Through the looking glass: the Soviet side of my mirror match

[CapAndGown]

We managed to get most of our units out of the Leningrad pocket, either by walking or by sea transport. It looks like I will lose 5 divisions: 2 at Leningrad itself, and 3 trying to escape on foot to the east. The Soviets now have formed the dreaded "wall of units" around the Volkhov, the first place where we have sufficient concentration of forces to do so.

[CapAndGown]

The Germans pocketed 6 divisions along the Dnepr but we were able to open the pocket with a counter attack on a motorized division. We threw in another counter attack on the Gross Deutschland regiment just for good measure, though the large number of Soviet casualties may mean this counter attack was ill-advised.

Another 2 divisions were close to being encircled around the headwaters of the Dnerp. One of them is probably a goner anyway.

Western Front continues to shift units in a northeasterly direction to bulk up the Rzhev/Vyazma line.

[CapAndGown]

Four rifle and one armor divisions were pocketed in the Dnepr bend. The Germans also achieve a bridgehead over the lower Dnepr. There was a raging debate at Stavka on how to deal with this bridgehead: continue to hold positions along the Denpr to slow down the Germans, or pull back all units to save them from encirlement. Shaposhnikov wanted to leave up to 5 divisions behind on the river bank to slow down the German advance, but Zhukov won the debate by convincing Stalin he would later regret losing all those divisions. In the end, only one division was left behind to delay the Germans. There was then a debate as to whether to tell those men they were playing the part of sacrificial lambs. A large number of commissars were ordered to join the unit to inspire the men to give their all for the Motherland!

[CapAndGown]

A successful partisan attack near Vilnius. AGC is out of supply this turn. It did not stop them from advancing and re-pocketing my divisions along the Dnepr, but hopefully it will slow them down a bit buying me more time. It did stop German rail conversion, so 4 hexes less were converted this turn than otherwise would have been.

Questions on Partisans:
1) Does the German player see partisan airdrops? I have not seen any in the German side of this mirror match.
2) Are construction battalions dispatched automatically to repair these types of rail breaks?

[CapAndGown]

Although Leningrad has not fallen quite yet, its end is near. I will lose two divisions there as well as three more that were trying to escape the pocket on foot. With that the Germans are pulling out their panzers and sending them south. There is a wall of soviets along the Volkhov facing the remaining infantry. This will turn into a slog, no doubt, but the Germans don't have much more to gain in this sector and now appear to me shifting their focus to Moscow.

With the Panzers heading south, it would appear that Northwest Front will now become much more involved in the fighting. Besides the panzers shown below, their is another group around Pskov. It is likely the Germans may try to breakthrough south of the Ilmen. With this in mind I made two leadership changes in Northwestern Front: 24 Army is now commanded by Khozin while 11 Army is commanded by Belov. (Last turn I changed the leader of 13 Army (Western Front) to Fedyunnisky.

We opened a corridor to our divisions pocketed along the Dnepr once again, though I imagine this will be the last time.

I have been sliding forces northeast from around Gomel towards Vyazma in order to reinforce the approaches to Moscow. Next turn I will likely pull back to from Oster to the Besed.

[CapAndGown]

In the south, the Soviets are holding a tiger by the tail. We currently occupy the most favorable defensive terrain available in the south until we reach the Don. Yet our lines are getting stretched ever further. I would like to pull back, but where to? Once we abandon the Dnepr our troops will be out on the open steppe and will easily be overrun and pocketed. I would like to make an orderly retreat, but any retreat across non-defensible terrain will quickly become a route instead.

As far as factories are concerned:
Poltava has 6 armament
Stalino has 23 armament
Kharkov has its starting complement of factories except the vehicle factories which have been evacuated.

[redrum68]

Question: why have your back up units that are on reserve 2 hexes back rather than right behind your front line?

[Seminole]

Super Kiev pocket looming for all those forces east of Bryansk and Kharkov. The Germans can run east faster than the Russians in clear terrain. You should be terrified of a breakthrough that a single high morale mech unit north and south can exploit, especially with 4th Panzer group on the way.

Need to be thick in front of the panzer fists and screen the landsers. Make the infantry fight you to take a wood hex or cross a river, but solid walls and reserve in front of Axis infantry screens seem like misallocation to me at this stage.
Being impenetrable actually serves the panzer spearheads because it keeps units west, deeper in the developing cauldrons.

I do like making the Germans fight to get east, but almost only in favorable terrain. Still hard to avoid getting gobbled in small chunks on the steppe.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: redrum68

Question: why have your back up units that are on reserve 2 hexes back rather than right behind your front line?

When the secondary defense line was initially formed, it was actually part of a checkerboard: every other hex was covered. As more units arrived I simply positioned them in accordance with the already existing positions since those had already built up forts. I also felt that a breakthrough of the Dnepr would eat up a ton of MP, so having units 3 hexes back that were still fresh by the time any panzer got there would be better than having them involved almost right away; let the panzer tackle the first line units for the first couple of hexes, then force them to deal with fresh units.

[CapAndGown2]

I got two Shap's converted to guards status (flying Su-2s), 1 artillery regiment and 1 air base.

An air base? What does a guards air base do? [&:]

[CapAndGown]

Things have quieted down in the north considerably since the Germans achieved a link up with the Finns around Leningrad. Leningrad itself has not fallen yet, but its days are numbered.

