8MP Team Game - The Axis team

[thedude357]

Turn 25 Army Group South

The first turn of blizzard has arrived. 11th Army near Rostov envisioned a possible pincer move to isolate them against the Sea of Azov so pulled back to make a stronger defensive position. The Italians and Romanians are no real defensive challenge in blizzard and Rostov is all but abandoned left with just an Italian garrison. There are some opportunities in 17th Army to conduct deliberate attacks on Soviet maneuvers, which temporarily sends some Soviet units backwards.



In the Crimea 11th Army with Romanian allies previously withdrew to strong defensive positions guarding the entrances. Fort levels continue to build...this was a very cautious move in case of any Soviet counterattack in the blizzard. Rail has finally reached the Crimea and supply levels are getting back to normal.

[Telemecus]

The Slovakian Security division has more of a ToE of a combat unit. Given that Slovakia only has two on map units and lots of replacements that is a good place to take losses.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

The Slovakian Security division has more of a ToE of a combat unit. Given that Slovakia only has two on map units and lots of replacements that is a good place to take losses.

No wonder Hitler didn't trust them. [:D]

[Crackaces]

So in the picture below it shows the first turn of blizzard, trucks right at need == pool, and the Soviets starting what looks like an offense last turn?
So the question is .. what are the Soviet's intent?

All our forces have been nerfed by the severe blizzard -- except the mountain units. These will become the forces to counterattack. But we need to still develop a front. Our plan is to get pushed back at a cost of morale and use MP's to fill hexes back. This will make the Soviets use MP's to deliberate attack and move through ZOC's. My ace in the hole is armor in winter quarters .. on reserve .. maybe a surprise for the Soviets ?

[Telemecus]

Turn 25 10-December-1941 Air

The Soviet air force decides to have another go at defending its country - The Third Air Battle of Gorky is on. Perhaps they thought the blizzard would help them stop the Luftwaffe ... if so they were mistaken!



So a hot war continues even in the cold - and we are still losing no fighters in it.



The downside of calling back airgroups for a blizzard air war will be the vehicle cost

[Telemecus]

Turn 25 10-December-1941 Economic

With the bad weather the Luftwaffe is being gradually drawn down and the bombing campaign has been reduced to just bombing factories for named equipment with already high damage levels. With the evacuation of fighter-bomber and T-60 factories this leaves all our bombing efforts are directed just to the remaining two T-34 factories in range.

[Telemecus]

Turn 25 Allocations
For information only - team allocations for turn 25.

[Crackaces]

A look at the posts above show the story on turn 25. The picture below shows the start for the center commander. The Russians are coming for sure. They have threaten to catch the edge of the Moscow defense and start a pincher move.
There is also a hole where the Soviets could drive due West with a disastrous effect.

[Crackaces]

So the general plan below. Start moving units into the breech -- counterattack where opportunities exists. The mountain units are particularly effective as they have full CV.

[Crackaces]

Success in WITE is a summation of events defined by probability. There are some major obvious skills assessing CV for example to insure a better chance of success. Attacking in the blizzard with less than the CV of the defense is not going to have a positive outcome. [8D] But after than more and more details increase the probabilities of success in one or more events. Some of these details like support units actually have a significant effect on combat results. Then there are details that add individually minuscule increments of success that when combined actually make a significant difference. There is micromanagement in this game that makes the diffrences in success then there is Telemecus that has mastered "fementoanagement". The enclosed zip file provides a small glimpse into the details of a very small portion of the front that took an hour or two to sort out. But in the end will make a difference in victory and frustration. .

[Crackaces]

The picture below shows the position of the Moscow defense and center by the end of the turn. The plan as drawn out in the pdf from the post above is executed. Note all the AP's spent and much of this is reorganizing commands. The results of this investment will demonstrate itself over the next 13 turns. We are also transformed from a single line with alarming holes into 2 lines deep with reserve activators. The importance of this defense is that the Soviet movement is depenebt on morale. The blizzard will increase movement points, combat takes movement points, and the poor Soviet morale makes any movement take at least 5MP per hex. They can attack the front line but will have difficulty making it into the second. And if they do stroke deeper I will counterattack any exposed units I can get 2 or more hexsides.

[timmyab]

Turn 26 Army group North.

Did I say it couldn't get colder? Boy was I ever wrong! It's now so cold that my Volvo staff car wont even start and I need it because I have to......errrm.....supervise the preparation of a fallback line. Lucky for us our OKH chief of staff is such a genius and so strong minded that he has managed to persuade Field Marshal Telemecus that this retreat is actually a great idea. Unfortunately my perfectly logical and reasonable request to move AGN HQ to Paris has been flatly refused. Rather brusquely I thought.

Four Soviet cavalry corps are now known to be operating North of the Valdai together with numerous tank units. Vyshny is abandoned and General Model is sent to strengthen the vital position just West of the Valdai hills. 7th flieger div is also released by OKH to help out here at least until it withdraws in two weeks time.
Some Soviet pressure South of Kalininn, but it's clear that the main effort is North of Vishny.

[thedude357]

Turn 26 Army Group South

Plenty of action this turn as the blizzard is here and the Soviets are coming out in full force. Rostov has fallen, but no real surprise there. Plenty of artillery was dispersed all throughout the front and cold steel rains down hard upon the Soviet infantry. German, Romanian, and Italian defenses are pushed back but nothing is broken. 21st Romanian infantry division surprisingly holds. Only 1 rout of an Italian division.

