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Whoops - i followed Jasons lead and posted out of turn order. Turn 59 already posted with this being turn 58 for Soviets

T58 - Soviet Perspective


There is a real risk that Stalingrad may also fall. Even if it doesn’t fall, having the rails cut near Stalingrad will make holding the Caucasus very difficult. Priority still has to be Moscow though as that is definitely game over if that falls.


A lot of action around Vyzama last turn although overall losses were relatively light. There is a lot of clear hexes between Vyzama and Rzhev so my assumption is JB will prioritise advancing here over other avenues to Moscow. He has the benefits of a great rail network from this direction as well. I only made 3 attacks this turn on some weakened frontline units before falling back.


Screenshot near the end of the turn. I’ve added more depth to my defence as I need to build up some fort levels. I’ve created a relatively strong frontline on the eastern side of the Axis advance. I am relatively weak along the clear terrain all the way to Rzhev and I will likely need to pull back all my troops west of Rzhev as Axis forces get closer.

The concentration of troops around Moscow is very high but then again Axis forces have most of their units in this theatre too. Lets see if ~4 fronts worth of Soviet troops is enough to hold out until heavy mud in 1942!

Over Jul/Aug 42 there are a number of events that increase the Axis TB requirements and I can see JB has units transferring so perhaps he already has enough CV in advance of those higher requirements.

After this turn we are into Aug 42 and it will be another painful month for the Soviets. I’m really looking forward to the 450k manpower bonus at the start of Sep 42 as my troops are in need of some refitting.

Axis T59

This follows on from Vet's post above marked T58

Strategy Objectives


When the Spring offensive got under way, I detailed my plans for a main trust on the Kharkov, Kursk, Orel, Tula axis. This is good attacking country, it provides a decent bounty of VPs and finally it makes the Bryansk woods untenable. The latter is key to open up the Smolensk road.

I now share the second and final part for my 1942 targets. While we are now only 70-80 miles from Moscow, I know that is a really tough target given the terrain and plethora of guard corps that Vet has skilfully amassed. However, I intend to force him to commit his best troops there and divert my offensive to take Rzhev and Kallinin


Time bonuses for these two cities have long since expired, but if I can take them it may stop Vet from getting time bonuses for recapturing them (can anyone confirm this?). More importantly for me, is that it will cut the dual rail line from Moscow to Leningrad.

Capturing this key supply route will make it very hard for Vet to hold the Kalinin woods. It should also soften the defences faced by AGN.

Vet had a very successful winter campaign in the north. While Leningrad was never really in danger of recapture, I was greatly discomforted by his advances which knocked me out of virtually all the decent defensive terrain. I do not want the Soviets to steam roll their way through the Baltic States in 43/44, I need my best troops elsewhere and must deploy weaker formations in this sector.

For this I need good defensive terrain. Securing multiple hex lines of swamps and heavy woods is key to dissuading a Soviet offensive in the north. It will then force the Soviets to experience the same misery that I have suffered battering your way along the Smolensk road. In the south, I will have a lot of ground to trade instead of blood. Our new Tiger tanks will shortly arrive and be deployed to this sector of the front. Tigers will ensure that our superiority in armour continues till early 1944, making the Soviet job of capturing the open terrain in the south irksome.

I am aiming for 700 VPs. If I can take back the decent terrain in the north and continue to bleed the Red Army, my hope is that this will set me up for a major victory at the end of 1944 (i.e. Vet does not reach my HWM and the western allies don't get into Germany)

T59 Axis TBs


We have had a nice recent flurry of bonus TB VPs. They seem to always come along like buses


As Vet mentioned, the TBs manning is becoming more of an issue for the Axis at this stage of the game. For the record, my western Europe commitment percentages have been 111/121/95 for ground, air and night respectively. The latter has been in deficit since T54 when the CV requirement jumps to 59 (my allocation commitment percentage collapsed from 136% to 92%). I have since ameliorated it a little with some AA transfers.

Night fighters are valuable for the TBs, both for VP granting in WE and providing very useful dual, or even, triple effectiveness elsewhere. Frustratingly, the Axis have plenty of air frames and not enough formations. I have found that some that some dual engined fighter bombers can be converted to night fighters. However, not all. I did have the hypothesis that only bomber trained, dual engined FBs could be converted, but that idea failed my tests I now have no idea how you can tell which planes can be converted to night fighters (any ideas anyone?).

