Teun557 (Axis) vs Seminole (Soviet) - Bitter End

[Seminole]

Overall seven Axis formations are isolated this turn.
Gomel and Mogilev Arm and HI factories evacuated and Kiev 1 HI evacuated to Chkalov with remaining rail.



Strategic map after moves.

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Seminole
Near the Black Sea coast 51st Rifle Div marches into Galati and Braila.

I have seen this in quite a few games now and had to remind others in team games to defend Galati. Losing Galati means LOSING FACTORIES - and they do not repair they are gone for ever. Even if you do not mind losing manpower centres to marauding, they absolutely should not allow losing factories.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

German player should be learning some valuable lessons on ZOC this game.

[teun557]

This is my very first MP game and only my second run in the game itself. I do appear to be very outclassed but I am keen on seeing this game through.

[Seminole]

We're up to turn 11 now.
Game is in another hiatus until the end of the month, but I'll continue updating the AAR.

[Seminole]

Turn 4

OoB



Overall strategic map at beginning of turn:



Western Front is liquidated almost entirely.



1/3 of a million Soviets are bagged.

[Seminole]

4th Panzer Group heads north toward Tallinn and east toward Velikiye Luki.
The northern screen is pulled back and a line is created from the northern shores of Lake Peipus to the Baltic, with a division screening from the swamps to the west. Tallinn is also defended.

The advance toward Moscow is more tepid. Reserve Front takes control of the defenses around Vitebsk and Smolensk. The land bridge is filled in.

STAVKA orders additional units to the Pripyat swamps. Operation Honey Pot will be a bid to draw Axis forces into the swamps, and thereby keep them from the front lines farther east. Approximately a dozen German formations are currently embroiled. Goal is to hold them in the swamp as long as possible.

The Stanislav Pocket continues to hold out as 1st Panzer Group overtakes Proskurov and envelops the mechanized forces screening Vinnista.
Southwest and Southern Fronts drop back to screen the Dnepr approaches. This should force his infantry to spend some time marching up before being able to join the fight.

The decision is made to create a fortress in Odessa, and defend it to the last.
The adventurous elements of Southern Front that marched into Romania are isolated, but they'll die heroes of the Soviet Union.

[Seminole]

Turn 5

OoB



Ground Losses



Evac 3 HI from Odessa
Evac 3 HI and 3 Arm from Kiev
Evac 3 Arm from Kirovograd

Strategic overview at beginning of Soviet July 17th, 1941:



Pull back slightly in the north as Estonia has been largely overrun
Forcing him to commit to clear islands and Tallinn by leaving behind overrun formations.
Pskov is threatened on southern flank by a narrow penetration of the river line so we pull all that we can back to the next line of resistance with a soft screen behind them.
One Tank Division can't be saved, lacks fuel to escape after combat with German units trying to hold the line.
Abandon the swamps south of Pskov because of threatened flanks. Anchor on the hills and woods



Bring in reserves to screen in front of MLR blocking the advance on Moscow and Smolensk:



3rd Army (Western Front) takes command of Pripyat Defense on north side.
Relocate 6th and 12th Army HQs (Southwestern Front) to Pripyat from Stanislav Pocket.

Over a dozen enemy divisions are engaged in the Pripyat, trying to avoid move interference with crucial LOCs.
As long as practicable we'll keep a cavalry/infantry force in this area to keep Landsers from reaching the real front lines. When Gomel or Kiev are threatened this effort will need to be reined in.



Kiev defenses are in place when the panzers finally reach the outskirts. Stalin makes it clear that no more retreat will be tolerated.



Odessa will also be made a strongpoint.



Strategic picture after Soviet attacks and re-alignment:

[Seminole]

Turn 6


Overall strategic picture at beginning of turn:



Pskov is encircled and a new line is formed behind the Plyussa river. The Baltic end of the line, the shortest line to Leningrad, is the most heavily reinforced.




Tallinn holds up against three assaults. Not wanting to leave these men to their fate transport is arranged, but in an attempt to surprise and mystify the Germans the barges of troops head west and south.
The Germans are not fooled. Three separate air attacks find the flotilla and barely more than 10% of each division disembark.



