43-45 campaign (Axis) Aditia vs Delatabel (Sov)

[Aditia]

Finishing up the update with some stats. OOB on the left is turn 2, OOB on the right is end of turn 10.

Basically, by the looks of it I am suffering badly in planes and AFV's. I really need to be more careful with those. Good news is that the Luftwaffe and FlaKwaffe are murdering the Red airforce. not fast enough though. I am doing well in regards to infantry squads and those numbers are actually increasing.

[Mynok]

Yes, I believe his air superiority won him that battle you posted, not his ground strength. He had almost 500 bombers there. [X(] Which is also why you lost 200 tanks.

[Aditia]

When I open turn 11 it proves to be an eventful turn.

Screenshot of the South, pre-move. Continued pressure at Kharkov, and he took the city. I am a bit dismayed that after a succesful defence shown in the screenshot, Kharkov fell to a hasty attack that started out with CV's 2.5:1 in my advantage. But his CV tripled and I was pushed from the city. West of Kharkov sizeable mechanized forces broke through 2 dozen miles. I will see if I can rout those with my panzer forces present.

At Stalino I learned a lesson: this noob had no idea that you should garisson ports, and he landed behind my lines. With the line in front of Stalino breaking and my having to divert reserves to deal with his landed forces, I am forced to fall back to behind the Kalmius river.

[Aditia]

In the Center the battle for Smolensk is still raging, breakthroughs there will force me to withdraw in such a way that will put Smolensk exposed on the line. The line itself is strong though. In the Bryansk-Kursk sector breakthroughs north of Bryansk will force me to abandon the section of front encircled in black and pull back 30 miles.

Encircled in red he managed to isolate a stack of 2 divisions and 1 regiment, including the Groß Deutschland division. I should have enough strength to rescue them, but overall things are heating up. I wonder how long the Wehrmacht will manage to keep up a fighting withdrawal, since only a select few parts of the line are strong enough to rotate divisions to the rear.

[Aditia]

After the german moves, the Smolensk sector is stabilised, but most of AGC is now giving ground under pressure. Especially around Bryansk the sheer weight of infantry and artillery is steadily pushing me back. The sector assigned to 2nd Panzer Army, north of Bryansk, falls back 30-40 miles to behind the Desna.

In the screenshot you can see that west of Kursk the Groß Deutschland was rescued, and both there and around Kharkov counter attacks exacted a heavy toll on his mechanized forces. Since this was one of the few (if not only) really succesful turns for me in terms of ground losses I have added them in the screenshot. It doesn't get better than this and usually is much, much worse =P

In the South the Stalino line withdraws behind the Kalmius without incident. Makeevka, one of the Stalino sister cities, is now attackable from 3 hexes.

Rifle Squads is still looking healthy

End of update.

[Mynok]

So did you rescue Gross Deutschland?

[Aditia]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


So did you rescue Gross Deutschland?

yer

[Aditia]

Turn 12. There appear 4 hotspots of Soviet activity:

- The battle for Smolensk is still raging. My line holds for now and is getting stronger. The city is at the wrong side of a river though and is vulnerable as the wehrmacht fortifies behind the river to the south and in wooded terrain to the west.

- The Bryansk sector. Masses of infanrty and artillery steadily pushes 9th Army under Model and 8th Army under Dessloch back. Dessloch's command inherited the Army from 2nd Panzer Army that withdrew this turn.

- At Kharkov the northern wing of Army Group South executes another 50 mile withdrawal. With 4th SS Polizei division arriving from the North we intend to make a stand here when the Soviets catch up.

- The battle for Stalino is now raging in full fury and the riverline north of the city is cracking. AGS counterattacks vigorously, but will not reoccupy hexes on the river to prevent horrific losses.

In the mean time the Groß Deutschland Division breaks through the line west of Kursk and arrives in the rear to play with some artillery units before making themselves scarce again. Extra rations of weißwurst and beer are sent by the commander of 2nd army as a token of gratitude for this morale boost.

The 211th ID that was destroyed at Orel has been reformed with Luftwaffe dropouts and is railed back to the front. Iron Crosses are promised to anyone that doesn't surrender in their first fight.

Screenshot of after German moves. OOB shows how hard I push the Panzer divisions for counter attacking to delay the Soviets from setting up deliberate attacks. At this stage I am still trying to hold on to ground as much as I can with the hope of holdinh out until mud, when the Wehrmacht expects some rest.

I also show my airdoctrine, which is focused on fighting the Red Airforce and interdiction. The Luftwaffe is just not effective enough in the ground support role at this stage on the defence and when it shows up, Stuka losses are horrific. On the offence I try to only attack with overwhelming force, so I don't need the Luftwaffe. The Soviet airforce is deadly when it shows up at ground battles so I do try to get as many fighters in the air as possible then.

Rifle squads still looking good.

[Aditia]

Turn 13

In the south the battle for Stalino is still raging. The line is holding, but barely. I keep counter attacking where I can to prevent deliberate attacks on my line in full force.

The pursuing Sovier armies from Kharkov are reaching my new line. The Wehrmacht prepares to stand fast and deny the Soviets access to the Dnepr from the north and guard the northern flank of the Stalino front. The Panzertruppen of Amry det. Kempf strike at the advanced columns of the soviets to delay them and give the men digging in some more time.

Screenshot of the South, after German moves.

[Aditia]

Turn 13, Centre

In the Centre, Smolensk is taken by the Soviets in a massive assault on the city (shown in screenshot). Bryansk also falls when Soviet CV triples and German CV is cut to 1/3rd. No doubt due to massive artilley strikes. Nothing is left of the city at this point.

