My first Operational AAR (Leningrad)

[heliodorus04]

Well, crickets, it’s just you and me then… This is how I did my move:



Blue are my motorized elements (L Corps Commanded by Walter Model™ west, the other 2 northeast). I think the rail supply line to Leningrad is cut (CUT! – I think…). They’re not isolated, but supply now has to deviate from rail somewhere, right? I’m not sure where.

The red circles are the gaps in my front, and the lines are what I hope the AI does NOT do. Nevertheless, if the Soviets try to break out, my mobile elements can pinch off advances, and I have one corps of 16th Army in position to protect right or left flank. With luck, the Western-most corps of 18th Army can pitch in by T10.

I could have taken more NE, but my own line of retreat/supply dictated some caution. I am quite pleased to note, however, that the hexes Mynok pointed to around Tikhvin were free for the taking. That was a bonus, so I tried to save some fatigue by not moving too far north. What a shame the Fins can be boxed in behind static defenses so easily! Now I know why their morale is so high: they know they never have to attack…

[Mynok]

I did almost exactly as you did. Here's turn 6 positions. I used turn 7 to do HQ buildup for my panzers.

[Mynok]

Here's after turn 8's panzer thrust.

[Mynok]

After another HQ buildup on turn 9, this is the end of turn 10. Note that Leningrad is still not isolated.

[Mynok]

You have to take that port in the far north next to the Finnish border to isolate Leningrad. It will trace supply through all those fortified areas on the border all the way back to an open RR. Once I killed the fortified areas and moved Finnish units down to cut it off from the rest of the line, Leningrad was isolated.

No way this can be done against a human IMO. The two swamp hexes marked below would be absolute showstoppers with inf divs in them for any armored thrust.

[heliodorus04]

I tend to agree with you that a human Soviet would make this far less likely to succeed.  The AI over-commits to Leningrad itself, and not its supply link beyond that eastern-most port.

I'm one of the weaker historians amongst us, probably, but from what I've learned about Barbarossa, this is a pretty realistic problem the Wehrmacht faced.  Each AG needed something important from one or more of the others if its goals were to be achieved, no?

Give me one more infantry corps, or god help you, 2 more motorized, and I might beat even a human AI mostly on speed (well, better players - not me!).

One thing my lack of historic perspective makes me wonder is: WTF was Finland even DOING in the war if it wasn't going to help attack LENINGRAD!!!  WTF[:@]

I digress.
I'll be trying for Lodeynoe Pole in the morning, and I hope to succeed...

[alfonso]

ORIGINAL: heliodorus04

One thing my lack of historic perspective makes me wonder is: WTF was Finland even DOING in the war if it wasn't going to help attack LENINGRAD!!!  WTF[:@]

To recover the territories they lost in the 1939-40 Winter War.

[heliodorus04]

Post-Recon, this is what we see this in the NE…



I have to make the encirclement close shut on this turn, I figure. I don’t know what became of the units that WERE in contact with I Corps (center bottom), and I’m hoping they didn’t get into that swamp too dispersed. I’m hoping I can just simply move north, attack a fort, get the Fins loose, and deal with the rest next turn. I’m going to fight where I have to this turn to take that eastern-most Ladoga port and shut the trap on Leningrad…

What I don’t know is how the movement mechanism best works to know whether I should move Infantry first, or motorized with infantry following… I’ll just have to experiment (no re-loading).

[heliodorus04]

And after my first phase of movement:



It all boils down to that fight. My blue lines indicate defensive perimeters I established. Note the SE panzer corps has yet to move. Note the Fins have movement left at the link-up site.

[heliodorus04]

And then...



I feel a bit of ambivalence, because I remember reading about the starvation of Leningrad, and it’s a pretty frightening thing to contemplate…
But congratulations to 4 Panzer Gruppe. Well done.

[heliodorus04]

And from there, it was 3 turns of deliberate attacks in Leningrad (maybe a fourth, I forget because the turns started moving so fast).

I held that line in the East, and in fact whatever reinforcements the Soviets had arriving, they didn't even bother attacking me anywhere along the line...

Anti-climactic to some degree, but a Decisive victory in which I bagged more than 1 million Soviets and literally occupied every victory hex at game end...