Final Days of the Reich - StB Rosencrantus (Axis) vs Tyronec (SU)

[tyronec]

Yes, I stick multiple images together using Paint.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Rosencrantus

T3

... If the breakout attempt fails then Stalingrad will fall significantly earlier than it did historically and Tyronec will get all those sweet bonus VPs.

He will also need the railyard, so stopping that helps you. While its all single track lines on this sector having a huge railyard pumps out a lot train capacity that offsets the worst problems. Till he gets that he'll struggle in the Donets etc

[Rosencrantus]

T4

AGA - Caucasus:

My units continue to cling on to their positions and launch attacks on exposed Soviet Divisions. One of my motorised units also had enough MP to scout and cut off a Soviet rifle division.

Don:

Romanian pocket is finally sealed shut. Not too bad of a result considering how much time was spent in that area and the commitment of his guards units. 6 Pz Division also launches attack on overexposed Soviet Divisions. Reinforcements are sent to patch the hole created from the attacks on the Italians.

[Rosencrantus]

Orel:

Soviets attack and take the hexes where I placed regiments on. Not good. I just lost all those lvl 3 forts for low Soviet losses and high German ones. I am at least able to counter attack and repulse his units though at a high AFV cost.

Velikie Luki:

Pretty quiet around VL this turn, just a few attacks. He relieves the isolated mech unit and I am only able to attack and route it. The whole debacle on surrounding those two mechanised units were not worth it. I lost far too many tanks and didn't even secure any surrenders.

[Rosencrantus]

T5

Next two turns are really short. Here we go.

Don: Nothing really happening in the South except at the positions where the Hungarians used to be. Soviets focus all their resources on them and blew them out of the Earth. Fortunately I had mobile reserves to create a strong line Tyronec has to go through next turn.

Orel: Soviets intensify there offensive here and gain ground. There are 6-7 guard rifle corps here! I am only able to launch counterattacks on one stack and secured a surrender of a rifle division. Me and Tyronec believe that this surrender occurred because there were too few hexes for the division to retreat to. Units are able to retreat more than one hex, but I believe the assault was so strong combined with fact that there were a lack of hexes to safely retreat to that the division surrendered instead.

Velikie Luki: More ground gets taken but his progress is really beginning to slow down. With reinforcements arrive I should be able to halt his entire offensive in this area soon.

Ground Losses: Only thing notable is the high AFV losses. Only half of them were actually loss in my action phase, the rest should be mostly recovered in the next few turns.

Air Losses: Nothing to note here.

[Rosencrantus]

T6

Was in so much of a rush to finish this turn before I went to sleep that I forgot to take photos of the turn save a few battle results. What I can say is that this turn was like the previous, a few hexes gained by the Soviets and such.

Not a single GC 41 or StB campaign has gone long enough to see new Axis tank models go up against Soviet ones. This one hopefully will though [:D].

As we can see, the Tiger tanks perform exceptionally well against armoured opponents. 19 Tigers destroyed more tanks than the 47 Panzer IIIL's and from what I remember only 2-3 Tigers were destroyed and 6 were damaged.

Overall AFV loss ratio was 4.26:1 in my favour. Very nice.

[Rosencrantus]

Don't have time to play the game so might as well update the AAR.

T7

Don: Not much is happening in the immediate vicinity of Stalingrad. Would have expected him to at least try and take the level 3 airport before focusing on somewhere else. 6. Pz Division launches counter attacks and to the north GS carries a fight against a Soviet guard rifle corps.

AGA: Units near Grozny are holding on to bleed Maikop and Krasnodar bonus VPs dry.

Novorossiysk: Tyronec a few turns ago left a gap in his line and I took advantage of it. It resulted in having units cut off though still in supply due to the port. As soon as the weather clears up, naval patrols will be conducted to isolate those units and attacks will be conducted to destroy them.

Orel/Voronezh: Line is holding solid, though the three Soviet guard corps are forcing me to keep a good amount of troops near Orel to ensure the rail line does not get cutoff. Soviets launch an attack south of Voronezh where the Hungarians where. We were forced to retreat, but at least achieved a 4:1 AFV loss ratio.

