AAR - PBEM Game 2 (The FIRST public AAR)

[Oleg Mastruko]

We counter attacked again, re-taking Moscow for the n-th time. We are really at the end of our ropes, and hope that WA is going to do something decisive in the West, after their landings so far were repulsed.

Most of the turn was spent rebuilding factories and resources in Romania. Jury decided that this move was possible due to bug, so my troops took care to rebuild factories and give them back to Germans in mint state [:D][:D]

O.

[Oleg Mastruko]

This picture, of the Soviet production queue tells a sad story. We are short of everything. We hope WA's industrial might will help, and also that GE enemy is not in a significantly better shape. And we cartainly hope that Overlord v3.0 will finally deal a death blow to German armies in Europe [:D]

What you see on the left are the units waiting to be produced (most of them on hold). But we do manage to produce some units (like 8-9 per turn which considering the hardships we're in, is not that bad).

Oleg

[IDrinkBeer]

Oleg,

What I would do to clean up your production mess is to...


1) Ditch producing the factory. Your resource problem is going to stop you from using it anytime soon.

2) Start Removing Infantry from the Spring '44 production box until you zero out your negative population number ( I think infantry take 2 pop per or is that Militia ).

3) Make sure all of your available resources are not damaged.

4) Make grabbing German areas with resources your first priority. I know this is easier said than done.


Having that many infantry in the queue is a pain in the you know what. If you wind up with production that can't be used to build a unit because of Pop issues spend it on Research ( assuming the WA is giving you enough supply to get by ).

Of course, you might know this already, but I just wanted to point it out for others who don't.

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: IDrinkBeer

Oleg,

What I would do to clean up your production mess is to...


1) Ditch producing the factory. Your resource problem is going to stop you from using it anytime soon.

It's on hold anyway, as I understand there's no drawback to having items on hold.

2) Start Removing Infantry from the Spring '44 production box until you zero out your negative population number ( I think infantry take 2 pop per or is that Militia ).

Good idea perhaps. Actually I was thinking "it's on hold anyway so who cares" but perhaps here you're right.

3) Make sure all of your available resources are not damaged.

4) Make grabbing German areas with resources your first priority. I know this is easier said than done.

Wait, let me colonize Jupiter first [:D]

Yes easier said than done.

O.

[daniel123]

the aar shows the WA messed up early on, both at North Africa and southern France. the inital invansions worked but where were the reinforcements. WA should maybe have waited till they could attack two areas at the same time in north Africa. this would have allowed a retreat. the number of units lost early on by WA was a killer. the WA losses allowed Germany to go at the SU again. this is the first game so a lot of learning to do. i have my credit card ready and waiting.

[elmo3]

Oleg

I haven't followed this thread word for word but weren't you able to evacuate production east of the Urals? If so why do you have production issues? Thanks.

elmo3

[Oleg Mastruko]

ORIGINAL: elmo3

Oleg

I haven't followed this thread word for word but weren't you able to evacuate production east of the Urals? If so why do you have production issues? Thanks.

elmo3

Good question. I did evacuate couple of factories. But "production issues" is not only factories. My resource (and population) base is shattered, and I don't want to spend supplies and (mental) energy rebuilding reconquered resources only to have them destroyed by Germans - again (Caucasus is good example - German can re-enter there anytime if he really wants to).

O.

[YohanTM2]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko

ORIGINAL: Yohan

Nasty. May need a rule on the Baltic. Can't see how you would get by the minefields etc.

But a real nice move!

There is already a rule making the life VERY hard for invader going thru strait (like Kattegat) if they are covered by aircraft and artillery. As it happened many times in this game - defending side "forgot" to "garrison" (or in this case defend) the approach in proper manner.

Ah well, another lesson learned for all of us...

With enough games under our belt we will all automatically do these things, like garrisoning rear areas, protecting straits with ARTY etc.

Oleg

Thanks Oleg, that makes more sense.

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: Oleg Mastruko


Good question. I did evacuate couple of factories. But "production issues" is not only factories. My resource (and population) base is shattered, and I don't want to spend supplies and (mental) energy rebuilding reconquered resources only to have them destroyed by Germans - again (Caucasus is good example - German can re-enter there anytime if he really wants to).

O.

Looking at the game map above I'd say historically the Soviets lost as much or more territory than you have, with the exception of Moscow of course. Yet by 1944 they were easily outproducing the Germans and had no shortage of soldiers. Obviously I don't know the game mechanics so maybe it's just a case of you doing things differently than Stalin. But if the Soviets can't replicate their historical production capabilities by moving factories east then that is a problem IMO.

[MButtazoni]

well let's hope 3rd time ios the charm, i've landed in Yugoslavia into the heart of enemy territory, but this time i bring much better equipment into the war.

i also managed tro bomb and damage 6 other resource centers, so adding the 2 lost in Yugo, i hope it hurts. i also damaged 3 of the 4 factories in Rumania but he isn't using full production anyway.

here is a map of Europe at the end of Spring 1944:

[MButtazoni]

here is the Force Pool and Production Queue:

[MButtazoni]

My Infantry have caught up to GE in Research:

[MButtazoni]

My Tanks are ALMOST equiv to GE:

[MButtazoni]

and i won't bother with air screen shots, but my fighters have surpassed GE in Air-to-Air, and my Tac and Heavy Bombers have surpassed GE in Ground Attack.

so it remains to be seen if my past losses in men and materiels are going to bite me in the ass.

[Becket]

Ooooh, MB goes with Churchill's "soft underbelly of Europe" strategy. Now we come to the end, going to be a heck of a finale.

[paullus99]

Thank God - you deal with Tito for a while - I'm sick and tired of it!!!!!

[MButtazoni]

Tito suffered an "unfortunate" accident during the invasion.

[Becket]

Maybe next time, you'll get Michael, Jermaine, and the rest.

[:D]

Kidding!

BTW, I passed on Harper's AWAW since it didn't look solitaire favorable, and picked up Europe Engulfed instead. I love it.

[paullus99]

Germany - Summer 1944

Well, our partisan problems are over & other REALLY BIG problems have begun.....the allies are back, and back with a vengeance. Seems they learned a thing or two from the last couple of failed invasions.....Yugoslavia was a perfect target & I am unable to respond with an immediate counterattack.

This also means the campaign in Russia is over - much to my opponents' delight I'm sure. We've pulled back all of our armor to a more defensible perimeter, which should hold the Russians back indefinitely.

We've also scrapped together as much combat power as possible to isolate Yugoslavia & give us the opportunity for one enormous counteroffensive next season (think Ardennes, but a little early & aimed at Belgrade).

As you can see, I left in the rail artwork - so Maurice & Oleg need to let me know if that is a problem when you upload your turns. I've still got a few surprises up my sleeve & an lot of combat power on the ground - now my goal is to survive at least till Summer 1945....we'll see if that is possible.

[Joel Billings]

Scrapping the factory now will gain you 2 resource points, which are your limiting factor. If you get enough supplies from WA and China, you will be able to afford to repair the Caucusus resources (and now you can hold them since Germany had to pull back). Keeping things that won't get you resources back in the que is not a problem. But you get 1/2 of the resources spent on an item back when you scrap it (round down) so there might be some items worth scrapping if you know you won't be able to build them for a long time. How's that research coming along?