Trippin' the Trappen

[LiquidSky]

Turn 23: June 25, 1942. Weather Awesome!



The Russian only retreat slightly! Foolishly deciding to try and hold back the oncoming freight train. I take advantage by launching a major offensive near the north edge of the map, spearheaded by the Gross Deutchland division with the 29th mot. I open up by launching fighter strikes on every city in range, finding russian planes on most of them. With his air suppressed, I attack and surround two divisons, one of which a strong Guards Rifle. 60 km to the south, the 5th Army's panzer korp pushes forward 10km against fierce resistance.




I notice that the divisions up here are in fairly good shape..with a lot of them near full strength.

[LiquidSky]

Rather then try and force my way over the river on the direct road to Millerowo, I play a Freedom card on my Panzer Corp and a speed card on the LAH. It pays off as my SS force a crossing of the Don over an intact bridge. Because the bridge exists, the LAH has plenty of movement left to push fowards 10 more km...while the Wiking (who had to wade the river) spends its time crossing. My opponent is fairly religous about blowing every bridge he can, and I can only fix them when I own both sides of the bridge.

Some of my units are starting to suffer from lack of supply because of the crappy terrain. 17th army is cut in two by two rivers and low hills, so I can only keep supply on one side or the other. One of the 'benefits' of using the hardcore supply rules.

[LiquidSky]

Losses continue to climb as the russians have crossed the 250k mark, and I am nearing 70k. I am mostly short on dive bombers and infantry, with some of my original panzer divisions light on tanks. (I am looking at you, Wiking!) I play an SS Panzer card although I should be thinking of saving my prestige points to ask Berlin for more time.

[Bonners]

Really interesting contrast with my own AAR in how to run a German offensive....keep them on the run! Couple of questions, I've never used the freedom card, what benefits does it give and what time do you use it, i.e. is it for use when you've broken through a line or does it help you break through? Also are you having much luck with air supply as that is how I'm supplying my troops over rough terrain, I've split my JU-52s into five untis to spread the supply out.

Did you do recons to find his air units first or did you just go for random attacks on towns? Your opponent is taking a fairly different approach to mine in where he is basing his airfields. Basically he is making sure that most of them are way behind the lines so I struggle to find them. your opponent seems to be giving you an easier job of taking out the airforce.

Again, bridges, in my game Isokron has made damn sure that I never find an intact bridge which always slows up my advance across the river lines and gives him chance to counterattack, I see your opponent is doing the same, definitely an approach I'll use when I play as the Soviets.

Fascinating AAR to read, I see you have already crossed the start lines for Case Blue, this could be a good Summer for you.

[LiquidSky]

I don't do much reconning anymore. Essentially, I will launch a mission to bomb some target, bringing a fighter escort. If a lot of Russian planes show up, then I know there are a bunch of fighters in the area, and I will strafe each city (without recon) since the fighters have to be close. (within about a dozen hexes of the front).

If your opponent has his airforce too far back, then you can ignore it. Youve won the air battle. Bombs away on his troops [:D]

Even if there are no fighters in the hex I am strafing, I will still get a chance to shoot down any that intercept. If I do this in a tight front, then my bombers are free to bomb, without bringing escorts...(and using up air stacking points)

Freedom is a good card....someways better then gamble. Raus has it as well as Manstein. You play it on a Corp, and EVERY division in that corp gains action points/attack/defense. Not as much attack/defense as a gamble, but the 15-25 Action points are very usefull. If you play speed on one of the divisions, it will also gain about 35 more AP, for a total of about 50-60 AP!


The bridges being blown are annoying, but I do fix them as fast as possible. It is disconcerting for him to lose units to blow a bridge (because of loss of action points, and me overrunning it) only to have me fix it the turn after. I send an engineer to every bridge on the frontline, even if he hasnt blown it, because it can be accidently blown by my air/artillery, and I like to have the EP build up.

