Case Blue Olivier(Axis) vs Keunert

[olivier34]

Hi Bonners. I could drive a corps toward Astrakan but only by roads or my opponent will be abble to rail wathever he wants from north to hold the city. I need to cut it from the Stalingrad area. Maybe some troops can cross the Volga and cut the rail line (they will suffer some supply problem).
I have the pps to play the avoid Astakan card (150 pps). [&:]

[olivier34]

25 August. I wanted to test the panzer drive card. I played it on the 24th panzer division. After an artillery shelling along the front and some air strikes, the 24th was abble to clear two hexes but failed to take the position heavily defended 20 kms north. The GD moves to the flank of the 24th. We will see if the 5TA is abble to counter attack them. The 24th lost 15 tanks and 300 men.

[Bonners]

ORIGINAL: olivier34

Hi Bonners. I could drive a corps toward Astrakan but only by roads or my opponent will be abble to rail wathever he wants from north to hold the city. I need to cut it from the Stalingrad area. Maybe some troops can cross the Volga and cut the rail line (they will suffer some supply problem).
I have the pps to play the avoid Astakan card (150 pps). [&:]

Well in my game (bearing in mind I'm new at this and playing the AI) I've crossed the Volga at Stalingrad and am working my way south on that side of the river as well. But it is slow going and I dont think my forces will be there by the October deadline - I would presume it will be even more difficult against a human opponent.

On the other side of the river I have sent one PZ Div south down the road with the infantry following behind - again the problem is getting the infantry there in time as there is no railroad to use.

Supply is an issue on both sides of the river and I am running regular air supply drops which unfortunately is coinciding with a resurgence in the Red air force. In other words I dont think I've come up with the solution yet, but am having great fun trying to figure it out!

PS great overall read on the AAR updates again.

[olivier34]

thanks to report what you have experience in your game regarding Astrakan Bonners.
I have decided that I will move some troops toward Astrakan and I will play the card if I see that the city is well guarded. I have to move near Astrakan to cut the rail line going south there. SHould be easy.

29 August.
I had launch a preventive attack against the 5TA. The soviets immediatly counter attack and made my GD retreat...(Some tanks had a bonus of +81 %...Who is in charge of the 5TA ? this guy is awesome but I want him dead [:@])
To respond to that offensive, I attack again with the 24th panzer division (again a "drive panzer card, +73% [:D]). This time they manage to push back some tank brigades but after that I retreat the 24th instead of pushing forward.
The 29th the recon reveal that the 5TA has withdraw 10 kms north...a good news for me because I don't have the supremacy in the sky now. I have again lost around 20 planes when attacking in this sector.
High command ask me to take Frolowo before the 8th of September ! Are they d... or what ! My thoughts were to defend here, not to attack...[8|]
Map before move :

[olivier34]

29th of August Overall Map
Strange...it seems that there is nothing in front of my 2A (Voronezh). The soviets have withdraw 30 or 40 kms west. I will do some recon but I don't have to move forward...what the point ?

[olivier34]

August 29
Here are my losses. Did not check them for a while and I realise how difficult is my situation. I lake a lot of fighters and tanks. I have request to OKH several times both of them. 300 fighters but with a low morale. I have moved some of them to the west. They should recover a little...I can't play a card to boost their morale like we can do for the infantry. If a reader knows the historical losses of the germans at this time of Case Blue, I would like to compare.

[MrLongleg]

The point of moving 2A east would be to shorten your long flank - that should be worth it...

[olivier34]

Right. That would certainly shorten my flank but I have to discuss with Keunert about this "northern border map" situation. Which army was holding the ground just north of the 2A ? The game is design for a german advance toward the Caucasus, not just eastward...I think that I will keep my front like this, to get something more historical.

29 August : Clear weather. I have reinforce the 6A because of the threat of the 5TA. The drive into the Caucasus has began. I have some panzers very far east. I need to supply them by air but I got a problem...see the screenshot...even an air drop 200 kms from my JU52 air base is not allowed. I am doing something wrong here. My Ju52 are around 200 on the same air base, therefore they suffer a minus 36%. I need help here [&:]

[Bonners]

Somebody else gave me the solution to the JU-52 problem. Set your current JU-52 to disband. On an airfield hex that is empty set up a new air transport unit, set its HQ to OKH and then put it on priority. Each turn 20 planes will filter from your existing unit to OKH and then to your new unit the next turn. Depending on losses you may have to repeat this process several times over, I've now got four JU-52 units.

Once your existing units get down to 100 planes remember to set back to receive replacements and not disband any more!

The minus percentage figure is due to the airbase only being able to deal with 100 planes at a time, same thing happens with other units, just not as noticeable.

[olivier34]

thanks Bonners. If I understand, I could not fly air supply mission because I had to many planes on the same airfield. Strange because I have been abble to fly some missions two turns ago...I will do some test because I really need those JU52 to be operationel.

[olivier34]

August 31 Clear weather
I have launch zero attacks this turn. The soviets are runing...I follow. The 6A is really powerful. Stalingrad is in good hands. High command ask to keep the city until April 1943. What do they fear ? War will be over in December [:D]
Von Manstein 11th army will lead toward the oilfields.
I have discover why I have lost the air war. [:(]. I allways thought that the air assets could be place anywhere on the map...most of them did fight with 0 bonus HQs....I have 35 prestige points but I should be fired immediatly [8|] What a .... I am.
I have spent an hour placing my air units carefully. Things will be different in the air now (but I face 500 fighters with only 300 of mine).
I begin to pay attention to the experience level of my troops too and the HQs. I have a HQ at +125 %. One of the 2A on wich I have played a lot of time the improve experience card. I may send this HQ in another part of the front when I get the opporrtunity. Probably under the command of 11A

[Isokron]

When I tested it it seemed like you could only do air supply to units fully cut off, not to units with bad supply but still being connected to okh through some mean. Not entirely sure though.

