1941 GC Zovs (Axis) vs. thedoctorking (Soviet)

[thedoctorking]

My ground phase was again an attempt to keep units alive and continue to give ground. Western and Northwestern Fronts were able to reabsorb most of the units assigned to the military districts in the last turn. In NW Front, Axis forces crossed the river south of Pskov, meaning that I abandoned that position for a picket line to the north and east.

[thedoctorking]

Meanwhile, reinforcements for Leningrad Front tried to build a more solid line behind the Luga and dig in around the city itself. Against the AI at 120% morale, I managed to hold a land connection to the city open. I don’t imagine that will be possible against an experienced human opponent, but I want to make capture of Leningrad difficult and expensive, so the Axis has to commit a lot of German armor and spend a lot of time – making an attack on Moscow impossible this year. The defense of Moscow starts in Pskov, as has often been said.

[thedoctorking]

I thickened my defenses in the Land Bridge sector, expecting the forward positions to be overrun but hoping to use ZOC’s and terrain to keep the fascists out of the city of Smolensk and behind the second river line for the next turn.

[thedoctorking]

Behind the Dnepr, we are taking advantage of the huge movement point penalty for crossing a major river into an enemy ZOC to slow the Axis advance. I’m not going to have enough good units to stop them entirely, but keeping that northern pincer to a crawl will enable the Southwest Front guys to escape.

[thedoctorking]

In Ukraine, SW Front and the Kharkov/North Caucasus MD guys are squeezing back, trying not to give the Axis any more units than necessary. A few guys have gotten marooned in the Pripyat Marshes, but most of the sector seems to be able to withdraw in good order. I aim to consolidate a defense of the Cherkassy/Kremenchug line, setting up forts in Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhe, hopefully slowing the advance of the Axis railheads and making an offensive into the Donbass impossible before winter. I particularly like North Caucasus MD, both because it doesn’t disband before winter and because its commander is Konev. You don’t get to reposition him, apparently – I’d love to make him a front commander – but you can give him 36 points of units to command from his dacha in Grozny, and hopefully he’s having some effect on their performance with his stellar skills.

[thedoctorking]

Southern Front continues to evacuate ahead of the onrushing Romanian juggernaut. I left a couple of divisions to jump into the Odessa fortress, making that as tough a nut to crack as possible. The Axis can do it, but they have to commit fighters to air combat over the Gulf of Odessa, and those are fighters that aren’t shooting down Soviet fighters over the land. And otherwise, what would I do with all those long-range bombers?

[Zovs]

Notes...

We are still on the beta patch (v 1.02.13_Beta - the 13 update came during the Soviet turn) and both running on Steam. Also of note it was after this turn I discovered a way to reduce my flak losses (until a fix goes into the next patch), that will be implemented on turn 4.

Turn 4 - 13-Jul-1941


New Events

Eastward Evacuations by Soviets.

Turn Summary & General Notes (previous Soviet turn)



Reinforcements
I received two German Infantry Divisions (73rd and 163rd). The 8th SS Cavalry Brigade arrived in the Soviet Union Garrison (SUG). I also got 8 flak battalions, and 3 flak regiments. Two Stug battalions arrived on map and one into Axis Reserves. The four construction units also arrived (three were transfers). Looks like the 136th Fascist Italian Motorized Division arrived from Italy to North Africa. Also a few of the TB transfers also took effect this turn.

Friendly Losses
Friendly losses show 11,740 men, 55 guns, 28 AFVs and 491 aircraft (most were due to my recon units getting slaughtered).

Logistic Summary
Units looks pretty good. The tons received was down about 7k. Everything else looks pretty good.

Combat Unit Alerts
Shows 4 unready, but the CR shows that 2 (26th and 27th Hun. Infantry Brigades) are unready. The 6 showing depleted are all Flak Towers.

Looks like more Naval Patrols around Riga and Odessa.

Riga:



Odessa:



Soviet GA

AGN (Pskov area)



AGC (Land Bridge area)



AGS (Proskurov and Kishinev areas)



In total it looks like the Soviets ran 116 Battles last turn and it breaks down like so.