Next turn I am going to contrast our strengths with the Case Blue start. So far I look to be ahead in land (as I own Sevastopol, and have pushed towards the three objectives)...however, I know he has a much bigger army...especially in tanks. He disbanded a bunch of his little tank brigades and motorized units so he could build tank corps earlier on, so there will be a lot of them running around later.

[James Ward]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



I don't do much reconning anymore. Essentially, I will launch a mission to bomb some target, bringing a fighter escort. If a lot of Russian planes show up, then I know there are a bunch of fighters in the area, and I will strafe each city (without recon) since the fighters have to be close. (within about a dozen hexes of the front).

If your opponent has his airforce too far back, then you can ignore it. Youve won the air battle. Bombs away on his troops [:D]

Even if there are no fighters in the hex I am strafing, I will still get a chance to shoot down any that intercept. If I do this in a tight front, then my bombers are free to bomb, without bringing escorts...(and using up air stacking points)

Freedom is a good card....someways better then gamble. Raus has it as well as Manstein. You play it on a Corp, and EVERY division in that corp gains action points/attack/defense. Not as much attack/defense as a gamble, but the 15-25 Action points are very usefull. If you play speed on one of the divisions, it will also gain about 35 more AP, for a total of about 50-60 AP!


The bridges being blown are annoying, but I do fix them as fast as possible. It is disconcerting for him to lose units to blow a bridge (because of loss of action points, and me overrunning it) only to have me fix it the turn after. I send an engineer to every bridge on the frontline, even if he hasnt blown it, because it can be accidently blown by my air/artillery, and I like to have the EP build up.

Next turn I am going to contrast our strengths with the Case Blue start. So far I look to be ahead in land (as I own Sevastopol, and have pushed towards the three objectives)...however, I know he has a much bigger army...especially in tanks. He disbanded a bunch of his little tank brigades and motorized units so he could build tank corps earlier on, so there will be a lot of them running around later.

Yes it is too easy to repair a bridge vs what it takes to blow one that I don't think it is much use to do.

[LiquidSky]

Actually, it is very usefull..it prevents armour from exploiting after attacking. Without the bridge it costs like 90AP to attack to get over the river...at a bridge, it is only like 30AP. But if you are not going to defend the other side of the river (and you should always defend the other side of a river!) (well...at least until the enemy shows up in strength along it)......then blowing it is just a turn or two delay.

[Keunert]

his positioning of air units is not good. they should be further back, just barely reaching the front line. this will make it a lot harder for you to find them and they will intercept just the same. disbanding tank brigades seems like a smart move on the soviet part. i have to remember this!

i am a little surprised to see how good you are doing. my trappenjagd experienced showed me a much better kill loss ratio than in Case Blue. also because the initial setup in Case Blue almost guarantees some pockets. did his 5TA arrive with reinforcements or did he create it by himself? it's not there at the start.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Bonners


Again, bridges, in my game Isokron has made damn sure that I never find an intact bridge

As the soviets I have blown almost every bridge but this one I missed due to command failure. You need 50 AP to blow a bridge assuming it blows on the attempt. In this case though I did not have 50 AP. I could have blown earlier turns but I had retreating troops to consider.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: Keunert

did his 5TA arrive with reinforcements or did he create it by himself? it's not there at the start.

No magic here I just took the coastal army out of sevastapool at the last moment and renamed it 5TA

[LiquidSky]

I should add that on the very first turn of the game, I built a hungarian army, a rumanian army, an italian army, a german army, and 3 german corps....recently I built a 4th german corp. Every turn it seems I get 100 or 200 staff, and occasionally (and randomly) I get an axis minor.

This game is different then the standard game. We use the advanced supply rule. We used free setup. I changed the supply event from 3/4 supply to full supply for the russians. And most importantly, I start the Russians at Strategic Position 4 instead of 5. It still cannot move any lower until Millerowo/Rostov/Voronezh etc falls, but he can no longer be dismissed for failing to take stupid objectives behind my lines.