I spent much time rotating twin engined FBs to the Reserve TB to discover whether they would convert to night fighters. A tricky job while ensuring you keep the commitment to full complement, but worth some effort.

AGC

At last, I can finally report on battles on the Vyazma-Moscow road . We grind away in the open terrain, until we trigger an unwelcome activation (marked in red)


We haven't suffered many of these recently and they are super annoying when they alter the result of a battle. Vet has also deployed a row of brigades (marked in blue), I'm sure that activations will be triggered when I attack them. We make a mental note to get a unit next to uncommitted Soviet stacks to stop them activating where we can. Then we attack again


A very nice result. Perhaps the addition of even a single motorised regiment escalates the retreat losses.

There is also a huge battle to the right of this, which we just win despite the activations

T59 Axis AGCS

Moving along the line, Heinrici's powerful corps is called up to attack the row of brigades


Sure enough a mass of activations are triggered, but Heinrici just swats them aside. He is one of the German's best generals


and doesn't take any shit.

T59 Axis AGN

Following a long stasis, we recommence offensive action in the north. Previous attempts to shift the Soviet forts in good terrain proved very expensive. So we have been quietly planning this move for several turns.

Firstly, we have dropped an excellent general, Friessner (inf rating 8), into the sector to lead the offensive. Secondly, divisions were preassigned pioneers, which were allowed time to build full CPP. Thirdly, the air force was armed with BIG bombs. Fourthly, we assign some nearby regiments on reserve activations


The results were excellent, even one of the activations joined in. Losses were relatively light, as was the combat delay. We follow up with a second attack to rout the defeated 225th division from the heavy wood which it had retreated to (see the screen shot). The enemy didn't rout but nevertheless retreated well out of way.

We can now advance a fresh, well rested, high morale infantry division (from the 40-16 stack), through the double ZOC into the newly vacated heavy wood.


We then bring up a motorised division(the only one that could be spared for this operation) to displace the Soviet HQ and seize Novgorod, our immediate objective.

"I love it when a plan comes together" - Hannibal Smith

It's great to finally capture this city, having failed to do so in '41.

To the southern tip of Lake Ilman, we also attack and push a sacrificial jager division into the Soviet line. This imperils the Soviets who face being trapped between me and the lake. I hope that they take the safe route and withdraw, rather than risk counterattacking my division in the heavy woods and trapping my motorised division in Novograd. The division is showing a CV of 62 but is only just managed to reach that position and is fatigued as a consequence. If it is retreated I have no other motorised unit in the area that could come to the rescue of the MD.


AGS


In the south, we don't have enough MPs to establish a bridgehead over the Don. Instead, we prepare by taking out a fort over the Don


Surprisingly our losses were low and there were no activations. We don't plan to cross here next turn, but it will be useful to remove the fort. It will force Vet to move his best units to defend this crossing. Hopefully we can then commit them next turn before they can get chance to counter attack us once our crossing is underway.

T60 Axis

Our turn updates have gotten a little out of order. This post should follow Vet's account of T59, which is published on the previous page

AGN

We begin to regain ground and we pick up four valuable marsh hexes as Vet's troops withdraw from around the Ilman Lake rather than risking being cut off. One of the evaders failed to reach safe ground, so we hit it fatigued in the open


Ouch!

We note that the defences appear to be thinner than they were a few turns ago and those colourful guard units have disappeared from the northern sector. I presume that they have been recalled to defend the capital. I note that the Soviets have readdressed their line and although in good terrain are not fully dug in. We may have the opportunity to recapture even more still ground. Let's give it a whirl


Well that's a pleasant result. These Ivan don't fancy fighting. Let's try elsewhere


This is softening up the Soviet defences nicely. What started as a limited local attack has the potential for something bigger. Following up the military maxim of always reinforce success not failure, we strip defences elsewhere and eek out a couple of extra divisions for the sector. We will see if we can push the Soviets back further in the coming turns.