[Bonners]

With regards to air supply I have managed it on lots of units that are in yellow or blue supply, so it can be done. Not 100% sure about what supplies are delivered or how it is calculated. As far as I can work out you cant also fly with an air escort either, so you need to fulfil any missions with your fighters against enemy airforces first to lessen the chance of interdiction. As for the range, to the best of my understanding (although stand to be corrected) if your airbase is overloaded (i.e. over a 100) the lack of efficiency in the planes based there also affects your range.

And thanks Olivier, I hadnt even looked at my aircraft and their experience levels. If I understand it correctly, what you are saying is that I need to make sure htey are based within range of their relevant HQ unit to make sure they perform better? Doh! Hadnt even thought of that with regards to aircraft.

[olivier34]

I may open a thread about air supply...this is not very clear for me. Check your aircraft units Bonners and look at their HQs bonus. They need to be within range of their HQs (like the inf and panzers within range of their coprs HQs). I may launch an air operation against the 5TA and see how my fighters will perform this time. The problem is that they have an average morale and few experience...I have created another transport unit.Will check if the transfer of the planes is working.

[olivier34]

Sept 6 Rain weather
I had move toward Astrakan and across the Caucasus a panzer division. I wanted to cut the rail line going south of Astrakan. of course Keunert had rail some units there. I should not have done this move. The forward elements have zero supply stocks. The soviets attacks them. Here comes a rain turn. They can't retreat and are far from their HQs. The JU52 are not operational yet. My two units will be destroy the nex turn. (2400 men captured or killed).
Here is the supply situation during this rainy turn. I have taken a lot of little town but it needs around ten days to use them as logistical center.

[olivier34]

September 8
The soviets seems to stop retreating in the south. My forces takes position. There should be some fight the coming week.*
Up north, the front is quiet. The 4th the soviets have launch two attacks against the 384th infantry. The division has lost around 800 men but has hold the ground. I reinforce the position with the 75th infantry division. It seems that Keunert has move a lot of tanks in this sector. Does he plan a major offensive in the direction of Pitomnik ??
I move the 295th (blue arrow) to take a position on the flank.
Time to see if my air units are capable to conduct some attacks. All my air assets are within range of the 6A HQs. I launch two attacks (black circles). I know that there are a lot of AA guns around. I want to see what happen.
First attack : 50 fighters, 35 stukas result : 20 fighters lost on both sides but mine retreat (bad for the morale I guess). 5 sutkas down. Not a tank destroy...
Second attack : 75 Bombers (HE 111 and JU88). I forgot to select the escort but the soviet fighters don't entercept. I lost 5 bombers and the soviets are strike.

[Vic]

It is very interesting to read a human-human AAR that advanced so far into the game. Keep it up! Its interesting to see how far you advance towards Astrakhan with very small forces. And if possible post some more force comparison screenshots.

Best,
Vic

[olivier34]

Hi Vic. Very interesting to be so far in the game for me and Keunert too. We discover how the game engine respond to simulate this part of the war and I really like it. Thanks again for the awesome work, Keunert and I are having a lot of fun.
First time that I am playing a march toward Astrakhan (I have not played against the AI). I have done some mistakes but I think that advancing as far and fast as possible had to be done. It was maybe a little gamey to use some Eng and even an artillery rgt to do so. But I realise that now my small forces are threaten by the soviets. Keunert had done well, railing some troops along the rail line "Astrakan Kilsjar". I thought that I could cut it very easily...no. Now those forces are marching toward mine and they are very well supplied, not mine [:-]. I have finally been abble to supply them (only 40 Ju52) but the last turn, they have been intercepted.
By the way, I would appreciate if somebody could told be the shape of his luftwaffe at this stage of the scenario (morale, experience, numbers of planes) so I could compare. I am pretty sure that if I had not done those huge mistakes (organisation) I should have been abble to have still the air superiority.

September 16th
4 turns played this sunday (30 minutes per turn). I had to take some decisions to fast.
A Major mistake. I have launch the assault of Krasnodar in an hurry. The LIV corps had not take the perfect position and Von Manstein is not in charge of it. Only a +12% in the attack (Army HQ). The city hold the massive attack. 1 700 men lost an now I have a week to wait before being abble to attack again. I should have attack east and west of the city, almost encircle the town and take it easliy (I have until the 26th to get the reward).
The soviets had stop runing and built a line of defense (red line). The only part that I have been broke is along the Kuban river.

[olivier34]

September 16 (turn 40)
Anna is given has a new objective ! I have taken the city but left it. 2A cross for the second time the Don. Maybe a good idea. Keunert will have to react to that.

Definitly, the Stalingrad area is the more dangerous for the Axis. Let's rock here and see what the soviets have to respond. I think that I have left enough troops here. (3 panzer div, one motorised and a lot of infantry and artillery. Around 100 fighters, 80 stukas and 100 level bombers). I am glad to have replace Von Paulus. You cannot just defend against the soviets. An infantry well entrench on a hexe is an easy target for them (When of course they have their arty at full and they play some offensive cards)

[olivier34]

September 20th (turn 42)
I can't count on the Luftwaffe anymore but I have plenty of guns, more than 1200 tanks and very capable officers and staff.

To decide an all out attack of the 6A toward the 5TA has been a good decision. 5TA has been hurt badly. They retreat but we follow and the 40th soviet army has now to retreat too. Let's push again following the rivers that protect our flanck.

Up north, Anna has been taken without a fight. I won't advance along the north border map but an 100 kms south I will push forward with the 2A. (they need some exercices [;)])