Defending the Motherland (Sov Player vrs AI)

[PMCN]

13/11/41 STAVKA (Continued)

Southwest Front

The southwest front is seriously overloaded with combat formations. Even the removal of the bulk of the Tank divisions (via conversion to bde) or detachment have still barely scratched the surface. The last few weeks have been largely organizational. The 1st Airborne Corps has been released to STAVKA for operations with the 1st Shock Army. The 5th Army is now responsible for the Kiev Area. Kiev is garrisoned by the 130th, and 189th Rifle divisions suported by the 19th Fortified Region. The F.R. has been strongly reinforced by an AA Bn plus an overstrength Sapper Rgt (Rgt + Bn). The fact that most enemy tanks have been destroyed by flame thrower speaks for the decision. The fortifications are strong and the banks behind Kiev are held in strength. If the enemy wants the city they will need to assault it directly. Additional fresh divisions are in place to support the defence and to exchange for the garission forces.

The 6th Army holds the east bank of the Dnepr river south of Kiev to Cherkassy. The 29th Army holds the west bank high ground north of Cherkassy securing the flank of the 16th and 12th Armies. The 16th Army is responsible for the area near Cherkassy itself. The 19th Army (STAVKA future Kharkov M.D./Front) used to continue the east bank defences southwards but it has advanced to support the Southern Front defensive lines or provide prepared positions for the 12th Army (Southwestern Front) to retreat into. The 12th has the key task of screening the Southern Fronts flank.

The last few weeks have been a welcome relief for the troops of the Southwestern front as the have been in serious combat before that for weeks. The 12th Army took a bloody beating in the last weeks before the bad weather stopped combat operations.

Southern Front

The Yuzhny Bug line has held though the 76th, 239th, 339th and 22nd Air Landing divisions supported by Rumanian troops managed twice to gain a bridge head over the Bug. The local forces of the 9th Army counterattacked both times and drove the Rumanian infantry divison back across the river in dissarray but in each case they paid in blood, with both sides taking 4000 or so casualties in each battle. The 51st, 116th, 218th, 253rd, and 274th Rifle divisions, 9th Cavalry divison and 23rd NKVD Rgt took part in one or another or both of the battles. The onset of the rain allowed the troops to dig in but it is unlikely the enemy will not attack there again.

Worse is north along the Sinyukhna River. The invader punched back after being driven back and then struck north widening the bridge head. The 11th and 13th Pz Divisions plus the 1st Geburg and 50th Infantrie divisions are now on the east bank. The 18th and 51st Armies have reinforced the area around the bridgehead but it is unlikely they can stop such a potent enemy force when the ground freezes. The 3rd Airborne Corps is still present but STAVKA has request it be sent north once Rifle brigades arrive.

The Coastal Army continues to fortify the Sevastapol area and Kerch pensula in general.

Cacassaus Front

This is a new front and has taken over responsibility for Rostov. It has a single mobile formation the 54th Army which is undergoing training excersizes currently.

VVS

While the enemy has been relatively quiet on the ground in the air it is a different matter. Our operations have been pared down to a series of regulation attacks. During the night Lufwaffe air bases are hit with massed bomber raids (100 planes designed about 33% fly) on their bases near Smolensk and Kiev. During the day the Black Sea Fleets BAP's strike at an exposed air base and so far have total an impressive number of planes destroyed on the ground. Our efforts against the Finns have been described before.

Exposed enemy forces are attacked by daylight bombing runs of tactical and heavy bombers but these have not yielded good results. Nightly raids by NBAP groups continue. The efforts might change to hitting poorly defended targets rather than flying through the flak of one of his panzer divisions.

Our forces have been hit by strong enemy air raids but when the numbers are talied at the end of the week his level bombers are down by 50 or more. For a few weeks the losses to our Mig groups near Moscow was very high. It has been bad enough that no more Mig groups have been raised in 3 weeks but still in the last weeks over 200 enemy air craft have been destroyed. The cost has been most of the reserve of 1-16 type 24's though. Only some 270 I-16 Type 29s remain with around 100 of the more obsolete types. The I-153 has been very sucessful against unescorted bombers with one group shooting down 12 He 111 and Ju 88's on a strike against the Northwestern Fronts BADs. Our pilots are gaining valuable experience and the enemy is taking casaulties we don't think he can afford. His planes fly more reliably then ours but still our total stands at 681 total enemy kills in air to air combat. In addition the enemy bomber forces have started to turn back, so we are damaging their morale at least somewhat.

The Bryansk front air groups have gotten the first of the British Hurricane II fighters and are the first to try out the Pe-3 fighter bomber. New ShaD airbases are helping and some bases have been repositioned in the last weeks to aid in their defences.

