George vs. Seille - A Russia 1941 AAR over 60 turns

[george1972]

Turn 24 - September 25, 1942

It's late September in the second year of the Campaign, and the German army still hasn't defeated its enemy nor manage to secure the resources required to sustain the war effort indefinitely. Despite the capture of Leningrad, I'm now lagging behind my historical counterparts, which is not a good sign.

The report at the start of the turn was another:

[george1972]

The overview of the various front has been split into 3 screenshots now, since the area of operations has become very large due to my offensive in the Ukraine. First, the Northern part:

[george1972]

The second shot shows the area around Kursk and Kharkov. AG South's flank here has become very extended. I'm convinced that if Seille starts sending his surplus troops from the Smolensk front to attack this flank, my Southern offensive must be aborted or I risk losing both AG South and Romania.

[george1972]

And finally, the Southern-most area of operations. Maikop falls to my attacks, but my troops are dangerously exposed. My stronger but less numerous units always run the risk of being outflanked by weaker but more numerous Red Army units.

[rickier65]

Things look pretty grim George.

Rick

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, doing the right thing to late? You are finally concentrating on Maikop and Stalingrad, whilst pressuring the north (and especially the center..)
But I fear Seille will be swamping you in troops soon. Or will he? I thought the campaign was a very long affair.

[seille]

You guy´s will wonder what will happen.
For now i´m the guy whi is in trouble especially in the south.
In the north it would be the same without my air superiority.
 
Btw, every time george focussed on something i did the same.
I focussed my production on that area. Mostly this worked.
For example between Leningrad and Murmansk or several times in front of
Moscow.
 
However the situation in the south is out of control now for my russsians.
The problem is like always the strong german artillery combined with
air superiority + the few but VERY powerful units of AG South ans Romania.
Not to forget the fact George is building a lot of fortifications everywhere.
A very similar strategy of myself in former games ended with a victory..... 

[seille]

Russian turn 24

[seille]

North and Center.

Several very good attacks in the north finished off 3 german units including about
100 infantry and at least a half dozen artillery II + several other equipment.
First time the russians did a well organized ground attack supported by planes AND artillery.

[seille]

The south.

Not much to report here except the fall of Maikop

@archduke
Never underestimate the power of XP and a good unit mix.
I did and it was a mistake [;)]

[TheArchduke]

Hmm, another bunch of green troops near Maikop, only with 41 strength protecting the HQ. I would predict that George will attack through that corps right to the HQ thereby making your Maikop Front implode. Not good I guess.

[seille]

I had not the production to place more here.
Losing Maikop is bad sure, but losing the north/south connection would have been a little disaster.
I had 3 cities produce for the Maikop front (including Maikop self), all i had available at this time.
 
On my radar i had at this time only 2-3 german units. That these units have strong artillery
and soon air power available i didn´t know.
 
I still think to keep my northern forces strong enough was a key point.
Due to this strategy it was possible to cause a nice damage up there in the last turns.
 
Near Maikop i would play different now i think. Using the VERY green troops is not good.
They are no opponents, just victims....
But at this time i had to delay the german advance as good as possible, so i throwed my green troops
direct into the fights.
 
Btw, these troops near Maikop are not only green they have after the fights in german turn mostly
very low readiness.
 
We both didn´t play any "do or die"-strategy, we played mostly careful waiting for the other player making
a mistake. Actually i make the mistake to underestimate George´s push to Maikop.
 
Only due to our style we´re able to present you guy´s here such a AAR. I don´t think there are other games of russia
1941 which runned over the full distance. Most others i played ended before 1943...
 
It was no easy game for both of us. One crisis after the other.
George is a tough opponent now compared to the games we played before.

[TheArchduke]

Well, I hope I can play a match against George or you soonish. My long time opponent BoronX took a pause from AT.

[Jeffrey H.]

George is doomed.

[seille]

ORIGINAL: Jeffrey H.

George is doomed.

Forget this [;)]
He is still very strong. And he´ll show you this soon in this AAR....

[george1972]

Turn 25 - October 15, 1942

Not a happy start: again high losses and one unit of artillery is wiped out completely. I did not have the transfer capacity last turn to get it out of harms way, since Seille's air force took out most trucks of AG North. Also I was a bit too bold in my attacks last turn, so this is the price I had to pay.

[george1972]

Army Groups North and Center are in trouble, but Center doesn't know it yet. AG North withdraws but is not in pristine condition. Leningrad is threatened and not sufficiently garrisoned. I also transferred out the Luftwaffe, essentially giving up this area.

In the Center I was still in an offensive mood, but that was soon to change...

[george1972]

On AG South's northern flank, things are quieting down. After last turn's attacks, I transferred out most of my units so I could put more strength into my push towards Stalingrad. I did have one little disaster though: Kharkov fell to partisan units!!

Argh! Turns out I misread the briefing and thought that partisans only appear in Riga, Minsk and Kiev. No way, they can appear in ANY producing city. Damn. This means I cannot use the city for my production for at least 2 turns and have to repair it as well. Another setback in an already gloomy autumn.

[george1972]

In the Kuban, my spearhead is in trouble. It is cut off by more numerous but weaker units, but they can launch a devastating concentric counter-attack on my troops.

The plan is to have the follow-up forces break the ring and then reinforce the bridgehead. The powerful German artillery pounds the Russians on the far bank and as the smoke clears it turns out the bridge is down! Ouch! Engineers are rushed forward, but they lack sufficient AP to construct a new bridge.

So my plans are changed: the spearhead now fights in reverse to recapture the river bank and even more troops are sent that way to burst across the river in the next turn.

Remembering Guderian's maxim "klotzen nicht kleckern", the Luftwaffe launches a massed air strike against Novorosk.

AG South continues to build up strength on the Road to Stalingrad, but the Russians are getting reinforced too.

[george1972]

At this point in the game I though Seille would only have to do two things to defeat me within 10 turns: continue to pressure AG North and Center but most importantly, execute a hard drive towards Kharkov/Kiev from the North using forces from the Smolesnk, Orel and 3rd Fronts. My defensive screen here was paper-thin, but I had no choice but to gamble on a little period of hesitation on the Russian side. If they acted too late, the SS Panzer Corps would probably save the day in January... (Or so I hoped).
Of course, due to the fog of war, Seille could not see my troops around Voronezh were gone, so that might give me the time needed...