Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

Why are the Germans in the line of swamps north of Astrakhan? I haven't played so this is a newbie question but it's the second time I've seen it. Is it for defensive purposes? Camo from air recon? Better supply? Something else? Usually in games I keep my units out of swamps not in them.

Once you hold Astrakhan and have cut the rail east of Stalingrad, this position is very strong.

You get the benefits of swamp as defensive position and russians are too far from their supply source.

ORIGINAL: STEF78

ORIGINAL: jjdenver

Why are the Germans in the line of swamps north of Astrakhan? I haven't played so this is a newbie question but it's the second time I've seen it. Is it for defensive purposes? Camo from air recon? Better supply? Something else? Usually in games I keep my units out of swamps not in them.

Once you hold Astrakhan and have cut the rail east of Stalingrad, this position is very strong.

You get the benefits of swamp as defensive position and russians are too far from their supply source.

The Southern road to Victory is a long one.

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

Partisan still saved moscow in summer 1941, even if they are not so usefull in 1943.

This is an outlier that rarely if ever happens. In 41 I garrison as much as possible to alleviate such an occurrence. Once you have the first redundancy down it becomes easier and partisans are nothing more than eye candy. Not to mention I believe your were dropping some high octane vodka to these Partisans because they not only did one hex on demolition but "many".

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

The Southern road to Victory is a long one.

The Southern road to Victory is a wrong(?) one.

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: Stelteck

Partisan still saved moscow in summer 1941, even if they are not so usefull in 1943.

This is an outlier that rarely if ever happens. In 41 I garrison as much as possible to alleviate such an occurrence. Once you have the first redundancy down it becomes easier and partisans are nothing more than eye candy. Not to mention I believe your were dropping some high octane vodka to these Partisans because they not only did one hex on demolition but "many".

Your partisans were so drunk that if it looked like a long slender pole on the ground they blew it up! ;-P

ORIGINAL: STEF78

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

The Southern road to Victory is a long one.

The Southern road to Victory is a wrong(?) one.

No. Nothing wrong with the Southern road. It isnt my favorite

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

ORIGINAL: STEF78

ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain

The Southern road to Victory is a long one.

The Southern road to Victory is a wrong(?) one.

No. Nothing wrong with the Southern road. It isnt my favorite

basically you can get the Sourthern Germans to retreat without ever doing anything in the south if done correctly

Turn 100, 15th may 1943

Russians are very confident near Baku. They even launched an unsuccessfull attack during mud. They also tried to advance through the moutains...



North of Stalingrad, I sent back some russian units.



Same work west of Saratov



Recon has shown a strong russian conentration near Ryazan. I reinforced the area with the Pzd (16=50) coming from Moscow.

Turn 101, 13th may 1943

Spring russian offensive is on. At the moment it's not decisive but pressure will increase week after week.

Near Sochi, our troops blocked their advance



Same heroic resistance north of Baku



Reserve activation works well but isn't decisive against multiple attacks.



As scheduled, heavy russian attack near Ryazan

Turn 102, 27th may 1943

Near Baku, strong russian attacks, the line holds! But I will give some ground where entrenchements are too low.



Very disapointed west of Saratov. I found an art div alone and was able to attack it twice. Losses are desesperatly low.



Heavy counterattack west of Ryazan. German army has teeth and claws. I'm able to gather 1600 AFV to show that it will not be easy to break the frontline

Turn 103, 3rd june 1943

More fights week after week. Stelteck seems to be testing the strength of my defences... and I'm sure he will grasp any opportunity to destabilize my frontline

Near Sochi we are expelled from our defensive line in the mountains... This sector will have to be reinforced...



... Baku's area is also under heavy attacks. Russian raw force is impressive. No entrenchment left, I will retreat from this hex.



2 interesting battles South of Moscow. In the first case russians were able to rotate enough corps to launch 3 major attacks and finally win.
In the 2nd case a major attack allowed a 20 miles advance through my lines



of course we counterattack but I feel that my defence isn't well equilibrated. Too strong in the South, too weak in front of Moscow



We order a major reassignment of our mobile forces. The salliant north of lake Elton is evacuated to shorten the frontline

I heard that there is a rumour about an incoming invasion of southern Europe by western allies (Probably Greece).

Maybe some panzer divisions should be sent there. Just a friendly advice.

ORIGINAL: Stelteck
I heard that there is a rumour about an incoming invasion of southern Europe by western allies (Probably Greece).

Maybe some panzer divisions should be sent there. Just a friendly advice.

I heard it was the Nazi moon base - definitely need Panzers to defend it there

Turn 104, 10th june 1943

Maybe Stelteck's informations are right. Every week, some squads or divs are sent back to Germany. Annoying...