Overall the national reserve continues to grow by a recon group, 2 transport groups, 2 night bomber, 2 IL2 tactical bomber, and 3-4 fighter bomber groups per week. Even with the high Mig losses we have over 1700 modern fighter bomber air frames in the pool. Our IL4 stocks are low but our Pe 2 reserve is large and growing.

Production

The T60 is a welcome relief large number of a useful light tank will ba huge benifit. There is for the first time a large supply of T34's spare as the covertion of a few formations freed them up. Production of tanks is: T60 108, T34 126, KV1 47 with the British adding in 26 Valantine III and 10 Matilda's. The Valatines are already in 4 tank Bdes.

Aircraft production is inspiring. 280 or so fighter bombers, 200 tactical bombers (half of that IL2), 80 level bombers, and 140 misc planes.

Heavy artillery, anti-tank guns and rocket launcher trucks are in desperate demand.

Around 10 battalions of ski troops in total have been raised so they can train up for the upcoming winter.

Losses

On a more sobering note, the Red Army and Airforce has so far lost the following:

Men KIA: 561K
Men Captured: 538K
Men Disabled: 572K
AFV lost: 10000
Artillery: 27355

Fighter Bombers: 7565
Tactical Bombers: 799
Level Bombers: 2665
Recon: 422
Transport: 393
(Flak losses: 1349, Operational losses: 4076)
Total: 11844

The Hitlerite Invaders and their allies have lost:

Men KIA: 232K
Men Captured: 22K
Men Disabled: 260K
AFV: 2051
Artillery: 5186

Fighter: 943
Fighter Bombers: 107
Tactical Bombers: 398
Level Bombers: 1081
Recon: 272
Transport: 227
(Flak losses: 609, Operational losses: 1713)
Total: 3028

Player Notes:

House Rules (additional):
1. No manual changes of commander. I take what I get. This is tough as the commander of the 1st Shock is a dunderhead.
2. Limited manual air group changes. I largely leave this up to the AI and it is doing a good job so far as I can see.
3. Only one air strike per hex per day/night segment.

On SU I do things apparently differently. I've got STAVKA set to 4, Fronts set to 3, Armies set to 2, and Corps set to 1. What I find is that the AI will push stuff down the corps and then its only negative thing is it will not balance out the assets. So you see one army in the front with 2 of and another army with none of. I've found the AI does an acceptable job of making sure things are evenly distributed but I've taken to the odd manual adjustment here and there.
One thing I have found is that to get stuff into a F.R. the following proceedure works best. Build what you want to put in, then lock the HQ. Next turn put it into the F.R. and unlock the HQ. I've also seen stuff hang in STAVKA building up which is good but anything it can fill out in a week tends to move out quick.

Some things I've noticed on SUs:
1. Rockets build very slow, so you might want to start building a Bn early, it will take about 6 weeks to the 12 launchers. Seems to be 2 per week, but I just built 4 so it might go faster still it is slow.
2. Sappers will apparently kill more tanks then your tanks in 41. Almost all the tank kills I see are from flamethrowers.
3. Guns fire first in combat, mortars fire twice and fire a lot. Mortar battalions are not a bad investment.
4. Move your RR construction regiments to your Front HQs they stay put and can do their job.
5. Try to avoid using the "get function" to get an attachment to an HQ. Go to the SU you want and assign it directly to the HQ as otherwise you can get a half build formation or one from STAVKA rather than from the Front.

Air War Observations:
1. The I-153 is a good plane against un-escorted bombers. My top 3 groups are: 2 MTAP-ChF <IL-4>(37 kills), 184 IAP <LaGG-3> (22 kills), and 237 IAP <I-153> (20 kills). It is probably better than the I-16 Type 5, 18, and 24 from my experience.
2. I can't wait to stop taking absurd fighter bomber losses during bombing misisons, 1.02 official patch come quick.
3. Night bombing is hit and miss (lots of misses), especially of airfields but it is the only way to do unescorted bomber strikes.
4. Other formations on an airbase can get dinged by 1% when a single formation flys this is not automatic but for safety I fly all formations of the same type at the same target. I've noticed this happens too with recon planes so I'd recommend not mixing recon planes with strike craft.
5. Your ground support is spotty and piddly. I rarely see more than 10 bombers, but I do see large commitments of fighters (may be the screwed up air doctrine settings).

Enjoy. Sorry for the delay but I wanted to get the mud season by.

[comsolut]

Thanks for the player notes. I almost always copy these and add them to my growing pages of advice.

