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T65 AGCS


Ouch, I not quite sure how this has come about but I had not envisioned Vet's move to isolate my divisions around Ryzan.

While this isn't a huge threat and easily swept aside by the reserves that I have coming to the sector, I don't really want to commit these to tying up the pocket around Ryzan, so I decide to retreat that guard corps out into the open where it can be penned up much more easily


I really wanted it to retreat 2 hexes, so we will have to hit it again


I hit it way too hard, but the it was showing 118Cv, which it clearly wasn't. Nevermind, I'll try to budge it back again. We'll tickle it with a couple of regiments that are out of range of their HQ


It routs! Bugger I think is the technical military term.

T65 AGCS cont


Oh well, it's think about the next target. There is only one real one and that it Tambov. It's pretty obvious, so I plan to deploy massive reseources against it, 3 panzer armies and 1.5 infantry armies. That might be enough to surprise Vet.


In the south, we gather up our haul from the northern loop of the Don


and Vet gets up to mischief in the very south


which I guess is fair enough as the cat is away.


The capture of Ryzan brings our VP count to 699, our target

T65 - Soviet Perspective


With JB pushing through a lot of the defensive terrain, I might need to pull back from this salient as there is a lot of clear terrain west of Valdai Hills so it could result in a speedy encirclement if I try and hold the line.


I start my turn in the South. As i suspected, JB has pulled back on this area with his 1942 offensive likely ceasing in this area with preparations for winter commencing. Based on the hex conversions as I moved, it looks like he’s fallen back to the major and minor river line respectively which makes sense. Unless I plan on making an attack, I want to avoid converting a hex directly next to an enemy unit as I don’t want JB to be able to build beyond a lvl 1 fortification without spending AP. For the units that made attacks the previous turn, I hold them back to rebuild CPP this turn.


I start to push out from Stalingrad. JB has taken so much ground over the last few turns he has to have a thin defensive line. I make one attack on a German ID + Romanian calvary and force them to retreat across the major river. On the northern tip of the screen there were 3 hasty attacks from my tank corps on the Slovak mobile division and Hungarian armoured division. This was more just to push them back a bit and to slow down these units from hex flipping next turn.


This is partway through my ground phase but as you can see, Axis forces have captured Ryazan last turn. Despite a relatively high defensive CV, it was always going to fall fast as the defensive CV was inflated by a lvl 3 fort which is reduced quickly when there is so much artillery on the offence. As it wasn’t isolated, I didn’t lose the guard corps division although I did still lose ~20k units from it as it was attacked 3 times before routing to safety.

I was fully expecting both tank corp brigades to be isolated and captured for the trucks but one was routed out and only 1 encircled. I’ll lose ~400 trucks as a result but I’m still happy with the trade-off.

T65 - Soviet Perspective Cont..


I was able to get a displacement move on one of the German Motorised Corps. Whilst it didn’t displace out of range from the panzer, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Geyr Von Schweppenburg was killed and replaced with Hans Krebs. Schwep is an awesome leader in an Assault corps with lvl 8 mech and lvl 7 infantry. Hans Krebs on the other hand is 3 mech and 5 infantry and 3 initiative. He’s also 9 political so it will be expensive in AP to replace and I suspect he will be replaced (or at least reorganise his command structure to use a new corps HQ as the new guy is rubbish).


VP update. JB is on 699 VP with 750 being the threshold for an immediate win. Where the frontline currently is and what forces I can see of JB, there are 3 possible ways of gaining further VP in 1942 (I’m probably wrong though!). Rzhev will give 10 points if captured and it’s right on the frontline. Tambov will give 16 points as it will give the full +6 bonus point and lastly Stalingrad will give 36 points if captured in the next few turns otherwise 30 points. Given the significant concentration of Axis panzer elements around Ryazan I suspect Tambov is next as Moscow is relatively safe for the rest of 1942 and it’s the closest VP to his main attacking force.

T66 Axis

This was a relatively quiet week whilst I prep for the up coming assault on Tambov. I suspect that Vet is expecting such a move so shock and awe is being planned.

In the south, the cat (1st Panzer) has returned and the mice are still playing, so we get bishing.