Near Sochi, our troops are fighting at 1 against 8 in men, 1 against 15 in artillery. Not sustainable



Heavy fights around Baku. I have 2 Pzk fully used to slow russian advance.



Between Moscow and Ryazan, russians are picking their attacks. Heavy and one with more than 5 000 guns! And Mytischi has fallen. Nothing good...

Turn 105, 17th june 1943

Battles on several parts of the front between Moscow and Sochi. Focus on 3 areas.

56th Pzk is overused in front of Moscow. Each unit is fighting at least twice per week. Some Pzd's TOE are close from 60/65%
3 rifle corps Under good command are now difficult to beat



Grinding is on near Baku. Same issue with Pzk's TOE even if I can rotate on the hot spots.



near Sochi, I can only delay russian advance

A view of the respective OOB. Both armies are really very strong. German army has reached his maximum with the arrival of numerous heavy panzer, infantry is still good and even if Italy has gone, some Romanians or Hungarn units can be used on the front line. The Lufwaffe is the weakiest part of the axis army as several fighters groups has been sent back to germany.

Russian player can create the army he wants and Stelteck has done a major choice with his tank corps. I've never met a russian army with more than 20 000 AFV, even in 1945. it's worrying... artillery and inf are as usual. Summer will be bloody.

With that many AFV he will most likely run out of T34 replacements over the long game....as they take massive losses on attacks.

Also at Moscow, he is using one of the best soviet Generals so the Soviet forces are getting really good CV additions from leadership. What I found at least in the game several patches ago--a good soviet leader with airstrikes/air support and artillery brigades/divisions in support can win battles in 43/44 at 1:1 if lucky or 1.5:1 most the time vs the germans. As all of the disruption caused by the air strikes/support and massed artillery go a long way esp as they get more experienced....

From the screens it looks like he has a good general, good units, support units, and total air superiority at moscow....your attack was hit by 100 soviet bombers- most likely IL-2s these are nasty once they get experience against germans units in the open which when you attack I believe you are considered in the open for air attack.

in 43 soviet bombing against entrenched germans is not that effective...however, what I found was to rotate bomber grps...do a couple softening air strikes, launch ground battle, if you push the German unit back immediately bomb it again twice before further attacks esp if you push the german unit into the open. The disruption and damage from all the repeated air strikes will quickly weaken the unit to being combat in-effective esp if you manage to get in 3+ hexes worth of airstrikes. Even on the german players next turn the unit will be combat ineffective from all the fatigue.

ORIGINAL: chaos45

With that many AFV he will most likely run out of T34 replacements over the long game....as they take massive losses on attacks.

I don't remind the production level of T34, but as russian, I always got more than 5000 T34 unused end of 1943. Maybe Stelteck has found the way to use it...

Also at Moscow, he is using one of the best soviet Generals so the Soviet forces are getting really good CV additions from leadership. What I found at least in the game several patches ago--a good soviet leader with airstrikes/air support and artillery brigades/divisions in support can win battles in 43/44 at 1:1 if lucky or 1.5:1 most the time vs the germans. As all of the disruption caused by the air strikes/support and massed artillery go a long way esp as they get more experienced....

From the screens it looks like he has a good general, good units, support units, and total air superiority at moscow....your attack was hit by 100 soviet bombers- most likely IL-2s these are nasty once they get experience against germans units in the open which when you attack I believe you are considered in the open for air attack.

in 43 soviet bombing against entrenched germans is not that effective...however, what I found was to rotate bomber grps...do a couple softening air strikes, launch ground battle, if you push the German unit back immediately bomb it again twice before further attacks esp if you push the german unit into the open. The disruption and damage from all the repeated air strikes will quickly weaken the unit to being combat in-effective esp if you manage to get in 3+ hexes worth of airstrikes. Even on the german players next turn the unit will be combat ineffective from all the fatigue.

Agreed with Il-2 but I was also overoptimistic with this battle. Usually a raw CV ratio of 1.3/1.4 is enough to beat the russians in open terrain but this time my units were tired, disrupted and the russians had a good general.

I'm really short of fighters at this stage of the war. I have only 9 groups, not all with 40 fighters and 2 more are scheduled to do back to germany. I will get some night fighters in september but july and august will see an almost full russian air superiority.

I have around 9000 medium tanks (7000 T-34) in stock with a week production of 350 still the incredible increase of tank looses is real !! But tanks are here to fight and not sleep in stocks.

The Valentine tanks seem to get under deployed to units.

Same as in my game versus Sillyflower