T60 Axis AGC

We air-reconned the Rzhev area carefully. The garrison is displayed as 0?0. Hmm, does this mean that Vet hasn't put any troops there and just HQs? That's not a mistake that I'd expect Vet to make, but the disruption that we've caused these last few turns may have meant that this could be an oversight. If we can storm Rzhev this turn, it would leave the Soviet position FUBAR. First we need to crash our way through the open ground to create a path


Crikey, that was tough as the defenders were twice as strong as expected. Finding out that you are suddenly fighting guard corps is never much fun, especially when you were hoping to blast through a position. Nevertheless we get through, albeit expensively and leaving a hefty time delay on the hex. We continue to make further progress, but the going is harder than we hoped.

Then we run into this


Our air recon told us that the highlighted hex was vacant. Acutally, there is at least one corps there as it has a defensive CV of 67. How can my fly boys miss that!

Rzhev is tantalisingly close, just 20 miles to go. That 0?0 looks really enticing. However, there are only two units there and there is a high probability that a Soviet retreater will end up in the city. I don't really fancy throwing everything as these blocking big stacks. There are higher combat delays than we hoped and plenty of powerful guard corps in the area. Testing Rzhev's defences will be a real stretch.

We withdraw a little and decide to redirect our offensive to a softer area on the left. Following a spot of bish, bosh, bashing, we channel out this

We create a 2 division pocket and manage to get a motorised division to cut the minor railway. Here we are focusing on our strategic objective to gain good defensive terrain. Damaging Vet's supply system will help soften the defences in the woods to the left of this pocket.

Our pocket won't hold, that motorised regiment is extremely vulnerable. Hmm, thinking about it, that panzer division next to it might become vulnerable too. I don't really want to lose a squillion tanks at this stage.

T60 Axis AGC cont


We have two panzer armies in this sector and a third nearby. So we employ our ample mobile assets to strengthen our pocket


That looks a lot more imposing and may give us a jump off point for mischief next turn. Most of Vet's major assets are on the road to Moscow, broadening out the front should help thin the defences.

The downside is that this will be a difficult route to supply, but at least there is a road through the woods and we have a surplus of trucks at the moment (thanks to prior conservation tactics and not doing anything daft like wandering off into the Caucuses).

To the right of this sector, we launch our planned operation against Tula (as Vet had correctly surmised in his write up)


While we make a decent advance, the going was tougher than we expected and we had to burn through far more CPP than we wished. Ivan in this area proved to be very stubborn as this battle demonstrates. I guess these are fresh troops that are well led.

T60 Axis AGS


In the south, we need to execute an opposed crossing of the Don. Soviet forces in the region are strong and beginning to dig in. This will be a difficult operation. We are very likely to get thrown back across the major river, retreat losses will be high. However, I want to ensure that we retain a bridgehead. I only want to do this once.

Last turn, we did a prep attack at a single point across the river to remove a fortification. Sure enough, this has obliged Vet to move in his best local unit to defend that point. This I have highlighted in red. I really don't want that 58CV leading the counter attack against me. But we have a plan!


Firstly, we hug as many Soviet units as we can to reduce the risk of activations, then we attack a relatively weak point of the line as displayed in the above battle. Again, this point was identified last turn and preparations put in place. Thankfully, Vet did not reinforce this critical weak spot in his defences. I don't know if pioneers get a bonus for contested river crossings, but it seems probable given the detail that the game designers have employed in this game, so pioneers have been assigned.

Getting across a major river when Zoc'd is horribly expensive in MPs, but here we are only moving into a ZOC. Thus we can get fresh units across with enough MPs to then attack the Soviets from a flank and thereby avoid attacking across the river. These are supported by units attacking across the river. We can then start to roll up the Soviet line


Taking out a corps, even when reinforced with a second through reserve activations is possible this way.

We do it again, this time against even more entrenched troops


despite pushing through a further activation. And finally


we retreat that nasty 58CV stack to ensure that it can't counter attack.

This was a tough operation as expected, but we disrupted 7 rifle corps which will severely retard Vet's counterattacking opportunities. Once again, proper preparation prevents piss poor performance.

You can now note the benefits of our selected crossing point. Our crossed troops a minor river to help their defence (there is no other defensive terrain in the sector). This should encourage Vet to attack the crossed units from their right flank. Das Reich will be the first to be attacked. It's elite status means firstly that the Soviets will have to deploy assets to shift it, and secondly that it will likely suffer only modest retreat losses, even over the major river.