[randallw]

Be aware, after the mud stops and it gets cold the computer will start attacking again, for one or two turns, before the blizzard arrives.&nbsp; Then it starts pulling back slowly.

I'm a few weeks farther in a campaign then you are; some of my better jobless generals were assigned to command one of the new airborne corps; almost a waste of talent.

When the computer overextends itself it will fly supplies to it's ground way out front; I forgot to set some fighter units on nighttime duty to hack at the transports.

[randallw]

These tank brigades are awful; I can't wait until I can put them together for tank corps.

[PMCN]

Comsolut, in this case both thanks, I am glad to be an assistance, and I hope my advice is good. I tend to think the best thing to do is what was done in real life. My definition of a good game is one where what works in real life works in the game and additionally what works in the game would work in real life.

Randallw, the only place this is extensively done is in around where the 22nd-31st Armies are and I have no fighter cover in that region. A great thing to use I-153's for in my view. I have just experienced the first week hard freeze...oh my god...the Panzers are back at it again. As for the Tank Bde, yes they lack punch but interesting to me was that even one that got mauled still had most of its KV1s and half of its T34s (I figure the lost one were damaged then lost in the retreat). I want Corps as well...heck even the 42b division would be nice.

Zhukov showed up in command of the Volkhov Front. I wonder if that is historical...but I figure at least in this game he won't gain the nomiker "The General Who Never Lost A Battle." I'm not a fan of the man, but I now understand his thinking.

[randallw]

Yes, the panzers start rolling again once the mud freezes; this is probably a 'cold' turn you are hitting, rather than the blizzard.&nbsp; ( check the wheather zones )&nbsp;&nbsp; When you reach a blizzard the computer will slowly start to retreat and stop sending out recon flights.
&nbsp;
Tank brigades don't do much on their own; I tried stacking them with a rifle division, which sort of helps.
&nbsp;
Right now i've reached January 1942; I have the brigades sitting in the rear, training up; by the time spring comes around they'll be decent and i'll see how they defend themselves then.&nbsp; Throwing them in a fight with their 40 morale and 30 experience ratings is like tossing money into a well.

[PMCN]

Yes it is just snow, not yet blizzard. Snow and Ice Level 5 in north Soviet. I am using random weather so I got snow in october and then mud by luck for an extra week, so I had mud with ice level 1.

I find that they do a good job rounding out rifle division fire power.

I had my brigades in the rear for the most part building for several weeks. I try to send nothing into combat that doesn't have a morale of 50. I have 2 Tank Bde with CV's of 2 that I just spotted. Experience is 51, Morale is 51. I have a few Rifle divisons that are experience 63, Morale 63 and then there are the Guards units. I also noticed that all of a sudden my airborne regiments suddenly shot up in morale and experience so some of them are CV 2...and I consider CV 2 for a rifle division a good rating...which is a joke when you think that German Infantry divisions have up to CV 12 (possibly I've seen a few higher) and Panzer divisions have CV 20 not to mention pioneer battalions with CV 3.

I have, though I don't talk about it much, a lot of divisions sitting near Stalingrad, and Stalino plus the Cacassaus Front that are just sitting there training away. The only thing I have done is force grown the brigades as they don't take much resources.

One thing I noticed is that refit in a quiet area will quickly build up a units morale, it take several weeks for the experience to grow. Is this the same with you?

I've also seen that units that are in the front lines slowly loose morale due to attrition combat it seems. Have you seen this? It was really obvious in the north against the finn's. One reason I started pulling back the front line units and refitting them, mainly to push up their morale again.

[randallw]

Units adjacent to enemy units suffer attrition and fatigue; whether the fatigue causes the attrition, increases it, or is just separate, I don't remember.

Sometimes you'll see nasty fatigue numbers for those units in contact, like about 60, even when they are not being attacked. [:(]

Units train, by themselves, up to the morale level; morale can increase by more than 1 point in a turn, so the experience is forever chasing the new morale.

I am also playing random weather, though lots of people hate it.

I've reached the first week of Feb 1942; some of the tank brigades&nbsp; that arrived in the rear are around 55 exp/morale; some of the ones converted in the field are a little better.&nbsp; I have about two months left to get them ready before the panzers come again; the defensive front by the computer doesn't have the panzers forward too often, though I managed to surround and kill one. [:D]&nbsp; The others I spotted took quite a few armor losses when I attacked them, about 50-60% of each division's inventory.

[randallw]

How many Guards units do you have? I'm up to 6 rifle divs, a cav corps, and a naval rifle brigade; they are all out of the front line to train up more.&nbsp; Unfortunately a few earlier ones became stranded and died.

