.

The south Strategy means evacuating leningrad, trying to slow down thing at moscow (with no intention of holding), but use the fact that the ennemy have few units in the south to hold maximum ground here, stalino, rostov, Voronev, etc.... Renforcement would be sent to the south as possible.
This strategy is very interesting. If i was a real life general, i would have taken it.
Looking at raw number, the fall of moscow and Leningrad will not prevent my armies to built and fight in the future years. In 1942, the battle in the south will be intense, but i will have a chance in the long run.
Unfortunately, victory conditions in the bitter end scenario is hard for me. With Moscow and Leningrad for 3 years, the ennemy will grab so much victory points it would be really hard to catch him, even if i took berlin around the historical date.

Last scenario, is the Hard Defense of Leningrad.
This scenario is also quite interesting because now my opponent have a lot of things to do. Capturing Moscow, going south, and more important, join the Finn to encercle leningrad, thought difficult defensive ground
He also really HAVE to take Leningrad, because if he do not do it, he will be in difficult situation when winter come.
It is a high risk high reward strategy. I have a bit chance to have a lots of troops encercled around Leningrad.
Chances of success are quite low, relative to the previous one, but it is my only chance to keep some victory point in accordance with the bitter end scenario. It is also consistent with my initial strategy.

So i choosed, the Lenigrad Defense.

[M60A3TTS]

In this case it might not hurt to bring your AAR fully up to date. I think you can trust HLYA not to look at your stuff.

You'll need to get a couple MiGs out of Moscow to save half your later IL-2 production if Moscow isn't already surrounded.

[Stelteck]

So my troops deployed north :

[Stelteck]

Turn 7 : 31 July 1941

In the north, the ennemy pause after its big push, in order to ressupply&reorganize.



In the south, according to the plan, i begin a general retreat.

[Stelteck]

Turn 8 : 07 August 1941 !!

Finally august !!!

The ennemy did not loose anytime and sent a panzer group surrounded moscow.
It was expected, and it is not so bad as it is one panzer group less for the battle of Leningrad. Moscow was lost anyway.

Tons of my air force are reconfigured to be able to drop supply, and i intend to resist at moscow a lot of turn !!! The ennemy will have to commit good infantry to the battle to take it.



The battle for the north will begin soon.



In the south, the ennemy use my retreat to rush Karkov. It is not a major blow as it was expected according to plan.



It is all or nothing in the north. Maybe i should have choosen the southern plan with far less risk. [:D]

The northern plan was not really reasonnable. Never mind let's see.

[M60A3TTS]

You must have taken a big hit to industry.

[timmyab]

I'd be tempted to offer a draw at this point [:D]

[Stelteck]

I will count industry loss when the dust will settle, but i'am not too worry as armement point for example is not so important in my opinion.

Unfortunately, my current strategy is high risk and if i got all my troops encercled at leningrad, i will probably have to offer a draw.

[bigbaba]

holy moly. this guy is a steam roller. he can advance to kazan when he wants and he still has plenty of time for rostov and leningrad.

Stelteck, i realy dont want to ruin your moral but you should consider retreating to wladiwostok at the pacific ocean.

[Icier]

I wouldnt be throwing in the towel yet...he has broken up his armor in regiments, so while tough, they will bounce if you concentrate on one or two & cut a path.Looking
@ your map it seems you have plenty of tough cavalry poking about.

[Dinglir]

As this is a bitter end scenario, your strategy should reflect this.

If you lose Leningrad in 1941, tha Axis are going to pile up Victory points for the entire year of 1942 and very likely 1943 as well. In short, you are going to be so far behind on points, that you just can't win.

If you lose Moscow, you have a chance to take it back during the winter of 1941/42 (remember you are playing normal blizzard). If you don't, I think you've lost the game - the Germans will get so many points you just can't recover.

I do think you should put up some defence in the south, as you need to keep your population and production up and make it more difficult for the Germans in their 1942 offensive. Remember the south is not good for German supplies.

So, in my opinion your task for the remainder of 1941 is this:

Summer/Fall:
1) Hold Leningrad at all costs
2) Do not lose terrain east of Moscow (those are your buildup areas for the coming Moscow offensive)
3) Delay the German advance in the south

Winter:
1) Retake Moscow

[vonik]

You start to run out of railroad connections for your Northern armies . If you loose Yaroslavl or Sonkovo, you are down to a single railroad .
And you can say Goodbye to resupplying Moscow by air too .
I join the advice to move everything to Siberia as long as the trains are still rolling

[Stelteck]

Turn 9 : 14 August 1941

The ennemy is preparing to assault north. Moscow is still holding, thanks to air supply.



In the south, the evil troops are closing to Stalino.

