Campaign. tyronec (Axis) vs K62

[tyronec]

T05.
Soviets still doing interdiction around Riga but my fighters managed to deal with them this turn so supplies got through by sea. Unfortunately the air losses reporting seems to not be working now.

AGN. Advancing slowly, Pskov is well defended and my attack on the adjacent hex fails.

PG4. The Vitebsk pocket held so kill those two divisions. Assault Smolensk directly with mot. infantry and the second attack wins. The battles were a bit odd, first one there were 3 infantry defending. For the second the three divisions were there but only one in the battle, guess the other two got depleted by the first combat. They were visible on map after the combat as the two 0-0 units. Can understand how this could happen but have never seen it before. Most of the rest of the units are resting.

PG3. Cross the river easily enough and once over trash a few units, plus pocket a stack on the river line.

11th Army. Trying to seal off some stay behinders on the Western edge of the marshes.

PG2. Ignore the river this turn and just push on Eastwards, pocketing one division and threatening a few more. Should stretch the Soviets a bit thin defending the river East of Kiev, will see if they pull back but somehow I don’t think they will.

PG1. The pocket from last turn was broken of course. Reseal it a bit better and mop up a few stray units that were pocketed last turn. Am also surrounding Odessa and have set up the Naval directive for the Soviet turn.

Thoughts on progress.
Am behind the curve around Pskov, think I should have pushed harder there around turn 3 & 4 but too late now. Will just have to do a heavy assault.

AGC. Soviets are very strong in front of Moscow, maybe a chance of a pocket next turn if they don’t pull back and PG3 & PG4 can link up, but it seems unlikely.

AGS. Should pocket Odessa next turn or the one after, a lot of Tank divisions and all those trucks ! Can then push on to the Crimea and D’town.

[Hardradi]

The Desert Fox becomes the Swamp Hound.

Epic pocket around Odessa. At least 7 tank divisions. Maybe partly a result of not activating the Southern Front and/or K62 heavily reinforcing the area.

[K62_]

The north holds on, but the Axis makes significant progress in the center and south this turn.

The slow retreat to Tallinn continues with no significant challenge.

[K62_]

The fortification protecting Pskov's flank holds off an attack this turn. There's a second fortification behind it so this area should be a bit tough to break through. The path between the lakes and the Narva line are also reinforced to guard against surprise flank attacks.

[K62_]

It has become apparent that the reason for the slow advance in the north is that AGN mobile divisions have been entirely redirected to the center. With their help AGC is able to punch a hole through the Smolensk defense. In conjunction with the breach further south at Gomel the Dnepr line has become untenable and the Soviet defenses fall back on the swamps east of Smolensk. As there is no time to entrench the paths between the swamps, the defense focuses on the swamp hexes with the hope that ZOC penalties will prevent any major encirclement.

[K62_]

The most serious crisis this turn is in front of Gomel. German infantry cuts through entrenched, doubled up Soviet divisions behind a major river with only minor losses. Then mobile forces spring up to rout the retreated troops and close a tight encirclement around the strongest stack in this area. Considering the number of infantry divisions that have crossed the river, the city of Gomel itself has become untenable and has to be abandoned, but the defense falls back to the river line right behind it. A new depot is established at Chernigov to support this line of defense.

[K62_]

The diversion in the Pripyat may have worked a little too well as significant German forces have appeared on its flanks. A few units are given up for lost and ordered to try and tie up as many of the pursuers as possible while the others try to escape to the east while there's still time.

[K62_]

The Kiev area has become difficult to hold with German infantry divisions showing up on the Dnepr and significant mobile forces backing them up. However the attempt must be made. The situation should become slightly better next turn with some of the retreating forces from the Pripyat marshes arriving to protect the northern flank, which is currently open.

[K62_]

Further south the Ingul river line is shaping up nicely with level 1 entrenchment in most spots. Malinovskii arrives to take command of the Kirovograd area and promptly inflicts a sharp reverse on two regiments of 4th Panzer (formerly with AGC), forcing each of them to retreat twice.

[K62_]

To top it off, 4th Panzer along with 3rd Panzer and 60th Moto are cut off by a weak motorized division sneaking behind German lines. Here's one of Malinovsky's counter-attacks.