The land bridge is breached on the southern end:



With the fortified line cracked Reserve Front requests to pull back from the prepared defenses to gain space from the German infantry and introduce some missing depth in their defensive line. Stakva sends in additional fresh reserves to backstop any panzer thrusts.



The Germans are trying to reduce their commitment to the swamp with a shift to regimental screens. With the rails we can pull out of this area quickly. For now the trade off of German units in the rear seems worth the price we're paying. Just don't want to get them caught in here.



The Stanislav Pocket is further reduced, but the 44th Mtn Div refuses to surrender.



Southwestern Front continues to move reinforcements from Stavka into the Dnepr line. Further south Southern Front cavalry harass enemy supply lines before falling back to another river line. Axis minors are tagged with the responsibility of conquering Odessa.



Overall strategic picture at the end of the turn:

[Seminole]

Turn 7

Overall Strategic Map at the start of the turn.



First things first - The Lost Division.
44th Mtn Div, last formation remaining on the map from the Stanislav Pocket, holds out against two Hungarian assaults.
Stalin orders supplies flow to the unit, and sufficient numbers arrive to bring them up to beachhead supply status.
The unit is nearing depletion. Even with supplies it simply can't last for over two months behind enemy lines.



German forces are clearly concentrating on Leningrad. The defenders are giving ground slowly, but the Wehrmacht manages to pin several rifle divisions to the Baltic.
STAVKA supplies several fresh rifle brigades which are immediately sent to the front lines to screen the panzer thrusts toward the Luga river.



Northwest Front takes responsibility for defenses from Novgorod to Velikie-Luki. It doesn't appear that the Germans will attempt to hook below Lake Ilmen, but the Russians have to keep the possibility in mind.




Saaremaa Island - Estonia
Germans attack brigade holding crossing. While they compel a retreat under fire they are unable to exploit the moment and make a crossing.
The divisions that escaped from Tallinn and fell under Stuka bombardment at sea were barely cohesive upon arrival:
8th Moscow PM RD - 13% exp rifle squads
2nd Moscow PM RD - 19% exp rifle squads
both restocked to >90% TOE due to port supply.
I had wanted to create a trap for the German infantry division on this island by moving a Rifle Division to the northernmost island while the other held the port and the brigade managed a fighting withdrawal. I was going to cut off the German infantry with the northern division and piss off OKH, but the gamey replacement cycle kills the joy of it. If they hadn't been intercepted and came on the island at their 80%+ TOE I would have liked to try this gambit, but it felt cheap, so I changed plans.

The KGB obtained Fuhrer Directive No.33 is validated by the events in the Smolensk region. German mechanized forces have split north and south, the exact composition of the diversion of forces is not yet clear, but Gomel is threatened, and so the operations in the marshes must be brought to a close. Approximately 8 German infantry division equivalents are currently trying to comb the swamps.




Army Group South has decided to focus its panzer corps on Kiev, but the progress is slow, and provides time to continue building the Dnepr Line farther south.




At Odessa the enemy units draw closer, but haven't yet isolated the ground resupply route.



Overall Strategic Map at the end of the turn.

[Telemecus]

Finna held at the Janisjarvi. A thicket of units already on the way to Leningrad. AGS going for Kiev and not the Donbass - meaning you do not need many troops to defend there. I'd say it is still looking very good for you.

[Seminole]

Turn 8

I don't have a full front strategic shot from the opening of this turn, somehow missed saving the center.
At this point the Germans are pressing against the Russians along the front, but focus their panzers in three areas: Leningrad, Gomel, and Kiev.

3rd and 4th Panzer Group continue grinding straight for Leningrad.
The Luga Line is broken and German motorized forces establish a bridgehead. The isolated rifle divisions have been liquidated.



The KV-1 and T-50 factories are evacuated from Leningrad. So far no industry has been lost.
Soviet formations continue pouring into the line. Our only hope is to keep his advance at 10 miles a week, and we need depth to dig in and rotate fresh units.



South of Lake Ilmen there is no mechanized threat, so the Russians continue to force the Landsers to fight for each step of defensible terrain.



In this area of the front STAVKA decides to shorten line on swamps in front of Valdaii Hills and move spares to northern line
An unready Tank Div is pulled into Velikie Luki to refit.

Vitebsk falls, but AGC progress towards Smolensk is slow without panzers.
North of Mogilev the German infantry force a retreat, but can't follow up and establish a bridgehead.