I use cavalry as rear guard. It seems he do not like it very much. But cavalry division have no combat value so i do not care loosing them at the moment. They are just map painter.

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: bigbaba


Stelteck, i realy dont want to ruin your moral but you should consider retreating to wladiwostok at the pacific ocean.

Ignore such defeatist advice. Emigrate to the USA

[Stelteck]

Turn 10 : 21 August 1941

German offensive smashed though my lines near Leningrad at cut the city from mainland. Still the ennemy have to move though difficult ground and i will be able to restore the front with the help of swamp.
In the city, i built from day one a huge defensive line to hold Leningrad here and one of my best army will take position for the Leningrad siege.



Otherwise the ennemy did not try to push east of moscow, and the town is still holding.



In the south, the ennemy reached Stalino. I will not be able to hold the city, so the southern front will defend Rostov.
SW front will defend Voronev.

[Stelteck]

Turn 11 : 28 August 1941

The evil invader tried to bypass my lines of defense East. The advance was spectacular, still the german failed to reach the railroad and have swamps in front of them.
Still i have no trained reserve to fill the gap and i will have to rush trainee divisions in the swamp to try to hold the german advance. It may not hold next turn.

On the other hand, in front of Leningrad and Finns, the defenses are quite good.



ON others fronts, moscow is still holding, and i evacuated stalino to fallback to roskov.

[Stelteck]

Turn 12 : 09 September 1941 !!!

Really ? This is bullshit lol !!! [:@]

The ennemy was not able or not willing to pursue offensive to cut the railroad to the port supplying Leningrad, but prefer to gently smashed though 3 lines of well prepared defenses at Leningrad to take the port. Easy.
I prepared these lines from day one of the invasion....

The ennemy first crushed 2 fortified levels 2, one in a swamp, then panzers crossed the large river and destroyed a fortification level 3. And still had some steam to take the fortified port just behind.



The third decisive battle with turn, the crossing of the river. LOL.



The garnison of moscow began to faint.



In the south, according to plan.



The collapse of Leningrad is a huge blow. And he did it where i was the strongest.

Is trying to resist a viable strategy in 1941 ? I think i would have been in better chape with no more land lost by taking all my army in the caucasus to train during 1941.... [:D]
My defense is completely useless.

[Dinglir]

ORIGINAL: Stelteck
Is trying to resist a viable strategy in 1941 ? I think i would have been in better chape with no more land lost by taking all my army in the caucasus to train during 1941.... [:D]
My defense is completely useless.

First of all, remember that playing Pelton and HardLuck, you have gone up against two of the best German players out there. If you make a mistake you are punished, and as a relative rookie, like myself, you are bound to make plenty of those.

If I may give you my personal take on Leningrad, I would suggest the following for next time:

1) Make sure all units in the Neva River hex are of the same command. You had two units attached directly to the Northern Front, which gives you -10% to your CV.
2) Make sure that army is commanded by a REALLY good army commander. In my current game vrs Hermann, I use Vasilevsky.
3) Once you have your fortification to level three, disband the fortified zone and replace it with another infantry division (you can fortify to lvl three again with enemy adjacent).
4) Make sure there are plenty of Sapper Regiments available in your Neva river army (against Hermann, I have four).
5) Make sure to build Osinovets to fortification level three as well. Once the Germans cross the river, they have only one hex to attack Osinovets from. So you may argue that Osinovets is as strong a position as the Neva River hex (unless the Germans also take Pavlovo). Remember to stack Osinovets with three ready units so the defenders of the Neva river does not withdraw here.
6) When the Germans do attack the Neva river hex, it is good to have really strong airforces available. By that I mean two airfields stacked with LaGG-3's and/or Yak-1's (and someone like Novikov leading them). Forget about the I-Types and the MiG-3's for this. They are a waste of space in such a fight. Of course, my personal experience against Pelton may not be valid in this regard. I see that HardLuck uses a lot more fighters in the Leningrad bombing attack than Pelton did against me.

[bigbaba]

the leningrad results are not very unrealistic. he made several attacks with air support and tons of pioneers to soften the resistance. and he had 900 tanks in the last attack. also he had superb c&c which boosted his cv a lot.

i think in 1941 the axis can conquer almost any hex on the map. even with 3 soviet divisions on it. the reserve activation is also not realy a option for 41 soviets because of the poor moral of the divisions. in this case however it was possible to hold the hex. he got a 2.07:1 odds and thats a very close one. if you had better c&c and maybe a division instead of this brigade you could have been able to hold the hex for one more turn.

rifle corps on the other hand can defend hexes effectivly but they are not available now.

i wish you a hell of a blizzard to turn the table and give him some of his own medicine. this guy is realy scary and creepy and i would not want to face him in a dark alley.