[K62_]

The situation in the Odessa area remains very tense with the Tiraspol pocket being resealed and Axis forces isolating Odessa on both land and sea. However most of the forces that had escaped the pocket last turn make it into the city fort and a sea evacuation is begun, with a tank division being stuck in ships one hex off the coast. The rest of the Southern Front divisions fall back on Nikolaev, with a garrison left behind to protect the port of Ochakov.

[Hardradi]

I wish you luck with the Black Sea evac. I had heavy losses ferrying troops in and out of Odessa when I controlled the seas. Pack your floaties.

[tyronec]

T06.
The game is getting interesting !

AGN. Take one hex next to Pskov and continue to push north. Maybe I can pocket those units around Tallinn next turn.

PG4. Push on past Smolensk and fail to pocket 9 divisions when the last attack fails, will see what can be done next turn. Have a lot of Panzers committed here and they are not achieving much.

PG3. Take Gomel. Looks like a bit of a dead end with some heavy terrain coming up.

11th Army. Finally pocket those 6 units near the border that were in the swamp.

PG2. Cross the river and pocket Kiev. Am not sure if it will hold but if it is broken can hopefully grab some more Soviets next turn. To the South had my pocket of two Mech. divisions broken after the Soviets win several counter attacks. Repocket one and rout away the other.

PG1. Pocket from last turn held and is eliminated. Seal off Odessa and Ochakov properly. Just fail to pocket Nikolaev when the last attack fails. Have been Naval Interdicting Odessa and am hoping it will be Isolated next turn, unless they counter-Interdict. A couple of terrible air combats near Odessa.

[Stamb]

Unless there is some reason not to upgrade to a newer patch - I would suggest doing so (Leaders in HQs forcibly displaced were not being killed as often as they should (15% non-isolated/50% isolated). Fixed.)

Also it would be easier to read if there would be multiple posts with text and image, or one post with text image, text image, text image.
Right now you have to remember what was written and then scroll down via multiple images to see an actual result, unless you have 2 monitors.
No offense tyronec .

Thanks for an ARR and GL to both of you.

[K62_]

The slow retreat to Tallinn is completed successfully and a city fort gets built. I suspect no FBD got deployed to the Baltics so this area might be a little difficult to reinforce for the Germans. A motorized NKVD division that didn't fit in the fort is sent as a gamble through a gap towards Parnu. Unfortunately the port is defended and the gamble fails with division in all likelihood lost.

[K62_]

The first fortification on Pskov's flank fails to hold off another attack this turn. The fortified region behind it has done its job and is disbanded to deploy three divisions in this crucial hex. If this second flank defense falls Pskov will have to be evacuated. Some divisions are pulled back from advanced positions in the rough terrain SE of Pskov to create reserves. Generally the situation in this area seems relatively calm and predictable.

[K62_]

There is however a major crisis in the Vyazma defense area. A large number of German mobile divisions, spearheaded by SS Wiking and SS Tokenkopf, have squeezed through the gaps between the swamps and almost completely encircled an entire Soviet army. A small silver lining is that the strongest Soviet tank division was at the decisive point and manage to prevent the encirclement from closing successfully. In the hope that at least a few of the divisions in the pocket can make it through the gap a strong counter-attack is ordered against the 106th ID to try and eliminate one of the ZOC-ZOC movement penalties. The attack fails despite heavy air and SU committment.

[K62_]

Here's the combat report. I'm not particularly surprised that Model had better rolls than Bobkin but the effectiveness of the sfH18 seems a bit out of this world. Their HPE is much higher than the FPE (standing out from all other German artillery) as they inflict by themselves almost half the hits in a battle that did get to close range.

This sector did get all the reserve transfers as well as a few divisions from the quiet northern area this turn, so it should still be in OK shape even if all the pocketed divisions are lost.

[K62_]

The Gomel area is relatively quiet with only one Panzer division making a small dent in last turn's defense line. Falling back more toward Chernigov in an attempt to stay out of infantry deliberate attack range. Some of the Pripyat troops have almost made it out of the swamp salient.

[K62_]

However disaster strikes at Kiev with a Panzer division taking advantage of the open northern flank before it could be reinforced and six Soviet divisions encircled. The pocket is somewhat loose but I have no cavalry division available in the backfield here, so I'm unable to open it. Trying to make the best of the situation by using the encircled troops to hinder German supply as much as possible.