Observed: 4 (Recon)
Grd Bombed: 1
Interdict: 81
Naval Attack: 30

It looks like the biggest missions by the Soviets was 55 Bombers on a Naval Attack and the most Fighters was 53 for one Naval Attack mission. The most losses during these missions were during the Interdiction missions with the lost of 5 Soviet fighters, 7 Soviet bombers, and 3 Soviet Recon aircraft. It does not appear that I lost any air during these missions.

However there were 7 Air Combat missions (interception) and the best one was the best by far, this was in the AGS sector:



In that list the first mission was a Soviet Interdiction mission with 24 planes, no losses. The second was the Air Combat where I had 100 Fighters intercept the 82 unescorted Soviet interdiction mission and wiped it out for the loss of only 3 Hungarian planes. The last mission was also an interdiction mission with

Also in the AGS sector there was two other Air Combat missions.

This one yielded no losses to the Axis and 1/3 of the Soviet fighters and about 1/3 of the Soviet bombers.



This last one more costly since I lost just shy of 50% of my fighters (most all were Hungarians) and took out about 1/3 of the Soviet fighters and only 2% of the Soviet bombers.



This interception was in the AGN area and the 24 Bf 109F-2 lost none and knocked out 50% of the Soviet fighters and about 50% of the Soviet bombers.



This was also in the AGN area and its a little weird.



Again, no losses to the Axis and it looks like about 3/4 of the Soviets were lost.

There were a few other interception missions, I had 12 Re.2000 Heja (Hungarians) knock out 7 of the 13 SB-2. Lastly there was a flight of 26 Hungarians that knocked out 50% of another interdiction mission (SB-2's again).

Top Aces at the start of the turn


To get a zoomed in view, click here: https://i.imgur.com/HZeOzmq.png

Logistics Report

Freight

Was down (Supply Need vs Supply Received) a bit this turn, I need to fix my Depots this turn.

Ground Command Totals
Sup Need 25688
Sup Recd 20003
Sup Lost 7240

Air Command Totals
Sup Need 5068
Sup Recd 3878
Sup Lost 996

Trucks lost in Freight 106
Soviet trucks captured 8314

Arrivals
Carpathian Hun. Army is no longer frozen.
3 Flak Regiments arrived into Western Europe.

Withdraw
Carpathian Hun. Army Removed

Supply
958 trucks were repaired and returned to the logistic pool.

Turn 4 - 13-Jul-1941 at Start

Air Phase:

I deleted all the AD and decided to start over.

I created 25 AD as follows:

Luftflotte 1
5x Recon (no more than 4 aircraft per)
1x Naval Patrol
1x Grd Support (AGN)

Luftflotte 2
4x Recon (no more than 4 aircraft per)
2x Grd Support (AGC and 2nd Army)

Luftflotte 4
3x Recon (no more than 4 aircraft per)
1x Air Superiority
1x Naval Patrol
2x Grd Support (AGS and 11th Army)

Hun.Air Cmd.
1x Recon
1x Grd Support (Mobile Hun. Corps)

Rum. Air Cmd.
2x Recon
1x Grd Support (Army Grp. Anton)

Air Execution Phase Summary



Total sorties: 1,484
Aircraft lost: 216
Damaged: 54
Enemy Aircraft lost in A2A: 129
Damaged: 6

Recon still took some heavy losses. Here is a small list:

Flew | Lost
4 | 4
4 | 2
6 | 2 (2 Escorts, lost one from each)
24 | 3 (no idea why 24 flew on D1 when I told it 4).

Riga Naval Patrol got hit hard.



This is interesting, my Superiority mission intercept the Soviet Naval Patrol.



As you can see from that Superiority mission the first Air Combat I lost 6 out of 20, but I knocked out 14 out of 22 (more than half). Then during the next Naval Patrol I lost 4 fighters and 2 bombers but took out 25 (or 50% of the Soviet fighters). Then the next Naval Patrol I lost 2 out of 38 fighters and 2 out of 40 bombers but knocked out 30 out 44 Soviet fighters. That was all on D1.

D2 the Air Combat I lost 7 out of 20 but knocked out 7 of 20 so it was an even loss ratio (not good for the Axis here). Then the Naval Patrol I only lost 1 fighter and 1 bomber and took out 15 o the 28 Soviet fighters. On D3 it was another Air Combat with the Axis losing half and the Soviets just shy of half aircraft again another small Soviet victory here.

