Gott mit uns - 1941 campaign Jango32 (Axis) vs mind_messing (Soviets)

[Stamb]

ORIGINAL: Jango32

Hello everybody and welcome to a 1941 sudden death rules campaign, played on the Matrix servers. I and mind_messing don't have a lot of house rules; no motorization and no merging in pockets to prevent miraculous escapes of men and equipment.

...

So motorization is allowed or not?

[Jango32]

Turn 2 Army Group South







Objective recon east
Looks like the road to Kiev is pretty barren, with surviving Southwestern Front units and the Southern Front defending along Mogilev-Podolsky. Unfortunately, in this sector recon was not quite correct, as we shall see soon...








Objective recon south
Looks like mind_messing is determined to defend ahead of the Dnestr at least for this turn. No quick snatch of Odessa.









Pocket recon
Thankfully, all three pockets hold, with Galicia in prime position to be isolated this turn. The most shocking turn of events has to be the fact that mind_messing did not cut off the leading spearhead near the Romanian border. If he's reading the AAR, I hope he'll leave a post as to why he did not make such an obvious move(in my opinion). 6th Army and the infantry of PzGr 1 will eliminate the Rovno pocket, while 17th Army will move into more advantageous positions to eliminate the Galicia pocket and also to further weaken Soviet defenses by routing units where judged to be appropriate.









Mogilev-Podolsky encirclement move 1
I start the chain of events leading to a new pocket by clearing the way for 11th Panzer to advance using a German infantry division and two Romanian units.








Mogilev-Podolsky encirclement move 2
I probe the way forward with the Romanian armoured division and it seems to bear fruit. I did notice, however, when I moved one hex up that Rezina did not flip, so I undid the move by pressing 'u'. It's a really useful mechanic to utilize when probing for pockets.








Mogilev-Podolsky encirclement move 3
Kempf's units near Tarnopol and Proskurov start probing and encounter a mechanized and a tank division on a hex. The motorized division manages to brush them aside, thankfully not too far away from where I wanted to create the pocket. I take the Mogilev-Podolsky hex afterwards with a Romanian cavalry brigade, and 11th Panzer follows in its wake.









Mogilev-Podolsky encirclement move 4
11th Panzer flips hexes as it now begins working on the Yampol pocket. The way seems to be fairly clear of Soviet forces, doubtlessly the result of cutting off Southwestern Front's escape route along the Romanian border with 11th Panzer on turn 1.









Mogilev-Podolsky encirclement move 5
I break down the Romanian division into regiments to probe further, and it looks like we've hit the jackpot - no defenses that prevent the Yampol encirclement from happening.









Vinnitsa pocket probe
Further probes with Kempf's regiment and Hube's corps reveals that Vinnitsa is vulnerable to being pocketed. Correspondingly, all that is left to do is seal it with units.









Zhitomir pocket
This is where recon failed in the south. I started moving III Motorized corps' units towards Zhitomir, brushed aside some fortified units with regiments, and noticed ZOC when trying to advance. Further inquiries were made and a significant concentration of Red Army forces was found near Zhitomir, though the city itself was empty. von Vietinghoff's corps moved to assist von Meckensen with sealing the pocket, and some of Hube's unfrozen units will also be needed to seal the pocket (Wiking and LSSAH).














Army Group South end of turn
Because of no serious pocket breakout attempts and not cutting off the spearhead near the Romanian border, I decided to be bold and go wild in the south with pocket forming. I did not anticipate that I was going to create 5 separate pockets when I got in-game to see what turn 2 looked like however. Unfortunately because the displayed CV was not encouraging, I had to use a regiment and a motorized division in a deliberate attack near Zhitomir to create the pocket. Neither LSSAH nor Wiking had enough MPs to grab the essential hex to properly seal the Zhitomir pocket, and at the time I didn't know that isolated non-motorized units always received 8 MPs no matter what.

[Jango32]

No, motorization is not allowed.

