A tale from '42 - AlbertN vs MSAG

[AlbertN]

T100 - Rubynsk Counteroffensive

This was expected as attack but unexpected as result.

It seems the Soviets pretty much suicided on the Germans here and have ... 1 strong corps?
That is a very,very low value but these units also got hammered hard by their failed attack.

[AlbertN]

T100 - Voronhez Sector

Vicious combat proceed with relative success.

The panzer divisions start to melt away under intense combat, getting reduced to insignificant values rapidly (some as you can see 2 or 4 CV).

The Soviets just seem to weather well down the situation, even if they are suffering losses the numbers on the map speak clear in terms of CV.

In no time the Germans get spent and ... simply take eons to recover.

I expect as soon as a breach is made, it's one single way directly to Berlin.

It took the whole rasputiza time (many turns of mud) to rest and recover some forces and in 2 turns of intense combat they've evaporated quickly.

The Soviets made progress only here though but at the same time I feel they're just recovering at the Don River Bend, where in fact I do not plan to do any counterattack.

The HG Panzer and the 9th and 10th SS Panzergrenadiers will be mobilized from the West and the Reserve; assuming less but elite can alleviate the logistic situation.

My bad as well to have let Voronhez fall with its 3 Railyard.

For how the real issue is the Allies bombing the railyards in Germany. (Not sure if the Rhur one factually affect the freight shipping to the east).

[AlbertN]

T100 - Rubynsk Sector, German operations

There was the idea here to punish the Soviets bigtime but ... they instead retreated or 'routed' in excellent order.

The Airborne Guard divisions are ... just exceptional!

Then at some point the Germans got a bloodied nose against a fresh and rested pair of Soviet Rifle corps.
And that is where I understand I will be in trouble and I'll get crushed during the Soviet turn as well.

If the German Panzer and Infanteries get away as the Soviets did, I'll be happy. Very happy.

[AlbertN]

T100 - Guard Airborne 'Eel' Divisions

Here one example - this is the excessive one.
This division was at the 3rd attack it suffered - and while the Panzers too were not fresh anymore it was pratically a matter of pursueing the battered Soviets.

[AlbertN]

T101 - Northern 'Miracle'

Probably the best of the news of the turn here - an elating defensive victory of the panzer spearhead I was thinking to get crushed instead.

For some reason the Soviet forces were entirely and totally inept - at first glance, while the Germans pratically were shooting blindly and so many Soviets were coming at them that the bullets were just hitting something.

That's the feeling.

But ... but ... don't get fooled by what seems an astonishing victory.

Note that the Panzer Divisions count in their lot many old tanks, Panzer I, Panzer II, Panzer 38, etc!

Let's get a deeper look to the 'damage done' though.

[AlbertN]

T101 - 'Northern Miracle' continued

Here you can see that both sides have a bucket of additional damaged ground elements.

If the Germans lost only 10 Panzers, 60ish more are damaged.

But similar results can be seen as well for instance in the Soviet Rifle / Machinegun squads, that had a lot of damaged units.

That is why you see in the small snippet above some Soviet corps with 4 nominal CV on the map.

But that's also why you see German divisions that loaded with CCP and fresh and rested have a nominal CV of 15-20. They get hammered once, retreat and lose all the CCP, and get a bucket of fatigue that they barely recover, and a bazillion of damaged elements, and their CV dropped to 1-3.

[AlbertN]

T101 - Voronhez Front

Here the front is pratically on the verge of the collapse.

The Soviet steamroller begun to invest formations of the Axis after formations, often inflicting 2:1 losses on German formations out of fortification; and well worse anywhere Hungarians made contact.

The only German division that held well is the one at the north, that had a level 3 fort and was relatively rested. Inflicting heavy casualties to the Soviets for few deads and lots of damaged in turn.

In the center there was an initial holding but the 2nd attack crushed the Germans - inclusive of Panzer Division.

When there are stacks of 3 units and you see as numbers something under 10, one best get alerted.
When out of 3 units the numbers shown are between 2 and 4; there is an even bigger problem!