South of Mogilev the 2nd Panzer Group struggles to get a toehold over the river.
Fear of a breakthrough severing the rails into the Pripyat compel the evacuation of Soviet formations.
A secondary line is formed on the river east of Gomel.



AGS hammers the defenses that skirt Kiev, but the Soviets hold more often than not.
The city itself has yet to be assaulted.



Soviets counter attack and force Rumanian armor and cavalry to retreat in separate battles south of Cherkassy.
Recon detects that some elements of 1st Panzer Group are moving southeast toward the Dnepr bend.
Kirovograd is evacuated and a new screen is established along the river and anchored on Krivoi Rog.



Losses to date:



OoB:



Overall Strategic Map at the end of turn 8:

[Seminole]

Turn 9

Overall strategic picture at beginning of the week:



The Lost Division, 44th Mtn, again holds out against Hungarian assaults. Unbending in battle the commander of the division surrenders as his men have exhausted their ammunition, food, and medicine.



4th and 3rd Panzer Group continue the grind forward. Resistance is growing, but the 12st Pzr Div manages to get itself across the river.



Bagryman (28th Army) leads a three army attack against the lone 12th Pzr Div that had forayed into the swamps.
The Germans are outnumbered 152k to 15k in men, and 613 to 170 in AFVs
1/4 of their AFvs were lost during their retreat through the swamps and back over the river.



AGC infantry keep pushing toward Smolensk, but without panzers the pace favors the defenders, and the attackers are held more than once.



2nd Panzer Group slightly expands the bridgehead at south of Mogilev, but AGC fails to create additional crossing points to support them. An infantry held crossing is tossed back



The Germans force the defenses on the western side of Kiev to fall back across the Dnepr, but they fail to gain the high ground farther south at the river's bend.



Odessa's defenders again thwart the Rumanian assaults.
To the northeast the Axis encounter the Soviet screen for the lower Dnepr.
Air drop supplies to Odessa, not very effective.
Running out of formations to screen lower Dnepr while still holding strong at Kiev.
Crossing south of Mogilev threatens Kiev defenses. Need reserves in this sector, but too busy making Leningrad expensive and trying to fill in the Donbass defensive line.



OoB:



Overall strategic map at the end of the week:

[EwaldvonKleist]

That looks very good for you, and well done AAR.
The Axis has spread its forces to evenly, lacking a real Schwerpunkt except for Leningrad.
40AFV destroyed in one attack are very nice for 1941.

A week by week loss screen would be nice to track what losses the grinding inflicts on the Germans.

[Seminole]

The German stumbles out of the blocks constrained their strategic options.
I suspect Fuhrer Directive 33 was born of supply considerations due to the time it took to liquidate Western Front.
Likewise Southwestern Front's overall orderly withdrawal prevented a turning of the Kiev defenses and allowed us to reinforce them.
For the Barbarossa campaign I would hold my opponents decision to frontally assault the Kiev defense with mechanized units to be an error.
The next error was the level of effort committed to containing and clearing the swamps. An early attack from the swamps that broke a key AGC rail line I think spurred the over reaction. The infantry divisions committed to this mission left 2nd Panzer to attempt crossing the Dnepr against strong opposition with only mech forces.
In the north the Germans have opted to run their rail to the Baltic in a left hook to support 4th Panzer Group. This lowers the threat of 3rd Panzer trying the right hook below Lake Ilmen, and allows us to focus defenders in front of Leningrad.

[MattFL]

Look at those pretty Russian lines with armies operating nicely organized. I see this all the time in AAR's. In my games, it's constantly a spilled bag of skittles. My office is messy too, so i suppose it's consistent.

If I were GHC at this point, i would shift most of my armor/mot from the North to the center between VL and Smolensk and let the infantry grind away at Lenningrad. Would definitely force the Russians to defend differently or face massive encirclements. I see little point in massing armor to the North given the current state of things.

[Seminole]

I probably spend too many AP on trying to keep C3 clean. Being able to withdraw in an orderly fashion has lent itself to my organization in this game. That and I actually enjoy planning out the Soviet army on the fly.

I do have a question regarding command overload.
What's the thought on overloading Fronts to reduce cooperation penalties in combat?