And as it stands, right now, he has about 20 prestige, so it is not as unbalanced in his favour as I feared....there have been cities he was supposed to hold, that I overran. He may still have a dismissal problem when Stalin orders no more retreats, and he is one closer at 4 then he would have been....but he should also have more prestige as well.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 24: June 27, 1942. Weather: Sunny days, oh sunny, sunny sunny days!

The Russian guard division escapes my encirclement, after 5th Tank army comes to the rescue. However he leaves a rifle division behind to die. Casualties appear to favour me in the fighting. In the south, a lone SS tank regiment valiantly holds off the barbaric hordes! And for the loss of only 5 panzers.



The terrain was low hills, and even though he had 4 hex sides on me, he appeared to be only able to have enough ap's to attack from two. I assume from the low losses of his armour, that they probably didnt have enough ap's to participate for long during the battle either...leaving the 7800 riflemen with 25 45mm AT guns on the attack...for the loss of 1000 men.

Who says tanks cant defend? [:D]

[LiquidSky]

Around Voronezh, rather then retrap the escaping Guards Rifle division, I instead drive the GD and 29th Motorized for the river. Hopefully I will be able to defend my position to give a chance at crossing, but probably he will push my 29th back as his army has some teeth, and 4 sides on me.

As an experiment, I noticed that I now have over 3000 trucks at OKH from disbanding my independant artillery. So I rebranded the 82nd Infantry division and the 383rd Infantry division as Motorized divisions. I am amused to see that they keep the same troops they had before, so the tank regiment has over 2000 infantry I may park it by itself near the river to see if he attacks thinking its only tanks out in the open... no doubt over time it will return the infantry, and take in panzers. I will try and play panzer cards as much as possible to help it along...(until the cost gets too great)

[LiquidSky]

The battle for millerowo is slowed a bit as I consolidate my bridghead over the Don, instead of pushing the SS forward. 11th army captures most of the rail line that leads south to Rostov, which will greatly assist my supply efforts down there...only a city stands in the way and the italians are tasked with taking it next turn!

The northern pincer heading for Millerowo cuts through the line (again). No doubt it will only cause the Russians to retreat further.

I should have taken a picture around Rostov, but basically my Hungarians are covering the city, with the Italians on the right flank pushing east, and the Rumanians (who finally have shown up) in reserve behind the Hungarians...probably plotting how to stab them in the back.

[LiquidSky]

Turn 29: June 29th, 1942. Weather: Rain rain go away, come again when Soviets foray!

Well..not much to say....Soviets retreat over the river by Voronezh...and pull back away from my SS towards Millerowo. I cant move and attack in this awful weather, and I have some supply problems to boot.

So..since this would be the first turn in Case Blue..I thought I would do a comparison..

Total Troops: ME: 737.5K, Case Blue: 766.4K

Dive Bombers: ME: 245, Case Blue: 345

Fighters: ME: 435, Case Blue: 490

Bombers: ME: 630, Case Blue: 680

Guns: ME: 8115, Case Blue: 7056 (and I thought I had a gun shortage!)

Infantry: ME: 700k, Case Blue: 727k

M-Tanks: ME: 1430, Case Blue: 1555

L-Tanks: ME: 185, Case Blue: 295

Trucks: ME: 25.7k, Case Blue: 27k


Prestige: ME: 31, Case Blue: 10

VP's: ME: 312, Case Blue: 282

OKH Requested replacements: ME: 3157, Case Blue 890.



I should have looked at the Russian numbers...I can look at the graphs next turn, but my gut tells me his numbers will all be higher, except aircraft (he has less then 300 fighters left). All my numbers are less, except guns, which for some reason is over 1000 guns higher! I will have to dig in closer to see what types I have that are higher.