[Stamb]

I am actually surprised that 2k guns of this type:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PTRD-41

Did barely no damage to your old tanks.

According to the Russian article in the wiki by the same link they can penetrate:

300 meters — 35mm
100 meters — 40mm

We can see that they fire from a 25 range (If I understand it correctly that RNG is range and not random number generator )

And this "wonder weapon" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_38(t) has pretty low front armor which in theory can be penetrated even from a front from such a close range.


Also can somebody explain how it is possible that in ground combat tab there are: 11 panzer Ib, 5 pazner IIf while in ground lossese tab 14 (+3) panzer Ib and (+3) panzer IIf?

Same goes to other elements for both sides.

[AlbertN]

T101 - Italian Front

The Italian TB here.

Showing some CV numbers.

I believe units in TB are immune to morale loss, the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions are 90 and 86 Morale still.
Which marks them as crack units. Also there is a nifty difference between the 90 Morale Panzer Division and a pratically 75-77 Morale Panzer Division.
The Ostfront veterans clearly know way less of war than the Afrikan veterans, after having received their respective replacements to be at 90%+ TOE.


The Infanteries! A 'veteran' division of '41 quality that is experienced in Russia and well versed. Then we've your average '42 division, created and raised in some Theather Box and that never departed from there. It has a grand list of 70 everywhere, from National Morale to standard experience of each and every ground element (I assume it was parked in the West or sitting in Italy already). And last a mauled division that got reconsistuted from the Soviet Front. No it was not obliterated nor annhilated but somehow the ground elements of mass got a rather low experience (65-67) while some of the other pieces have 70-73 experience (machine guns, artilleries).

Anyhow my point is that I feel a TB 'safekeeps' the Morale of a unit; thus it can enable to create a reserve of quality troops for even worse times to come.
I personally believe - and won't tire to repeat it - that it should also how it works on the map. But on the map if a unit gets some fatigue because of weather, or somehow gets not enough supplies (but is not isolated) their morale just plummets.

One of my main off-putting details is to see veteran divisions, almost undefeated, pratically being reduced to 'mundane' line divisions just because they stood in bunkers for a while keeping a tranquil sector of the front! That does not make a crack division your regular division.

Anyhow, both Italy and Balkans are to get a few 'crack' infantry divisions of 77-80 Morale coming from the north front or the former 'siege leningrad' army.
To have some quality formation to migrate back to map in '44 or so for an emergency situation among the many that will create (assuming we get there) can come handy. I feel. Maybe I am wrong and it's for the better to throw everything right now on the map.

But I do not feel it's my forces making the difference, just how fatigued the Soviets can get by attacking.

[AlbertN]

@Stamb:

Pretty confident an AT- Rifle in general cannot penetrate that type of armour.
At vague line there is a 1:1 ratio to caliber to armour penetration; that is extremely generic as rule of thumb.
People can argue that 'but they had sloping so better armour' 'but these others had better steel' etc that is all true but matters to extents.

AT-Rifles in general were disabling tanks more so than destroying it. I am not sure how the game engine may represent it.

Even the Wikipedia says 'could', and I'd not be surprised if written statistics are the best ever performance obtainable when the sun is high in the sky, the projectile has the wind favor and is shot from favorable height, and also Lady Luck has blessed it in person!

On the notion of the difference in Panzer Numbers, I suspect the answer is 'Because only the non damaged one gets to shoot, while the losses number envision the total sum of the ground elements of the units involved in the battle'.
This is my supposition nr.1 and the most credited. So for instance the Panzer Division had 14 Panzer Ib, but 3 were already damaged before the battle erupted.

Supposition nr.2 is that 3 Panzer Ib never got to fire because they were damaged / disrupted beforehand by longer range shelling.

Last but not least by what I saw since '41 the AT-Elements struggle a lot in attack, being brought forward in the attempt to shoot. I remember the amount of '37 PaK I was losing in '41 and they were barely doing a thing.
And ultimately the combat system here is not intrinsically tactical but pratically it has a range level that shortens gradually as things approach each other and shorten the distance. Or at least that is how I envision it as I do not know how to code and even the less how it is coded.