[PMCN]

I have 5 Guard Rifle Divisions. All of them are being pulled from the line to refit for the upcoming counter attack that Comrade Stalin has been hinting at would be a very good idea.

Yes units in contact are assumed to be conducting low intensity combat operations, but what I have been seeing is their morale going down after a while, so it is really required to have a reserve. Which in most cases is nearly impossible. I'll have to force myself to do so in the future though.

I got the 16th Pz in the 2nd week of the game.

[PMCN]

20/11/41 STAVKA

The hard freeze has started and the roads are again usable by the enemy. They have launched strong attacks over the front, it seems they were able to get some supplies to the front line panzer units after all. Our men are being forced back but the progress for the enemy has been significantly slower then feared.

The commanding officer of the 3rd Airborne Corps Vasily Glazunov is promoted to General-Leytenant and his men are told they should be prepared to return to Moscow as soon as possible for training for an important upcoming mission. Comrade Stalin steps in to express his displeasure with 32nd Army commander Nikolai Klykov who is now on a train for Novosibersk while General-Leytenant Mikhail Parasegov is the army's new commanding officer. He is not known for his military brilliance but he seems to be a proper communist. We shall see how long he retains his place.

Leningrad and Northwest Front

The Finns are clearly plotting something as they keep re-arranging their troop dispositions but so far the 7th and 23rd Armies are conducting rest and refit breaks for their divisions.

The land west of Novogrod is again the scene of attack and counter attack. The 9th and 272nd Rifle division supported by the 45 Tank Bde are hit by over 2 Corps worth of enemy troops. The 1st, and 8th Pz divisions, the Totenkopf SS Infantrie (M) divison, the 3rd and 36th Infantrie (M) divisions and the 269th and 94th Infantrie divisions assault them. Around 105,000 men, 172 armoured vehicles and 1257 guns out number the defenders who have only 18,000 men, 191 guns and 33 tanks. The losses favor the enemy as 6791 men, 141 guns and 17 tanks are lost on our side to 1499 men, 34 guns and 8 tanks on theirs. The 286th Security division of all things advances to secure the ground. General-Mayor L. Govorov rallies his troops and launches a counterattack on the security division. The 286th Security division musters only 5000 men, and 90 guns while the 9th, 11th Rifle divisons supported by the 25th Cavalry division and 45th Tank Bde outnumber them with 24,000 men, 248 guns and 31 tanks. The battle is distressing in the extreme as it seems the enemy is equipping his security troops with captured weapons, 1 tank, 909 men and 7 guns are lost in the attack even though we outnumber the enemy nearly 5 to 1. Our troops advance through a hail of machine gun, rifle and mortar fire to finaly drive off the invaders forces. The estimates place their losses on par with ours at 833 men and 28 guns.

The Hitlerites score a major victory to the west reducing the Narva Fortified Region by direct assault. Based on the reports the battle was close and only some cleaver tactical maneuvering allowed them to breach our lines over running the strong points (Final Odds: 2.1:1 and obvious doubling). The 21st F.R. with its attached 103rd AA Bn plus 24th Sapper Bn were lost while the 126th and 181st Rifle divisons were forced to retreat loosing 3856 men, and 96 guns from their starting 18,000 men and 231 gun. The enemy committed the rebuilt 16th Pz division plus a full infantry Corps of the 61st, 95th and 217th Infantrie divisions. Their losses were high at 1499 men, 34 guns and 8 tanks. The artillery park in the F.R. caused serious casaulties to the enemy during the fighting.

Volkhov Front

General-Armii Gregory Zuhkov is granted command of the newly formed Volkhov Front and he assumes responisiblities for the 28th, 31st and 48th Armies along with a mix of divisions and regiments.

The enemy launched strong attacks on the 31st and 48th Army positions driving them back some 30 km disrupting their lines seriously. To recover some ground a counter attack was launched against the 207th Security division in Lychkovo by the 21st, 243rd, 265th, 313th Rifle divisons and screened by the 41st Cavalry division in a join operation between the two armies. Our forces outnumber the ememy by nearly 9:1 and 3 IL-4's show up to bomb them. Still even with an advantage of that magnitude our losses are again nearly identical at 1034 men and 10 gun to the invaders 1060 men and 18 guns but they are diven out of the town. The lines are then reformed and we shall see what the enemy does next week.