I have four armies per Front entering blizzard, with approximately 8 more armies attached to STAVKA. It's expensive to re-attach armies, so I'm wondering how others look at accepting command overload for their Fronts to avoid the -25% combat penalty for units attached to STAKVA?
I'm leaning toward adding two armies apiece to four of my Fronts and accepting the overload to have a large, flexible group for operational assault. Would failed admin checks be too high a penalty (e.g. consistently lose out on MP thus making the unit operationally less useful)?
Game engine seems kind of opaque as to whether my Front commanders are routinely pitching in when called upon. Maybe maximize the Army commanders and hope that fewer checks go up the chain to compensate?

[Seminole]

Turn 10

Overall strategic picture at the start of the turn:



Ebb and flow as the Russians vainly pound back on the Germans advancing toward Leningrad. Just hoping to burn ammo and fuel and reduce their MP to attack and advance the next turn.



South of Smolensk the Germans continue trying to create and expand bridgeheads at several points.



Bryansk Front rallies divisions from three armies under the direction of Malinovsky's 50th Army to strike at 2nd Panzer Group's spearhead.
The Russians lose 1/3rd of their AFVs, but the Germans withdraw from the field and back across the Dnepr river.



Kiev holds. German mechanized formations are trying to hammer the urban area, but the Soviets are resolute. Konev directs 19th and 16th Army, reporting directly to Stalin with orders to not retreat.




The Germans have decided not to try and force a Dnepr crossing but instead loop south and ensnare a cavalry division and the rifle division holding Krivoi Rog.



Stalin orders that cavalry lead a counterattack. Despite reservations about employing cavalry against tanks the local commanders make excellent use of the terrain and compel German regiments fall back under the surprise assaults as once again AGS armored spearheads find themselves isolated.



The rescue is certain, but it should buy another turn or two fill in the Dnepr bend and at least force the Germans to make a consolidated and deliberate effort to cross the river.

Losses for the turn:




Overall strategic picture at the end of the turn:

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: Seminole
avoid the -25% combat penalty for units attached to STAKVA?

By this do you mean you have directly attached the combat units to STAVKA, or do you mean you have attached them to armies which are attached to STAVKA. If the former it will have a combat penalty, if the latter a cross-HQ penalty (sometimes). The former is always bad, the latter you can largely avoid by keeping armies organised as you have done. If you keep the armies attached to STAVKA together I imagine the cross-HQ penalties when they do occur would be minimised just as if they were in the same front?

ORIGINAL: Seminole
What's the thought on overloading Fronts to reduce cooperation penalties in combat?

Every command point over the top is approximately the same as reducing your ratings by one. So let us say you overload an army with only one divisions, then your general with a 6 rating is like a general with a 4 rating. I would say at that point pretty much not worth worrying about the leadership. And indeed once you go over the command capacity, you may as well not stop as the first one makes most of the damage and all the others add little.

The exception to this is morale. Not only does morale not have a range penalty, it also does not have a penalty from being over command capacity (in spite of what the manual says). So if you are choosing a front with a general with a good morale rating - you are actually better off loading the front as much as possible even if it is way past its command limits.

As said at the start of this post, I do not think you need to overload any fronts at all to minimise your cross-HQ penalties and should not really be assigning directly to STAVKA otherwise. That said it seems to me fronts and their generals are less important than your armies and their generals - so would only look at them if you really do have lots of points to spare right now.

[Seminole]

By this do you mean you have directly attached the combat units to STAVKA, or do you mean you have attached them to armies which are attached to STAVKA. If the former it will have a combat penalty, if the latter a cross-HQ penalty (sometimes).

Soon I get into a furball at Gomel that involves Western Front, Bryansk Front, and 16th and 19th Armies that are attached directly to STAVKA. I want to avoid the combat penalties suffered by the 16th and 19th Armies when they joined in deliberate attacks with either of the Fronts, but wasn't sure how to weight the effect of overloading those Fronts by attaching one or both Armies (they were already at full command capacity).
It sounds like doing so would essentially obviate the intervention of the Front commander, but with good Army commanders that might not matter much.

About to start the second week of the Blizzard offensive (waiting on ice down south) and still undecided about attaching the Armies that report directly to STAVKA. For now the plan is to mainly use those forces as follow on units to help stretch the line, and keep the attacking forces attached to Fronts without overload.