T101 - Katyusha Attack

Here the Soviets elected to just engage at distance, trading casualties via guns.

What miffed me here is that all the 7 guns lost on Axis end are real pieces of artillery and not some fat mortar or AT gun.

The Soviets lost 24 of their cheap trucks with a rocket launcher on it.

*Grumbles*

[AlbertN]

T101 - Caucasus unmolested!

The Italian 8th Army (in truth composed by 1 Italian Corp and ... the German MNT Corps that is being shifted north) and the Romanian 'Green' Army (I always forget which is the 3rd and the 4th) are holding the line.

In truth it's a line that has more holes than a Swiss Cheese form! And not because of enemy action.
Sooner or later the Soviets will realize of the intrinsic weakness of this sector and crush it. I am pondering on when to ... vacate from it right now.
Ultimately the only benefit I've is to deny manpower to the Russians, the VPs there are pratically already bagged and I am quite confident I've held out Maikop and Krasnodar well beyond the 'bonus' timestamp.

That is another bit I feel wrong from the VP perspective. I've 0 incentive to keep the region here. At all. Except the Manpower.
VP? Cannot squeeze more. Oil? Does not help. Caucasian cossaks or volounteers or indipendent movements? I've not seen anything - actually I believe the '42 Scenario has some of these units that I have not got here and I am not sure why.
Are there some regionally triggered 'volounteer' units? Or maybe it's just my memory being bogus.


The last Panzer division is slowly being shifted to more active spots but as you can see it's pretty weak and its number of panzers is ... virtually non significant.

In fact right now if I sum up West, Italy and Balkans AFVs I have roughly the same as across the whole Ostfront! (Bear in mind the Ostfront received this turn from other fronts 2 SS Panzergrenadier, the HG Panzer and the Romanian Division that was meant to refit and never refitted because of 'tank mismatch' from the stocks).

But...

[AlbertN]

T101 - Hermann Goering Panzer

Here I suddenly get gutted.

Not only I realize that the 95 Morale of the HG is probably going to get smoked into oblivion on the Ostfront (but it has 90 so it may not be as tragic, for now)...

For some reason it received Stugs instead of Panzers (Yes I've a panzer shortage but so I've also many Stug battallions in need of Stugs)...

And in 2 turns it's meant to change its TOE...

I do wonder if I should truly send it away into Russia with these premises.

On the other hand to shuffle around this or that bit it will take more time, and I need troops quickly to patch the Don River south of Voronhez...

I do not even know if I've the Panthers for...

[AlbertN]

T101 - Panther Tanks...

I get led astray by my curiosity for the micro I am not too fond of ... and go and check which units are getting the Panther tanks!

It seems Motorized Divisions here and there and 'Replacement Battallions' (That were at 100% TOE) sitting in Balkans are somehow given priority over receiving the new type of Panzers...
Ontop of the Panzer Pioneers (But that is okay, they're a spearhead unit so I think that pick is appropriate).

One would think the Panzer Divisions are the natural first pick for ... new Panzers...

I am even more curious now, do Motorized division truly harbour Panthers? In which amount?

[AlbertN]

T101 - About Transiction time

The things one learns exploring.

In 2 turns this Motorized Division also is to change and alter its TOE quite drastically!

Ideally it returns also all of its Panzers back to the pool and gets PzJagers and Stugs only - it seems.

Note the massive differences of experience in the elements of the unit too - alas I suspect the system does not see the 'same men that discard equipment and gets new equipment' but anything that comes new is entirely non experienced.

Here as well you can see a unit with 53 wins and 2 losses to have a Morale very, very close to the national morale.

And irony of fate the most experienced type of unit are these useless AT guns that for all I remember hardly do anything in combat!

