Spending Soviet AP in 1942: CapandGown mirror match

[JoeLewis]

Yes, I agree with most of what you are saying. My unit density will go down a lot more if I use 3 rifle divisions per corps, esp. since Bitburger only had about 25 rifle brigades total. That was part of the reason behind building rifle brigades.

In addition, my point was that those reserve divisions come back for free so I think it is more cost efficient to do the 2 division + 1 rifle brigade I built.

I was also hesitant to fully commit to mechanized brigades considering how much armor is already in the field right now. I think that I just need to finish forming tank corps or merging those brigades in 1942.

[JoeLewis]

Start of Turn 58 - not a lot of major encirclements this turn thank goodness.

60 AP available:
25 for 1 Tank Army HQ
20 for 1 Rifle Corps
5 for 1 rifle brigade (for eventual corps formation)
2 for SUs
8 for reorganization changes and reattaching units

A lot of dead Soviets thanks to the destruction of several armies in the southern pocket. I also lost 800 planes since I left ground support on and too many airbases close to the frontlines.

A lot of incoming rebuilt formations. They will have 10 turns until mud and then nearly 20 turns (5 mud, 3 snow) until blizzard.

A division recovers about 3 EXP and 3 morale per turn, so that can bring most of them up to 40 EXP/45 morale given time.

[JoeLewis]

Finnish Border:

No fighting anywhere west or northwest of Moscow. 15 forts are now in place but I forgot to set them to 35% TOE on one turn so a lot of them are foolishly fully manned. Oh well.

At least 11 rifle divisions and 7 rifle brigades have been pulled off this line.

[JoeLewis]

Saransk Front

5 infantry divisions surrounded this turn, but I was able to break 2 of them out. I think the Germans are planning to attack east instead of north. There are some highlighted weak areas, but the 2nd and 3rd lines are all 20+ CV strength and relatively strong … for now.

I am still worried that CapandGown plans to extend east for an ultimate attack north to Moscow.

Their tanks are still really spread out and on the front lines. They have not made a lot of gains in this area other than isolating a few random divisions.

In addition, attacking Moscow from this direction is odd because it still has rail and supply from the north. Pushing further northeast just spreads the Germans out more and lets me concentrate my best units in this area.

[JoeLewis]

Ok, my center-south was gutted last turn with two whole armies encircled.

I imagine the next main attack will come somewhere in this area around the Khoper River. A lot of this infantry is just playing a screening role. I will switch to checkerboard to provide more depth.

[JoeLewis]

Ok, I got paranoid and abandoned the Khoper River Line from the previous post. We are still a long way away from fighting on the Volga River, and any penetration or attack in this area can be countered by almost all my cavalry and tank armies. That was the issue with some of the other encirclements: they were too far away from strong counterattacking support.

In the meantime, I will continue to trade space for time. I need to survive 10 more turns with some semblance of an army.

[JoeLewis]

An attack in the Stalingrad area will take a few more turns to materialize while the infantry catch up and convert hexes.

In fact, an attack in this area looks really unlikely just based on the poor rail.

[JoeLewis]

Southern Don looks fine right now. I need to get these guards divisions out of here. I have 1 Guards Corps and the ability to form 3 more just with these 6 divisions. They need to get on rail and move north ASAP. I should have done this move much sooner.

[JoeLewis]

Turn 59 begins.

According to the calendar there are ten more turns until mud. I really hate 1942!

60 AP available
40 on 2 x Guards rifle corps
14 on transferring units around
2 on Support Units for Rifle Corps
4 on forts in Leningrad (there are a lot of rifle brigades in the Leningrad urban complex that I need to shift east to form rifle corps)

You can see that Bitburger left me a huge pool of manpower (500k in reserve) and armaments (1.2 million) so I am not worried about keeping the entire army on 100% TOE right now and fully rearming my destroyed divisions on the turn they come back in. Those units will sit on REFIT on rails far from the front lines to regain morale and experience anyways. The OOB has not swung too radically away from me despite the loss of 2-3 armies last turn.

[JoeLewis]

A few more divisions surrounded this turn. No big deal since they are exposed in the open and not even assigned to an Army HQs right now. A lot of my weak divisions are with Moscow MD or Moscow Defensive Zone so they have very poor CV values. These are just screening units to absorb German attacks and prevent a breakthrough, which they have managed to do.