22nd/54th Armies STAVKA

The enemy drove our men back and then slipped an infantry division around threatening our rail link. As the 254th Infantrie division is very exposed the local forces maneuvered to isoloate it, and called on the Northwestern's Front lone airborne brigade to seal the envelopment. The 9th Airborne again dropped, but they scattered baddly and only a battalion has so far reformed (426 men and 7 guns) but that should stop easy flow of supplies to the invaders. The 17th Rifle divison will need to resist any counterattacks launched against them for at least a week. If nothing else this may distract the enemies.

Kalinin Front

The invaders launched multiple attacks against the armies of the front. The forces of the 29th and 34th armies were driven backwards while the men of the 24th Army stood firm. The defences of Rhzev: 250th Rifle division, 142nd Tank Bde, and the 31st Fortified Region (with 7th Sapper Bn and 176 Mortar Bn attached) were hit by the 12th Panzer division, the 18th Inf(M), and the 110th Infantrie divsions plus 160 bombers. In total around 44,000 men, 495 guns and 77tanks hit the cities defences destroying the forward bunkers and breaching several mine fields. The fighting reached the edge of the city before the defenders were able to stop the advance. In a rare case our casaulties were lighter then the enemies who lost 1340 men, 36 guns and 4 tanks ...mostly due to close assault as is usual. The 18th Inf(M) division then attempted to force our men to the south of the city but the position was held in strength by the 91st, 119th and 279th Rifle divisons even the addition of 63 bombers helped them not at all. For a few hundred casualties on our side the enemy lost 1889 men and 39 guns. The combat strength of the 18th Inf(M) division is now severly depleated.

The 34th Army launched a counter attack against the 221st Security division with the standard results seen before in the week. The 211th, 245th, 251st, and 257th Rifle divsions supported by the 122nd Tank Bde with a total strength of 43,000 men, 367 guns and 41 tanks assaulted a mere 5000 men and 58 guns and although they drove the enemy off lost 814 men and 1 gun to the invaders 870 men and 17 guns. 8 to 1 odds and we can't even inflict high casaulties on a security divisions second line infantry.

The Front re-organizes its front line formations, exchanging several burnt out divisions with fresh troops from around Moscow. At the same time the 30th and 33rd Armies move into the woods behind the Front and begin digging in. The two rail lines leading to Moscow are now blocked with troops and Cavalry takes up positions screening the flanks.

Western Front

The 4th Army's positions on the northern flank are struck with a massive attack allowing the enemies 17th Panzer divison, Das Reich SS Inf(M) division and 35th Infantrie divison to penetrate 20 km past our line. The 10th Army positions are also hit with more than a full infantry Corps worth of troops and driven back in disarray. There is little to be done but re-organize and establish new blocking positions though. Luckily several fresh divisons were near as it had been intended to swap out depleted units and so the enemy will be forced to fight for his advances again.

Bryansk Front

All is quiet along the Desna line.

Southwestern Front

The enemy launched a massive armoured onslaught on the 12th Army smashing through its defences, scattering its troops in disarray and opening the path to Cherkassy and the Southern Front. The 12th suffered baddly at the hands of the enemies panzers and infantry but the bulk of the troops rallied and the 240th Rifle division and the 60th and 96th Mountain divisions hit the 108th Hungarian Security Bde. This time numbers counted for more, as we took a mere 318 men and 2 guns in casaulties compared to their 611 and 3 guns, still we started the battle with a crushing 5 to 1 advantage in men an 20 to 1 in artillery even if they got 30 bombers in support while the VVS waffled.

The enemy launched an attack on the 29th armies positions driving its troops backwards and nearly destroying the 2nd AT Artillery Bde in the process. The Bde has been withdrawn to the rear to recover while other divisons re-occupied the ground as neither the enemy's Wiking SS Inf(M) nor the 75th Infantrie division was inclined to advance.

Attempting to clear the positions to the flanks of Kiev the 197th Rifle division and 45th Tank Divison were struck by the enemies 25th Inf(M), and L.A.H. SS Inf(M) divisions plus the 44th, 62nd, 111th and 299th Infantrie divisions and for good measure he threw in the 369th Inf Rgt. He hurled 97,000 men, supported by 1238 guns and 11 tanks against our dug in troops, which numbered only 17,000 men, 132 guns and 98 tanks. Of those only the 16 KV1s are anthing but mobile death traps. The division commander dug his tanks in as pill boxes and even though the mine fields were breached and our forces took 2222 men, 23 guns and 50 tanks in losses the position held. The enemies losses were comparable (except in tanks where he lost none to 50) at 1827 men and 35 guns. The 5th Army commander reinforced the position with the 199th Rifle division a strong fresh formation which more than doubled the defensive strength of the position. As one of the few remaining Tank Divisions it is a matter of pride that it not be forced out of this positon.