Next was my Naval Patrol went in and both sides got smashed up pretty good.



Quite a number of Axis losses here but the Soviets took it far worse.

So diving into some of the details here, it was as I suspected, my losses here was more flak losses.









As you can see almost all the Axis losses are from Flak.

Ground Phase

Again, looking over the OOB things for the Axis tend to look good. I have 3.4 million on map men, 36k guns, 4,109 AFV and 2,403 aircraft for Germany with a very small percentage in reserve. The Axis Allies have 1.2 million men on map, with 9k guns and 392 AFV and 659 aircraft with nothing in reserve. All the Axis numbers are down a few percentage points this turn.

The report shows that the the Soviet Union now has 2.6 million men on map (up 300k), with 560k in reserve but a total of 4.8 million (up 500k). I see 39k in guns (up 2k), 7,974 (previously 8,975) in AFV and 5,150 (up from 4,995) in aircraft. Their reserves show 2k in guns, 2,821 in AFV and 1,7k in aircraft.

Bottom line is again to kill more Soviets.

At start losses show.

Ground
Axis losses in men is 34,889 verses 780,751 Soviets. Gun losses is 570 to 14,261. AFV losses is 57 Axis to 4,967. Looks like the captured Soviet men is now 558,852.

Air
My total pilots KIA is now up to 798 with 1,109 aircraft lost. During the Axis air phase I lost 193 pilots KIA and 215 aircraft. The Soviets during that part of the turn lost 182 KIA and 234 lost aircraft. So turn 4 Air Phase was too evenly match for me. Even by lowing the Recon missions down to no more than 4 units the losses were still high to flak and also the two Naval Patrol missions were a bit costly. Need to rework both a bit more next turn.

Weather Report

Weather is clear, except for some rain in the far north (Artic circle area).

Commanders Report

I have a number (11 to be exact) of units whom are out of command range (DtHQ) that I need to rectify. I am usually pretty good at keeping units in command, so I'll investigate why this discrepancy exists and correct.

The highest Morale unit is the Grossdeutschland Motorized Regiment at 99. The most experienced unit is the 1/833rd Siege Mortar Battery at 95, followed by the Grossdeutschland at 92 and then the L.A..H. SS Mot. Brigade at 92 and the Totenkopf SS Mot. Division and Das Reich Mot. Division both at 91. I have 20 units that are at fatigue levels 40-50% I'll need to rest soon.

OKH total win/loss count at the start of turn 4 is at 174 to 1.

OKL total win/loss count at start of turn 4 shows 13 to 2. But the Airbase count shows Krosno as 1066 wins and 0 losses. So both the air displays here are strange.

Odessa Naval Patrol area:



TB Transfers
I transferred the 90th Light Division and 288th Battalion from the Western Front to North Africa. This will take four turns.


End of Turn Summary

End of turn map view.

Black Out Version


Click on the link if you'd like a zoomed in view: https://i.imgur.com/Rh0c4H6.jpg

Areas of Interest

None this turn. Mainly cleaned up several pockets and moved infantry forward and resting most of the mobile units to regain CPP.

Encircled a Soviet Rifle and Mountain Division here:



Here is a breakdown by Battle Result:

Total Battles: 54 (however only 9 of these were ground attacks, 5 HA and 4 DA).

Surrendered: 9

End of turn 4 losses

Ground



Losses seem a lot lower for 4 weeks of combat. Not quite at a million Soviets lost yet. Hoping to get a few more big pockets if possible in the upcoming turns.

Air



Again, my Recon losses are horrid. My fighter losses are down as well as my Tactical Bombers. The Soviet pilot losses are good, but I'd like to kill off a few thousand more lol.

Total Destroyed after 4 weeks of combat



Not too bad, but I'd like to have up to 50 Soviet rifle divisions destroyed by now.

OKH win/loss totals for turn 4.
178 to 1

...to be continued...

[thedoctorking]

1941 GC No Early End AAR
Zovs (Axis) v. Thedoctorking (Soviet)
Soviet Turn 4

So I opened the game and discovered that not much had changed from last turn. No dramatic German breakthroughs; in fact, they hadn’t even taken all the terrain I gave them last turn. In the north, they spread out a little bit from their bridgehead south of Pskov, but didn’t attack the city. They moved up to my defensive positions in Estonia but didn’t attack me.