Shown in red is the line I want to be on west of Bryansk during mud. It is now the end of september in mud is coming soon. To achieve this goal 9th Army and 8th Army execute a fighting withdrawal. 9th Army now really needs a rest.

All over the front the Wehrmacht is preparing for mud. North of Bryansk, orders are to hold at all costs at the current position. At Bryansk and Kharkov the Wehrmacht is digging in at new positions while fighting off the Soviet vanguard. At Stalino we try to hold the city, but we might need to retreat just before mud hits.

End of update.

[Aditia]

Turn 14, 10/3/1943. This should be the last turn of summer weather.

The Soviet commander seems to be stepping up the number of attacks.

Situational report per Army Group:

AGN
- Recon spots a Soviet build up in front of Velikie Luki. AGN requests reinforcements but the request is denied. AGN is told that they should trust their level 4 forts.

AGC
- Soviet advance near Smolensk halted.
- 8th and 9th armies continue their fighting withdrawal towards the sudost river line

AGS
- The new Dnepropetrovsk line (renamed Kharkov sector) is almost ready, southern wing keeps counter attacking to spoil Soviet assaults
- The battle for Stalino is still raging. Our line is about to get unhinged and spending cozy mud season in the city is unlikely.

Crimea
- Crimea still secure. We hold both sides of the Kerch straight

[Aditia]

Screenshot of the Soviet build up near Velikie Luki. For some reason I am content to not send reinforcements and tell 16th Arny and 3rd Panzer Army to handle it.

[Aditia]

Screenshot of the center. Note the numerous counter attacks 9th and 8th army execute to guarantee a mud season on the Sudost river. Soviet tank corps seem rather brittle.

[Aditia]

Screenshot of the D-town <-> Stalino line.

Encircled in red are the hexes that will most likely fall next turn, forcing a retreat from the stalino position.

Encircled in yellow is where I intend to fight. The best the wehrmacht has to offer is deployed here and this is the last minor river line between the Russians and the Dnepr.

[Aditia]

Turn 15. Mud!

Del made good use of his last summer turn and broke through in 3 sectors, including at Velikie Luki where I grossly underestimated the strength of his build up. Looks like he committed most of his armored reserves to this push and engineer units that I haven't seen before.

Screenshot of Velikie Lukie area, pre-move,

Since it is now mud there is nothing I can do about it now, apart from hugging his armored units. I will need to rail in reinforcements on the earliest non mud turn. I might have to execute a retreat from Leningrad to Narva and the Peipus due to the strength of this offensive but we'll see until it is clear that the Soviets can sustain this. The terrain here is still very good for the defender.

[Aditia]

His second breakthrough is west of Kursk. I will have to form a ring around it because of the mud. The tank brigade should be pushed back easily regardless of mud though.

Note that iin the north 8th and 9th armies succeeded in delaying the Soviets enough to spend the mud season with the Sudost line not even reached yet by the soviets.

[Aditia]

Finally the south (still pre-move), where he breached the northern flank of the Stalino line with multiple tank corps. Encircled in red his exploiting corps look rather weak tho, and I should be able to cut them off. I can muster the 45+ CV needed to bust that CV 3 tank corps holding the breach. Mud would mean a isolation now will mean destruction for 1 or 2 tank corps.

In the meanwhile the Stalino line shatters and the position has become completely untenable. We will execute a rapid retreat here since the armies holding the line are near exhaustion.

[Aditia]

Turn 15, end of turn. Velikie Luki

No reinforcements are in yet, since mud makes that kind of move futile. Since I play first when the weather clears I can do it then.

Encircled in red you see I retreated from a fortified swamp hex during mud. Why you ask? Because I am an idiot....

[Aditia]

Turn 15, end of turn. The South.

In the screenshot you see that I succeeded in cutting of 2 of his tank corps (I counted on it being one, but it retreated the wrong way, no doubt urged 'forward' by kommissars). It took 2 deliberate attacks, but after the first attack the tank corps was no longer combat worthy. I completely exhausted 5. SS Wiking in these attacks though, but hey, it's mud, they can rest while building mud castles.

The Stalino line has now started the great retreat towards the Dnepr. Mud should prevent the now retreating Stalino garrisson from getting cut off.

[Aditia]

Since this is the end of the 1943 summer campaign season let's look at the stats again, and do a recap of the summer of 1943.

It has taken until the end of the summer for the summer to force a general retreat by AGC and AGS, which is a good thing. The only real setback thus far has been the loss of one division at Orel and the surprise breakthrough near Velikie Luki this turn. Also this turn has seen the Soviets executing way more attacks than previously in an attempt to outkill our manpower production.

I am very content that the Vitebsk/Smolensk line is still intact, even though Smolensk has fallen to the Soviets.
Now that the Wehrmacht is retreating we get a chance to hit back at the Soviet advanced armor columns when they pursuit. Those tank corps are a much better target than the rifle corps we were attacking earlier in the season.

Finally in the South we have managed to stay east of the Dnepr until mud. This will force the Soviets to spend their winter offensive in trying to get over the river. Of course, after a few turns of freezing conditions, the river will cease to be an obstacle

And oh, this turn he kicked 17th Army from the east bank of the Kerch straight.

The stats:

- OOB is turn 2 <-> end of turn 15
- Soviet air strength is artificially low, since my opponent rotates units to the national reserve a lot. The Luftwaffe is killing a lot of planes though.
- Showing the production stats of some essential equipment. Note how most of the StuG's are tied up in support units (just like Panthers and tiger unfortunately). I have decided to disband a few StuG Bn's to get more of these machines in Infantry divisions.