Of course numbers don't tell the whole story....I am only a few hexes from Millerowo....adjacent to Rostov, and pushing past it east, against the river north of Voronezh, and two hexes from the city itself...although Berlin wants me to take these cities practically a month earlier then the Case Blue times. As well, I have played cards which have gotten more expensive to play....fighters twice, infantry once, tanks a few times. More time once. Ambition three times. Staff a few times.


Too early for me to tell if I have an advantage over Case Blue or not.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky




Of course numbers don't tell the whole story....I am only a few hexes from Millerowo....adjacent to Rostov, and pushing past it east, against the river north of Voronezh, and two hexes from the city itself

Pretty obvious I am conserving the russian army as priority one at the expense of dirt. Be interesting to see how I look come Sept 1942 trading space for units. At some point I will have to hold at all costs, but atm thats not a concern.

Lock and load.... later

[LiquidSky]

Turn 30: July 1, 1942. Weather: Dry

Due to the weather being mud for the Soviets, he didnt launch any attacks, and only pulled back a little bit (over the River at Voronezh). In a lot of places, he stood firm, and even built a fortification in front of the SS on the railline to Millerowo. I think that fortifications only increase the maximum entrenchment level of the hex, and don't give any other combat benefit, so I think it is a waste to do it on a front line position.

Most importantly, my opponent fails to blow the northern most bridge on the Don, north of Voronezh (he says he failed on several attempts), and my GD mot, and 29th mot, personally led by the Army commander, with the Corp commander helping GD, take the bridge. 5th armies, panzer corp reinforces the bridgehead for further operations in two days...

The Luftwaffe concentrates on blowing every bridge leading into Voronezh, and succeeds on two bridges, but fails on the third.

South of Voronezh, the 2nd army pushes forward through the low hills towards the Don, inflicting major losses on the Russian 21st army. I suspect that because of the crappy terrain, and the mud weather, his rifle divisions were on low supply.

In the middle, instead of sending my panzer korp south towards Millerowo (since I think that III panzer can take it without it's help), I decide to have it cross the Don heading north to help take Voronezh, by unhinging his defense line. Problem is, I know his 5th Tank army will be up there somewhere, so it could be in for a fight.

1st panzer army: Disaster! After huge luftwaffe strikes on the new fortification, followed by a massive artillery barrage, Raus gambles and loses! With a -20% to the attack, the SS try to push up the railline, but the Soviets repulse them. At least I took his entrenchments levels down to near 0, for a renewed assault next turn. The rest of the III panzer sits tight, to recover from the hit.

The Axis minors continue to move east along the Don to cover the flank with Rostov....this allows more Germans to be pushing east against the Russians. The Italians take the last rail hex to have a clear line back to OKH for supply on the other side of Rostov, and celebrate by also pushing over the river into a swamp hex. No doubt it was easy because the russians couldnt supply it very well, but then, I may not either, although my Corp and Army HQ are on the rail line on the other side of the river..

Losses were heavy for the russians...around 25k infantry killed/captured to around 5k of mine.

[wallas]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



Turn 30: July 1, 1942. Weather: Dry


South of Voronezh, the 2nd army pushes forward through the low hills towards the Don, inflicting major losses on the Russian 21st army. I suspect that because of the crappy terrain, and the mud weather, his rifle divisions were on low supply.

Actually due to mud they where out of suppply and worse the 21 army suffered a 63 point command failure and where unable to move

[Keunert]

great aar! i really enjoy following this. btw do you plan to update this game to 1.04?

[LiquidSky]

I looked at it, but I am pretty sure that 1.04 is mostly fixes in the scenario (and rules within) then the game engine. Which wouldnt change in our game. So we are going to plod along...I will try and make a seperate folder for another game, so it can be 1.04 and I can 'poke' around it..

Fixes and Improvements


Sevastopol extra auto-repair is now working as it should in all rounds (as opposed to only in round 1). Also raised the extra auto-repair from 250 points to 350 points. If you keep some red fighter units on intercept it should be possible to keep Sevastopol in supply now.