Southern Front

The 51st Army's forces were driven back by the enemies attacks but they advanced and then counter attacked hitting the advancing 1st Hungarian Cavalry Bde with a massive counter assault. The 176th and 266 Rifle divisons, the 30th Mountain, the 48th, 69th and 88th Tank Bde's, the 23rd and 25th Rifle Bde's, and the 6th and 212th Airborne Bde's massed 49,000 men, 581 guns and 126 tanks in one of the strongest attacks we have launched in weeks. The enemy put up a bitter fight before being forced backward. The 1st had 12000 men, 138 guns and 25 tanks which makes it extremely strong for a formation called a brigade and it lost 1790 men, 28 guns and 13 tanks compared to our 1049 men and 7 guns.

The Coastal army was detached to the new Cacausas Front which significantly relieves the command burden on the Southern Front staff but nothing changes the fact that the enemy is close to forcing a general withdrawl from the positions along the Bug and Sinyukha Rivers. The enemy is poised for a thrust at Kirovograd that is not opposed in strength.

[randallw]

You should start getting a blizzard soon.&nbsp; The computer should start pulling back; you can start regaining ground.&nbsp; Try attacking with 5 or 6 divisions vs 1 infantry, it should work nicely.&nbsp;&nbsp; Also remember that you can start combining cav divisions into corps, beginning December.

In my game i've built a few ski battalions, which attach to Army HQs; it may take much of the year to get them to a good level of experience, since they start very low.

[PMCN]

The next turn they started to pull back. Regaining which ground is the question...

[PMCN]

27/11/41 STAVKA

The enemy blinked. Astoundingly enough with the gate to the Southern Front and Western Fronts nearly open wide, he pulls back. He has withdrawn forces from before Kiev and placed them between Moscow and Smolensk in a defence of considerable depth. This week was quiet as re-orgainization of air bases and plane assets was accomplished. Sad news reached us that the commanding officer of the Northwest Front Fyodor Kuznetsov was killed while inspecting the defenses of the Luga line by a sharp shooter. Marshal Semyon Budyonny has been tapped to replace him. Also the commander of the 34th Army, Mikhail Pronin, who has been holding his troops together in the face of the enemy's every efforts to destroy them is deservingly promoted to General-Leytenant.

Operation Titan

Command staff is working on a major plan to destroy the enemies forward positions and drive him back in dissarray. Privately they conceed that there is one place where it looks to be possible to make a substantial gain but that won't fly with Comrade Stalin at all who is demanding the recovery of the Smolensk plus securing the Velikei-Luki rail link and driving the enemy away from the Luga plus obliteration of the Rumanians.

Planning for the real operation is concentrated on two phases timed by the availablities of the Shock Armies and Airborne troops which will be working in conjunction. The 1st thru 3rd Guards Rifles will be assigned to the 1st Shock Army, and the 4th and 5th to the 2nd Shock Army. The 1st and 2nd Airborne Corps will support the attacks and the 3rd Airborne Corps will be in reserve.

Phase 1 objective is to over run the positions east of lake Ilmen and recover as much of its southern shore line as possible. Beyond that the goal is pocket and destroy as many enemy infantry divisions as possible. These units are in bad supply state and hopefully will draw the enemies attention north. At the same time limited attacks will be launched by the Northwest Front with the aim to regain the Narva line and then expand southwards but their real goal is to protect the Luga line and again draw the enemies attention north. But given the thickness of the defenders line it is dubious much progress will be made here.

Cavalry probes in the south reveal that the enemy has largely pulled away from the southern Fronts southern most positions. It may be possible to recover Odessa but the problem is that there is no good defensive terrain that way. However the 51st Army is authorized to conduct offensive operations west of the Bug with the aim of pocketing and destroying enemy combat formations. The SW Front will use the 12th, and 16th Armies to regain ground with the primary objective the troops before the 29th Army. Establishing a solid defence west of the Dnepr is the goal of the SW Front.

Phase 2 of Operation Titan is the prize. The enemy has a stetch along the Desna lightly guarded by allied formations. The Bryansk Front will assist the 3rd and 4th Shock Armies and the 5th thru 10th Airborne Corps in surrounding and anihilating these troops and then advancing to the Besed River and recovering Chernigov. This action has the highest priority. It will break the enemies line decisively and force him to redeploy away from Moscow. If we can achieve this it may be possible to pocket and destroy his forces before Bryansk as well.

General Winter is on our side, unfortunately the enemy seems forwarned of this. I suppose it is to much to hope for that they had not read War and Peace.