I rather expected this stack of corps to retreat as they were encircled, but of course I only retreated them one hex despite it leaving them next to the enemy.

So we gie them a bash as well


This time they rout, though their osses were relatively modest. Losses appear high for the Axis, but we threw in a lot of Roms - mayflies have a longer life expectancy than Roms but we really don't care. We have a shed load of Rom manpower to get through next year.


And then we go off and find another set of corps to bosh


This time we don't give them a retreat hex and they immediately rout. Vet still has powerful units in the sector but this should keep it under wraps for the next few turns. I don't know how easy it is to refit these units at such an extremity from the NSS and when only supplied by single rail tracks. 3 tank corps will need a serious refit and 2 rifle corps will need attention.

T66 - Soviet Perspective


In the far north, Axis forces continue to move through the gaps in my defence and attacking weakened points. I have moved some reinforcements into the area over the last turn which will give me some more options on defence and attack.


Using some of my newly reinforced units I make two counter attacks in the area. Ideally I would like to not give up anymore ground in this area but even if I do, I suspect JB will hold at the end of the forests and will not cross the clear terrain but we’ll see.


I did some recon over this area to confirm my suspicions and as expected, Tambov is the next target which makes sense given where his panzers are and how close he is to those VP’s as we approach the muddy season. I can either decide to put pressure on Tula/Ryazan from the north west or I can transfer more units out towards Tambov to try and halt the offensive. I decide to do the latter as I am not strong enough in the area that would force JB to send reinforcements.


This is my unit disposition towards the end of my turn in the area. I made two attacks on two stand alone axis infantry divisions and this was more to remove CPP rather than any other consideration. I have sent a number of additional armies from the north and south of Tambov to reinforce. I run the real risk of these units being encircled but hopefully I have enough strength in the area to fight it. With Tambov city being on the other side of the river in theory JB could surround it from 4 sides and attack to take it (albeit with higher losses). I have a little under 300CV and a lvl 3 fort there but it will collapse quickly when attacked by so many strong divisions. On average the heavy mud should arrive in ~2 turns so I really need it asap.

T66 - Soviet Perspective Cont...


Further south around Stalingrad not much to update here. Standard hex flipping between both sides. I have sent one of my tank corps armies from Stalingrad toward Saratov as I’d hate to give away 36 points from a suicide panzer/motorised dash towards the VPs.


In the Caucasus Axis forces returned back south likely more opportunist as I moved forwards rather than a renewed effort to push towards Kuban but we’ll see. My forces took a beating here and whilst there was ~6k in Axis losses, there was ~35k in Soviet losses. I decide to do a fighting retreat to buy some time but I need to be careful not to fall back to far. It looks like he’s put axis allied forces to take the blunt of any counterattack so I will gladly oblige where I can do so safely.

I’d much rather Axis forces hang around here than change direction and push towards a very weakly defended Stalingrad. I have ~200k worth of troops I can deploy from next turn so those are desperately needed to strengthen Stalingrad and likely Tambov too.


I made a number of attacks on the screening units. These are single regiment axis allies so the CV win ratio was always going to be high resulting in minimal CPP loss. I’m still undecided on the changes to CPP and if they are balanced overall. It felt like Axis forces just kept their CPP up constantly and a lot of that as in the previous beta version so at least it’s been watered down now. I know I’ll be on the receiving end of those changes in 43-45 if this game makes it that far!

T67 Axis - We're going to need a bigger boat

Time is ticking on and we have one chance for a further set of VPs before the mud sets in. I know the enemy is expecting me to go for Tambov and I have massed 3 panzer armies plus an army of infantry for the attack. I hope that this will be enough.

The initial attacks are launched from the south and meet heavy opposition


The are a serious number enemy formations around Tambov, many with worryingly high CVs, have I taken on too much? Large envelopments at this stage of the war can be very dicey and potentially ruinous.

