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T43 - Soviet Perspective

Note: I write my AAR up at the time i take the turn and just post it on these forums when it's time to post. My comments reflects the knowledge/planning i had at that point in time.


Heavy mud blankets the map and is likely to do so for the next 4-5 turns which will give my forces a chance to recover. Offensive CV has collapsed across the map so there will be a lot of repositioning without much fighting. Axis forces will be using this time to refit and rebuild CPP too.


The good news is my cavalry corps was not encircled. The bad news is it lost nearly as many units from a route anyway.


Further south Kharkov is isolated. I was hoping that I would survive encirclement for 1 more turn with the heavy mud saving the city but alas it was not meant to be.


You have to love Soviet logistics. 1 super deposit allows 29k supply to be sent out to units that needed a lot of refitting and there’s still supply to spare!

I'm sure that they won't be identified as elite SS troops

The on-map counters will show up as black, so...

Jango32 wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2022 6:56 pm

I'm sure that they won't be identified as elite SS troops

The on-map counters will show up as black, so...

Bugger, that may have buggered up a new use of the Axis Allies, more on this later

T44-46 Axis

Heavy rain and thick mud blanketed the entire front. Not much happened, and a gradually (through the ground soup) positioned my forces on their drop off points for the coming spring offensive

Veterin wrote: Sun Sep 04, 2022 12:10 pm T43 - Soviet Perspective

Note: I write my AAR up at the time i take the turn and just post it on these forums when it's time to post. My comments reflects the knowledge/planning i had at that point in time.

I record snippets at the time through the name of the screenshot. The Ministry of Propaganda is responsible for publishing updates of events and ensuring the actions of the High Command are related in an appropriate fashion.

T47 Axis The Spring Offensive is launched

Our targeted area is the Soviet line NE of Gomel. Before the rains, this area of the line looked porous (as indeed the Axis line). For the last two weeks we have been quietly building up mobile strength in the region. This has been deployed some way from the front in terrain. I am expecting extensive Soviet recon, but I am aware that most recon pilots are so sozzled on vodka that they can barely fly a plane never mind see anything.


Our turn suggests that limited assets were spotted. Hopefully those seen in Gomel will be mistaken as HQs/reserves.

In turn, we are hoping that they get limited information on a 'massive' build up around D'town


These units are a combination of Hungarian and armour reserves in regimental form. Hopefully, Vet will just see lots of units with some armour amongst it. I'd be very curious what he saw?

Our own recon confirms that the Soviets dispositions appear unaltered from our previous surveillance.


The plan is to infiltrate and pocket as many divisions as possible, while around Kharkov and Smolensk hammer the Soviet positions to weaken and stress them to make breakouts and reinforcements difficult. The last screenshot details the numerous Soviet formations on the right, which is just north of Kharkov.

T47 Axis Offensive continued

The offensive does not get off to a good start as our scouts run into a much thicker Soviet front than our air recon suggested.


The 4 Soviet divisions were completely missed by the flyboys Thankfully scouts to the west confirm that the front is as porous as anticipated.

We start our offensive around Kharkov, easily taking the city and begin to reduce the Soviet front line. 1st Panzer sweeps aside the front line with some blistering attacks


Not everything went perfectly, here a guard division sensibly retreated across the river

t47 Axis Offensive around Kharkov continued


While guard might have escaped, the 2 IDs went just where we wanted them to with their backs to a major river. The Panzers are sent in


Wallop!

We start to move into the second line of defences


and elements from 3rd Pz (light blue) go deeper still to find troops that retreated from the first and second wave


Oh, this is fun.

T47 Axis AGS

Our ruse to show strength around D'town appears to have delivered dividends and a bloodless victory is achieved by our allies. The screening Germans gingerly take the vacant ground, while we nudge the Hungarian 'assault' force to the edge of the owned territory, looking as if it is still building CPP.


In the main front, 4th Pz threads its way through, attacking only occasionally to herd the Soviets to where we wish them to be


By end of the manoeuvre we had opened up a pretty hole in the Soviet line


We made 3 pockets in total, hopefully independently sealed so that if one breaks open, a second cannot be easily breached. I am acutely conscious that the Soviets will have a lot of fresh troops available

T47 Axis summary

The casualties for the Soviets have been dreadful


and a further 15 divisions have been encircled. I think that I held off attacking around Smolensk this turn. The weather is about to improve there which will hopeful dry off the abundant light mud in the sector. I'd like to commit as many Soviets as I can, but I am hoping that the monster you can't see, is more frightening than the one that you can see.