[randallw]

Generally the computer will pull back almost everywhere during the blizzard; it'll be one or two hexes at a time, not the whole line falling back but a few hexes here or there.&nbsp; It will also try to keep a solid line, putting attack-me units ( Rumanians, German security regiments, etc. ) to try to avoid a hole.
&nbsp;
Refit mode only helps a unit if it is understrength ( getting men/equipment replacements ) and/or if the morale is under 50.&nbsp; I had my Guards units on refit before re-reading the rules, now they are just simply out of the front line to have the rifle squads train up some ( to unit morale ) before going back in.
&nbsp;
I have 28 ( yes, 28 ) Guards Rifle divs, 4 Cavalry divs, a few Naval Rifle brigades, 1 AT Arty brigade, now in April 1942; this is against the computer on normal difficulty.&nbsp; The maps is starting to look like Christmas. [:D]

[PMCN]

Well the blizzard started, then the next turn was snow, now back to blizzard...so the AI got to plug up the holes I had punched in the lines. But on the whole it works not to bad for me. I now have more troops sitting near the "break thru" forces for the exploitation. Of course of 4 Shock armies 3 are commanded by dunderheads. I've not looked at the airborne corps CO's yet in detail.

The guards units were all at about 50% TOE so I need a turn or so of refiting to bring them up to reasonable strength levels. I use refit mainly to bring other units up to 50 morale fast. At the moment I am trying to limit how many units I am refiting and prioritize bde's because they don't draw that much stuff.

The week's respite makes a big difference. I now know the way the weather system works, it is only 1 die roll for the whole map and then the modifier gets added in...basically the second week of december I got a 1, since there was mud in the south.

But attacks against German units are brutal, losses end up being equal more or less, and only if I force a retreat. Only when I hit the Rumanians can I get the lots of them and few of us results. Do the german units get weaker over the length of the blizzard?

[randallw]

I think the Germans are at about 1/3 rd strength on each blizzard turn.&nbsp; The drop probably isn't cumulative, taking off 2/3 of each new computed level.

Taking losses as bad as German losses is about the norm for what i've done; try to attack with overwhelming numbers, like 6 divisions vs 1.

[PMCN]

18/12/41 STAVKA

Situation near Bryansk is developing well. 4th Shock Army breaks through lines but stuborn flank resistance keeps gap down to 20 km. 3rd Shock army is following the 37th Army through the gap the 50th punched in the line. The 37th has widened the gap driving back some key units but the 20 km entrace way is still blocking rapid advance.

((A snap shot before I advance the turn and the AI messes with my plans, the picture is pretty much self explainatory I think. Full update to come later.))

[randallw]

Don't forget the schedule for when you can build larger units from smaller ones: cav corps, tank corps, rifle corps, mech corps.&nbsp; You can order the creation of motor brigades in the first half of 1942; they'll fill out except for recon squads, which do not exist until some months deep into 1942.

[PMCN]

Player Notes:
Too much time watching the fights, I've got to go down to lvl 3 and just do them quicker. But it is interesting to see what is going on. I've seen more give and take in some of the battles, I think experience is the key here and my troops are all down in the 40's for the most part. The German GrW's are inflicting a lot of my casualties, but my artillery Rgt's are actually scoring pretty good hits in the initial bombardment 50 men and some guns is starting to become fairly common.

1. The blizzard-snow-blizzard sequence I got was both good and bad. That happening though managed to erase the gains I had made the first week so it was like 3 weeks less blizzard.
2. The AI is hard to figure out. I see units move the length of the map. The Pz's are now down on the shore of the Black sea. Also the allied units are still on the front lines. As far as unpredicatability goes the AI is doing a fine job, but its too early to say if it is doing good otherwise. It is causing me ZOC nightmares at the moment so it is not doing so bad a job. My advances have been glacial.

3. Airborne drops take a lot of transports if you want to get most of the unit there. I had 6 Li 2 Rgt's and a TB-3G-B Rgt and used them all dropping the 6 brigades and still one brigade ended up dropping with about 400 men. As the Li 2 builds slowly it will be a while before my fleet builds up again. Also, an undocumented feature is that after the drop all the planes go damaged and need to be repaired. Based on what I've seen include enough transpots to make the sorties more than double what the computer claims it needs. None of my airborne dropped at full strength and in all cases my "sorties available" were over "sorties needed."
4. Break throughs need a 30 km gap for the Russians in 41. You have to drive through the middle zoc-less otherwise you go no where fast and suffer from serious traffic jams.