Manstein starts the northern end of the attack with some of the most powerful German formations on the roster


This is not how we wanted to launch this attack, heyho, fortunately the second attack makes the breach


The 8th panzer plus both the RFSS brigades had a starting CV of 50, thankfully this was enough to get us across this minor river

T67 Tambov cont

Manstein (corps in pink) continues his attacks and again is foiled


Around this stage I have a serious ponder if as to whether to press home the attack. I remain fairly confident that I have the resources to isolate the Soviets around Tambov, but I question whether I have sufficient to hold the pocket. It all depends on Vet's reserves. I can see 3 units to the north of my northern thrust on the minor river. I would like to disrupt them but with Manstein's failures I no longer can really do this. I suspect that Vet has some decent troops around Ryzan to defend the route to Moscow. I dropped some interdiction around the Oka crossing points in the hope that this will slow any redeployment to Tambov.

I reviewed that last three battles and note that Manstein deployed no artillery to these 3 battles. Curious. Yes, his HQ has moved but he has plenty of tasty SUs which just weren't used despite his initiative of 9. This is weird, either I have been extraordinarily unlucky else there are extra maluses applied as Manstein is out of command range of his army HQ. Interesting. The remains of this army are still being brought from the north.

I still have a powerful panzer army uncommitted (light green). However, moving it deep behind Tambov risks getting these formations cut off. Hmm.

I gamble, and go all-in. Everything is pressed into the attack. My supply is good, the weather is looking good next turn with light rain coming to this front. This should create patches of light mud which should help me hold the encirclement. The encirclement is made


The southern stretches of the pocket are not as strongly defended as I would like but they are deep. I expect the main risk to come from the east (or top of the map). I have reasonable depth here and some strong units, albeit heavily fatigued. I bolster the key units of the perimeter with my best SUs. Everything is SU'd to the max. I have also placed a network of ZOCs to the west, learning from my Ryazan mistake, I don't want Vet to cut off my panzer armies.

I estimate that I have encircled 200-250k Soviets, this is a worryingly powerful containment. I don't know what attack strength is likely to come from within the pocket next turn. Some of the Soviets have been disrupted, including the 2 corps on the right hand side of the pocket (the 11=11 mntn and the 22=22 cavalry) so these CVs are not accurate. I have hugged the Soviets as tightly as I can, which should make getting the fresh formations to the right hand side of the pocket very difficult.

The 18=18 tanks corps at the top of the pocket is not disrupted since it held its battle against Manstein, but hopefully the edge has been taken off it. Some of the perimeter is held by my regiments with CVs of 2 or 3. Hopefully these will absorb some of the counterattacks and provide combat delays. My incursion looks deep enough for it to hold, if not, we may be in some trouble next turn and my panzers could get shredded.

The good news is that we have encircled a lot of tanks corps, so these are likely to represent a lot of the main Soviet mobile formations.

T67 AGN

In the north, Vet has reinforced his defences. My attack here was beginning to peter out and the ground conditions are deteriorating. I am already digging-in in many areas and I decide to abandon any thoughts of an operation into the Valdai Hills. The SS division that I brought around for this is sent back to the Moscow front, where it is much needed as reserves have been stripped bear for the Tambov assault.


In the south, I try to position myself defensively, while keeping the window open for further offensive operations


I am gradually repairing the rail network in this sector (with RADs only) but am I conscious that I have no lines over the major river (the Don). If we get good weather, we can continue operations but if heavy mud sets in, the trucking costs will become prohibitively expensive and I will be forced to shorten my supply lines.

T67 - Soviet Perspective


My fear of last turn has been realised. Tambov has been encircled and this count potentially be a game over event. I’ve been falling behind where I need to be the last few months and if I lose the 500k units in the pocket there is no recovery from that. I still need to do scouting but it looks like there are some weaker units holding part of the pocket although the walls are relatively deep. In the event that I am able to open it the next few turns still look dire in this theatre.

I forgot to take a screenshot after my recon but I reconned this area heavily to try and identify. I lost 20 recon aircraft but it was completely necessary this turn (soviets only produce 6 recon aircraft per turn). I ran two recon directives with large boxes. If I had 30 hexes to cover, I made sure I ran ~40 missions of 4 strategic recon each (3 mid altitude cameras per aircraft).

