The Red Menace (Topeverest vs Admiral Kamikaze)

[topeverest]

I have three armored armies and three cavalry armies. I have not built any of these units. I need to convert
the remaining two armies with tanks to tank armies. Will be September 42 in two turns. I have to decide if to build an mech
army. I don't know what composition for the mech army should be...all motorized?

ORIGINAL: Gabriel B.



Afaik you get +1 point in the admin skill rating , i also build armys of tanks ( 9tank bde/3cav div ) build up into 4 corps later .

Who did you put in charge ? so far I only have 3 ( rybalko, batov, krivoshein )

[Gabriel B.]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

I tried to combine naval infantry and naval rifle brigade and it refused. Can you combine naval brigades?

Naval rifle yes, because it has the same TOE as rifle brigades.
naval infantry no.

[Gabriel B.]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

I have three armored armies and three cavalry armies. I have not built any of these units. I need to convert
the remaining two armies with tanks to tank armies. Will be September 42 in two turns. I have to decide if to build an mech
army. I don't know what composition for the mech army should be...all motorized?

ORIGINAL: Gabriel B.



Afaik you get +1 point in the admin skill rating , i also build armys of tanks ( 9tank bde/3cav div ) build up into 4 corps later .

Who did you put in charge ? so far I only have 3 ( rybalko, batov, krivoshein )

The soviets paired a mech corps with a cavalry corps to form cav-mech groups .

but you can asign a mech corps to each tank army ,instead of cavalry corps to increase overal mobility without loss of staying power.(bigest drawback in tank only formations )
I am still in octomber 1941 so no tank army for me yet, i have some armies made up of tanks but no tank army yet.
Also the best mech leaders ,only arive in 1942, so I had give them leaders with 6 mech skill and 5 infantry skill that
are not suited for infantry formations.

[topeverest]

Back from the dead. RL pays the bills...&*^% 18 days in between turns. Thankfully my esteemed opponent is patient.

[topeverest]

Admiral Kamikaze made me pretty look pretty silly this last bunch of turns. He pulled off a major tactical shift in troops right under my nose, and I didn't catch it. The Germans broke through my troops near the Kerch straight, and he regrouped his major armored force north of Stalino. results equal pretty damn good for the Germans, and my hat is off to my opponent. I was getting ready to launch my own offensive, but as it is, I shifted two more armies into the break sort-o-speak, to limit the gains of that massed German armor.

I'd certainly like to have those turns back. I slacked off on my air recon, and I paid a pretty high price for it.

[topeverest]

Here is the+ the simple but very effective moves. That's one shattered Russian army. DOOOOOOHHHHHHHH

[topeverest]

My opponent reorganized his armor to a linear attack east and north of Stalino. He chewed me up pretty good. I launched counterattacks that were limited rather than general, but every attack I tried succeeded. He still has the upper hand, and I am expecting to be pushed back to the donets in that area, despite my counterattacks which took back about a third of the lost hexes. As we move into September, more scrum attacking is expected. And I am working on reorging several infantry armies into corps so I will stack better for a fall counterattack.

[topeverest]

It's good just to be gaming again, even if I have had the worst of it these past turns.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: topeverest

It's good just to be gaming again, even if I have had the worst of it these past turns.

thats an impressive reversal of fortunes. But at least you still have him trapped in that mass of units you have in the south ... not wandering off the Caspian as STEF78 has managed [;)]

[randallw]

The German side may have committed himself to consistently bleeding his army away. No happy breakthrough is going to happen. How long will it be until he realizes this game will not end well for him?

[timmyab]

I think I'd be throwing in the towel about now.
To be honest I think you'd probably get a more evenly balanced and therefore exciting game if you swapped sides and started a new campaign.

[topeverest]

real life has been a bi$%^. Only about 5 turns this past month (all because of my work schedule), but we are still moving on. Just at a snails pace.

[topeverest]

Surprise of surprises, the red menace managed to crack the German line after only Two turns of probing attacks. I was utterly shocked how easy that was.

The Germans are continuing the gradual advance slightly east and north of Stalino. I have been fastly building infantry corps in anticipation of mounting a large counterattack using steamroller tactics of 9 corps in three hexes and 9 artillery batallians to back it up, and then follow through with puling armor and mech. You know the usual Well - - - that attack hasn't happened yet. Those forces are still several turns from being ready to attack.