Uncle Joe sent fresh troops to the front last turn, I think they will be needed.


Vet now faces a 200 mile hole in his front with two full strength panzer armies raging through it. Meanwhile he has 1 encirlced army, and 2 severely mauled armies to attend to.


The Axis offensive has gotten off to a satisfactory start.

T44 - Soviet Perspective


It’s refreshing opening up the game and not seeing 6 figure manpower losses as the Soviets. Heavy mud blankets the map again this turn. Of the 34k Soviet losses, 19k was during the Axis land phase where JB finished of 2 infantry divisions that were isolated the previous turn.

Not a lot to do this turn. I rotate some of my infantry around to regain CPP and pull weakened units off the frontline for refitting. I’ve deployed 20 Tank Corps to the map this turn and will deploy a further 6 next turns so I’m now at my Tank Corps cap.

Other than the above, I really want to use the next few low loss turns to fill out the TOE/manpower of all my existing units before the heavy mud clears.

T45 - Soviet Perspective

First and last time I’ll see losses under 10k for the turn! I really needed these turns to replenish my army. Heavy mud is still expected to cover the map next turn with the exception of the far South and Crimea so I’ll need to be ready in those sectors a little earlier. The weather next turn is expected to be clear so the heavy mud will dissipate a turn earlier than usual unfortunately.

Whilst Axis forces continue to grow through the heavy mud, so do my forces. AFV increase due to most of my tank corps arriving on the map. Whilst I have reached my tank corps limit, I might start rebuilding tank brigade forces as I currently have a lot of AFVs in the pool although this will probably change quickly once they go toe-to-toe with the Panzers.

T46 - Soviet Perspective


Glorious reserves! It looks like the reserves get added before the logistic phase which is great as they have already been applied to my units.


A little unlucky on the weather here as it is meant to be raining for the next 2-3 turns as most of the combat takes place on a “humid” zone. There is no rain to be seen though and the ground is already clear or light mud at best. Looks like the Axis offensive will get started a little earlier this game unfortunately.

I started off the turn by doing a lot of recon with 62 lost recon aircraft but I needed to see where the Axis troop disposition are. I’ll probably need to do more thorough recon around Smolensk as to my surprise there doesn’t appear to be many units in the area anymore. There is a significant build up in the south. Kharkov I already knew about but there are a lot of units near Sumy, Gomel and D-town so I’ll need to adjust my defence accordingly.

Note: I saw some of the units around Sumy, i just didn't expect it to turn into a fully fledged offensive in the area and having my porous line pocketed. Near D-town i could see the allied units but figured there were extensive German units nearby i just couldn't see from the recon

T46 - Soviet Perspective Cont..

2 attacks made near Novgorod. These were tough battles as even though I used 7 guard rifle divisions + 2 rifle divisions against a single German infantry division, they were in a level 3 fort.

T46 - Soviet Perspective Cont..


Smolensk after recon. Looks fairly light on axis forces compared to what I was expected. Recon is probably incomplete though


A huge concentration of Axis forces in the south. All this open terrain to will make the next few months very challenging for the soviets. Axis forces have full CPP and they have a large amount of firepower on map. I decide to fall back to the Stalino line down south as there is just simply too much clear terrain to defend against mobile forces.

T47 - Soviet Perspective


Well, this wasn’t an enjoyable experience opening this turn. Losses being a lot higher than I expected for the opening turn of the 1942 offensive. Of the ~240k losses, ~30k was from Kharkov with the rest from battles. None of these losses this turn were from pocketing but from Axis forces just ploughing through Soviet units. I do think Soviet losses are excessive when NM is at 45 but it is what it is!


I expected the push towards Belgorod but I wasn’t expecting to be encircled further west so I’m going to lose a lot of troops their next turn as well with the pocket walls being very thick. This powerful 1942 opening will create a lot of gaps in my line so I need to reassess a lot of my plans. There are ~200k manpower isolated so this feels like 1941 all over again! At least none of my HQs were isolated so I’ll get to hang onto those SU’s.