It’s only 1 or 2 turns until heavy mud covers the map so this sector is about to get very interesting although potentially catastrophic for me. The heavy mud might be an opportunity to capture out some Axis forces too as it will make it very difficult to break pockets through attacks alone for either side.


I managed to break the encirclement this turn using tank corps from inside the pocket as well as others from the north and south making their advance towards the pocket. It was a great outcome as I was able to isolate the majority of Axis forces too. From what I can see there are ~8-9 axis infantry not in the pocket so they’ll still be full strength next turn but the majority of the forces including all the motorised/panzer elements will have weak CV, MPs and lower supply next turn. Using the power of teleporting SU's i was able to save a lot of manpower/guns from the pocket.


I sacrificed these broken-down tank corps knowing I’m going to surrender a lot of trucks but the other options are worse. In any event this buys me another turn in the contest. I’ve moved a lot of units from the north and south of the pocket closer to make attacks next turn to try and open the pocket for good. Truth be told, I don’t think I have enough to keep it open next turn and I’ll be hard pressed to try and cut of the Axis forces again (let alone open the pocket).


Little action in the Caucuses this turn with the standard hex flipping occurring. There was a fair bit of Axis recon in the direction of Stalingrad so I suspect that motorised/panzers have been pulled back to advance there over the next turn or two. Stalingrad is very lightly defended as I needed forces further north around Tambov so we’ll see how that plays out. I’ve sent reinforcements from the Far East to Stalingrad but they’re still a few turns away so I’ll deploy some additional infantry divisions from the reserve TB next turn. Hopefully they won’t arrive too late. In any event, Tambov over the next few turns is the critical sector.

T68 Tambov

Oh dear, Vet has been a wretched nuisance again, I really hadn't thought that this was possible


but reviewing my defences I realise that there were some gaps in my 'honey-combed' formations in my rear. Naturally, Vet found about the only route through. Full marks to him! I really should have locked things down by regimenting some divisions. Last turn, I resisted doing that because I wanted to keep my assault status on my armies, which was totally idiotic as virtually none of my units had any SMPs never mind being in a position to gain assault CCP gains. Doh!

Anyway, things could have been much worse. I sensed that some Soviet cavalry corps from the Stalingrad sector might press me from the SE (on the right flank of my perimeter) but I doubted that these units wouldn't have the legs to do much more than push back my regimental screen there a hex or two. The main thrust I feared would have been from the east (top left, highlighted with the red arrow). Here my perimeter was the narrowest, and while I had placed some panzer divisions blocking this sector, I felt vulnerable being both in the open and fatigued.

However, my perimeter has not been compressed at all, but remains rather vulnerable. Heavy mud is imminent and I have a huge sack of snakes that must be kept subdued. I decide not to be precious about maximising the number of units in the pocket, as long as it holds Vet's OOB will be savaged. Thankfully, I still have a number of infantry divisions rushing to this sector to support the panzers.

So I have no worries about routing away the tank brigades that had formed Vet's counter pocket. Then I attempted to herd the Soviets towards my lines


This will broaden my perimeter. I failed to get the them exactly where I wanted (in fact, several Soviet formations proved to be very stubborn to shift) but by the end of the day, I felt that I had built a very strong pocket that was unlikely to be broken.


As usual Vet has stripped away any SUs, saving him perhaps 50k in troops. We kill 40k and a further 60K are routed away. This leaves at least 100k left in the pocket, including one decent general and many mobile assets. At this stage of the game, this represents a very nice haul. Crucially, we shall also pick up a further 16 VPs.

T68 Axis

Elsewhere, we had some very welcome news from our TBs


We were expecting some reinforcements to western Europe, but we had not expected to go from a 5% deficit to a 5% surplus. This is a huge TB (475 CV) requirement, I had sent a few beaten up formations to it over recent turns, but these didn't really make much of a dent in the shortfall. Suddenly we have had this 10% swing and we are finally free to pull out some reinforcements ready for the coming winter in the East.

On the Moscow front, we have stripped down our line for the Tambov operation, and have been quietly digging in, employing FZs


Vet has other things to worry about than launching a counter attack just before the mud arrives, but this line should form a decent start for my winter line, though will require some further bolstering.