Ironically, in the prior turn I launched a concerted but not all out attack against localized Romanian troops in a thinly guarded 'German' sector. Despite heavy forts on the Romanian troops they proved no match for even average soviet forces. I also launched a few probe attacks further up and down the line to keep the enemy guessing as to my true intention. In the most recent turn, sizable german forces had been transported behind the Romanian front obviously preparing to counterattack.

Due east of Kharkov, I launched a probe attack and pried open the German line wide enough to pour two entire tank armies into the breach! holy COW! that was just SOOOOOO unexpected, and SOOOOOO easy. I also launched the typical Russian counterattacks east of Salino to push back half of the German advance.

With the idea that several armies are now bearing down south of Stalino, I believe I have a good chance of breaking through there with massive force while my opponent masses troops to save the Romanians and the Kharkov advance.

This should be VERY exciting after a long period of nearly linear slogging.

[topeverest]

here is a picture. The Romanian unit density is not an indication of the strength in the area. Note the 1+ german armies that were brought in to stem the losses.

[topeverest]

My hats off to the enemy at Sevastopol. the enemy surrounded part of the Russian army defending the Kerch area as I expected after his stealth ninja move. I recovered and still hold Kerch. Enemy has moved his forces in an attempt to clear out Sevastopol.

[topeverest]

I am inexperienced with blitzs. And in all honesty, the attack the unhinged the german defenses was the very last attack I had planned for the turn. I was left with a tough decision if to try to exploit the small hole, knowing the germans will try to pinch the advance into a pocket. I decided that if for no other reason than learning, I pushed about 4 or five hexes in a densly packed attack pattern, brushing aside quite a few second line troops and disrupting about 6 HQ's. The problem is that I did not manage to push the breach open as wide as I wanted. I could have pushed much further into Russian territory, but - perhaps wrongly - that the density would be more important. time will tell - and I am quite curiously awaiting the next turn.

I will have to use the threat of a massive commitment of German forces as an opportunity, as I pushed as much strength as I could very close to the break. we should be able to have a large scrum and otherwise occupy the enemy. I hope to be able to start the other counterattack in one more turn. So that may be a very good in and of itself

Now is time to wait and see how lucky, how aggressive, and how smart my enemy is.

[topeverest]

Question - how far would you have advanced in the break, keeping in mind I could not make further successful attacks in the general area?

[topeverest]

Work has been less consuming this past week or so, and we have made more progress in the game. Mind you the Mud took over at the standard time, and we have been left to the tasks of replenishment and reorganization for winter actions.

As a summary, the MLR has move only slightly, and combat operations included fewer units and smaller combats, except for the Ruskies first breakout attempt, highlight in previous updates. I was amazed by the mobility. I a single turn, he moved two full mobile armies to counter that threat, and over the ensuing 4 weeks, he closed and restated the line within about 2 hexes of where it started. I took that opportunity to take handfuls of hexes here and there up and down the line where he was weak, but I was unable to make any real progress.

I took quite a bit of time to decide how to develop the Ruskie steamroller, and now that I have, I am actively building it.

[topeverest]

So what do I think the steamroller is? I of course am open to your ideas.

I believe it starts with two fronts organized as follows:
1. infantry corp armies - six full strength corps per army. 4 armies worth
2. an all artillery army - using nin artillery divisions
3. 4 Armor corps armies with six corps per army
4. one mech army evenly split with three mech and three armor corps
5. massed air comprising 75% of Russian available units

I have two other infantry army fronts at the division and brigade level for unit mass included in the same are.

[topeverest]

This winter, I plan a major offensive - the first with the newly organized infantry corps and artillery used to break the German line - and then exploiting with Armor.

To be specific, I plan to punch a hole three hexes wide with a maximum effort and then bag army all at once in one turn, and force him to fight back for it. Time will tell how successful I will be.

The forcesrce has been assembled north and west of Rostov, and I am awaiting the beginning of real winter, the first turn in December to unleash the attack. I am looking to make a breakthrough and then trap an army or so up against Tangarog bay. Note I plan my first amphibious invasion and paradrops at that time too.