Fingers crossed, one or both of the other crossing points will be held against the expected Soviet counterattacks and our bridgehead over the Don will be established. Now, it's fingers crossed that we did enough damage to ensure the operation's success. Otherwise, it will take several turns to prepare for a new crossing attempt and timetable for the capture of Rostov be materially pushed back.

What is the current Axis VP count?

648 VPs

T60 - Soviet Perspective


Leningrad/Novgorod front is starting to collapse on my end. I’ve thinned my forces out here over many turns and now I’ve been pushed out of a lot of my lvl 3 forts I’m relatively weak on defence. In true soviet style, losses have been massive with +10,000 to less than 100 a regular occurrence.


A strong push from Axis forces towards Rhzev and Tula. I have some troops in ZOC encirclement north west of Vyzama but I should be able to get those out if I can attack the motorised division west of those troops. I did see the movement towards Tula last turn so I was expecting it but there isn’t much I could do different.

At least I’ve been able to strengthen the direct route to Moscow so that will buy me some time as JB works around the western and eastern flanks of my Moscow blob.


A successful attack on the motorised division allowing my troops to escape the cauldron that was being formed. I’m contesting LW in the air around this area as I have a significant number of fighters deployed to this sector (it still won’t be enough though but hopefully I can wear down the German fighters).


Holding Tula is no longer tenable. A general pullback across the major river occurs including the salient that would have formed if I tried to hold the well-fortified hexes west of Tula.

T60 - Soviet Perspective cont...


Further south, Axis forces have crossed the Don River. It’s only a matter of time before Rostov falls now. I have to make a few decisions difficult decisions here this turn. I could try counter attack on the forward units that crossed the major river but I will no doubt take heavy losses for doing so which I am unable to afford. Regardless of if I counter or not first, when I fall back I need to move most forces further south towards Rostov but I can’t neglect the north as this Axis offensive could easily pivot north given all the mobile forces + administrative movement.


I made two attacks forcing the retreating units back over the major river for increased attrition. That being said, overall losses still seemed fairly light for a unit retreating over a major river. I end the turn with most of my units fallen back south of Rostov.


Finally, a battle where Soviets are in a favourable loss ratio! Now I just need more of these except against German units…

T60 - Soviet Perspective cont...


OOB is not looking too good for the Soviets. Down to 4.9m ready manpower on map. Losses each turn are simply replacing the ability for me to replenish them so my army is continuing to shrink over time. Not a good place to be in when Soviet manpower drops down to a measly ~50k per turn in 1943.


Losses continue to be high for both sides. I’ve probably been playing to aggressively as Soviets but I find it’s the only way I’m inflicting losses on the axis advance and removing CPP. Both Axis and Soviet turns had heavy combat so losses are fairly high for both sides. Only difference is Axis have the manpower to keep replenishing whereas I am struggling on that front.


JB has been heavily using his LW in 1942 and why wouldn’t you. They’re so strong! Of the 429 LW losses this turn, a measly 20 were lost to A2A. I should probably just leave my fighters on the ground and let my conscript soldiers shoot at the LW with rifles as that seems more effective than fighter aircraft.

T61 Axis, Manpower update

One of my key aims for 1942 is to keep a lid on the Red Army in the field. I am acutely aware of its slow down in manpower generation in 1943 (and a corresponding pick up for the Germans, albeit at a lower NM). I target myself to take out at least 100k Soviets each turn. Vet is helping me a little in that regard, as he regularly counterattacks, but these 'bonus' gains come at a high cost of German manpower. If I can keep the opposition under wraps, it will temper the power of the coming Soviet steam roller.

While the Soviets generate around 85-100k per turn, German's only bring a short 9k in fresh troops and around 5k in retreads from the disabled pool. My manpower pool has been hovering around 50k for a while and it is now consistently dipping below this threshold. A recent system update means that the TOE max of non elite troops in the TBs therefore drops to 65%. This is good in so much as it preserves my manpower but exacerbates my current struggle in balancing the TB requirements out. VPs will be crucial in this game and I don't want to surrender any in TBs.

My NM morale is 70, though most standard IDs are at 75-78 in experience and morale. One of the nasty things about Vet's counterattacks is that it shreds the good manpower of the unit and when I refit it (I do this regularly following a retreat), the unit sinks to 70 morale/experience. This limits is combat potency.