Meanwhile in the Crimea the Soviets come out from Sevastopol and Ak'Manay to try and gain the initiative, but I'm having none of that. Half of the Crimea is still snow and the supply situation has greatly improved allowing 11th Army and the Romanian allies to move forward and resume the offensive. German and Romanian infantry move to the European weather zone for warmer weather and to meet the Soviets head on for a spoiling attack.

[Telemecus]

Turn 26 17-December-1941 Air

We see when turn 26 arrives that the Soviets used a bird we had thought long since extinct. Reconnaisance is back, although limited to only a little south of the Oka. Is this a signal of where their blizzard intentions lie?

[center][/center]

The Soviet airfield bombing campaign against our Fi156c storks continues.

However by our turn there are no enemy air forces in airbases closer than Kazan. We are in control of the skies up to the Volga, but they are able to fly long distance from airbases beyond that, including one ground support mission during our turn!

In Gorky we find the T-34 factory has been evacuated to Sverdlovsk. The Heavy Industry at Ivanovo has also been evacuated preventing us from delivering further aerial bombardment.

Our bombing of the Stalingrad T-34 factory continues.

[center][/center]

For the moment in the south bombing is an all Rumanian affair. And we are finding our allies air groups maxing out on experience and morale as well. The original versions of the game only gave victories for air kills. A patch also gave air groups victories for other missions such as "recon" and we see here the impact turn after turn of unopposed city bombing has had on experience/morale.

[center][/center]

Another first time sighting is made of Soviet partisan activity. In spite of the long period without supplies flown some units have finally managed to blow up some rail lines - but unfortunately only on a dead end branch line. Our lines in the area now have several loops giving redundancy to cope with any partisan strikes anyway.

[center][/center]

Because of the loss of targets as well as the bad weather we are keeping more and more of the air force in reserve so as to release more vehicles for use in supply.

[center][/center]

[Telemecus]

Turn 26 17-December-1941 Economic

T-34 Gorky
If the T34 factory at Gorky had never been bombed or evacuated it would have produced 1,529 T-34 M1941s and reached a capacity of 56 per week at turn 55. If we had stopped bombing this turn and there had been no evacuation we expect it would have produced 631 and reached a capacity of 30 per week at turn 55. With the evacuation we expect it will produce 463 and have reached a capacity of 23 per week at turn 55.

On turn 55 the factory upgrades to a T-34 M1942 factory. But I am not exactly sure of the rules for what the capacity of the new factory will be - in some cases with other factories I have seen it reset to 1 or carry on with a similar number to its predecessor. Clearly if the T-34 M1942 factory with a limit of 50 a week has to expand to that number from an initial lower capacity due to the bombing and evacuation of a factory producing its preceding model then a significant number of T-34 M1942s have also been lost. If anyone can clarify the rules in these cases or point out to where in the scenario data it is described I would be very grateful.

I would like to say the evacuation of the T-34 factory at Gorky provides confirmation from our opponents that bombing T-34 factories is effective. But it is not an unalloyed success. Clearly if, as some say, the Soviet side will end up with a huge surplus of these tanks in their pool, then reducing that number only benefits our opponents. Indeed they might have evacuated this anyway to reduce the supplies gone to make this - although in this case they did evacuate the full 10 point size the factory currently had. Or strategically they may have decided to evacuate this factory now while making an earlier model rather than later when a better model is being made. However the Soviets do have greater opportunities to flex the composition of their forces including the discretion to make new units to absorb surpluses in the pool. Recent AARs of other games do show the Soviets in the later game can make enormous tank forces if they wish, so there is no reason why any surpluses have to stay in the pool. I suspect also there may be shortages in certain phases such as 1941 and 1943/4 even if by 1945 there is a massive surplus. Ultimately though we will need our Soviet opponents to feedback on what the effects of bombing this factory were.

[Telemecus]

Turn 26 Allocations
For information only - team allocations for turn 26.

[timmyab]

Turn 27 Army group North

Still no mention from above of court martials or firing squads so I assume it's safe to continue with my 'redeployment' in the North.

Three new cavalry corps are identified South of Kalinin and on request OKH authorizes the release of two experienced reserve divisions, 30th and 32nd, to reinforce this crucial area and stop the Soviet offensive dead before it can gain momentum.

[timmyab]

The Finns make a nuisance of themselves further North in an attempt to draw some pressure off of AGN.

[thedude357]

Turn 27 Army Group South

Plenty of attacks by Soviet infantry all throughout the southern front. Some surprise defensive holds by Romanian and German units causing heavy Soviet losses. The Romanians are truly outperforming their expectations during the blizzard so far. Another rout of an Italian division and there is pressure throughout the entire line.

Meanwhile in the Crimea, the Soviets have turned tail and ran straight back to defensive positions in Sevastopol and Ak'Manay rather than face 11th Army in the snow. There will be no Soviet siege to the entrance of the Crimea this winter.

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: thedude357

Turn 27 Army Group South

Meanwhile in the Crimea, the Soviets have turned tail and ran straight back to defensive positions in Sevastopol and Ak'Manay rather than face 11th Army in the snow.

Does Comrade Stalin know about this? [X(]
Expect a change in the Soviet commander. [:D]