In the South around Rostov, we observe a lot of rifle corps in the open.


So we select a few targets


and give them a good battering, before pulling back closer to our supply centres to refit these tired formations

T68 - Soviet Perspective


I was hoping JB would go for a loser pocket that I could hopefully blast my way through but he’s gone for a tight pocket so I have no movement from within and it doesn’t look like there is any way to open it up, especially with the light mud everywhere. He has layered the walls deep so I don’t think I’ll have the MP’s let alone offensive power to get to my units.


Overall losses weren’t too bad but a lot of those were routing my tank corps so thousands of trucks would have been captured by Axis forces last turn and many thousands more are in the pocket. The losses are a bit deceptive as I have a huge number of damaged elements from the battle too.

I don’t make this decision lightly but I have decided to concede as JB has played an excellent game (in particularly 1942) and has achieved a well-deserved win. At 5.5m OOB (including those pocketed units), my army is simply too small to put up a meaningful challenge for the rest of the game.


Axis VP points are 710 but it will be 746 once Stalingrad falls. I took a gamble and moved my forces from Stalingrad towards Tambov as a relief party but they didn’t get there in time and below is a screenshot of my Stalingrad defence (non-existent!).

T68 - Soviet Perspective


Jason and i will do a more detailed post-match write up but in the interim, here are some of the closing stats on my end.

A big congratulations to my opponent JB on a well deserved win. That was a blistering 42 effort from Axis and you certainly earned the win.

Looking forward to a rematch one day down the road

So that's a wrap then. An excellent game with a worthy adversary. It is always good to be matched with someone who has equal skill and experience, so this was a close game. My thanks to Vet for a greatly enjoyable game.

To steal a metaphor about bankruptcy; you begin to lose this game very slowly and then very quickly. I think we were still at the slow stage but the damage that I had inflicted on Vet over 1942 would result in a speedy decline. I doubt that I would have reached 750 VPs (anyone know what the offensive capabilities of the Axis are in '43?), but I doubt Vet would have made the late '44 test.

One critical element to my advantage was the superb weather during Q2 & Q3 of '42, with scarcely any light mud about. This, plus the advantage gained from the TBs perhaps was the deciding element of the game.

Are unlocked TBs unbalanced? Hmm, interesting question. I'm not sure how many divisions can be pulled by the Soviets early in 1941, 20-30? That's a big difference and makes Barbarossa difficult to win.

However, this is a double edged advantage as these divisions will be mauled and replaced with lower NM replacements. Resting the Axis armour away from the front during winter is a big advantage for the Axis which makes '42 very difficult for the Soviets. This is the first time that I have used open TBs, and I was slow to exploit them to their full potential, and this added a further incremental advantage over '42, which could have happened during '41.

The critical limiting element in the game seems to be manpower (along with territory). Ultimately, this is a campaign about trading land for blood. Getting the balance correct is key. Vet's policy of aggression caused me pain, but also caused him a lot of pain. The Soviets do not get to see the German manpower situation, only the Axis situation. The Axis pool


Looks healthy, but this masks the situation for German manpower


43k is not a lot of manpower, but enough to keep most of my divisions in shape. Only 7 of my infantry divisions had a TOE in the 60s (the lowest was 57%). The vast majority were in the 80-95% range. The Soviet situation was equally dire and in no state to provide an offensive force.

My armour was more beaten up, (an equal distribution across the 55-77% range). Admittedly my pool was bear


But fresh panzer divisions were about to be shipped from the TB.

Note also that trucks were not an issue for me

The air war was going well for the Axis.

I had plenty of frames ready in the pool


and over 1k pilots in the pool. Tanks and planes are interesting, but of minor importance.

Anyway, some stat porn:

Fighter aces


I had a lot of pilots with 90+ experience

My best divisions


My best generals


Interesting that von Mackensen tops the board, not a leader that I'd purposely seek out to lead an attack. Note also that a number of Rom generals reach the best leaders board

It was interesting that I had very few leader upgrades this game, far fewer since the the version change that allows promotions (of which there have been many)

Some fine generals were killed