[Jango32]

Turn 2 Casualties








Air Casualties
A good trade this turn in the Luftwaffe's favour. Some unfortunate recon losses, but quite a few of those were Romanians, so the Axis losses aren't that bad.










Ground Casualties
Reducing or outright eliminating the pockets has more than doubled the Soviet losses and at the same time maintaining Axis losses respectably low. The question is for how long will I enjoy this loss rate.

All in all though, I am satisfied with the way Axis turn 2 ended, albeit imperfectly. I feel that the tempo on this turn was kept and pressure all over the front was applied.

[Stamb]

ORIGINAL: Jango32

No, motorization is not allowed.

Then probably this: "What's also not pictured is using motorized infantry to probe Velikie Luki, which I've found to be empty and took it with a regiment." has to be changed for motorized division?

Other than that - great pockets from the start.

[Jango32]

Yeah, in my mind it was the same thing (realistically) but you are correct that in-game they mean different things. I don't remember which division's regiments it was exactly.

[Beethoven1]

You essentially destroyed the entire Southwestern front, including most or all of the high morale divisions, within the first two turns or so. There is no plausible way anyone can really argue that this is not the best possible opening Germany can do. I don't think there is anything Soviets can really do to counteract it. It's an impressive achievement to be sure. I am not sure if it is balanced though, because it basically totally destroys the Soviet south defense from the get-go. Good luck to any Soviet player trying to hold Kiev and Odessa for anything remotely like the historical time against this opening.

[AlbertN]

I am with Beethoven here - I do not think Axis should be able to achieve the 'reach the Romanian border' type of business. But then again I am also of the opinion Russians cannot just run run and run further.


Good job there nonetheless! I think I'd need helluva of practice to achieve such type of result.

[821Bobo]

That's quite a disaster for Soviets but can see lot of mistakes they did. Not defending Pskov-Ostrov line, Land Bridge and Dnepr are huge blunders.
Also from the screens it appears that mm was overcome by high CV, false sense of security, putting units in good defense terrain and totally ignoring the possibility of being outflanked.

[Jango32]

Not sure how worthwhile it is to defend the Land Bridge to be honest. Defending the forests and swamps near Smolensk (with ZOC positioning in depth) prevents a large encirclement from happening, and early on you don't have the infantry to smash the Soviet wall.

[Jango32]

I come with an open question. Spoiler alert, it is raining on Axis turn 4. I haven't been able to figure out if there is a way to have good recon results when raining.


Any mission settings that have worked out for you? Altitude, recon area, days, sorties, etc.

[Jango32]

Turn 3 Army Group North







Objective recon
Recon has not revealed much in Estonia, it's either empty or the Soviets are hiding really well there. The pocket has held and the Soviets have positioned themselves precariously near Pskov, ripe for another encirclement. Unfortunately Totenkopf was cut off by the Soviets, but should still have a good deal of supplies and fuel left in it to push to Tallinn.









Soviet hex flippers
After dealing with the troublesome Soviet unit that cut off Totenkopf's access to truck supplies, I started moving units to eliminate the pocket from last turn. We can see from the MPs that there's a Soviet unit in the way.










Pocket elimination
We rout the naval brigade that cut off Parnu from land supplies as well as the border guard unit that attempted to liberate the pocket. Afterward, infantry moved up and eliminated the trapped Soviet divisions. In addition, Totenkopf hex flipped an undefended Tallinn, but lacked enough MPs to actually enter the city.











Forming a new pocket
Panzergroup 4 manages to pocket the Soviet divisions sent to Pskov, and it seems to be a bountiful encirclement judging by the tank and mechanized divisions caught inside. 1st Panzer goes up as north as it can to probe the extent of Soviet defenses arrayed at the Luga.












Army Group North end of turn
Panzergroup 4 secures the pocket as best as it can while infantry move up to Pskov and into Estonia. I also assigned an anti-tank support unit to the most vulnerable regiment in case the Soviets attempt a breakout. Overall I feel that in the north I am in a strong position for the drive to Leningrad.

