Fall Weiss AAR (Colonel) vs AI

[rkr1958]

Turn 8. July 6, 1941. Clear (Dry). Two more Soviet air units are shot down. Frustratingly, the defenders of Baranovichi beat the odds and hold at 1-step.

[rkr1958]

Turn 9. July 8, 1941. Clear (Dry). Baranovichi (an objective city) and Novogrukok fall. 4 objective cities and 5 turns left for a decisive victory. It’s going to be tight. I really don’t want another marginal victory.

[rkr1958]

Turn 10. July 10, 1941. Clear (Dry). Another objective city, Minsk is captured. But there are only 4-turns left if I’m to score a decisive victory. In the air, the Luftwaffe downed the Soviet 36th MiG fighter unit. Truthfully, I’ve lost track of how many that makes. It’ll be included in the final tally at the end though.
In unit news, the 3rd Wehrmacht was reconstituted and upgraded to Grenadier.

[rkr1958]

Turn 11. July 12, 1941. Clear (Dry). Though not captured, the cities of Polotsk (object) and Lepel were cleared of all defenders and will (should) fall next turn.

[rkr1958]

Turn 12. July 12, 1941. Clear (Dry). 2 cities (Smolensk and Vitebsk) and 2 turns left. It’s going to be a close one.

[rkr1958]

Turn 13. July 14, 1941. Clear (Dry). Good progress made. Barring bad luck both Vitebsk and Smolensk should fall next turn.

In unit news, the 11th Wehrmacht was reconstituted and upgraded to Grenadier. However; it had to stay in reserve as I didn’t have a slot to deploy it.

[rkr1958]

Turn 14. July 18, 1941. Clear (Dry). Disaster of my own making strikes. The Soviet 2nd Regular infantry unit swoops in and recaptures Polotsk (an objective city). I though that all Soviet forces were cleared on my northern flank and left the city undefended. Not only do I now have an additional city to take this one remaining turn; but, I will have to divert air, artillery and whatever ground units that can reach Polotsk from my planned attack on Vitebsk.

To be continued ... [&:]

[rkr1958]

Polotsk is retaken thanks to heavy attacks by air and artillery which soften up the defenders who were then forced to retreat. Now I have Vitebsk and Smolensk left to take. Will leaving my northern flank undefended last turn cost me a decisive victory?

[rkr1958]

Vitebsk took some work but I did manage to force all defenders out of the city and rush the 22nd Calvary in to capture it. Smolensk fell fairly easily. Now all that remains is to survive what every the Soviets have left to throw at me.

[rkr1958]

The Soviets have very little left and only manage to knock a couple of steps off one of my units. By the skin of my teeth I manage a decisive victory. Now I need to review the status of my units and tally up the stats for this campaign.

[rkr1958]

Step and Unit kill summaries for Barbarossa.

[rkr1958]

Summary to date (9/1/39 – 7/18/41).

[rkr1958]

I’m given the choice, Operation Typhoon (Moscow) or go for Kiev and trap / destroy 100,000’s troops of the Red Army. What will I choose?

[rkr1958]

I choose Moscow (Operation Typhoon)!

[rkr1958]

My reasoning for going after Moscow now is that going after Kiev didn’t work out too well in the long run for the Germans historically, so why not try for Moscow in August of 1941 instead of diverting the Panzers south and delaying Operation Typhoon for 2 month until October and the fall rains. Also, I understand those pesky Siberian reserves are still in Siberia defending against a Japanese attack that will never come.

[rkr1958]

I have 9 objective cites (Moscow, Bryansk, Yelnva, Vyazma, Kaluga, Tula, Rzhev, Volokolamge and Mozhaisk) or 12 objective hexes (Moscow is composed of 4 hexes) to capture in 22 turns (or less). To achieve a decisive victory I must capture these cities (hexes) in 14 turns or less.

In addition to the objective cities, there are 15 non-objective cities and 10 airfields in play in addition to the 2 Soviet cities (Smolensk and Roslavi) and 2 airfields that I already hold. While objective cities are my objectives (wow that’s stating the obvious), the capture of non-objective cities is necessary to either clear the way to objective ones or to protect my flank. And as I’ve seen in two previous campaigns, not protecting one’s flank can be serious. And, just as important, the capture of enemy airfields provide the Luftwaffe with the forward operating bases necessary to support the ground troops as they push forward.

[rkr1958]

Here’s my order of battle (OOB) for Operation Typhoon, or “Rush to Moscow” as OKW has unofficially dubbed it. OKW saw fit to give me an additional core unit, the 42nd Mountain SE and have loaned me (i.e., attached units) 9 Wehrmacht and 1 Grenadier infantry, 1 armor (Pz IIIj), 2 ground artillery and 1 TAC (37th Ju 87B) units. That’s 14 attached units added to support 29 deployable cores units.

I have 1896 prestige points for which to upgrade, reinforce or commission additional units. My first priority is to ensure that I have adequate air defenses for my forces. One area I feel lacking in is in supporting flak units. To date, I haven’t commission any. So I decided to commission 2 additional core units, the 43rd and 44th 8.8cm Flak units, which gives me a total of 34 core units, to augment my 4 fighter (5th, 15th, 47th and 48th) and 1 fighter/TAC (4th) unit.

The game tells me that I have 29 units deploy and shows that I have 31+3 (=34) core units in reserve. I’m not sure exactly how many I can deploy (29 or 31?), which means that I’ll either have 5 or 3 units in reserve (i.e., can’t deploy). I assume I’ll soon find out.

Anyway, the two new 8.8cm flak units, which by the way are very effective in anti-tank and anti-personnel roles, cost me a total of 688 prestige points leaving me with 1208 points. I use them, hopefully wisely, to upgrade all fighters to the latest ME BF109F model, reinforce all air units with elite replacements and upgrade all Panzer units, not already fitted with the IVF tanks, to IVF. I then use the remaining prestige points to reinforce units above 10-steps where possible. In a number of cases this was done after units were brought up to full strength (i.e., 10-steps) using raw recruits, which reduced the units experience level.

With my OOB for Operation Typhoon set, it’s time to deploy my forces.

[rkr1958]

I’m able to deploy 32 of my 34 core units, leaving 2 in reserve (3rd Grenadier and the 35th Strat Ju 88A). So I’m still confused to what the units to deploy and units in reserve numbers specifically mean. Regardless, the result is that my 32 core units are joined by 14 attached units giving me a total of 46 units to start this campaign.

[rkr1958]

Turn 1. August 12, 1941. Clear (Dry). I did manage fair progress on my opening turn; but didn’t captured any cities. Interestingly though, you may notice that Yelnva (an objective city) is now marked as mine. I didn’t realize it but; the 32nd Wehrmacht (attached) started the campaign in the city so it was under German control from the start. Seems a bit strange; but I’ll take it.

Two units, the 25th Special Weapons and the 1st Pz distinguished themselves this turn.

Now is when I find out what the Red Air Force has. The enemy’s first turn always seems the most brutal turn for my Luftwaffe units.

[rkr1958]

Andreapol – Olenino Sector (Turn 1).