I make 1 counter attack around Kharkiv area. Unfortunately, Axis still controls a bridgehead across the major river so they can still easily push out from here. JB has GS turned on all over the front it seems and it is certainly putting a lot of hurt on my units. When he attacked last turn, a lot of his big attacks were with GS and it was very effective.

T47 - Soviet Perspective Cont...


I manage to open up one of the smaller pockets by attacking the Light Africa Motorised Division (a little far from home!). It won’t do much other than mildly delay the axis advance as I’m unable to get any units out of the pocket due to lots of ZOC.


Now that I have guard tank corps, I also have some mobility on the map unlike 1941. I used 3 tank corps loaded with naval/rifle brigades for this attack before pulling back with my remaining MP.


I fall back to Bryansk/Oral line. I really should have done this the turn before and I completely misjudged how much ground Axis forces should cover. I should have known better though in open terrain with a well-rested/supplied army. There are also a lot of AFVs on map from the Axis TB which makes the Axis army extremely mobile.

T48 Axis

As Vet has advised, one of the three pockets was busted open in the Gomel region

It's not a massive surprise and can be easily resealed. The disappointment is that those nice plump SUs that Vet likes to attach to every division will escape. Hey-ho, we can gobble up those that we have. While the Soviets have a large manpower multiplier, the Axis can still eat it up in 1942, while continuing to capture more ground, thereby further diminishing manpower production.

Over the course of turns 47 and 48, the Soviets have lost around 1/2 million men. That is makes up for the reduced losses during the three mud turns plus some of the 150k reserve release. I can't make sense of manpower production numbers, but I recall Loki100 writing that the Soviets generate between 85-100k per turn in 1942 including the return of disabled troops (1% return each turn, 1% are assigned as permanent losses). I don't know if this 100k generation figure is correct, but it's a nice round target to meet each week. Obviously, I need to be reducing the size of the Red Army, so I need to account for more than this. German manpower is becoming strained but I must keep my foot on the throat of this monster however uncomfortable it becomes.

In the north, we try an attack against a prepared position


Mmm, not really cost effective from a body count perspective. We have better targets elsewhere to concentrate upon. Vet has pushed in the north, I'm not wild about losing the land but his attack into my prepared positions are expensive for him. I'm not sure he realises that he probably can't afford the attritional costs.

In the centre, we start to return to the programme of bashing up the Soviets . It's the sort of stuff that Model likes to do and who am I to keep him back?

Following a series of attacks we manage to surround a guards division. I doubt the pocket will hold but I like to give Vet plenty to think about each turn.


I'm not really looking to make much progress towards Moscow, so I can just target opportunities. Ultimately, I hope to be able to take Vyazma by flanking. If I can take Tula, it starts to make this region untenable for the Soviets. However, that is a long way away, thus we just go Ruski bashing.

T48 Axis AGCS

Having made such a huge breakthrough it is tempting to press further east at all speed with the panzers. Sadly, that is just not possible, our infantry is busy reducing the pockets and our supply trains will need to catch up. I see no point in risking scratching our nice new shiny panzer force for a few worthless miles of middle Russia. This is a turn for consolidation and digestion. That's not to say that we can't have some fun and go Soviet bashing.

We line up a victim for an attack, that can be followed up with a second attack led by armour

However, the second attack turns out to be less effective than the first! I was expecting a 5 figure loss for Ivan.


We are well shy of that on this occasion although the body count ratio was extremely favourable. I guess that I am still hitting fresh formations.

T48 Axis AGS Karkov sector


The Soviets try to hang on to terrain on the wrong side of the river. Very foolhardy of them.


I'll take opportunities like that every time. Note the retreat losses which are greatly increased when retreating over a major river.

Having run out of Soviets this side of the river, we decide to go find some on the other side.

Doh!

I forgot to turn on air support. Anyway, it probably won't have worked anyway.

Sadly, when we do a proper attack, the results are a bit disappointing.


Sadly, having blundered the first attack, I can't try to pocket the 3 Soviet divisions headed by the 7th RD.

Note also that the Romanians are often regimented. I have masses of Rom HQ command points as most of the allies are in the garrison TB. I can make what I do have on map go much further by regimenting them. They still scout and produce ZOCs the same. If they do get hit, they will die horribly but I'll only lose 1/3 of a division rather than a full division.

Anyway, 250k Ruskees in the bag this turn, that'll do nicely.