Now that German units can move into Karellia from Leningrad, our fortification line along the Karellian frontier is a liability. I need units that can actually retreat, not be shattered after one hasty attack. So 7th independent army is given the task of manning the defenses there.

German infantry are making a push south of lake Ilmen, but it is nothing serious yet.

[CapAndGown]

In the Moscow sector, the Germans are pushing forward. Almost all of our many, many reinforcements are flowing into the the defense of Moscow.

We did launch a few counter attacks. They were not meant to gain any ground or achieve any real easing of the pressure. Rather, the goal was to force the Germans to be somewhat cautious in their advance. The Red Army may be weak, but it still has teeth. These attacks would result in General Leitenant Purkaev being promoted to General Polkovnik on turn 12. I thus have added a new general to the list of men with high enough rank to command a front should I feel the need for new leadership. In addition, one of artillery regiments would achieve guard status.

On the subject of Front command: Kharkov M.D. transformed into Southern Ural M.D. and relocated to the far eastern edge of the map. With such distance between the M.D. HQ and its subordinate armies, whatever advantages there may have been to having Timoshenko in charge there were lost. As such, Timoshenko was reassigned to Reserve Front which had one of the worst Front commanders in existence.

[CapAndGown]

Kiev fell this turn. This is not, however, why I decided to begin withdrawing from the Dnepr. As I mentioned in post #46, already by turn 10 I was becoming very nervous about our lengthy line along the Dnepr. Indeed, that post was really a foreshadowing of our future plans. So now the big retreat begins.

[CapAndGown]

The Germans crossed the Dnepr between Dnerpropetrovsk and Zaparozhe and encircled 4 divisions. In looking at this screen shot I now realize that if I had moved the division 1 hex southeast of Zaparozhe to the northeast instead of into Zaparozhe itself, I could have broken the encirclement, buying me one more turn as the Germans worked to reclose the pocket. Hindsight, and all.

A doctrinal note: you may have noticed I have several all-cavalry armies. Right now most cavalry division are not fit for front line service because their complement of cavalry squads is well below 100%, often below 50% of TOE. As such, I have relegated them to ditch digging, setting up defensive lines well in the rear of the front line. I can't, however, just leave them assigned to Stavka since they don't seem to be able to draw supply on their own, or at least not very efficiently. So I have taken armies with horrible leaders and assigned the cavalry divisions to them so they can funnel supply to these divisions.

[CapAndGown]

I thought would comment on the air war.

I pulled all the I-153, I-153BS, and I-15bis back to the national reserve on turn 1 and have left them there. As newer airframes have become available, I have pulled them out of the national reserve and upgrades them. While I have been using the I-16, at this point they are mostly relegated to backwater commands: of 19 groups altogether, 7 are part of the Transcaucus air command and 6 are part of the Leningrad air command (the Leningrad Front has become a quiet sector). Another 4 groups are with the Volga air command getting ready to be upgraded.

As to air doctrine, I have turned off interdiction. I also have had ground support turned off except when my own troops are about to launch an attack. I don't wish to see my airforce chewed up to little effect. Soviet interdiction, in particular, based on what I have seen the German side of this mirror match, is especially futile: no impact on the enemy for the loss of a number of planes.

At the same time, I have cranked up interception to 200% and had "percent required to fly" at 10%. The idea was to whittle away at the Luftwaffe fighter force to make the skies somewhat safer for our bombers.

I have also been doing a good deal of unit bombing, panzers when I can, infantry otherwise. I don't, however, bomb everything in sight. I focus on units in clear terrain, no fortification, and a detection level of 10. So far this has gained me two guards ShaP units flying Su-2's.

German doctrine, meanwhile seems to be heavy on interdiction, especially with escorts which seem to be set at 200% or more. The Germans also have a practice of unit bombing two times any unit they are going to ground attack.

Between the interdiction, ground support, and unit bombing, the Luftwaffe is being bled white. In my German game I cringe when I see my Jagdgeschwader reduce to 20-30 ready aircraft. In this game, the Germans are looking at units with less that 10 aircraft ready to fly.

Based on this, I believe it is time for the Red Air Force to reenter the arena and turn ground support on during the enemy turn. If my bomber losses are high, I will turn it back off. For now, however, interdiction will remain off.

[Seminole]

Just noticed you let a Mtn unit get captured.
Those are valuable for the winter offensive. Protect them. Few survive the Lviv pocket, and those with T Caucasus are late to the winter party.

[CapAndGown]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

Just noticed you let a Mtn unit get captured.
Those are valuable for the winter offensive. Protect them. Few survive the Lviv pocket, and those with T Caucasus are late to the winter party.

Besides being higher morale units, what advantage do they have during the winter offensive?

[eskuche]

No weather movement penalty, doubled CV in mountains (Crimea, Caucasus).

[Seminole]

The movement is the biggie.
You want to preserve cav units and the mtn troops to help you form ZOC locks and exploit any breakthroughs you achieve in the blizzard.
The soviets are so starved for mobility.
I like to try and preserve some tank divisions as well, just to avoid the +1 mp penalty brigades suffer, but that’s a crapshoot as they can ‘upgrade’ to brigades in place.

[chaos45]

also mountain divisions dont come back...least they didnt used to...so once your lose them they are gone forever....those are units you want to save at all cost..the morale bonus + eventual guards status makes them one of the stronger soviet divisions long run