Velikie Luki: Tyronec has left a minimal garrison north of Toropets. Units have been concentrated and will attempt to cut off the rail line. They do not have to travel far, just 2 light woods and a heavy woods is enough to stop supplies to Velikie Luki. If this is successful and the chokehold on the supply line is held, the units from Velikie Luki may be forced to withdraw. Might be a bit over optimistic, but this should at least divert units from other sectors of the front where the Soviets are launching attacks.

[Rosencrantus]

T8 - January 7, 1943

Been awhile since I posted here, game has a bit too many issues right now for me and Tyronec to continue playing in a satisfactory manner, so I'll just continue this AAR.

Here's just a general look at how the map is looking for me at turn start. Pretty good. I'm doing better than the germans did historically in terms of holding ground and the Soviets have taken very heavy AFV losses attacking my positions.

[Rosencrantus]

Don:

Just doing the same as before. One thing to note is that I have no need to form a continuous line as units with 1 hex spaces with them to ZOC are sufficient to hold the line. My reasoning for this is because I simply do not have enough up to strength units to sufficiently fill out the Southern part of the front. If I tried to do so, the Soviets would blow them away easily. I take advantage of the fact that if the Soviets do manage to rout a stack (very unlikely) they still only have one hex to exploit which with the combat delay penalty and heavy snow, should make any breakthrough weak. This is unless they also clear the stacks to the side of it, but that is impossible at this stage. I can't use this tactic once summer comes along as there isn't anything inhibiting movement like snow, but right now I'll take every advantage I can get.

Heavy combat is also taking place near the 2nd Hungarian Army. A few notable battles are one where hungarians and Italian Alpini infantry hold off a Soviet attack (but are push back in a subsequent one) and a massive tank battle. 48th Panzerkorps was defeated with heavy losses on both sides but at least the AFV ratio was nearly 5:1.

Also, since Tyronec has not really bothered with reducing the 6th Army pocket, I've taken the intiative to air transport units out. I have been doing this for a few turns now and have evacuated about 30000+ men. Being able to evacuate out these units mean that I don't have rebuild them from low xp, and I can immediately send replacements to use these units for the frontline.

[Rosencrantus]

Orel:

Soviets make some incursions into the line, I launch counter attacks and repulse them, but at high AFV losses (history repeats itself with the poor, poor, 27th Panzer Division [:(]... Well, almost). Even got a tank corps that routed towards my line and inflict some high losses on it. This isn't the worse thing that can happen though, I have panzer divisions already refitting in WE and my strategic reserve and a cycle will eventually be made where I send depleted panzer units to the reserve and send the refitted ones back to the front. I believe to even have a chance of surviving to 1945, the Axis needs to play actively and aggressively, keeping the Soviets off balance and achieving favourable combat results to burn up their units' strength and most importantly, supplies. Playing passively just ends up with you getting annihilated.

Any holds I am getting are also resulting in high losses for the Soviets. Don't be afraid to stand your ground if you have armoured reserves nearby, make the enemy fight for the forts that your units have dug into. In some cases, if you give up your fortified positions without a fight and have no prepared fall back line to retreat to, your units will get trashed if they are caught out in plains and no forts.

[Rosencrantus]

Updating the rest of the turn later.

[Rosencrantus]

AGA:

The forward positions near Grozny are no longer tenable due to the outflanking Soviets in the north. All panzer divisions but one have been sent to the reserve or other parts of the front. The main line is going to be formed at the rough terrain and river.

[Rosencrantus]

Velikie Luki:

The attack from the last turn has commenced and the rail has been easily cut off. I need to consolidate and see his reaction to this before I make other decisions.

Southern Rzhev Salient:

With the elite SS divisions arriving from WE, I also plan to attack a thinly guarded part of the line and pocket all the divisions in this sailent.