German minor orders will no longer be issued outside the historical area scope of the Case Blue plan. Roughly following the Don River – Stalingrad – Wolga – Astrakhan line. Everything north of that line will not be used for minor orders.

Trappjagd will now not let Soviets have major orders initially because Soviets now only get major orders at level 6 or higher (used to be level 5 or higher).

U-2 acts as bomber now; no more kamikaze intercepts by this bi-plane bomber.

Make High Command actually tell you "it agrees to not give you the order again, but that you still have to fulfill your current order" if you play an avoid card but already received the order before playing it. Also adjusted the text on the avoid cards to mention “again” so it is clear it will not cancel your current order.

Fixed a bug with the avoid Krasnodar, Grozny and Baku cards not working as intended.

Give major order avoid actioncards back (since they have been taken away after capturing the objective) to player if not played yet and you lose a key city.

Added variant for FOW on statistics for players who don’t want to be able to see the Soviet force size and composition. All statistics will become visible after the game has been won however.

Oil more strained. 2k less oil for Germany at start. Even 1k less in August. Even 1k less in Sept.

Make sea 2 instead of 3 AP points for soviet sea supply to avoid to much damage to the west of Caucasus if rail link is cut.

Soviet reinforcements Extra infantry 700 per round in July&Aug [10K per month extra] and 1400 extra per round in Sep&Oct [20K per month extra]. This means that by November the Soviets will have received 60K extra troops.

Max command points saved up for any officer is 20.

Made the offensive corps and army cards slightly less effective. Also fixed a calculation mistake in Gamble, it will now actually misfire sometimes, making it a real gamble. Also adjusted the cost of a number of cards upwards and one (Supervise defense) downwards.

Supply is no longer already consumed in setup turn when playing with free setup variant on.

Looking at this list, and how it would have/will effect our on going game:

The first one, I already put in...although the autorepair was 250. Will only help if supply can get by the air blockade, and if I bother to bomb the port (which i never did in my game)

Minor orders...I like this one, and was hit in previous games by some pretty weird orders. This game, I havent advanced far enough yet for that to be a problem, but I imagine it will later.

Trappjagd ...I put the soviets on defense level 4 immediately, so the only major orders they would (and did get) would be defensive. The soviets have gained some prestige, but also lost a bunch while retreating...so its a wash.

U-2's shot down...my opponent had lots of planes shot down. A few more probably wouldnt make a difference

High command cards: I would like to tell Berlin, NO to Stalingrad....but not sure if I can save the points.

FOW....I like FOW. But truthfully, I usually only look at the entrenchment levels. If the STATS graph is effected, it would be a cosmetic thing. Probably my opponent and I would email the graph back and forth every once in a while.

Less Oil....as it stands, Oil is not a constraint. It pegs at max every turn, so less oil would mean more decisions...a good thing..

Easier Sea supply...would have to check to see if it means better supply levels in Sevastopol/Kerch.

More Soviet Infantry....in Trappenjagd anyways, running out of units is not a problem for the soviets (yet anyways), but he does have a lot of beat up units, so more infantry will be a help.

Max command points saved will be 20. Hmm...I think my corps only go to 24 now, and the armies go to 36...so it will only really matter for Manstein and Raus as they are the only two army guys who can use them in a big way. My 2nd army, 6th army and OKH spend them as soon as I hit 12 for emergency troops.

Changed Gamble: in my game I have had Raus fail. Manstein has failed in previous games, but I am pretty sure that was only once. More expensive will mean less often, but I will probably still be able to use them to cross rivers/take fixed positions when I need them.

Supply consumed with free setup? We used free setup, but then, I set the Russian supply level to be full, instead of 3/4's in the event code, so he has 25% more supply then normal. He did suffer some supply problems early in the game, but the straightened out....I thought it was mostly him getting used to the flow of supply from STAVKA/FRONT/ARMY/UNIT....perhaps with this change I could go back to 3/4 supply.