5. I'm just now starting to see depleted German formations. I've been keeping track of who gets hit and some of them aren't getting much in the way of replacements. At least one intantrie division was down to 50% nominial manpower after 2 or 3 retreats. I'm not sure about the Rumanian units I've routed several and they come back nearly full strength a week later but I suspect that is not going to happen more often. The question I don't know the answer to is if the winter effects are cumulative but it is looking like they might be. At least my read of the rules again makes it look like it is. They take 5-20% disable each week, then they try to repair those so depending on the success of the repairs the can build up a stock of disabled units.
6. Panzer divisions in the blizzard are worth just retreating them. One took 40 tank losses on a retreat.

7. Pure Tank Bde attacks are interesting. Your losses are actually fairly low all things considered. It isn't a bad idea when you can mass your Bde's to do anyway...until you run into a LW Mixed Flak Bn...
8. This game is wonderful. It is the first one to have "friction." It comes from the random movement allowance naturally. I've gotten a lot of those things you read about, how a unit just can't get there etc. It is frustrating as all hell, but then it was frustrating as all hell so there you go. I've started to look at MP's and plan accordingly moving units one at a time and keeping high movement ones in reserve till later in the turn.

Will do so randallw, I've got a stock of admin points saving up as well. I'm building my second PVO AA Bde to thicken my flak over my forward airbases. I think I'll slowly make about 6 of these. I'll certainly build the stuff I can build and motorized infantry would be wonderful to have. I was thinking to build some Art Bde as well since I don't think I can afford the divisions yet. My ski bn's are in play attached to Cavalry Corps and are learning on the job.

Added in Edit:
I've also noticed that the number of divisions required to force a retreat is variable. Generally 3:1 works ok, but even a hasty attack by a CV 5 single rifle division on a Rum. Infantry Division would usually cause a route. It seems to be strongly dependent on how the rolls go. I would recommend making a list of who you hit and try to keep smacking the same division around. The 1st Rum. Armoured Division is made of sterner stuff and has so far only retreated. I've mostly been doing deliberate assaults and only the occasional hasty attack against really weak units. But it is hard to generate real momentum. For the those playing the axis side the key, at least looking at it from this side of the fence, is to keep a united front and don't leave exploitable weak units in it. I admit I go for the easy kills and try to avoid the tough fights and the result is starting to bear fruit as of 25/12/41 I have 2 pockets and several partial ones formed. If the enemy breaks his units out is the question since the "door" in at least one case is a single tank bde.

When fighting the german's especially when the unit is in a good fort expect to take on the order of 3,000-4,000 losses to force it out. The german losses will be about comparable. Against units in low fort levels your losses will drop by about a factor of 2, but it is unlikely that any attack on a more or less intact german infantry division will be lower than 1500 or so. You only come out even or ahead with the retreat losses factored in. The reason pure tank bde attacks suffer somewhat lower losses is because a lot of the fire is avoided since the weapons can't harm the tanks and you seem to close the range faster. I've noticed a lot less light tank losses since the T60 showed up as well. Also when looking at losses it seems to increment 1 destroyed tank for every two damaged ones (automatic cannibalization I guess). Your losses against the minor allies seem to be significantly more one sided...I've had 5000 to 200 losses on attacks on Rum Infantry divisions which is why I recommend strongly not leaving them to hold any section of the line. It is worth pointing out the AI seems to mix the line with Axis minor ally-German-Axis minor ally formations, but that just means I can punch gaps around the german divisions and start working forces into those gaps, it doesn't look like a good strategy to me.

One thing for the axis players is to not rely on high fort levels and I'd corset-waist the Rumanian's, by which I mean break down some infantry divisions into regiments and stack them with any units you have on the front line. I've had to bash head first through a strong defense line and it has hurt but I'm starting to seep into the cracks and "push" a bit to break stuff up. I can't suggest strongly enough to get the axis minor ally units off the front line in the winter. In cities and such I suspect they would do very well but in the open they fold like soggy drywall in a Holmes on Homes episode.

It is hard to make real comments on the AI at this point. It has stopped any major break thru's and has consistently moved units out of forming pocket situations but it plays musical chairs with it's divisions far more than seems sensible to me. I am not sure I see the reason why it suddenly sent its Pz divisions to the south for example, but it might be that I did a better job bashing that area of the front then I think. Still beyond the difficulty of seeing a plan behind its actions it has been doing a good job.

Another point is that air recon is nearly useless in the blizzard so you are often flying blind which is where cavalry divisions come into their own. I've seen messages "mission canceled due to extreme weather" during the air commitment phase for the AI as well. My planes are flying worth spit still. I have no idea why this is but I rarely see even a small fraction of my available strike planes commit.

It is certainly more interesting to be able to fight back then to be constantly taking it on the chin. I'll attach a mini update map on to this message later tonight.