[JoeLewis]

The center-south looks ok for right now and I did not want to retreat all the way back to the Volga River just yet. I think I can make a good fight of it west of the river, but German armor locations make an attack this way look unlikely.

[JoeLewis]

Despite my Southern Front getting hammered over the past few turns, I have started the process of shifting these rifle guards corps and divisions north to fight the central German offensive.

[JoeLewis]

Turn 60 (9 turns from mud!)

High casualties this turn from the six or so divisions surrounded last turn.

60 AP this turn:
40 on 2 x rifle corps
10 on new fighter squadrons and some reorganizing
10 on cranking down Rail Reserve again back down to 10% to enable better supply throughput

Saratov and Engels' factories evacuated this turn.

[JoeLewis]

Really not sure where the next main attack will come from. There is a lot of armor north and around Penza, so a major encirclement in the Penza region seems likely. I thought about pulling back but figured it was better to keep these forward positions heavily manned. There are secondary and tertiary lines everywhere and I have also railed 4 new Rifle Guards Corps northeast of Penza from the Stalingrad area. In addition, most of 7th Independent Army from Finland is here now and a few scratch divisions brought back to full strength. Finally, the 4th Tank Army has been formed providing even stronger defenses.

A forward defense is risky but they don’t have a lot of infantry and their front lines are badly stretched as it is.

[JoeLewis]

I was worried the Germans might launch a major prong south of Penza between the Uza and Medveditsa Rivers. However, the bulk of their infantry and armor are not really here. They could push into that area but couldn’t reinforce such a breakthrough (I don’t think). However, that issue is why you see some tank corps and rear rifle divisions organized for defense. Keeping units west of the Volga saves their MPs for counterattacks.

[JoeLewis]

Very static here after the encirclements at Stalino and of Southern Front. A major attack around Rostov might happen but should be easily thrown back. I am not sure why the Germans have a solid front line remaining relatively static. This is their offensive season! Move those men north or south for a major push somewhere. It seems as if they are just going to dig in, but I am happy if they are willing to sit back on the defensive. German units won't hold up in 1943 and 1944 even with strong defensive positions.

Stalingrad’s factories have been evacuated. The tank and Guards rifle corps here were wasted and moved north.

[JoeLewis]

Turn 61 begins with no new encirclements. I always breathe a sigh of relief when that happens. One encirclement is a statistic. Several encirclements are a tragedy.

Manpower is climbing back up very quickly with the replenished divisions being automatically set to 100% TOE. I have the manpower to spare and these divisions are all slowly walking on rails to the front lines. I am hoping they become usable in terms of Experience and Morale by the start of the winter. Mud is 8 turns away!

AP spending this turn (60 total)
20 On 1 Guards Rifle Corps
25 On a Tank Army (need two more)
4 on Support Units
9 on new airbases and planes
2 on reorganizing

[JoeLewis]

German manpower is far too high, but the plan is to close the front lines everywhere and drive up attrition losses in the winter.

However, if I manage to keep all my units intact then the size of the Red Army will become inexorably bigger. I still have 57 divisions assigned to Stavka.

I need to spend some time building 1-2 rifle brigades per turn at low TOEs just to help form more rifle corps. The goal has to be for the frontline units to form corps as soon as possible.

This Army has been at max TOE all year long. A mistake?

[JoeLewis]

Wide snapshot of the campaign so far. Static in the north (for now) and I lost a lot of territory between Moscow and Rostov. I still hold those cities and the Volga River line.

The rest of the front lines are very static. I don’t see how the Germans can make a major push to Moscow this year, unless they plan a winter offensive. They are getting dangerously close to Gorky now so I have begun evacuating that town. I would rather lose production for 20 turns than altogether!

Besides, that kind of factory withdrawal always gives you a nice winter boost!

[JoeLewis]

The Oka River Basin is mostly under German control now but I keep feeding my Moscow MD and Moscow Defensive Zone units into the front lines. I should have built HQs for my infantry divisions a lot sooner in this game.

The Germans are triple stacked so they cannot pull back panzers without wasting a lot of MP. That means that a lead panzer must waste time clearing out these divisions. These units aren’t going to be my Guards units anyways.

Defenses are now organized by like units to avoid cross-command penalties. The heavy corps are in the secondary and tertiary lines in most places, with my cavalry corps as my counterattacking reserve.

A lot of units are put onto reserve mode esp. when double/triplestacked in the rear areas