I cannot run a contiguous front line, I don't have the divisions, and my lines are peppered with holes. Vet has built lots of mobile assets, so I need need to build up second line ZOC fields to prevent any major breakthroughs. My allies are very useful in this regard, but they won't come up north . Instead I am regimenting up beaten up divisions and using them to create second line ZOC fields. These won't hold an attack but will slow any intruders till my mobile reserves can arrive. I'm finding this a bit of an admin headache to do, as I constantly juggling my line. IDing the weak formations is not always simple. I am looking forward to receiving some LW divisions shortly, that will ease the admin burden.

The western Europe ground TB jumps to 475 from 350 this turn (the manual is incorrect to suggest that it goes to 425). Gulp, this is a huge increase, and comes on top of growing requirements elsewhere. I go from 119% to 89%, a TB deficit. I have, and am sending the odd beaten up formation to this theatre, but of course they won't rebuild to more than 65% of their TOE which limits the effectiveness. I get some reinforcements here in around 10 turns but that feels a long way away. I shall do my best to plug the gap as best I can, but this is a big TB so will take many divisions to balance.

I am belatedly juggling the North Africa roster, to extract Germans and replace them with Italians. When NA falls, 80% of the roster will be lost so it makes sense to populate it with expendables. I should have done this long ago but didn't study the manual about the upcoming year till recently. Now I am now sending Italian to NA (with a 4 turn delay) at a time when my TBs are stressed. It's a mess and taking a lot of planning to sort out.

My headline manpower pool looks strong, at over 400k but most of this is junk ally stuff. I need to run this down to ease the pressure on the fatherland. I don't have many Italians on the front, but I need to sacrifice the Italians more. Note, that I purposely put the Italian mountain division in peril at the Don crossing last turn. Sure enough, it took heavy causalities, sparing a German division.

I have had fun inventing practical ways to use the Romanians during this game. Sticking them in the front line is gratifying only for the Russians. I have a 100k+ of manpower of them built up and they will be eventually be used against me. I now need to come up with comical ways to kill them off.

T61 Axis AGN

The Soviets are falling back from their forts. We are eagerly gobbling up the good defensive terrain - one of our objectives for the year. The enemy are proving to be quite squishy once they leave the forts, despite the favourable terrain. I'm not sure why this is the case but we take advantage and continue to attack them as they withdraw.


In the centre, Vet once again counterattacks our formations , this is just not on. I locate a corps, in the open that is not dug in...


Wow, it's much more efficient to attack corps than divisions. My appetite has suddenly grown

We aggravate the Soviet growing disorganisation by a spot of herding and also build up the tally of captured heavy woods hexes.

T61 AGS

Sadly, Vet still had the resources to attack 2 of the 3 hexes of my Don bridgehead. This is slightly worrying and suggests a powerful defensive force, as last turn I pushed back 7 corps and 2 IDs. The important thing is that he was unable to push back the third hex of the bridgehead and that we have breached the Don line.


Vet remarks that he is disappointed with the Axis losses. I can see that, but reflects the superior training of my elite troops. I lost 75 tanks in the second attack, virtually all of them were already in the damaged pool. Sadly, this was unavoidable. Most of the manpower losses came from the Italians, which I am totally apathetic about. My careful prior planning, also provided my troops with the protection of a minor river. I don't know how much benefit this brings, but I imagine is more of a problem for the inept Soviet troops than the skilled Germans.

Vet wisely abandons his lines, I have powerful reserves ready to consolidate my bridgehead and ready hammer any of his troops in the open. Instead, we consolidate our position ready for our push for Rostov


My supply situation in the area is okay, although I don't have any FBDs in the sector, just RADs. I am conscious that it will be expensive in trucking over the Don until at least Rostov can be captured. There are a couple of airports nearby, these are on the list to be captured to allow freight to be shipped in by air.

Tula has been surrendered. All 4 of my FBDs are in the NE. Two are acting as super depots to build up stockpiles, the other two are repairing rail network (one coming up from the south). Voronezh is next on the hit list and I know from experience that this can be difficult to supply, so I am getting my network ship shape before we start pushing.

T61 - Soviet Perspective


The attacks continue across the Leningrad front with most of my units now pushed out of my entrenched positions. Not much I can do on this front given it’s not as important as other areas but it would have been nice to have a static line here.