[Rosencrantus]

Losses and Reinforcements:

Not much to note in the ground losses and air losses except that I for sure did not have 700 destroyed AFVs, so many of those damaged ones will be recovered in subsequent turns. I also suffered too many operational air losses (the penalty for using GS in bad weather) but pilot losses (pilots are very valuable in 43+) are reduced from op losses so not the biggest deal.

Seems like Tyronec also disbanded a whole bunch of units as he just got a huge MP boost while I am using all the MP I get every turn.

The red army AFV count is also draining heavily and the SS units I received bumped up my on map AFV and gave me a few units that actually use Tigers in their TOE.

[Rosencrantus]

T9 - January 14, 1943

Stalingrad & Don:

Lets begin with an update on the Stalingrad cauldron and its vicinity.

The situation inside the pocket itself is stable; Tyronec hasn't really concentrated any troops to try and storm my positions. I take advantage of the situation and air transport out the most experienced infantry divisions in Stalingrad. I'm also able to get around 1500+ tons of freight each turn via air to ensure that the troops are still well supplied in the pocket.

Positions at the don are stable. I launch attritional attacks on weak rifle divisions. Also got an extra army HQ the previous turn so it'll really help with the overloaded commands I have.

[Rosencrantus]

Voronezh:

Near Voronezh I'm gathering reserves and extra units to prepare for the eventual Soviet offensive in the upcoming turns. Nothing else to note except that it's obvious Tyronec is going to attack here soon with all the units he's amassing.

[Rosencrantus]

Army Group A:

My units have completely set up along the frozen river and rough terrain. I'll make another stand here as long as possible to try and prevent Tyronec from getting any bonus VPs. The units in the circle will get withdrawn past the river next turn.

[Rosencrantus]

Velikie Luki & Southern Rzhev:

Very happy with the results I got from launching the offensive towards the rail line, 5 Soviet guards corps have been committed to the battle and the weakened rifle divisions near Velikie Luki itself have been pushed back. This means it will be more difficult to clear up the single rail line heading towards Rzhev; extending the supply lines of the troops in the salient.

For the attack near Kaluga, I am continuing to build up my troops and prepare them for the attack. For any players who are preparing an offensive, try to place units in terrain with cover such as light woods, heavy woods, etc. This is due to the fact that the detection level is lower for units placed in these types of terrain, hopefully lowering the chance of your offensive being discovered. If Tyronec is reading this right now, I wonder if you actually had any indication of whether or not I was building up my units for an attack here. Just want to know if what I'm saying is actually working right.

[Rosencrantus]

State of the Wehrmacht & Losses:

So far the winter fighting has cost me considerably. Almost all infantry divisions are understrength and not to mention that (as of turn 18, our current turn) I will lose another 100k from when the Stalingrad cauldron gets liquidated. I've also taken heavy AFV losses, though at least Tyronec has suffered as heavily as I did in terms of that regard. This turn alone he has lost over 1200 AFVs in his action phase to my 108, though most turns weren't this favourable in terms of the loss ratio.

To prepare for the summer campaigns of 1943, I need to rebuild my tank forces. Majority of my panzer divisions are in an appalling state and there is nothing I can do about it; panzer divisions have to be used if I want to survive to 45. Many of them are basically just glorified motorised divisions at this point and the weakest ones are transferred back into the reserve to be refitted.

[Beethoven1]

You have been doing a good job, the best job of any Germany player in the StB scenario I have seen so far anyway, and as such it is interesting to read your take on it.

It is interesting that you also attacked the Kalinin salient. That seems to be a common running theme, that sooner or later Germany will do something there if the Soviets don't watch out for it. Although you didn't do it right at the immediate start, you came back to it later.

Yes, the single rail line between V.L. and Rzhev is very important. When you were making your incursion into the north/west side of the V.L./Toropets salient, did you consider trying to attack from the other side at the same time at all? Could that have been at all feasible?

Also, I note that you seem to have evacuated from Demyansk at the beginning. How much do you think doing that is responsible for how (relatively) well you are doing, and how much worse do you think you would be doing if you had not done that?