But yes - 34 Panthers are there, low on XP as freshly assigned I assume .. and soon to be stripped away and thus I assume any 'training' they made in the reserve pool is erased as they go back to be generic ground elements in the pool. (But I understand the system cannot keep track of all the swaps here.)

I'd have favored pretty much that Panthers go to Panzer Divisions though ...at least priority wise.

[AlbertN]

T101 - Panzer and swaps

In fact I may have just been proved wrong here - in these Panzer Replacement Battallions that got Panthers, the tank crews pratically perceived the 'swap of tank' and remained at 85 or at worst dropped 1 point of Experience (which is normal as the tank was brand new).

That is a +1 to the game of a mechanic that functions then!

[AlbertN]

T101 - Air Stuff

Since a short while MSAG started a campaign of 'City Bombing' for railyards.

I feel that there is a bug here as litterally either the Soviet bombers are non efficient at all, and miss the target ...

Given it is night bombing (and I realized only now as fighter squadrons can move back and forth between theathers, they lose their day only flight setting so I've crashed 30+ fighters just out of night intercepts), but right now I've got a grandtotal of 0% net loss from Soviet bombing.

The industry shows all green stuff. Simple as.
It means that either they do 0 damage, or the damage inflicted is so insignificant it is repaired up during my logistic phase.

On the other side, I noticed the ground strikes now - that for the Soviets do work quite nicely as I've lost 6 AFV through 2 ground attacks.
Albeit the Soviet air losses are ... HIGH.

I rest in my case that Ground Attack on unit should not exist in the present conception but I understand it is sought to be here for the sake of the 'carpet bombing' of 4 engines of the Allies in a War in Europe.
Frankly I believe it's a game crippling concept and that everything - in a weekly turn based - should be bundled in as 'ground support', inclusive of preliminary bombing to soften the defences.
Or at best to be like in WITE1, capped in amount of runs.

Nonetheless, the local fighters have not intercepted the day bombing on the front units, but flown to intercept the night railyard bombing. (And the Soviets probably bombed some forest at some kilometers from the railyard!)

[AlbertN]

T101 - Around Voronhez, in the air!

This is mighty odd for me.
The Luftwaffe - based 2 hexes away - intercepts here and butchers.
Then the Soviets bomb.

A2A and FLAK losses are accounted for Axis on the bombing run? It is a pattern here. - I've no fighter in Combat 2, nor Air Superiority directives.

Mostly - my own FLAK is gunning at my fighters? As per my fighters intercept right over my own troops where they get shot by my own guns?

The combat 3 and 4 are a repeat, first the Air Combat, and then the ground bombing with similar OPS and FLAK losses for the Axis.

[Stamb]

ORIGINAL: AlbertN
...
Nonetheless, the local fighters have not intercepted the day bombing on the front units, but flown to intercept the night railyard bombing. (And the Soviets probably bombed some forest at some kilometers from the railyard!)

In my pvp game we agreed not to use GA nor city bombing as it is not intercepted. Only GS. Because of this issue. It might be a bit unfair as Soviets can use their planes excessively as there are no supply issues, but it is also not normal that there is no auto interceptions. Thus banning it is the only option that we found.

ORIGINAL: AlbertN
Given it is night bombing (and I realized only now as fighter squadrons can move back and forth between theathers, they lose their day only flight setting so I've crashed 30+ fighters just out of night intercepts)

It is actually funny as my opponent tried to use Air transport (after the fix) in night and there was no difference in losses, nor in freight delivered and in addition to that no interception. Thus banned.

So many things to ban...

[Joel Billings]

Op losses are higher at night. Op losses in bad weather at night should be severe.

[AlbertN]

T101 - Northern Goodies

Bolstered by the recent victory of defensive nature and by a promising air recon the Germans make a bold move and in fact that is crowned by relative success.

Admittedly the Soviets can slip out of the encirclement easy and I am far from sure but they may need to bolster the line some OR simply accept to get to the east of the Volga river. (Which is also okay for me as outcome)

A better position here may let me free up for real some troops from the northern sector - which has already been deprived of a handful of veteran divisions for Italy / Balkans.