Detailed combat reporting

[Hard Sarge]

Odd, guess I know how the AI thinks

it picked the bad choice, it backed off, and screened, it needed to cut the gap, now it is weaker along the whole line, has more area to cover, and have opened the flood gates

[Hard Sarge]

and the gates are open, got to rush in, and push as much across as I can, and push the GE back and apart

my goals now, are Tallin, and the little island crossing (if the AI pulls back, and not down, smart play would be to abandon the whole area and back up, don't think the AI or a player will ever do it, but that is the smart move

[Hard Sarge]

LOL, to be honest, the Axis don't have enough up there to fall back with, south is the only real option now

[Hard Sarge]

I have I said, I hate mud, well, if not, I hate mud

I got getting slaugthered on the attack, in the deep south, my line got out of supply, and the Ge Counterattacked, along the middle line, the Ge is either falling back, or doing little sneak raids

far north and south, where I want to keep the pressure on, I am just burning up troops and supplies, pretty much have put out a stop order all along the line, lose too many men, to make a opening, only to not be able to do anything with it

Med at times is worse then the Blizzards

but, the sun will come out tomorrow

[Hard Sarge]

end of may, and still mud, so think I got another week or so, before the Sun comes out

when the battle started, the Ge had

4,343.943 troops, with 3531 AFV and 3039 air (not counting his Allies)

the Russians started with

6,271,416 troops, with 5889 AFV and 5488 air

as I expect these numbers to change in a hurry once the sun comes up, thought I would post them

the Ge now have

2,818,428 troops, 5204 AFV (that is almost 1000 in the last 7 weeks, so, would expect a number of new Formations have showed up) and 1967 air

(that worries me, I expect a mass attack right though the middle, as I am strong on both flanks)

the Russians have

6,868,550, 13,050 AFV and 15,930 air (if I can get it into the air, mud and snow really hurt my air power for projecting it onto the battle field)

to be honest, the Blizzard and Mud, hurt me more then it did the Ge

but, now maybe I can move, a lot of the Ge Divs are nothing but shells

[Hard Sarge]

Sun is up early, or at least up north, think I still got mud in the south

the arrows are the key targets to complete the pocket

only part of the General attack that worked

lost 58,000 men and 251 planes to kill 15,000 Axis and 8 planes

but, it going to take a week or two, of good weather to get my supply lines back in gear, once I start getting supplies and replacements, it should get better

of, the Ge is going to try and get his Summer Off going too

that might not be too pretty

[Hard Sarge]

ahhhh, Mud, which, to be honest, helps me, it slows down the Ge reactions

but, got to say, at times, the AI reminds me of what you read about Hitler and his High Command

always reacted to bad news with more troops, when they should of sent them earlier, now that the bad new is there, it is time to get out

[Capt Cliff]

Whoa!! Your in May of 42 and your doing a major butt kicking on the AI!!?? I wouldn't exspect this sort of advances until summer of 43.

[Hard Sarge]

I am in May of 43

[Hard Sarge]

Goal one completed

now to see what I can do in south (of the north)

the AI has a good strong shoulder already set, guess that is why no General Off happened elsewhere, it is reacting to the breakthough

[Capt Cliff]

ORIGINAL: Hard Sarge

I am in May of 43

Ah, read the date wrong ... then it looks a bit better except for the Crimea.

[Hard Sarge]

ahhh, I not too happy with down there, maybe I should show what that area is looking like

[Hard Sarge]

down in the south

wasn't able to make my drive from the East

[Hard Sarge]

in the north, pocket almost complete

[Hard Sarge]

now I get to play Jon

did you see it coming ?

been holding off and waiting for the timing to be right

did you see it coming ??

I bet the Germans didn't

by waiting a week, I doubled the size of the pocket

now, if only they can live long enough to make it worth it

[Hard Sarge]

pocket is complete, only way in and out is by air, and I got the area surrounded with fighters

[ComradeP]

What was the purpose of the paradrop? The Kriegsmarine hopefully can't supply/move a force of that size?

[jaw]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP


The Kriegsmarine hopefully can't supply/move a force of that size?

Why not? They've only got virtually the entire German merchant marine to work with.

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: ComradeP

What was the purpose of the paradrop? The Kriegsmarine hopefully can't supply/move a force of that size?

not worried about them moving them out, I worried about them getting supplies, that is the last port that can land supplies, so the pocket is complete, while the para's live

the number of troops that can move, will be based on the transport level, plus, they would have to move to the port, to be pulled out

[ComradeP]

-The Kriegsmarine has little to no experience with amphibious operations, aside from operations in Norway and the invasion of islands in the Baltic Sea. In both cases, limited forces were used.

There are up to 28 divisions in that pocket, depending on the size of the stacked units we can't see.

-As a result of the minimal experience with amphibious operations, the Kriegsmarine also has only a small amount of specialized landing craft for operations on a beach and those are only suitable for a small amount of forces. Artificial harbours which were supposed to be used during Sealion never left prototype stage.

-No access to most of the ports in the area, as Paldiski and Tallinn are in Soviet hands.

-The capture of the southern bank of the Gulf of Finland allows Baltic Fleet sub activity to expand significantly.

-All ports/supply zones on beaches would be in range of the VVS.

During Overlord, the Allies, with specialized landing craft, Mulberry harbours and near total air supremacy were hard pressed to keep the 19 divisions that landed in the first week, including airbourne divisions, supplied on beaches that were more or less right next to several of the major ports in the UK.

I really doubt the Kriegsmarine could've pulled off an operation like supplying the trapped units in Hard Sarge's game.