[Jango32]

Turn 3 Army Group Center








Objective recon
The pocket from last turn has thankfully held, however at the cost of spreading out the motorized corps all over the place. Recon shows much fewer Soviet forces when compared to turn 2, however this cannot be true: it makes no sense to abandon the Smolensk line so early. So we will operate on the assumption that recon is insufficient. Infantry must catch up and we have to reorganize the motorized corps for a strike against Smolensk.










Pocket destruction and Gomel
We eliminate the routed divisions that failed to rally in addition to the cohesive forces spotted by recon, confirmed through the destroyed units tab in the losses screen. There appears to be a buildup of Soviet forces in Gomel and near our Panzer units (note the level 0 fort in the heavy woods).









Motorized corps repositioning
I've decided that for this turn most of Panzergroup 2 and 3's mobile assets will rest after repositioning closer for a spearhead assault aimed at encircling Smolensk. Reducing fatigue and increasing CPP should help with cutting off Smolensk next turn.










Army Group Center end of turn
The units that won't be resting this turn are the motorized infantry of Panzergroup 3, which are used to pocket Soviet infantry between Vitebsk and Velikie Luki. Infantry also moves up and should reach the Smolensk area next turn. So far I think I still have operational tempo in the center, although the Soviet buildups in the Gomel area may need to be addressed sooner or later.

[Jango32]

Turn 3 Army Group South








Objective recon east
Well. Unfortunately the eastern pockets did not hold, however it doesn't look like the Soviets managed to run very far away. This should let me encircle them again this turn and hopefully start eliminating Southwestern Front for good next turn. There doesn't appear to be much on the road to Kiev according to recon, but we've been burned by it in this direction last turn... Regardless, the Galicia pocket will be wiped out this turn.









Objective recon south
Same as above. Should be able to repocket and push to Odessa at the same time.









Closing the Zhitomir pocket again
A very lucky deliberate attack makes the airborne brigades retreat out of the way. I was content with simply routing those away in frustration, but RNG ruled in my favour. Unfortunately I hadn't moved Wiking, and will need to take a detour to avoid ZOC and the rough hexes in the vicinity...









Reclosing pocket island 1
The infantry division forces an NKVD unit in the rough hex to retreat into island 2, thus closing island 1. 6th army divisions also clear hexes in anticipation of the FBD's movement next turn, as well as act as advance blockers for island 1's trapped units.









Probing the Dnepr
It seems that the Soviets here have retreated over the Dnepr based on the lack of hex flips near the river line. Will see how much territory I can secure without fighting.









Reclosing the Vinnitsa island
The Vinnitsa pocket is secured once more and it looks like the Soviets have abandoned the southern portion of the Dnepr in this area.









Driving into the open country
I didn't see that this screenshot failed to save properly and it's too late for a retake. Oh well. Everything here has been successfully repocketed without any hope of relief or breakout for the trapped Soviet divisions. Also, a large amount of Soviet territory has been captured without a fight, although I must be wary of the railhead and my trucks.












Army Group South end of turn
All of the Soviet divisions that were pocketed on the previous turn have been repocketed, with a few extras added onto the pile too. Steady progress to Odessa further south. Additionally, I've cut off the rail from Odessa into Nikolaev and Kirovograd to prevent any railway evacuations of Soviet forces.

[Jango32]

Turn 3 Losses








A good amount of Soviet losses for relatively few German losses. Eliminating the Minsk and Galicia pockets has certainly added to the tally. It should increase even more as I eliminate the newly formed pockets in the north and south.

[Stamb]

What experience level mind_messing is, and you ? [:)]

[Jango32]

He's played more games than I have. This is my second MP game (the first one is the 4 vs 4 in For the Infallible GROFAZ), with only one semi-completed singleplayer campaign.

[Stamb]

Any news here?

[Jango32]

There are, just wanted to finish turn 6 before updating with turn 4. Problem is that during the week I don't have much energy left to play the game. Even as I write this I am still working from home.

So I usually play during the weekend. I can say that about 70% of turn 6 is done, I mainly need to continue doing the center. The north and south are mostly played.