[thedoctorking]

Similarly, in the Land Bridge sector, they moved up against my defensive positions but didn’t attack.

[thedoctorking]

And similarly in Ukraine, there were a few attacks to pocket a few divisions, but almost no real pressure. Back in Stalin’s dacha, the civilians were crowing about the Germans losing momentum and calling for an immediate counter-offensive.

You’ll note that it’s raining across most of the northern half of the map. Next turn too, theoretically.

[thedoctorking]

In Moldova, the Romanians did show a little more spunk, pushing across the Dniester and breaking the pre-1939 fortress line.

Our reinforcements arrived here this turn. I should probably be splitting my transfers from the strategic reserve up more strategically, but I just hit "transfer" everybody without thinking, and then couldn't go back and fix the mistake.

[thedoctorking]

The air war went well, too. Air losses were fairly even, with 67 Bf109’s among the casualties. This is an unsustainable rate of wastage for the Luftwaffe. The VVS can go on losing 250 planes a week until hell or Detroit freezes over, but not the Germans. Their air force is powerful, but fragile. Seriously, if I can keep this up for the rest of the summer, we’ll have air superiority.

[thedoctorking]

The naval air war in the Baltic and Black Seas has worked well. I continue to block German supply deliveries to Riga while preserving my own ability to move supplies and troops to the Estonian islands

[thedoctorking]

And I kept the port of Odessa open despite the commitment of German fighters to interception missions. Both regions saw significant losses in bombers, but again, I have plenty of bombers and the Germans don’t have any fighters to spare.

[thedoctorking]

However, amidst the cries of joy from the civilians, Army intelligence and Air Force recon found one critical bit of data. No German armored units have been involved in any attacks for two turns now. Instead, they are sitting behind the lines, stacked up neatly near (presumably) supply depots (again presumably) on Refit mode - building up combat prep points and stockpiles of fuel for another big push. Our recon found this in the Land Bridge sector. That SS Motor Div with an estimated combat value of 44 is pretty scary. Presumably there are a lot of buddies with similarly high combat ratings in the vicinity that I just can’t see:

[thedoctorking]

So, we fell back some more. In the north, Leningrad Front is building an outer defensive position along the Luga while fortifying the approaches to Leningrad. NW Front is retreating behind the Loknya and into the Valdai Hills. I’m not expecting to hold Staraya Rusa or Velikie Luki, just staging back to the lousy terrain to the north and east.

[thedoctorking]

In the center, we left a picket line behind the Dnepr to slow his advance – crossing a major river into a ZOC is very expensive in movement points, so each of those beat-up divisions we left there will cost a German regiment (at least) most of its movement points. The main line of resistance, such as it is, is six to ten hexes farther back, or in other words, 25 or so motorized movement points. If those big armored guys launch their offensive this turn, their ability to pocket large numbers of Soviet divisions will be limited, and if they wait, they will have to spend another turn at least accumulating CPP and fuel before jumping off from the more advanced location. Whereupon I can repeat my retreat. And I’ll be another couple of armies stronger.

[thedoctorking]

The weakest spot in my defenses is the northern Ukraine. I have a picket line behind the Dnepr and a defensive position around Gomel, but behind that, it’s just a bunch of guys on trains. I’m hoping he focuses on pushing Western Front around, as his deployment in front of the Land Bridge region seems to suggest.

[thedoctorking]

Southern Front and its little buddies in Kharkov and North Caucasus MD’s are the strongest areas in my defenses. I’m never going to be able to hold the Dnepr, but hopefully I can slow him in this region enough that he doesn’t get to the Donbass or into Crimea before the rains start. I’ve built a fortified line at the entrance to Crimea, in hopes that he will either commit a lot of German stuff that he could be using to push eastwards or send Romanians and ignore me. Those last screen shots were taken before I railed a bunch of those divisions from the Transnistria region northwards to the vicinity of Chernigov, btw. Only realized this after I had already ended the turn, and you can’t go back and look at a game that you have turned over to your opponent in the Multiplayer mode, unfortunately.

But hey, you get to actually see most of my positions in this AAR, unlike in Zov’s where he blacks out everything behind the lines. 😊

[Zovs]

Okay no more blackouts lol.