TopEverest vs Admiral Kamikaze - the rematch

[topeverest]

Here is the combat zone -

Russians are looking to contain the northern part of the attack at the Don and will be sure to keep its armies intact as the southern campaign pushes towards rostov

[topeverest]

As per my attritional strategy...I feel good about these numbers

[BrianG]

am no top expert, but ideally you would have built the sapper regiments way in advance to get them training for XP. 3 sappers Regiments and later on 2 Sapper Regiments + 1 Heavy SU /Heavy Tank Regiment per Corps to fight the Panthers and Tigers. Keep in mind : Sappers give a lot of CV for a lot less truck use. Motorcycle regs./ SU reg/ Heavy Tank Regs really eat away at the trucks. Having said all that. Take a look at briang's game. He is a really good player, and he plays with 3 heavy tank regs per Pz Corps.. So there are more good solutions.

Don't rely on my game versus Sillyflower. My whole support unit attachment scheme has been ad hoc.

[topeverest]

Here are my units and support units. I am only building sappers, and 2 inf corps per turn the remainder are reorganizing armies as I move to make guards armies

[topeverest]

76 Infantry Guards Divisions
3 Infantry Guard Corps
1 Armor Guard Corps
2 Cavalry Guard Corps
4 Guards Airbases

NO Guard army HQ's yet, but I am trying.] in three locatoins

[topeverest]

Sorry for the delay but real life has been quite persistent recently. I was training for an Ironman just after my last post and was hit by a pickup truck while bicycling and quite seriously injured. Only now am I coming out of the fog of the accident. My hat is off to the first responders that kept me alive - and doctors and nurses that started me on the mend. I cant help but see the obvious metaphors. I mean how often does a player become a casualty in his own game!

PRIMARY ACTIONS -
1. Germans combine northern pincers and push due east to Voronezh but fail to cross the Don
2. German armor pushes across the Oskol River ESE of Kharkov in a well planned attack that breached the river defenses
3. German forces push across the river barriers set by the Russians NW of Gorlovka / Stalino, but Russian forces successfully counterattack and re-secure the river
4. German forces stall in front of Stalino in heavy fighting
5. Axis minor forces fail to push around the south of Stalino
6. Axis minor forces fail to push into Crimea
7. Favorable (to the Soviets) AFV and airpower losses continue

From the current sitrep, the big Axis question is if they will attempt to cross the Don near Voronezh or they will do a historical sweep to the SE and drive towards the Caucuses. It will be exciting to play out

[topeverest]

Here is the battlefield...

This next turn is a major decision point for the Germans. Will they drive east across Voronezh or will they drive SE. Will they do something else. Bulk of Russian strength is highlighted on the map. Roughly speaking Russian strength is aligned at the northern and southern corner of the German advance

[topeverest]

Generally speaking - Russian production is well preserved.

Russians just completed moving all 'movable' factories out of the Caucuses.

[topeverest]

Again - air and ground losses trending favorable to the Russians...

[topeverest]

No worries on this front - all related AFV factories were saved - so I got lots of these.

[topeverest]

FYI - no AP's to change anyone.

Note Zhukov demoted to army command...

[topeverest]

Germans continue the advance.
1. they stall around the Stalino triangle and now are trying to pass the cities complex to the north and south. It will be successful, but I hope to make it drag on a few more turns
2. Germans mostly keep the Don between them and the strong Russian forces south of Voronezh and begin a SE push in a general direction, but they push one unit across the minor river above the city. I did not counterattack, as I would refer him to push more units across the river and face the strong Russian units in the vicinity.
3. The northern shoulder of the German attack is an 80 mile east facing shoulder X xxx Y 68.
4. Opportunistic Russian counterattacks in the Finnish sector push some units back ---- but are only nuisance related
5. Russian forces are being transferred from the sectors around Moscow and brought to the Don.

Strategically, the 42 summer campaign is playing out pretty historically.

Less combat in general

[topeverest]

If I only had some extra troops, I could drive on lake Ladoga.

[topeverest]

Must assume enemy will drive SE from Voronezh from this point. He has dangerously thinned his northern line to make some big objective - perhaps the caucuses?

[topeverest]

This air HQ is fixed for 18 more turns after being an active command...

WAD?

[topeverest]

Germany continues along its major lines of attack.

1. German armored army around Voronezh. Germans could not take the city, so tried to push north and east around it. This was met with counterattack in my turn and was unsuccessful.
2. Germans force the Tikhaya Sosna river about 100 miles south of Voronezh. Concerted armored attacks push across and functionally take the river, but only one hex east progress made in the turn.
3. German armored columns punch a 5 hex deep penetration to the Aidar river, north of Voroshilovgrad, forcing Russian forcesto the north to retreat 3-50 miles to avoid a pocket.
4 German and Axis minor countries continue to gradually reduce the Stalino-Makeeva-Gorlovka defense. Concerted attacks into the cities and attempts to push around to the north and south not successful. a couple hexes take on the northern and southern flanks. Expect that this will be the last turn the 3 cities are held. Expect flank pressures to finally require withdrawal
4. Hungarian and Romanian forces have reached the Calmius river at the transition of sea of Azov to the Taganrog bay

[topeverest]

Russian force dispositions are consistent with prior turns.

1. greatest concentration of Russian strength at the
northern shoulder of the german advance - around Voronezh
2. Russians are defending rivers and using defense in depth
3. Russians are peppering german armor and motorized with attritional attacks wherever possible
4. Russian air force mainly deployed for offensive ground operations
5. Russians have moved forces to defend the Don - with units covering most of the expanse of the river

[topeverest]

A note on the air war.

Germany recently changed its air allocations, pushing most of her fighters for interdiction effectively controlling that aspect of air combat.

I responded by attacking his airbases and HQ's to force more of his fighters until he again shifts his fighters. Russian air continues a robust ground attack program where feasible, but I wont throw away planes. As the enemy shuts down one avenue of attack, I focus airpower where he is not. Russians are not strong enough to go toe to toe with Germany's fighters at this point in the war

ASIDE - German ability to project fighters from bases 15-20 hexes away that have been bombed in the turn is amazing.

[topeverest]

Industry -

Russia is preparing for the potential loss of major industry in the combat zone. The following pictographic helps understand the strategy.

1. All moveable industry is out of the Caucuses.
2. Stalingrad is in process of moving east.
3. Saratov area and Penza are contingent moves based on how far the Germans advance

[EwaldvonKleist]

Regarding the Air war: If your opponent is using his fighter force really that much, you should be able to exploit this.
Flying many escort missions=>German fighters have high % of damaged planes and miles flown in your turn. Now turn fighter intercept and ground support off to keep your forces fresh. Ground bombing can still be done as you can set up the missions manually which keeps losses down.
The enemy fighters will appear in force on the sky to protect the bombers, but as none of your planes are in the air they will waste miles.
At the end of your turn, you might have reached the point where enemy fighters don't fly anymore. Now its time to bomb airfields with 300%/300% settings for bombers/fighters. I like to use level bombers for airfield bombing as they have good range and are 100% expendable, a 1:4 loss ratio is already a win.
In my game I get up to 20 fighter kills per bombing run on this way (in 1941 though). The German chocking point are always fighters as production is not that high.
You can't bomb the German airforce into submission but force it to focus on a narrow front, force it to use flak on airbases and not in units and you reduce the bomber missions it can protect which already is a victory for you. In addition you have a chance to delay the upgrade to better planes because of losses inflicted.
Sorry for the interuption in case you already know/do this...

Good AAR and Maps!