There is a lot of Axis strength around here and I am weak on the western side of the Axis advance. I will likely have to abandon the salient along the double rails to Velikie Luki over the next turn or two. I have strengthened my defences around Rhzev however it’s likely JB will try and flank around from the west.


I make one spoiling attack towards Vyzama. As I was doing unit recon I saw I was able to get behind a triple stack of infantry with lvl 1 fortifications. By moving my Tank corps to cut off retreat paths, it ensured that any defeat turns into a route. German exp/morale is still very strong so whilst routed don’t necessarily result in a large retreat loss, I’ve noticed there are specific elements that are more susceptible to being destroyed such as vehicles and the larger calibre guns.

T61 - Soviet Perspective Cont...


With the fall of Tula I’ve had to pull back to defensible terrain as there is a lot of clear hexes around here. I flipped a lot of the hexes back to my control and it appears that the axis forces are grouping around Tula rather than continuing their advance this turn. They are likely replenishing and building up CPP before advancing over the next few turns. My defence is relatively weak around Ryazan so it could very easily fall to frontal assault next turn. I can shift some units from the west if I need to but for now I’d like to leave those units there as there are a lot of Axis forces further west and that’s a more direct route to Moscow.


Immediately after the screenshot above I scouted the eastern section of that screenshot and found a stack of 3 units including motorised units. I need to be careful of a rush to Tambov. I’ve already got a fortified unit there but I’ll add a rifle brigade in case JB’s motorised divisions look to go for a ninja capture.


Further south, Axis forces have established a bridgehead across the Don. They flipped hexes before falling back their bridgehead though. I have no defence directly to the east as it’s a bit of a supply dessert and I’d be surprised if JB decides to attack that way so any flanking manoeuvre will be closer to Rostov. Axis forces can either move south to encircle Rostov (the likely path) or potentially change direction and head north for Stalingrad. I’ve flipped some hexes back and moved a few units around but otherwise I let the units around Rostov rest as the next few turns they’ll certainly be busy trying to hold out for the heavy mud.

T62 Axis

Manpower efficiency

In an attempt to alleviate some of my man power power issues, I disband some construction units. I don't how many of these I actually need, but I know I need as many men in uniform as I can, especially in the run up to the next NM drop (which is fortunately some time away). Disbanding construction units is not particularly efficient, 1AP for 1200 men. My reinforcement schedule has been persistently building these (and draining my pool as result ). I belatedly set these TOEs to 50%. I should have done this sooner, in fact I should have done this at the minimum permitted which is 20%. With hindsight, I could have delayed sending 16,000 men to new 20 construction units till the end of the year, when they could be built up to complement using 65 NM manpower (or even postpone indefinitely if they are not required). Hey-ho, I keep learning!

Looking around, corps HQs take up 5,000 men, I may be able to spare one or two of these later on as I seem long of these (perhaps I'll need them later on though), but I am really short of Army HQs. Some of my corps HQs in quieter sectors are reporting direct to Army Groups.

FBDs also have a lot of manpower in them, 12,000. I shall look to break one or two of them down closer to the year end. I don't know how many I will need in '43, but surely not 4.

Air

I am experimenting with some interdiction, in attempt to slow down Russian reinforcements in sectors that I am interested in


Counter-intuitively, this is more effective in difficult terrain (yet almost totally futile in open) as any level of interdiction removes administrative movement.


The missions are set to run 4 bombers per mission across a wide-ish area (size 1 or 25 hexes), losses are around 30%. Despite the recent buff, I am finding that GS has a limited impact on battles, typically between 5 and 8% disruption to the enemy forces in battle i.e. a little more than immaterial. Damage and kills are insignificant. I have stacks of supply, so let's give this a whirl for a change.

The LW rules the skies. I have over 1,000 pilots trained ready and waiting to fly. I can afford to waste a few and frankly I'm not going to spend a disproportionate amount of my time worrying about it. Flying NP, seems to be the most important role for the LW, and the time for isolating ports has passed. In the meantime, I am husbanded my best pilot in the stabs, and only flying them in the opponents turn as Vet never leaves flies during my turn .

Comments on Soviet turn

Once again Vet has launched a very effective spoiling attack on AGC. Three divisions from 4th Army have been badly mauled. I need to think hard how I leave my turn, but with the current fluid front lines preventing these sorts of incursions is not easy.